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…
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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!)
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Have been to several catholic services
completely in Spanish…that is a little different
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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
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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.
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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”
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PS I love how they say my name here…es como
Allyson!
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I have a new brother Martin who is 11 and a
sister Cristina who is 18!
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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!
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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
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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!)
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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!)
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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.
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That weekend I spent on the couch watching tons
of movies…IN SPANISH! But I guess that was good practice!
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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.
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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!)
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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!)
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The next week (the 2nd 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.
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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!
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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.
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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)
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The next week about our 4th 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)
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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.
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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.
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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!)
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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.
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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.
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That night I helped my brother make his valentine’s
day card for his class…that was funny and fun!
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I get along really well with my brother! We hang
out all the time!
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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)
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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.
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Saturday was they day that we left for CARNIVAL
y LA PLAYA! We had to be at school at 6am
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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!
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Even SPF 80 couldn’t keep us from getting burned
at the beach! We all looked like lobsters! Ha
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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!
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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
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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.
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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!
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We have all become really good friends
throughout the trip because we spend a lot of time together. It’s been great!
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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!)
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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.
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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!)
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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.
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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 3rd 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.
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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
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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.
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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!
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My parents just celebrated their 20th
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.
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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.
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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!)
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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.
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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.
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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
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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!)
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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!)
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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!!!!!!!!
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