As of this evening, I have succeeded in creating a weblog to document my travels and experiences in Central America this Spring. I will be primarily living and studying in one of three towns in the Monteverde Region: Santa Elena, Cerro Plano, or Monteverde itself. My flight leaves on February 6th, so I will be spending the next few weeks brushing up on my Spanish and organizing my life to ease the transition to living abroad.
My program will involve two lengthy (14-day) trips so I am double-checking my backpacking/camping gear. I'm also doing a little bit of reading as preparation for both the culture of Costa Rica and the academic content I'll be dealing with while I'm there. The two books I'm currently delving into are Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America and Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire.
The classes I'm taking while in Costa Rica include: Spanish, Tropical Biology and Policy, Costa Rican Natural History, and Sustainability: Society, Environment, Economy. I will also be completing a one-month internship at the end of the semester, hopefully on an organic coffee farm.
Well, that's it for now, I suppose. I'll post again the day before I fly south for the rest of the winter.
