UPDATE! (7/22/2011)
So we´re in our hostal in Quito (the capital of ecuador) and will be flying out tomorrow night! I haven´t had much internet access these last few days and have quite a bit to post so don´t get discouraged i will keep posting articles as I get time to write them. hopefully I will be able to soon so I don´t forget them!! Anyways I also plan on continuing my blog throughout the school year with progress of my report and will post findings/results as I analyze my results for those of you interested!!
Showing posts with label Final days. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Final days. Show all posts
Friday, July 22, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Ecuador
So tonight we went to play/watch soccer again (eric and I) and when we got there realized it was an actual intramural game against another department. So I didn't play and eric played for a couple minutes to give one of the guys a break! This was quite different than when we had played solely with the Biology department folks because there was an out of bounds! Imagine playing soccer on a basketball court with 7 vs. 7 it was quite packed and the foot work was amazing! Area Biologica won the game 6-4 against a team that was very good!
I'm going to be doing a little bit of reflecting now upon the times that I have had here in Ecuador as the last work week comes to a close. It has been a great time and have had tons of fun I have met so many amazing people here! Those that are native Ecuadorean's and the casual encounter with those that have made there way here from other locations (mostly U.S. and Europe) This reminds me today we went to eat at this "Health nut" restaurant I had a chicken quesadilla (which was excellent!) and as we were getting up to pay a gentleman at the table next to us started saying "Daniel" "Daniel" and I looked towards him with an awkward look and he said "Oh sorry you're not Daniel are you?" I responded with a polite "no" and struck up a short conversation to help ease the awkwardness
Me: "So where are you from?"
Stranger: "Vilcabamba"
Me: and before that?
Stranger: Oh from Canada and California and you all?
Me: From Idaho, Washington, New Mexico all over
Stranger: Very nice have a good time here!
This is a common occurence with the recognition of fellow "extranjeros" (foreigners) especially those that speak english! It has been nice to speak with them and to figure out what brings them to this wonderful country (especially the less popular than Galapagos southern Ecuador). Usually just touring S. America with the occasional ex-pat that has moved down here with their spouse or family. Which brings me to my next thought. Being down here and speaking the language (or trying to anyways) has probably been my favorite part about the experience. Before I always thought it would be interesting to learn another language but actually doing so and using it in an application such as research and communication for travel has made me appreciate it so much more! I want to try and take it upon myself to learn more spanish however it may happen so that I can continue my travels and possibly even starting to pick up on a third language. Not really sure what that would be but definitely would be quite awesome to do! This whole experience has fueled my interest in research and continuing my education both in the field of Ecology/Biology/Social-sciences as well as in other experiences such as broadening my knowledge in general. Well I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get all this stuff back to the U.S. will post more later this week!
P.S. It has been raining since after lunch today and most all of the streets are flooded! On my way back from lunch I was walking and got splashed by a car driving through a giant puddle. It made me a little angry. The clay-ey soil causes the rain to run off and collect but it seems like it has been raining inches and inches all day. It is currently raining right now too.
I'm going to be doing a little bit of reflecting now upon the times that I have had here in Ecuador as the last work week comes to a close. It has been a great time and have had tons of fun I have met so many amazing people here! Those that are native Ecuadorean's and the casual encounter with those that have made there way here from other locations (mostly U.S. and Europe) This reminds me today we went to eat at this "Health nut" restaurant I had a chicken quesadilla (which was excellent!) and as we were getting up to pay a gentleman at the table next to us started saying "Daniel" "Daniel" and I looked towards him with an awkward look and he said "Oh sorry you're not Daniel are you?" I responded with a polite "no" and struck up a short conversation to help ease the awkwardness
Me: "So where are you from?"
Stranger: "Vilcabamba"
Me: and before that?
Stranger: Oh from Canada and California and you all?
Me: From Idaho, Washington, New Mexico all over
Stranger: Very nice have a good time here!
This is a common occurence with the recognition of fellow "extranjeros" (foreigners) especially those that speak english! It has been nice to speak with them and to figure out what brings them to this wonderful country (especially the less popular than Galapagos southern Ecuador). Usually just touring S. America with the occasional ex-pat that has moved down here with their spouse or family. Which brings me to my next thought. Being down here and speaking the language (or trying to anyways) has probably been my favorite part about the experience. Before I always thought it would be interesting to learn another language but actually doing so and using it in an application such as research and communication for travel has made me appreciate it so much more! I want to try and take it upon myself to learn more spanish however it may happen so that I can continue my travels and possibly even starting to pick up on a third language. Not really sure what that would be but definitely would be quite awesome to do! This whole experience has fueled my interest in research and continuing my education both in the field of Ecology/Biology/Social-sciences as well as in other experiences such as broadening my knowledge in general. Well I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get all this stuff back to the U.S. will post more later this week!
P.S. It has been raining since after lunch today and most all of the streets are flooded! On my way back from lunch I was walking and got splashed by a car driving through a giant puddle. It made me a little angry. The clay-ey soil causes the rain to run off and collect but it seems like it has been raining inches and inches all day. It is currently raining right now too.
Last week! (of work)
7/11/2011
Well just re-doing a bunch of my surveys and putting the "Animal" data into excel for analysis. It's been pretty exciting we've been able to do some preliminary analysis of demographic data and the first few questions! I'm excited to be back in less than 13 days!! There were a 101 different plant species named by people in my surveys ranging for uses from food and drink to religious and medicinal purposes! As well there were 65 animal species named by people that had the same range of uses!
Not a whole lot of new happenings we went back to Vilcabamba this last weekend for a birthday party and played volleyball and had a BBQ. It was really good food. But I can't wait to have the wide variety of food available again in the good ol U.S. We also met a guy from New Jersey this past week that runs a 'Street food' restaurant he's got like steak sandwiches and what not with fries. It's really good he made us feel pretty at home except that we're not from New Jersey haha.
Some little things I haven't really mentioned before (i don't think) is that they use the Sacajawea Dollar here instead of dollar bills. Their money is all from the U.S. with the exception that they have printed some of their own .05, .10, .25, and .50 cent pieces! It's pretty cool a couple of the places we go they constantly ask us if we have American .50 pieces to trade for but those are pretty rare to come by even in the states (unless your in Vegas Thanks again for that Dad that was a blast!). I'm looking forward to my pack schedule once I get back into the U.S. all the way up until school starts I've got just about every day planned out!
We leave this friday night to take the midnight bus for 12 hours to the beach so we'll get there saturday morning just in time to hang out and sleep on the beach! Then we're touring poor man Galapagos' and Tuesday night catching the midnight train back to Guayaquil. Spend our last day in Loja wednesday saying goodbyes and finishing up packing then Thursday it's back to Quito where we will climb the towers in one of the churches and then Friday tour the city and Saturday pack up and get ready to head back home!
It has been an awesome trip there's not a thing different I would do...okay that's a lie. I wouldn't have drank the stream water!!! I've lost like 5lbs this last week and am down to my last notch on my belt and about ready to cut another notch. I can now understand why back in the old days doctors would sell parasites for weight loss, it's worked pretty good for me. haha Just kidding. I've got a couple "home remedy" ideas given to me and will be trying those to see if I can kick this. And for all of you who were hoping to see me come back with a Bot fly, I haven't been so lucky sorry to disappoint you!
Hope all is well with everyone I have added more pictures to my photobucket of the zoo and what not! Also there's a construction picture in there I would like to dedicate to my Dad. I'd imagine it was the same kind of work he was doing back when he first started construction using sticks for framing! Haha hope you enjoy it here's the link http://s1085.photobucket.com/albums/j422/raus2120/More%20Ecuador/?action=view¤t=DSCN0731.jpg#!oZZ11QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs1085.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fj422%2Fraus2120%2FMore%2520Ecuador%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DDSCN0731.jpg > Be sure to click "Next" to see the second picture.
Well just re-doing a bunch of my surveys and putting the "Animal" data into excel for analysis. It's been pretty exciting we've been able to do some preliminary analysis of demographic data and the first few questions! I'm excited to be back in less than 13 days!! There were a 101 different plant species named by people in my surveys ranging for uses from food and drink to religious and medicinal purposes! As well there were 65 animal species named by people that had the same range of uses!
Not a whole lot of new happenings we went back to Vilcabamba this last weekend for a birthday party and played volleyball and had a BBQ. It was really good food. But I can't wait to have the wide variety of food available again in the good ol U.S. We also met a guy from New Jersey this past week that runs a 'Street food' restaurant he's got like steak sandwiches and what not with fries. It's really good he made us feel pretty at home except that we're not from New Jersey haha.
Some little things I haven't really mentioned before (i don't think) is that they use the Sacajawea Dollar here instead of dollar bills. Their money is all from the U.S. with the exception that they have printed some of their own .05, .10, .25, and .50 cent pieces! It's pretty cool a couple of the places we go they constantly ask us if we have American .50 pieces to trade for but those are pretty rare to come by even in the states (unless your in Vegas Thanks again for that Dad that was a blast!). I'm looking forward to my pack schedule once I get back into the U.S. all the way up until school starts I've got just about every day planned out!
We leave this friday night to take the midnight bus for 12 hours to the beach so we'll get there saturday morning just in time to hang out and sleep on the beach! Then we're touring poor man Galapagos' and Tuesday night catching the midnight train back to Guayaquil. Spend our last day in Loja wednesday saying goodbyes and finishing up packing then Thursday it's back to Quito where we will climb the towers in one of the churches and then Friday tour the city and Saturday pack up and get ready to head back home!
It has been an awesome trip there's not a thing different I would do...okay that's a lie. I wouldn't have drank the stream water!!! I've lost like 5lbs this last week and am down to my last notch on my belt and about ready to cut another notch. I can now understand why back in the old days doctors would sell parasites for weight loss, it's worked pretty good for me. haha Just kidding. I've got a couple "home remedy" ideas given to me and will be trying those to see if I can kick this. And for all of you who were hoping to see me come back with a Bot fly, I haven't been so lucky sorry to disappoint you!
Hope all is well with everyone I have added more pictures to my photobucket of the zoo and what not! Also there's a construction picture in there I would like to dedicate to my Dad. I'd imagine it was the same kind of work he was doing back when he first started construction using sticks for framing! Haha hope you enjoy it here's the link http://s1085.photobucket.com/albums/j422/raus2120/More%20Ecuador/?action=view¤t=DSCN0731.jpg#!oZZ11QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs1085.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fj422%2Fraus2120%2FMore%2520Ecuador%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DDSCN0731.jpg > Be sure to click "Next" to see the second picture.
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