UnB First Week

The end of last week did at least show some improvement on the beginning. Tina and I met up with some Argentinians on Thursday for lunch and I realized just how difficult switching between Portuguese and Spanish is now. . . I ended up with Portunol more frequently, but it felt great to speak some Spanish after the struggle with Portuguese. Thursday afternoon I went to Marshall's school and watched his first after school math study session, before we got a ride part way home with one of the teachers, Priscilla. We decided to get dinner at the mall area where Priscilla works, a wrap place she recommended (Wrap n' Roll). It was really delicious, but superbly expensive. . . On our walk home we saw a cool bird at the lagoon area (the white spot in the trees to the left in the picture below) and the typical 'bird' where we live that makes way too much noise as they go by (aka, airplane).

Friday morning I had my last new class of the week, Tropical Ecology. I really was thinking to drop it based on the number of classes I have already (and it would give me more travel time), but after the first class I don't know if I can! It was the first class where I understood 100% of what the professor said, and even answered all his questions in class. It was a definite confidence booster. There were only three people, including me, in class, though the prof said five were enrolled. Apparently it is also a graduate level course. . . Basically it seems like UNI's ecology lab because we go out to the field every other week and do lab reports and in class lecture or presentations the rest of the weeks. I'll probably keep it for now, and wait another week to decide.

As for the weekend, we wanted to spend it working on homework and reports (Tina, Marshall and I), but Dulce had other plans, as usual. Though Saturday was filled with many aggravations, I did have a decent time at the Fair of Guara, where they have very cheap clothes (I bought a cool dress for R$10 and two shirts each for R$5!!) and various food products.












We all (Tina, Dulce, Jose Marcel--prof friend of Dulce, Rafael, Rafael's dad--pictured below , and I) had lunch there as well; a fresh water fish that was quite delicious, along with some fried manioc. A nice break from rice, beans, and meat!!! Saturday evening was a little less eventful, but Tina and I did manage to stay awake (unlike Marshall) long enough to wait for Rafael to return and take us to the Fair of Ceara. We watched a small part of the a great forro band and had a few snacks. Sunday wasn't too eventful either, except for the party celebrating Jose Marcel's birthday.

But today I went collecting for turtles! Though I saw no sign of a turtle, I had an amazing time with the two herpetology students. They were super nice and knew a lot of other species around the two lakes we visited in the National Park of Brasilia. We saw tracks of anteaters, deer, and maned wolf. Even better, as we were leaving a deer jumped on the road in front of us and stopped alongside the vehicle. It was so neat! Lots of birds to see as well, though I only know their Portuguese names right now. I'm excited for more adventures in the field this week and later on, especially in the rainy season starting beginning of November because they'll be more turtles to catch. Today I only have Biology of Reptiles class, so I'll spend the rest of the afternoon working on homework. Ate mais!