I'm Baaaaaaaack!

Hola all!

I have returned from vacation and am back to work. Sort of... I got one day of work in before the weekend vibe set in, and my ability to work went out the window. I finished another condition on Friday, though, so I didn't feel terribly guilty. Only 3 conditions left to finish and then I am (theoretically) finito with this particular experiment! It should only take next week to finish it off, if all goes well (which Murphy's Law says it won't, but still). Encouraging, no?

Anyway, point is I have gotta back into the swing of Punta life. Sadly, my first night back (Wednesday) was Cora's final evening here, so we went to La Nueva Casa del Mofongo down the street and chowed down on pina coladas and pepper pollo (chicken) in her honor. Lucky for her, she is returning to Ohio for a few weeks before heading to Paris for a few weeks of backpacking with friends. I am seriously jealous, and I miss all my Yale girls insanely much. (Adrienne and Amy have left, too.) 

Friday night Alex and new James (yes, we have another new James, a new member of the Yale crew) convinced me to join them for seafood at Daniel's Seafood. It was delicious, but I managed to make a fool of myself by burning my mouth on a coconut shrimp. It just looked so delicious and crispy and shrimpy and mmmmmmmmmmmm...... I lost all self-control and chomped down, which ended with me, a giggling, whimpering mess, as I tried to quell the burning sensation on the roof of my mouth without spewing shrimp pieces everywhere. Elegance incarnate, I am not.

My routine has changed somewhat since my return actually. I have begun GRE prep, so now all my free time is consumed with analogies, vocab exercises, and exponents. I hate this stuff, but I find that conditions down here are pretty much ideal for studying - living alone, no television, no Internet, very few people around, oppressive heat that makes you want to stay by the fan and sit around, etc. I have already made it through a diagnostic test, a few chapters of math review, 18 units of vocabulary review, and have made 100+ flashcards. Huzzah! What this means for all of you? Be prepared for future posts to contain words, such as contumacious, bedizen, and prevaricate, even when other words would do. 

Luckily for me, last night Monica interrupted my fourth hour of straight studying with an offer to join her for a drink at the bar next door. This later morphed into a group drink with at least 8 people, and then a group three drinks, and then an offer of pina coladas and chips at Doreen's house. By the end of the evening, everyone was enjoying rum and cokes  in Doreen's back yard, while playing charades and learning the long-lost art of MASH (graciously taught by yours truly). In fact, by the end of the evening, I had determined that Monica will marry Johnny Depp and live in New Delhi with a pet macaw, 2 kids, and a job as a street sweeper. Meanwhile, Doreen will marry Edward Norton, and Ryan, the new undergrad research assistant to Donna (one of the researchers on the Max Planck team), will end up living in Seattle with Kate Moss and a pet hamster after honeymooning in Oslo. 

Anyway, back to work on the island tomorrow. When I went out on Friday, I had no trouble from 75T, so I'm hoping our vendetta is at an end. Fingers crossed.  And, I just was given two fresh mangoes to cut up, so I'm going to go. YUM!  

I will write again soon. 

Much love!

Becca