Happy Holidays!

Hello everyone who is still reading this even though I haven't posted anything in over a month... :)

So, in the past month of my life what have I been doing? Well thats a good question. The most part of it has been taken up by school work which is probably why there haven't been any good stories lately. I am, however, now all finished with my semester at USFQ as of last Tuesday. It feels very good being done as I was not accustomed to 15 week semesters anymore and it was getting very difficult to keep going by the end.

I did turn 21 on Tuesday as well! (Happy Birthday to me!) While I am already in a country where the official drinking age is 18 but I have met many a 15/16 year old who has no problems purchasing alcohol, we managed to ignore that for a night and party like I was in the US still and 21 was a special age. The best part about it actually was that all my friends got to go out to the bar with me even though I'm the oldest of them all. It was a wonderful time, if anyone wants actual stories just let me know. :)

Also using my birthday as an excuse I went out last weekend on an adventure in search of this paintball park in the forest. After getting lost in what I'm calling BFE Ecuador driving down half stone-paved roads for over an hour, we located the spot at the bottom of this big cliff. However, due to a lack of good machinery they couldn't get the paintball guns to work so that didn't happen. We did get two free games of laser tag while we waited though, so it was not a complete loss, and we had fun. Although boys against girls is a bad idea when the boys are all really tall and can shoot at you from over the walls. Needless to say we females got our buts kicked even though we had a greater number.

Today I'm spending cleaning my room and packing up for the next two weeks. My parents and Brian and Karen get here in just a few hours. I'm very excited to see everyone, especially for Christmas since I am not coming back to Michigan. Actually according to their online flight status they should be just in the air by now. The only thing I'm crossing my fingers for is some sunshine. We are technically in the rainy season still and the weather so far this week has been nothing to write home about. But I guess it's not a foot of snow. *shrug*

So for anyone who is interested here is my basic schedule from now until I get back home. I'm realizing very fast how little time I will have left in Quito, although the real reasons I came to this country are all in the next 2 months so I won't be complaining much.

Today - Jan 2: the family is here and we travel and do stuff

Jan 7- Jan 28: Travel the Amazon rainforest, two weeks doing research and one week of just travel, should be awesome!

Feb 3- Feb 15: Las Islas Galapagos! One week seminar with my bio boys and an extra 5 days on a yacht with all my other friends that I won't have seen since, well now.

Feb 16- March 3: free time travel around Ecuador? other South American countries? I haven't actually decided yet, but it shall be lots of fun!

March 4: return state side

March 4- 11?: Road trip with Nicholas! Destination unknown.