This study abroad experience so far has been exciting, new, and entertaining. While I have had fun times each and every day, I have also been introduced to brand new challenges that I have had to learn to overcome. Traveling internationally by myself was the first one I experienced, and it was something that I was very nervous about. I have traveled by myself within the United States and I have traveled to different countries before, but combining the two was intimidating. I knew I was equipped with all the information to travel by myself but there were still times that I questioned myself while in the airports. I had to just trust my gut and eventually, it paid off when I arrived at Cafe Malinche.
The second experience that challenged me was the combination of school and travel. I have always known that I wanted to study abroad for the experience of learning in a different country and because I love to travel. At times when we were working on our research at La Selva, I would forget that I was not in the United States. I did not know that would happen, and sometimes the constant humidity would remind me, but you can learn a lot from this environment. At times, all I would want to do is go explore the forest and not focus on our school work, but that was not going to be a good use of my time because we had a lot of work to get done. That is why I was very glad to have chosen a natural science research project. This meant that I was able to be in the forest at the same time as working on our project. This is not something I would be able to do in Bloomington, and it is exactly what I was hoping for when wanting to study abroad. Although it can be difficult to be disciplined with completing school work when in a new environment, the new experiences and skills I have learned are very useful and I have a new appreciation and understanding of balance with school.
Another challenge that I was forced to overcome and work through was the decision-making of what I wanted my research to be focused on. This was a difficult decision because I was interested in a lot of possible options to focus my study on. I knew I wanted to include an animal in my research in some sort of way because I love learning about animals. I also knew I wanted to be working within the forest and obtain data that way. Once we proposed our initial ideas, I found Audrey’s study to be fascinating and then we agreed it would be plausible to combine our ideas. This was not a difficult process, fortunately, because Audrey and I had very similar interests and wants. The hard part of our study design was the methodology. We had an initial plan to seek out specific plant species and record bird interaction on a couple of specific plants, but we were quickly advised that that would be quite difficult and would not give us secure data. Trying to brainstorm ideas for our study design was difficult for me since I have not had much experience with research previously. I was lucky enough, however, because my research partner, Audrey, and our AI, Eric, had completed research in this way before so it was familiar to them both.
Anyone that knows me, knows that I do not like to have dirty hair or be sweaty for extended amounts of time. I am sure no one enjoys that either, but I particularly dislike it and will try my hardest to avoid it. Once arriving at La Selva Biological Station, I realized that it was hot everywhere with air conditioning in only a few places, which didn’t include our rooms. At that point, I realized that I was going to have to accept living in discomfort for a little while. After a couple of days I was pretty used to being sticky and sweaty and working through that. It was a learning curve to get used to focusing and participating in a lecture or research discussion while in high heat and humidity. We had a nice classroom with fans to cool us down, but that doesn’t stop the constant sweating. We were all pretty good at overcoming the heat and pushing through it because we were all in it together and making jokes to compensate.
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One of the biggest difficulties of traveling to a country that differs from your native language is the communication factor. I have taken a handful of Spanish classes, and they have come in handy, but I am most definitely not proficient at speaking or understanding the Spanish language. I was probably best at Spanish during my Freshman year of college, and now I can understand and speak just a little to get me by. I wish I had practiced a bit more on my Spanish before coming here just so I could have conversations and learn more from the locals. I am challenging myself to speak it every day that I am here and work on my listening and understanding skills as well. I hope to be able to practice even more before I travel to Spain later in the summer. This trip has been a great reminder as to why it is important to have the ability to speak Spanish. One example in particular would be a night at La Selva when a couple of students and I were walking back with a security guard who spoke no English. He pointed out a snake that was laying just off the path and we were trying to understand what kind of snake it was. He was saying terciopelo which means Fer De Lance in Spanish. If we would have understood better what he was saying I think we would have backed away and been more cautious since we know that they are very aggressive and poisonous snakes.
The time I have spent so far on this trip and in Costa Rica I have been challenged and learned so much with each experience. I know that I will be in similar situations later on in this trip and that I will gain new knowledge from it.
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