Weather: Sunny and 85

Before I get into yesterday, I was looking back at my Quito entries and I said I didn't think I could spend an entire semester in Quito. I still agree with this however, I miss the abundance of fresh fruits and the ease of being a vegetarian there. If we were there for 2 months and in the islands for two months I would be happy as a clam. I never expected to miss Quito especially because the city and the poor air quality that goes with it are not my favorite, but I miss the hustle and bustle of it a bit.

Yesterday morning was interesting to say the least. I was emotional a little bit in the morning because I was still getting used to my surroundings. However, it was a lot better than the day before. After class, I had an interview for the Summer that went okay. I'm hoping I get the position as it would be in Quincy. I'd be the environmental, health, and safety intern for Ahold. It's not my top choice out of places I have applied to, but it would allow me to work a day on the weekends at Clean Harbors for some extra cash, and the commute wouldn't be terrible. The guy said that they received about 100 applications and he made it sound like I made it down to the top 5. I was happy to hear that and I'm hoping things all work out so I don't have to worry about having a job lined up for the Summer anymore.

After the interview, I ended up exploring the main road with my friend Sara. We ended up at a bread store and got a roll with chocolate swirls in it. Across the street was one of the three vegetarian places here, so we stopped in and got some strawberry smoothies. It was absolutely delicious and just perfect for how hot it was. We walked down to the malecon aka the boardwalk to check out the souvenir shops but they were all closed! Everything here closes from like 12-2 for siesta which is lunchtime. However, at this point it was almost three and nothing was open still. We decided we would wait it out and watch the sea lions because island time is truly a thing. Sure enough around 3:40 everything started opening up. We were so proud of ourselves because we conquered island time. We were gonna leave due to impatience but we stuck it out and we were able to see what the stores had to offer. It was a good tiring day. I headed home and had some dinner and just hung out a bit with the host family. Anahi was showing us a bit of her dance that she has coming up, it was adorable. Later, her and I played a couple rounds of UNO. Each game the rules seemed a bit different so I'm honestly not too sure what the correct way is.

Anyways, today was a great day. Emotion wise definitely the best day yet. I am adjusting here and am finally considering this place a home. I'm excited to be here for the next three months. There's a lot I want to see, but I am in no rush to complete it all because I have three months here. I don't want to see everything in one week and then become bored later on (I don't think that would happen anyways, but I don't want to find out). This morning Paco made me cheese empanadas with a banana, it was a pretty good breakfast and I've noticed that breakfast usually has some sort of fried food featured. They usually get me up for breakfast around 7:15am and I don't need to be at school til 9. At times I'd like to sleep in a bit but being up early is nice too because then I can take my time getting ready for school. I've been leaving for school a bit early so I have time to sit on the benches at the beach before class.

Class has been good, it's definitely not as exciting as my last class. There's not many field trips, and it's really focused on modeling different conservation strategies. It's interesting but it doesn't hold my attention as long as Wildlife Conservation Biology did. I think it's because this one contains a lot of graphics that is just modeling different conservation strategies. After class, a couple of friends and I checked out a vegetarian place right near school. It's a cafe called Fresco and it's located in front of a hostel and run by one woman from Australia. I think she runs the hostel too. I got pesto spaghetti and it was amazing. I was super happy and she gives enough to have two meals. It was $6 which was a bit more expensive than a normal lunch here but the next time I go I'm gonna bring my tubberware so I can get two meals out of it. Not going there everyday is gonna be really hard but I want to try most of the restaurants on this island while I'm here. I've also decided I'm going to get into photography more while I'm here. It will be one more thing I can do here so I think with that and research I will have the perfect amount of free time. Not too much and not too little, I'll still have plenty of time to chill on the beach and do nothing.

After lunch we got some icecream from an actual icecream place. It's the first one I've seen, most other places just have icecream bars. I got oreo chocolate icecream and it was so great, it cooled me down for about .4 seconds.

I headed to the beach and tanned for almost two hours and then my class had to meet to try on snorkel gear. We are heading to Espanola Island tomorrow to hike and snorkel. I'm really excited to get the opportunity to see Espanola after being here for only a couple of days. It will be my first time snorkeling so I'm looking forward to it. It's about a 2 hour boat ride and they give us some lunch on the boat.

We all headed back to the university after getting our snorkel stuff because we had a tango class to attend to! Every Wednesday people are coming in to teach us different latin dances, so today was the tango. It was a really fun time and most of us looked incoherent which had most people laughing. While we were dancing the sun was setting and it created some great scenery. I headed back home afterwards and Tania had cooked some rice with platanos and an omelet with veggies in it. It was the best dinner I've had. The past two I've had contained fish which was fine, I'd just rather avoid it when I can.

Today was a great day, I'm looking forward to tomorrow's trip with my class and seeing what the rest of this semester has in store for me.