Meet the CRC

Prepare yourself for the most epic tour of the CRC ever.  It's gonna be the bee's knees

These are the dorms that we are staying in for the first week.  They are super nice, but very cold at night because they aren't really insulated. (Which also means that the walls are paper-thin.  We have a fun time listening to the boys next to us gossip all night.  It's very entertaining)

 This is the best hallway ever.  The dorms line one wall of this veranda, and there's nothing but jungle on the other side.

Here's the main building from the outside, taken from the archway in the photo above.  You can see how windy it is by how the trees are bent double.

Our very own lake!  Two of them, actually.

 Here's the main entryway of the building.  I'm standing on these tiny steps that I continuously trip over even though everyone else seems to have no problem navigating them.  Figures.

 This is the Rotunda.  We use it like a coffee shop to study and hang out with music and food (there is ALWAYS super fresh fruit here - I'm basically living on melon.)

This is the Comedor (cafeteria).  The chef makes really good, authentic food that we devour like hungry lions.  He is quite horrified by our voraciousness, actually.  We also use this room for quiet studying. 

 One of the two classrooms on campus.  There are only 20 of us, so two classrooms is plenty.

 Here's a better view of the lakes.  The bridge goes between them and back to some running trails, gardens, and the compost shack.

 There's also a volleyball net behind the dorm building, but I'm scared to play because the last time I spiked a volleyball I nearly broke my own nose.

 There is a small population of ducks around the lake.  They like to quack, but only in Spanish.

 I know how much you like birds, Mom, so I took lots of pictures of them for you.

Look how close I got to this one!  It didn't even peck my face off. 

 Yeah, I got really close to it.  This picture could hang in a hunting lodge somewhere.

 Then it waddled away, apparently sideways because I can't get it to flip the picture.

 There are also two dogs at the center, Tekila and Feijau (Portuguese for "bean").  It was hard to get a picture of them because they kept hiding in the grass.  This is Tekila.  If you throw sticks for her then she'll swim out to the middle of the lake to get them.

 Now you are well-aquainted with the Center!  I'll be living here for another two days, and then I'll go live with my host family and take a bus up tuesday through friday for classes and other such nonsense.