La Gripe

On the bus this week I lost my faith in Ecuadorian humanity. There was a teenage boy ON CRUTCHES standing during the bus ride. It was so crowded that he was on the steps of the bus doorway.  I was standing already, like usual, so I couldn't give up a seat for him. I was so mad that no one would be generous enough to give him a seat. While my blood boiled, I was figuring out how to say "heartless people, someone give this man a seat." By the time I thought I had the correct translation, he got off...

La gripe is the flu. Apparently, when you're in Ecuador many things can cause la gripe. The sun, the drastic changes in temperature during the day, not wearing a scarf, not wearing a jacket... everything except for viruses. My friends host father told her that the sun was very intense during the afternoon and that's why she didn't feel well. The temperature in the morning is about 60 degrees and can get up to 80, not normally hotter than that. I would be happy walking out with shorts and a t-shirt in 60 degree weather but here everyone puts on their heavy coats. I see ladies walking with scarves around their necks and covering their mouths. This tactic is to ward off la gripe from attacking. Oh my! I have even seen people in gloves and hats when I am comfortable walking around in a dress. I guess the Blacksburg winters have made me tough :)

Tomorrow and Sunday I have two ecology field trips. I'll be leaving from the university at 5:50am and coming back at 5:00pm. We're going to a dry montane forest tomorrow and a cloud forest on Sunday. The goal of the field trip is to figure out the abundance of trees at various transect points. This will help us determine how healthy the forest is. We will also be assessing invertebrate species in the rivers. I am excited to visit these forests and I'm sure they will be beautiful. I am currently without a camera as you all know so unless my partners have cameras I wont have any pictures. I would bring my droid but I think I remember my teacher saying no phones are allowed in the park. Or she could have said we don't get reception... language barrier.

Sara, Larissa and her sister come to visit me on Monday! I am meeting them at the airport with my host family Monday night at 11:30pm. I have class on Mon and Tues so I wrote out an itinerary for them while I'm being a good student and going to class. On Wed, I may or may not be skipping some classes to head out to the beach. We're going to Pedernales beach which is right on the equator. It's a less known beach and there will be fewer tourists. That's good for us because thieves don't go where there aren't an abundance of stupid tourists to rob.

Exciting news! I passed my ecology midterm. I got an 80.4%... which is a C. The scale here goes 71-80 = C, 81-90= B. I don't like the scale but I'm happy to have passed. For the semester I only get credits, no grades. If I get a C or higher then I get the credits toward graduation. I really like that I don't really have to care about classes this semester but it's been making me slack off. I will need to remember what studying looks like when I get back to Tech if I want to pass. Until then, I'll keep procrastinating and getting average grades this semester.

Correction- I actually got an 84% woohoo. I did the math by hand when I fist got my paper back and didn't think twice to check it. Yay!!!