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Online Diary ISU Costa Rica 09.2006DAY 1 - ARRIVAL - Friday, 1 September 2006
Our day started with a very early wake-up call at 3.30 am and after a final check if everything was packed in the suitcases we met at 5.00 am at Vienna International Airport and checked in at the KLM counters. Even though there were some discussions with the check-in staff concerning baggage allowance finally everybody could check in all the bags without any additional costs.
At Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam we had some time for walking around and shopping and we also met our German participant Johannes who took the train to Amsterdam. As on flights to the US no liquids are allowed in the carry-on baggage some guys were forced to “destroy” some of the Austrian beer which was originally meant to be a present for the “Ticos” at the International Evening. After a very hard 9-hours-flight we arrived in Orlando where the US authorities took our fingerprints and a nice photo as well.
Our third flight eventually took us to our final destination San José where our local program manager Karla Leandro and our tour operator gave us a warm welcome.
They accompanied us to the “Casa Verde” – a youth hostel in San José downtown – where we spent our first night in Costa Rica. The rest of the evening we spent with searching for a functioning ATM (unfortunately not successfully), hanging around in the courtyard of our hostel and trying to avoid a jetlag by not going to bed too early. But finally everybody fell asleep before midnight after this strenuous 19 hours trip. Buenas Noches!by Verena Matz
DAY 2 - ORIENTATION - Saturday, 2 September 2006
After a relaxing long sleep the participants got up at different times and had their first Costa Rican breakfast. Unfortunately there was no "gallo pinto" – the ones who had already been to Costa Rica really missed it.
At 11.30 am our tour guide "Luisito" picked us up at "Casa Verde" and shipped us to the hotel Hemisferio in Tibás where the organization team officially welcomed the students and held an info presentation about the program and the lifestyle in Costa Rica. After the delicious welcome lunch some" tico" tourism-students showed us round in Tibás – which is going to be our home district for the next month. They showed us the most important sights and orientation points and gave us some essential information about living in Tibás.
At approximately 4.00 pm our host families arrived at the hotel Hemisferio and everybody was curious about his/her host family. We all got to know our temporary parents and were brought to their houses where they introduced us to the rest of the family.
In the evening we met at "Parque de Tibás" and went to "Giros Sports Bar" – our first contact with the " tico" nightlife…by Gerald Schieszl
DAY 3 - INBIO PARQUE & SAN JOSE - Sunday, 3 September 2006
For some of us it has already been quite difficult to meet at 8.30 am at Parque de Tibás after having celebrated the arrival in Costa Rica the night before. Nevertheless the whole group started on time to the first trip to INBio Parque, which is just a few minutes away. A great variety of exotic trees, beautiful flowers and interesting animals expected us and
exceeded all our expectations. From ants as big as artificial fingernails and butterflies of the size of a soup plate to bats and slothes hanging from trees - INBio Parque showed us the biodiversity Costa Rica is famous for.
When we left the park at 11.30 am everyone of us could only think about to come and get one's meal - taking photographs every 30 sec. can be really exhausting. After taking some refreshment at hotel Europa in San José we left to go for a walk. Separated in two groups we got a lot of information about historic buildings like the Post Office or the National Theatre and could make a first acquaintance with Avenida Central, where some of us will certainly spend most of their free time and most of their money.
But everybody who thinks that we would have gone to bed early after such an exciting day, is wrong... we went out and it was really PURA VIDA!!!!!!
by Verena GruberDAY 4 - ULACIT - Monday, 4 September 2006
This day was our first Monday in Costa Rica, which meant a lot of new and exciting experiences. In the morning I had breakfast with one of my two host mums (they are sisters and a bit like my grand mother) in our new home in Tibás. Like everyday I ate fresh fruit, for which Costa Rica is really one of the best places on earth.
After breakfast, my other host mum, who already had been in the gym, joined us and after a little bit of Spanish „conversation“ - so far you can call it like that - my mum Jessie and I went to university. It was a bit like the first day in school, where everything is unknown and tremendously exciting. For sure, we went by bus, how it’s usual, what was a big adventure for its own. Finally we made it and got to our university called ULACIT. There the tutors and the Spanish teacher Karla already waited for me and so I made my Spanish interview to check my level of Spanish.
Then it was nearly lunch time and everybody had to check his e-mails in the cafeteria, where we fortunately have wireless LAN, so you see just lap tops all over the lunch break.
In the afternoon we had an orientation meeting with all the other foreign students at the “Auditorio Raúl Crespo”.
We were all very tired at the end of the day, but after a bit of sleep and a delicious Costa Rican dinner, we were ready to spend our night in a disco in San José down town. There we danced to live music and got to know a bit more of the Costa Rican style to dress and dance. This was our first and very exhausting day at ULACIT in Costa Rica, which I will remember for sure for the rest of my life.by Sandra Turecek
DAY 5 - CINEMA - Tuesday, 5 September 2006
I think almost everybody was a little bit excited about Tuesday because classes started on that day. We take two business classes at Ulacit. One class focuses on Leadership Issues in Organizational Behavior and the other one is called International Marketing as Part of Intercultural Management.
In the morning we all managed to be on time for Leadership Issues in Organizational Behavoir, but the professor did not. So we had to wait for professor Milton Clarke and somehow tension was growing – would he like us, what would his requirements be and what kind of teaching methods would he prefer. It turned out that this class is more like a lecture with some case studies for applying our knowledge and generating learning transfer.
After the lunch break we were introduced to our Spanish teachers. Students were divided into small groups of four people each. Some of us haven’t had Spanish lessons so far. The others with knowledge of Spanish had to do a placement test the day before. We are divided into three main groups – beginners, advanced 1 and advanced 2. After the Spanish classes some students really were glad to understand more now in every day situations. Speaking a little bit of Spanish really makes it easier to come along with busdrivers, taxis and our host families as well.
I think after that day our feeling of holidays here in Costa Rica has diminished. Well, we are aware now that work has begun. But as we are young and students we will always find ways to put work aside and stress going out at night. In the evening we went for karaoke at "La Hacienda". It took some time until the first of us were ready to get the microphone and sing. We have some really enthusiastic singers among us. Verena (Gruber) was the first who showed her passion for singing. It turned out that Sandra really likes singing and we could listen to her beautiful voice 5 times or even more.The funniest performance was somehow “Yellow Submarine” by Berni and Sergej. They were fantastic!
I hope that next time at karaoke more of us will dare to sing including me. As Betty said – we have one big advantage here concerning karaoke – nobody knows us.by Cordula Fritz
DAY 6 - ULACIT - Wednesday, 6 September 2006
This day started at 9.00 am at ULACIT, where we attended our International Marketing course with Prof. Francisco Matamoros, which was very interesting and more interactive than classes yesterday. After the Intercultural Counseling and the lunch break we attended our Spanish courses until 3.30 pm. Most of us stayed at university and used the remaining time for writing e-mails or making phone calls.
The group met again at Mall San Pedro, a huge shopping center with some restaurants, bars and the cinema. There we split into smaller groups for seeing different movies for example “Click”, “Miami Vice”, “The Lake House” and “The Sentinel”. The language of the movies was English with Spanish subtitles, what for some of us was a completely new experience. But I guess everyone was more or less satisfied with his/her choice.
Later we met at the bar “Fuzión” near the entrance of the mall, which was the perfect place for discussing the movies and drinking one or another lager. Nevertheless some of us, including me, got home quite soon because for the first time we were really tired.by Raffaela Wallner
DAY 7 - ULACIT - Thursday, 7 September 2006
Our third day at university started with our second lesson of International Marketing. Francisco Matamoros, our professor who doesn’t want to be called professor, tried to demonstrate us the importance of nonverbal communication. Consequently we had to think of some specific occurrence or situation and afterwards explain it to the rest of our group only by nonverbal signs – a quite funny but also educational lesson!
In the afternoon some boys of our group organized a football match with our two Danish Dynamites and one Tico at a soccer ground in Tibás, which both players and watchers enjoyed very much although one has to admit that it was very tough playing on a small field under such extreme circumstances. After one hour of power play, everybody went home for dinner at their host families.
Finally in the evening, those who were able to go out after such an exhausting afternoon pilgered once again to “La Hacienda”. Although the topic of this night was “Ladies Night”, the pub was crowded with chicos and Ticos but anyway we completed the day in a quite nice atmosphere ;-)by Verena Gruber & Bettina Kovacs
DAY 8 - DANCING CLASSES - Friday, 8 September 2006
Today we enjoyed both of our business courses at ULACIT and continued studying Spanish after a shorter than planned lunch break because Prof. Milton Clarke added the 30 min that he had been late on Tuesday.
In the evening we met in order to have our first session of dancing classes. We had an introduction to Salsa and Merengue dances at "Academía de Baile Olé" in Tibás. After a warming up our instructor (a very agile Tica) showed us various steps and moves and then we started dancing in pairs to practice the basics we have learned before. As this dancing class was the first for almost everybody, it was really funny watching Europeans trying to move their hips according to the rhythm. Unfortunately, we have to admit that this was not as easy as everybody thought before.
After this exhausting hour it was obvious that everybody deserved a reward: Imperial (la cerveza de Costa Rica). We directly went to the “Nuevo Palermo” bar near the Parque de Tibás to cool down and relax for the following day which was already going to start at 6.00 am…by Raffaela Wallner
DAY 9 - RAFTING - Saturday, 9 September 2006
After spending more than a week in San José we finally got out of the city and went to the rainforest. About 2 hours later we arrived to have a wonderful breakfast and the last possibility to use a western style toilet for the next four hours.
To get to the river “Pacuare”, where our adventure started, we had to go about one kilometer by foot, what was very exhausting for me due to the heat and the enormous humidity. When taking on the lifejacket and the helmet I felt I was dying by a heat stroke. Sitting in the boat I could hardly listen to the instructions given by our guide: forward, back, left back, jump down, and so on. But we all were chilled when we jumped into the water to practice the rescue in case anyone drops out of the boat, what fortunately didn’t happen. “Forward” our guide screamed and everyone in the boat started to paddle. The first and second rapids were great fun, everyone of us could enjoy, because it was not as difficult as we had thought. Soon we experienced the more difficult and dangerous rapids, where we had to get down in the boat and the water was splashing over us. After one and a half hour we stopped at a sandbank to have lunch. One of the boats was the table, where a buffet was prepared for us and everybody could make his own tortilla. The hungriest guy of our group was certainly David, who was eating the hugest tortilla I have ever seen. Back in our boats we passed all the rapids skillfully. And then we could more enjoy the wonderful scenery: hundreds of thousands different trees, all of them huge and in a different green tone. Between the rapids in a canyon we were able to relax and jump into the water. In the end of our adventurous trip nature showed us the typical atmosphere of a rainforest: cloudy, steamy and rainy but not cold at all. Despite that, Sergej, who is obviously not used to the harsh Russian climate, got a little cold.
Back in our bus, which took us to San José, everybody fell asleep. The tour was much more exhausting than we had believed, what should not mean, that some of us haven’t had enough energy to spend half of the night at “El Pueblo” to practice Salsa!!!!!!!by Katharina Richter
DAY 10 - POAS VOLCANO, LA PAZ WATERFALLS - Sunday, 10 September 2006
After our pick up at 7.00 am from „Parque de Tibás“, we had about one hour either to wake up or to sleep a bit in the bus to „Volcano Poás“, northern to Costa Ricans capital San José.
Before we reached our destination, we took breakfast in a restaurant, which is called „Freddo Fresas“ and should have the best breakfast near the volcano. As the name „Freddo Fresas“ means cold strawberries, we got fresh strawberry juice to our Gallo Pinto (beans with rice, a traditional Costa Rican food). With full bellies we finally came to the amazing volcano, which was full of clouds so that we couldn’t see anything.
Fortunately we waited a few minutes and took, in spite of the fact that nothing could be seen, our hundreds of photos. So after these minutes, the clouds went away and we came to this special view over the crater.
Then we hiked a bit through the national park and soon got back to our bus to drive to „La Páz Waterfall Gardens“. Arrived there we went through the butterfly observatory, snake and frog house, saw a few hummingbirds and walked around in the nature until we came to another spectacular sight: the waterfalls. They were really big and impressive, so that the fact that it started to rain no one really disturbed.
I think we get used to being wet and so we drove happy to our late lunch at „Freddo Fresas“. This weekend was really nice and now we have to sleep to get back to ULACIT in good form.by Sandra Turecek
DAY 11 - ULACIT - Monday, 11 September 2006
This morning we experienced our first “real” tico time moment, as Prof. Clark arrived pretty late. So the lesson started an hour later, after having us waiting in the classroom for about 20 minutes. Gladly, we therefore had some time to enjoy the sun, have a second breakfast, write some mails to our friends and family at home or finish the Spanish “tarea”.
After the course the usual race to the cafeteria started, as otherwise you could either enjoy your meal while waiting in the queue or have the delightful experience of eating a rather cold “almuerzo”.
At night we went out again to the famous bar “El Cuartel”, where every Monday a different band is playing live music. It seems that going there on Mondays has already become a tradition for Austrian students. There really exists the possibility to mingle with the Ticos and the group got more and more close to the Costa Rican lifestyle. Dancing, singing, Imperial and Cacique were the most important ingredients of this night. We were once again adapting to the famous “Pura Vida”!by Teresa Kamleithner
DAY 12 - COOKING CLASSES - Tuesday, 12 September 2006
This morning everybody would have been thankful for a few more hours of sleep but we still managed – well at least most of us – to be on time for the morning classes at 9.00 am at ULACIT. “Tico-time” has not yet become popular among the group members as our schedule is usually very tight.
As everybody was very sleepy the morning passed rather slowly but after “gaining strength” in the cafeteria we were looking forward to our Spanish lessons which passed by very quickly. Finally we could do what we enjoy – we went shopping and strolling on “avenida central”.
For this afternoon we had cooking classes scheduled at 6.00 pm. As soon as we have figured out were east, west, south and north was – and there was of course no sun to help as usual – we found our way easily and arrived at the LOGOS school rather hungry. But at that time three Tica-mamas had already prepared a whole lot. To start the cooking lessons we were divided into 3 groups and each group had to prepare two typical Costa Rican dishes. My group had to cut vegetables for “ensalada rusa” and prepared “plátanos maduros”. We managed to get the food ready within one hour which was due to the professional help and instructions from our Tica-mamas. Fortunately nobody got hurt although knives were involved and some have never cooked before. After all that work the best part of the evening came: finally we could start our dinner and it was delicious! We really have to pay all those fantastic cookers a compliment.
After this exhausting day – including last night – we all went to bed very early.by Agnes Bukowski
DAY 13 - DANCING CLASSES - Wednesday, 13 September 2006
Today we had presentations in marketing about different countries and their market situation to gain more information for our final product presentation.
Also we had to prepare a questionnaire about an Austrian product which we would like to introduce to the Costa Rican market. Therefore we had first to contemplate a research with the Tico population if our product would sell. That’s what we literally did, running around university in search of willing “victims”, whom we could torture with our questions asked in Spanish. In that course Irene and I discovered that “Marillenmarmelade” would sell perfectly in Costa Rica, beyond our expectations.
At night we had the delightful but exhausting experience of another dancing class, where we deepened our understanding of Salsa and Merengue. Later on, we went to a pub to “refresh” ourselves. We also had a good game of pool, quite a nice ending of a relaxed evening as the next evening would be Irene’s Birthday and the night before the Independence Day.
by Teresa KamleithnerDAY 14 - ULACIT - Thursday, 14 September 2006
This day began like all the other days. I woke up at 7.15 am, took a very delicious breakfast with many fruits and went to ULACIT at 8.00 am. Today we had Global Marketing with Prof. Matamoros which started at 8.30 am and ended at 12.00 am. Francisco informed us about the presentation and the exam which will take place on Thursday and Friday next week. Afterwards we had to survey Costa Rican students about a product which we would introduce in C.R. It was a little bit difficult but interesting because we asked in Spanish and my Spanish knowledge isn't very well. After the lunch break at 13.30 pm our Spanish lesson with Prof. Azalea began. Today she was a little bit desperate because our Spanish knowledge didn't really improve. These two lessons are everyday the funniest and exciting adventures in the afternoon.
At 3.30 pm some girls went shopping in the city, six boys of us played soccer and Daniel and I went to a very cheap and comfortable gym. In the evening we met at the tutors’ home to drink some beer before enjoying nightlife at famous “El Pueblo”, an area with well knows bars and discos located in the center of San José. Everybody was excited and danced a lot on the dancefloor. At midnight Irene started celebrating her birthday! So Gerald, who was already a little bit drunk like all the others climbed up the stage, where he got a microphone. He congratulated Irene and we all sang the famous birthday song "Happy Birthday" in Spanish. This night was for some of us a little bit longer because next day was Independence Day and so we did not have lessons at ULACIT.by David Hehenberger
DAY 15 - INDEPENDENCE DAY - Friday, 15 September 2006
On September 15th everyone in Costa Rica celebrates the countries independence from Spain and therefore we did not have classes. As it was also my 22nd birthday, I was particularly looking forward to this special day. We started partying on Thursday and hence spent the first hours of the 15th in a club at “El Pueblo” in San José. And it is safe to say that all of us had a great time, mostly because we could finally show off our newly learned Salsa and Merengue skills. While some of us, or better most of us, spent the morning in bed recovering from the night out, others got up early to watch the parades in honour of the Independence Day.
At three in the afternoon we met at the park in Tibás to take the bus to Cahuita, which is situated on the Caribbean Coast, where we were going to spend the weekend. The bus ride was uneventful at best and after 5 hours we finally arrived at our hotel, the Atlántida, which was directly opposite the beautiful black beach. It did not take us long to check into our rooms and soon after that we had eaten dinner and sat together at the pool bar to have a few cool cocktails and swim a few laps in the pool. For me, naturally, the highlight of this evening was receiving presents and a rendition of “Happy Birthday”. I finally managed to celebrate one of my birthdays for a whole 24 hours and this is the perfect opportunity to say thank you to the whole group for what has been one of the best birthdays I have ever had!!!by Irene Heschl
DAY 16 - CAHUITA - Saturday, 16 September 2006
As we luckily arrived Friday evening at Cahuita, we could spend the whole day at the wonderful Caribbean Coast. Consequently most of us got up early in order to spend the morning at the beach enjoying the sun we were waiting for desperately in San José.
All of us were impressed by the beautiful landscape of the Caribbean Coast with its black sand which none the less looked just like a paradise with palms all over the beach. While some of us took the opportunity to do some sports, others just relaxed in the sun and took a well-deserved break from university.
In the afternoon our planned trip to a national park did not really work out, since our unreliable guide Louis did not arrive at time. Therefore only a few of us went to the park, where they didn’t have enough time to see all the attractions. In the evening we all met at the beach again in front of a campfire to complete the relaxing day and gain some Caribbean atmosphere.
by Bettina KovacsDAY 17 - CAHUITA - Sunday, 17 September 2006
Many of us were quite tired in the morning, particularly my roommates David and Daniel, who went sleeping quite late and made me the pleasure to wake me up several times during the night. The departure from Cahuita at the Carribean Coast was scheduled at 14.30 pm. Apart from Daniel and David, who mostly slept until that time the others spent the remaining time on the beach or at the swimming pool. Simon, Bernhard (Althaus), Michael and Stefan borrowed a surfboard from some children lying on the beach and had a great time enjoying riding the waves which were quite high this morning.
At 14.30 pm we left our hotel and drove in the center of Cahuita where we had lunch. Even though we had to wait a very long time until we got our meal (more than 1 hour!!!) almost everybody enjoyed it. Johannes and me, for example, we had a delicious meal comprised of shrimps in coconut sauce. After lunch we went home to Tibás by bus, which took us about 4 hours. When we arrived at Tibás, hardly anybody was in the mood for going out that night after the exhausting bus trip. I spent the evening in the following way: I was philosophizing about the meaning of life and thinking about what could go wrong with bungee jumping, which was scheduled for the next day, Monday, September 18th, 2006... I hope we all will survive!!!by Sergej Kalaschnikow
DAY 18 - ULACIT - Monday, 18 September 2006
We had another sunny morning in Tibás, the place we are living. After an assume weekend spending at the beautiful Caribbean Coast the serious part of our tour started again.
In the morning we listened to our economic teacher Milton Clark. He told us a lot of stories and we discussed some interesting topics. The class was a little bit exhausting and we were glad to enjoy our lunch. Afterwards we had our Spanish classes and we tried to improve our language skills.
Most of us were very tired after such a hard day. Nevertheless a small group of students decided to get a surge of adrenalin by going bungee jumping. Old Colorado River Bridge was the place of action which was located very close to San José. It was 265 feet high and it was one of the highest bungee bridges in America. The view scared most of us. Standing close to the ground made us sweat. But all in all it was a great experience and we had a lot of fun. Everyone loved it. Luckily no one got hurt or died and therefore we were able to celebrate this fantastic day, as usual in the great bar "El Cuartel".by Michael Niedermair
DAY 19 - ULACIT - Tuesday, 19 September 2006
This day started for me a little bit later than usual - but I was not the only one. I think one reason for this quaint phenomenon was the celebration of surviving the bungee-jump on Monday. Only about eleven students of us enjoyed the Organizational Behavior course in the beginning and our Professor, Milton Clark, was not very happy to teach only a fraction of the Austrian students. As every day our Spanish lessons with Karla begin at 1.30 pm and due to her excellent teaching methods we are getting closer to goal: speaking Spanish “fluently”.
After returning to our Tico-host families’ houses in the evening, a small group of us let the day end in “La Hacienda”. The rest of us stayed at home for preparing the essays for our Leadership Issues course or just relaxing. At 8.00 pm my Tico-mami, my brother and I visited Irene and her family to celebrate Irene’s birthday for the second time. It was really funny for the Ticos because they talked about my absence the night before. But I didn’t understand anything. When we came home this evening I was very glad to see my bed.by Simon Gruber
DAY 20 - ULACIT INTERNATIONAL CLUB - Wednesday, 20 September 2006
On Wednesday we had classes at ULACIT, it was a typical day at university. In the morning we had Global Marketing from 9.00 to 12.30 am with Francisco. We discussed many details of importing and exporting. In the afternoon we had Spanish until 3.30 pm. After university almost all of us went to the computer lab or to the cafeteria in order to finish the marketing-project which should be presented on Thursday.
In the evening we all were invited to Teresa`s house to commemorate her host mother’s birthday. And once again we clinked glasses to Irene and also to Cordula, our birthday child of next week. Nobody had a chance to escape from celebrating their birthdays. Patrizia, Irene’s host mother, prepared a buffet with very good food for us. We ate for example tuna, meatballs, sandwiches, typical Costa Rican soup and drank beer & schnaps from Austria. Patrizia`s kids presented her a birthday cake which we ate after singing “Cumpleaños Feliz”. We enjoyed the party very much and had a great time with Patrizia`s family. Unfortunately we had to go home very early because of the presentations in International Marketing the following morning and because there was no more beer.by Stefan Luegmayr
DAY 21 - ULACIT - Thursday, 21 September 2006
Big excitement on Thursday morning. Our “Global Marketing” grades were at stake. Today we had to present our group project for which some of us had to work through the whole night. The task was to think of a new product which we could sell on a specific market. However, on the stroke of nine everybody was sitting in the classroom. Some of us calmly, others seemed to be nervous wrecks. In the next few hours we heard some really great, fabulous, amazing, excellent, and inspiring presentations. In addition, some of us showed a lot of creativity in their presentations by using PowerPoint, photos and quite funny jokes. Especially I would like to emphasize the presentation of one group with Michael, Stefan and Johannes, which showed a lot of creativity and sense of humor with the attempt to sell loincloth to Amazonians. I am really looking forward to watching how their brand “HugoLapLap” is going to capture the global market. But besides that very extraordinary presentation we heard the following product-presentations: “Solar Power Tower”, “Empress Sissi”, “Snow Gorod”, “Interiorus 2.12” and “Baccio-Italiano”.
The remaining day I would describe as everyday life. After the marketing class we had our usual lunch at the cafeteria followed by a very relaxed Spanish class. In the afternoon we did what we did almost every day after university: we skyped, wrote e-mails or went shopping.by Bernhard Althaus
DAY 22 - ULACIT - Friday, 22 September 2006
The day started at 8.00 am with our exam in International Marketing. Actually it was more like a teamwork exercise than a real exam. But I think nobody worried about the modus of assessing of Professor Matamoros. At 10.00 am we met with Martin and our tutors Veri & Geri to execute our second photo shooting with our professors. Afterwards we had Organizational Behavior with Professor Clark till 12.00 am which was followed by the usual lunch break and Spanish course till 3.30 pm.
After classes some of us spent more time at ULACIT for finishing their essays for Professor Clark, other ones went home to change their clothes in order to play football in the evening. We met at the football ground in Uruca at 8.30 pm to face our Tico opponents. Our team did not only exist of Austrians – it was rather a European team. One German guy and two Danish dynamites (unfortunately one left us before the end of the game due to a date) supported our team. It was a quite hard job to compete with the Ticos which were in really good shape. Because of superior technique they were able to play us off. Even though the game ended 6:4, we were not disappointed and started celebrating our remarkable performance in “La Migueleña”. But this was not the end of the evening – it was just for getting the right condition for going out. Afterwards we went once again to “El Pueblo” where they already were familiar with the strange behaviour of the “locos Austriacos”. Salud!!!by Stefan Luegmayr
DAY 23 - SAN LORENZO, ARENAL VOLCANO, HOT SPRINGS - Saturday, 23 September 2006
In my opinion this was one of the best days in our 4 weeks in Costa Rica. The only problem was that I had to get up at 8.00 am on a Saturday again. Somehow I knew the night before that it wasn’t very wise to go out before such an exiting day, but what can you do against the peer group pressure of 20 Austrians? So we all met at 9.00 am at the park of Tibás to start our weekend trip and when I saw how devastated some of the group were from the night before, I realized that it was a very good idea to stay away from the Cacique.
After about 2 hours in our amazingly comfortable bus on the great roads of Costa Rica which most of the group used to sleep away their hang over, we arrived in our hotel called “Tierras Enamoradas” (Lands in Love) in San Lorenzo. After the check in, we left the hotel again to go to our exciting canopy tour. But before we were “flying” through the rainforest we had a “last meal” at a restaurant near the starting point of the tour. Some of us were a little bit afraid of the canopy tour but I think after all everybody really enjoyed this awesome experience. I still hear the screams of some of the girls echoing through the rainforest. All of us survived the adventure and we went back to the hotel to change and rest a little before we left again to see the Volcano Arenal. But we weren’t too lucky and couldn’t see any volcano activity – supposedly because it was too cloudy. But some of us developed the theory that the whole thing just was a tourist rip-off and there was no real volcano. We’ll probably never know the truth…
The last station of this exciting day full of activities was the Tabacón Resort where we had dinner and afterwards enjoyed the Hot Springs. It was amazing and we really could relax. The only bad thing was the Dollar price at the pool bar (the drinks were good though) and the security guards that kicked us out of this little paradise at 10.00 pm. When we got back to our hotel some of the group already were tired and went to bed. The others who wanted to enjoy the drinks we bought on the way encountered a little cultural problem with the hotel staff. As we had learned in the great Intercultural Counselling sessions we wanted to adapt to the local habits and apply the concept of “Tico Time”. So when the receptionist told us over phone that we could pick up ice for our drinks in 10 minutes, we went there about 30 minutes later. Sadly the hotel was owned by Israelis who didn’t really understand the “Tico Time” concept and already had closed the kitchen. Poor customer service in our opinion but we enjoyed our drinks anyway...by Johannes Ritz
DAY 24 - SAN LORENZO, ARENAL VOLCANO, HOT SPRINGS - Sunday, 24 September 2006
After waking up at 8.30 am, I went to the dining room of our hotel “Tierras Enamoradas” (Lands in Love) in order to have breakfast. It tasted quite good apart from the juice which seemed to consist only of sugar. Afterwards we had to decide what to do for the rest of the day… Since the weather didn’t look that good to go swimming in the pool, I borrowed the laptop from Verena to check my e-mails (as our hotel was equipped with WLAN).
Luckily the sun came out after some time and we could enjoy the nice swimming pool and the rather cold Jacuzzi. We spent some time there and relaxed and were very glad to have a day off after a very exhausting week at ULACIT. At 12.00 am we had lunch, which was really interesting: we got a vegetarian Israeli dish with humus - a paste made of chick-peas. The rest of the afternoon most of us stayed at the pool in order to relax and enjoy the sun.
At 6.30 pm we came back to San José and nearly the whole group decided to go home. David, Stefan, Simon, Verena and me went to a nice restaurant in Tibás and drank some beer for the purpose of being able to sleep afterwards. However, we left the bar quite early because Simon found out that he had forgotten his keys in San Lorenzo and he didn’t want to wake up his host family too late.by Daniel Lanzerstorfer
DAY 25 - ULACIT - Monday, 25 September 2006
This Monday marked the last day at university which made us not only sad because the end of our stay in San José was fast approaching, but also happy because the next day we were going to have the International Evening before leaving for the beach in Manuel Antonio.
In the morning we had our last class of Leadership Issues and in the afternoon Spanish courses as usual. It was also time for the last counseling session for which we were all grateful. After Spanish we attended the official closing ceremony of the ISU Costa Rica and received our Spanish diplomas. Karla and Martin held short speeches and each of our Spanish teachers handed out the diplomas to her students. It was quite an emotional event for our teachers, who remained true to their Tica nature and were extremely sad to see us leave. We also took some group pictures which will definitely find their way into more than one photo album as a reminder of the great time we had together.
The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping for clothes, buying last minute presents or running other errands. In my case this meant going to mall San Pedro together with Teresa to get a manicure and a pedicure!
As it was Monday we spent the evening in the “El Cuartel” and once again enjoyed the live music. We had a great time laughing, drinking and dancing (some of us on benches…again!). And, like always, we were not at all concerned about getting home early in order to get a good night’s sleep before we had to prepare for the International Evening!by Irene Heschl
DAY 26 - INTERNATIONAL EVENING - Thuesday, 26 September 2006
This day we had no classes in order to prepare all the things necessary for our International Evening. With that evening we wanted to thank our host families and give them a little impression of our home country, our customs and our culture.
At 11.00 am a part of our group met at the supermarket. There we filled 4 trolleys to be able to feed about 80 guests in the evening. The whole day we worked really hard. We prepared different salads like “Erdäpfelsalat” and “Paradeissalat”, some sauces like “Eiaufstrich” and “Liptauer”, in addition, of course, our famous “Wiener Schnitzel” and as a dessert our classic “Kaiserschmarrn”. Furthermore the entertainment group and the presentation group planned a schedule to attract the Ticos. So the day passed by while we, for example, peeled 12 kilograms of potatoes or tried to practice the dancing performance.
At 7.00 pm the first guests, mainly members of our host families but also our professors and some other friends, arrived. The evening started with an interesting presentation (of course held in Spanish) about Austria, more precisely about the people, the mountains, the lakes, the economy … After that, the audience was invited to explore the buffet. Everybody was really interested and enjoyed our tasty food in combination with a good “Ottakringer” beer or maybe something harder like “Schnaps” or “Obstler”.
After the delicious meal our satisfied Ticos could watch a great waltz dancing performance followed by polka music. We then started dancing a fast gallop around the tables. In the end every one of us asked their host mums and dads for a dance and so we all had a lot of fun.
Fortunately we managed a successful evening and, of course, we had to celebrate that. Therefore, our group went to “El Pueblo” were some of us danced up to the crack of dawn.by Katharina Richter & Bernhard Endl
DAY 27 - MANUEL ANTONIO - Wednesday, 27 September 2006
After having a long night we met at the park at 7.00 am, which meant no sleep for some of us. Fortunately our bus ride took us 5 hours, so that we could make up our sleep in that way. Our in-bus recreation was only interrupted by one short stop. While we walked over a bridge we could watch some huge crocodiles that obviously enjoyed the dirty river water coming down from San José. After that we drove on and realised that our destination was coming nearer and nearer since the conditions of the streets got worse and worse. The last kilometres which really were a shaking adventure, we could watch the beautiful beach that was just next to the street. So we eventually arrived in Manuel Antonio, where we stayed in the “hotel” "Coco Beach".
A part of our group, including me, decided to make an ATV (=All Terrain Vehicle) trip while the others preferred to stay at the beach for taking a sunbath. Invigorated by some delicious “hamburguesas” we started our engines. Our drive through the rain forest was amazing. After a while we parked our 250cc Honda quads and walked to 2 awesome waterfalls where we even went swimming and took a refreshing shower under the water coming from above. Our 3,5 hours trip ended with a great dinner in the rain forest.
After our return some of us went swimming. At night the Cacique was constantly flowing since we celebrated Cordi’s birthday. Once again: “feliz cumpleaños!“by Bernhard Endl
DAY 28 - MANUEL ANTONIO - Thursday, 28 September 2006
This Day actually started out pretty horrible. We woke up in our hotel with a magnificent view of the coast line, only to quickly be really disappointed. The so-called breakfast the hotel offered only could be described as absolutely ridiculous. There just was no food left. When some of our brave Austrian girls entered the not so clean kitchen to try to prepare at least something for the group they where chased out by the furious Asian women who seemed to be the wife of the hotel owner. So much for customer service… But however, most of us managed to grab at least something to eat and then we headed out for the National Park of Manuel Antonio. After some money exchange problems (why don’t they just accept 50 dollar bills???) we all were admitted to the park and its beautiful beaches. It honestly was breathtaking. I have seldom seen such a beautiful place. The only problem we run into there were the pretty aggressive animals which even succeeded in stealing a banana from one of our bags. But besides that we enjoyed a really relaxing day at the amazing beach.
Some of us went surfing while others preferred just to chill or even to study a little. Four of us, including our guide Giovanni and myself, undertook the adventure to go kayaking in the Pacific Ocean. It was really amazing but, looking back now, maybe not the smartest thing to do at one of the most dangerous parts of the Costa Rican coastline… But all of us made it back to the hotel so we could go to dinner with the whole group.
Our guide took us to a small seafood restaurant where the chef showed us all the fresh ingredients for the served food. After that we desperately waited for him to finish cooking because most of us didn’t have lunch during the day at the beach. And it turned out that it definitely was worth waiting for. I had one of the best seafood plates in my life. And they even had a descent white wine to go with the fish… delicious meal! On our way back some of us decided to stop at a bar called “The Lounge” for a while before we finally made it all back to the hotel where another great day came to its end…by Johannes Ritz
DAY 29 - MANUEL ANTONIO - Friday, 29 September 2006
Friday was our last day in Manuel Antonio. In the morning, most of us had breakfast between 9.00 and 11.00 am, like the day before. But only the fastest and luckiest of us had the chance to get a complete breakfast, whilst the others who slept a little bit too long had to be satisfied with “Gallo Pinto”. The weather was not that nice this day but nevertheless most of our group went to the beach right after breakfast. Bernhard, Michael, Stefan, Carsten, David and I borrowed some surfboards and enjoyed the great feeling of riding the huge waves of the Pacific Ocean for the last time. Around 3.00 pm we left Manuel Antonio for going back to San José.
In the evening, the hard-cores of our group went to an American style student party in Tibás. It was really funny, a lot of students in a relatively small house with free alcoholic drinks and noisy music. It was a worthy finish of our unforgettable stay in Costa Rica.by Simon Gruber
DAY 30 - DEPARTURE - Saturday, 30 September 2006
Today was our last morning in San José. At 11.00 am our host families took us sadly to the “Parque de Tibás”. It was time to say good bye. Of course there were some tears appearing on our cheeks. It was definitely a great time!
The whole group drove to the airport to start a long and hard flight back home. In the airplane everyone reminded the fantastic month in this beautiful country. Some of us even thought about returning to Costa Rica another time. Our plane started punctually. In Miami we had a short stop and a rather long stay in Amsterdam. It was more or less 8 hours, but we refused to use the time for hanging around at the “Schiphol Airport” and started to explore the central of the amazing capital of Holland. Amsterdam is so different compared to San José. The streets were alright and we were a bit confused when there were no barbed wires around the houses.
With entering the plane in Amsterdam the last part of our trip started, we flew to our final destination Vienna. Around 10.00 pm we could spot the lights of our capital. In the arriving hall of the airport many relatives were already waiting to welcome us with a big smile on their faces.by Michael Niedermair
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