Oh hi, Americanos!

I’m glad you were able to navigate the internet tubes and made it here safely. Those internet tubes can be dangerous! For more on the internet tubes, go here.

But the real reason you’re here might not be to hear about the internet tubes. Maybe you’re here because I’m going to Costa Rica next year and you want to know about the things? Maybe?

So here are the things:

On August 21, 2009, I will be leaving these United States for San José, Costa Rica. On February 28, 2010, I will be leaving this Costa Rica and returning to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States.

But what happens in between?

I am going through the study abroad program at Kalamazoo College, and I will be attending classes at ICDS, a local school for international students. The classes will focus on Environment, Sustainability, and Development in Latin America. The classes have long funny names like Human Development and Society in Latin America, Current Environmental Issues in Latin America, Rural and Urban Sustainable Development: Global and Local Perspectives, and Sustainable Tourism and Local Development. They will initially be taught in English, and will incorporate that nasty Spanish language as the year progresses. I will be taking an Advanced Spanish class as well. I think that class will be taught in Spanish.

I will also be staying with a local family. All I know about them is that there is a mom (54, retired), a dad (65, retired), two sons (26 and 30, work and go to school), and a daughter (23, work and go to school). They live at Sabanilla, del Gimnasio del Este (La Cosecha) 300 m. al Norte y 75 m. al Oeste, casa a mano derecha. (That's the address the school gave me, and it means as much to me as if it were in a foreign language.) Hopefully I can figure out how to get “home” when I get to Costa Rica. Hopefully “home” will feel a little bit like a home. I’m bringing them Michigan trinkets; they had better like oven mitts!

San José is the largest city in Costa Rica, and is the capital because it is the best city in Costa Rica. It is located in the middle of Costa Rica, about 40 miles from the Pacific coast and 60 miles from the Atlantic. 1,611,616 people (soon to be 1,611,616 people + 29 international students) live there and in the surrounding metro area. The city is, by many, considered to be the most developed part of Latin America. It will straight rain until November. For more on San José, consult the most trusted and reliable source of information on anything anywhere ever, here.

In Costa Rica, they have other things to do with their time than surf the internet tubes (I know, I don’t believe it either!). There’s only a small chance that my host family will have internet. But there will be places to get internet in the area, so feel free to drop me an email (BrandonSchabes@gmail.com) or throw me an instant message (my AIM screen name is MustaphaMond1989).

And here’s something to look forward to: In mid - late January, some very special Americanos (my family) are going to travel all the way down to Costa Rica to see me! Hopefully I’ll be able to spend time with those very special Americanos, but it all depends on how busy I am with my ICRP.

What’s that you say? What’s an ICRP?

I don’t really know. It’s something like a huge volunteer project that you organize and run yourself. Sounds daunting! I’ll be leading my Integrative Cultural Research Project between January 11 and February 19. I might teach impoverished children English, chain myself to a tree, or rescue baby sea turtles from hungry hungry birds. Read more about the ICRP, here.

Last Sunday made me realize that “You’re only young once.” Since I just turned 20, I’m kind of sad that I already blew that hard-earned youth on school and video games. So while I’m in Costa Rica and still relatively young, I’ve decided to travel. Nicaragua? Panama? Nice resorts? Who knows where I’ll be? (Well, I surely not the nice resorts. Those are for Americanos.)

As you might have heard, I did research for the prestigious University of Iowa this summer. Yep, the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, on the banks of the Iowa River. I did chemistry work in the building called Chemistry Building. Iowa nomenclature is fascinating and exciting. To summarize the work I did in a single sentence, imagine coating plant leaves with supertiny strips of paper-mache made of cobalt, and then removing the leaf structure while leaving the cobalt paper-mache structure behind. I would love to send you my poster (pdf, 1 MB), which has a lot more information on it and even some coolio pictures. I got home last Sunday, the 16th. It was nice to be home for my birthday and to eat something besides Ramen Noodles.

So, have you ever tried to get a temporary student Visa? Not only is it a student Visa, but it is also temporary. Sounds like a fake Visa, right? Sounds like it would be pretty easy to get, right?

Hell no. I spent the first and middle part of my summer verifying, authenticating, notarizing, reverifying, and giving dirty looks to a number of silly documents. I am not a crook. I am not going to be a crook. I have never been a crook (federally). Thank you, 101 official signatures and a postal trip to Washington D.C.. Now I just have to get everything professionally translated in San José, then get them verified, authenticated, notarized, reverified, etc..

The other superfun thing I did this summer was called vaccination. Due to my aversion to hypodermic needles, I nearly fainted after shot #1. For shots #2 and #3, I loosened my drawers, bent over the examination table, and the two nurses gave me a shot in each cheek. Then they left and I had the battle-of-my-life trying to stay conscious. But now I can eat Yellow Fever, Typhoid, or Hepatitis for breakfast and only have to worry about the traveler’s diarrhea. I guess I don’t even have to worry about traveler’s diarrhea, because I’m guaranteed to get it. G-U-A-R-A-N-T-E-E-D.

That’s all I have for now. I’ll try to keep this blog updated regularly, or at least as regularly as I have internet tubes.

Going to go finish packing now. As they say in Spanish: Hola!

P.S. That girl I’ve been seeing? She’s going to Nairobi, Kenya. Say, “Hi,” here.