5/29
Airport 12:30pm. Went through immigration they asked for my departure flight. I started speaking to her in Spanish and then I didn’t understand what she asked for so then I was embarrassed. Then I went to baggage claim where I bought a twenty dollar SIM card where I made the same mistake again. Waited for Sarah who arrived at 1:15. Almost walked out but a group of taxi people came to bother Sarah, and I told them where we were going. Taxi was a total of $24 to get to Selina San Jose where we were staying.
At 4p Lolita, an outdoor, indoor cute food court place with everyone. We ordered way too much. (Thank you Dr. Wettergreen). Spoke to some Grad students doing the GMI program shout out to Raniyah and then it started to rain.
5/31
Savory pancakes with egg, bacon, tomatoes. Yoga Class at Selina. We went to a nearby Zoo, got lost getting there but found our way. Paid $6. Very fun because the monkey was playing a leaf tossing game with us and the birds almost talked to us. Then central market. Traditional ice cream. Tasted good like banana bread, almost healthy but sweet. Carly’s phone pickpocketed. Either before, during or after a local came up to James and told James to watch out because the guys around us were pickpocketing. Uber to Costa Rican supermarket. Yuquitas. Costa Rican restaurant. Souvenir shop. Mall. Starbucks- Dulce de Leche Frappe 10/10.
5/31
6:30am. Nice clothes. Bootcamp. Costa Rican Breakfast over easy egg. Uber to UCIMed. Lunch with Sebastian, partner for marshmallow challenge. Project: infant headrest for doing bronchoscopy. Pops. Cone with two scoops, one dulce de leche and the other cotton candy. Dinner Lolita pizza. Someone got in Carly’s phone. Scary rainy dark.
6/1
Selina breakfast. Uber to UCIMed. Patient flow. Money flow. Lunch leftovers. Rain very strong. Rested. Supermarket trip with Alice. Salami, cream cheese, croissants and cheese.
6/2
Quesadillas. Dalmata. Lunch leftovers. Prototyped a Tuk-Tuk. Crashed it with a zipline. Speed and safety. Then we prototype our project. Ubered back to Selina. Orange chicken from Uber Eats.
6/3
Acai Bowl. Presentation Day. Made posters with our slides and had a walking gallery for guests and other teams to come to our table and listen to our design process. Guests from diffferent companies gave out cool prizes. Watched a documentary. 10/10 recommend. Panaderia.
6/4
Beach day. Panadeira Danish. Ubered to the bus station to get there before 7. Drive there had many beautiful views. I slept. Very rocky surfing beach. Sarah, Alice and I did a 2 hour Tico’s surf lesson. Tiring and I drank a lot of salt. Thirsty and hungry. Monchi’s Beach Burrito 9/10. Went to a Souvenir shop with many handmade things. Lady made me a new bracelet with the colors I wanted. Bus station. Missing people. So we decided to go to Selina Jaco. Pool (once we knew everyone was safe and new tickets were bought). Terminal arrival is unsafe. Weird people. Taxi drivers. Police.
Week 1 Final thoughts:
Costa Rican food is really good. New friends, good vibes. I really appreciate locals who have warned our group when things were dangerous. I wouldn’t have thought BioMedical engineering would be much different than the general design process but it is very complex when you think about the journey a patient takes and how doctors and providers have so much to do to help them in the long run. Also, learning about the healthcare system in the United States was really eye-opening.
Pura Vida 🙂
-Le
