Weather: Sunny and 81

I'm gonna bounce back to Thursday because I forgot to mention that Tania came back with Anahi and Mateo. It was so good to see her, I gave her and Ana big hugs when I saw them. I said hi to Mateo and Tania immediately showed me her diploma. She had an English version and a Spanish version. I was so proud of her I gave her another big hug. She then invited me to play legos with Mateo and Anahi which was a lot of fun. Helena became disinterested in the video she was watching and started screaming because she wanted to play with us. It is a FULL house once again. I ended up telling them about my hospital visit and Nicola and I headed out on a 4mi run which was exactly what I needed. Tania had made me a sandwich with guac, mushrooms, and french fries (that were in the sandwich) for when I returned and it was very filling. I was thrilled to have a vegetarian meal and I would definitely make that for myself when I return to the states minus the fries.

Friday I had class 9-12 and then again from 2:30-6, to say it was a long day would be an understatement. From 2:30-6 we were sorting all the plastics we had collected and tallied up the different types. If we found a plastic that had a brand on it we looked up the brand online and recorded anything we could find on the brand name into an excel sheet. It was interesting but towards the end we were all exhausted and over the whole thing. For dinner, I headed to Calypso with Sara, Abbey, and Audrey. Abbey and I split a margarita pizza that was delish and then I treated myself to a brownie with ice cream afterwards. After dinner, we all headed home and I just relaxed trying to get myself better.

Yesterday (Sat 3/9), I hung out most of the morning in the house just reading my book. I'm not supposed to be in the sun much with my antibiotics so I used it as an excuse to not do much in the AM. Paco ended up leaving today with Helena and Kenneth this morning to go see his mom until March 23rd. I guess he hasn't seen her in 4 years, I'm not exactly sure where she lives, Anahi said Guayaquil but she seemed unsure. I won't miss the screaming child, and it will be nice to just hang with Mateo, Anahi, and Tania as they were gone for a majority of the time I was here in February.

Around 1pm I met up with Nicola for lunch and we ended up going to a local hole in the wall and we each got $4 veggie burgers. I got an egg on the side and we each got mora (blackberry) juice, so in total our meals were $6...it blows my mind! After lunch we headed over to Calypso since they have okay wifi to do some homework. Nicola got a big ice coffee and I got an ice cream. We then began working for a bit, and she headed to go snorkel with Jhosias so I headed home to finish up my homework. Around 7pm, Thomas and I had to interview Ernesto, who was the negative speaker we had in class last week about corruption and plastic consumption in the Galapagos. The interview went well and he only had a couple tangents. He gave us some recommendations as to who to talk to next so that will be helpful for the coming week. After the interview, I met up with Nicola, Sara, Audrey, and Abbey for dinner at Mockingbird which is another local place that has $4 or $5 almuerzos and cenas. I got some fish with beans and rice that was really good. After dinner, everyone headed home except Nicola and I went and hung out on the pier for awhile to just chat about life. She was going to Baquero after which is one of the three bars here, but I was still congested so I headed home and went to bed.

Today (Sunday 3/11), I finished my third book here and started my fourth. At 10:30 I met up with Nicola and Sara and we headed to Loberia. They had to snorkel for a research project on turtles, so I just went along for moral support. It has been awhile since I snorkeled at Loberia, and I thought it would be a good time. We ended up seeing two huge sea turtles and it made my entire day. The clarity was so much better than it was at Punta Carola and I got awesome video and pictures. We snorkeled and swam for about an hour and then rested on the beach and headed back to town. I grabbed lunch with Nicola across the street from campus. It was fish with veggies, rice, and a couple patacones, and for a majority of the time I had a kitty sitting at my feet, begging like a dog. I also keep running into a kitten that I believe belongs to my neighbor but it's absolutely adorable. It's skittish but if you stay still, it'll come up and hesitantly say hi. Later in the afternoon, Nicola and I went on another run. This time I had acid reflux because of the antibiotics, so when I got back I took an omeprazole. Overall, I have been feeling better and less congested. I'm hoping by the time Wednesday comes and the round of antibiotics is over I will be all better.