This morning Abby, Ann, Cayman, and I went horseback riding. 6:45 am is not my friend, but it was still so much fun. It was such a beautiful day, too. When we got there, I asked Alan which horse was the best, so he told the other guide to saddle me up on Guicho. Alan must hate me. After about 2 minutes on Guicho, I decided that he was either drunk or hung over. He was struggling. Big time. Guicho was all over the road, most often teetering on the very edge tempting his fate and mine. Most of the time he would just take his sweet time and hang in the back of the line, then he would get into these random competitive kicks and try to get in front of Abby's bully horse. He lost every time. I still loved Guicho, though. I mean it would suck to have to carry someone around on your back when you're hung over. I get that.
The most wonderful thing happened during the horseback ride. I saw mi padre!! I didn't even see him until after Alan said hi to him, then I just freaked out. I was like "OLIVIER!! MI PAPA!!! AHHH!!!!" And he was just as surprised as I was. He was just like "HOLA! PURA VIDA!!" I could have cried. I miss my homestay fam so freaking much.
For breakfast this morning we had the fluffiest, most delicious bread I have ever had in my life. And strawberry jelly. Oh my goodness it was so wonderful. We also had coffee and gallo pinto and delicious frutas and queso. Mi amor brought me a fat plate of extra pina because we are in love.
Today was Ecology lab day. It didn't suck. Actually, it was really fun. This morning we all piled into the truck and headed over to a stream down by the Beneficio. Then Scott and Katie gave us nets and sent us to work finding insects in the stream. I found tadpoles. They were really cute. Then we took an inventory of all we'd found. I pretty much stopped paying attention after that point because there were these two predator insects in the same dish. Read: BATTLE ROYALE! Oh yes. Unfortunately, the bigger of the two had already injected venom into two other victims just beforehand, so he was not in a fighting mood. So I stole the dish from Scott and kept the two separate until the big one had regained its strength and could show the little one what was up. Scott told me it would be best to keep them in the shade and to keep the water still, so I sat my battle royale babies on a rock while we did a lab to figure out the velocity of the stream. The velocity lab was cool because we turned the stream water into lime Kool-Aid using a FDA-approved vegetable-based dye. Then Scott told me one of my babies was missing! I was so upset. I felt like the worst babysitter ever. I was checking all over the place for the stupid little milipedey looking one. Then I threw up my white flag and started poking at my awesome big beetle that breathes through its butt, and that's when I realized that the battle royale had already gone down. The butt-breathing beetle had a shriveled-up lifeless form of what had once been the milipedey punk tucked underneath his body. Hell yeah! Order had been reinstated. I was just so pissed that I had missed it. I told Scott to round me up another one of the milipedey ones, and he told me that I had had enough fun for the day. Seriously, Scott. Ruining my life.
So then we went to the Beneficio and loaded up on coffee to take back to the states with us. The Beneficio smells so incredibly wonderful. I could live there. I would sleep in a barrel of coffee beans and love my life.
Then we headed back for a lunch of ensalada, rice, beans, delicious potatoes, and these weird meat-ish patties. Good lunch. After lunch I busted out chocolates for everyone. I love playing Easter Bunny. After lunch we had our second lab of the day: butterfly hunting. It was so much fun. Scott gave us all nets, then let us run wild for 15 minutes catching as many butterflies as we could in the botanical gardens. Scott made fun of my technique. It's a very complex technique that only we master butterfly catchers use; I wouldn't expect someone like Scott to understand. You see, first you spot your target, then you sort of leap after it, all the while keeping your mouth open in a sort of smiling fashion, and then when you are within range, you swish your net around dreamily until you have netted your loot. Then you go over to Scott and puff out your chest with pride and tell him that you caught one. We did work and ended up with 20 in all. I caught three. My MVP moment was when I saw one flying towards me and I jumped up and snagged him mid-air. Go me.
We took our booty back to the lab to take inventory of all the different families we had caught and to mark them all with black marker (sad!). Then we went back over to the garden and released them back into the wild. Before recapturing, we had to give them a little bit of a head start. So we headed over to the palace for high tea with Scott and Katie. Though it was no Dean and Kathy, Scott and Katie did make a valiant attempt. Katie had laid out Nutri Grain bars, Special K bars, cashews, peanuts, corn nuts, crackers and sardines in tomato sauce, and a can of garbanzo beans. Then Scott put on some music for us to set the mood. We tried to play zoo with them, but Katie got super intimidated and Scott decided that he is above zoo. Note: no one is above zoo. Zoo is awesome.
So then Scott started getting really anxious to get us out of the palace and back into the garden. I didn't even get to finish my cup of tea. I was kind of pissed, but whatever. I had butterflies to catch. Sadly, the butterflies were hiding from us and we barely caught any. And we didn't catch any that were marked, so our whole lab was pretty much shot. Sad times.
I finally got my nap today. It was one of those that I woke up and was like gosh I don't think I ever fell asleep, but then I looked at my watch and realized that I'd been passed out for an hour. Ahh. I needed that. So badly.
Dinner was really good. We had chicken, which we haven't had in SO long. And this mushroom sauce to go with it and ensalada and yellow rice and brocolli and green beans. Yum. Then for dessert Geovanny came up to me and told me to guess what we were having. I said helado and he got this crazy big grin on his face and ran into the kitchen and came back with bowls of cake and ice cream. AHH! So good. Except Abby goes "OH MY GOSH THERE'S CHOCOLATE CHIPS IN THE BOTTOM! AHH!" and I got SO excited, and then she was like oh never mind they're raisins. ABBY! RUINER OF LIFE! It was still way good, though. I didn't have any raisins in mine either, and it was better for it. Then Geovanny came back over to me and said he had one last one left over for his love, aka me. Seriously this love between us is so great for me. He is like my sugar daddy. Except I don't have to do anything for all my goodies.
After dinner Cayman, Ann, and I opened up the peppermint bark. OH MY GOSH! It's so freaking good you would not even believe it. It trumps dark chocolate covered Altoids, even. Seriously. That good.
And now I have procrastinated for a sufficient amount of time on this eve of my Ecology midterm. I am going to force myself to study now.
peace love and my sugar daddy
