What it is

I've been in Costa Rica since September 4.  Today is my 20th day.  In the last 20 days I have: visited with Luza and Ana Sofia 2 nights, worked 1 1/2 days in the San Jose office, driven with Jürgen to Límon, and been working at Selva Bananito Lodge and Reserve ever since.

It was great to see Luza and Sofie.  My first day here I think has been the hardest yet, and I wonder if it would have been better or worse had I been alone.  I felt so homesick.  So it was great to see family, but at the same time I wish I had been in better spirits.  Oh well.  I started feeling better by day 2.

Day 2 was spent taking the bus early into San Jose with Luza, and she dropped me off at the office.  Jürgen met us there, and then Luza went back home.  I've worked everyday since.  There haven't been any days off, but since my work changes a lot from day to day, and ranges in intensity, I have found it not only bearable but pleasing.

I like my coworkers, and the volunteers that are here.  They're friendly, and patient with my spanish.  My roommate thus far, Lina from Germany just left today.  So tonight I will have the cabin to myself, which I'm happy about, but also a little indifferent.  It's great to have my own space, but I barely spend time there as it is, not to mention Lina was clean and polite (and really nice), an ideal roommate.  I think another volunteer is coming in a couple weeks though, so I may have to share again.  Hopefully I still feel indifferent to sharing when the time comes.

My work has varied from sitting in front of a computer doing research, to hiking up different creeks in the rainforest measuring the flow of water, to prepping food in the kitchen, to eating with tourists and schmoozing, to writing short stories about the goings-on here.  It's been pretty awesome in that respect.  I'm doing a lot of brand new things, and I love the rainforest.  It's hot, and there's crazy bugs that are constantly too close for comfort, but I'm getting used to it.  Today I had a talk with some sort of flying/hopping/humungous bug.  I don't think he could fly very well anymore.  He came into my shower last night and wouldn't leave. This afternoon I scooped him up into my waste basket to bring him outside but he seriously refused to let go.  So I left the waste basket outside.  I have to check on him soon.  I need that waste basket back.  I've also had a problem with the bats living in the wall next to my head at night.  They wake me up.  I hear them flying right over my face and it freaks me out.  They're harmless, but they're like flying mice.  No one here seems to think they carry disease either.  They're supposedly just harmless fruit bats.  None the less I'm in the process of having someone remove their nest.  We tried just spraying and cleaning the area, but it didn't work.  Now we have to take the wall apart.  Mucho trabajo.

In conclusion...living far away from my friends and family is hard.  I've experienced lots of new things:  some of them good, and some awful but I want to keep on keeping on.  So I will.  I miss everyone.  And I hope this will be an easier way of staying in touch with everyone while I explore our lovely planet.