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INEX Summer University Costa Rica |
Online Diary ISU Costa Rica 08.2007DAY 1 - OFFICIAL ARRIVAL DAY AND NIGHT AT GREEN HOUSE - Friday, 03 August 2007
Today was the arrival day. I expected it to be very exhausting because I had to fly 21 hours until I would arrive in Costa Rica - San Jose International Airport. Well, to be honest, it exeeded my expectations. Before that day I only flew once on my own but that flight was from Vienna to London and I took me just two or three hours so that was no big deal. The journey to Costa Rica was a completely different thing. There were three flights, two stops (one at Frankfurt, one at Atlanta) and - that was the worst thing - no one to travel with me (at least nobody I knew). Fortunately I met Sophie and Maria at the last flight so I could at least get my luggage together with them. Well, I did not put that quite right because just I actually got all of my luggages. The other two had to queue for almost 1 hour to tell the person responsible - already being annoyed by the masses of people who did not get their stuff either - that their baggage was missing.
While that time, I went out of the hall to tell Philipp what was going on. We had a little chat and after an hour Petra was joining us after she had to queue too. I guess they had some general problems with the luggage that day because Petra was on a different flight which departed in Miami whereas our‘s departed in Atlanta.
We arrived at approximately 10 p.m. but left the airport at 12 p.m. due to all that waiting.
That night I did not sleep very well partly because Shaina had already accomodated herself in the room and I felt a bit uncomfortable moving somewhere someone you do not know put all his (or in in this case her) stuff in already and partly because I had done something like semi-sleeping all the day.
At 2 a.m. Shaina came into the room, totally messing around, throwing her clothes all over the place which - of course pulled me out of sleep ... I then jumped off my bed right in front of her, my face was one cm away from her‘s and I looked her in the eyes and said: „Sorry, would you mind being a L-I-T-T-L-E B-I-T (yes, I spelled it to her) more quiet!“
Just in that moment a huge cockroach fell from the ceiling and we were both screaming like some f***ing nerds. Shaina - reacting as fast as a dancer on extasy - grabbed her flipflop and pushed it out of our room. After that happening I respected her to death and we went friends immediatly.
(just in case you were wondering: yes, i did invent some parts ;))by Sophie Wiedemann
DAY 2 - MEETING WITH HOST FAMILIES, WALKING TOUR OF TIBÁS - Saturday, 04 August 2007
Our first day at Costa Rica as a group and one of the most important. Today we got to know our host families. After a short presentation by INEX we were introduced to our families. I was first and I was directly hugged and kissed by my Costa Rican host mother - a very kind welcome. Everybody then went home with their host families and enjoyed the first day with a Tico family. We also got a small tour through Tibas the suburb of San José we are living in. At night we met in a nice bar in Tibas for drinking our first cerveza (beer). The adventure Costa Rica started!!!
by Lukas Mayer
DAY 3 - TOUR OF SAN JOSÉ AND THE SURROUNDING AREAS - Sunday, 05 August 2007
We started our tour around 10 o’ clock at Tibas Park when our guide Agustin arrived.
He looked a bit like he just came back from a jungle safari, with a quite serious look on his face.
This expression however disappeared instantly as we got on the bus and he put on some Reggaeton music. So we went off and started our bumpy ride to get to know a little better the capital of Costa Rica.
After having danced to the music on the bus we made our first stop to have a quick look at the University of Costa Rica through the windows of the bus. So we hit the road again and headed towards the Coffee plantation “Tres Rios” in the East of San Jose.
Until we got there Agustin told us about the history, economy and also about social problems of Costa Rica, while we still kept on dancing to his Reggaeton music.
At the plantation we got to learn about coffee and its production process. Furthermore we were taught by Agustin a little bit about the flora and fauna of Costa Rica.
Equipped with new wisdom and Bob Marley song coming out of the speakers of our bus, we continued our tour to a little cow farm up in the hills of San Jose, owned by the University of Costa Rica, where we even played some soccer.
Back in the city centre we were taking our well deserved lunch break at Hotel Europa, when a massive tropical rain set in.
In order to escape the rain we simply changed our schedule and got beck up in the mountains surrounding San Jose to get above the clouds to the White House Hotel.
This hotel actually looks like a replica of the house from “Gone With The Wind”.
It is a very small but fancy hotel where people like Bill Clinton would come to relax.
So our guide / Dj / Biologist and entertainer Agustin brought us back to Tibas Park, still singing to Reggaeton and Bob Marley songs.
Finally we got off the bus and ended our journey in some dodgy little karaoke bar, having 1 or 2 beers – and what a surprise – singing some songs.
I can’t wait to get on the next trip with that funny guy Agustin and our small but fine group of people!
Pura vida!by Johannes Plankensteiner
DAY 4 - INTERCULTURAL TRAINING, ORIENTATION & SPANISH PLACEMENT TEST AT ULACIT - Monday, 06 August 2007
Today was our first day at the ULACIT (Universidad Latinoamericano de Ciencias y Tecnología). We were supposed to be at the ULACIT at 9.30am but since all of our hostmothers claimed that we had to be there at 8.45am, most of us arrived early.
After Illeana Castillo welcomed us, she guided us to the cafeteria where we were invited to have breakfast. Although must of us have already eaten, we all enjoyed a second breakfast.
Having finished a delicious breakfast, we all proceeded to our classroom where Joaquín welcomed us to introduce us to the Costa Rica’s culture through an intercultural training. He said it was his job to scare us a bit. I admit that he quite managed to do so.
Nevertheless, it was a very informing and interesting presentation about the Ticos, their culture and the differences between Europe/US and Costa Rica. I guess the most important lesson we learned, was that we all looked like tourists/gringos anyway; therefore there will be no need to pretend otherwise! Of course, Joaquín had some very useful tips for us, in order to stay safe.
Afterwards we were introduced to our Professors Milton Clarke and Fernando Madrigal who will be teaching our classes Organisational Behavior and Global Marketing. We also received our books for the following three weeks of class. The next point on the schedule was a tour of ULACIT where Illeana showed us the most important places including the computer lab, our class rooms and her office.
Then it was lunchtime! We were all anxious to go down to the cafeteria once more. Not especially because of the food but because the Internet was supposed to work there. So everybody was writing Emails.
After the lunch break we had another orientation with Philipp, Clara, Karla and Fabienne. We also received a detailed schedule and more information on the weekend trips. Some of us took the Spanish Placement test with Karla. While we were waiting outside Sha?na tried to teach Mikkel and me how to dance. Something else needs to be mentiones: it didn’t rain so far!
After the Spanisch placement test we all went home together but the girls met again to do some shopping at Más X Menos and at the sports store. It still hadn’t rained!
At 10pm the whole group met at the Parque de Tibás to go out. We shared cabs to el Cuartel which is the place to be on Monday nights. The club was really packed! Although we did not stay out too long – classes are starting tomorrow – we had a lot of fun and we will definitely be back next Monday.by Maria Rupprechter
DAY 5 - FIRST DAY OF CLASS - Tuesday, 07August 2007
Today I didn’t expect the getting up early as very hard because the last days I always woke up at about 6 a.m. without using a clock. After having a rather ordinary breakfast (cornflakes, coffee, little banana) I went to the bus station on my own for the first time. I was very surprised because I managed it very well, even having the exact money for the bus already prepared. Luckily I met Mathias and Johannes on the bus because I was not used to the Costa Rican people and was even more scared of being robbed (after my hostmother told me half an hour to be careful with my bag). After meeting everyone else from the group, our first Organizational Behavior class started. We were immediately stunned by Milton’s teaching method and at least I was really looking forward to the upcoming OB-classes. After having a short break we had Fernando’s class: International Marketing. I don’t think I have to say anything about the differences of these two professors but I rather mention that there is one. ? This day we had lunch at the university’s cafe. For some of us it wasn’t that tasty because Johannes, Sophie and others thought they’d bought „pollo something“ but it unfortunately turned out to be „Kutteln“ which was absolutely everything but eatable. Then we went to Logos for having our first Spanish classes and meeting our future teachers. My teacher – who couldn’t have been better chosen – Lara is a very nice person and all of us (Johannes, Sophie, Shaina and me) enjoyed the next almost-two hours. We closed that day with another Palermo-visit having some beer and I went to bed quite early in order to be in a perfect condition for the next day.
by Sophie Wiedemann
DAY 6 - ULACIT AND MOVIE THEATER - Wednesday, 08 August 2007
Our second day school started with a bus tour to university which we had to take now by ourselves. Our first class about Organizational Behavior was with Milton Clarke, a Costa Rican consultant who worked for several years for the United Nations. Because of his outranging life experience the classes are very interesting and entertaining. The second class about International Marketing was with Fernando Madrigal, a Costa Rican consultant. After a short lunch break at the Q-Café in the city center our Spanish teachers were waiting for us. But the highlight of the day was the night at San Pedro mall where we watched a movie. Most of our group watched the Simpsons in English with Spanish subtitles which was very entertaining. Another quite active day in Costa Rica came to end and to our surprise without any rain.
by Lukas Mayer
DAY 7 - ULACIT - Thursday, 09 August 2007
Today was our seventh day in Costa Rica and all together we agreed that time is passing way to fast here. Our day started like the last two, fist Organizational Behavior with Prof. Milton Clark and afterwards Global Marketing with Prof. Fernando Madrigal. But today was something special in Fernandos class, tomorrow will be our first “Quiz” (what a nice name for a Test), so we kept him asking all the typical questions like, what’s very important for our first Quiz or would there be a possibility to shorten our chapters, but there was no way to get more information. After lunch at the Cafeteria we went to Logos for another funny Spanish lesson. At the End of our Spanish class everybody hurried home, because of Fernandos “Quiz”. After studying all the papers I felt asleep with a strange feeling, what an unlikely form of Pura Vida!
by Mathias Mayer
DAY 8 - ULACIT AND DANCING CLASSES - Friday, 10 August 2007
Friday morning was a typical weekday, except for the fact that we had our global marketing class for two hours instead of one, since our observational behavior professor was going to be absent that day. We used half the class for a discussion of the reading, and the other half to work on our trade agreement projects.
After class, the group decided to go have lunch downtown, and do some shopping for last minute necessities for our weekend trip to Sarapiqui River. After our Spanish classes, we all went home to prepare ourselves for our first dancing class.
That night, we got to see all the business students that frequent the university, because in the daytime we mostly see a sea of blue scrubs (also known as the prospective dentists).It was nine o’clock and students were still coming in and out of classes, giving me the impression that the university is a lot more lively in the nighttime. I remember being told this fact on the first day however, since most of the students work during the daytime and attend classes at night.
The first thing Roberto, our dancing instructor, taught us was meringue: supposedly the easiest dance to learn (against salsa, cumbia and bolero), but in my opinion, which is based on the way he was teaching us, it seemed a lot more difficult. His moves were so perfectly choreographed that we all stared at each other thinking: “are we going to be able to do this like he does?” And the obvious answer is NO. However, we all put our best efforts and by the end of the night, we knew the basic steps to meringue, salsa and even a little cumbia. After dancing classes, the group separated in two: Petra and I were invited by her host mother to attend a mother’s day celebration, so we retracted from joining the others in going to the bars in el Pueblo.
Upon arriving at the mothers’ day party, we realized we were maybe the youngest individuals there. The room was nicely decorated with balloons and colorful lights, and a live band was playing as servers made their way with cold beverages from table to table. As soon as Petra and I sat down, we were asked to get back on our feet and dance. After just having come from dance lessons, we could not deny the strangers’ requests, and off we went showing off our dancing abilities in the middle of the dance floor. We danced until we were the last ones to leave the party.by Shaina Silva
DAY 9 - POÁS VOLCANO, WATERFALLS, TIRIMBINA - Saturday, 11 August 2007
Today was our first day outside from San José . Early in the morning we started our trip to Volcano Poas. We were really lucky and we had a perfect view of the Poas crater. We took a nice hike trough the Poas national park. On the way back to our hotel we stopped at a waterfall and an impressing collibri farm. In our hotel which was situated directly in the jungle – we decided to play soccer in jungle. Rain and difficult ground conditions made the game more challenging and more fun. Our guide joined the game and we played 4 against 4. A tough and tight game finished 3:2 for the team of Fabienne, Lukas, Maria and Mikkel. We had a lot of fun and very entertaining pictures were taken by Phillip. The day ended with a good dinner.
by Lukas Mayer
DAY 10 - RAFTING AT SARAPIQUÍ RIVER - Sunday, 12 August 2007
After some of us had tried the local vodka brand Nicolai on Saturday night, our group got picked up at “La Trimbina Lodge “ at 9:30.
The first stop for this day was a rafting trip on the Sarapiqui River, which I was looking forward to the whole week.
Ten minutes of bus ride later the trip started more or less immediately. The guide just thought us the most important words and of we went.
Since we had to split up in two rafts, of course there was a fierce competition between our groups, in order to win the race. And we played with all tricks!!!
Twenty minutes of rafting later we stopped at a bridge. It was an about 8 meters high hanging bridge and every time a car tried to cross it slowly it was moving heavily under the weight . to sum it up this bridge did not look very trustworthy. But if you intend to jump of that particular bridge that doesn’t really matter anyways I guess!
We took a couple of jumps down of that bridge before getting back in our rafts.
So we continued rafting and partly swimming towards our pickup point, where we encountered a second bridge. This one was about the same height but it seemed to be in a better shape. And again we were jumping down several times together with the local children who played there as well.
It was a really nice experience, but unfortunately we couldn’t stay much longer and had to move on, because we still had a raggaeton festival on our schedule for this day.
But first we had to take a little lunch break. And what a surprise on the menu was rice and beans and as it looks so far I am the only one who’s not already fed up with this dish.
Having finished lunch we got on to the bus again to drive back home, which meant sitting in the car for about two hours again!
Within minutes the first people started to fall asleep until pretty much all of us were gone.
When we woke up again it was raining heavily as we were reaching the festival, so we all got ready to go there. While walking there we where wondering why all the people were walking the opposite direction than us. We first thought it was because of the rain, but it turned out that the festival had just finished. So the only thing left to to for us was to grab a Imperial (that is the local beer brand) and get back home.
I wonder what we will experience next weekend when we’ll visit the Caribbean!
Pura vida!by Johannes Plankensteiner
DAY 11 - ULACIT - Monday, 13 August 2007
As every morning Shaina and I went together to school. We are almost living next to each other, and we share almost everything. Because schedules do not really exist we are sometimes afraid if we will make it on time, as Tico-Time is not allowed.
On Mondays we only have classes with Mr. Milton Clarke in Organizational Behaviour.
During our short break our professor joined us outside for some coffee, tea and sodas; he gave us a recipe for the real Caribbean rice and beans which happens to be different from arroz con frijoles.
During our lunch break before Spanish classes Shaina and I had a slice of Pizza.
After that we did some homeworks etc.
At 3pm Spanish classes started and we all were very tired because many of us got sick with a cold over the weekend. However, classes passed very well and we learned a lot about all different kinds of past tenses in Spanish and especially their usage in Latin America.
After class we went back home with the bus where Shaina and I worked a little bit on our group project on trade agreements.
After that I had a very delicious dinner with my “grandma” and practiced some Spanish.by Petra Kastl
DAY 12 - ULACIT - Tuesday, 14 August 2007
As hard working students, this Tuesday started early in the morning, just as every other day in this program. But arriving at class something where a bit different then the other days. There was no professor. After waiting for 15 minutes, what would have been an acceptable delay here in Costa Rica, it was announced that Professor Milton probably wasn’t going to show up and we were free to do whatever we want until next class. So no professor but a lot of bananas because Mathias host mom has been so kind to provide him with bananas for the hold group (see foto). Next class was with Professor Fernando and he started up as usual showing a short film about a relevant country. Today it was Russia. After he had reviewed what was on his slides and pass through today’s chapter, it was time to get the result of last week’s quiz. The results wasn´t impressive and many in the class didn´t pass. This can maybe turn out to be a wake up called, showing how things are done here in Costa Rica and what is expected of us. Because of some disagreement about some of the answer and how to answer the questions, this started a larger discussion. End of the discussion were that people who disagree must handle in a paper with their complains and Fernando will hereafter decide if the grade will be change.
At LOGOs most people tried to get in the internet, but the connection is as always here in Costa Rica unstable and we were disconnected all the time. So it was almost impossible to upload any pictures from the fantastic weekend trip, so that the people back in Europe can see that it is not all hard study over here.
In the evening the entire group met to have some beers. It was decided to start in the local Mexican restaurant, but for some of us, it was quit hard to find this place ? Next stop were a Jazz café named the jazz café, which is a good name for a Jazz café. The place was the first bar that I have seen in Costa Rica without a TV turned on somewhere. The music in the bar was very nice and we all had a good time, in spite of most people for some reason went out to have fun with only a couple of euros.by Mikkel Christensen
DAY 13 - MOTHER’S DAY - Wednesday, 15 August 2007
¡Hola!
Today we had no classes because of mothers day *juhu*, so there was no reason to get up early, what meant that we could sleep longer than 7:30. But tomorrow we would have our presentation in GM, so we met at like 10:30 at my place to finish or start our presentation. At breakfast I gave my hostmum a little present, it was a candle which I bought at the market.
I think she liked it!
At 10:30 Lukas and Mikkel arrived to prepare our presentation. We got really slowly in motion, so that we weren’t able to go with the rest of the group to the mall. What was really a pity, not for our wallets! It took us almost 6 hours to finish it, but at the end everybody was happy, that it was made. Afterwards I had with my family a huge mothers day dinner which I really enjoyed.by Mathias Mayer
DAY 14 - ULACIT - Thursday, 16 August 2007
Professor was back a healthy again after is sickness and once again in told a lot of stories and examples from his many years of experience from his many interesting jobs. The most fun of the class was however when we had to vote for Petra´s Cuban lover´s participation in the upcoming weekend trip. In Fernando’s class it was time for the group presentation on different international trade agreements. As mentioned before, there is always some problem with the electronic equipment or the internet. So were there this time and the class therefore started 25 minutes to late and we only had time for two of the three presentation. Both the presentation were good and well prepared, so quality in front of quantity ?. So if any questions on NAFTA or Marcosur just ask our group.
After lunch it was once again for Spanish classes at LOGOs. Accidently LOGOs is located just next to an ice cream bar, so before Spanish classes start it was of course necessary with a Banana Split.
Because of the test tomorrow there were no official events this evening, except for hard study.by Mikkel Christensen
DAY 15 - REX CARGO BUSINESS VISIT AND DANCING CLASSES - Friday, 17 August 2007
Today we only had our Global Marketing class with Fernando Madrigal. First we had to do a quiz but right after that we went together on a field trip to REX Cargo.
Stuffed into three cars we finally arrived there.
After two presentations we had the chance to see a drug monitoring x-ray machine and the cool storage rooms.
Before going to Logos, we had lunch in a mall near the company.
At 3:00pm we had our Spanish class.
After a good dinner at my family’s house we went out to a bar to dance and enjoy the last hours before going on our trip to the beaches.by Petra Kastl
DAY 16 - PUERTO VIEJO - Saturday, 18 August 2007
Today our destination was Puerto Viejo, a little town south of the Province of Limon. Even though our meeting time was set for 6:00 am, everyone showed up at different times between from 6:00 to 6:30. After 6:30, Sophie and Matthias were still not there, so we called their houses only to find that they had never left and were JUST waking up. So, out of kindness, rather than leaving them as was proposed the previous day for anyone who arrived late for such early excursions, we decided to pick them up from their houses.
It was raining quite a bit in the morning, and we hoped that it would stop by the time we reached our destination since this weekend was our beach bumming weekend, and without sun, we can’t really enjoy the beach.
When we arrived, it was still raining, but we decided to have lunch first and then hit the beach anyway. We walked along the coast, all the way to the center of the little town where all the shops and restaurants were.
This was my first time seeing black sand at the beach; I learned that it was actually volcanic ashes that mixed with the sand that made it black.
We ate lunch at a small restaurant where almost everyone ordered rice and beans cooked with coconut milk. The weather finally cleared up, but instead of heading straight to the beach, we checked out all the little souvenir shops on the strip, where some of us bought postcards to send to family and friends back home.
Later that day, a 3 on 3 soccer game took place on the beach, but I was too tired to play, so Sophie and I stayed in our room and took a nap instead. By the time we woke up, it was dinner time and off we went to one of the most recommended restaurants in the town. After dinner, Lukas, Philipp and Fabienne diverted from the group and went to hang out at one of the local bars. The rest of the group headed back to the hotel. Once there, we all grabbed chairs and circled around a small table on the balcony of Johannes’ room, where we told scary and funny stories until one by one our tired minds went off to sleep.by Shaina Silva
DAY 17 - VISIT TO CAHUITA NATIONAL PARK - Sunday, 19 August 2007
Dear Diary,
Today was a very exciting day!
On this second day of our trip to the Caribbean coast, we explored both, beautiful beaches and the jungle.
After getting our day started with a fruity breakfast at our hotel “La Perla Negra” in Puerto Viejo we were all on our bus again at 8am heading towards the “Cahuita National Park”. All being eager to go to the beach, we first made our way there. After two hours of swimming, sleeping, sun bathing and photo sessions we were picked up by our guide Agustin again to start our hiking tour through the rain forest along the coast. Agustin, a biologist, was clearly found in his passion and showed us sleeping sloths, pick-pocket monkeys, huge and scary (he called them beautiful) spiders and one of Costa Rica’s most poisonous snakes. Some disgusted, some amazed by that amount of nature, all were looking forward to the snorkeling tour, which followed the hike. Our boat came on Tico-time and then took us into the middle of the bay to explore a small piece of one coral reef in the Caribbean Sea. After one hour in the water and lots of fish we jumped back into the boat and were driven back to the beach. After swimming once again or napping we started making our way back to the entrance/exit of the park. Being told before to have rather no lunch, so that nobody would be to full for the snorkeling, everybody was starving at 4pm when exiting the park. Having our lunch/dinner we enjoyed the last sunrays and those lovable Ticos that are probably even more relaxed at the Caribbean coast than everywhere else in Costa Rica.
Fed with food, sun and nature we all got on the bus again and within ten minutes everybody was sleeping peacefully till we arrived back in San José.
Tomorrow we all have to go back to school again, but the weekend gave lots of energy…
See you tomorrow,
Pure Vidaby Sophie von Geymueller
DAY 18 - ULACIT - Monday, 20 August 2007
It’s me again.
Oh, Monday, Monday...After this perfect weekend it was really hard today to return back to school. Our business class with Professor Clark was very interesting though, talking about the concepts of power, status and authority in organizations, not staying theoretically, but Professor Clark always knows to add some interesting experience he made during his time working for the United Nations. Having finished the class at 12:30 pm we had lunch at the cafeteria of ULACIT before heading towards our Spanish class at LOGOS. Starting at 3 pm we (Sophie 2, Johannes, Shaina and me) always enjoy class with our teacher Lara, having lots of fun, when we’re, like today listening to an Argentinean song from the pure 80’s.
Having finished the academic part of our day we all went home to have dinner and since there are really not so many more days to go, we decided to meet up again at 9 pm to go out. Moreover, Fabienne, one of our organisators, had to leave the next day going back to Austria, so we had to at least go out for one beer, to say goodbye to her. After having a few in the “Sports Bar” of Tibas some of us even went on to the Club “El Cuartel”…
Oh, blue Monday…by Sophie von Geymueller
DAY 19 - ULACIT AND COOKING LESSON - Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Coming soon.
by Johannes Plankensteiner
DAY 20 - ULACIT - Wednesday, 22 August 2007
The day after cooking class started like usual business, another very interesting OB class with Milton Clark. Followed by a quite interesting GM class. For lunch our Prof. Mr. Clark took us to a Caribbean restaurant, called Whapin. Mrs. Lleana Castillo reserved us a huge table and fixed the price for our meals. After a delicious and relaxing meal we completely forgot about time, so at 3 o’clock (that’s the time when Spanish class starts) we started paying, but our fixed price rose by 20 %. After a discussion we paid the fixed price plus 20 % ……. Pura Vida. Because of all complications we arrived way to late at logos so there was only one hour left.
In the evening was another exciting event Costa Rica against Peru, watching a soccer game in CR juhu. After like three minutes playing time we knew all cusses in Spanish, those words you would never learn in class ?
It was a very bad game, but to see the Costa Rican and Peru fans was it worth. Another Pura Vida day!by Mathias Mayer
DAY 21 - ULACIT - Thursday, 23 August 2007
Today we had classes as usual. There was a huge thunderstorm taking most of the attention away from Fernando´s class. Later that day I found out, that the storm affected part of Tibás – messed up the electricity and the water supply. Afterwards we “enjoyed” a typical lunch at ULACIT. Since it was raining heavily, some of us shared a cab to go to LOGOS to find it still closed. So we waited outside and once more helped increasing POPs revenue be buying the daily frozen cappuccino. After Spanish class we stayed a while at LOGOS trying to figure out how we could get rid of the virus on our laptops. Then everyone went home and studied the population of member countries of ASEAN and CAFTA for tomorrows quiz.
by Maria Rupprechter
DAY 22 - ULACIT AND SOCCER GAME - Friday, 24 August 2007
Today our day started with a quite different academic schedule than usual. Beginning at LOGOS at 10 am, we first had to celebrate Mathias’s birthday with cake, coffee and coke, before we started class. Our group, Shaina, Sophie 2, Johannes and our teacher Lara relocated our class into the park near school; oh, always and everywhere so many new things and words to learn…
After that we headed towards ULACIT to attend our weekly International Marketing “quiz” to be followed by our second and last fieldtrip to Intel Costa Rica. Sounds really very interesting, but unfortunately they were having some construction work in the fabric, and so after the 45 minutes safety procedure to get in the complex and the 20 minutes presentation of the female role within the company, we couldn’t even make the “window tour” through the plant. Naturally, a bit disappointed afterwards we at least managed to make a good plan for the evening-Club Vertigo. Philipp, our great organizor, could arrange some reservations for us there, which is apparently the-place-to-be on Friday nights. Later remeeting at the park at 9:30 pm we all got on a taxi towards paseo colon, the street where the club is located. Not only Vertigo though, but also Club Rapsodia, which is a nice Bar/Lounge, just right next to it. Thus, to warm up a bit, we first had some drinks in there, before we went on to the club. Arriving at Vertigo we were literally treated like kings (because of a special party, we also got some boas). Convoyed to the VIP area on a balcony above the whole croud, we really enjoyed ourselves that evening. Oh, Friday night-dynamite…by Lukas Mayer
DAY 23 - LAKE ARENAL AND ARENAL VOLCANO, BALDI HOT SPRINGS - Saturday, 25 August 2007
My day started with the words “Johannes teléfono” and I opened my eyes and emediatly knew that today it was my turn to oversleep. Maybe I had a little to much fun in the club yesterday!
So I answered the phone and it was Clara asking me where I was and if I was ready, which I obviously wasn’t, but of course I told her that I was ready.
She said ”Good we’ll pick u up in 2 minutes.”
So I jumped out of bed and ran to my cubboard and stuffed some things I could get a hold of in my backpack. Minutes later I was sitting in the bus with the others, after having been told by my host mum over and over again “tienes mucho cuidado!”, which the rest of the group thought to be very funny.
Since most of the people on the bus where sleeping on the bus, pretty much everyone must have had a fun night.
So off we went to lake Arenal, where we would have a little boat trip, before starting a hike at the bottom of the perfectly cone shaped and highly active volcano.
At around noon we arrived there and surprisingly the weather was really good, which is very rare there, allowing us an incredible view on the volcano.
We checked in at our hotel and had lunch there.
Now we were ready to start our tour. The boat trip was nice and gave us little more time to recover and even take a little powernap before the hike.
When we arrived at the foot of the volcano it started to pour like hell – of course this couldn’t stop us at all. Through the rain you could constantly hear a sound similar to a sizzling pan and thunder from the volcano.
On our hike we would see animals like a highly venomous yellow eyelash viper, monkeys or birds of any kind.
Looking up at the volcano you could see lots of smoke on the flanks of the mountain, caused by huge lava rocks detonating on the ground over and over again on their way down. And finally as it got darker we could finally see the lava and these rocks bursting into peaces on their way down created a picture of a huge firework. – The best one I’ve seen so far. Even we were totally soaked it was worth every drop!
We went back to the hotel to get changed and then had dinner at a bath with thermal hot springs. After having finished dinner we started our hot spring experience by going down a slide. – In Austria one would probably get arrested for building it.
It was great lying in the warm water for hours, relaxing and having a beer.
Back at the hotel we finished our day with a poker game.
To sum it up it was a really exhausting day for us, but really unbeatable.
Pura Vida,
Johannesby Johannes Plankensteiner
DAY 24 - CANOPY TOUR - Sunday, 26 August 2007
For once we didn´t have to get up as early as the tight schedule normally requires. So at half past nine most people came to the morning buffet at the hotel. While we were eating the usually rice and beans, it was possible to watch the volcano in the spectacular scenery surrounding the hotel.
After breakfast and check out procedure, the bus took us to the highlight of the day, the canopy trip (and not cannabis trip as some called it). Before we could start we needed to get the special canopy outfit, which makes us all look like construction workers. This started a larger photo session including the beautiful scenery and a group of really strange looking students. After that we did the canopying for over two hours. We started with some short and simple slides through the jungle. In between there were the “Tarzan swing”, a swing into the air, which acutely were quit fun. We finish up with two canopy slides where it was possible to race against each other. The last slide was a solo slide taking us over 700 meters.
After all this activity in the sun we really did deserved the lunch and a plenty of juice. Last point in the program was the ride back to San Jose. It didn´t take many minutes before everyone in the bus were sleeping after a weekend full of activities. Unfortunately the evening required some study time before the next day’s exams.by Mikkel Christensen
DAY 25 - ULACIT - Monday, 27 August 2007
Today is our last regularday of school.
Again you can see Shaina and me sitting in the bus on our way to school. Today, as every Monday, we had just classes with Milton in Organizational Behaviour.
It was a very rainy day with a terrible thunder storm so we stayed longer at ULACIT where we had some electrical power outages. ;-)
After some time when the rain got lighter, we went to the city centre (be careful concerning pickpockets). We had lunch at Q-Café and then we walked to LOGOS. This was also the last day of school at LOGOS, where we finished our presentation for the international evening on Tuesday.
After getting back home we had to study a lot for our final exam on Tuesday in Global Marketing.by Petra Kastl
DAY 26 - ULACIT AND FINAL EXAMINATIONS, INTERNATIONAL EVENING - Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Coming soon.
by Sophie Wiedemann
DAY 27 - MANUEL ANTONIO BEACH - Wednesday, 29 August 2007
Coming soon.
by Shaina Silva
DAY 28 - MANUEL ANTONIO NATIONAL PARK - Thursday, 30 August 2007
Today was our final day of the programme. After breakfast we left the hotel to go to the beach in the National Park of Manuel Antonio. Since it has been raining in the morning, we were very glad for the sun to shine when we left the hotel.
The beaches in the National Park were wonderful. Even though our tour guide, Kenneth, offered to take us to a hike, almost everybody chose to stay at the beach, relax and enjoy the sun. After a couple hours at the beach there was some unexpected excitement. A dozen of monkey robbed us – even though we tried to scare them away they came up and stole our cookies out of our bags.
We stayed at the beach until four, had fun in the water, got sun burned and then it was time to return to the “city” center and grab some food – since we haven’t had any because of the monkey thieves. Mathias, Lukas, Mikkel, Philipp and I chose to stay a little longer – as it turned out it was a good choice. When we were getting ready to return a tropical rain started. It was such a heavy rain that our clothes, towels, backpacks and we ourselves were totally soaked. By the time we got to the entrance of the National Park, we had to take a little boat to cross the place where hours earlier a beach had been. This boat trip was also very entertaining due to the circumstance that we almost tipped over twice and that the boat was filling up with water.
When we finally met the others again, we all enjoyed a last dinner together. Since it was still raining very hard everyone was glad to be back in the dry bus. The plan was to drop of the boys, who were all staying longer to enjoy some days at the beach, at Jaco on the way to San Jose.
It should have only taken us 4 hours in total. It turned out to be a little longer. First of all there was a pretty bad thunderstorm with heavy rain. Secondly fallen trees blocked the roads. So we were waiting in the bus for the roads to be open again. And what do eleven students in their twenties do if they are stuck in a bus – they drink of course. Milton was so friendly to bring wine only the glasses were missing. But thanks to Sophie’s brilliant idea this problem was solved immediately. Why not cut empty water bottles in two and use them as glasses?! So all the inconveniences of sitting in a bus even longer were forgotten and we had a great time.
When we got to Jaco we still needed to find a hotel for the boys which turned out to be rather difficult since there was no electricity in the town. Finally the light came back and they found a hotel to stay in for a night. The parting of the group was the sad part of the day because group got along so well and we had so much fun during the last month.
The girls and Milton stayed on the bus to go back to San Jose and return to Austria and the US the following day.by Maria Rupprechter
DAY 29 - AIRPORT TRANSFER - Friday, 31 August 2007
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