Weather: Cloudy and a bit of rain in the AM

Today I had GIS per usual, but I am that much closer to finishing the course which makes me happy. Today’s class was spent working on finishing our final assignments which was much needed. After class we headed to Fresco where I tried her cheese and basil muffins that came with a side salad. They were an interesting concoction I would never have thought to make and they were really good. We headed back to the university after lunch because we needed to finish working on GIS assignments. Luckily for us it wasn’t the greatest day weather wise so it was somewhat okay being locked inside the whole time despite wanting to enjoy my last days on the beach.

After working for a bit, Sara, Audrey, and I headed to some souvenir shops to get some last minute pick ups. Audrey is getting a tattoo tomorrow, so we checked out the place and made sure they had time for her tomorrow. I headed home around 6:30pm to hang out a bit before dinner. I ended up getting my carry on all ready for Friday. While I was getting organized Anahi and Helena kept me company, and I ended up showing them all the things I bought from here and Quito. They thought all of it was great and it was nice just having them to talk to while I packed. Ana then asked Helena “Do you want Julia to leave?” (in Spanish of course) and Helena yells “NO!” It was so cute and also made me realize that Friday is quickly approaching and leaving them behind may be harder than I originally thought. In the past three months, I feel like I’ve seen Helena grow up a bit and come into her personality a bit more. She may have cried a lot but she is adorable when she is in a good mood and I am going to truly miss her dearly.

Anahi asked me if I wanted to make cupcakes with her and of course I said yes. This is the first time they’ve baked something since being here and being able to bake with Ana was a fun time. Baking here is interesting to say the least. Some of the ingredients are different and they didn’t have measuring cups so we guessed. Anahi was following a youtube video so we judged it based on that. We put them in the oven and then made some frosting. When the cupcakes were just about done, Anahi put some of the frosting in the middle of all of the cupcakes so they’d be like a lava cake. I had dinner, and once that was over we all tried our creations. Tania wanted ice cream but Anahi didn’t want to go to the store. It was like watching a conversation with me and mom and me being lazy. The cakes weren’t too terrible, they were quite chewy but the frosting in the middle made them bearable. I wish I had proper ingredients because then I could show them my baking skills and they’d probably be blown away considering they thought the cupcakes were good.

Paco had gone to church so after Tania, Anahi, and I enjoyed a cupcake I ended up talking with Tania for almost 2 hours. A half hour of that being with Paco too. We talked about everything including her grandmother and how she doesn’t remember much. I ended up telling her about Anne and what her symptoms were and how she was when she had Alzheimer's. There are days that I doubt my Spanish and yes…it is not the best as my conjugations of verbs are off sometimes and I can’t think of some vocabulary sometimes. However, I was able to have this sort of conversation all in Spanish and they were comprehending what I was trying to say which is a pretty big deal. My Spanish has improved more than I give myself credit for I guess. Tania ended up talking about people on the island that have mental disabilities. She was talking about a boy that’s probably 22 who thinks he works at the airport and he goes in everyday to count passengers. They have taken him in like he actually works there and will ask him “how many passengers?” which I thought was really nice. Apparently when he was younger they had pay phones on the malecon and he would go and hold the phone to his ear and just talk to himself for hours. Tourists obviously didn’t know this was a common occurrence so they would get in line behind him! After talking until 9:30ish I went to wash up, finished a book series I was aiming to complete before my time here ended, and prepared for my last day on San Cristobal.