¡¡¡¡Gooooooooooooooooooolll!!!

We exacted revenge on the (improved) Costa Rican team from last Monday! With fresh legs (and a few subs) we were able to put up enough scoring power to squeek by. The final score was 13 to 12. We even had the support of the EWH cheerleading squad who creatively produced a clever rendition of the hip-hop smash hit Crank Dat Soulja Boy appropriately called Crank Dat Solder Boy. “Build that circuit yeah you know- Now just watch that current flow…”

Hospital Nacional de Niños

The National Children´s Hospital has 325 beds, six operating rooms, an emergency department, neonatal ICU and a host of other facilities. During our visit, the hospital was only at 70% of its capacity. The hospital was spotless and appeared to run extremely efficiently; the electrical technition who gave us our tour claimed that it was the best hospital of Latin America.

As the United States largely designed, funded, and organized the hospital, we were very well accepted. I got a few pictures of some of the highlights for me. For Ned and Steve, I snapped a picture of the ultrasound scanner in use. I wasn´t quite sure how to ask if the transducers were wobblers or phased-array but I think they look like wobblers, clarify? For Dr. Stouffer, a picture of the Cath Lab. Can you believe they let 17 of us into the lab to check it out?

Costa Rica’s Namesake

The latest weekend trip brought me to Manuel Antonio, a beautiful beach southwest of San Jose with a national park. After last weekend’s intense hike into the clouds, the relaxing beach scene was a welcome one. Two days of fun in the sun left us all relaxed, refreshed, and reddened. I practiced some surfing and we played some beach soccer. For old time’s sake we played some Four Square. Much to our chagrin, the apparent All-American Four Square Champion, Sean, posted himself in the King square and could not be defeated by anyone on the beach.

We didn’t even need to go to the national park to see wildlife; the hostel was teeming with exotic animals. Large iguanas kept vigil on the roofs and happily took apple chunks for tips. I made good friends with a tree frog who joined us for our evening soirée.

Engineers Can Party Too

After long days of classroom learning (see: the fascinating lecture on the finer points of ventilators and anesthesia machines), the group had a barbecue to celebrate surviving the first half of Spanish classes.

Gladys, our host and the Spanish school owner, cooked for the entire group behind her classy house and we entertained ourselves with some good conversation. Later on in the night, after some of Costa Rica’s finest Imperial, we danced to some salsa and reggaeton. Any sociable non-engineer would be proud!