Back to San Jose

I'm back in San Jose so I had good enough internet to add pictures to my previous posts from the field!

This week, all of the ACM students headed back to San José for a midterm report on the progress of our projects.  As much as I love my host family and my earthworms in Pueblo Nuevo, it was nice to see my friends and my San José host family again for a few days, and stock up on some necessities that I can’t get in Pueblo Nuevo, like bug spray and gum ;)
 

When I arrived late on Saturday morning, preparations were in full swing for a party to celebrate my host sister María José’s upcoming wedding.  The party was called a “Despedida de Solteros;” sort of like a bachelor/bachelorette party but for both María José and her fiancé Daniel.  It was held at Vicky (my host mom)’s house, and was mainly just for family… but Vicky has a huge family so even so there were fifty guests expected!  I helped Vicky run some last-minute errands, and then to prepare the potato salad for the feast.  The guests started to arrive around 6:30, and María José looked gorgeous in her blue dress and so happy.  We enjoyed appetizers of vegetables with homemade garlic dip and hummus while waiting for Vicky’s brother to grill meat for the main meal.  And for dessert, delicious coconut flan!  Everyone passed the evening eating, chatting, drinking red wine, and playing various games for prizes (I even managed to win one!).  Having a large extended family myself, I felt right at home among the festivities.   

The sign that my host sister Laura made for the party

My San Jose host family: Dani, host sister Maria Jose, me, host niece Maria Ines, host nephew Julian Andres, host sister Laura, host mom Vicky, and host brother Juan Pablo

The next morning, I helped clean up after the party before heading downtown to San José with some friends.  This week is the Festival Internacional de las Artes (International Art Festival) in San José, so there are lots of free events all week long.  We headed to La Sabana and had a great time checking out the work of local and international artisans, a butterfly garden, and a concert by two hilarious Russian accordion players.  I wish I got a better picture of them because they were a riot… very emotive.  

These men were making really cool custom leather shoes

Butterfly at the mariposario (butterfly garden)

An art installation in the lake at Parque La Sabana, where the fair was being held

Russian accordion players

On Monday we headed back to school at the ACM building, to check in with our advisors and put the finishing touches on the presentations we will be giving tomorrow.  It was great to see everyone again, and to hear about the vastly different experiences we are all having with our rural stays; every location and host family is unique, which makes for lots of great stories to share!  I was also happy to have my running buddies back, and to stop at our favorite panadería afterwards for a bean and cheese croissant for lunch.  We got fancy today and bought some avocados to serve on top of our croissants… delish.

Lauren, Tim and I finished our presentations early in the afternoon, so we decided to take the bus downtown and explore a bit.  We walked down Avenida Central, which is a pedestrian avenue that reminds me a lot of State Street in Madison.  It was fun to walk around in the bustling downtown area of San José, and of course we made the requisite stop for ice cream (pistachio… yum!)  We also happened to run into another event that was part of the Festival de las Artes, a group of Spanish artists from Catalonia who danced with giant horse puppets.  It was cool, if not a little scary!

The horse dancers. Soon after this they started running through the crowd!

On Tuesday everyone gave midterm presentations to describe what we’ve been working on for the first three weeks in the field, and give some preliminary analysis of our data.  It was really cool to hear about the ups and downs of everyone’s projects, and comforting to know that I’m not the only one who’s experienced some of the frustrating and unexpected changes that are characteristic of research!  Everyone has unique and interesting projects, studying everything from soil (me) to sloths to happiness to health care.  Of course, we needed tons of food to fuel us through seventeen presentations, and Iveth (the wonderful building manager and fantastic cook) hooked us up with galllos de queso (corn tortillas with melted cheese), chips and salsa, and ice cream… and this was all before lunch!  We had a delicious sandwich spread for lunch, and then worked on planning some weekend trips while we were all together.  It was stressful, but now I’m looking forward to seeing Arenal volcano this weekend, backpacking in Osa Peninsula for Semana Santa (Holy week), going to my host sister’s wedding on the beach in Guanacaste in April, and hiking Chirripó mountain towards the end of the program in May! Whew!  Hopefully I’ll still have enough energy to work on my research project and blog about all of my adventures.  

Oh, and PS I’m pretty sure it’s colder in San José than it is in the Midwest right now…crazy.