The Adventures of JenMonster: End of School, Beginning of Shenanigans.

With school nearing a rapid end, we were busy with homework, preparing presentations, and planning what we would be doing in the next week after classes ended. We planned to stay for a week after classes ended, so that my boyfriend's sister Kati could join us and we would show off Costa Rica to her.

In the first week of Marine biology class, we had to pick out a topic that we wanted to present on, so that it could be approved and we would have time to work on it.

Naturally, we started working on our presentations the Thursday before it was due. My presentation was on Thursday, and I talked about invasive jelly fish and why and how they can be such a huge problem to the ocean.

Though climate change is an issue, overfishing seems to be a heavy cause for the increase in jelly fish populations. By overfishing, we are eliminating natural predators of the jelly fish, allowing them to reproduce more and die less. Some people in Japan eat jelly fish, which does help, but its such a small market that that doesn't help enough.

Annie talked about puffer fish and how poisonous their toxins can be, while Manda's presentation on Killer whale communication didn't save right, which ended up giving her more time to work on her presentation.

On Wednesday we didn't have class, so Tuesday night Annie decided to venture off to San Jose by herself (everyone thought she was crazy). While Annie went off on that adventure, Manda and I joined some fellow classmates who wanted to go to Arenal.

Arenal is a volcano that is no longer active (though there was some dispute among the locals we talked to) with hot springs running through its rich jungle forest.

This was called the Poor Man's Spring

There were a lot of resort type places in the area, but if you were short on money there was a "Poor Man's" hot spring you could go to for free.

It was a bit odd going to a hotspring on a hot day, but it was still really enjoyable at 38 degrees Celsius.

Thursday was back to presentations in class, and Annie survived her random adventure. Manda had her presentation, and that night we went out to Bocaditos for the second time that week for drinks.

Manda tried a Bailey's con Leche since they didn't know what an Amaretto Sour was that day (that happened a lot) but didn't like it so I drank it for her. A bunch of the other USAC kids came that night, which was fun to talk and see everyone for one of the last times.