october 29

This morning we made it out of bed before 7am! Victory for us – normally the alarm goes off and we go back to sleep until the rest of the house moves into the kitchen and starts making ungodly amounts of noise. We finished with the pineapple rice: remove rinds, add vanilla and sugar, eat like a rice pudding – really good on the cake we made!

We went for a short walk before breakfast, but the drizzle turned into a downpour quickly so we turned back for home. Breakfast was a garlic and red pepper omelet. The rain continued basically all morning, pretty heavily. It was also thundering a bunch. Erika is off, so I spent the morning in the reception while Kendra and Delvin worked in the lab. About 20 minutes after opening the door, we got 3 people from Hong Kong ready for a tour. Strange, since people never come before 11am every other day that I’ve been here. The first group was quickly followed by a couple from Germany, then one from Colorado. It was shocking how fast everyone came in, then there was no one for the rest of the morning, until a Tico (Costa Rican) couple came in right before I left. As the receptionist, I take people’s money, then explain the insect museum, chrysallus display, and Conservatory history. I also have to take them through the lab, which is unnerving because I’m not very familiar with the lab materials, so I feel ridiculous trying to give a tour while Kendra’s listening. After the last group went down to the gardens she gave me more of an idea about what to do with a lab tour, but I still don’t feel like I know enough. Plus, I don’t do it enough to really practice with all the information. After lunch of rice and beans with half a papaya each and the pineapple rice pudding, Grant went back to cleaning the pond in the second butterfly garden, and I occupied myself with tidying up plants, mostly because I didn’t feel like doing anything else. When we got home we found sprouts in the cucumber section of the garden! There is hope that the rain didn’t ruin the seeds we planted! Now that we have veggies, we’re making cheyote and carrots for dinner. I have to go help because Grant can’t sit still longer than 3 pages in his book and now he’s buzzing around me like crazy. I’m going to have to sit him down with the raw sugar block if I want to read tonight.