Hello hello! I can’t believe its already been a few weeks into this summer program. This will be my third week doing observations at Hospital Nacional de Niños with Dr. Bogantes, and I think I’ve settled into a pretty good routine. I wake up around 6:00 and leave with Apple and Alex at 7:00 to get to the hospital at 7:30. We observe Dr. Bogantes’s consultations in the morning and leave around noon for lunch. Then in the afternoon, we work on needs statements and doing research into our Priority Need—the basis of our summer project.
I have to say, my daily routine currently contains a lot of household chores. Unfortunately, our Aparthotel charges $15 per load of laundry, and I’ve resorted to handwashing my clothes in retaliation—a task much easier said than done. I’ve also become the unofficial chef of the Costa Rican GMI Gang, so I do spend a few hours cooking in my small kitchen each day. I do really enjoy it though; it’s nice to share a meal with everyone, and sometimes we watch a few episodes of Severance while we eat.
We did a lot of activities last week as well! On Tuesday, we went to see the Costa Rican national football team play against Trinidad and Tobago with a couple of Tico friends. I’m not a big sports fan, but I had a really good time despite having some of the worst seats in the stadium. It’s very impressive to see how passionate the Costa Ricans are about football: so much cheering for their own team, yelling at the ref, and cursing at the other team.
Hands down best seat in the house.
Over the weekend, the four of us (Alex, Apple, Connor, and myself) went on our own little adventures together. On Saturday, we hiked up the trails at Hacienda La Chimba and went on their coffee tour. I made the grave mistake of wearing my nice white sneakers on this hike—the entire trail was varying levels of muddy, and my attempts at not getting my shoes dirty were relatively futile. (Luckily I was able to get most of it out later that evening, but only after scrubbing for 2 hours straight.)
All eight landmarks from the hike in Hacienda La Chimba (featuring my .5 selfie skills)
We had a museum day on Sunday and visited the Museum of Gold and the Museum of Jade, which were both very conveniently located next to Chinatown. Apple and I were so excited to get some authentic Chinese cuisine because although my own cooking is edible, I wouldn’t necessarily classify it as “authentic Chinese cuisine.” Thankfully, Connor and Alex were more than happy to indulge in our cravings, and now Apple and I have sworn to come back again sometime in the next few weeks.
I think that’s about it from last week. While I’m really enjoying being here in Costa Rica, I do miss my family and Rhode Island a lot, and I’m looking forward to seeing them at the end of the summer. – Rei Guo