Monte Verde

So, this weekend was a BLAST! We left San Jose really early at around 6am for the four hour bus drive to Monte Verde, the scene of one of the largest spans of Costa Rican rain forests and ziplining. We reached the city of Monte Verde at around 11 am where we checked into our hostel/hotel and then booked two hiking tours, night walk and day walk. The day walk was pretty good as we got to see the rain forest from a near canopy levels. It was very pretty and nice as we say many flowers and trees, such as the banana and fig tree. The rain forest truly is a sight of biodiversity. The night walk, however, was my favorite. It is during this walk that you can see many of the animals. We saw a sloth hanging on a tree, apparently a rare sight, a rhinocerous beetle, opossum, porcupine, and various stick animals and tarantulas. Through the whole trip, we walked through the night with a flashlight to light our path and guides to lead us the way. This was a very cool experience. Then, we all relaxed at a local touristy bar(dance/music/etc) and then slept. Then, the next day, we went ziplining through the canopy of the rain forest. This byfar was one of the coolest experiences as you are riding on a thin rope from way above the rain forest. It was very fun as you could see the major lakes and volcanoes of Costa Rica from far above and also the trees from below. This byfar is a must do activity as long as you are not afraid of heights. After that, we went back home to San Jose on our bus ride back and slept. It was a great weekend! Now onto another week of work until the next weekend.

Today, we went to a hospital in San Remon where we met the hospital staff and saw the various medical instruments that needed repair. We attempted to repair a few such as the oxygen concentrator and the cardio signal apparatus, but both of them required parts that would need to be purchased. We also got a tour of the hospital. The hospital seems very open but there are about 130 beds for the hospital with about 30-40 doctors. It was a pretty reasonable sized hospital. However, since mostly everyone here gets free health care, the lines for appointments can be very long, a drawback to this system. However, most Costa Ricans are pretty healthy due to their diets, so they don't go to the doctor a lot. After the visit, we came back home. It is now time to sleep as we all go to Monte Verde for ziplining tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed this post. Adios!

Pura Vida

Today was another unique day in the great city of San Jose. We got up and went to class where we learned about 1 one more verb form and then also we learned more about the personal pronouns and adjectives. Now, my sentences are getting much better, and I can even write a little bit better in spanish. The class is very good as all of us are at about the same level, so everything flows pretty well. Our teacher is pretty good too so that helps us in terms of learning the language. After spanish class, we had lunch. I bought an oriental wrap from the supermarket and was surprised to find that it was actually pretty good. We then had our instrumentation class where we learned about suction pumps and promoting negative pressure. We also learned about the various safety valve checks and the most common problems with suction pumps such as the filtrate getting stuck in the motor which would destroy the entire machine. We also had lab where we revisited the idea of soldering and checking our work with the multimeter to see if we correctly connected resistors,etc. We lastly used heat shrink tubing to further enclose the connections. It was a very standard lab that will helps us get through the basics of electronics. After that we went home and did the old homework and reading before we went to a Jazz place to celebrate a friend on the trip's birthday. It was great with good music and I loved it a lot. This was a good way to cap off the day. Now, it really is time for me to sleep. I really feel like that is all I say in the end. Congrats USA for getting to the second round of the World Cup!

Tuesday!!!!

Well hello avid readers! Today was another great and soothing day. The same old routine was pretty much the same old routine. We got up early and had a breakfast or rice and beans with vegetables mixed in. We also had fresh watermelon. We took the bus to school where we were then split up into our spanish classes. Today we learned two particular verb forms that end in ar and er. For example, if one wanted to say I speak spanish, one would say yo hablo espanol. We learned a lot more words than that and I don't want to bore you with mundane details. We also learned some technical spanish words that would help us in describing certain tools that we would use like screwdrivers and hammers. After spanish class, we went to lunch at this real cool Italian restaurant where I had some Central American style pasta. It was muy gusta. We then headed back to the school where we had our biomedical equipment lessons. We learned about the autoclave today and how to keep it proper and functional. We learned about the pressure and temperature requirements to keep equipment sterile. Lastly, we went to biomedical lab where we explored the uses of the multimeter. Lastly, we left school and stopped at The Tea Shop and sampled tons of tea. I had a berry flavored tea that was really good. I had some cake to go along with it. Then, we explored a Jazz Cafe for tomorrow when one of our good friend's birthday is. Well, it is getting late, and I must go to bed so until next time my friends.

Sunday/Monday Combined Post

So, I am very sorry, but my posts have been delayed! I promise I will be better. Sunday, we explored the city of San Jose and saw the various markets and restaurants all around. It was very fun to people watch, as we all pretty much did. My favorite thing to see was the vendors selling copies of The Karate Kid and Toy Story 3 already. It reminded me a lot of India. After exploring the city, we all got back and did our reading for the quiz the very next day on BP apparatuses and Electrical Safety.

Today, we all got up at around 6am and got ready for school. At school we started the long-haul of Spanish I. We learned the verbs ser and estar and their various forms through different subject pronouns. We also learned the various adjectives that could then be used to complete sentences. We even learned how to describe those adjectives with demonstrative pronouns that are indefinite and definite. Lastly, we talked about how different words have different genders, masculine and feminine. It was a very intense experience, but I will learn much from it.

After Spanish class, we had lunch at a local place and ate those traditional rice and beans. We then came back at around 1pm for instrumentation lecture. We learned about electrical safety and the electrical requirements for instrumentation in the hospitals. We learned important facts such as maximum current leakage through instrumentation has to be at max 500 micro amps. We learned that we needed to make sure our workspace did not have any loose conducting wires lying around so the technicians and ourselves did not get shocked. Another important task was brought to us. We had to bring the respect to the technicians by doing our jobs correctly so that when we teach them they will be able to be fully part of the hospital group.

After instrumentation lecture, we had instrumentation lab where we built our own functional extension cord by taking some extra wire and connecting it to a plug which was then also wired to an outlet from the other end. We then hooked a soldering iron to test the functionality of the extension cord and saw that it worked. It was a fairly simply first lab. Well, now I think I said enough. I hope you've been enjoying my blog. I have class again tomorrow, so I have to sleep. As they say in Spanish, bueno noche!!! (good night)....

Rafting on the River Pacuere

So, today was amazing. I can't even describe how amazing it was, but I'll try my best. We all got up at around 4:45 am (yes that is way too early). We all got ready for the rafting trips and proceeded to head out by around 5:45pm. We found the bus stop (boy was that a relief), and got to the ALE school at around 6:15pm just in time to get picked up by our tour guide Diaz for the rafting trip. Our entire EWH group went on this trip which was about a 2 and half our drive from the school. Once we got to the place, we had to leave our belongings in the van and secure our sandals to our feet for this rocky ride. For me personally, I used a piece of string (engineering skills) to tie the flip flop straps to the back of my heel. Diaz, our guide, said that he was impressed at this "new" technology in a joking manner. We then got in groups of 6 and rafted down the Pacuere River. The river had very many rapids that ranged from Class 1 to 4. The whole experience was very exciting. Our raft guide Luis made us do tricks like standing up in the middle of rapids or rowing backwards. Afterwards, we eat at a local restaurant eating some nice chicken, rice, beans, etc and those lovely fried plantains watching Denmark beat some team I can't remember. We then got back in time for some nice home cooked meals from our host mother Flori.

Day 2

This day was in fact one of the most memorable days in and of itself. We all had to wake up at 6am to shower up, eat breakfast, and go to the ALE academia for Spanish language and biomedical instrumentation training. It was there that we were oriented to the goals of Engineering World Health and also learned about being safe in Costa Rica. During orientation, we all had to play this name game where we would go around the entire group until everyone could name each other's name and favorite country. After that, we all went to lunch. Lunch consisted of rice, beans, plantain, and chicken. It was very delicious. After lunch, we all came back for our first lecture in biomedical instrumentation where we learned about blood pressure machines and the ways in which they can be fixed. For example, most problems with those machines are that there is a air leak, calibration error, mercury calibration error, etc. The lecture was pretty informative and I definitely learned a good amount. After lecture, we all had lab where we basically organized all the biomedical equipment for use later in the month. After class was over, we had a bit of an interesting adventure of our own. Since we weren't really paying attention to directions on the way to school since our host mother brought us there, we kind of had problems on the way back. Most of the streets in Costa Rica do not have names, and thus finding your way consists of compass directions and measurement approximations. I also forget to mention that it rains monsoon style, so getting lost is not really a good thing. As guys however, we kind of figured that we knew where to go without asking for help. That worked for half an hour until we got too drenched to walk. We stopped at a supermarket and found someone who would call our host mother and helped us get back home. From now on, we're going to pay more attention to landmarks I should say the least. Well, tomorrow we'll go rafting, and I'm ready for more adventure in this exciting place.

Arrival

Yesterday was a tiring but exciting day. We arrived at the airport (a group of 6 of us) at around 11:50am, and we proceeded to wait for the others in our group at the airport. To pass time, we played various card games like Go Fish and Mafia. Then finally when we all arrived, we took our shuttle van to ALE, our language and engineering school. It was there that we were picked up by our host mother. My particular host had to host six of us guys, so I guess you could call it a mini-frat house no puns intended. Well, language lessons start tomorrow, so I'll write more when I'm more adjusted. This is going to be an awesome experience!

It's about 34 hours and 30 minutes till I board the plane to Costa Rica. I am very excited to explore this new land and meet the various people that are coming on this trip. I seemed to have packed whatever was on that magic list that we got, but I still think I'm missing something. I guess that is how it always is. This is one trip I am sure I will always remember.

I just started packing preparations, and I am just looking forward to what I expect to be a great trip.