I know I left you all anxiously awaiting news about my acquisition of an apartment. Well, I'm happy to say I finally picked one out. It's not in an apartment building. It's more of a renovated house behind someone else's house. My landlady lives in the main house and then you have to pass through three gates (gets kind of annoying) to get into my courtyard where my front door is. My apartment is on the bottom level and then a lady lives above me. I have a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom styled with some 70s looking furniture. It's cute and way too spacious for me. I have plenty of room for visitors, hint hint. It's not too bad and I've grown pretty fond of it. If you want to see it, come visit!
There's so much I could say about school, but I don't wanna. Haha. It's Friday and I don't really want to think about it. I will just say that it is a lot more work than I have ever done and the students sap more energy from me than any other students I've had before. I have two groups that have 25 students in each. I also have a student that I'm pretty positive has special needs but he's never been tested. He has been a real challenge. Thank god I have an amazing assistant (shout out to you Dani!! Much love!) who helps me a lot. My co-workers are still super awesome, so all in all, I'm surviving.
A couple of weekends ago I had one of the best nights ever at a festival called Fiesta de Guapalo. Guapalo is an area in Quito that has more old style buildings and homes and an amazing view. But it goes down a steep hill and if you go down, you have to climb back up. Most taxis won't bother even going down there at all. And, of course, the festival was located at the very bottom of the hill where an old church is located. A band plays, people drink, and they dance A LOT. During the night, they have these huge wooden structures that have sparklers and fireworks attached. At different points, they light these on fire and people dance in circles around it while it is burning. Also, people in the crowd carry structures that are on fire and follow along with the people in the crowd. So you have to be careful not to get trampled to death and to not allow your hair to get set on fire. After the big wooden structure burns to the top, it sets off fireworks. Completely amazing experience. I loved every minute of it. However, there was one downfall. When we first got here, everyone warned us that petty theft is huge here and to just accept the fact that our cell phones would be stolen at least once, so be very careful. Well of course after a few drinks, I decided I had been careful and would periodically pull out my phone and use it. I guess someone was watching me because at some point, someone reached down into the INSIDE pocket of my coat and snatched the phone out. :( Oh well. Still a great night in my book!
Last weekend was my first trip to an Ecuadorian beach for my friend's birthday. It's in an area called Esmereldas and the beach and a small town there are called Tonsupa. There was a big group of us, I guess about 8. We took a bus there right after school on Friday and arrived around midnight. The weekend basically consisted of drinking, laughing, inappropriate jokes, sunbathing, eating, parasailing, whale watching (I didn't partake), eating, drinking, laughing, and eating. Oh yeah, we went out and shook our booties one night at a bar on the beach. Super fantastic time. We also had off the Monday and Tuesday so that was great. Some of our friends headed back on Monday. My friend Ruby and I decided to head to the beach that day while our other friends Martha and Stephen went to the bus station to buy our tickets to leave the next day. The beach was empty since everyone was back at school or work. I had been given a cell phone by a friend after my first one was stolen. I brought it along to take a few photos because it was Ruby's birthday. Out of nowhere, two Ecuadorian guys plop down beside us. I sigh expecting to have these two guys hit on us and I was just wondering how long it was going to take before they left us alone when all of the sudden one of the guys pulls out a knife and sets it down next to my friend. The whole convo was taking place in Spanish (Ruby knows it quite well) but I was definitely getting the gist. They took our bags. Luckily they only took out my phone and $20 and set the bags back down, but still....My second phone in two weeks! I was feeling pretty stupid. However, now that I've spent 4 days bitching about it to everyone who would listen, and some who wouldn't, I've decided to look at the positive side that nothing worse happened to us (which it easily could have) and that I didn't have anything more valuable on me.
I didn't tell this story to discourage anyone from visiting Ecuador. This is an amazing place and it's not really dangerous. Cell phones just get taken a lot. So don't worry about me and don't put Ecuador down on your black list. I'm just trying to give you the facts of my life. If you can't handle them, let me know and I'll stop telling you. ;)
Okay, I'm going to end here. I'm sending lots of love to you, where ever you may be. I hope you are all enjoying life as much as I am at this moment. Peace out!
Ready to dance!
My adopted brother, Stephen!
Yummy yummy ceviche!!
Parasailing
