The following is posted on behalf of Hillevi Jaegerman (A'11) and was written on Feb. 5, 2010.
How can I begin to put into words the beauty and wonder I experienced with my classmates on our Tropical Ecology and Conservation Costa Rica trip? In the airport waiting for my flight home some stragglers from the group and I stopped to look at a photo-journal book of Costa Rica. We began flipping through the glossy pages of the expensive tourist buy. "Look it"s an anole lizard!" I exclaimed. We laughed and continued flipping pages. On nearly every page was a depiction of a plant or animal we had seen. What"s more, for most of them we could think of a less known fact about the animal"s behavior or diet, or the plant"s problem with herbivory, or the particular climate of a majestic terrain.
I don"t take vacations or travel to escape from my routine life. I travel to experience somewhere new and to grow. It was my second time in Costa Rica, but I still feel I grew so much as a student from this trip. Especially in the forests at Sirena, in Corcovado National Park, one is reminded to be inquisitive of their surroundings, to look more closely at what is at first very apparent, and to take advantage of all of one"s time. I feel my experiences during the trip left me with this lasting knowledge.
I learned to adopt the "Pura Vida" Costa Rican slogan, especially when our trials on behavior resulted in hours of no response.
I learned several new riddles over dinner that I plan to propose to anyone willing to listen back home.
I saw more insects, reptiles, and mammals than I had dreamed possible.
And, I learned to appreciate the interests of others as my own.
Now I begin the next chapter of my travels. I am abroad in Havana, Cuba; it is like nowhere I have ever been before. It has taken me some time to readjust to city life after my trip to the jungles of La Selva and Sirena, but I know now that with my newly acquired skills, a rekindled love and interest for my environment and perhaps some duct tape, I am ready to take on the challenge of living in such an unfamiliar place.
