Friday, June 27th, 2003

Hey Ive been scanning photos lately, its just hard because i cant do it at home, I do have the 9th roll that i thought i had lost on now. I did my spanish lessons and graduated from the academy giving me an official piece of paper and a little better understanding of advanced grammar. I dont have a girlfriend anymore, but were still good friends, were probably going to the beach in july. After june i think the goodbye parties are going to slow down a bit. They give me mixed feelings, going to the airport to see people off gets me excited about going home, but most of these kids i will never see again. Theyve beenmy family.

The water heater exploded on me the other day, i didnt know it was that urgent to turn it off a few hours after you turn it on. When it gets too hot it shoots all the water out the side and fills up the kitchen and the dining room. heh it was a lession in older-than-is-still-supposed-to-funcion technology. The  Im still great with my newer family. Nothing really big has happened, Ive just been spending time with friends, family, saying goodbyes.... its all been fun, just not really newsworthy. Oh yeah there was a great free music fest in the french school here. It was the first time i saw latinos try to body surf. People would kinda jump off the stage into the crowd and fall on the concrete. Sometimes they stayed up a few seconds on some peoples heads. It was the best. Speaking of music, heres the some download-worthy latino music for your summer-boredom downloading pleasure:

Orishas:

--537 Cuba

Molotov:

--Gimme tha Power

--Frijolero

La Ley:

--El Duelo

Theres ton more... Ill make a list when i get back, i just thought id give a taste of what i listen to.

I dont think ill get most of my photos online until i get back, this roll 9 was the first one ive gotten on since i moved families and its just such a pain. I have to go to one place to scan them and then another place to do the webpage and get them online. Dont hope for too much for the page! Im going to try to go on trips now. I hope I can! Maybe i can go to cuenca to get pictures for Emily Morris. Ill be home in almost three weeks... See you soon!

Wednesday, June 4th, 2003

My new family is great, I have a host brother who's 19, his old host brother from belgium (20, living there for a few months), two loving parents, and a maid who cooks! My new house (not just an appartment) is a bit out of the way, and next to the airport, but those are easy enough to get used to. The view from my room is more bland (unless the nuns from the monestary behind the house are playing basketball) but how much time do i spend staring out the window anyways--I can always just go to the roof if I want to be philosophical. There is always tons of food in that house. I cooked them fajitas and was content to find everything I needed already there except for the tortillas. Heh I know food sounds kinda shallow, but it effects my mood in a big way. The change was good fun, I have more family now, and its always nice to have something new every once and again.

Other than the change, May wasnt very eventful. The senior skip thing was a lot of fun, if not a bit cold camping in Machachi. I do have a new girlfriend as a consequence of the change (shes well my host 2nd cousin, the family thinks its cute). All the other exchangers are going home. The 2-a-week goodbye parties wont stop until july i dont think. Its kinda sad. kinda exciting. Going home is like another exchange. 

I saw matrix 2 may 31st. It was ok. I didnt like the first half much. It did leave me wanting the third.

As for photos, I dont have a camera for this last month and a half so i think Ill buy a few disposables, I dont know how Ill scan them, you guys might just have to wait till I get back!

Thats about it I think, schools over and next week im going to start private spanish lessons to perfect grammar and writing. Ill probably take a trip or two with my family. Who knows. A big hug from all you guys, enjoy summer vacations!

Thursday, May 8th, 2003

Hey big stuff goin on here! Since the last episode Ive been on a couple of trips, my school's senior skip day/conspiracy is tomorrow, and Im changing families this saturday. To start, I didnt ever make it into the Maná concert, I ended up wandering around in the cold rain with friends trying to find tickets. Re sold tickets skyrocketed from their original 15$ to prices around 60-70. Insane! Someone should let these guys know about 3 night shows so we can all get our turn! 

A couple weeks later I went to Riobamba for their yearly festivals. They were in the whole foundation parties like Quito had back in December. Riobamba is a nice small mountain city of about 120,000. The economic level here doesnt let cities develop very easily so its only about as big as my beloved nac, despite the population. So bullfights, parties, and concerts saturated the city that weekend. The bullfights were good, a bull got his horns stuck in the sand while running and flipped, some guy had a way close call with death... The nights were just as good, wherever a live band set up, a little street party would form. We even went to a real pay concert of a few ecuadorian groups, one that I had seen before. A bit more male contact would have been nice though that easter weekend, I could feel myself becoming more and more feminine as we painted eggs and made pancakes. 

I got back monday the 21st and was off for Galapagos the next day. Hehe that night was a funny one though, the electric bill got mixed up with some of my host dad's stuff and never made it to the bank, so the electric company came, and cut us off. Not letting that get them down, my host parents went into bootleg mode. My host mom got an extension cord, ran it from the kitchen, out the appartment door, out the hall door, into the stairwell and plugged it in there. A couple minutes later my host dad got in and started to take apart the circuit breaker box and connected the wires from the extension cable to the breaker box so my host brother and I could have light to pack. I was very impressed.

The 22nd I went to the Galapagos Islands. It was paradise. Theres nothing I didn't like about it, only that our trip was a bit short. Its beautiful, unique, and has a wonderful warm but breezy climate. Our overpriced flight landed on Baltra island at about 1 in the afternoon, we crossed over to santa cruz island, and took a bus to puerto ayora, the city where our hotel was. Right off we went to the Charles Darwin foundation and see the 3+ foot turtles. They're kinda like natures tanks, it would take a lot to hurt them. For the next two days we had two rented boats to ourselves so our guides took us around, showed us iguanas, beautiful birds, interesting plantation, and the social structure of seals. It was all a Charles Darwin theory lesson. Its fascinating how the animals have their own rituals. For example the blue footed boobie male stands on a rock to be attractive, if he stands on a good enough rock, a female will come and land by him. They even do a little dance together. 

If one goes to the Galapagos and like me, doesn't know how to scuba dive, he at least has to snorkel. One of the most incredible things I did was swim with the seals and the fish. The seals are a bit timid out of water, but in it they're very playful. The fish were beautiful and its not unusual to swim with sharks. The only sharks I saw were asleep though. The waters of the Galapagos are so full of food, the sharks dont even notice humans. 

The nights in Puerto Ayora were wonderful. The only danger in the city are the occasional drunk gringo on the street. The people who live in Puerto Ayora are very open, relaxed and fun. I made a handful of friends in just the little time I spent there, and met a sweet girl I spent most of my free time in the city with.

Two other things we did: Walked through a natural lava tunnel, went to a couple beaches

Galapagos made it to the tops of the most incredible places Ive ever been list. I couldn't take leaving. I got back to Quito and stepped out of the plane into the cold rain and almost wanted to cry. I loved it there. Ill be back someday. Ill probably run into people I know, people from galapagos usually keep themselves there. And with good reason.

Tomorrow is the senior skip conspiracy. Back home its always the same day, but here, it gets organized every year by students and some helpful parents. Keeping it a complete secret, everyone gets invited, pays some money, and goes on a chiva during the day (little shortbus things that people stand on top and dance as they go around the city, I mentioned them during the Quito festivals). This year were all going to catch a bus and go to a classmates weekend house to spend the night.

Then saturday Im changing families. Im very excited, I dont know the family yet but Ive heard that they're fun. Even if not, itll be nice to have a change, meet new people, learn new things. Oh and Ill be back home home July 22nd. I think i probably said something about it before. Nothing planned until then yet. Until June news! Love one another!

Wednesday, May 7th, 2003

Look at the new photos! Im too lazy to do news right now. Expect it later today or tomorrow! I love you guys!

Sunday, April 6th, 2003

So! Finally an update! Carnival was fun. I went to Salenas and stayed in the 7th story beach apartment of the Monsalve family (Anna Patricia's family). Carnival there was great if not too crowded. The 7th story apartment made for a great site for someone with way too many waterbaloons. At one point we had about 8 people all armed with waterballoons on the balcony all honing in on the same targets, not to mention the armaments of the rest of the building. Of course when the obvious targets passed (open sunroofs, trucks with people in the back) all the balconies seemed to work together in a coordinated air-strike, raining 20-30 baloons in 5 seconds. I never really made it to a party/discoteca though. Everynight we had planned to go but ended up just driving in the car for hours and hours. That was perhaps a bit disappointing but it was wonderful exploring and playing carnival during the day. Anna Patricia's older brother is a funny kid. Not as much for the things he does but that his accent changes depending on who he's with. While I was there we visited Montanita to see a bit of the womens surfing competitions.

I enjoyed being in Salenas. Im very thankful to the Monsalves for letting me stay with them for a handful of days.

My sister got here only a few days later. I laughed more in that week than I have any other week here. All just silly stuff. In the 9 days she was here she saw just about everything worth seeing close and in quito. Her pictures are mostly ones I always have a few times over, except with her in them. The highlight of it all was a trip at the end to Baños de Ambato. Everyone always talks about how beautiful Baños is or partying in Baños or the waterfalls so I had heard way too much to not have gone. It was definately worth using two of katie's days to go. This little lush-green-surrounded town is loaded with beautiful scenery, waterfalls, rivers, and even has a continuously erupting volcano looking over it. We didnt have time to climb the erupting volcano or any of the number of adventures in Baños, but seeing the waterfalls, testing our luck on 3rd-world-cable cars, and exploring the city made our time worthwhile. Seeing her go again made me a bit homesick but I'll be home soon enough---3.5months soon. 

So she left, I had some school, and then we started the end of the year trip (Paseo del Fin de Año). They could have named it something a bit less depressing. It was by far the best trip so far. We kept each of the 8 days only staying once in the same city 2 nights. We started the first day climbing an active volcano (a big passtime here) Cotopaxi, as I have done with my host dad and brother before. On the way back down our bus got stuck in the dirt, then it started to hail, and all i had was a thin long sleeve shirt, a scarf, and a hat. Oh and pants I guess. all except about 30 of us got carted down to relative warmth. After all our trying digging the wheels out by hand and putting rocks underneath to give traction, a crew was sent up to dig us out. They as well worked to no avail. The bus kept fishtailing to the side and digging itself deeper until at about the 6th try, when the other bus made it back with a chain to give us a pull. It was a cold 4 hour ordeal. 

That night we stayed in Ambato and the next day we went to Baños. We did the same as I did with my sister: same hotel, same waterfalls--except for a cool little zoo with a cool little monkey that did cool little tricks. (at night in baños I started a new roll of film that didnt make it back home with me). 

Next we went to Riobamba. Theres not much in Riobamba, good empanadas. 

The next day we went on a "train" through some beautiful scenery and arrived that night in Cuenca. Cuenca is incredible. Its a mountain city like Quito but much cleaner, smaller, and safer. We stayed 2 nights in Cuenca, just seeing the city, we even went to a (rotary run) discoteca. Dancing is a blast with exchange students, I get sick of only dancing salsa and merengue all the time. Oh and I outdrummed some random guy on the street... another lost photo :(

On the Way out of Cuenca we were shown how rapidly climate zones change in this country (here I switched rolls by the way so I have these pictures). About an hour out of cuenca we went to a mountain waterfall. The water vapors soaked us as it was so we just jumped in. It was the best feeling to thaw later in the grass with a cup of steamy hot chocolate and a set of warm clothes. About an hour away from that we hit pure desert. The wind facilitated 4-5 meter peeing with ease. Below there was a little river with a bit of vegetation so we went down there to swim. A little later we arrived in a kinda texas like climate in the coast city of Machala. We went to the banana plantation of the Monsalve's family friends I met in Salenas and later we visited a boat that gave us Russian Pepsi in the Port of Machala.

It all ended the last night in Guayaquil with us arm in arm in a big circle singing we are the champions of the world. And we are... I know it sounds corny, but we've been each other's family this year, best friends, moral support, and many of us will never meet again. We all have mixed feelings. Most of us are excited about going home but dont want to leave the life we now have. Its all part of it, we were told to expect it. It just felt like it would never get here.

So in Quito a very famous Mexican group, Maná, is coming to quito the 10th but im having some ticket problems. Like the kind when there are no more. I hope I can figure something out in time. Im also seeing a couple possible trips but nothings for sure. And then I go to Galapagos the 22nd. The Galapagos Islands were a Charles Darwin hangout back in the day. He developed his evolution theory there by examining the untouched species of plants and animals there---supposedly there are many species of life on the islands that the rest of the world lacks. It probably wont be until then that I do much on the page. Until then, show the love!

Saturday, April 5th, 2003

Im putting new stuff up, I already have my sisters pics up, and as I speak im getting some more on, I still have 30 more that I dont know if ill get to today. Im gonna clean the board up soon. And then another news post when its all done.

Tuesday, February 25th, 2003

I finaalllly cleaned off the messageboard. Theres also a link on the bottom of the board to a little run-through I wrote up on how to do cool fonts and more in your posts. And a new part of the page, the "Media" link has been added to the left to give me a place to post various audio/video clips such as the recordings from a little concert I played on Valentines (read on).

Like I mentioned above, I played in a little concert! It was  a little thing in front of the school but it was still my first time to play in front of a large group. It went swell. I had a picnic planned out for that valentines afternoon with my girlfriend and then it rained. But thats ok cause that night we went to a concert and saw one of the groups whos song i played for the concert earlier that day. Kruks en Karnak! Then another concert last saturday was just as great! This time the percussion group Ive mentioned earlier Tomback as well as Kruks. My two favorie ecuadorian groups! 

The climax of carnival gets here this weekend. If you remember the waterfights from back in little kid days, just imagine that being fought from every building, automobile, and person in the country -- thats carnival. It definitely adds adventure to a stroll down the street when you have to dodge falling waterbaloons. Schools are even out next monday and tuesday to facilitate it all. And the best part -- since water bores beach-folk so they add eggs and flour into the mix. Thats where ill be this weekend, the beach, Im excited! 

Dates for the beach arent sure yet but I think Ill be back wednesday the 5th. Then my sister gets here three days later! Thats all for now! I love you guys!