Mi farmaceutica had me read the inserts on a couple of meds the other day. Both of the medications pictured are lyophilates of different bacterial strains.

"Uro-Vaxom" contains e. coli and "Broncho-Vaxom" contains h. flu, d. pneumoniae, k. pneumonia, k. ozaenae, s. areus, s. pyogenes, s. viridans, and n. catarrhalis. At first, I was just happy to recognize the majority of these bugs. I was then more interested in the fact that I don't know of any medications like these in the US. Not quite a probiotic, not quite a vaccine, these are used for recurrent UTI and bronchitis, respectively. For $14 and $40 per cycle (they don't have medication insurance here but the prices are much cheaper), these regimens are purportedly effective at stimulating the immune system so these problems do not recur. Luckily the package inserts were in spanish and english.



Some other things to note from this week's visit to the farmacia:

• While the US is reducing the available forms of acetaminophen (due to liver concerns for opiate addicts), CR has a 750mg tablet
• This location does not have ANY opiates (they are mostly in the govt. pharmacies)
• Erectile dysfunction meds are controlled and require a prescription

Yesterday we went to "La Carpio" which is a Nicaraguan slum. It also happens to be the waste site for all of Costa Rica. We will be most of our charlas (health talks) in this area. I didn't take many pictures, but it is pretty much what you would picture when you think of the third world. The only difference is that I did see satellites and a few flat screens in the shanties.


On the way back, we drove by this cookie factory. It smelled sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!!!


Pura Vida
Corey

Domingo Segundo

I thought it was funny that this place is called "American Pizza" when calling it Italian would probably lend more credibility.

I ran up the same path today as I did yesterday, and went further. Sadly, I still didn't make it all the way up into the clouds, I would have kept going but I got a bit of a stomach ache and just wanted to get back and watch netflix. Here are some pictures anyway.





Maybe next weekend I'll be less of a quitter.

Pura Vida
Corey

Heaven will have to wait

Where was I? Ugh, I have 3 days to report on? Forget that noise, here's the cliff notes:

I was at my farmacia on Jueves y Viernes por dos y media horas. For being one of the bigger farmacias, it's a pretty laid back environment, but then again I'm comparing it to CVS. They work hard and their patients seem to enjoy going there. A drug rep from Novartis came in and gave a presentation (on an android tablet) on Panteca (the local brand name for Protonix). She gave me a couple samples of it and Cataflam, a branded version of diclofenac (an NSAID like Motrin for all the laypeople out there). Neither of these medications require recetas (prescriptions) like they do in the states, and Cataflam is pretty popular here.
If anyone is wondering about my opinion regarding medication regulations here, let's just put it this way: these medications are similar to meds that are already over-the-counter in the States. I'll probably have a longer evaluation toward the end of this rotation. Anyway...

I went out to "Cool Bar" Thursday night, then "Tite's" and "Potrero's" on Friday. Cool bar had a dude singing and playing guitar. He opened with the Beatles followed by Pink Floyd, it was a good night. Friday night I went out with my mama tica's neice and her friends. I couldn't talk with them much, but drinking and dancing transcend language barriers.

Our classes changed. I'm with two different students now, but I still feel a little behind, jaja. As my new teacher says, "no preocupa, se feliz." With one week down, there are still a lot of things I would like to improve upon but there is still a lot of time left. I have some loose ends to tie up with projects I started before rotations. It's kind of annoying that I am mentally still stuck back home. I'm going to try to get as much done this weekend as I can.

Today I went on a run up the mountain.
It was pretty much up hill both ways.


I eventually got to the end of this path and had to go back down. I'm not sure how many miles I went at this point.

I found another road that seemed to go up the mountain so I followed it. I ran into this pretty dog and his buddy who you can see in the background. A lot of people here have dogs, and many of them just chill in front of their property. They seem well trained.

This is a property for sale. I'll have to keep it in mind for when I retire.

This is the real reason I felt compelled to go uphill as much as possible. There is a permanent cloud that chills a the top, I have concluded that it contains heaven. My goal for the day was to see how foggy heaven was in person.

I was momentarily defeated when I found the end of my path.

Luckily I found a secret path further up the mountain.

It was beautiful but I had to turn back when the path got real narrow because it was unfamiliar and I didn't bring bug repellant or mountain lion repellant.

Heaven will have to wait.

Pura Vida
Corey

I can't spell

I'll be in my pharmacy tomorrow morning. I'm excited. I'm also sleepy. Hasta menana.

I'm silly

I didn't realize I made two posts in the same day, even repeating some information, jaja!!!! I will leave them both up because I think it's hilarious. My brain might need some rest.

Noche y Dia

Night and day. That's the best way to describe the last 24 hours of my life in Costa Rica.

Yesterday I couldn't share more than a couple sentences with my host family, successfully find a gym I could use, find a bus stop, or get through class without slowing the group down.

Today class was more successful (and even fun), I was having entire conversations with my mama tica, and had a decent workout in a gym close to my casa. Actually, most businesses in San Isidro are close to each other and surround the church. Church is definitely the center of each city in Costa Rica. It's interesting how their cities are built. There are very few street signs, and directions are all relative to certain points of a reference. Por ejemplo, all the churches (I think it's a catholic thing) face oeste. And all blocks are measured in hundreds of meters. So if you are getting directions to Ya Fit (my gym for the next 30 days), you start at the front of the church, go 200 meters north, and 50 meters (half a block) east. ¿Es facil, no? I digress...

Today was filled with the phrase "como de dice," but since I was putting the effort in, I think my ignorance is tolerable, jaja. In the morning, we split into groups and were shown our sites for volunteering. Tara, Rachel, and I (our entire class coincidentally) went with Kerry. Their pharmacias were less than 200 meters apart, and 100 meters from the church. My site, however was a 25 min bus ride to San Raphael (or was it Rafael? I forget). I found out that the bus I need to take only goes every hour after 7 or 8 because most people are at work by that point. Hopefully, I never miss it, jaja.

During the bus ride, I had the chance to bond with Kerry, one of the program directors. She lives in Costa Rica permanently and has dual citizenship. We talked about a lot of things, but I don't bore you with the details, just know she's pretty rad. Actually, I feel like I have bonded at least a little bit with each of the (10-11) gringos on this trip. I guess it's expected since we all have english in common, even though we're only supposed to converse in espanol (don't tell my teacher). It's a good group, and I have high expectations for the rest of the trip. I will ignore the fact that we were told about the different phases people go through when introduced to a new culture. I'll try to stay in the excited phase. Anyway...

At my pharmacia, I met the staff and talked with two pharmacists, one of which seemed to know a decent amount of english. I will let her know I don't want to rely on that beyond the first or second day, if at all. After that, I walked around town a bit, came home, worked on some things and went to class. After a workout at ya fit and come conversing with mama tica y su hijo, it was time to get settled for the night. Currently, I am chilling in my room waiting for Jenna to get off work (why she's working past 7:30, I'm not sure) so we can skype. My mama tica said to tell her "hola." She's super nice. She reminds me of my mom. Well, that's all I have for now. Hasta luego.

Pura Vida,
Corey

P.S. Here's the view from the language school

Dia tres

What started as a new and unfamiliar place is becoming more like home. Right now, I am chillin' with papa tica (the man of the house) and a couple other family members while they have lunch. I'm not hungry because I'm still finishing the trail mix my mom made for me before I left. This morning we took a tour of the pharmacias we will be volunteering in. I went with Kerry (the director), Rachel, and Tara to see our sites. They are both in town, a few min walking distance from mi casa. They were polite enough to take the 30min bus ride with me and Kerry to my site in San Raphael. San Raphael is a bigger town and my pharmacia reflects that.

I talked to the pharmacist "la doctora" for a couple minutes and Olga, whom I believe is another pharmacist. Olga spoke a bit of English which is nice but I hope I don't have to rely on that too much. The place is nice and it has several employees. I'm pretty excited to start up next week.

I also tried to check out Gymnasio Olympic Power, a the second gym I wanted to get prices on. The first, Ya Fit, was 18000 Colones (~$40) for a month. My mama tica (mother of the house) told me of a third gym that has a pool and a soccer field, so I will probably check that out after Spanish class today. Last night, my new friend Linsdey and I tried to find a Crossfit gym in San Thomas de Santo Domingo, as she is a big fan of Crossfit. There were some problems, being that the bus stops don't have signs or anything. So we got off late and decided to turn back and try again on the weekend when we had more time. While looking for the taxi stand, Lindsey fell into the curb (most sidewalks are adjacent to ditches that can be up to 2 feet deep and hard to see at night). I felt real bad because I saw it and stepped over. She shook it off and we made our way back.

That day was a little frustrating but I expected some setbacks coming to an unfamiliar land where I don't speak the language without anyone else I know, haha. Anyway, I need to study a little bit before class because I am in the advanced class but probably fall between advanced and intermediate. The teacher told the three of us that we will advance as fast as we can learn, and I don't want to be the weak link. Necesito trabajar mucho :)

¡Pura Vida!
Corey (o Cody)

I arrived in Costa Rica at 645 in the morning on Sunday, Feb 16th. I got some Colones and made my way to Casa Papaya where the director of the program lived. My host family, Familia Solis, was already there ready to meet me. I has a short meet and greet and went to their house a couple blocks away. After an hour of trying to have a conversation with Hazel, my "mama Tica," we went to the weekly market to meet up with the other students and take a tour of San Isidro De Heredia. After walking and learning a bit I went back to my home stay, ate, and chatted with the family.

I could give more details about my first day, but it would go on and on. I feel welcome here. In the evening, I felt less frustrated communicating with my gracious host family. I can already feel that experience improving. More details to come.