Medical school here I come.

This is the way Fridays should always start:

Breakfast burrito and latte. 

This weekend we have fall break which I'm still trying to figure out why we even have fall break (not that I am complaining). For the past several weeks I have been traveling to medical schools around the country, most of which in the midwest. The trips have been exciting, exhausting, and surprising all at the same time. It has been really interesting visiting new places and realizing that my time at Point Loma is coming to a close in the next several months. Very strange.

But all of that to say, I am excited to finally have a weekend to spend in San Diego. So here is to quite possibly the most beautiful city in the united states. 

Also, more related to school, I got my first acceptance to medical school this past Monday. It is surreal knowing that I will actually be a medical student come next fall. I am grateful that all the hard work has paid off and am incredibly lucky to have had the support of family, friends, and Point Loma professors and classmates through this crazy process of preparing/applying to medical school. This is where I shamelessly plug the PLNU pre-med program. It has been absolutely amazing, and would love to talk to any prospective students about it, even if pre-med only sounds remotely interesting to you. 

Until next time. 

The craziest two months so far.

So I am back at Point Loma.
I am a senior.
I am engaged.
I am interviewing at medical schools.

Pretty packed two months eh?

Most importantly, I am engaged. Besides being shocked she said yes, I am absolutely ecstatic. After much planning and preparation, I proposed to Julianna. I had asked her if we could go on a date, and told her I'd pick her up at 3:00pm. When it was almost 3:00 I left flowers and note saying I was running late and asked her to meet me at a huge tree on campus (which is where I first told here I loved her). Then when she got to the tree there was a bunch of black and white photos mounted on black matte board. On the outsides of the tree were photos of things that have been significant to each of our journeys separately, such as study abroad, missions trips, summer jobs, etc. As the photos got closer to the center of the tree the photos were of us together and experiences we have shared. Once she had looked at all the photos there was a laptop sitting on the nearby bench that had instructions to watch the video on the desktop. The video was of me cutting, mounting, and organizing all the photos as I am narrating why I had chosen certain photos and the significance of the tree. The last line of the video asked her to turn around because I had a question for her. (You can probably guess what question that was)

The definition of nervous wreck. 

Let the wedding planning begin. 

In the midst of my blog absence, I made my way back to the US from Costa Rica in August. Just in case I haven't said it before, if it is even remotely possible to study abroad during your time in college; DO IT. Such an amazing experience. Below is the photo with my host family the night before we all left.

Costa Rica Recap

Costa Rica from Chris Evans on Vimeo.

Lastly, I have started interviewing for medical schools, actually I am writing this blog from the airport waiting for a flight to my next interview. It is crazy to think I will be living in a new place in less than a year.

That was confusing.

So after two months of a blog account login mishap, I finally have access to my own blog again. Victory.

I promise the next entry will be worth the wait. At least I hope. In the mean time, watch this video of Bon Iver. Hands down the BEST concert I have ever been to. Unreal.

Close your eyes.

"Close your eyes this time
Cause trust is all we have tonight
But trust will be forever
Safe your dreams will be
Cause trust will be the light tonight

So close your eyes this time"

-Future of Forestry

I sat on a ferry by myself heading for Montezuma, Costa Rica. Through the faint music provided by my iPod I could hear those around me. Behind me was a German family, in front a group of friends from Sweden. To my right, newlyweds from Brazil. In front of them, a family from Mexico. All of them were speaking different languages.

During my time in Costa Rica I have also been applying to medical schools. I have been writing essays about anything and everything, trying to articulate the characteristics about myself that would make a medical school want me. It is quite exhausting doing such introspection, not to mention slightly intimidating. In writing these essays to great medical schools all around the country, I easily start to think "well what if I actually got into this or that place?" Then I starting thinking through the pro and cons of those. As the gears of hypothetical thought get going, they halt to a stop as I remember there is so many unknowns before that. I have found great comfort in the song by Future of Forestry listed above. Sitting on ferry with these people going to a new place for the weekend, and metaphorically new stages in life the next couple years, I put back in my headphones and closed my eyes to listen to the song once more.

After getting off the ferry (and taking another bus), I finally arrived in Montezuma, Costa Rica. Montezuma is a little beach town near Mal Pais. It is super small, but well known for good surfing, waterfalls, and earth loving people (who occasionally have drum circles till 2am). After a little bit of confusion, I was finally able to meet up with the friends I was going to be spending the weekend with; Caleb and Carli.

Caleb and Carli before we went hiking.

We found a super cool hostel, which wasn't really a hostel. It was a family that owned a coffee farm who had some extra rooms and put a sign out in front of their house that said they had rooms available. But it turned out to be great. We had a sweet kitchen table and a upstairs loft with a hammock that overlooked the ocean.

Below are some of the photos from around Montezuma. A small city, but still has much to offer.

yes please.

Although I only spent two days in Montezuma, it was a gem. We then started heading back to San Jose (using the ferry we got there on).

I wonder if that was the "old ferry?"

Before getting back into San Jose, we stopped off at a fruit stand at the side of the road. Mangos for days.

Until next time.

"Close your eyes this time
Cause trust is all we have tonight
But trust will be forever
Safe your dreams will be
Cause trust will be the light tonight
So close your eyes this time"

-Future of Forestry

Shades of Green.

I don't know if I have ever seen so many shades of green. The past two weekends I have visited two must see places in Costa Rica; Volcan Arenal and Monteverde Cloud Forest.

Volcan Arenal is just outside of a town called La Fortuna. It is an active volcano that supposedly erupted about this time last year when a different group of study abroad students were visiting (comforting right?). Thankfully, we had a not so dramatic experience with the volcano. The trip involved an unbelievable amount of rain, staying at an amazing hotel, and canyoning, or rappelling down waterfalls in the rainforest. Another highlight was buying some fresh coffee beans from a coffee roaster called "Down to Earth." Supposedly, this coffee is the rolls-royce of Costa Rican coffee, at least thats what the guy said (and I believed him). I'm not really sure how coffee can be compared to a car with a six digit price tag, but I'm assuming that means the coffee is good. Time will tell I guess.

Before leaving for Arenal, I learned how to make Arroz con Leche; muy rico.

Welcome to Volcan Arenal.

Crocodile. No big deal.

Does the color mean they are poisonous?

The following weekend we went to Monteverde Cloud Forest. This time we didn't have that much rain, and we didn't rappel down waterfalls. However, we did do the coolest zipline course I have ever seen.

(I forget the exact measurements, but this zipline was roughly 600 meters long and 100 meters tall.)

At the very end of the zipline course there was Tarzan swing; which essentially consisted of free falling until a bungee caught you, followed by swinging back and forth. I walked out on the sketchy bridge really slowly, and finally was greeted by the two guides at the end. They clipped me in asked me to hold onto a certain part of the rope and then asked "Are you nervous?" Before I had time to reply, one said "Bye-bye" in a tico accent and forcefully pushed me off. I dropped like Tarzan would if he were real. I didn't get any pictures of me doing it, but below are some of lance.

For the rest of the weekend, I got a little bit of hiking in, an awesome sunset, and sat on the balcony of my hotel room taking in all of the sounds. The sounds of likely thousands of insects and frogs, all of which seemed to make the clouds and stars come alive.

Until Next time.