New Updates and Info Coming Soon!

New Updates and info will come really soon! I realize that I have left off at about the end of Feb and it is now April, however with my busy schedule and such I have not found time to complete the blog! I will be doing that over the next few weeks so continue to look for that!

Right now I leave you with a few photos...

Below: All of us at our favorite cafe, Cafe Austria, having a surprise birthday party for our friend Abby!
In Guayaquil petting an iguana in the "iguana park" 

In Cafe Austria on Valentine's Day con mis amigos! (hanging out with my friends!)

At the BreakDance competition of our good friend Darwin, (Darwin was a good friend of ours, stories to come later for explanation on that) Picture of  him wearing Sarah's sweatshirt to support us as it was our last weekend there, me wearing his hat to support him (and I was a lot warmer with it on! haha what a cold  rainy day!)  and Sarah had on his breakdance comp T-shirt on...,more explanation to come! (SIDE-NOTES: 

oh boy do all Ecuadorians love their snapback hats from American teams...even he knew that it was a baseball team from New Orleans...while Sarah and I had no idea! oops  

I don't want to leave!!

These past few weeks have been nothing but a blast and I am so not ready to leave but at the same time I guess I am!

I love my family here especially my little brother! I can not write much now as I have a final tom but I just thought I would try and update it a bit?

What have I been doing?...like 5 weeks of stuff!

So obviously I am a little behind on this blog thing…and por eso I am going to just start making a list with little detail of what I have done since that first week where I left off…

Things I have done…

ü  Went to spend the first Sunday with my entire extended family in the country side in a nice big house where we had a huge meal (it was like a holiday but they do this every Sunday…sort of wish we did that family and friends are such a big deal here!)

ü  Have been to several catholic services completely in Spanish…that is a little different

ü  Spent the first week with my first family…but after many lonely nights and tears I moved out to a NEW FAMILY whom I LOVE LOVE LOVE! J

ü  My first day at my new family was the best! I had spoken more Spanish that day then I had the week previous with my other family! I even was introduced to and met all of my extended family as they live right next door…that was more than I met or was introduced to when I spent all of last Sun with my other extended family.

ü  My first night at the new family I was not there very long as that day we had dance class, then we had dinner at our profs house and then I headed home for about an hour in which I was supposed to get ready to go out for the night but my mom was working on things for my brothers school for the next day and so I got ready fast and went to go help her with the prizes. We talked and laughed so much! We made a great team! I actually felt for once in that week that I was loved…esp. since my mom introduced me to everyone as “meet my new daughter Allison”

ü  PS I love how they say my name here…es como Allyson!

ü  I have a new brother Martin who is 11 and a sister Cristina who is 18!

ü  My little brother is seriously my best friend here!...today (the day I am writing this) we hung out a lot! He’s so great!...ps mom and dad I have always wanted a little brother and now I really do! Ok ok he can just be my bro but I will be sad to leave him as I think he will be sad that I am leaving as well…will explain more later!

ü  The first night at my new house after going out was interesting…my friends brother had to call my  mom at 1am and tell her that I was badly hurt…bc I had fallen at the discoteca and seriously hurt my knee. I could barely walk and was in tons of pain! My friends host brother luckily spoke fluent English bc after that I was not in the mood to speak any Spanish! I got home and got in bed…we were supposed to get up the next morning really early around 6 am to go to the national park and spend the night there. When I was awoken in the morning I had talked to our coordinator and we decided since I can’t walk it would be best for me to stay back

ü  I was so sad that I could not go and that morning I awoke to have bfast with my family, where my cousin and my sister proceeded to laugh at me because I got hurt at discoteca! Though to me it was little funny too as I fell several times in the jungle and never go hurt but then I fell in a discoteca and I got hurt! (After talking with my friends later they think that someone stepped on my sandals and I fell backwards…all I rem was hearing a snap and feeling a snap and then saying but cajas tomorrow!)

ü  I really wanted to go camping and spend time with my friends but it was just not doable so while my family left for guaguil I stayed home with my puppy JR and my grandma came to take care of me for the weekend! (I already feel so much more loved then I did the with the other family!)

ü  God was really on my side for this one…even though I was hurt and could not go on the excursion with my friend he moved me just in time for being with a better family. I cannot even imagine going home to my old family with that injury…let along climbing all those steps to my room. Not to mention my new dad is a Doctor. (I was planning on staying with my old family through the weekend and moving Monday as I was going to be gone most of the weekend but our housing coordinator felt it was best for me to move fri esp since my family was going to be gone Saturday night as well.

ü  That weekend I spent on the couch watching tons of movies…IN SPANISH! But I guess that was good practice!

ü  When my family arrived home that next day my mother and brother came to make sure I was doing good and helped me with whatever I needed.

ü  We have  class in the morning from 8:00am-12:30pm in which then we go home for lunch and then walk back around 2:30 pm for an afternoon activity of a museum, or service projects or talks!...so basically our day goes from leaving the house around 7:30am walking 30 min to having class from 8-12:30 with a 30 min break in-between in which we always go and get yogurt and pan de yuka from the local lady and then at 12:30 we talk another 30 min home and then eat lunch with our families and at 2:30 we head out for another 30 min to walk to school do our activity and hang out and then head home around 6:30pm for another 30 min walk! Once we get home we hang out with our families and do homework and then we eat around 8 or 9pm finished eating and then we head to our rooms to finish homework and get ready for bed! We go to bed around 11 here since we all have to get up around 6 or 6:30 (but let’s be honest sometimes its 7am before I roll out of bed!)

ü  The first week we had a charlar about the environment of Ecuador, we went to the elementary school to help make it look livelier with plants and paint! Where we also got to work with and meet the Ecuadorian handicap kids who go there and I fell in love with them…one girl Karla took my hand and just kept talking with me! She was so great! It really makes me realize that I really want to be an Elem Edu major and not yucky business! …hmmm major change again? (It was between that and going to school with aunt Mary over winter break that made me want to do that!)

ü  The next week (the 2^nd full week in Cuenca) we did a lot of stuff as well, we went to banco central, an ingenious museum, went back to the school to pain the flower boxes and to meet and hang with the kids, and had a charlar about the culture and ways of Ecuadorian life. That weekend on Friday we had our usual Friday dance class, in which was unannounced to us that it was an audition to dance in a parade for carnival with the kids from the CEDEI school, (though I couldn’t really do the dance bc of my knee so I will not be in the parade L there is 4 of us who are and 4 are not.) after dance class we hung out in the park for a little bit and then headed home to be with our families. We met up again around 9pm in the park to head out to a karaoke bar but what we thought was a karaoke bar was a discoteca but we did karaoke afterwards. (We all were not feeling the discoteca scene again but mainly I was a little nervous because of what happened last week and my knew was not 100% yet.) Saturday we spent at an area about a 30 min public bus ride to banos. This is a natural water spring pool place that was really cool. We went with my friends host sister and then her boyfriend. They are great to hang out with hang out with them a lot and he is trying to learn English so we trade on and off with English and Spanish.

ü  We have dance class every Friday from4-5pm which is so fun! It even leaves us enough time to actually take about a 30 min nap between lunch and class!

ü  On our free afternoons we have done things like sit in the park and do a bible study, gone to the mall, gone swimming, taken naps, gone to our favorite café (I will explain more on that one a little later!), eaten ice cream and just gone for a walk around Cuenca.

ü  We went to a town called Ingapirca which was ruins! We enjoyed it for the most part but our tour guide was very long winded and it was about a 2 hour drive in which we had to listen to her! It was interesting but it made us that more excited for machu piccu! (I saw llamas really close to me for the first time and I was freaking out and no one else was and I could not fig out why no one else was excited but that’s bc they saw them the week before in cajas in which I could not go bc of me knee)

ü  The next week about our 4^th week here or so we had our first cooking class. So instead of going home for lunch at 12:30 we went to the kitchen in our school where we learned how to cook. (this was interesting for us bc in our houses we are not really allowed or able to help cook so this was really our first time in the kitchen)

ü  That Friday my class of 4 only had one class as per usual, and like every other Friday we go to the café, café Austria, bc they have wifi and bc we are pretty much locals here now since we go here a lot (not just on Fridays) we spend about 3 hours in there on Fridays and this specific Friday we talked a lot with the waiters. They called us babies bc we are all 20 and they are 22 ha-ha yea so much of a diff but then we found out that the people who go to café Austria are mostly older gringos and we stood out to them. We talked for a while and then they asked us to hang out this weekend but we are leaving so we said we could hang out tonight after the soccer game.

ü  That firday night we decided that it would be a great idea to go the soccer game! It was so much fun minus the rain and getting all wet! We had a great time! We came to realize really fast that we were ones of the few girls there. It was the 7 of us girls with our one guy and then abbys host sister and boyfriend. It was a fun game to watch and guess what CUENCA WON!!!!!!!!  We even got taped for live TV as we were a huge group of gringos…plus those people at the game are crazy so when we would score it was intense so we just joined in.

ü  After the game, Abby Sarah y yo decided to meet up with the waiters from Café Austria. They did not go to the game but they said that we would meet them at the café around 10 which was perfect bc the game got over at 9:30 and then we had to walk there! We arrived at the café and they were waiting for us at the table, we were not expecting to go in we thought we were just meeting them there but then they said how about we start here and then go out after. So they ordered us our favorite drinks, and we had empanadas and just talked. After a while we decided to leave and headed out to another place to get drinks which was close to our school. After that we said we should probably go to bed pretty soon as we had to be at school at 7 the next morn and it’s a 30 min walk meaning we needed to leave at 6:30 but they convinced us to go out to a dicoteca with them so we went out and had a lot of fun! (bc we are white we got in for free!...we got a lot of free things that night! Bc they have what is called machismo here which is the guys feel they need to pay for everything!) we danced and had a good time at BLU until Sarah started to not feel good and we called it a night since it was already 1 am! We all shared a taxi and headed home for some very little sleep and we still had to pack! Ha-ha it was a good fun night and now we have local Cuenca friends which we were afraid we would not have!)

ü  That next weekend we took a weekend trip to Saraguro which is about 4 hours from Cuenca. I do not know what it is about our group but we had car problems again and had to switch vans. Shortly after that we were on our way to seraguro. We staying in a hostel that night and it is a town of mostly indigenous things and then people making and selling beautiful jewelry. (We bought a lot of that stuff!) we participated in a tribal ceremony and took a tour of the houses, we were supposed to hike to another town but it has been raining all day and it was too foggy to even see in front of our hands so it would have been too hard L that afternoon since we could not go to the other town we had time to take a nap before heading to the other town for dinner. We were so exhausted after last night that we slept for a good 3 hours before dinner.  For dinner that night we drove to another indigenous town and tribe where we ate like the locals out of wooden bowls and spoons they made it was very good and we had their typical tea. After dinner we listened to them play their instruments and had a dance party (I am sure they thought we were a little weird.) After dinner and dancing we headed back to the hostel for the night in which we had a bonfire. We called it a night around 10:30pm and went to bed. The next morning we woke up for bfast around 8 and had scrambled eggs and bread and my favorite JUGO DE PAPAYA! (I seriously do not know what I will do when I return to the US after having jugo like this every day here!) We headed to the tribe to see the ceremony and participate in it (that was little weird but she told me I was a good girl!) hahah and then after that we headed to buy jewelry. Lunch today was our last stop before heading back to Cuenca. And for lunch we had…CUI! Aka guinea pig! (this was not my first time having it as my family had it that week before but it was still a little weird for me to eat a pet that I have always wanted….my family told me that its about $20 for one little guinea pig and $20 down here is a lot the min wage here is $263 a month) It was a very good lunch though and after we headed out to the bus for our trip back to Cuenca.

ü  Monday came around and we went to the panama hat factory store, it was interesting to see but we couldn’t see the entire thing bc it was raining.

ü  That night I helped my brother make his valentine’s day card for his class…that was funny and fun!

ü  I get along really well with my brother! We hang out all the time!

ü  Tuesday was Valentine’s day! What a day we had! We had classes like normal in the morning and we were hoping that our profs would not give us as much homework today because it is a big holiday down here…however we got the most homework I think we have ever gotten. They just kept telling us it’s the day of love and friends so pass your time with your friends you love doing HW! Hahah wow thanks! After class today we had our second cooking class…and that food was interesting…no one really ate…but I didn’t really eat bc I was not feeling so great…after cooking class we decided that we would go to our usual spot!! CAFÉ AUSTRIA! And do our HW! While we were there we talked with our waiter friends as they were decorating the place for the night. We stayed there and worked for about 4 hours and then left. We talked to the waiters and they said they had to work all night but they wanted us to hang out with them so we were to go to café Austria at 9 and wait till they were done working and after they were done working we would hang out so around 11. We all left and went to buy roses for our moms in the market and then I went home to be greeted with a card from my brother (one I had helped him make last night so it’s my handwriting) and chocolate from my mom.  I had to leave as my family was going to Mass to remember the death of my great grandma one year before. After mass we went to house of my grandma (the one who took care of me when my knee was out) and had some dinner quick and then I left in a taxi to meet up with my friends!  We headed to café Austria were we ordered drinks and waited for our friends to be off work, but man were they busy and we could tell it was going to be a while. We waited and waited and around 11pm it finally died down in there and they came to sit with us. They surprised us with free lemonade drinks, and a platter of fruit and hearts all over it. It was so cute! After we hung out and talked they had to finish some work so as they worked and the other people lit closed down the shop (even the outside gates) we were just in there chilling and dancing to the music! (I guess it pays to be really good friends with the closing waiters ha-ha) we stayed there till about 2am dancing and hanging out with them until we decided we should go to bed for the night.

ü  The next day we went to class very tired! Our prof asked if we were hung over…and then we said no and she said oh ok then you are dry hung-over which here means you are really tired.  We went to the market that day to look around at all the local stuff and then that night we deiced to hang out with our café friends again and went to wonder bar where we played pool, foosball and had coffee. I won the first game of pool and I am still not sure as to how even to this day! Hahaha it was fun but want to know a fun fact…wonderbar is owned by the same owner as Café Austria…aka we need to find new places to go. Hahah jk we had fun!

ü  Thursday we had class like normal and then after class we headed home for free afternoons. We headed to the travel agency to pay our down payment for our spring break trip and then just hung out and caught up on HW and sleep.

ü  Friday we went to watch our friends dance in the parade instead of class and I made a little friend from CEDEI (our schools…real school) haah but then as I got sprayed with foam in the face my camera was stolen from out of my pocket! I was with Ryan and Lauren at the time and they said I was so super calm about it…bc to me I was like oh well it’s gone! It’s just an object nothing I can do about it now and I had all my pics except for that day all backed up so I did not lose the memories just the object! I continued to have a foam fight with that girl and after that the parade was over and I went home to tell my family! My dad here goes wow you have had some adventures since being here I am sorry! And I called my dad in the US and I was more frustrated that he could not hear me then I was that my camera was stolen! (my internet here kind of sucks…hence why we go to café Austria all the time! Haha)

ü  Friday night we went out with our Cuenca friends yet again, we went to Pizza Hut for dinner, and then headed to a break-dance battle to support our friend Darwin while he competed! He def won. After that we headed to our other local hang out place with them for a bit but called it a night around 12am as we had to be at school at 6am the next morning.

ü  Saturday was they day that we left for CARNIVAL y LA PLAYA! We had to be at school at 6am

ü  The beach was straight up crazy! There were soo many people and so much water and foam because that is what carnival is! Also it was soooo hot! It reminded me of FL this summer and that miserable feeling made me not want to go back haha but we will see about that one!

ü  Even SPF 80 couldn’t keep us from getting burned at the beach! We all looked like lobsters! Ha

ü  We spent most of the day at the beach in an out of the water every day while we were there! It was a lot of fun but it was sooooo hot!

ü  I almost finally got to go parasailing! But in the words of my mother! “thank goodness you didn’t have enough money with you for that…it would have not been as safe” ha-ha I have been trying to go parasailing for years and one year while in FL (rem bapa and nana) we woke up at 6 every morning to go but never could! L

ü  We met a lot of Ecuadorians at the beach and at the fiestas but we learned really quick that a lot of them were creeps and that was not something that we were into so after going out the first night to the discotecas the other nights we just hung out as a group and our hostel was literally right on the most popular street Calle de cocktails (lit meaning street of cocktails and that was so true) and the music was going all night and day! It was one big party…though our group after a long day in the sun didn’t have much energy at night to do all of that.

ü  We didn’t really speak much Spanish here and even told people that we didn’t speak Spanish because there was just a lot of weird creeping people and for that reason alone decided it was better if we said we didn’t speak Spanish then they would leave us alone a little bit!

ü  We have all become really good friends throughout the trip because we spend a lot of time together. It’s been great!

ü  I am really going to miss it here! I don’t want to leave! I had an interview for my RA job next year via Skype yesterday and John my interviewer after I told him I don’t want to leave he goes “but you are coming back right bc otherwise this interview is worthless” ha-ha and sadly my answer was yes. The video was not working so it was an IM interview which was kind of weird but since we were in our favorite café I was able to talk with my friend Darwin while I was doing the interview ha-ha so my responses were a little spanglish bc it’s hard to switch back and forth! John (the interviewer) thought it was funny. (good thing he knows me pretty well!)

ü  The week after carnival and the rest of our time here will be pretty free. The Wednesday after carnival we had a free day Wednesday afternoon and we decided to meet up and do homework together in a café. We were going to mix it up and not do it at café Austria but after sitting in the park for a while we were cold and tired and didn’t want to walk to the other café with wifi so café Austria it was. Only the only ones who were working were the waitresses and they are not big fans of us. (we think its bc they are jealous that we hang out with their friends all the time bc girls get really jealous here) I seriously have to always wait for my juice for like 10 min after everyone else. We find it funny and we told Darwin about it and he’s practically manager I guess there so he was like no that’s not ok he didn’t think it was funny. He said in broken English “no they need to take care of my friends when we aren’t there” (I wish you could hear his accent when he says my friends! It’s so funny!) anyways after being there for about 2 hours our internet just stopped working so we came to the conclusion that they had turned it off on us. So we decided to order French fries (papa fritas) and then we decided that we should just go instead of waiting for the internet to work again.

ü  Thursday we had a charlar about culture shock…and we were all thinking we have been here for like 5/6 weeks why are we doing this now? Well it was about reverse culture shock and entering back into “normal” life back in the USA! It was really sad and it had made reality hit that we were leaving in a little over 2 weeks. I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE!!!!!!!!! After the charlar Sarah y yo went to café Austria bc Darwin wanted to talk to us about these dance classes he is going to give us! WE ARE GOING MONDAY! CRAZY! ITS BREAKDANCING AND popular dances down here! We also tried to do some homework while there but he got off work and came to sit with us! Thus no homework really got done…but craft (our prof) loves it when we tell her we didn’t do our HW completely bc we were speaking Spanish with the locals. After that we went to our other favorite location with Darwin for a bit until I had to leave to go meet my family for a big family dinner. (man we are becoming locals at 2 places here!...when we get back to the US we will be a nobody again around Chicago and I am not sure how will feel about that!)

ü  I went to a huge family dinner with my family around 7:30 pm. The special occasion was that my mom’s cousins were in town from NYC (my mom’s father lives with them in NYC) and so we were having a big dinner. They spoke English to me as they thought I didn’t know any Spanish. Well I was judging him bc he had lived in the US for 18 years and his English was horrible! I have lived here for 2 months and my Spanish has improved! Anyways we ate and spoke with them but I was as overwhelmed as everyone was speaking so fast and all at once I could not understand much of anything. All I understood was them talking about how hard it is to become a US citizen. We finally stated to leave around 12am and I was exhausted that was the longest day ever, and due to hanging out with our friends I had not done my hw yet so I went home to do it and finally called it a night at 1:30 and to get up in 5 hours.

ü  Friday we only had our one class like normal…which meant us going to café Austria to do hw and for me that interview. (see above) (yep I know that was the 3^rd day in a row we were there…like I said we are locals now lol) any who…as we were there Darwin was not working but Pablo was but Darwin came to join us so we could teach him more English and charlar en spanglish! After we were there for about 3 hours waiting for our friends to finish their class we all went home to eat with our families and then had free time till 4:30…our free time consisted of me and Abby talking over a pic on facebook with Darwin y Pablo! it was funny…also updating my blog and putting pics on facebook. At 4:30 we were to meet at the travel agency to pay the rest of our trip to Machu Piccu.  After that we had our final dance class with Danny our dance instructor where we learned bachata, salsa, y muchos otros. Then I went with Ryan and Becky for some Mexican food. It was soo good. It is my favorite food and Its def a lot different than Ecuadorian food.

ü  Friday night we went out with our friends to a bar called Monday blue. It is right down the street from CEDEI (our school) after that Sarah Abby y yo had plans to meet up with Pablo y Darwin after they got off work. We went to our other local hangout place and stayed there till close and then headed to another place where we called it a night fairly early as most places were closing and we got kicked out by the cops as here in Cuenca all bars and everything must shut down I guess at 2 am or the company will get in trouble. Sarah y yo shared a taxi home and called it a night

ü  Today was our first day in a very long time that we have had a free day and we have been able to sleep in. after getting home pretty late last night I was def excited to get to sleep in this morning. Especially since my family all had work or boy scouts today. They will be back for lunch and then I think all of us are going out to do something fun.

ü  Here I pretty much hang out with my new Cuenca friends de café Austria y my mom laughs whenever I tell her where or who I am with hahha and I hang out a lot with my brother!

ü  My parents just celebrated their 20^th wedding anniversary the other night and that was when I really felt like a big sister! I love having a little brother! I made (aka heated up on the stove leftovers from lunch …that is how they do it here) dinner for him and then we ate together.

ü  It is hard to find time to do HW here as we hang out with our local friends, family and siblibings all the time or have activities. With that being said it’s hard in school but I feel we are learning more and speaking more Spanish just hanging out with them.

ü  I love my brother here soo much! And he loves me! He cried last night because I told him I was going out with friends later that night (on a Friday night) and he goes no stay home with me…I stayed till about 10:30 until the rest of the family got home and hung out with him and then I left to go hang out with friends…the best of both worlds and he was ok with it bc I played with his toys he loves (they are called bay blades) for like 4 hours! (ok I was a little bored but hey it was “fun”) (I am def going to have to send him some from the USA!)

ü  I am finally starting to get used to and ignoring the cat calls here! They are all over when we walk bc we are clearly gringos! Yesterday I even got a motorcycle guy drive up close to me as I was trying to cross the street and seriously do a horse pant at me. Weirdest cat call ever and does that actually ever work for him? Hahaha we always say has a cat call ever gotten them a date hahaha and they also think that they know English when they do it and say random words.

ü  So speaking of cat calls…this one does not really count but it’s kind of random, every time I walk home from school or to school there is this police officer like a block from my school who sees me coming and takes off his hat until I pass and as I pass he always either says good morning, or something else now but he started with a cat call. To me it’s surprising that even the police do that here.

ü  The horns here honk 24/7 and living in Chicago you would think I would be used to it but here they honk constantly and right outside the houses

ü  Yep that is my life in a nutshell I think. For some reason my blog won’t let me upload videos or photos and so I have just been putting them on facebook! so if you have access to mine then go look at them on there! (I am trying to put them on another sight as well but it’s just not working so well here bc of the internet…hence why we started going to café Austria all the time!)

ü  Oh yea one last thing…you know you are regulars in the a place when you can just say “the usual porfavor”  or you walk in and they start making it and out it comes not too much longer! (mine is papaya juice!)

ü  WELL NOS VEMOS MAS TARDE! Until next time! I only have about 2 weeks left so this will prob not be updated until I return! I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE!!!!!!!! 

end of week 1

Hola amigos y famila!

So clearly I am a little behind on this blog...with that being said let me just do a brief overview for now for the rest of the first week and then later I will maybe get around to going into more detail at a later date...or lets me honest not at all hahah

So let’s cont with Thursday...

Thursday was a hard but AMAZING day...in brief overview we basically climbed another mountain...but we found in the end was well worth every struggle we had on our way up. We took the boat literally 10 min from the lodge and then we got to the location got out and then started to walk which we thought was part of our hike, which is not. We went a little farther when our guide stopped us and found a termite nest where he put his hand in it and they all came across his hand and he told us that if you wipe those all over your body no other bugs or creators will bug (get it bug you ha-ha no pun intended) and you won’t get bitten (aka it’s like bug spray but more intense!) After we watched him so these we traveled a little a little more and crossed a road and started the adventure up the mountain. He stopped us not too much longer so put the typical indigenous warrior paint on our faces as if we were part of the indigenous tribe about to go fight for our food! (Pics to come!) after this we continued the hike, and after that he stopped us again to show us different plants that if we touched we could die, plants that help with wounds, and plants to make objects out of (he made some of us crowns) we continued yet again for about another 30 min and then we reached the best destination ever!!!! THE WATERFALL! So worth the long hot hike up a mountain! We all could not wait to get in the water and go swimming after the long walk! It was AMAZING! We stayed there for about 30 min before we had to continue on our trip back down to the boat. Once we reached the bottom we got very excited once again as it was not time to go down the river in tubes back to our lodge! It was so peaceful and the relaxing as the current took us out down the river (though we would get stuck sometimes!) it was a perfecting ending to the morning. After we reached our lodge in our tubes we had about 10 min to change and get ready for lunch! We ate lunch and after lunch we were off on another adventure to go see a butterfly “museum” right across the river, it was cool but we were told we were going to another indigenous tribe to see how they make chocolate but that didn’t work out as planned.  After the butterfly exhibit we took a little boat rides up the river to get the breeze to cool off a little bit. After we got out the boat we had a little time to relax and charlar (to talk) and hang out! After that we had dinner which was so good but so filling as usual! After dinner we were hanging out in the center when they announced that the brother of our guide from the week Alfredo would be showing us how they made chocolate! As we watched them make for a while we all pitched into to help. After they were done with making the chocolate they said bon appetite or buen pervchecho aqui and we ate the chocolate with fruit! It was good but too rich for me aka 100% chocolate. After we scar fed down the chocolate we finished the day and called it a night as it was very late and we were all tired.  

Friday!

Today was our last day in the jungle! L We left very sad but getting more and more anxious to meet our host families and our new city Cuenca. We started our morning off around 7am as we had to pack up our belongings and then haul our luggage up the hill to the lodge center. (Wow was that hard! And took a while! Nothing like hauling a 50lbs bag up a hill) after that long tough haul we went to eat breakfast and after breakfast we headed out on about 5 hour adventure in the bus to Patate. The bus ride was a bit long but on our way through the mountains we went through about every climate possible…even snow! We got out of the bus to experience the snow! After that we got back on the bus and went passed the time by playing diff games and practicing Spanish. We stopped for lunch in a place called BANOS (which lit means bathrooms) but it was so cool to see there was mountains all around us and that is the place that everyone (the tourists) go to do a bunch of things like bungee jump and zip line etc. after lunch we continued on the journey to Patate and when we were almost there we were stopped by a parade of people and kids on donkeys. It was a festival parade in celebration to this day I do not know what, but they shared with us through the bus window their traditions of a honey type drink. It was cool to see and they invited us to come dancing later. Then we were able to pass and continued to 5 min to our new cool hotel to stay in. while we were in our hotel we had internet and were able to send out more emails and I was able to Skype my “sisters” back at NPU! It was cool. After we got settled a little bit and took a siesta we went to dinner, where I found my little buddy the dog! He was so cute! (Though I think I had a lot of allergies of the dog or the town because I had hard time breathing with a stuffy nose and watery eyes.) After we waited a bit we had dinner and after dinner they had a mariachi band come in and play and which we were all in shock and then we all started dancing. After a long day in the bus and a night of dancing we went back to our rooms and fell asleep instantly esp. with us knowing that tom we would have an 8 hour bus ride and then be meeting our new families.

Saturday,

Today was the day that we would be meeting our families! WE ARE SO EXCITED! But we know that we have about an 8 hour bus ride before we actually get there! We woke up and packed up all of our things before dragging them to the top of hill to pack up the bus! We put our things on the bus, went to have breakfast and then we were off on our adventure to CUENCA our new home for the next 2 months! We were all in joyful excitement as after a week of waiting we would finally be meeting our families and not be living out of a suitcase anymore!! J On the bus we passed the time playing games and working more on our Spanish and flute skills. We made an hour stop in a local town where we did a little shopping as we had time to kill because there was an accident on the road we needed to take and they had to clean up the scene before anyone could travel down that road. Then all of a sudden our bus driver all of a sudden came to a stop and we found out that we had a flat tire! (Or in the works of getting one) luckily he figured it out and we got it fixed in the city. With this delay it caused us to not be able to eat lunch so we were just getting snacks inside the local shop and waited on the bus while eating while our bus driver and the other guy fixed our tire. After about an hour delay again we were on our way. They whole way there we did the typical childish thing of are we there yet? Hahaha (estamos aqui) we did that most of the way there and then when we saw a big city we were like is this Cuenca is this Cuenca! When we finally arrived in Cuenca we could not wait to get to our school! We were in aww of the city and it was great! We got to CEDEI our school and met our staff that we would be working with through the time here. THEN IT WAS TIME!!! FINALLY FOR meeting our families…we sat in a room with a current and the housing lady would bring in the families and go this is the family of…and they would do a drum roll and then we would go with our families to another room and get further details of the plans and then we were off with our families and away from each other until Monday! (That was weird to not be with my other gringo friends anymore!) hahaha I was the second one to be called to meet my family and they seemed really nice I was really excited after the lecture we loaded the car and went to my new home. As soon as I got there I loaded my things into my room and I met my brother! (Lisa our leader had my neighbors for a family when she was here…and now Laurens neighbors so we were neighbors so Lisa had told me my brother was a hipster) I met my brother Mario who was wearing purple pants, big glasses and an eyebrow piercing it was a little interesting (eyebrow piercing is really big down here for guys) and then after my mom gave me a tour of the house and we went over to my neighbors house where my friend Lauren lives to have dinner and to talk. We ate dinner together and it was really weird to be surrounded my native speakers all the time. After dinner we went to the top of a hill to a church was we could see the entire city it was cool to see and we both forgot our cameras. We went home and I had time to unpack and then I feel asleep after a long day and tomorrow I would be meeting the rest of the family and going to church with my family. I am excited to see what else I will be doing while in Ecuador!

SUNDAY will come soon but my comp is about to die! so I am off for now!

otro dia

WEDNESDAY!

Wednesday January 18^th 2012. Today was our first day in the jungle. We were told that we would have another big day in front of us but never anything that we ever expected! (this long day thing seems to be a recurring theme for our guides from our school to say while on this trip so far! But it sure has been GREAT!) we woke up around 7:15am as we were to be at breakfast ready to go on our new adventure with our backpacks packed for our necessities for the day at 8am in the morning. We arrived at breakfast were Javier greeted us and told us to help ourselves to the coffee and juice and he would be bringing out fruit and then we had our choice of omelets or scrambled eggs. It was a great breakfast! (aka we could get used to it even though it was a lot of food…but little did we know we would need all that food for energy for the trip we were about to embark on in the jungle.) we finished our breakfast and had about 15 min to get our last min things, put on our sunscreen, and our bug spray and then we were ready to go and get our rain boots that they were giving us to use for the time we were here. We put on our rain boots and then headed down to the river were we were going to get into our canoe type boat after receiving our life vests. We got into the canoe two in a seat and off we went. We rode for our 30 min down the river till we made our first stop at a local village to experience their life as well as to stop and see some monkeys in the center….however we did not see any monkeys because they were all following the children to school as it was school time and a lot of them carry their breakfast with them and we are told that these monkeys like to steal from people (SO BE CAREFULL OF YOUR CAMERAS THEY TOLD US!...as they would snatch them from your think it’s funny and slam then on the ground and then go eat some of the pieces.) we were told that the monkey were all in hiding and so we did not see any on this adventure…however we all loaded back up into the boat and headed off for about another hour until we got into a little village where we took the boat through and were actually able to see little monos (monkeys) and we were all in aww! It was soo cool! I love monkeys I really want one! After we expiries the monkeys we headed for about another 20 min on the boat to the “Amazon Zoo” where they help hurt animals survive and hold them in cages so they can get better faster and then take people on tours through the jungle so they can see these different animals…though not all of the animals we saw were in cages. (I had a monkey come sit right next to me without me realizing and then all of sudden my prof goes Allison look and I got a little scared hahaha bc he was a big one!)

After we waited for our guide we began to embark on this new adventure... We met our guide that would be leading us through the jungle, he was from Switzerland and had not spoken Spanish very long but was very good at it (part of me thinks he memorized the script as to what to say and then knew some random words for when we asked him questions…but I give him props bc he could speaking English too so he was tri lingual! I hope to be that one day…or at least become more fluent in Spanish…I have noticed that right now I can understand it pretty fluently but when it comes to having to speak it back it is harder for me to form in the moment…but then moments later I think of all these things I could have/should have said!) It is a work in progress…un dia! Anyways…back to the jungle…

We began our hike up the steps to where we would begin; the hike was up and down hills the entire way through. We would stop to hear some information from our guide and then we would continue on. It was very interesting and we definitely learned a lot about the jungle and the animals there. We hiked for about 45 min until it started to sprinkle a bit which was a nice relief to the heat…though within 5 min it was a full downpour and we lit looked like we had just gotten out of the shower! Our guide told us that we have to turn around and head back as it is not as safe to continue to climb in these conditions so we headed back and when we got there we were so wet and then decided to play in the rain. Our guide from our lodge Alfredo said that if we wanted to still hike we could take about a 45 min different path a different way to meet our boat and then eat lunch there though it was a little bit of a tough hike but it would be good. We decided to go for it and took the hike…it was a bit of a hike up a muddy and wet hill as it had just rained and it was not easy. Though it was a lot of fun and we learned a lot about the jungle from our guide and this indigenous boy who came with us. We learned about how they call our to each other to find each other and it’s not yelling as that is not allowed they hit a tree with a stick until the person finds where they are. After we finally reached the end of the hike we all jumped up and screamed and then proceeded to go swimming in the river as we were all muddy. I wasn’t going to go all the way in the river…but I didn’t realize the rock was ending and down I went into the river ha-ha it was funny and then to get back we were swimming up current un poco dificil! Hahaha after we swam a bit we had our lunch…my fav food Spanish rice with chicken, and a salad! sOOO GOOD! We then proceded to get back into our boat, wet and dirty for about a 1 and 20 min ride to another location where we would experience and learn about the cenchua tribe and their culture. They showed us how they dig through the mud and the rocks to find gold…and oh boy it was a lot of work for such a little thing they then took us into their tribe where they showed us how they made their traditional pottery and their yucca bread. It was very interesting and afterword’s we got to see how they hunt for their food and tries it ourselves. It was like Bowen arrow hunting but you blew the arrow at the target. Then we headed back into the boat and continued on for about 20 more min until we reached our destination of our lodge, we all could not wait to get out of our wet clothes and into dry ones! We had about 15 min to change before dinner around 6pm and then we went to go out eat. After dinner we were all so exhausted after our long day that we didn’t stay up too late and just sang camp songs around the fire while Oscar played the guitar until about 9pm and then went to bed as tom would be another long but exciting day. 

Another way overdue update!...(I will keep posting them poco a poco (little by litte))

Monday, on Monday we had yet another very long day on also yet again very little sleep. It has been a little bit hard to a) keep up with sleep here and b) not feel a little sick or tired due to altitude we are at but we are all trucking through it with positive attitudes and fighting our headaches and lack of sleep so we are alert to experience all that we possibly can while in Ecuador. Today is going to be a great day but a rather long one! We woke up at had breakfast and celebrated Sarah’s birthday over breakfast at 8am. After breakfast we were allowed 2 hours to go to the market or go and explore a little more of Otavalo before we were leaving. The market in Otavalo is very well commonly known for their many different objects and the vast variety of traditional Ecuadorian objects. I bought a lot of pretty things but had to stop myself because I knew it was just the first few days of the trip and what If I were to find more in Cuenca or somewhere along our way to Cuenca. (plus I don’t want a ton of more items in my luggage going home as I had a lot even coming down…however without toiletries and without the gifts for my family I guess I have a little more room.) At 11 am we loaded up the bus with all of our belongs from our hotel in Hotel Otavalo and headed for about a 3 hour bus ride back to Cuenca. Along the way we made a few stops here and there for local shops and for bathroom and lunch break, but the main stop we made was to go see the Equator! AKA I GOT TO STAND ON BOTH SIDES OF THE EQUATOR!!!! J It was really cool to see and to experience since especially we are in the country that literally means equator. We spent a great amount of time at the equator and listened to a guy speak about the different times of year, the different stars you can see and when and where as well as the differences in sun/moon rise and fall. We took several pics as well as a pic of the whole group standing on both sides ones head on one side next head on the other side and so on. (It was really hot at the equator and we got a tad sunburned…who would have thunk? lol.) After experiencing the equator we went back to the bus to continue on the road all the way back to our hotel in hotel Quito to spend on last night in Quito. We arrived in Quito around 3pm and then met up with a tour guide for a tour of Quito…the tour lasted 3 hours it was so long and I think we experienced every type of weather while on this tour! After the tour we then proceeded to Hotel Quito to get our rooms and spend a little time relaxing and to get ready for dinner. Since it was our last night with the Provost Jones and his wife, he (meaning North Park) invited us as well as all the covenant missionaries in Quito out for a very nice dinner. We listened and talked to them about their adventures and their lives and plans for living in Ecuador. We all went around the table of about 18 of us and said who we are, were we are from, how we are affiliated with NPU/Covenant and so on and so on, it was a great time and our group really bonded as we had a lot of time to talk as the “adults” at the other end were “charlaring” (prob my fav Spanglish work I made up and love to use!...its charlar=to talk and then the ing so its lit talking lol) (oh and for some reason they were talking about karaoke and then I said it and they made fun of me for it bc I know I say it wrong but that’s just how I grew up saying it lol..It lit is brought up every day as karaoke is everywhere here! J) After we ate a very delicious dinner we were surprised with a delicious dessert in celebration of ‘Sarah’s birthday. We headed back to our hotel and got there around 10:30pm (aka the longest 3 hour dinner ever! But it was good and it was paid for so that was nice!) After we returned back to the hotel we said we had 30 min  to use the internet to email and connect with loved ones from home and then at 11pm we headed to the ultima piso de el hotel, (the top level of the hotel) for even more celebration of Sarah’s birthday. While up there we didn’t want to stay too long bc we thought that tom might be a long day as we were heading to the jungle, however we ended up staying up there a little later than planned as we had met a group of people from NYC who we were in Ecuador for the climbing, and the adventurous stuff. After a while we decided that we should go to bed so we all headed back to our rooms to sleep…though us being girls we ended up staying up late talking about life, and getting to know each other even better!

TUESDAY:            Tuesday Jan 17^th 2012, today was a day that was not very exciting or adventurous as we spent most of our day on the bus. We packed up all of our belongings and loaded them onto the bus with our new bus driver JR who would be with us for the rest of the week. We loaded the bus and knew that we had about an 8 hour drive ahead of us. (Man oh man were we on the bus a lot this week…thank goodness for motion sickness drugs, as we most of us got sick bc the roads here are very bumpy and windy as we are going up and down hills. We must have climbed very high while on the bus because as we passed one place we saw sunny, warm part of Ecuador and then we went a little further and watched it snow and saw snow on the ground. (um I thought we left the snow in Chicago.) We drove for a while and then stopped for lunch, where we experienced our first time being discriminated against because we were white. They would not give us the meal of the day at the discount rate as they said they only had a few of it left and that we would have to get something else (AKA they thought we had money and didn’t need to get the food of the day because we could afford to pay a little more…aka our guides were not happy and went to talk to them,) We ended up being able to get the lunch of the day and it was soup, rice, beef, vegetables and juice for $2.50…QUE CHEVRE! (WOW) we got so much food for such a little price! I love the prices here! I am even really rich here where as in the US I am a poor college student who has about 2/3 jobs at a time! After lunch we went back to the bus and drove the rest of the way to the SELVA!! (The jungle) it was about another 4 hour drive so we passed our time, napping after already a busy and long week, playing games, talking, and practicing our instruments that we bought in Otavalo while Oscar played the guitar! Upon arriving to the jungle (THE SELVA!! I LOVE THAT WORD) named COTOCOCHA we got off the bus and we walked through a path in the woods to get the lodge. It was not a terrible hard walk…not like we were about to exp tom…but all we kept thinking is how were we going to get our LARGE and HEAVY suitcases down here as we could not roll them bc it was gravel, with sticks, and trees everywhere. We got the lodge where we were greeted by Javier who spoke to us in Spanish about our activities for the next few days, info about the lodge and the cechua people. As we were sitting there listening to him we saw guys carrying our bags on their backs and we felt bad bc we knew they were HEAVE AND LARGE lol…after the info session we got our lodge key numbers and headed to our cabanas were we had about an hour and half break to relax and explore the lodge. (THE REST IS HARD TO EXPLAIN BUT PICS WILL BE TO COME AS SOON AS THIS WEBSITE WILL LET ME PUT THEM UP FASTER!) Lauren, Marta y yo were the farthest cabana but in the end it ended up being not such a bad thing as we had the best view…the view of the rio (river) right outside our cabana. After a little while we went to go find our other friends and when we found them we found the lodge’s cat, which was very cute and would not leave us alone so we played with it till dinner in 30 min. We had an amazing dinner with soup, rice and meat with vegetables and then for dessert as a welcome we got lemon tea with sugar. After dinner we played a large game of banana grams, TODO EN ESPANOL! …(and for some reason I did way better at this in Spanish than I do in English but maybe that’s bc all we do all day is study a bunch of vocab and words were as in English we use mostly the same words every day!) it was great I was coming up with some great big words. We finished playing the game around 10:30 pm and decided that it would be best to go to bed as we had a lot more full days ahead of us! We grabbed our lanterns (THE LODGE IS ECO FRIENDLY AND HAS NO ELECTRICITY EXCEPT AT THE MAIN PART…SO PEOPLE CAN CHARGE CMAERS AND SO THEY CAN COOK!) one our way back to our cabana we looked up to the sky and saw tons of stars! It was AMAIZNG! You can’t see that in Chicago! (such a good trip so far esp. since we are doing a lot of diff things than we would have done in Chicago…like star gazing, not being in class yet, hanging out with the best people in the best adventures.) We got into bed and feel asleep right away in great anticipation for tom!

UN BUEN DIA!

PICS TO COME! I HOPE SOON…AS IT IS GREATLY SLOW TO UPLOAD THEM HERE RIGHT NOW! 

Videos and Pics to go with my last post!