Weather: Sunny and 81

Yesterday were the elections here in Ecuador for mayors of provinces. As far as I know it was for the entire country of Ecuador that had elections. Here in the islands, Isabela, Santa Cruz, and San Cristobal each had their own elections for a new mayor that will take office in May. Ever since we arrived in February the signs have been everywhere, and trucks have been driving around with speakers playing the voice of the candidate talking about what they want to do if they win. There's been countless politician parties blasting music on the weekends and yesterday that all ended. Here all the politicians advertise with numbers, I have no clue why. They announced the winners at 8pm, so we were all having dinner and Paco had the TV on which was showing how the vote was going in the mainland. 21 was the winner of the election in San Cristobal and Tania was very excited. She said it's all who you know here and that's how someone will win the election. She voted for 21 because she went to high school with one of the guys in the party. I think each party has six people within it and I guess it's possible to have only certain people out of the six win, and then the rest will come from a different political group.

Today marked my first day of Climate Change which is my fourth module during my semester abroad. Time is truly flying but at the same time Quito feels like decades ago. When May comes and it's time to return to the states I'm expecting a mixed bag of emotions. I will be excited to see the fam and the pups but it'll be a rough transition back into the hustle and bustle of American culture. I honestly won't be surprised if I try and put toilet paper in the trash next to the toilets. Anyways, I am excited for this class because I know the basics of Climate Change but I've never had a course that is centered around it. I'm looking forward to gaining more knowledge, and having a more in depth understanding of climate change. After the first class I could tell it's going to involve a lot of work but I know I'll be able to get it all done as long as I tackle one thing at a time. I will say my motivation levels have been way down and it's no bueno. I thought we were going to Santa Cruz during this class but apparently it's not happening. We're going to Kicker Rock next week and then the windmills during our last week of the module. I'm hoping I see more hammerheads when we go to Kicker Rock, that would be amazing and definitely make the second trip worth it.

On another note, Sara, Nicola, and I booked a hostel in Santa Cruz for April 12th and 13th. We are working on booking a tour to Bartolome for Saturday April 13th and we'll return to San Cristobal on Sunday the 14th in the afternoon. It's the weekend between this module and our last module so it's the perfect weekend to go since we won't have any homework to worry about.