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It’s already November 29^th, only a little over a week and a half left — I can’t believe how time flies.  Reflecting back on the last 3 months, this experience feels almost like a dream or a crazy time warp. We are almost finished and of course, I feel as close as ever to all my nuevos amigos here. How does that always seem to happen? There are some really fantastic people in this program; everyone contributes their own twist on life, and everyone has a hilarious way about them. There’s never a lack of laughs.

Last week we managed to successfully prepare a whole Thanksgiving feast for something like 60 people. It was amazing; I’d say the most delicious and jolly filled Thanksgiving I have ever been apart of. Not going to lie, I woke up that morning feeling a mildly homesick and emotionally vulnerable, but as soon as I started stirring up the ingredients for a banana cream pie and looked around at the scene of smiling faces that filled the kitchen, cheerfully rolling out dough and deep frying onions hard core I was immediately comforted.

On Monday everyone parted ways for our Directed Research projects. My DR group has spent the last few days in Selvetura and the Monte Verde Cloud Forest Reserve studying hummingbirds. We have the magical opportunity to actually hold the hummingbirds in order to collect data.  We measure their beaks, trace their wingspan, mark their tiny toenails, and send them on their way. In flight these creatures seem untouchable, their coloring and the manner in which they move seems otherworldly.  To have this sort of intimate interaction with such a majestic creature is amazing.