This last week was stressful, but seeing all of my work come together including friendships, design work, and training was extremely gratifying. The driving force behind this mindset change was my ability to start running on the ground again! This has dramatically changed my mindset for the better, and I am grateful for it. Most recently, I was able to revisit La Sabana on my last day’s run, which was an awesome way to say goodbye to the city!
The weekend before my last week, I decided to be a tourist in my own city! I took an amazing food tour that showed my some fruit and vegetable markets that I didn’t know existed! I wanted to go to the National Theatre and the Butterfly Gardens as well, but I was being too productive with medical school applications! Only 7 more schools to go! I have those two destinations at the top of my list for next time I come to San José. The cowork has been a true blessing as it has been a great place to be productive throughout my experience in San José.
Classic Costa Rican coconut!
Ceviche in the Central Market
One of the food stands in the market. Mamons are definitely in my top 3 favorite fruits now!
In my last week, I did so much! I addition to programming and doing testing of the servo interfacing with the bionic arm finger design, I also worked with Dr. Vargas to design the necessary elements to fit the electronic components of our design taking into account considerations such as mechanical connections, electrical connection, and prosthesis customization to different patient bodies. I worked to synthesize our work into a presentation and also coordinated between HNN clinicians and Rice professors to develop the details and background for a new design project to be pitched to Rice Capstone design students in partnership with the hospital!
Finally, I also collected and organized the documentation for future teams, got a final print for the full bionic hand done, and organized and returned all prototyping materials as needed (oh and gave my final presentation!)🥵.
Final prototype testing rig
Testing of different aspects of prototype
This week was also full of lasts. The last karaoke night (I soloed Unwritten 🤗); the last pizza Thursday with Hannah, Sarah, and Emily; the last day at the clinic where I made cards for my mentors (thank you for the suggestions Sarah!); and my last yoga session with Steven at Selina. After accidentally damaging the door of my extremely nice Uber driver a few weeks ago, we have since become amazing friends! I got a personal ride back to the airport to say bye to him too :).
Me and Steven, my yoga instructor for the summer
Me and the Uber driver I became friends with after accidentally damaging his door
My last day with the HNN crew
Our last breakfast together at Selina
This was an amazing experience that I will never forget! I learned so much about people, medicine, social determinants of health, engineering, and Costa Rican culture. Sure, San José may not be the most beautiful city in the world, but neither is Houston! I hope to come back to work in San José at some point in my medical career, maybe in residency?!?!? If not then, I will absolutely come back to this city and country at some point, as I feel like I am part Tico now even though it may never show on the outside!
¡Pura Vida Mae!