1) I found a running trail that runs from campus to the far entrance of the Turrialba botanical gardens--safe and scenic! I was getting really sick of playing 1-man Frogger in the streets of downtown Turrialba. I don't understand the system of traffic at all. But, like I always say, life is more exciting when you're a moron.
2) If I meet an untimely end while I'm here, it won't be on account of a poisonous animal, falling off a mountain, or crime. It will be because I've discovered a 24 hour pizza/pastry shop that is about 20 feet from the entrance of my hotel room. Since this discovery...yesterday...I've had pizza twice.
Okay, onto business...
We had to wake up at the crack of dawn ~5:00 to be at our first location, which as I mentioned yesterday, involved hunting/tagging birds. Before you start picturing the Most Dangerous Game, we were not "hunting"--that might have been some embellishment--but we were catching birds in nets and tagging them in the name of scientific discovery. We met up with a group of 4 scientists---three of which hailed from Utah--which prompted me to ask where they studied--to which they naturally responded BYU--> WHAT UP fellow Mormons!? I mentioned that I was also LDS, and that sparked an interesting conversation about where they had served their missions, etc.
The process of bird tagging was really friggin interesting. They string up a series of about twelve long nets throughout a large field--probably a few hundred acres. The nexts look something like what I would imagine a tuna net to look like. About once every 20 minutes, the team hikes past all the nets to see if any birds are caught. They get the birds out of the net, put them in a bag, and take them back to their data site, where they first identify the species and tag them with an ID band, check their weight, wing span, tail length, skull dexterity, plumage, condition of feathers, etc. We probably helped with like 20 birds today. There were some beautiful grey crowned yellowthroats (a type of warbler, for all my Glee watchers out there), a hummingbird, and some other birds that I don't remember.
Each member of our group got to release a bird back into the wild. Looked like something out of a Disney movie. I yelled "be free!" when I released mine...
After that, we went to campus to have a lesson from Lolita, who runs the university recycling program. Sustainability is just a part of the campus culture at UCR--bins are everywhere, and with every material, there is an expectation that it can be reused or remade into another useful item. She feels that recycling is an art--she showed us projects that students had made, including purses, picnic sets, coasters, etc.
One of the biggest products recycled on campus is paper--and apparently handmade recycled paper is kind of in high demand there. The finished product looks very formal. We all had a chance to try our hands at making paper from scratch as well. First, you tear paper up into tiny little confetti strips, put it in water, and let it soak for three days. Then, you take the paper, stick it in a blender, and make a very thin pulp. Then, you take some sort of screen/strainer/frame, collect the pulp, shake it out into the shape of the paper, and let it dry on some sort of cheese cloth. You can add flowers, leaves, coffee, pina--whatever you can think of to make it more decorative.
I make paper-making look...awkward.
After the paper-making lesson, we grabbed lunch with what would be compared to the SGA executive board at UCR--like many of our college campuses, these students are elected to their positions and serve as liaisons between the administration and students. It sounds like they have quite a bit of say regarding campus programming and some say with policy, but I didn't get the sense that they have as much control over university finances (activities and services fees) as do the students at FSU.
Our last activity of the day (it was a long, long day) was visiting el hogar de los ancianos--which loosely translates to 'elderly home'. Now...working with the elderly is generally not my cup of tea--I'm just a little uncomfortable and super awkward around them. Well, I'm super awkward around people of all ages, but it's magnified with children and the elderly....but I'm getting off track. I recognize that my discomfort with the elderly is completely silly because these people have obviously led very dignified long lives and I should admire them. Well, needless to say, this activity was great for me to get me out of my comfort zone. The students were phenomenal with the residents. We mostly played bingo and just talked to them. Some don't have family around, so it was evident that what we were doing wasn't meaningless. I got paired with a super competitive woman, Emiliza, who had four bingo cards going at once--she and I were definitely cut from the same cloth. There was this one senile maverick guy (cowboy hat and all) that kept hitting on all of us and singing ridiculous songs, and Emiliza, totally straightfaced, would tell him "Callate! Estamos jugando!" which means "Shut up! We're playing!" and then go back to being super competitive.
Moral of the story is twofold: 1) getting outside of your comfort zone is a good thing, and 2) I want to be exactly like Emiliza when I am old. Actually, the facility was pretty awesome too---mostly open air spaces, beautiful flowers, and a great view of the valley...so...if any of you reading this are around when I need assisted living, please send me to Costa Rica.
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