So this afternoon I write in a little bit of a limbo because I don't have classes. We have had more than a full week between the last session of Spanish and this next session. It starts on Wednesday, so I have two days now to catch up on the business that needs done, which includes writing on the blog that I have neglected for a month. I haven't really felt like writing because a while ago I lost my thumb drive. 8GB of audiobooks and two months of photos were lost. I was a little upset. Luckily my team is all sharing photos, so I won't be totally out of memories, but I had some great photos and it is sad that I no longer have them.
My dad left Saturday night for the States. He was here for 6 days and we nearly wore each other out! It was a fantastic visit. My dad even took all of us that were in Quito out to dinner, which ended up being really swell, as we ate at this great little restaurant looking over Old Town Quito. We went to Baños and the Teleférico and La Basilica and El Museo del Banco Central and PUCE and the zoo and the big market. We had tons of fun. I can't say how much I miss my family, so it was fantastic to have a member here to share my current home with me.
I'm missing Moscow a lot. I'm fairly jealous of those that are there and got to enjoy the fall colors of the city and campus. Not that I'm not having fun here, I just love Moscow too. And home.
So, I am having to patch together what I have done since I last wrote using my diary, which, I will admit, is not always completely descriptive. I think that the last time I wrote was after Baños and the rafting trip.
So the week after Baños, we did our volunteer work. I went to Las Casas on Tuesday and felt completely useless. The language barrier makes it so hard! Compounded on top of that is the fact that they do all their stuff here differently. The whole schooling system is different. Kids have to have their careers picked out in high school so they can begin focusing on them then. That would suck. I don't even know what I want to do with my life yet, I just know what I like and I am going from there. But on this particular Tuesday, I was in the older kids' class and I was trying to help a little boy with his long division and besides the fact that it has been far too long since I have done long division to remember how to do it, everything about his method was backward from what I thought I knew. So while I was helping someone else, the kid started to cry silently and the other kids just wanted to gather around and watch him cry and poke fun at him. It was very very sad because there was nothing I could do to help him! Plus, I remember feeling exactly the same way in elementary school. Learning new concepts in math and then having a huge assignment in front of you is so incredibly daunting! It's not like it's something you can just look up in a book and read about and automatically know. I remember nights where I would cry over my math homework because I was so frustrated and those were not fun.
Wednesday was again at La Opción de Vida and we again did laundry. I think if I didn't have David there with me, I would go mad from boredom. But he keeps me laughing and talking and joking, so we have a good time. That and the bags of cookies they give us every week.
Thursday was taco and crepe night at Caitlin's house. Mmmmm.... they were so good. I love our weekly food parties we have as the Idaho team. They make me happy and it's a really cool tradition. Coolest part? I started it. :)
The weekend was Otavalo, which was both interesting and informative. Otavalo is a small town that is well-known for its massive marketplace. It was pretty incredible, though I didn't spend much money because I just wasn't feeling it.
We stayed at this really cool place called Las Cabañas del Lago, or The Cabins on the Lake. The place was so cool! Caitlin and I shared a cabin which had a fireplace! The hotel had bunnies to pet and chickens and mini-golf and a swimming area and a restaurant and these fantastic tire-swing-zipline things. While we had a break, we built a fire in Caitlin and my cabin and chilled out. Then we had a coffee break. We thought some of the desserts were for us, but we were informed that no, we just got coffee and empanadas. The restaurant seemed to be proudly displaying their mousses and I really wanted one, so as Cait, a girl from Keene State, Massachusettes, was walking past our table, I asked her to grab me one, all casual-like because I knew she didn't know that they weren't for us. So as one of the waitresses was pouring coffee, Cait waited and then as if it was the most natural thing in the world, she grabbed me a chocolate mousse, gave it to me and went to her own table. We laughed and laughed and laughed at that one, not telling her until much later what exactly that all was about.
Between that coffee break and dinner, three of the girls decided to start drinking, but David Alex, David, Landon, Caitlin and I decided to go swimming in the chilly lake. It was very dark and very cold and the guys were mostly swimming in boxers because they hadn't anticipated the swimming. In the swimming area, there was a very large inflatable play area that had a ladder and a slide/jumping thing. I climbed up it and when I got to the top, the whole thing folded on me! It collapsed forward so that I was stuck somewhere in between the big climb-up part and the jump-onto part.
When we all gathered to get on the boat that would take us around the lake, it was pretty obvious that the girls were drunk. The boat ride consisted of one of the men from another college and one of the women from ours making-out, before she started majorly throwing up over the side of the boat. And yeah, we were mad at the other guy for making-out with someone he should have known was so drunk. When we docked, it took her a minute and several helpers to get up from the puking position and off the boat. She was taken to her room and put in bed, where multiple people took care of her. Luckily for us, one of the girls that was on the trip was an EMT in her hometown and since it was a college town, drunk people were her specialty. Our girl kept getting worse, forgetting her name and unable to answer questions. Impressively, however, she would answer English questions in Spanish. While wasted. Idaho stayed late into the night because we were so worried and eventually a medic was called and she got an IV. Needless to say, by the next morning, she was feeling pretty lousy about what had happened and apologized profusely to everyone. Honestly, we were all just glad that she was okay. People sometimes make mistakes, but I'm just glad hers was recoverable. Before she went to sleep with the IV, I left her some bread because she happens to be a bread fanatic, and she started giggling uncontrollably.
Before 7 in the morning, Caitlin, David Alex, Landon, David and I were out swimming again. My oh my, how cold that was! The sun had only recently risen and we were jumping from a half a story up. I'll admit, the combo of morning wood and cold water and a lack of a proper swimsuit was really disgusting. Caitlin and I just acted like everything was normal.
Breakfast was divine! Such great eggs. We got to sit in the sunshine and have real coffee. That afternoon we also saw Correa, the president of Ecuador. Pretty cool. He's a handsome fellow. Some people got to shake his hand and get a picture with him, but I did not. I was okay with that, since he looked a little peeved at not being able to enjoy his meal because of stupid Americans.
The week to follow was pretty average. Classes, volunteer work, go-go-go. I also noticed that I'm putting on weight and it is driving me a little mad. I have so little opportunity for exercise here, because of both the lack of time and the danger in doing most things. I got a fake bill as an IOU which was really frustrating because I couldn't spend it. Luckily the girl replaced it with a real one for me. My cousin got married.
As an outing for my Spanish class, we went to Cochasquí, a site with ancient pyramids from ancient people. That was fun, but Caitlin, Ashley and I decided to roll down one of them like we used to do when we were little. We discovered that there were pokies, but we put on sweatshirts and rain jackets and went for it anyway. That was a bad choice! They went through our jeans and sweatshirts and rain jackets. My rain jacket even got ripped on the sleeve from one. I had rashes all over my arms and thighs for a week and I was digging out tiny little slivers from my arms because they were swelling up. Bleh.
When we got home, I hung out with the Davids for a while until we had pizza night at Ashley's. We were supposed to go to Natalie's, but her mom was sick. The BBQ chicken pizza was so freaking amazing! I went home a little early to catch my host-cousin's going-away party, which was delightful! Homemade mojitos and fantastic desserts! Ooo boy they were good.
The next week was USB-losing week, so I didn't really like that much.
The weekend after we went to the beach! We played in the waves and body-surfed and exhausted ourselves completely. The food was fantastic and the company was great. I hung out with the guys because the girls were being pretty boring. During the day, they just wanted to lay in the sun in bikinis and at night they just wanted to drink. So I was a kid and played in the waves and SLEPT. And I didn't even get burnt until the last day! At which point I fell asleep in the sun while the girls were gone for lunch and got so burnt that I am still peeling.
Then of course was my dad's visit, followed by a lounging day yesterday, watching How I Met Your Mother with the Davids. David stayed until 10:30, at which point my host-brother kicked him out so he could turn on the alarm. I'm getting really frustrated that they don't trust me to do anything. They must think I am incompetent because they won't give me the password for the alarm in case I come home and it goes off, nor will they teach me how to turn it on so that they don't have to wait up for me to go to bed. Because I don't want to make them wait up for me and rearrange their schedules so they're always around when I am. I like having an empty house sometimes. And I want to not bother them, but I also want to have friends stay over or make my own schedule but I CAN'T. And it is really getting to me because I feel like now they think I am rude for keeping them up or being too un-planned, but I just want a little bit of my freedom! I want to come and go as a please without feeling like I am bothering anyone! So... as you can tell, I am a little upset about this.
Well, this is all I have for right now. I'll post some photos later, but for now I hope everyone is doing well! Peace, Love and Oreos! (Eat an Oreo for me, would you?)
Emily
