Hey guys,
I’m writing this at the end of my second week here, having just gotten back from a fun weekend espcape in Monteverde. This week we started the program proper in full force, moving into our space at ULACIT, a local technical university. It’s only a 10 minute walk from where we are staying, making our morning commute not bad at all. As design mentor for this experience, this first week was a mix of moving between the teams as they brainstormed and locked down designs, and navigating their materials sourcing with the OEDK back in Houston as best I could. I discovered a pool table in one of the common spaces at ULACIT and have been able to play almost everyday at lunch 🙂
After class most days we’ve been able to cook, and some of the highlights this week were rice bowls with chicken and pico and avocado, and a pretty solid spaghetti. Grocery shopping here is definitely different than back home, but after two weeks, we’ve gotten a good grasp of what we can and can’t find.
On Friday, we got out of class early in order to do an observation exercise at the Jade Museum, a local art/history museum that was really neat. I enjoyed taking the time to slow down and just take in what was around me. I didn’t really know what jade was before that, so it was cool to see how it had a variety of uses and decoration.
On Saturday morning we took a bus up to Monteverde for the weekend. We started with a hike through the Santa Elena cloud forest, a really cool secluded hike, surrounded by mist.
Walsh and Sarah in the forest
I saw a snake too which was neat.
We woke up early on sunday and went ziplining and hiking across some cool hanging suspension bridges. They bounced a lot, but did not fall down which was good. We then took a bus back down to San Jose and now it’s homework time :/