Sustainability and the Environment: "I am Trying to Find a Place to Live"

On Friday morning, February 12th, the adventurers woke up bright and early in Alajuela and loaded all their heavy bags onto the bus, and then they lit out up the mountain toward Monteverde. As they drove out of the city and into the wild land beyond, they noticed dry leaves and dust whipping through the air; a harsh contrast to the wet and tropical world they had imagined. But as they wound their way further up into the mountains, Karen explained the concept of life zones, and how altitude affects the climate, biodiversity, and personality of the land. The dry season meant that the region would be drier and windier than in the previous months, but way up in the cloud forest of Monteverde, the adventurers would experience the rainforest they had imagined. 

The Sustainability Study Center in Santa Elena lies just below the cloud forest; the adventurers can walk half a mile down the street and look up to see wisps of mist and clouds rolling over the green hills above them, eclipsing the ridge from view. 

The adventurers were pretty happy to discover their new campus.

Arroz con pollo for lunch, before the students met their home stay families 

After a tasty lunch, the adventurers walked around with Adam for an orientation of the study center. He showed them the compost bins, their colourful lounge area, the classrooms, and the cat (Miel). The study center is a pretty cool place because it incorporates a lot of student-crafted decoration and infrastructure. Past student internships have produced a fire pit, a grass couch, glass bottles repurposed for decoration, re-stabilization of eroding hillsides with native plants, and methods for rain collection and re-utilization. 

This is a nice little lunch spot you know 

In the afternoon, it was time for the students to meet their new homestay families, yay! These were all super nice Costa Rican families who were happy to host these American explorers, and they all lived in the same little neighbourhood, so the students could wave at one another as they walked by each other's houses. The students will become a part of these families for the next three and a half months as they embark upon their studies in Monteverde and beyond. 

The study center hosts a little meet-and-greet with the families before the students head out to check out their new homes, so all the families came up to the classroom to introduce themselves to their new host-chicos. 

Emily's host mom is telling her all her deep dark secrets 

 To get to know them, the families did a little activity with the students in which they talked to one another about their favourite colors, their favorite foods, their siblings, and cool things like this. This gave the students a chance to practice their Spanish skills too. 

Aislyn gets to know her new little brother 

After they'd talked to one another for a little bit, the families and the students stood up in front of the group and explained what they had learned about each other. If you're curious, the predominant favorite things were the color red and pizza for dinner. 

A brief phone call interrupts Julia's new mom's presentation 

Amanda couldn't quite remember her host-mom's favorite food, so her host-mom helped her out.  

Meg seems stoked to meet her family 

Aislyn's brother was getting a little antsy 

Sadia's main chore at her new house will be getting jars down off the top shelf

Eilish's sister got a little stage-fright, but she and Eilish seem like they're gonna be best buds

I can tell you personally, I think these families are gonna make pretty great homes for the adventurers during their time here in beautiful Costa Rica. The preparations for their departure to the homestays was just a little bittersweet-- the adventurers were excited to move into their new homes, but sad to leave each other so soon after they had met. Then they remembered that they were all gonna be together at the study center five or six days every week, and all of a sudden they weren't so sad about it anymore. 

It was the beginning of a great adventure. If a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, the adventurers were excited to take their third or fourth step into the unknown.