GOOOOAAAAL(s)

Posted on June 19, 2018 by Christine

Happy World Cup, fútbol fans! I’ve never considered myself interested in soccer, but since I’m living in a country whose team is participating, I couldn’t help but get swept up in the excitement. The cafeteria and offices were abuzz every morning with video streams and excited cheers, and Costa Rica wasn’t even playing until Sunday morning!

I’ve successfully completed the first week of my internship at Establishment Labs. The first day and a half consisted of onboarding presentations, but Razi, Drew, and I dove in headfirst to work immediately after to establish a plan, learn about our projects, meet our co-workers, and start research. I am working with the RDI department, which stands for Research, Development, and Innovation. The innovation part is key. Establishment Labs is a medical device and aesthetics company that began in Costa Rica and since then has sold products all around the world. Their main products are breast implants, a product that in general had not undergone any major design changes in a long time despite serious potential health complications like causing capsular contracture. EL places safety as their highest priority, and this shines in the many unique characteristics of their implant designs.

I am sworn/legally-bound to secrecy on my project and I also want to keep this blog safe for work (ironic), but here’s a general description of what I’m doing: I am helping to write a document entailing initial project design criteria and safety considerations. Writing this document will include extensive researching of safety standards and regulations, compiling information about materials needed, and my favorite – designing what the end product will look like! I feel lucky to be working on this because, by happy accident, it aligned with my interests and will help me grow my prior experience in working on this specific stage of the engineering design process. I’m thrilled to experience this at a real company and I really hope I can make a difference here.

Before jumping in, however, I needed to center myself and invest time on an important task: writing a detailed set of SMART goals for the internship, both professional and personal. We learned about this goal-writing format with Dr. Van Kleeck before leaving for Costa Rica, with the intention of focusing on personal growth and getting the most out of these short two months. At first, I was skeptical of this method, but its structured format helped me push past an abstract idea and flesh it out into something more realistic and attainable. Wish me luck in completing my goals!

Three fun facts about Volcán Irazú:

  • Volcán Irazú is the highest active volcano in Costa Rica at 11,260 feet above sea level, which was higher than my Snapchat altimeter filter could handle.
  • The latest eruption was a phreatic eruption on December 8, 1994 (magma + groundwater = intense buildup of steam)
  • The lake at main crater is caused by heavy rain and recently reappeared after a long drought. Its color is reportedly due to runoff sediments.

Fun facts courtesy of Wikipedia. I left all my good research habits at work.

One of the many craters on the summit of the volcano. It was cold up there!

Bonus: Week 3 Exotic Fruit Bingo: Cas (Costa Rican guava, sour guava): I didn’t try this one in a whole fruit form, but that’s probably a good thing. Cas is so tart that it’s almost always served sweetened in refrescos. The juice is acidic and has the same gritty granules as any guava does. I tried an unsweetened version in Cartago and it was definitely too sour for my liking.

In cas of emergency, drink glass.

BONUS bonus EFB: White guava: The sweeter cousin of the more common pink guava, this fruit can best be described as “a pear apple”. Its flesh, seeds, and rind are all edible, and it’s high in vitamin C. I found the seeds very slippery and tough to chew, so I swallowed them whole. Apparently, they’re good laxatives.

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Back to Work

Posted on June 18, 2018 by Sylvie

On Monday, we started our internships. I will be working at Boston Scientific, Coyol as a Supplier Engineer (a field I knew little about before this week), along with Hannah. The week started off slowly, with orientations and introductions to a very friendly team. The Supplier Engineering department is growing and changing a lot at this time, so many of our coworkers are also new and are happy to help us find our way through the onboarding processes and the large building. I quickly learned the phrase “we are lost” in Spanish: “estamos perdidos”. I have a feeling I’ll be using it often!

I expected to be presented with projects that the department wanted me and Hannah to work on, however, it quickly became clear that it was up to us to figure out how we wanted to spend our next 8 weeks. At first, this autonomy was intimidating, and I worried that we would not have enough to do. To come up with our own project ideas and get a better sense of what the Supplier Engineering department does in relation to the rest of the company, we set up meetings with each of our coworkers. They told us about the projects they are working on and we learned that Supplier Engineering is responsible for choosing and acquiring raw materials and samples for prototyping and production. They communicate with vendors and perform cost analyses to determine which materials should be used for each product and how manufacturing processes can be optimized to reduce costs.

Since the Supplier Engineering department can be involved with a device at any point in the product development process, Hannah and I want to see what each phase of the process looks like. We created roles for ourselves on the following projects with the help of our supervisor:

  • Contact vendors and compile records to ensure that all materials being provided for in the acquisition of a small company are approved and accounted for.
  • Assist the Process Development department with the prototyping phase of a device by testing parts and communicating with the local vendor regarding material samples.
  • Write a proposal for a new material for the coating of a ureteral stent by researching and testing materials.

I am looking forward to the interdisciplinary aspects of working as a supplier engineer. Depending on the phase of the project we are working on, we will likely interact with R&D, process development, manufacturing, and vendors. Although I was initially nervous about the independence and open-endedness of this internship, I am excited by the freedom of working on a variety of projects and getting a sense of how a big company like Boston Scientific works.

After a few weeks of early mornings and tiring days, we decided to stay more local this weekend and catch up on some much-needed sleep. We took a day trip to Volcan Irazú on Saturday. The drive there was beautiful and the volcano was even more stunning than the google image search let off. I got about 10 hours of sleep on Saturday night and am feeling ready for another work week.

 

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Plans fail but planning works

Posted on June 18, 2018 by Hannah

This gallery contains 5 photos.

Introduction The real work has begun and I’ve successfully completed my first week at Boston Scientific (BSCI) as a Supplier Engineer intern. I’ve learned that while our work day is 7am-5pm, there is plenty of time for socializing and eating … Continue reading →

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First Work Week

Posted on June 18, 2018 by Carolyne

This first week of our internships has consisted mainly of getting to know our work place, coworkers, and projects, and developing a routine. In these past five days, I have met a lot of great people and have a pretty good understanding of my project and assignments for the next two months. There is another intern from Invenio University working on this project, and he is actually a friend of one of the guys from my short course team. Small world!

Anyways, I am working on a product that will allow for early detection of lung cancer. The device is essentially a bronchoscope with a smaller diameter that has a retractable needle for puncturing lymph nodes and a transducer for ultrasound imaging. Currently, bronchoscopes can only reach so far down the trachea, and the doctor has to use one imaging device to examine the area of interest, take that device out, and then put in another device that will collect a blood sample. At this point, the doctor is kind of guessing where he sticks the needle to collect the sample. The product I am working on will help remedy the guessing and inaccuracy that goes into the pulmonary disease detection process.

An example of a bronchoscope by Olympus.

For this product, I will be doing a market analysis on competing products and writing a technical report on the physiological relevance of the product and its background. This product is Boston Scientific’s first pulmonary device, so the technical report will be useful for the company and future employees who work on this project. I will also be conducting pull tests on an Instron to analyze the integrity of certain bonding areas of the device. A technical report will follow that includes materials and equipment needed for the tests, instructions on how to conduct the test, resulting data, and other regulatory considerations for conducting these tests.

To keep myself productive and on track, I put together some professional and personal goals that I want to meet by the end of the internship:

  • Complete at least a rough draft of the market analysis technical report
  • Complete at least a rough draft of the testing technical report
  • Become familiarized with the product development process
  • Be able to hold a basic, non-technical conversation with someone in Spanish

In this week, I have already gone to the cleanroom (the production room where all of Boston Scientific’s devices get assembled for market) a few times to put together some parts of the device. It has been eye opening to see the process behind product assembly, and I am in awe of the skill and focus that production line workers possess in creating quality products. With all this being said, I am super excited to continue working on my assignments over the course of the summer.

I think it goes without saying that this first work week has been pretty draining for all of us, so in terms of weekend activities, we decided to opt for a relatively local day trip. We went to the Irazú Volcano in Cartago and saw three craters of the volcano. The water in the crater pictured below changes color depending on what kinds of minerals are present, and we were able to see a beautiful, vibrant turquoise color. It was pretty cold and windy on the volcano since we were at such a high altitude, but that did not detract from the incredible views.

One of the three craters we saw of the Irazú Volcano.

We also stopped by Sanatorio Durán, an old tuberculosis hospital, since it was on the way home. Its popularity comes from the fact that it’s “haunted”. Maybe I experienced the whole visit incorrectly, but it didn’t feel haunted to me! It was really cool to see the inside of the buildings and all of the different rooms in each building. The whole time, I couldn’t stop imagining that I was walking through a functioning hospital- I pictured doctors, nurses, and patients all around me. Maybe that’s the haunted part?!

Terrified Kevin in front of Sanatorio Durán.

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I Heart Boston Scientific

Posted on June 18, 2018 by Annie

And just like that, it’s the end of the 3rd week! It was another jam-packed week as we all started our internships on Monday. I (along with Sarah) am working at Boston Scientific in Heredia. I am in the sustaining R&D department for interventional cardiology/peripheral interventions. For those of you who don’t know what sustaining R&D is (like me until a couple days ago), they work to redesign products that are already on the market. The need to redesign can come from supplier or process changes, minor design variations, or the desire to “inch up” – or slightly improve –  the product.

Due to varying timelines between the Coyol and Heredia locations, Sarah and I got a bit slower start to our internships so we don’t know our main projects for the summer yet. However, this slower start allowed time for Sarah and Dr. Clifton to give me a crash course in the anatomy and physiology of the heart and the basics of IC devices. Because I come from an MSE background, rather than BME, I feel behind in the biological aspects of engineering. One of the main things I am excited about for this summer and the rest of GMI is the chance to learn how to better apply my MSE knowledge to medical technology.

I am also extremely excited to witness the different types of engineering roles active in a large MedTech company and learn what their day-to-day jobs look like. Sustaining R&D works very closely with Design Assurance, Process Development, and Packaging Engineering, so I hope to have a clearer idea of what type of career I’d like to pursue by the end of the summer. I have already had the opportunity to learn about different projects going on in R&D and DA and am looking forward to seeing even more.

There are 3 main things that stuck out during my 1st week of work:

  1. Reading – Because the MedTech industry is so heavily regulated, my first week was mostly filled with reading to catch up on all the rules and procedures the company must comply with. I have to catch up on these standards before I can work on a real project. I also learned a lot about the company’s philosophy and strategy – both of which are very influential in what products are developed.
  2. Acronyms – All of the reading was packed with acronyms – more acronyms than I thought could ever exist. I filled pages of my notebook with their meanings and spent a lot of time trying to memorize the difference between DCAF and PCAF, TDP and PDP, and so many more.
  3. Coffee – Delicious coffee helped me get through reading all of the SOPs. Boston Scientific has a really cool environmental initiative to decrease paper waste. If you bring your own mug, you get free coffee. If you don’t bring your own mug, you have to pay for a paper cup.

Reading, acronyms, & coffee

Next week, I will learn more about exactly what I will be doing for the summer. I am also looking forward to working in a Costa Rican office as the World Cup action picks up. It’s very strange to be in a country where basically everyone has the same favorite sport to watch (and where said sporting events are happening in the middle of the work day).

We have taken advantage of our weekends here in Costa Rica and this one was no different. We all headed up to Irazu Volcano early Saturday morning. We were accompanied by two Ticos this weekend – Sarkis (a colleague from Boston Scientific Coyol) and Camillo (a fellow student from our short course)! We were up so high that the entire area was blanketed in a thick cloud of fog when we got there. We could barely see ten feet in front of us. However, when it cleared, there was a stunning view of the crater in the volcano!

Can’t wait to see what next week brings!

 

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First Week at Boston Scientific

Posted on June 18, 2018 by Kevin

It’s been quite a full week.  On Monday, I officially started my position as a Process Development Engineering intern at Boston Scientific (BSC) in Coyol.  From my recent understanding, process development engineers are generally responsible for designing product manufacturing processes, i.e. the systems of individual steps that employees follow to build and package medical devices.  My particular division within process development (PD), which consists of five employees and me, works closely with R&D teams from other BSC locations to evaluate design concepts and build device prototypes.  If the team thinks the concepts can and should be modified, it sends feedback to the R&D engineers so they can modify them.

So far, I have really enjoyed getting to know my PD teammates and learning more about their projects.  My two immediate supervisors, Yeison (pronounced “Jason”) and Jeff, have been incredibly welcoming and have already taught me so much about the department and the projects.  Another intern on my team, Steven, has started explaining a sphincterotomy project to me, and has also showed me all the ins and outs of the BSC campus (including where to find the best coffee!).  As a culmination of all of the knowledge transfer and intra-team communication throughout the week, I submitted a list of “SMART” goals on Friday to Dr. Clifton, Yeison, and Jeff.  I am excited to say that I’ll be working on three main projects: one related to the manufacturing of a gastrointestinal forceps device, another related to R&D of the sphincterotomy project, and another related to the writing of a translational research guidebook!  I can’t wait to dive into these projects and learn more about this stage of the medtech design process.

Going off of what I mentioned earlier about my team being welcoming – Well, it seems as if pretty much everyone at Boston Scientific is quite welcoming!  First, my team has been wonderful this week in terms of English/Spanish communication.  As someone who is fairly fluent in Spanish, I almost always try to engage Spanish-speakers in Spanish rather than English in an effort to both connect with them more easily and improve my own Spanish skills.  The downside with this is that sometimes I misinterpret people’s responses, which prompts them to switch the conversation to English.  However, my team members in BSC have been patient with my Spanish and actively encourage me to practice with them since they genuinely want me to improve, and this could not make me happier!  Another way in which the atmosphere has been welcoming is through the various meetings and events I have attended.  During a PD meeting on Tuesday, the other GMIers in PD and I were given a friendly introduction and were asked to say a few words about ourselves.  Then on Friday, everyone was invited to partake in a really cool event called BSCx, which was basically a spin-off of TEDx.  TEDx is a community-organized TED Talk event, and BSCx was similar in that various speakers went on stage to share all sorts of inspiring ideas.  My favorite speaker of the event?  Epsy Campbell, Vice President of Costa Rica and the first black woman elected as vice president in all of Latin America!  Not only was it incredibly easy for a non-native Spanish speaker to understand her (which I think all of the GMIers thoroughly appreciated), she spoke about her journey as a woman of color to becoming the country’s VP.  It was such an awesome moment and I could not be luckier to have witnessed her!

Epsy Campbell, Vice President of Costa Rica speaking at Boston Scientific

Outside of work, life in Costa Rica has been fun and adventurous.  Yesterday, our team took a day trip to the Irazú Volcano.  The peak of Irazú is one of the highest points in Costa Rica, and according to my Costa Rica Lonely Planet book, you can theoretically see both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans from it (although unfortunately, there’s almost always some degree of cloud coverage blocking those views).  The main attraction of Irazú is the bright blue-green pool of water in its crater, which apparently is due to the mixing of volcanic sediments with the water.  It was quite a beautiful site to visit.  Afterwards, our crew visited the historic Cartago City, which I read is one of Costa Rica’s oldest cities and was the capital until 1824.  We enjoyed a pleasant lunch there at a place called “Tortillería.”

Irazú Volcano

A picturesque front door in historic Cartago

Anyway, tomorrow marks the beginning of Week 2 at Boston Scientific.  I’m excited to meet with my team and begin diving into my projects for the summer!

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Gallo Pinto con Huevos

Posted on June 18, 2018 by Drew Hendricks

A typical GMI-takes-Costa-Rica-weekend consists of an exhausting Saturday exploring local beaches/mountains/jungles followed by an extremely relaxing Sunday drinking coffee and eating Pinto Gallo sitting outside and watching the World Cup. The week, however, is much less relaxing. This past week was my first while working at Establishment Labs, and I would argue that EL is one of the most (if not the most) patriotic companies in Costa Rica. From the very first interaction on our first day, everyone has been extremely welcoming and eager to show us how incredible their work is. Establishment Labs is a high-tech medical device and aesthetics company -born and built here in Costa Rica. They take pride in the fact that they are the first Costa Rican-based company to design, develop, manufacture and market their class III devices on the competitive global stage.

 

I, along with Christine, work at the Research, Development and Innovation department (RDI). Unlike Christine, however, I am working under the research portfolio. I’m finding my work quite interesting, as it concerns a healthy combination of my background (Anatomy and Cell Biology) and clinical regulatory processes found in the industry. The most exhilarating part is that I am able to work with very qualified individuals in the medical device design field who have a “learn by doing” mentality. After the Establishment interns and I had our extensive tours and entrance interviews with various departments within the company, I sat down with my supervisors and went over the timeline for our intended projects. In an effort to get up to speed with the current propriety research, I’ve started out analyzing and summarizing data concerning our products. I feel like I would have been able to understand the scope of the work here at EL if I had simply shadowed one of the RDI engineers, but that would have taken weeks longer than I have. We only have 7 weeks of our internship, which seems like quite a bit, but there is so much to do!

Of my many personal and professional goals for the summer, and one I am most excited about, is being able to hold a conversation in Spanish concerning medical device design. The only times I have taken Spanish lessons were in kindergarten, 6th grade and 7th grade…and all other language study has been in either French or Mandarin. This is going to be another fun lesson in “learn by doing”, as Establishment is a Costa Rican company, primarily employing Costa Ricans, whose native language is Spanish. I am very much looking forward to understanding what the World Cup announcers are saying!

As I first mentioned, GMI is a healthy balance of work and play. This weekend we hiked up Volcan Erazu and spent quite of a bit of time slipping in volcanic mud and trying our best not to fall into the giant volcanic craters. We were over 10,000 ft, and the environment starkly contrasted with our last trip to the Pacific Coast. The climate here is something else, as there may be a torrential downpour in one area, while it’s completely sunny 50 metres away. Luckily for us, we were in the clouds (and not the rain) when hiking the volcano -so much so that it looked like a science fiction movie. As for the rest of the cohort, they seem to be learning a ton at their jobs, even though each person is doing something very different. Judging by the way we act around one another, our co-workers think we’ve known each other for years. To their credit, we’ve been cramming years worth of bonding into late nights and early mornings, from 6:00a bus rides to 9:57p ice-cream runs (they close at 10:00!!!). We’re officially on our own this coming week, as our directors are back in Houston already, but I have a feeling we’ll be just fine!

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Corporate Experience, Here We Come

Posted on June 18, 2018 by pl34

My first week at Boston Scientific is complete! A surprising challenge this week was to reflect on the experience; I think this is because the project I’m joining encompasses topics and skills that are new to me, and because I did a lot of acclimating and learning by observation. This certainly contrasts with the creative output of last week’s design course. The end-of-week assignment was to formulate well-defined goals for the summer, which helped me focus on what I aim to accomplish as I look forward to the next seven weeks.

What I can say about my project is that I’m working on a cool product with neat people in the Process Development department. The product is a guidewire, and it’s at a stage of development that involves various other skills and departments. I interact with quality engineers, spend time on the production floor, see products go through newly designed process units, check product specifications, and later in the summer, I’ll validate production units. Of course, there’s also plenty of paperwork to go along with this, which brings me to the more immediate part of the internship – training.

I’ve got a long list of training documents to complete. At first, I was intimidated when my supervisor told me I would spend a month in training, but then I took it as a challenge to get it done faster. Also, my supervisor explained the special importance of training for me. She wants me to contribute and get experience by completing work that full-time engineers do, and in order for me to contribute acceptable work, I need to be instructed properly. I’m thankful that my supervisor has a great vision and really cares about me. She has already advised me on strategically getting trained so I can start using one skill while continuing to train on another skill.

I also am working with other process development engineers who have been helpful and kind. With processes or information that’s new, and especially with Spanish, people have been inclusive and patient to explain what I need to know. Workplace culture is another factor. I’ve noticed that things get done with less urgency than I expected from a corporate atmosphere. Projects still move ahead, but it will be a helpful training exercise to self-motivate and to keep up my personal productivity and healthy sense of urgency. I hope my supervisors will see this as a positive attribute and not as a divisive point, especially if I elect to work while others take a break. Again, navigating this will be good practice for tactfully handling real-world situations. More details to come next week once I get underway with more project-specific work!

In the meantime, the adventure of the week was a Saturday outing to Irazú Volcano with some friends from work and from last week’s class. The views were incredible, and both the flowers and the earth were sporting vibrant colors. Plus, there was fun terrain to climb and jump on. Here are some of us just monkeying around!

 

 

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Vamos a Heredia!

Posted on June 18, 2018 by Sarah

This week, I was excited to start my internship at Boston Scientific in Heredia. On Monday, all of the Boston Scientific interns in GMI traveled to the Coyol site to complete orientation. I learned a lot about the company mission statement and how Boston Scientific makes quality and patient care a top priority, which are both really important to me. After listening to a few presentations and completing some paperwork, we were able to take a tour of the facility. My favorite part about the day was touring the clean rooms, where we saw many catheters and guide wires being assembled. I had never been in a manufacturing environment before, and it was really amazing to see how quickly all of the employees worked together like a well-oiled machine. I had heard that Boston Scientific in Costa Rica had some of the best manufacturing lines in the world, and seeing them work in-person was a really great opportunity.

Later in the week, Annie and I were able to start our internships at the Boston Scientific in Heredia. The Heredia facility is right in the valley, surrounded by mountains, and you can even see the ocean through the mountains on a clear day. I am working as a Design Assurance intern in the Interventional Cardiology and Peripheral Interventions department. Prior to starting work, I did not have a very good understanding of what design assurance was. As described by one of my new coworkers, it is “Quality R&D.” From what I learned last week, my department manages complaints about our products from people in the field and makes the necessary design changes to correct those problems. Specifically, I will be helping the department sustain guide wires, micro catheters, embolization coils, and lead placement catheters. I have always been really interested in cardiology, so I am very excited to learn more about interventional products from an industry perspective. I had a great first week meeting the team, learning about the products, and reading lots and lots of SOPs and WIs. While I still have a lot of training to complete, I am looking forward to working with an amazing team of engineers, improving my technical skills, and hopefully contributing something meaningful to the company.

Yesterday, we took a day trip to Irazu Volcano near Cartago. I had never visited a volcano before, so this was a new experience for me. Once we arrived after navigating the winding, mountain roads in our huge bus, it was almost like we were on a different planet. The fog had rolled in across the dark craters, and we couldn’t see more than a few yards in front of us. Once the fog cleared, we could see a bright blue lake at the bottom of one of the craters. It was uniquely beautiful, and I’m happy we made the trip up to see it. We also visited an amazing tortillería and an abandoned, “haunted” sanitarium in Cartago on our way back to Escazú. After a fun weekend, I’m looking forward to another week at Boston Scientific, learning more about working for a large medical device company.

Crater at Irazu Volcano

Abandoned Sanitarium in Cartago

 

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Design Short Course (aka 1 semester of learning in 1 week)

Posted on June 13, 2018 by Annie

Hola! I cannot believe that we’ve only been in Costa Rica for 10 days; it feels like months ago that we were sitting in Houston trying to prepare for what it would be like when we got here. This past week has been packed with so many adventures, from prototyping medical devices and doing IP research to playing in the ocean and wandering through the jungle during a torrential downpour.

On Monday, we started our short design course in San Jose. Dr. Richardson, Dr. Clifton, and Dr. Wettergreen taught us (and our Costa Rican classmates) everything we needed to know so that by the end of the week, we were presenting our devices to local MedTech professionals. My team worked to design a device to definitively diagnose pediatric asthma in a nonclinical setting. It is important to increase diagnosis rates so that children can receive treatment and be prepared in the event of an asthma attack. My team – Pedi-Asthma – consisted of Paula (my partner from Rice University), Debora, Marlon, and Christhian. We all came from different universities and academic backgrounds so it was awesome to see everyone’s strengths coming out at different times. The working language was English (which was good because my Spanish is less than ideal), but luckily Paula is an excellent Spanish speaker and could help bridge any communication gaps that came up.

All in a week’s time, we:

  • Did background research on asthma
  • Performed a market analysis
  • Brainstormed solution ideas
  • Struggled through screening/scoring matrices
  • Prototyped potential devices
  • Looked into IP constraints
  • Learned about design for manufacture
  • Perfected our final presentation

Pedi-Asthma – Marlon, Christhian, Debora, me, Paula. Tied for best design team!

The days flew by as we worked to get ready for Friday’s presentation. I had so much fun collaborating with my team and seeing the growth in everyone’s teams as the week progressed. Each team was incredibly creative with their solutions and I can’t believe how much we accomplished so fast. Lunch was also a really unique experience because not only did we try new foods every day, but we got to talk and learn how similar/different our lives are from Costa Rican students. I even found a fellow Cleveland Cavs fan so we could revel in the disappoint that often comes with being a Cleveland fan together. The week ended on a great note as my team tied for the best design team!

Teams Pedi-Asthma and CaliBreak

Talking about implementation projects for next year

After the hectic week of the short course and getting more settled in our apartments, we were able to have a lot of fun over the weekend. We explored San Jose (and witnessed the…intense? Chaotic? Crazy? …driving that people do in the city) on Friday evening. Bright and early on Saturday morning a group of us left for Manuel Antonio National Park! The park was a couple hours away; the time varies a lot due to the aforementioned Costa Rican driving. We laid on the beach and played in the ocean all afternoon, and everyone escaped without severe sunburn. On Sunday morning, we headed into the park during a torrential downpour. The rain let up a few times, but for the most part, everyone was just soaked to the bone. Despite the rain, we had a ton of fun in the beautiful rainforest and saw birds, monkeys, a sloth, and so much more.

        

Tomorrow, we start our internships! I am at Boston Scientific Heredia in the R&D division and am very excited to see what I will be doing all summer.

Pura Vida!

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