Mi Cumpleaños..Ecuador style!

Yesterday was my birthday and shockingly, it was one of the best birthdays of my life. I was scared that people would forget and that my family and friends wouldn't do anything special for me and that I would be a little dissapointed, but the exact opposite happened! In the morning, I was running late, but my little sister came in and gave me a card with a little keychain that says "Diva" on it and after, when I went into the kitchen, my host mom, who doesn't speak a word of English sang Happy Birthday to me in English, and my parents gave me a card and a little gift. The card had a really nice message and they got me a really cute pair of earings that I love. In school, EVERYONE said Happy Birthday and gave me hugs, which peope in the US don't do. Even people I am not friends with said it and gave me a hug.


Later that night, I got home from my dance class that I am FORCED to take by Rotary with two of my friends and my host dad called me aside and told me he wanted to talk to me. My friends went inside and I was scared I was in trouble for something and my host dad wanted to talk to me about it because he was very serious when he was talking to me. When I got to my room, I realized that the light was off and I thought it was weird that my two friends were in my room in the dark, but before I could think about it anymore, I opened my door and they turned the lights on and popped confetti things and alllll my of best exchange student friends and my best friends from school were in my room waiting for me! They had a cake with candles and everyone made me posters and giant cards. They also got small, meaningful gifts. Not expensive, materialistic gifts. I like how they do it so much better here. All of the gifts are things I can take home with me and remember forever.


My host sister and one of my best friends, Mali, made me a GIANT poster and decorated a little box for all of my recuerdos (memories) from Ecuador. Two of my best friends, Kristian from Denmark, and Gus, from North Carolina, wrote KEL SEY on their stomachs and took pictures and got them developed and put them in a frame and even AUTOGRAPHED it for me (how nice!) haha It is hysterical!! One of my friends got me flowers and others got me chocolate (always good) and other small gifts. I like these types of gifts better because they are things I can keep forever and they are things I can look back at and remember all of the good times I had here with all of my friends here. Also, it shows how much my friends care. They didn't just spend money on an expensive shirt or something, they took the time to make things and buy little things that have meaning. It is much more personal here.

One of the traditions in Ecuador is pushing the cake in the persons face on their birthday. Two of my friends from here told me to take a bite, but I KNEW what they were going to do so I just took off my glasses and put up my hair and let them do it ;) I had to follow traditions.


Overall, it was one of the best birthdays I have ever had. I was so happy. The only sad thing is that it might be the first and last birthday I spend in Ecuador :(

Updateeeee

Like always, I am sitting at home, bored, trying to make plans with my friends that always fail, so I decided to update my blog. I have been off from school for 3 weeks. One week, I had the trip throughout Manabi, the next week, the kids in school were taking tests so the exchange students weren't obligated to go. We had the choice, and obviously, I chose not to go. Why would I want to take a test that I don't HAVE to take?! And this past week, everyone has had off from school, work, etc. for some holiday. Not sure what it is, but I am not complaining.


I spent my first American holiday here...Halloween...and so far, I don't see many differences. I went to a Halloween party with my friends and it was normal, some kids dressed up, some didn't, just like in the USA. That same night, I also went to a Rotary halloween party. Not the funnest party, but it was ok. The only difference is that kids aren't able to go trick-or-treating from house to house. A) The safety issue and B) It is virtually impossible because the houses are protected by gates and walls. Instead, they go to the mall and do things there.

For 4 days during the vacation, I went to Crucita, the nearest beach to Portoviejo, with one of my friends named Mali. Unfortunately, the weather was crappy and it was actually COLD. I was in a thick hooded sweatshirt most of the time, in the middle of the day, on the beach, and was still cold. We didn't do much because of the weather, but it was just nice being out of Portoviejo and having the freedom to walk on the beach and to walk into town, because it's actually safe there.One day was nice and me, Mali, her sister, and 2 of her cousins went to the beach and we rode a banana boat, which was fun. It is so cheap too, it only costs 2$ a person, unlike in Mexico where it is like 20$ a person. We also rode a tube thing called La Bestia (the beast). The water is rough for tubing, so we were flying all around. It was really relaxing, a lot of the time, we were just hanging out in a room with her cousins, watching movies or MTV, playing the guitar, things like that. I was completely happy just doing nothing. Also, I am IN LOVE with hammocks now. There are hammocks EVERYWHERE here. They are in a lot of hotels, houses, especially houses on the beach, and I just discovered how relaxing they are. I could sit in one and just swing back and forth allllll day. When I go home I am going to buy one and hang it in my backyard ;)

I went with her ENTIRE family. Her grandpa has a house directly on the beach, and it is HUGE. Each family has their own room in the house, and they all go together during vacations and on the weekends. I really like her family. They remind me a lot of my own family, especially the Boeshore side because they are very relaxed, easy going, and I just felt very comfortable with them, even after a short period of time. Her family is pretty well off and her grandpa has an Audi, and her aunt has a Lexus RX450...needless to say, I was pretty happy to see those cars. It made me miss my car, which is something that I miss more and more every single day.

I miss being able to leave my house in my car when I want to, and being able to come home at basically whatever time I want, and not having to wait outside for one of my parents to open the gigantic metal door. I have never had a curfew and could do what I wanted as long as I kept my mom updated. Here, I have to stay in one place and can't hop around from place to place. This is something that is getting harder and harder and harder for me, and extremely annoying, but it is the culture here. A lot of the parents are extremely laid back like my parents at home, but the majority are very strict. Most kids are not given house keys, which completely shocks me. I think its because its a way for the parents to control the kids even more, but at the same time, it could potentially be dangerous because someone could get dropped off at home, and be waiting in the street ringing the doorbell, waiting for their parents to open to door, and if nobody answers the door, they could be stuck outside, alone where someone could rob them, kidnap them, etc...which, as crazy as it sounds, is sooooooo likely to happen. My host parents don't even have house keys!! It is CRAZY!! Somehow it works though because there is someone always working in the house (an employee) and someone is always available to open the door, but there have been times where I have waited outside for 15 minutes with my host dad waiting for someone to hear the bell. It is the complete opposite of Westhampton where my mom leaves the front door wide open at night until I get home and lock it. I really appreciate the freedom I had in NY and wish I had taken advantage of it when I could.
The wall on the left is the giant wall surrounding my house. Every house has this...
The food here has been a little difficult for me because I'm not the biggest fan of fish, but I recently went out with two of my best friends to eat what is called "ceviche." It is fish in a lemon juice and you can add onions, ketchup, chifles (plantain chips), and basically whatever you want. I actually tried it and ate about half of my bowl, which was a HUGE step for me. I also eat fish a lot more than I think because a lot of times it looks like chicken to me and once i am halfway through, someone tells me "Kelsey, I can't believe you're eating fish!"(Daddy if you're reading this, I hope you are proud)
Look in my bowl, I ATE THAT...
I have been hanging out with my Ecuadorian friends much more lately, which is good. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my exchange student friends because they are my family here, and i LOVE hanging out with them, but sometimes I feel like we are closing ourselves off from ohther people and from meeting more Ecuadorian friends. I feel like it is taking away from the whole purpose of the exchange. Also, constantly being with English speaking exchange students is slowing down my progress with Spanish. It is the worst in school because we are always in a big group, speaking English, of course, and not many Ecuadorians will come up to us and have a conversation. I am friends with soo many people in school and talk to everyone in my class, but I don't hang out with that many people from school OUTSIDE of school. That is what I have been trying to do more, and I HAVE been doing it, which makes me happy. :)

Another random thing...I was recently going to go to a Jonas Brothers concert in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. I had my money ready buttttttttttt something happened and the woman who was going to sell us the tickets sold them to someone else. I feel like I missed a once in a lifetime opportunity. I highly doubt that I will ever be in Ecuador at the SAME time as the Jonas Brothers :( We were going to buy floor tickets for only $160. :(


I really wish I was traveling more around the country. Many of my exchange student friends have already been to Quito, Guayaquil, and many really nice beaches. I unfortunately NEVER travel with my family, but hopefully in the future I will. The only place I went is to Guayaquil, a major city on the coast about 3 hours away from Portoviejo. I wanted to see the tourist sights and travel around the city, but we went to doctors appointments for my host sister. It was a little dissapointing but I am sure I will be back. The only good thing is that I ate McDonalds for the first time in 2 months!! It was the first time that I had eaten McDonalds since I have been in Ecuador. I ate SO much and was SO full, but it was worth it. I think the next time I eat McDonalds will be in December when I go to Guayaquil again, because Portoviejo only has a KFC. Nothing else. Guayaquil has a TGIFridays, McDonalds, Burger King, and a LOT of other American fast food places. They also have a huge mall that has American stores in it. I wanted to shop, but we didn't have time. I am hoping to go back to that mall one day because there was a lot of stuff that I liked ;)

2 Monthss

I have already been here 2 months and I can not believe it. These have been the slowest and the fastest two months of my life. Sometimes I feel like I arrived here 8 months ago, and other times I feel like I blinked and the two months passed. Peopel always talk about how fast the year will go by, and now I realize that everything people have told me is true. I have 2 more months of school, then 3 months of summer, then I have 2 more months of school, and then I go home!! I don't want to think about goning home, but when you split up the year like that, it seems like there's no time left!

I still absolutely love life here. I was thinking that if I had the opportunity to go home that I would go for a about a week, say hello to everyone, eat some McDonalds, drink some Starbucks, sleep in my bed, shower with hot water, go to NYC, go shopping, but then I would be DYING to come back here.

Spanish is still a lot harder than I thought. I thought at this point I would know a lot more than I do, but it is still so hard for me to speak. I speak so much English here and I really think that is affecting how fast I am learning Spanish. I am also not learning any vocabulary, so it is really hard. I thought that I would be much further along in Spanish than I am now. The problem is that I know all of the grammar, it is all in my head, I just can not make the words come out of my mouth. I can write PERFECTLY, and just as fast as I can in English, but I can't do the same with speaking. I am really just going to have to force myself to speak Spanish in school more. The kids that go to schools where the kids don't speak any English are improving their Spanish so fast. I am jealous ):

My school recently had a huge fair that consumed our lives for an entire week. We didn't have normal classes and each classroom was converted into a stand. There was a math stand, a science stand, an English stand, a Mandarin stand, etc. and all day we just hung out by the pool, which my school has...shockingly, and we walked around and saw the things happening at each stand. La Feria (the fair) is something that would never happen in my school and it was really amazing how much work was put into it and the final outcome.

All of the exchange students in my high school, Arco Iris.


One major difference between here and Westhampton is that here I go out a lot more on the weekends. My friends are always inviting me to do things on the weekends and to go places. I got to a lot of parties, espceially birthday parties. I go to my friends houses just to eat, relax, talk, etc. At home I never felt like going out, I was always too lazy and everything was more boring in Westhampton. Also, I think I like going out more because I am with new people, in new places, doing new things so it is more exciting for me.

Me and some friends at a birthday party.

The only problem is that on the weekdays, I hae nothing to do after school. I come home, I eat lunch, and then my family goes to take naps/relax. I am not used to napping so I don't have anything to do. Every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday I do have dance classes, which get annoying but they are helpful.

Two weeks ago all of the kids in my rotary club went to a small town about 30 minutes from Portoviejo to a "health fair." It wasn't actually a fair though. What happened was that doctors came to this small town and offered free services. There were dentists and doctors and they were giving out free pills to people that need them but can't afford them. Although the exchange students couldn't do much to help out, it was still a good experience and it was very eye opening. I really take advantage of the health care in the United States. Although the system has its flaws, we are still so lucky in the US. Many of the people in this town don't get medical treatment until this "fair" takes place, which is only two times per year. It is really sad.

The week before that all of the exchange students in my Rotary club went to a park that Rotary owns to help clean it up. We had to take bags and walk around the whole park picking trash up off the ground. It was for a good cause, but something that I do not want to do again. It was extremely dusty, dirty, hot, and I was wearing flip flops so my feet were disgusting.



Yesterday I got back from a beach trip to the province of Manabi with every exchange student in Ecuador (all 127 of them). I live in Manabi so going to the beach wasn't so exciting, but it was still nice because I don't go to the beach as much as I would like. I got a lot closer with the exchange students in Portoviejo, who are like my family. I thought we would do more on the trip. The first day we arrived and just hung out in the hotel, the second day we took a reallllly long boat ride to a beach for only 2 hours, and then we went to the beach in front of the hotel. Me and my friends from Belgium and Finland met some girls on the beach and we were talking to them for a while. The next day all of the exchange students
walked in the big parade in Portoviejo with our jackets, which of course I forgot, and our country flags. The day after that we spend at the beach and that night we rode these cool truck things called "chivas" all around Portoviejo. I got to sit on the top of the truck and we drove very slowly so I saw things in Portoviejo that I had never seen before. We also had a dinner and dance at another Rotary club in Portoviejo.

Me and some of my best friends from Portoviejo at the beach in Manta.


PHOTOS!
Mi Familia

Me and my best friend, Angie.

My classroom.


Me and Efi.

SI ME QUIEREN MATAR, MATENME.

...If you want to kill me, kill me.
Says a lot about Ecuadorian politics...


I took this picture from school. It is smoke rising up into the sky from burning garbage and tires in the streets...

Today I was sitting in math class, bored as usual, and I decided that I wanted to go outside and get some fresh air, so I took a stroll to the bathroom. When I got back, the teacher stopped teaching and said that all the police in the country are protesting and basically that all hell broke loose.

The police throughout the entire country are protesting because they do not agree with a new law that takes away some of their benefits so to show how important they are for the country, they decided to see what it is like without any police officers for a while, and just as they expected, there is chaos. The president in Quito said that it was an "attempted coup" and people tried to attack him, so he fled to a hospital. The main airport in Quito was closed down, roads entering the major cities are closed down, all stores and commercial centers are closed. Basically, Ecuador is going crazy, everything's closed down, and people are trapped in their houses. FUN!

Anyways, when I got back from the bathroom, the teacher started explaining what was happening and she said that we were in danger in school because people were raiding other schools and colleges throughout Portoviejo and that robbers could come to our school. After this, the kids started to freak out a little. A lot ran to the windows of the classroom to see if anything was going on outside, everyone started packing up their backpacks, and everyone started frantically calling their parents to find out how they would be getting rides home, since we all had to leave school at around 11:00 am. Luckily, my host sister came to get my in my classroom and I left. Before I left school though, I looked back and there was a huge black cloud of smoke from where people were burning garbage and car tires.

The same thing that is happening in Portoviejo is happening all over the country. It is very unsafe here in Ecuador right now, and I can’t even leave my house, not that I would want to. All the stores and places around town are closed, there are a LOT of robberies, even car robberies, and there have been more kidnappings than normal in the center of town. Luckily, Portoviejo isn't as big of a city as Guayaquil or Quito, where the majority of the problems are.

To everyone reading at home, I am 10000% ok. I left school early, I am in my house, I am safe, and nothing will happen to me. So nobody should worry. This whole thing is really not affecting me. Yes, I had to leave school early, but that was it.

Click here for a video and article explaining what is going on here:
edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/09/30/ecuador.violence/index.html

One Month

Exactly one month ago I said goodbye to my friends, family, dog, house, and the town I have known and loved since I was born, and boarded a plane to a city 4,000 miles away from New York in a country that I had never imagined going to. To most people, I am crazy but in my opinion, it was the best decision I have ever made. I love every single day of my life down here and despite the little problems, I am so happy. I have great friends in school, I am so close with the other exchange students after just one month, I love my host sister, she is already like my best friend, I understand 65% of what people say in Spanish and when I really pay attention, maybe even 70%, when people speak directly to me I can understand even more. Everything is great. People always say that Ecuador is a great country to go on an exchange to and that everybody that goes ends up absolutely loving it, and now I can see why. What shocks me the most is that I am still not homesick at all. My mom bought a blackberry just to talk to me, so despite her 4839243 messages and every good morning and goodnight bbm, I still don't feel homesick. I can call my family and hearing their voices doesn't make me miss them. It sounds mean, but it is the truth. I look at it as a positive thing.


I finally got tan. You would think that in Ecuador I would be practically Latina by now, but it has been cloudy here a lot and I haven't had many chances to go out in the sun. Yesterday I was outside all day at a Rotary olympics event and I stayed in the sun as much as possible and I got pretty tan for an Irish girl. I think that after one year, people won't be able to recognize me.

After being here for a month, I really realize how lucky I am to live in Westhampton and how spoiled I am. In an entire month, I have only seen one Lexus, two BMWS (I think it was the same car twice), one Audi, and 3 or 4 Mercedes. In Westhampton, you see about 5 times that amount on any given street. Whenever I see a nice car I scream and point and get so excited and nobody understands why.

A teacher in my high school just told me that he makes about $300...PER MONTH. Most kids in NY can make that in a week and that is the amount he makes in a month at his full time job. My jaw just dropped when he told me that. I can't imagine living off of that.

In Portoviejo, whenever I hear a motorcycle, I jump and quickly check to see whos riding it and many times, I even jump to the other side of the sidewalk, farther away from the road. If it is one person riding it, you are safe. If it is a man with a woman on the back, you are safe. If it is a man with a kid on the back, you are probably safe, but if there are two men on it, you better hide your cell phone and be extremely careful.

Some things I miss:
-fast, wireless internet
-paved streets without potholes and random sections of dirt
-McDonalds
-my 60 inch TV with HD and a DVR
-Starbucks
-HOT showers
-my car and having the freedom to drive anywhere
-having a macbook in school
-having a cellphone with a monthly plan...scratching off cards and plugging numbers in a cellphone is not fun every two seconds
-safety and being able to walk around outside without fear
-being able to leave the front door unlocked and wide open
-not having a giant wall and gate around my house
-7-11
-Jersey Shore
-being able to drive to the beach in 5 minutes

3 weeks in Ecuador and I already made the paper. Not bad.

La Reina

Pictures from Spanish camp in Bahia de Caraquez- www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=307141&id=775143901&l=57e1467628

I spent the past 5 days at a Spanish camp in a town called Bahia de Caraquez, more commonly known as Bahia. Bahia is soo nice. It was such a nice change from Portoviejo. In Portoviejo, everything is dirty, dusty, busy, loud and you can't walk around at all, especially not alone. In Bahia you can see the water from almost every spot in the town, you can walk around without feeling unsafe, there are hardly any cars on the street, and it is semi-clean. I wish I lived in Bahia for my exchange year because I felt more like I was at home in Westhampton. The only problem is that there are only 3 exchange students there, and in Portoviejo we have over 20, which is really nice. Also, Portoviejo has Supermaxi, which is like a giant supermarket, and a huge mall with a movie theater, so there are actually things to do on the weekends.

I have started to get really close with the other exchange students, especially in Portoviejo. Your friends during your exchange year end up becoming your family, and I can already see that happening. I can't wait to meet all of the other exchange students in Ecuador on the Manabi trip in October. I am also happy because now I have a lot of houses to stay in when I travel around the world. ;)

At Spanish camp, I honestly did not learn one thing because I knew every single thing that was being taught. I was hoping to learn a lot and be able to speak better, but at the same time I guess it is a good thing that I already knew everything. It was so boring for me but luckily I had my blackberry and was playing with it the entire time. ;)


Another cool thing is that I was crowned La Reina del Campamento (The Queen of the Camp). I got a special sash and a little crown. It was nice to be recognized for my skills in Spanish. Everyone wanted to take pictures with me and all of the Rotarians were coming up to me and hugging me and kissing me. Oh yea, the people here are very touchy. When you greet someone, anyone from your best friends to complete strangers, you give them a kiss on the cheek. This is something I am still getting used to because in the United States, I neverrrrrr do that. Also, sometimes it is very awkward because you don't know who you should give a kiss to and when you should do it.

I learned how to dance Salsa at Spanish camp too. That was quite an experience.
I didn't know how tiring it can be! It was fun though, and a reallllly good workout. I don't remember the last time I sweat so much!

I took a hot shower for the first time in 3 weeks. That is one thing that I reallllllly miss. I am used to burning hot showers, and here, they are ice cold. I DREAD showering because it is torture. I don't know when I will get another hot shower any time soon. :(

At the Spanish camp, everyone started getting sick. One girl had to return to Portoviejo early because she was so sick, and another girl had to get an IV in her arm. I am also sick now. My throat has been hurting the past few days and I am getting a bad cough. I never get sick at home so I am really mad about this. I did stay home from school today which was nice. My parents gave me some medicine so hopefully that will work.

2 Weeks

I have been here for 2 weeks now and I still don't feel homesick at all, which really surprises me. I have talked to other exchange students and some of them are miserable and want to go home and are sooo homesick, but I am not. I love it here so much. I have only had one day that was hard, but still, one day out of 15 days is pretty good. I have also been getting more comfortable in my house, with my family, and in this country in general. I used to wake up with a slight nervous feeling in my stomach, now I don't. I have more of an appetite, which could potentially be a bad thing. I still haven't tried any of the seafood yet, and I am not looking forward to it. I know that it's sooo "rico", but I just don't like it.

School is getting boring for me now. I draw A LOT and everyone always makes fun of it. I don't understand a lot of the classes like physics, chemistry, and some other ones, but I wouldn't understand them in English either. I also get in trouble every single day in school for the stupidest things. I got yelled at for rolling my pants up, AGAIN, not having higher socks, wearing black sweatpants and not blue ones, wearing eye shadow, leaning back in my chair and looking "tired", even though I was copying all of the notes, having my shirt not tucked in, not having the right skirt for Mondays. It is endless. I feel like the teachers pick on my more than ANY other student or exchange student. Apparently I can't do anything right.


We now have 12 exchange students in my school, 7 in my class alone. It is too much in my opinion. I have been trying to speak a little more Spanish in school, but everyone still speaks English, so it is hard.

The past weekend I went to a beach called Crucita. It was really nice to get out of Portoviejo. Crucita reminds me of Mexico so I felt a little nostalgic. I felt like I was on vacation when I was there--not like an exchange student.

Last night I went to Johanna's house with some exchange students and kids from my class. It is really nice that we all hang out together and it is not just exchange students hanging out with more exchange students. Johanna has the best family, I loveeeeeee her parents.

I had my second Rotary meeting last Wednesday. We had to talk in front of the entire club, in Spanish, and introduce ourselves and talk about ourselves. It was easy. The Rotary meetings start at 9:00, which is really late because we don't get home until 11:30, and then I have to wake up at 6:00 the next morning, which is not fun. The meetings are annoying but it is nice seeing all of the other exchange students who aren't in my school.

First Robbery

Today I was helping the kids from my curso (class) sell cakes to raise money, I'm not sure exactly what they were raising money for, I heard kids with cancer, but then I heard they are saving it...who knows.
It was about 6:00, still light out, and we were just about done selling the cakes and we were just standing around on the sidewalk, and the next thing I know, everyone sprints away and is screaming RUN RUN RUN! I had no clue what was going on because I was looking at the cars passing by, but someone told me once we were safe, that a motorcycle stopped, a guy hoped off the back, held his hand in his shirt like he had a gun, and robbed two kids from my class. He stole their cellphones. I was about 15 feet away from this. It really opened up my eyes about how dangerous it can be here and how even with 20 people, in broad daylight, people will still try to rob you/harm you. It was pretty scary. The worst part was that I had no clue what was going on. I quickly looked back the second everyone started running, but I was in such a daze that I don't even remember what I saw. It was insane.

After the little incident, we went to another exchange student's house and we just chilled and talked, in English, unfortunately. I feel like I am speaking way too much English still. I feel guilty, and I feel like I need to take advantage of my time here and speak as much Spanish as I possibly can. It has only been a week though and Spanish continues to get easier and easier, not necessarily easier to speak, but definitely easier to understand. Sometimes my host mom says things, thinking I won't understand it, but I do.

Today at school there was an English assembly where some kids summarized some books in English, so that was a lot nicer than having to sit in a boring class and try to do work. Today was also the first time I had a gym class. It was horrible and I had to play basketball, and I got in trouble 38930482 times for rolling my sweatpants up to my knees. The boys are allowed to wear shorts for gym, but I get in trouble for rolling my pants up a few inches. Oh equality.

El Colegio

Today was my first day of high school. I was soo nervous in the morning but then I saw another exchange student named Gus, and we are in the same class so that made me feel relieved. In the morning, there was this assembly and I had noooo clue what to do but some kids helped me.

I really really realllllyyy like school, which shocked me. I HATED high school in the United States but here it is so different. They have a lot of breaks and can go outside and walk around the entire school, you can buy food and drinks, and you can hang out with your friends for a pretty long time. It is way better than being trapped in Westhampton Beach High School until 2:16.

All of the people in my class are soo nice. Most of them speak English, so today I spoke English with a lot of people, but tomorrow I think it will be Spanish. They are all sooo friendly and they are just great. I already made friends, which was something else I was scared about.

I didn't have the right uniform because we didn't have time to get it, so everyone was in a fancy button down shirt, skirts, ties, etc. and I was in a polo with jeans and black converse sneakers. Way to make an entrance. I got even MORE stares because of that.

Overall, I understood a lof of what was said in school today, but I still don't know when I should attempt the work or just sit there and stare at the walls. Today I was actually the only person in the class to figure out a factoring algebra problem without the teacher and everyone was SHOCKED and staring at me because they all think it is sooo hard, so I am sure I will be a math teacher for a little while now.

First 2 Days

Sooo have now been in Ecuador for about 48 hours, but who's counting? I really like it here. I was soooo so nervous about meeting my host family and having to speak Spanish ALL THE TIME, but it wasn't as bad/awkward as I thought it would be. I saw my family right away, which was a relief and then we had a three hour drive to Portoviejo from Guayaquil. I was exhausted, and didnt sleep for even a second, and on top of that, had to try to comprehend and speak Spanish. I probably couldn't even speak English at that point.

On Saturday, my first full day here, I did have a nervous feeling in my stomach. I didn't know my way around the house, I didn't know what time to wake up or what would be for breakfast. My older host sister ended up coming in and telling my breakfast was ready, which was good. Then, they drove me around the entire city because my host sister had to do a project for school, so I got to see a lot in one day. It is WAY different from Long Island, but that's to be expected. It reminds me of Mexico a lot, even my bedroom does. The roads are EXTREMELY bumpy. You would probably have to change your tires once a month here. There are tons of pot holes, and half of the roads are just sharp rocks, not even paved. Also, it is very dirty here. Everything is dusty and I constantly feel like I am dirty.

I realy like my host family. They are soo nice and really try to help me understand Spanish. They speak slower to me and always tell me that I can ask them when I don't understand something that they say. Also, my host sister speaks English, so when I really don't understand something, she can tell me in English.

Spanish is WAY harder than I thought i would be. A 5 on AP Spanish means NOTHING when you actually have to speak it and are forced to listern to it for 12 hours straight. At first, it was extremely hard, but even being here for jut 2 days has already helped me and I am talking a lot more, in stead of saying Si and nodding and smiling. I also understand most of what my family says when they are talking to me. It is a different story when they are talking amonngst themselves, but I will understand that soon enough.

I start school tomorrow and I am soo nervous. I have no clue what to do, where to go, or what my classes are. I don't even have supplies. I have a pen and a calculator, thats about it. Hopefully I won't need anything else. Oh yea, school starts at about 7:00 and I have to get up at about 6:00, which is 6 hours earlier than I have been waking up ALL summer. That will NOT be fun for me.

I met some of my host sister's friends last night. They are all sooooo nice. I like them a lot. It is just hard to understand then when they are all talking together so fast all at the same time so I just zoned out a little. When they realized I had NO idea what was going on they laughed and would tell me in English which was nice.

Oh How I LOVE Rotary Jackets...

I finally got a smaller jacket because my Rotary here gave me a HUGE one. My old jacket fit my dad...went lower than my shorts line.....and i looked like a man in it--but thats besides the point. This morning I put all my pins on it and shockingly I have a lot. I am not sure where they came from but it's cool. I also made a heart with half of the Ecuadorian flag and half of the USA flag and I glued it to the back. It is really cute.
WOOOO HOOO
BTW 15 days. It still hasn't hit me yet. I still feel like I have months and months left of summer to sleep until 12 and tan and go in the pool all day. I am nervous and excited. It is a weird feeling. Sometimes I will think about the scary aspects of the entire exchange year, like constantly speaking Spanish and constantly being confused and tired from using it so much, and meeting my family for the first time and feeling uncomfortable in a foreign house with different customs and food. Then I think about the positive aspects such as meeting all of the other exchange students, many who are already my close friends (JOHOTTIE), making friends in my high school called Arco Iris Feliz (aka Happy Rainbow), a name more appropriate for a pre-school, and finally becoming fluent in Spanish, which I believe (and hope) will happen by December/January.

1 Month Left

So according to my best German exchgange student friend going to Portoviejo with me next year, my blog is dieeeeeeing sooo i will post something for her. Yesterday was the 1 month mark...exciting and scary. I am getting really nervous but at the same time, I am ready to start this adventure.
P.S. I LOVE JOHOTTIE

Playing With My Future Bandera

One of the perks of having an Ecuadorian host sister--tons of Ecuadorian flags...