Month: May 2022

Woah, this place is weird! John William Stewart 5/29/22 For anyone who doesn’t know, I am currently in Costa Rica on a month-long study abroad. We are almost a week in from the day we arrived, and it has already been a pretty incredible time! It’s safe to say that this place is different from… Read more »

I’ve been in Costa Rica for almost a week. The experience here has been different from any other life experience. Right after I landed, my friend Sidd and I were discussing how the city’s architecture reminded us of India. I thought that my experiences here might mirror my family visits to India. I was quickly… Read more »

Coming into the trip, there was quite a bit of a buildup and nerves before the arrival date actually came. I had never travelled alone, let alone gone to a foreign country on a continent I had never been to. However, this is what I signed up for and this is what I wanted to… Read more »

Throughout college you learn about the biodiversity of our planet and all of the ecosystems that are crucial for functionality of natural ecosystems. However, living in Indiana, we are not privy to experience a biodiversity hotspot. We have extensive number of species and play host to critical wetlands that sequester carbon and house migratory birds,… Read more »

  I believe that every living creature, big or small, has a meaningful purpose worth contributing to the world in which we share. Every living thing is so beautifully and intricately connected in an elegantly spun web in which the planet and its inhabitants seem to persist in an almost perfect design. Though humans are… Read more »

As the first week of our study abroad comes to a close, it’s remarkable to think about all that we’ve seen and done so far! From waking up to the calls of the howler monkeys to the everyday, impromptu deluge of rain, it is clear that this is a place where life flourishes. Coming from… Read more »

I felt incredibly disconnected from the outside environment around me at Indiana University despite its beautiful landscape and close proximity to various nature preserves and state parks. I felt engulfed in my studies, always chained to my desk with my eyes glued to my monitor, staring at chemical reactions, brain pathways, bacterial structures, or genome… Read more »

     My trip to Costa Rica started on May 23rd at around 4:30 in the morning. I flew out of Indianapolis and landed in Texas. From Texas, I boarded a flight that would take me to Costa Rica! Prior to the flight I had been getting increasingly excited to participate in the study abroad program in… Read more »

When arriving at the La Selva Biological Station, the first thing I noticed when exploring the site was the biodiversity of insects. Leading up to this class, the readings assigned to us had prepared me with the expectation of seeing very little biodiversity given the large area of low visibility areas that non-plant species inhabit,… Read more »

Day 1 I came to Costa Rica with a rough idea on what animals I wanted to see… and on the first day alone I saw most of my target species. The first species was poison dart frog (well besides the terrifying spider we found in someone’s shower the night before, the amount of extremely… Read more »

Introduction In Western society, many believe that the human world is entirely mutually exclusive from the ecological world. After all, the concerns of humans are entirely different from the seemingly trivial or primitive concerns of animals, plants, and fungi, right? In reality, the interests of humans and non-human organisms are aligned. The human world and… Read more »

We’ve only been here for a few days, but it feels like weeks have passed. Each day contains so much that it’s almost impossible to remember which day was which. I’m super grateful for the travel journal assignment, as it’s keeping me responsible for recording this trip, and by the end I’ll have a comprehensive… Read more »

On the arrival day, there were a few twists and turns. As the flight to San Jose was coming to what I thought was the end, the pilot made an announcement that we couldn’t land in San Jose because the First Lady was exiting Costa Rica. It was said that it would be a security… Read more »

As I’m finishing up my first week studying abroad in Costa Rica, I’ve collected valuable realizations and lessons about living in such close proximity with a highly preserved environment. The La Selva Biological Station is beautiful, and the biodiversity here would leave even a seasoned biologist in awe (see below for some featured subjects). Our… Read more »

I’ve finally made it out of the the USA. After two flights, a VERY long immigration line at the airport, and two and a half more hours in a bus through the mountains of Costa Rica (which was simultaneously beautiful and sickening), we arrived at La Selva Biological Station on Monday around 7 PM. At… Read more »

We’ve spent the last week at La Selva Biological Station. We drove 2 or so hours north east of San José and spent our first three days here just exploring La Selva. Our first day, we spent some time during the day in a secondary growth forest only a few decades old, yet the trees… Read more »

A continuous feeling of dampness swells around your body at all hours of the day.  Each step taken reverberates alongside the surrounding bird and insect callings.  And out of the corner of your eye, you might be lucky enough to spot a basilisk camouflaged in the lush greenery, fleeing from an attacking scarlet tanager.  These… Read more »

       By far the most fascinating part of this trip for me so far has been the wildlife. That’s exactly what I expected, but it doesn’t make the biodiversity any less impressive. I enjoyed all of our guided hikes. I actually stuck with the same guide for the morning hike, the night hike,… Read more »

The Trip Here Holy smokes the trip here was rough. To start, I forgot my passaport when I was checking my bag and had to get out of TSA when I was halfway across, and then TSA took about an hour. When I got to Georgia I RAN across the busy airport and ended up… Read more »