It’s been a while since I’ve written anything in my journal. Almost a week. We went to Tangarie National Park on Friday and had an amazing time. We saw 237 Elephants and about 145 Impala! It was unreal. At one point there was a herd of elephants that was fifty strong and stained an entire hill earth brown. We had lunch at this incredible lodge and had a few beers. The group went swimming, but I really didn’t feel a huge desire to go so I kept drinking and taking pictures. We had been there for about two hours when we finally started getting concerned that one of the vehicles had not shown up and a quarter of our group was missing. The rest of the afternoon was spent in panic and worrying about their whereabouts. We were clueless, but eventually they showed up and had told us their car had stalled 16 times in the mud. They were completely filthy and by the time we finally found them, the sun was beginning to set.
The next day was an ordinary day. Will and I went for a run, and I ended up rolling my ankle about five times in the course of 100 meters. My legs and body were tired, but strong, but that wasn’t the worst. Later that night, I felt a sensation in my left knee like it was bloated and needed to pop. It refused to do so. I have had this experience before, but when I tried to squat to see the full extension of my leg, a sharp pain occurred. The next morning, the entire leg was swollen and felt as if I needed to go and get fluid drained from it. I reasoned that it must have been a sore tendon in my IbBand and that it would probably heal itself. To this day, I still haven’t run, but the swelling has subsided and the knee just feels stiff.
Monday was our day off and I stayed behind on the hike due to my knee. I have learned that pushing myself past my limit usually results in bad news bears. I met up with the group in the afternoon and we went to this upscale lodge. They had a crystal clear pool with a bar in the water. The charge to go swimming was 10 dollars and having no money, I wanted to use a card, but the man, whose name I eventually learned was Sammy, told me there as 50 dollar minimum on my card. Austin, Luke and I discussed the possibilities and agreed that I would put down a 50-dollar tab and we would split it between the three of us. It worked out quite nicely. We were hammering beers left and right and were feeling pretty good. The pool felt amazing and the strong Equatorial sun was clear in the sky. The SPF-15 that I had originally put on was no match for the sun and I quickly became lobster like, but didn’t notice until later that evening. We finished our pool rendez-vous and had a few more beers at Happy Days which was conveniently right next to the resort. At around 4:30 we made our way back to our campsite.
The past few days here have been pretty lackluster. We have had long days of class and the routine has been pretty typical. We finished our observations and am bombarded with work for Environmental Policy. Unlike school back in the states, where there are weeks of intensity and then weeks of dullness, there is a steady stream of work here. The six days of class are starting to feel long, and the need for a greasy American Food is starting to cloud the minds of everyone. For example, Courtney had a dream last night about being sent home by her mom to eat cheese and ice cream and to her surprise the entire group was with her.
In other news, I finished Solitude and really learned a lot from it. Bob’s harmony with nature is clearly evident by the end of the novel and has a new lens on the way he views the world. He is more acute about his actions and how they affect the bigger world and had a deeper understanding of the subconscious of nature. These are lessons I really feel any human can truly learn from. I am currently reading Mark Twain’s Joan of Arc and really love it. It reminds me a lot of the Agony and the Ecstasy except for there is an actual character following Joan of Arc around while Michelangelo’s novel had none.
In all, life here is pretty good. We are gelling together as a group quite nicely and despite a few instances, everyone gets along pretty well. No one is hooking up yet, but it is starting to make sense why. It’s a one and out to many of the people here and as a result, people are pacing themselves to make sure that when they hook up with someone, it is someone they want to be with for a few months and not a few nights.
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