Another Monday, Another Week Gone By

Though it is not really necessary for me to report, I am not the best bloggers in the world considering I do not write new posts regularly. I do believe that this is just going to have to become a weekly thing, which is good since if I actually wrote everyday then there would be way more information about my daily life than anyone really could ever want to know. That being said it is time for e to try and remember what all I have done in the last week.
Last Monday could not have been all that interesting considering I cannot remember much about it except basketball practice going-ons. Marcos chilled out in the gym with me for a while and helped me with some of my homework for a class the next day but eventually he got irritated that he could not get any work done, mainly because I would not shut up. He also had other work that he could do in the editing lab that would not require much concentration so he could put up with my incessant chatting. The tennis team ran with the basketball teams that day to warm-up, and might I just say that there is a very nice looking tennis player. Alas, he is an athlete which means I am staying far away lol. The editing lab was pretty cool and I messed around there for a little while, and then rode back home with Christy. Tuesday was basically as boring since the skulls were not turned in during modelado, I got an even crappier partner in tae kwon do and really wanted to fall asleep in my last class of the day. When people say never say it cannot get any worse listen to them. I regret ever saying anything bad about the blond girl since my tiny new partner was terrified of me and kicks and did such a bad job holding the pads that I tore some skin off of two toes. On the other hand, her bad positioning of the pads meant skin torn off her thumbs from my kicking. How thrilling Tuesday was as one may see.
Wednesday was filled with doing homework on the bus on my way to school and trying to find a ax machine. You see, on Tuesday I printed out these forms from NCSU for Christy and me so that we could go ahead and get them filled out and signed and faxed. Well, they did get filled out and signed but they are still not faxed yet. You may think it is not that hard to get around to but yet it somehow has been for us. I was quite happy that Wednesday was the last day Christy would be going to basketball practice for the week since sitting around can get pretty boring. I went shopping instead of being bored out of my mind since little Manualita had turned 4 the day before. The perfect gift for her in my mind was makeup since the child loves the stuff and puts it all over her face to the point of looking like an adorable clown. I was also searching for fabric to make a fleece blanket for Gaby and baby Alejandro who will be born in October. No such luck but exploring was indeed fun. Thursday came around and we started off the day right by being late to class. Christy was running behind and then Rosario wanted to chat. At least we were only a few minutes late. I had four different partners that day in tae kwon do, one of them being Christy which made up for being stuck with the scared girl again. The professor also decided to chastise us for talking too much in both English and Spanish and for Christys cussing. Therefore we have to bring pizza for the class tomorrow. Christy is also going to be providing liquor. I said I would not chip in for the Zhumir. Anyways, modelado was fairly boring since the skulls still were not due. I started to put on the facial muscles and then started goofing off with Carla who was working on the eyes and mouth. At one point we were bored enough with our work that Carla gave me a clay eye ball to put in my skull and then made a tongue for my skull. Even Howard our professor cracked up over it and the last minutes of class were spent repositioning the eye and tongue for comic relief. I am so happy that the skulls are due tomorrow and that we are finally moving on, even though Carla and I have started moving on already.
The rest of classes on Thursday were fairly bland as I was in ready expectation of going to the baby shower with Christy and Rosario. It was fabulous and quite an estrogen overload. There were hand-knitted baby clothes hanging up, napkins cut out in the shape of baby clothes with little bows on them, a cake with the name Alejandro on it and plenty more. The games were also fairly amusing. Christy won the word search one and receive a set of knives and i was close to winning the game of fetching the safety pins out of the rice without looking. Lost by two. It could only have been more fun if I had not hurt my foot earlier that day. Yes, I kicked with all my might and not much form that morning hurting my dear right foot. The university clinic had to get me a bandage and some ibuprofen. It still bothers me a little bit even now so I am going to have to behave tomorrow in class and not over do it. Back to the baby shower. My favorite part had to be teasing Christy about Juan Pablito who Rosario wants Christy to marry. We joked that Christy could get an extravagant baby shower like that one if she had a baby with Juan Pablo. She was not amused with it but we were having too much fun with it all.
Friday was the day I had an essay due and a quiz in my one class. To top that off I had to bring chocolate for the class for being caught talking in English. The bright side was that I discovered a new type of chocolate that I simply love. The down side was that after the quiz we had to listen to an oral presentation and an ensuing argument over racism. Bleh! That will have to be my only comment about the whole experience. I did not stay after class to mess around in the ceramics taller and instead headed back to Quito to watch Ghost with Christy to mourn the death of Patrick Swayze. On my way back I got followed again, but this time by a youth. Christy was good enough to chat with me on the cell phone and the kid left me alone after two blocks. No big deal, it was even daylight. After the movie viewing it was nap time and getting ready to go out to Mariscal. I even bothered with makeup for it. We would have made it over to Galos sooner except Christy got us lost on the bus on accident and we ended up having to take a taxi from 10 de Agosto to 6 de Deciembre. We made it nonetheless. The highlight of getting to Mariscal had to have been that Christy, Marcos and I got to ride on this thing called the gusanito all the way there instead of a taxi. Think of a carnival ride sort of like a train but instead of a real train it is a caterpillar sectioned off. Make it motorized and ready for the streets and you have the loco gusanito. The driver did lots of mini swerves that made it hilarious and at every red light everyone on the thing jumped out of their seat and ran to another seat before the light changed. Dumb? Yes. Fun? Certainly. It also helped that I was not drunk like almost everyone else on the thing. The actual rest of the night was more or less spent babysitting drunken friends with Marcos trying to ensure that no one got hurt or did anything too stupid. The main event was scolding Christy for taking a drink from a stranger. HUGE no no. Thankfully it was not drugged and we all did manage to get back home with much thanks to Marcos. Though the night was not over for Christy until after she bit Marcos and Robs ears as she got out of the car. Oh the joy that was to remind her about the next day.
Saturday did not hold much excitement. I went over to visit with Rosario and play with Emilita and Manuelita and Christy finished her painting. It was tiring yet fun and eventually I had to go back to my own home for the sake of napping. The siesta was very necessary with there being the bonfire that night with Santiago and Lorena. I took my nap and went back to the little darlings and helped get them ready to go in a hurry since little Nico was on his way and he has retro virus. We couldn't not let the girls get that. The drive to the fogata was exciting as always with a stop or two along the way to grab beverages - water for me, beer for Christy and whiskey for Santiago. Funny enough the water ended up being a hit since people poured water to mix with the whiskey so it would not be as strong. Who knew that bringing water would be such a great idea? It was chilly and the fire was a hassle to keep going, and playing ¨never have I ever¨ with drunk adults is always interesting if not completely awkward. Thankfully someone went out and bought chips and we all scarfed them down, especially me since I had not remembered to eat dinner before I left. By the time I got back I was plenty tired and ready for some sleep.
Yesterday was pretty dull. My family got dressed up to go to the supermarket, leaving at noon supposedly to return by 2 30 with some lunch for me. They did not get back until 4 with some lasagna for me. I had done tanning on the roof and had a nap with the dogs in the meantime. In hunger I had drank hot chocolate and ate lechera flakes which helped greatly until their return. With their return was the unexpected arrival of Christy and Vanessa come to do homework using the Internet at the apartment. We ate, drank hot chocolate and did not really do any homework at all. It was not until a couple hours after they left that I managed to be productive, partially because of their ridiculousness with photobooth on the mac and partially because I was keeping track of the Steelers game. My team lost! So disappointing. Well, that basically catches everything up from last week more or less. I would talk all about today now but I really ought to get some essay writing done for a study abroad scholarship application. The work and fun never stops and I might as well take advantage of no class being in the computer lab right now.

It´s already been another week?!

Obviously, I have not been very good about keeping up with this blog the last week. It seems like everything is just go go go and then when the weekend finally comes I am too exhausted to do anything much more than eat and sleep. Pretty pathetic, I know. But in my defense at NCSU I get to take naps during the day in between classes and such and even when I have classes back to back it only takes about 15 minutes to get back to wherever I am living. The bus route I have to take here lasts an hour. If I want to take a taxi it will not only cost me $10 but it will still take 20-30 minutes depending on traffic and the cabbie´s knowledge of the city. Anyways that seems like enough excuse making for one session. Time to focus on random events that I can actually remember from last week.

Lunch with Rosario and the family was pretty good, well the soup was awesome and that was basically all I would eat. The kids were fantastic and have finally stopped being so shy around Christy and I, which makes since after we played with them for like two non-stop hours. Ecuador lost the futbol game to Columbia, but it was hard to be too upset considering half of Christy´s host family is from Columbia. Talk about a house divided. I got to baby little Nico and have him fall asleep in my arms which was adorable and made my day completely. The next day I made it to church for the first time while down here and was thrilled to meet another gringa there. We stuck together through the service and then Jenna came over to my house to hang out and get to know each other a little more. She was with a completely different type of program and was not studying at a local university. Instead her program had them in poor and kind of dangerous parts of the city and they have like 8 week internships in rural villages at the end of the semester. Though her group had been playing everything safe more or less they had encountered so many problems in the 3 weeks they had been there. A host family molested their international student, people had been robbed, a girl got attacked in a taxi and Jenna herself had been followed home. Thankfully everyone was ok and no harm had come to my new friend from that experience of hers. Nonetheless she was not in good humor about the whole situation and said that she was actually in the process of switching programs entirely and going to costa Rica to join a program there 2 weeks late. I did not want to lose my new church friend so soon but I could understand her worries and figured we could at least enjoy the time we had if indeed she would be leaving in a week.

Not really sure how some people do smart things and end up in bad situations and others do dumb stuff and turn out just fine. My group would be the latter group. That very Sunday we decided to go to Guapulo for a fiesta thing they were having there. I invited Jenna along so she could meet some actual nice Ecuadorians and Christy was of course up for the fun. It would have been better had Galo actually known where he was going, but he didn´t. We were a little lost before we found out that from where he had parked the car we had to go all the way down this hill into Guapulo. How did we get there? (Do not freak out my parents.) Galo had chatted with some stranger about how to get there and the four of us got into the stranger´s car for a free ride down the way. No worries - we were perfectly fine, the guy was nice and I was ready to strike if he tried any funny business. He did not, the stupidity ended safely and we made it to Marcos and Scarlet. Wow. the festivities were rare. People were dressed up like clowns, gorillas and cowboys while people riding in the back of trucks threw oranges into the crowd. People collected those oranges like Halloween candy - I have never seen anything quite like it before in my life. I did get a nice eyefull of some pigs´heads ready to be bought and eaten. Ewww. Being with a vegetarian did not help the case very much. When we decided we had had enough (aka no more oranges) we made our way part way up the hill to a cute cafe where we enjoyed some tea and hot chocolate. Marcos then gave us a lift back up to Galo´s car and everyone arrived safely home. Yay!

The school week was about like any other except Christy getting sick and me barely being able to move for a couple of days. Monday brought on a writing project in pairs during creative writing which I thoroughly enjoyed as the four words Andrea and I received for our narration were: elephant, tree, monday and bridge. The story got to be about a depressed and lonely elephant. We did not actually finish it that day and we would get to finish up on Wednesday. Monday was also the day elected for getting Christy´s passport back and getting censos. that was a bit of a disaster. She was feeling awful, we got lost and never actually made it to the passport place. Rosario did not understand on the phone that Christy did not have her passport back yet and her directions ended up leading us to the place to get a censo. So after riding up and down 6 de Deciembre for half an hour and asking tons of people how to get where we needed to go, only I walked away with a censo. Christy would go with vanessa on Wednesday instead. Due to her not feeling well, Rosario was immediately informed upon us reaching the house that she was ill which got Christy locked up in the house the rest of the day. Yes, it was a low blow to a friend but she had to get better and who knows it might have ended up being the swine flu if she did not take it easy.

Still not feeling her best there was no tae kwon do for her on Tuesday morning. No, I had to go by myself. Any day that i would ever try to be early I can never do it, that day I was at the martial arts classroom by 8:05am. It was hard to kill that much time. On top of that the rest of the class decided to be late that day. The best was yet to come though. We practiced other kicks that day, kicks that we had to do at waist level and then, oh the pain, face level. Let´s just say that after professor dude stretched my leg out so many times for me to get it right I was in true pain. i was praying for it to be time for abdominal just so the torture would stop. I was never happier to run to ceramics than Tuesday. On the bright side of life, since she skipped her first two classes, Christy decided not to go to basketball practice either which meant I got to go home earlier.

Wednesday brought with it new fun seeing as I forgot my partial narrative about the baby elephant at home. I therefore had to spend the entire bus ride to Cumbaya rewriting. It actually ended up better and Andrea loved it but I still felt a little bad about it. Worse still when I realized that it had been in my backpack all along. What I rewrote was good though so it ended up not mattering, but still that was rough. I went home by myself that day since the others were off to get their censos. I did not eat lunch by myself though as Marcos needed someone to eat lunch with early and he took me to this cheap place that was pretty good. Quite happy. The rest of the day passed in decent boredom.

Oh dear, tae kwon do was back to its usual craziness on Thursday with the return of Christy, which was good. The bad was that I got a new partner who is basically a blonde ditz who does not understand the meaning of extending your leg for a good kick. I miss my old partner :( The rest of the day passed with general ease after my partner disappointment, but not until after a surprise quiz in global lit. Of course I was put into the group with the question about the story I had not really read like the other one. I wrote on the opposite question instead since I actually had something to say about that. I know, its terrible and dishonest but the class is filled to the brim with natives and I did not want to look stupid. Whatever, what is done is done. I finished my freaking out about the whole quiz thing by basketball practice and commenced on writing my story for creative writing which is not due until September 28th. See, I do not procrastinate about everything, just the things that do not interest me very much. The joy of writing made up for my grand disappointment upon arriving at home only to get a phone call from dear Jenna to say that she would be on a plane the next morning for Costa Rica. As easily as i got a church friend, I lost her.

Well, thank the Lord for Fridays since I was exhausted by the time it came around. I really really love fridays. I get to sleep in and then only have one class followed by play time in the taller de ceramica. Life is always good on Fridays. Vincent brought chocolate to class that was delicious, I had fabulous bread to snack on for lunch and I spent 3 hours in the taller. Happiness! I only need 15 hours outside of class in the taller but I already have ten completed. You could say that I like the class and am enjoying the challenge immensely. The rest of Friday is kind of a blur to me and I have no idea what I was up to which probably means I did some napping and messing on the laptop.

Saturday fun started late since I slept in until about 10am. My host family was going to a wedding at 12 so I did not really feel like getting up right away. But when Christy called about a mall trip I was game. We crammed into Carla´s car with Vanesa and Rosario and were off. I bought a mini stapler that uses tiny staples at the bookstore for $1.30 which just made my day. The day could have been completely perfect had we not been abandoned by the host mommies there. It was not intentional. Carla does not have a cell phone, Rosario left hers at home and did not know Christy´s number and after looking for us they left. We took a cab back to the houses. The other two needed to nap before going to the free QuitoFest concert which I was just not interested in attending. So while they napped I spent some time watching Rosario paint and then headed back to my house to get ready for a Saturday night youth group like thing at the church. I got there and it was great, I right away made a new friend who was wonderful and welcoming. Though i had left my Bible back at the house I was still able to follow everything well, except the song whose lyrics I did not know. It was all spiffy until it was time to leave. Why? I got followed part of the way home by some creepy guy. he had shone up an hour late to the meeting and then hung around not talking to anybody while I was chatting away. I tried to lose him outside by going to the bathroom because he gave me the creeps. did not work. So I pulled out my cell and tried Christy who had no reception and then Galo. Galo answered and I kept him on the phone. Relief - I thought i had lost him - no such luck. by the time I needed to cross the big intersection he was right beside me again. Galo was not getting off that phone. Due to God´s great mercy and protection the guy quit following me once we had crossed the street. Galo was a good friend and stayed on the phone with me until I was safely at the house and all was well.

Yesterday was not so eventful. Went to church as the only gringa. Got back in time for my family to leave for a visit. napped with the dogs for a couple hours to pass the time until they returned with some lunch for me, which was supposed to be by 3pm. they got back by 4pm instead which ended up being fine. I scarfed down my food and started doing some homework, shortly after accompanied by Christy and Vanessa. Yay homework party! By 7pm it was time for them to leave and go eat some dinner and I went to watching movies on youtube. Lupe´s brother came over for a visit but I mainly just said hi and nice to meet you and was back in my room with hot chocolate until I fell asleep.

So that basically catches everything up. I would write about today but this is already so long and I have to get back to the gym in time for basketball practice ending. Adios.

First full Week of Classes

Well, it has past. I have now been in classes for an entire week. It has been challenging, fun and exhausting, but well worth it. Best memories of the week include getting better at taekwondo and being late to it on Thursday followed by Christy constantly disrupting the class. Good thing the teacher likes her and chooses to just laugh at her. We were only 30 minutes because I woke up at 7:20 instead of 6:20 which was not good at all. My host mother did not think to wake me up even though she has to remember that I have 8:30 classes and must leave for the bus by 7:15am to be on time. It all worked out fine so it does not really matter anyways. I have also spent 5 hours outside of class working on my skull for my clay modeling class. If I put in like two more hours I might finally have that darn thing right. He is still a bit too fat right now and needs to have his features smoothed and thinned out. I may never be a Rodin but I am certainly going to get this skull right. The best day of class was definitely Tuesday when they were celebrating the university's 21st birthday. There were balloons everywhere and all the class were let out at 12:30 to enjoy a mini "fiesta" including cake. I did not eat any of the cake but I did enjoy get out of class 30 minutes early. Having a short Tuesday made it better that I stayed with Christy at the university until 6pm on Thursday. Since she is so tall the basketball coach recruited her to practice with them a couple days a week to prepare for an off-season tournament this fall. After intense tae kwon do and then two hours of training for basketball, she was ready to pass out. We both ended up going to bed quite early that night, myself getting almost 12 hours of sleep. How glorious!
Thankfully, we are getting the hang of the bus system. We know which buses to take and where is even the best place for us to be in those buses, especially the trole bus that takes us home. One has to be right by the door when the stop is there or there is no way you are getting out with people cramming in so quickly. Today Christy and I ran into one of my classmates on our way to class and he showed us the third bus he takes in the morning which is actually much more reliable than where we usually wait for a bus to Cumbaya. Needless to say, we will be taking that bus for now on in the mornings.
I am sure that I have forgotten many things since I have not blogged much this week. So I suppose I will just focus the rest of my time on today. It has been pretty much perfect so far. After a decent amount of sleep last night I was able to wake up rested and ready for the day. Then a most marvelous shower, even if i did have to continually mess with the knobs so i was not being scolded or frozen, make me feel fresh and like a layer of dirt had been washed away. The fresh squeezed juice coupled with my hot chocolate made me even more ready for my one class of the day, even if the majority of the class was missing. class went by quickly with enough amusement though I did get caught talking in English and the "punishment" for that is having to bring chocolate for everyone in the class. not the worst punishment since I know where little 10cent chocolate is. Two hours later I reluctantly left the ceramics taller with Christy to ride the buses back with a friend, though both of us could have probably spent a couple more hours there if not for hunger. I have not felt much like working on homework quite yet and will probably focus on that tomorrow and have instead contented myself with cleaning my room (it did not take long for me to get it messy) and watching a Doris Day sequel to "On Moonlight Bay" through youtube. Now I am tired but will fight to stay awake so that I might be able to chat with beloved Annie tonight. Guess I will just do some more abdominal exercises to help myself with my martial arts moves. That's all for now. For after tomorrow's lunch with Gabriela, Rosario and the kiddies.