26 May, 2011

Today was the first day that our schedule really changed from what was on the itinerary. We spent the morning listening to one of Maria Paula's lectures, and walking around the campus of Universidad de Costa Rica.  To be honest, that lecture was painful.  It was on free trade agreements and their development, but considering how little I know about that topic, and the vast quantity Maria Paula knows, it was difficult.  Not being shy about her opinions on the subject made it even harder to understand because we did not hear a fair account of both sides.  She is a very smart lady, and it would have been helpful for her to slow down and try to help us understand. 

She did not seem to be in favor of free trade agreement because of how the countries do not always trade in equal amounts.  She also referenced the unstable structural problems Latin America already has and how free trade agreement may help them from solving these problems.  It was interesting for me to hear that one of the main reasons countries continue to sign free trade agreements is fear.  No one wants to be excluded from the consensus of everyone else, so they hop on the bandwagon too.  There are several sensitive topics surrounding free trade agreements including immigration, food sanity, security, and agriculture.  Maria Paula said they should have never started signing free trade agreements, yet; now Costa Rica has signed with 11 different countries.  Learning more about this topic is now something I would like to do, but I need to start at the beginning and learn the basics before I can understand what Maria Paula was talking about.

Walking around campus, the group noticed that for the amount of which Ticos talk about being carbon neutral and sustaining the environment, there was a ton of trash on campus, especially near the river.  This was disappointing and something I hope they can promote further, similar to the way it has been pushed on Appalachian State University's campus.  Another thing we noticed was how few students carried cell phones with them.  Most students were either socializing with their peers or studying.  This surprised me and I wonder how soon they will follow the trend in the U.S. of never letting your cell phone leave your side.  We went to a vegetarian cafe for lunch, which was delicious.  I had cashew juice which was interesting to say the least, but not bad.  The food here was a good change from what we had been eating, but of course it still had rice and beans.

After lunch we drove to a national museum.  It was very small compared to most museums in the U.S. but did contain some of the old walls surrounding a fort.  There were many different kinds of animals that had gone through taxidermy, as well as lots of pottery.  Examples of old rooms and prisoners cells were on display also.  It was a simple museum, but it had a lot of character.  Our tour guide was very excited about the one object only found in Costa Rica, the stone spheres.  There were several of them, in all different sizes, shaped exactly into spheres.  No one knows who shaped them, or why.  This was the most interesting thing about the museum for me, just the mystery of it was cool.

Then, we got to go look at an open air market.  It had tons of stores all selling similar things, but almost all of them were handmade or painted.  Talking with the people and getting to see their objects was really cool. We decided not to buy anything because we would have to carry it all the way around the country.  However, we did promise to return on our last day in the country to buy our gifts for everyone at home.  It will be nice to have everything in one place, and to enjoy the happy environment we encountered here.