Last post I mentioned a future trip to Manuel Antonio that I was excited for – now I get to brag about our time! We stayed at the cutest Air BnB that had a little private pool, and was just steps away from the beach. The weather was mostly gorgeous for us the whole weekend, which we were stoked about. We did have one storm Saturday night but that did not stop us from watching the sun set on the beach. Through the hoards of grey clouds the sky turned the most beautiful color of orange, and Travis and I watched until the last sliver of light faded – it was SO beautiful and calm despite the raging storm. Saturday morning was spent on the beach enjoying the sun (yes I burned) and the water! We all sort of let loose and were playing in the waves as if we were all kids at the beach for the first time, and I wouldn’t have loved it as much any other way. We were able to switch up our typical central Tico food for more coastal options which was so so good! I have definitely missed seafood, so the fresh fish was a must. We also tried an Indian restaurant, my first time eating Indian, and the food was okay but I was promised GREAT Indian food when we get back home!
This weekend, we traveled with a GMI graduate working at Confluent to La Paz Waterfall Garden. The views were insane, and the water was so so refreshing. In the park, there were sanctuaries for butterflies, frogs, snakes, monkeys, big cats and other animals. I am absolutely an animal lover, so I had just as much fun looking at the animals as I did exploring the waterfalls. And, once again, we had amazing food in the park after to tie it all together.
Aside from traveling and eating, I am still so in love with my internship and the people I work with! I spent the week building catheter components and breaking (or “testing”, whatever) them over and over to find the best characterization steps needed for a new device being made. Being so hands on with a project and helping to create work instructions for future builds is a lot of fun, and is definitely helping me realize that I love the research and development of devices. I am interested in learning more about the quality control aspect of our project, and with me joining so early in the development stage I hope I get to see some aspects of that side of the project. Overall, I couldn’t be happier and I am so excited to finish out the Summer.