Hola! My name is Laurel Chen, and welcome to my first blog post, where I touch upon our cohort’s arrival in Costa Rica, and the first few days of our trip. As a brief introduction, I recently graduated from Rice University with a major in Bioengineering and a minor in Global Health Technologies. Below you can see a photo of me in my regalia, including a stole that represents my residential college – Jones!
Graduation photo of me!
For my first blog post, I have decided to touch upon the start of the GMI program, including our orientation in Houston, our venture down to San Jose, Costa Rica, and our first few days here (including our very fun last-minute-planned excursion to Jaco). I write this while trying to emulate the feelings that I felt leading up to this trip, which included a lot of excitement but also a lot of nervousness. Thankfully, a lot of my cohortmates felt this way too, but I can tell you right now that we have slowly acclimated to San Jose.
Orientation in Houston and Pre-Costa Rica Sentiments
Between my college graduation and the start of the GMI program, beginning with orientation in Houston, I only had about 2 weeks to scramble and spend time with my family, my friends back home in Wisconsin, and to buy gear for Costa Rica – just to name a few. I also had to get my passport renewed in this short timeframe, so I was definitely feeling stressed yet excited for Costa Rica in many ways. I was really looking forward to exploring a new country, but I was just as scared to go abroad for a few months. The day after I got my new passport, I flew down to Houston with all my luggage for 2 months in Costa Rica, and met all of my cohortmates for the first time. I really appreciated everyone’s kindness and energy, as well as the sleek GMI space in the Biosciences Research Collaborative (BRC) building – which by the way, as a Rice student, I never realized that that was the GMI space! Our cohort is on the smaller side – 8 in Costa Rica, so we bonded quickly as orientation unfolded.
Vanessa and I’s luggage outside of the BRC
We began with an innovation challenge, where we had to team up with a partner and quickly to create a low-fidelity device (goinometer) that could measure a patient’s angle of supination and pronation of the forearm. I teamed up with Haruto, and with a pile of low-fidelity materials – cardboard, tape, velco, etc. – we bounced ideas off of each other and creatively repurposed a syringe (barrel and shaft inside of it) that could be modified to be strapped onto a patient, and measure the angle of supination/pronation. With the limited amount of time we had, we were really impressed by how even the lowest of fidelity of materials could encourage great enigneering design feedback, as well as a collective motivation to make something great. My peers had also built some interesting devices with a conglomeration of popsicle sticks, cardstock, and even a protractor. Most of all, I learned from orientation that at the end of the day, we should not be concerned about building the best device, but instead, building something with decisions that are justifiable – this is something that has stuck with me and something that I will take to the innovation bootcamp that starts tomorrow.
Arrival in Costa Rica
On the evening of May 27th, our cohort boarded the flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. We arrived in the evening, and we were immediately met with a gust of warm, humid Latin American air. As we exited the airport following currency exchange and getting SIM cards, we immediately boarded a big red shuttle-like taxi to our respective hotels for check-in. The hotel that I lived at was Hotel 1492, and it was deifnitely a stark contrast from the Westin that we had lived in the night before – no AC, no big rooms, no fluffy white comforter, and no extra amenities. And lots of insects. Our cohort was a little shocked, not because we weren’t expecting this, but more so because of the contrast between the two countries, which was a humbling experience. The architecture of the building was really beautiful, and in my room specifically, there even was a terrarium inside of the shower.
Taxi station outside of SJO airport.
Terrarium inside shower of my room in Hotel 1492
On our first night, our program director treated us to food at Saul, which had really fresh food and juices. I ordered the salmon burger and absolutely loved it, and the restaurant itself was quirky as well – the front of the store has a zebra butt! Going to sleep proved to be difficult for me because I wasn’t used to the bed, which was not the softest, and there were a ton of noises outside. I think every morning, my roommate and I still get woken up by the train that goes by San Jose, so that will be a memory to look forward to at the end of our stay here in 1492.
The outside of Saul restaurant
Salmon burger that I ordered at Saul
Jhalak invading Katy and I’s room
Excursion to Jaco Beach
On Sunday, May 29th, our gang decided to do a last-minute excursion down to Jaco to visit the beach. We took the bus at terminal 7-10 and rode 2 hours to Jaco, and the bus ride was quite scenic. We meandered through a bunch of mountains on the bus ride there. When we arrived at Jaco, we made it to the beach by foot in under 10 minutes. We started off our day eating a restaurant right on the beach. I got some gallo pinto, as I was eager to finally try out some Costa Rican food. I was amazed by how the rice and beans’ flavor meshed perfectly well with the sweet plantains, as well as the fried eggs. After breakfast, our group hit the beach – which had extremely hot sand that burned our toes off. We took turns between watching stuff and wading into the water, which was on the rougher side and kept sending us backwards everytime we would proceed forward. My cohortmates and I definitely got very burned by the sun, as we are much much closer to the equator now. But overall, we had a ton of fun hanging out at the beach for about 3 hours. On the way back, we stopped by a Subway, desperately looking for AC and a foutnain drink, and a man was really kind and acutally bought Haruto and I drinks. Definitely amazed that there are super kind people here, even outside of San Jose.
Breakfast typico at Jaco beach. Featured is gallo pinto, plantain, and fried eggs
The GMI Costa Rica Summer 2022 cohort sitting at the Jaco bus station, waiting to be picked up for San Jose.
Concluding Remarks
As I write this post, I am currently resting and recuperating before our intense bootcamp week starts tomorrow. I’m excited yet nervous for the bootcamp since it seems to be senior design compressed into a week. I guess I will see very soon what it entails. Until the next blog post!
Pura Vida!