Filosofía

Um, right now I'm in my Philosophy class, I finished my essay and now have decided to write. Slowly but surely I'm getting causght up to the time right now, I'm currently two weekends behind. I am looking forward to the time when everyone will be reading the stuff the very next day, but right now people are going to have to wait a little longer. I want to encourage people to ask me questions, because there are many things that I may forget to put in my blog. Everyday things are becoming more and more normal, and thus I probably will forget to write about them. Also I willtry really hard to put some photos on my blog. I see that ben has added some and they really bring the place that he lives a lot closer to the readers. Here isd my essay for philosophy, I need to transcribe it by hand so, I'm going to get to it.

Evaluación Crítica de Conocimiento

Tema: ¿Por qué hay que dedicarle tiempo a evaluar críticamente la naturaleza de las afirmaciones de conocimiento?


Para comenzar con el desarrollo de mi hipótesis es necesario conocer términos como evaluación; la cual se define como la acción de valorar o atribuir un valor a una cosa o tesis. Entonces, todas las personas en el mundo estamos en la posibilidad de evaluar o calificar según nuestros conocimientos o forma de pensar.
Otro término necesario es conocimiento, el cual se define como la acción de conocer por medio de ejercicio de las facultades intelectuales, de la naturaleza, relaciones con el entorno. Por lo tanto, obtenemos conocimiento al tomar información del medio que nos rodea con la ayuda de nuestros sentidos y razonamientos, y la transformamos en nuestra verdad es decir conocimiento.
La combinación de la evaluación y el conocimiento es la evaluación crítica de conocimiento. Debido a que la evaluación crítica nos permite dar una valoración a las afirmaciones o negaciones es decir conocimiento. Por ejemplo el cuerpo humano es 75% de agua. Evaluar este ejemplo y decir que es una verdad ya que hay estudios que han con probado este conocimiento.
En conclusión si todos tomamos cosas o pensamientos de otras personas seriamos un espejo de estas personas, por lo tanto, deberíamos obtener una constante fuente de información para poder desarrollar nuestro conocimiento. La evaluación critica de conocimiento es una cosa fundamental en todos los ser humanos. Sin esto el avance del desarrollo mundial sería nulo. Sin evaluar el conocimiento las personas en el mundo tendrían el mismo conocimiento de todas las otras personas.

It is only about 250 words and I needed 400 but my teacher understood that philosophy in Spanish is a little difficult. Kudos to you is you understand it... I barely do... hehe

New Constitution

At the same time as the Elections are happening in the states, the people of Ecuador have just passed a new constitution. It has been the rage for the whole time I've been here. Literally every wall in Quito has ¡!Vota Si! or ¡Vota No! Also any different combinations. I believe the constitution passed with about 75% aproval rating. It is about the same level of aproval for the president Rafeal Correra. The new constitution gives more opportunities, especially education to the poor. Services like electricity and water are going to become goverment owned. One thing that is really interesting is that it is obilagatory to vote in Ecuador. When you vote you recieve a card that you must present at work, for documents and the police will ask for it. It seems like a good system. Only one percent of the population over 18 didn't vote. I didn't have school today because my school was a voting station and they are cleaning up and rearanging everything today. But it is the only three day weekend I'm expecting all year... my school has a reputation to keep.

I would encourage everyone to read my friend Adam's blog for another piece on the constitution. It is titled ¿Si o No?

My First Three Weeks of School

Well I've survived my first three weeks, right now I kinda should be doing my homework but I'm kinda lazy and felt like writing in my blog. In Ecuador all the kids are in the same class and the teachers change classes. It means that the teachers have the majority of the material in their heads. I like everyone in my class. There is also another exchange student who is really cool, he is from Massachusetts. I am experty seated exactly opposite, and as far away from the teachers desk and the front of the room. The kids here are very studious, my program is for the elite of the elite. All the kids are very intelligent and get very good grades. I like my teachers, my biology teacher is really nice, he told me that if I ever had problems that I can always talk with him. I have a few good friends, Polo, Paul, Alejandro, and Abi. They have always been helpful and are the people other than my sister that I spend time with. Polo, is a little bit crazy and nerdy so we get along great. He is really smart but never pays any atention in class. He sleeps through about a third of the classes in the day. Also he is very daring, he will joke with the teachers and make fun of the inspectors. Paul is nice, active guy who seems to have opinions about everything. Alejandro is really funny to pass time with because all the time girls come up to him and want to talk and say hi. He is essentially a ladies man, but only in the good ways. He is quiet, intelligent and kind. Abi is my sisters best friend, she is really nice, she will always explain things for me and really has helped me a ton. Everyone in my classes are really nice and helpful, as a whole. All is well, I am grateful that I have my sister in my class, otherwise homework would be much harder. My comprehension is improving each day also. My school is very crazy in my opinion. For example, all of the kids need to stand in a line acording to class and listen to the general inspecter speak, at the same time the inspectors patrol the rows and get kids for bad behavior or errors in the uniform. Everyone sings the national anthem and the school song. The best students kiss the flag... it is really different. The school band is handheld xilophones and drums, it is really bad sounding in my opinion, the suits that they wear are worse. But they all march and they seem to know what there doing. One day they played badly and so all the kids had to run a lap around the track. The stragglers who were the youngest kids had to squat down and jump up and down. It was kinda pitiful, I'm really glad I'm not in the band. But everything is good, I can tie a tie and stand up when the teachers enter the room... no detentions yet. In reality I don't think my school has any punishment, everyone pretty much obeys.

Saturday, September 6th

On Saturday my family woke up at 5:30 to see my brother off. We drove to the airport where we were met by about five of my brothers friends. It was really sad to see my brother leave, I cried. He was about to go through the same expiriences that I was, for two weeks we had shared the same room and had talked about what I was expiriencing and what he was about to go through. Exchange is really an exchange, your feelings, thoughts and beliefs are changed and warped. When you leave a place that you have lived for your whole life, everything that was and is you is only represented in you. It is a really interesting feeling. At the same time I was really happy for my brother, becuase he was going to have an epic adventure. I actually talked to him this morning and things are going well, he says that his German is about where my Spanish was after a week. Today is three weeks for him. He is in high school, which is even harder than high school here..., I gues I'm lucky in that sense. He told me that right now his Speaking in German is better than his comprehension, exactly the same as me for the first two weeks. It was bitter sweet but I'm glad that all is well for him right now. When I got home I slept until like 2 in the afternoon. Then later my sisters, Andrés, my older sisters boyfriend and I went to Los Toros, a festival in Sangolquí. Sangolquí is about another half an hour away from San Rafael in the same Valley, Valle de los Chillos. When we arived it was country fair status crouded except with a very different vibe. We got there around 4 so many people were beginning to drink. We walked through the many open air bars, restaurants and shops selling all sorts of hand made goods. At the far end of this festival was was a handmade colluseum. Inside the colluseum was a dirt ring about 100 meters wide. We paid to climb up into the second level of this colluseum to watch the spectacle. There were about 300 people in the ring and one bull. Probably about half the people were drunk. They people would bother and taunt the bull terying to get it to charge. And when it did they would try and dodge it. There werwe people with capes, too, they would try and play with the bull as it earnestly was trying to kill them. I have to admit that at first I wanted to enter, but after seeing people getting trampled, and thrown in the air I began to think about entering. The ring was probably dangerous too, at one piont one of the braces snapped in our platform, it was pretty scary because there was another level above us and people below. In the ring was a cadge for people to hide in and a raised platform. These were supposedly to be safe but with fifty people crammed into the cadge and another thirty on the platform it really wasn't. The bulls would be herded by people on horses out of the ring and new ones would enter. It seemed that every new bull was a little bigger and had more energy. The final bull that I saw caught a persopn as he was running around the raised platform, he was caught unaware and was trampled repeatedly. He was the only person who didn't move after being trampled. After seeing that I really was done watching. I told my family that I thought the man was dead. They disagreed and said he was only hurt. I tried to explain that there waere probably only two options, either he had a concusion or he was dead. It was frusturating because they didn't really listen to me. Two days later in the paper it had the death of a person in Los Toros, he was 16 years old.

Sunday I met my Aunt and Grandmother. It was also when I gave my family my gifts. They really liked the jam and they use the jar as a salt shaker. My sisters wear the necklaces too. It was a normal day and my last day of summer.

One Month

Tomorrow will be one month in Ecuador! I am really amazed at how fast this time has gone by. Thanks again everyone for everything, my exchange really wouldn't have been possible without you!
I want to encourage everyone to comment or email me. It is kinda hard to write in my blog, but I'm encouraged when I here from my friends and family. So please give me feedback, ask questions, I want to inform everyone about my expirience in Ecuador. So please let me know your feelings. Especially if you are reading this and I don't have contact info for you.

Thanks All, this expirience is Amazing, I am learning so much and am growing in so many new ways! Nine or Ten months to go!!!!!!! Whoooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Viva Ecuador. Entonces, si tu conoces español, vas a hablar conmigo en español. Yo necesito practicar!
Chao por ahorita

My Second Week

When I got back from Portoviejo, I was really sick. For the first day I was pretty sick and didn't do anything. The second day was better, but when I finally got completely better I got an eye infection that lasted for about five days. The week was really about my brother. He left for Germany on Saturday September 6th. The whole week I spent driving around the city finishing things that he needed to get done for him and me. I needed a censo, an ID card that identifies me as a student in Ecuador. I am not a tourist so in addition to my visa in my passport I needed the Censo which gives me some benifits of a citizen in Ecuador. For example, when I go to the Galapagos it will only cost me $10 with my censo but $200 without it. My Ñaño, brother en Quechua, needed more papers and official documents for his exchange. So the week was pretty uneventfful exept for the suprise going away party for my bro. My sister and I worked all day preparing for the party, cleaning, organizing and making banners etc. Some friends helped us too. My bro was out with his girlfriend. When he returned to the house he found about 30 friends waiting for him. It was a really fun expirience for me. I remembered all of my friends and how much love I recieved before I left, it was like an arriving party for me. All of our preperations that were put up in five hours were torn down in five minutes. But that didn't matter, because it was an epic party.

Dreams

I have had so many weird dreams while I've been in Ecuador, probably just about everyone has been in one or more dream. They all have to do with my friends and family, it seems as though since, I never have any time to think during the day that I have begun to have adventures with my friends and family in my dreams. One dream really stands out, but it is about two weeks old.
I woke up from sleeping and it was a normal day. But my family was talking to me and I didn't understand them, it was really weird to me. My family cept on asking me questions that didn't make any sense and I was really unerved. Then my dream jumped to the other exchange students who were my friends from ashland not from around the world. There Spanish was perfect, I asked them what was up and they said that there was only two weeks left in the exchange and that everyone had just gotten back from the galapagos. I was really dumbfounded because I didn't remember any of this. I remmeber thinking that if it was a dream than I would know it because this was way to real. So I asked people questions but all of them spoke really fast so I didn't really understand to much. I was really angery for a little while, I yelled and was really unhappy becuase I had lived through my exchange but could only remember the first two weeks. I am proud to say that after that my response was, oh well, at least I'll get four weeks of exchange and all was well.
I have been having dreams night after night in which it is totally real for me. It is really cool and interesting because in Ashland I don't remember my dreams.

Guess Who's Crazy?

Here is a story that I just wrote for my sisters English class, she has class after school for two hours. Mind you I am dead tired but it was easy to copy and paste so I did.

A boy named Hardy walked down the Lane one day after school. He was returning from school which he had been at for six hours. Today had been a different day, his first day of school. No longer was he free for the summer. He had to go to school for 43 weeks…. Poor Hardy. So, today had been different because the school had recieved a new teacher. She was the teacher for Hardy’s Second Grade class. She was from another country, he couldn’t remember which but she had a funny accent. If his memory was correct she was from some small country in Europe, Locoland. Locoland was very different and actually crazy.
All the people in Locoland wore their pants on their heads. They also liked to eat ice cream with mayonase. It was all very strange to Hardy but he liked his teacher. She was kind and gave them a lesson in hand balancing. She could be in the circus Hardy thought. Everything that she accomplished was very different. One minute she would be talking to the class with her back turned and the next pointing out the student who had made a face behind her back. After the first instance Hardy tried it for himself, she caught him making a face and as punishment made him learn the national anthem of Locoland. It was all jumbled and didn’t make any sense, but in ten minutes he accomplished learning the first verse. It went something like this:
Oh, ode to Locoland…
My country, so proud and true leaning on a lamppost
Was spied one day by a hermit
He decided it was his and sat atop a mountain
The next thing he knew hermits from all over joined him
Soon they had a song, and it was this…
My country is crazy, my country is mine,
if you dare touch it I’ll break your spine
Nothing you do will change my mind.
But we are peaceful hermits, proud and true,
So please don’t bother us because all we want is peace and love
Hardy was very scared by the songs meaning but his teacher told him that hermits aren’t bad people, they just want to live peacefully hidden in some cave sleeping with the bears. That is why the country is so weird, because it is a country of people who don’t want to relate and always smell very bad. As the teacher described all this to Hardy he realized that she wore rose scented perfume. She explained to the class that she left Locoland because she didn’t like the idea of living in a cave for her whole life. So she jumped on the back of a dragonmouse and hopped across the Atlantic. She said that the problem with dragonmouses’s is that they always want cheese. So they had to stop in France for a giant block of cheese. She said that the dragonmouse burned down the Ifel tower as it tried to find enough cheese to settle its stomache. Ms. Crazy, for that was her name, told the class that probably the class would meet the dragonmouse in a couple of months but right now it was vacationing in Canada.
So all and all the day was quite extraordinary. Hardy now had a new reason to like school. He had a crazy teacher who always brought to class stories of a land far away and very different.

Portoviejo and Roteract Day 2

After Sleeping for about five hours everyone was woken up at 9:00. We showered, gathered our things and got ready to leave. We ate a measly breakfast at the hotel and borded a bus. But after about 10 minutes sitting in the bus we were told to change busses because the other was more comfortable... it wasn't. But at least we were on our way to the beach. As we were driving down the highway our bus driver stopped the bus and pulled a U-turn over a small barrier. It was quite exciting. We drove back along the highway for about 10 minutes until we turned down a dirt road. It was a lowland area with banana, plantain and papya farms. We meandered our way through these farms obviously not going to the Ocean for about half an hour. We finally arrived at a tiny little school. It was a school that roteract had built in the past. All the kids were dressed up in uniform and really happy to see us. They sang the national anthem and the city song of Portoviejo, it was really cute. All the kids were so excited thatwe were there. After the songs about three kids came up and gave speeches which to me were basicly about how much they apreciated their school and ¡Viva Roteract!. Then the teachers of the school spoke to everyone... it was probably about the same thing but I spent the whole time daydreaming. After all the talking everyone went outside which really wasn't outside becuase the school was only four foot walls with wire above that to keep robbers out. It had a tin roof and was one building with a division in it. So two classes. I was definatly amazed at the kids sitting still through the talking in their ties and uniforms. Outside everyone participated in the planting of trees, but to be totally honest I think that probably not to many of the trees will make it becuase they were planted below the grade of the ground. But it was fun to plant the trees with the kids. The whole thing was really fun and inspiring, we got to play with the kids and at the very end some rotactarians dressed up in costume and put on a show and gave out candy and gifts. It was really fun. Once we left we were in the bus for another half an hour before we arrived at Crucita, a small fishing town. I jumped in the ocean, which was a green color and very warm. I swam around and tried to catch a pelican. The ocean was full of them, there were thousands of pelicans in the ocean. Later we went up to a bluff above Crucita where there was paragliding. It was amazing because they landed and took off in the same place, and it was really small compared to the landing area at Woodrat Mountain in the Applegate. I was sceptical, but once I had watched about four people, I just had to try it again. It was really simple, hand a guy 20 bucks sign your name on a piece of paper with nothing else on it, and you were off. I loved it. It rekindled my desire to learn how to paraglide. The air on the coast is really smooth. So it was possible to control everything. 20 bucks was for 10-12 minutes for example. If I didn't mention this before, I absolutely loved it. Seeing the world from above, with only the wind in your ears... Epic. The guy actually knew the paragliding instructer, Kevin, in Ashland. Because he goes to Ecuador every year. The instructer also said that he teached classes, only four days of classes and your flying solo, I took the card but I would rather learn in the U.S. where the safety is much more. Everyone returned to the hotel, gathered their things and seperated, Everyone heading to Quito had time to kill becuase our bus left at 10:00. We went to a restaurant for sandwiches and hung around and watched what I believe is called Animal. Some funny movie about a guy who gets animal powers after he almost dies in a car crash. It was funny for me even though I couldn't understand anything. The bus ride back was adventure. There were police searching everyone before they got on the bus. I didn't know why but I had my knife on me so I put it in my wallet. My sister had gotten on the bus before me but got off to ask me whether I had my knife, I said I did, and that it wasn't in my bag below the bus. She seemedd really worried but I told her it was in my wallet and that there wasn't a problem. When I was searched it was a bit much, I had never been searched to the point where I was uncomfortable, but this time I was. I had assumed that the search had been for drugs but it wasn't. Two days before a man had gotten on a bus and attacked the passengers with a knife... I passed the search because my knife had fit in my wallet, but it was a very close call... I'm not sure what would have happened, but I didn't want to find out. The bus ride back to Quito was even worse than the one to Portoviejo, for some reason the bus driver managed to hit every pothole in the road. It was crazy, when a bus bottoms out at 100 km, it really wakes you up. So anyways, I didn't end up sleeping. But it was a good trip! Until I got sick... I'll write about that later.

Portoviejo and Roteract Day 1

So, for my first weekend I went to Portoviejo on the coast. It was for a Roteract conference. Roteract is like Rotary except for younger people. Your supposed to be eighteen but my sister and I are in it. Anyways it was for the weekend so on friday night my papi drove me and my sister to the Panamerica terminal where we caught a bus with the other people heading to Portoviejo. The buses run overnight in Ecuador, it is pretty cool. Essentially the hope is that you get on at 10:00 at night, sleep and wakeup in another city the next morning. The bus ride to Portoviejo is eight hours. I slept for probably half of it, it is hard to sleep becuase the roads in Ecuador suck. Also, dropping 10,000 feet kept waking me up. So when we got to Portoviejo I had about 4 hours of sleep. We got off the bus and were picked up by a roteractarian from the hosting club. She brought us to the hotel we were to stay at. I was practically delirious and didn't really understand what was going on but I followed some guy from our bus to a room on the third floor and fell asleep instantly. When I woke up I was so tired that I couldn't understand what he was saying, I didn't know where my sister was too. Well, after a few minutes of recovery from my english dreams. I was able to converse with him. He was from another Roteract club in Quito. Anyways, his name is Jorge, and he is probably in his mid thirties. We couldn't find my sister so we went out to breakfast at an openair restaurant next door. There I had my first taste of Coastal food, fish, rice and plantains, Ecuador is the king of bananas, I have had them pobably over ten different ways, and all are good. After eating breakfast we got a ride in the back of a pickup to the school were the conference was. I found my sister, but we were in different groups for the conference. So after recieving my nametag I was shooed into a room with a bunch of other people. There we recieved a speaker, I didn't understand much but the Powerpoint had some good pictures, it was about community service action. How roteract can help people. After the conference we had a short break, I talked with the other people and told people that they really did have to speak to me in Spanish, becuase it is really hard to learn a language when people are speaking to you in English. I talked with a person from Cuenca, the way that they speak is called cantando. To put it simply, they sing. It is really beautiful but I understood nothing... My other conference was boring... I didn't understand a thing. Lunch was cheap but in comparison to the conferences, I really enjoyed it. Later, my final conference was about colors and their meanings. I enjoyed it, because the lady used the 2004 presidential election as an example. So, I understood what she was talking about. There were supposed to be four conferences in one day but I left with my sister and a friend because I was dead tired. I rested for about two hours, each conference was a full two hours... I could have died and would have been happier. Sorry, anyways there was a dinner and party later. So I dressed up and sat around for about two hours, did I mention that as a point people are really slow in Ecuador. It was supposed to start at eight but didn't until Eleven, But it was chill because I got some quality time with another kid my age, he was 19, his name was Julio, but he wasn't born in July. We talked about all sorts of stuff as the women were burning their dresses with the iron and running around trying to find other items of clothing. It really wasn't amusing because I was deathy hungery. Once we arived at the location we sat around for another hour waiting for the rest of the people to trickle in. Once everyone was there, about a zillion people spoke before anything exciting happened, we were served champaign and for the first time in my life I toasted with champaign. I think the toast was for the life of roteract and the new president of the club. After the toast music came on and people got up to dance, I was not in the mood to dance, tired, hungery and loud music really aren't a good combination for me. So when my sister asked me to dance I rudly turned her down, this was not a good thing to do. I now know that when my sister wants to dance I better not turn her down like I did. In front of about 10 people I turned her down which embarassed her and reflected badly on me. She didn't talk to me for about an hour. Dinner was finally served and I ate two dinners, but the whole time I was preocupied with the fact that my sister was giving me the cold treatment. After dinner I apologised to her. I was really scared that she wouldn't forgive me. But she did, after I still felt really bad. The saying that you don't know what you have until you lose it is so true. In that case it was until you think you have lost it. Becuase, I am in Ecuador, seperate from everything known to me. My only anchor is my family and specifically my sister. My family here in Ecuador means so much to me. They have really become another family. I missed my family back in Ashland too. Because my family back home is excellent, I love my family. Anyways, I had a period of being very sad, it was the first time that I chose to speak english. I explained to my sister my feelings as we walked around the block. I cried too, but when we got back to the dance party there was a miniture parade of masked people. It was all fun but the fact remained that I was really, really tired. I left the party with my sister at about 3:30... and crashed, like a rock.

By the way you should be able to see a photo, but it doesn't show up on my computer

School... Um.... Is Swell? Part 1

Ok, so for now I have given up writing my expiriences in order, hopefully I'll get to all of my other things, trust me when I say life is a blur here.
My first week of school was horribly challenging. I just want to say that when I signed up for foreign exchange it was for a cultural expirience, not acedemic. But I deffinatly recieved an acedemic challenge. My high school is the best in Ecuador and one of the best in South America. It is really hard, My school begins at 7:00 and ends at 3:30 every day. In the past year at Ashland High I took a 4th period out because I couldn't stand being in school for that long. Note: When Alexa learned that she would have to be going to school on Saturday I joked and said that Ecuador would be better. Well the irony is that she doesn't have to go to school on Saturday and I do... from 8:30 until 10:30. Pretty Swell!
I guess that my feelings about all this are, whatever, everything is awesome. I didn't want an acedemic challenge but I sure as heck got one. I'll take this opportunity to learn as much as I can!
I am in some international program that is all around the world, the problem is that I can't pronounce it and thus when I tried to write it a few seconds ago it wasn't really a word. Essentially my program is really difficult. The good news is that I am in all the same classes exept for one with my sister Johanna. So here is a list of my classes:

1. Historia- World History but I haven't had it yet.
2.Biologia- Biology, I like the teacher and in the first class there was a dead monkey in a plastic bag... I was kinda weirded out.
3. Sistemas Ambientales- Natural Systems? I think but right now we are learning about cells. The only class I don't have with my sister, it is really small too, 5 peaple and 2 are exchange students.
4. Economia- Economics, it is microeconomics, the teacher seems pretty cool, he joked with the class and included everyone.
5. CAS- Community Service, I need 150 hours of community service and some how this is a class, but I haven't had it.
6. Matimaticas- Math, deffinatly difficult since I hate math. But right now I at least kind of understand the material.
7. Ingles- English, it is a very high level and I have actually gotten quite a few questions wrong. The teacher isn't the best, his english is basic and he doesn't seem to know what he is doing parts of the time.
8. TOK- Philosophy, my first homework was in this class, I had to write ¿Que es Conocimiento? What is knowledge, I copied Wikipedia... hey, when you can't even understand what your writing copying from Wikipedia is allowed.
9. Lenguaje- Literally language, but Spanish, everyone else has to read a novel but the teacher said that me and Adam, the other exchange student, can start with kids stories... Thank you! Otherwise I would have died, I also like the teacher. To be totally honest she kinda reminds me of Jan Christensen. Who is pretty wild.
10. Psicologia- Phsycology, it is a really small class and I'm interested in the subject. I think 7 students.
11. Monografia- A project... I don't really know anything else.
12. Sociologia- Sociology, another small class. I am intersted it it too so it all works out, I think 6 students.
13. Recreation- P.E.
14. My class on saturday, I believe another project...

Some classes are for longer periods of time than others, I am still trying to figure it all out...

Sorry!

Hey everyone, I'm sorry I haven't written more, first I didn't have internet and now I am being WORKED by school it is really intense and I'll write more about it later. I really want to sleep rigt now cause at 5:30 I will need to get up for school. Anyways thanks for all the comments, I changed my setting so that it is possible for anyone to comment. Hopefully if you tried and couldn't now you can. I have so much to write and hopefully I'll get to it all this expirience is amazing and I want to share it with everyone. Anyways blessings to everwyone and check back soon, hopefully all will be caught up.

My First Week Part 3

Continued.... Well the other things that happened during the week was more learning about where I live and all the places in it. I have started practicing capeoira, a brazilian martial art, it is really fun for me. I need to do more exersizes because if I don't I'll probably get fat, my mami thinks that I need to eat a massive amount of food every day. It is kinda frustrating. But anyways my first week had a couple of other interesting happenings first was that I met with my rotary club. It was an interesting expirience, first because my sister and I were a half an hour late. We had capeoira, and had to walk to the meeting. My rotary club here is very serious. They read off all the rules and made it very clear that all must be obeyed to the letter. It was kinda frusturaating but whatever. I was most bothered when we were told that things are different in Ecuador and that the streets are dangerous, this is true but all that is needed is atentiveness, the bad people are only a small percentage, so in my opinion it was a little over the top. I told them that I had talked with people and that most are very open, kind people. It was pretty hard to try and argue in spanish but I think I did a good job. Also, naother thing that was hard was when I was told I would have to change families, the problem is that I really love my family and they love me too. It would also be really weird because my sister and I go to the same school and have many of the same classes. I live aabout an hour by bus away from my school, the other family lives about a half an hour farther away in a car. There is no bus service and it would make my life excruciatingly more difficult.
I met the other two rotary exchange students in my club. Hannah from germany, and Roisin from belgium. The family I would have to change to would be hannah's family. Anyway I really don't have much to say about Roisin because truthfully I don't want to speak english and she speaks only english and she is very quiet and introverted. Hannah is an extrovert like me and the times we have been together have been fun. She knows Gentleman, a german reggae group, and she waants to speak in spanish too.
The rotary meeting was thursday. That same day I went to the Mariscal with my brother and his girlfriend. It is the touristy part of Quito, tons of Discos and signs in English as well as Spanish. We met up with a good friend of my brother, Louis, he is very fun and big hearted. I hope that we will be able to hangout even though my brother is in Germany right now.
Friday I went to Sangolqui, another city in the same valley as Quito, the Geography is that everything is in one gigantic valley with mountains and other valleys inside of it. I went there and slacklined in the park with my sister and her friend. It was a clear blue skied day and very peaceful.

Finally I'm done with the first part of my week, I still have so much to write about bear with me everyone! Thanks again for all the support back home. Life here is fast paced and epic, I am really trying to soak it all in!

My first Week Part 2

The second part of my week was more of the same. Lots of crazy adventures that I didn't know I was doing. I have only been able to say yes or no, and it is much simpler too say yes so... Inviarably I have been dragged along on many excursions. Shopping mostly, in the city it is very different. When we go to do errands it takes all day and on top of that sometimes nothing much gets done. The Ecuadorian style is slow, but the city is very fast. I'm not quite sure how those to go together but the result is lots of plans and very little done. It is frustrating for me because I am used to hopping on my bike and doing only exactly what I want or need to get done. Here it is different because it takes an hour or so by bus to get where your going and then you have to find the places, and come back home.
During the week my sister wanted to rock climb with me, there is a really cool outdoor place in the center of Quito. We went there but it was really expensive so we left, later we met up with my brother and his girlfriend. We wen't to a market where we bought a Shigra, a bag made out of agave fibers, for me. It is really cool it is green with a llama on the front. Later we met up with some of my sisters friends and walked around the city center. At one point my bro and his girlfriend left to go and get tourist info for his exchange in Germany. My sister asked if I wanted to go to la casa de horrer. But I didn't really understand what she was saying so I said yes. I just kept on hearing la casa so went along without a word soon enough we arrived at the scariest haunted house ever, nothing was held back at this place. Just standing outside of it scared the shit out of me. For whatever reason it got me thinking about everything that I left behind in Ashland. After I we had left I just felt really really sad. I cried but it was great to have my sister there.She told me that when I was sad it made her sad to and that she just wanted me to be happy. It was really interesting because at the same time I felt like doing nothing,but just falling asleep. but she asked if I wanted to go slacklining. I said yes because I knew I needed to do something. So when we got home we walked to a local park, on the way we met up with one of my sisters friends and walked to the park. It was a beautiful park. It has a green lawn shaded by tons of Eucalyptus trees, sadly they are all over. I would imagine that they aren't native here either, and they dominate the landscape around Quito. But in any event the park was very beautiful, I set up dthe slackline and I began trying to teach them how to slackline in Spanish. It went amazingly well, they both learned quickly and by the end were able to balance for some time. The best part for me was that there was a posse of kids in the park. I asked them iff they would like to try and slackline and they said they didn't which was too bad. Finally we coaxed a kid to try it out and he thought we were pretty crazy cause it was so hard.
Later, I was getting tired of slacklining so I took one of the kids bikes, they all had bikes, and started riding it around the park, they all started chasing after me and it went on for a few minutes until I bailed the bike. Soon after I took anothr kids bike and rode it around. They all started chasing me again, I bailed the bike and they kept on chasing me. So I started running from them, they picked up sticks which was slightly scary but still fun. I ran away on all fours and was rolling and jumping through the trees. One kid in specific was really keen on playing with me, when I circled around to try and get another bike he stopped me and tryed to tackle me, I picked him up and tickled him as he yelled for help from the other kids, I started running around with him in my arms and about five kids with sticks chasing me. The whole hullabalo went on for about twenty minutes, it was really fun for them and me.

My First Week Part 1

I guess that I have realized that it is way to hard to write on a day by day basis, my goal is to soak it all in and it is hard when your trying to record what has already happened. So anyways my point is that I'll get to the highlights.
On Sunday I went to a profesional soccer game. It was really fun and intense, I was in the cheering section, I guess that is my way to describe it but essentially the section where everyone was screaming at the top of their lungs, waving flags and most likely drunk. It was tons of fun, I was trying to chant along but in reality I was just faking it. Liga, my new team, one two to one. It was a good game. I went to church that night, it was very different for me but I enjoyed parts of it. I really didn't understand a thing from the sermons. I guess that while I am here I'm a Catholic.
I have said some funny things since I have been in Ecuador, for example that monday I went shopping with my mom and sister for my school uniform, it is bad for me because I have to wear a blazer and tie on mondays and on all the other days a uniform of slacks and longsleeve dress shirts, gone are the days of shorts. While we were out I said that I would like to have kids instead of I like having brothers. it freaked my mom out for a little while until I realized my mistake.
I have gotten to understand how to use the buses in Quito, it is interesting because the buses are used by the majority of the people in Quito, they are very common for petty theft, and the bus drivers will race to pick up people. It is all very challenging for me since all I have ever used is a bike to get around where I live.

By the way, to all those people reding my blog, I would really appreciate comments or emails. I want to here the responses of the people back home, so if you can please do. Thanks for all the support back home, I really appreciate everyone who has contacted me.