This morning wasn't too eventful. We had breakfast in the morning (tamales de maiz y pollo), then went back to sleep! Once we got up for class, we were hungry again, so we went to school and ate at the cafeteria. I got fried fish, rice, salad, fried plantains, horchata, and a dessert, all for 3,500 colones (about $7).
Then we had class - we had a debate about whether or not Costa Rica's main priority should be sustaining our biodiversity or not. I was put on the "no" side, along with Jess. Our argument was that Costa Rica already has a lot of biodiversity (5% of the world's biodiversity lives in CR, but its land mass only takes up 0.03% of the world's surface), so therefore we need to start focussing on other things. Costa Rica has a problem with human trafficking and sex trafficking, as well as over crowded prisons and unsafe living conditions in those prisons. The other people on our "no" side also came up with the fact that, while Costa Rica has about 5 million residents today, there is a 1.4% growth rate, so that in 50 years we will have 9 million people. This means we need to focus on building a sustainable agricultural market that will help to provide food for so many people!
The other side argued that ecotourism is the largest provider of income for Costa Rica, and that we needed to keep that up in order to continue the income. Additionally, they pointed out that a few species are endemic to Costa Rica, which means the entire species can only be found in Costa Rica, so we need to protect those specific organisms. We countered that by making other issues in Costa Rica a higher priority, it does not mean we will stop working to continue upkeep in our biodiversity, it just means that we don't have to put all of our resources towards it.
After the debate we talked about what we actually believe. I said I wasn't sure - this is a complicated subject and I have only scratched the surface when it comes to information regarding the facts and the actual root of the problem. Most people agreed with me.
After class, we went to Pequeno Mundo, a small grocery store near the mall. Jess and I got a few snacks, and Charlie came with us to look for some protein shakes. He didn't find any, unfortunately. We walked back and went back to school to start working on our projects that we must present on Friday. The computers at school were only in Spanish, and while we thought we could understand, it got pretty complicated. We decided to go home and work on it there.
After we each worked on our project, and I took a nap (best. nap. ever.), we had dinner. Marjorie was at church, so she left the food ready for us to heat up. We had picadillo which looked like a glorified hamburger helper, but tasted amazing! We ate it like a taco in a tortilla.
Then all four of us who live here went to La Pescadito to meet up with our friends. Looks like that bar is our meeting spot! Here are all of us at La Pescadito:
Jess, Brandy, Chris, Charlie and I decided we wanted to try to go dancing, so we went to Hoxton (the same place I had gone last night), but for some reason it was closed! We got hungry so we walked to the Beach Bar down the street and got nachos. I saw they had a cosmopolitan on the drink menu and I just could't resist (shout out to Mamma Leah!)! It was very pretty!:
This is a dark picture, but it's all of us at the Beach Bar:
We tried once more to go dancing, and went to the place we went to Monday night called Terra U, but it wasn't as crowded as it was on Monday. We didn't mind, though! There was still a DJ and we danced for an hour while all the ticos stared at the funny dancing gringos! It was actually a total blast!
Then we had class - we had a debate about whether or not Costa Rica's main priority should be sustaining our biodiversity or not. I was put on the "no" side, along with Jess. Our argument was that Costa Rica already has a lot of biodiversity (5% of the world's biodiversity lives in CR, but its land mass only takes up 0.03% of the world's surface), so therefore we need to start focussing on other things. Costa Rica has a problem with human trafficking and sex trafficking, as well as over crowded prisons and unsafe living conditions in those prisons. The other people on our "no" side also came up with the fact that, while Costa Rica has about 5 million residents today, there is a 1.4% growth rate, so that in 50 years we will have 9 million people. This means we need to focus on building a sustainable agricultural market that will help to provide food for so many people!
The other side argued that ecotourism is the largest provider of income for Costa Rica, and that we needed to keep that up in order to continue the income. Additionally, they pointed out that a few species are endemic to Costa Rica, which means the entire species can only be found in Costa Rica, so we need to protect those specific organisms. We countered that by making other issues in Costa Rica a higher priority, it does not mean we will stop working to continue upkeep in our biodiversity, it just means that we don't have to put all of our resources towards it.
After the debate we talked about what we actually believe. I said I wasn't sure - this is a complicated subject and I have only scratched the surface when it comes to information regarding the facts and the actual root of the problem. Most people agreed with me.
After class, we went to Pequeno Mundo, a small grocery store near the mall. Jess and I got a few snacks, and Charlie came with us to look for some protein shakes. He didn't find any, unfortunately. We walked back and went back to school to start working on our projects that we must present on Friday. The computers at school were only in Spanish, and while we thought we could understand, it got pretty complicated. We decided to go home and work on it there.
After we each worked on our project, and I took a nap (best. nap. ever.), we had dinner. Marjorie was at church, so she left the food ready for us to heat up. We had picadillo which looked like a glorified hamburger helper, but tasted amazing! We ate it like a taco in a tortilla.
Then all four of us who live here went to La Pescadito to meet up with our friends. Looks like that bar is our meeting spot! Here are all of us at La Pescadito:
Jess, Brandy, Chris, Charlie and I decided we wanted to try to go dancing, so we went to Hoxton (the same place I had gone last night), but for some reason it was closed! We got hungry so we walked to the Beach Bar down the street and got nachos. I saw they had a cosmopolitan on the drink menu and I just could't resist (shout out to Mamma Leah!)! It was very pretty!:
This is a dark picture, but it's all of us at the Beach Bar:
We tried once more to go dancing, and went to the place we went to Monday night called Terra U, but it wasn't as crowded as it was on Monday. We didn't mind, though! There was still a DJ and we danced for an hour while all the ticos stared at the funny dancing gringos! It was actually a total blast!
No comments:
Post a Comment