Devon's First Blog EVER!!!

Yay!!! After a long day/night of travel we are finally here, and I am so excited to go to Carara tomorrow morning. When we first got here, I decided to go ahead and answer the first set of questions in my journal for the program. It was asking how I think Costa Rica will be different from home and I came up with five ways that I am expecting  Costa Rica to be different. The first is the language difference! If I could go back in time and tell myself to take Spanish in high school and not French, I would. Knowing how to speak Spanish certainly would make life easier, but it has not been too bad since I have been with a group since I arrived. The second difference is the climate. It is very humid here and the rain is warm. I knew it would be this way, but this is one of the defining factors that sets Costa Rica apart from Washington ( and makes for excellent hair-dos). The third difference is the food. At home we have a variety of choices of what to eat, all of which come from different places around the world, but from what I have seen so far the food is very traditional to the country. We ate dinner at a restaurant just down the street from the hotel for dinner tonight, and it was really good! I enjoy getting to experience another culture through experiencing authentic food. The fourth difference that I expect is the plants and animals. I have lived in Washington all my life, and have grow used to the plants and animals at home. I am looking forward to be able to experience a new take on nature, and see Costa Rica's biodiversity first hand. This is the one difference that I am most looking forward to, and I know that it is something that I will remember about Costa Rica. The last difference that I have experienced and will continue to experience is the different way that women are treated here. Women are seen to have a more traditional role, and this is a stark contrast to the way that I am accustomed to being treated at home. For example, when Rachel and I arrived at the airport today we met up with two other students, one of whom was male. When we all walked out to try to get on a shuttle to the hotel, the airport staff and shuttle drivers always approached him first and asked him where we were headed, and did not pay much attention to us girls. Overall, I am excited to see where this trip takes me, and cannot wait to discover more similarities and differences between Costa Rica and home while I am here.