So it has been a long time, but I have been busy. Mostly though, I got bored just listing off everything I did here. I felt like my blog posts were just that, a list, and it wasn't fun to write and I doubt it was fun to read. So from now on, I'm going to just post with fun little anecdotes. It may not give you all as thorough a view of what I'm doing here, but you will get a sense and it will be more fun for all of us (hopefully.)

So here goes. We went to the Galapagos back over Halloween weekend, and the last night there was one of those fun, epic nights- the kind of night you hope for when you go out. This last night we were staying in a hostel on the Island of Santa Cruz, not a boat, and fortunately this island was the hometown of our awesome guide, Javier. He is only a few years older than us and so we all got to be pretty good friends; he said it was fun having a group of younger people because most of his tour groups are people middle-aged and older. I would definitely get bored with that as well.

That night we went out to a bar with Javi and his friends. The bar was okay, but that wasn't where the real fun started. Shortly after we got there, my friend Mike and I noticed Javi and a BU friend leaving the bar together. Of course, being, not nosy, but delightfully curious, we decided to engage in some espionage. Aka we followed them out of the bar. On leaving, we noticed some kids playing on a spinning, tire-swing-type contraption. Obviously playgrounds are always fun, and this sand-filled playground was particularly appealing. And, as Mike observed, all the kids looked to be about teenagers- I mean, it was close to midnight, after all.

Unfortunately, the playground-players were not the teenagers we thought, but all children under the age of 8, with their middle-aged parents looking on. I was discouraged when I saw this, but Mike shouted out- "Hay espacio para dos más?" The parents, who were about to make their kids go home to bed, agreed to let the ecstatic children play for a few more minutes so we could join in. So worth it. The 15-year-old older siblings were really good at pushing! We had to take breaks so that we wouldn't throw up, but the kids could do it (and probably were doing it) all night.

Return to bar. An hour or so later, our friend Anne wanders out by herself. Again, Mike and I follow, this time for safety reasons, not nosy ones. We found Anne sitting on a beach, surrounded by sea lions. This beach is apparently their nightly docking place. A little about sea lions- a sea lion 'herd' is made up of many females and children and one dominant male. After we'd been enjoying the beach for 20 minutes or so, we heard the male from a distance- obvious loud grunts and snorts. He slowly made his way over to us, and Mike jokingly said 'Ohh he's coming for us! Hold your ground!' Unfortunately, at that moment, the grunts got louder, with weird sniffles in between, and he began to pick up speed so that his gait looked like a lopsided gallop. I would assume it's hard to run on flippers, but he was going fast. Needless to say, faced with a grunting, 300-something pound sea lion running at us at around 10 miles an hour- we ran.

We ran right to a group of Ecuadorian kids hanging out on the dock. Again, Mike and I misjudged their ages, thinking them to be about our age. Really, they were all probably about 15, but they LOVED us. Mike was proposed to a few times and Anne and I were immediately called their "girlfriends." After some bonding time with these middle/high-schoolers, we all headed back to the bar. Javi, fortunately, was still there and he was able to rescue Anne and me from the eager children.

In conclusion, beachside playgrounds, sea lion attacks, and new friends- what more can you ask for in a night in the Galapagos?