Monday, June 1

Today was a very good day. I actually woke up at 5:30 am. Yes, that’s right, 5:30 am. Daggum rooster! Haha… I stayed in bed until 6:30, but it’s all good. Paola came and picked me up to go to UTPL. The campus is so beautiful! We walked around and she showed me all of the buildings this morning. Unfortunately I forgot the camera, but I will try to sneak out some time and take some when I think about it. I met with her boss, too. He’s a very nice man. Paola told me that he is a missionary from Colombia who has been here for about 7 years. UTPL is a Catholic University and its Chancellor is a priest. He wasn’t on campus today, so I didn’t get to meet him, but he should be back on Wednesday and Thursday, so I hope to meet him then. Everyone I met was so kind and friendly! I helped a couple of the Chemical Engineers who work in an Analytical Chemistry lab with their English today. They are both taking their first English class and have an exam in 3 weeks, so I told them I would help as much as possible. I think we have a daily “session” set. Sounds like fun to me!
I toured the different labs today and they are so big! I’m used to small labs, but these are massive and so clean and white! Haha… very good technology, too. We’re talking GC machines (gas chromatography), IR, atomic absorption, you name it. I’m very impressed. One of the guys that works in the Cellular/Molecular/Biochem lab was telling me about all of the things that they do and it sounds absolutely awesome! I think if anyone from UAMS were to ask me today what I thought about starting up an exchange program with UTPL, I would probably just go overboard with enthusiasm. It really is amazing the things that they are doing here. Very advanced. Anyone who is serious about research really would benefit from coming here for a few months. Ok, so now I feel like I’m gushing lol.
Next week I get to start going out and collecting plants. We’re going to different places around Loja and neighboring provinces. Don’t worry, my camera will be with me. Oh, if you haven’t noticed already, I’ve added some pictures to facebook, so be sure to check them out! I’ll try to update that as much as possible too.
It gets so dark here by 7 pm. I’m not used to that. I walked out of the lab around 6:40 pm or so and it was dark and my brain decided it was time to sleep. This is crazy! Oh, today was a gorgeous day, by the way. Overcast with some sun every once in a while, a steady breeze, and a gorgeous 60-ish degrees. Perfection! Oh, one more thing… Rodnie called me tonight… I’m gonna beat him! But I also thank God that he did. It was nice to hear a familiar voice. And talking to Jeremiah on facebook earlier brought me back to a bit of “normalcy”. It’s amazing the little things you miss when you turn your world upside down lol. Crazy crazy! Well, I’m tired and have a slight headache now. I think I’m going to get ready for bed, read a little bit of the information Paola gave me, and get myself some sleep.