Mangos, Marathons and Bailes! Must be Christmas?

Reading: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Okay, so for a hodge-podge of blogging, as I have no real way of weaving this into one cohesive post...

First, I've joined this folkloric dance group and we had a first competition and second performance... I have tons of pictures and I'm working on uploading videos, but youtube is so slow it's ridic... but here's one, minus the last two minutes (the women taping gave up the camera to join the dance... so it ended up in two parts)

Food Security

Reading: Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Upon arriving at pre-service training, the 21 sustainable ag volunteers that made up omnibus 105 were informed that we were the last group of ag vols in Ecuador, as the program was ending at the end of the year. The remaining ag vols would be dissolved into the health program under the veil of food security. (This would not be that much of an issue in the life of a volunteer, except for the fact that the communities requesting volunteers were rarely informed of this bureaucratic change of objectives.)

Regardless of the politics or effectiveness of this change, the 17 of us sust. ag vols plus the newest group of health volunteers spent this last week back in the Tumbaco training center for a debriefing on what exactly is food security and the newest objectives that we're now suppose to be meeting.

The Inevitable

Reading: Compass Points: How I Lived by Edward Hoagland

One of the most notable marks of an impoverished country is the elevated rate of crime. Since arriving in Ecuador, Peace Corps has been relentless in briefing us on safety and security measures. Statistically speaking, Ecuador has a rather high crime, albeit petty, rate for Latin America.

Countless volunteers have had their cell phones swiped on a bus or an unwatched bag lifted at a restaurant. I would say the majority of us have resigned ourselves to material detachment. Yes, I enjoy having my iPod, but I am willing to take the risk of listening to it on the bus, knowing that the numbers are not in my favor. However, there is a completely different feeling when the delinquency occurs a little closer to home...

Dia de Campo

Reading: Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

Because I am a Peace Corps Volunteer, which inevitably means I am often very busy doing nothing with even less to show for it, I am going to take this rare moment to relish in an accomplishment.

The community garden

For the past few months,I have been working with a bureaucrat from Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería, Acuacultura y Pesca (MAGAP) and a farmers organization in the neighboring community on a community garden. The garden had been coming along quite nicely when the bureaucrat caught wind of another organization using their garden as a "dia de campo" open house, complete with the local mayor, a token foreigner (he was from Taiwan) and complementary lunch. After said bureaucrat, the organization president and some community members unexpectedly drove me six hours to check out this ordeal, we decided to host our own. Hello legit work.

Our dia de campo went off without a hitch with about 70 people in attendance. The 30x35m garden had a bountiful harvest of tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, onions, beets, squash, string beans and corn, which the Ecuadorians were ever so quick to ravage - I equate such behavior with their contempt for waiting in lines. There was even free beer for the guys to their complement the lunch, courtesy of MAGAP.

Sidenote: there should be more pictures up on facebook... given that the computer that I'm using and facebook are working as they should...

Dia de difuntos

Reading: American Pastoral by Philip Roth

Cemetery in Tumbaco

Holidays down here always make for an interesting cultural experience. Many of them line up as far as timing, since they are often the left overs of Christian traditions, but the manner and extent to which they are celebrated varies greatly between Ecuador and the States. Halloween in the States marks the beginning of our "consumer holidays" - merchandise is cycled from Octobers witches to Novembers turkeys to Decembers santas.

In Ecuador, however, there are no costumes, youthful trick-o-treaters or drunken college parties to celebrate All Hallows Eve. Instead the emphasis falls on el dia del difuntos, the day of the dead. Whereas few Americans would think of visiting the cemetery for Halloween (I mean, whats Memorial Day for?) Ecuadorian tradition involves spending the day visiting the graves of loved ones and saying rosaries for them while attending mass.

Idolo del Ecuador

Reading: We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People by Peter Van Buren

Liga graffiti, Tumbaco

So on my return trip from Santiago, I made a pit stop at the Estadio Monumental Banco Pichincha to catch a match between one of Guayaquil's club teams, Barcelona, and Liga, a club team from Quito. Think of it as a futbol (soccer) game equivalent to a baseball game between the Yankees and the Red Socks, with Barcelona being the Yankees. I say that only because Guayaquil has a second team, Emelec, that I prefer, but it leads to a  Yankees/Mets sort of dynamic, minus the fact that Emelec is actually good.

Now, in my experience, Emelexistas tend to be true soccer fans that love "the beautiful game." Barcelona fans, on the other hand, just like to get rowdy and see soccer as an excuse to party (see the Yankees comparison). They tend to be overly obnoxious and would much rather spend their evening with a haba of cerveza, but a soccer game is a justifiable excuse. What more is, Barcelona fans have a reputation for being horrible... as in they like to through urine at their own fans when the game isn't going the way they would like it too...

How to kill 8 hours in the Guayaquil airport

Reading: Another Turn of the Crank by Wendell Berry

So my flight to Santiago by way of Lima was delayed for 8 hours and I didn't feel like leaving the air conditioned airport and braving Guayaquil. So I killed the time by...

Peruvian cebiche

1. finished typing up my very late CAT report that I had rewritten by hand thanks to the death of my computer
2. left my flash drive in yet another computer (once again it was returned and my faith was restored in people)
3. revised my CAT report
4. translated my CAT report into English to put on here late... by hand
5. wandered through all the ecua tourist trap shops
6. drank too much coffee, shakes resulted
7. spent an hour on the phone to the States
8. finally wrote, by hand, my success story for Amanda
9. read, obviously
10. exhausted the music trivia game on my ipod
11. Where's Waldo postcard - still can't find the wizard
12. people watched
13. listened to the entire Rilo Kiley/Jenny Lewis discography
14. free sudokus in the newspapers
15. made this lame list

On a side note, peruvian cebiche is so much more legit than ecua ceviche. Just sayin'

Kraft Quinoa y Queso

Reading: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Let me just start this off with the fact that up until coming to Ecuador, my life, in terms of food has been fantastic.

That is to say, I grew up with parents that are excellent cooks and raised on fresh produce with minimal junk food. Perhaps this factored into my college days, when I became a bona fide foodie. Most people talk about their college days of Ramen noodels and boxed mac & cheese...

America

Reading: The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry

10 day vacation in the States for my cousin's wedding. Great company, good food, real beer, hipster bars, book stores, my pony, and a beautiful Sodak fall - not even my computer crashing and hours of wedding pictures could ruin this week. I'm loving me some America right now.

The Kat One, looking dapper as per usual

House Remodeling

Reading: With God on Their Side: George Bush and the Christian Right by Ester Kaplan

So just because I know that all my lovely followers are ever so curious as to what kind of remodeling I have been doing with my cement shell of a house, I figured I would humor your all and post some pictures. Basically, I just painted the walls, which has been a world of difference in making things feel more homey. But I also, finished the kitchen, so I now have running water in the sink, I put down tile (d.i.y.) and invested in a used fridge and mini-stove top. It’s almost like having a real kitchen. I also cleaned out the spare bedroom, which my host family had been using for junk storage and took down the weird children’s toys hanging on the walls and replaced them with maps of the US and Ecuador. Oh, and I built a porch off the front to hang a hammock under. I’m planning on doing the same out back to cover some future worm beds…

Fiestas

Reading: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Typical Ecuadorian fiesta

Well, this is the weekend of the fiestas of Milagro, so I figured that this would be a good time to elaborate a little on what exactly is involved with an Ecuadorian fiesta, specifically those that are hosted by a community/city. Warning: this may get a little graphic… if you’re particularly attached to roosters, you might want to skip this one.

Anyway, the best comparisons that I have for fiestas here is like a county fair… or for a bigger city like Milagro, think state fair. Anyway, the fiesta is held on the date the community was founded but the shenanigans usually start several weeks before that date, with the finally weekend of dancing, drinking and debauchery.

Have you tried this weird animal yet?

Reading; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Good mornin' Mr. Iguana

I ate iguana. Enough said.

I guess a little back-story on this occurrence may be warranted, although I feel as if the statement alone is sufficient. Basically, people here, especially the guys love to play this game with me that should have the name “have you tried this weird animal yet?"

Most of the time, my answer is no, since animal in question is usually something like snake, zorro, squirrel, carbora, guinea pig, rabbit, iguana, etc. A few days ago, we were going through the motions of this game yet again and the point came up that I still have not had the pleasure of eating iguana. At the time, I really didn’t think much of the conversation. But last night when one of the little boys in Chimbo showed up at my door while a I was making dinner to tell me that his brother had gone out and shot me an iguana at the river and his mother was grilling it for me.

Vet Bills: Lesson Learned

Reading: Empire Falls by Richard Russo

What my $8 kitten is costing me these days:

A very pregnant Denali

• Sterilization shot from shoddy vet - $12
• Sonograph to determine the source of mystery lumps - $45
• Hysterectomy - $120 
• Oophorectomy - $40
• Antibiotics - $9

Total cost: $226

Lesson learned: Just get your cat spayed the normal way, BUT make sure that it's done by a legit vet... and stay away from sterilization shots - they result in swollen mammary glands and an infect uterus and ovaries. Bad story.

Side note: I'll be back in the states for a nice little vacay (and Miranda & Mitch's wedding) in 25 days. So excited.

Infección de Garganta

Reading: The Moral Equivalent of War by William James

So on Sunday I managed to come down with a nasty case of something that left me with a fever and some good old body aches. Normally this would not be all that worrisome, simply remedied with some self-prescribed Tylenol, water and sleep. However, we are not in normal, this is Ecuador, which means that fever and body aches could be a whole host of things, the most problematic being malaria and dengue.

Now, I personally ruled out the two worse extremes, mainly because I’m currently taking mephaquin for the malaria and I’m told that dengue feels like death itself, which my state of being could not be exaggerated to. On Monday, since I was still freezing even though it was clearly hot out, my neighbor, Marilyn, decided that we need to confirm my claims by rubbing me down from head to toe with a raw egg. The idea is that the egg will absorb whatever ailment is possessing you, so when it is cracked open in a glass of water, one can read the position of the yoke and albumen to determine what is actually wrong with the patient. My egg voodoo confirmed that I indeed had a fever, no thermometer needed.

Zorro

Reading: Diarios de Motocicleta by Ernesto “Che” Guevara

So for months here my host family has been asking me if I’ve ever tried zorro, which in Spanish means fox. Being as fox is not commonly consumed in the States, I can only tell them no, and shutter a bit when they start raving about how great what I envision as the cute, little, wild, red cousin of a dog tastes. However, as this conversation has come up several times, I had started to think that perhaps the Ecuadorian zorro is not exactly the same as a North American fox.

Receipe for PCV 4th of July

Reading: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Ingredients:

7 Americans
2+ Ecuadorians, English speaking adds to the flavor
1 beach on the Pacific Ocean thanks to Strix
1 haba de cervezas (Pilsener, of course)
1 watermelon, soaked in rum
several boxes of wine
a couple of pounds of beef to grill
freshly made guacamole
Oreos
Doritos

La Pena de Nes Café

Reading: The Trial by Franz Kafka

Coffee cherries

Since coming to Ecuador, I have begrudging given up coffee, regardless of the fact that Ecuador is in fact a producer of fine, often shade grown and organic, coffee. It’s not to say that I planned on doing this nor was it by my own doing. In fact, I even hauled my French Press to-go mug down here, along with the last remains of my Coffea grounds with every intention to continue my coffee pretentiousness for the next two years of service. Yet, due to unfortunate circumstances, namely being my lack of kitchen and Ecuadorians’ fondness of Nes Café, my coffee drinking came to an end back in Tumbaco when I ran out of my supply from the States.

To many, there’s a great misinterpretation that Latin American’s love their coffee. The misinterpretation lies in the fact that they do drink a coffee like substance, Nes Café, with breakfast, lunch, and dinner whether it’s in the sweltering heat, just hot or when it’s somewhat cool. However, do not begin to think that Nes Café is in any way shape or form the same thing as coffee.

Reading: Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy

Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción, Cuenca

Since I have been spending a fair amount of time in mass while at the same time reading Joyce and Tolstoy, both who write a great deal about religion, I figured I’d leave you all with this nice Tolstoy passage from Resurrection. It seems so fitting for Catholicism here.

And none of those present … seemed conscious of the fact that this Jesus, whose name the priest repeated such a great number of times, whom he praised with all these curious expressions, had forbidden the very things that were being done there: that he had not only prohibited this meaningless much speaking and the blasphemous incantation over the bread and wine, but had also, in the clearest words, forbidden men to call other men their masters or to pray in temples; had taught that every one should pray in solitude; had forbidden to erect temples, saying that he had come to destroy them and that one should worships, not in a temple, but in spirit and in truth; and, above all, that not only had he forbidden to judge, to imprison, to torment, to execute men, as was done here, but had even prohibited any kind of violence, saying that he had come to give freedom to the captives.

That is all.

Two Months In

Reading: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

Main street, only street, Chimbo de Venecia

Seeing as I have been in site for a full two months now, I figured I should probably give some time to explain what I have actually been doing for the last two months in Chimbo de Venecia. Pictures included.

My official project from Peace Corps was to work as a liaison between the NGO ACDI/VOCA and the local ag-organization of cacao farmers in the community. However, in typical Peace Corps fashion, ACDI/VOCA has effectively lost all of their funding for the region of Ecuador that I am in and the ag-organization that they had been hoping for me to work with in essentially non-existent. Fortunately, my counterpart/host dad is the closest thing Ecuador could produce to the Energizer Bunny, which has left me with a handful of small projects to occupy my time with these last two months. Yet, I still have to start my CAT tools… :)

Tripe: An Ecuadorian Rendezvous

Reading: Harry Potter & the Half-Blooded Prince

Hornado, Ecuadorian roasted pig

I’m sure most of my faithful readers are dying to hear about my love life down here, since you always here these wonderful stories of Peace Corps romances and what now. However, I am here to say that it has been quite disappointing, aside from my lovely false novio, Nat, but we’ll get to him later.

It seems that guys down here are quite interested in the prospect of having an available gringa around yet they seem widely obliviously to any form of usefully courting techniques in spite of the massive amount of US media dumping that they’re exposed to. Thus, most seem to think that the most appropriate way to attract a girl’s attention is to hiss at her until she acknowledges you, at which they seize the opportunity to say as many degrading things they can think of as rapidly as possible. It must actually work for Ecuadorian ladies, but they can’t seem to figure out the need to revise their tactics for American women.

The Art of Hitchhiking

Reading: Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire

To begin with, I need to preface this post by saying that hitchhiking is strongly frowned upon by Peace Corps. However, when you are placed in a community without public transportation with a family that does not own a car, I believe that coge un carro falls under the practice of cultural integration. The good thing is that because it is so cultural acceptable here – literally, everybody does it – both the kids that I live with catch rides to and from school every day. Thus, safety is much less of a concern then in the states… and so here’s my quick guide on how to effectively hitchhike:

Fun Facts

Reading: Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets

1. I’m rereading all of the Harry Potter books, including Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them.
2. Katherine Hanson is getting married this weekend!

Milena (11), Moises (9) and Belen (8)

3. It’s been 5 years since I graduated from high school and a year now since I graduated from college… weird considering that my closest friends at the moment are 8, 9 and 11…
4. My shower that used to simply function more or less as a hose to fill up buckets for bucket baths suddenly has enough pressure to function like an actual shower… that being said, I decided to add this fact while showering after swimming in the river and mid-shower, my water complete disappeared… so this might not actually be a fun fact, we’ll see what happens tomorrow…
5. I figured out where all of our water comes from finally. Like I feared, it’s from the very dirty Rio Chimbo, which I swim in on a very regular basis.

Teacher of English

Reading: Standing by Words by Wendell Berry

So I’ve been at site for three weeks now and am finally starting to feel like I’m settling into things. Perhaps this is because I’ve finally reestablished some sort of routine and I seem to be most content in daily monotony that this brings.

My student, neighbor, and bestie: Belén

My usual day consists of waking up around 5:30am, jogging a couple of laps up and down the 0.5km that is Chimbo, breakfast before 7am and then off to work on the soon-to-be six family gardens that my counterpart and I have been working on starting. We do this until about 11am when I have to head arriba (“up” in reference to the river) to have English class for an hour before heading back home for lunch and then off to an afternoon of harvesting cacao or other random farm tasks. Depending on how horribly hot the day is, sometimes we just spend the afternoon in the Rio Chimbo. The family that I’m living with usually eats dinner between 5 and 6, which is rather early by Ecuadorian standards. My host mom, sister and I then head back arriba to an aunt’s house to hang out until my host brother gets back from colegio in Naranjito. I’m usually in bed between 9 and 10.

Confessions of a Former Vegetarian

Reading: Al Dente by Rafael Lugo

Butchering, Ecuadorian style

Aside from the plethora of cultural difference that living in Ecuador has provided, one of my biggest adjustments has been starting to eat meat again. I’m sure that most of you are thinking that Peace Corps volunteer plus former vegetarian can only mean one thing: animal loving tree-hugger. Now, I swear that although that could be applicable to some parts of my lifestyle, it isn’t the case with my dietary preferences. I really, honestly, truly just don’t care for the taste and texture of meat. Granted, the idea of eating muscle sort of weirds me out, but in the same way that flat feet do...

So when I left the States, I promised myself that I was going to really work at being less of a fussy eater. I wasn’t going to be bothered when food was served to me all touching and running together. I was going to deal with things being extra fried and the lack of fresh, raw vegetables. And more importantly, for integration sake, I was going to stomach meat for the next two years.

Quick Update

Reading: Zen & the Art...

Alright, so seeing as my internet just got a lot more difficult to access, I probably won't be updating this as often (or hardly ever, haha). But I am glad to know that people are actually reading it.

Clitoria ternatea

There's new pictures up under photos... let me know if for some reason you can´t see them. AND my new address is:
Casilla 09-09-021
Milagro, Guayas
Ecuador, South America

Books will always be more than appreciated along with letters :)

Lost In Translation

Reading: How To Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons

One of the last Spanish classes I took was one on how to work through the art of translating. Basicamente, the gist of the class is that translation is quite difficult, especially when trying to convey the nuances of a culture. This can create a whole host of humorous situations, so others that are frustrating and then a handful of others that are just unfortunate (watching Blade 4 with subtitles). And so I give you – Things That Translate and Things That Don’t:

Translates: Harry Potter Movies
Ecuadorian kids seem to be just as infatuated with HP as Americans (not limited to children). Consequently, I’ve watched HP 1-3 and 7p1 in the last two months. Luckily, it seems to be working as a great integration tool, plus it’s a pleasant reminder that I can actually understand Spanish even though I still don’t understand the coastal butchering of the language.

Doesn’t Translate: The Idea of Reading the Harry Potter Books
Most of us in my generation grew up eagerly anticipating each new release of one of the HP novels. So when they finally hit the big screen, we knew exactly what was going to happen – the movies were just buttresses to the vivid imagery that enchanted us in print. However, the thought of reading a HP novel is completely foreign to most Ecuadorians. Perhaps this is due to the fact that a culture of reading is much more prevalent in the United States then it is in Ecuador. Books here are crazy expensive and I’ve only had one encounter of leisure reading since I’ve been here. This is bad news for HP because not only is British humor lost in translation from English to Spanish, most of the gritty details are lost in the translation from text to film.

Under Oath

Reading: Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

Omnibus 105 officially sworn-in

As of today, Omnibus 105 is officially sworn in a Peace Corps Volunteers, which means we are all now defenders of the United States of America. You can take that as sarcastically as you see fit. I'm leaving for Guayas tonight and will officially start as a volunteer in my site tomorrow. That being said, leaving my host family here in Tumbaco as well as the rest of the group is going to be much harder then it was leaving the states. Welcome round two of culture shock.

Chimbo de Venecia

Reading: Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

With training almost over, I figured that I should probably elaborate a little bit more on what I will actually being doing for the next two years…

Bananas, left. Cacao, right.

I have been placed in a small community in the coastal province of Guayas and primarily working with ACDI/VOCA, an international NGO that works specifically with cacao (cocoa) production here in Ecuador. There are seven(ish) of us that are being partnered with ACDI/VOCA and there appears that there will be a surprising amount of structure for Peace Corps projects. We all just returned from a week long training with several of the ingenieros, which was greatly beneficial considering that I have no background in cacao prior to coming here. However, I now able to prune, harvest, dry and even do a little fermenting of cacao.

Things I Miss from the States

Reading: Let It Rot by Stu Campbell

Things I miss from the States:
· Coffee – all of the coffee grown here is simply exported. However, they love to drink café or Nestle’s instant coffee for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Needless to say I’m coping, but carefully rationing the last of my stash of Coffea coffee...
· Cooking – My host mother usually has dinner prepared for me before I get home from class and is very adamant that it’s perfectly fine for Heather and I to sit and wait for dinner to be served to us like the rest of the family does. We were able to make guacamole one evening, but now that’s simply prepared for us as well…

El Tesoro

Reading: Two Ears of Corn by Roland Bunch

I uploaded a few pictures – half of the SusAg group took a tech trip to El Tesoro in the jungle aka Amazon or el Oriente.

Passiflora edulis flavicarpa

Livin' in the 'burbs

Reading: Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath

Alright, so here’s the first actual posting from south of the equator… I’ve been here for a little over two weeks now and am finally starting to settle in. The training center is just outside of Tumbaco, a suburb of Quito. My host family has been nothing but exceptional, especially when it comes to dealing with my pitiful use of Spanish and my fickle eating preferences. I’m living with a young married couple and their two daughters in a lovely apartment that includes a hot shower. The mother and younger brother of the wife live in the apartment above us and are hosting another trainee and we usually have family meals together and what not – an added luxury during these last few weeks.

Snowmageddon

Reading: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Western South Dakota sunset

Well, so it looks like Snowmageddon got the best of air travel once again and effectively shut down O'hare and Dallas today. Consequently, Sioux Falls canceled the majority of the flights out. South Dakota might know how travel in snow, but when every other place can't quite get it together it's score one for Mother Nature. So plan B, or I guess, plan C. Plan B happened at 4am this morning with a American Airlines employee and of which conversation I have very little recollection. But I did manage to make flight arrangements to Dallas - that is I will be flying out of Sodak tomorrow evening, hopefully arriving in DC around 1am in order to catch a leave for Ecuador at 3am.

South Dakota Legislature, really?

Reading: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

South Dakota, I-90

So, what does one do when your flights are canceled due to a national blizzard and you find yourself with few hours to spare. Rant about the political state of South Dakota, obviously.

First off, the great Sodak legislature has produced ANOTHER abortion ban. Now, seeing as we did vote against an full out ban in 2006 and 2008 (read as twice defeated), Roger Hunt apparently thinks we're playing best of five or something... so we're going for banning abortion, round three. This time, however, HB1217 not a full out ban, just a 72 hour waiting period and a host of other mandates for women who find themselves in such a situation. Granted, we should not expect anything else when Ms. Noem is running around DC on Sodak's behalf trying to limit rape to "forcible rape." Meaning, that this would prevent the government helping pay for abortions in the cases of sexual assault which includes date rape sitations.

Clearly, this state is a huge fan of women's rights. But the best part of all of this is that it has completely fallen by the wayside due to the one and only Hal Wick (also a champion of limiting women's rights)...

Oh snap, it happened

Reading: Buffalo for a Broken Heart by Dan O'Brien

Alright, so upon request from Miss Kelly Henkler, I will be attempting to keep a blog while down in Ecuador. Due to my flaky nature, I can't promise that it'll be updated regularly... although I did get a fancy new DSLR camera for Christmas, so I'm planning on at least providing some visual updates.

I think I'm starting to panic a bit about packing and all the things that I need to wrap up before I leave. For instance, other morning I woke up at 5:30 and frantically counted all of my underwear in an attempt to start packing...

The beloved Man Cave

Mainly, I'm just worried about spending quality time with family and friends... oh, and that lovely little test called the GRE. Some time back in November I got the brilliant idea that I should take the GRE before I left. In two years when I'm applying for grad school, hopefully I'll appreciate the decision, but right now I would rather not be studying. Luckily Coffea has free internet and good coffee (almost on par with Cherry Alley's), so I guess the studying situation could potentially less favorable.

Advice for the day: if you're worried about not having fresh broccoli readily available for the next 2 years, bring seeds.