I announced on this blog last week that I was going on a tech detox.
This weekend, I spent 85 hours without access to the Internet, media, news, the outside world or electronic stimulation.
No phone. No Internet. No Kindle. No laptop. No news. No Facebook. No Twitter. No television. No iPod. No Skype. No email.
And boy was it a great feeling.
Hello, my name is Zach, and I’m a technoholic.
I’m always connected. To my phone. To email. To Facebook. To Twitter. To digital conversations far and wide, public and private (who am I kidding, it’s all public).
This weekend, that changes.
It’s gotten to the point that I can’t go an hour and a half without itching to turn my phone, tap in the code and scroll through every information feed I can get my hands on. In the States, where Internet is ubiquitous, my phone battery is dead by 2:30 p.m. Here in Costa Rica, Wi-Fi is still ubiquitous enough that I’m connected most of the day.
As someone who lives online, I need to learn how to disconnect, for my personal sanity and for the sake of truly enjoying life without pixels.
I need to take a break. I need to detox. I need to quit cold turkey. Starting tomorrow.
As of Thursday morning through Sunday afternoon, as I go hiking through Parque Amistad in the most eastern part of Costa Rica, I will be completely offline.
No iPhone. No computer. No Kindle. No Facebook. No Twitter. No Skype. No email. No iPod.
This is everything work and technology related I am bringing on my trip to Parque Amistad this weekend: a notebook, a camera and a phone I don’t plan to use.
Just my friends, a big binder of school reading, a notepad to jot down some thoughts, and lots of physical activity, like hiking, farming, building, etc.
(Full disclosure: I am bringing a “dumb phone” in case of emergencies, but it will remain firmly off for the entire trip and at the bottom of my backpack. I’m also bringing my Nikon. We’re going to be seeing some spectacular stuff, and I’d rather not miss the chance to document it.)
Really, the timing of this retreat from technology is perfect:
It’s been years since the last time I’ve gone without Internet access for more than 24 hours, especially with my 3-year-old dependence on iPhone, which I only half-jokingly refer to as my third arm and an extension of my body.
I’m hoping this trip will give me the perspective to understand the place of technology in my life so that I may live life, offline and on, to its
fullest extent.
Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was the sun. Or the weight of my backpack. Or of my clothes. Or a combination of them all.
Either way, one part of this journey to the top of Cerro Chato (literally, “Flat Hill”) involved lying down in the middle of the path hypervenilating.
This hill was anything but flat. 8 kilometers round-trip at a very steep incline. I was clammy, sweaty, and ready to give up and head right back down the mountain to the hostel.
Lucky the bottom half of my pants could zip off. Lucky that I could take my shirt off to prevent overheating. Lucky I brought enough water to keep me hydrated.
And I’m very lucky to have two good friends to share the literal load on my shoulders and take as many breaks as we needed to make it to the top.
And boy was it worth it.
Check out photos of the magnificent view.
(For the record, I’m still too sore to walk.)
Check out my latest photos of my trip to Costa Rica.
This first batch is from a trip to Cartago for el Día de la Virgen de los Ángeles, the annual pilgrammage to the church of Costa Rica’s patron saint.
The second is from a trip to a zoo near my home in Heredia, called INBioparque. Lots of beautiful butterflies, flowers, animals, insects, trees and more.
It’s with a heavy heart that I announce that I’ll be leaving PBS MediaShift (and it’s podcast, Mediatwits) on Sept. 4.
Long story short, I realized I needed to spend more time on my academic pursuits (especially when all of my homework is in Spanish) and exploring Costa Rica to its fullest extent.
Read this post on IFSA-Butler’s Study Abroad blog on my reasoning to give up the best internship I’ve ever had.
Job well done. RT @zachary_cohen: It's with a heavy heart that I say I'll be leaving PBSMediaShift Sept. 4. http://t.co/1RSic2xk5u
— PBS MediaShift (@PBSMediaShift) August 23, 2013
So proud of @Zachary_Cohen for (finally!) qutting his internship to enjoy his study abroad in Costa Rica. Read: http://t.co/hsmAs4L0L4
— Stefanie Dazio (@steffdaz) August 23, 2013
Thanks to Steff Dazio, Paige Jones, Rachel Karas and probably other people who told me to do this a long time ago and waited for me to make my own decision. I appreciate your patience and your concern for my well-being.
My head started to spin. I lost my appetite. I was confused.
I was going through reverse culture shock, three months early.
It’s an odd reaction to have when parents come to visit, but in this case, it makes perfect sense.
Read the rest of the posts and check out some awesome pictures of hanging bridges, jungle vines, and, of course, Volcàn Arenal.
So not a particularly Costa Rican activity, but when I visited Playa Herradura, I got a chance to try out FlyBoarding.
The method of FlyBoarding is pretty simple. A large hose simply funnels exhaust water into a board. The water then pushes the rider above the water as much as 20 feet, and the rider has to balance, like on a snowboard on a spinning top.
New campus. New students. New professors. New subjects. New regulations. New languages.
All of the change associated with studying at a new school is enough to drive even the most competent student mad.
Here are a couple of tips I picked up from my experience of “syllabus week” at a foreign university.
Read the tips here, and add your own!
It seems completely counter-intuitive to send study abroad students to a completely different place for their first week of orientation, only to shuttle them off to a completely new town with completely new family.
It’s paramount to doubling the culture shock, antithetical to IFSA’s promise of “More culture. Less shock.”
But, by George, it works. Transition to university has been easier than I could have imagined, no small thanks to my time in Liberia.
I’ve been asked a lot recently — by friends in the U.S., by American friends in Costa Rica, by Costa Rican friends in Costa Rica — why I’m continuing my internship at PBS MediaShift while studying abroad at la Universidad Nacional.
It’s a two-pronged answer, one answer more honorable than the other.
Zach C. Cohen 