erm

I haven't updated much. Sorry.

My day goes a bit like this:

I get up eat breakfast, make food for the parrots, feed the parrots and clean their cages with the other volunteers. Then we get a 3 hour break for lunch, and do random chores around the farm until 4 or 5. I play with monkeys, tapir, held a crocodile, rode a Galapagos Tortoise, saved an iguana from dogs, swim in the lake, saw a spider as big as a saucer, washed my clothes by hand in a tub, and feed turtles.

This last weekend I went to Salinas to the beach, and got really sunburned. It really really really hurts. I look like a lobster, it's pretty awesome. I made some really good friends here (they're the ones I went with to Salinas) and I'm going to the Galapagos on the 3rd with my friend Kristi. I'm really excited!

I'm tired, promise to update tomorrow!

I hurt and smell like monkey

We hung around Jambeli today because we were too tired to do anything else. So we went Kayaking on the lake and swimming and sat in the sun and played with Frankie, the baby monkey. And we all got wicked bad sunburn. My arms are the only thing really affected and it hurts like shit, and is about 100 times darker than my legs or tummy. Awesome.

I hate the flies here, they're EVERYWHERE and get on your food, land on you it sucks. And there are hella huge coacharoaches in the bathrooms. Spiders everywhere.

I will not miss the Ecuador heat, humidity or bugs.

Jambeli

I´m at my volunteer placement in Jambeli, near Naranjal, Ecuador. Without my Spanish, I´d be so lost. I´ve made some new friends here - both volunteers and Ecuadorians. The animals here are AMAZING and it´s so hot! It´s their ¨winter¨here, the coldest it´ll be all year. And it´s still really unbearable.

I´m really homesick, but I´m trying my best to push through it. I´m a little upset because my big camera isn´t working AT ALL:. It just flashes a ¨memory card error¨message.

First day of travel

Sucked hard core. I was homesick and nervous, and alone. I was tired and cranky. But I met a girl from i-to-i on the plane, and we stuck together. Turns out we´re staying in the same house while we´re in Quito.

Before we got off the plane we had to put on masks, which made me feel really clausterphobic, and made the thin air feel thinner and everything hotter. I ended up almost passing out, and I threw up in the customs line. I blame the crappy Continental food too. Screw that stuff, don´t eat what they give you.

I made it safe to my homestay and met a couple other girls (one´s actually a mother of three.... her kids are in highschool), and we went to the market and then came here to this neat little net cafe. It´s not all that hot up here, and everything is SUPER cheap - I got a really cute little hat for $3. A cab fare is usually no more than $1.50 and you can eat for under $2.

ON with the adventure!

May 30, 2009 KIlarney

Yesterday we stopped at a few beaches before making our way to Kilarney. We went to Blarney where the stairs are tiny and terrifying. Steep. Evil. And the castle was bloody tall. But I managed to make my way up to the top, lay down and lean over the edge of the castle ledge to kiss the Blarney Stone.

BE PROUD.

I inspired a few other women to work up the courage to do it! Afterward we walked around the gardens, took pictures, found somethings called the Wishing Steps, The Witch's Stone, The Witch's Kitchen, and the Druid's Cave. The Witch's Stone had coins on it, and stuck into it's cracks, but I'm not sure why.
After Blarney, we headed to Kilarney, found our B&B, walked around town found a bar with traditional Irish music. We met some really nice Irish from Cork County, some nice Germans, and an AMAZING woman from Britain.
Julia was almost completely paralyzed at 25. She had a baby and could barely manage to feed him. She had another boy, and a set of twins - a boy and a girl. She has rheumatoid arthritis. She had her knees replaced three times, her hips replaced four times, her shoulders twice, and her fingers are full of carbon.
She came to Ireland because she's dying; on top of all her other problems, she has terminal cancer. But she just smiles, laughs, and stays optimistic.


I hadn't really eaten much yesterday, so the two pints of Smithwick's I drank on my empty stomach made me rather drunk.
I never want to be drunk like that again. I woke up at 2 am feeling like I was going to be sick. I was dreaming about following the Irish roadmaps at very fast speeds (so, windy tiny roads at a billion millions an hour). I thought I was going to die. At first, I lay on the bathroom floor, praying I wouldn't puke; then I was praying that I would, if only it would make it all go away. I ended up not puking and fitfully sleeping for a while. Our B&B sucks. We are supposed to have two rooms en suite, but we only have one. And we're supposed to have wi-fi, but it doesn't work.
Today we toured the Ring of Kerry. There were two stops that had animals. At the first there was a lamb, a dog, and a donkey. I held the lamb for a picture and the youngish young man put his arm around me. He wasn't attractive, so I wasn't really okay with that...
We had lamb stew for lunch. At a second stop there was a baby deer, two more lambs, and a cat! The cat just layed there, a brownish black calm little thing, laying on a blanket, sleeping with a lamb. I wanted to take it home! Now we're in a pub, listening to music. I have a Bailey's and Milk <3. I'm sleepy again. Tomorrow is Bantry Bay!

Thursday, May 28, 2009 Kilbrittain, Cork

We left Nellie's B&B this morning, I'm going to miss that house. We made our way to Cashel, where we had lunch and saw the Cashel Rock ruins. Cat and I tried different chocolates today. I LOVE Irish chocolates. I tried Cadbury milk chocolate, white chocolate buttons, and Aero.
I've decided I want to live in Cork. Our B&B is gorgeous, right by the sea but still farming country. Plus I've fallen in love with The Pink Elephant which is quite possibly the best restaurant ever. I had a blonde Abby Belgian Ale that was pretty good, had a bit of wine before deciding I didn't like it, and was rather tipsy before my Irish sirlion arrived. God I'm tired. Today is Cody's 22nd birthday.

May 27, 2009 Grove Farm, Inistigoe, Kilkenny

Today we went into Kilkenny City and saw Kilkenny Castle. They wouldn't let us take ANY pictures, which greatly depreciated our love of the castle. Then we wandered around the city, bought some Irish flags at the €2 store, and Cat bought a hat that said "I'm Irish today, but tomorrow I'll be hungover". Granpa still has no voice.
We hit up a McDonald's for lunch and came back to the house and slept. We went into Inistioge for dinner but EVERYTHING was closed. I asked a group of boys about Hurling and they were very eager to explain it to me. I still don't really understand it.
We got sandwhiches and fermented apple drink and had a picnic by the RIver Nor. Then Cat and I ran around the two Catherdrals in town and took pictures.

I miss internet.
And real roads.
And internet.
And Cody.

I love Irish icecream - it's creamier than American icecream, and not as sweet. I actually love everything I've eaten here. :)

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 Inistioge, Killarney

Our hostess in Dublin wasn't the friendliest, although she did make a fabulous breakfast. I had tea, muesli, eggs, toast, bacon (which is really thinnish strips of fried ham), and orange juice.

I didn't really write yesterday so here.

We got off the plane, went through customs (which went surprisingly fast) got our bags, hired a car, and promptly crashed into a rail and a wooden pillar, and wrecked the car.

Driving on the left it hard.

Irish people are the nicest ever. Everyone we met during the aftermath - John the tow truck driver, the airport police, the Garda, even the airport director - were polite, friendly, and understanding.
Aparently, someone crashed into the exact same spot last week - only then the pillar that we hit was made of concrete.
We got a new car and found our B&B.
Then we took the bus into Dublin. We walked around, went to Tristan College, got a phone, hit an internet cafe, and went to a pub for dinner.

I had my first Guiness. I LOVE GUINESS. White cheddar and bacon paninis are AMAZING.

That was our first day in Ireland.

Day 2

Pack. Breakfast. Drove to Powerscourt.

Powerscourt was gorgeous - we went through all the gardens - it was like a page from Jane Austen. All perfectly groomed, statues every where, beautiful stone. I could live there.
Then we got a bit lost, and found Glendalough (Glen-da-lock), which is a really neat monastic ruins. We found a wool factory and I bought Cody a woll tam, and we found claddaghs that were made on the premises. It was really pretty in the Wicklow County area. It's pretty everywhere. If you could see.
Roads are lined by hedges, trees, walls, and gorse. They call them "roads" here, but "one-lane-two-way-paned-lanes-of-death" is more accurate. The roads are seriously as wide as a bike path. It's just wrong. And people just fly by. Trucks even! SEMIS! It's terrifying.
Our B&B, just outside Inistioge, is amazing. This house is 200 years old. There are skeleton keys for the bedroom, sheep in a field behind, and a three day old calf out front. Mrs. Cannis (Nellie), the proprietress, is very sweet and says "yeah" ten times in a row quite frequently. She's so cute!
We had a lovely dinner in Inistioge, at a place called Footlights by the River. Our waitress was Canadian, over here on work visa helping her friend out with his new place.

French lemonade is heavenly. Salmon cakes are lovely.

Monday, May 25, 2009

It's only halfway through our first day in Dublin and I'm already so homesick, I feel like I'm going to burst into tears and throw up all at once. Cody is an empty feeling in my check and a lump in my throat. I'm trying really hard to be brave, and tough, and not cry, and have fun. But it's really hard.

May 24 or 25 2009 Somewhere in the Air at an Unknown Time

We left the house around 5:30 this morning to catch our flight to Chicago, where we had a ten hour layover. Instead of wandering around the airport, we decide to take the metro from the airport to the Shedd Aquarium.
Chicago is actually a very pretty city; I thought it would be more like NYC- dirty, loud, crowded, smelly - but it was clean (for a big city), prettily dotted with plants, and VERY empty.
It took a while to get to the Aquarium, and when we got there, there were about 300 people trying to get in - not counting those with wheel chairs or strollers: they had their own line.
So we opted to try the Field Museum, which had no long line - probably because it was $23 per adult to get in.
We wandered around the Lake Michigan shoreline, looked at boats, saw a HUGE trout (?) jump, and talked. That's when I realised I'd forgotten my camera.
I had either left it on the plane, or at the gate in Syracuse. We called Granma, who called the airline, who searched the gate in Syracuse and called the O'Hare airport, who found that my camera had been discovered under the seat in front of where I sat on the plane, and that it was waiting for me to pick it up at the gate.

THANK GOD.

Around 2, we went back to the airport, went through security, found our Dublin gate, found the gate where my camera was being held, and ate. And waited. A lot.
We met two girls, and their parents, who were also going to Ireland. They were Five and Six, and looked like twins; their names were Catherine and Cameron. They were flying to Dublin to meet cousins, and they were impatient to get on the plane. Which was unfortunate, because we were very late boarding.
We also met a very nice Irish couple who moved to California in 1969, and were hopping across the pond for a cruise in the homeland.
I think we all have the same flight back.
This is the largest airplane I can remember flying on; it has 44 rows in coach, and each row has seven seats. We had beef and mashed potatoes, salad, a mini gryier cheese, crackers, and an oatmeal cookie for dinner. The flight attendants are not very polite. And my pen likes to die on me. And I left my headphones in my backpack which is now in an overhead bin.

Phooey.

OH! And my cell broke. So I'm naked. Not that I could use it in Dubline or Balao Chico but STILL. Poor Cody, he'll think I'm ignoring him. I miss him already.