Here.

It feels great. The sun is still shining and I am enjoying mango juice with a view of the nearby volcano. There was a 6.0 earthquake yesterday, about an hour before I took off from Miami to San Jose. This is only .2 away on the Richter scale from the devastating earthquake two and a half years ago in this very valley. Thankfully, the earthquake was very deep, approximately 70.0 km below the earth’s surface. This means that there is not nearly as much damage (if any) although more people felt it.

I stayed at the big house last night that will be my long term residence for the internship. It is gorgeous and I will have my own bedroom. It lacks some storage but I will really enjoy it. The bathroom is huge and has a ceramic tile dolphin in it. Of course.

The rest of my class mates for the Tropical Ag and Missions course arrive throughout the day today so I will meet them later tonight. We’ll be staying at the ADE center which has bunk beds and several rooms and bathrooms. The professor is nice and awkward in a very professor sort of way. He is very knowledgeable and has a lot of experience in tropical biology. He tries to say everything in Spanish. Its endearing.

Traveling was fairly uneventful. Due to the generosity of my dad, I was able to use American Airlines frequent flyer miles. The only stipulation was that I had to sit in first class. Bummer J. I did not feel nearly cool enough in my Chacos and old Northface backpack to be sitting up front. While waiting on the tarmac for takeoff, the guy sitting next to me said, “Can you believe they haven’t even offered us any drinks yet?” Hah… He then proceeded to schedule himself an 80 minute massage. No beverages were clearly stressing him out.

The flight from Miami to San Jose was a little lower key. A drunken man in business class had to be reprimanded for swearing before we took off but he just passed out when we got airborne. I wasn’t sure if there was going to be any problem for Lindsey (the director of International Programs for ADE) getting to the airport due to the earthquake. Fortunately there wasn’t and I found her quickly in the stifling city air. The drive up the mountain was great and we cooled off significantly.

Today and tomorrow is low key and I will try to post some pictures of the center. I look forward to the time to rest and hydrate up at 6000ft and enjoy Pura Vida J