Days 100 & 101: Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

After breakfast at home, Katie, Lisa, and I all walked to school together. Lisa and I were really tired so we decided to jump in the ocean before class started in order to wake up. The water was certainly cold and did a good job waking us up, for a while at least. I really like class but I have been lethargic lately and couldn’t seem to keep my eyes open for long. I feel bad, because the stuff we were learning about today was human evolution, which is stuff I have learned about in my previous anthropology classes back at MSU. Diego is a very good lecturer and he is animated, making Gunter look worse and worse by the day.

The only real problem with the class is the absurd amount of reading that we are expected to complete. I think we averaged it out and we are expected to read about 200 pages a day. I am not a fast reader even when reading a book for please, so how am I supposed to read anthropological articles that are extremely dense and long in such a small amount of time? I think I am going to be behind on the reading for about the next three weeks no matter how much time I spend reading for this class. Oh well, three weeks and done.

After lunch I came back to school and took a nap. It was cloudy and overcast and for some reason I just felt exhausted. I ended up sleeping on the couch for almost 3 hours. When I woke up I did some reading for class, then eventually walked home to shower before dinner. Dinner felt like a real family event because it was Karol, Lisa, Me, Katie, and Ines – 5 girls. We had rice and beans and shrimp; the shrimp was delicious because it was cooked in some lemony juice. After dinner Katie and Lisa walked to town to get ice cream and Katie went to look for Carlos – he was supposedly getting back from Isabela today and she hadn’t heard from him. I stayed home and worked on my reading for Diego – I read for about 2 hours before succumbing to the sand man who was pouring sleep into my eyes. I had my computer at home so I decided to put a movie in while going to bed: Definitely, maybe. I only got a short way into it before falling asleep and sleeping deeply all night long.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Today is day 101. For more than 100 days I have been away from my home and surprisingly I’m not having a mental breakdown. I’m starting to think about home a lot more because my time here is winding down. There are certain things I am really excited to get back to, but I know I’m going to miss my home here a lot. Even though I anticipate tears and extreme sadness when I am torn from my friends that have become my family down here, I find myself thinking about December 22nd several times a day and can’t wait until I get to see my entire family. My friends here have become, if possible, closer to me than many I have made in 2 years at college. Having lived in hotels and tents and cabins with the same people for 4 months straight has forced us to form bonds that are incomparable to anything formed by attending university in the U.S. It’s hard sometimes, not being able to get away from anyone, but it’s also rewarding because I know I have 32 friends who would look out for me in any circumstance. While I have friends back home who I have more invested time with and relationships that will never be replaceable, I will be sad to leave my friends here as we are comfortable with each other in every way imaginable. There are little-to-no secrets among our group, and everyone is comfortable coexisting with one another in very primitive conditions. Bodily functions are discussed with a [surprising] casual tone, and things that we would regard as odd at home are just part of a normal day here. Though I am fully aware that in three weeks time there are probably some people whom I will never talk to again, I hope that I am able to maintain some of the friendships I have formed while traveling Ecuador.

Class today was very interesting and reminded me a lot of my anthropology classes from freshman year. We discussed the advancement or change of civilizations throughout time, specifically how hunter/gatherer societies changed with the introduction of agriculture. In many ways, it was agriculture which initiated the demise of the world’s natural resources and overexploitation. We also watched an ancient video about the Waoroni people of the Amazon – but it seemed extremely outdated compared to what we learned first hand from Waoroni people when we visited Tiputini Biodiversity Station back in September.

After class Maddelyn and I walked to lunch together. The changing of the seasons is more obvious every day down here – each day is more humid and the temperature continues to rise. By the time we arrived at lunch I was sweating and so hot I was not even hungry. The lemonade we got disappeared from my glass in about one gulp, and our “dessert”, and orange, was the juiciest and best orange ever. I came back to school after lunch to do some reading, but it was just too hot do get any work done so I ended up going to the beach. It was a beautiful day with lots of sun, and the water wasn’t too cold so we were able to swim a bit. I actually was successful in getting some of my reading done on the beach as well.

Come dinner time, I headed to town to check out some stores and ran into Carlos. Carlos had been on Isabela for 4 or 5 days so it was nice to see him back on the island. We chatted for a little before I had to continue on towards dinner. After dinner I called my mom because I was having a tough time with people and just needed to hear a comforting voice and have someone to vent to. Even then I couldn’t get any peace or space to myself as some random guy had to walk up and start peeing by me. He was lucky I didn’t castrate him I was so angry. I got my stuff from my house and walked back to school because I was supposed to go night snorkeling with some people. However, I chickened out because I don’t like the dark and I was still just frustrated and didn’t’ want to get in the water. I walked with the others, however, and made sure no one disappeared or drowned while they snorkeled by the loading docks. The reason we wanted to go at night was for the phosphorescence. It was pretty amazing – when the water was churned up or disturbed you could see the glowing phosphorescence in the water. Even though I didn’t get in the water I was still able to see it. The loading dock, which is where we went, also has a great view of the entire city of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno at night. The whole city is lit up against the pitch-black night sky, with more stars than I have ever seen before. Even with the city lights at night the stars are still visible because the light produced by PBM is almost non-existent relative to the expansive darkness of the open Pacific Ocean.

On the way back from the loading dock, I was observing the stars. For the past week or so Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon have all been extremely close and bright in the sky. They have not been this close for a very long time, and I don’t know how bright they are in the Northern Hemisphere, but on the equator they shine brighter than any stars I have ever seen before. As I was observing all the stars, my phone rang and who should it be but my sister Andrea! I was thrilled to hear her voice – mom had told her to call because I was upset earlier and really want to hear from my sister, so she had gone to Jenn’s house to give me a call. We talked for a while until Jenn’s phone died (because it is a piece of poop). Then Andrea called back using her cell phone – hopefully the cost wasn’t too high! We talked for a while – I am really excited to see her and the rest of my family in only 19 days, then continued our conversation online to save money. The internet, however, is unreliable and crapped out on me so I finished my reading for class instead. I was thrilled and shocked that I was actually able to read all of my reading for the night, and when I went home at 11:30 pm I was extremely tired and ready for bed.