mis quieridos amigos y familia,
sorry it's been almost a month since i wrote last... not that it's a valid excuse, but i've been super busy with my internship, not to mention incredibly tired. so in a nutshell, at my internship i am working with 3, 4 and 5 year olds with down's syndrome. i originally thought i would want to work with the speech therapist to see what she does, but i figured i have the rest of my life to do that, so i decided to work with the babies instead... so needless to say, my job presents a lot of challenges. obviously because the children have down's syndrome, they are very not very compliant. also, since i'm not a native speaker of spanish, i struggle sometimes when i'm trying to tell the kids what to do, and in addition with them needing clearer instructions to understand things, this is sometimes a deadly combination.
the school is super adorable though.. they have kids anywhere from 3 years old to adolescents in their 20s. with the little ones, they're trying to teach them everyday life skills that they haven't quite grasped yet. we're working on eating with silverware all by themselves, learning how to dress and undress themselves and making it to the bathroom on time. although all these tasks seem very basic, you would be surprised how difficult it is to teach a little one this. although i come home each day incredibly drained, i wouldn't change what i'm doing for the world. the amount of hugs and kisses i get everyday from the babies totally makes it all worthwhile.
so yeah, that's pretty much where all of my time has been going.. check my facebook for some pictures of my school.. crazy to think that at this time three weeks from tomorrow i'll be sitting in the houston airport waiting for my flight back to milwaukee. i hope all of your semester and finals are going well. can't wait to get back to the states and hug every one of you. have a wonderful weekend! miss you all :)
Friday, April 16, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
los galapagos :)
soo instead of my mom coming for spring bream (i would have loved to see you too, mom!) three friends and i decided to go to the galapagos islands. we bought our tickets, and pretty much had no other plans other than just flat out going. we researched for days, found some tentative hotels, and then hoped we'd be able to find them when we got there. friday night, we hopped on a bus to guayaquil (9 hour bus ride, yuck) and saturday morning set off to the islands.
we started on the island, san cristobol. we landed in this little tiny airport, paid the $25 entrance fee (we have residency, so didn't have to pay the $100 tourist fee) and found a taxi. when we told the driver the name of our hotel, he told us it no longer existed, so we settled for a cute little place facing the beach. the sun was already kind of starting to set, so we headed to the beach for a little dip and saw our first sea lions aka lobos marineros. after a lovely beer on the beach watching the sunset, we headed back to the hotel to rinse off and get ready for dinner. we ended up going to this tiny little restaurant and having some fresh seafood. since we had traveled forever during the day and also the night before, we called it a night pretty early.
the next morning we went to a beautiful totally uninhabited beach. the sand was made up tiny little white shells and the water was as blue as blue can be. i've never seen water so clear in my life. we lathered up on sunscreen (and still got fried) and jumped in the water. we recognized some people we had seen at the airport who were there snorkeling and let us use their masks and snorkels for a bit, only to see HUGE turtles swimming under us. the beach was also full of sea lions of all sizes. we pretty much sat right next to a whole bunch of them and could have touched them if we wanted to. we stayed there all day just swimming and taking pictures. later that afternoon we headed to a little store, bought some provisions and then headed to another beach to camp. i wasn't really keen on the idea, but didn't want to be the party pooper, so i went along with it. the beach was absolutely beautiful but SUPER buggy. we sat around eating peanut butter (which cost $7) on tortillas and talking about our experiences. the night was super hot and super buggy, so we ended up not getting a lot of sleep, but definitely enjoyed the scenery.
the next morning we woke up at 5 (still dark) to head to a ferry that would take us to another island, santa cruz. earlier, we had talked to some friends and got a name of a guide in santa cruz that would be able to help us out. we got there not knowing who was going to greet us, but the super guapo man, Yaz that did totally made our trip. yaz is 24 and has lived in santa cruz his whole life and is super knowledgeable about everything the galapagos has to offer. for $25 each, he took us snorkeling all day to the most beautiful beaches i've ever seen. not only did he take us on this incredible trip, he also let us stay for free at his house and took us out that night too.
the next morning, we headed to yet another island, isabela, which i think i my favorite looking back. this island wasn't very populated and definitely wasn't very modern, but the people were so genuine and the beach was incredible too. the first night, we got there kind of late so just walked to beach for awhile. we were looking for something to eat when two cute boys came up to us and invited us to their concert that night. we thought it was going to be a couple of them just playing at a restaurant or something.. WRONG. after meeting a few super fun locals, we accompanied them to this concert at a stadium pretty much and waited for the band to start. the band was absolutely incredible playing all sorts of salsa, merengue, bachata, etc. naturally i fell in love with one of the members and somehow even scored his number. we went to bed at probably 3:30, waking up the next morning at 7 to hike a volcano. not such a good idea. this tour would have been fun if it was like an hour or two, but instead it was 5 hours of hiking through mud.. not my kind of excursion. we went home, changed into our suits and headed to the beach. we played in the water awhile and ended up at the most beautiful bar called the pink iguana. we sat around listening to the owner play his guitar, watching a volleyball game, and also listening to the waves crashing... amazing.
on thursday, we headed back to santa cruz to meet up again with Yaz. we hung out, got some lunch, and then once again, headed to another beach where Yaz met us later with snorkeling gear and an underwater flashlight to check out the little fishies at night. after this, we went out dancing and had a great time. friday morning, Yaz had planned this great little boat tour again to see some more wildlife. we ended up anchoring the boat and just relaxing on the water... beautiful. then we went to the most adorable bar i've ever seen. it was in the middle of nowhere and was in the sand with hammocks and swings. we spend quite a few hours there just laughing and enjoying life. after a much needed nap, we did a little more dancing and enjoying our last night on the islands.
saturday morning we woke up thinking we would have plenty of time to get to the airport. little did we know it would take almost two hours to get there. i got pulled out of the shower, and we took off running to the airport. needless to say, we made our flight and our goodbyes were very hard to our new favorite buddy, Yaz. all and all i would change a thing about our experience. this was a trip i will never, ever forget.
miss you all mucho :)
we started on the island, san cristobol. we landed in this little tiny airport, paid the $25 entrance fee (we have residency, so didn't have to pay the $100 tourist fee) and found a taxi. when we told the driver the name of our hotel, he told us it no longer existed, so we settled for a cute little place facing the beach. the sun was already kind of starting to set, so we headed to the beach for a little dip and saw our first sea lions aka lobos marineros. after a lovely beer on the beach watching the sunset, we headed back to the hotel to rinse off and get ready for dinner. we ended up going to this tiny little restaurant and having some fresh seafood. since we had traveled forever during the day and also the night before, we called it a night pretty early.
the next morning we went to a beautiful totally uninhabited beach. the sand was made up tiny little white shells and the water was as blue as blue can be. i've never seen water so clear in my life. we lathered up on sunscreen (and still got fried) and jumped in the water. we recognized some people we had seen at the airport who were there snorkeling and let us use their masks and snorkels for a bit, only to see HUGE turtles swimming under us. the beach was also full of sea lions of all sizes. we pretty much sat right next to a whole bunch of them and could have touched them if we wanted to. we stayed there all day just swimming and taking pictures. later that afternoon we headed to a little store, bought some provisions and then headed to another beach to camp. i wasn't really keen on the idea, but didn't want to be the party pooper, so i went along with it. the beach was absolutely beautiful but SUPER buggy. we sat around eating peanut butter (which cost $7) on tortillas and talking about our experiences. the night was super hot and super buggy, so we ended up not getting a lot of sleep, but definitely enjoyed the scenery.
the next morning we woke up at 5 (still dark) to head to a ferry that would take us to another island, santa cruz. earlier, we had talked to some friends and got a name of a guide in santa cruz that would be able to help us out. we got there not knowing who was going to greet us, but the super guapo man, Yaz that did totally made our trip. yaz is 24 and has lived in santa cruz his whole life and is super knowledgeable about everything the galapagos has to offer. for $25 each, he took us snorkeling all day to the most beautiful beaches i've ever seen. not only did he take us on this incredible trip, he also let us stay for free at his house and took us out that night too.
the next morning, we headed to yet another island, isabela, which i think i my favorite looking back. this island wasn't very populated and definitely wasn't very modern, but the people were so genuine and the beach was incredible too. the first night, we got there kind of late so just walked to beach for awhile. we were looking for something to eat when two cute boys came up to us and invited us to their concert that night. we thought it was going to be a couple of them just playing at a restaurant or something.. WRONG. after meeting a few super fun locals, we accompanied them to this concert at a stadium pretty much and waited for the band to start. the band was absolutely incredible playing all sorts of salsa, merengue, bachata, etc. naturally i fell in love with one of the members and somehow even scored his number. we went to bed at probably 3:30, waking up the next morning at 7 to hike a volcano. not such a good idea. this tour would have been fun if it was like an hour or two, but instead it was 5 hours of hiking through mud.. not my kind of excursion. we went home, changed into our suits and headed to the beach. we played in the water awhile and ended up at the most beautiful bar called the pink iguana. we sat around listening to the owner play his guitar, watching a volleyball game, and also listening to the waves crashing... amazing.
on thursday, we headed back to santa cruz to meet up again with Yaz. we hung out, got some lunch, and then once again, headed to another beach where Yaz met us later with snorkeling gear and an underwater flashlight to check out the little fishies at night. after this, we went out dancing and had a great time. friday morning, Yaz had planned this great little boat tour again to see some more wildlife. we ended up anchoring the boat and just relaxing on the water... beautiful. then we went to the most adorable bar i've ever seen. it was in the middle of nowhere and was in the sand with hammocks and swings. we spend quite a few hours there just laughing and enjoying life. after a much needed nap, we did a little more dancing and enjoying our last night on the islands.
saturday morning we woke up thinking we would have plenty of time to get to the airport. little did we know it would take almost two hours to get there. i got pulled out of the shower, and we took off running to the airport. needless to say, we made our flight and our goodbyes were very hard to our new favorite buddy, Yaz. all and all i would change a thing about our experience. this was a trip i will never, ever forget.
miss you all mucho :)
Monday, March 8, 2010
LAST weekend together in quito?!
Hard to believe that i'm starting my 8th week of school here, which means it's the LAST week of school, but it also means that after spring break, all my amigos will be setting off to their internships all over the country. in order to make this last weekend memorable, we sent this past weekend out in style with the following activities:
friday: we took our "final" spanish test on friday, so we decided it would be a good idea to celebrate the end of spanish classes and went to a cute little restaurant after school to get some dinner. we then met up with our ecuadorian buddies later to catch up and share a beer. my cute "uncle" (he's 26) called me then to tell me he was having a couple friends over to his apartment and that my friends and i should come for awhile. sure enough, he picked us up and took us back to his beautiful apartment. there, i met some of my "cousins" and we danced the night away. seeing as none of us wanted to take taxis at night, my uncle offered for us to stay the night, and we somehow managed to fit 6 people in his king sized bed... super fun night for sure!
saturday: after a much needed nap we set off to another soccer game. this one was at a different stadium but was equally as fun as the other game we went to. we even all bought jerseys for 5 dollars at the stadium... cute! after the game, since our buddy sam was celebrating his 21st birthday on sunday, we decided to go to a really nice restaurant that night. holy cow... i wish i took pictures, it was the most beautiful restaurant i've ever been to. it was in the part of the city the call "centro historico" because it's really old, has cobblestone roads, and all of the buildings are very colonial and beautiful. the restaurant we went to was called vista hermosa or beautiful view... we sat on the roof of this building with the most incredible views of the city with all the old churches lit up... breathtaking. in addition to the incredible views, there was also live music, which of course we took advantage of and danced to. after our dinner (the food was really good too!) we walked around centro historico, stopping in multiple bars to grab a beer and of course to salsa dance. what an incredible night!
sunday: after two nights of minimal sleep, i was not ready for the little family lunch we had. we left our house at about 1130 and went to my grandma's house. there i learned how to make empanadas (really cute with the whole family cooking together) and we had this soup which is supposedly what Jesus ate at the last supper... very interesting! we then relaxed the rest of the afternoon watching a soccer game and sipping on homemade milkshakes. when we finally got home at about 7 i was SO ready to just veg out and hang out on the couch with the family, but Chelsey, Sam and Kiley had all called me a whole bunch to tell me they had bought tickets for us to go see Alice in Wonderland or Alicia en el pais marvilloso, so my dad called me a taxi and i set off to meet my friends. the movie was super interesting and kind of trippy, but really cool nonetheless.
so that's my weekend! i didn't take any pictures, but once my friends but their pictures up i will post them. one more week of school then off to the galapagos! love you all :)
friday: we took our "final" spanish test on friday, so we decided it would be a good idea to celebrate the end of spanish classes and went to a cute little restaurant after school to get some dinner. we then met up with our ecuadorian buddies later to catch up and share a beer. my cute "uncle" (he's 26) called me then to tell me he was having a couple friends over to his apartment and that my friends and i should come for awhile. sure enough, he picked us up and took us back to his beautiful apartment. there, i met some of my "cousins" and we danced the night away. seeing as none of us wanted to take taxis at night, my uncle offered for us to stay the night, and we somehow managed to fit 6 people in his king sized bed... super fun night for sure!
saturday: after a much needed nap we set off to another soccer game. this one was at a different stadium but was equally as fun as the other game we went to. we even all bought jerseys for 5 dollars at the stadium... cute! after the game, since our buddy sam was celebrating his 21st birthday on sunday, we decided to go to a really nice restaurant that night. holy cow... i wish i took pictures, it was the most beautiful restaurant i've ever been to. it was in the part of the city the call "centro historico" because it's really old, has cobblestone roads, and all of the buildings are very colonial and beautiful. the restaurant we went to was called vista hermosa or beautiful view... we sat on the roof of this building with the most incredible views of the city with all the old churches lit up... breathtaking. in addition to the incredible views, there was also live music, which of course we took advantage of and danced to. after our dinner (the food was really good too!) we walked around centro historico, stopping in multiple bars to grab a beer and of course to salsa dance. what an incredible night!
sunday: after two nights of minimal sleep, i was not ready for the little family lunch we had. we left our house at about 1130 and went to my grandma's house. there i learned how to make empanadas (really cute with the whole family cooking together) and we had this soup which is supposedly what Jesus ate at the last supper... very interesting! we then relaxed the rest of the afternoon watching a soccer game and sipping on homemade milkshakes. when we finally got home at about 7 i was SO ready to just veg out and hang out on the couch with the family, but Chelsey, Sam and Kiley had all called me a whole bunch to tell me they had bought tickets for us to go see Alice in Wonderland or Alicia en el pais marvilloso, so my dad called me a taxi and i set off to meet my friends. the movie was super interesting and kind of trippy, but really cool nonetheless.
so that's my weekend! i didn't take any pictures, but once my friends but their pictures up i will post them. one more week of school then off to the galapagos! love you all :)
Sunday, February 28, 2010
just another american saturday night...
hola familia y amigos,
just wanted to let all of you know that i'm still alive and kicking in Ecuador and that the earthquake in Chile didn't affect us here. also, i had a wonderful weekend. friday school was canceled, so i spent the day with some friends trying to cook an Ecuadorian dish, which was completely unsuccessful. then friday night, we met up with all of our Ecuadorian buddies in "gringolandia." we ended up having a couple of drinks and as usual, danced the night away. at about two, we decided that we were all going to have a big sleepover, and the party continued at luis and pablo's until about 4 in the morning. after a nice breakfast/lunch of papa john's pizza, pablo dropped us back off at home, and i spent the whole day doing pretty much nothing.. just relaxing since my parents were out of town for the weekend. then, around 7 or so, Kiley and Chelsey came over with the intention of just hanging out before going out. we then ordered another pizza (embarrassing i know.. two pizzas in one day) and decided we'd rather stay in for the night.
the three of us pulled my mattress into the family room and literally had a 7th grade sleepover. we talked about boys (and met Chelsey's boyfriend on skype too!) and all of our fun adventures we've had so far in Ecuador. after this, for whatever reason we decided it would be a good idea to watch My Sister's Keeper... although this is a great movie, we all ended up bawling our eyes out and then talking about how much we love our siblings (if you're reading this Max, i love you :)) we then snuggled into my bed on the floor and called it a night... it was such the perfect girls night and the best part was, we got to speak english ALL night!
today, we went to a soccer game with some of our ecuadorian buddies... boy, it was intense. people here are such diehard fans, and pretty much the whole time, the entire stadium was singing all sorts of songs about how much they love their country. what a cool cultural experience.
other than that, not much is new. we only have two more weeks of school left, which is crazy! here are a couple of pictures from our day at La Liga stadium and one with some beautiful children i met at a school in the mountains. hope you all have a wonderful week and know that i love you! chaaaao!
Friday, February 19, 2010
the day my heart melted for an hour straight...
so today i was a really big girl... i had an interview for my internship that i will be starting in a month. it started by me hailing a cab all by myself, somehow finding the school, conducting an interview ALL in spanish and then finding a taxi back to my house. although this little field trip was only a small victory for me, the time that i spent there was absolutely incredible.
for a little background knowledge, the school i went to is call fundación el triángulo and it is a school for children with some sort of developmental or mental delay (like autism and downs syndrome) from age 3 up until their teenage years. first of all, this beautiful, friendly woman comes up to me and tells me she'll be showing me around the facility and conducting my interview... turns out she was a speech therapist there?! COOL! so she starts out by showing me the three and four year old room (i never stopped smiling the whole time) where i was bombarded with adorable children all wanting to know my name and to give me a hug. she then showed me the room where the children with autism work, and the rest of the elementary school. then she walked me up to the secondary school were the kids were a bit older and learning some pretty cool life skills. the first group were "pretending to work in a chocolate factory" where they were going through the whole process of making the chocolate, wrapping them, and then packaging them so that they could sell these chocolates to raise money for the foundation. the next group were pretending to work in an office and working on their paperwork skills. another group was learning music and yet another was working on art. i am really not kidding when i say my heart melted for an hour straight... between the ladies working at this foundation and the beautiful kids attending school there, i absolutely fell in love every second of my time there. i don't want to wish my time away here, but i'm so excited for when i get to start there.
if anyone is super bored, here's the link to the foundation and they have some adorable pictures and videos on their website:
http://www.fundacioneltriangulo.org/index.html
that is all for now... i hope everyone has a wonderful weekend back in the US and all the other countries you all are in. MUCH love :)
for a little background knowledge, the school i went to is call fundación el triángulo and it is a school for children with some sort of developmental or mental delay (like autism and downs syndrome) from age 3 up until their teenage years. first of all, this beautiful, friendly woman comes up to me and tells me she'll be showing me around the facility and conducting my interview... turns out she was a speech therapist there?! COOL! so she starts out by showing me the three and four year old room (i never stopped smiling the whole time) where i was bombarded with adorable children all wanting to know my name and to give me a hug. she then showed me the room where the children with autism work, and the rest of the elementary school. then she walked me up to the secondary school were the kids were a bit older and learning some pretty cool life skills. the first group were "pretending to work in a chocolate factory" where they were going through the whole process of making the chocolate, wrapping them, and then packaging them so that they could sell these chocolates to raise money for the foundation. the next group were pretending to work in an office and working on their paperwork skills. another group was learning music and yet another was working on art. i am really not kidding when i say my heart melted for an hour straight... between the ladies working at this foundation and the beautiful kids attending school there, i absolutely fell in love every second of my time there. i don't want to wish my time away here, but i'm so excited for when i get to start there.
if anyone is super bored, here's the link to the foundation and they have some adorable pictures and videos on their website:
http://www.fundacioneltriangulo.org/index.html
that is all for now... i hope everyone has a wonderful weekend back in the US and all the other countries you all are in. MUCH love :)
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
a weekend at la playa... ecuadorian culture 101
so this long weekend was an adventure to say the least... here is the chain of events:
friday: sam, chelsey, kiley, lucy and i went to a super cool artesian market before our departure to the beach and bought some cool homemade stuff. then around 2ish, we met up with our ecuadorian amigos and set off for the beach. six hours and a million curvy roads later, we finally arrived at the beach. we quickly changed clothes and headed for a restaurant. after a nice little shrimp dinner (yes, i ate some shrimp) we found this cute little bar on the beach that had little cabana-like tables and had some cerveza. it was an excellent way to start the vacation because we all ended up dancing like crazy on the beach and having a super good time. after we decided we were too covered in sand to function anymore, we headed back to the hotel, jumped in the pool quickly, and then spent the rest of the night playing guitar and singing... ¡que chévere!
saturday: we were all up and running by about nine, so we took off for some breakfast and got ready for a day at the beach. because we're in south america, soccer, aka futbol is super big here, so all the boys wanted to do was play soccer on the beach, which was fine by me because they were intrigued by my mad soccer skills ;) even though i was super sunscreen-ed up and running around on the beach, i still found myself VERY sunburnt after our games. we hopped into the ocean a couple more times, then headed back to the hotel for a little siesta. once we were all fully rested, we got ready and headed out for another seafood dinner. everyone was still pretty tired from the night before, so we all lazily sipped on piña coladas after our dinner at another oceanside bar. every now and then we would get up and dance, but for the most part it was a pretty relaxed evening until we made a new friend, whom we called "hombre misterioso" for the rest of the trip. this man was decked out in dance gear and ready to show us a salsa move or two on the dance floor. we guessed he must have been training for dancing with the stars or some crazy dance company, because honestly, when i was finished dancing with him i was afraid of throwing up because he spun us around so much and so incredibly fast... pretty darn funny.
sunday: originally we thought this would be our last day due to the crazy traffic that we were going to encounter on our way back to Quito, so we thought we'd live it up large. we ended up going to a private beach where cars weren't allowed and laid under a little tent all day laughing with friends because we were all still sunburnt. around four, half of our group decided to leave this beautiful beach because they wanted to watch a "cock fight." so it was chelsey, kiley, lucy, pablo and i left on the beach and we continued to enjoy the beautiful weather. after awhile, some boys came up to all of us girls in the ocean and invited us to some party they were having, but after talking to pablo, we decided not to, and headed back to the hotel. after some salsa dancing in the pool (yes, this was quite interesting) we all took another little nap and once again got ready for one last hurrah on the beach. the party started in our hotel at about seven with some mixed drinks, and of course some serious salsa dancing. after about and hour or two of this, my girlfriends decided they wanted to go the beach to do some dancing and after some convincing of our ecuadorian buddies, we all left for the beach. we ended up going to some little concert with life music, which was super cool to watch and listen to. after that our boyfriends decided they'd rather carry the rest of our fiesta out back at the hotel. my girlfriends however decided they weren't really ready to go back, so after some deliberation, all the ecuadorians decided to go back to the hotel while the gringos stayed to "party." my buddies all picked up a hamburger, which i still can't make myself eat, and we stayed out for about another hour or so before deciding to go back to meet up with the rest of our buddies... this is where the drama began...
so we get back to the hotel, and our amigos are sitting around talking and my friend sam and i sat down next to our friend, pablo. pablo then informed us that they had been reminiscing about the friendships they had with each other (pablo, luis, jorge, y paul aka gordito) and the strong bonds that they all had. all four of these boys had been raised only by women, and because of this, pablo told us, they were very sensitive and emotional people. after a brief chat about friendship and relationships, pablo told us that they had all been a little disappointed in us that we hadn't followed them home to the hotel when they left. he went on to tell us, that when we're together, we should be acting as a fist, staying together and looking out for each other. he said he understood that we wanted to make new friends and that this was still all so exciting for us, but at the same time we had to remember that in their culture, their worlds revolve around each other and they're always worrying about us if they're not with us. he said it made him feel really sad that earlier that day at the beach we had been so eager to drop him and hang out with the "guapos hombres" that we had met. i tried explaining to him that it was only a misunderstanding and that in the united states if you wanted someone to do something, you had to be more upfront with them and tell them for example that you want them to come back to the hotel with you. the kicker... he said that (all in spanish of course) "oh i get it, in the united states you guys think more so with your heads, but here in ecuador, we think with our heart and souls." ouch... this chat really hit me hard and truly got me thinking about although we're still upholding our own culture within ecuador, we still need to be very observant of their culture and even more so, respectful of their culture, because they've totally open up their lives to us... planned all these wonderful trips for us, kept us safe, and most importantly have kept us very happy.. and after all that, an opportunity comes to hang out with some cute boys, and we drop them like that... since this little "charla" i have been very observant and aware of how i'm treating my new friends here and what they're expecting of me in return.. what a big lesson that was.
monday: we had originally planned to go home this day, but poor little chelsey got some sort of food poisoning from the hamburger she ate, and couldn't keep anything down. we ended up going to the hospital with her (an adventure in itself) and making sure she was okay. after about ten hours straight of throwing up, she was slowly starting to return to herself. we played a couple card games, laughed at all the drunk people, and then finally called it a day.
tuesday: tuesday came around and everyone was feeling a little better and ready for the big car ride ahead. it had rained the entire night before, which we didn't seem to think would be a problem, but soon learned otherwise. before getting on the highway, a police officer told us a bridge had collapsed so we'd have to take an alternate route. after turning around and driving an hour and a half, when we got to the other route they too told us we'd have to wait until a truck came to clean the roads, which wouldn't be for another four hours. to make a long story short, a 5 hour car ride turned into a 16 hour car ride due to the traffic and the damage from the weather. to make a long story short though, we all made it home safely, and definitely took away a lot of cultural knowledge from this long weekend in Tonsupa.
P.S. sorry this was so long and also sorry that i didn't take single picture while i was at the beach... i didn't want to get my camera sandy or stolen. love you and miss you all!
friday: sam, chelsey, kiley, lucy and i went to a super cool artesian market before our departure to the beach and bought some cool homemade stuff. then around 2ish, we met up with our ecuadorian amigos and set off for the beach. six hours and a million curvy roads later, we finally arrived at the beach. we quickly changed clothes and headed for a restaurant. after a nice little shrimp dinner (yes, i ate some shrimp) we found this cute little bar on the beach that had little cabana-like tables and had some cerveza. it was an excellent way to start the vacation because we all ended up dancing like crazy on the beach and having a super good time. after we decided we were too covered in sand to function anymore, we headed back to the hotel, jumped in the pool quickly, and then spent the rest of the night playing guitar and singing... ¡que chévere!
saturday: we were all up and running by about nine, so we took off for some breakfast and got ready for a day at the beach. because we're in south america, soccer, aka futbol is super big here, so all the boys wanted to do was play soccer on the beach, which was fine by me because they were intrigued by my mad soccer skills ;) even though i was super sunscreen-ed up and running around on the beach, i still found myself VERY sunburnt after our games. we hopped into the ocean a couple more times, then headed back to the hotel for a little siesta. once we were all fully rested, we got ready and headed out for another seafood dinner. everyone was still pretty tired from the night before, so we all lazily sipped on piña coladas after our dinner at another oceanside bar. every now and then we would get up and dance, but for the most part it was a pretty relaxed evening until we made a new friend, whom we called "hombre misterioso" for the rest of the trip. this man was decked out in dance gear and ready to show us a salsa move or two on the dance floor. we guessed he must have been training for dancing with the stars or some crazy dance company, because honestly, when i was finished dancing with him i was afraid of throwing up because he spun us around so much and so incredibly fast... pretty darn funny.
sunday: originally we thought this would be our last day due to the crazy traffic that we were going to encounter on our way back to Quito, so we thought we'd live it up large. we ended up going to a private beach where cars weren't allowed and laid under a little tent all day laughing with friends because we were all still sunburnt. around four, half of our group decided to leave this beautiful beach because they wanted to watch a "cock fight." so it was chelsey, kiley, lucy, pablo and i left on the beach and we continued to enjoy the beautiful weather. after awhile, some boys came up to all of us girls in the ocean and invited us to some party they were having, but after talking to pablo, we decided not to, and headed back to the hotel. after some salsa dancing in the pool (yes, this was quite interesting) we all took another little nap and once again got ready for one last hurrah on the beach. the party started in our hotel at about seven with some mixed drinks, and of course some serious salsa dancing. after about and hour or two of this, my girlfriends decided they wanted to go the beach to do some dancing and after some convincing of our ecuadorian buddies, we all left for the beach. we ended up going to some little concert with life music, which was super cool to watch and listen to. after that our boyfriends decided they'd rather carry the rest of our fiesta out back at the hotel. my girlfriends however decided they weren't really ready to go back, so after some deliberation, all the ecuadorians decided to go back to the hotel while the gringos stayed to "party." my buddies all picked up a hamburger, which i still can't make myself eat, and we stayed out for about another hour or so before deciding to go back to meet up with the rest of our buddies... this is where the drama began...
so we get back to the hotel, and our amigos are sitting around talking and my friend sam and i sat down next to our friend, pablo. pablo then informed us that they had been reminiscing about the friendships they had with each other (pablo, luis, jorge, y paul aka gordito) and the strong bonds that they all had. all four of these boys had been raised only by women, and because of this, pablo told us, they were very sensitive and emotional people. after a brief chat about friendship and relationships, pablo told us that they had all been a little disappointed in us that we hadn't followed them home to the hotel when they left. he went on to tell us, that when we're together, we should be acting as a fist, staying together and looking out for each other. he said he understood that we wanted to make new friends and that this was still all so exciting for us, but at the same time we had to remember that in their culture, their worlds revolve around each other and they're always worrying about us if they're not with us. he said it made him feel really sad that earlier that day at the beach we had been so eager to drop him and hang out with the "guapos hombres" that we had met. i tried explaining to him that it was only a misunderstanding and that in the united states if you wanted someone to do something, you had to be more upfront with them and tell them for example that you want them to come back to the hotel with you. the kicker... he said that (all in spanish of course) "oh i get it, in the united states you guys think more so with your heads, but here in ecuador, we think with our heart and souls." ouch... this chat really hit me hard and truly got me thinking about although we're still upholding our own culture within ecuador, we still need to be very observant of their culture and even more so, respectful of their culture, because they've totally open up their lives to us... planned all these wonderful trips for us, kept us safe, and most importantly have kept us very happy.. and after all that, an opportunity comes to hang out with some cute boys, and we drop them like that... since this little "charla" i have been very observant and aware of how i'm treating my new friends here and what they're expecting of me in return.. what a big lesson that was.
monday: we had originally planned to go home this day, but poor little chelsey got some sort of food poisoning from the hamburger she ate, and couldn't keep anything down. we ended up going to the hospital with her (an adventure in itself) and making sure she was okay. after about ten hours straight of throwing up, she was slowly starting to return to herself. we played a couple card games, laughed at all the drunk people, and then finally called it a day.
tuesday: tuesday came around and everyone was feeling a little better and ready for the big car ride ahead. it had rained the entire night before, which we didn't seem to think would be a problem, but soon learned otherwise. before getting on the highway, a police officer told us a bridge had collapsed so we'd have to take an alternate route. after turning around and driving an hour and a half, when we got to the other route they too told us we'd have to wait until a truck came to clean the roads, which wouldn't be for another four hours. to make a long story short, a 5 hour car ride turned into a 16 hour car ride due to the traffic and the damage from the weather. to make a long story short though, we all made it home safely, and definitely took away a lot of cultural knowledge from this long weekend in Tonsupa.
P.S. sorry this was so long and also sorry that i didn't take single picture while i was at the beach... i didn't want to get my camera sandy or stolen. love you and miss you all!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
amo lo que tengo :)
hola mis amigos y familia whom i miss very much,
i know you're just dying to hear about my weekend and what's going down in Ecuador, so here goes...
to make a long story short, the BBQ saturday was unbelievably fun and amazing. they party started the second we walked in the door and there were balloons and silly string everywhere. before we knew it we were playing all sorts of games that all revolved around dancing. in one, called "baila con un globo" we had a partner and had to dance with a balloon in between us. a person would call out a move and you had to do this move without the balloon falling... too funny! another one, was pretty much like musical chairs. there would be a person in the center with a broom, and when he or she dropped the broom, you'd have to find a partner and dance together.. if you didn't have a partner, you were out. before we knew it, the boys had finished barbecuing (which consisted of steak, sausage, and some other unidentifiable meats) and we sat down for a little meal. we didn't waste much time eating, and got right back to our dancing and chatting. during the noche, we made homemade mojitos and continued to dance and laugh the night away. all in all, it was a super fun night.
pics above: the first one is from the fiesta, and the rest are of my school and the meal we all made for each other :)
on sunday, i accomplished a small victory.. i watched a movie all in spanish with NO subtitles and totally understood it all, and of course ended up crying at the end. i felt super proud for understanding a whole movie.
monday though was a super cool day. in spanish class we talked about the graffiti all over Quito and about what it meant. Some of my favorite are the following:
"la cerca no está en el jardín, está en tu mente"
-- fences don't exist in the garden, only in your mind.
"rompe la riel... y ríe"
-- break the system and laugh
"amo lo que tengo"
-- i love all that i have
so yeah, i thought that was a pretty cool and significant way to see Quito through the eyes of its inhabitants.
ALSO, yesterday our teacher told us we had to bring a typical ecuadorian food in that we had prepared for the following class. i was assigned a banana cake and rushed home to tell my mom about my assignment in hopes that she would help me. she had no idea how to make it, so she called her mom who RUSHED over with the ingredients. what a cool experience it was to work alongside three generations (my host grandma, mom, and sister) of ecuadorian women in the kitchen... we had a lot of fun and i learned quite a bit. so today in school we all brought in our plates and enjoyed a typical ecuadorian meal.
this weekend is "carnivales" where we have a 5 day weekend. 5 of us from the US and 5 of us from Ecuador are going to head over to the coast to hang out on the beach... i'm SO looking forward to this experience. sorry to you all who are still trudging through the snow in the midwest. i'll for sure add a bunch of pictures of the beach to give you guys hope for the warmer months. love you all very much and thinking about you constantly.
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