Day three!

Hey guys!

It's been my 3rd day here at EARTH and it's been a really rainy day.

I woke up early again and headed out to breakfast for a quick bite. I wasn't feeling too great so I headed back to my room to eat some nutrigrain bars I brought with me. After breakfast I gathered up my notebook, laptop, and articles to ride my bike to the library for the first time. It's a nice bike ride since you get to ride past these big green plants, birds of paradise, orchids, statues, and other beautiful parts of campus. I'll definitely take some pictures to post here once it stops raining buckets.

The library here is so pretty. There's a gift shop and coffee bar on the first floor that's in the open air. I haven't checked either of these places out yet, but I'll definitely do that soon. There are also these two wood cut outs of trees that hang on the big staircases that lead up to the library. Each leaf on the tree has the name of a person, family, or company that has donated money to EARTH. There's also a lot of benches surrounding the area so a lot of students lounge around there. The first actual library part is upstairs. It looks a lot like the average american library only with more books about agriculture and more books in spanish. There's another floor too but I haven't checked that out yet either. Sofia helped me get a library card so I'll be going to the library frequently to do some research.

Speaking of research, guess who started her Borlaug Ruan Intern report? It's not that far in, but I've typed up the outline Lisa gave us and started filling some parts of it out. I have to write about why I wanted to be an intern, who I'm working with, where I'm working, the history of the place I'm working at, and so much more. It needs to be 15-22 pages long, so I'm going to do my best and not procrastinate on this one. Once I find out more about my research topic and go in depth with Professor Moro on what my project will be I'll be able to fill out more of the paper. I've only started to write the personal stuff ( my name, where I'm from, when I attended the Global Youth Institute, why I wanted to be an intern, etc.) but even then, it's better than nothing.

At 8:30 I went to Sofia's office so she could take me to Professor Emilia Villalobos to take my spanish placement test. Professor Villalobos's office was pretty far from Sofia's office, so you can only imagine how confused I was when I tried to go back to Sofia's office to get my bike. From the minute I sat down Profe Villalobos was extremely nice. She gave me a basic test that is given to every student who has a hard time speaking spanish. For the most part I knew a lot, the only thing that really messed me up was the grammar and tenses. I know how to speak in the present tense, but I have to re-learn a lot of grammar that I've forgotten over the years. Once I was finished with the test Profe Villalobos and I discussed a schedule for spanish classes. We decided to meet up again around 2:30 for my first lesson.

After that discussion I bid Profe V goodbye and did my best to navigate my way back to my bike. After a few minutes and walking in a circle once or twice I found my way back to my bike. It's a big campus and it's a little confusing, but I think I'll be able to navigate it soon enough.

I went to lunch shortly after riding my bike back to my residence hall and locking it up to a bike rack. This was the best lunch I've had at EARTH so far. It was a pita stuffed with chicken and beans, topped with mole, guacamole, salsa, rice, and Yucca chips (which are basically like potato chips only better). While I sat down to eat my meal Cecilia passed by and ate lunch with me. We talked about where we grew up, the differences between the US and Costa Rica, and other stuff like that. Cecilia is so kind and sweet, she's one of my favorite people here at EARTH! After we ate I said goodbye to Cecilia as we went our separate ways.

Right before I headed to my spanish lesson I stopped by a game center by the library to watch the Mexico vs Brazil game. They had a big projector screen in the center of the room which was extremely useful when there's about 40 or so people in the room trying to watch the game. It's fun to watch soccer here because everyone gets really into the action. People scream, jump up and down, and other celebratory things.  I left before the end of the game which was a little sad. Hopefully I'll see a few more games within the next week or so.

My spanish lesson was hard. I remembered a lot of the stuff Profe Villalobos was teaching me, but I just kept confusing certain tenses and letters. It's frustrating to try and re-learn this information but I think after a little time and practice it'll start to pay off. For homework I need to interview someone from EARTH about how long they've been working here, what they like about EARTH, and other stuff like that. I think I'll interview Sofia or Cecilia.

Well, I better go to bed soon. I've got to be up at 5:30 so I can get ready, grab breakfast, and ride my bike to the farm (which is a 15-20 minute bike ride I believe?) by 6:30. I'm trying to throw in some extra time just in case I get lost, which will probably happen.

Goodnight everyone!

-Allie