our christmas tree

lindsay and joe on top of the volcano with quito in the backround

lindsay and the crazy fanta bear that chased her around

me and joe hiking around cajas national park

me and lindsay on top of a volcano

me and joe on the beach

Hey guys. Another LONG overdue update. Sorry. It’s just that I don’t really like taking the time to write, but I know I should. It just sucks to sit there writing for an hour and having to pay for it. So I’m trying a new technique that I should’ve started using a while back: I’m writing at home on my laptop and then I’m saving it to my jump drive and uploading it at the internet place. I know, I’m kind of a rock head for not thinking of that before…

On the plus side, this is going to be a really long update so you can just sit back, crack open a beer, and read for a while. Or not. If you want you could space out the joy of reading my blog over the next few days. Maybe while you’re at work. Seems like a good idea to me. What I’m trying to say here is that you can read my blog however and whenever works best for you! I’ll get on with it now…

Christmas

As most of you know, I spent the holidays here in Ecuador, and although I missed seeing everyone over break, I had an AMAZING time here! Christmas is an entire season here. Or, the holiday of Christmas is a whole week of get togethers here. It starts 9 days before Christmas day with the Novena, which is a 9 day prayer cycle in which we celebrate the 9 months Mary carried Jesus in her womb. EVERYONE here does it. There’s a little booklet they have with all the things you do and say each day, but it’s really confusing cuz you jump all around the book each day because some parts are used daily and some aren’t and it doesn’t seem to be very well organized. I know that it’s not very organized cuz my host aunts and uncles would get in mini-arguments about what part came next. Hahaha. I thought it was funny that no one really knew the order. And there’s not an index or a guide to what you’re supposed to do anywhere in the book. I thought that they should just spring an extra dollar to make them with each day printed out even though some parts would be repeated. Maybe that’s just me. It was actually a really nice tradition. We did it at my house with just my family some nights, and we went to my host uncles really nice pent house one night and all the extended family was there and we had a big dinner party and then did the Novena as a group. They also did it as a neighborhood in the little park next to my house, and they did it big. Mini-fireworks display at the end each night! They also have mini-fire places that you burn holy wood in during the Novena. It’s blessed. It’s also scented. Fancy. I actually bought some.

Anyway, backing up a bit, our house was GORGEOUS for Christmas! They know how to decorate here. The whole house! There was even a Snoopy stocking hung on my door! My first stocking ever, very exciting! We also had a fake tree in the living room. You can get real trees here, but they’re expensive and dry out fast causing a fire hazard. Actually I don’t think they care about the fire hazard portion as you’ll see during the x-mas eve section of the blog, when they blatantly flout fire codes in their homes… But the tree was great. We decorated it as a family. Well, sort of. Me and my host brother put up the tree, and I put on the lights cuz they just struggled with the light placing section. My host brother Esteban even said, “see, Adam knows how to put on the lights!” To which I said, “I’ve had a lot of practice, if I don’t my dad puts them up.” And we all know how that turns out… LOL!!! j/k dad, I think you’re very good at putting random lights on the bushes in the front lawn. Hahahaha! It’s funny cuz I can make fun of you and you can’t really do anything about it! Anyway, that’s really all I did with the tree. Then my host mom mostly just made me and Esteban put up things around the house that she and my sister couldn’t reach while they did the rest of the tree. Overall the house looked amazing! They even have a train that goes around the x-mas tree. It belongs to my host brother Esteban and he’s had it for about 9 years. He got it as a present back in the day when they were rich. Back then this toy train cost the same as 3 CARS! Ahhhhhhh!!

Right, onto Christmas Eve. Christmas eve was really fun. My oldest host brother’s (Adrian’s) half brother came over with his wife and mother in law. They were really nice. He’s a micro biologist just like Joe S! He works for the largest milk company in Ecuador doing some sciency thing. I didn’t really understand, too many complicated Spanish words in the same sentence to catch the context. But he was nice and agreed with me that the chocolate milk is the best. We had a deep convo about chocolate milk. It was sweet. (get it? Sweet? Chocolate milk? Haha) right, so I haven’t lost my ability to tell bad jokes since being here. Then it turned midnight. To celebrate we all did hugs and I thought that was it, yay it’s officially Christmas. Oh no, my host mom then broke out the sparkelers. Now I thought we were going to use them up on the patio or something, but oooooh no. We just lit em up right then and there in the formal living room! Then we ran around the living room with sparkelers! While they were all laughing and having a ball I was doing a nervous laugh and running around trying to avoid flammable objects. Didn’t seem like the safest way to celebrate and I thought that maybe I just had a crazy host family, but I told someone about it and I guess everyone does that at midnight. Then we had a giant formal turkey dinner. It was AMAZING!! Maybe the best turkey I’ve ever had. My host mom and been cooking it all day in wine. Delicious. Then for desert we had postre de las tres leches that my little sister made and fudge that I made! Mmmmmmmmmm. Jk, the fudge DID NOT TURN OUT. I couldn’t exactly find semi-sweet chocolate chips, or normal milk chocolate. Also, the recipe my mom gave me was all in ounces and everything here is marked in grams. So I kinda had to guess how many grams were in an ounce… right. Then it was too soft and I realized later that cuz of the altitude I should have boiled it for longer than exactly 8 min. It was really sweet and tasted too much like condensed milk. But they thought it was great. Said it tasted like a snickers or milky way. So they ate it. I thought it was gross.

Christmas day we got up and did presents at my house. I gave my host family a new printer cuz theirs has been broken ever since I got here and they can’t really afford a new one. So I got them that, and they gave me a scarf, a sweater (I’ll never wear it…) and a book from the museum my host mom works at. So that was really nice. Then we went to my other host uncle’s house and had Christmas with the extended family and another turkey dinner. Really fun. My extended host family is really funny and welcoming, so I had a good time.

Well, that wraps up Christmas. We’ve got a little more than a month to catch you up on.

Lindsay and Joe!!

To make up for the fact that I wasn’t home for Christmas my sister Lindsay and brother Joe came down to Ecuador for two weeks to hang out with me and travel around the country! They arrived on the evening of the 28th and I SWEAR they were the last ones off the plane. I was waiting to pick them up and like 900 people got off the same flight from Miami and they were no where to be seen. I was freakin out, but they finally came through the gates and looked really white and not tan!

So we said hello and did some yelling and then went to grab a cab to my house. Well, as a mark of how cheap I’ve gotten since being here I argued with a cabbie because I only wanted to pay 2 dollars to go to my house and he wanted 4. Well, 4 dollars to take a taxi to my house from the airport is REDICULOUS!! So I wasn’t going to pay it and Lindsay and Joe were like Adam, you’re fighting over 2 dollars for a cab ride that’s only going to cost 4, we’ll pay those two extra dollars, get in the cab. Apparently cabs cost more in the states. Anyway, we only paid 2 dollars. I was happy.

So we got to my house and I introduced my family to my other family! I have 2 now. So that was really fun. My host mom and host sister thought Joe was gorgeous, a nice white gringo with enough meat on his bones to be a real man. I’m too skinny apparently. Or so my host mom says. Then we went out to Tapas y Vinos for a first night on the town. It’s an upscale restaurant in Quito. It’s unlimited wine or beer plus unlimited appetizers (gourmet appetizers mind you) for $16. Well, if you want nicer wine it costs more. But they serve you for a minimum of four hours and if you’re not terribly drunk by then they’ll keep serving alcohol and food all night. It’s great.

The next day we went to Papallacta. Papallacta is the name of a village on the side of a volcano with the same name about two hours away from Quito. My friend Kali and her brother Nick, who was visiting her as well, came with us. So we spent the day in the hot springs and went for a hike the next day and then back to the hot springs before heading back to Quito.

We spent the next few days in Quito, including new years. Which was an adventure. On new years there’re two important traditions in Ecuador. The first involves one male member of each family (extended family) cross dressing and walking around the city harassing people and asking for pennies. A bit disturbing, but very funny! No one seemed to know the roots of this tradition. We decided that in our family, on the Richards side, it would probably Uncle Matt or Brian, and on the Eberlein side probably Uncle John. LOL! The other interesting tradition revolves around burning giant puppets. They make all these piñata like puppets that look like real people or tv characters and then they put lists inside them of all the bad things that happened the past year and all their wishes for the coming year. Then they take them outside and burn them. Also, everyone wears masks around all day. We saw a parade and some impromptu street theatre in the old town done by some transvestites. And there were lots of bon fires on the streets and little kids selling roman candles at midnight. Overall a very interesting night ending in some very interesting video diaries on our digital cameras… I think that was the beginning of the video diaries during our trip. Let’s just say the camera LOVES US. Or maybe we love the camera a little too much…
After New Year’s in Quito we started our real trip around Ecuador. Well, first a quick story from Quito. We were in old town looking at colonial stuff and we happened to be sitting outside la Catedral de San Fransisco, the largest cathedral and oldest cathedral in Quito, also the site of the oldest monastery in the new world, and this middle-aged woman comes up to us and starts talking to us. Lindsay and Joe don’t really speak Spanish so I’m doing all the talking…
“oh hello, where are you all from?”
“We’re from the United States, Minnesota if that means anything to you.”
Ok, enough conversation format, I’m just going to tell you what happened. So this lady is just kind of making small talk with us and she seems harmless enough so we (I) keep talking to her. Well now she wants to know how old I am. When I say 20, she of course says, “but you have so much gray hair!” yup, I know. Then she wanted to know how to say gray hair in English, just so that my brother and sister would understand that she was making fun of me I think. So then she asks how old Lindsay is and I tell her and she goes, is she your girlfriend? And I say no, she’s my sister. And then she asks if she’s Joe’s girlfriend and I tell her, no, we’re all family. And she goes, “Where’s her boyfriend?” Basicly implying that Lindsay is, by latin American standards, a bit of an old spinster. Hahaha! Then she asks if Lindsay prefers latin men or American men, to which Lindsay smartly said, men who speak English. Well, now she turns her attention to Joe, which is, I’m quite sure, really the entire reason she came over to talk to us. First she commented that he had gorgeous skin, the perfect color. I’m too dark, Lindsay is in the middle, but Joe, Joe is perfect. Then she wanted to know if his eyes were blue so she made him take off his sun glasses to see. Then she commented that he had beautiful hair. So we’re like great, but this lady won’t walk away. She’s just kind of standing there. So I ask, are you in Quito for the new year? And she is. So I ask if her family is from Quito, and she says no, she’s here by herself. Than she goes, but wait! I have a picture in my purse! So, naturally I think that it’s a picture of her family. Oh no. even better, she pulls out a Bay Watch DVD and points madly to David Hasselhoff and then to Joe, and then the picture, and then Joe. And I’m like, great, you came over here to tell me that you think my brother looks like the Hoff. Then she left. WHAT THE HELL LADY?!?! Overall, very entertaining. Then Lindsay and I called Joe DH randomly.

Oh my gosh, this is the longest blog ever! I’ve already written 3 ¾ pages in word! Woops! Guess I have a lot to say!

Then we went to Cuenca, the capital of colonial Ecuador. The entire city is like a big museum. And we went to Inga Pirca and then to Cajas National Park and hiked around a mountain lake. Then we got lost on some busses trying to get to Guayaquil but ended up there eventually that night. Got a hotel, and the following morning went to Montanita and learned to surf. Hung out at the beach. Good times. Then we went to Puerto Lopez and hung out on a different beach. Had some “budgeting issues” solved by Joe and the trusty journal. Then we had a fight with the laundry guy, but got out alive. Headed back to Quito to see my University, Lindsay said, and I agree, that it looks like something from the OC or 90210. Headed to Mindo to do some hiking, but it was raining so we went to a butterfly garden and humming bird refuge instead, followed by some more interesting videos involving a gold umbrella and a trick dog… riiiiiiiiight. And the last day we spent in Otavalo, a city about an hour and a half from Quito famous for it’s artisans markets. So we bought some nice “wears” and headed back to Quito for the last night. Then following morning they left for home, the 12th of January. Sad. It was reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaally fun though and it was really nice to see someone from home.

That was a very abridged version of our trip. Just so you know, a lot more things happened during all these travels.

Since Then

Well, since than I’ve just been going to school. Second semester, seems like it’s going to be more difficult than last semester. I like my classes so far. I have History of Ecuador, which seems good, the prof is a bit crazy. Rearranges where we sit everyday even though there’s no seating chart. But good. And I have Andinian Anthropology which is also very interesting. We get a 5 min. break everyday halfway through class. The teacher is really young but smart and fun. I also have advanced conversation. I like that class, we just sit around and talk really. And I have siglo de oro (literally century of gold) literature. I don’t really like that one. We just read a bunch of poetry from the 1600’s. Teacher is really soft spoken and it’s a HUGE room even though there aren’t that many of us. I have to sit in the front so that I can hear. I’m also in basic weaving cuz I need an art credit. It’s difficult, I’m not a great weaver as it turns out. surprise surprise… and I have a 0 credit volley ball class. It’s fun.

I also got really sick and was out for about a week. But I went to the doctor and now I’m alright. The doctor was very good, don’t worry. It was all very clean and well done. So that’s good. Although, you can just go into a pharmacy and buy whatever prescription drugs you want whenever you want. Strange.

Well, I think that’s about it. well, one more quick thing…

Saddest TV show ever…

One of Ecuador’s top tv shows right now is called “Dancing for a Dream,” and I think it’s got to be THE saddest television show of all time. It’s like dancing with the stars in that there a bunch of couples, but it’s one famous person and one “dreamer” that’s not famous, and then there’s a panel of overly critical judges. There’s this one judge who used to be in the Russian ballet and is particularly mean. Anyway, the idea is that the winner gets a dream fulfilled by the TV station. Which seems really nice except the dreams are things like, my dad’s leg was amputated after a freak accident and now he needs a new prosthetic leg so that he can work, or my 900 year old mother lives in a tin shanty and I’m working as a police officer but I don’t make enough money and I want to buy my mom a house, or my favorite, there’s one person who’s dancing so that her friend’s little girl who has leukemia can get treatment. But than one couple gets eliminated each week and they of course sooob cuz now their dad can’t have a leg or something horrible like that. As if this show wasn’t already winning the award for most depressing reality show of all time, it assured its place in history last night when they announced that one of the contest’s mothers died the previous night from cancer. WHAT?! So I’m not sure what happens now, does that girl get a new dream? I don’t know. But I bet if that leg guy wins he’s gonna feel terrible that while his daughter was dancing around for a few weeks on tv to win him a leg someone else’s mother died cuz the money for chemo didn’t come thought in time.

The show is such a hit that they’re going to start it up in Mexico.

horse and directional sign to nearby mountains
my favorite flowers in ecuador
la hacienda porvenir (the future ranch-awkward translation, fun place)

knock off hard rock café
monument of the meeting between simon bolivar and san martin, the liberators of south america
las peñas, historical area of guayaquil

cotopaxi-the most dangerous volcano (loss of lives) in the world
chillin on a glacier

december.

as usual i´ve taken faaaaar too long to update this thing. subsequently i have a TON OF STUFF to write about!! so sit back and relax, cuz you´re going to be glued to your screen for the next half hour.

¡ferias de quito 2006 jesus de gran poder!

well, as in all parts of the world, the people here need to celebrate their city once a year. except that here it´s amazingly fun, and yes, that is a jab at river city days... hahaha! fiestas de quito are a week long. they began the 29th of november and ended the 6th of december. needless to say, i enjoyed them en full. here´s a basic idea of how the people of quito have decided to celebrate the glory of quito: public debauchery and bull fights. i loved it. i live fairly close the the plaza de torros and that´s where the biggest parties are. people are just drunk in the streets everywhere all day long, but don´t worry all the streets in the hood are closed off for this reason. now don´t get me wrong, there´s more going on during the fiestas de quito that just that. it´s just that only the gringos seem to go the other things. i went to a flamenco dance presentation in the plaza focht, the taste of quito (amazing food...), and various other activities in the city. but honestly, only the gringos go to these events. the ecuadorians mostly just go to the bull fights and street parties. let me tell you about the bull fights, cuz they were really interesting, if a bit morbid...

the bull fights are once a day. they begin at noon and last until about three. during the three hours three matadors each kill two bulls for a total of 6 bulls a day and 42 bulls throughout the week. (i hope my math is right on that?). it´s a bit over the top, but very interesting. to get tickets you have to go the the plaza around 10 and buy them from scalpers. there are actually official scalping companies who buy out the whole stadium, it´s very unfair to spectators. i don´t know why they allow it. they jack the prices up. i went to the bull fights twice and had to pay 20-ticket for tickets with a face value of 7, they were the cheapest, but you could still see really well. first with some friends and the second time i took my host mom and sister. my host mom cried when i asked her if she wanted to go to the bull fights with me. she got all welled up and said, ¨you´d go with your mom?¨ and i said of course. she loves the bull fights but hasn´t gone in four years cuz she can´t afford tickets. she had a wonderful time. anyway, the bull fights are filled with a lot of pomp. there´s a whole procession of people who come out before the fights in costume, a line of trumpets playing fanfares whenever someone comes out, and a military band in the stands playing music for dramatic effect. they were really cool. so i got to see the bull fights. there were two regular bull fighters each day and one roheneador, or bull fighter on horse. i´ve got some great pictures. the first day i went went really well for all the bull fighters. but the second day i went goes to the bulls. i think the bulls were extra energetic because they had the support of an entire animal rights protest outside the stadium. people were protesting the bull fights and screaming murderer and spaniard at us as we walked in through a police tunnel. anyway, except the horse bull fighter, the other two both got attacked. by both of their bulls. i was rootin for the bulls too. they both were fine, but one had to be taken off the field for like ten min. they were really bad bull fighters. that made it gross. they´re supposed to deliver the last death blow the the heart with a sword in one try. these guys took 4 or 5. gross. there are also giant parties in the plaza before and after the fights.

other stuff

what else? um, i went to the beace again during fiestas de quito. we had the week off of school. went to atacames. gorgeous beach. fun town. good times.

i´ve finished my first semester here. and i got STRAIGHT A´s for the first time in college. i registered for next semester. um, yeah. so school went well.

i went to the beach again this past weekend. canoa this time. very remote beach. very quiet. no one around for miles. very cool. lots of crabs.

it´s almost christmas. but it doesn´t feel like christmas. it´s just to hot and sunny for christmas. but our house is decorated beautifully. we´ve got it all. and i did the best present wrap job of my life on my host family´s present. it´s a new printer-copier. theirs is broken. but i wrapped it in fancy red paper and made a sweet gold bow. you´d have to see it to fully appreciate it. but my host mom said it was the prettiest present in the world. hahaha. it totally is. for christmas, tomorrow we´re spending it at my house. just my family. we have a whole turkey, real turkey, dinner made. it´ll be fun. and then the following day we´re going to my host uncle´s house for a formal family lunch. i don´t know what will all happen there. but it should be fun, i´m excited. sad i´m missing x-mas at home, but it´s only one year. i´ll be back next year. and i´ve escaped winter for a looooooong time.

it´s also kind of sad down here right now cuz i´m saying goodbye to everyone who was here for the semester. i´ve made a lot of really close friends in a short time, but i´ll get through it. i´m REALLY excite for my brother and sister to get here though! they´re coming the 28th for two weeks and it´s going to be sooo fun!!!!

i think that´s all for now. merry christmas to everyone. i hope you have a wonderful holiday season and i´ll see you guys in the middle of may! that´s not so far away. at least for me, time flies by here.

ñukaka inga pircamanmi rini

hey guys. new post. get excited!

last weekend i was in cuenca! cuenca is the third largest city in ecuador and it´s GORGOUS!! it´s known as the colonial capital of ecuador. all the buildings and churches (at least two on every block) are really old and really cool. it makes for a very surreal walk through the city. anyway, it´s about ten hours from quito by bus. and the bus ride was miserable. i couldn´t sleep, it was a night bus. anyway, some of our friends chose to fly, but that was $100, and it was only $20 to take the bus. so i did it the cheap way. and it wasn´t that bad. it was. hahaha!

so after the second day we went on a two hour bus ride to inga pirca!! the title of this post is ï´m going to inga pirca¨ in quichua. wow! sooooooooooooo amazing!! it´s the largest ruins in ecuador. it was originally made by the cañari people, but eventually taken over by the inca. the inca only had it for about 40 years before the spanish came. it was really cool. we saw all the sites of the cañari and learned about them from our guide, and then we saw the incan temple of the sun that they built when they took over. it´s an interesting temple of the sun, because it´s the only oval temple of the sun. the oval was a holy shape to the cañari, so the incans incorporated it into their temple to help assimilate the cañari to their culture. very cool. we also learned that the temple of the sun is the only original ruins. the rest of the ruins were reconstructed in the mid-60´s. kind of a let down, would have preferred if they hadn´t told us and just let us think they were original, but whatever...

also, while i was in cuenca, the second round of elections took place. and, unfortunately correa won. he´s the semi-communist. he has, however, said that now he doesn´t want to get rid of the dollar anymore, so that´s good for the economy here. but who knows what´s going to happen once he takes office mid-january. hopefully everything will turn out alright.


on an unrelated note, las fiestas de quito begin today!!! so for the next week there are crazy parties in the streets of quito to celebrate the founding of the city. entire streets are closed off for las fiestas and there are bull fights all week. i´m so excited to go!!

UNFORTUNATELY my quichua field trip got called off by our professor. it was supposed to be this week, the 1st-3rd of december. ON THE PLUS SIDE (!!!) i know will be in quito on the 2nd, which means I CAN STILL GO TO THE SHAKIRA CONCERT!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

the only picture i have of halloween.
ok, i have more, but this is the only one i can put up right now. i´ll put up another later so you can see my full costume. cuz it rocked!!!
dead prom king. kali (on the left) was the dead prom queen. our back story is that we killed ourselves after prom to show how much we loved one another. morbid, i know.

noviembre

hey guys. i haven´t written in a while again. so grab a snack and get ready, this might end up being a long blog post...

elections 2006

well, some of you might be wondering about the political situation here. elections are this coming weekend. i won´t be in quito, cuz i´m traveling to cuenca. but it should be an exciting weekend. the new president will begin his term in january. so that should be interesting. what else about elections?? well, the guy who owns all the bananas in ecuador (noboa) is now being accused of spending WAAAAAAY over the legal limit on his campaign, but no one will do anything about it, so i guess it doesn´t actually matter. political campaigns are nothing like those in the states. you never see or hear ANYTHING about the candidates or their campaigns unless you see them on the news. and then you only see them kissing babies and doing polititiony things like that. never talking about anything. oh, but noboa (banana guy, not commie) has a new plan where everyone can build a new house (which is actually cheaper than buying a house) for $50-month. i´m not sure how that works, but that´s what he says. that´s all for now, i´ll let you know what happenes this weekend.

luz (electricity-power)

there´s currently an electrical shortage in ecuador. it´s only affected my house once, for about ten min we were without electricity. the electric system in ecuador is based on a series of resevoires and turbines. the resevoires are filled with rain water. well, although it´s winter here and rains for a few hours EVERYDAY, right now it´s too little too late. the resevoires get depleted during the summer when it rarely rains here and right now there´s just not enough water. i think they cut off quito last though, cuz in some towns there have been riots cuz people have been without power for over a week!! all we can do is wait for more rain. i asked my mom why they just didn´t bring in water from the ocean, and she didn´t really have an answer. probably cuz it´d be too expensive to bring it in to the mountains. i don´t know.

on a similar note, ecuador´s OTHER power source, gas, is running out too! all of the stoves in ecuador are run on gas as are the hot water systems in the newer houses. my host mom told me today that there out of gas right now. it´s on the news. so our gas tank is almost empty (they drive around in the mornings selling fresh gas tanks, you just bring out your old one and they take it. it´s about $1.50 for a new gas tank and they last a few weeks (unless your hot water system is run on gas too)), so unless more gas becomes available we´re only going to be able to cook in the microwave soon, unless we have a long term black out cuz of the no rain thing, in which case we´d just be screwed. but they must be able to get by, cuz a while back, my host mom told me that ecuador was without electricity for a whole year. this was just a few years ago mind you. so be happy you don´t have to worry about having electricity, i think that´s the life lesson here. right.

holidays

one thing the people do right here is decorating for holidays! my host family and i decorated our house for christmas last night. it´s sooo nice. no one decorates the outsides of their houses here, but the insides are immaculate! i love it. my favorite thing we have is a train around the christmas tree (it´s fake although lots of people do have real trees, my host mom won´t allow them to have a real tree thought cuz she thinks cutting down pine trees is bad for the environment). it belongs to my host brother esteban, who´s 19, and he´s had it for about 10 years. he told me that it´s the most expensive christmas present he´s ever asked for/recieved. 10 years ago my family was well off, the toy train (it runs, has lights, and makes sounds!) cost one million sucres (the ecuadorian currency before the dollarization in 2001). at that time my host family could have bought THREE CARS for the same amount!!! crazy... mom and dad, feel free to spend three cars worth of money on me this christmas :) hahaha! but that´s christmas. we´ll have turkey for christmas dinner, which is a tradition, but it costs about $40. keep in mind that my host mom makes about $160-month. this year it´s free however cuz adrian, my lawyer host brother, gets his turkey this year. what does that mean? that´s what i asked cuz they kept talking about how adrian would get his turkey this year. when you become a lawyer in ecuador you have to buy your license after you graduate law school and then you get a license number and it´s officially recorded and all that jazz, when you get your number (once in a lifetime, you don´t renew it) you get a free turkey for christmas that year. so we get a free turkey!!

speaking of turkey, it´s thanksgiving thursday!! no, they DON´T have thanksgiving here. so all of my friends and i are going to applebee´s for thanksgiving lunch (i´ll probably get the fajita wrap if they have it) and then we´re going to the american sports bar to watch football! however, we heard from a friend today that there´s some other bar that´s serving REAL thanksgiving food all day and playing american football. so we might look into that...
unfortunately, there won´t be snow here, but when it gets cold, there IS snow on the mountains, and it´s really pretty. i love living in the mountains!

soccer

i went to my first soccer match on sunday. pathetic i know, but i´ve just never gone! anyway, i went with my host brother esteban. it was CRAZY!!! sooooo much fun, soooooo many people. and the fans are N U T S here. it was nacional vs. barcelona. ok, nacional is one of the teams from quito and they´re the best in the league. they won 4-0 (barcelona=struggle). barcelona is, contrary to popular belief, NOT FROM BARCELONA SPAIN!! they´re actually one of the teams from guayaquil. i asked the people around me why they´re named barcelona and not, oh say...guayaquil?, and no one knew. strange. probably a mystery i´ll leave ecuador without ever knowing... anyway, the barcelona fans are PARTICULARLY out of control. if you go to a home match of theirs, and you support the other team, and the other team wins, people have been know to be killed for supporting the wrong team. so i knew this when i went to the game, and i didn´t really believe it, but when we left there were armored vehicals surrounding the stadium doing riot control!!! ahhhhhhhhh! fortunately i wasn´t wearing a jersey. but, nothing happened that i heard of. they actually make the barcelona fans wait in the stadium half an hour before letting them out so that the nacional fans have time to get away... right... anyway, i ended up seeing some of my friends (gringos, who stuck out like it was their job at a soccer match) and they came and sat with us. so it was fun.

it was a good day.

to my mother

mom told me that people were confused about my blog, so let me clear a few things up for anyone who´s confused. fist of all, sorry if my blog is misleading, i write the way i think and speak, and i guess it tends to be slightly sarcastic. woops! anyway, i LOVE it here in ecuador. i wouldn´t change a thing that i´ve done or that´s happened to me since being here. (except maybe the halloween incident, it would´ve been nice to have my keys...) i´m really happy i chose ecuador and that i´m here for a year. it´ll be sad to not see people back home for such a long time, but i think it´s worth it. i´ve been learing a lot here. i know i say that classes are easy (and they are) but what i mean is more that the grading and the amount of homework is easy. i really have learned a lot in my classes and i go everyday, so don´t think i´m just doing nothing. i love the people of ecuador, although they are a bit closed and it´s kinda hard to make friends here, they´re good people.

also, a disclaimer: i am not an alcoholic. i do WAY more than just drink here, some of my stories on the blog are drunk stories but that´s just cuz they´re funny and i think people will like them. but i really do all sorts of stuff. its just that i can´t really make going to a museum and seeing a whole bunch of works of goya, piccaso, and miró into an entertaining story. so keep that in mind. and when i get back and you see pictures of everything i did, you´ll understand (sorda) how much i really have done here and how much i´ve gotten out of it.

ok, that´s all for now. happy holidays to everyone!

here´s the only pic i could find of the runway...
i need to work on my posing, but it was my first runway show, cut me some slack! hahaha, you don´t know how crazy this weekend really was!