Live and Learn: Future Interns, Take Notes

Hey guys!

Although I didn't have work today it was still an eventful day!

Last night I stayed up really late with a few of my friends, Kalem, Jhoselyn, and Fabricio, and watched some movies in my room. It was a lot of fun because I switched the language to spanish and I turned off the captions. The others asked me if I wanted subtitles but I need to learn spanish somehow. Life doesn't have subtitles. I can proudly say that I understood 70% or more of the dialogue of each movie. Every once in a while they would ask me if I understood what was going on and if I didn't understand they would explain it to me. Fabricio speaks english extremely well, so he played translator every once in a while. One interesting thing I noticed was that humor doesn't always transcend languages. Some things were funny to them that I didn't think were funny and vice versa. It was intriguing to me!

After the second movie ended everyone went home and I got to sleep. When I woke up (about 5 and 1/2 hours later) I was about to go to the cafeteria when I looked at the bike rack in front of my door and realized that there was something off. Ladies and gentlemen, someone took my bike the one day I forgot to lock it. I never ride it so it was locked to that spot for weeks, that is until I rode my bike with Jhoselyn last night and forgot to lock it. Apparently this happens often at EARTH, so often that when I told some people in my hall that my bike was stolen they laughed and said, "Welcome to EARTH". I've been told to wait a day to see if the bike is returned, but if it isn't back by tomorrow I'm going to look around and find it. Lesson learned.
FUTURE INTERNS: LOCK YOUR BIKES. ALWAYS.

After breakfast I went to have my weekly meeting with Profe Moro.

Now the second learning moment of the day happened during lunch. Usually I'm pretty easygoing when it comes to tico food. I'm not too picky and I've become accustomed to trying new things. So when I got to the lunch line and realized that I didn't know what the meat being served was I figured to just go with it. I got rice and beans (surprise) and a dish called mondongo. When I asked the cafeteria lady what was in it she just said "vaca' which is cow, so I assumes it was a safe bet.

I have never been so wrong in my entire life.

A picture I took before it all went downhill

The first bite was really weird. It didn't taste like beef at all. It was rubbery and reminded me vaguely of bad pasta. It took a while for me to even chew one piece. I gave up on it after the first bite and focused on my rice and beans. Soon Kalem came over and sat with me. Once she sat down we talked for a little bit and I finally asked,"Cual es este comida?" Kalem smirked mischievously and asked me if I ate some of it and if I liked it. I told her that it wasn't really my thing and that I didn't want to eat any more of it. After a minute or so of asking her to tell me what it was, Kalem gave me the bad news.

Mondongo is a stew with cow stomach in it. I ate the rumen of a cow. 

I thought she was joking with me and insisted that she was lying. I didn't believe her until Kalem brought one of the cafeteria ladies over to validate that it was, indeed, cow stomach. At least now I know to ask what,specifically, is in what I'm eating.

I downed 2 cups of coffee to take my mind of the stomach within my stomach and prepared a slideshow presentation for my spanish class on EARTH's Periurbana, the urban agriculture farm. I wrote a post all about that a few days back if you want to read it over. I think I did really well with my presentation! I'm more comfortable speaking spanish thanks to my friends. When I hang around them I absolutely have to talk in spanish, so it pushes me out of my comfort zone. I'm so grateful for all of my friends here at EARTH. I've learned so much from them and I hope I have helped them as well.

At night I watched and tried to help Kalem and Jhoselyn with their business project. Each student at EARTH has to complete a group business project within their 4 years at EARTH. So much effort is put into these projects and it's really interesting to see these projects come to life and succeed. I hope Kalem, Jhoselyn, and Fabricio's group does well. I helped them pick the meaning for one of their business's colors (yellow), helped them come up with a business slogan (Amistad con empresa, agricultura, y el mundo), and helped them with their logo. I'm learning all about these projects and I kinda wished that these types of projects were encouraged in US schools. The schools give students loans to start these projects and the students have to pay them back (with interest) but the students keep whatever's leftover. It's a great way to gain business skills.

Throughout this experience I have learned something new everyday. My time here is coming to an end but I know that I'll still learn new things while I am here.

Thanks for reading you guys!

-Allie