Home

Finally home... so weird to be back.  Ten hours of sleep the last 3 days coupled with snow on the ground is making this a strange experience.  What an amazing adventure.  Thank you to everyone who helped me in my journey along the way, particularly the 27 other incredible people in the GAIAS program who were truly like family while abroad.  Another special thanks to all of you who have been following this blog since the start.  It's because of you that i wrote in here, and will now have this collection of thoughts for the rest of my life.

I hope you've enjoyed reading these posts.  It was a new experience for me to do something like this, and I definitely see writing a blog as something i'll do for future travels or adventures.

So thanks again for reading. To finish with the evolution theme (note the blog title and description)... i feel like i've truly evolved as an individual during this semester.  Seems like i've earned more about life in the last 4 months than i have in the previous twenty years.  What an amazing time.

your friend,
Joe

last day of island life

wonderful day.  went to La Loberia, about to email a final paper to a professor, say goodbye to some of the host family, eat dinner, premier the movie sam and i have been working on, and spend a last night in the islands with all my friends.

it's starting to feel like summer here, still warm at night.  just in time to go back to freezing weather.

Wrapping Up

T-minus approximately 150 hours until I'm back to the Bay State.  In the next 6 days I'll be pretty busy, but will definitely be appreciating my surroundings one last time.  I have a final tomorrow morning, an 8 page paper to finish up and edit tomorrow afternoon along with another 2-3 page paper.  Thursday is free, and will definitely involve a lot of beach, maybe some packing.  Friday we check into the airport early, and have the rest of the morning free before our flight around 1.  We'll get into the Quito that night, and i imagine it will be quite the project checking the 28 of us into a hotel.  Saturday I'll be meeting with my first host family for lunch before going back to the city to spend a final night with the whole GAIAS group.  Sunday is a day of shopping.  I hate to ruin the surprise, but your Christmas gift is coming from Ecuador.  Monday morning I have to be at the airport around 7:30 seeing that my flight leaves around 10:30 am. I'll stop first in Miami with a little bit of a layover before finally getting into Logan Airport around 8:35 pm.  

Those are the last few Ecuadorian days for Joe.  I'll make sure to get at least one more final blog in before i get back home.  Maybe during my layover if i'm in a contemplative mood.  

Wow, it's going to be weird going back to real life.   

Food!

No, not Ecuadorian food, we've all had enough of that here.  Going home is going to be bittersweet, but here's the sweetest part:

Arrival home dinner: Nick's Roast Beef (cheese and sauce), fries, and a coke.

Midnight snack after telling stories: Spaghetti and home made meatballs

Breakfast 1: Pancakes! Bacon, and eggs.

Breakfast 2: Bagel World. 1 French toast bagel, 1 Everything Bagel

Lunch: Anna's Taqueria

Dinner: DYC!

Yes, I have planned it out. It keeps going and i've also decided what i want at each meal but i didn't want to appear overly neurotic.  This post is for me to remember my schedule, and for you to pick meals to enjoy with me.

Fishing

Yesterday we went "vivencial fishing" with a couple local fishermen.  This type of fishing supposedly doesn't harm the coastal ecosystems, but at the same time allows fishermen to continue their artesian trade.  I've been taught its specifics a few times,  but to me it just seems like fishing...

Anyway, we couldn't wait to real in some enormous monster tuna that we'd later have for dinner.  After getting pumped to do a little fishing, we hopped aboard and took off for some local fishing spots.  Instead of getting our hands dirty with bait and tackle, we ended up sitting on benches watching one of the fisherman set out TWO lines. (Woah, easy there fisherman, wouldn't want to catch too many fish).  For the next five hours, the boat splashed along at a snails pace as the four of us students talked/slept/complained about the lack of organization of the GAIAS program.  After an entire morning of fishing, we ended up catching zero fish.   That's fishing though, right?

We had dinner that night with the fisherman who took us out. We talked to him a bit about fishing, and the ecology of the surrounding region.  He turned out to be a very personable guy who gave us some cool opinions on topics we've been studying all semester.

Kids & Harpoon Guns.

Certain things on the Galapagos are just accepted. Culturally, religiously, socially or for whatever reason it's simply considered OK for some events to occur.  Here are a few we've witnessed only to do a double take a few seconds later and usually start cracking up laughing.

-While walking along the sidewalk, we saw a boy (no more than 8 years old) snapping white medical gloves onto his hands.  Off to perform a tonsillectomy? 

-Two boys, also no more than 8 years old, hacking away at a small tree with a butcher's knife.  No parents in sight.

- Two enormous holes with construction workers almost blocked the street to passing cars with NO cones, police, or safety measures whatsoever.  I think the workers will be fine though, they whistle at every girl that walks by.

-Small child walking out of the house with a loaded harpoon gun.  

-Cooking a raw chicken, by hand, on stovetop.  Literally stove top. Literally by hand. No pots/pans/or  utensils used.

-Roosters tied to strings that are attached to posts in front lawns.  They're not scary until you get too close.

-Openly training the farm animals for battle. eg  cockfighting.

-Generally anything with unsupervised kids.  We always see them walking home alone, playing in the street, and generally causing havoc. 

-Animals in restaurants  (that aren't  dead and cooked.)  It's usually a family dog or cat, but we've also had salamander and bird visitors.

-People saying "pay me back later" or more commonly just not giving you change in restaurants or stores.  This isn't difficult change either, I shouldn't have to carry around a bag of nickels.

That's all we can think of now.  They literally happen every day, and every time we still laugh or at least make a remark. Thanks to Lori for the help on this one.

Warning: Warming

Welcome to the rainy season ladies and gentlemen.  Contrary to it's name however, it hasn't really rained all that much more. Instead, it's just become incredibly predictable

7am to 11am - Somewhat cloudy, but nice enough that i still walk to school in a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals. (Like I'd wear anything else on the Galapagos, right?)

11am to 12:30 pm- The sun comes out! It's not hot yet, but it's turning into a really nice day.

12:30 pm to 2:30 pm- This is "beach day" weather.  Pretty hot.  A beautiful time to be outside on the beach, snorkeling, or kayaking.

2:30pm to 5pm- See ya later beach day, hello miserable light rain.  It's the worst rain.  Not enough to accumulate anything, but enough of a misty/rainy mess to make you go inside.

5pm to 7pm- Ehh not too bad again.  That rain from earlier has pretty much stopped, but now its getting too cool to do anything at the beach.

7pm and on- Cool. One should wear a sweatshirt to be comfortable outside.  Of course, i'm still just wearing the t shirt, shorts, and sandals combo from earlier.  Partly because it's the Galapagos and I'm morally opposed to wearing layers here, and partly because i haven't had an item of truly "clean" clothing in months.  Laundry never does come out right here.

So take that schedule, and repeat it every day.  Not too bad, except for that overcast afternoon rain.  Ironically, on the one day i do a blog about the predictability of the weather, it changes.  It's beautiful out right now and class isn't until the afternoon.  See you at the beach.