Carnival

Celebrated on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, Carnival in Latin America is basically a time for people to do all the things that they can’t/shouldn’t do during Lent lol. As a holiday, pretty much everyone had this time off of school & work. Most of the other international students/Ecuadorians went to the beach (which is a few hours away from here) but I decided to stay in Lumbisí (where I live).

I ended up having a blast!

My goal was to spend as much time with God as possible via sermons from back home, devotionals, journaling, etc. I was totally able to do that because my professors were nice and didn’t give me too much homework =)

On Sunday my family and I went to Latacunga, which is in the province right below Pichincha (the one I am in now). Some of the families in Lumbisí went because there was some water project that they were doing in Latacunga that they wanted to adopt here in Lumbisí. So we left bright and early (3 in the morning) and were there allllll day and came back around 8pm. While I was there I

1. Hiked A LOT (seems to be a common theme of this trip. I hope I’m in super duper top shape when I return to the States :P)

2. Ate cuy (Guinea Pig for those who didn’t know. It tasted kind of like duck if you were wondering. It wasn’t bad, but I’ll probably never eat it again)

3. Went berry picking

4. Got plenty of mosquito bites (5 on my FACE! That’s never happened before lol)

5. AND ACTUALLY TOOK PICTURES:

host sister, mom, and brother

The rest will be on facebook.

It was a blast!!

Yesterday I “played carnival.” To “play carnival” basically means to play with water, water balloons, soap, eggs, and anything messy. In Lumbisí its relatively tame; in the coast I heard they play with mud and paint and all kinds of crazy stuff. After playing carnival, I ended up looking like this:

Overall I had a blast the past few days! In addition to all of that, my host sister taught me how to embroider! I’m super geeked because I’ve always wanted to learn (as yet another way to customize my clothes) and I wanted a skill like that to take back to the US and use forever. I’m really glad I decided to stay home instead of flock to the beach like the rest of the world…A great way to have fun and relax before MIDTERMS! :P

Ecuador has been a lot of fun, but (very surprisingly) I’m slightly homesick. Granted being here in sunny paradise > being in Illinois with all of that crazy snow, but I really do miss my friends and family & CHURCH (Illini Life Christian Fellowship represent!!! if ur at U of I right now check it out!). This is the longest I’ve been away from home & everyone/everything that I love (previous record: 3 weeks in Nigeria lol). I’ve learned a lot about myself from being out here alone, but I write about all of that in my other blog (aprilstutters.blogspot.com) to keep this one from getting too mushy lol.

Adios!

You can't be a girly-girl around here...

Last weekend the U of I program went to Mindo and it was great! For me, it was a huge step outside of my comfort zone because I'm not very outdoorsy. While we were there we:

1. Went white-water rafting (lots of fun!!)
2. Went ZIPLINING through the forest (also a ton of fun! there were 10 different ziplines and I did all 10. the final one was super high in the sky, higher than all of the trees. it was beautiful!)
3. hiked a lot (not so fun for me lol but it was great to see the scenery)
4. visited a butterfly garden
5. went swimming in a waterfall
   

The hostel where we stayed had lots of hummingbirds, which was a beautiful sight. The best part of the trip was probably when the power went out. A few of us took a walk around the city in the late afternoon and when we got back to the hostel, there was no power. There was no power till around midnight, and the majority of Mindo (including our hostel) did not operate on generators. When it got dark, we basically just bought some candles and explored some more, walking around the city in complete darkness. It was incredibly relaxing! No electricity, no distractions, no nothing. Just me and nature.

Overall I've been having a lot of fun on this trip. At first I wasn't sure if my Spanish was improving, until I opened up a book the other day and realized that I could pretty much read through it with ease. I also realized that expressing my ideas and opinions to my host family has gotten a lot easier. Yay for immersion!

This weekend is the beginning of the vacation "carnival" which takes place right before Lent begins. It lasts until Tuesday and its basically an excuse for everyone to be crazy and do all of the things they cant do during Lent. Pretty much everyone is going to the beach, but I decided to stay in Lumbisí to spend time with myself and God. I do plan on having some fun with my family, and my next blog post will probably be about that.

Keeping up with this blog has been harder than I had imagined. For one, I don't have internet at home so I have to update whenever I find time at school. Also, surprisingly its becoming a bit difficult to type in English...I keep misspelling things and am so tempted to just type in Spanish but I wont. Despite everything, I will continue mainly for the sake of not having to answer the question "So hows Ecuador?" a million times.

chao!

10 reasons why ecuador is the best study abroad location ever

1. same time zone as chicago! well, for half of the year because they don't do daylight savings here.
2. they use the US DOLLAR but everything is cheap!! for example, you can buy a good lunch complete with soup, a small salad, a main course, and a small desert for about $2.50.
   
3. the power outlets are the same, so you don't need to buy converters for anything.
4. the weather is pretty much the same all year - in the 70s and completely beautiful.
5. its extremely diverse, in terms of plant and nature life as well as people. there are soooo many different races and ethnic groups here and its super interesting learning about them.
6. bargaining for things when your buying them is also a ton of fun.
7. public transportation is super cheap. to take the bus from home to school = 20 cents. if i were to do a similar bus ride in chicago = $2.25.
   
8. the food is GREAT! i have yet to try something that i dont like. and if ur scared to try different food, they have alot of american restaurants (papa johns, mcdonalds, KFC) and american food here actually tastes better than in the states!
9. theres always somewhere to go and something to do. you will never get bored, i promise.
10. because i said so =)

I'm going to Mindo tomorrow. Expect a blog post on that within the next couple days,