Back on Campus in San Luis

After Spring Break 09 we all met back at Hotel Aranjuez in San Jose. Before we left for Spring Break we had to say farewell to Sandy and Jim, which was sad. But once we got back we got to meet Pick, who is our Ecology Professor and he is amazing!! He is such a character, I kind of think of him as a cross between crocodile dundee, Steve Irwin, and Chirstopher Lloyd. Basically he is the coolest professor ever. Before heading back to campus we stopped at a place called Inbio. It is a facillity that is trying to document and preserve all of the species in Costa Rica, from plants to animals and insects. They specialize and insects. We got a chance to meet a guy named Jose who is basically the leading scientists that is studying Butterflies in Costa Rica. We got a behind the scences tour of their facillity and were able to see how the document all of their samples and we also got to see their collection of butterflies and beetles, which is not open to the public. It was really really cool. We got to see a sample of one specific butterfly which is the only sample in the entire world! 

After that we headed back to campus, and let me just say it feels amazing to be back on campus. I really do feel at home here. I love all of the staff and the interns and naturalists. Everyone is so nice and I find campus to be extremely comforting. Our first day back on campus we went to to Monteverde and visited the Monteverde Reserve. It is higher in elevation then San Luis and is a protected reserve. We got  guided tour through the reserve. The big draw at the reserve is seeing a katsal. Katsals are beautiful birds that live high in the canopy of the cloud forest. Luckily we were able to see four of them! We also got to see howler monkeys as well as many other birds. I was also extremely excited because we got to see a tarantula! 

We started classes our first monday back. I am taking spanish and Ecology 4110 this semester. Spanish is still going really well. Also, we have a really special opportunity this semester. A friend of Pick's named Nancy Lowe traveled down to San Luis and she is staying with our group the entire time and is working with Pick in his class. She is an artist and she is teaching us Scientific Illustration. 

During Pick's first introductory lecture something exciting happened. I was sitting in the indoor classroom listening to Pick lecture and was resting my hand on the table. I felt something kid of weird on my hand but didn't think anything of it. I felt it again and then looked down to see a gigantic scorpion on the side of the table. I freaked out jumped up and cursed a wee bit as well. One of the resident naturalists Scott came over and removed the scorpion. After that incident Pick has dubbed me with the nick name Twitch...