Next Month Will Be The One Year Anniversary Of The PACE Launch!

- Shadows of the ocean.🐋 Photo: @itookthisphotograph #oceanfilmtour #oceanlovers #underwaterphoto #whale #oceanlife #marinelife #ocean

Waves Crashing Sunset By Scraft | More

Daily Life

Weekdays

Weekends

Buses

Food

Daily life here in Costa Rica, at least for me, is not necessarily all that different or much more exciting than daily life in the U.S. The major difference is since my workload is a lot lighter here, I have a lot more free time.

A typical week may play out like this. Every day, I usually get up between 7:30-8:00 am. Even on weekends when I don’t have plans, my body is used to waking up early and I usually never sleep to my alarm. This may be because the sun is always up my 6:00 am and my internal body clock has just adjusted to this. On Monday, I don't have class until 1 pm, but I usually don't get home until 7:30-8:00 pm, which makes Monday my busiest day. I usually spend the first half of the day doing random stuff, unless I have something I need to prepare for a class, such as an exam or presentation. On Tuesday, I have class at 10:00 am until 11:40 am, and I have a break to go back home and eat lunch before I have my other class at 3:00 pm, which usually is a little under two hours.  

By Tuesday night, I usually pretty tired (since Monday is always a long day) and I don't do too much since I have no class on Wednesday. This makes Wednesday a day to relax or get a head start on work for Thursday and Friday. Occasionally, I have gone on day trips. For example, one week I went somewhere with my host mom for the day and last week, I went to San José to visit two museums. The rest of my week is really easy class wise, with only one class Thursday and Friday, with both starting at 10:00 am.  

On weekends, I've gone on quite a few trips, some sponsored by IFSA and some as a part of a class. Otherwise, I may go a few places with my host parents, do watch, or watch a few things on Netflix.  

In order to get around, I usually take the bus. I live in Barva and la Universidad Nacional is in Heredia, so I always need to take the bus to get to and from class. One round trip costs about $0.35, and it can take anywhere from 10-30 minutes for the bus to get from Barva to Heredia or vice versa, but it usually takes about 15-20 minutes. Other buses, to San José for example, cost a bit more, but still under $1 one way usually unless it's a few hour trip. That being said, if you plan out which buses you need to take, it is pretty easy to get around, even if you're used to having a car like me.

With my host family, breakfast usually consists of eggs a mix of rice and beans called gallo pinto. We usually have freshly-squeezed orange juice as well, and my host parents also drink coffee. We sometimes have cereal or an egg sandwich too. Lunch and dinner are usually pretty similar, and almost always include rice and beans (a staple in Costa Rica). Sometimes my host mom needs to make food that's a little bit different for me because I'm a vegetarian. We almost always have either some type of fruit juice, usually made of cas, but sometimes mango, pineapple, or watermelon, or iced tea. I usually like everything my host mom makes. I don't have to do any of my own laundry, which is very different from college in the U.S. If my host mom does not do it, the maid that comes on Mondays and Fridays comes.

Meet “the sheep of the Mesozoic,” Protoceratops andrewsi. This herbivore was a very common animal and is remarkably well-represented in the fossil record.

Goals

Schedule

Senior year

Grad School

Job

The main topic of this post is my professional goals, but before I get to that, I want to address short term goals, and how my study abroad experience is affecting them. If anyone is reading this and is considering going abroad but is waiting for the best time, stop it. There will never be a perfect time to go abroad.  

When I was trying to decide when I would go abroad, I wanted to pick a semester would not dramatically impact affect my biology major and a semester where I would have taken enough Spanish classes to feel ready. And from the beginning I decided to wait until my Junior Year. Fast forward to now and there are more biology classes offered this semester than last semester, and I don't think an extra semester of Spanish has made much of a difference in my speaking capabilities. There are other things at Susquehanna that I am missing this semester.

BUT going abroad will always throw a wrench in your schedule. It's impossible to choose a perfect time, because you will miss something (a class, an event, a holiday, etc...). But don't let that discourage you from going abroad because the experience will be worth it. Just keep in mind what you are gaining outweighs any scheduling conflicts.  

My shortest term goals after this semester ends is having a successful Senior Year, since all of my goals after college depend on this. This includes successfully completely my biology major and Senior Research, my Spanish capstone, finishing my minors, and being a successful Senior Community Assistant. The only one I am not worried about at all is my Spanish capstone, since this study abroad will drastically improve my command of the language. I am taking courses here that will transfer for my biology major, which is a big scheduling relief. I think in general, this experience is improving, and will continue to improve, my problem solving skills since I am basically learning how to live in a different country more or less on my own.

And now finally my long term(ish) goals. Science students are underrepresented in study abroad programs because it is harder to accommodate our busier schedules (see rant above), courses that we need are usually harder to come by abroad, etc... So that puts me in a second groups of students that are underrepresented in study abroad programs, which will be very useful when I start applying to graduate schools for marine biology/biological oceanography. Also, in one of my courses here, we have trips to biological reserves, which even though they are terrestrial, will still help. And knowing a second language is useful in basically every field, especially if I would have to travel somewhere for research and Spanish is widely spoken (i.e. a large portion of Latin America). Even though my science classes are a bit more difficult right now since I don’t know all of the terminology in Spanish, it will be worth it in the end and will be better than only taking central curriculum courses here (which I don't need anyway).

All of this is also true when I'm ready to finally start applying for jobs (probably at a government agency or a university). There's probably more ways that this experience will benefit me vocationally then I realize now.

Milky Blue Water Near Prince of Wales Island

Phytoplankton are more than just nature’s watercolors: They’re tiny ocean organisms that play a key role in Earth’s climate by removing heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. These tiny organisms live in the oceans, absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, like plants on land. Earth’s oceans absorb about half of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which feeds phytoplankton.

This year, phytoplankton blooms popped up in the panhandle region of Alaska and along the coast of British Columbia slightly later in the year than the main blooms that tend to occur in May.

This image was acquired on July 21, 2018, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on our Terra satellite and shows milky blue waters near Prince of Wales Island. The discoloration is thought to be caused by a bloom of non-toxic phytoplankton known as coccolithophores, specifically Emiliania huxleyi, which like warm, stratified, and low nutrient conditions.

This week, our Export Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) team is shipping out into the open ocean to study these important organisms, sailing 200 miles west from Seattle into the northeastern Pacific Ocean.

Read more about the image and learn more about the EXPORTS campaign here: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/expedition-probes-ocean-s-smallest-organisms-for-climate-answers

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

A shark on a reef is a definite sign that the reef is healthy! Years ago people were terrified if the saw a shark, now were horrified that we may not see sharks on the reef or anywhere, because we have killed over 90% in the last 50 years. We must end to this needless slaughter! Sharks are essential to keeping our oceans healthy and in balance! The oceans are the heart of our planet! Over 50% of the air we breath and 70% of the protein we eat comes from the ocean. Without our the ocean all life on this planet will die. Please be the change the world needs to survive!

Best immediate way to save sharks here in the US…Support Oceanas Shark Fin Trade Ban! Please sign, share the petition and support this effort! https://www.change.org/p/congress-ban-the-trade-of-shark-fins-in-the-u-s - #regrann (at Tiger Beach)

Blooms in the Baltic

Every summer, phytoplankton – microscopic plant-like organisms – spread across the North Atlantic, with blooms spanning hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles. Nutrient-rich, cooler waters tend to promote more growth among marine plants and phytoplankton than is found in tropical waters. Blooms this summer off Scandinavia seem to be particularly intense.

On July 18, 2018, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired a natural-color image of a swirling green phytoplankton bloom in the Gulf of Finland, a section of the Baltic Sea. Note how the phytoplankton trace the edges of a vortex; it is possible that this ocean eddy is pumping up nutrients from the depths.

Though it is impossible to know the phytoplankton type without sampling the water, three decades of satellite observations suggest that these green blooms are likely to be cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), an ancient type of marine bacteria that capture and store solar energy through photosynthesis (like plants).

In recent years, the proliferation of algae blooms in the Baltic Sea has led to the regular appearance of “dead zones” in the basin. Phytoplankton and cyanobacteria consume the abundant nutrients in the Baltic ¬and deplete the oxygen. According to researchers from Finland’s University of Turku, the dead zone this year is estimated to span about 70,000 square kilometers (27,000 square miles).

Read more: https://go.nasa.gov/2uLK4aZ

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

Evo-Devo (Despacito Biology Parody) -  A Capella Science

This is how we go from single cells to people.