Blog Number 2

Blog Number 2

Hola!

                It’s day number two and we are up bright and EARLY!  At 5am this morning the sun was shining right through our window and the city was already lively and pumping with cars and people!  That is so different in comparison to the US!  No one is up and walking around until around 7 or 8 am!  We have two visits today.  Our first visit will be with TICO Electronics, and our second one will be with INCAE.  I don’t really know anything about either of these places, but I’m interested to find out what they are all about!  So far we’ve only driven around really dirty and poor areas of San Jose.  I really hope that we can see other places that are more developed and less dangerous! 

                TICO Electronics was a very interesting facility!  I think it is so neat that they do everything by hand!  It is amazing to see a company that was so small, grow into something very efficient and successful.  They seem like very nice employers that look out for their employees, and they all seem like a big family!  The working conditions of the facility were very nice.  There were many fans and music so the workers don’t get overheated or bored.  The employees also take breaks every hour to stretch their wrists and arms to prevent carpal tunnel injuries and arthritis!  There were also many different parts of the building where they focus on different parts that they are manufacturing.  I absolutely cannot believe they make all these parts by hand!  I was a little disappointed by how much the workers were paid! It was only 4 dollars an hour!  No one would be able to survive on that salary in the US, but I guess it’s different because the cost of living is a lot lower in Costa Rica.  I believe he said they manufacture 30,000 parts a week! That seems impossible since they’re making the parts by hand, but these workers make them so quickly!  I thought this was a very interesting company to visit.

                INCAE had the most BEAUTIFUL campus I have ever seen!  It is the number one school in Latin America and rated within the top 25 universities of the world.  Something that you MUST know about this university is that it is NOT a Costa Rican University! I thought it was very funny how much emphasis the presenter put on this.   Apparently it is a common misconception people have that they would like to avoid.  They are a very prestigious university that is very careful in their selection of students.  They accept students from all countries and have no more 20 percent of each race which is pretty impressive.  I have never heard of INCAE before, so I was not surprised to find out that they do not advertise.  They figure that people who find them and graduate from their rigorous program will spread word of their amazing school and eventually more people will be interested in applying.  I was very interested in their method of teaching.  He described it as a “cratic” method.  He also compared the university to Harvard.  I thought it was interesting that he asked about the movie “Legally Blonde” because in the movie, they describe the method of teaching at Harvard as a “cratic” method as well. SO ha!  That movie can teach you some things!  I really enjoyed hearing about their different programs for the master’s degrees.  I know just from speaking to this man one time that I would NEVER be able to endure this ridiculously hard program!