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.