by Janet Liu
About 20 days prior to this course, the original excitement about spending 6-weeks in Costa Rica started to be overwritten by nervousness. For me, this mental reaction is understandable. As a Chinese who spent most of my life in Asia and big cities, I’m nervous about things out of my imagination in the tropics of central America. Well, my eyes and mind have been surprised throughout our Costa Rica adventure, but in a positive and pleasant manner.
Tropical forests never stop astonishing my eyes with its colors, shapes and even small details. And independent projects enabled me to dig into creatures that fascinated me. In Cabo Blanco, Rieka, Laura and I were trying to figure out why hermit crabs were rigorously moving between the forest and the beach. I was amazed by their survival strategy to claim a free but comfortable home and I’ll never forget the shy but super funny reactions of them hiding under the shell when they spot any threats in the environment. In La Selva, I saw leaf-cutting ants for the first time in my life! Believe it or not, I can stay there watching them carrying leaves and cleaning the dirt for hours, even when it’s raining. After doing a three-day project studying and observing them, I learned a lesson from them, to be strong when facing the obstacle bigger than you. Nature always teaches and inspires us.
Aside from tropical forests, I appreciated the memories we’ve created together. They are Colombian dancers telling me “hips are the key”, professors asking me to enjoy life and take a nap, all kinds of wonderful food I never tried, and conservations about hypothesis, gender and even frustrating politics.
Thank you and best wishes for all of the beautiful creatures I met in Costa Rica.
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