La semana final! (The final week)

THE LAST FUN WEEKEND

After no symptoms and negative tests we walked around San Jose and brought our Guanacaste trip back to life for the long weekend. Saturday, Jhalak and I walked downtown to the Libreria Internacional to pick up some Spanish books for ourselves & friends, then over to a cafe/music hall for cake, coffee, and chocolate. My chocolate cake with dulce de leche was delicious! Haruto, Jhalak, and I caught the first bus Sunday morning to Brasilito after finding a cheap hotel for the night. We got in around 1:30pm and immediately hit a soda for our lunch casados before dropping off our bags and hitting the beach. Our destination was Playa Conchal, rated top beach in the world by the Tico Times! We walked through Brasilto beach to get to Conchal and settled into the white shell beach for the afternoon through sunset. (photo alert!) It was a warm day, per usual in summer Central America, but the cool water was a glorious contrast. We hit a yummy wood-fired pizza place for dinner a little down the road before going to bed. Hotel breakfast the next morning was watermelon and toast (haha) but then we went straight to the beach again. I took a walk all the way down and got to see a school of fish swimming in the shallows and a washed up starfish. The water was even clearer in the morning: beautiful! We spent the whole morning there until leaving for the deli to grab food before our 3pm bus home on Monday (Annexation of Guanacaste Day). (photo alert!) The 3pm bus ride that turned into an 8hr trip, getting us home at 11pm. Boooooooo.

THE LAST WEEK

Never fear, we were at Meditek at 8am Tuesday morning for our last Technical Service meeting and the group photo we forced them into after. We mostly spent the week at Hospital Mexico with both new and old engineers, but also made a trip to the Alajuela hospital and the National Hospital de Niños (Children’s hospital). Alajuela was for a broken anesthesia machine, of which we were able to diagnose the problem, and the Hospital de Niños was just for a tour since the incubators were all occupied. That hospital is in central San Jose and is home to children ages 0-12, with specialized units, surgery, transplant rooms, psychiatric, maternity, cancer, pharmacy, ICU and more. It was a neat hospital because unlike the clinics and big national hospitals they funnel into, this one isn’t on any track. If you have a child, you can take them there, no Ebais necessary beforehand. The hospital was also full of bright colors and beautiful murals on the walls which would definitely brighten my day if I had to go to the hospital for a treatment. It was definitely a shorter week with the holiday but our coworkers made it fun and we made sure to jokingly mention every time something was our ‘last’. In celebration of the holiday, Meditek brought in a tortilla maker (famous to the Guanacaste region) to make tortillas and natilla for all of us– yum! We also celebrated with food and drinks after work on Friday at a restaurant near the office, where we were able to chat and recap the experience. In all, a great final week at our ‘pasantia’ (internship).

THE LAST TRUE WEEKEND

Saturday was a waffle brunch with Jhalak and then lots of packing before meeting some family friends for dinner. (photo alert!) We went to a great spot for dinner up on Poas where we were able to see the lights of the city twinkling after dark. Sunday we hit the craft market for some last minute souvenirs then Haruto, Jhalak and I went to Lolita one last time for happy hour and dinner, making sure to get home in time for lots of sleep before our 4am wakeup call with the early international flight the next morning. Thankfully the travels home went smoothly, and I’ve been enjoying the home cooked meals and sleeping in my bed once again.

End of summer recap!!

Looking back on my time in Costa Rica, I think it was a true growing experience and one I’m thankful to have had. There are a lot of differences in culture I had to get used to, one being the presence of rice and beans at every meal, but also a lot of differences I came to enjoy, such as the pura vida lifestyle. It was very unique to learn (and see) firsthand the public healthcare system in place in Costa Rica and get to work on actual medical devices and equipment daily. I think one of the biggest takeaways for me, as I hope to work in New Product Development of medical devices, is that while developing a device it is important to discern how often it will need to be maintained, what its lifetime is, if it will need to be replaced as a whole or if individual parts can be replaced (at lower cost), and more. These are details of product design that I had never truly considered, but can make an impact on the marketability of a product and definitely need to be thought about and tested before getting FDA approval of any kind.

While there were a few bumps along the way, overall, I feel my summer abroad had a positive impact. I was pushed into another culture very different than my own, I was encouraged to try new food daily, I learned about a variety of medical devices and the healthcare system that purchases them, and I got to practice Spanish on a daily basis.

Top sweet: dulce de leche (on anything)

Top device: ECG monitors

Top national hospital: Hospital Mexico (OG, first day at Meditek and last day at Meditek wooooo)

In sum, I will miss Costa Rica and the friends we made there, but I’m excited to get started with the GMI program and love that I already know over half the class. I cannot wait to get started with our projects this upcoming semester and am hopeful that the lessons learned interning abroad serve me well in this next chapter.

For the last time… PURA VIDA!

xoxo, Katy