Saturday, September 6th

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

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

My Second Week

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

Sorry!

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

My First Week Part 3

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

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

My first Week Part 2

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

My First Week Part 1

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

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

My First Day, Saturday August 23

My first day was pretty crazy. Once I woke up from my slumber I ate a breakfast of milk and bread. It was really tasty, in Ecuador there are many different kinds of bread. My mami was at work and so it was papi, me and my brother and sister. After breakfast I left for la mitad del mundo, the middle of the world, it is really touristy but my family wanted me to go.
My brother and I left the house for la mitad del mundo, we caught a bus into the center of Quito, there we caught another bus to la mitad, during our bus ride Bryan, my brother, kept on saying to me that this part of the city is dangerous or that part is. Essentially many parts of the city are dangerous in the day and night for someone alone. Luckly, I live in the far south in San Rafael. It is in another sub valley to the giant valley that Quito occupies. On our way to la mitad we hopped off the bus and walked to the house of my new aunt, the sister of my father. There we met up with my new cousins, Diego, Jonathan and Andrea. Jonathan is 20... or 19, I cant really remember. Well anyways we drove to an ice cream store were we bought helados de pailas. they are different than the ice cream that can be bought in the U.S. I think that there isnt any milk, but it is actually a secret so my family didnt know.
We drove to the monument on the equator, but it is actually off by 240 meters. It was raining and hailing so there were not many tourists. For me the best part was that when we went to the museum my brother said that there were four nationals, instead of one tourist. The museum was really interesting I kept my family waiting while I read all of the noted on the different cultures in Ecuador.
After la mitad del mundo we went to some inca ruins close to the monument. On our way there a man ran out in front of the car and was lucky not to have been hurt. He jumped and slid off the hood, he didnt seem to be hurt so we drove off. Essentailly, in Ecuador you dont need rollercoasters. The rules of the road are just guide lines. Crossing the streets here is crazy. I always run becuase I dont trust the drivers but the Ecuadorians just walk calmly across with the cars inches behind them.
The ruins werent that impressive but the location was very beautiful. After a long day my brother and I headed home.

I just want to say that the keyboard is different here so I still dont know were all the punctuation is, I believe that everyone can understand what Im trying to say so all is good. I am falling behind in my writing so I think that Im going to switch to focusing on my fellings and the important points about the culture rather than a day by day diary.

My First Night

Once I got off of the plane Cole, from the Seattle area, and I stuck together. We passed through imigration and costoms without a problem. Once through I met my family who had a balloon with benvinidos alex writen on it, Carlitos, my Rotary counsolor also met me at the airport with his Family. I tried to talk but I was so relieved to be in Quito that I was ready to fall asleep. After saying hello to everyone I got in the Car with my mom, dad, brother and sister. We drove to the Virgin in the center of the city, there is a mountain named panecillo with the statue on top. It was very foggy but I could still see parts of the city. After viewing the city we drove back home, we bought a baked chicken and my first dinner was corn, chicken, and rice. It was the only meal that my mother has bought anything for. One of the first things that I asked was what should I call my mom and dad. They said mami y papi. It is perfect. I went to bed in the same room with my brother. He leaves for Germany on September 6th. My first night was really crazy, I was practically delirious and I didn{t go to bed until one in the morning.

To be totally honest this blog thing is really hard, I do not want to miss anything and I feel that by using the computer I am missing chances to learn more. Ecuador is epic, I love my family and all the people I have met. Ojala, literally it is like god willing but used very often, I will learn Spanish quickly. I will try to put photos on my blog soon.

Traveling

Hey everyone, this is my first post from Ecuador. My last few days in Ashland were awesome, thanks everyone for a great life at home. It is what has made this possible. I woke up at three thirty to catch the plane to Atlanta. Leaving my mom was difficult, at the gate I met Aria and her mom. The flight to Atlanta was good, I got to see the sun rise over Mt. Hood on my last day, it was beautiful, the clouds made contrasting shadows over the ground. I sat next to a Bosnian who has lived in the U.S for two years, hes name was Amir and he made the flight really enjoyable. Once in Atlanta Aria and I mistakenly walked out of the Airport. So we had to go through security again. Once back in the airport and at our gate we met the other Rotary Exchange students. There were about fifteen from the U.S. There were people from many other programs represented at the gate. AFS students from France headed to Ecuador, Rotary Exchange students from Switzerland going to Ecuador and the U.S, another exchange program with kids from the U.S, and a ton of college exchange students headed for Ecuador. The plane ride was good except that my ipod broke halfway through the trip.
I sat next to a black Ecuadorian couple on the plane, they were very nice and we talked the whole time in Spanish. That was when I realized that I could really live in Ecuador. My Spanish sucks but I{m not afraid to try so everything is perfect. I also met a Rotary exchange student from an island in Puget Sound. He is really cool, I already have a friend from the good old northwest.

I am sorry for not writing sooner or about the stuff people probably want to hear about but these last few days have been in hyper drive, I literally have had no time to write. Everything is awesome in my family and I will hopefully catch up to my day to day expirience.