what's goin on

As of today, I have been in Ecuador for exactly 4 months! It seems like almost every post has some sort of anniversary that goes along with it. Does it seem like I’m counting? I am. 

Haven’t written in a while- last weekend I took Ricardo to the Botanical Gardens. We got lost in the maze a couple of times, and got to see all of the animals. It was his first time to go, and he’s still talking about it, so I think he enjoyed it.

I went to school a grand total of three days last week. I woke up on Monday at 7 (when school starts) really confused, because I didn’t remember waking up and turning off my alarm (which I apparently did). I went to school and learned lots on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Friday I went with all of the English teachers (host mom included) and a friend to the Oro Verde hotel in Manta. This hotel is one of the nicest in all of Ecuador- we ate lunch there and then hung out/napped by the pool there. It was niiiiiice. Inside the hotel, it didn’t feel like I was in Ecuador anymore.

Saturday I went with the Rotaract Club in my area to a community about 20 minutes away from Portoviejo to give out Christmas gifts to the kids there. We went to a school there that this Rotaract Club has been ‘taking care of’ for 5 or 6 years now. They provided school supplies for all of the students there, donated learning materials, and painted the school room. We played some games with the kids, and then gave out gifts to everyone who came. Then, some kids from the school did a little presentation for us- a dance thing and two skits. The skits were kind of difficult to understand, but I got parts of them and they were apparently pretty funny.

Saturday night I went to a friend’s house, where we cooked the INSTANT MASHED POTATOES that my parents sent me. They were heavenly. :D

Sunday I went to the beach with my family. The ocean has been really ‘angry’ recently- there’s a rip tide and a couple of people have drowned, so there were not a whole lot of people in the water. It was kind of creepy actually. Ricardo and I went walking along the beach, and then he decided that we needed to run back, so I got a little exercise in.

Then we got home, and the power went out for two and a half hours, because that’s what the power in Ecuador does.