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<span;>Research has been a very important part of my life for the past couple of years, and if everything goes to plan, many years to come. I am currently studying to become a physics and math major and hope to attend grad school after that. I started with an internship in a physics lab my… Read more »

This week was research week! Our goal for the research is to investigate a possible correlation between bird abundance and the abundance of an invasive plant, the pink banana. Marin and I set out our study across four days. Every morning we would be on a new trail in a different part of the forest…. Read more »

This past week I’ve spent countless hours in the rainforest, walking or biking, and I’ve come to truly appreciate it (I didn’t think I could do more than I already did). I’ve developed a newfound respect for the tropical rainforest ecosystems and everything it contributes to. These ecosystems have endless functions and home thousands of… Read more »

As I continue my journey through Costa Rica, I keep returning to the idea of purification. The rainforests that stretch as far as the eye can see hold the key to two essential forms of purification: cleansing the air we breathe and rejuvenating our soul and connection to nature. In this blog post, I will… Read more »

It is crazy to think it has already been a full two weeks here in Costa Rica. Reflecting on my time, I have grown significantly as a student, observer, and traveler. Within the past few years, I have always told myself to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I firmly believe that we must force ourselves… Read more »

June 4-6, 2023 Hi Besties™, Once again been so so busy with everything I forgot to catch up with y’all! How’re you doing? Hope this has been as cool for you guys as it has been for me! Anyways! For those who don’t know, two days ago we went to a banana plantation run by… Read more »

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… Read more »

It’s funny the news you get while you’re traveling. Whether you’re exploring a new city, relaxing on the beach, or going through a crash course in conducting field research in the rainforests of Costa Rica, you tend to disconnect from your regular news intake. Still, some news comes through. One piece of news that I… Read more »

     In March and April, before we began our travels to Costa Rica, all students attended two required meetings to review the general layout, syllabus, and class expectations. This was an opportunity for all students to get to know one another and get an introduction to our professors. After each meeting, I remember being… Read more »

While this experience has definitely revealed a lot about our great group of students on this trip, one thing in particular has stuck out to me. It is incredible how quickly I saw our entire class so quickly adapt to an environment that could not be anymore foreign to any of us. Surrounded by strangers… Read more »

Most of my life (and, I assume, others’) has consisted of long periods of regularity. Doing things like school or work at the same time every day for weeks with little tangible change. During these stretches, time moves fast, but life seems to move slow. People only change if the things around them are in… Read more »

Hello Friends! I’ve decided to format my blogposts as amalgamations of the open letters I have been journaling to the people with me on this trip, and those supporting me from home too. The inspiration is from Charlie’s letters in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” It’s been helping the writing process, so I’ll take… Read more »

     Where do I begin? In a week’s time I feel like I’ve already experienced, learned, and changed so much here in La Selva. There is so much to unpack, so much I can mention, and I hope I can provide an accurate record of how transformative it has truly been.      … Read more »

This week was the very first time I was able to leave my unfortunate home country of the US. For this reason, there were so many new things for me to see for the first time upon my arrival to Costa Rica. Within these novel things were seeing the major cultural, technological, and ecological differences…. Read more »

Hi! My name is Biz and I am a classic example of someone who studied abroad and won’t stop talking about it. In summer 2019, I spent 6 weeks in Oviedo, Spain, in a Spanish immersion program. In 2022, I completed a 3 week Spanish and service learning course in the Dominican Republic. Now, I… Read more »

With nearly 30 hours of car, plane, and bus on me, and only 4 hours of sleep, by the time we first arrived at La Selva Biological Station at close to 8 PM on Monday night (though feeling closer to 10 since we had not yet adjusted to the time change), I was ready to… Read more »

I am currently writing this post in one of the few air conditioned rooms in La Selva Biological Research Station in Costa Rica. Wow. If you asked me a year ago to this date where I would be, I don’t think I would have ever guessed that this would be the answer. But that is… Read more »

From the very beginning of this trip, the moment I landed at San Jose Airport, I was overwhelmed in the best way. It was my first time traveling internationally and I had been pretty much on autopilot for the morning. It all struck me when I looked out the window at the airport. The green,… Read more »

Tomorrow will be one week since we arrived in Costa Rica! We’ve spent the past week at La Selva Biological Station, and we’ve got about five more days here. It’s been a wonderful experience so far! Upon arriving, there were a few things that hit me, first being the humidity. I’ve been to Japan a… Read more »

I started my 20s, and this trip, in tears. My 20th birthday was on May 29th, which also happened to be the day all of us flew to Costa Rica. I’m one of those people who always cries on their birthday for no apparent reason, but this time I actually had a good reason to…. Read more »

Will Farkas 5/29: This dreaded day was one of our travel days, getting around 2 hours of sleep and then going to another country with a big group of strangers. Worried was an understatement. Relieved to finally arrive, I quickly found out that some flights got delayed, and we waited at the airport for a… Read more »

     Upon our later-than-expected arrival to La Selva Biological Fieldstation near Sarapiquí, Costa Rica, we grabbed our luggage and I entered a rainforest for the first time via a large, green stone bridge that connected the cafeteria and developed land to an untouched rainforest full of many mysteries. Little did I know how significant… Read more »

This first week was so incredibly eye-opening to say the least. When I first realized I would be staying at a biological research station, I really didn’t expect it to look how La Selva looks. Upon arrival in the middle of the night on our first night in the country, we were greeted with a… Read more »

We arrived at La Selva late Monday night after waiting for a while. After a quick dinner at the cafeteria, we began the half mile trek to our living quarters with our suitcases. I was so tired I did not notice much from the walk, except the long wobbly bridge stretching over the Puerto Viejo… Read more »

This past week has been a whirlwind of chaos and new faces and constant movement, so I honestly do appreciate this blog as an opportunity to reflect and sit and let my thoughts flow for a while. I have appreciated the proximity to nature that this experience has afforded me so far, the sheer number… Read more »

For this blog post I wanted to focus on small things I noticed that spoke volumes to me personally. I have observed many different perspectives on this trip and have gotten a lot out of them. Not only are these different perspectives coming from the Costa Rican people, but they are also coming from my… Read more »

Stepping foot into the world of La Selva Biological Research Station, I was immediately captivated by the wonders of the rainforest. It was on that very first day that I encountered the leaf cutter ants, and to my surprise, I found myself deeply appreciating the rainforest at the most microscopic level. Little did I know… Read more »

When the group initially arrived at La Selva I was immediately curious about the entire station because the cafeteria was so cool looking. We arrived in the dark so we could not see much of the station but the cafeteria area where we all sat to eat dinner had a very jungle-living vibe that I… Read more »

Hello! This is my final blog post, covering the past two weeks. Also, it happens to my final undergraduate assignment ever! I wanted to reflect on the experience of the last two weeks as a whole, as well as cover my research project. The Monday before last, I started to come down with a rough… Read more »

No matter which side of the country, no matter which coast we were visiting, people across Costa Rica all said the same thing: “pura vida”.  Pura vida means “pure life.” It describes Costa Rica’s attachment to nature. Most of the country is forested. Most of the people make their money off of the land, whether… Read more »