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.
No comments:
Post a Comment