last week of ecuador!

Before I go on to share on Ecuador.. I want to give you all a peek as to whats going on in my brain right now... So I just opened my iTunes and once it loaded, I immediately typed in "James Morrison" into the filter box. And I realized that... he is my immediate go to music. Meaning before I give myself a chance to think about what I'm really in the mood to listen to.... I type in Mr. Morrison..and listen to him until I am inspired to listen to something else! Does anyone else have an immediate "go to" on their itunes.. or is it just me? (Sometimes I ask questions on my blog & no one answers them...but I assume that when people read the question, they answer in their head.. so I'm happy)

Okay so BACK to Ecuador. Week 8.

A few weeks before our last week in Ecuador, our boss gave us the option to spend some time working with one of the projects that CARE Ecuador implements. Of course we jumped at the opportunity. So for our last week of Ecuador... we worked on the project Juntos Liderando (Lead Together) by helping faciliatate a vacational school for children in the town of Cayambe. The kids had mini classes (with topics ssuch as painting, exercise, town history, and sexuality), a lunch/snack, and free time everyday. We assisted the "teachers", helped prepare the food, and just generally bonded/played with the kids. I loved it! Loved it!
Let the pictures speak for themselves:

The teacher, explaining to the kids the history of their town (Cayambe)

The kids learning how to paint..

The teacher taught them a method where they painted a blob, and then blew the paint to create streaks.

The color quality in this picture isn't the greatest.. but focus on the kids!

Loved these little girls

And then we moved outside to play games.
(The little boy in the picture..was the most outgoing kid I have ever ever encountered.)

I let the girls use my camera to get this picture..

I've never seen such concentration when eating chips

The next day & back inside..

And finally.... on Friday we went out to eat with Alex (our "boss" when we were working on the Lead Together project)

The next day (Saturday) was our last day in Ecuador. We spent the day with our host family.. going out to eat, driving to parts of Quito we hadnt been before, and drinking coffee at a coffee shop. Much later that night (really early Sunday morning) we boarded a plane and headed back to the US!

I want to thank anyone who read this blog, anyone who encouraged me, and anyone who prayed for my summer.  This summer was an unbelivable learning experience... I learned about myself, I learned from God, and I learned about other people. And while this experience had its fair share of "challenging" moments.. I wouldn't trade the memories, risky adventures, Spanish conversations, twice-a-day bus rides, or weekend travels for anything in the world.

(PS- I'm absolutely terrible at "recapping" a trip.. so if you thought that was corny, or didn't really explain anything.. feel free to look through all my blog posts since I first left for Ecuador.. starting here

week 7 in ecaudor.

It feels so incredibly weird to blog about Ecuador.... from my laptop in the States. But here I go.. hopefully I can remember most of the important stuff!

Since we knew our time in Ecuador was ending shortly.. we wanted to make sure to capture a few shots of the people that greatly impacted our experience!

With Albita...Our Host Mom!

Marthy...Our Boss

For the rest of the "work week" I spent my time redesigning the CARE Ecuador website using this program called weebly.com. It is such an EASY program to use.. and that's exactly what they need at the office (since no one really has web development experience). Now the website can be updated more frequently than it has been in the past! 

On Saturday Sharada & I decided to spend the weekend doing stuff around Quito (since we had spent all of our other weekends traveling). So we hung out with the Vela kids (the other students she knows from her school that are spending their summer in Ecuador volunteering). We went to the Banco Central Museum of Quito (incredibly boring), walked around town, tasted the most amazing brownies ever..and finally headed to Centro Historico to watch a celebration that was recommended to us by the museum security guard. At the risk of wrongly explaining what they were really celebrating, I'll just quote the website.. ""Quito will boast a feast of cultural, civic and folkloric events both in the historic centre and nearby parishes, to celebrate the Bicentenary of the Quito Revolution. The Bicentennial celebrations started last year commemorating 200 years of the “First Cry for Independence” (August 10th, 2009) and will continue thru 2012, in memory of several crucial events that lead the independence processes of the country and the whole continent!"

To celebrate they staged a reenactment of the actual Quito Revolution. Except unlike boring reannactments that I used to watch in high school history... this one was a musical! The sang, danced AND acted It was absolutely amazing! AND it was free! Free, cultural event... how could you pass that up?

My pictures doesn't do justice.. but here they are.

Part of the stage & set.

The full stage... just as they started to perform.

Fireworks after the show

Look how amazing Centro Historico is at night!

Sunday, Sharada and I headed to Teleferiqo (a ski lift type deal that takes you to the top of a mountain so you can see all of Quito). We were pretty excited because everyone raves about it after they go... Well, all of our excitement was crushed when we got to the top of the mountain and could only see pure, thick fog.  

Oh well. We did try to make the best of it..and still walked a bit around the mountain. We found this church and these great crosses outside..  ( I love how the fog makes the crosses look)

And then we headed back.. where I took a few shots on the lift..

UPDATE (on a few things i´m looking forward to)

last week I wrote this post on a few things i´m looking forward to do when I get back to the states.
And now I´m adding this..

14. Having a date at Barnes & Noble. Who´s coming you may ask? Well.... myself, my camera, my iPod, the  caffeinated beverage  I will purchase AND every interesting book I can find in the store. I am going to plant myself one of their comfortable arm chairs and staying there for hours.
Bliss

(PS- I had to look up how to spell "caffeinated"..Yup)
(PSx2- This post and personal date idea was inspired by Alyse´s most recent Tidbit Tuesday. )

a few quick things.

1. I return to the US of A in less than 3 days! I am so flipping excited.

2. I´ll update about my last week of Ecuador.. probably when I get to the states on Sunday/Monday. I´m just super busy with work right now.

3. My mom just informed me that my Aunt is going to be on the new Nate Berkus Show (the interior designer that is always on Oprah) and she got my mom and my sister 2 tickets. A limo is picking them up and they´re going to be in the audience of the show.  I AM SO JEALOUS. First off, I love seeing my aunt/uncle and my little cousins..especially since I have Ecuadorian gifts for them. Secondly: seriously, Nate Berkus?! I didnt even know he had a show.. but now that I do.. I want to be in the audience! Thirdly: I want to go in a limo Fourthly: I wanted to go to NYC before I leave for Syracuse..and I dont have time.
Boo. I guess I just have to wait until the next time  my Aunt is on a famous talk show and I´m in the country.. (Not likely.. I have no clue why she´s on in the first place)

Don´t let my last "thing" fool you.. I´m still in super high spirits to come HOME!
Ciao.

PS- Here´s a sneak peek at whats to come when I post about my last week of Ecuador..

from my co-intern´s perspective

..a few pictures from her camera..

Remember when it was SO cool to be a fan of Barney when you were a5 years old..and then when you reached 2nd grade Barney was suddenly the LAMEST thing ever and you were teased relentlessly for having anything that represented you still enjoyed him.Well I say he´s cool again.
We found this costume in a  party store while walking the streets of Cuenca a few weeks ago, and we just had to take a picture with him..

Me. Ziplining in Mindo. Doing what the guy called the "supergirl" pose.

..on bargaining.
- If you have ever traveled to a foreign country with me, you know that i am the worst bargainer ever. The thing is.. I´m super indecisive. So when I shop I take a pretty long time to decide I want a certain item... so for me to want to buy an item, I must really really want it.. AKA its super hard for me to fake the whole... "not interested look" so that the person I´m bargaining with will put his price lower. When they offer me a price.. I say "okay" and I begin to pull out my money. I know.. the complete wrong approach to buying things outside of the US. Thats why whenever I travel.. I have someone else do the bargaining for me. This time it happened to be Sharada... she can coach anyone on bargaining. Check her blog for her ways! 

...on Ecuadorian buses. 
- So we take the bus to work everyday.  And we have our fair share of stories from our little commutes. One time a guy asked me if this bus goes to such-and-such a place.. and I replied with an "I dont know" and a smile...Well,  I don´t know if it was the fact that I didnt know the bus route or if he heard my American accent in the two words of "No se".. but all of a sudden he was asking me where I was from, telling me I looked like his wife, asking me to translate an english voicemail he had on his phone, etc. etc. 
Thats one of my favorite bus stories... here is one of Sharadas´s

¡ Banos !

We spent the past weekend in Banos...  a town that boasts of its hot springs, waterfalls, volcanoe, and amazing scenery.

Because its a town nearby a volcanoe it has these signs on the road everywhere. It reminded me of this one movie I saw in 7th grade about a volcanoe that errupts and everyone has to leave, and theres lava pouring everywhere and they try and save a dog. (I forgot the name of it haha).

The first day we got there it was raining, so instead of exploring the city by foot, we took a Taxi tour. haha.

The tour was a tour of the different waterfalls in Banos. 

And at one of the waterfalls you were able to take this cable car thing between mountain ledges!

 On the other side of the mountain I found this pretty flower..

 And a super call skeleton of a leaf..

A different waterfall called..... "something Novios"

Then later that night after dinner we did a "night tour" of the city.. (pictures of course dont do justice. Its super hard to capture anything at night with a point and shoot. I know I keep complaining about my use of my point and shoot..but its true!)

Part of the tour was seeing these pretty cool fire dancer men..

Here´s a video (not the best quality but you get the idea)

And then the next day we started off the day with me BUNGEE JUMPING. Thats right, I said BUNGEE JUMPING. (Well not technically bungee jumping, the cord doesnt spring you back up.. you actually swing on it.. but you jump off a bridge just like you would if you were bungee jumping.. so thats what I´m going to call it). So we get to the bridge, and I swear my heart dropped to my toes. This bridge was SO FLIPPING HIGH! Oh my goodness, I wish I remembered to take a picture of the bridge itself... because it was huge. We did however get a few shots of me about to jump..

 See this picture. This is when I looked down and began to think that there was no possible way I could do this..

 So I sat down to catch my breath and get some (useless) encouragement from the guy who was doing my equipment

 See the guy in the orange jacket holding up his hands... this was him telling me that he will help me by pushing me on 3 (because really there was no other way I was going to get myself off the ledge). I agreed and WENT for it. Let me tell you... SCARIEST THING OF MY LIFE! It was kind of fun at the end.. but mostly scary.

 Unfortunately we didnt get a video/photos of me actually jumping.. because Sharada said I jumped "too fast" haha. But no worries.. I went again..and this time we got a video.. look out for it at the end of the post!

After bunjee jumping as we walked through town we saw this guy making this gum like thing. I forgot the name.. something like "maracuchcu." He let us try some for free (it was gross) and also let me take a video/picture of him!

 And heres the video:

Then we decided to do another tour of waterfalls but this time on GO KARTS! We got to drive on the highway and everything! I was the one driving..and it was so much fun! Now I can say I´ve driven in a foreign country (and I´ll just skip out the part about it not acutally being a real car).  

Here´s a video:

And as we were go karting it back to town.. we stopped at a much smaller bridge so I could go BUNGEE JUMPING AGAIN... but this time so we could at least attempt and get a video. haha. Yes Ladies & Gents I paid to go again.. all because I wanted to get a video and a few more pics..

Let me tell you how much MORE I enjoyed this second bridge. First off, it was way smaller (in height), secondly the guys were much nicer and way less pushy in getting me off the bridge, third I acutally ENJOYED the jump.. versus the first bridge where I just felt complete and utter fear.

And here´s the video. I´m realizing now we should have taped it from a different angle.. but thats okay, you can kind of get the idea from picture. Oh man, it was so much fun. Anyone considering Bunjee Jumping (or the kind of pseudo version I did) should DEFINITELY DO IT!

I have crossed off two things on my life list (that I still need to write down).. learn how to Salsa Dance and Bungee Jumping. Woo hoo! :)

Highlights from Week 6

(july 18-24)
Wednesday: Sharada knows some people from her school doing service work here in Quito. And they invited us to go salsa dancing with them! Before we went we decided to eat at this one resturant because of the way it was amazingly decorated. Well let me tell you.. what you see, is what you pay for. This place was so ridiculously over priced for such small portions. You live and you learn.

After our meal it was off to the Salsa Club. Let me tell you, SO MUCH FUN! I cannot wait to do it again. The pictures are a bit dark &  doesnt do the night justice.. but here they are anyway. 

Thursday Caro invited us to watch a Liga (one of the main teams in Quito) socer game! Her family has a box in the stadium, so we had great seats!

Liga Fans are absolutely nuts! They were on their feet and jumping up and down the entire game. Here´s a video after Liga scored a goal.

I didn´t get great pics of the acutal players playing because the box was so high... but here are a few (blurry because of the zoom).

And here`s a picture of us girls (Caro, Sharda, myself and Caro´s cousin Dani) after the game. The flash made it a bit weird..

Friday: We went to this tiny (indie) movie theather called Ocho & Medio  and saw this movie called Gringuito. I loved it (both the movie and the theater)! It was also all in spanish.. and I understood the majority of it! It´s so awesome to see how my spanish has improved in terms of understanding the language.. now if only my speaking skills would catch up.

I´ll write about our weekend trip to Banos, in the next post!