Around Town, San Ramon

After a week of touring the fantastic tropical forests of Drake Bay, it was strange to get back into the flow of things. Suddenly we were presented with a schedule...and homework...

On the bright side, our schedule was very relaxed. For the first time ever, I didn't have class on Friday!

Monday: 8am-12pm Tropical Marine Biology. (break for lunch) 1pm-2pm Intro to Spanish. 6pm-7pm Yoga

Tuesday: 8am-10 pm Sustainable Ecology (break for lunch) 1pm- 2pm Intro to Spanish

Wednesday: 8am-12pm Tropical Marine Biology. (break for lunch) 1pm-2pm Intro to Spanish

Thursday: 8am-10 pm Sustainable Ecology 10am-12pm Tropical Marine Biology. (break for lunch)1pm-2pm Intro to Spanish

Every day when we had a lunch break, we would walk home (if we had time) and our host family would feed us lunch. I only had a 5 minute walk, Manda lived another 5 minutes from me, and Annie was on the other side of town and usually couldn't make it home in time to be fed and walk back again. She would sometimes follow me home, and her mom would pack her a lunch. 

I was given a small room to myself in my home stay, which was small but fit my needs...and it had INTERNET! We had been concerned that with Costa Rica being a third world country we would have to go without a lot of things. But what we found was there were hardly any differences. They had clean water ALMOST everywhere, internet, nice houses, cars, everything. 

My room. I loved the tiger blanket she provided me with. 

We also found some AMAZING graffiti on the streets. Here is one example that Manda and I are standing in front of. More pictures will follow.

 We also found a nerdy place, where all of the gamers hang out and play games on computers and consoles.

Costa Rica Currency is a lot prettier than ours as well.

The campus we stayed at was open but small. Though it was gated around, stray dogs often came in and hung out around campus. We became friends with a lot of them, and were told that some dogs are liked so much they get adopted by USAC students. Tempting.

 Of course, there were a lot of butterflies and other insects for us to find and investigate here in town. Though, admittedly, we already missed the jungle forests we were surrounded by in Drake Bay.

From the soccer field we had a good view of the town.

There were green parakeets all over the school, and they liked to nest just under the roofs. Here is one on the library, but we often heard them tapping on the roof and sometimes looking in the window during class.

In between classes or after classes we would explore town. Right next to a "Super" which is what they called the large grocery stores there, there was a bank with some strange statues.

 In the center of town we found a nice chapel, where we later found out you can sometimes see Barn owls fly around at night!!!

In dance class, we learned salsa dancing, and some other kids of dance. They all seemed the same to me, and though it was fun, I think it was the start and end of my dancing career.

Through USAC there were two scheduled field trips, and then some classes had their own field trips in addition. This meant we had only one or two weekends to plan our own trips. However, it was nice to have the trip through the school, because everything was planned and food was provided!