Protest Update

I got some more information about what happened on campus last week, and it's a bigger deal than I thought!

Apparently, some students stormed an administration meeting on Thursday and took over the building, and Friday took over another building (which is why the rest of the buildings were evacuated). I'm not sure who the students were exactly, but they were hooded, covering their identity. Over the weekend, the students met with admin and negotiated some type of deal, that included them avoiding punishment for what they did (including breaking some windows I think). I'm not sure how aggressive these students were, but just the fact that they were hooded and concealing their identity definitely is a bit scary and takes the "peaceful" protest up a notch. Maybe that was their goal to be overly dramatic but not violent?

This morning, there was some shouting, chanting and a march of some sort, regarding the president of the student association (FEUCR) . . as for now though I think things are back to normal.

campus shutdown

There's been some recent protests and demonstrations by students the past few weeks, as the new budget for the next 5 years was revealed. University of Costa Rica is a public university and I'm not sure about the budgeting details. Two weeks ago there was a march, and apparently yesterday some students tried to talk to admin on campus . . Something about the school admin striking a deal with the government that still leaves the school with less money than it needs . . so today some students (I think its FEUCR, federacion de estudiantes de ucr) held a peaceful protest . . but as a preventative measure all the buildings were evacuated, meaning classes were canceled and I had to leave my office (around 1030am) along with everyone else in the building and other campus buildings. Quite exciting! no one really knew exactly what was going on, so I waited around a while and heard/saw a procession of students yelling something that I couldn't understand and waving flags.

So I left campus and decided to head to AutoMercado before it started to rain, a supermarket that has imported goods. I found quinoa, tofu, wheat pasta and pollenta! Spent a lot of money but will help balance out my meals. 4 pack of Morningstar Veggie patties and package of vegan bacon cost about 5000 colones (almost $10 US)!!! so I skipped those. Plus my freezer is tiny, couldn't even buy ice cream.

Familia Tica

Last Sunday I went to visit Neha's host family that she stayed with last summer while she was here in Costa Rica for 5 weeks. They live a bus ride away but on Sundays I guess the buses aren't frequent so I ended up taking a taxi.

They're so cute! I met Disney (mama tica) and her husband, 2 sons (one of which goes to UCR) and a daughter (that is my age). Just like in India, the kids live at home for a while after college. Disney wouldn't let me speak in English and they put up with me speaking very slowly and thinking very hard about conjugating verbs in spanish . . it's a humbling experience having people look at you while you're trying to form a coherent sentence, esp when it would just be easier to speak in English! But that's how I'm going to learn. I have a hard time understanding Spanish when its the younger adults/kids speaking, b/c of slang, accents etc. (Now I get exactly why my grandparents had a hard time understanding my English.) The family was really nice and Disney invited me to visit or call if I ever need anything. . and to bring my parents over when they visit.

I have been told multiple times that my Spanish is good! Maybe b/c I'm American they expect me to have a gringo accent . . but the fact that my first language was Marathi helps with the Spanish phonetics . . the consonants are softer . . and I think my accent makes it seem like I know more Spanish than I actually do (ie grammer and vocab wise). Some people speak really fast and I don't catch everything. It might be too easy to get away with not speaking any spanish while I'm on campus, so I have to make an effort to thinking in Spanish or speaking spanish with my office-mate.

Another professor also commented that my English is easier to understand than that of other visiting professors from America . . good to know . . I can turn off my cali-girl accent when I need to!

Tortuguero Trip - Green Sea Turtle

This past weekend I took a 2 day/1 night trip to Tortuguero National Park with a tour company and a friend I made in language class. It's on the northern Caribbean coast of the country and the only way to get there is by air or water. We took a bus to the farthest point where there was a road and the proceeded on small boats. Basically the touristy part of the park is based around the village of Tortuguero, and hotels that have their own docks along the channels. The main draw to the park is the egg-laying habits of the Green Sea Turtle, which come to the shores of Tortuguero Beach July-Oct to make nests and lay eggs at night. We had a night tour, which was awesome. For the first time I saw the stars from Costa Rica, and was once again disoriented geographically while trying to find familiar constellations. The weather was completely different than the San Jose area, it was HOT and dry, with no rain the whole time. Along the horizon in all 360 degrees however, I could see tons of lightning.

The night tour was pretty well organized, in order to ensure that we do not interfere or bother the turtles in any way. We wait a few 100 meters away from the shore, Turtle watchers keep an eye on the shore for turtles coming up to shore. These things are huge! about 4 feet long and 2-3 feet wide. Once they started building the nest and laying eggs (about 100-120 eggs ine one night), we are told to go to the beach and we can actually watch this happening. I was 2 feet away and could literally see the eggs dropping from the turtle into the nest she made (our guide used a red flashlight). No cameras were allowed, and apparently we can get close to the turtles while they are laying eggs and covering the nest b/c they are in a "trance" and our presence does not bother them at that point. We then saw a turtle leaving her nest and going back into the ocean. That's it. Her parenting job is done! The baby turtles emerge in 45-60 days and aim to get back into the ocean, but most get eaten by predators. The ones that make it to maturity will eventually come back to the same beach that they were born on to lay their own eggs. Historically (according to the guide), these turtles were almost extinct b/c of the demand for turtle soup in England. But the national park was created just for the turtles.

Now on to a more philosophical point, I'm not sure that I enjoyed watching the turtle laying eggs. It felt a bit intrusive and kind of gross. I wouldn't say it was "amazing" or "spiritual" in any sort of way, but it was . . . interesting. Felt like I was spying on her. I thought we would just see turtles coming onto shore and then leaving, from far away. I can appreciate wildlife and like knowing its out there living its life w/o my interference. I'm not sure that I want to interact with it though, (ie swimming with dolphins, touching fish/sea creatures, snorkeling/scuba, horse back riding) b/c it means introducing this wild animal into a "human" way of life, like I'm intruding on their world for my entertainment. I can appreciate the need for zoos, that's the only way the average person would see certain animals and in turn gain an appreciation for animals and the need for conservation etc.

Obviously, when horses or bulls or mules are used for necessary work, there's a specific purpose beyond entertainment, and I can understand that. But somewhere there's a gray area where I'm just not sure I want to use the animal for my entertainment. But this hasn't led me to commit to being vegan just yet . .

First lecture

Had my first class today! I've got 8 students, mostly chemistry master's students and 1 physics master's student. I knew I'd feel so much more comfortable after I got the first lecture over with! Now I have an idea of what the students want and what their background is. I designed the course thinking they would have had quantum mechanics and solid state physics, but most had not. So, I'll take some time to review those topics, which is good b/c I thought I might be short on material. Also, the last 4 weeks, someone else is teaching topics that are not in my expertise, so technically I'm responsible for 12 lectures, which can be 2- 3 hrs long each. I'm not used to talking for that long! It's nice that its up to me and there's no strict guidelines. But that also makes me a bit insecure b/c for my first time it would be nice to have some more guidelines, so that I know what I'm doing or have specific goals set for me. Oh well, I guess that's part of being out of school and teaching my own class.

Nisha was in town yesterday! so I went into San Jose to have dinner with her and friends. They're vacay-ing in CR this week. It was nice to see a familial face in a foreign country.

The rain/thunder/lightning have been crazy the past few days, and I hear it gets worse in September! I haven't been drenched yet, but my canvas sneakers have been drenched a few times.

I need to continue doing some spanish exercises and studying vocabulary, or else I'm going to forget what I re-learned last week!

first few days

So this week I'm taking a spanish class, 4 hours a day, and its definitely starting to come back to me. Some of the grammatical rules are pretty complex and can't be translated into English . . so I'll probably never use em myself (conditional, imperfect). I understand the teachers perfectly well, b/c they purposefully speak slow and clear, but when I talk to other people on the street etc, they talk too fast for me!

Went to campus yesterday . . the campus is beautiful! there's a creek running through it and it feels like being in the middle of a rainforest! Some of the walkways are covered (b/c of the heavy rains) and we'll see how crowded they get when classes start next week.

I'm teaching a grad class, mostly chemists and some physicists, and there's a total of 6 or 7. It starts next Tuesday, will let you know how that goes.

I bought a tv, and the cable is amazing! i'll get to watch all my fave US shows, including sytycd tonight . . . mmmm just got a whiff of a neighbor cooking some garlic. 'Glee' is on in spanish right now . .

I live a few blocks from the main street, its a very quiet complex (no kids allowed!) and I've met a few Americans already (1 of whom is finishing his time as a visiting Physics prof at the same place I'll be working. random.). Apparently no one goes out after 7pm ish and they recommend not to walk alone (but i'll need to find out if that's an exaggeration or actually true.) . . so i'll need to tweak my daily schedule to get up early (ugh) and go to sleep early . . so I won't be out late running errands or going to the gym. Also, since its rainy season, people like to get inside earlier, it also gets dark around 5/6 ish. The rain hasn't been too bad yet, it rains every afternoon, with thunder/lightning every few days and probably everyday in Sept! luv it. I put up some netting over my windows so I can leave em open and not worry about bugs, but can still hear the rain and storms. Definitely need some rainboots but can't find waterproof boots anywhere!! Everyone I meet that knows I'm new here asks if I have an umbrella!

Well I had plenty to say earlier but now can't remember what I wanted to describe/say . . but i did put some pics up on fb!