25 days!

Well it's official there are 25 days left until I head home back to the U.S. and see everyone! I'm getting kind of excited especially since just yesterday (6/29/2011) I am done conducting my surveys. The rest of my time here in Ecuador will be committed to coding everything and starting some preliminary analysis.
6/23/2011
Today Romiro and I went to Tutupali. Romiro is a professor here at UTPL and he doesn't speak very much english so it was an awesome opportunity for both of us to practice. We spent the whole day surveying and chatting in spanish and english correcting each other and expanding our vocabularies. We completed 10 more surveys, the people of Tutupali seem to be getting scarcer. It's most likely due to the fact that they are working in the fields and won't return until after we have left. It was a good day, a couple interesting things to mention we walked by a construction site (a 3 story apartment complex) in this tiny town and there were some construction workers hanging out at one of the guys' house across the "road" and they were all already drunk. One thing I've learned here and have been told many many times never talk to or mess with a drunk local. They get really upset with people interrupting their time off from work and will get agressive! So Romiro and I took a truck back on the sketchy dirt road to the main town of 28 de Mayo and got there at about 7pm and met up with the other social sciences group and Fausto (the other guy professor) had some dinner and walked around the plaza. They were having a special mass so we went to visit the church and afterwards they had empanadas with cheese and sugar (delicious by the way, they're these fried pieces of bread for those that don't know). Then finally at about 10pm Romiro and I began our 4 hour public bus ride back to Loja! I wasn't able to sleep much but did finish my third book of the summer (1st was DaVinci Code and 2nd was Angels and Demons i've been reading these since my Grandma lent me The Lost Symbol and was able to finish it this last school year Thanks Grandma!) Deception Point which is also by Dan Brown. I was a little too worried about having someone run off the bus with my stuff to sleep. Finally we made it back to Loja at about 2am and was able to go to bed!
6/24/2011
Went to the office didn't accomplish a whole lot updated some codes but a few of the surveys in. Went out to dinner with a couple people from the office for their birthdays to this place called Tapas (appetizers). Eric and I split this giant platter that had bacon wrapped fruit, meatballs, papas de espanola (like a piece of potatoe cake it was good), and a shot of this really good wine. I spent friday night at home talking on skype to Jordan and sleeping so I could rest before our big day of a swimming intramural competition for UTPL and horseback riding in Vilcabamba.
6/25/2011
Death has its grips on me....I've been in the bathroom for 2 hours this morning. Tapas has attempted to poison me and at this point it seemed they succeeded. Needless to say I didn't do anything plan and laid in bed all day with the occasional trip to the bathroom. My stomach hurt so badly! Been trying to drink water but can't take more than a couple sips without my stomach hurting.
6/26/2011
Able to drink some more water, I'm pretty dehydrated and trying to kick this sickness. I'm able to get down a couple ritz crackers in the morning and am starting to feel better by the afternoon. Or so it seems. I eat dinner with everyone we have a "family style" dinner. They were so kind as to make ME vegetarian soup, but I think I'm getting my appetite back and order a pizza too. I didn't want to chance the strange vegetables they put into this soup. 9pm rolls around and my stomach is hurting again, I wait in hour watching How I Met Your Mother (TV Series we watch when we're bored) willing my stomach to settle down. Finally I leave and am home at about 10pm and it seems I'm right back where I was at that morning. I keep drinking water in between sessions trying to stay hydrated I have to go to the field tomorrow!
6/27/2011
Wake up and I'm feeling "okay" not the best but I will my self to go to the field because we're taking Veronica's personal car instead of the bus. So we take off for the field with Veronica, Amy, Yesenia, and I in the car ready for 2 days of field work. We get to Tutupali around 3:30 and meet with the president of the parroquail and he says that nobody is in the village San Vicente that we were supposed to visit to get my last surveys. We decide at this point to finish out all the surveys in tutupali for the sake of time and money purposes and Yesenia and I got 15 of 17 surveys done that we needed for my initial plan. The next morning everyones spirits are high and we get the last 2 surveys by 9:30. Amy was also able to get all her work done that we needed too in Tutupali we will not have to return to this place! The road out was a treacherous one and reminds me of the road to the cabin with the exception that there are giant dump trucks going up and down this road tearing it to bits and it had been raining for the past 3 days there. The road was a mess so us in Veronicas dads' Ford Escape attempted to make our way out, we passed through many mud pits in the road tore up by the giant trucks, we passed by many rockfalls thankful that they weren't falling on us, and past a few sketchy parts where the road had partially washed out and probably would in the next couple days if the heavy truck traffic and rain didn't let up. Finally we were safely back in 28 de Mayo and thankful that we were safe. We decided to continue back through La Paz and we would stop so that Yesenia could finish her senior thesis surveys and  so that Amy and I could possibly also get some work done. She was able to finish her 4 survey/interviews for her thesis on "Organic Production" that she needed and so we began the final 20 extra surveys that Veronica needed (and I also can use for analysis) it took us but 3 short hours in the town of La Paz and after searching every last corner of the town we found enough people to survey. It has been a successful trip and I feel like I have accomplished a lot thanks to the helpful people of Universidad Tecnica Particular de Loja! I can now begin the final stages of my field research and begin data entry!

6/29/2011
It is a great feeling sitting here in the office with my stack of 90 surveys that I set out to get only 6 weeks ago. In the beginning it started slow with nothing happening the first 2 weeks really and it seemed each week the field time got shorter and shorter with not as much getting done as needed. But here I am triumphant with my stack of papers and we even got 30 extra surveys to bring the total to 120! That will give me great statistics!!!! Now the final data entry begins and will keep you updated on my adventures as I try to relax and enjoy my final 3 weeks here! I will post more pictures on my photobucket also today or tomorrow so make sure to check those out too, and maybe I will even go through and title the ones I haven't yet had time to title!

All is well!