My poor ignored blog...

Sorry, I've been really busy this last week and a half. I've had a test and two presentations plus I was gone all weekend. So a quick recap:

Last weekend, I stayed in Quito. On Friday and Saturday morning, I counted sparrows with my ecology class in Tumbaco and Puembo (smallish cities close to Quito) at 6am. Yes, it was about as fun as it sounds. But I did get know some of the Ecuadorian girls in my class better, so that was cool. On Saturday and Sunday, I went to the Historic Center with another gringa Hannah. On Saturday, we checked out the market in the park El Ejido and walked to the Mariscal for lunch at a delicious gringo restaurant. Then we walked to the Centro but caught in a rainstorm and took a cab the rest of the way. We went to the World Press Photo exhibit. Very interesting. After that we checked out some of the counterfeit products store and went home. On Sunday we went to the Basilica and ate pizza for lunch. Always a great treat!

Hmmm... I don't remember anything exceptionally exciting last week. Of course I haven't slept much lately either. If I think of something, I'll add it later.

This weekend (well two days ago) I went to Bellavista, a resortish place in a cloud forest, with the other Wisconsin folk and some MSU people too. It was our one field trip included with the program (ie we already paid for it). It was awesome! If anyone would like to give me $100 to go back there again, let me know. I'll send you pictures. There were hummingbirds all over. Really cool flora. There are these plants called epiphytes that grow on tree but don't harm them. It was crazy how big they can get. Sometimes there are so many of them on a tree, it starts to fall over from the weight. At night on Saturday, I went on a bug hunt with another bug lover from our group. So much fun! And crazy cool bugs too! One we named the butt fluff bug. (kind of gives you an idea what it looked like) On Sunday morning early before breakfast, I went on a bird watching hike. Incredible! Birds of every color of the rainbow and big too. After breakfast we hiked to a small but amazing waterfall. For lunch we went to a different resort and after that soaked in their hot tub. A great end to a awesome weekend!

Yesterday, I had a presentation about Magic Realism (a crazy topic) with two other gringas in one of my lit classes. We worked for hours and hours on it last week (hence the lack of sleep). We only had time to finish half of the presentation and will do the rest tomorrow in class. Today I had another presentation in my ecology class about a journal article about toads.

Nothing too exciting today. I got my Phonetics test back. I did really well on the part I thought I did bad on and not so hot on the part I thought I did well. Go figure. It averages out. Now I'm hearing thunder. Must be another one of those wonderful storms the rainy season is bringing. Yesterday's storm was so bad, the cable and internet at my house was knocked out.

Ok so now I'm babbling... Time to go. If you read this, send me an e-mail. My inboxes have been sadly empty lately.