Love.

I'm in love with Ecuador! Estoy enamorada de Ecuador! Me encanta la comida, la gente, el clima. Me encantan los buses, los chifles, los cevíches.

Just so you all know, I am VERY excited to come home and see you, but I must warn that you are probably going to get really sick of me talking about mi segundo hogar.

Love,

Chelsea

Thought.

Being 21 doesn't feel very different to me. But the drinking age in Ecuador doesn't really exist. I hope all of you in Boise will show me what this magical number means in the States.

Cool.

Malaria pills kick ass. Well, they definitely have their side effects, like making your skin more susceptible to the sun, but if you're not a total whitie, you're good to go. I've been taking these pills, called Doxycyline, for just about a month now and will have to stop taking them on Thursday. The reason I like them first of all is because by taking them I will not get malaria (although I don't think I would've gotten malaria had I not taken them), and second of all because I have been having very intense, realistic dreams since the first day I took one them back at the end of March. I don't know why this is a side effect, or even how it could be a side effect, but it has been interesting to wake up and remember the crazy dreams that I have each night. Last night someone gave me a new cell phone. Two weeks ago I was back in Boise eating lunch with my high school girl friends at IHOP, but it wasn't IHOP, but I knew we were in the IHOP restaurant. I often remember my dreams without malaria prevention medication, but I feel like the dreams are just out of control wacko with Doxycyline.

I cut my hair!!! Oh, it felt so incredibly wonderful to chop off the bottom half of my poof ball. I went to this dinky little place around the corner from my house on Av. América and had Señor Suave cut my hair for $5.00, and it actually looks pretty good! I was feeling a little untrustworthy of the peluquerías here, but I may just cut my hair again in June before I come back to Boise!

There was traffic on Sunday, which is just not normal. On Sunday, Ecuadorians had until 5pm to go out and vote for their president (and their mayors and all that junk). They had 8 candidates to choose from, four of which actually saw any action in the polls. Rafael Correa got reelected and will lead the country for four more years.

Ecuador has had a history of instability in their political system, just like many South American countries. But it interesting to see that despite the corruption in the past, the people continue to support it today. Another candidate that ran was Lucio Gutiérrez, who in 2005 got removed from office by the people for his corruption. I do not understand how it was even legal for Gutiérrez to run in the race, let alone how he ended with 28% of the population following him. Another candidate was Alvaro Noboa, a banana plantation billionaire who made this election his 4th attempt at presidency. Many Ecuadorians nulled their ballots, or simply voted for the candidate that was "menos mal". Others voted for whoever was in second place previous to election day.

I don't know what to think about Correa. My host family, and the host families where my friends live all despise the man and probably voted for Gutiérrez and Noboa just because they didn't want Correa to win. Correa won 52% of the vote, and obviously that is a percentage that supports mostly the lower class. I think that although Correa himself may be corrupt, he has shown to be a steady leader for the past 2 years and if the lower class supports him, which is the majority of the population, I will support him. Yey for the indigenous people who's rights have been ignored since the Conquistadores!

I love Portugués. It is a beautiful language and I am very happy to be learning it. Plus, it's not too much different from Spanish!!! Ahhh.

Lame blog, whatever. You will all read it anyway.

I met an Ecuadorian! Wouldn't you like to know more?

The Overall Irritated blog

So I am utterly furious with the obstacles I have had to go through to sign up for a class at PUCE. I feel like everyone gives me half of the information that I need in order to register for the class, and by the time I have to go talk to the International Relations office about registering, they are all sorts of pissy because "I've been here the whole year and should know by now how the system works". RIGHT. It's as simple as that, is it? I'll admit that I have been here and you'd think that I'd have caughten on by now, but it's just not like that. Every time I have to deal with International Relations they somehow make everything that goes wrong my fault and I'm sick of it! Maybe if their system wasn't as complicated as one of those Magic Eye pictures I wouldn't be such a pain in the ass. Thankfully this is the last time I will ever have to deal with this atrocious government of nonsense.
The beginning of this entry truly displays the exact definition of "blogger" in The Urban Dictionary. How embarrassing. Thank you, Mindy.

So today is a perfect sunny day in Quito and so far I have been the only one I've seen wearing shorts. Quiteños just don't wear shorts and it kills me. I'm already this gigantic white chick in Quito and now I stick out even more because I'm wearing an item of clothing that actually makes sense in this climate. Loosen up, Quito! Just because we're sitting at 10,000 feet above sea level doesn't mean that the sun doesn't shine! Damn do I need to get to the laidback lands of the beach before I lose it and walk out of the house with, oh no, shorts and a tanktop.

I spent the last week with my mom! She came to visit me from Idaho even though I know she was really nervous. We packed in every possible tourist spot that we could and went on an adventure into the Amazon on top of it. We got stuck in a crazy rainstorm that lasted hours and were forced to make protective gear out of giant green Amazon leaves. It was an unforgettable rainstorm, especially because everyone had had their faces painted with mud before the rain, and somehow my mother walked out of that storm without even a smear on her face. I just don't know how she did it. I had a fabulous time with my mom and am glad she came beause it was a good family fix that will hopefully last me until June.

Yesterday I wanted to kick one of my sevenish aunts right in the face. She has always been nice to me, but it's that kind of "nice" that belongs in quotation marks and is more of a cover up for "I hate you for no particular reason and would rather that you just escort yourself from our tea party". I think perhaps the main reason she doesn't like me is because I don't consider myself to be a religious person (because I have a lot of questions still unanswered so there!) and so my aunt thinks I'm this demon gringa sent from the sinful land of the USA, brought here to corrupt her daughter. Or maybe I'm just digging up reasons, but whatever! Yesterday my aunt was interrogating me, as she often does, but she does this in a way that covers up the interrogation. I don't know how she does it; it must just be years of practice. Anyway, she was questioning me about my family in the states and about my past and whatnot. She said some negative things about my family, which pissed me off. Then she made some assumptions about me. She knows that I like beer, which whatever, who cares, not a big deal. Then for some reason she asked me if I'd ever smoked. I told her yes, I've tried smoking...I said it casually because I knew it would push her buttons. Before I even had the chance to say that I didn't enjoy smoking, she says to me "Oh, well then you've most definitely tried cocaine before, you know, that stuff you sniff up your nose..." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT! What in the world does having had smoked have to do with cocaine? What made this worse was that she was saying this all in front of my host family, trying to catch me in my weak points or something, trying to prove that I wasn't the badass that they thought I was. At this point I just got up from the table and went to the bathroom to take some deep breaths so that I didn't pop her one in the shnozz. I don't know why this aunt doesn't like me, but I honestly don't care. I only have a few months left here, and I'm not gonna let her hatred towards me bring down my mood. It's more fun for me to be as sweet as a pie when I'm around her anyways, because I know it just makes her blood boil. Hey, it's not my fault she's wearing pants when it's 80 degrees out!

Okay, so I never write anything.

So I know that 98 days sounds like a lot of time, but for me it is nothing. Classes at the university started up for me again at the beginning of February, and the time since then has flown by. I am really busy with my Spanish class alone. I am in the last level of Spanish this quarter, so the second quarter of the semester I am going to have to take another language to show the U of I that I’m actually doing something here. Portuguese it is! In this 6th level of Spanish, I have loads of homework every night. We are reading an intense novel called Aura that is really great. I feel so smart reading a novel in Spanish! Ja ja. Our final project in the class is to turn in a research paper about any topic having to do with Ecuador. I chose “Las Petroleras en el Oriente Ecuatoriano”, and so, grandma and grandpa Sakrison, that article you e-mailed me covering the devastating situation that indigenous groups face in the Ecuadorian Amazon has been useful in my research (with the exception that it is in English :D ). The topic is very interesting; it’s just the whole having to read bundles of articles in Spanish that makes the project difficult.

I also have the class with my exchange program director, Dr. José Yanez, which includes my volunteer work. I’m doing the same projects as the past semester; I’ve only switched up the days on which my work falls.

The last thing that has been keeping me busy is the obvious: this whole never-ending culture experience. Everyday brings me a surprise. Whether its my bus driver trying to rip me off of my 5 cents (no way was he getting away with that), or my continued misinterpretations of things that people say to me (like just now when I thought my mom told me she was taking breakfast to the homeless boys in the Carolina tomorrow morning, which was plausible because tomorrow I volunteer in the Carolina and it would make a little bit of sense even though she has never done it before and it would be something completely out of the blue BUT what she really said was that she was going to leave breakfast out for me in the morning because she was going to go walking in the Carolina and wouldn’t be there to accompany me while I slurped up my coffee and ate my banana). (Sorry for that ridiculous run-on sentence and even sorrier if what it said didn’t make any sense, but I just don’t feel like revising it and it’s just really hard to explain anyway).

Truly, it is just really difficult for my brain to interpret the fact that I am going to go back to the United States in 98. I just don’t know how I’m going to deal with not being able to speak Spanish whenever I feel like it. I absolutely LOVE speaking it, and I just don’t know how my heart’s going to take all of this. I feel so lucky to be here and this language is just so damn cool that I don’t want to leave it behind. I’ve heard that after you study abroad and learn a new language, you can lose all of what you’ve learned in less than a month if you quit cold turkey. I don’t want that to happen! And this, my friends, is why I am determined to find a job where I can speak Spanish when I get back to Boise. And that, my friends, is why I could use some suggestions. Can someone help me? Give me a hand with my Plan Refusal to Return to Monolingualism. And if you can help me with a cooler name for my plan, that would be appreciated as well.

Anyway readers, I had a blast this past weekend. I went three hours out of Quito to Santo Domingo, a city midway between the Coast and the Sierra. I went with two other gringas, and the boyfriend of one of them: Giovanny. We went to Giovanny’s grandma’s hacienda, or ranch/estate. This weekend trip was one of my favorite trips that I’ve had in Ecuador. We got there at night and rested up because Saturday was going to start early. We woke up at 6:30 to help with milking a few of the 50 or so cows that roam about the hacienda. I woke up to the sounds of cows mooing, roosters crowing, the dog barking, and birds chirping. It was almost frightening because I’m so used to waking up to car alarms, traffic honking, and my brother José complaining that he needs some lunch money that my host mother obviously isn’t going to give him because she knows that he will probably spend it in a casino or something of the like as he often does.

We milked those cows dry, ate a breakfast of mashed up plátano verde mixed with vegetables and the milk, and then we headed off on our journey towards the river. The hike to the river took about an hour and was fantastic. We first hiked through a giant sector of palm trees that are used to make soaps and oils. We ran into a herd of cows that were very distinct from the cows right outside of Quito. They were cows with humps on their backs and that extra skin on their necks. They were very mellow cows and bulls that Giovanny pet without fear of being eaten alive. After the palms, we found ourselves climbing up hills of corn fields. It was such a sudden leap of crops, but not as sudden as the leap from the corn into the field of banana trees. There were bananas hanging all around us and by this time we were soaked with sweat because it is a humid, and very hot, climate.

The banana field came to an edge with a steep slope that led down to the river. With difficulty, we found the trail that led down the slope. This little trail looked like a section of the rainforest cut out and pasted into this hacienda. The giant trees were wrapped with vines and there were brilliant flowers popping out of every corner, along with mushrooms hiding beneath rotting chunks of wood.

After I’d slipped on my butt on the muddy trail, we arrived at the river’s edge, and it was pure tranquility. As half the river was part of Giovanny’s grandmother’s private property, we were all alone on our shady little bank. We swam for hours in the cool river as we watched giant butterflies fly over our heads. We played “el tiburón” (the shark), a game that Giovanny taught us. One person is el tiburón and has to catch the others and whoever gets caught first and is bitten by the shark becomes the new tiburón. I felt like I was 12 again and there is nothing wrong with that.

Once we had our fill of the river’s majesty, we were ready to take the trail back to the house. The only difference about the return trip was that Giovanny wanted us to guide him back without giving us any clues. We did well at first, but after a while it all became confusion. We hiked through these tall, green grassy fields and came upon a gigantic herd of cows. They all looked at us as if we were the typical gringas getting lost in the middle of no where, with our (my) tacky tourist hat. Well we gave those cows the finger and continued on our way.

It was like 90 degrees Fahrenheit as the sun was shining directly down on us, along with this whole humidity thing. Luckily, I brought my sweet hat that protected me from the sun. The others weren’t as lucky. I got really thirsty, and Giovanny went over to a lemon tree and had me eat some of the slices. He said it would make me stop being thirsty, which it did, as it was the most sour lemon I’ve ever eaten in my life and after eaten it up, the last thing I was thinking about was that I had been thirsty.

We eventually made it back to the house and we were all exhausted from the sun’s heat. The grandma and her helper had lunch ready for us, which was such a satisfying treat after our grand adventure. We hung out that afternoon on the porch until we finally decided to walk a couple miles down to the little store to buy drink some Coca Colas as a sort of you-deserve-this-for-your-hard-work sort of thing. We walked down to the store, and found what seemed like the entire town of 70 people all standing around watching a soccer game that was going on in the local soccer field, something that is never missing in any town in Ecuador, no matter the size of the town.

We drank our bottles of Coke as we sat on the bamboo trunk that was a bench, watching the end of the soccer game. The sun had gone down and it was dusk. The whole setting was so Ecuador. It couldn’t have been a better way to finish my perfect day, and, in fact, it wasn’t. Above us from the bench we could see an extensive dark mess of a cloud that threatened us with every inch it moved. Just right when we were finished sucking down our drinks, it started to pour. It continued to pour. It became a literal torrential downpour, and we had no other choice than to walk the give or take 2 miles back to the house. It was pitch black and the only thing guiding us was Giovanny’s instinct of this dirt road that he had walked on so many times throughout his childhood. In Quito, a storm of that giganticness would’ve been a pity because Quito is up in the mountains at 9,000 feet. But we were in Santo Domingo. This was the warmest rainstorm I’d ever been in and the wettest one too. I was lucky to have my raincoat to keep my torso relatively dry, but the rest of my body was soaked from head to toe. I rang out the skirt I was wearing the entire way back and still ended with buckets of water soaked up in its pleats. As we watched the strikes of lightening stretch across the sky of no depth and listened to the deep rumbles of thunder, there was nothing else to do but to just enjoy the surreal moment in that which we were caught.

This past weekend was truly incredible and I hope all of that didn’t just cause you to quit reading my blog that I never have time to update.

I am really tired, so I am going to leave you all for now. Hopefully I can put up some pictures sometime before I get back to Boise! I mean seriously, I haven’t even shown you what I did over my “winter” break! But I gotta go. Tomorrow it will be 97 days or so (just ask my Dad, I think he’s counting down the seconds) so don’t you worry, I will be back in no time.

¡Chao!

Love, Chelsea

Hola

Después de muchos meses en mi lindo Ecuador, por fin yo sé cuando regrese. La fecha es el 14 de junio y me voy a las 6:30 de la manaña para llegar en Boise a las 9:00 de la noche. Ahorita no tengo ganas de regresar aunque les extrañe mi familia y mis amigos muchísimo. Tengo que irme a mi clase de español, pero escribiré más durante la semana.

¡Chao mis panas!

Question

If anyone knows an easier way for me to post pictures, uhum Mindy, please let me know. And what about videos?

I thought it about time I post som more pictures!

The girls and I singing karoake in La Cueva. (It was Backstreet Boys, if you were curious.)

A genuine guy that we met in Atacames!

Let there be llamas!

Of anyone reading my blog, Tony Lee will appreciate these next three pictures the most. They are of a festival I went to called the Mama Negra. It was epic. The above photo is of one of many of the pigs with chickens surrounding it that were part of the parade.

The Mama Negra herself (actually himself).

And finally, me getting a spiritual cleaning as I was pulled out of the crowd into the middle of the street and these white-painted men spun me around and spit aguardiente and wine all over me.

Christmas Eve and I'm wearing a tanktop

So today is Christmas Eve and I miss my little town of Beth…I mean Boise. My family(-ies) are all gathering together to share scrumptious foods and tell stories that they haven’t been able to share with one another about the months past. I’m missing the snow and the sweet taste of peppermint mocha with whip cream and red sprinkles straight from one of my favorite corporations, Starbucks. I miss my mommy and my fadre and my little butthead sister that, you know, I’ve actually come to love dearly over the years. I miss Krista’s intuitive sarcasm and Kevin’s humor that only comes out when he’s around just the right group of people. I miss Sarah’s nerdiness that you just wouldn’t expect from such a gorgeous, dolled up girl. I miss Theresa’s lame jokes (I know, can you believe it?) and that fact that her kids are just like her whether they can admit or not. And I miss Tyler because I have learned so much from him and I think he’s learned from me, too.

I miss all my friends who I know are just having a blast reuniting and celebrating after a tuff semester of college. And I miss all of you that were not specifically mentioned as well (including Thomas, Elmo, Romeo, Poopsie, Bear and Dora). Christmas just isn’t the same with the above mentioned, but you all should be comforted to know that I feel a part of my host family, and do not feel alone. We will be eating a feast tomorrow and the next day (including a turkey!) and we are doing a secret gift exchange and I chose tía Viva out of the hat, and any gift that I get her will just bring her to tears and it will be the cutest thing in the world (just ask my Dad and Theresa).

Next to the Christmas holidays, I am learning how to juggle. A bunch of the kids at Opción de Vida (where I volunteer to do laundry and what not for los niños de la calle) juggle for tips on the streets and they are so good! They’ve inspired me to pick up the hobby. They have taught me some tricks and you will all be dropping your jaws in aspiration by June (at least I hope).

I passed my classes at PUCE and am on break until February. I'm going to travel it up with a couple friends and get so used to not having any work to do that next semester will probably hurt at first. It's about 70 degrees outside right now and it doesn't feel like Christmas, despite the decorations that are all over the city. Today I am going to make some Christmas cookies for my family!

Merry Christmas to all! I think about you all all of the time!

Chao.

Observations

You know what I've found to be weird? Ecuadorians don't use very much pepper. In fact, I have yet to find a pepper shaker in my house. But the salt is not lacking. There is plenty of salt to dump on everything.





You know what's annoying? It's virtually impossible to come upon toilet paper in any bathroom besides my own. And what's more- I always forget to take toilet paper with me when I leave the house. I doubt any of you want to know what happens from there, when I've really gotta go, and there's no TP.

The PDAs here are out of hand. The people do not care whether they are on the street, in the computer lab sitting right next to me, or on the bus swaying about because there aren't any open seats. Everywhere seems to qualify as an appropriate place to make out. And it kind of grosses me out a little.

I think I've actually learned some Spanish. My pops and stepmom came to visit me and I felt like I had progressed with the language when they were with me. Thanks you two. You boosted my self esteem :)

This is all for now, folks. I will try my best to write more often.

CHAO.

Random Pictures

Whether you can tell or not, that is me crawling on the equator. I speak the truth.

We went to a fútbol game in Quito, which Ecuador won 3-1. As you know, I was more focused on the food than on the game, even though the game was the most exciting sports festival I've ever been to. that hotdog you see had tomatoes and crumbled up potato chips on it! No one could resist...

This next photo is of a GIGANTIC statue on a hill called El Panecillo. If you could see the scale of this beastly saint, you'd be surprised.

Next is a photo of a meal that I ate, which I'm still drooling about. The yellow things are called llapingachos (potato patties with cheese), the white stuff is mote (an odd type of yummy corn), there's an onion-tomato salad, the things on the left are slices of fried plátano, there's a slice of avocado, and in the middle is fritada (chunks of pork). YUM.

We went rafting in Baños and the water was warm. It rained and I didn´t even know it until we stopped half way for a break.

Alrrrright.

Holas! ¡No he escribido por muchísimos años! Discúlpame, por favor, porque no tengo mucho tiempo para usar el internet. El miércoles pasado, yo empecé vacaciones. Me acabé el cuarto nivel de español, y en una semana, empezaré el quinto nivel. Estoy emocionada para seguir aprendiendo el idioma.

I will continue in English because I would like everyone to know what’s been going on without having to use an online translator, which by the way doesn’t work as well as we would hope that it would.

Winter is beginning here, which just means that it now rains everyday. But the thing about the weather is that I will wake up to a bright and shiny day, and will proceed to walk out the door in my jeans and a T-shirt. But by the time I get done with class in the afternoon, the sky is full of big black clouds, which wait to release their downpour until I’m no longer safely contained in the linguistics building. Because of the very indecisive weather patterns, I’ve learned that it is crucial to carry my umbrella and my rain jacket wherever and whenever I go, even if every bird is chirping along as if their day is going to continue on with blue skies and warm sunrays.

I don’t believe I’ve told you about Otavalo. All of the exchanges students at La Catolica got to go on a weekend trip to a town called Otavalo. In this town there is a gigantic market, known all throughout South America. We took a bus for only two hours and arrived in this town on Saturday morning to find blocks upon blocks of vendors. They had everything from your typical alpaca wool sweaters, to handmade bracelets, to cool purses with llamas on them. They were also selling tons of jewelry made from a plant or root or something which is known as tagua. My good friend Ashley and I also found a panaderia (I know, right?), and we had a couple of delicious donuts for a midday snack. I must admit that I spent a good chunk of cash that afternoon!

Que mas mis amigos? Part of the study abroad program involves volunteer work. So, every Tuesday and Thursday I volunteer in the afternoons. On Tuesdays, I walk to el parque La Carolina to volunteer at a place called Opcion de Vida. This is a Christian based organization that offers services to los ninos de la calle. These are boys from the ages of 8 to 20 who are homeless and spend their days on the streets, either selling candies, or simply trying to survive. La Opcion de Vida offers these boys a good home cooked meal and showering facilities. In the laundry room, they each have a basket marked with their name, where they keep their clothes. My job is to either do their laundry, or help cook the food. I prefer to help in the kitchen, but I’ll do what needs to be done. Each day is different at La Opcion de Vida. Some days the boys get to play soccer, and other days they attend devotion and the pastor in charge talks with them. The boys are very sarcastic, and I think that they may actually like us, even though on our first day they asked us why we had come all the way from the U.S. to do their laundry. I said it was because someone’s got to do it.

On Thursdays, Ashley and I take an insane bus ride up to Las Casas Altas (which is a section of the city) to a placed called La Divina Voluntad. This is another religiously based organization, but it is much different. We walk down this steep hill through this poverty-ridden neighborhood to these big wooden doors. The moment we open the doors, hundreds of children flock to our sides, tugging at our jeans, attempting to crawl up our legs. La Divina Voluntad is a place where children go after they are done with school, to both eat lunch and work on their homework.
Before I continue, I must make something clear. In Ecuador, public education really sucks. Those who can afford it send their kids to private Catholic schools. Those who cannot afford it, send their kids to public schools that are less than perfect. There is a lack of qualified teachers and most kids don’t get the attention that they need. It is a painful sight to see, indeed. If you want a guaranteed job teaching, come here. But just as teachers are paid less than they should be in the U.S., teachers here aren’t bringing in the big bucks either.

Anyway, when we get to La Divina Voluntad, it is time for the kids to sit down and have lunch. Ashley and I have the option to eat the lunch too, but we have found that it can be risky. One time we ate spaghetti with a cheese-spinach omlette. It was a strange combo, but actually rather normal for this country. Another time we ate soup that had chicken feet in it. Not my favorite. The last time we went, we ate a soup that had pig hair in it. PIG HAIR. I ate all of it, not wanting to know whether or not the millions of specks that were shaped like eyelashes floating around in the soup were just an odd spice or worse. When I found out afterwards that it was the latter, I honestly felt pretty disgusted. From then on, I decided, I would look in the giant vat of soup before agreeing to eat a bowl.

After we eat lunch, we get pulled upstairs by the cute little kids to one of three classrooms. I like the middle group, who are all around 8 years old. I get to help them with their homework and use my Spanish at the same time. The nun that runs the place thinks she’s getting a good deal, but I know who’s winning in this situation. Ha, just kidding. But it is really rewarding to be able to help a child learn something new. They have to teach me too, though. For instance, they do multiplication and division in a completely different way down here! It took two hours of explanation from my host sister and mom before it all clicked and I finally understood how to work a simple division problem. I felt so lost, but so satisfied when I had got it down. Volunteering has been a learning experience for sure.

Have I told you all about how cool Ecuador is? It has everything! I live up in the mountains and volcanoes. I’d like to climb a mountain, especially Volcán Chimborazo which is the closest point to the sun because of the equatorial bulge, but I am very intimidated to do so seeing as I have never summated a mountain before in my life. Anyway, that is one part of Ecuador. We also have el Oriente, which is in the south east. This is where the Amazon River runs through and there is a bunch of rainforest. Then there are the beaches! Oh, the beaches. I went to a beach called Atacames last weekend and soaked in the incredibly powerful sun rays that honestly kind of freaked me out because of how strong they were, and I drank a “coco loco”, which was a drink served inside a gigantic coconut. Finally, Ecuador has the Galápagos Islands. Before I got here, I had no idea that this tiny country had so much to offer!

I miss you all very much and hope you are enjoying your lives without me, which I know is hard ;)

Two.

This is a view from my roof. That mountain in the background is called Pinchincha. It´s a volcano.

Here is where I live! It´s the long city of Quito.

This is a view from this little pueblo called Yunguilla where I volunteered for a week. We were in a cloud forest! At about 4 every afternoon, clouds would roll in and blanket this town.

Mmmmm. We made a fatty vat of cheese.

We built that wall!

L to R: Me, Ashley, Emily, and David

One.

So here we have a photo of the wedding I went to. The guy on the left was the drunk dude, the girl in the back is one of my many cousins, the girl in the center is my sister, Elisa, and of course that cute girl on the right is me.

Oooooo Yeah.

I´ve pretty much been here a month. It shows in my waist line. The llapingachos are just too good and I have to have more than one. And the ice cream....oh the ice cream. There are heladerías on every corner. OH! And panaderías.....all the fresh bread I could ever want along with cake and donuts. I know where Í´m headed after this.



So I started classes and they are pretty simple. I have homework every day, and it´s helping with my Spanish, so I don´t mind.



There are at least 12 malls here. It disgusts me.



The public transportation here is amazing. I can take 5 different buses to school, all for 25 cents. I had to get over the fact that they spew out toxic gases which aren´t regulated by the government before I could appreciate that they take me whereever I want to go. The drivers are loco. And the road laws here aren´t followed by anyone, especially the bus drivers. Last week all the buses went on strike because they want to raise the price to 35 cents, which is quite the increase for the people in this city. Not to mention that 35 cents is a pain in the butt compared to simply paying a quarter. Anyway, you should all know that when I ride the bus I´m more worried about getting in a car crash than I am about anyone robbing me.

What else? The rain storms here are fantastic. It RAINS. And the thunder is much louder and frightening than I´ve heard before in my life. I think it´s because we´re at such a high altitude and the air is thinner, so the sound travels faster. Or some scientific explanation like that. I´m glad that I bought a rain coat before I left.

I didn´t want to write this next part, because I know my dad will be freaked out, but the second week I got here, two guys tried to rob me in broad daylight. My friends and I were sitting in this little heladería across the street from the school, and in walks two well dressed, older men. There were other customers stuffed in this small place, so with their addition, it felt even more crowded. Anyway, one was talking on his phone; the other stood there, jingling coins in his hands, appearing as if he was counting out a certain amount. This whole situation was right out of a handbook I had read before coming to this country, entitled "Safety Precautions". How appropriate. While my friends were chatting away, I sat there being Miss Paranoid, observing every movement of these hooligans. In less than a second, Mr. Coins "accidentally" dropped his change, while ChattyMcChat quickly tried to manuver his fat hand into my purse that was beside me. Don´t worry, they scurried out of there empty handed after I pulled my purse into my lap. My favorite part was that when they had walked a distance away, the fat one turned back and saw me glaring at him. My second favorite part was that not one of my friends had a clue as to what had just happened. So there you have it. Reading those "Safety Precautions" did me good. (I´m fine, Dad :D).

I really have learned a lot of Spanish since I got here, although it doesn´t show in my writing. But this is all for now, I must go to class.

¡Chao!