Noah Vargas

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> Hola <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> Berea College <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2023 <i>Destination city & country:</i> San Jose, Costa Rica <i>Program provider:</i> Berea College <i>Major/minor:</i> Agriculture & Biology / Environmental Science and Sustainability & Forestry Management <i>Demographics:</i> African American/Black, Caucasian/White, Hispanic/Latinx, Multi-Racial, First-Generation College Student, LGBTQ+ <i>Future career aspirations:</i> To become an Environmental Scientist and Wildlife Photographer <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> I want to capture the beauty of the diverse life of plants and animals with my camera in the tropical rainforests. To make new friends in Costa Rica in and outside of my program. I want to experience a wide variety of new foods and learn how to make them so that I can enjoy them back at home.

I visited a honey and bee convention at the Tecnolรณgico de Costa Rica, a local university. There many different vendors were selling amazing honey and displaying their honey bees. Here I learned the many different types of bees and their purposes in Costa Rica. I had no idea of the many uses of bees and their products. Below is a picture of the bees on display at the convention, along with some of the honey produced by the hive. The jars of honey are from the same hive, just at different times of the year. The color change is due to the types of flowers the bees visit at a particular time of year, resulting in the color. Until next time, Pura Vita!