Six Weeks down

Hello! I'm sorry that I've been missing in action for the past two weeks. I'm here to assure you that I am alive and well. Tomorrow, I will have been in Venezuela for six weeks and I have four more to go!

Jenn Simpson, a third-year grad student from Yale in my program, is here to help me with my preliminary analysis and to make sure that I'm not missing any important components of my field work. It's been wonderful to have a friend here. Last Tuesday was my birthday. At first I was a bit ambivalent about spending it so far away from my family and friends, but it turned out to be a lot of fun! Jenn, Nelson, and Alejandra (the latter two from UCV) cooked up a barbeque and we had ice cream cake and wine with it. They all sang birthday songs throughout the day for me (even at work). Here I am applauding their efforts.

On Thurdsay night, Sarita came in to Mérida to visit Jenn and me. We spent Friday walking around the city and eating vegetables (not a favorite here). On Saturday, we took a bus up into the mountains to go hiking around Lake Mucubají, around 3000 m. We had information from the mucuposada hiking network that told us we could reach the entrance to the park from Apartaderos, so we took the bus there and were told that we were 15 minutes away from the park. That didn't seem too long, so we started walking along the curvy mountain highway. At about 45 minutes, we realized that our informant meant 15 minutes driving. We flagged a truck down and he gave us a ride the rest of way, stopping first to hitch a stalled car behind him as well. The lake was absolutely beautiful though, as was the rest of the park.

After hiking, we went out for pizza and drinks at a café in the center of town. Since our sever was being a bit weirdly exclusive in his attentions, we decided to leave and check out Café Calypso, which is listed in Lonely Planet as having the best mojitos in town. Although my sample size is limited, I will agree that they were truly excellent. We were at first happy just to sit down, but the combined effect of the mojitos and the pounding techno music had us dancing soon enough. Astute readers will note that we were still wearing our hiking gear, including the boots. Graceful we are always.

As a wrap-up to this post, I am still trying to devise a way to keep score in the Meagan vs. Mosquito competition. Number of breeding grounds eliminated for me? Number of houses missed for them? Site-by-site or city-by-city or house-by-house? It's hard to say, and I'm willing to take suggestions. But I have decided to keep a parallel count, which is Meagan vs. Infectious Diseases, personal. This will be on a weekly basis. So far, the count is Diseases = 2, Meagan = 4. Booyah.

Flux

Flux is the name of this really great card game that Sarah M and Bob taught me to play a few years ago. The basic concept is that the goals and the rules are always being changed by the players as they try to create the most advantageous position for themselves. It's the best analogy that is coming to mind to describe my adventures in setting up a budget here. Prices change, terms change, and schedules change. The really difficult part is that I'm not allowed to change the rules. I think I should earn something like a gazillion intelligence points if I can get through this one.

I may be a bit cranky because I just got over a flux of a different sort. Sarita and I went to the mall on Friday night, which was huge and brand-new, two stories above ground and five or six below with a central atrium open all the way. It was a pretty impressive mall. Unfortunately, something that I ate there decided not to get along with the bacteria already in my stomach, and on Saturday morning the natives staged a revolt. I'll spare you the details; it suffices to say that I didn't go to the beach that afternoon.

I will say that I've been very impressed with the hospitality of the people here. When I was green and looking pretty awful outside of a metro station and trying to return to the apartment, a woman came over and gave me water. I am incredibly grateful for her kindness. She also asked if I was pregnant and looked skeptical when I said no, but I'm not inclined to be particular about my angels.

Arrival

Hola todos,

I arrived in Caracas last night, and I am now waiting to meet with Juan Carlos Navarro, my host here at the Universidad Central de Venezuela.  I am typing on a Mac computer that has been set up for Spanish, and it was a very exciting moment when we discovered the @ symbol's location (alt plus g, FYI).

The Univesidad has a very open architecture.  It reminds me a little bit of the schools that I've seen in the southern US, with lots of courtyards and gardens and walkways that are open to the weather.  There is even a small garden in the center courtyard of the Instituto Zoologica, right next to the labs.

I am staying this week with the  brother-in-law of my professor and with his wife, David and Carina.  They are very hospitable, and last night we talked for several hours.  David teaches Spanish literature and studies Greek mythology, and Carina works as a systems engineer and is trying to learn French as well as English.  Their apartment is very close to the Metro, which I can use to get to the university.

That's all for this post -- I will write more on my project and on Caracas later!