Not So Swell

So I wanted to wait just to be sure but... my Ipod was stolen on Tuesday. I put it in my backpack during my soccer practice, and put my backpack on the bleachers. When I got back someone had stolen my Ipod. I've put up notices around my school offering a reward, but I probably won't get it back. I'm definatly hopeful, the thing is that Ipods here are worth $400 USD so it definatly makes it a worthwhile item to steal. I'm not sad about the Ipod but all of my music... definatly is a bummer. It isn't the only incedent either, today a bunch of kids in 3rd year(Freshmen) had there cellphones stolen from their backpacks in the classroom. I just never thought that I had to guard my things in school...
Today is Thanksgiving so I'm just going to say thanks to everyone who is reading my blog. Thanks to my family and friends and thanks to this amazing expirience. I hope that with these few words everyone understands that I'm really so blessed anbd completely thankful. Life is good, I have all the things I need and more. I'm living an expirience of a lifetime and soaking it up!
These past two weeks weren't that interesting as far as school goes. Besides my Ipod being stolen... Last week my team lost the soccer game. But 3-4, so it wasn't horrible. And I played for about 20 minutes, it turns out that my shoes are horrible, I bought shoes for grass, not hard packed dirt. All of the highschool games are played at "The Hole" and whover governs the interschool play has decided to eliminate matenance and scrape off the grass... I miss NMP. I got my sweats for soccer today and they are super nice, but excesively hot, there like flanel. I'm going to roast, It is never cld enough to wear both the top and bottom.
Today all of the kids in BI, my special program wen't to the one of the cities sports centers to cheer on our basketball team. We won but the no one from the other teams school shoed up so all of our yelling was pretty pointless. I did learn that I have a lasting impression on the 4th year BI. There are a bunch of kids on the soccer team from that class, there are 4 of them who are good friends and they remind me of the mini four. But I would just start yelling and cheering and jumping around and they would just clear out... I'm only like twice their weight... But they are fun and I ended up spending most of the game talking with them.

Weekend from really long ago part 3

So my sister and I got up early to catch our train. We ate a quick breakfast and left the house with my mom, we arrived at the train station where there was a train with about 5 or 6 cars. The last two had passengers inside and the others were box cars. We met the man who had sold us the tickets and he gave us two cushins! We walked over to the train and realized that the majority of the people on the train were tourists, Americans, Germans, Swiss, Argentinians, French, and one other girl who is in my exchange program but we never talked on the train, just after during my first rotary trip we met up. We climbed aboard the first car and sat as close to the front as we could along side two women from argentina. The metal on the top of the train was wavy... I think you could call it courugated, but I'm starting to loose my vocabulary. Anyways it was not comfortable, alongside all of the, edges was a metal bar which served as a railing, it was about 15 cm high. My mom watched us as we pulled away, a bunch of hooting gringos on top of a train. THere was a nifty sign that dipicted a devil and said Nariz del Diablo!!!!! We were definatly in for a ride. The train lurched away only to halt about ten minutes later to add another car and to pick up a few more conductors. Chimborazo remained elusive hidden behind the clouds but, the amazing thing was that the top of the mountain could be seen over its shroud. The mountain is huge! The majority of the train ride consisted of lurches, bumps and an urge to pee. I definatly missed out on the beauty of the ride becuase I literally had to pee worse than I ever have in my whole life... seriously I thought I was going to die... When we got to the first stop two hours later I was the first one off the train sprinting to the nearest bathroom... The ride before that was a a weaving path which wound its way out of the valley that Chimborazo dominates. There were the infamous Eucaliptus trees and lots of cows. We passed many farms which were quite isolated. The funny thing was that all the kids would wave and of course we would wave back they would be really happy when we did. The smatrer kids would put there hands out for something but I never saw anyone give anything to them, the part about hurtling along on a train probably made it difficult. After the first stop in which my sister and I bought empanadas and morocho. Morocho is a traditional drink, it is a type of corn and milk... and I really like it, it is something that is completely different from everything. Anyways, I also tried a deep fried banana for the first time... which is good, but definatly not the healthiest way to eat your banana! During the second part of the train ride my sister and I moved up to the first car to get away from the other cramped car. It turned out that this car was for the peopel who would be getting on at the last town. But we said we would move when these people got on. The second part was interesting we climbed up and crossed some very different areas, a couple of places we passed tree farms which really aren't all that pretty in a high grassland but there is some agrigultural value obviously, many trees had been cut in one area... One thing that was cool about the train was that it would stop andpick up anyone alongside the track and take them to their destination. At one point I saw a man literally sprinting down a rocky train well ahead of the train to catch it before it left. That was the purpose of the box cars, free transportation for the people living there. Also the train dropped off railroad ties at about five different spots! And finally at one point a backhoe that had been on a flatbed car up front drove its way off of the car. I felt a little awkward, paying for a train that was the only form of transportation for many people. The train only runs two or three days a week, so if you want to go some where there is only three chances per week. The last town was a little bigger, a bunch more people got on to see the Nariz del Diablo and we headed down to the famous place.
It was a let down... the reason it has this name is becuase the rock is superhard, we had heard about the switch back where the train goes abackwards for a short time. But really it is becuase it is a giant rock... there isn't much more to say about this one. But that doesn't mean that it wasn't an epic expirience, only that when your looking forward to the devil's nose and it turns out to be uninteresting... But the views and the expirience of riding on top of a train was really amzing. We did some switcher-U and we continued back up the track to the town. When we go there My sister and I caught a bus which was jampacked with people and headed home... a good day! Our mom picked us up at the bus station and we headed back to my grandmothers house to eat, after dinner we drove home! A good weekend for sure!

Weekend from really long ago part 2

So after my Family made it to the house of my grandparents and had a really nice rest we wke up ready to climb Chimborazo! Chimborazo is 6310 meters, it is the farthest point away from the center of the earth due to the earths buldge at the equator. It is also the tallest mountain in Ecuador and taller than all mountains in the americas north of here, there are a few mountains in the andes south which are taller than Chimborazo. It isn't a very technical mountain and the only real danger is the weather. Which is completely unpredictable. I made the juice for breakfast, which was Tomate de Arbol, or as I like to call it Mango chiquito. We hopped in the car after eating, my dad, sister, uncle and grandfather and I. We drove through the country side We skirted the mountain and began to climb up one side. We passed small indiginious farms with llamas and cows until we entered the alpine zone where there were only small scrubby bushes and lichen. We saw vicunas! a smaller red version of the llama which is wild. They have been reintroduced to Chimborazo from Patagonia. They were all killed off but are making a good jump. We saw about 10 on our car ride up and down. We got to the turn off for the first Refuge. There was a box from a box car on the side of the road with two guys in it and we paid to enter the park. It was about three apiece. We drove up the mountain which had a grainy redish sandlike volcanic soil which is probably close to what is found on mars. The ground was crisscrossed with bike tracks... downhill biking the mountain is really popular. It is a steep but smooth down hill. We drove up to the first refuge where it began to snow, there was patched snow on the ground too. It was the first time that any one in my family had been in snow! I of course gave my dad and sister a babtism with a couple of snowballs. It was funny teaching them how to make a snowball... it was a completely new expirience for them! The snow was light and fluffy and was falling lightly. We parked the car at the first refuge to hike up to the second refuge which is 200m higher and about 1 km walking. My sister stayed behind in the first refuge becuase she hadn't brought more than a light windbreaker. I acompanied my grandfather who is 73. My grandfather is a beast we quickly left my dad and uncle in the dust. He just kept on trucking! The snow was falling and visibility was limited but with my support he just kept on going. THe second refuge is at 5000 meters, you definatly feel the lack of air at this elevation. We made it to the top and sat around a fire waiting for my dad and uncle. What we didn't know was that my uncle had turned back and my dad with him to check on my sister who was sitting in the first refuge. My grandfather and I talked with all sorts of people. There was a busload of Germans, Danes (Danish people?), and a few other European countries which were on a three week tour. We waited for about an hour before my Dad showed up... but the really cool thing was that I met another Rotary exchange student at 5000m. She is from France and she is really cool, she lives in Cuenca. She was with her whole family. She practices paragliding in France and told me that mountain climbing was in her blood and she does weekend excursions quite often in the Alps! I had a snowball fight with her and her siblings, I also discussed with a guide the option of ascendng the mountain at someother date! I want to do it and will definatly look into it. Finally my dad showed up and we descended the mountain, it was now snowing heavely and there was a good two inches of snow covering the ice and ground. We managed to make it down without any big falls! We returned to Riobamba where my guide book said that in the saturday market it is possible to buy juice with ice mined from Chimborazo! We showed up and looked for the juice stalls! When we encountered one and they showed us the dirty block of ice... it seemed genuine, so we bought juice. I got coconut and my sister and grandfather bought mora... which is a tart blackberry. The juice was exeptional... especiall with a dirty piece of glacial ice floating in it! We then went to the train station which I had read about in my guide book... The Devils Nose, a train ride from riobamba where you ride on the top of the train! We bought the $11 dollar tickets and another dollar to reserve coushins for the coming day! We returned home victorious, we had walked and eaten a mountain!

Ecuador...

It's late and I've not posted in a while and I've also decided to start writing with paragraphs, it must be really confusing at times. Life is good, I have a soccer game tomorrow with a team that beat the team that we tied 5-0... I'm just a little scared. I also sprained my big toe in Capoiera yesterday. But if I get to play I'll go full out for sure.
Tonight I was watching the news with my family. I want to share with everyone my confidence in Ecuadorians... through this! So at about 4:00 this morning a couple of pickups were carrying $1 million USD. I think it was four pickups to be excact... They were traveling to another city. A bunch of robbers attacked the caravan to steal the money. But in the fighting they blew up the truck with the money and all of it was incinerated... So I was of course laughing my head off with my family telling them that this is the reason that I don't have a ton of confidence in the Ecuadorians. Another thing, today my class has decided to raffle an Ipod to get money for our year end trip to Esmereldas, we're going there to help out the people... community service. And tody we recieved the raffle tickets... everyone recieved 30, and the raffle is in 6 days. We have six days to sell them all, I think that I've picked up some of Tilly's vending tricks becuase I managed to sell all but two... and they are promised to two people. I'm going to sell my friends tomorrow. But the raffle tickets say AIPUT... aiput... seriously, like how can you misspell Ipod... it is only like everywhere, TV, Billboards, and people have them too, but less than in the US. Chau buenas noches tierra!
Ok I recieved a couple of negative comments about this post, I would like to say that it is easy to find these kinds of things the world over. If you find this objectable than please move on to my other posts or send me some helpful criticism! (Thanks Ian and Dad!) But you have to understand... the truck exploding with $1 million is pretty funny and wanted to share it. AIPUT, look I was selling these tickets all day and was getting laughed at as I was explaining what AIPUT meant on their tickets and people were seriously wondering if we were vending an Ipod or not. None of my writing is mean't to be mean... only I want to throw in some comic relive every once in a while. And a forwarning you may find more of this kind of stuff in my blog. There is just some really funny stuff that happens to me!

My house and around

So I don't have school today or tomorrow and i took a couple of photos when my sister and I went out to buy CD's which cost a whopping $1 with dvd's costing $2.50. The majority are of my house and our apartment. I'm standing on top of the wall, which there was a bunch of army guys standing on the other side of the road looking kinda funny at me... but really it is easy to climb up. I really want to talk to our guard about this one... it is a little dangerous to have a wall that is easy to climb over. The picture of the river is a little gross, my sister says that it is soap from women washing clothes farther up the stream. But all the flowing wateraround Quito is polluted. The mountain in the background of another is Ilalo... which is a mountain within the valley that we live in. Really the city of Quito is higher than Ilalo.

Senorita de Deportes y Desfile! and Sunday

Ok so the weekend before last was pretty crazy... During the week there was a competition for the Senorita de deportes, it was interesting becuase every class picked a girl to represent and then there was a competition. The day of the competition every class had a list of ten people who were going to enter the theater and support their Senorita de Deportes. I was on the list but Adam wasn't and we were only allowed ten. So when a kid from another class came and asked for our ten people to leave the room, I quickly told him to count off eleven and to let Adam through too. Once we had left the class the general inspector was waitting at the door counting how many were entering from each class, somehow Adam with his blonde hair passed without a problem... once in we were herded up to the balcony with all of the other seniors and juniors... the actual show was pretty boring. Seriously... like 80% of the girls said for their interests: I like to dance and listen to music... every single one... anyways our class was out at the first cut and I don't know which class actually won. But on saturday I was the gentleman for the parade. There was some confusion and Claudio, the exchange student from switzerland was the gentleman too. Adam and Nick were the mascots! Our class is really boring if I hadn't explained that before, we got these shirts for this and the internal sports championship but they are the worst of all that I saw. I ripped the neck as I put it on my head, probably about half the class did the same. Things here are faked all the time our shirts have a Nike symbol but they aren't Nike obviously. Other classes had real Addidas and Kappa shirts, we just got shafted by the bad planning of our class, there were also numerous errors in our shirts. I recieved 111 not 11. Anyways I didn't have to wear mine becuase I was in my monday uniform. We walked around the track with Adam and Nick dancing in a Pooh and Tigger costume. But all of the other classes had skits or dances planned and did these in fron of the judges, but we just walked on by, without a song or an idea... my class is lame. But anyways it was cool to see what the other classes had done! After the parade, everyone went back to the school yard where some classes were selling food... and beer! 1 liter of pilsner, the national drink for one dollar! I saw a kid who rides my bus, he's 12, drinking a beer! This place is crazy! I asked nick If I could return the costume for him becuase I wanted to wear it! Adam and I put the costumes on... which I quickly learned are horribly uncomfortable and hot! We went down to the center of the school yard and danced to the music trying to get people to dance... but we failed horribly! So we left and went to Los Shyris, one of the main streets in Quito and decided that we were going to go native and dance in the steets for money. It was an expiriment and an expirience that we both wanted to do! So we asked another kid from our school if he could guard our backpacks and take photos! He agreed and we hit the streets, we did it for only 10 minutes, about 7 stoplights, we ran out into the street durin the red lights, danced for about 20 seconds, did handstands and cartwheels and the ran to the cars and asked for money in the 10 seconds that we had left. I think we made like $2.50! It was really a fun expirience, after we were done we gave the money to the kid who was taking the photos and walked to the store where Adam and Nick had rented the costume and returned them! Definatly a good day. Sunday was interesting, I went to Parque de La Carolina, which is alongside Los Shyris. My sister and I left our house and headed there, there wasn't anyone practicing Capoiera so we decided to put up my slackline. Finally two other people showed up, a little kid and his family and another adult. We were all beginners and so we just kinda messed around. I practiced some flips and can now do a sideflip! Adam showed up and at about the same time my sister left because she felt a little sick. Adam and I worked on backflips, helping eachother out and handstands. He went to go and skate and we met up later. I met two new people in the park, one was an ex-practicioner of Capoiera. He is really cool and I got his number, right now he focuses more on the music and he dances Samba. The other person I met was a girl who was interested in Slacklining and Capoiera. She watched for a little bit and then practiced a little with us. My slackline became an attraction I didn't expect. A bunch of kids and adults who juggle, ride unicycles and do other things in the streets for money. They all wanted to try the slackline, Adam and I were amazed, the kids seemed very adult like, I guess when your working in the streets for money you grow up fast. They moved in a gang but were completely disorganized, it was crazy trying to get them to take turns on the slackline! These people are very interesting, there is a whole subculture, they dress in brightly colored patched cloths, have oddly cut and dyed hair, I assume this is to attract attention in the streets. I have seen some of the same poeple a couple of other times. I guess that around the park is there turf. They are all really nice and they remind me of hippies, they would fit right in at Country Fair for sure! It was a fun day! When I left there were about 30 people practicing and showing off on and along side my slackline! How cool, I'm definatly going to try and pick up some of their juggling skills!

Looong school update! and more¡

Two weeks ago I had a real interesting expirience. On Thursday my inspecter came into the room and told us that we were going to a science fair in Conocoto. Conocoto is south of Quito, and north of where I live. It is situated on the edge of the valley. So the two classes hopped into two school busses and headed south. The school busses here are like charter busses in the U.S. All of the busses here really are better than what is found in the states... the only problem is that they can be uncomfortable becuase of my size. It was a military school, I'm not really sure what the difference is except that their summer break is from december to february. This is becuase all of the military schools in ecuador need to be on the same time. On the coast the schools are opposite of here... so all of the military schools are the same. Anyways, there school was more spread out with bunker like buildings. Adam and I were ushered into one of the rooms where there was about four ore five tables set up with science expirements. These really weren't what you would expect from a bunch of high schoolers. There were some really wild expirements, distilling alcohol, making wine, smoke machines, some really wierd thing with kidney stones... anyways it was really crazy, I sampled the alcohol and everything, one group had me mix an acid with my bare hands exposed. Essentially it was way better than any science fair in the U.S. plus there was tons of food, we ate granola cookies, cake and some other weird stuff. Anyways... the funniest thing was that we started being followed by groups of girls. We were aked to have our photos taken a few times and the floodgates were opened. There were girls trying to sneakly take photos with their cell phones, others would wait and ask for photos. THe whole thing was crazy, at first it was amusing, I've definatly had girls ask for my photos before but it became ridiculous. We were probably the main attraction, the thing was... the majority of the girls were from schools run by nuns, these schools are probably deathly boring because the dress code is really strict and they are only one gender. These schools also never take exchange students... all these factors kinda explain why they were like locusts... Adam and I ran at a couple of moments. After Adam and I were stuffed and had probably about a hundred photos taken we boarded the bus to head back to school. This is when some of my readers are going to cringe but I'll explain before I begin my stoy... So my school is crazy, the general inspecter does nothing but yell at me... take of your hat!, whay are you out of the classroom?, tuck in your shirt!, etc. Then I have to deal with my classes inspector. I don't know if this was clear but my program has four different classes. I'nm in a special program which is an International program. So, I have one inspector for four classes, everyone calls her la bruja, which is the witch. She is new to the school and seems to make it clear that under her watch we will be the best students the school has ever seen. So I am completely shut down, Adam says that we're a little army. So when the bus stopped becasue the police wanted to check our bus drivers papers, I asked if we could leave and buy pizza, we were right next to a place called la zona. This pizzeria is amazing, the pizza is only sold by the slice but... it is $1 for a pizza that literally is two handed, they back big square pizzas and your getting 1/8 of the pizza. But of course she said no. I had the bright idea to learn how to jump out of a bus window... really quite stupid! But I did, it is quite easy to do smoothly... but it is up to you to figure it out. I walked to the window of where she was sitting and tapped on the window and smiled! Well as you can imagine she was rightly pissed, and so was the bus driver when he found out that I jumped out of his bus. He told me that I had damaged the bus. I argued but to no avail. So when we got back to school I was told that tommorow I would need to remove the mark of my shoe. I was also going to need to talk to my parents, I had called my mom figuring that it would be best if she heard it from me first. She actually didn't care, and later told me about what my siblings have done in the past. When I showed up the next morning the bus driver was like whatever you didn't do anything... go back to class. I guess he was having a bad day after he spent 20 minutes talking with the police... Bueno, Another thing is that I now leave school everyday at 1:40, it has all worked out. The bad thing is that I'm not being graded in some classes and in others I'm getting really poor grades. The cool thing is that I've got more time to do new stuff. I'm taking dance lessons, latin rythms to be excact. I love Salsa, it is really fun and I'm learning how to dance for real! But Samba is the crazyest dance ever... it really doesn't mak any sense, I told my teacher that and she told me to teach the class. I lead the class in a movement but everyone just laughed at me :). I am also taking break dancing once a week. I think that Adam will start taking this class with me tomorrow. I have only done one week of classes but I'm dead tired and everything is great, yesterday for example finished school, had soccer practice, Capoiera, and then dance class! I am really tired but I'm loving it! As far as Soccer goes... I had a game today, we tied 3-3. My team is good but out of shape. We held them at 3-1 for the first 65 minutes or so, they scored two goals in 15 minutes, we have 80 minute games. It is really interesting, I don't have great skills, but I know how to play. All that time I spent with Chris and my dad taught me how to play... but two years without playing is a long time. In this league there are only four substitutions per game. I was actually the second person to be subbed but it was in the last minte of the game, literally. I never touched the ball. But I have uniform that is mine! it says Alexander and I'm number 9. The shorts are really small, the whole team recieved the same size. Mine are like higher than my compresion shorts... it is a little sad. The games here are really interesting, all the games will be held in this one place, which has a dirt feild, I bought shoes for grass... so this is a little anoying. My coach is really good, he is young but used to play pro when he was 15, but he continued with his studies and then became a coach. He has a soccer school for kids and coaches another pro team. He kinda reminds me of Eric, but he has a very different style of coaching. Hopefully I'll play more the next game... I just need to learn to play with my team. I lso need to work on my shot, becuase I'll be playing forward!

Obama...

I had kept my nose out of the USA's political situation really well. I decided that I didn't want to be a part of something that was so far away. I essentailly forgot about it. It was the day before the elections when I was talking with my dad that I learned that the elections were going to be held the next day. It was the first time that I treally started to think about what was happening in the US. I have to say that after seeing eight years of Bush in office and AP US History I had a pretty pessimistic view of the worlds politics. It seemed as if the world really wasn't going to change its situation soon. But Obama won! My sister told me the next morning and I was kinda like cool!... whatever. It wasn't until this last sunday as I was watching the morning news that I realized what had happened in the US. There is a black man in the White House... I will repeat... White House. Our nation was built using the labor of slaves... after their emancipation there was Segregation... With Martin Luther King Segregation fell, but racism has and is a real part of the US today. Finally the tables have been turned. There is a black man in office, not just any man, he is charismatic and vocal. He has a mandate for change by the people of the US and he has the house and senate on his side. As I watched the news I actually was crying, I didn't know how to express my emotions. The people here are happy but it really isn't a big deal to them. I feel as if with this election the world is beginning to change. The conciousness of our planet is rising, this change will begin to spread. For good or bad the influence of the US is global. This mandate for change has touched billions of peopple. We are on a path for a better world. I am honestly beginning to feel optimistic about the situation... I just hope that my feelings are true and that my hope is safe in the hands of one man!

Heads Up!

Ok,so I want to thank my fiend Adam for all his hard work... he is a prolific writer, I believe that that is what he wants to do as a profesion. We have become really good friends and pass lots of time together. I want to recomend that people who are reading my blog and are looking for some really funny writing about our adventures should look there. He seems to find more time to write and thus everyone should check it out. There are all of our adventures written with great detail and very little mis-spellings so when you show up at my blog and it hasn't been updated for a week check out his blog! Also he is a great photographer so another reason to read his blog!

A couple of incompletes...

I never finished writing about the Capoiera show... everything went smoothly. I completed my routine without errors and watched some really amazing stuff. All of the different teachers in Quito had a show, and so I was able to watch some really great stuff. There are some people in this world that are practically inhuman... and I want to be the same. There were groups of kids who were like 7 doing some really crazy handstand stuff, a twelve year old who could do crazy flips... it was really just a shock! After all of the shows were finished there was the part in which the beginers recieved there first rope. In Capoiera there are circles in which you fight in... but it isn't really fighting becuase you never really want to hurt the other person except when it is a really high level. For the first rope you fight with a teacher, and when they get an opportunity they will put you on the ground. And then you recieve your rope. I have to say that I was nervous... before was the kids and watching them recieve there ropes was really cool. Some of them were really amazing. I ended up being last to fight... I'm not really sure how but they skipped over me and I fought last. I ended up holding my own and the teacher I was fighting with never was able to find an opportunity to take out my legs. He stopped, and it just kinda ended, I was bummed becuase I was really wanting to see one of these guys put me down. And then as I went to recieve my belt they were short one and I didn't get it... aand I still haven't gotten it... but it isn't that important. For the second rope it was an open circle, which is normal, just enter when you want to, that was pretty cool, I got to see my sister fight. She did really well and at the end all of the people recieved there ropes. After it had ended, the guy from Brazil told me that I did really well... so that was cool! The whole thing was really amazing... the live music and the vibe of the whole thhing was amazing. I saw some of the crazyest things I've ever seen a person do in my life... I am really inspired to get good! I just need to practice lots! The second thing was the party of my school that was a couple of weeks ago... it was horrible. The cops showed up and told everyone under 18 had to leave... But it was a school party, the kids doing it rented the place and obviously there were going to be a bunch of people under 18. I had honestly thought that the cops do almost nothing here, but really they bust school parties. Of course they sell alcohol there but, they do in every other place. So anyways, it was a bust. I didn't have much money so we went to a cheap disco and danced for a couple of hours. I got my money back, but it was a real bummer. I had a great mask and everything...
Bueno, so I have got two fotos of the Capoiera show... the one with me on the far right is after everyone recieved there ropes... but I didn't get mine. The guy on my right is another kid who practices with me. And on his right is my instructor Kury!
The other photo is of my sister after she finished her thingy. She is the one smiling and looking at the camera...

Soccer

So I somehow made it on my schools soccer team... I think it has something to do with the fact that there are 22 people on the team but whatever it is really cool. I ended up signing up on the last day! I still haven't practiced with my team but I played a friendly game with my team. The first game of the season is next thursday! I signed up and got my picture taken for my players card. Claudio, from Switzerland, is also on the team... but in comparison to him I suck. He is also playing on the college team of his host brother. On thursday I left school early and we caught a bus to another school which was really scary. Thiis school was super hardcor, everyone looked like they would fight you before they would talk with you. Our team passed peacefully through the school in our group... The room that we put our uniforms on was a gymnastics gym... man am I jealous... there were trampolines, springboards, big squishy mats and everything! But we just put our clothes on there. I bought soccer shoes a couple of days before and it was the first time that I had worn them. I watched the game for the first half... At the end of the half it was 2-2. We scored the first two goals, then we had an own goal and they scored right at the end of the half... The crazyest thing was that the kids in the stands were fighting and throwing water bottles at each other... but they were all from the same school. Anyways I played for the last twenty minutes and happly didn't make any errors. The ref wasn't impartail by any means and the other team was very physical. I was put in as right forward, which I have never played... But all went well, I didn't play that bad, I just was playing all over becuase I had no clue where I needed to be. We ended up losing 2-3, they scored right before the end of the game. I had a really close opportunity... but a couple of seconds too late. I am stoked to be playing... Futbol is really big here, the level in high school isn't that great but there are some kids who are amazing... there is one kid who is playing profesional ball.

Finca continued...

So, at the old house of my dad there was a coconut tree, but they were little coconuts, the nut was about the same size as a hazelnut but with like 10 times more shell... Adam, my dad and I threw rocks to knock them down. And my dad, who is a pro nut cracker with a couple of rocks smashed them for the whole family. I forgot to write this in the previous post but... Before we left we were told we were going to be eating Cuy for lunch... Ok, so guess what Cuy is... no idea..... de nada ok... guinea pig! The guinea pig is an animal from the Andes, it is a traditional food here. So before we left to go shopping I helped my grandmother catch the gguinea pigs in there pens. They made tons of guinea pig noise and it was a little sad... but whatever, when in rome do as the romans do... So I had a bag full of five guinea pigs when we were done, my grandmother had to catch them becuase she didn't want us to eat pregnant guinea pigs... When we got back an employee of the farm was singing the fur off the dead guinea pigs. I asked how they were killed... but I've decided not to include this detail ;). So anyways Adam and I watched as they were cleaned and gutted, the skin is left on on. They are prepared in the oven, esentially poke a bunch of holes in the skin and add herbs as desired. During the process my dad told me that we were going to go to a spring which is where some of the water of the farm comes from. So we headed back up the hill. We climbed up to the canal and walked along it for awile... There were huundreds of spiders and webs across the trail. I probably finished the adventure with about ten different webs stuck in my hair and a couple of squished spiders. We crossed our boundery of our property and entered a cleft with the creek in it. We kinda lost the trail but continued on. The first obstical that we arrived at was a ravine. So, we jumped down and scrambled up the other side... it was filled with plants on the bottem and I thought that it was deeper than it was. It was really funny when my dad was like... Ales, you can walk there, you don't need to try and jump the whole thing. Later we headed alongside the river, after fighting the brambles we came to a 5 meter drop onto flat ground alongside of the river. We climbed down a little and jumped. Adam ended up leading and I must say that he proved to be a super guide. Next when our side of the creek ended we jumped across, but it was a difficult movement. The ground was sloped, so we climbed up, used a tree as suppoert and jumped across... It wasn't to hard for Adam and I but my dad definatly had some second thoughts... but he jumped and all was well. He really did well, considering that Adam probably picked some routes becuase they looked more fun... We jumped from side to side and progressed up the river. At one point I leaned on a tree only to find that it broke like a twig. It was obviously dead but I didn't expect a trunk the size of my leg to snap at th slightest touch. I almost fell into the water but narrowly avoided it... We definatly looked for ways to leave the ravine but all that there was on the sides were impenatrable brambles. As we continued on my dad pointed out the trail that we had somehow lost. Soon after we found a huge fallen tree in the way of our progress. Adam went first, as he crossed the creek he put his foot on a tree that was alive but had been squished by the humungous fallen tree. It broke under his foot but he made the jump to the other side. I was next Adam gave me a hand and I crossed without problems. My dad was third and as I helped him he put his foot on the same tree as Adam and it just snapped in half, but I pulled him to saftey. My dad continued up the creek while I followed Adam as he climbed up the slope a little ways. Adam looked at me with a odd kinda look and told me that he had an idea. The dead branches of this tree made a lattice of branches about 2 meters above the creek. He carefully ventured out and crossed to the other side. I was a little scared to follow, but i just had to do it, becuase it was so freaking cool! So I followed without incident. We got to the spring, which was almost completely dry, there was a concrete spring box and there was sufficient water in it. I'm not really sure what our purpose of being there was becuase we just kinda left and returned to our adventure. The return was uneventful except for a tree with massive white bellshaped flowers... and this tree is what scolopamine (the name probably isn't right) is made out of. It is a drug that is put on papers and passed out in the city. If you take the paper the drug will be on your hands, and later when you invariably inhale it you fall asleep. THe people will follow you and rob you. But anyways, we got back to find the Cuy was ready to eat! We sat down for lunch and were asked... tops or bottoms... the cuy is cut in half and served! Adam and I asked for bottoms becuase my dad told me it is better. First was soup, and after, the main attraction! Guinea pig! Adam and I dug in complete finger food, ripping apart the cuy to find the meet that is on it. Adam and I described the flavor as a cross between chicken and fish. But my mom said it was more like turkey. I really think it just tastes like cuy. So if you ever get the chance... dig in! After lunch it was time to harvest fruit to bring back to the house! First were the Avocados which are really fun to get. It was like a game for Adam and I... we had to look and find them hiding in the treetops, and then Adam or my dad would climb the trees and use a pole with a hook on it to pull the Avocados down. The trees were on a slope and the Avocados liked to run away... So my job was to chase the dang things as they rolled down the hill. There was only one problem... the barbed wire fence that was conviniently placed in the middle of my trail. I ended up silding inder it countless times as I chased the elusive avocado. The only damage that was done was that I ripped my favorite shirt one time as I was returning after securing my catch. We finished with a ton of avocados,right now in my house it is like eat! if you don't eat them they will go bad! After the avocados were the limes... but this was much less uneventful, just walking around and grabbing them from the trees. My mom and sister gathered manderines, oranges and another which is a mix between a lime and a manderine... it has the taste of the skin of an orange... but whatever. We got back in the car after saying goodbye to the family. The drive was uneventful except for a perfect view of Cayambe, another volcano. We returned Adam to his family and his mom was suprised at the empanadas, bread and fruit that she returned with...A good adventure!

Anger!!!???¡¡¡¿¿¿

Ok, so whoever you are who scammed my grandparents... I have feeling that you got the info from my blog! And I feel really bad... If you read this I hope that you have thought a little bit about what you did... you had better have had a damn good reason to scam my grandparents. Becuase they have worked hard to create a good life for them, their children and their grandchildren... You are nothing but scum... hopefully you will never do this again, because it is completely wrong to trick people who are only thinking about helping and turning it around and steal their money. Whatever your reasons... plesse look for another way to get money. You could come to Ecuador and juggle in the streets for example... you could take the job of one of the kids in the street and pass the money along to him so that he could go to school... there are greateer things in life... ojala tú vas a cambiar tú manera de vida... proximo vez pensa de los situaciones alrededor tú... hay un vida más de tú.

Finca

So, After Adam and I ate our second breakfast at my house, Adam, my sister, mom, dad and I got into the car to drive to the Farm of my grandparents. I spent the time jamming to my ipod as the terrain rolled by. At one point Adam pointed out a cave in a cliff alongside the road. I quickly asked my parents if we could stop, I had actually pointed out the cave on my earlier trip and was excited to have a buddy to explore the cave. Adam and I scrambled up the incline and peered into the cave. The first thing that we noticed was that there was a giant pile of debri which had fallen from the ceiling not to long ago. The rock really was some type of crumbly whitish rock. At one point it was a mine for the rock, I asked my dad and he told me that the type of rock is used in construction, concrete I think. Adam said that he needed his camera because it was way too cool, he ran back and grabbed his camera. When he got back he told me that he felt like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, when they enter the cave. We scrambled around and found two more entrances. It was really cool inside, other tunnels would end abruptly and the floor was soft with the ground rock. The cave was also completely white. The rest of the trip was uneventful except for when my sister asked if she could practicing driving on a stretch of road that was straight and smooth. I quickly responded that if my sister drove than I would need to also. My mom has told me that I am exactly the same as my sisters which is really cool, it has lead to an amazing relationship with my family. But it was bad for my sister this time, because my parents won the battle with the logic that I can't drive so neither can she...( wow, I never knew I could be so mean!). When we got to the farm we were greated by my dads family. My Grandparents and my Aunt live there. My aunt had Polio when she was younger and lost her voice. I assume that there were never services for people with disabilaties, and thus she has always lived with my grandparents. She is nice, but I definatly feel that she is seperate on some levels from the family, she can understand and listen but never contribute fully. We were served chicken and yuca soup for lunch, which was quite tasty, I entertained my family throughout the meal because I had some really wierd things in my soup and everyone was laughing at my reactions. But I ate it all without problems, it is just really funny when stuff is floating in your soup that you have absolutely no clue what the heck it is. After lunch, my sister, Adam and I went to hike up to where my families llamingos are kept... thats right llamingos. Ok so I'll break it down, double L is "y" and some how these llamas are llamingos. They look excactly the same but somehow there is a difference. This was ridiculously funny for Adam and I... some thing about hearing llamingos just cracks me up. Anyways, so we first tried to get the cows, which were on a lower pasture, to attack us. But the bulls would just walk away looking mildly disgusted. So Adam and I took off our shirts and tried once more... but nothing. My sister was sitting at the bottom of the pasture, but when we returned she wasn't there. We thought that she had left and continued up the hill. After avoiding cow poop we reached the top, and there was my sister sitting waiting for us, it was definitly a suprise. So Adam and I really wanted a llamingo to spit at us. It is just a thing that I have to do before I return. So Adam and I walked down to where the llamingos were grazing contently and tried to get them to spit at us. Ok, so most of the people reading this are probably wondering, what the heck. But llamas are a lot scarier up close... seriously. When a llama looks directly at you it is like being stared down by a cross between a bat and a rabbit. It is really scary, so anyways, they would run away and then we would chase after them. We started to heard them towards my sister. She was sitting at the top of the pasture, it was raining at this point and she was protecting the camera. When we got close the llamingos bolted back down to the bottom of the pasture. They thought that we were beat but we decided to try a different tactic. I started dancing and singing, but the only response that I got was the WTF? look of a llamingo. We had one final idea, the last charge. Adam and I went sprinting down the pasture and the llamingos just ran faster. Finally we were beat, so we headed back to the farm. When we got back there was dough ready to make empanadas! Adam and I were completely soaked, my mom was a little disconcerted because we were really wet. We just took our shoes off and continued as normal, but my mom wasn't pleased. We washed our hands and started helping putting the cheese inside the empanada and making the forms. My mom was amazed at my cooking knowledge... which is nothing as my mom can attest to. Anyways I am assuming that the average male here doesn't know how to turn on a stove. But my dad here isn't this way he definatly can cook. Adam quickly was making empanadas almost perfectly at the same time as mine barely held together. We decided to create a team... Gringo! I rolled the dough and put the right amount of cheese in it and Adam did the decorative part of folding and pinching it closed. We were producing very pretty empanadas. The building that we were in was a mud building. It is thatched and the walls are mud. The oven that we were using was really simple. There is a fire in the middle, a grill on top for the stove, and below it the oven. There wasn't a place for the smoke to go so it filled up the room and slowly filtered out the side of the thatch. The empanadas were really tasty! They burnt my hands and mouth at first but after the pain... yum! Adam and I ate and ate! They were really good, we had extra dough so we started making dough creations, I made a turtle, snake, manatee, and a shark. But really they all looked about like a blob of dough! Adam and I spent the rest of the day chasing the chickens and turkeys! Adam and I had a rock, paper, scissors battle for who would get to sleep in the hammock outside. I won and had a peaceful night (if not a little cold) swaying to the breaze. I woke up early to help with the milking of the cows. My grandmother, with the help of an employee of the farm milked four cows. I drank some of the milk from three of them, it was really, really good! I was actually peed on by a cow... that was a pleasant awakening! It only got my feet... After the cow milking I bothered the chickens some as I waited for breakfast and for Adam to wake up. Breakfast was more milk and empanadas. After breakfast Adam, my dad, sister, grandfather and I went to buy groceries in the town nearest to the farm. I got to see my dads old school and as we drove around my dad talked with people he hadn't seen in years. We also went to the old house of my dads where we found a... ok I hope everyone reads this but I wil continue later I am dead tired, today I had Capoiera and my first dance class. I just want to sleep! Buenas Noches, Descansa todos!

Ok so these are some photos from Mindo, big thanks to Adam, he is a good photographer as well as a great friend. These are some of the photos that he took. The first one is of one of the hummingbirds that we saw. The second is the bird that we saw while canopying. The others are of me chasing the cows, canopying and jumping off of the smaller of the two jumps at the waterfall (I know, I need to buy some board shorts, but all that I have is my swimsuit for the pool at my school).

Mindo

This last weekend was another really cool adventure! On Friday I left Quito with my sister and Adam from school. We caught a bus to mindo. We have family who own a hostal in the Cloud Forest. The name is Mindo Loma, it is east of Mindo by about 20 minutes. The place is a bird saanctuary and has hiking trails. We arrived at about 6:00 on friday night. I brought bread and colada morada from my mom. The tradition here is that on November 2 to visit the graves of the dead and decorate the tombs. It is also a tradition to eat bread that is in the shape of babies and drink colada morada, which is a drink made from a purple type of corn, in it are various spices and fruit, pinapple, strawberry or others. It started to rain right after we got there and we ate soup for dinner. My Aunt, Uncle and Cousin were very nice. I knew my cousin from the first week when we went to a soccer game. Adam and I wanted to explore the forest at night, but we were told that we would get lost. It was probably true but we were ready to go. So we decided to hike to the waterfall which was on their property. We borrowed some rubber boots and stripped down to our swim trunks. We decided that we were going to get wet and that we might as well be ready for it. My cousin and sister were ready a few minutes later. It was quite comical, boots and swim trunks and little else. I brought my tiny little LED light and Adam had a headlamp, my cousin also had a flashlight. As we were about to leave Adam and I were informed that the monkey was eating the plantains that were put out for it... I was of course ecstatic! My first monkey! It was really furry and looked literally just like a stuffed animal. It was chilling and munching on a plantain that was put out for it. It used its prehensile tail to hang on as it contentently continued eating. When it was finished it bolted up the tree and was lost in the darkness and rain. We headed down a muddy trail, crossed a creek where I learned that my right boot had a nice big hole in the top which filled with water... The hike was really interesting, the night is alive. There were hundreds of sounds all around us, but everything was almost impossible to see. We passed a huge magnolia tree and there was a scorpian hidden under the roots. But Adam and I missed it. The hike seemed to take forever, moving through the forest on Halloween! We stopped and turned our lights off a couple of times, the night was pitch black. The senses begin to reach out at the same time as the animals move. We heard ocelots, but they remained illusive. We saw a really cool type of phosphorescent fungus which grows on dead palms, it kinda looks like a rib cage. The first sense that picked up on the waterfall was my sense of hearing, the constant sound of water falling was now kicked up a notch to a low roar. The next was when we could feel the wind of the water. And finally with the aid of the lights the giant cascade, later I learned that it is exactly 39 meters. We all wrestled until each one of us had been dunked under the falls, there really wasn't a ton of water but it still hurt. Also my cousin told us that it was the first time that she had been there at night. We headed back and Adam and I caught a a glimpse of the scorpian. At the house we encountered a 'MothRAH' as Adam decided to call it. There isn't a difference in Butterfly and Moth in Spanish so we created this for the thousands of moths which swarmed the lights. The were all sorts of different colors, shapes and sizes. Some had eye spots, others were the size of sparrows. I got up early to see the hummingbirds the next morning. I think that I counted 6 or 7 different species and 3 different species of Tanangers and one hawk which was super cool. I was actually able to touch the hummingbirds when I moved slowly, and Adam had one land on his finger. For breakfasT we ate homemade empanadas and Adam and I left with my uncle. We weren't quite sure what we were doing but we were told we were going to see the Quetzals. We first went to a town and my uncle negotiated with another man for four cows. They were babies and boys. My uncle bought them for $500. And tomorrow he will be getting them, and paying for them. Later we went to another town and bought groceries and walked around a fair of... I'm not really sure but it was like sustaniable options and ecology. It was interesting and there was a guy who was walking around on stilts dressed up as a bird. I immediatly thought of Country Fair. After the fair we went to the pasture where the cows are kept, Adam and I hearded them to the water becuase I guess they won't drink without coaxing. We chased them around yelling Sal, Sal, which is Salt. but we actually didn't have any Sal, perdon vacas. The sun came out after and the Quetzal won't come out when there is sun so we returned to the house. We ate lunch and left for Mindo. One of the dogs followed us down to the street and wouldn't leave, I was worrid it was going to get hit by a car becuase it really didn't have any street smarts. So I grabbed the dog and ran up with the thing up the road, dropped it and it would follow me. So finally I ran all the way up to the house and handed the dog to my aunt. When I ran back down a truck was stopped with my sister and Adam in it. I jumped in and we headed to the intersection where the road continues to the coast or turns to Mindo. The truck was the kind that transports the bananas here. It was a fun ride and we paid $1.50, which when we told some other travelers that me met theysaid we were toads for paying that much. But whatever, the waited about 15 minutes as I ran the dog up to the house. We caught another truck to Mindo with two Ecuadorian travelers. It cost another $3 for five people to mindo. In Mindo we found a place with Canopying, which is ziplining over the forest. We paid ten bucks a piece to get a truck to the place and to do 10 different lines. It was pretty cool but really was boring after a couple. The coolest thing for me was a really pretty bird that we saw. It was fun to zip along above the treetops, upside down and other crazy positions. The part theat wasn't super fun was a woman and her 25 year old son. She was completely scared of the ziplines first of all and second, everytime that her son was about to go she would repeat the things that the guides said and double check that he understood. she was really controlling and really wasn't any fun, she would scream when she was on the line and when she wasn't she would scream at her son to be careful, etc. I feel bad for him and for us but everything was fine. After Canopying we walked farther up the road for about a kilometer and all the cars were heading down, it was probably about 4 pm. But finally a jeep passed heading up the road, we hitchhiked, Adam and I hung on to the side as my sister sat in the back. We got up to the Waterfall that Adam knew about becuase he went there on Tuesday with his exchange program. It cost $3 dollars a piece. I talked to the woman and she let us in for three bucks. I really had to conserve my money becuase we had to catch the bus back to Quito and I had to pay for Adam and my sister. The lady pointed out a tocan! I was only able to hear them in Trinidad, it was a fleeting glimpse but it was cool to see. We walked down another muddy path to the river. I took off my shoes and enjoyed the mud. The place had a waterslide and a couple of places to jump into the river. I did the smaller jump first which the guide there said was 9 meters but I honestly think it was bigger. Then Adam and I went to the second jump, which was into the water below the waterfall, the water was churning and white with air. Adam jumped first becuase he was confident since he had done it before. The guide said it was 12 meters, but then again, I think it was a little bigger. I game up from the water yelling about how much I love Ecuador, it was really cool! Then we climbed up a rickety ladder to the top and did it two more times. There was a rope in the waterfall so that people could climb down it and dive off of a rock. I had a bad feeling about it and explained to Adamthat when I have these feelings it is a good idea to listen, but Adam just had to do it. And seriously, if he had done it I would have had to also. So we rock hopped to the waterfall and Adam started down the rope. He turned around becuase there was too much water and of course the rock is slippery. So we returned and explained that there was too much water. Then we saw forest chicken... ok that is the translation, but it is a bright red bird with a crest above its head. After, we used the sketchy waterslide. It was made out of concrete and it finished about 2 or 3 meters above the water. There was a sharp turn just before the drop and so your equilibrium is all off. But the first couple of times finished without incedent, Adam did a nice back flop and thus was done, I ran to do it another time, I jumped in and tried to go as fast as I could. I almost fell out, cut up my foot and went flying out of the side and somehow landed on my face. So I was done too. We hiked back up the trail, it was now night. We got to the top and began to walk the seven kilometers to town. My sister didn't bring her cell phone and she told me later that she had never walked more than 2 kilometers at one time. But she held her own, we walked five kilometers before a truck picked us up. The coolest thing were the fireflies! There were thousands and they blinked on and off, it was sooooo cool. Walking through the forest with thousands of fireflies leading the way. We were picked up by a group of guides from another canopying place. When we got to town we bought calzones at a place that my sister knew of and chartered a truck to Mindo Loma. When we got to the driveway of the house my uncle and my other cousin were leaving to come and look for us. It really wasn't good, it was the first time that my uncle had ever left to look for someone. But right now everything is good, I talked with my mom who talked with him, so all is good now. But at that point it wasn't. Another one of my cousins is a photography guide, which is such a cool job! He travels around Ecuador leading photographers, he looks for things to take pictures of and will catchthings to set them up for photos too. He has some of the coolest photos. We went out at night to look for frogs with him. and after about a half hour we didn't see any frogs but tons of insects, my cousin will not leave until he has the perfect photo, after about 10 minutes of taking pictures of the same spider Adam and I walked back and went to sleep. We woke up early in the morning and caught a bus back to Quito, we left at about 11 for the farm of my family.