¡Pose! ¡Pose! ¡Pose! ¡Pose!

Finishing our mural... Cuidemos nuestro mundo.

Mi casa. My brother is the mecanic. I live on the middle floor, the right half of the windows are my bedroom, bathroom, and balcony (that´s taped off for some reason).


Reed and I last Wednesday night at La Mesa, a salsa club. I danced with a guy that night who was a fantastic dancer.


My friend Ivan who Erica and I will meet up with in Guatemala and his host sister/my cousin Leslie.


Yo, Scott, and Molly


Sunset from our terraza in Montañita


Today with Mikaela y Maria Eliza (la bebe)


Map of EC with the three regions. Cuenca is in the Southern highlands. The beach we went to is East of Guayaquil (the largest city in EC), and Quito is in the Northern Highlands. The place we are going in the Oriente is somewhere East of Quito. Not sure exactly where. The Oriente was unimportant until the 70´s when oil was discovered. Previously many indigenous comunities were left completely to their own desire. Now the land has been raped and vast areas are destroyed and many people are sick and abused... A common story when valuable natural resources are discovered. Asì es la vida.


Bonus image from Cajas taken by Zander

Hola everyone. It´s Tuesday, and I´m really sad. This is my last week of classes. My first final is due tomorrow, and my spanish exam will be Friday. We leave Sunday for the Oriente (check map) and then our program is done not long after... I´m really really sad. I feel like I´m just now getting close to my family and really feeling better with spanish and now it´s done. I´m very lucky I´m going to be able to continue my spanish in Mèxico... I talked to mom and she says I have an Ecuadorian accent like my host mom. Cuencans are known to ¨sing¨when they talk. I think it´s very pretty...
Montañita was great. Very relaxed. It´s a party town, and I had a decent amount of DELICIOUS fresh fruity alcoholic beverages (like piña coladas, and things with fruits that don´t exist outside of Ecuador), but we definitely didn´t party. I boogy boarded a whole lot, and wow... I sure love it. It took me maybe 20 minutes to remember how, but then it clicked and I was flying. I had a blast. I know what I´m going to be doing in Baja every morning. Jajaja. Everyone in the group got sunburned. Molly the worst. I´m definitely morena now. The photos of me at La Mesa were pre-beach and I was already really tanned then... just a bit ago a girl here who´s a costeña called me negra. Ha... So I´m fairly dark.
Tonight I have to begin and finish my final for my anthropology class, which is super easy. I only need to write a two page paper... and it can be hand written. Hah! This must be what it feels like to go to UTEP. Chendo! Chendo!... That´s what kids here say when they lie... I do need to study a lot for spanish though. It´s nice to really want to study though. I want to be able to speak it well, so it´s easy to find motivation to do my work.

Bueno, I´m going to get started with my schtuff. We don´t have salsa classes today (boohoo), so... that means more time.

CHAO!