A Day in the Life

Again, I know its been forever and a half since I've written. Its ridiculous how fast time is passing here, I cannot believe that we only have one month left! Most of the time I have no idea what day it is or what time it is...which is so different from the way I live back home. Its the first time I haven't been forced to plan every part of my day down to the second, the first time I've actually been able to get a decent amount of sleep every night, and probably the first spring that I haven't gotten seriously ill. Those are the things I'm not looking forward to about going home...but I've learned a lot about living (and taking chances) here, so hopefully I'll be able to take that back with me. 


So to kind of make up for lost time, I'll just describe what an average day is for me here. My host family makes breakfast for me promptly at 7 am whenever I have breakfast at home. I normally have bread, some type of fruit, juice and coffee...occasionally having something more traditional like patacones (fried plantains with cheese) or empanadas. I go to volunteer at INFA (the daycare facility on the island) at 7:30 and play with the 4-6 year olds for an hour. These kids are sooo incredibly adorable. While they were a bit wary of me at first (understandably...I am taller than most people on the island, pale, and have blue eyes with light hair), it didn't take them long to completely open up to me. They think its hilarious that most of the time I have no idea what they are saying and they love it when I try to dance. They also love making me draw pictures of animals for them (mostly sea lions, iguanas, and turtles...definitely different than what most kids draw in the US). Also, apparently people down here don't give kids piggy-back rides! One of the kids once wrapped his arms around my neck while I was kneeling down... and I assumed that he wanted a piggy-back ride. When I stood up I was surprised at how he reacted...  I've honestly never seen a little kid so excited in my life! Haha, it was great...until every kid in the daycare started demanding piggy-back rides 24/7. After that I securely became part of their club. There is a group of girls at the daycare that are like best friends and always make jewelry for each other...one day they came in with a pair of bear earrings for me :) best surprise ever. Its wonderful to see how happy they get when they see me. It makes me sad to see them chase after me to the gate on the side of the building when I leave, shouting out their goodbyes. 

After volunteering, I come to school at 8:30 am. On days when we do not have breakfast with our families, we eat breakfast at the school. Then I have class from 9 to 12, and after we go out to lunch somewhere in town...our favorites are Tongo Reef and Mi Grande. Tongo reef has these amazing jugos for only $1.50 and Mi Grande has these awesome combo meals for $3 (and the man who runs it is REALLY tall and always so excited to see us, which we love). Then sometimes I take a nap in the afternoon in a hammock at my host family's house or head back to school to do work. During the afternoons the sun is unbearably strong, so we usually avoid going swimming until after 2, because honestly the second you get out of the water you are sweating again. So during the late afternoons we go to the beach (Playa Man) outside of our school and swim/read/journal/nap/listen to music/play soccer or frisbee/drink beer/hula hoop/talk until sunset. Sunset is my favorite time of day. I've never lived anywhere close to an ocean let alone in a place where the sun sets over one at exactly 6:15 every day. They are always beautiful...full of colors and gorgeous clouds. This time of day is also when the sea lions venture out from the water to check out the humans on the beach. One of them (featured below) spotted me and two of my friends on the beach and literally booked it towards us the second we looked over at her. My friend Taylor and I kinda jumped up when we got way closer than we had expected, which made our sea lion stop and stare right back at us. Eventually the sea lion just started sniffing at my sandals and the beer we had been drinking before plopping down on the sand right in front of us. I love how curious they are! Its so sad to think that you have to travel so far to find wild animals that aren't afraid of humans...and its even sadder to see people abuse the trusting relationship the sea lions have with us. 

Playa Man at sunset during carneval! I got attacked with paint by a 12 year old boy on this beach. 

After sunset I go home to have dinner with my host family around 6:30...then either chill out with people at our school, watch movies, or go out to one of the bars/discotecas in the town for dancing. I've learned so much salsa, merengue, and (most recently) bachata...I'm still not very good, but definitely improving. Its fun to just get spun around the dance floor, and to actually have guys that enjoy dancing...because I feel like most guys in the U.S. really despise it. Its also a great way to practice my Spanish, which has also been improving! I go through phases where I'm really confident and other phases where its a total struggle...but I always get by (using sign language if necessary). A lot of the guys here are a bit creepy though, so its definitely important to stay away from the American stereotypes that come from just being friendly with people. Different cultures have different rules and we have definitely learned how to avoid that sort of miscommunication. 

We also have gone on some pretty fun adventures during class...one of which was the rip current story that I already wrote about. Another trip we went on was to this place called Kicker Rock (or Leon Dormido as they call it here). It is this collapsed volcano that turned into a small islet off the coast of San Cristobal. In the middle of this rock formation there is a crevice that goes maybe 40 feet down into the water...just deep enough for you to be able to see the bottom on a day with clear water, and also deep enough for sharks to be chilling there. Normally, there are a ton of hammerheads there, but I guess we got there too late in the day and the other tour groups scared them off (so lame)...but we did get to see Galapagos Sharks (2 of them) and a white-tipped shark in addition to sea lions, eagle rays, and a couple of sea turtles. It was so amazing to see those animals swimming through such deep water...they literally look like they are flying because all you can see is the deep blue of the ocean and the shifting rays of light as they enter the water. At one point a sea lion was playing really close to me and my friend Darlene...and we were just kinda floating there watching it until it swam over towards us and literally put its face next to ours for a few seconds before spinning off through the water again. I totally love those guys. The sharks are the coolest animals to watch in the water though...the way they move is so rhythmic and smooth...and they move so fast when they need to also, its incredible. 

So thats all for right now, my next post will be about our spring break trip around the islands...which was definitely the best part of this entire study abroad experience in my opinion. Hopefully it won't take me another month to get to that...haha.