Weather: Sunny, humid, 80 degrees

Today my day started at 8am with another info-session. Paco walked me to school this morning which was really nice. Most families did not do that however, I truly appreciated the escort. I had a slight idea as to where I was going, but being assured that I was going the right way was fantastic.

Our info-session was a walking tour of part of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (which is the one town on San Cristobal and where I am staying). This was technically a tsunami drill, but our director from IES showed us some things along the way. Direction wise, I was a bit lost but I will figure it out. All it will take is walking around aimlessly this weekend to see what I stumble across. Eventually everything will fall into place. Anyways, during the walk throughout town I talked with a couple of my friends and they too were still feeling overwhelmed. Yesterday I was very overwhelmed and this morning I was too, but it was more manageable. I know that each day will get better just as it did in Quito. I remember questioning everything in addition to feeling overwhelmed in Quito. Here it's just a lot between arriving, having a new family, and starting classes the next day in a place that is unfamiliar.

Along the walk back to the university we saw a lot of sea lions perched everywhere along the boardwalk. It was really cute and it never gets old, I could literally watch them all day. We arrived back at campus and it was time for my first class of Strategic Natural Resource Management. My professor is from Quito so she is here for the duration of the class which is three weeks. She's really nice and a natural resource economist which is basically what I could be with my major and minors. Today was just an intro day but I am excited for this course because it will teach me things that I can actually apply to the real world and it will teach me things I need to know for when I have a career. Today in class we walked five minutes away from the university to the Interpretation Center. It's like a museum almost that shows the history of the islands from how they were formed, to current problems the islands are facing. It was a really cool experience to walk around and notice there is a ton more to these islands than Darwin. The facility has a really cool trail off of it that leads to a nice snorkel spot so I'm looking forward to checking out as well.

After class, we headed across the street to a restaurant/lunch shack. It took me about a half hour to get the chance to order. We went during the lunch rush and here similar to Quito there are no lines. It's not orderly like America. The locals also get served before the foreigners so we had locals cutting us left and right and at this point we were all hangry. It was frustrating but we quickly realized we are the ones that need to relax and understand we are on island time now. It was a hard realization but a necessary one. I ended up getting grilled fish, rice, and veggies, a huge plate all for $4. It was a lot better than I was expecting and the fish had no bones so I was ecstatic!

After lunch, Nicola, my friend Sara, and I all walked to the center of town where all the souvenir shops are. Most stores are not open on Sundays and Mondays apparently (it was the same way in Kauai). So, there was one souvenir shop open out of about 10. I saw some things I definitely plan on buying this weekend. I want to go back tomorrow to get some postcards however, these postcards may not make it to the states until I get back from my semester abroad...that's how bad the postal system here is. Each stamp is about $3 so I'm hoping they would make it to the states before I leave...fingers crossed. Who knows maybe a professor would take them to the mainland for me and send them from there so it avoids a whole mess here. We ended up watching the sea lions for about a half hour and they are so funny. They sound like a goat but also like they're throwing up. It's bizarre.

We headed back towards campus and I headed to Playa Mann for a couple of hours. Playa Mann is the beach directly across the street from campus. It's beautiful and the water is a perfect temperature. There were 2 sea lions swimming nearby and a pretty big fish that appeared at my feet. It freaked me out at first but it did catch me off guard.

After the beach I walked home with another friend of mine. We stopped at the bread store at the bottom of my street and I got a cinnamon roll for $.60. If you couldn't tell I like to point out how low the cost is for quality foods here. However, this roll did not compare in the slightest to those in Ecuador. My friend Jintong who is in my program was here over the Summer, and said that there's two bread shops one is so-so and the other is delicious. I spotted the other one so that's on my agenda to try. Luckily walking home I was able to find my street which I was pretty concerned about all day. Here they don't use street signs, so thankfully I remembered what a building looked like and knew it was the right street.

After arriving back, Paco picked up Tania from work and then turned around and took Anahi to dance. She has been training for two months now for her recital that's on February 8th, and her competition that's on Valentine's Day. When he returned I went to the park with Tania, Paco, Mateo, and Helena. This marked my first ride ever on a moto or moped. The breeze was great that is for sure. Paco made two trips for all of us and when we got to the park there were two other little girls. We all started playing tag and it was so much fun. Paco and Tania were running around like kids too and to be honest it was totally awesome not seeing a single person glued to their phone. Service/wi-fi is terrible here so people are forced to interact a lot. I ran around so much but I was never out of breath just really sweaty. I attribute the not out of breath part to the altitudes of Quito. I'm hoping I can stay in shape while I'm here so when I get back to the states I can run a lot.

Tania fixed up dinner when we got back. Tonight was rice, an avocado slice, and a salad that had onions, tomatoes, tuna, and lentils in it. It wasn't bad and the tuna was bearable. I don't think I would make this a regular meal in the states but for now I can tolerate it. Before heading to bed, Anahi started talking with me, and we ended up playing Uno a couple times. She also showed me her dance costume which contains sweatpants....yes sweatpants in the Galapagos Islands. I don't know how she is gonna do it. She is adorable and definitely warming up to me which is awesome. I guess she is grounded right now cause she got a zero on an exam for using her phone. Talking to her she is a great kid, and she learned her lesson. She was saying how she knows a girl that's 13 and having a baby this month, and several other kids her age (she's 13) are into drugs and alcohol. She does none of it which was really good to hear.

The day started off a bit stressful, but over the course of the day everything worked itself out. I have an interview tomorrow with Ahold for an environmental safety Summer internship. It would be nice to get it and then not have to worry about applying to other places. Instead I can just hope that I hear back from the other places I've applied to.