Hey guys, welcome back to the midway point of Ravi’s time in Costa Rica. Life here has become my new normal; I haven’t considered returning to the States. From the dreaded synchrony of mosquito bites to Thursday pizza nights at Lolita, it’s safe to say living in Costa Rica has become my new sense of what’s normal.
Interning at Confluent has been really fulfilling but also a little slow. After completing like ~10 documents which required extending permission to use raw material from the States to Costa Rica, I’ve been a little tired since all I’ve done is documentation work. But I’m definitely excited for next week – there’s a cool project which requires a ton of characterization and clean room involvement.
At Selina, the GMI group has been exploring different dinner options every night. Last week, Maggie (a past-GMI student), Hannah, and I explored Mandragora Gastro Pub, a Harry Potter-themed dinner venue. It was pretty cool – all the menu items were both named and presented in reference to movie scenes. 6.5/10 experience tbh since the food was pretty generic but at least I got to meet Dobby, his brothers, and a dementor (ghost). The next day, the GMI group got holy pizza from Lolita. I got the Siciliana – a godsend pizza that really spiced up the mediocre week I was having. After demolishing my pizza, I “borrowed” some slices from the girls. Lastly, the GMI group went back to Wongs. So as described in my last post, Wong’s is an extremely bland Costa Rican Chinese place. Other than their dim sum options and after ordering an overpriced chicken entrée, I’d give this experience a 3/10, and safe to say I won’t be coming back anytime soon. I haven’t lost all hope for Chinese food yet – there are still many places in “Barrio Chino” (Chinatown) that require exploration.
And last but not least, the best part of this week was definitely Hija café, a specialty coffee shop with a very good, lightly roasted, coffee experience. I’ve been twice this week and it’s become a source of energy after returning home from my internship. I know Costa Rica is known for its coffee, but many places end up over-brewing the already dark-roasted coffee that is loved by CR natives. After taking a coffee roasting/brewing class last semester, I’d consider myself a bit of an authority in the art of coffee making and Hija café has Ravi’s stamp of approval.
That’s all guys, stay tuned for next week’s updates. Slowly but surely, I’m afraid this blog is converting into a food critique blog but maybe this is a good thing.