Day: A Day of Science

Not a day of exciting walks through the rain forest, riding horses, or finding the Trojan horse of spider. Not a day of waterfalls, zip lining, or Iron Chef Costa Rica. Today was a day of hamburgers, goodbyes, and science.

The day started off with scrambled eggs, toast, rice, beans, pineapple, watermelon, and juice. After breakfast, we all piled into the classroom as Pinto described the plan for the day and then the opportunities that are available after this trip. We then moved to our group's work areas to begin finalizing our projects and presentations.

By the time lunch rolled around, you could tell how far people's groups were by looking at their facial expressions and posture. Lunch was, to the enjoyment of some, American: hamburgers with lettuce, tomato, and onion with potato chips. Unfortunately, today was the last day that we could work with Ibrihim because he had to leave after lunch and will not be able to come back tomorrow. We said our goodbyes and took pictures; those doing who are doing projects related to microbiology shed some tears as our best resource for having our questions answered drove up and around the hill, out of the farm.

The science continued after lunch, and Pinto wanted us to be ready to do a practice run of our presentations for him to give so constructive criticism before the final presentations tomorrow. Most groups did their practice runs after after dinner in an effort to maximize the amount of time to collect data and then finish the presentation. We had salad, mashed potatoes, carrots, zucchini, and pork with a pineapple and celery sauce.

Although today was a day of science and hard work, it was still a very fun day. It's hard to complain, at least in my opinion, about getting up before seven in the morning when you can look out window and see mountains, green foliage, and Pablo as he cruises by the dorms on his dirt bike.