Here we go!

As I've pushed off writing this for so long, my recollection of the first two weeks of Costa Rica will most likely be out of order and spotty. Instead of journaling like most sane people, my written recollection is a simple note on my iPhone. My list consists of gems such as 'fruit presentation' and 'boating on ocean', so its understandable that the first thing I wrote on that note was, "Aki, stop being a lazy ass and write this down for real."

So, here I am, with only my mind and my terrible annotations to go off of. Here we go.

The first thing I did when I arrived in Costa Rica was lose five dollars. I came out of my terminal happy and excited, and one of the first things I saw was a currency conversion station. I walked up and converted around $100 at the rate of 450 Colones per dollar. No less than five minutes later when I exited the airport and met Kathy, who is essentially our 'mom', I found out that the exchange rate was in fact 500 Colones to a dollar. Apparently I could have exchanged money literally anywhere else in Costa Rica and gotten a better rate, the guys at the front desk of our hotel in San Jose would have given me ~475 Colones to a dollar.

 My second financial mistake came around 40 minutes later when I was checking in. I was told that I could get internet access for $6 a day, an offer which I jumped on as I am largely connected while at home. Again, no less than five minutes later, I was told that there was free Wifi both in the lobby and on the sixth floor. With roughly $17 dollars ( I paid for access for two days) down the drain in my first two hours of being in Costa Rica, I finally learned that you should try and not be an idiot with your money, especially when you're already a poor college student. However, I did buy a hacky sack two days later so that I could get a Costa Rican native to fill out a survey (something my partners did by doing the normal thing and simply asking them to do so), so think what you want about my financial savvyness (is that a word?)

Anyways, as promised, here's a photo. I think its a monument commemorating a global conference that occurred in San Jose some years ago. I don't recall what conference it was for because I was too busy running inside of it. Oops.