What I´ve Learned so Far...

1. You can´t fight the bugs. You´ll lose.
2. But cockroaches must die.
3. Make a truce with the spiders in your closet...they live as long as their webs aren't touching clothes.
4. Rice and beans. If you don´t like rice and beans, you need to start liking rice and beans.
5. When you think something is crawling on you at night... there is, in fact, something crawling on you.
6. Guys love to dance! And they´re good. Let them lead and you won't do half bad.
7. The rainy days are a small price to pay for the rest of the unbelievably gorgeous ones.
8. Speak Spanish, no matter how much you stumble. Your effort makes people want to understand.
9. Your bike is your trusty new friend.
10. Always be aware of where you are and why. Then take a deep breath and take on the next challenge.

I went to San Jose this past weekend with Kaia, Thea, Rosemary and Samantha, who are studying here for the semester from Norway, the US and Canada. I hadn't really seen anything of the city yet, just the drive out of it from the airport, so I'm glad I got the chance to go. We had a great time! We stayed with Rodrigo, an EARTH student who has a house there, and then went out on Saturday night. Felt like home-just going out and having some drinks with friends :)

EARTH is like its own little community. For those of you LOST fans, I seriously feel like I work for the Dharma Initiative. A community in the middleofnowherejungle, all kinds of research going on...minus all the evil. A lot of the staff and professors live on campus and its easy to forget that there is a whole other world out there! I was starting to feel a little isolated, which they warned me about in my interview, but I don't know if I totally grasped the warning. It's nice to know that a lot of the students feel the same way and we can get away now and then on the weekends. Next order of business...heading to the beach!!

11. Tackle your fear of speaking on the phone in Spanish!
Just had a successful phone call in Spanish with Julieta, who is in charge of my community work! woo! (For some reason I have the hardest time with it..something I've been working on)