After an airline mishap and a long journey flying via Panama, I arrived in Costa Rica 2 days after I had planned. And, surprise surprise, it was raining!
Our week began with meeting our professor and everyone on our program. We met at Selina, in San Jose, where we’ll be living for the duration of our stay here. We explored the hostel which I think we all really like: there’s a kitchen, library, movie room, a roof deck with pool table and yoga classes and lots of communal space to hang out and work. It is definitely a great environment that enables us to meet new people from all over the world. There’s also a schedule for activities offered throughout the week including salsa class and jazz night. I’m still trying to persuade the group to do karaoke though!
Once everyone had arrived at Selina, we went to an outdoor food hall which had a range of food options from sushi to pizza and tacos to steak. We all ate dinner together and then were joined by the GMI students who are also in Costa Rica for the medical innovation bootcamp and internships as part of their Master’s program in Global Medical Innovation at Rice. It was good to meet a lot of new people and get to know the other people that we’d be spending the coming week with. It rained again.
We had Monday off – to acclimatise and prepare for the week – so we went into San Jose and started to explore. We spent the morning at the zoo where everyone was equally fascinated by the capuchin monkeys. The interactions between some of the guys in the group, and the animals was honestly like a pantomime to watch. The rain held off… for now. Then we went and explored the central market. Markets are one of my favourite things to see in new countries as it is always such an immersive experience and it is fun to practice speaking in the native language as well as trying authentic foods and buying cute gifts for friends and family.
Owls spotted at the central market
The jaguar looked at us pretty disdainfully as we entertained the capuchins
Tuesday began the real work. The 6:30am wake-up was brutal since I’d been sleeping on holiday time for weeks, but the Selina breakfast was pretty good so made up for it. Almost.
We began a fairly intense four day bootcamp at UCIMED (Universidad de Ciencias Médicas) alongside the GMI students and students from some local Costa Rican schools. I worked with a group of four other students to design and begin prototyping a head stabilising device to be used during paediatric bronchoscopy. It aims to reduce patient discomfort and trauma, as well as alleviating workload on medical staff during the procedure. The week culminated in a presentation symposium where we got to present our ideas to medical professionals, lecturers from the different universities present and our peers. It was great to be able to tell others about the work we had done and have technical discussions analysing strengths and weaknesses of our design. I really enjoyed getting to explore how engineering can be applied to very real problems in the medical field and getting to speak to medical professionals about the problems that we encountered in the prototyping process.
It was a little intimidating to enter the week with the expectation that we would have a low-fidelity prototype and presentation at the end of four days – a process which typically takes the first three months of the semester in ENGI 120. However I think working in such a fast-paced environment suited me well as I like working under pressure and feel a greater sense of achievement at what we completed given that we had so little time. The saddest thing about this first week was that most of the daylight hours were spent working were spent at UCIMED. By the time we got out at 5 each day, it was raining (who would’ve guessed?) and almost dark.
Low-fidelity prototype to model our design solution
Photo of the prototyping process: nice and comfortable on the floor
Final team presentation board
Whilst the week was mentally tiring, it was a great experience that I’m glad I got to have. The intense days also made our evenings more valuable. We often came back to Selina and cooked as a group before playing pool on the roof deck. All being thrown into an unfamiliar environment, and high-pressure situation has really helped the group to bond and get to know each other.
We finished our week with a trip to Jaco, a beach town about 2 hours from San Jose. Maybe waking up at 6am on our one day off wasn’t a smart move, but no one ever said Rice students had common sense. The bus ride was extremely picturesque as we drove through Costa Rican rainforests and national parks. The sun was shining (maybe burning is more accurate) even when we arrived at 9:30 and staked out our spot on the beach. A few of us went right into the water and got quite a workout battling waves to get deeper and deeper. I spent about three hours surfing (again, a whole workout! Like seriously, I’m aching two days later) as we rented boards for the day. It was much cheaper than I expected so that was a nice surprise. I held a conversation with the lady in the smoothie bar and she asked if should could take a picture of Sarah and I for her Instagram, which was really sweet. The smoothies were also soooo good! 10/10 would recommend the Passionfruit, Pineapple and Mango one. We finished the day at Selina, Jaco. It’s right on the ocean, with a beachfront bar, a pool and such a nice outdoor coworking space. Showering off and jumping in the pool was really refreshing and it was great to get rid of the sand and the salt so the 2-hour bus journey home was less of an ordeal. Shoutout to Douglas for the idea to head there before we left.
And the most important thing, it didn’t rain!!
My favourite beach photos that perfectly encapsulate the energy of this group.
Overall, I’ve had a very positive first week in Costa Rica. I landed on my feet and have already gotten to know my way around much of the surrounding area – even finding a grocery store where I could get Jif peanut butter for Brendan, Douglas and Sarah (they very much lamented the lack of it). I have been practising speaking Spanish and I think my listening and comprehension skills are improving pretty quickly. I am very excited for the next three weeks, and to spend more time getting to know this fun group of people.
Mission Complete: Peanut Butter found