we had ourselves a great time last night; we went out to a bar and then to an AMAZING club where the dj was cuttin' it UP! [i ought to mention that i was invited to go with the hostel manager and her boyfriend, and so that happened to be "our" big plans] so after a refreshing three hours of dancing my ass off, my colleague and i walked back to the hostel and came to terms with it all.

he said he was being an a-hole, and i agreed, and we discussed "lightening up" and various other strategies for success working with others in an enclosed environment (something i actually am used to) .

he even told me i was so cool for bringing him along to our adventures...if you will...

anyway, i think we have something we can finally say we've connected on, and i plan to find more dancing opportunities in the future.

so that's my brief update on how prayer and positive energy can bring events into your life that you need. amen.

something's gotta give

we're in glenwood springs, colorado, at another hostel, on a cold, rainy night. unfortunately, for both of us, it seems that neither of us is getting along with each other. i get the impression he's as sick of me as i am, etc., because he is rude and snappy with me and then very friendly and polite with the other people we encounter.

it sure would be nice to have that third person (field assistant #2) join the crew and break the tension. i don't want to sit and stew and think, 'well he screwed it up because everything was going so well until he broke protocol...' because that is just the plain ol' blame game, and what the hell good would that do for me?? proving our sour times are his fault and not mine? well they're obviously mine, too, because here i am griping about it in my blog again...

we drove through the most southerly rocky mountains today, majestic and covered in snow and shrouded with heavy clouds. if my heart didn't feel so heavy right now, i think i would be falling in love every time we came around a bend. i want to paint, to sculpt, to write music to represent the beauty rolling over these hills in this grandiosity. but instead i sit in a car and listen to the bummer music i didn't choose to listen to and wonder when this storm will break. gloomy.

my dorm mates are completely unfriendly, but everyone in the common room is great. i'm so tired, though, and we've been out of our fieldwork routine for so long, that when we do a point tomorrow, i really hope it has the healing effects we need so badly. it is so difficult for a social creature like myself to sit in a car with someone who is hellbent on being efficient, so much so that joy and cheer cannot sit in the car with us. i have withered away into another person i do not approve of, for lack of decent conversation or friendly companionship.

why did he have to go and put the moves on me?? everything fell apart that day! stupid stupid stupid. and i've prayed so hard to let it go, but it isn't the only crime anymore. he's stubborn and moody and won't make sure i get breakfast or lunch sometimes. we need groceries, he says, after he's returned from the cafe with his bagel and cream cheese. so he can't cover MY breakfast? money sure does go fast when you're not replenishing it.

that makes me afraid of when i come back "home." and where will that be? all my stuff is in phoenix, is that where i'll be? i will most certainly have no money, the way this keeps up. what will i do? it isn't worth being stressed out about now, but it's too big to ignore, i think.

and, just to add a cherry to the top of this gripe session, it hurts my feet to climb the rungs up to my tiny top bunk. so there.

i'm done.

on a beautiful, cold, rainy day

in arroyo seco, new mexico. we're staying an extra day because i took my hiking boots to this repair place in taos (like twenty minutes south and a much larger town) and he's backed up with work and won't be finished until friday. so here we are, "stuck" in this glorious, peaceful little town at a totally awesome hostel called "the abominable snowmansion;" it's so very close to taos ski valley that it must be an excellent cheap place for skiers to stay during the season.

i'm in a little café called the "taos cow," i just finished a portobello sandwich with a fabulously-caffeinated cup of coffee, i'm listening to awesome music from the 70s on the speakers, and watching the rain outside the window.

that thing with richard has hopefully blown over. i have made a very serious personal effort to forgive him for it and soften my heart (a lot of prayer has gone into this), and he has gradually revealed that his dumpy mood was more about not working this whole time and being anxious to get out of this traffic (taos traffic, OMG!!) and back into the field. yesterday we went and hung out all around taos; we went to the plaza and i got "lost" and spent 45 minutes talking to this awesome shop owner in some imports store about life and spirituality and living on a shoestring and being closer to nature. after that, i was pumped up, but you-know-who was totally boring and lame to be around. then we went to the taos pueblo, supposedly the oldest continuously-inhabited settlement in the country....but i dunno. i've seen that claim in a lot of places, including tucson, arizona, demming, new mexico, and on peruvian postcards...etc. anyway, i had to pay a fee to use my camera, but i did take lots of cool pictures. it was a very windy, dusty day, so that makes me worry that my camera will be filled with grit and i'll need to have THAT repaired soon, too. then we went to the hot springs down by the rio grande at the bottom of the rio grande gorge. we met some cool folks there, too, who teach horseback riding and river rafting lessons. i had to get into the springs in my underwear again...oh well.

then we came back to the hostel and i had taken up antagonizing richard about being in a funk.

(now it's SNOWING outside!!!)

"are you in a better mood yet?" i'd say. "how 'bout now?" then if we were talking about something else, and he was right about something, i'd say, very emphatically, that he was right. then i'd say, "doesn't it make you feel good to be right? surely you're feeling better now." he managed to eek out a few genuine smiles. then i'd go on to say it's so nice to have the happy richard back.

it's obviously not my responsibility to keep him in good spirits, but it certainly makes my life better if he doesn't have a stick up his ass. it does get a bit exhausting to be enthusiastic for the both of us...

i wish my brother were here. or wendy and sequoia. or tauni. or aaron and robin. or any number of other people who would probably be SO MUCH MORE FUN right now. but besides that, it has been incredibly refreshing to be at hostels this past week. there are so many cool people, they're all happy to make conversation (unlike my usual company) and they seem interested in what i'm doing and what i have to say. plus, i always get such a good response from people when i mention i live in tucson. seems like tucson is okay in the small-towner's perspective. it's okay by me, too. anyway, it's nice to have other company and other people who make decent conversation and don't get bogged down by the inability to decide on anything.

while we were in downtown santa fe, in the bustling gallery/touristy district, i wandered into this beautiful imports store (seems to be where i often end up) where everything was from thailand and indonesia. the shopkeep there was this incredible woman with a true light emanating from within. she was content as a cat to sit and watch the world go by outside the shop. i bought this gorgeous handwoven cotton scarf from indo with sage and earth colors, beautiful and utilitarian (because my neck gets awfully cold sometimes).

it's still snowing outside, heavier than earlier, and people are coming in and out of the restaurant in an assortment of winter/rain gear, t-shirts, light sweaters, etc. very cute. i like arroyo seco, although from what i hear it's very expensive to live here and it's difficult to make money to support oneself.

i have to send off some emails before i leave this little hideout. i should probably purchase another coffee or a hot cocoa to make the moment last (and to not overstay my free wi-fi welcome). i don't feel like walking anywhere in the snow wearing sandals!

because it's worth mentioning, i guess..

i wasn't going to write about this situation, because...i don't know...it wasn't resolved and didn't feel right to journalize.

but because of recent events, i'll spill:

all this time that i've been keeping my spirits high and being fun and smiley and cheerful, i didn't have any idea those were "signals" that were being misinterpreted. you got it, it blew up in my face.

three nights ago, after a few beers and in the bitter cold of yet another freezing night, my p.i. and i were hanging out and trying to stay warm. he decided that it was appropriate to try to kiss me, and managed only to kiss my hair several times. then he suggested i sleep using his body heat! so i said no thanks, no offense, i'll be fine roughing it. we went for a walk to warm up after that, and i tried to act as though that whole bit hadn't just happened.

i mean, come ON. as soon as i made it to santa fe, i called a friend and was finally able to hash it out. she commended me on my boundary-guarding, and i felt more empowered. it isn't as though this guy is a creep, i'm just totally and completely not interested, we're in a PROFESSIONAL relationship and we work together endlessly, and i clearly have the word "Rebound" stamped on my forehead (i know i've used this metaphor multiple times, but it seems most apropos).

i'm totally still reeling from my breakup and move-out and dramatic life changes. under the circumstances, i thought it was best to try to project the most positive energies i could possibly muster. and things were going so well for us; we were having such a great time together (at least i was), and now everything was stupid and complicated (at least for me).

the awkwardness transformed into irritation, and by the time we made it to santa fe, i was plain sick of seeing his face, sick of his indecision, sick of being in a hot car, sick of the silence (even though i had nothing to say) despite the music we were playing.

man, then we were planning to go out last night somewhere fun and local. first we went to best buy to get him a new digital camera and me an external hard-drive (which is why my computer is singing and happy and carefree now). i spent most of yesterday doing laundry and being scarce. i went and got myself a massage (good but not great) and asked the masseuse where i should go, and she suggested something fun downtown. i bought a road atlas and had dinner (while i was out with the car). i came back to the hostel and we switched off and he went for dinner and a pint.

i stayed in our room and uploaded photos to my photobucket (seriously, go check it out! it's all out of order but i've tried to label most everything http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/nn162/freeheadway/). it took so long to upload all those pictures that i wasn't even done by the time he came back. and then we had to go out, and i was really too tired.

anyway, my long, long story is actually wrapping up. we went to this bar in the touristy area called "the matador" which my massage therapist had suggested, and it was right across the street from another bar which the receptionist at the hostel had suggested, so we thought we'd try both. i was supposedly the designated driver, but i really needed to be drunk i think. i insisted that he buy me one drink, and the place was bumpin' because there were live dj's and they rocked the house! it was little and everyone there was talking to their own little cliques, so there wasn't anywhere for me to escape to, so i sat down with my drink and forced conversation and gradually loosened up. then i bought myself a martini, but it was HUGE and expensive, and by the time i was finished with it, i was officially drunk. we went across to the other bar and they had a downstairs, too, where they were playing a "no doubt" live concert dvd, and it was fun and nostalgic.

after my third drink, i was clearly in better spirits again. we left and i was itching to say something about this whole business. so in the car, i asked why he kissed me the other night. he said because, um, it felt like an affectionate moment. i told him he shouldn't do it again, and he said he wouldn't. i told him he made things awkward, and he apologized.

so those were the "recent events" that seemed to turn things around a bit. i was satisfied because i had finally addressed a topic that had been bugging me severely, and we came back to the hostel and crashed out.

this morning, however, i still feel very little warmth towards him. my comfort level dropped significantly, and i'm pretty disappointed about the whole situation. i'm still irritated being around him. what a bummer.

so perhaps it hasn't be resolved at all.

yikes.

hey from santa fe!

wow, three weeks in!

where to begin...

well, we moved to a new campsite in jemez springs, nm, and did our work around there in the bitter coldness. one day it rained pretty hard in this gloriously gorgeous canyon area (outside bandalier nat'l monument), and it was really dangerous slipping and sliding all over these huge boulders and rocks made of clay. by the end of it though (as by the end of every point we do), i was feeling quite confident in my skills meandering, climbing, and not falling, as it were. it was pretty fun, except my clothes didn't dry out for two days.

then we went to a hot springs and met a professor from cameron in oklahoma. that was cool, except i had to sit there in my underwear with TWO men i barely knew. at least there weren't more.

it snowed that same day, up in the higher elevations, and it was just so beautiful! on the other hand, it's mid-may, so the snow was rather confusing. it obviously wasn't going to be the land of flowers up there...seeing as how white tends to blot out other colors...

then we moved camp to a site next to a river (around el rio, nm), and it was cold there, too! it's so hard to sleep when you're so cold! i woke up shivering all the time, and God help me if i had to pee! anyway, our sites out there had to do a lot with rocks and plateaus and canyons. all stunningly gorgeous, and actually having flowers and hummers! but difficult to clamber over, and eventually i had three blisters on my feet.

i can say with confidence, however, that i believe i've lost a bit of weight so far. it's great for the self-esteem, but the clothing i have is getting so big, especially my pants! i bought a belt in mexico (probably the only good thing i spent my money on), and i've gone down two holes since then! in two weeks?! i suppose it's entirely possible. we hike every day and sometimes all day, with minor food breaks in between, i cook all vegetarian meals for us (unless it's too late or too fatiguing to prepare an elaborate meal, in which case, he eats his own meatful soups or sausages or whatnot), and since we're on a budget everything is in smaller portions.

it sure is time-consuming to add pictures to my blogs. i'm sorry i'm two weeks behind with these complete articles with photos, but i also don't have the room on my hard drive to upload any more pictures..just yet. we're heading to best buy today, and i'm going to invest in an external hard drive. and then there will be photos, oh yes.

but santa fe is pretty great, for the solid two hours i've actually seen of it. i've spent more time on my computer farting around than doing anything fun and adventurous here. that needs to change, so here i am signing off.

until i can get some photos up on here, hopefully you will enjoy it without. :)

the in-the-meantime post (sans internet)

(I’m sitting in the car where it’s warm and typing at our campsite)

We’ve been in the area south of Grants, NM, for the past two days since we left ABQ. It’s all a lot of hiking up mountainsides and down slippery rocks. I’m actually getting much better at hiking; my stamina is up and my lung capacity has expanded. In just two weeks, I think I’ve dropped a size or so, too. Anyway, that’s all good stuff, and I’m proud of myself for keeping my focus and motivation and avoiding thinking negatively.

Save for this weekend when I was feeling a bit homesick (Mother’s Day and all), I think I’m having a lot of fun. Camping all the time has been pretty easy, we go to bed really early, and since I got a blanket, new pillow, and earplugs, I’ve been sleeping more comfortably. Tonight and last night, unfortunately, we’re at a pretty high altitude, and it snowed at one of the points we were at today, so it’s really freaking cold. I had trouble getting to sleep last night, but tonight I’ve got lots of layers on and I anticipate better sleep.

Richard and I get along really well. Sometimes I get worked up in my head because I’m sensitive and I have an ego and I want to be good at stuff without really working hard for it, so if he comments about the difficulty level being part of the job, I get a bit sore about it for a while. But clearly, the problem is my own, and I just have to work on getting my strength and motivation up and continuing to stay positive. That, and really getting involved in the questions this research is asking. This is, after all, the perfect opportunity to discover whether or not field work is what I want to do. So far, I think it is. It’s very challenging, but not beyond my capabilities, and that’s just the physical aspect.

I hear rain on the top of the car. It’s so very cold outside!!!

Anyway, in the past few days, I think Richard and I have gotten into a groove, where we work well together and enjoy each other’s time in our down time. He’s less quiet and unreceptive to my [many] joking comments, and has loosened up a lot around me. I think we’re finally being ourselves, and that’s refreshing. Being around someone 24/7 for three months and having them conceal their true personality is such a waste of time. So this is much nicer.

Besides that, we’ve had loads of great stuff in the field. It’s still pretty early in the season out here (seems like most things just haven’t bloomed since the snows melted) so there aren’t too many flowers, but the plants we’re looking for ARE there, and that’s an encouraging sign of flower densities to come. We were outside Albuquerque the other day and saw a TON of Claret Cup blooms (Echinocerus spp.), and then came face to face, literally, with a pair of black-chinned hummers (male and female). They were fun to observe at the feeders, but they get so upset when we take them down! They fly right up to us if we’re holding the bright red feeder and debate whether or not to attempt one last sip of that magical sugar juice we fill it with. This happened last week with some broad-tailed hummers, too! They came up so close, it’s almost a shock to see how tiny they are, and it’s brilliant to see their gleaming iridescent feathers in the afternoon sunlight.

Of the flowers we are looking for, we have seen Claret Cups, Southwest Paintbrushes, Larkspurs, Penstemons, Ocotillo, and Thistles. We’ve observed hummers feeding at least half a dozen times, and sometimes other birds come to the feeders to steal a bit of our tasty candy water.

We ate at the Route 66 Café in Albuquerque, and I had some awesome fish, fried okra and mashed potatoes and gravy, plus an orange juice-flavored vanilla shake. What a great idea! It was cool. We tried to drive straight to this campsite on Sunday night after some dinner at an Italian restaurant (where they gave me a flower for Mother’s Day!), but couldn’t stay awake late enough to get that far, and stayed at another motel in Grants, NM. On our way out of there, we stopped for breakfast at a place called “Chili Kicks on Route 66” and met Millie, the local “Queen of Chili.” She was really nice, and I gave her my mother’s day flower. So far, everyone in New Mexico has been really nice and laid back. That’s a nice change, since Phoenix seems like it has an identity crisis with its own geography. When I mention I’ve been living in Tucson, people out here smile and say how much they like it there, and we recount things we like about the city and the Sonoran desert.

I’ve been cooking dinner for us at nights (when we’re camping). I like that Richard has given me creative license, because he’ll purchase the ingredients I request and some of his own preference, and then stand back and let me have at it. If I may be so bold, I’d say I’ve been making some amazing food, from scratch even! Since he’s Canadian, everything I make with a Southwestern flare is a novelty to him and he loves it. He likes garlic and lemon and most vegetables, and so I’ve been able to cook fantastic, entirely vegetarian meals for us every night. At first, I’ll admit, he was a rather Doubting Thomas when I pulled out ingredients I intended to throw together, but a few nights of my cooking have shut him up tight! Tonight, since it was so cold, I invented a soup with the remaining things we had in the cooler. I happened to find wild rosemary at one of our points, and so I used that, as well as a red bell pepper, some shell pasta, pinto beans, a lemon, soy sauce, honey, garlic, veggie dogs, cilantro, pepper and Mrs. Dash. You would not believe how good this soup was!

Anyway, life out here isn’t so bad. In fact, it works out just fine. I got my “economic stimulus” check in my account, and at just the right time, too! So I’m not flat broke like I was worried I’d be, and I have few to no expenses these days.

AND!!! At the beginning of June, we’re going to be working with the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service in Colorado doing bat telemetry with them to help out!!! I am so thrilled about this opportunity! Hopefully they can spare a few dollars for the help, that would be cool, but I am sure I can do without it.

I’m just way too cold to continue typing! Good night!

[this blog was written the morning of may 11, 2008, and is being posted a week late!]

so, here i am, with just a bit of time to spare to write a blog about our past week and hopefully post a few pics.

we're in albuquerque, as i mentioned last night, and we've spent the majority of this week camping in new mexico (in the cibola national forest). last weekend we spent three days in a row in motels, mostly because we were trying to go to juarez, [old] mexico from el paso, texas, on cinco de mayo monday evening.

it was fun. a bit anticlimactic. really really consumerist, not much partying going on, but the mercados were jam-packed with people, and i felt like a walking wad of cash the way vendors solicited us. unpleasant. then we went to a restaurant with some awesome food and some cheap beers, and our "waiter" got pretty friendly with us and started suggesting that he show us around the fun parts of juarez. in the end, he took us to a pool hall and walked us back to the bus. his "generosity" cost us $25, and i felt a bit worse for the wear after it was over.










while we stayed in el paso, we went to do a couple points in the wild, open area of fort bliss, nm. i was pretty nervous about the road conditions and having the tires on our tiny car blow up, without an inflated spare, but we were fine after all. then i came across a horned lizard and caught it, and he posed for a picture or two.

while we were sitting at a point in the fort, filling out crosswords to kill time, a pregnant sonoran pronghorn antelope quietly wandered up out of nowhere to investigate us! we quickly snapped some photos and she meandered off again while we watched with binoculars. that was pretty amazing.

then we went camping on a beautiful mountain in the cibola nat'l forest, where the wind was so strong and loud that neither of us really got any sleep in our tents. i did, however, purchase a PILLOW, an AIR MATTRESS and a BLANKET, which made my nights "roughing it" much more tolerable. i mean, it's really crucial to get a decent night's sleep, and i already have trouble with insomnia when my tent isn't trying to fly away.









most of our points have been in desert and low scrub land with few to no flowers and few to no hummingbirds. so it's usually a lot of sitting in the desert flicking ants off my knees and taking deep lungfuls of fresh air.
i have seen some flowers, though. a beautiful, brief flash of red, just like this claret cup we're keeping our eyes out for:i didn't sleep well last night but i did watch the newest episode of "lost," so i have plenty to think about until tonight's next camping locale.

two weeks in, and it's turning out to be a very different kind of experience.

no time, no photos

well, getting to albuquerque was long but beautiful. we've had a few sightings of birds, flowers, lizards, mammals, and what have you. getting wireless internet was complicated, and trying to do laundry was unsuccessful. so now it's nearly midnight, i still want to watch "lost" on abc.com, because it's the only thing i love so dearly that i desperately need to follow it, and i have no time to upload and write all about the photos from the beautiful places we've been this week.

i'm disappointed, but i'll probably find time tomorrow to do it while we do laundry at a laundromat or at a motel with facilities nearby.

it has been a terribly long week, with the wind blowing our tents at night as though it wishes to pick them up and fly them away. it's quite terrifying to wake up to in the dark and the cold. we've been hiking and walking and climbing and sitting in the sun in unfriendly deserts and blustery fields and trip-hazard forests, non-stop. i am so tired.

i want a few hours of amanda-time. i have gone for two weeks without any privacy, and i was trying to figure out why i had a stick up my ass....only the slightest little twig, but still giving me the urge to complain when there is no need, or feel cynical or unenthusiastic. i am simply so tired, and i really need time to myself.

hopefully soon.

but until tomorrow, this blog remains with no photos. i'm sorry.

first shower in a week!

so, i should begin by saying i'm quite cheerful about how this first week has progressed. not only do i have a very nice p.i. (primary investigator) to work with, but he likes much of the same music, movies, books, and television that i do. he is very good company and i appreciate his politeness, generosity, and overall the respect he gives me. it is refreshing to work with someone so mellow.

on the topic of work: we began in the chiricahua mountains in southeast arizona. it was lovely, quite cool, only slightly cloudy, and filled with loads of cool plants and creatures. not, unfortunately, any hummingbird-visited flowers in the area we surveyed. we did hear a broad-tailed male (they have a distinctive wing whistle), but did not observe them on our transect.

our first site was easy enough to find, as it was just off a hiking trail, but as we located it with the GPS unit, we found ourselves in the midst of a thicket of manzanita bushes so dense we could barely walk. there were clearly no flowers here!

the next day our sites were out on steep slopes in the deserts around fort bowie, arizona. the first was right near a gravel mine of some sort. we saw a really big snake almost catch a cottontail (it was probably our fault he didn't), a lot of cattle that looked like they might charge us (until i started yelling and clapping and scared 'em off so i wouldn't die), and some hummer-friendly ocotillo there, but no hummers.

the second site was closer to the town of bowie, up on a steep mountain side, covered in acacia, prickly pear, loose rocks, and grasses. i had a hell of a time hiking since i am complete novice at hiking mountains. i was pretty tired (but also, sadly, pretty menstrual and uncomfortable), so richard offered to do the majority of the transect himself. he's really generous in that way. but i was afraid he'd be resentful of having a field assistant who did little assisting, and i determined myself to work harder across it all, since this was our second site of the day and i am still aand keep my head up. staying cheerful was a little difficult, but i'll be damned if anything negative came out of my mouth. i'm rightfully proud of that.

we moved our camp to some place called "hot well dunes" north of bowie that night. we got there so late we had to set up camp in the dark, and had no idea what our campground looked like. it was deserted, but there were lots of tire tracks everywhere from the obvious ATV activity. later, i saw some other tracks, too, the kind i was actually looking for! coyotes, birds, mice, and rabbit tracks!

so the "hot well" part of our campground was supposed to be these two hot tubs filled with hot springs mineral water that seeped from the ground. when we went to investigate after a long day out in the dry, windy chihuahuan desert, the lousy tubs were off, the water was buggy and mucky, and richard was pretty bummed out. i had convinced myself there was nothing there to look forward to, so none of my hopes were dashed, but i felt bad on his behalf.

yesterday (yes, the week has flown by!), we set out and did two more sites, no flowers as usual, but did see a black-chinned male feeding at our feeder, and saw/heard a broad-tailed male as he briefly investigated our other feeder, without landing of course. richard was in a better mood after that, although he always seems to be in pretty good spirits. i was happy that he had some data that weren't zeros for a change.



when we got back to our campground, there were other people there, and richard had a hunch that the weekend would bring other campers as well as a running hot tub. he was right on both accounts. we sat in the hot tub for an hour and soaked as more and more recreating folks arrived with truckbeds full of ATVs. they disregarded the posted speed limit (10mph), they obviously weren't paying the fee to use the grounds, and they barreled over hills around and around and kicked up sand and dust continuously from 5pm until 4:30 in the MORNING. obviously we slept very poorly last night. when i got up, it was 7:40, and after five minutes they were roaring up their engines again. there had to be 30 or so people there, simply to catapult themselves through this beautiful, calm, ancient beach land. they probably didn't even notice the wildlife or even appreciate where they were. those people extracted a hate from within me that i had to work to suppress.

at the very least, i heard the coyotes howling in the early hours of the morning each of the three nights we camped there.

today we drove to el paso, texas. it was a long, unattractive drive. we stopped in deming, new mexico, got lunch at a mexican restaurant (still a novelty for my canadian p.i.!), and went to wal-mart for some additional camping necessities. we got to el paso and drove around and around looking for an inexpensive motel with wi-fi and at least two beds, but no dice. so we settled for a howard johnson with one king (and i generously let richard use my air mattress while i took the bed, since there is no way in hell that i signed up to share a bed with a man i met a week ago, even a giant bed, to which he fully concurred). we have showered and checked emails and gone out for greek food (fanTASTIC) for dinner and are now each in bed.

and here i am, sacrificing sleep time so that i can update my valued readers with words and pictures from my trip so far. i am so very tired, but really grateful to have a pillow and a mattress and air conditioning. i'm glad i'm in a place where i can appreciate those simple things.

i hope you enjoy :)