me encanta aprender

Man, it´s been a week, a good one. I didn´t blog anything because for  some reason I felt that I wasn´t doing anything crazy to blog  about...but now I realize that, that is crazy, and every day is a crazy  experience here!

SOkay, so I moved! Lolly. Out of the  wonderful home stay and into a wonderful hostal. There were a couple  reasons I decided to move, but in short I feel like I got to experience  living with an Ecuadorian family, it was great, and that I was ready to  experience the city with a little more independence and be closer to the  school and other students. This weekend three of the girls I had become  friends with and been exploring with all left Quito, to either continue  traveling or begin their volunteer work out in Ecuador. That's how it  goes though, out with the old, in with the new. Tuesday another student  from Holland came to the school, sooo many Dutch, and another American girl returned to Quito  from her volunteering on the Coast, new friends! it´s kind of fun to  experience all these new and unfamiliar places with unfamiliar faces...  Traveling though, it does seem you quickly get past the introductions  and just get right into to. There is not time for any small talk!
Another  change, the school switched my teacher for this week, I like my  previous teacher Ivan, but he was dry, serious and very business with  me. Which is good I suppose, there was a lot of basic material to plow  through, but my new teacher is great. He is the activities coordinator  for the school and clearly has a lot of passion for his job and  integrating los estudiantes into the culture and language of Ecuador.  We´ve had a lot of fun and interesting conversations so far. And my lessons are outside now on the terrace, so bueno. The weather is beautiful con mucho sol en la mañana and then gets all crazy in the afternoons. All the ecuadorian say el clima es loco! But I like it, it reminds me of Seattle just warmer. Perfecto!
Today  was a great day, and I felt like my light was shining brightly however I  do realize that this unique experience will certainly have it´s ups and  downs. Tuesday, on the other hand, my light was a little dim, I think I  was partially affected by all the rapid changes to my life in a place  where everything is already always new and foreign. New house, new  friends, new teacher. So Wednesday morning I actually broke down and  CRIED in front of my teacher, hilarious now, but at the time I was  thinking, "wow, really, are you gonna cry...right now?  you can´t hold  that in?" We were reading the lyrics of this song about love between two  amigos. The singer was expressing his love and admiration for a friend  who had been with him throughout all of life's journey. Well, my  teacher, Vinicio, was asking me to interpret the meaning, and then asked  me if I would ever write a letter like this  to someone. And I  responded Claro! of course. To my two best friends or my parents... and  he was like oh? your parents, really? why? And boom i was crying, (haha-  LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD!!) His question was just reminding me how great my parents are and how much I miss them. Vinicio was really tranquilo  and nice and told me it was a beautiful thing to appreciate your parents  etc... I think it was good chance to get it all out of my system and  now I feel great again! and still don´t want to come home for a year!  (just joshing.) Then today, I was talking with Rose, (estudiante de  escuela Yanapuma from Australia) and she was like "aih, I hope i don´t  cry again in my lesson today!". She told me apparently her roommate  Shannon had also cried the day before, out of frustration for not being  able to conjugate the past tense of a verb or something. But I was  relieved; I´m not the only crybaby. I´m sure Vinicio has witnessed many a  student have a lil moment or two, and he had good advice and kind words  for me. I made sure to do my best to express to him (in spanish) that  even though i was crying right then, i was still soo happy to be here  and really grateful for this amazing opportunity of traveling and  experiencing new cultures.

Okay old town.
I enjoyed two afternoons there this week. It is very beautiful and a historic cite in South  America because it is apparently the most well restored city in the  whole continent. I had read a ton about it in my guide book before  visiting, about the narrow winding streets of cobble stones, and open   air markets... and somehow I was just picturing this fantastic South  American pueblo or something. And I was wrong. it was aesthetically appealing, but... it was just another  European town. Big catholic churches, built right on top of original  Incan royal houses or burial grounds and super nice town house built  next to each other on long pretty blocks just like in Paris and museums  filled with Catholic European art. I was like oh... Colonialism. Neato. And of course there are the plethora of marginalized Indigenous walking around with their trays of candy, gum and cigarettes with young ones in toe. I think my thoughts were also partially colored from the conversation I had earlier that day in school with Vinicio about indigenous oppression.  Standing here in South America I felt like I was in Barcelona or Madrid and could only imagine what it had looked like before the conquistadors had come and stomped it all out. But I will admit consumerism had brought me down there in the first place. I  bussed down therebto buy a used cell phone to activate for my time  here. Not having a cell phone here for the first two weeks was fine, I  didn´t plan on getting a South American number... except it was  impossible to meet anyone ever or make plans! I know cell phones are a  recent invention and that many of you reading this grew up with out them  and that this is obvious but WOW they sure are convenient. I would meet  someone cool and really want to see them again or hang out and I would  just have to cross my fingers to cross paths or run into them on the  streets again. Anywho, I´m glad I went to old town and I visited some  churches and museums and it started to rain for a minute and stumbled  into this beautiful multi-purpose library place so though disappointing still of course very enjoyable.  

lets see, anything else... Last Friday, one of  the chicas who was leaving had been living in a house and had a huge  going away party. It was tons o´ fun because she´d been here a while and  knew many people, foreign and Ecuadorian, some of our teachers from the  school came too. It was a great time mixing with locals and practicing  Spanish. My least favorite thing: "I can´t understand you, English  please" haha but I still try. I learned the past tense today!!

side note, man, there is a SUPER annoying extranjero sitting next to me at the internet cafe speaking English, I think she is from Canada, and i´m realizing how rare it is that I can actually understand anyone speaking around me. My eavesdropping has gone way down over here.  

XX