Lately

Hm. I don't know what I've been doing lately. Haven't traveled outside of Quito since my class trip. I went to a soccer (futbol) game and it was absolutely insane. Fireworks. Toilet paper thrown on the field. Fire extinguishers. Every crazy thing you can imagine, people had it. It was the quarter finals for the south american cup. They won that game, won the next one. Onto the finals! Should be quite exciting. I don't know anything about the game but I'll probably go.

My Spanish has really improved lately. Everyone who I talk to says it's really strong and I'm good at grammar and pronunciation and all that jazz. That's why I came here, I guess, so it's good that I'm finally getting to that point to communicate. Of course, when people talk too fast or mumble or use words I don't know it's difficult, but I'm definitely learning a lot.

My friend Jessie turned 21 and her parents came down from the states for a week. They rented a Chiva (party bus) which took us all around the city. So much fun!

I've been helping out at a school in Lumbisi which is a small, poor country town. We have English lessons and then recess. I don't know if the kids are actually learning anything or just regurgitate what we tell them and immediately forget it. But it's very fulfilling to go sometimes. The kids are really nice, well some of them. There are 3 bullies that are almost kicked out of the program, but they're also the ones who really want to learn English. So we have a special class for them so they don't interrupt the main class.

I've been hitting the party scene in Quito more. I go to the same 5 bars, do the same things, but it's always different with different people.

Lately it rains every single day from about 2-10pm. Oh, the best part? I left my raincoat in a computer lab. Sucks. So much. I loved that raincoat. I bought an umbrella but it's not the same. Now I have to buy a new winter coat because that was the outside layer of mine. UGHHHHHHHHH.

My friends and I got all dressed up as various Harry Potter characters and went to see the 7th movie. I'll admit, I didn't read the book. But the movie was phenomenal. So sad. Jumpy. But really good. Even better when we dressed up and the boys in my group battled in front of the movie theater.

My mom is coming to Ecuador on December 19th and then from the 22nd-26th we're going to the Galapagos Islands! Christmas and birthday in the Galapagos? Cannot wait.

being abroad has made me learn so much about cultural differences and the world in general. grown up so much. but it also has made me miss things about the USA that i never though i'd miss. those things include:

- drinking fountains
- being able to go to a sink, stick a glass under and drink the water. not boil it. not waste lots of plastic bottles getting water.
- chinese food that doesn't make you sick
- thai food that doesn't make you sick
- food in general that doesn't make you sick
- Hershey's cookies'n'creme bars
- chocolate
- goldfish/cheezits
- my sister
- Halloween
- texting endlessly
- cell phone plans, not ones that run out every week
- phone with a keyboard and not my little nokia, even though it has snake
- weather that changes with seasons
- being productive

But don't get me wrong. There are definitely things I'll miss when I'm gone
- getting a full meal for $2
- traveling each and every weekend around the country
- improving my language and conversation skills
- warm weather
- the beach so close
- living in the mountains
- learning so rapidly about cultural differences
- buying bread for 20 cents regularly
- flowers everywhere


overall it's been a great experience thus far. some bumps along the way but that's to be expected. less than 2 months to live fully. let's do it.

Salida de Campo

I don't really think anyone reads this. Oh well. It's a good way for me to journal what I've been doing.

This weekend I went with my Areas Protegidas class on a field trip for 4 days. I kind of wasn't too excited because it's not my favorite class, but went anyway. We had to be at school at 7am Friday morning to leave. Hopped on our private Jaguayana bus and headed for Jerusalem. The class is about protected areas of Ecuador/the world and all the organizations that protect them/why to protect them because of the species they have and whatever else. Kind of interesting, makes me appreciate special areas of the world but it's just kind of boring to learn about and hard in Spanish.

Jerusalem is kind of deserty, it's a dry forest. Not exactly my thing. I felt like I was in Utah or somewhere. We walked around in the heat for a while on trails. There were signs everywhere with braille on them. Not exactly sure how a blind person would be able to enjoy them as they're hilly trails with things to trip over but oh well.

Next stop was Cotocachi Cayapas, a huge protected area with a volcanic lake called Cuicocha within. It was beautiful although a bit cold. The lake was cool- there's these little mountains in the middle of it. It's a sacred site for indigenous groups to do ceremonies to worship the earth, etc. Jessie and Meaghan had already climbed around the whole thing and none of us were really feeling the trip so we just sat around, staring at the lake. Probably wasn't the right mentality to be always wanting to go to the next place, see the next thing, but that's how we all were all weekend.

We went to an indigenous village, not really sure what tribe it was, and stayed in a really nice hostel there. The men of the tribe played some traditional songs on their drum, pan flutes, recorder-type instrument and guitar. Reinforced that I want pan flutes to be obnoxious with. Also learned how all the fabric for everything in Otavalo is made- with oldschool weaving machines that seem to take forever to use. So much respect for them now. And all the designs have meanings about how the people work and use the land and worship it, they're not just random people or houses.

Next day we went to Golondrinas, one of the areas I'm studying. We went on this hike that we were told was one hour. Kept walking. I figured it was a loop but I also didn't know what the destination was. Just kept walking. Walked through a cow pasture. Walked to a waterfall that was pretty big. Then I was told we had to turn around and go back the same way we came. Started at 12. Got back at 5. Hadn't eaten lunch and everyone felt so weak and hungry. Totally not cool. But they did let us go to this resort thing and swim/shower so that was very nice.

Next day we hopped back on Fernando (the bus) and headed to a town near the coast called San Lorenzo. Walked down a boardwalk and got stopped to take photos with people merely because we were white and everyone in the town is black. The park was Cayapas Mataje Manglares. Took a boat ride through the estuaries. Ate some ceviche (cold soup with shrimp that isn't cooked but somehow lemons and other things cook the shrimp) and then went for a little hike through the mangroves that are there. The biggest, tallest mangroves in the world. But the thing was, the river was too high and not everyone had rubber boots so we had to get a little canoe. This man set fire to the brush near the river edge that burned for like 2 hours. It was crazy. Not cool at all but no one really stopped him. But the mangroves were pretty cool and worth the hike.

Slept in this little village that was so poor and unproductive. It was kind of sad, actually. Lots of children just running around in tattered clothes without any supervision, bound to just work in the town and have lots of babies and try to survive.

Stopped in Otavalo on the ride home and ate at my favorite restaurant- pesto chicken, potatoes and salad.

Last night I wasn't doing well so Jessie came over and we watched time traveler's wife and ate junk food and talked about life. So nice.

Overall a fair weekend.