I was a guest at the U.S. Embassy today! It was really, really cool to say the least. We couldn't take in electronic devices, had to show our passports, had our baggage searched and went through a metal detector. Only 5 of us were allowed in the entry booth at a time. We had four speakers, each of whom works for different agencies in the Embassy: one from cultural affairs, one from economics, one from environment and one from the office that helps Americans while they are visiting Costa Rica. I learned a lot and it was pretty darn cool to be in the Embassy. Wish I had pictures!
We had two other lectures today (and, yes, I took notes! I am a good student). The first speaker was a scientist (Dr. Pedro Leon) who was an advisor to the former President of Costa Rica. He spoke to us about Costa Rica's environmental goals as far as becoming "carbon neutral" by the year 2021.
Our final speaker was the Minister of Education, Dr. Leonardo Garnier. He had quite an interesting perspective on education - Costa Rica has a lot of the same issues that the U.S. has, but more on that when I return!
For dinner, a bunch of us decided to go for Thai food - I know, go to Central America, get Thai, doesn't make sense, but we have 10 more days of Costa Rican food, so we thought we'd change it up a bit. Let me just say that 12 Americans plus a map of San Jose does not equal an easy trek! We finally found the place and the food was great, totally worth the 10 block circle!
More to come, we are headed to sn affluent school and then EARTH University tomorrow and our first real hike!
Pura vida!
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