Sainte Luce, The Island Adventure: Part Two

Salama everyone! Well I have completed my fieldwork at Sainte Luce so now I am back in Fort Dauphin staying with my host family and trying to write a crazy paper on the data that I found.  Definitely feeling a bit stressed right now but I’m trying to just take it one step at a time and accomplish things in baby steps…Anyways I’ll rewind and fill you all in on the second half of Sainte Luce.

Soooo hmmm lets see where to begin.  I’m typing this while I don’t have internet so I can’t read my last entry so forgive me if I repeat things that I have already told you.  Ok so I was in Fort Dauphin for 3 days due to the rain-induced evacuation.  For those days I staid at a nice house on the beach that belongs to the man who owns the Sainte Luce Island Reserve (he’s currently home in Australia so we got to kick it at his place).  The house was really nice, overlooked the beach AND had a kitchen with a freezer with ice! First ice water in Madagascar man was that glorious.  But the downside was that they haven’t paid their electric bill so power was cut which was kind of torture because they have a tv and movies IN ENGLISH but I couldn’t watch them since there was no power.  Oh well life goes on.  So ya I just hung out around there, chilled with some Peace Corps volunteers, tried to make cheesy pasta one night for dinner that was an epic fail but I had low expectations so its alright (Grandpa, nothing compares to your mac & cheese).  We didn’t take the lobster car this time we bummed a ride with some South African vazahas who own a hotel in the next village.  Their vehicle ended up being an open Jeep with back side benches.  Actually pretty comfy until they crammed in 4 small children and a ton of other miscellaneous objects.  Its was a pretty rough ride, sitting sideways on a bumpy road while kids next to you barf kind of sums it up.  But it got us there and that’s what matters.  

Then theres the pirogue madness.  So I told you how our holy pirogue was stolen.  Don’t really know why someone would want to steal it because this pirogue has got some serious holes I don’t understand how a single person could steal it without ending up sinking in the middle of the lake.  So we got a ride across the river from the guy who we basically know stole our pirogue but he claims to have found it after it drifted upstream.  Plus somehow the hole had gotten worse.  So he said that he would fix it for us.  He did but then the next day the pirogue had once again disappeared and eventually someone told us that the front of the pirogue had been broken off.  It would take a lot of work to break a pirogue.  So we were a bit stranded on the island. 

Life at camp was pretty much normal.  It was still raining quite a bit so I spent a lot of timing sitting at the table under a tarp.  Found some creative ways to pass time…started making Sudoku puzzles (it’s a lot harder than you would think it would be I challenge you to try) sketched future ceramics projects, wrote, daydreamed.  Pretty long days.  If the weather was good we would go out to birdwatch usually early in the morning. 

Normal people have to deal with traffic in their daily commute.  I have to deal with spiders and snakes.  Man the number of spiders in that forest is insane! Some of them are huge, maybe 3-4inches, but I actually prefer those guys cuz you always see them coming.  It’s the tiny spiders that got me.  Their webs are like booby traps and they’re so fast!  You can walk on a path and then walk back on the same path half an hour later and they’ve already rebuilt their web!  So whenever I went through the forest I yielded a spider fighting stick that I would wave in front of my while I walk to catch the webs.  Going to admit that sometimes I felt like I was in Harry Potter with my little twiggy wand.  Then one day Joe and I were walking to the beach and all the sudden he was like ummmm Jess do you know what you just stepped over? And I was like huhhh and turned around to find a massive boa! Like seriously huge, prob 3-4 feet long and pretty thick.  You might ask how in the world I didn’t see it but that was because I had to keep my head up because if you don’t watch what you walk through then the spider webs will getcha in the face.  So ya I stepped right over this guy! So glad I didn’t step on it that would have been terrifying.  But it was harmless and Joe actually picked it up.  Ive got a cool video of it I can show you all once I’m home.  Also that same evening I found a black widow chillin right outside the door to my tent.    So ya those were the most vicious things I’ve seen here and both in one day too!  Also saw some collared brown lemurs (dad posted a picture of a pretty ugly one on facebook I think the ones I saw were a tad more attractive). 

So we were originally supposed to come home on Tuesday the 26^th but then on Saturday the 23^rd Eric our cook got a call that his son had malaria.  So he was going to leave and with him gone that left us with no cook, no pirogue, no generator (oh ya cuz that broke too) to charge our phones to call someone to get us across the lake, and very low food supplies.  Sounds like a setup for a bad survivor movie or something huh?  So even though I wasn’t really done collecting my data we decided to head back to Fort Dauphin with Eric to prevent being stranded on the island.  This turned out to be difficult because there were no cars going back that day and the next day was Easter so we ended up having to rent out a 4by4 to get us back (first car ride with seatbelts! Yay!)  Spent all day waiting for the car in the hut in the village.  Kind of similar to last time: Eric and his girlfriend fighting, random men smoking, kids buying Madagascar moonshine calld Tokagasy (really dangerous stuff), a drunk woman trying to tell me and Joe that she has a vazaha spirit inside of her, and a mysterious voice that sounded like a gnome coming from who knows where.  Ya, while this was all simultaneously occurring I leaned over to Joe and said “sometimes I feel like this world isn’t real.” But hey that’s Madagascar in a nutshell for ya.

So I got back with my family really late Saturday night and was excited to go to Easter church with them.  I don’t really know what I was expecting, maybe something similar to my church’s Easter service since theyre both Lutheran churches.  But basically it was exactly the same as the other times I’ve gone to church.  Which I guess is alright, it was only 2 hours not crazy long like I expected it to be.  The rest of the day was just like any other…in fact it was more uneventful than usual because my host mom and Linda went away somewhere to get lobster? Anyways it was kind of a lonely Easter. 

But it turns out that n Madagascar the day after Easter is a wayyyy bigger deal than Easter itself. The whole town, and probably the whole country, goes out on massive picnics.  I’ve concluded that its kind of like Mardi Gras but opposite.  Like instead of partying before Lent starts its like woooohooooo Easter is over lets party it up! Except I didn’t know that any of this was going to happen until my sisters were like ok lets go.  So I just followed them.  Went to Dianne’s boyfriend’s house where there were probably about 40 family members there and I was a big focus of all their attention.  Lots of awkward smiling and nodding and failing to communicate.  But they were all very friendly and hospitable.  Then later that afternoon I went to the beach with Jenny, Dianne, and her boyfriend.  We had a nice little picnic and ate coconuts and cookies and played cards.  It was a lot of fun I really enjoyed it.  The beach was insanely crowded and I’m pretty sure that I was the only vazaha there.  So anyways I think we should start this picnic tradition in America so you are all officially invited to picnic with me next year the day after Easter. 

Besides that I’ve just been trying to get this ISP write-up done.  Which is proving to be difficult.  The laptop I was told I could use in the field is broken (because our car ride home was so bumpy that it broke it) and my family’s computer got a virus while I was gone.  So imagine trying to write a 20-40 page scientific paper, with incomplete data, without a library to find sources, without internet or a computer or even reliable electricity, with people constantly looking over your shoulder, while all of your English-speaking friends are out of town so you have no one to vent to.   Ya thats kind of what its like.  Oh yea and this project is basically my grade for an entire 4 credit class.  But you know I’m just going to try to work with what I’ve got and hopefully that’s enough.  Elise has nicely let me use this laptop so I’ve just been sitting at the vazaha hotel everyday this week and going home for meals. 

So that’s where I’m at! This whole week I’ve been the only SIT kid in town so that’s been a bit lonely but the rest of the gang is coming back today so I’m pretty excited to see them.  And in just 2 more weeks I’ll be home and can see you all!!! It seems so far away but so close all at once!

If you’ve got some free time you can check out the website for where I was staying.  Its: sainte-luce-reserve.org  The website makes it look a lot more fancy there than it actually is but its got some good pics.  Also I think they are going to upload my pictures there too, not sure when but maybe you can check that out…

Just realized that this is one crazy long post so thanks for stickin with me if you’re still reading this all the way down here at the bottom.  Ill try to write at least once more before I leave.  Hope that you all had a wonderful Easter! 

Jess

Sainte Luce, The Island Adventure: Part One

Surprise!

Yes this is a sneak attack blog.  Well ok more like things went crazy here like they always do and now Ive ended up back in Fort Dauphin instead of being stranded out in the bush.  Guess I have some explaining to do...

Wow im not even sure where to start...at the beginning I guess...

So I flew back to Fort Dauphin last Monday.  Flight was bumpy as always but I did sit next to an interesting man who was coming here to make a film for UNICEF.  Stayed with my host family for a couple of nights it was nice to see them and kind of feel like I was home.  Also hiked the giant mountain here in Fort Dauphin! We went up to see it at sunrise and could see the whole bay it was really beautiful, cant wait to show you all pictures! Oh yea so that was with Joe and Elise (and a random Malagasy guy with a meat cleaver who was our "guard") Guess i need to rewind a bit.  So Elise is in charge of all logistal things and basically everything at Sainte Luce but shes really chill and fun so hang out with and then Joe is a British student who is the supervisor of the camp at Sainte Luce.  So basically Ive just been hanging out with them.

Ok anyways...so on Wednesday we headed to Sainte Luce in a lobster car.  The mystery of the lobster car has been solved! It is actually a truck with a big case in the back that the pack with ice and then drive out to get lobster and fish to take back to Fort Dauphin.  So just imagine a pickup truck pumping malagasy music with a ton of backpacks, jugs, rice bags, a big tribal looking drum, and other random things straped to the top.  At one point inside there were 7 people and a small child.  Four of us crammed in the back with the kid on a lap and then two in the passenger seat and then also there were 4 guys sitting on the back/roof with all the stuff. Illegal much? Nahhhhhh. But you know whatever gets you there. Not sure how the guys on the back hung on though it was a pretty bumpy ride but overall it wasnt too bad.  It did suck though that I had to pay double for being white. Wasnt too thrilled about that.  But the car took us there to a village and then from the village we had to row across a lake in a pirogue.  Well of course the pirogue would have crazy holes in it so we had to scoop water out with buckets but once again it got us there.  Then hiked in about half an hour to the camp. Camp is nice and simple.  Its suposed to be an ecotourism resort in the future but right now theres just one hut (there was another but it got knocked down in teh cyclone) and a table and a cooking area.  But man is it beautiful! Its such a unique place! On one side there is a river and then you walk through the forest across a dune for about 10 minutes and its the ocean! Its the best of both worlds I dont think I could have picked a better spot! I decided to do my independent study project on birds so i wake up pretty early and birdwatch.  Birdwatching isnt my favorite thing in the whole world but the birds are really pretty and im getting better at identifying them so its getting more exciting.  Explored the island its pretty awesome.  Walked along the beach and through the villages and saw pretty much everything in a crazy 6 hour long adventure one day.  But then the rain started, which is why I am here typing this to you.  So its been raining out there pretty much for the last 4 days and when it rains you cant really do much, especially not birdwatching.  So we were just sitting around...playing cards, reading, swatting away the crazy armies of ants and flys, doing a whole lot of nothing...that was actually pretty rough...way to much time to think and it was starting to make me pretty homesick again. But then yesterday we got a call that we should try to get out before the roads flood.  So began another crazy journey.  Oh yea also some jerk guy stole our holey pirogue and then went and told Eric's girlfriend and brother (eric is our cook, he doesnt talk much but man can he cook!) so basically we know he stole it but cant do anything about it.  anyways we were stuck out there with no way across the lake. so we hiked through the rainy forest to the lake, waited there for about an hour till a kid who looked about 12 years old showed up in a tiny pirogue, bummed a ride across the lake, only to find that the car that was supposed to be there at noon of course was not there.  So we proceeded to sit in a hut for the next 10 hours.  I kid you not.  It was a verrrrry long 10 hours of my life.  But it was Eric's girlfriends house and she was nice and fed us and all.  Also we bought some coconuts and a small child just climbed up this coconut tree like a ninja and kicked the coconuts down for us that was pretty crazy.  Anyways we sat around for a long time waiting for this car.  Eventually gave up and went to bed there in their hut but then the car actually did show up at around 10 (which is really late for here) and so we crammed in there and headed to Fort Dauphin.  Probably the most terrifying car ride yet it was super bumpy and the roads were pretty flooded and the driver was reckless to say the least but it got us here.  So tada! Now im staying here in Fort Dauphin at this really nice house that is owned by the guy whos land I am camping on.  Its right on the beach and they even have an oven so im really excited im going to try to bake something later...But Ill probably just be here until the weather clears up, probably head back around Friday...

Man I feel like that was a really frazzled story sorry if it was hard to follow.  Oh yea i forgot about Beno! Beno is the guard out there and hes really funny. He doesnt speak any english but hes like a big overgrown kid and hes obessessed with spicy food and hes just kind of entertaining to have around.  Yea so at camp its just me, Joe, Eric, and Beno.  I do miss the other SIT kids havent really been in touch with them much but im looking forward to seeing them again.

Anyways thats Sainte Luce.  At times it does feel like being stranded on a deserted island with crocodiles onone side and sharks on the other with no boat of the island (really, there are sharks and crocs)  but at others its like your own beautiful private forest where the rest of the world doesnt exist.  So I flip-flopped between those two mindsets a bit.  Its only really bad when im sitting around with nothing to do I dont mind when im tromping through the forest or birdwatching...  But anyways ill go back out there for another 10 days and then i just have to write up my project and then im done! Ill actually be home one month from today! Man thats crazy! Exciting but kind of sad all at once.

Oh yea and we saw some collared brown lemurs there! Except they were in the part of the forest that we are technically not supposed to go into without paying.  But we might have gotten "lost" and stumbled across the lemurs :)

Ya so I guess thats about it for now.  Lifes always a whirlwind adventure here.  Miss and love you all!

Road Trippin' Across Madagascar!

Hello everyone!

I know that this is a long-awaited blog entry and I do send you my deepest apologies for the delay. But really I blame the computers of Madagascar and unreliable internet. SO I have a lot to fill you guys in on...lets see where to start...

Its hard to think all the way back to being in Fort Dauphin. But I think I was ready to get out of there and see the rest of the country. The last week there was kind of long but I spent a lot of good time with my host family. I learned how to weave mats and bookmarks out of banana leaves! Also my mom and sister taught me how to make this really tasty banana-rice cake (basically you soak rice, pound it and sift it till its kinda like flour, mush up a ton of bananas with a fork, add a pinch of yeast and baking powder, and then cook it forever - except they dont have an oven so we boiled water in a big kettle and then put the smaller kettle with the batter inside. its really incredible the solutions that they come up with here)  You all know how much I like crafts and cooking so I had a lot of fun. Also hung out at my taxi driver uncles house. Had dinner there on the last night dont really understand why but it was really nice, we watched a bootlegged planet earth dubbed in french so I was really happy. He has the little baby named Steven who is so cute! He was just about to learn to walk when I left, he just turned one and figured out how to stand. Also my uncle gifted me some malagasy music videos so I can show you all the crazy malagasy dance moves Im always talking about. So anyways that was pretty much it. My dad, uncle, and Jenny all went to the wirport with me (it was the first time shes ever seen an airport she was amazed that ill get to the other side of the country in one day) The flight was good it was crazy short just half an hour but not too bumpy. Soooo then we were in Tulear!

So Tulear is a pretty big city on the west coast. In one word it was HOT! Oh man it was so stinkin hot there I just had to treat myself to ice cream a good couple of times :) and it was mad delicious ice cream too! mango flavored gelato-basically better than any ice cream ive ever eaten I really miss it a lot now. That city was pretty nice. I couldnt really use the internet there cuz for awhile the whole countrys internet was turned off because they were announcing the new prime minister (who ended up being the same guy as before, bad news bears). Ya that kind sums up politics here basically theyre just really messed up. But we did a lot of different things there. The first 3 days we were camping on our directors land. It was a really nice area right next so some mangroves (mangroves are a really interesting and cool type of ecosystem. Im going to be nerdy and explain it: so its this transitional ecosystem where trees grow between fresh and saltwater bodies of water. So its really cool cuz even though salt in high doses is toxic to plants the trees and animals have adapted to live there. also when the tide comes in theyre flooded so the roots of the trees are like snorkles that stick out of the ground to breathe. Theres tons of little crabs running all over and theres there really cool fishes that have feet and can live on land for up to 3 hours! So basically i really like mangroves. kind of wish i could do my ISP there but it would just be too difficult for me to change my plans at this point.) anyways we had a big party at Jim (the director) house the last night and danced and ate goat fried on a big stick. it was a good time. Then we staid in the city for awhile and i had my FIRST HOT SHOWER! Thank goodness Im pretty sure it was necessary, cold showers just leave you not feeling as clean. So that was nice. My favorite part of Tulear was the last day when we went snorkling!  Went to this organization called reef doctor, theyre an NGO workin there and they were really nice-good things happening there if anyone feels like coming to research/volunteer in marine studies in madagascar. So Tulear is home to the 3rd largest coral reef in the world! Pretty awesome; We had to take little 4 person pirogue boats out to the reef and then wejust got to swim around for a good hour or so. I was a whimp and wore a life jacket but that was actually great for me cuz I just floated around watching the fishes and didnt have to worry about drowning. It was so incredible! The fish were so vibrant-orange, green, purple,blue, crazy colors! The visibility was bad in the beginning but it got better. funny story so I was just chillin when one of my friends said ohmygosh baby shark! so i stuck my head under the water and this "baby shark" swam right into me! i was like ahdfqufhgqmuiohfmyeutgn! (garled snorkle code for OHMYGEEZ AHHHHHH) but then it turns out that it in fact was not a baby shark but rather a friendly little gray cleaner fish who likes to suck the dirty stuff off of you. So he just kind of followed us around and ate all of our dead skin. The coral actually was hit really bad with a disease last year so i guess about half of it was actually dead-i didnt really know what i was looking at though until after we came back to shore. Saw some really cool stuff though, huge yellow and black angel fish (grandpa z this made me think of your aquarium because you always siad they are mean and eat the other fish!) i used my underwater camera and took tons of pictures that i will show you all later. Really awesome though!

After Tulear we started our voyage up north to the capital. Generally we drove for about 6 hours each day in the TATA (this tata is a lot better than the one we took to the village stay though, it actually is a working vehicle and we havent had to push it yet!) Stopped at Islo national park. Went swimming in some natural water holes that was really cool. At Islo we had some really chubby brown lemurs visit us and try to steal our breakfast! Also went to Anja where we saw a ton of maki lemurs (ringtails) and went on a cool hike that included some spulunking, a rope ladder, and a kings tomb covered in zebu skulls. Then got to Andrigatra. Oh man was this intense. You guys wont believe the things Ive done! So we hiked into our campground a good hour an a half basically uphill stairs tha whole time with our little packs. It was tough but really nice because it was sunset time and ther were these two huge waterfalls. Then we staid there for the night and the next morning we hiked the tallest accessible mountain in Madagascar! Thats right folks, I did this and I do have to say that I conquered that mountain. It was called Pic Boby (pronounced Booby so naturally a lot of jokes were made) the first hour was not so bad mostly grassland but then the next THREE HOURS were a straight uphill climb, either stairs or steep rock that we crawled up. Now you all know that I am not the most athletic of all people BUT i was so happy i actually really enjoyed the hike while i was doing it and i wasnt that winded! it was actually really exhillerating im pretty proud of myself for doing it. the view from the top was incredible it was so worth it. cool to know i was at the highest possible point in the country (there is one higher mountain but it is too wild and its basically controled by pot growers/cops working together) Took us about 3 hours to hike back down, think i prefer going up hiking down was more difficult. But it was really fun.  Also it was freezing there! Which was a bummer for me since my sleeping bag is for 55 degrees and up. I literally slept in every piece of clothing i had with me-my long pants with shorts on top with two pairs of socks, long sleaved shirt and riancoat, beanie hat, and then used my sweatshirt as an extra blanket. who knew it got that cold here? but the last night there the profs surprised us with smores so we roasted them around a campfire and sang songs with our malagasy guides and it was a good time.

After that we went to Fianarantsoa. Its a pretty big city i didnt really like it there and I was bummed all of there internet was slow and unusable. It was one of the girls birthdays while we were there so that was fun though. We got to eat cake! Such a treat!

Then we went to Ranomafana national park. Its hard to pick a favorite but I think this one is it. Its a crazy beautiful rainforest! Basically what I imagined Madagascar looking like before I came here. It was so lush and green and there were tons of lemurs! Saw 4 types: sifaka, 2 types of brown lemurs, and the highly sought after golden bamboo lemur! The golden bamboo lemurs are really cool they eat this special type of bamboo that has 6 times the letheal amount of cyanyde to kill a human. and they can eat it no problem, no one really can figure out why. also theyre small but pretty beastly little guys so i think theyre pretty cool. we also got to go on a night walk to see the nocturnal animals. saw cute mouse lemurs, chameleons, frogs; AND I spotted a snake!!! I was really excited to find it, I was the only student who found anything so its kind of a big deal. We also visited an awesome NGO there, i would love to go back and do research with them sometime maybe ill drag one of you here with me :) we interviewed some villagers, basically the national park system is super corrupt and they have gotten jipped from their land and livelihood its really sad. then we went to the"natural hot springs" really funny because it turned out to be a regular swimming pool that the water from the springs is pumped into. it was pretty funny there were actually kids in floaties all over it. water was definitely not clean but i couldnt resist it was probably just as warm if not warmer than our hot tub!

so then we spent a whole day driving here to the capital city. 12 hours in the TATA is a loooong time. But here are some entertaining bits from the trip: a man sold my friend a post card and asked "are you going back to america where barack obama is your dreamland," saw a random ferris wheel (it was being run by a man who literally just pulled it everytime a seat came past), saw a small boy pooping in the river while his mom stood next to him (basically sums up all of the sanitary/water quality problems of Madagascar), and a very funny corn story. So theres a girl here named May and she is from Burma (but studies in the US) and has this darling south african accent (kind of sounds like a british accent). So she had a random craving for boiled corn and was like "ohhhh boiled corn" (with her cute accent you just have to imagine it) then i kid you not, not even an hour after that we pulled into a random town and all of a sudden there were men and women surrounding our tata trying to sell us boiled corn! literally corn everywhere it was hilarous! so we all bought corn from our windows (i got grilled corn) It was so comical May was really happy. It actually works great its just like a drive through except you have to take the chance of getting explosive diareah since its sketchy street food.

The drive was interesting though. basically saw the main attractions in all of the southern half of madagascar. it was crazy how much the landscape changed! from grassland to savanna with massive baobab trees to forest to mountains to basically everything. and interestingly everything improves as you approach the capital. the road got better, houses and stores got nicer, everything is just higher quality (which is still not saying much by US standards) but it was intriguing to watch.

Antananarivo, a real city!? This is the capital city where I have been all week and I am most definitely ready to escape. Its HUGE! Crazy that a city like this exists here! And its really dirty and crowded and honestly I just much rather prefer to be camping in the forest. The food here is nice though last night the girls and I treated ourselves to Italian food - pasta with real cheese it was incredible! But besides that weve just had a lot of free time here. Visited an orphanage thats doing REALLY great things here. You can sponser a kid through them and you all should because theyre a great organization, the best and most organized one that I have seen here, and theyre doing tons of great things. One day when I have more time ill tell you more about it; also went to a huge arts market. didnt like that so much its like the people suck you in and i hate haggeling and i was just like AH this is overwhelming! once you ask a price its impossilbe to escape. and it was really sad because they were selling tons of hardwood (like rosewood) products which is totally illegal and a huge source of deforestation issues. i tried to tell people who tried to sell me stuff that it was illegal but of course they didnt care. also fought with some dudes over Harry Potter in the book marche (ok not really fought i dont want david to come over here to beat these guys, it was more like agressivley haggled) they were ripping me off and wouldnt budge so i didnt get the book,kinda bummed about this. 

Wow thats a lot. so thats about it i think. Today were eating lunch in a cookie shop which might have something resembling a bagel so im pretty excited. tomorrow were driving another 4 hours to visit a national park where the indri indri lemurs are-theyre the largest living lemurs so im excited to see them. then we come back on sunday and on monday each student is going their seperate way!

So to fill you in on what ill be up to: this next month is devoted to the Independent Study Project, or ISP. Mine is officially in Sainte Luce - a littoral (coastal) forest about ' hours from Fort Dauphin. Ill be camping there for 3 weeks and then the last week ill go back to stay with my host family and write up my huge paper. Not exactly sure what my project will be but i think itll be a basic inventory of the forest and the conservation efforts there. I do have an edvisor who will be there with me  from time to time.  There is also a guy doing research and supervising the camp along with a cook and a guard so I wont be totally alone. Thats about as much detail as i have right now. kinda crazy im just going to try to show up and look and the forest and see where it goes from there. I will have my phone while I am there so never fear i wont be totally out of contact with the real world in case of an accident or something. And im able to use their computer (and maybe internet from time to time so hopefully i can update you all!)

think thats about it. oh yea also one night this week i accidentally ordered zebu foot soup. it was strangely fatty. i just couldnt stomach it. its the first thing i really havent eaten since i got here though.

Ok i think thats really it. ill be home in 6 weeks from today thats so crazy! hopefully ill be able to blog during ISP but dont be surprised if you dont hear from me. im glad that my blog is entertaining for you all, cant wait to tell you more stories and share pictures with you! everyone please remember to do what you can to conserve (you know, turn off lights, unplug toasters, turn the water off when you brush your teeth, all that jazz) it really means a lot to me. 

Miss and love you all! Veloma!