Ghostie the Gecko

Wheeew...So much has been going on lately! I knew that once I stopped be lazy and started calling Tally friends I would have crazy alot of things to do. So it is good that I just chilled and didn't call anyone my first two days home.

First off, I hung out with Smita a couple of nights ago and that was fabulous as always. I love that girl, she is the sugar in the marmalade. We went out to eat at Sahara, the Greek and Lebanese Restaurant and it was oh so tasty as it always is. And I stuffed myself silly on Chicken shawarma (reminded me of Ecuador, minus the hookahs), greek salad, and humus. Then we drove around and chatted for awhile, then rented Bridget Jones II. It was cute and Bridget Jonesy as I expected it to be. We watched it at her house and after that she took my out to her back porch to show me the curious nocturnal lizards that she told me she'd been seeing there.
They turned out to be ghostly white/ pinkish invasive geckos! Ahhh! So I caught one and put it in a jar (it was hard to catch and it of course bit me in the process). I took it home to try and find out if it is a species that has been recorded for Leon county yet or not. As of yet I am not sure, need to email more of the Florida Herpetology bigwigs that I have vague connections too.

For now, I am keeping it as a pet. And I have named him Ghostie. I will probably take him up to Beloit and have him live in my Bio office which will be awesome. Not so awesome the he is an invasive species though. Rather shocking to have the invasive species thing hit so close to home. But there are tons of invasive lizards in Florida, I am just not used to it because most of them don't get this far north.

Then, last night I hung out with my dear friend Katie. We went to Carlos's Cuban Cafe. And i once again stuffed myself silly, this time with mariquitas (equivalent of chifles in Ecuador), pan con pollo, and frijoles negros con arroz. Aaah sooo tasty. And and some maduros too.
Then we went and saw Batman Begins on the IMAX super big screen. I had never been to the IMAX theator in Tally before and it was quite exciting. But I dunno if I would necessarily recommend seeing Batman there. It was almost like the screen was too big for the up close action/ fighting scenes. It was hard to see what was going on because the picture was so big, mostly just saw alot of explosions and arms and legs flying everywhere in judo style.
Still a most fun and exciting evening. And Katie taught me some interesting things that she is learning in nursing school, like the difference between types of catheters...Exciting...

In other news, I am continuing to research grad schools for Herpetology masters programs. Here are the four that I have come up with to look into further:
Humbolt State University (Arcata, CA-redwood forests!)
Marshall University (Huntington, WV)
Texas A&M
University of Florida (Gainesville, FL)
But there is still much searching ahead!