Let's get real...

So as all of you who have been keeping up with my blog have noticed, it has fallen into a sad state of very little being written. The reasons for me not writing basically all fall on one thing. A lack of inspiration to write. These is largely becuase my experience here has become slowly more difficult and to express myself over the internet without being cynical has become hard. I've gone through some drastic changes and events this last month. I've done so much in Ecuador my expirience can only be described as amazing. But along with these amazing experiences have been some moments where the last thing I want to do is write.
I'm going to start over again, I'll keep everyone posted and we'll see if I can keep up my part of the bargain. I only ask that if you read this to please comment in some way. I would really appreciate hearing about what your reactions are.
I'm going to be leaving for the Galapagos in 3 days, as you can imagine I'm excited beyond belief. The Galapagos has always been one of those childhood dreams, to go to the land where the animals look at you like you are nothing more than a bothersome nuisance. To be totally honest, I feel like the shock of going there hasn't actually completely hit me. At least I know that I'll be in for an amazing adventure.
I got back last friday from a 12 day trip to a rural population in the north coast of Ecuador. I built a school, no seriously, my whole class of 20 kids just completed a school. Really, a building, it doesn't have lights, desks teaching materials or anything. But it is a building that we built. This expirience was beyond amazing for me. I worked like it was my job. My friend even told me that the only difference between me and the professionals that we hired to do the hardest stuff was that I wasn't getting paid. I didn't need to, working in the hot Ecuadorian sun building a school for a poor population that needs one was such a gift. I felt so happy to be there. I had such an awesome time, I felt free and careless, my thoughts always drifting from the next meal and working hard enough to finish the school in time. This was one of the most beautiful moments on my exchange.
More to come... I'll be sure to post soon!

Whats New? Santana!

I just had an Amazing Weekend. Fausto finally made it up to Quito. He has been taking in college something that pretty much translates into diplomacy and international relations. We spent the weekend waiting in the rain for a Santana concert and then exploring the historic district.
Saturday was a very interesting day... we spent it huddled in the rain as the first people in one of the 3 doors to get into the concert. We got there at about 2 P.M. literally just before the pooring rain. If anyone can imagine the crazy summer rainstorms that randomly show up... well it was like that except a lot colder. We were literally in inches of water. We managed to buy an umbrella and ponchos from some vendors which partially covered us. Adam showed up with the tickets at about 4. We waited and slowly watched the lines fill up... We were super lucky to have gotten right in front. At 6 they opened the doors. I sprinted into the next line to enter the colesseum. We wait for a few minutes and we are in! We sprint into the colluseum and pick out some great seats off to one side but much closer than if we had sat directly in line with the stage. The stadium slowly filled up, we amused ourselves by making paper airplanes from the free posters. At 8 a band called Prime Ministers played... they weren't that great but we still enjoyed it by dancing and scaring everyone around us. At about 8:30 or 8:45 Santana showed! He walked out with a green poncho and one of his classic white hats. The rest of the concert was an epic blur... all the members of the band were great. The drummers were amazing, they had a trap set and a couple of guys playing congo drums. Santana of course threw down some solos and a couple of great improve songs. The concert was a total success, we had a blast! Everyone that I know who went were just as stoked! That was the biggest concert I've ever been in. The energy was amazing, it was a mix of young people and adults. Adam and I danced like there was no tomorrow... we definatly recieved our fair share of funny looks! I now have such an appreciation for Santana, the guitarist and the band, they trew it down and made an amazing show!

Hey All... back from my long respite...

Hey so as anyone who at one time was a regular reader has noticed that my posts have stopped their long steady flow. I'm not that sure why but that is just how it is going. Lots of stuff has happened recently and as I haven't been thinking about putting any of it down I'll just write for a little bit and hopefully I'll be back on track with all of my adventures.
Adam and I were robbed, well kind of, it wasn't too exciting but it definatly is worth writing about. We were walking through a dangerous part of the city, the historical district, we were there to buy school clothes for Adam. My mom is always telling me to minimize my time there and it is for a very good reason. We were walking up a hill and two teenagers came walking down the sidewalk towards us. When they got close they did a weird 'what's up man' and one guy gave his hand like he wanted to shake hands with me. Quickly, his hand passed my outstreched hand and went straight for my pocket. I pushed him away and then like lightning as he passed by adam he pulled his money pouch out of his pocket. Adam wasn't in a position to react because he had a plastic bag full of clothes. Adams first reaction was: Hey, I've got a hard time getting things out of my pocket sometimes. We decided it wasn't worth pursueing so we just let it be and laughed it off. Two weeks ago my family went to Quilotoa together. My sisters boyfriend is studying tourism, and he had been to this lake before, it is a crater lake nestled in the top of a volcano. There is the local story about how this volcano was jealous with another volcano and they fought leaving the other as the victor. This lake is really high up, we enter the páramo, which is the highest type of ecosystem that still has plants here, essentially it is a grassland. But with big clump grasses. The people who live here are hearders and farmers. THe houses are subterrranian with grass roofs. The house is dug into the ground for insulation and then over it is the grass. These houses are like 12 foot rectangles. We passed donkeys, sheep, llamas, horses and the people tending them. Finally we made it to the ake, we had to pay $1 to enter the town, which is situated along the rim, apart from the clumps of houses there are a couple of restaurants and hostels. We reached the rim and saw the green tinted lake. It is different than Crater Lake in Oregon because the sides are jagged, it seems like a giant maw lifting up out of the ground. We took some photos and then began the walk down to the lake shore. I was quite sick for this adventure, I had a headache, and just felt really low energy but I just ha to walk down to the shore. We began the descent on the trail which has been completely degraded by the horses that walk up and down the trail everyday. It costs $5 dollars to get a horse to take you back up to the top. I walked down the slowest and my dad and I went to a little point overlooking the beach where there were boats and horses hanging out on the beach waiting for the tourists. We saw mainly Germans, they seem to be the most adventurous travelers with the Gringos following close behind. At the lake shore my older sister and boyfriend rented a kayak and so did my younger sister and I. We headed out onto the still water, I couldn't help but imagine some dark monster rising up from the depths of the water. We found a place where there was water bubbling up from the shore, the water was hot. This volcano still is active, it was cool to put your hand into the water and find it pleasently warm. After we had our kayak adventure which left us wet... the kayaks weren't quite water tight. My sister and I went to a family that had brought food down with them for a picnic. We sat around their cooking fire as they boiled potatoes, and cooked steak and sasages over the fire. We didn't completely dry off but we learned that our family had left and started to hike back up the mountain. I ended up following the trail and my sister took another smaller trail following my older sister and her boyfriend. I ended up passing everyone and waited for them all. About mid-way my mom and sister had a fiasco of trying to get them bothon one of the tiny little mountain horses. I felt really bad, they fell off twice before giving up and waiting for someone to bring another horse, $5 dollars for both of them. So they ttook horses the rest of the way up. WE got in the car and headed directly home. It was about 5 when we got back to the car and we got back to my house at 9 at night. I was sick and so I didn't enjoy this trip as much as I could have but it was really cool to see a part of Ecuador that I still hadn't seen, the outlinging high plains.
Today... I had a great musical expirience. Today when I was in the bus two guys boarded the bus. One with an andean flute and a guitar, and another with a ukelale type of string instrument. They played and sung for about 15 minutes as I was on the bus. I was really happy, honestly, there are many people who do tons of street preformances... but live music is quite hard to come by on the street corners. I had about $.75 and so I gave them 50 cents. It was a great preformance, it seemed like some people were bothered by it, but the majority really liked it. It was a great way to head to my house!

Some pics... becuase I'm lazy

So My Christmas after the thoughts that I put down was quite interesting. My parents didn't buy us presents becuase the plan was that we were all going to go to the coast for the new year. So we decided to open the presents that I bought for them and the presents from my sisters. I bought all of my presents with Johanita my younger sister for my family, we bought a tie for my dad, a blouse for my older sister Eli and pants for my mom. I also got Johanita a T-shirt. I got a great shirt from johanita and from Eli I got a little ecuador mug! I also gave my family a peace flag from West Wind Peace Flags in Ashland. They loved it! I was super stoked to have brought the peace flags. I also gave them a christmas ornament. I'm not sure if when I was writing the last post if I knew whether the place had changed for our christmas dinner... well it did, at the last minute, we went to my aunts house. It is way, way in the north of Quito. It is a small apartment, and there were like 20 people it was nuts. It turned into a disorganized hodgpodge of people in every room, I could tell that my mom was dissapointed. Becuase of the multiroomedness it seemed way different than a christmas dinner, one cousin was doing homework for college, another listening to music, a few people sleeping, and others watching TV. It was kinda a bummer for everyone that it turned out that way. So my family left early and... well the picture of the kids with the hoola hoops is from christmas eve when I went to give the bags of candies. My dad and I recieved deodorant from my aunt! hint hint...

We're in!

So my team made it into the tournament. We were in a bracket of 7 teams and the tournament will be between the top two teams from each bracket. So in total there were 84 teams in Quito. This tournament is between 24 teams. If we had lost our game we wouldn't have had any more games this year. We actually tied the game. Which meant that in the next game a school had to win, so that the team that they were playing against wouldn't get the right amount of points.
We really had bad luck in the game, we ended up tying because of two fouls in the goal box, two PK's which they finished, so it was bad, bad luck. The thing that I didn't write about was how crazy my team is.
After the game on tuesday, one of the players on the team fought with a kid on the other team, he beat him up pretty good, when the team left the parking lot in a car they threw water bottles at us. This kid who fought before picked up one of the water bottles and went running after them, they stopped at a red light and began to get out of the car. About 7 kids from our team went running after Carlos... the kid who is ready to fight at an instant. There were probably about 8 kids on their side. We were lined up on the street, the two teams facing off. I grabbed Carlos and told him to chill out and started walking away with him cussing his head off at the other team.
We ended up not fighting but this is one huge difference between Ecaudor and the states, at least in Ashland, our first reaction isn't always to fight. Teenagers here have embodied the flight or fight syndrom perfectly... I have seen tons of fights here. My team mates wil fight others on my team over stupid things, it is really wild. There is actually some kids who go to the nearest park after school and fight. No one here can believe that I've never fought. For example one kid told me that he has fought 30 times this year! This is an extreme example but the teenage boys are ready to fight anyone and everyone.

Stuff

So I actually thought that there wasn't a mail service here... but there is... so late in coming here is my address for the good ol' snail mail.

Av. Ilalo, Calle Rio Paztasa y Rio Corrientes, Conjunto La Viña, Casa #6
Quito- San Rafael, Valle de los Chillos
Ecuador

So, I know that it works, my brother has been sending my family stuff from Germay, so I have Confidance in the mail system. So ya... sorry about not getting this out sooner but better late than never (you wouldn't believe how many times I hear this expression from my sister...)
So... I'm still doing a good job being lazy. But, whats new, I got a whopping 40% on my last math test. I have a boilogy quiz on carbohidrates and lipids. Oh, I'm going to learn how to do blood tests. In ecuador they are really big on the poop, pee, and blood tests. There is actually a Clinical Laboratory in my school. So I had to collect smaples of everything and had it all tested. So in biology we are going to learn how to take blood and then run it through a bunch of machines to sample it... and then later maybe with poop and pee! weee, anyways we practiced last week with oranges and syringes that we bought in a drug store (can you even buy syringes?), I'm a little scared actually, but it is becuase I'm going to have to be taking the blood from my sister... were partners... and, well, this is a little sticky... I'm afraid of the concequences.
I have a soccer game tomorrow, we are in the tournament, we won our last game and we had just enough points to enter the tournament. So here we go, I'm stoked, I played well but I don't have goal painted on my forehead like my coach says that I need. I just am always looking for passes first, I missed a great opportunity for a goal.
I was practicing Capoeira on friday with my teacher, his brother and another crazy kid named pancho, who is insane... well all of them are. They throw down the flips ike nothing and are frustrated at times becase their backflip 360°'s aren't perfect and stuff like that... anyways I just was working on backflips... I have some real confidance problems, with reason, the bother of my teacher practically killed me. The short of it is that I fell prety good on my head. I did such a good job of taking care of my body... but whatever, I'm a walking wreck.
My house is all decorated! We have a fiber optic tree... seriously. I bought a tie with my sister for my dad and I'm still short presents for the rest of my family. My mom is in another one of the houses in our apartment, the 9 days before christmas all of the neighbors are meeting in different houses to do a celebration for the birth of Jesus.
Ok there was a nice short update, big thanks to all those who are reading and especially commenting! thanks everyone!

Mi Cumpleaños!

My birthday was good. I was woken up in the morning with a knock on my door. Quickly there after my whole family streamed into the room with a cake and began singing happy birthday. My first reaction was to hide under my sheats... I like a little time to wake up, especially since it was 5:30... Here in ecuador they always sing happy birthday in English and then in Spanish. So two candles were lit, a 1 and a 7. I blew them out with a little difficulty since my sister was sitting on me. I was told to bite the cake so I did, it was a long role like thing, chocolate and vanilla with fruit in the middle. Later after everyone had left my room I checked my cell phone to find a text message from a friend of mine, she had woken up at 12 in the morning and sent it to me.
At school, I recieved a lot of happy birthdays. The only thing that was really wild was the great ecuadorian tradition of getting hit with your belt... 17 times. Now I've never expirienced this before... and I don't really want to ever again. But during the second break I took off my belt and freinds and non-friends beat the crap out of me. My sister hit me first, then was Adam and Polo. After these three it was a line of people. I was hugging a tree as people wailed on me. The first five were fine, my pain tolerance was fine. But number 13 was a kid that I know from playing soccer at the break. He had a wide belt on, he took it off stepped back and hit me. I practically fell over and cried, it hurt soooo bad. I almost couldn't go on, I felt like I was on fire. At one point a kid was about to hit me, and I was like, "who are you?" he introduced himself and hit me. This tradition is quite weird but definatly something to expireince. Moving hurt for the rest of the day. And the General Inspector came and tried to break up the beating but it continued all the same.
After school Adam and I went to La Mariscal, the turist district where all of the discos and English Speaking people are. We went into an English book store, which felt like one of the funky used book stores that can be found in Ashland! After that we went to eat, Shawarmas, a really good middle eastern food that is hot meat with a flat pita like bread and with some really good sauces... yumm. I met my dad at his work and we drove back to my house.
We left to go out and eat lasagna which I have really missed since I've been here. We first went to the mall to see about switching a new pair of jeans that my family gave me for my birthday. We couln't find another pair that worked out so I'm gonna use these, we also bought two new shirts, a longsleeved pink dress shirt and a short sleeved dress shirt. We left the mall to find a huge stage in the park next to it. There was a band up there playing Pink Floyd. We went closer to check it out and on the other side of the stage they were sending mini hot air baloons with flashing sparks. They sent out 17, and then there was a long pause. It seemed pretty cool, after a few minutes another 20 or so were sent up. We left to go and eat. The place that we went to was empty, just us. We all got different lasagnas, they were little personal lasagnas baked in clay platters. The pasta wasn't all that great but, all in all, it was good!
That was my day, a good adventure. But I really did miss my friends and family. It just didn't feel the same without everyone that has always been a part of my life.

Quitenos know how to Party! part 1

So these last week was fiestas de Quito, celebrating the founding of Quito, it was from the 28 of November till 6 of December. It was wild, imagine a city that is all united for one cause, a huge party to shake the planet. I went to two bull fights on monday and thursday. And went out three nights this last weekend. The first things to note are the flags, for the week there were the flags of Ecuador and Quito flying everywhere. There are tons of songs... I of course picked up the songs that have to do with the youth. The whole week was really fun.
The first thing I can remember was watching the bike race down the Panecillo. There were many competitions for the festival, the bike race I only caught on TV but it was crazy! The Panecillo is a little mountain in the south of Quito, I actually went there on my first night. There is a big statue of the Virgin on top. It actually has a nativity scene on top right now, there ia a giant lighted nativity scene for christmas. It was lit up for the first time on the 28, I was in the car and actaully watched as the lights went on. There was also a lighted sign that said, ¡Viva Quito!. At the same time the smiling face off Jupiter, Venus and the cresent moon was But it is really steep, and cobblestoned. On Tv it looked so gnarly... flyinging from street to street and crazy scetchy landings like staircases... it was wild, again I was thinking of you Ben, and when you saw downhill biking in Viseu.
So the first weekend was uneventful, but on monday I went to Los Toros, the bullfight. The fair here is the best in the Americas. There were some of the best matodors in the world. I want everyone to know my reasons for going, I've never seen a bullfight and it is a deeply ingrained part of the culture here. Anyways so I skipped school on monday and met Adam at the plaza at about 9:30. We couldn't buy tickets and had to go to the scalpers. THey were everywere, and we couldn't find any tickets for cheaper than $25. Well we didn't really have an idea what we were doing so we bought our tickets and waited to enter, they would let people in at 10, we also learned that the bullfight wouldn't start until 12 so we had plenty of time to kill. We entered at 10 and walked around as preperations were being made for the after party, there were many... wow I cannot remember the word, just in spanish, if you know spanish carpas but I'm stumped... anyways Im talking about big outdoor tarps, and I can't remember the name. Anyways there was one for Brahma, a beer company, one for Wine, a healthcare company, and lots of booths selling spanish style sandwhiches, I was very tempted to buy a sandwhich with real jamón but I bought a cheaper sandwhich to bring into the plaza. Adam and I cruzed around watching people make the corn empanadas, sandwhiches and packaging wine and beer so that it can be easly brought into the plaza. We were recomended to enter early, so we did, we learned a couple of things as we entered. The first was that the doors have names, Sol, Sombra, sun and shadow, have no real meaning. The place is a round ring and the bullfight starts at 12, I'm about 25 from the Equator so as you can imagine the sun was directly over head. The other thing was the error in our intelligence, in our hurry to buy tickets we bought tickets completely seperate from each other... Well whatever we thought we'll work it out. As we sat down to take in the scenery I caught sight of Lorenz, he is another Rotary exchange student from Germany, he is easy to spot... as easy as Adam, he's a redhead, anyways he is really cool, we shared a class during my two week crash course in spanish that didn't teach me anything. He was with a friend from school. They had bought the tickets the week before hand and got them for 4 days. We talked as I was admiring the bullring. After the toros del pueblo, what I went to in August in Sangolquí. That was the place where the ring was breaking on us... anyways it was a circle about 50 meters across with two white painted rings in the dirt about 10 and 12 meters into the ring. The structure was concrete and we were seated quite far away from the ring, but the elevation gain made a good view. We waited as the ring filled up, our group of four creeped around and sat where there was space, slowly but surely people would come up, stick their tickets in our faces and tell us that we would have to move. But we found a spot for the beginning of the fights. There would be 3 matadors and 6 bulls, we would see every matador fight with two bulls.

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!

The CITY

I want to share this change in me but I really am having problems with it. I am become harder, colder and more distant from life. The city really changes a person. I have never spent this much time in a city before and there is a type of energy here that is not the same as in a town. It is a black cloud that is more profound than the smog... it sucks the energy of creativity, love and compasion from the hearts of people. I really am not sure if it is just because I have always grown up in a small town, but I really feel this. I am doing a good job of keeping a hold of my heart. But it is slipping at about the same rate as my english... jeje( mi ingles es peor todos los dias, realmente estoy haciendo lo mismo faltas de los estudiantes en mi clase). This last week I walked right by an old toothless woman sitting on the sidewalk, I had just bought pizza and she asked me for some of it. But I walked right by her. Right after I realized what I had done, so when I got to my house with my sister I turned around and bought her a piece of pizza. But I really am realizing that I can see theings that used to disgust me and now there is no feeling... this is something really sad for me. I am crying becuase I really don't know how this is happening, but it is. All that I can do is be more conscious of my thoughts and begin to reopen my heart to the city and find my way of passing through it without contacting this energy. But I have just found something perfect for me. I am in a special program in school and in the year all the kids need 150 hours of community service. And I am doing a forestation project. In Ashland I used to work for Blythe and Larry in the Greensprings, it was my time to be thoughtful, gather my thoughts and recuperate my energy in the purest sense, in Nature. So right now I am doing something kinda the same. Except that we are planting trees in an area were there never were any, but the grasses there are non-native and the trees are native... and a lot better than the eucalyptus trees which are everywhere. The soil there is perfect, I have never seen so many worms in natural soil(I'm writing with dirt under my nails!!!). I love it, the place is south of Quito on a mountain side, near a highway and a paragliding place, so I wtched people flying over me. I love getting my hands dirty, doing some work and contemplating my feelings as I work to better the world! This is one thing that I have been looking for here! Also the woman who runs the program knows Mount Shasta, she is big into metaphysics and all that cool stuff. There are small lizards in the grass and I have yet to catch one... I loved coming home with dirt on my jeans, blister and dirty hands!

Hmm

This is the second time that i have seen these kinds of things... Today I was walking down a main street in Quito with my sister when I watched a man steal a cellphone from a girl from another school. She was walking with a friend and texting when the man walked in between her and her friend and snatched the phone. He cooly pocketed the phone, crossed the street and started running. This was really hard for me to see because I almost went running after the guy... but I was wearing my dress shoes and was with my sister, who I wasnt't going to ditch to chase after a theif. The people on the street just continued on as if nothing had happened. The girls ran past me deciding to chase him about 20 seconds later. This is just the thing here, shit happens... it is just a part of life. Another night I was in my car guarding it while my mom and sister where in a store. I watched a police truck drive up to a woman street vender, one policeman jumped out and attacked her. He grabbed her basket of chips, gum and candy and scattered it in the street. Hr jumped back in the truck and they drove away. I watched as she gathered up the candy, others helped her but there was no reason for this attack.It was unprovoked and by a policeman! Ecuador is very different. I know of three exchange students who have had some crazy incedents. The first was a girl from Switzerland, her and her family were robbed at gunpoint as they left there house. The other two were Germans. One watched as a woman and baby were attacked. Three guys kicked and pounded on the car as she was screaming inside, the police were called... and 20 minutes later they arrived. Another guy was robbed of a watch, cellphone and eight dollars in a street. He was walking ewhen two guys cornered him. I also have had a close encounter. I was walking down the street when a man approched me, I saw that he was looking at me kinda funny so when he got close and tried to stop me I speed walked passed him and caught up with some other people who were walking in the same street. This is just the reality of living in Quito, it is a big city with some crime. If you read this and are scared or worried (Mom!) please don't be. I am writing this for a greater understanding of the place that I live in. All that is necessary is caution and to pay atention. It is definatly a possibility that these kinds of things could happen again in the future. I hope not, but as they say here ¡Pilas!

School Elections and Orgulloso

So my school just had the elections for school president. It was very different than the elections at school in Ashland. It was four days of locura (crazyness!). Each day a new group would get the bleachers. But everyday was just a ton of noise. During our breaks kids would be out there waving banners, dressed in the colors of the group, screaming like mad, and spray painting peoples heads. But it was real spray paint. I avoided it as best as I could but when the stuff is everywhere it is kinda hard. Also there were times when people had flares... real freaking flares! The kind you see on the road when there is an accident. Anyways the point seemed to be which ever group made the most noise attracted the most people. I ended up satisfying myslef by running around with Adam, we would steal the banners and run through the other groups. We just kinda caused a bigger ruckus wherever we were. Anyways this kinda leads into the pride of the people here. Ecuadorians seem to be very prideful of there country, president, soccer teams, etc. This presented itself during the school elections when everyone had a list as they were called and would try and put stickers on every square centimeter of your body. It is just a trait not found as much in the USA. We are much more reserved in that aspect. For example, when there is a soccer game with Ecuador and another country there is an atmosphere of anticipation, the whole city is quiet. Also when a goal is scored all of the cars, since the had the radio tuned to the game, start honking there horns. Another example is Jefferson Perez. Kudos to you if you know who he is... he won the silver medal in the olympics. In the 20km walking. The whole country put up banners and was extatic that an Ecuadorian won a medal! I still see posters that say: Thank you Jefferson Perez... except in spanish... jeje. There is just a greater unity in the people.. the USA is huge, especially in comparison to Ecuador. Oregon is 88% the size of Ecuador. So, anyways I'm not really sure where I'm going with this so I'm just going to shut up with this post.

Teleferico and pics

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa more pictures! thanks everyone for being patient. The first picture is me in my uniform that I wear on mondays. The second is in the Teleferico. I think I forgot to write about it but I went up there with my dad and my sister on my last day of summer. It is a gondola which takes you up to the top of Cruz Loma which is 4100 meters above sea level. it is really cool. From there it is a three hour hike to the top of Ruco Pichincha, I hope to do this in the coming months. The view of the city from the top is spectacular. Quito is in a Valley sorrounded by mountains. The valley is huge. There are mountains in the valley and other valleys. For example when people ask me where I live I respond: The Valley. I live in the south of quito and the elevation is less so I guess that it signifies the valley. I would guess that the valley is probably about double the size of the Rogue valley. But then again I'm not really sure of what parts are considered to be in the valley here, because it stretches out in the South.

Seasons

Ok... first off I'm not in spring. I am only about 30 km south of the Equator... thus the seasons aren't opposite. Actually I am in winter, it has just begun for me. Winter continues until about march or April. The only real difference is that it now rains every day... not every other day. Just wanted to throw this out there. Also if you were wondering about the temperature it is like in the sixties every day. I am about 9,000 ft in the mountains.

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?