I’m starting to think Marvin’s bus was some sort of time machine, because there is no way that we just spent an entire four weeks in Costa Rica and the whole trip is already over. The past four weeks simultaneously were some of the busiest and most tiring, yet most rewarding and fun weeks that I have experienced in a long time. So many memories were made in the past month that my brain can’t even handle them all, so instead of using this blog to talk about our final week in Costa Rica, I am going to dedicate it to the memories that didn’t make it into my other blogs for one reason or another.
As I talked a little bit about in a previous blog post, my research throughout the month focused on primate species and how their behaviors changed between the edges and interiors of their habitats. In order to collect data for this research, my partner and I had to actually go out into the forest and look for groups of primates to gather data from. There was another group whose research involved collecting primate data, so we decided that it would make sense for the four of us to travel together when searching for these groups in order to increase our chances of finding usable data. Since our two groups were trying to answer two different questions we could observe the same group of monkeys and have different data at the end of it, so it was no problem that we worked together to get the data. Together, our two monkey-related project groups formed The Monkey Gang. Our goal: to blur the lines between man and monkey and collect as much data as we can by any means necessary. When we entered the forest, there was no stopping us from finding some monkey business to gather data from (unless we were at Las Cruces, where we did not see a single monkey, but we don’t like to talk about that). One day, on one of our less fruitful monkey hunting expeditions, we came across a stream. Since I was one of two members of the group who had Muck Boots® (use the code “MONKEYGANG4LIFE” at checkout for 25% off your first order), I was tasked with finding a way across the stream for those of us who were wearing less waterproof footwear. I made it across the stream and set my bag down, but as I came back across to begin helping others across I did not notice that the area that I thought was about three inches deep was actually about three feet deep and made the mistake of trying to step there. The next thing I knew I was sitting in the stream, rushing water up to my chest, questioning all of my life choices that led me to that moment. It took about a day for boots to dry, two days for the rest of my clothes to dry, and I will get back to you about how long it takes for my ego to recover.
Another fun experience I had during my time in Costa Rica took place toward the beginning of the trip. That day, we had been able to stop at a supermarket for the first time to get snacks or whatever else we needed. I, along with many of my classmates, loved the opportunity to explore the aisles and check out all of the Costa Rican foods that we had never seen before. I left that day with a bag of Chiky’s (the greatest cookies that I had never heard of before this trip) and a bag of plantain chips. On the bus ride back to La Selva I cracked open my bag of plantain chips but did not finish them, so I rolled the bag up, put it back in the grocery bag, and tossed it with the rest of my stuff when we got back. A few hours later I returned to the bag of plantain chips in hopes of satiating my unending hunger for snack food, but what I was met with will haunt me for years to come… I grabbed the bag and walked out of my room, eating a few chips as I walked. After I had already tossed multiple chips into my mouth, I felt something tickling my hand, so I looked down and saw ants crawling up my arm. “Hmm,” I thought to myself, “how interesting. I wonder where those ants could be coming from?” I soon learned where the ants could be coming from as I peered into the bag of chips to find an ungodly amount of ants wreaking havoc on my dear plantain chips. I do not know, nor do I want to know, how many ants I ate that day, but the feeling of them crawling up my arm and my realization of the situation will forever be burned into my mind.
I have many tales of my misadventures in Costa Rica that I could tell, but for the sake of word count I will leave you with those two anecdotes and now transition to a more serious retrospective on the course as a whole. Coming from a computer science background where I am so used to my schoolwork consisting of myself working out math problems or writing programs for hours at a time at my computer, this course has been such a breath of fresh air. The clear focus on collaboration and thoughtful discussion throughout the course pushed me out of my comfort zone in the best way, forcing me to work on and grow areas of myself that would otherwise not have been challenged.
I also want to give a huge thank you to Dr. Wasserman and Dr. Libby for leading us through this experience. I can’t even imagine the amount of work that was required to plan an entire month in a foreign country for a group of 20 college students. And then to have to actually make sure the plans work out, lead and be responsible for these students, AND also conduct a course throughout it all? I have a lot of respect for all of the work that the professors put into this trip, and I am sure that all of my classmates would agree wholeheartedly. I also want to shoutout Eric Johnson for helping make sure everything ran smoothly and also for having an awesome mustache.
I don’t have much else to say other than that, if given the opportunity, I would hop back into Marvin’s time machine and go back to the moment I got on the plane in an instant.
-Tate
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