Monday morning was awful. We went to bed in Playa Hermana at 2:20ish and had to wake up at 4:30 to get taxis for our 5 am bus. The bus smelled EXTREMELY strongly of bubble gum and I was severely nauseous like the entire drive. After eventually making it back to Selina and choking down some breakfast we all took a very long nap before going to Heredía for our observation day. After that I again took another nap and laid in bed all day reading. I got nachos for dinner. The rest of the week was a scramble of trying to get all of our work done on time and balancing between 200 and 350. Thursday Sarah and I bought bus tickets for the weekend. After class as a big group we went out for dinner and bowling with Dr. Wettergreen which was a lot of fun. Afterwards a few of us met up with some ULACIT students and went out to a club that they wanted to take us to. Friday morning I woke up exhausted again but made it to class exactly at 9:00 (literally) in order to present our final technical review. After cleaning up our presentation and getting ready for the afternoon everyone took a break and we all ate lunch together for the last time in the ULACIT servery. It was a quiet meal where everyone was going through presentations on their phones for last minute review. I presented in pajama pants because I had run out of clothes and my laundry wasn’t finished that morning. After the presentation I immediately went back to Selina and packed all my stuff up before getting an uber to the bus station with Sarah where we went off to Cahuita a small town on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. The bus unfortunately took 6 hours instead of 4 because of road closure so that was kinda rough but after arriving the hostel was super nice and we both passed out. Saturday we got local breakfast and then spent the entire day at Playa negra hanging out and swimming. We did take a short hour break to go see some sloths at the sanctuary near us. Sunday we hiked through Cahuita national park which is along the coast and borders this beach called Playa Blanca. Monday we woke up at 6 am and I began my travel home. It over all was a phenomenal experience and I highly recommend the ISeed program along with Costa Rica as a way to spend your freshmen summer being an engineering student at Rice. I’d like to thank everyone who helped make this trip so special, from the unique experiences at UCIMED and ULACIT to getting to explore Costa Rica with some (now) very close friends of mine.
Final TENS Sock Prototype
Presentation fit
Cat I saw in Cahuita
Playa Negra in Cahuita
Cahuita National Park
Saying goodbye to Costa Rica with a heavy heart on my last night.