The highlight of April was Earth Week, the 14^th through the 22^nd (Earth Day), in which Greenfield hosted a bunch of fun events to celebrate Earth appreciation and awareness of environmental issues.  The week began with La Casa Verde, a green building festival at the Saturday farmers’ market in McMinnville, put on by a local building company.  Members of Greenfield volunteered throughout the day setting up, running errands, and doing various activities for kids, such as art projects and face paint.  During the week, we watched a new documentary from the Sierra Club called Revenge of the Electric Car, about the race among car companies to come out with viable electric vehicles.  We also made posters to promote the Tap That campaign to end bottled water sales on campus.  Just this week we hung them over water fountains in many buildings on campus.  As part of Global Youth Service Day on the 21^st, Greenfield went to volunteer at the McMinnville community garden, where we pulled tarps off raised garden beds and spread compost.  On Earth Day we hiked to a waterfall in nearby Metzger Park, and then had a potluck and composted our food waste.  The following weekend, I also led a small group to Salem to pull ivy in a former state park, which was a lot of fun.  I am enthusiastic about organizing ivy-pulling groups for the fall semester, as a way to get new club members involved.

Aside from being super busy with Greenfield, I’ve also been swamped with class work.  It seems as though a lot of my friends are in the same boat, leading me to think it has something to do with junior year.  My main issue is that I have had or still have group projects in three of my four academic classes.  I hate group projects with a passion because I like to be completely in control of anything that potentially impacts my grade.  So my stress level tends to shoot through the roof any time I’m in a group project.  I am excited, nonetheless, to only have one final exam this semester, in Environmental Economics.  Unfortunately, that means I have a lot of term papers due at the same time.

I had the opportunity to attend a dinner with a handful of professors and students and a marine biologist who came to speak on campus named Wallace J. Nichols.  He is an extremely intelligent man who has been an environmental activist and scientist his entire career.  I was unable to attend the lecture, but I was very happy to have been able to have dinner with him and learn about his extensive work.  Also, I had the best meal ever from the dining hall, which actually can make really good food.

I am once again amazed that the end of the semester is coming up fast.  As ready as I am to be done with the perpetual onslaught of schoolwork for a while, I would like more time to hang out with friends that are graduating.  I keep being reminded that next year I will be graduating, which I’m not ready to talk about!  Next fall my course load will be less intense.  I am only going to have twelve academic class credits, and then I will be getting credits for swimming, choir, and community service with the Spanish department.  I am excited about this community service class, although at this point I do not know exactly what it will entail!

Linfield M.E.Ch.A. and Statewide Board

When I was in high school my mentors often encouraged me to go to leadership conferences. I attended at least two per year. These conferences were often the highlight of my year. We got to load into a bus and visit different colleges and high schools around Oregon. I always loved meeting other students from different schools and feeling a sense of community. I also remember going to workshops and just admiring the presenters. They always seemed so accomplished, smart and giving. I silently told myself, one day I would stand where they were. Like them, I wanted to reach my goals and be able to come back and inspire youth. I wanted to tell high school students the importance of an education and help them pursue it. Well that someday came faster than I thought  as this April Linfield had the privilege of hosting the annual M.E.Ch.A Leadership Institute.

This institute is put on by M.E.Ch.A Statewide, a nonprofit connecting high school M.E.Ch.A. students to higher education. As M.E.ChA. is also an organization that supports the Latino community, I have been involved with this group since freshman year of high school. This organization developed my confidence, academics and leadership throughout high school. That’s why I was instantly thrilled when our Linfield M.E.Ch.A group was asked to host and I was asked to be a presenter. I presented a workshop about how to mediate conflict within chapters. It was such a rewarding feeling to stand in front of Latino youth and remind them how powerful they are. Standing there, I remembered back to my silent vow many years ago and couldn’t stop smiling. It’s funny, when I co-founded the M.E.Ch.A chapter at Linfield; I never thought we would get such an amazing opportunity in our second year. I am so proud of our group members for working hard and our presidents for keeping us unified. Helping host the leadership institute, is one of those wildcat moment s I will never forget!

This month I was kept busy studying a lot, so I was really glad to head home for spring break!  I have a feeling that I will have a lot more schoolwork after break, since several of my classes will have term papers and I will have a couple large projects, too.  This month I was letting myself get stressed out, and not getting enough sleep on a regular basis, so I needed the break to catch up on rest.  I’m very glad I had the opportunity to just hang out at home and relax.  I got to catch up with some cousins and friends, see a couple of movies, and celebrate my mom’s birthday.

My co-presidents of Greenfield Club and I planned a retreat for the club this month which we held at a nearby farm on St. Patrick’s Day.  Although many club members were too busy with schoolwork and such to spend all day away from campus, we had a successful retreat nonetheless.  We participated in two fantastic trainings from the Northwest Institute for Community Enrichment, or the NICE, which focused on sustainability, developing visions and goals, and how to carry those visions into reality.  The trainings were inspirational and it was refreshing to spend the day away from school on a beautiful farm.  I also had a lot of fun buying and preparing a burrito feast for the retreat.  We overestimated the amount of food people would eat by quite a bit.  I made more rice and grated more cheese than I had ever done at one time before!

The student senate voted early in the month on a proclamation to support ending the sale of bottled water on campus.  This proclamation was created as part of a campaign against bottled water led by two friends, Annika Yates and Collin Morris.  I went with them and other members of Greenfield to participate in the senate debate about the proclamation before the vote.  The debate was interesting, and we were frustrated by some determined opposition, but we felt we made a strong case in favor of the proclamation.  The senate passed the proclamation, which is a great step forward for the campaign.  The proclamation shows that the student body, represented by the senate, supports getting rid of bottled water, and it can now be taken to the administration and food service.  Bottled water is ecologically unsound and, let’s be honest, a waste of money when we have wonderful tap water in Oregon.  Plastic waste and pollution is a serious issue that we need to stand against, and I feel strongly that Linfield is on the right path towards reducing its environmental impact by banning bottled water.

Study abroad orientation for next year’s study abroad participants was also this month.  I was asked to moderate the panel of returnees, which allows students to get advice and answers about studying abroad from other students.  My role was to ask the questions of the panel, pass the microphone around to them, and watch the time.  I was nervous that it would be difficult to pace the questions in the time allotment, but it really wasn’t hard and it went well.  It was fun to be a part of the orientation, and I hope the panel was informative and got the students more excited about studying abroad.  I remember being ridiculously excited when I was at the orientation last year

I am headed back to McMinnville and feeling recharged for the second half of the semester.  I am excited for planning Earth Week and for the weather to get nice!  As much as I love winter, I am ready for it to stop randomly snowing, especially since measuring trees is really cold in the snow!

I come from a very large family and love the feeling of a full house. Recently, however, my big family has been getting even bigger with the arrival of two new babies. As I look forward to the babies’ lives, I ask myself what advice I will give them when they prepare to go off to college. I think back on my own experiences at Linfield and how life changing they’ve been. At Linfield I am surrounded by a network of people that care about me, from the classroom and my work study job to my friends. It may seem silly to be thinking about their college endeavors before they can even talk but the more I learn the more I realize education needs a lot of planning. In fact, I saw a perfect example of this during a recent visit from the Adelante Chicas.

This group of young ladies, 3^rd-12^th graders, are part of the Mujeres Adelente youth initiative. This initiative aims to aid Latina girls in developing leadership skills, building a strong cultural identities and achieving academic success.  This is actually the first program of its kind in Oregon and Linfield was lucky enough to host a campus visit. As I toured the girls around campus I felt so proud of them. Still in elementary school and here they were, getting acquainted with their future dreams. To me they are the perfect example of pioneers, taking risks and looking to better their communities. I often look for opportunities to do this in my own life. I believe taking those risks is important. That’s why I recently applied to travel to Costa Rica for a January Term in 2013. The final decisions are to be announced after spring break; a much enjoyed time back home for me. This year’s spring break consisted of many movies, games of tag in the park and spending time with the growing family. I must say though, after a week of going to the park, I believe scientist should find a way to transfer children’s energy to college students, especially during finals!

With the start of this spring semester, I am adjusting to having a full course load in the US after having been in Costa Rica for the fall semester.  I am taking Environmental Economics, Environmental Problem Solving (the capstone class for Environmental Studies majors), Environmental Policy, Bioethics, and Women’s Ensemble.  I am glad I can be in the women’s ensemble because it is a lot of fun and I sadly could not rejoin the concert choir due to scheduling conflicts.  I am enjoying all of my classes so far.  In Environmental Problem Solving we are continuing a project started in the class last year, in which we are measuring all of the trees on campus and calculating how much carbon is stored in them.  I chose to take Bioethics because I wanted to take at least one philosophy class at Linfield to see what it was like, and I am finding it interesting.  The one thing I don’t love about my class schedule is that Environmental Economics is at 8:15 Monday through Thursday.  College life is just not conducive to going to bed early enough to get a good eight hours of sleep.  I really can’t complain though, because I don’t have class at all on Fridays, which is really nice!

I came back from Costa Rica and got straight into the pool to get back into shape for the end of the swimming season, which was hard but fun.  I caught a persistent cold over Jan term break, so I didn’t go into Conference Championships feeling top notch, but non-the-less did better than I expected myself to given the circumstances.  Conference was the first weekend of the semester at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Washington.  It was the only overnight travel meet I got to attend with the team this year because of being abroad.  Now that swimming is over, I am working again with the Kids on the Block afterschool care program at Columbus Elementary two days a week.  I love having a job that gets me off campus for a few hours, and I love getting to unwind with some good old-fashioned dodge ball.

I volunteered to be one of three co-presidents of Greenfield, the environmental club on campus, this semester.  I am extremely excited about this and I really want to see the club make significant achievements this semester and build its membership base.  We are currently researching for a campaign to replace leaf blower use at Linfield with more sustainable alternatives.  Leaf blowers are very environmentally unsound, and people strongly dislike them because they’re simply annoying, too.  This will be a challenging project, since grounds keeping does not at present have the capacity to rake up all the leaves that accumulate during the fall.  They must keep the sidewalks meticulously clear for liability reasons.  But I hope that we can figure out a way to eliminate the need for the leaf blowers, because it would make our campus more serene and reduce the school’s carbon footprint.  We are also planning Earth Week, a week full of educational and fun activities centered around Earth Day in April.

Working with students

Between classes, work, and Greenfield, I am very busy.  The swim team is wrapping up our intramural basketball season, which is always great fun and slightly embarrassing because we play basketball so terribly.  I am also going to be moderating the panel of returnees from study abroad trips at the study abroad orientation for the students going abroad next fall and spring.  I am excited to be involved with the orientation because I loved my study abroad experience so much.  It’s hard to believe that I’ve gone and come back already, after spending so much time dreaming about going!

My first trip to London

After being away for five months, I return back to the familiar tracks of a wildcat. I can still remember September and the excitement I felt as I mentally prepared for the University of Nottingham, England.  I knew it was going to be a challenge but I left fully armed with enthusiasm and optimism. My time abroad was unforgettable. I got to experience things I only dared to dream of.  I got to immerse myself in a new way of life and discovered the true value of cultural competency. I got to experience many different countries as I traveled in England, Scotland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic and France. With each country came a new lesson; everything from learning how to say thank you in German to reading a menu in French.

Taken during our Christmas break through Europe. This was one of my favorite cities Prague.

The memories and friendships I made while I was away, I will treasure for the rest of my life. It is rarely easy to venture from the familiar into the unknown, yet the result is well worth it. My time abroad was amazing but I must add being away also gave me an immense appreciation for home. I missed my family, friends, mentors, classmates, professors, everyone, I couldn’t wait to get back! The University of Nottingham is also much bigger than Linfield making academic connections difficult. I am very happy to be back on campus where there is a strong sense of community. Needless to say, the transition back has been fairly easy. I have had a bit of trouble staying focused and settling into a normal sleeping pattern but then again, as college students, those are normal problems to have. While there are a few things I need to get use too again, I am gladly working through them because this is where I want to be. I love Oregon and I love Linfield and all it has to offer. Through this experience I have seen how truly blessed I am and what a great place Linfield is to be!

This month I returned to campus for Beginning Acting and starting the swimming season when it was almost over.  The month has been a lot of fun and it went by nearly as fast as time flew in Costa Rica (but not quite!).  I am now living in one of the HP suburb apartments, which is great.  I love cooking my own meals rather than putting up with cafeteria food.  It has been a little hard to adjust to being back in the US, and I miss being in Costa Rica a lot.  I miss that everything we did there was an adventure, and I especially miss my host family.  Thankfully there has been plenty of catching up to do with friends here that has kept me entertained!  Practices for swimming have been tough since I was not in shape coming back.  I’m just starting to feel in okay shape again, but now our season is almost over.  I’m so glad that going abroad is so supported by the swimming program.  The coaches are flexible and they want you to have great experiences abroad, and welcome you back in whatever shape you’re in.  My class this term was a blast.  I’ve always liked theater, so it was really fun to take acting and learn more about it.  I was laughing through class almost every day, and always looked forward to going.  This has probably been one of my favorite classes at Linfield, even though it has nothing to do with my major.  Plus, it was only three days a week so it was a good transition back to life at Linfield.  I’m now hanging out on campus for Jan term break, for swimming, which is a nice relaxing week with nothing but practice, food, and movies!

The first two weeks of December were my last two weeks in Costa Rica.  They were filled with mixed emotions.  I was excited to see my family and friends in the states, but very sad to be leaving behind the new friends I’d made.  I was ready for some probably much-needed down time, but not ready for the adventures of life in a foreign country to be over.  We finished our final exams, presentations, etc., and spent the last two weekends in San Ramón.  I went with my host family to a nearby volcano, Poás, which was impressive even though it was so cloudy and foggy that we couldn’t see into the crater at all.  On December 7^th, I participated in the traditional activity celebrating the conception of the virgin Mary, in which the people of San Ramón run through the streets trying to catch candies, or melcochas de María, which people throw from buildings and houses.  This takes place after dark, and there are a ton of people.  So many people pack themselves so close to where candies are thrown that no one can really move.  And when the candies that don’t get caught fall to the ground, everyone bends over to pick them up, although there is even less room for everyone all bent over.  I went with my 8-year-old host sister, and I was a bit afraid of losing her in the sea of people.  We had a blast, however, and managed to grab a few candies (it was harder than it seemed).  When we arrived at the house of some relatives, we went into the house and upstairs to throw candies off the balcony, which was also a lot of fun.  I tried to aim some in the direction of my friends in the crowd, but given my lack of aim and the difficulty of throwing through the bars on the balcony, I don’t think many made it their way.

As part of the Christmastime festivities, I also saw a concert in the park with a couple of friends, which featured a famous Costa Rican singer Rogelio Cisneros, along with the national orchestra.  Unfortunately it started to rain and they ended the concert early, but it was great nonetheless.  Getting to be a part of some really wonderful festivities of the city was a great way to end our time in Costa Rica, especially since we had the same opportunity immediately upon our arrival.  Saying goodbye to my host family was terribly hard.  I am so thankful for their friendship, their generosity, and all that they have done for me.  I am forever indebted to them, and it was tough to say goodbye to them because, while I hope to visit them some day, one never knows what the future will bring.  I miss them a lot.  A bunch of us cried to the airport.  We made it home without any delays or difficulties, and were crying again when we found our families and friends.  I’m so thankful for this whole opportunity and that it was such an overwhelmingly good experience for all in our group.  I’m thankful, too, for the friends I’ve made and those I’ve come to know better.  ¡Feliz Navidad!

The first week of November we traveled to Nicaragua.  The border crossing is quite incredibly inefficient, with kilometers of semis lined up waiting for up to days on end to cross.  We, however, made it through fairly quickly.  The bus was fumigated to prevent the spread of something, I’m not sure what.  We first headed to Managua, the capital, which has a very busy, big-city feel.  We were fortunate to experience Nicaragua the week prior to elections, so we saw a bunch of propaganda for the candidates, the majority of which was for Ortega, the incumbent and newly re-elected.  In Managua we visited the national palace and theater.  We later moved on to Granada, which is a very wealthy city in comparison to other parts of the country.  It is much smaller and has a very European feel to it, which I was not expecting to encounter.  I loved this city.  I had the good fortune of seeing an exposition of art and dance on the Day of the Dead, November 2^nd, and we sat out at night in restaurants which all have tables out in the street.  We toured Las Isletas in Lake Nicaragua by small boat, which are a bunch of tiny islands.  There are houses, and couple of churches and schools, to which people travel by rowboats.  The scenery is breathtaking.  We visited a ceramics workshop and small store, where we saw the process of making ceramics and got to participate as well.  I have a great respect for those artisans, as the “pot” I attempted to throw on the wheel (foot-powered) probably resembled an alien life form.  We also went to a huge market where we purchased lots of souvenirs and gifts for friends and family.  Our final destination in Nicaragua was Río San Juan del Sur, where the river meets the Pacific Ocean.  It was a small beach with a nice hotel in which we did a lot of much needed relaxing after a busy week.  I had a hard time using the córdoba, the money of Nicaragua, since it was yet another currency to get used to.  I enjoyed very much, however, a certain brand of ice cream, Eskimo, which sells humongous triple cones for a little over a dollar.  Such a good price was too good to pass up (more than once).

For Thanksgiving break we traveled to Panamá.  I went with four friends to Panama City, on a very cold sixteen-hour bus ride.  I don’t understand why the buses keep the air conditioning at North Pole temperatures in a region where the people think 65 degrees is really cold.  The trip was well worth it.  I loved Panama City, especially the old part of the city.  In general, the city was very different from the other cities I’ve seen in Central America.  It reminded me a lot of Seattle.  We also visited the Panama Canal, which has a fascinating history and is quite impressive.  We were lucky to see a crocodile in a dam right near the canal.  All you could see was what resembled a log, but it was moving and then went underwater.  We spent another night in a bus to spend the rest of our break in Bocas del Toro, on the Caribbean coast of Panamá, quite close to the border with Costa Rica.  We took water taxis to the island we stayed on, Bastimento, on which there is not much more than the hostel, the beach, and a species of tiny red frogs that is endangered and protected.  Our whole group of ten went to Bocas del Toro, where we had a blast on the beach, playing volleyball, and hiking.  It was sad not to be with our families on Thanksgiving, but we treated ourselves to a nice seafood dinner out, complete with pumpkin pie we found in one restaurant.

I am clueless as to how it is that we have only two short weeks left in Costa Rica.  We have a couple of papers, presentations, and several final exams to keep us busy, although we would all rather not spend the last of our time here studying.  I want to spend as much time with my host family as possible.  The family just bought the most adorable puppy last week, so I am having a lot of fun playing with my host sisters and the puppy, Luna.  I’ve really missed having an animal around, aside from all the dogs in the streets, which are a huge problem in Costa Rica.  They are everywhere.  Interestingly enough, Panama City was filled with stray cats instead of dogs.  There are adoption programs here to reduce the problem, but the need for more is evident.  I intend to make the most of the short time remaining for me here, and the last weeks I will likely be warm for a while.  I am now so accustomed to the climate that I do get chilly sometimes, which does not bode well for my return in the middle of winter.

In the last part of September, we traveled to San José, the capital, and visited the National Museum, the National Theater, and much more.  The hotels that are already included in our program seem to be really nice, and we are all wondering how much they cost.  It is really nice to have things pre-paid for because it makes me less concerned about how much money I am spending.  I am frequently reminding myself that I saved a lot of money to travel in Costa Rica, and that now is not the time to be having qualms about spending so much of it.  We also traveled to a series of volcanoes.  The most recent, Miravalles, heats thermal pools at the hotel we stayed at, which were a lot of fun.  We put volcanic mud all over ourselves, which is supposedly very healthy for your skin.  On the same trip, we went to a reserve where pumas and other animals are rehabilitated.  I had an extremely entertaining conversation with a group of parrots, whose vocabulary was limited to ‘hola’ in various pitches.  One especially enthusiastic bird had a slightly evil sounding laugh.  I’m not sure if he was trying to imitate me or not.

Aside from fantastic travels, we continue to have classes almost every day.  I really enjoy the history and culture class, and I like Spanish as well.  Ecology is stressful because the professor is new, disorganized, and difficult to understand.  In turn, he cannot understand us, and what he puts on the tests is not the same as anything we have read or learned in class.  We are all somewhat preoccupied about the potential negative impact of this class on our GPAs if something doesn’t change.  Family life is fantastic here.  I really enjoy spending time playing with my little host sisters and watching telenovelas (soap operas) with my host mom.  I would say that I am thoroughly adjusted to some customs, such as throwing toilet paper in the garbage and always wearing shoes in the house (however much I dislike this custom).  It is now the beginning of October, which is absolutely unbelievable.  When I left home, 3.5 months seemed like a long time to be away from my family and friends at home, and it is, but the time is flying by.  I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced time going so fast!

We recently visited the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, which is very different and fun.  We snorkeled in a coral reef, which was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.  I swam with a school of brilliant blue fish, followed a turtle for a while, and even saw a shark that seemed to be about the same size as me, although I swam away as fast as possible.  Valentina.  (My host sister wanted to write her name on my keyboard).  Anyhow, in the Caribbean we ate traditional food, which included rice and beans (as usual), but made with coconut milk.  The food is spicier, which thankfully I don’t usually have to deal with because in the Central Valley, where I’m living, the food is generally bland.  We stayed for a long weekend in a hostel called Rocking J’s in Puerto Viejo, a town on the Caribbean coast, which was a lot of fun.  We took a kayak trip and visited restaurants and bars along the beach.  The hostel was a really busy place, which was fun, although not when I was trying to sleep.  We were serenaded by blasting music, drum circles, and karaoke at all hours of the night.

We are now faced with registration for classes in the spring.  I continue to despise registration because it’s stressful and I never have a very easy time making a functional schedule.  It is somewhat more challenging because I have to send all my questions to my advisor via email.  However, I’m sure it will all work out well enough, as always.  We have reached the halfway point of our trip, which is truly unbelievable.  The second half promises to be as life changing as the first, and I’m looking forward to visiting Nicaragua and Panamá in the near future.  I think that my Spanish is improving a lot.  It is hard to tell about myself, but I’ve noticed my friends’ Spanish is greatly improved since we arrived, so I assume that mine is as well.