i am still alive

I am proud to say that it is FINALLY December 27 and I have officially survived Christmas. 

I spent the better (or worse?) part of Christmas eve crying. At 10 we went to Mass, and then afterwards, we came back to the house with my host dad’s parents. While we were gone, Santa paid us a visit. Ricardo was quite excited to inspect all of the wrapped gifts and make a mountain-sized pile of the ones that had his name on them.  I helped him read the names on the packages and pass them all out. Santa brought me some pajamas, my host parents gave me a pair of flip flops that I picked out last weekend, and my host grandparents gave me a bag to take to the beach. All of the gifts were super sweet- I didn’t expect anything (except for the flip flops, since I already knew about them), and it was really thoughtful of them. I also gave my family their gifts, and they all seemed to really like them, which made me feel really good. After opening gifts, we all went and ate dinner. At almost 1 o’clock in the morning. Dinner was veeeeeery tasty. After dinner we all sat outside on the porch and talked, while Ricardo played with his new toys.

The next morning, everyone slept late. Later, we went to visit my host mom’s parents at their house in the center of the city, and, to my surprise, lots of the shops and stands downtown were open. on Christmas! After visiting with them for a while we went to my host dad’s parent’s house to eat ceviche. When we got home again everyone took a nap. Later that night we went out with my host dad’s whole family to a fancy restaurant/hotel downtown to eat dinner. It was very good. Ricardo cried because my host aunt told him that she left his present at her house in Guayaquil. She was lying (thank goodness, because he would not stop crying), and we went to her house after dinner so that he could open his gift (a car track thingy with two little remote control cars) and then set it up on the floor. My host aunt’s a dermatologist, and she gave me a bottle of sunscreen. :) Which will definitely be used. It is definitely summer here now- it is so hot. ALL of the time. I pretty much spend the whole day sweating. Also, the mosquitoes have multiplied. Now my room permanently smells like bug spray. Which is a wonderful smell.

Last night we had the very last large family dinner (thank goodness, because I am getting fat). We went to my host mom’s brother’s house with ALL of her family- I think there are like 8 brothers and sisters. Not all of them were there, but there were still quite a few people there.

Highlight of my week- when Ricardo called me his sister and gave me a hug. :)

Today we will do what we do every Sunday- eat ceviche!

Here are some pictures:

Ricardo checking out his gifts:

Claudia, Noralma, Ricardo, and I at the restaurant

Ricardo and Noralma at the restaurant:

Merry Christmas Eve!

The Ecuadorian Government has given us the gift of light this holiday season- they have decided that there will be NO power rationing from the 24^th to the 27^th of December. How generous.

The president has also tried out a more communist-style take on things as well- he recently took a TV station based in Quito off of the air. I guess we'll see what happens with that…

My Rotary Club had their ‘Christmas meeting’ this Monday night, which was kind of cool. We were supposed to be there at 8:15. My host parents were running late so I got there at 8:30 and there were only 6 other people there. Typical Ecuador! :) The dinner was nice though. The club gave the other exchange students and I gifts- I got a scarf sort of thing, which is really nice. Then, they decided that we needed to do a nativity scene. So we go to this other little room and put on costumes and then stand there and take pictures. It was interesting, to say the least. I got to be a shepherd. Here's a picture!

Christmas here starts tonight- I think the plan is to go to church tonight at 10 and then begin Christmas things after that. I'll write again soon, letting you know what happens!

Love you all, and Merry Christmas!

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.

learn english with Alvin the Chipmunk!

Today marks my 16th week of being here. Hip Hip Hooray.
I went to the hamburger stand around the corner earlier this week with two friends. We bought 5 hamburgers and three drinks. Want to guess how much we paid? $3.80. Yes. $3.80. AMAZING. They’re good hamburgers too.
I go to a public school, but since Ecuador is SO CATHOLIC, they have religion classes. Which is kind of weird for me. I’ve gotten used to the whole separation between church and state thing. Yesterday I was in the library at school reading a book about Ecuador, when the two librarians asked me if I wanted to come and do their advent reading with them. So I did, and it was cool. Something that TOTALLY surprises me is the number of people who have asked me if I celebrate Christmas. Apparently other Christian religions are not very popular and most people know nothing about them. It is strange how many times I have been asked if Christians celebrate Christmas.
In my English class last week, we were listening to a tape that goes along with their textbook, and I SWEAR one of the voices sounded exactly like Alvin the Chipmunk. We listened to this conversation at least 5 times and by the end of it, I wanted to pull out all of my hair.
Other than the annoying chipmunk voices, school has been going well.
Last night I went with my host mom to a Christmas carol competition between high schools. It was quite fun.
Here’s a picture of the Christmas tree and manger-scene at my house! You probably can’t see, but on the manger scene, all of the animals have gathered, along with some of Ricardo’s dinosaurs and shells, to wait for baby Jesus to arrive. :)

green grass for the first time in 3 months!

I complain about school a lot. I’ve started keeping track of how many days I go to school, and I realized that I should NOT be complaining. In October, I went to school 5 days. November- 9 days. December- 2 so far (but I’m going tomorrow too, so almost 3). So I think I should stop complaining. 

Usually in the mornings, it is cloudy, and the clouds stay until at least 9 or 10, which keeps it a bit cooler. Today, it was sunny from 6 a.m. on. Which made for a VERY hot day at school. I almost melted.

Today I went to the Botanical Gardens in Portoviejo with a couple of friends! Which was refreshing. Portoviejo is hot, dusty, and super dry right now. There’s pretty much nothing alive in the city. And you can feel your lungs slowly dying as they inhale more and more dust and car fumes. Quite nice. Anyway, the Botanical Gardens are niiiiiiiiiice. They have green grass, which was a lot more exciting than it should have been. And lots of plants and trees and flowers and animals too! And about a million and a half iguanas, which I think are hilarious. I find it SO FUNNY to walk up to a bush or something where an iguana is hiding, and see it run out, lifting it’s legs as high as it can, and run up a tree, or into the pond. There were also other strange rainforest animals living there. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

i spyyyyyyy.... an iguana!:

a strange monkey/bear thing that has a nose like an anteater:

an animal kind of like a pig, but furry, and angry: