Feliz Cumpleanos a mi!

As so often happens in life, everything accelerates drasticallly as any sort of deadline approaches. In this case, Saturday May 3rd is my last day in Quito, so of course life has taken on an adrenaline laced speed, quite the opposite of the preceeding two months.

That is not to say nothing happened during those delightful months. They have passed quite well, I have learned so much Spanish that it has thoroughly scrambled my beleagured mind, and I now speak less intelligently than I did a month ago, but at least I can understand way more. Along with the minutia of everyday life (excuse any spelling mistakes, the spellchecker is in spanish), a number of highlights have occured that are worth relating.

Mi Cumpleanos...

I turned 23 on April 22nd, Earth Day. I woke up in a great mood, despite the crippling abdominal pains induced by my ingestion of paiko, a natural remedy for parasites. ----- A brief side note: natural does not imply gentle, or even non-toxic. Paiko kills parasites by killing you. By far the most irritated my intestines have ever been, and that is saying quite a lot. ----- My only plan was to eat a ton of dumplings at our favorite chinese restaurant, along with a few beers to alleviate the indigestion. But El Perezoso had other ideas.

We went to class in the morning, with our well-rehearsed "Vamos a estudiar!!" echoing in the stairwell as we ascended the stairs. A card and a rock were waiting on my desk, a gift from my teacher, Lusmi. It was a very cool rock, taken from a gold mine near Cuenca, with lots of euhedral (well-formed) pyrite crystals, and a beautiful pocket of perfectly formed quartz crystals. We alternated between reviewing grammer and chatting until 11am, "La Pausa". I made my way upstairs to the roof, to enjoy a bit of sun and stretch it out. There is a small room on the roof which houses the coffee machine and is therefore the focal point of La Pausa. I walk into the room, and...

Feliz Cumpleanos!!! The whole school had gathered for the fun. And what fun it was. I was promptly introduced to the Ecuadorian custom of having your face smashed into your cake.

It should be noted that Ecuadorians as a rule do not have beards to catch the cake with.

The notable mark of my face in the cake did not deter anyone from enjoying it, thankfully. I further mangled the former beauty when I divided it into 12 pieces. Satisfied that the fun was over, I settled back, only to see Fernando and Alex, two of the teachers, take off their belts and begin cracking them menacingly. I laughed and laughed, what a great joke, they kept on cracking, so I kept on laughing. Well, to make a long story short, I got tired before they did, and was soon obliged to bend over the table.

Every person in the school got to take a shot. I've never heard so much glee. The girls didn't do much damage, but the men (or boys, i spose) sure took a special pleasure. Check out the Picasa album Mi Cumpleanos for all the fun, including some excellent pics of a cake for a beard.

The fun continued that evening as a few school friends were waiting at our chinese dumpling restaurant. After fully stuffing ourselves, Noble blindfolded me and led me on a long walk through our neighborhood, eventually ending up at the house of our salsa teacher, Christina. At this point, the 2nd surprise party commenced. Damn. I've never had two surprise parties in one day. Well done El Perezoso. By far the best Earth Day i've had in years. I felt just like a little kid again.

Other news...

I have officially been accepted and enrolled in the US Geological Survey's Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory volunteers program. What the hell does that mean? Starting September 15, I will be mapping lava flows on Mauno Loa, the big ass volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, contributing to constructing the most detailed map ever of a major volcano. For those who ain't familiar with geologic mapping, you basically hike around and identify rocks in the field, and then make a map of how they are distributed. It is by far the most enjoyable type of work I have yet encountered. I can't tell you how excited I am for this. I did not sleep at all the night I found out, and in fact did not sleep the next night either. This is actually a dream come true: I have been hiking around the volcanoes of the Big Island since I was a little kid.

Don't let the volunteer description fool you. Its real work. I just don't get paid. This means, officially, that I will be passing the entire year of 2008 without a job. Life is good.

All right, thats all for now. I'm off to Peru on Saturday, with a week long detour of fun along the way. Summer plans are coalescing, check my calendar on the sidebar, for when I'll be visiting a baseball stadium or mountain near you.