Signing Off

Well, well, well. This day HAS arrived. (Insert: “AHHHHHHHH” here.) I don’t even know how to feel right now. Talk about a clash of emotions. Clearly, I’m pumped to come home, but with being so homesick during the beginning, I wasn’t expecting to be this sad about leaving. Turns out, Quito grew on me.

This past week has had its fair share of bumps along the way, more than the previous 19 weeks. I debated about putting the following in the blog, but it had an impact on me, so I figured I’d include it. I messed up my goal; one week ago, I ended up having money and my phone stolen out of my purse. It’s a long story, so I’ll spare you. However, the person did it without me knowing, so no ‘scare’ factor, and it was a crazy set of circumstances where there is no way I could have avoided it happening. It’s not as if I let my guard down. If anything, my paranoia had hit a new high the last month after hearing more and more stories from my friends about getting robbed. But, moving on to bigger and better things.

For once, I’m going to talk about academics, seeing as this is a main component of the whole ‘study abroad’ thing and has gotten left out of nearly every blog. As far as schoolwork goes, this past week was … rough rough rough. I had a take-home exam that took 10 hours to complete. (It’s funny to look at how things have changed being in Ecuador, at IU 10 hours to study for an exam was nothing!) As far as I’m concerned, I’d rather study for a test, take it, and be done with it. Sure the idea of a ‘take-home’ exam sounds wonderful, but… it’s not. Anyway, this past week was filled with exams, the so-delightful-take-home exam, presentations and papers. I finished yesterday at 5pm. (Wow, that feels like so long ago.) I can easily say that I learned the most outside of the classroom this semester. It has been so amazing to have the opportunity to learn about another part of the world. I feel blessed to have been able to do this. God works in some crazy, crazy ways.

There is no way to try and sum up the past 4 and a half months… maybe a simple: I love Ecuador. No, it can’t be put into words. Although this has been a relatively short amount of time, there have been some defining moments, and therefore, this will always be special to me. It has been a learning experience, about myself and about the world, from start to finish.

Wow. What an adventure.

Thank y'all for reading my blog and being a part of my adventure. It really has meant a lot to me to know that, although I had an amazing group of people in Ecudaor, I had an unbelievalbly soild group to come back to. I can't thank y'all enough for that.

Much love,
Em

It’s ALMOST Over

Pic 1: All of these are from our Farewell dinner- my hostmom and me
Pic 2: Me, Hannah, Jenny and Kelley
Pic 3: Pam and I
Pic 4: My entire program

Hola! I hope that everyone is doing well. I’m excited to see everyone SOON.

I can’t believe I am writing one of my last blogs, and for that reason it has turned out to be rather lengthy. I come home one week from today; it’s hard to believe. This semester has been the experience of a lifetime. I have grown so much over the past 4 and a half months. I just spent some time reading through my journal. It’s amazing to look at the progression of everything, of this experience.

It is evident in my journal that there was a rollercoaster of emotions this semester. I started out on a high, which quickly turned into a long period of homesickness. Then I had a turning point where things just clicked. That was on March 26th. That was the day where Pam and I had our epic adventure gallivanting around Ecuador. From then on, I have been on cloud 9, loving life for all that it’s worth. This past Wednesday night we had our Farewell Dinner, and that felt like the beginning of the end. Each day since then has felt different. Yesterday I was really upset about leaving, but today I feel ready… it keeps changing.

Below are a few entries from my journal:

January 6, 2010 (I wrote this on the flight down to Ecuador.)
I feel fairly calm right now. Last night was perfect. Molly was a huge help with keeping me on track and getting packed. Vince was hanging out too. Then we went to El Vaq and met Katie and Russ. Katie ended up spending the night, which was awesome; otherwise I think I would have gotten sad. She’s just the best.
Overall, I’m feeling really great. Almost a sense of peace. It feels damn good!

January 29, 2010 (The night at the beach in Same, Ecuador.)
God, why are You the coolest in the universe? … Oh yeah, cause You made it! Ha!

March 14, 2010
I really was wanting a breath of fresh air and to get out of Columbus. B-town was not the break that I needed at all. It was a VERY stressful semester. I looked forward to being able to have a full day at the library- that’s sick and messed up! Plus- I was near home, but could rarely go home, so it was a tease.

March 26, 2010
-Top days of my life- this ranks as one of them. Lord, Your goodness shines through… and through and through.
-Pam is awesome. We just laughed, lived and appreciated every ounce of today.
-During our crazy, mountainous, treacherous, slippery, gooorgeous drive, we had so many amazing moments that I will remember for the rest of my life- no doubt. Ecuador, once again, proves to be one of the most diverse, unique and surprising countries. It is simply irresistible. Gosh darn, God. You are brilliant.
-It was A PERFECT DAY.

April 11, 2010
-I have finally let go.

May 15, 2010
-The night when we (Justin and I) were at Surf Shak- Simply Amazing. 80’s music was on; playing games, drinking Pilsner- life couldn’t have gotten any better.

Okay, enough of past journal entries. It’s been nice looking through past blogs and journal entries to reflect and try and sum up this crazy adventure.

On Thursday night, 7 of us girls went out to celebrate Amber’s birthday and it was also her last night in Ecuador. We went to a restaurant in the Old Town called, Vista Hermosa (Beautiful View), and it was rightly named. We sat up on the roof and were in the center of it all- the beautiful churches and monuments. It was a bittersweet time, being Amber’s last night and near the end for the rest of us. It was such a special dinner. They had live music, 3 guys playing- 2 guitars and 1 violin. The first song they played was “With or Without You” by U2, just the instruments without singing. Pam started tearing up, then that got me going. I really can’t describe this moment, but I think this was the first time that I really thought about leaving these incredible people. Pam has become one of my best friends and I don’t even want to think about not having her in my daily life. Then, to top it off, fireworks started to go off every 5 minutes or so. Such a sweet, sweet moment.

Since January, I have become more confident in the person that I am. I have grown in ways I didn’t realize I would. I think I’ve always been an independent person, but now I feel more comfortable with it. It’s hard to verbalize exactly. About a month ago, Pam said something to the effect of “THIS is the best Pam that has ever existed.” There were some funny hand motions that went with it as well. While we laughed at this comment, there is some serious truth to it. I actually feel the same way. Plain and simple: I feel great.

I have so many precious memories that I will be taking with me when I leave Ecuador. I am going to leave here with a smile on my face knowing I lived it up!

Shania Twain’s “Man, I feel like a Woman” just came on at Coffee & Toffee. There are 5 of us ‘studying’ here, and we all just JAMMED out. So appropriate for right now.

Here are a few lyrics that are hitting home for me right now (pun intended).
“Mama said ‘home is where the heart is’ when I left that town” –Lady Antebellum
“Hello World. How ya been? Good to see you my old friend… Say a prayer; maybe talk to God, like He is there. Oh, I know He’s there. Yeah, I know He’s there.” –Lady Antebellum
“I’m taking my time. Holdin’ and hopin’ and drivin’ and dreamin’ and lovin’ every minute of it, just enjoyin’ the ride. Slowly and soulfully feeling the wheels unwind. Finding my way back home.” -Lee Ann Womack

The One Where the Gringo Visits

Pic 1: In Canoa at Surf Shak
Pic 2: At the top of Volcán Pichincha
Pic 3: At the top of Volcán Pichincha
Pic 4: Quilotoa
Pic 5: Kayaking in the lake

I have come up with my own tagline for Ecuador: The Most Beautiful Country that No One Visits. I am continually in awe of how gorgeous this place is. However, I know that my tagline already somewhat inaccurate, as I have been lucky enough to have two rounds of visitors.

Justin came to visit me in Ecuador. He flew in last Sunday night, and stayed for 8 days. It was a BLAST. We covered a good amount of the country in a short amount of time…. some of it on accident (more on that in a sec). We went to the lazy beach town, Canoa, and were beach bums for two days. Since it was during the week, it was fairly deserted. At one point, we were the only people in the ocean. I think one of my favorite moments of the week was Wednesday night in Canoa, when we went to the Surf Shak (yes, it’s ‘shak’) and played Checkers, Connect 4, Speed, and Poker. Definitely one of my top moments of the semester.

Our trip TO Canoa, took 5.5 hours. Our trip FROM Canoa, back to Quito took 8 or 9 hours; this is where seeing a lot of the country ‘on accident’ occurred. We showed up at the bus stop at 6am, ready for our direct bus back to Quito. No, no, no. That did not happen. We have a little Ecuadorian man come up to us when we arrive at the bus stop and explain that that bus was cancelled (despite having already bought our bus tickets). Really? Are you serious? Yes, he’s serious. (I’ve learned to expect anything in Ecuador, but even this was a new one for me.) Not to worry, the little Ecuadorian man says, there’s a “car” that is coming soon and can take us to Pedernales, which is about 2 hours away. Great, sooo, where the heck is Pedernales and what do we do when we get there? Well, we don’t have a second option, so we wait for this “car” to show up. Right around 6:50am, a Chiva shows up. Let’s just say, this is the farthest thing from a “car”, they are typically more of a party bus type of thing. It’s an open-air truck with about 6 benches that holds 40 people or so. Well, this Chiva pulls up, with music blaring like it is a discotech at 2 in the morning. (Throughout the semester, my friend, Pam, and I have learned to get excited about anything that goes wrong, because it typically turns out pretty funny.) So, it is 6:50am, and we are about to get on this bumpin’ party bus… I am pretty jazzed up about this adventure that is about to come our way, plus I love seeing more of the country, while Justin is looking at me like “Really? So this is how you roll in Ecuador?” To make a very long story short, it was quite the journey involving hot, smelly buses (one overheated and we were momentarily stopped/broken down) where we ended up taking 4 different vehicles on our way back to Quito. All in all, we made it back in plenty of time….. to go on another Chiva.

My program organized for the whole crew to have a Chiva the same night that we got back from Canoa… now this is an appropriate time to ride on a Chiva (at night) and drink some beers with the music jammin’. After Justin’s first experience on a Chiva, he wasn’t super thrilled about the idea, but at the end of the night I think he was yelling VIVA LA CHIVA! Okay, that might be an exaggeration (or that might have been me), but I was glad he was able to experience the Chiva, the way it is meant to be experienced.

At the end of the week, we went to Quilotoa with my anthropology class. There were 12 of us that went, plus my professor. It is a tiny pueblo with a population of 150, and the elevation is 12,841 feet. My trusty guidebook says, “The famous volcanic-crater lake of Laguna Quilotoa is a gasp-inducing sight. A lookout on the precipitous crater rim offers stunning views of the mirror-green lake. When you ask the locals how deep it is, they inevitably say it has no bottom, which seems entirely plausible given its awesomeness.” Then it has to ruin the legend and say, “the geologists say 250m deep (820 feet).” It is easily one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my life.

Then, that night in Quilotoa, we got another treat. The stars… they were unbelievable. I thought after the Galápagos, I wouldn’t see stars like that for a veeeery long time, but I was wrong. They were incredible! Again, there is something about nature that is so grand where I can’t help but be in awe of God.

It’s hard to sum up a jam-packed week, but basically it was fabulous from start to finish.

I really cannot believe how quickly this semester is wrapping up. I will be home NEXT Saturday. That is so crazy to me. These past 4 months have been the most adventurous 4 months of my life. It’s kind of sad, knowing that it is coming to an end, but at the same time I am super pumped to get back HOME and everything that comes with that.

Chao!

Life. Is. Grand.

Pic 1: At a bar called, The Boot- was pretty stoked to see a Mississippi tag
Pic 2: Me and Carley
Pic 3: With some of my host family in Centro Histórico
Pic 4: Plaza Grande
Pic 5: Me with Pam and Carley

I have been sitting at Coffee Toffee all day (pushing 11 hours now) “studying” with 4 other friends. No, I actually have gotten a good bit done, but ready to take a break and write about the daily happenings in Quito. I stayed in town this weekend, after realizing just how much work I had to do. It’s been a great weekend: productive, but still fun.

Yesterday I went to get my haircut and colored, which it is was in dire need of (guys, you can fall asleep right now). This was quite the event. I was kind of nervous because it is difficult explaining what you want done in Spanish. I kid you not, I had 5 different people throughout the entire process. I didn’t even know that there were 5 stages to getting your hair cut, that’s right… there’s not. I had two people highlighting my hair. At one point it felt like they were back there (behind my head) trying to solve some complicated math problem, counting stuff, I don’t even know. This did not ease my nerves, but what’s the worst that could happen? I didn’t even try to explain wanting layers, because they tend to have crazy layers here that look like a mullet. I talked to Molly just before I left to get my hair cut, and she advised me not to return to the US with a mullet. Always good advice. All in all, everything turned out fine. (Okay, guys I’m done with the hair talk, you can wake up now.)

The piropos are out of control. I think I mentioned piropos in an earlier blog, but they are basically catcalls from guys. It is so incredibly annoying. Guys call out, just about anything, as you walk by. Today, as my friend and I walked by, this guy dramatically acted like he got hit by cupid’s arrow. No, seriously. Ugh. Sooo tired of it. We all are.

The cab drivers always provide entertaining conversations. Whenever I take a cab by myself I strike up a conversation. It helps my Spanish, plus I have learned a lot about Ecuador by talking with them. I like to ask them about politics, how much they like or dislike Rafael Correa (the president of Ecuador), their favorite city, etc. They like to talk about things like if I am married or not, almost every cab driver asks. I’ve become a very good liar. It’s so much easier to say that I’m married, than to deal with the questions that follow if I say I’m not... blah blah BLAH.

Well, classes are rollin’ right along. It’s been a very laid back semester until now. Apparently the teachers like to wait until the end to lay it all on us. Although that might be a good thing, because I don’t think I could have cranked out some of these papers at the beginning of the semester. Maybe my Spanish is improving after all!

I went bowling last night. It was my friend, Paul, who made it his mission to beat me since he knew I was in a bowling league back at home. Little did he know that in my bowling league it is more about hanging out than the bowling. I got a 94. Needless to say, he accomplished his mission.

Today I was listening to the radio on the internet and ‘Bring it on Home’ came on by Little Big Town. Let’s just say it got me excited to come home.

I wrote in my journal for quite a while today. It’s pretty neat to reflect back on the semester. Here’s a little snippet of what I wrote (it was an 11 page entry!):

-I have learned to be more than just content with my life, but to be truly happy.
-I have learned that you just have to open your eyes to see how beautiful the world is; it’s in the little things.
-I have learned that I can be tough as nails when I need to be; while at the same time my heart is more tender than I thought.
-I have learned that sometimes you just have to jump. (Deciding to go back to school, choosing Ecuador, etc.)
-I have learned to lean on God in all situations.

Factoids:
1. The highest point in Ecuador is Chimborazo. The CIA World Factbook says: due to the fact that the earth is not a perfect sphere and has an equatorial bulge, the highest point on the planet furthest from its center is Mount Chimborazo not Mount Everest, which is merely the highest peak above sea-level. (I love that it talks about Mt. Everest and says ‘merely’, haha!)
2. Ecuador has only won one gold medal (1996) and one silver medal (2008) in the Olympics, both in speed walking- this is from Wikipedia: Ecuador has competed in 11 Summer Games. They have never competed in the Winter Games. The nation from South America won its first Olympic medal when Jefferson Pérez won the gold medal in the men's 20 km walk.

Things I am excited about for when I get back State-side:
1. Seeing everyone! Ahh, I can’t wait!
2. Family dinners and Mama’s cookin’- specifically Fried Chicken and Chess Pie
3. Driving my car (which of course includes jammin’ out with the windows down)
4. The Barn
5. Waterskiing
6. Bud Light
7. Grandview Café
8. My Bed
9. Not having piropos as you walk down a street
10. Hot showers
11. Being a normal 26 year old, and not having to check in with my host mom
and last, but most definitely not least
12. Not having to eat soup before every meal!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! See y'all in 3 weeks and 6 days :)

Never in My Life

Never in my life… I keep saying these four words, followed by something like “did I ever imagine I would be seeing/doing this.” I recently asked myself “Can you have an overload of awesomeness?” I decided you can’t. Why limit your ‘happy-meter’? Heck, I’ve been breaking the gosh darn happy-meter for a while now.

My Mama and Bill came to visit me in Ecuador. Even they will admit it was not on their top 10 list of places to visit (and I think that’s putting it nicely). Ah hem, well, well, well… once again does Ecuador surprise :)

The first two days they were here, we went to this hacienda that was one hour south of Quito. As we were getting close to the hacienda, I was starting to think ‘Where in the world did Mom book us to ride horses for two days?’ But, how silly of me to doubt, for even a second, my mom’s incredible knack for finding the little gems. This hacienda was simply beautiful and had been in the same family for five generations. It was in an absolutely gorgeous setting, and it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere (quite frankly, my favorite places are in the middle of nowhere). For two days, we rode horses and it was incredible. Breathing the fresh air, seeing Ecuador in such a great way, riding horses, eating good food, and enjoying the chit chat with the owner of the hacienda and his wife... all so cool. Bottom line: awesomeness.

After our hacienda excursion, we headed to the Galápagos Islands. I had been just two weeks before, but we had stayed in hotels. This time, we were taking a four-day cruise to do the island hopping. Holy Smokes. It was still the good ole same Galaps I had come to know and love, but it was completely different traveling by boat. We saw 7 islands in 4 days, so needless to say it was go, go, freakin-go. Let’s get straight to the highlights.

1. Rambo snorkeling- that’s what they kept calling it. There were about 12 of the 74 passengers that decided to do the hardcore, current sweeping, advanced swimmer, deep water snorkeling. We saw beautiful fish, starfish, turtles, and more.
2. The Hike around Española- we did a 3-hour leisurely hike around Española, one of the islands. It was so enjoyable to take our time and take it all in. Here we saw lots of marine iguanas, blue-footed boobies (babies too!), albatrosses, some other birds that I’m already forgetting the names of, crabs, and sea lions. We then took a moment to sit down and soak it all in. Breathtaking.
3. Stargazing- one night (because it wasn’t a clear night every night) we went up on the sun deck and the guides explained a lot of the constellations to us. There were a few things that made this incredible… the obvious is that we were on the boat in the middle of the ocean, which made it really dark and easier to see the stars. As my eyes were adjusting to the darkness, more and more stars kept coming out. The second thing that made this truly incredible, is that being on the equator, we could see the constellations from BOTH the southern and northern hemisphere. It blew. my. mind. We were looking at the big dipper, Orion’s belt AND the southern cross at the same time! This is one of my top 3 favorite moments in Ecuador thus far.
4. Snorkeling at Isabella- we went snorkeling for a second time, at Isabella Island. Once again, saw all sorts of stuff, literally thousands of fish, about 3 sea turtles, 1 sting ray, 1 eagle ray, 3 penguins…. yes, penguins, AAAND a white-tip shark. I had seen a hammerhead shark, but that was when I was on the boat, but this time I was actually in the water with it. Sooooo cool!

Basically, the entire trip was remarkable, or if you like the bottom line summary: awesomeness. We had such a blast!

Moving on from the highlights and on to ‘Em’s deep thoughts for the day.’ ☺ There were several times when I couldn’t help but think of the ever-useful analogy of the wind-being-like-God/the Holy Spirit analogy. You can’t see it, blah blah, but you know He/it’s there. On this Galápagos trip, I kept thinking of parallels or other examples for this analogy. It’s like the ocean. There is so much in the ocean that you don’t even think about, but you know is there. Even as I would lift my head out of the water to holler at someone that a turtle was below me or something, at the moment I lifted my head out of the water, I would forget about all the fish and wildlife that was below me. I would lift my head out of the water for 4 seconds and ‘forget.’ Come on, Em. My second and last example, to try and keep this shorter, is the stars. Living in Quito or Columbus, Ohio, you don’t see very many stars because of the city lights. I know there are more out there, but I don’t think too much about it. I had never in my life (see, there I go again)… I had never in my life seen so many stars…. soooo many stars. God must have been drilling this point in my head over the past few days: even though you can’t always see or feel that He is there, He is. It’s so simple, but can be hard to remember sometimes.

As my mom and I discussed a few times on the trip, there really is something spiritual about being in nature and seeing things so beautiful and grand.

God really outdid Himself with the Galápagos.

Whelp, this lengthy blog was the best I could do at summarizing the past week. Starting tomorrow I really need to light a fire under my tail and get some serious work done. The end of the semester is quickly approaching and I think I will actually have to put in some serious work! Goal for the next 3 days: write a 10-page paper. It’s game time.

Gorgeous Galápagos

Pic 1: Me with some giant tortoises
Pic 2: Hannah, Amber, Pam and I in front of the 2nd largest crater/volcano in the world
Pic 3: Iguana
Pic 4: Last night... just arrived to San Cristobal
Pic 5: Last day... a beach at San Cristobal

I just got back from a trip to the Galápagos Islands with my entire program. If you’re like me, I didn’t know much about them until I found out I was going (some people would probably want to punch me about now…. don’t worry, I have come to love, appreciate, and have found a new favorite place in this world). Anyway, I will give those of you, who are like me and don't know much about the Galápagos, a few highlights from my travel book to paint a picture of the world that I just got to experience.

Lonely Planet says “Nowhere else can you engage in a staring contest with wild animals and lose. You can’t help thinking you’ve stumbled upon an alternate universe, some strange utopian colony organized by sea lions- the golden retrievers of the Galápagos- and arranged on principles of mutual cooperation…. The islands have taken on a mythological status….. You don’t have to be an evolutionary biologist or an ornithologist to appreciate one of the few places left on the planet where the footprint of the human presence is kept to a minimum.”

We visited 4 islands in 5 days. It was go, go, go the entire time…. and let’s just say I’m still worn out. In my anthropology class we discussed the Islands a good bit. Everything about the Islands is to make the least amount of impact as possible. Even if you are Ecuadorian, you can’t just move there. You have to marry someone from the Islands (we were all on the look out for Mr. Romeo while we were there, so we could move!) and you have to be given special permission to study there, and it is only temporary. There are concerns about the increase in tourism, but at the same time, that is the number #1 moneymaker by a landslide. In the 1990’s there were about 60,000 tourists annually and in 2008 it has gotten up to 180,000. (I’d be curious to see what Disney World does in 1 day.) Anyway, I’m digressing…. bottom line: it is a fine line that they are teetering with.

Okay, on to the fun stuff. We went snorkeling several times. While snorkeling, I swam with schools of fish, including the blue and yellow fish (Dory from Finding Nemo), a stingray, a penguin, and a sea lion (saw tons of these on a beach on one island). At one point, a few of us swam over to this small little islet. White sandy beaches, gorgeous water, basically paradise… then this Sea Lion and her little baby came up on shore. Our guide said the baby was no more then 3 or 4 days old. At one point, I just laid down on the sand, and tried to take it all in….. it was complete and pure bliss. I can’t tell you how many times I had to remind myself that everything was real. I thought I had either A) died and gone to heaven or B) was about to wake up from a dream.

We took relatively small boats from one island to another. There were 10 of us on my boat. Most of the rides were about 3 hours. At one point we found a pod of dolphins. I would guess there were about 50 dolphins. We approached them slowly and were following them for about 5 minutes. It was spectacular. A few days later, we saw what appeared to be water coming up from a whale’s blowhole. Once again, on the boat, we slowly approached the whale, and finally got pretty darn close to it. Amaaaazing.

On top of it all, I had the best time with my (relatively) new friends. We all just let loose and had a ball. Practically every time we sat down for a meal, I would laugh so hard I would be crying and my cheeks would hurt. So. Much. Fun.

This weekend, I need to get some much needed homework done, and then Mom and Bill will be here on Tuesday!!!

This weekend was a 10

Pic 1: Pam, Samantha and I at a fútbol game
Pic 2: Stopped to take a quick pic on our drive from Puyo back to Baños
Pic 3: At the monkey reserve in Puyo
Pic 4: That's me, repelling down the waterfall. Called Canyoning here.

A lot has happened since my last blog.

Last Sunday (and this morning) I went to an English speaking church. It was exactly what I needed, some good solid fellowship, amazing worship songs, and a great sermon. After church, Pam, Eric and I went to La Mitad del Mundo AKA the equator. It is about a 45-minute bus ride from Quito. It is a cute touristy area, but the ironic thing is, is that the line and monument are in the wrong spot! A guy named Charles found the middle of the earth in 1736. However, with better technology, we now know that good ole’ Charles was about 240 meters off. So, of course, I had to go visit both places, the more touristy equator, and then a short walk to the real deal. It is a much smaller ‘attraction.’ Being at the real equator, they demonstrate a few different things, including, a small tub of water that they drain in each hemisphere (so, about 10 feet apart) and the water changes directions that it swirls when you open the drain. My guidebook says that experiment is a crock, but I was convinced. You can also balance an egg on the head of a nail. I didn’t get the egg to stay balanced, but I blame it on being rushed. I only had about a minute to try, and then we were off to the next thing. All in all, the trip to the equator was really fun, and it felt pretty cool to have one foot in each hemisphere!

This past weekend, I went to Baños (for the second time) with Pam. It was a perfect weekend from start to finish. We got to Baños around noon, and our adventure started right away. We rented a little jeep so that we could drive to a monkey reserve in Puyo, 60 kilometers away. Of course this jeep was a manual, so I was very glad to have my experience with the Party Jeep at Archer with Paul… came in very handy. I had to do a little test drive with a guy to be sure that I knew how to drive it okay. I was kind of nervous about this, since the last time I staled out on the Party Jeep 3X in a row. Somehow, I didn’t stale out with the guy in the car, so we were on our way…. I saved staling out for a more perfect time, in front of a crowd of people in this tiny pueblo on our way to Puyo. A group of people were playing volleyball in the middle of the street, and I had to slow down and wait until they made room for us to drive through. Of course, that's right when I staled out. One woman laughed so hard, I thought she was going to fall out of her chair. Good job, Em.

Despite the drizzly rain on our drive to Puyo, we had an awesome time! It felt so good to be exploring Ecuador on our own. On our way to Puyo, we had to stop and ask directions a few times. I stayed in the jeep, while Pam went to ask directions, and it just hit me at how amazing this was. When Pam got back into the jeep, I said, “Doesn’t this feel like the Amazing Race, but more authentic?” To which she replied, “Yeeaaah, this is more authentic, this is actually our lives!” I mean, c’mon, how awesome to be gallivanting around Ecuador. Well, we finally reached the monkey reserve and….. “vale la pena” … it was worth the long trek there. These monkeys were crazy and super friendly! They jumped all over us. One would jump from my head to Pam’s head, and back. It was out of this world.

On our ride back, the jeep’s battery died…… twice. We found help, and were on our way pretty quickly both times. The entire day was hilarious. Definitely a 10!

The following day was equally as fun. Went canyoning, which is basically repelling down waterfalls. It was this weekend that my homesickness finally subsided. There was something about this weekend that was so much fun, and I really felt like I am right where I should be. The bus ride back was gorgeous (of course), and allowed for plenty of thinking, reflecting, and praying time.

Living in Ecuador has opened my eyes to so many things. For example, the inequality of the distribution of wealth in the world is a little scary, to say the least. Changing gears a little, I’m taking a relatively difficult anthropology course that tends to be pretty thought provoking. We discuss the origins of ethnicity (whether it is socially contructed or not) and why it exists. We read a rather provocative article about the idea that race doesn’t exist. Genetically the color of your skin is as insignificant as whether or not you carry the sickle cell gene… don’t worry, this article caused great debate.

Being away from everyone and everything you know (including your culture), really strips you down to the core of who you are and forces you to open your mind and look at things in a new way. For the first time, I am actually nervous about ‘reverse’ culture shock, as they say.

Below are a few lyrics that I was listening to on my way home from Baños and really stick out to me (holy cow, after re-reading this, I just noticed I referred to Quito as home!):

“This’ll Be a Memory” Zane Lewis
“But I, I could never follow… I’ve been a long time gone now…. Taking the long way around.” Dixie Chicks
“A woman needs to believe she can take the road she’s never known.” (check!) Jessica Harp
“In the roar of Your WATERFALL, in the storm of You, may You find me holding on, may You find me true. And I put my hope, and I put my trust, and I put myself in You.” David Crowder Band
“Joy unspeakable that won’t go away…. my faith is on solid rock, I’m counting on God.” Hillsong United
“It was the perfect day. What I’d give if I could find a way to stay lost in this moment now. Ain’t worried about tomorrow, when you’re busy livin’ in a perfect day.” Lady Antebellum
“Letting go and holding close to all the things that mean the most. And it feels so good coming home to all the things that mean the most.” Gloriana

I don’t really know what to call it, but I feel different…. the happiest I have been in a long time. How ‘bout … I hit my stride. That’s what it feels like.

Halftime Report

Pic 1: Carley and I at the Marine House for Happy Hour at the US Embassy
Pic 2: My house in Quito. I live on the first floor with my host parents, and one of their grown children lives on the 2nd floor with his wife and son.
Pic 3: With mi papás, Mercedes and Ernesto
Pic 4: Out with Jenny and Hannah

I am officially halfway done with my semester in Quito. It feels really good. I still have plenty of time here, but nonetheless it feels downhill from this point. It is a nice time to reflect and remember why I am here. For starters, I can't believe I am here. Twelve months ago, I was sitting at Seamless Logistics not even knowing that Quito was a city in Ecuador. Now, here I am, and it has become my home.

I am still enjoying living with my family. My host dad is super cute and funny. I asked him where his wedding ring was one day and he said that he was single.... and free! He said this several times and he thought he was funny, which made it that much cuter.

Today was a crazy day at the school where I volunteer. One of the teachers resigned two weeks ago, so I have been filling in all over the place. It has been frustrating at times, because they don't have any lesson plans whatsoever. It's also hard playing the role of a 'sub' because you can't really get anything worthwhile started. The lady who is my coordinator, Leticia, is great though. She encourages me and always compliments on how I work with the kids. Today, during our weekly meeting for the teachers who teach in English (so there are about 8 of us... only one other American), she said that a few of the directors/principal were wanting to hire me to work there full time. Lety said they didn't realize I was taking classes at La Católica. Anyway, I was pleased to hear that they are happy with the work I am doing there.

Overall, I am loving working at the school. The kids are crazy. They have no consequences for anything, so it's hard to enforce much. It's kind of trial and error for me with such little experience. When I work with the juniors and seniors it is normally with just a few kids, or one-on-one. The 9th graders are ridiculous. I feel like I am at a zoo. That was until I subbed for the 7th graders today for the first time. I thought I was going to break my voice from yelling so much. I am frequently sending kids into the hall for misbehaving. They HATE this. It's as if I just gave the an in-school suspension or something, I don't get what the big deal is about the hall. But, I've never been one to say I'm going to do something, and then not follow through with it. Today, I found myself saying "I don't care" to a few students about various things, such as...
"I don't have my notebook. "... "I don't care." (Is it really that hard to borrow a piece of paper?)
"I ripped a page in my book."... "I don't care." (Who cares? Find some tape.)
"I want a drink of water." ... "I don't care." (I know that's code, for let me out of here.)
I'm pretty sure I should stop saying that. Not really a good thing for a teacher to say. Today was a rough day. I seriously felt like something was in the air with these kids. All of the classes were crazy, and then I ended it with the 7th graders, who were nuts. I think this is partly what spurred my "I don't care" comments. Despite this rant that I just went on, I can honestly say, I love it. I have definitely had fun moments with the students. The thought of having my own class, and being able to REALLY teach, is so incredibly exciting!

A few stories from teaching over the past few months:

-A kid asked me if we had 4 seasons in Ohio?

-I was in the library for a 'free' hour, doing some of my homework when a student's came in and asked me to translate a letter for her. She needed to send it to Canada. I definitely had to concentrate to translate this letter, and it was made more difficult with her breathing down my neck as I did this.

-My coordinator, Lety, said that I should just go teach some English slang to a class. Literally, that's all she said, no guidelines, nothing. When we got to other words for 'shoot,' after darn and dang, I said crudmuffins. Who uses that? No one. Glad they are learning useful words. I also taught them hot-diggity dog. Good job, Em.

-Today I was teaching about the circulatory system (in English) to the 6th graders. I don't know a thing about the septum, capillaries, or pericardium. As I was drawing the human heart on the board, a kid said it looked like a pizza. He was right.

-I complimented a 5th grader, who I have had in class a good bit, on her English. She just gave me this look and said, "I'm British." Whelp, that explains it. Don't I feel like an idiot.

-During my not-so-brilliant explanation of the human heart, amid all of the chaos going on in the classroom, this little boy was asking me about Octopus' and how they have 5 hearts, what if one heart gets shot... will it still live with the other 4 hearts? Heck if I know. I didn't even know Octopus' had more than 1 heart.... I actually Wikipedia'd this after class and learned that they have 3 hearts. That kid was on the right track. Still not sure of the answer to his question. Who do I look like? Bill Nye?

I guess that's a solid update on my volunteer position.

A few things I love about Ecuador:
1. The diversity of the geographical regions is gorgeous.
2. Quito is nestled into the mountains, and it is spectacular.
3. I am surrounded by Spanish, and learning a little bit day by day.
4. I can go to the beach for super cheap.
5. Bananas taste better here.
6. Guacamole is cheaper. I eat it, probably 5 days a week.
7. It is almost always sunny and a perfect temperature (about 70 degrees).

I saw a Condor

Pic 1: Volcán Antisana
Pic 2: Waiting for a bus back to Quito from Papallacta... we were in the middle nowhere
Pic 3: At the fútbol game

This past weekend I went to Papallacta. We left Friday morning and came back Saturday afternoon. It is a teeny tiny pueblo about 2 hours away from Quito. The only thing there is to do is go to the hot springs and there is a really nice Spa. I went with Pam and Samantha, two girls from my program. It was the first time I traveled in a small group and it was great! The hot springs were really relaxing. On our short walk back to the hostal, we got a glimpse of Volcán Antisana… absolutely stunning. Then there were a few people that noticed a Condor, which is the national bird of Ecuador. I have heard different numbers, saying there are 17 to 26 condors left (not sure if that is in Ecuador or the World) … and we saw one! I was super pumped! I never would have noticed it, had that group not pointed it out to us.

When I got back Saturday afternoon, I went to the fútbol game. It was Liga versus Quito Deportivo. Both teams are from Quito and it is quite the heated rivalry. My host parents said I had to root for Liga, so Liga it was. They were easily the fan favorite and won, 1-0. This game was crazy! For starters, there was no assigned seating from what I could tell. We got there right at 4pm, when the game started, because we were just getting back from Papallacta. Big mistake… you definitely want to get there early. It was a mad house just trying to get IN to the game. Most of the doors to the stadium were closed. The one that was open had a massive line. Once we finally got in, it took a while to find a seat. During one point, a fight broke out in the stadium… right near us. The fight was so big that the entire stadium could see it. A few people were using fire extinguishers (not sure why), throwing full coke bottles, even the nice guys we were sitting next to started getting into the brawl. Once the police got involved, things settled down, and the rest of the game was really fun, despite my lack of appreciation for the sport.

Later that night I was talking to my host mom about fútbol americano. She was surprised I liked it because it is so ‘barbaric’ as she put it!

I feel settled into my new house here! I am really glad that I moved. I will get a pic with my new parents (Mercedes and Ernesto) and post soon.

On a side note, I have been getting information about the master’s program. My advisor just replied to my email, and he had this suggestion:

SUGGESTION: While you are in Quito, be sure to collect teaching materials (e.g., cultural artifacts such as magazines & newspapers in Spanish, maps, flags, recipes, cereal boxes, supermarket, flyers, etc. ANYTHING that you might want to use to develop authentic language lessons for K-12 students when you are in the MEd program courses.

Ohhhh my goodness! That got me ridiculously excited! This is definitely the path I should be on and it feels darn good :)

Not sure what is in the works for this coming weekend yet. A few people are going to the beach. I might hang around Quito for a change, not sure yet.

¡Un besito!

Canoa

After waiting around for 2 months, I finally talked to our housing coordinator and told her I still wasn’t living with my actual family here. She strongly encouraged me to switch families entirely. So, after thinking about it and truly feeling like I couldn’t move because I was already so far in to it with this family, I did it. I switched families. It was super hard to tell both my Ecua-grandma and my Ecua-mom that I was switching. Overall, everything went really smoothly. I more or less went ‘family shopping’ (weird!) on Monday morning and then I moved in with my new family Monday evening! It feels awesome to be completely settled in with my new fam! It is an older couple, Mercedes and Ernesto :)

Last weekend I went to Canoa, a little beach town about 8 hours from Quito. It was the epitome of a lazy South American pueblo. We left Thursday night and rode the bus through the night. Then we arrived around 6:20am on Friday morning. We then walked about 20 minutes, then took a motorized canoe for about 15 minutes, then another bus for 30 minutes and we were there!

I basically relaxed for 2 days straight.... I did a lot of reading, it was awesome! I rented a surfboard (I don't know what I was thinking) for just an hour. I basically just floated on it for 45 minutes, instead of trying to surf. I played in the ocean a lot... never before have I played in the ocean so much. It was basically your typical weekend at the beach.... except for one tiny detail......

The TSUNAMI warning. When we woke up Saturday a few people had text messages from the US Embassy in Quito. We also had messages from our program checking on us. It was looking like we might have to leave the beach a day early. All the earthquake/tsunami watch, warning talk was crazy. I thought "I'm not in Kansas anymore." For real, where have I ever been that I've had a Tsunami warning? That's right.... nowhere! So crazy. We were in constant communication with our program coordinators and I talked to my host mom. A few people ended up leaving early. All in all, it was an awesome weekend!!

This week, as I said, I switched families, so it has been a little bit different.... I don't feel like I'm in my routine, as I am learning new bus routes and all that jazz.

Headed to Papallacta tomorrow for one night.

Fuya Fuya

Pic 1: a little bouldering
Pic 2: the view... didn't last long, because we were in a cloud higher up
Pic 3: Club Andinismo... everyone on the Fuya Fuya day trip
Pic 4: Pam and I on our way to Fuya Fuya

I feel like I never know what’s going on here… in regards to plans for the day with my family. I think it’s a combination of the Spanish, but then also, people just being so relaxed and not really having plans until they happen. Example A: Yesterday morning I went downstairs to ‘my’ house to have a cafecito (coffee) with my mom and her cousin, Alicia. We then made plans (I thought) to go to lunch. We left around 12:30pm and there were 5 of us, and 2 little boys, all piled in this old Crown something or other car. We went to the quesadilla place and bought a bunch of “quesadillas” (completely different than our quesadillas) and got them “to go.” I was wondering why we weren’t eating them. So, we get back in the old brown car, drive a few blocks and it stalls out and will not re-start. We are on a hill (of course, because we’re in Quito) and have to get out and push this car up hill for a few feet, blah blah. The crazy thing is- everyone acted like this was a normal thing they do. No one got frustrated, mad, impatient, annoyed… nothing. It was great. Heck, I didn’t care, I had nowhere to go. But it really hit me about how darn patient everyone is with basically everything.

So back to the day. After we remedied the car troubles, one of the cousins dropped my mom, Alicia, and I off at the peluquería (hair cut place). It’s probably 1:30pm now. We had a total girls afternoon: manicures, pedicures, they got their hair washed and styled, etc. So fun (and dirt cheap too… mani AND pedi $9)! Now, it’s 3:30pm (still no lunch… should have had my wheaties instead of corn flakes at 8am). It was my grandpa’s birthday, so the whole family was going to go to Mass at 4pm. So, off to Mass we go. We finally get around to eating lunch at 5:30pm. It was delicious though, worth the wait!

I should know by now, that if you agree to go to lunch, you probably will not be back until dinner time or even later. This has happened on multiple occasions.

Today (Sunday) I went on a trip with Club Andinismo. It is an adventure club through my university, but you do not need to be a student to do the trips. We met at 6am at the school and then took a bus about 2 hours away. We went to climb a mountain near Otavalo named Fuya Fuya. There were 23 people total and only 2 other girls from my program, so there was a lot of opportunity to talk in Spanish and meet some Ecuadorians.

I guess I had never climbed a mountain before, I hadn’t realized that until about halfway up the mountain. Let’s just say that I did not know what I was getting myself into. Less than 10 minutes into our climb, I really thought I might have to turn around and wait for everyone to come back in 6 hours. I could not breath. My friend (who had been on one other hike) told me that after about 15 minutes I would get more accustomed to the thin air and it wouldn’t be as hard. Well, I don’t think I got accustomed until we were headed back down, 3.5 hours later! I kept going back and forth from thoughts of “This is completely miserable” to “God, this is amazing! Thank you!” I literally was a huffin’ and a puffin’ the entire way up.

Once at the top (thank God! … literally), we ate our lunches and then most of us went on a little side hike. We went over to another peak of the mountain… the tallest of Fuya Fuya. This hike eventually involved some serious bouldering. My other friend, Pam, was a hilarious commentator the entire time. She said something to the effect of “At what point does this go from being cool to being dangerous?…. I’m pretty sure we’ve crossed that threshold.” I did get a little nervous on this side hike, but we were with a lot of people that knew exactly what they were doing and helped us the entire way. At any point of feeling uncomfortable, we could have stopped and gone back…. several people did that.

I still can’t believe how incredibly difficult the entire day was. Even going down was tougher than I thought it would be. It feels awesome to have done it though!!

This weekend I’m off to a beach town, Canoa. It has been really easy and cheap to travel so far, so I am trying to take advantage of it all while classes aren’t super busy.

Mucho amor!

Just Call Me Jane

There was a request for explanation of the pics... these are self-explanatory, but here you go anyway:
1st pic- at my new favorite nook in the world, a waterfall in the Amazon
2nd pic- swinging on a vine in the jungle
3rd pic- holding a nocturnal monkey

I just got back from the Amazon a few hours ago. I went with everyone in my program, so there were about 25 of us. I literally do not know where to start. We did so much in just a few days. Bottom line is: After this jungle-filled 4 days, I feel like I could hang with Tarzan and be his girl, Jane.

I keep going back to how gorgeous Ecuador is, but it is. I have yet to get tired of just looking out the window and listening to my iPod on the bus rides. On our 5-hour trip back today, I couldn’t help but think that maybe God just got a teensy bit lazy when he created what I consider ‘my’ three states (Ohio, Indiana and Mississippi). The entire 5-hour drive today was incredible. He did some serious work here.

Our first day was jam-packed. We stopped and toured some caves, then hung out at this little pool that was filled with natural water and had a couple awesome slides. Then we took the bus to a different spot and did about a 40 minute hike to my new, most favorite nook on earth. It was a stunning waterfall that we played in for about an hour, climbing up it and jumping off. Simply incredible. It was the best hour I’ve had in Ecuador. It seemed as if there wasn’t a care in the world.

That night we stayed in a little hotel in a small town called Misahuallí. Lonely Planet book calls it a “sleepy jungle town that pines for the past.” That pretty much sums it up. Someone told me that the population of the actual village is just 200. It is one square plaza. This tiny village is what I picture, when I think of Ecuador. In case you were wondering (and have read previous blog) that night for dinner at the hotel, in some seriously hot weather without A/C, we were served hot soup. They need to learn the whole cold soup thing.

The funny thing about this trip was that there was no such thing as being gullible. For example, when we first stopped at the caves, my friend told me to turn around because there was a tarantula. I thought it was going to be one of those “Oh, I made you look” type of things. No, there was the most massive tarantula just chillin’ about 6 feet away from me.

For the remainder of the trip, we stayed in a jungle lodge that took about 1.5 hours to get to on the river by motorized canoe. We then used these 15-seater canoes everywhere we went. I didn’t see a car until we got back to the tiny town of Misahuallí at the end of the trip. Upon arriving to our lodge in the jungle, you get out of the canoe, have to walk about 100 meters in ankle deep mud then have about a ¼ mile walk through the jungle. As we were walking to our cabin, I thought, “Okay, this is the real deal. We are IN the jungle.”

The temperature was surprisingly not THAT hot per say, maybe 85 degrees, but it was the 99% humidity that was the killer. I had sweat pouring out from every pore for 4 days straight. No air conditioning the entire time, no hot water (not that I would have used it), the water was from the river and the pressure was hit our miss (meaning that sometimes no water at all would come out), and no electricity in our cabins (we used a candle). Like I said, just give me a cute jungle outfit and I can roll with the whole jungle girl thing.

During one of the hikes, Paul (guy in our program who rock climbs a lot) said something about feeling really “extreme” on the trip because of all the hardcore stuff we were doing. I was thinking, “Heck, if HE feels extreme right now, then I am just totally out of my element.” And I loved every second of it. Although, I must admit, I am my mother’s daughter. I tripped at least once on every hike. On one hike, I fell three times! Granted, we were on some steep hills with lots of mud, but I’m pretty sure most of it was my natural grace (AKA clumsiness).

We didn’t see a ton of natural wildlife. We saw 3 monkeys that were completely wild. We saw a ton of different animals in different rehabilitation centers or in what is more or less a zoo, but not like the zoos in the U.S. In one of the centers we went to, there were some animals in cages, but then a good number of monkeys and birds wandering around loose. My favorite was the nocturnal monkey that I got to hold. I did eat three ants on one of our hikes because they tasted like lemon.

We went to visit an indigenous family. This family works to survive. They grow, hunt or catch what they eat. I could talk about this for 5 blogs, but will try and give the gist. I still don’t know how I feel about it. I sure felt like a big jerk when we first walked up... not exactly sure why; it was such a bizarre feeling. I just didn’t think that we should be there. When we first went into their “house” I thought we were just going in to say hello and goodbye really quickly. Little did I know that we were going to be in there for 45 minutes hearing the guide talk about them as they go about their business. So awkward. The heat was stifling and I literally had sweat pouring down my face but that was the LAST thing I was concerned about. At one point, I had to fight back tears. It’s amazing to think about how little we truly NEED to survive. This experience spurred on a ton of conversation that night at dinner.

Yesterday afternoon we got into two teams and, with the help of two guides, built rafts. It was exactly like something you would do on the show Survivor so I was pumped. I got everyone acting like we were in some type of competition. We put war paint on our faces with mud and the game was on! The entire thing was hilarious. We were pulling people off rafts, stealing the bamboo paddles and attacking the other team... it was WAR. Then we finally had to get situated on our makeshift rafts because we were going through some strong currents. Of course we sang down the river most of the way. When we got the Celine Dion song that is in Titanic, one of the guys jumped off our raft. I don’t understand why he didn’t like our singing. ;)

It was great to be pushed to do and try different things. Despite this super long blog, I am finding it difficult to put into succinct words to explain the crazy-awesomeness of this weekend. Anyway, you get the idea.

For a few more photos, try the below link for the pics I posted on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=56855471&l=f1240ce8bd&id=6803468

The Tides are Changing

I’m not noticing things as much. By ‘things’, I mean differences.

Below are a few examples:

The endless piropos (whistles, comments) that guys say to any female walking along…. “Mi preciosa, mi amor, muneca, mi vida…” At first, I found it highly irritating, now it’s part of the daily routine.

Everyone seems short here. I used to feel so tall, and still do sometimes. But the other day I saw a man that was probably about 6’5’’, and I literally wanted to classify him as a giant. Must be getting used to all these short people ;)

I went to the gym and was on the treadmill. I won’t bore you with the details of how the machine was different (it wasn’t just that it was in kilometers, but something else too, that I still haven’t figured it out.) Anyway, the first few weeks I would have found that really frustrating, and now I just was more curious about what “measurement” it was in.

It’s actually hard to think of examples, because, like I said, I am not noticing the differences as much. Of course, I still notice things, but for the most part, I feel like I am getting into the swing of my new Ecuadorian life.

My family (and from what I have heard, everyone else’s Ecuadorian families too) eats soup every single day, typically twice a day. This is one difference that I just can’t get used to. I mean, I like my fair share of soup, but not twice a day… everyday. I’ve started to say that I don’t want it with dinner. To this, my “grandmother” then says that I need to eat a good meal. My question is, “since when did having soup with every meal constitute a good meal?” The whole ‘soup situation’ was brought to my attention today (again, I was forgetting about the excess of soups until the following comment) by a comment from my “great aunt.” She started talking about all of the wonderful soups (most of them taste the same to me…. AKA lots of cilantro) and she was just explaining how they have the perfect weather for soups. I was so confused. I didn’t know that “summer” was the perfect weather for a hot bowl of soup. Ohhh, that’s right. People here think it’s kind of chilly at 70 degrees. Apparently, being high up in the Andes is perfect weather for eating soup. Who knew?

Speaking of weather, it’s always perfect. Gorgeous blue sky, fluffy white clouds occasionally, and probably ranges from a low of 55 degrees at night, and gets up to 77 degrees most days. For the most part it seems like it is right around 70 degrees if I had to guess. I’m still waiting for this supposed rainy season to happen. (Apparently this January was the driest they had had in years…. Which meant they had to have scheduled power outages…. Will get to that in a second.) So the interesting thing is that very few people where sandals, shorts or skirts. I think this just adds to me sticking out like a sore thumb. Yes, I’m wearing sandals… did you not get the memo that it was going to be gorgeous out?

So, power outages. I still need to learn more about this. But, it is something to do with the rain creating hydroelectric power… does that sound right? Well, with the lack of rain, they are lacking electricity, so they have these scheduled (or not-so-scheduled) power outages. Again, this does not bode will for businesses trying to make money. I was at an internet café the first week, and an employee came to tell me that the power was going to go out in 5 minutes and that I needed to get off. You will constantly see different intersections with the stop lights out. They have police officers directing traffic at these intersections. Typically they turn the power off for 2 hours at a time. When I got home from the beach (exhausted, tired, dirty) the power was out at our house. So that meant I had to lug all my stuff up 8 flights of stairs. I also had to wait to have a hot shower. Funny thing is, when this happened, I didn’t think much of it.

Again, I am getting more accustomed to all of the differences. I think the tides are changing: so far, this week is feeling really normal (something I haven’t felt much since I got here.) It feels really darn good.

This weekend I’ll be heading to the Amazon region (will be my 3rd of 4 regions). I’m really looking forward to it.

Chao :)

Em

La Playa

I just had my second day at my internship, at the school. Let’s just say that I am completely unqualified to be teaching English. So far, I have mainly been working with kids individually, or in a small group. For example, we were working on present perfect, and I couldn’t explain why it should be “I have gone” instead of “I have went”. Apparently, “gone” is the past participle or something or another. Clearly I know what is right and wrong, but I am having a rough time explaining it.

This past weekend I went to the coast (2 Ecuadorian regions down, 2 to go!). It was super awesome! Our supposed 7.5 hour bus ride to the coast, turned out to be 14 hours. There was an accident or something, and we moved about 10 km from 1am until 6:30am. Literally, people got off the bus and were chatting it up with other people in the traffic. I was trying to sleep through it all.

Once we finally got there, around 12:30pm (instead of 6am) we hit the beach. Friday was fairly cloudy, which was good, because we all got more than enough sun on Saturday. I actually got the most homesick I’ve been on Friday night. We were all sitting around a campfire playing a game called ‘the hot seat’. Everyone was asking each other all sorts of questions about everything. Someone asked the group about one of the most fun days in your life. It definitely was making me homesick… the most I have been since I got here. Later that night we went down to the beach, and it just hit me how awesome it is that I’m here right now. There is something about an ocean and the crashing waves at nighttime, and about nature in general, that I can’t help but be reminded of how awesome God is. It definitely helped with the homesickness ;)

On Saturday, one of the guys made pancakes for breakfast in our make-shift kitchen. They were more of a scrambled pancake, but hit the spot, nonetheless. Then the rest of the day was a mix of laying out, swimming in the ocean, and reading. We all played in the ocean for over an hour…it was so much fun. I felt like a little kid out there in all the waves. Then another one of the guys made spaghetti for dinner and we bought some South American wine to go with. All of it was extremely tasty. This was probably my most fun day since I have arrived…. true relaxation.

My entire 3.5 day weekend, including transportation, the hostel, food, drinks, everything, was $98... pretty darn good. I even splurged on a drink called Atacames de la Noche that was $6 (most expensive on the menu)…. because I was hell-bent on getting a drink that was served in a pineapple.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Much love, Em