Tripping in Fields

Field trips. I forgot how much more fun it is to have class in the rainforest. Oh wait...that's because I've never had class in the rainforest before! On Saturday my class, Ecological Foundations for Sustainable Land Use, went to La Selva Biological Station and looked at fun ecological things, like ephiphytes and organic matter. It was thrilling, well at least compared to three hours in a classroom every other day. And we got to hike and see some crazy wildlife all while building up clock hours for class time. Even more beneficial was our tour guide, a local Costa Rican who happily gave us his email and cell number so that he can take us out on the town and show us the local 'tico' bars. I sense some serious karaoke in the near future. Speaking of karaoke, Saturday night brought about a hideous rendition of eres tu by myself and three others. Think Tommy Boy (the second half of the video if your impatient). We are lucky they let us keep the mic for the whole song. Funny enough, they didn't seem to have the next songs we were looking for.

At the end of the rainforest adventure, we had some spare time so myself and two friends snuck off to the nearby river to go for a quick swim. We had to tough it out in our skivvies since swimming wasn't part of our itinerary. It was one of the better decisions I have made. After hiking through a tropical rainforest, a river dip is the only thing that makes getting back on a bus tolerable. And despite the crazy driving in Costa Rica and the apparent disregard for all traffic laws by all drivers, our bus got pulled over. Our driver passed with a double yellow line which is practically routine here. Maybe the cop was bored. Either that, or the plethora of Americans on bored tipped them off. This brings me to a debate that has been going on with some new friends at UPeace. Why do United States inhabitants get to be Americans when all of North and South America is technically American. I argue that we are the only country with America in our name and that Wikipedia dubs us as Americans. Others seem to strongly disagree. Perhaps my American narrowness inhibits me.