volcan means volcano

Sorry for the lack of attention to this responsibility. I’ll try to be a little more attentive in the future. But if you were wondering, I am still in Costa Rica and alive and well and humid and wearing scrubs. 

Where to even begin? Well, last weekend was spent with my advisors and Chloe and Maggie in La Fortuna near Volcan Arenal. So that was rather exciting because I had never been to a volcano before. And it didn’t erupt while I was there, so that was also very nice of it. It was really beautiful, and we spent a good part of Sunday just driving around the area and taking pictures of the Volcano from all angles. We also did do some work related to our research but thats not even half as interesting as a real live volcano. My advisor knows the area well, so he knew all the good places to stop for pictures or food, including a swiss hotel to have coffee. This hotel came very close to the previously mentioned most beautiful placed in the world.  I would not have minded if they accidently left without me and I had to live there for the rest of my life.

Arenal in all of its volcanic glory. You can see smoke coming out of the top when the clouds occasionally break!

The view from the swiss hotel. Probably not exactly the same as switzerland looks, but still beautiful.

Diana (one of our advisors), me (incase you forgot what i look like), chloe and maggie.

We also visited my advisor’s vacation house. It was near a beautiful river, which I was completely content to just sit at and do pretty much absolutely nothing for a little while. It also reminded me how I want to go to the beach and swim. So I have added that to my to do list in the next couple of weeks. I think I will be able to accomplish this task.

The river with plenty of rocks to sit and stop and stare.

Currently I have returned back to my city life. We are spending tomorrow (Monday) checking in with ACM on how everything is going, and hopefully discovering we are right on track and have some data that holds potential to become results of some sort or another. Tuesday we will all present about our research and how it seems to be going. I am excited to hear about the variety of research projects and what everyone has been doing for the past couple of weeks.

My presentation will be a lot of pictures of really terribly adorable children, because that’s mostly what my project is, with the side note that I am measuring them and handing out surveys. The main point is how cute they are, so I will include visual aids of their overwhelming ability to make you smile. 

I joined them after this photo. 

The stickers on their foreheads would be my fault (I gave them to them).

We played soccer for a while (fighting obesity one soccer game at a time). The times were socks versus shoes. I was on socks.

Time for lunch. 

They all brush their teeth after every meal. This is Mateo, he offered me his toothbrush to use after he was done but I politely reclined. 

Too cute.

Its nice to be in the city again and with my family, though I already miss the ability to just go on a walk near some fields and cows. I'll leave you with a country photo to reminisce.