Today was a long day of planning. Through the morning we finished informational booklets, in the afternoon we designed experiments, and we began heavy revisions to experimental design in the evening to accommodate for our lack of a hardcore chemistry laboratory. Evidently, science involves more bug bites and fewer test tubes than stock images would suggest. Enjoy that cutesy line.

I keep responding to people either in French, or in English with a Spanish accent, as if that helps the understanding. I don’t claim to understand why my brain’s instincts are the way they are; I can merely observe them. Regardless, it’s slightly humiliating to tote around a six-year-old as your translator. Ce la vie. The other approach is to learn three words, and use them exclusively. It’s shocking how far “Gracias”, “Hola”, and “De nada” will get you, assuming you mix in enough pointing, grunting, and hand waving.

Eddie, my new friend in Costa Rica the tour bus driver who says “hello and pura vida” to all of you, has been trying to teach me Spanish to limited success.

572.044 colones are a USD. Everything in town is cheap, but the gift shops maintain their strict gift shop code of being overpriced, although the Costa Ricans appear to follow the secret pagan codebook less stringently, with only moderate price inflation.

So far we plan to subject ants to long mazes, squash and smear them around, kidnap and rob from them, and kick in their homes. Hopefully they’ll be understanding in the name of science.

Communism/Socialism: “Great Idea. Wrong Species.” - E. O. Wilson

Pura Vida

Charlie y Alex