anita

It seems that despite stories of me zooming around the country in bus, boating on active volcanoes, getting lost on 5 hour hikes, the topic many of you are asking the most about is "what about school?". I'm sure the padres will appreciate the update as well.

Well, quite frankly, school is school, in a crazy beautiful setting. And as anybody who is close to me while I'm scheduling classes is well aware, you know that 1) I can never decide what courses I REALLY want to take until the last day to add/drop classes; 2) I plan my classes, campus map in hand, making sure I have an easy route for myself ( i.e. not climbing Bascom Hill 3 times a day...or at all ;) ); and 3) I always strive to have a compact schedule, thus making efficient my school time. All of this leads to the only stress I enjoy in my life, and it is a good 2 weeks of changing classes, asking peoples' advise, and running around going half crazy.

I embrace it.

And being in Ecuador has proven to be no different. Though I don't really have the location issue (tiny campus), I was changing classes until the afternoon of the 12th, the last day to add classes. Here is my final schedule (though I might have to drop Tae Kwon Do for post-appendicitis issues...nothing too serious, but all the same..) :

Tae Kwon Do
Conversacion Avanzada
Existential Psychology
Volonologia (with a required 6 volcano climbs :D)
Literatura Fantastica

So there you have it, my classes that I AM taking. I was telling my Ecua-family yesterday that I wish I could be here as a foreign exchange student and just not have homework, because it's really imposing on my traveling time...and then we all had to laugh because I suppose that would just be traveling!

Anyway, I suppose I should get to bed..I have to get my Ecuadorian ID card bright and early tomorrow morning so that I'm a legal foreigner running around, and then I have to go to an Andy Warhol exhibit in downtown Quito...and yes, I DO have class tomorrow, 4pm.

chao

annemary