Lazy Sunday?

...Not actually.

Heeee. As if I could sit for more than an hour in a place like this. I suppose I will have to considering I have an essay to write tonight. 

I don't know how long Costa Rica can keep this whole each-day-is-better-than-the-last thing up. Monteverde is perfect for me. 

Recap.

After a "late" breakfast (8 AM instead of the usual 7 AM), I studied for a few hours, nearly giving everyone a heart attack screaming about my first quetzal sighting in the process (RIGHT outside of the east-facing window in the classroom, where I had strategically set up base), made it to lunch, and spent the rest of the day hiking in the driving wind and rain. I've decided I -must- see this place in the rainy season. I don't care if nothing I own is ever dry ever again: the more time I can spend in dripping, shining, chirping, crawling epiphytic forest, the better life will be. 

The tropics. 

Maybe I will end up a tropical biologist. This place really does something to me. 

I can't really tell all of my forest stories to you: this post would drag on forever. Some highlights include finding some hair and bone on blood-soaked dirt and sticking around to see if anything came back, finding three species of trogon nesting in more oak-type forest on the lower Caribbean slope, and pulling a Walt Whitman and crashing in to a clearing with a YAWP--and not knowing whether the five curassows that flew in all directions, or if I was more freaked out. Banana plants and passionflower vines and angry hummingbirds in the distance. 

Too much to say. Come see it for yourself. 

     Anyway, accomplished a ton of shopping for the family (coffee by request and grad presents for my sister) and bought a few things to cook for people. I suppose I'm continuing my tradition of Sunday treats down here. I don't have pictures of the fireflies or the butterflysplosions I caught on my twilight hike; I already ate the mango I bought from the fragrant, sap-stuck pile of fruit next to the checkout. (Mango season.) I can't tell you how much I want to live in one of these small houses in the hills, with cracking, brightly-colored paint, wooden floors glowing in orange evening light from the windows: the moon variably visible as the clouds rush past. Made it back only 15 minutes late for dinner. So much win. 

 I really have to study! Gah. This will become problematic. 

Here are some pictures of tonight's cooking escapades, minus the watermelon-jello-making. 

The female to male ratio for the program is 17:5. 

And the females are all armed, apparently. 

Amber, Skyler, and Roxanne helping me chop and peel things in the field station kitchen!

Cute, Roxanne. (She's super great, people.)

Carrots, turnips, parsnips, chives, carrots, purple cabbage, sweet yellow onion, scalded tomatoes, and beets in a beef broth. 

Some expertly chopped ingredients. We didn't manage to get a picture of everything...

Friends lolz

And voila! La Sopa. And now I've got a water bottle full of it to study for the night. 

Don't know how life could get any better. Cheers.