~Today is the Day~ YAY!!!!

I can't sleep right now and I felt like blogging! I will be driving to my school in a few hours to meet up with my peers and staff members so that we can drive to the airport together. I am getting so anxious but excited.I don't want to leave my family behind but I really want to be in Costa Rica now! Also I would like to give a shout out to my mother, Tammy and step father, Charlie. I will miss you both so much and can't wait until I see you again! I love you. Just for the information, I will be blogging once a day while in Costa Rica telling everyone about our adventures that day and what an experience it was or I will be blogging about what we are planning to do for the day. I will definitely keep everyone updated!

~Thank you to all~

I just wanted to thank everyone who attended our Celebration Dinner! It was great. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. Thank you to everyone who has helped us achieve this goal. You have really helped make seven teenagers' dreams come true. We all thank you so much for everyone's participation with everything. At our dinner we each spoke and thanked a few specific people. But we weren't the only ones that spoke. Bryan Mascio, Nancy Roy, and Bob Lister also spoke. If you go onto Bryan Mascio's blog, it will explain everything about the dinner. I would also like to say that I am proud of everyone in the Costa Rica Class for their participation and growth. We have all come a long way since the beginning of this class. The people that I am proud of and that are in the class are Brittney F, Mariah, Hailey, Kristine, Winston, and Joshua. Let's all have a good trip!

~Costa Rican Dinner~

I just wanted to inform all of you that the Costa Rica class will be hosting a Costa Rican dinner at our school, Robert J. Lister Academy. This school is located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We will be hosting this dinner on Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 6:30 pm. If you plan on attending this dinner, leave a comment saying that you will be attending and how many others you will be bringing if any. By the way we have seven days until we leave for Costa Rica. Thank you for everyones help. We couldn't do it without all of you. P.S. If you would like to support me, our efforts, and/or our class, please visit our Facebook page or send a check made payable to the Robert J. Lister Academy/ Costa Rica trip attention Bryan Mascio - 35 Sherburne Rd. Portsmouth, N.H. 03801 or you can visit our PayPal account and donate there

~Even more Information on my Topic~

I have changed my research project, yet again. Now I am researching the differences between Stonyfield Yogurt in New Hampshire to the Moteverde Cheese Factory in Costa Rica. I will be learning about how they make their products and the history behind these two factories. I will be visiting both the Monteverde Cheese Factory and Stonyfield Yogurt to recieve the information as well as looking these two places up online. This is all I know abouut my research project but I will keep you updated. P.S. If you would like to support me, our efforts, and/or our class, please visit our Facebook page or send a check made payable to the Robert J. Lister Academy/ Costa Rica trip attention Bryan Mascio - 35 Sherburne Rd. Portsmouth, N.H. 03801 or you can visit our PayPal account and donate there

More Information on my Topic

I know some more about what I am doing for my research project. I will be comparing the grocery stores, restaurants, and homes, as well as a local food producer in Costa Rica versus New Hampshire. I am doing the cheese factory for Costa Rica and Stonyfield Yogurt for New Hampshire.

In the book Walking with Wolf it talked about the Guidon family helping to start a cheese factory. When we go to Costa Rica in April, we will be going to the cheese factory so I can do some research on it. I might compare the cheese factory to Stonyfield Yogurt but I’m not sure yet.

Last year we went to Stonyfield Yogurt as a school field trip. It was so fun and interesting. I loved it. We might go there again to refresh my memory and so I can learn even more about Stonyfield Yogurt. Ever since that field trip I asked my family to switch our yogurt to Stonyfield Yogurt and they did.

That is all I know so far about my research project. I am so excited that I will be able to use Stonyfield Yogurt as part of it. I am also excited to go to the cheese factory that we have been reading so much about. I can’t wait to find out what I am doing for my final research project.

P.S. If you would like to support me, our efforts, and/or our class, please visit our Facebook page or send a check made payable to the Robert J. Lister Academy/ Costa Rica trip attention Bryan Mascio - 35 Sherburne Rd. Portsmouth, N.H. 03801 or you can visit our PayPal account and donate there

My Plans for the Research Project

My topic for the research project is the difference between how people eat here, in New Hampshire versus there, in Costa Rica. As part of this I will look at the grocery stores, homes, and restaurants. I honestly don't know how to turn it into a final project afterwards but I will keep you posted on any new information I recieve or create.

P.S. If you would like to support me, our efforts, and/or our class, please visit our Facebook page or send a check made payable to the Robert J. Lister Academy/ Costa Rica trip attention Bryan Mascio - 35 Sherburne Rd. Portsmouth, N.H. 03801 or you can visit our PayPal account and donate there

Some plans for our trip!!!

Recently, our class has started talking about our plans for our Costa Rica trip. We have just bought our plane tickets so we now know that we are definitely going to Costa Rica. This is making me feel very excited and anxious though because I want to go to Costa Rica but I've never left my family for this long.

Another thing we have talked about is what we will be doing while we arrive to Costa Rica. Some things we want to do is go horseback riding, zip-lining, and kayaking. Some things we plan on doing is going to the beaches in Costa Rica and staying in Monteverde with my teacher's friend, Rena.

P.S. If you would like to support me, our efforts, and/ or our class, please visit our FaceBook or send a check made payable to the Robert J. Lister Academy/ Costa Rica trip attention Bryan Mascio-35 Sherburne Rd. Portsmouth, N.H. 03801 or you can visit our PayPal account and donate there.

UPDATE!

I would just like to start this entry off by saying thank you to everyone who has supported us so far on this journey we are trying to accomplish. We couldn't have done it without the support and donations we have received from all of you.

I would just like to apologize for not blogging recently. We have been so busy raking houses that we haven't had much time to do anything else. We have been spending in school and out of school time with raking and it has even taking up weekends for some especially for our teacher Bryan. So I bet you are wondering how many houses we have raked and how much money we have made on raking these houses. We have raked twenty-five houses and made roughly $3,800.

P.S. If you would like to support me, our efforts, and/ or our class, please visit our Facebook page or send a check made payable to the Robert J. Lister Academy/ Costa Rica trip attention Bryan Mascio - 35 Sherburne Rd. Portsmouth, N.H. 03801 or you can visit our PayPal account and donate there.

Costa Rica Transportation Which is a Form of my Entertainment

What are your needs versus your wants? Well, if I had the choice to compare Costa Rica and the United States I could tell you that their wants and needs for transportation are completely different. In Costa Rica, they have all different forms of transportation that they need like ATV's, Motorcycles, etc. that we as United States citizens use for entertainment purposes.

In the book Walking with Wolf, it was stated that "Since the 1990s, motorcycles, ATVs and four-wheel-drive vehicles have taken over the roadways, but walking always was and still remains an important form of transportation." In the United States this statement would be the complete oppostite.

For example, in the state of Maine they're doing a project right now called rails-to-trails. It started in 1987 in down-east Maine, when the Maine Department of Transportation wanted to preserve this railroad track for further use. Now the community is deciding that they want to destroy it in order to make it accessible to ATV'ers, Motorcyclists, bicyclers, hikers, snowmobilers, walkers and cross-country skiers. This community wanted to have this project completed by September 2010 and on September 21, 2010 it was completed and ready for opening.

Personally, I use ATVs and motorcycles for entertainment purposes. I have never needed them to get me anywhere or do anything for me. I know people in the United States that need them for transportation purposes and for hunting. Compared to Costa Rica, the United States has a very low ratio of people that need ATV’s and motorcycles as necessities.

When I arrive in Costa Rica I won't be able to wait to see their forms of transportation. I will be so excited because I love being around and on ATVs and Motorcycles. It will be such a great experience to live the life of a Costa Rican, or Tico, for ten days.

P.S. If you would like to support me, our efforts, and/or our class, please send a check made payable to the Robert J. Lister Academy/ Costa Rica trip attention Bryan Mascio - 35 Sherburne Rd. Portsmouth, N.H. 03801

The Art of the Chainsaw

What interests me outside of school is music and entertainment. In the book Walking with Wolf , Wolf states that "That was one I always liked: I enjoyed the art of working with a chainsaw. What with all its dangers and even with close calls I had, why, nonetheless, it's something that I got great satisfaction from. I loved to hear the trees come down." It is interesting to see how the Costa Ricans or "ticos" used to enjoy doing this as entertainment and how they still use it as entertainment.

At the Deerfield fair that happened this weekend in Deerfield, NH, they had chainsaw carvings which is a form of chainsaw art. It is an interesting thing to see how chainsaw art is still used as entertainment today and how chainsaw art is an entertaining thing to people throughout the world.

I am looking forward to begin reading chapter 6 from the book Walking with Wolf. I can't wait to find out what other events or things they do for entertainment in Costa Rica. It is interesting to see how they can take the smallest things and turn them into something fun and exciting, or what is known as being entertainment. I guess we will have to wait and see what goes on in the upcoming chapters to find out what other things they do for entertainment.

P.S. If you would like to support me, our efforts, or our class, please send a check made payable to the Robert J. Lister Academy/ Costa Rica trip attention Bryan Mascio - 35 Sherburne Rd. Portsmouth, N.H. 03801

Brittney's Mission Statement

Hello. My name is Brittney. I am a seventeen-year old student attending the Robert J. Lister Academy. When my teacher, Bryan, introduced this Costa Rica class to us I was very excited and wanted to go. Then we got to see how the class would be orientated and it looked very difficult but I still wanted to join the class. Now that I am in the class I am willing to do my hardest with the work we have to accomplish and get my fellow classmates and I to go to Costa Rica. This will be a long and challenging course but I am willing to strive to achieve this goal.

The reasons why this is such a big deal for me is because I've never been out of the United States and I think that it would give me knowledge to other cultures outside of the United States. Another reason this is such a big deal to me is because I get to enjoy the reward of success. I know what kind of hard work it's going to be and when I get on the plane to go to Costa Rica I will have been able to see how much I have accomplished. The last reason why this is such a big deal to me is because I have never had an experience like this where it was with a school that counted as class and I find that to be very appealing on a college or job application that I was able to go out of the country. When I get ready to begin the college application process I want to be seen as someone that is committed to life long learning, exciting experiences and successful future. This is what I think this trip can give me. If you would like to support me, our efforts, or our class, please send a check made payable to the Robert J. Lister Academy/ Costa Rica trip attention Bryan Mascio-35 Sherburne Rd. Portsmouth, N.H. 03801