Today was not my favorite day so far. I was really tired this morning and I luckily had time to get some coffee before class. First, the lid the lady put on my coffee was a flimsy normal soda top lid and I carried it wrong into the school and dropped it all over the floor. Second, my ecology teacher flat out refused to let me take my final a little early because "it says we cant in the syllabus" so chances of me coming back for Melissa's graduation are slim to none right now :( Sorry Mul! Third, I have a big presentation in my ecology class next Thursday and we have to talk about an article on an assigned topic. Our professor refused all of our topics so I still can't start preparing any part of the presentation. Yes, I'm aware that I still have a week BUT everyone in the class is Ecuadorian so I can't make a fool out of myself and mess up my Spanish.
On to more fun topics...
I am going to the beach in t minus 6 hours. Our bus leaves at 10pm and we should arrive by 6am. I will be gone the whole weekend without internet access so don't think I was kidnapped or that I died, I'll just be at the beach! This weekend is a holiday called Carnival and I get Monday and Tuesday off of school. The premise of Carnival is to have a crazy time and do every possible sin before lent comes around [Fun fact- The country is 95% Catholic]. Don't worry everyone, I'll behave myself! I just want to get tan and take a respite from Quito. Bad news- camera is still being annoying so I'll have my friends take pics and then I'll steal them.
I am going in for an interview [more like meet and greet] to work with a program called Sus Niños [His Children] and I will hopefully be volunteering with orphans! I'm really excited for this opportunity. Mom, you might be getting a few Ecuadorian grandchildren when I come back :)
So, I want to share a few Ecuadorian oddities with you all. No one sleeps late [or more than 8 hours a night] here. I am not really sure how people don't walk around like zombies or with constant coffee in hand. Ruth goes to bed around 1am or later every night and then she's up before I wake up at 6:30am. The same goes for the rest of the family, they could be out past two and still be gone before I get up for school. Everyone usually gets back later from work than I do from school too. Also, no one sleeps past 9am on the weekends. As some of you know, I can easily sleep past 12pm on the weekends [or weekdays for that matter] so it's been strug city on the weekends [if you didn't get that reference, google it]. Don't worry guys, I'm not rude; I wake up before 10am every weekend!
Next weird thing, EVERYONE SMOKES! The students at the school stand outside buildings and light up all day every day. I find this interesting since they have a picture of a throat with a hole in it on the cigarette cartons. Even if I did smoke, the throat would probably keep cravings at bay. I won't start smoking family, don't worry about that either!
Last weird thing, there is an almost completed new airport without roads leading to it. Every citizen I have talked to about it normally just says "stupid Correa" [Rafael Correa is the president] and everyone seems to realize how strange it is to build a new airport without roads leading to it. I have no idea how that little fact just slipped out of the plans. The airport in Quito is really dangerous because planes literally land in the middle of the city, flying between buildings and about 100 feet over a very busy highway. The new airport was built to reduce the risks of crashes but I have no idea how the president is connected to the project. All I know is that it's almost finished and up and running- except for the little fact that no one can drive there...
I am officially starting my bird project this coming Tuesday. My partner is very nice but he keeps writing pieces of the project with out me. We'll come to class and he'll show me "our" methodology that explains all of the points of our research. He also already wrote the "theoretical" introduction to our final paper which is supposed to be written AFTER you do the project. It is nice being in a group project where I don't have to delegate what people need to be doing but I definitely don't like being the dumb partner.
I realized that both Veronica and Andres call Ruth, "Ruth". I was taken aback at first and I still have no idea why they call her by her first name. I was wondering if she is actually their step mother but that's not something you just ask. I don't want to get in to an awkward situation so I'll look for subtle clues.
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