Two blog posts awkwardly in one? Yes!

Either I’m the worst student in the world, or I’m starting in the middle of the year… Let’s go with the latter. Today was my first day of classes, uniform and all. My brain hurts, number one, because of this quiz over technical drawings, number two, because of how fast this one teacher talks. After about 40 minutes of trying to keep up with his notes, I just plain gave up. I’ll buy the book tomorrow. The air conditioning in the school is practically non-existent. It does not work well. Picture this: I went outside to cool down. In Ecuador. Yup, that’s right. It’s hotter inside with air conditioning. I nearly died! My brain hurts enough as it is. Thursday afternoon, we are going to Quito, and coming back Sunday morning. Monday morning, Janek and I are going to orientation, and coming back sometime Thursday—I have no idea when. So, no school for a week! With being a “bad student” already, this should be the perfect thing to secure the reputation, right? Who knows. All I know is that my head hurts, and I am ready to sleep a million years.

On the bright side, I go to sleep thinking in Spanish! (The down side is the whole…wake up in English thing that’s still happening…)

I’ve been spending time with my counselor’s family, and may be moving here. It’s really nice, because they actually spend time together as a family. And her daughter is 15, and we get along really well. Oh, and they have air conditioning in more than one room! (Including the one I would share with Melissa—the daughter—if I moved here.) I’m still not sure what will happen. When I do, I’ll keep everyone posted!

I went to a pool and then  a river. We caught lobster in the river. It kinda creeped me out, especially when I figured out that it was for dinner. But, it’s okay. I understand. People eat things they catch in rivers.

I have to put bug repellent on 2-3 times a day. Even then, I have 7 bug bites right now—all of which were from mosquitos over the course of about an hour. Me pican! MUCHO!!! Do not come to Ecuador being sweet. Be mean; maybe the mosquitos will leave you alone? I just can’t wait for the Amazon! (Hear the half sarcasm there? Yeah, that’s because I don’t want any more picos de mosquo!) I’m going to need to coat myself in a layer of mosquito killer! I’m just too nice! Hahahah! Save me…please!!

A word for future exchange students:  learn to tie a tie before you come, especially if you’re going to a South American country. Who knows, maybe your uniform will have one like mine! Oh, and DO NOT DRINK THE WATER! And, do your best to improve your language as best you can. I can’t say how much it has helped me to know the language here. I still have a way to go, as all exchange students do after only 11 days in the country, but I’m glad that I learned as much as I did before I came!

So, I just went up to Quito, and we spent some Thursday night, Friday, and Saturday morning there. I got to be cold for the first time since I got here without blasting the air conditioning!!!!! Sometimes, there are things that you don’t think about until they aren’t there. We went to El Mitad del Mundo, and it was fun. I got a picture of a tarantula on my hand. It was cool. Outside, we were taking pictures on stuff, and I got caught in a tunnel, so I had to use the slide to get down head first. I cut my hand, which really scared my family. It was kinda normal for me to cut myself when I slide across rocky dirt. After that, we spent some time with my nephews, which were so cute. I’m just glad I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t understand them:  “sadfai faf asdjfas;djf LUNES. ;aljdfauf CUMPLEAÑOS a;sdfkjalfd FAMILIA.” Apparently that’s what everyone heard, so my Spanish can’t be that bad… The next day, we went to a volcano, which was pretty cool. We rode this thing that took us to the top, and took pictures, then came back down. I didn’t get to actually see the volcano part, which was kinda sad. On the bright side, I got to see most of Quito in one place!

We also had Orientation! I woke up at 5:30 and got to Portoviejo at 7. After that, we got on the bus around 8 and had a 4 hour drive to the most gorgeous hotel in the history of tourist attractions. We had a pretest on Monday, then classes Tuesday and Wednesday, then a test Wednesday. All of Thursday morning was OURS to do with what we pleased. Anyway, classes were boring. The fun part was the shows when this kid from Brazil kicked some serious…ummm…rear… Yeah, we had a fun time. One night, oh gosh, I have a feeling I’m going to regret blogging about this, but, one night, we had this completion for King and Queen of the camp. I was the only person who didn’t care, so I was nominated. I was with this kid who was from Brazil who kicked…rear…  He basically told me to do some funny dance thing, which I find dirty as heck, so I didn’t wanna, but I did. I fell flat on my butt. I. Don’t. Dance. For. A. Reason. ESPECIALLY DIRTY!!! I wanted to go back to the room and hide under my blankets, but instead, I went to this party with the rest of them, and it was fun. It helped me get my mind off my utter embarrassment. So, yeah. I burned as well. I don’t burn, right? Well, I thought I didn’t, but I did, because I fell asleep in the sun. So, now I have this awkward burn line on my chest where my bathing suit was, and my legs are bright red. My belly has evened out to a nice pinkish brown, thankfully.

On the ride back from Orientation, I kinda was hurt emotionally. Someone started to make fun of people who cut by calling them emo. After losing my cousin, having a friend who nearly killed herself and cut the heck out of her arm, and so many other things, I felt so hurt. I’m not sure how long I yelled at him, but I just really cannot stand it when people make fun of people who deal with a lot in life. I really wanted to cry, because that is just the one border that you cannot cross with me. Some things, I will say, “hey, can you not say that? I just don’t like it.” This however, is something that made me want to shout out to the world how horrible someone is for making fun of. For the rest of the bus ride, we talked, and he didn’t cross the line again, but I kept stroking my Armed With Love bracelet. (Woo! It’s gone worldwide ladies and gents!)

On Sunday, I officially changed families, because some interesting reasons. My sister was denied her visa, and I just didn’t feel right there.  My new family has a mom, dad, 15 year old sister, wolf-dog who needs more exercise, aunt, and sister who talks way too fast, living with us. I share the room with Melissa, my 15 year old sister, and we get along just like I feel as though two sisters would. I love her clothing—just for the record. We don’t have internet in the house—only at the store, so I will not be on very often, and my blog posts may be long, and may be short, depending on how much time I have. I still don’t have a phone, but if I get a blackberry (Ecuador is to blackberry as USA is to iPhone), I may be on facebook a little more. Don’t count on it though, because for just a year, I’m not sure it would be worth it.

I went to a soccer game. There was a guy with a machete. It scared me, but everyone else was calm. When he jumped the fence and started running at the winning team (the one he was NOT rooting for), I wanted to high tail it out of there. Everyone just watched and laughed.

So, I got food poisoning. Everyone was convinced it was dengue fever. I was convinced it was something I ate, and now I'm doing great. All is well with food once more!