1 month left with my Family in Cuenca:(

I cannot believe I haven't updated this in over a week!  So little time with this new semester.  Tuesday was my Dad's birthday and he turned 60, it was a good day!  I had cooking class, so for lunch we made ensebollada, a warm fishy soup, and we made some plaintain and egg mixture, for dessert we had sweet plaintains.  This meal turned out well!  After cooking class I had to go to my teacher's condo to watch our movie and have class.  I liked having class there!  After class I went for a quick walk with Andres and back home.  I had to finish my homework that night.  Wednesday was a normal day we watched a movie about white and black priveledge and it is really oping my eyes to how Americans live.  Wednesday night we went to a concert with Calle Trece and Manu Chau!  It was very interesting!  It was a mix between reggeaton and rap and lots of hippies.  It was a crazy experience.  Thursdays are when we go out to the CEDEI school to observe and help teach.  We had to take a bus out there.  We got on what we thought was the correct bus, it was the correct line but we caught it in the wrong direction.  We took the bus to another town and the driver made us get off and on the bus going back into town.  So we eventually made it there after about an hour and fifteen minutes.  I love the teacher I am observing she is so full of energy.  The teacher I am working with in from the United States and is an Early childhood major.  I love being around the preschoolers, they are just different than the kinders.  After the CEDEI school I went home and worked on homework.  Kim came over later in the day to help me make a video for cheerleading tryouts.  I found out yesterday I will be cheerleading for Ambrose in the Fall!! I am so excited :)  Friday came slow because I thought last week took forever.  Friday I went for a run in the morning and then had spanish class.  We had a test and it was easy especially because we are just starting past tense regular verbs.  After spanish I went home for lunch, we had fish and shrimp mixture with some sauce.  I am starting to love shrimp!  I ate all the shrimp and couldn't eat the fish because they had tiny bones in.  It was good though.  I went to Supermaxi with Kim and Teresa later to get some alcohol and various goodies, I even bought apples!  After Teresa came home with me to get ready for the night and we were off to dance class.  We did salsa and reggeaton at dance!  My favorite!  After dance class we walked to Pizza Hut and later went to Zoe's house to hangout before going to the discotecca.  We got to Gabbia and immediately started dancing!  I was asked to dance by a guy and when I turned to look it was Leo!  Leo was the first guy I danced with in Ecuador!  He is awesome!  Even my friends said they would look over and I would just always be smiling and laughing because I feel comfortable dancing goofy with him.  We left around 1am because we had camping in Cajas, Saturday morning.  I had set my alarm for 6:30am, but instead of getting up, I turned it off.  Luckily Kim called me at 8 to make sure I was up and my mom came in because she thought I had to leave at 8am.  I had about 20 minutes to eat breakfast and pack for camping!  I was already dreading it before I left my house.  We get to school and we had to go pick up all of our camping equipment.  We loaded the van and had about a 30minute drive through the curvey Andes mountains.  We arrived at our location!  We got our boots on and we had to help carry all this equipment down to the camp site.  It was about a twenty minute walk and it wasn't straight and flat either.  We got to where we would be spending the night and we were taught how to put up the tents.  That was easy I could have handled ours by myself.  After setting up camp we were headed on our hike.  We were told our hike was going to be about 2-3hrs.  We just had to climb a mountain and circle it.  It was beautiful to see Cajas from different heights and being able to push myself.  However our guides got lost while hiking and we had to take a completely different route which was very dangerous!  I have never been so scared for my life.  We had mud from head to toe!  We had to grab onto plants so we wouldn't fall off the mountain.  Some plants were really sharp and my hands got all cut up. I just wanted to be back at camp!  We finally made it down our mountain and then we had to cross the lakes and go through a quicksand area and through a forest.  It was crazy what I had to do, but I did it!  We finally made it back to our camp site.  I was exhausted!  Luckily they had hot soup and tea waiting for us.  Oh yeah did I mention Cajas is in the Paramo and it is freezing.  On our hike it sleeted and hailed!  After tea we changed into dry and warm clothes for the night.  We had pasta and some canned beef soup thing.  Of course it wouldn't be camping without marshmallows and smores.  We enjoyed them and in Ecuador there is a famous warm alcoholic drink.  It is made with Zhumir a sugar cane alcohol and cinnamon and water and sugar!  It is so good and warms you right up.  I couldn't take it any longer.  I had to force myself to go to the bathroom for the first time in nature.  I was so scared an animal would attack me or I would pee on myself.  It was so weird but I had my friends with me to help me along.  Luckily I only had to go once while camping.  It was 830 and we were all tired so we went to bed.  I guess the other three girls in my tent couldn't sleep well and would wake up every hour.  I slept like a rock until 430 am rolled in!  I woke up with my eye swollen shut and puffed up the size of a golf ball.  I had the other girls look at it.  I took two benedryl and went back to sleep hoping it was just a nightmare and would get better.  Woke up again around 8am when everyone else was getting up and the guides were making breakfast.  My eye had gotton worse.  I could even see and I looked horrible!  The guides didn't seem to care that I had a slight problem.  We were suppose to go for an hour hike but because I had an emergency we packed up and left.  My depth perception was really bad.  I would take a step and fall over.  I would think a step was shorter than it really was and vice versa.  Needless to say I was struggling.  I had no option but to go to the doctor, I had homework I needed to do.  We got back and I walked into my house and my dad thought I got mugged or beaten up,  he was freaking out, which made hysterical I couldn't even talk, so he called down my sister who speaks english and asked what was going on.  I just said I woke up from camping like this.  I HATE CAMPING!  MY mom made me put ice on it and then I took a shower and brushed my teeth.  I had to go to the doctor with one of the coordinators.  I got ot meet a new Doctor in Ecuador, Dr. Martinez, luckily he spoke fluent english.  He was shocked when he saw me!  He examined my head and in the mean time the swelling had moved to my right eye as well.  He thinks that a spider had bite me and I had an allergic reaction to it or it was poisonous.  I have many little bumps on my left temple which feel like I have little rocks under my skin.  I looked like I had a bad plastic surgery.  The Doctor prescribed me some medicine and then I had to go to the ER to get a cortozon shot.  After all of this hassle I am so exhausted from the medicine, not being able to see and looking scary!  I get home and my dad is having his 60th birthday party not only is my family here the whole extended family on both sides were over.  Some I have only met once and others I have never met.  I told my mom I was sorry for the interuption and I just wanted to sleep.  Right outside my room were all these people and I could hear them talking about what had happened to me.  My family know I understand what they are saying but I don't think the rest knew how much I understood because I could hear and understand everything.  Luckily the shot kicked in and I passed out.  I woke up and my mom brought dinner into me.  No wine for me today.  My dad came in with her to make sure I was okay, which I wasn't.  I finished my plate and my dad came in with my mom's brother who is a cardiologist.  I didn't have anything wrong with my heart?  But my mom wanted to make sure the medicine was okay and to see if I needed to do anything else.  He was as shocked as I was I think.  I went into the house to get more water and all the old ladies looked a me with disbelief and said they felt sorry for me.  My mom gave me more ice and I fell asleep again.  Monday morning sure came fast.  I had already done my assignment for Monday so I had no reason not to go to class other than I only had one eye.  I was so tired mentally and physically.  I didn't want to have this happen to me but there is a postive that came with it.  Walking to school, I never got so many stares.  Usually it is cat calls and Monday people looked at me like I was deformed and looked like this my whole life.  I seriously got to live the life of how some people have to live everyday.  It made me realize they are normal too and not defined by their appearance.  I made it to class and could barely read my homework.  We had a group meeting and I was off to my house.  I slept more until I was called in for lunch.  My eye seemed top improve the most with ice.  I woke up from the nap exhausted and knew I was unable to walk back to my next class.  I hate missing class but I had to miss it because I needed my eye to walk.  I slept more and more.  I couldn't even look in the mirror without crying because I was so embarrassed because of what I looked like.  My eye started to open a little Monday night and I woke up this morning with my eye mostly open and almost back to normal.  The doctor told me it would be up and down for five to ten days.  I struggled a lot without my eye, I fell trying to put pants on, I couldn't do my hair, wear contacts, or makeup, I couldn't tell when there was a slope in the sidewalk and instead I would just trip over myself.  I learned a lot about myself and others throughout this experience.  Today I woke up with a lot of pain.  I ate breakfast took my pills and went back to bed until I had to get ready for class.  I only had a two minute walk to the Condo to watch a movie.  we watch Evida a movie on Eva a first lady married to Perron of Argentina.  It was interesitng.  I went home for lunch and then met up with Teresa and went to scope out some more souvenirs.  I am trying to decide what is perfect for each person.  After we went and got ice cream and I bought some movies and went home.  I worked on homwork the rest of the night and had dinner with my family.  I don't think anything else could go wrong, especially now that I took off that darn bracelet that was suppose to ward off evil spirits.  It just made things worse.  So it is now in the trash.  I hope everything is uphill form here and I am able to enjoy my last month in Cuenca.  Chau for now :)

Friday was a normal friday, got up went for a run by the river, had breakfast, showered, and went to class.  I only had Spanish class on Friday.  I was the first student in class and the teacher discussed with me why I wasn't taking the class for credit.  I would take the class for credit but I don't need it, but I have to take a spanish class while in Ecuador.  She then told me that I should minor or major in spanish because I show such a strong interest in spanish.  That made me proud hearing that.  She boosted my confidence a lot.  I went home for lunch, it's lent so we had fish.  After lunch I had time for a quick siesta and time to work on some homework.  Then I had dance class at 6pm, it was fun!  We learned an arabian/belly dance then we reviewed salsa, and finished with a popular dance to a popular reggeaton song.  After dance class we went to Chiplote, the best place to get burgers in Cuenca, I believe.  After dinner we went to Kim's house.  We were going to watch Tangled but that turned into dancing on her roof because she has a good view of Cuenca.  Some of the girls left to go buy Rum, which personally I don't like so I stayed with Kim and Andres.  Of course her brother needed to talk to me but that 5 minute chat turned into two hours, because he got nervous.  He ended up asking me to be his girlfriend.  So I guess I could say I have an Ecuadorian boyfriend, whether that is good or bad.  Well eventually the night ended well and I went back home.  I woke up Saturday morning early because I had a ceramics class.  We all learned how to make ceramics and not on an automatic wheel, might I add.  It was indeed a workout for my leg.  I went back home took a siesta and worked on homework.  For lunch my mom and sister and I all went to the mall to eat.  My mom ordered me a chicken and steak combo with papas fritas.  I ate so much, but my mom and sister ate just as much, but then we all got ice cream and a cookie, talk about filling!  Needless to say I didn't eat dinner Saturday night and was fine with just tea.  Then I went over to Zoe's house and then we went to try out a new Discotecca, Gabbia.  It was different then we were used to.  But since it was a girls night, we had a lot of fun, plus since we are gringas, we get in free!  We stayed there until the club closed at 2am.   I slept till 11am Sunday because I was exhausted!  I got up had breakfast and went for a run!  When I returned I told my mom that I wanted to die in the kitchen instead of I wanted to watch her in the kitchen.  So that was funny for her.  I love watching my mom cook, she just loves being in the kitchen so much!  It's not like a chore for her, it's like a hobbie.  We had shrimp, chicken, carne de res, cebollas, peppers, mushrooms, and eggs to make on this grill we put in the middle of the table.  It was a lot of fun just talking and eating.  I was full immediately but my mom thought I was scared to get more food so she kept pillin it on my plate finally I said I was full.  My dad asked if I wanted wine and I said sure, but that one glass turned into three, because he doesn't ask, he just kind of poures.  For dessert my mom made apple cinnamon muffins!  They were so good!  I was falling asleep at the table because of the wine, so my dad told me to go take a siesta.  I think he planned this lol.  No but that little nap turned into four hours and I still had homework to do.  I was up till 11pm finishing it.  Monday morning came way to fast.  I had an education class, then spanish, then lunch break, then another education class.  After I went to buy a 70cent ice cream cone from the chocolate place and buy my dad some chocolates for his birthday tomorrow!  My dad is going to be 60 tomorrow!  That is crazy to me because he has so much energy!  Well the rest of my night is going to be spent reading Out of my Mind by Sharon Draper and I suggest everyone read this book!  It is excellent and I don't want to put it down!  Oh yeah, today I got a birthday card in the mail from my god-mother, Linda.  Not going to lie it made me cry, because I haven't talked to them in so long!  Linda if your reading this, Thanks for the card and picture of Taylor, I hope to see her eventually!  Chau!  Buenas Noches :)

Lucky Me!

I try so hard not to focus on the days I have left until I have to return to the U.S.  When I first came here and was miserably sick I took out my calendar and wrote how many days I have left here.  I wish I would have never done that because now it makes me sad.  Well a little about my week so far...Monday night was quite interesting I got to catch up with my mom a lot about what has been going on.  My mom is one of those people you can talk hours to and not even notice the time.  She warmed me up some soup and made me a grilled cheese!  While I was eating she had this antique grinder hooked up to the table and she was grinding up soybeans!  I thought oh no I'm sitting here and you could kill me.  Luckily she didn't and she got to explain to me about the machine and why she prefers to buy the natural beans and grind them herself.  She also puts them in a beverage she drinks every morning, apparently it's suppose to help with metapause.  Interesting.  Tuesday I got to sleep in a little but I did a lot of organizing my stuff for my new classes.  Then I had ecuador Experience.  We talked about our book and watched a movie on Mexico.  After class we started cooking class today.  I wasn't really to thrilled because I knew if I was involved with anything in the kitchen it wouldn't turn out.  Our instructor made each one of us help cut everything and mix things.  First thing I had to get over was cutting the pork.  That was tough.  We ended up making loca papas soup and I foget the name of the main dish but it had pork, motte potta, ensalada of onion and tomatoes, it was so filling, and out dessert was boca (fruit) that we cooked in cinnamon water.  After cooking class I went home, my mom was still clearing up from lunch and she had left over juice, so I got to drink good juice and not nastey tomatoe de arbol.  My dad went to get my backpack fixed because it had a huge hole by the zipper, and it only cost $2!  then I went for a run down by the river!  It was beautiful I'd go there everyday, I have a free weekend so I'm going to do a little exploring and taking pictures!  When I got back I had to shower quick and look professional because the president of St. Ambrose was coming to meet my host family and then take the Ambrose girls out for dinner!  Of course I was the only one who really dressed up, but I want to leave an impression, and I think I did.  The maestro was here fixing my ceiling when Sister Joan came over.  We saved the tour for the end of the conversation because  it was still being fixed.  We talked a lot, actually sister Joan and my mom talked a lot; Dunia, my sister, and myself did the translating.  One question Sister Joan asked me was if I enjoyed my host family and how it is to come into another family.  That was easy!  My family here treats me like their own daughter, we all eat, watch movies, talk, do chores, and everything else as a family.  We never have meals where anyone is alone, and we are just very close as a family.  I told Sister Joan that I love my family here almost more than back home because here I have a "real family" by meaning we are all together, helping eachother, and never complaining; well just my dad when he wants more dessert. lol.  But then she made me translate it to my mom and it was interesting, I started crying especially when I told her about my dad walking me to school the first days of classes!  Sister Joan said I probably feel this way because I have only known them as an adult and don't have a past, It's the person I want to be.  After talking for easily two hours, she got a tour of where I live and then we were off to La Vina.  It's our favorite restaurant!  There we met Kim and Erin.  We all ordered and it was a good time.  It was really nice getting to know Sister Joan and listening to all her advice and stories, and even wanting me to be in this political group, which I am so excited for!  After we took pictures and said our goodbyes we got in a cab and took everyone home.  I went with Kim home to see Andres!  So exciting because I really missed him, when I was in the Galapagos.  I only stayed about an hour because I wanted to get home and see my family.  Then it was time for bed.  Wednesday already?  My busy day I had an education class at 8am, espanol at 10:30, and another education class at 3pm.  In between I went home to eat lunch with my family.  Our lunch was really good!  We had vegetable beef soup and really good chicken and cheesey potatoes, and vegetables.  After class I worked on homework. One of our books is called Out of my Mind and I suggest everyone who wants to be a teacher or anyone with a special needs chil, friend, or sibling to read this book!  It is about a little girl named Melody who has cerebral Palsey and a photgraphic memory.  We were only aloud to read the first quarter of the book and that was simple, now I want to finish it, but I have to wait a month.  Its okay because I have observation and four other books to read for his classes!  For dinner we had soup and salchi papas, which are frech fries and hotdogs covered in a mayonaise and ketchup mixture.  I did some more homework and went to bed.  Thursday, today we went to the CEDEI school for little kids.  I got to be with the kindergarteners, but usually I will be with preschoolers and kindergartners.  I will probably go an extra day to be with the Speech Pathologist.  After Erin and I went to a Salon to get our hair done.  Well I let Erin go first and she only wanted highlights, but the woman was doing a full color with brown!  It was horrible luckily we caught it in time, got it washed out and left!  Needless to say we aren't returning there, I told my mom and she said she would go with me sometime to her salon.  But after today, I think I can wait for Tammy to do my hair in May!  It was just my mom and myself at lunch today, we had my favorite, filling Pea Soup!  We also had a new pasta dish with chicken and mushrooms,  I really liked it!  The rest of the afternoon has been spent doing homework and catching up on rest.  Don't get me wrong I do really miss my mom back home, I'm just growing as a person and anxious to see how it will be when I get back to the real world.  Chau mis amigas!

Galapagos... A whole another world!

Tuesday started off a terrific day!  It was my last day of biology and all we had to do was present our final papers.  Mine was based on organic chocolate and coffee and shade grown rather than sun grown.  So our teacher brought in chocolate and coffee.  This shade grown organic coffee was so good I didn't even have to add cream or sugar!  After biology class I went for a walk with Andres and we went to sit and talk in the park before I left.  He got me a really neat red feather earing!  Me and my feathers, he knows me to well!  I was surprised!  After I had Ecuador Experience, we watched a movie on Bolivia and discussed our reading and various political things.  After Ecuador Experience we had a birthday celebration for me and CEDEI had bought strawberry and vanilla ice cream!  Soy and Nut Free!  After enjoying our ice cream we were on our way to Guayaquil!  When we got to Guayaquil we dropped off our things at the hotel and we were off for our city tour!  First off I love Guayaquil and would totally move there permantely if it weren't for my family including my cat!  First off in the improved section of Guayaquil, they don't have wires hanging in the air anymore and they moved them underground, which I thought was very cool!  Then we walked over to the Cathedral and toured how it was set up!  They installed tv's at each pew because the alter was all the way in the back from when the sermons used to be in lating and the priest wouldn't face the crowd.  Also people are buried under the alter, which is pretty cool!  Then we continued on with our tour and I don't want to bore you or give away to much information because everyone needs to go to Ecuador in their life!  After we toured various building and talked a lot about the archecture and made our way to the pier!  It reminded me a lot of the Navy Pier!  We even got to see a pirate ship like one that used to come to Guayaquil!  So cool!  I learned a lot about the different important people of Ecuador and what made them so influencial!  After we were set free to go have dinner on our own.  Myself and four other girls stayed at the hotel and ordered at one of their restaurants.  We all wanted a hanburger so we all ordered a different kind.  After dinner we met up the other girls who got Chinese and went for ice cream.  Then we all hung out in our room and talked and chilled!  We had a buffet for breakfast the next morning which is scary to think about!  Now that I'm twenty I should probably start watching what I'm putting into my body more closely.  Ahh anyways we all pigged out that morning becasue we knew we wouldn't be eating again until around 3pm.  After breakfast I met up with on of my professors who brought some things from my mom!  Inside were two cards, one was a birthday card from my mom which made me cry and the other was from my brothers with a cat on the card and they both personally wrote me a letter and it really made me cry!  I really miss my brothers!  Everyday something else happens that I wish I could be experiencing with them or could laugh at with them, actually I'm tearing up a little just writing about it!  We departed for the airport and had to go through special screenings multiple times because you can't bring certain items to the Galapagos in order to preserve the natural areas!  It was a two hour plane ride and we had finally arrived in the airport.  first of all the airport is not like American airports we had to walk down these stairs and the airport was pretty much all outside and the first thing I noticed was the heat!  I loved it!  We got through the airport and rode a bus to the dock where we had about a two minute boat ride to transfer to a different island.  Then we had about a two hour bus ride.  Halfway through we stopped at place to see turtles int their natural habitat!  It was pretty cool to experience how tame they were.  And for those of you (mom) who think turtles are slow, wrong if you go near them while they are trying to eat you better run the other way fast!  The turtles were more concerned about their food then us!  After seeing the turtles we got to our hotel for a quick drop off our things and go to lunch.  We had fresh tuna for lunch with a chocolate covered banana.  After lunch we got to watch some sea lions and pelicans.  Then we had about a fifteen minute walk to go see some mangroves and Lonesome George.  for those of you who don't know anything about Lonesome George he is really old and they discovered him the 70's and he is the only one left of his species.  They have been trying to get him to mate and reproduce so we can keep his species alive.  They even have women come and try to rub George to make him cum so they can try to reproduce him!  Personally I find that disturbing and wouldn't want that job!  After seeing Lonesome George we saw another turtle who has five wives!  Crazy they call him super something, I can't remember because we had Dr. Robertson with us and his first name is Dick and our guide from then on called him super Dick, sure and I have to remember that while he is teaching education.  No it was a good time and our guide thought it was hilarious!  After Lonesome George, we headed back and a few of us stopped and looked in store and this is where I got my brothers covered!  You just can't pass up an I love boobies shirt and matching shot glass! Hope they like them!  After we sat by our hotel pool and chatted until dinner.  For dinner I had spaghetti because I didn't want shrimp on my birthday!  Luckily it was a good spaghetti!  After dinner we went for more ice cream because the heat just called for ice cream!  After we all sat by the pool and girls came to our room again to chat and do our lately gossip on life.  Of course I was sleeping when everyone was still in the room.  What can I say, I'm getting old.  We woke up Thursday morning, had breakfast at our hotel of eggs and hot chocolate.  Weird!  Then we were on our way to the next island.  We took a taxi, which in Galapagos the main and only cars are white trucks because they pollute less or something so that was a change.  Then we took a little boat to the big boat which was already filled with french people.  I was seated towards the front of the boat, the hottest location and not able to see anything, just feel it all.  It was a long two hours of feeling sea sick!  I felt like one of those girls from the movies who was just green in the face and sweating mucho!  Well I made it without puking!  Then we got to the island where we toured the area of the Witdmers.  The views were absolutely breathtaking, it's nice to just sit there for awhile and take in the view and think about life.  After we had lunch but I was still feeling a little sick so I just ate my rice and passed on more tuna, of course I ate two chocolate covered bananas!  After we took a walk down to the dock to admire some sea lions and take in the beautiful ocean.  Our boat arrived and I was definetely sitting in the back this time!  We got our snorkle gear and we were instructed to jump off our boat into the huge ocean to snorkle with giant sea turtles, sea lions, penguins, sting ray, and various fish!  It was the coolest experience of my life and the best workout!  I couldn't believe we were in the water for an hour and a half!  We got back in our boat and headed to the island of our residence for the rest of our trip Isabella, the biggest island in Galapagos!  We docked and on the dock waiting to welcome us were sea lions.  Then we got in a taxi to our hotel!  The first thing we did was head to the beach!  We couldn't go snorkeling again because of high tide.  So we went to the beach and watched sea lions, the sunset, and played in the ocean.  We came back for dinner but I was still not feeling well so I just had soup, which was really good!  Then we had strawberry jello!  After dinner we went up to our room and attempted to watch finding nemo, but kim gave me the best back massage ever and I was passed out in minutes!  We woke up Friday morning, had breakfast, lots of pinneapple and we were off to the volcanos.  We hiked about 9miles total visiting the different volcano craters and lava tunnels, they were really neat!  The hike was hot and very marvelous! We got to the side of Volcan Chico and we saw the whole island and surrounding islands and the ocean!  We sat up there for about 15minutes and I had a lot to think about since I was too tired and hot to pay attention at that point to whatever the guide was talking about.  I think everyone in our group was zoned out. We headed back to a tree to eat lunch and rehydrate.  And we continued our hike back down the volcanos.  We got back to our bus and headed back to the hotel, some of us went to see some flamingos in their natural habitat.  After the flamingos, we headed to the beach to watch pelicans and iguanas hanging out on the beach.  We even found a sea lions and for some reason everytime I would sing do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight, the seal lion would go crazy...then again it is mating season for them.  On the beach there were these guys surfing right in front of us, so of course me pulling (Melody) I told the girls we were going to get free surfing lessons.  So as one came in I used my best spanish and said muy bien...diez, and clapped!  Must have been, I got their attention and a smile and they even talked to me, but the other girls were just to shy and we had to go to dinner. Well they told us to go to the discotecca that night so we did.  We ate dinner and we got ready and headed out with a guide from our hotel.  We got there and we were the only girls there, well needless to say we were going to have dance partners that night.  It was really hot inside the open club but I would have rather spent it dancing with Andres outside on the pier.   Oh well!  So salsa music came on and I was outside with some of the other girls and the owner came out and asked me to dance, I really didn't want to but I guess I had calories to sweat off.  So we danced and that was interesting.  After we all jumped in the ocean, thankfully no one skinny dipped in the galapagos that night.  We got back to our rooms and passed out.  Saturday morning we went snorkeling in two different locations for a total of about 3 and half hours!  It was incredible!  I snorkeled with sharks, colorful fish, starfish, huge stingray like the teacher from finding nemo, giant turtles.  I was literally in finding nemo!  It was so cool! We also saw an iguana stomping ground and then we had lunch!  After lunch we went to the wall of tears and saw many more turtles and iguanas. We went to the beach to watch the sunset and then head back for a famous barbeque of the hotels!  We got first in line for a good night!  We had salad, some vegetable potatoe salad, barbequed tuna which tasted like steak, chicken, baked potatoes, rice, vegetable, banana, and shrimp kabobs, soup, and some kind of pudding...it was a meal to remember!  We all pretty much headed upstairs to bed because we had a 5am wake up call.  We had to ride for two hours on this boat!  It was miserable, luckily I was sitting next to sister joan, who was praying for me not to get sick.  I have never sweated so much in my life though, I wasn't really hot but I head sweat coming out of places I didn't know existed!  Thankfully we made it safe to land and I kissed the ground!  Then we had a two hour bus ride to the airport.  We stopped halfway and saw some more lava tunnels.  As we were almost there our driver started playing bon jovi and we all started singing.  It was a good day but I think waiting in the airport, we all wanted to kill eachother!  It was hot and there were lots of flies and we were tired.  We arrived in Quayaquil late and we had about a half hour in the mall to eat dinner.  I got mcdonalds and I was so hungry, okay Im allergic, but it was okay I took a benedryl.  I ordered a quarter pounder hamburger!  Im so embarrassed, when in my life do I even like Mcdonalds, let alone something my brother would order!  Then we went to dunkin donuts to fill up on donuts for breakfast and a chocolate shake!  Then we were off.  On the way back we were all talking about our families and what our siblings are like and I got to thinking how much I really love my younger brother, I don't know if I'm maturing but I really do miss him and wish we could be a lot closer when I get back!  I slept the rest of the way back to cuenca even through the turns of cajas.  It was about 10pm when I arrived back home!  I unpacked, showered, and went to bed.  Which I can only sleep on stomach because my butt got burned from snorkeling, who would have guessed?  Well Last night I had a nighmare that I was stuck in the coral reef and I was under water trapped!  I remember struggeling and trying to get out!  Well I woke up covered in cement!  I guess I must have thought my ceiling was the top of the water because there is now a huge hole punched through the ceiling!  Its pretty thick cement, which I can't even move or lift when I'm awake!  I have no idea what happened last night but I had to tell my parents because I had a mess everywhere and a huge hole in my ceiling!  My mom came in first because I just told them I had a problem in my bedroom!  She couldn't believe her eyes she just kept repeating, this is rare and said I must have had a nighmare!  Well then she got my dad and sure enough he said there was no way I could have done that!  It has never happened before and I have no marks on my hands but I had a lot of cement in my hair.  So weird I had no idea because I would have had to stand up in bed and I just don't understand!  Well the maestro is coming tomorrow to fix it I guess, I am just so embarrassed!  My first education class started today and we went to the Cedei school for kids.  By third grade they are all trilingual, which is awesome!  I spent a lot of time with the kids age 1 and half to age 6 and fell in love with the kids playing with blocks, good thing I get to go every week!  Then we saw the special education room and the speech therapy room!  So cool in the speech therapy room was a kid with down syndrome and he was doing a bubble activity like one my brother does!  The boy talked to me in perfect spanish and english and I was blown away as well as the speech therapist!  In the special ed. room there is a second grader who is blind and they had no idea because he has really good internal memory and can walk down stairs without help but when asked how many stairs he don't know!  He is even bilingual!  I want to be in this school everyday of the week!  On Monday they even have equine therapy!  So excited!  Today I cried because seeing those kids in special education and the boy with down syndrome made me miss my older brother and realize how special he is!  After class I had spanish and then was off the rest of the afternoon, but I had a lot to work on!  For lunch my mom made a meal I didn't like, it was rice and vegetables with a variety or fish, personally it smelled and tasted like the fish hatchery, no thank you!  Well time for bed and hopefully no more nightmares!  Chau!  Hasta luego

Birthday week!

Monday began with a bang!  I got really sick Sunday night into Monday morning and literally thought I was going to die in the bathroom.  Well, luckily I didn't!  Monday I had biology and we talked about this program called REDD+  This program is very frustrating because it funds projects in conservation with their money, but they get their money from huge companies that emit carbon emisions.  These companies basically pay REDD to keep running their companies with all of the carbon emissions, but yet this program is suppose to be about helping conserve the plants and animals and help prevent deforestation.  So of course the other two girls in my class were sleeping while the teacher and I went back and forth on this subject.  After biology I had my spanish final, which was super easy.  It was suppose to take two hours and I was done in a half hour but then again, Present tense verbs?...Hello Freshman year spanish.  After spanish I went with a few girls to the ATM to get money out for the Galapagos!!!  Then I walked home.  At home there was a huge chocholate covered cake waiting for me and my mom with a kiss on the cheek and a huge hug.  We were celebrating my birthday today!  Because Tuesday I leave for Quayaquil and Wednesday Galapagos.  So we had a really good potatoe soup and some really good chicken or pork and rice and mixed vegetables.  Then of course postre!  It was a chocolate cake with manajar filling and mora filling, talk about a dream cake.  Then we had coco and mora ice cream, it was perfect!  the cake had two sparkly pink candles (20)  My sister and mom sang to me in spanish and made me blow out my candles and make a wish in spanish and then they sang to me in english and made me blow out my candles again and make a wish in english.  IT was by far an experience and birthday I will NEVER forget.  I never heard my mom talk in english, so I was impressed!  My mom gave me and alpaca scarf for my birthday that's aqua and black!  I really felt at home and my family does a really good job of making me feel like I fit in.  For dinner we had soup and two pieces of cake and my other sister and her husband came over to celebrate and my dad had just got home from work.  Overall it was a good night that ended in packing for the Galapagos!  Chau!

Where is the time going?...

I'm sorry I haven't wrote in a very long time.  This has just been one crazy week!  It was stressful but it was worth it in the end!  This week I have noticed how I used to react to things and how I should be acting.  I don't know if it's just because I am growing up or because I'm in a different place and my family is a great role model for me!  Monday was a Monday I had biology and we had Ernesto come and give us a presentation about amphibians.  Personally I'm not a huge amphibian person, especially when the first question he asked was how many of us used to catch them and play with frogs.  I was the only one who didn't raise my hand and then he said I was the girl he used to chase around with them.  By the end of the presentation he had me wanting to know more.  Did you know that the frogs are being eating in Cajas by the trout and that we lose species everyday.  Also frogs are helpful with filtering water.  When most of Ecuador gets their water supply from Cajas, people should be a little more concerned because without the frogs we are going to lose what water we have left.  Well thats enough of my biology lecture.  After biology we had our group meeting which went okay.  Then I had Spanish, this class is just a review for me so I try and make my conversations with the professor as interesting as possible.  Jeeze I sound more like my mom everyday, but if I end up anything as good of a person as my mom, I'll be pleased!  Tuesday we went to breakfast with my biology teacher and then we went to the zoo.  The zoo was nothing like the zoos in America.  I guess this one is recently opened.  First we had to walk up this mountain of gravel to even get to the entrance.  Then we had to go uphile the whole zoo and the path was not paved!  It was a muddy mess.  I was climbing up this mountain of mud grasping onto every tree I could find.  Our first stop was the spectacled bears, which my teacher had housed while they were in the process of building the zoo.  It was funny because she would call the bears by their name.  Our next animals were the llamas and the alpacas.  They were quite interesting animals.  Then we went into a door and there was another door separating us between peacocks and other birds.  The lady told me to go through the door and I thought she was kiding, there was no way that was safe.  I went through the door and the next thing you know I'm in the cage with peacoks and other birds.  I thought that was so cool!  Then we saw some deer, these were whitetail deer and I can obviously see them in the states but I got so much amusement out of watching bambi eat his grass.  The mail deer was in the process of creating new skin or more antlers or both I don't know didn't really understand that.  Then we made our way to the ducks and turtle.  They have a galapagos turtle in their zoo because it was rescued from Quayaquil.  They think it was hit by a car because the shell is all bent up and from the XRAYs.  The turtle is just a little disabled but is still able to function day to day.  Then we went in the cages with the monkeys and toucans.  It was so cool I was so close to the prettiest monkeys in the world.  The toucans were literally on top of us and were very friendly.  The last animal we saw was the lions.  We went up to where big daddy was and his name is simba, we found him laying on his back sunning and legs spread wide apart.  Then we saw his little cubs!  Well we were an hour later than when class should have got out and a half hour late to our next class.  It was okay I think because we just watched a movie about Brazil.  We got out of class a little early and went home for lunch, I had to be back at school at 3pm in order to go get our migration thing for our visas.  We were working on our Visa stuff this week which is why it has been crazy!  Not only had it been pouring we got a taxi with a driver who got lost and had no idea where it was, he was on the opposite side of the city.  Our coordinator was calling and trying to tell him where it was at.  An hour later we finally made it.  It took about five minutes for us to be finished.  Then I finally had received a letter saying I had a package ready to pick up.  It was the package from my mom!  I go there and they tell me there is some Ecuador law that a package can't be more than 4kilograms and worth less than $400, which I don't understand but I didn't want to get arrested in a foreign country so I listened to what I had to do.  I had to leave a copy of my passport and my phone number and they were going to call me in 48 hours because they had to check the codes.  The old couple behind me laughed and said oh I hope your sister didn't send you anything too important!  I was about ready to turn around and jack him one!  but what good would that do?  So I left peacefully :)  I walked home sadly and took a nap and watched the help and cried!  Wednesday was a new day!  I had biology and we got into an arguement because my teacher didn't understand why people hated Obamacare and there is another girl in my class who really likes obama and obamacare, boy was I arguing that day, they just don't think the same way I do.  After biology I had a little break and then I had spanish again.  We reviewed more verbs!  After biology I went home for lunch.  Of course it was a great week so far and a great week also has to have great food so for lunch we had yummy soup and shrimp on lettuce with rice.  This shrimp was a little different, it still had its head and tail on.  My parents told me to eat the whole thing last time but I couldn't.  So I cut off the ends and watched my parents put the whole shrimp in their mouth.  Luckily we had dessert.  I had to go back to school in the afternoon because we had a visit to the museo de Las Conceptas, which is basically a really strict convenant and none of the nuns are allowed to see the outside world, they never leave that building, what a life?  It was pouring so hard in Cuenca that day I had water up to my knees on my jeans.  After the museum visit, I had to go get an HIV test for my visa application.  I had to go to the red cross with a coordinator and two other girls.  The red cross was very third world country, at least when I had to do blood tests in the hospital it was a little cleaner and more United States standards.  Oh well after I went to SuperMaxi with some of the girls to stock up on treats.  After supermaxi I went home to work on homework and then was called in for dinner.  Thursday biology class was interesting especially because we only had two classes left after this one.  After Biology I went for a run by the river and it was beautiful!  Then I went home to watch bridesmaids and fell asleep while watching it.  then I was called in for lasagna!  My mom makes some really good lasagna, I told her I needed the receipe.  After lunch, I had to go back to the school because we had to go and get two of out passport copies notarized.  After the notary visit I went to Kims new house with Teresea.  Where she lives now, she has an awesome view of the entire city of Cuenca.  She also has a little balconony off her room and I got to play a little with these little kids,obviously I'm an early childhood major.  I went home to skype my mom about the insuranse problem.  So from my hospital bills of about $700, My insurance here cover only about 80% not including meals (which I didn't even eat) or anything like that.  So they will pay about $200.  So my mom had to call my stepmom and ask if my insurance back home would cover, because the coordinator told me if its over $500 most of the time insurance back home will cover it all.  But of course my dad has the cheapest crappiest insurance possible on me so it wont cover any of it.  Well that was my week.  It was finally friday and I workout in the morning and had a spanish test on friday, it was really easy.  After spanish I went home for lunch and then went to see if I could get my package since I didn't get a call Thursday.  My package was finally ready I had to go to a bank and pay $60 for fines because of the law and then I had to just pay $5 for taxes for the post office.  Then I got my package and was running home!  I got home and opened it up to find Birthday card, which cards are my favorite, and then brthday clothes, easy mac, microwave popcorn, and skittles! My mom had also bought splenda for my host mom for taking such good care of me while I was in the hospital etc.  I showed my mom all my stuff, she loved the clothes and she looked at the candy and said see thats why you think your fat.  Hahaha you have to know my family, I love them!   I think my moms are jealous of eachother.  After I had to take a quick shower before going back to CEDEI.  We had our Galapagos meeting about whats on our itenary.  I would tell you now but I'm going to wait till I actually do each activity.  After galapagos meeting we had dance class again with Danny!  We did belly dancing and salsa!  After dance class we were all relaxing and cooling down before going to dinner.  All of sudden three girls came in carry three platters of rice krispie formed sculptures and singing happy birthday!  It was so cool, one said los hombres and the other one was shapped like a cat!  MEOW!!! Damn those girls know me to well, It made me cry, I really misses my kitty!  After we went to La Vina, a really goood italiana restaurant.  I ordered this amazing ravioli fillef with spinach and ricotta covered in a cheese sauce.  Then we went to Fly a really cool bar and I split a Jar with Erin and we had a scredriver.  Then we went to a discotecca.  It was an early night.  Saturday we had to be at CEDEI at 8am for our trip to the Battle of Tarqui and Giron.  In Giron we got to see these beautiful waterfalls.  It was kinda scary because my Dad's nephew died last year falling off the path and it was very devasting for the community and my family.  I didn't want to get to close.  It was really cool though.  Then we went back down to eat lunch and this place makes the best hot chocolate ever and we all ordered one!  Then we went to where some of the girls were spending the night and swam there for awhile because it was warmer there than in Cuenca.  another girl and I arrived back to Cuenca and I was so tired.  I worked on my biology paper and my mom called and told me tol make my own dinner.  That was a first, so I warmed up some chicken and rice and cut up a tomatoe.  Then I was in bed around 10.  I woke up this morning and went for a run.  Then had breakfast with the family worked on my biology paper, took a nap, showered, and lunch was ready.  We had a traditional Cuenca meal, We had choclo (corn) pig ribs and some pasta with ham and chicken, we also had so really non salty soft cheese and some other cheese which had to be goat cheese, but I didn't care for it.  Then we had mangos and ice cream with some nasty steryofoam cookie thing.  I didn't eat it and my mom immediately knew I was sick.  I took a nap and woke up with terrible stomach pains.  I had a light dinner and tea with my mom and sister and then got sick.  My mom gave me so tea to try.  And now I am ready for bed hopefully I make it throught the night without getting sick again.  Chau!