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INEX Summer University Costa Rica |
Online Diary ISU Costa Rica 02.2007DAY 1 - ARRIVAL - Sunday, 28 January 2007
Finally it was time to travel to Costa Rica. The majority of the participants were flying together from Vienna. The group flight flew from Vienna to Amsterdam, from Amsterdam to Miami and then to San Jose.
The rest of the group met at 8 o’clock at the airport in Munich. After we had checked in our luggage, we had some time left to enjoy a cup of coffee. Then it was time to go on board and the plane left to Atlanta. It took us about ten hours later to get there. The flight was pretty long and it the end it seemed like it would never end. The entertainment program did not really help. It was not very good since the movies shown on board were not very interesting although the food was surprisingly very good.
In Atlanta we had to go through the passport control which took us a while since the US takes the fingerprints and a picture of everyone – no matter whether they are visiting the United States or are just having a lay-over. We had then some time left to explore the airport, change money and/or buy something to eat and drink. Finally it was time to board again - the last flight for the day began. The entertainment program was not any better on this flight – we saw the same movie as on the other plane. But it did not really matter since most of us were sleeping anyway. After four hours we arrived at San Jose, Costa Rica. There Fabienne, Steffi, Karla (from Logos Language School in Costa Rica) and Juani (our tour guide) already waited for us. Since our plane arrived a little early we had to wait about half an hour for the other group to arrive at the airport too. Luckily no luggage was damaged or lost. After the entire luggage was stored inside the bus we drove to “The Green House” hostel where we were going to spend the night.
It took us some time to manage to split up to all the different rooms because everybody wanted to sleep in one of the two-bed rooms. After we had worked that out, everybody was glad to finally go to bed and get some sleep. Really everybody – no! Some of the guys decided to drink a beer together. So they enjoyed their first Imperial or Bavaria in Costa Rica.by Ricarda Terscinar
DAY 2 - COFFEE PLANTATION & CITY TOUR - Monday, 29 January 2007
Even though most of us were still very tired, because of our long journey, we definitely wanted to get up early. Our first day in Costa Rica started and all of us had this great feeling of excitement. How is Costa Rica, what will our host families be like, what will we see and experience in the next few weeks…. So many questions and all of them still unanswered.
So we got up at 8.00 am and could already experience a great Costa Rican breakfast in our hostel, enriched with many different fruits like bananas, pineapples and papayas, fruits that grow in Costa Rica.
At 9.00 am we started with our tour. Juani, our tour guide, and Fabienne picked us up at our hotel and we went to see the Café Britt Coffee Plantation. There we got an introduction about the way Coffee is planted, harvested and roasted. I can tell you, this organically planted Coffee tastes really great, a lot different to the one we are getting in Europe. On our way back to San Jose we stopped at the house of an old lady in order to see one of the famous, painted ”carretas”, a type of a carriage.
After all these exciting insights, we were already quite hungry, it was time for lunch. So we went to San Jose downtown in order to get some nice Costa Rican dishes, I am still dreaming of that great dessert…
Now we had new power to explore San Jose. We split up in groups of 10 and some local guides showed us around downtown. We got to see the post office and the national theatre, both quite impressive colonial buildings.
Nevertheless, it was time to go back to our hostel, where our host families were already waiting for us, eager to pick us up and to get to know us. After a short coffee break at the Green house, our hostel, we could finally hug and kiss our new families. I can only mention, the “Ticos” and “Ticas”, this is the name for Costa Ricans, are very friendly and open-hearted people.
We all got to know our new families and all of us were happy to come home and go to bed soon, with many new impressions of our first day. Nevertheless, some of us, who were still very excited and could not go to bed right away, met at “Parque de Tibas”, in order to discuss this wonderful day while sipping a cold Costa Rican beer.
by Adrian Loinger
DAY 3 - ORIENTATION MEETING - Tuesday, 30 January 2007
In the morning our host families brought us to school. They showed us the way to the university and told us which busses we have to take to get to ULACIT.
At 9.00 a.m. our Orientation Meeting started and we were excited to hear about the classes. First an intercultural trainer explained typical behaviors to us and gave us an insight about Costa Rican culture. He also gave us advices on do´s and dont´s.
After that our teacher Professor Arthur Rasher was introduced to us. He will teach the
International Marketing course. Our Organizational Behavior teacher will be Milton Clarke. We also had a little tour through the halls of the University to get to know the building better.
Finally we could take a little break to have some lunch at the cafeteria, enjoying some Costa Rican food.
Some of us were picked up already after lunch, but most of us had to stay to take the Spanish Placement Test. It was really short but helped us to determine our levels of Spanish and to put us into classes of the same levels.
We closed the day with a trip to a bar near our homes and finished it with some beer and cocktails.by Melanie Lorf
DAY 4 - ULACIT - Wednesday, 31 January 2007
My day began with a wonderful breakfast with my hostmum and her daughter. I had fresh fruits, which is, in Austria, impossible in February.
After all students arrived at the ULACIT – what is up to now a bit challenging for most of us – our first course started. Organizational Behavior is thought by Milton Clark who is a Costa Rican professor and adds personal experiences to his content. Then we had our International Marketing course with Arthur Rasher, an open-minded and experienced teacher from the United States.
After our lunch break we were split up into our Spanish groups, mine was conducted by Samuel a very friendly professor who originally comes from Peru.
Since our evening was free most of us visited the computer labs or went a bit shopping in the centre of San Jose.by Sandra Himsel
DAY 5 - ULACIT - Thursday, 1 February 2007
3rd day at ULACIT already turned out to be a tough one.
Yesterday a large group of the Austrians hooked up to enjoy an outstanding night at Club “Sultan”. Sure, if you are in Costa Rica, the last thing you want is to miss anything. Incredible prices (Beer 300 colones), a lot of people and cool music made the party going on from 9 till 2 a.m. – headache and tired faces were the result today.
Well, if you are abroad, sleep is something you hardly need. However, getting up today was really a tough issue. I have no idea what my host mother thought when she saw my wasted eyes this morning, but I guess she is used to that as all Costa Ricians enjoy drinking beer.
The breakfast – Toast with Cheese and some fruits – was like medicine for the stomach and two huge cups of amazing coffee made me regain my spanisch language skills.Classes started at 9 a.m. Everybody was there on time, except Che, who arrived a few minutes later. As you probably already know, our first class deals with Organizational Behaviour. Due to headache and tiredness today you really got the impression that this class might last till eternity. But if you can party, you have to be able to study, too. Currently I cannot say much about the class, as what we’ve heard so far was not really new for us. The only thing we all are waiting for is to see whether we really have to read this thick book in order to be able to pass the course. Hopefully, not!
The 2nd class of today, International Marketing, was interesting. “Art” is a cool teacher, his jokes definitely helped a lot to keep my eyes open. He gave us our first homework here in Costa Rica – but it really was not much to do. Finally, 12.40, the class ended – time for lunch and relaxing a little bit. My meal today was really .....American: Hamburgers with fries. After some days with Costa Rician food – which, beside some exceptions really tastes awesome, I honestly felt the need to eat something “from home”. However, for the “Pura Vida” feeling, I also had “arroz con leche” – milkrice. Yummie!
Well, after the lunch break our spanish classes startet. It really is a great possibility to improve your language skills, as the groups are extremely small. But finally I noticed that nearly 5 ½ hours of classes a day can be a tough thing when having a hangover, concentration was definitely not at its best.
After the classes we enjoyed the weather outside in front of the Cafeteria of ULACIT. The groups made their homework and we had time to chat, skype to Austria and relax. At 5 I got home really exhausted, this day by cab.J My mother informed me that she would cook pork meat for me again like the day before. Dear reader, take this seriously: never eat pork meat here. It tastes like a piece of wood! Chewing? Impossible! I luckily was able to explain that I would not need anything more to eat today, as I already had so much at University. Well, honestly I am starving right now while writing this diary entry, but I really fear of eating this again! J
So, this day I stayed at home with my host family, enjoying the evening, talking to them and finally fell into bed to have a longer sleep than yesterday. Day 4 already is gone, how fast time goes by!by Thomas Fermueller
DAY 6 - ULACIT & DANCING CLASSES - Friday, 2 February 2007
The day started as usual with a bumpy trip with the local buses to the university ULACIT where we enjoyed the business courses followed by the international counseling course to learn and understand more about the “Tico”-culture.
After that we went to have our lunch to get well prepared for the Spanish-lesson.
In the evening we met at “Academía de Baile Olé” where we got an introduction to the art of Meringue and Salsa dances. After a “short” warming up our instructor showed us the basic steps und moves and we recognized that dancing like a “Tico” is very difficult and exhausting. Furthermore Austrian haunches aren’t intended for this kind of motion – nearly hopeless.
To award our efforts we decided to celebrate with a couple of beers at Castro`s where we also got the chance to sample our new skills.
Finally we still went to another club named “van Gogh” to complete an eventful day and to pre-relax for the first weekend in Costa Rica.by Peter Schieder
DAY 7 - VOLCAN ARENAL & BALDI HOTSPRINGS - Saturday, 3 February 2007
As our bus was supposed to leave at 9.00 pm some more or less tired students got together at Parque de Tibas, our meeting point.
On the way to our first attraction most of us slept in the bus to make up for the lost sleep from last night.
First we visited the biggest ox cart of the entire world and afterwards the workshop where it was made. Then we drove to Zacero to visit the beautiful park where the bushes were cut in an artistic way. We had lunch at “La Cocina de Doña Chila” and enjoyed it a lot.
Finally we took our bus to get to our main goal “El Arenal” which is a volcano situated in a huge rain forest. All of us took a lot of mosquito repellents – just in case J. The way up to “Arenal” was very exciting and exhausting but we managed it and got to the attraction of this whole trip: the volcano. When we got there it was already dark and we could see the lava splashing right out of the top.
Excited but also tired and hungry we went to the “Hot Springs” to have dinner and to relax in the nicely temperated water.
All of us enjoyed the mixture of relaxing in the “Hot Springs” and having a cool drink at the bar being surrounded by water.by Tina Wittenberger
DAY 8 - SAN LORENZO CANOPY - Sunday, 4 February 2007
We got up at about 8 o’clock in the morning after a very short night for the majority of us. A part of the group had visited the so called “biggest Latin American Disco” and was obviously not yet awake.
We had a very nice and rich breakfast at Luigi’s hotel including “Gallo pinto”, the typical Costa Rican food, eggs, pancakes and toasts. It was very satisfying and gave us at least some energy. At 10 a.m. we left for San Lorenzo cloud forest national park to do the famous canopy. Most of us were quite excited as nobody had done this before. And actually the imagination of hanging somewhere between the trees in the rain forests was quite threatening. As excitement grew further we were forgetting about the short night.
At about 12:30 p.m. we finally arrived at San Lorenzo. At this place it is not only possible to do the canopy but you can also do horse back riding and take guided tours through the forests. San Lorenzo is also known as “the animal friendly place” and so they eat no meat at all. For me personally, a very likeable area, as I love animals very much.
Finally, we were given instructions and were provided with the equipment, including 3 safety ropes and other mountain climbing stuff. We were told that it was absolutely safe, but still some of us had their doubts about that.
Our group was accompanied by a number of nice, helpful and hopefully experienced guides. I think they were having fun with those scared Austrians.
Still, after we had finally all “flown” through the rain forest, everyone was amazed and happy because he or she had overcome his inner temptations. This experience was really amazing although we did not manage to observe any exotic animals. I guess they were scared away buy some of the Austrians’ screams. I can tell that this day was for sure one of the highlights of the program, even if we have three more weeks to go.
After the tour, which took about three hours and before we left to go back to San José we finally enjoyed our “lunch”, a very good, fully vegetarian meal at San Lorenzo restaurant which represented a nice ending for this wonderful day.by Lisa Stelzel
DAY 9 - ULACIT - Monday, 5 February 2007
Like on every other weekday, I picked up Tommy at 8.am in order to get to University. We all met before 9.am in order to get to our courses on time. Of course, after this weekend filled with excitement, we had a lot of things to discuss, and we were a bit tired too.
Thus, we started our morning chatting about our great adventures and then got to class. At first, we had Leadership Behavior until 10.40 am and then International Marketing until 12.40 pm.
In the afternoon, after a short lunch break, we had our Spanish lessons, where all of us seem to make good progress thanks to our host families who really have a hard time trying to speak Spanish with us.
Eventually, our Spanish Lesson ended at 15.30 pm and we then had free time, which meant that we could go shopping, check our emails or learn for our academic classes, since we had really a lot of homework to do.
I personally decided to check my mails as well as to write to those at home, which sometimes is a tricky thing to do, as the computer system is very slow and blocks some of the mails I would like to send.
I then went home to my host family by bus like most of the others to spend a nice and comfortable evening with my host family, exercising Spanish and even teaching my host mum a bit of German too.by Georg Keusch
DAY 10 - ULACIT - Tuesday, 6 February 2007
The day starts with the Organizational Behavior class of Dr. Milton Clark. After a short smoking break we had our International Marketing class with Arthur Rasher.
In our lunch break we had an argument with Fabienne, because we wanted to go to Puerto Viejo to have a chance to see also the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica (Caribic) with its totally different culture and its natural beauty.
After all that we had Spanish lesson. Since we had to work on our projects most of us stayed longer and left Ulacit very late. Then we went home to have dinner.
In the evening some of us met at Parque de Tibas and had some beers at Rolling Stones, a bar in Tibas.by Markus Strasser
DAY 11 - ULACIT & CINEMA - Wednesday, 7 February 2007
Today, for a change, we got a light breakfast from our host mother, namely merely Cornflakes with fruits, which was very welcomed by Rici and myself, since the meals tend to be very nutritious – and much – here. It’s really great to have all the “exotic” fruits here, for it’s just impossible to have watermelon for breakfast in Vienna in February! And God, do I love the coffee here!! I always need to be careful not to drink too much…
As some of the participants already wrote in their own diary entry, getting to the university by bus really is a little adventure, with all the potholes on the street and everything. I’m glad, I don’t get sick that easily in the bus…But what they say in Austria: no risk, no fun! ;-)
The end-destination of today’s adventure ride with the bus was of course ULACIT (like Nescafe – what else?) and I expected to see some tired faces, for yesterday some of us came home a bit late (or early, depending on how you see it), but to my surprise, everybody looked fresh and motivated. For myself, I spent most of the morning running to copy missing chapters – the guy from the copy shop was looking kind of weird, when I was getting there for the 3rd time…At least it’s good for my fitness ;-)
This evening, we all went to Mall San Pedro to watch a movie, since apparently the Ticos love to go to the movies – and yes they do! I have never seen such a queue in front of a cinema cashier. We could choose between the following movies: Babel, Déjà vu and Children of Men, in Spanish or in English. Of course, I chose to watch Children of Men in English…After that I really was tired, so I took the adventure cab home, at least as adventurous as taking the bus – but others went out and spent the rest of the evening in “Van Gogh”.
by Stephanie Bondi
DAY 12 - ULACIT - Thursday, 8 February 2007
The day started like every day in San José. After breakfast, the “Florida de Tibás” – group met at the bus-station. After a short coffee break at the ULACIT cafeteria, classes started at 9:00 a.m.
First we had Organizational Behavior with Dr. Milton Clarke, where we once again end up discussing some Costa Rican issues. After our International Marketing course with Dr. Arthur Rasher, we had lunch at the ULACIT Cafeteria and also tried to catch some sun.
After lunch we had our Spanish classes. Since we are only 4-6 students in one group, we were able to play some Scrabble, in order to improve our vocabulary.
After classes most of us went to the Computer-Lab, either to write some emails, or to prepare our group assignment for International Marketing.
In the evening my Tico-Mum had invited some relatives because my Tico-sister celebrated her birthday. So I stayed at home with my host family and experienced a typical Tico-cumpleaños.
by Tadeh Amirian
DAY 13 - DANCING CLASSES - Friday, 9 February 2007
This Friday was our first officially free day, which I started with a nice breakfast with my host family. At about 9, I met Jasmin and we went to the post-office together because we wanted to send our valentines day-cards to our families. Unfortunately, they will probably not arrive on time - anyway, be sure that we think of you every day!
After our little trip to the post-office, we went to university, because although this was supposed to be our free day, we had to work for our projects. And (surprise, surprise): almost everybody was there! All the computers in the lab were occupied by Austrian students.
At lunchtime, we learned, that it is possible to change next weeks program: we will already leave on Friday and visit a banana plantation! Then we will visit Porto Viejo (which is supposed to be to be the most beautiful beach of Costa Rica) and also spend one night there. Thanks to Adrian and the others for putting through the groups wishes.
In the evening, actually we were supposed to have a dancing lesson; unfortunately we could not attend it because we had so much work for university. After spending lots of time with our group work, Jasmin and I went to have dinner at Pizza Hut. That was a nice way to spend the rest of the evening.by Birgit Eckhard
DAY 14 - BRASILITO BEACH - Saturday, 10 February 2007
Saturday, 5.30h in the morning, the alarm rings. What the hell am I doing at this time of the day during weekend? Oh, yeah, we are going to Brasilito. Well, there are not many things that can make me get up quickly that early, but the descriptions of Brasilito and Playa Conchal made by my host family the other day are definitely among those things. And for those who might not be interested in my view of a trip to what some might call a tropical paradise, I can assure you it was certainly worth getting up that early.
Anyway, after a 5 hours ride on the Panamericana through the incredibly diverse landscape of Costa Rica, we finally arrived at Brasilito around noon. And the view of the Pacific Ocean was just amazing to me. Case studies, exams, presentations suddenly became so unreal, even though our IMM-Prof Dr. Rasher accompanied us, and a part of our work during the week could be associated with him. But it was him who mentioned it himself what at least for me turned out to be the motto of this weekend: “Whatever, that’s the word man!”
So, we really spent a great afternoon at the white Playa Conchal; sun, turquoise sea, pretty girls and cold cerveza. The only thing I missed was a ball to play soccer with. Although I know that Brasilito is not a metropolis, I was nevertheless astonished that we could not find a place where we could buy a ball. Whatever.
Some of our girls could even fulfill the dream of their life, namely to ride a horse on the beach into the sunset over the Pacific Ocean. To others this voluntary trip turned out to be a nightmare, as I have heard, because horse riding skills were required.
Then the night came, which can be translated into Spanish as “fiesta a la playa”. Well, if someone should doubt this translation; I still have 2 weeks left to improve my command of Spanish, but it was nice party at the beach anyway.
And they lived happily ever after…by Lukas Grill
DAY 15 - BRASILITO BEACH - Sunday, 11 February 2007
The second day in Brasilito continued like the last afternoon finished: at the beach.
As our departure was scheduled at 3.00 pm, and most of us wanted to take a shower in the last remaining room, we could only spent some hours in the sun. However, the time at beach
was great, because it was a really good diversion from the absolutely exaggerated workload of our marketing class.
The rest of the day we spent in the bus back to Tibás. The ride took us more than six hours. Fortunately, at least some of as had organised their lunch by themselves, as it was not planned by INEX. But it wasn’t that bad, as the whole Summer University doesn’t “nearly” cause any additional cost and “really everything” is included.
It was about 9.00 pm when we arrived at Tibás and I was happy to see my host family picking me up, as they are the ones who exceed my expectations of this Summer University.by Andreas Klimek
DAY 16 - ULACIT - Monday, 12 February 2007
Peep peep 6.30 am. My alarm wakes me, no time for dreams anymore.
Go to the bathroom, take a shower, go to the kitchen for breakfast and then get ready for university.
My group meets at 8 am to define the last things for the presentation that we had to make in Organizational Behaviors (OB).
9 am: the first OB-presentations-session started. Four Groups presented the topics Individual, Group Behavior and Leadership. This session took almost the whole lesson.
Afterwards we had International Marketing (IM) where the topics of the lesson were discussed.
12.40 pm Break: go to the cafeteria for the lunch hoping not to find too much queue – it is logical: peek hour!
The afternoon began with the Spanish courses that not everybody could attend because of the IM project, which is really a pity.
3.30 pm: Ended the Spanish course but almost everybody remained until at least 7.30 pm, some remained until 9 pm, for preparing the project.
When I got home I was so tired that I could not speak a lot with my Mama Tica and went directly to bed after dinner.by Francesco Corradini
DAY 17 - ULACIT & COOKING LESSONS - Tuesday, 13 February 2006
Surviving the daily exhausting bus ride, we finally arrived at ULACIT. Classes began as usual at 9 a.m. Thereafter most of us hurried to queue in line at the cafeteria in order to be able to eat something before Spanish classes.
At 5 p.m. those of us who where brave enough to skip another thrilling afternoon sitting in the PC lab in order to finish our Marketing papers, finally took off to enjoy our cooking lesson.
Surprisingly or not, we had a few problems to get to LOGOS Language School but with the help of some very friendly TICOs we actually arrived there in more or less good shape. The cooking lesson was a lot of fun. We were divided into groups; my group was responsible for the main dish, arroz con pollo. Actually everything that we had prepared with support of the Tica-mamas tasted good.
After cooking lesson some of us went out to enjoy the Nightlife of Costa Rica.by Elisabeth Schweizer
DAY 18 - ULACIT - Wednesday, 14 February 2007
Text.
by Verena Hagenauer
DAY 19 - ULACIT - Thursday, 15 February 2007
Business as usual!
This day I got up a little bit late, because the day before we went out to a club called “Van Gogh”, until 3 a.m. So after a delicious breakfast with my host mum I had to hurry to get to the university ULACIT.
Classes started at 9 a.m. Not everybody was there on time, including me. In Organizational Behavior we spoke about the speech from Wednesday and about our excursion on the next day to the banana plantation San Alberto, which produce the bananas for Chiquita. In the International Marketing lesson our group was working for the final presentation of our chosen products and for the final papers to get them ready for next week.
After the lunch break our Spanish classes started. I am in the beginner course and I would say that I really learned a lot in the last few weeks. Now I am finally able to speak with my host family. These classes are a really good chance to learn the language or improve your language skills.
Spanish was over – so it was time for us to go back to the computer lab and work for International Marketing, like every day.
On that evening we didn’t enjoy the Nightlife of Costa Rica because on Friday we are going to leave to the banana plantation at 6.30 a.m.by Lukas Poinstingl
DAY 20 - BANANA PLANTATION - Friday, 16 February 2007
We met at 6.30 as usual at Parque de Tibas, so most of us were still tired from the day before. After a bus ride trough a really beautiful national park we passed the longest which is also the shortest tunnel since it is the only one in Costa Rica.
After two more hours and really horrible street conditions we finally arrived at the banana plantation. They showed us the whole productions process especially the working conditions of the workers who are treated better than at other plantations. The owner was very friendly too.
After lunch which was very good too, we went on towards Puerto Viejo. The last three km took us like half an hour due to the bad street conditions. They were even worse than the ones in San Jose. Our hotel was surrounded by the rain forest but fortunately there were surprisingly not much mosquitoes but some real big ants in our bathroom. Since it was not too late we decided to check out the beach. I was really surprised by the beach since it was different to the pacific beach, and maybe even more beautiful. It was dark sand but not black and the rain forest was almost up to the water. It looked a bit like in an old Bond movie. We stayed there until sunset.
In the evening the group went to a nice restaurant in the city to eat some lobster and explore the night life of Puerto Viejo.by Andreas Lassl
DAY 21 - PUERTO VIEJO - Saturday , 17 February 2007
Saturday – finally time to relax. Since we had nothing scheduled for the day, everybody was able to do whatever he/she liked to do. Most took advantage of the possibility to sleep in and arrived just in time for breakfast which was served from 7pm till 10pm. Then it was time to go to the beach and relax, enjoy the sun, walk along the beach, swim in the sea and/or play beach soccer.
For lunch some went back to the hotel to eat there. I stayed a little longer at the beach to enjoy the nice weather there. When we returned to the hotel I was also a little hungry too, so I ordered, like most of the others, hamburger and French fries. Until the food was ready we swam a little in the pool and others played Poker or enjoyed their cold cerveza.
Since some of us wanted to buy some souvenirs we divided up in smaller groups and took a taxi to Puerto Viejo. It is quite adventurous to get there because the streets in Costa Rica are not in really good shape, there are holes and bumps everywhere. Although we all left at different times we ran into each other while looking for souvenirs since Puerto Viejo is not all that big.
For dinner we went to a nice Thai- & Vegetarian Restaurant. The food was really good there, as well as, the cocktails J. We spend most of the evening there until they closed. Then we went to a nice bar/discotheque which was located directly at the beach. But we did not stay too long since we had to get up early the following day to go rafting.by Ricarda Terscinar
DAY 22 - RAFTING ON RIO PACUARE - Sunday, 18 February 2007
The day started, at least for some of us, at 5´clock in the morning in order to watch the sunrise at the beach in Cocles. Unfortunately, we were not able to see it as we had to go back to our hotel after 40 minutes because the bus picked us up at 6.05 o’clock. Nevertheless, it was a nice experience to be at such a quiet place. After “speed packing” of our staff, we finally got on the bus and drove about 2 hours to get to river “Pacuare” where our rafting tour started. I was in a bus that had a technical problem after some time, so we had to wait about half an hour until two other buses arrived. As we were too late we didn’t have that much time to eat breakfast which was delicious. At about 11 o’clock we got well to the river, but we had to walk downhill which was very exhausting since it was extremely hot. After listening to instructions such as forward, right forward, get down and so on we started to paddle.
We experienced different rapids…some of them very easy, some of them rather difficult. Actually, the whole rafting trip lasted about 3 hours with a nice lunch in between and breathtaking natural scenery. Our professor, Milton Clarke, who spontaneously spent the weekend with us and who has never rafted before, fell into the water but fortunately was soon rescued.
All in all, we had a really nice and wet day which we will remember for a long time. Back in our bus to Tibas, everybody was tired and fell asleep except Julia whose energy on that day was unbelievable.by Stephanie Bondi
DAY 23 - ULACIT - Monday, 19 February 2007
- Latin America -
- Costa Rica -
- San Jose -
- Tibas -
- De la cabina telefonica del Estadio Municipal 100metros Norte y 150 Oeste -
- 17 degree Celsius – Cloudy –
- 7.05 am -THE FINAL COUNT DOWN
Dring, Dring ….. and my sweet dream … gone. Reality, it is time to get up. Back to university, after we have had a great weekend. The last week of courses has begun. Yes, today’s reality is hard. We lost several buddies to the air condition and some of them to the long but great rafting experience. A number of presentations and papers are still pending and we have to learn for the 2 final exams. But since we all have some injuries in our lower region … don’t panic it is only a muscle ache of the Gluteus Maximus, due to overexertion while paddling … it becomes significant harder to sit in front of the computer to finish our works. Yes, it looks like a hopeless situation, but we can see a light at the end of the tunnel, that motivates us to do a great job. It is a man with a celestial almost angelic voice, with a diabolical hypnotically swivelling of hips and a magnetic charisma. Who could this man be, … Roberto Blanco? … No, that’s wrong, I am sorry.
I will give some hints … Fuego Contra Fuego …, … El Amor De Mi Vida …,… La Bomba …,… Livin' La Vida Loca …,… Shake Your Bon-Bon …,… She Bangs ….
Ricky? Yes, Ricky Martin.
Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take some pictures of his astonishing and fantastic performance. But we were able to circumvent law, thanks to our No. one paparazzi from Holland, Ma…..e (thanks!). Not only Ticas and Ticos but even some Europeans went crazy even though the weather wasn’t all that good. After 2 hours of wild dancing and singing some of us went to a bar called Rolling Stones aka Chelsea, where we celebrated Verena’s birthday, with some hot drinks and heavy tunes.- 3 am -
- 15 degree Celsius – Cloudy –
- De la cabina telefonica del Estadio Municipal 100metros Norte y 150 Oeste -
- Tibas -
- San Jose -
- Costa Rica -
- Latin America –
- Good night, good luck and happy birthday Verena -by Matteo Blason
DAY 24 - ULACIT - Tuesday, 20 February 2007
This day began very early, namely at 00.00h! After a fabulous concert of Ricky Martin (you can probably read the details in the diary of 19 February!) we went to our favorite bar, the Rolling Stones, nearby Parque de Tibas, to celebrate the birthday of Verena! Of course, a Cucaracha for the birthday girl was not missing!
In the morning, the alarm rang as usual too early, but you have to get up early if you have classes at 09.00h! First we had Organizational Behavior, which was as usual interesting. After that, some of us had their presentation for International Marketing, and I had my presentation with group C (the Comfortables) as well. In about half an hour, we talked about cultural and economical differences between Costa Rica and Austria and presented our products: a Reageton Bar in Austria, and a MOP (master of privacy!) in Costa Rica. After that, we had our lunch at the Cafeteria (they have many delicious cakes, so every day I try another one!). During the Spanish class, which is always a fiesta because of the beginner mistakes, we learned the irregular verbs.
To celebrate Verena`s birthday again, some of us had bought a delicious pastry. So after the birthday-song we all ate a piece of the pastry: yummie!
After writing some e-mails, I went home to have dinner with my host family. Rice and beans was again on the menu, but I like it! I spend the remaining time to study a little bit and to play games with my host brother, but I was so tired, that I went to bed very early. Once again a day over, it is going too fast!by Marijke Sechterberger
DAY 25 - ULACIT - Wednesday, 21 February 2007
The day started as usual with our IOB class. We did a communication experiment which taught us that correct communication is difficult but vital for life. In Marketing Class it was ours group turn to present the Export/ Import Project: we decided to export Rumkugeln from Austria to Costa Rica- and after a sample our professor was convinced that it would be a success in Costa Rica as it reflects the Pura Vida lifestyle.
In our lunch break we went to the Mercado Artisano where we bought some souvenirs and hammocks for home. The afternoon was mainly spent with studying for tomorrows exams..by Julia Schultes
DAY 26 - FINAL EXAMINATIONS - Thursday, 22 February 2007
Thursday was the day of our final exams. So I came to university pretty early to be at least a little bit prepared for the tests. After two and a half hours everything was done. As you can imagine we were all very reliefed and excited afterwards: No more studying, no more staying at the university until 8pm to do our group projects, no more working in the freezing cold computer lab to do research,…
As it was our last evening in San José and we had to celebrate the ending of the academic program, almost all students of our group met to go out and make party in the clubs of San José. Our first destination was “El Pueblo”, where more then ten bars and clubs are next to each other. While sipping our first drinks we could watch some hot dancing performances. Some “cervezas” and “cóctels” later the majority of our group went on to an other bar in Tibás. There we had fun and danced until late at night. And some of us just swamped away which was due to the fact that they had to get up at 6 am in the morning to visit the Volcan Poas and La Paz Waterfalls ….
I enjoyed my lunch at the university and for the first time I could just lie down into the grass and relax during my lunch break. Then the Spanish course started. I was a little bit sad that it was our last time with our Spanish teacher, because I have enjoyed the classes very much and also learned a lot. At 4 pm the students assembled in a class room. There we got some souvenirs from ULACIT and we also received our Spanish certificates. In the afternoon some other students and I started to prepare Austrian dishes for the international evening on Friday..by Sarah Naegele
DAY 27 - INTERNATIONAL EVENING - Friday, 23 February 2007
This day started with a trip to the volcano La Paz where we could see the crater of the active volcano and the nature around it. After a quick break we continued by bus and finally arrived at Peace Lodge on the grounds of La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park where we admired not only beautiful and sometimes really big “mariposas” (butterflies), but also visited the hummingbird garden, watched little and poisonous frogs and snakes and even discovered a racoon. Last, but not least we enjoyed a hiking tour along the river La Paz and a delicious meal in the hotel.
In the evening, after a huge purchase of ingredients, we finally prepared some typically Austrian dishes for our Costa Rican families and our teachers. Lisa, Elizabeth and Tommy entertained our guests with a presentation of Austria and an exciting quiz about it. Finally, we went out to enjoy some beer.by Doris Friedrich
DAY 28 - MONTEZUMA BEACH - Saturday, 24 February 2007
Today we met at 7 o'clock at Parque de Tibas to go to Montezuma beach, where we stayed the last weekend of Costa Rica. Unfortunately we did not stop at the National park although this trip was also mentioned in the program.
In the evening most of us went out to enjoy the last weekend in Costa Rica.
The hotel here is not as we would have had expected it. The sheets of the room were dirty, some of them smelled of indefinable odors and in one room small insects were crawling on the bed. In addition the hotel was situated above a discotheque and therefore it was not possible to sleep very well, because you could hear the music till the early morning. Joaner, our tour guide, was desperate, because we all complained about the situation and no one of the Inex organisation was here anymore to solve this problem (they all went back to Austria).
Two of our students were not able to cape with this situation and changed hotel.by Jasmin Benischek
DAY 29 -MONTEZUMA BEACH - Sunday, 25 February 2007
8 o´clock in the morning, definitely too early to wake up after such a long dancing night, but as we booked the trip to Tortuga Island, which starts at 09.30 a.m., there is no way to stay in bed for longer. Totally tired I have to realize that there is no water at all in the bathroom. This means breakfast without shower, tooth brushing or going to the toilet. At least the breakfast is good, which takes place in a restaurant near the hotel (can we really call it hotel? And yes, in the restaurant there is water in the bathroom). After discussions with the tourguide we changed our rooms and decided to share doublebedrooms in the new building in parties of 4 instead of staying in the old building (with windows out to the terrace of the restaurant and insects in the bed). Some of us decided to stay in Montezuma and save some money, while the rest including me went to the beach where our tour guides were waiting for us to start the boat trip to Tortuga Island. And this was defintely a good decision to pay for this extra tour, because at least we had here a beautiful beach with white sand and clear water. Before we arrived at the island we saw some dolphins and made a snorkeling stop. The lunch, which was included in the tour trip, was excellent and afterwards some of us played Beachvolleyball and others did a “fotoshooting” at the beach. At about 4 p.m. we started our return trip and as only we were on the boat our captain returned us to Montezuma with highspeed, wow, this was the coolest and craziest boat trip I have ever had!!! In the evening we met at the beach for a “little” campfire and enjoyed our last night at the beach..
by Daniela Sibinovic
DAY 30 - MONTEZUMA BEACH - Monday, 26 February 2007
Trip back to San Jose
Most of us woke up really early in the morning in order to be able to enjoy some more hours at the beach, because the departure for the return trip was arranged for 12 a.m. Some of us walked (or better hiked) to the waterfall. It was an exhausting hike but also impressing! Finally we arrived to the first waterfall station, where we refreshed ourselves in the cold water. Then we had to hurry back to the hotel, pack our stuff and run to the bus. After about an one hour drive to the ferry station we had to wait for the ferry and when we finally entered the ferry, some of us ran directly to the upper deck to gain some more tan for Austria. At about 7 p.m. we arrived at Parque de Tibas and everybody hurried to his host family to prepare the luggage for tomorrow´s return flight to Austria. Some of us met later at the “Rolling Stone” bar, where we had our last beer for such a cheap price….good night San Jose!
by Daniela Sibinovic
DAY 31 - TAKE OFF - Tuesday, 27 February 2007
Time to say goodbye!
The first part of our group, which flew to Germany, was expected to be at the Park of Tibás at 6.30 am to take the bus to the airport.
All the others took the bus at 11:00 am at the park to leave Tibás. Many host mothers, fathers and siblings went to the park with their Austrian children to stay with them as long as possible. Finally, it was time to leave. As we have lived with our families for 4 weeks and spent a lovely time with them, it was hard to say goodbye to them. Therefore, nearly everybody broke out in tears, when we embraced each other the last time.
It was hard to leave, not only because of the family, but also because of the weather, which was much better in San José than it is in Austria.
On our homeward journey we flew from San José to Miami, from Miami to Amsterdam and finally from Amsterdam to Vienna.
After several hours traveling around, we were glad when we arrived on Wednesday, February 28th at the airport of Vienna, where we were awaited eagerly by our families, boy/girl friends and so on.
by Michaele Schneps
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