New Adventures!

Sorry I'm a little late but it's hard to keep up. Anyways, I realized something I did not mention when I was in the jungle was that I had termites crawl on my hands...apparantly after you rub them over your skin it is a repellent for mosquitos and such so I tried it! Also, I changed a few securities on here so now anyone should be able to comment on these.
Back to the past week, I went out with a few of my friends the past two weekends and we went to dance clubs with my host brother. We were out for a few hours and I had lots of fun! It's not something I could do everyday from Thursday to Sunday like some people can, nor would I be able to do it every weekend. I find it much more fun to go out here mostly because I can easily be pointed out as a gringo (slang term for an American) so I have an excuse to act weird...and because I don't know people and I will never see them again.
Nothing exciting happens during the week really. I have classes every morning but my afternoons are free to do whatever I please. Sometimes I meet up with friends in the afternoon and just walk around town or go shopping. Other times, someone comes home with me for a few hours or I go to someone else's house. Once a week, the group of girls I stay here with go out to eat for lunch somewhere. We have dance class every Friday night and I've learned how to salsa! There is also a cooking class that I want to do but there hasn't been a class yet. This week, midterms are going on so it's just a lot of studying and homework for me!
Last weekend, the school brought us to Ingapirca, which are ancient Inca ruins, and the most important archeological construction in Ecuador; the most important objective of it was being a place of worship for the sun. It was interesting to see these ruins because of how important they are to Ecuador and because I learned a little bit about the Inca's thoughts. They knew long before there were instruments that there were other planets in the galaxy! They carved holes in rocks to symbolize the planets' positions and even the moon.
This weekend, we had a full day of rock climbing on Saturday! This is the kind of rock climbing with a real rock and equipment, not plastic, colorful rocks nailed to a wall. It was so fun to learn how to repel down the huge rock we were on. We started off on a slightly sloped side of the rock to walk down the whole way but then moved to one where we were going down part of it with no legs on the rock! Both of our guides thought I had done it before because I looked like a pro. We also learned how to rock climb which is a lot harder. I started off on the harder side of the rock where it goes straight up and even a little bit out so I'm leaning backward as I climbed. It was so hard that I could barely make it to the first ledge-which I literally crawled onto. I could only make it a few more feet before I fell. After a little bit, I tried the easier rock wall. It took a lot of work, flexibility, and strength but I made it to the top! I did a lot of ballaying too, which is basically the person on the ground who hold onto the rope the climber is attached to and is responsible for their life haha. One of the guides said I was a pro at that too and that I should make it a job.
Sunday we went to two towns: Gualaceo and Chordeleg. Gualaceo hosts the largest indigenous market in the area. You can get anything from raw or cooked meat to vegetables to fresh fruit to spices to live animals like puppies, chicken, or guinea pig. It was here that I tried roasted pig-which was ok but not a favorite dish. Sadly, while eating lunch is also when someone in our group got their bag stolen. Someone walked by at a second when no one was looking and just walked away with it. Thankfully, the only real item of value in it was a digital camera; no money or credit cards were in it. This day we also stopped at a small house where a woman made us homemade tea, where everything came from her garden and was medicinal. We also tried some food from the market and, although I cannot remember the name of them, they were like tortillas cooked in a fryer. They were made of dough and corn basically and were very tasty! Chordeleg is famous for its jewelry and handicrafts museum. This is the place known for silver because it is very abundant and almost every piece of silver jewelry is made by hand, even the tiniest designs on earrings or rings.
So far, Cuenca has been amazing and in my mind, I've already decided that I will retire here in...what like 60 years? ahhh....so far away! But I love it here and I only wish that everyone could experience it. It is so beautiful and each day brings new adventures. Since the moment I came, I felt like this is home and, even though I am a gringo, I feel like I fit in so well with the locals with the exception of my lack of Spanish. My family is amazing and I think most of my friends in my group also really like them. I've really bonded with all of them (family and friends) and I do not want to leave-ever! I really enjoy hanging out with my brother Andres and I love having chats over coffee in the morning with my mom before I go to school. At night, I sometimes watch a movie with my mom or play a game with everyone. I think we are also moving into a different house 2 weeks from today, but it is only about two blocks away from where we live now.
This is where I leave you until next week because I do have to go study for a test tomorrow. Chau!

The Start of a New Beginning

Hey everyone! I have arrived in Cuenca...finally!
While we were in the Amazon Jungle from Wednesday night to Saturday morning, we stayed at a lodge called Cotococha. Every day, we did something different, but mostly we traveled up and down the river to get to different places. Thursday we went to a town called Misahualli where they are known for the monkeys. These monkeys were smaller but climbed all over the place, including climbing on Erin, a girl from my college. A local handed her an egg, which she held in her hand, and the monkey hung on her, trying to get it. We left to go to Amazoonico, an exotic animal refuge. Here we saw many wild animals found in the jungle. We were told many of the animals' stories of why they were there and if they could be released into the wild, or
 why not if they cannot be released. After this, we had lunch along the river and we got to swim in the Amazon River! We then continued our journey
 to an indigenous community where a native family taught us how to make a few drinks, make chocolate (which I got to help with and help sample. Mmmmm!), and taught us a dance-which I recorded and now have the only video of it. :)
Friday we had a short canoe ride before we hiked for about an hour through the secondary jungle (so basically, the lighter part of the jungle). We hiked to a waterfall called "Las Latas" where we were able to swim. On the way back to the boat, our guide said that whoever fell first would have to get something for everyone else. Immediately, I thought whoever fell should get us ice cream and what do you know, I was the first to fall!-the ONLY time I fell ever this entire trip so far. We had lunch back at the lodge and went back out to the jungle for another hike, except this time in the primary forest where it is really thick and....jungle-y? haha The guide pointed out different types of trees and plants that only live in the Amazon, so it was really neat. All of us returned to the lodge, tired from our trips during the day.
After leaving the Amazon Saturday mid-morning, we traveled to towards Puyo for lunch. Along the way, we stopped to visit another. We ate lunch quickly and jumped back on the bus and went to Patate, where we spent the night in a very nice lodge called La Hacienda. It was high in the mountains with a view of an active volcano in the range, but it only smoked from the top while we were there. It was almost like a ranch on a mountain. Most of Sunday was spent on the bus, traveling from Patate to Cuenca, so about an 8 hr drive, stopping only for another quick lunch. When we finally arrived in Cuenca, we immediately drove to the CEDEI building/school and had a few minutes to stretch out and get drinks, visit, and go to the bathroom. We were then shuffled upstairs for the family ceremony, where the families are placed in one room and we students are placed in another so we can't see each other. A family walks into a hallway connecting the two rooms and an announcer (after a drumroll) says whose family they are. I was the fourth student to be introduced to my family, but I knew immediately when I saw them that they were my family.
We said hello and were sent back into the family room to chat a little while everyone else met their families. As soon as the ceremony was over, we left because we had a family gathering. We only had enough time to drive to our house, drop off my bags, and leave once again to the grandparent's house where everyone else was. I was told there is a weekly gathering every Sunday afternoon to talk and chat since everyone lives in the same area. Here, I met extended family, but I don't remember who anyone is. My brother was the one who included me in everything right away because he was the best English speaker in the family (the extended family knows little to no English). We returned home about an hour later and my little sister and mother invited me to watch TV with them for a while. I then unpacked everything, while also giving my mother the family gifts of a photo album, cookie mixes and various candies.
Monday, we had a meeting in the morning and a city scavenger hunt later that night (it was just for all of the students). On the scavenger hunt, I found one of the best places to get ice cream and also a few good coffee shops. The rest of the day, I was at home and I got a little bonding time with the family. Tuesday classes started and that's about all there is to say about the whole week so far. haha So now that I am settled, I just have classes and, in my free time, hanging out with family and friends.
My family here is very fun and I never had any problems adjusting to them (they speak a lot of English so that helps a lot). I have a mother named Sandra, a brother, Andres, and a sister, Domenica. Domenica is 10 and very full of energy. She loves dancing and watching tv when she can. She is the one I see the least out of my family because she leaves when I wake up and comes home when I am doing homework. Andres is 21, so about my age, and we have a few things in common. He is a very big video game player which is how he spends almost all of his time. He likes listening to music and he also likes to dance. He and I have already spent a bunch of time together and we both have a crazy side to us that shows at the same time.
Sandra and I have a lot alike. We have the same taste in movies and tv shows, we both like coffee a lot, and we both have the same sense of humor. I have a lot of fun chatting with her over breakfast in the morning and seeing her a little bit at night. I love my host family and they made the transition from Iowa to here so easy. I fit right into the family and it's almost like I just returned from a trip instead of being on one. They are an easy-going family that let me do my thing but tell me things I should be cautious about without making me feel like a little kid. That is about it for me, I do not have anything else to report as of the moment. I do not have any pictures with my family so that is why I do not have any family photos added but I hope to get some soon.

Quito y Otavalo

I left my family in Chicago in the early morning on January 8th. I flew from Chicago to Miami, and finally to Quito, Ecuador. For those of you that don't know, that was the first time I've ever been on an airplane, let alone leaving all of my family and friends that far behind me in the Midwest while I sought something else. There were two girls from my college that came on the same trip as me and thankfully, we stuck together most of the time. We arrived late in Quito but still had an early morning wake-up call the next morning. We had breakfast served by the hotel. Most of the food was the same as an American hotel; there were omelots, cereal, and different bread/buns offered. As you ate, you were high enough on the mountain in Quito to look over most of the city and see another mountain off in the distance a few miles. My first Ecuadorian tradition I tried that morning was fruit yogurt with my cereal-Cornflakes.
We had an orientation following the breakfast that lasted about 45 minutes, where I met the other 5 members of our group. Altogether, there are 8 of us-all girls and almost all from the Midwest (it just happened that way). We are the only ones staying throughout the full semester but there will also be small groups coming and going for a few weeks. We have been assigned roommates for this first week while we travel from town to town and staying in hotels before we meet our host families on Sunday. I have been assigned with a girl named Rachel. She's from St. Louis and we get along really well. The first night we talked, we found out we had a lot in common like playing soccer, love watching Disney movies, etc. etc.
Back to our activites, we left Quito and traveled a while before we stopped at the center of the earth-literally. This place was located at 0 degrees latitude and longitude. There was a giant sundial at this point that was actually found and made by the ancient tribe that once lived there-if I remember correctly, it was the Incas. After this stop, we headed to a smaller town named Otavalo. Here we were just kind of let loose to wander the streets using only a map, a small list of restaurants for lunch, and the little amount of Spanish most of us knew. Somehow, we were able to survive and ended up walking around town for a few hours before we finally settled for lunch at the hotel-of course, this being before we went back to shop at the market we had found.

Later that afternoon, we visted two workshops. One was a sort of music store where the man and his family made all of the instruments they played and sold. This man, named Mandala I believe, is very well-known in Ecuador because of his instruments and his band. We also went to another worshop where a man showed us his shop of weavings-they had everything from purses to scarves, hats, and sweaters all hand-made. He also introduced us to his small collection of guinea pigs (if you didn't know, guinea pig is a delicacy in Ecuador) which would later be sold or roasted. I also ate my first foreign fruit here. It was called taxo and is a little sour and bitter but is good. All you have to do is merely pull it off the tree and eat it, much like you would an apple. That night, we were once again free to go wherever we wanted (safely) for dinner. One of the leaders suggested going into a small restaurant-which ended up being really delicious.
Today, we had another short orientation during our breakfast. We then departed for a famous artist's museum. He is known throughout the world for his paintings and other designs. Then we left for Quito once again, stopping at the mall to eat and receiving a city tour soon after. Tonight, we are able to go out into Quito to find our own dinner and return to get enough rest for our trip to the Amazon Jungle tomorrow. Here we will hike, canoe, and travel all over until Saturday when we will travel to Patate to spend the night before meeting our host families for the first time in Cuenca on Sunday.

Overall, I am just in awe of this country. It is so beautiful and amazing that I take many pictures of the landscape while on the bus. I hate to fall asleep on the bus, but with all the trips we have had since we've gotten here, I am exhausted all the time. I cannot say exactly why everything is different in town, but I feel that there are more French and Spanish influences on the architecture, giving it a different style of its own. The roads are made of brick and concrete, but mostly brick because concrete is used mainly on wide roads. I wish I could understand the rules of driving here. I cannot even try to explain any rule because none of it makes sense. People in smaller towns are more friendly, but are less likely to speak English which makes it difficult to find our way around. I have already driven by volcanoes and huge cliffs, which make the drive a lot more interesting from one point to another. I have been lucky enough to not be sick or feel sick. The altitude seems to have no affect on me. Unfortunately, one of the girls from my college has been sick for a day now. She has already gone to the hospital to receive medicine that will hopefully reduce her flu. We all hope she will get better soon to join us on all of our adventures. As of the moment, this is all I really have to share for a few days. Until next time, I love you all and hope your new year is going well!