[I wrote this during my last week and haven’t had the chance to edit and post until now]

Today I sat outside on the picnic tables at EARTH, eating cereal and an honestly ridiculous amount of mango I had taken from the lunchroom. As I was sitting on the bench, I saw one of the stray cats on campus whom I have been trying to befriend for about 8 weeks to no avail. Suddenly, the small, skinny cat approached me and very friendlily brushed against my hand. This happening on one of my last days on EARTH (haha get it) and felt very fitting as a conclusion to my trip. It was only slightly undercut by the fact that the cat clearly was interested in the milk from my cereal, but I’d like to look at it differently.

Friendliness is one of the overwhelmingly common characteristics of Costa Ricans and EARTH students, and this Costa Rican cat is no different.

I am leaving Friday afternoon, and am doing so fully ready to be back at home with friend and family until I leave for college in ~1 month. However, I say this very grateful and satisfied with the experience I have had in Costa Rica this summer.

Here is a list of 15 things I’ve learned/been reassured of on my trip.

1. I need more than 3 pairs of socks for 8 weeks abroad
2. Animals are for friends not food
3. College is having much more freetime, but also being much more disciplined to spend that time wisely
4. Costa Rica is green, but nothing is ever that simple, hence “greenwashing” can occur
5. Politics play a role in everything, including Costa Rican environmental publicity
6. Rice and beans are an important staple for most of the world, and I have a newfound respect for people that eat it every day, three meals a day like EARTH students and myself (for a relatively short time)
7. Learning languages is hard, but way easier when you are exposed to it all day, everyday
8. Being bilingual, trilingual, quadrilingual, etc is not uncommon for most of the world (the majority of America is devastatingly monolingual)
9. Yoga is very painful but rewarding
10. I am not as good at ping-pong as I thought (I’ve gotten destroyed on numerous occasions by students here)
11. Agriculture is the first building block of society and is only becoming more and more important as global resources become scarcer.
12. I want to do science, but more-so science in the field; “getting my hands dirty.”
13. My research paper writing skills are something I will continually develop throughout college
14. When heat is consistently above 90 and humidity is always between 80 and 100 percent, rain is your friend
15. If your career plans for the future don’t somehow encompass the environment or global warming you need to change them.

I’ll be writing a longer conclusion piece in the next few weeks, but I would just like to thank everyone who has made my experience here rewarding and inspiring.

— Eli

Last Week on EARTH was originally published in TheNextNorm on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This weekend, as well as last weekend, I had the good fortune of being able to stay with my professor at her farm in rural Costa Rica. Doing so has given me the opportunity to learn about Costa Rican farming, consume authentic Costa Rican food and be more or less in the middle of the Costa Rican jungle among other things.

Last weekend we spent a day in the Selva Verde lodge: an eco-hotel in the middle of a large stretch of protected forest. While it was very much a tourist experience (dinner was brick-oven pizza), it was a great example of one of Costa Rica’s most successful exports. Tourists have the opportunity to come and stay in somewhat luxurious hotel rooms and during the day are led on tours through the jungle. To me, this kind of tourism is the most respectable; when tourists can be simultaneously aware of the fact that they are outsiders but can have experiences to help them better appreciate other places/natural areas.

I also had the opportunity to go to a motorcycle race on a dirt track in a very rural area. This was quite a different experience in terms of exposure to the natural world, but still fun overall. We essentially spent 3 hours sitting on the grass close to the track where racers aging from about 10 to 20 years old flew around a very steep track. As I learned, its a very important event for a lot of rural Costa Ricans to spectate and participate in. The only downside to the event was that I was fully exposed to the Costa Rican sun and forgot to bring sunscreen, but this just meant that my roommate spent two days laughing at me when I got back to EARTH for my ridiculous sunburn-lines.

This weekend we went to La Paz Waterfall Gardens: an animal sanctuary a short drive from my professors home. The modern establishment is similar to a zoo, except that it features only wildlife native to Costa Rica, specifically wildlife that has been rescued from illegal trafficking. Given the sheer amount of biodiversity and exotic animal species in Costa Rica, it is no surprise that trafficking is such a problem. I overheard one visitor remark how sad it was to see large, majestic animals like Cougars and Jaguars stuck in cages. While it is true that these animals may need more open space than they are getting, I honestly think that they are much better off than they would be otherwise. The alternatives would be being released to the wild and not being able to survive on their own, or being trafficked illegally and probably ending up chained to a wall in some millionaire’s house abroad. While I won’t pick sides on the zoo debate, I do think this center did a good job of not just displaying the animals but also displaying the harsh realities of their endangerment and illegal poaching/trafficking in various formats throughout the sanctuary. We also got to see several very large waterfalls hence the name of the center.

On Saturday we traveled to the Arenal Volcano, one of 14 in Costa Rica. While it is currently a dormant volcano, it was interesting to learn about how up until around 4 years ago, it was regularly spewing hot lava. This simple fact was solely responsible for the creation of a massive, volcano-based tourist industry in the area. However now, as it is a dormant volcano and especially during this time of the year where it is often cloudy and rainy, the industry is suffering. It will be interesting to see how/if the region is able to adapt to other tourism possible ventures in the future. Already the change is happening, as I saw much more advertising for zip-lines, nature hikes, etc than volcano advertisements in the region.

Overall I have had a lot of fun having the opportunity to see different parts of Costa Rica. I have very much enjoyed my time at EARTH but it is a fairly rural and isolated campus so I am quite glad to have also been able to travel. I am entering my last week in Costa Rica and will be spending most of my time starting to be nostalgic for the trip or wrapping up my research paper (14 pages so far!)

— Eli

Beyond EARTH was originally published in TheNextNorm on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Today I woke up at 5:30am.

I put on some jeans and a T-shirt, got into my tall, rubber work boots, and slowly trudged my way to breakfast where I had rice and beans (the main course for every meal, every day) some hearty cereal, eggs, some fruit and a cup of black tea. As I got to class, which starts promptly at 6:30 for EARTH students, I was fully unaware of the day of study that awaited me.

After our professor did a brief introduction on our activities for the day, we all climbed into a bus and left for our first sample site nearby to campus. Our task for the day was to continue ongoing research that will be the focus of my research paper here and more research papers in following years: the impact of the local banana plantation on stream water.

At our first site along the river, everyone split into groups of two or three and we headed to the stream. I quickly gathered that what we needed to do was relatively simple, but more difficult in execution. In order to sample from the river, we needed to hold a net perpendicular to the bottom of the river and kick up sediment so that we could capture macroinvertebrate species to analyze. The river was quite high and quickly moving from recent rain, so many people, myself included, found themselves thoroughly soaked by the end (strictly from working I assure you).

After our sampling, we headed back to EARTH and all had time to shower and change before we dove straight into categorizing the species we had collected. In Costa Rica, there is a specific water index that assigns scores to different macroinvertebrate species in the water based on how sensitive they are to water quality. Our data has yet to be fully analyzed, but in general, it appears that there is significant pollution occurring. This specifically will be what I will be spending the rest of my time here studying.

Overall, today solidified in my mind why I want to pursue science. As I stood waist deep in the river with water quickly filling my boots, whether collecting samples or talking to my group about whether we had found Platystictidae or Coenagrionidae, I realized that I find this work enjoyable and fulfilling. I concluded that whatever form of science I end up in, it will have to include time spent wading through rivers, walking through jungles, hiking up glaciers, etc, etc.

Monday, July 23rd — Lab Day was originally published in TheNextNorm on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By all accounts, Costa Rica is a role-model in terms of environmental support and protection. This is not a claim that I am looking to refute. Instead, I believe the problem comes from condemning a country like Costa Rica to perfection. Policy and public attitude in the country heavily favors the environment, but the fact of the matter is that business and capitalism still holds a heavy claim on most of the world, and Costa Rica is no exception. Costa Rica is a huge exporter of a variety of crops, like bananas, pineapples, and coffee and this comes at a cost. No matter how much the people of the country love the natural world, large manufacturers still exploit the natural environment for profit. Large fruit monocultures exist throughout the country that directly harm the environment through deforestation and pollution, and indirectly through reducing biodiversity.

In classes, we spent a lot of time discussing whether perceptions matched the realities in Costa Rica. Most claims are supported by action and evidence, but there is misleading information. One of the (physically) biggest examples is the use of hydropower. Hydropower supplies around 80% of Costa Rica’s electricity. While it is a renewable source of energy, in many ways it is not environmentally friendly. Building a huge dam like those in Costa Rica completely alters the flow of water in a region, completely disrupting local ecosystems. Maintaining a dam is very expensive and according to some requires the complete destruction of animal habitats and more.

Even farms that were created specifically for the environment face issues. Right on EARTH’s campus, where I have been living, is a banana plantation that sells exclusively to Whole Foods stores in the US. However, as I have been studying, there are still a significant amount of chemicals and plastics that are regularly dumped into the local stream. I will be spending the remainder of my time here assessing the impacts of this damage and of the environmental perception of EARTH students, so stay tuned for developments.

Another sad irony I have witnessed is how environmental tourism is hurting the environment. On my most recent trip, we visited the highly polluted Tárcoles river where we saw plastic strewn on riversides and crocodiles, many of whom were sick from pollution and being fed innutritious food for the sake of tourism. On our trip to the luxurious Isla Tortuga, we passed large patches of garbage and plastic as well as “red tide.” Red tide is a rapidly-reproducing micro-algae that spreads throughout the coasts of Costa Rica and is deadly to coral reefs, most fish species and even fairly toxic to humans. Like most algae in the world, it is caused mainly by chemical runoff from farms and industry.

Overall, Costa Rica is a green country. It’s love of the environment and it’s direct actions to protect it is what inspired me to come to the country in the first place. However, the country is in no way “done” with its environmentalism. There are still a plethora of issues to address in the country, but what I have seen is that unlike much of the world, Costa Ricans are willing to take action. I am confident that Costa Rica can be one of the first countries to reach carbon neutrality, and can continue to preserve nature in the country, but it is important to remember that there are still many problems to confront. The country can absolutely remain a role-model for many other countries, especially smaller, developing countries, but only if it continues the fight.

The Problem with Costa Rica’s Environmentalism was originally published in TheNextNorm on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The first time that I learned about dogs in Costa Rica was actually about three years ago when the Territorio de Zaguates or “Land of the Strays” became a popular internet subject. The Territorio de Zaguates is a sanctuary for stray dogs nearest to Costa Rica’s capital, San José. As of 2017, it is home to around 1000 stray dogs living on around 380 acres of land specifically devoted to the dogs.

While I may not be able to visit the sanctuary during my stay here (as they are currently undergoing maintenance and have limited open hours this year) I think the sanctuary is a perfect example of how dogs (in my personal experience) are valued and generally happy here. The millions of strays in Costa Rica certainly present a problem, but it is places like these that make me think that Costa Ricans have an especially strong love/respect for animals (specifically dogs for the purpose of this post).

When my group visited a beach in Puerto Viejo, as we entered the beach we were greeted with signs that said: “Please don’t annoy the animals.” We soon saw that the dogs were very preoccupied hunting crabs as a source of food. Clearly the managers of the beach wanted to do what they could to make sure the nearby strays were respected and unbothered.

In general, almost all of the local farmers and entrepreneurs that we were able to visit had dogs, all of whom appeared healthy and were very friendly. Overall, the owners showed a lot of affection towards their canine companions, and it was clear that the dogs we saw all had jobs in their respective homes, whether they be pest-managers, security, comfort animals for the children, etc, ,etc.

I’ll conclude with the real importance of this post: photos of the aforementioned dogs.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post, tune in in the coming weeks for more (and probably very different) content!

— Eli

The Dogs of Costa Rica was originally published in TheNextNorm on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I began the trip fairly confused, somewhat unsure of what I was doing and very bad at Spanish. While my Spanish hasn’t improved tremendously (yet!), I feel very lucky have been sent to EARTH for the summer and to have had the very thorough, welcoming introduction to Costa Rica. Even on my first day, as I was still feeling confused and homesick, a student came up to me and introduced himself as Carlos, and asked me if I wanted to play ping-pong. I consider myself confidently-decent at ping-pong so it was certainly humbling to get completely destroyed by pretty much every EARTH student I played, but even still I immediately felt welcomed by the students at EARTH.

Even as someone from the Midwest, where everyone is supposedly nice (not sure about Northern Ohio to be honest), Costa Ricans and EARTH students seem particularly warm. On the third day of being in Costa Rica, the card reader to unlock my dorm door broke, leaving me locked outside of it. The security guard that arrived to help me spoke no English, but very patiently and slowly listened and talked to me in Spanish as we waited for a repairman. Using only my basic Spanish, I learned that he had a wife, a young daughter, loved the diversity at EARTH and worked at a fruit plantation for 11 years prior to working at the university, but switched because he liked working with people better than bananas. This very simple but very positive interaction made me feel like EARTH was a place where I could work and feel comfortable.

On my first Friday on campus Ricardo, our class TA and general lifesaver (literally spent a full day taking me to the doctors office in two cities to make sure I wasn’t dying of malaria, which luckily I am not; I had a minor fever that lasted 2 days) forced me to go to the “Hip-hop” class that was being held. Although I have breakdanced off and on for much of my life, I had no idea what to expect when going to the class, and also very little Spanish to work with. However, the group dancing there were all very friendly and were luckily practicing the same form of dance that I am best at. The two EARTH students who were fluent in English definitely helped make this a less confusing experience as well. I now plan to go back every week while I’m here, and maybe even take part in a performance (TBD).

For the past 2 weeks, I have spent most of my time taking the course “Engaging Rural Communities.” I had no real idea that I would be taking the course essentially until I arrived at EARTH, but I am very glad that I took it. Throughout the course we mainly studied rural development, specifically that of farmers. However, we also got to go see these farmers in rural areas of Costa Rica and see how concepts we had studied applied directly to the real world. In addition, we learned about qualitative research, environmental economics concepts like Payment for Environmental Services (PES) and sustainable practices in general, all subjects that will be directly useful for my research project in the coming weeks, as well as my future career involving environmental science. All in all the course was a perfect mix of formal learning, discussion, and field visits. We also had the chance to go to Puerto Viejo during the weekend to visit the indigenous Bribri community, take a tour at a small chocolate maker and of course swim at the beautiful beaches in the area. As I had been at EARTH for the entire week before, seeing a vastly different (and much more Caribbean) side to Costa Rica was a great experience.

Overall, I have had a great first two weeks in Costa Rica. Taking the course on campus has been a good introduction to EARTH, EARTH students and the educational model of the school overall. In addition, it has given me the chance to travel off campus quite a lot, to see even more of the beautiful sights of Costa Rica. The students, teachers, and administrators at EARTH have all been very kind and supportive, even when I accidentally say things like “no hablas español bien” instead of “no hablo español bien” (“you don’t speak spanish well,” instead of “I don’t speak spanish well”).

I am excited to start my research project in the next few days, which I will be developing in respect to water quality on campus, and how it is impacted by local institutions like the banana plantations. I plan to keep this blog updated with information on my research, but also plan to focus on more specific aspects of Costa Rica and EARTH (like the food in Costa Rica, the many dogs I have encountered, etc. Stay tuned!).

EARTH University and Costa Rica: An Initial Review was originally published in TheNextNorm on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.