Self Evaluation

This quarter was the most challenging, yet most rewarding quarter yet completed. Writing and completing an in class ILC brought the biggest self motivational push I have experienced in my learning career, and working abroad from Costa Rica presented even greater leaps to cross. This quarter gave me the inspiration and challenge I needed, and I am proud of the work I accomplished.

The first major lesson was in communicating with faculty. In the beginning, the excitement of landing in tropical paradise completely distacted me from taking the necessary steps to initiate and respond to contact with faculty, which ended in some unecessary confusion and stress for me. This was a huge wake up call addressing the necessity for more responsibility on my part, and that I needed to be more self driven to complete the in class ILC. I learned how to organize and manage my time between learning, travelling, and working on my project, as well as problem solving when issues, such as emails not working, or miscommuncations appeared. Once I found the right balance, I was able to feel the ILC shaping and taking form, and accomplished many hours of writing and researching, as well as completing the courses I came to accomplish.

The second challenge was simply learning how to operate living abroad with minimal resources, alone, and often in rural areas. Luckily my spanish is very good, so there were not any serious issues. This is the first in class ILC I completed abroad, and connecting to internet and finding computers was a challenge.

The enjoyable and easy part of the in class ILC was learning about tropical medicinal plants, permaculture, general health and wellbeing from the wonderful teachers I had the fortune to meet. I really got a deep understanding of cultivating and using plants, and how to live in harmony with nature. I made huge leaps in reading the book of nature, and was immensely inspired by the land, people, and food of Costa Rica, and wish to return to study more very soon. I feel I was spiritually and mentally connected with plants and land, and then took the lessons learned from the farms a step further to connecting it to the concept terroir. Even though it was a challenge, I successfully connected health and terroir through the study of rasa and other research, and have introduced interesting and new ideas surrounding terroir and permaculture.