¿que te molestas del mundo y que vas a hacer para cambiarlo?

so the entire time i've been in Ecuador, all of our classes have been about development and the economy in third world countries, which is important, just not really something i'm interested in. thursday was the last lecture on this subject, and one of our professors ended it with a simple question: "what bothers you about the world and what are you going to do to change it?" obviously, this is a really broad question, but the answers that came out of my classmates were truly inspirational. answers ranged anywhere from buying local to support farmers to adopting children to help overpopulation and reduce the number of orphans. although some things weren't as important to me as others, it was so cool to be in a room full of people who are SO motivated to make a difference in this world... you could truly feel the energy... and this was only the beginning to a fun weekend.

after class, some of my friends and i decided to venture to a local university to use their library to do some homework. it was super cool to be on a campus where all the local Ecuadorian students were hanging out. we kinda did some homework, but got bored after about 2 hours, so decided we would find a place to get some pizza. my friends and i decided to ask some cute boys where a good pizza place was, and not only did they recommend us a great place, they also accompanied us for dinner :) after dinner one of the boys i was with got a call from his host brother saying they were going to go out and dance for the night. after a quick clothes change, we were ready to go to "gringolandia" to hang out and dance. we met up with the brother of my friend and our new friends also joined us so it was super cool to be hanging out with all these wonderful, welcoming people. after hours and hours of dancing and being drenched in sweat, my two girlfriends and i slept over at one of our houses.

early the next morning our friends called us to wake us up and tell us to go to the park so we could play a game of soccer. i honesly haven't missed soccer since i've played in high school, but i really enjoyed playing with my Ecuadorians friends... i even impressed them a little with my mad skills ;) after running around, hiking (where my friend chelsey tried to teach our new friends yoga in the woods haha) we decided to leave the park and go for lunch. i'm still struggling through the food here, but trying really hard to enjoy it. after a car ride full on lady gaga, shaggy, and sublime, my Ecuadorian friends dropped me off at home. i took a quick shower and then was off with my family to meet a new cousin of theirs and then go to my "Dad's" pizza place for dinner.. a great end to a great day.

today, after having pizza and hamburgers for breakfast (what?!), i'm going to jump in the shower and then head off to a barbecue of one of our new little boyfriends... definitely looking forward to it! i hope all is well back in the US (i've learned not to say "america" because people from south america are offended when we call ourselves americans, since they too are from an american continent). i miss you all mucho! muuuucho amor y paz para todo :)