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Online ISU Diary Costa Rica 02.2006DAY 1 - ARRIVAL - Monday, 6 February 2006
All Students met at 8.45 a.m. at the KLM Check – in Counter. After storing our Otakringers in several bags, we checked in our luggage and startedour journey from Vienna via Amsterdam and Orlando to San Jose de Costa Rica. We had a very short connection at Amsterdam Schiphol, but there weren’t any problems. The second flight to Orlando took about ten hours and was absolutely awful (bad films, disgusting food). In Orlando, we were carefully checked by the security staff.
After three more hours, we arrived in Costa Rica at 10.30 p.m. local time, more dead than alive. Philipp and Fabienne picked us up from San Jose Airport and we were brought to Green House by Bus, where we spent our first night in Costa Rica. We all were so tired that we fall asleep immediately.
by Wilhelm Sigmund
DAY 2 - FIRST DAY IN COSTA RICA - Tuesday, 7 February 2006
Our first day in Costa Rica started with the knowledge of the first culinary experience. The famous Gallo Pinto, a dish which mainly comprises of rice and beans. After our marvelous breakfast we were fetched by our Program Directors Fabienne and Philipp who then shipped us to the Salón Parroquial de Tibás.
At the Salón, the Logos Directress Karla Leandro gave us a warm welcome. Afterwards we had a superb introduction into the culture and habits of Costa Ricans. That was quite useful because of the social differences between European people and the so-called Ticos.
A fine lunch gave us the power we needed to keep pace with our guides who showed us the major infrastructure, places to eat and shopping facilities in Tibás which should be our home district for the next 4 weeks.
Time moved on and the moment came close that we met the first time with our host families. The atmosphere was fine when the doors were opened to give sight to our new Tico families. The next few minutes of the meeting were definitely among the most impressive experiences in our life.
by Gerald SchieszlDAY 3 - INBIO PARQUE - Wednesday, 8 February 2006
After being brought to the meeting point by our host families, and some making some last telephone calls, we set off to the journey to "INBIO Parque". Arriving at INBIO Parque after a 5 minute bus ride we were confronted with a very strange looking creature which greeted us at the entrance. Whilst the creature became friendly with some of the participants, it "attacked" others obviously seeking intense body contact.
We were then introduced to the rich biodiversity which Costa Rica has to offer, including mammals, reptiles, birds, and insects, the guide making sure not to miss one plant or tree during our encounter with nature. After getting into very close contact with Costa Rica's nature, -even though some participants would rather not have gotten into such a sincere contact to some creatures, even though there was glass between them- we enjoyed some lunch, and proceeded with the bus to down town San Jose.
Disembarking at the National Museum of San Jose, we walked down the main road, and were shown around the city centre, stopping at tourist attractions and markets, as well as bakeries -we were very surprised to see that Costa Rica had a (good) bakery tradition-, and of course the girls could not resist stopping at several shoe and accessoire shops. After being shown our way around down town San Jose, and one of the participants involuntarily -being- disposed of her digital camera, we mounted the bus, and returned home, in order to meet at the Cinema in San Pedro only a short time later.
At the Cinema, the diversity of taste was overcome by splitting up into romance, action, and comedy movies and hereby ending the day in a relaxed and comfortable way.
by Nadia BoerschDAY 4 - ULACIT - Thursday, 9 February 2006
The day began with a bus ride to ULACIT accompanied by our host families. Having arrived at the university we were welcomed by the Director of the Office of International Education ULACIT, Mrs. Illeana Castillo, an extremely friendly woman that really gave us the feeling that she loved to have us there. Afterwards we had our first class of Global Marketing, held by Mr. Matamoros, an open-minded, well educated and experienced teacher that made us instantly participate due to his unconventional teaching method.
The second course, Organizational Behavior, was held by Jorge Godoy, an Argentinean that is deeply engaged in Human Resources. As expected, we had to form groups immediately and quickly got into the subject.
After the lunch break, the group split into different Spanish courses. My class was conducted by a very intelligent linguist, Marìa Elena, who instantly made us aware of the uniqueness of Latin American Spanish.
Later, at 3pm my host family picked me up from school, to bring me to the office of my "hermano mayor" Luis, a very successful lawyer that lives in a district called "Rohrmoser" (name of the coffee land owner that sold his property to the government), and also the home of the president, Oscar Arias. Luis, his wife and his affiliate Jorge invited me for a typical Costa Rican dinner to Cartago, the former capital of the country. There they showed me the impressing church of the "Virgen de Los Angeles" (Virgin Maria) in which a big rock can be found. According to the legend, Maria appeared on top of the rock, and set the beginning of Christianity in C. R.. Afterwards we had dinner in a marvelous restaurant called "Mi tierra" with a gorgeous view over Cartago. The meal was served in banana leaves and tasted incredibly good. Later, back in San Jòse Luis showed me the stadium of Saprissa, the best football team in Costa Rica, el pueblo and la calle de Amargua, infamous for the criminality. All in all that day was a wonderful experience, which alone would have been worth coming here.
by Andreas Kohlweis
DAY 5 - ULACIT - Friday, 10 February 2006
Today was the second day at university, and even though the teacher told us a lot practical and interesting stuff, it seemed like a comedy show. Matamoros, our teacher underlined all his theories with sketches, so that they are easy to remember.
In the afternoon some of us went shopping and others stayed at the university in order to "skype" with freezing "Austriacos" from a snow-covered land that we call our mother country.
To celebrate our first week in Costa Rica, we went to the "Touch bar" in the evening, and learned that Ticos are great dancers and Ticas like to dress rather sparsely. Returning home quite tipsy at 3 o´ clock, we had only 2 hours of sleep left before departing to the Poas Volcano.
by Uta Hammer
DAY 6 - VOLCAN POAS, CATARATAS LA PAZ - Saturday, 11 February 2006
The first challenge of the day: meeting at Parque de Tibas at 7:00 a.m. and surprisingly nobody was late, although for a lot of us the night was really short. Our guides Agosto and Rodrigo picked us up with our bus and a long journey started, beginning with a more or less informative monologue of Agosto. On the way to the Volcano Poás we stopped at a coffee plantation where we could taste the original fresh coffee of Costa Rica and buy some souvenirs. After breakfast, we tried to get a look at a beautiful seldom bird but disgracefully the bird had breakfast too and did not occur.
Finally, we arrived at the volcano and immediately went to its amazing crater. The weather was so nice and sunny that we could see the fog of the sulfur and phosphor at the ground of the crater. Most of the time it is too foggy to experience this. After we finished our lasting photo sessions, we walked to the lake of the crater where we had a beautiful sight of the valley.
We returned to the bus and we drove all together to the La Paz Waterfalls. There we first walked through the marvelous butterfly house (mariposas) and had lunch. Thereafter we used a little path where we could gaze the incredible waterfalls (cataratas) and probably everybody get really wet.
In the evening we returned to our host families. Only three of us managed to explore the Saturday NightLife of San José.
by Birgit Quehenberger & Bettina Schabl
DAY 7 - RAFTING - Sunday, 12 February 2006
Our first Sunday in Costa Rica and we had to get up at 5 at the latest to meet at 6 o'clock. We started our trip twenty minutes later because when Flor's chicas left the house the alarm went on and so they were a little late. The before announced three-hours-ride lasted only one and a half hours. After that we had breakfast at the guides' station and got dressed for rafting. We were brought to the river with two little buses on a very bad road. We received some instructions and left in our boats for the adventure. Carina was the first one who swam in the water unwillingly after not even five minutes. The rafting was really fun and not as exhausting as we thought. At lunchtime all the boats met at one place and our guides prepared a really good meal. Then we got back in our boats and after some time we went swimming in a calm part of the river what was really great.
When we came back to the guides' station we were all soaking wet and a little tired. While getting dressed again in the bathroom we were all able to admire our sunburns, bruises and mosquito bites. Even though in the bus back home a lot of us fell asleep we still went out at night in a cerveceria but not too long.
by Annina TimmererDAY 8 - ULACIT AND EL CUARTEL - Monday, 13 February 2006
After having great fun at the weekend and we were motivated to start off a new and very exciting week in Costa Rica .
After the University Program finished, some of us spent their spare time with shopping in San José downtown, where a vast amount of different shops can be found; others prepared themselves for the courses and were busy checking their mail.
But whatever happened to the weather?
It was an extremely cold, rainy, cloudy and windy day, very untypical for the season. Although the weather was not the best, it is definitely more enjoyable than the temperatures in Austria . In the evening, we decided to go to "El Cuartel de la Bocca del Monte", a very nice bar in San José city. Every Monday they offer a live band and so we were given the opportunity to listen to typical Latin American music, and to get going with dancing the typical Latin American dances such as Salsa and Merengue, whilst enjoying the traditional "Tico" drink "Guaro". All these "factors" made this night a successful start into the second week in Costa Rica . I look forward to going out to such bars and get into contact with the open-minded and laid-back "Ticas" and "Ticos" in the very near future, not only to improve our Spanish, but also to get to know more people.
For some of us the day ended very, very, late the next morning or never ended. All in all it was a very thrilling day (and night)!
by Martin Zanner
DAY 9 - VALENTINE'S DAY - Tuesday, 14 February 2006
Today we started our courses after a very long, but great night in Cuartel del Monde. Weather is not like we supposed to be because it is cloudy and windy most of the time.
From 8:00 - 11:00 we had Organizational Behavior, which was a whole lot of theory, but still interesting. Our Spanish Course is one of the funniest classes I have ever attended. I really like the teacher (Edgar) and of course the language. Because of Valentine`s day some of us bought little presents for their guest families like flowers, chocolate, etc. and some of us also got presents from their guest families. So everybody enjoyed it!
The highlight from today were our Dancing Classes: At the beginning we only learned some basic steps of Salsa and Merenge, but after a while we tried dancing in pairs, which was a whole lot of fun. In the evening some of us went to Giros and some to El Sultan to celebrate Valentine`s day and to exercise our new learned dancing steps.
by Agnes Krizan
DAY 10 - ULACIT - Wednesday, 15 February 2006
Wednesday was a typical University day. We had Global Marketing from 09.00 to 10.40 with Francisco. We discussed about ideology, theocracy and the poltical environment. Later on, we made a small marketing research at Ulacit University.
>From 10.50 to 12.30, we listened to Jorge Godoy in Organizational Behavior. We made group discussions, talked about organizatinal effectiveness and watched a small film. In th afternoon, we had Spanish until 3 p.m. In the evening, we went to the Giros Bar in Tibas.
by Wilhelm Sigmund
DAY 11 - SOCCER - Thursday, 16 February 2006
The day started like every day. We had breakfast, gallo pinto as usual and cafecito. It was hardly possible to get out of bed, but nevertheless everybody was at ULACIT on (Tico)-time. First we had Global Marketing with our dearest friend Francisco. The main topics of the day were the political environment and international legal environment, that both are very important for Global Marketing. Then we have been taught by Jorge how to behave in organizations. And we gave him a detailed description what we have done "jazzterday". After a short break we enjoyed our Spanish lesson, que nos gustó mucho.
En la noche, we had the possibilidad to find out, if Austrian girls and our 3 hombres or Ticos are the better soccer players. In contrast to our national team we played quite good, and won the game even tough the Ticos hurt two of our male players. And as well during the game a tico child, about 9 years old, knocked out Annina, -nuestra delantera (goalgetter) muy importante. After this success everybody was very tired and so most of us decided to go to bed. Only some persons, that never know when it is enough, went (only for one beer as usual) to the "stylish" bar Migueleña.
Pura Vida.
by Monica Ruetgen
DAY 12 - PUNTARENAS - Friday, 17 February 2006
"Thank God it's Friday" everybody said
and classes over - we were so glad!
Going to Puntarenas was our mission
and we all shared the same vision:
beach, party, music, fun and dance -
getting of the big carneval a glance!
For our driver the bus ride was a cruel torture
and we shouldn't sing "I'm from Austria" like this in future.
"My heart will go on" was a complete disaster
"Fuerstenfeld" became a catastrophe even faster.
After arriving we were still the opposite of lazy,
ran to the sea and on the beach like crazy.
We enjoyed cervezas as well as the nice and warm weather
the pina colada in a pinapple was even better.
However, Cacique was the drink of the night
preferably with Coca Cola light.
As "machas" we were the attraction everywhere
although we didn't want the ticos to care.
We were dancing in bars and on the street,
eating pinchos - a stick with delicious meat.
After just a few hours in paradise
we had to leave early - which wasn't wise.
But no beautiful night can last forever
and we will forget this one definitely never!by Barbara Kellner
DAY 13 - VOLCAN ARENAL AND TABACON HOTSPRINGS - Saturday, 18 February 2006
Early in the morning we met at the Parque de Tibás in order to go away for the weekend. Before we arrived at the Volcan Arenal and Hot Springs at Tabacon Resort, we visited three towns (Grecia, Sarchí and Zarcero). In two of these towns we saw typical churches of Costa Rica. Their construction method differs from our churches in Austria. In Zarcero we made a lot of pictures with the wonderful background of the decorated trees. Furthermore we have already seen at our last trip special ox carts. In Sarchí we had the possibility to see, how these ox carts are produced. All of them are handmade and are lavishly decorated with a lot of colours. Naturally we passed a big souvenir shop and was it any wonder *g*, we visited it. After the shopping tour we achieved our hotel "Luigi's in La Fortuna", where we brought our suitcases in our rooms. Afterwards we drove to the Volcan Arenal. Unfortunately it was poor visibility. So we could only hear the noises of the Volcan, but did not see the active Volcan Arenal, which we have expected. Finally we were in the Tabacon Hot Springs. The hot springs within the natural environment were really great and we celebrated a "great day" and a "great stay at Costa Rica" at the pool with delicious cocktails. ¡Strawberry diquiri, per favor! ¡PURA VIDA! Back at the hotel we feel into a deep sleep! Some of us had a little party at the pool of our hotel.
by Claudia Vogl
DAY 14 - MONTEVERDE CANOPY - Sunday, 19 February 2006
On Sunday we had to get up early although we were heavily tired due to the exciting day before. The breakfast we enjoyed at our hotel gave us the power we needed to start the day.
The first object on our agenda was a trip on a catamaran boat across the Arenal Lake. So two buses came and got us to the lake. The trip was a beautiful and relaxing experience. Back on the other shore of the lake, some small buses brought us over a tiny road to Monteverde where we would do the Canopy Tour.
In Monteverde we had to overcome some organizational troubles. Although it was never out of control because of our experienced guide Augosto. So we started with the hiking tour on the really big bridges over the trees. Even some of us were able to catch a sight of some animals.
But after dinner the real trip was going on. Preparations for the Canopy tour were strictly done by our guides and us as well. The tour itself was just real fun. Hanging on a cable some 30 meters above the ground is a experience which not all of us were able to cope with.
by Gerald Schieszl
DAY 15 - ULACIT - Monday, 20 February 2006
It was a typical Monday morning at university. All of us were still exhausted from the weekend, but Francisco has his own method to keep us awake in fact with all his jokes and his good humor. His marketing class desires our whole attention during his lesson.
The more interesting part of the day was definitely the evening. Almost everybody was excited to go to "El Cuartel de la Bocca del Monte", where we went last Monday too. Describing that place is not necessary anymore because Martin did his job very well (13.2.)! For us it's the best location to go on Mondays, because we are dancing till we drop at 3 o'clock. In addition our group enjoyed the multicultural exchange with the ticas y ticos to the full.
Unfortunately there happened a little unintended accident with Olivia's fingers and the taxi door, but it looked worse than it was! Thank god!
In a nutshell our night was long and thrilling and our sleep was too short like almost every single night.Last but not least I have to say: Costa Rica es pura vida!!!
by Barbara Fuchs
DAY 16 - DANCING LESSON - Tuesday, 21 February 2006
The 9th day at university consisted of 3.5 hours Organizational Behavior with Jorge and through 2 interesting personal tests we discovered our personality a little more and how others see us.
After the lunch break we had our Spanish courses. In the short spare time after university most of us had to learn for the test in OB schedule d the following day or prepared a presentation for Global Marketing.
At 7 pm we met at the dancing school to broaden our recently gained salsa and merengue experiences. Probably because we had too few males Willi brought his host dog to join us. Unfortunately they locked the dog in the kitchen.
After the dancing class some of us went to a near bar to drink a "cerveza".
by Birgit Quehenberger & Bettina Schabl
DAY 17 - ULACIT - Wednesday, 22 February 2006
Escaping the bus after the usual shaky ride,all arrived punctual and more or less well rested at the ULACIT,where our courses as always started at 9:00 a.m.
At first we had Global Marketing with Francisco.
Our homework for today was finding out some macroeconomic data about a specific country. And so a diverting morning went by as we all presented the gathered informations.After a short break we had to write a test in Organizational Behavior,which took us about one hour and a half.
Then finally it was time for lunch.
Happy to spend some minutes in the sun,we carried our trays (loaded with warm mensa-food) out into the yard.Around one o`clock the programm continued with the Spanish lessons in smaller groups. Besides practising grammar,we played some funny games today and playfully got to recall the vocabulary.
Soon it was 3:00 p.m. - the beginning of Free Time.
Many of us rushed right up to the "laboratorio de computo" to check the emails about news from friends & families at home,while others walked up the small hill to the center of San Jose to take pictures of the vivacious city and buy more souvenirs (God only knows how all the stuff will fit in the already cram-full suitcases,when it`s time to fly back to Vienna...)After returning to our Tico-hostfamilies-houses in the evening,we let the day end in a bar or stayed at home and for example watched the well-known US TV-series C.S.I. "en espanol" by combining language-learning and relaxing in an nice way ;-)
by Andrea Streyhammer
DAY 18 - COOKING LESSON - Thursday, 23 February 2006
Day 18 we had again our economic and Spanish courses at ULACIT. Prof. Matamoros, Prof. Godoy and our spanish teachers teached with amibition their courses. After a strenuous university day the whole group and Carla went to the LOGOS institute at San Jose, where we had the chance to get to know some original dishes of Costa Rica. In the institute we were divided into groups. Each of the group had the task to prepare one of dishes. Our Tico-menu were composed of Tortillas con queso, Picadillo de chayote, Ensalada Rusa, Fresco caribeño and arroz con leche. We enjoyed the preparation of these dishes and also the common meal. After the cooking lesson some of us went out to a karaoke bar in Tibás.
by Claudia Vogl
DAY 19 - MUSEUM - Friday, 24 February 2006
After a very interesting day with Global Marketing in the morning, we were all looking forward to going to the National Museum of San José. We saw how the former 'Ticos' lived in their wooden houses, how they already had piercings but out of gold (!) and what animals they shot to survive. All very jealous that we can't have such nice >bracelets< as they had a looong long time ago, we left the Museum for going shopping (solamente para explorar mas de la cultura de Costa Rica.. ) of course only presents for our friends and family at home.. :)
The highlight in our night was not that we went partying (como cada noche..we are already used to it now..), but that we had a party at a Tico family. The very nice family of Agnes and Silvia invited the whole group to come over to them para festejar!:) Of course, we had a lot of fun.drinking Cacique and cerveza and very good and expensive Vodka, chatting with Ticos and being taught how to dance by a 9-year old girl (their host sister) who, of course can dance mejor que los Austriacos (which is not that hard..)
Really, it was a great Friday night but of course we went to bed early to be ready for the 4-hours-trip on Saturday..
Buenas noches!
by Olivia Mollatz
DAY 20 - PUERTO VIEJO - Saturday, 25 February 2006
We met - like we were already used to - at seven at the Parque de Tibàs. Surprisingly, nearly everybody was on time. Maybe that was not such a big surprise - who wants to be late for our first day at the beach.
We decided not to stop for breakfast or at any gift shops on our way to Puerto Viejo in order to save time. Although the trip took us about 4 hours, the time went by very fast because there were much things to see: rain forest, small waterfalls,.
After we had arrived at our nice, in the "jungle" situated hotel we quickly changed our clothes and went to the beach. The view was absolutely awesome! Although the sand is black the beach with the palm trees looks just like paradise. In addition we were all very impressed by the huge waves.
After a short walk on the beach we reached the small village Puerto Viejo where we had lunch and enjoyed the Caribbean atmosphere. We spent the rest of the afternoon either in the village or on the beach.
Because eating and drinking were very expensive at the hotel we decided to go to Puerto Viejo for diner. A good meal and a few cocktails later nearly everybody went to bed quite early. All of us wanted to be fit for our second day at the beach.
by Carina Ulrich
DAY 21 - CAHUITA - Sunday, 26 February 2006
Our day started with breakfast at approximately 8 am (¡que horrible!) and the incredible variety of the food (piñas, melons, bread, butter and marmalade) prepared us ideally for the stressful day.
We left our lovely hotel at 9 am (little delay due to some ants) and we went 20 kilometers by bus, what took us nearly one hour. Some of us were very sad that we didn't stop at any gift-shop but we had the possibility to see some apes hangin' around in the trees. Moreover Agosto's imitation of the apes amused us very much.
Eventually we arrived at Cahuita-National-Park and prepared ourselves (both physically and mentally) for the trip (applied some insecticides, bought food and drinks etc.).
After the careful preparation we started our walk. Everybody expected a nice airing through the rainforest, but it was lot more than that: walking through the muddy ground barefoot and dealing with 'very aggressive apes' (quotation Agosto), which nearly attacked us. In order to calm them we saw only one possibility: leaving them our food. Our plan succeeded and after a common lunch we had some new 'very dearest friends'. (even though they tried to steal some things by rummaging our bags).
After some unclarities we finally found a very nice beach where we could relax for some time and enjoy the beautiful view. Even though there were many interesting things to explore at the peninsula 'muy linda' some of us got bored and decided to arrange a 'crab-race' as the beach was full of mini-crabs. As all exciting things have to come to an end sometime, we left the lovely beach by boat and docked at another beach, which was more adequate for swimming and some beach-games.
At 4 pm we finally left the seaside, had dinner at a restaurant near the National-Park and afterwards some guys went to the shop in order to buy a survival-package for the ride back home to Tibás.
At 9 pm we arrived and even those that never know when it's enough were too weak to move their bodies to a bar and went home. Buenas noches, Austriacos!by Verena Matz
DAY 22 - ULACIT - Monday, 27 February 2006
After a nice relaxing weekend at the beach we all had a good start in the following week. University was great, but well.. its Monday again.. let's take a look in our calendar..
Lunes -> El Cuartel de la Bocca del Monte -> Baile! Baile! Baile!
We met at 8 o'clock at Martin's and my place (meanwhile a little tradition) to chat and drink "Jägermeister" (which we were very surprised to find in Costa Rica ..) in order to then go together to the great bar.. This time we even managed it without stupid accidents with taxi-doors..
Arriving there, the great Live-band was already playing Reggaeton, Salsa and Reggae. Very quick all Austriacos became part of the dancing crowd, singing "lo que pasó pasó", "ven bailalo", etc etc.. proud to know "un poco" of the lyrics and as well how to dance (finally.after 2 dancing lessons.. :) )
Moreover we all knew that this would be our last time in our so well beloved "el cuartel" where really EVERYONE dances (and - in contrast to (muchachos) Austriacos - knows how to do it), sings (as far as one knows the spanish lyrics..but WE are doing really fine..) and has fun! So we danced and danced and danced. Like the night would never stop. But unfortunately it did.
Like every Monday it was a great night in the Cuartel and I'm sure we will definitely miss this bar back in Austria !
Buenas Noches! (..o mejor: Buena Mañana! ...)
by Olivia Mollatz
DAY 23 - ULACIT - Tuesday, 28 February 2006
As the two Tuesdays before, this day is the day of "organizational behavior". The theme of the day was "managing planned change". More particularly we worked together on the question "What do the change agent change?" and the three step model of Lewin. The next 45 minutes we had time to work out a case study in our groups. After break every group made a little presentation in front of the class to show their conclusions. And due to the fact that we were so good, we were given a longer lunch break, which increased the mood of all students - obviously -.
The Spanish course was not as usual, at least in my class, because we listened to Spanish music and had the possibility to improve our listening comprehension. By the way the group was called "Maná" and I am sorry Andreas, but girls just like to listen to this type of music ;-)
Babsi K., Geri and Martin were the three bravest of the group. They went bungee jumping in the afternoon and I do not think that I am able to describe their feelings of the moment they were standing on top of the bridge looking down. As so often pictures are saying more than words - see attached.
by Sylvia Stockhammer
DAY 24 - ULACIT - Wednesday, 1 March 2006
Today was Wednesday the 1st of March and we began the day with "Global Marketing". In that 1 st class all of us had to present their newly introduced products. We were divided into six groups with the following product-presentations of: "BABA-butter", "ILA-instituto de lengua alemána", "El mundito de Nieve", "Mozartkugeln to Japan", "Vinum & Census" and "Ironless". Everybody showed a lot of creativity in its presentations by videos, photos and jokes J
In the 2 nd class we had "Organizational Behaviour" and did three case studies in groups. It was our last day at University therefore we all were very relaxed and had a lot of fun with our Professor Jorge. At the end of our lecture class we took a group-photo in order to remember this wonderful time.
Afterwards everybody had her/his last Spanish class. In my group we translated some songs from a very popular music-group called: "Maná" - Thanks to our Spanish teacher Maria for her patience to translate every single phrase J
At 3 p.m all students met in the room 206 in order to get the certificates and to say goodbye to Fabienne, Phillip, Karla and the other Spanish teachers.
In the afternoon we did what nearly everybody did after University: we skyped or wrote e-mails at the laboratory :)
by Silvia Kneifel
DAY 25 - AUSTRIAN EVENING - Thursday, 2 March 2006
Today was our last day in San José and therefore it started with packing our bags. For some of us (for those who didn't buy extra bags ;-)) it was hard to find enough space for all the souvenirs, coffee, . we wanted to bring to Austria .
In the afternoon the preparations for the Austrian Evening started. With a typical Austrian Evening we wanted to thank our host families and teachers for all their efforts and hospitality during the last four weeks and, in return, to show them a little bit of the Austrian culture. In different groups we prepared a presentation about Austria and its different regions, dances and entertainment, Austrian drinks and typical Austrian food. Our food-group worked the whole afternoon (under very poor conditions!) to prepare "Schnitzel", "Kartoffel- and Gurkensalat", "Käsespätzle", "Sacherschnitten" and "Apfelkuchen" for nearly 120 persons while the others were busy arranging the rest.
But our job paid well: our host families were thrilled. All our guests liked the Austrian Evening very much and we had a wonderful evening all together.
For some of us, the party ended very, very late and in the end, most of us were sorry about saying good bye.
However there are still some more days to come - and finally we are going to the beach again!
by Christina Sampt
DAY 26 - GOOD BYE SAN JOSE - Friday, 3 March 2006
And now, the end is near, and so we face the final curtain...
It was our last day in Tibas and unfortunately it was also time to say goodbye to our host families. Unbelievable that a month could pass by that quickly and so most of us didn't realise that it was the last time we spent with our host families!
Although everybody was sad because we had to leave, we were looking forward to go to Manuel Antonio on the pacific coast to have some relaxing days at the beach.
Moreover some of us still needed a nice suntan, to get jealous glances when we come back to Austria.After a four-hour bus trip (accompanied like usually by Bob Marley) we arrived at our hotel in Manuel Antonio, where we had to change our clothes and store our luggage in only one room because the other rooms weren`t ready.
One hour later we finally arrived at the beach, just dropped into the sand or ran as quickly as possible into the sea.
Manuel Antonio is a small but charming village which could be easily defined as a paradise. Incredible blue sea, white sand, everywhere palm trees and friendly and funny people.And so everybody hoped that this weekend at Manuel Antonio would never end and some of us made plans about their future life at the beach.
Before going back to the hotel to change our clothes, we all watched together the amazing sunset.
At night we had dinner in some of the delicous restaurants and afterwards we went all together to the "Coconuts Bar", where the ladies got free drinks at that night.
Eased by the atmosphere and the alcohol we started dancing to the cool music and we had a unique experience. Our tour guide Agosto showed us his glorious dancing skills J .Although this evening ended really early for our measures (11 o'clock), we went to bed with a smile on our faces because we had a ripping good time.
Last but not least, special thanks to Justin, the portiere, of our hotel, because he took good care of our ladies!
by Martina Sommer
DAY 27 - MANUEL ANTONIO - Saturday, 4 March 2006
Our second day in paradise ( it is an equal word for Manuel Antonio)!
We woke up in an air-conditioned room and for breakfast we got (apart from gaillo pinto) good tasting cheese and sausages (some of us didn't get this for 4 long weeks!!!).
After this great breakfast we went to the Beach (by bus with Bob!) and enjoyed a great day inside the amazing national park of Manuel Antonio . I've never seen a more impressive beach. Lying on the white sandy beach and watching the turquoise sea we really felt like being in paradise. Some of us were a little bit afraid of the monkeys, coati or the iguanas that dropped by but most of us were charmed by this cute animals.
Unfortunately at 4 o'clock we had to leave the beach inside the national park and most of us went out to have dinner. After dinner we enjoyed the amazing sunset with melancholy (we won't see such a great sunset for a long long time).
That's how the day ended for most of us. Some went out again but came back soon. I think all of us fell asleep with a smile on our faces. Apart from the sunburn we got it was a great day!
by Barbara Bicker
DAY 28 - MANUEL ANTONIO - Sunday, 5 March 2006
It was our last day at the pacific coast, the last day in paradise. The morning started with a delicious breakfast and then we began to leave the rooms.
The bus took us to the beach at about 10 a.m. Some of us stayed there and the others went to the national park "Manuel Antonio" again.
We enjoyed a happy and very nice day there. At about 3 p.m. the bus took us back to the hotel. There we had four rooms, filled up with our stuff and only one shower in each room. We were in a hurry and had only one hour to get a shower.
After that we put the suitcases in the bus and travelled back to San José . There we got back to the rooms, we checked in, in the hotel Green House. The major part of the group went to downtown and drank some cocktails and beer and chilled out.
by Monika Wieder
DAY 29 - TAKE OFF - Monday, 6 March 2006
Between 8 and 9 am the most of us had their last gallo pinto at "casa verde" (the green hose), exactly the same place, where we ate our first gallo pinto. We met at 11:30 am, so we had enough time to go shopping to "masXmenos" and to finish our packing.
We were expected to leave at 12am to the airport, but one of us spend the night at her host family's house and took a taxi to the "green house" and had to get to know, that there is another "green house" in San Jose. After a 45 min. trip in the taxi she finally arrived to our "green house".
But due to our perfect time management the short delay was absolutely no problem. At the way to the airport we picked our guide Agost up. Who told us, that he loves us a lot. At the airport we had to say goodbye to our tutors Olivia and Martin. After we paid the taxes and did the check-in, we had to say goodbye to Costa Rica too.
At ~3pm we left beautiful, warm Costa Rica. On our "trip" from San Jose to Vienna we stopped in Orlando to do the security check and change plane. From Orlando we left to Amsterdam (~8h flight), where we had a 3h stay. When the plane finally took off, we were only 90 minutes away from Vienna.
Back in Vienna we had to say goodbye to our new friends, with whom we spent one month with and we had/have to go back to normal.
But I can certainly say, that Costa Rica was a great experience for us all!!!
by Katharina Radlinger
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