Very very very long post time!

Before you begin, make sure you're in comfortable clothes.. maybe even slippers... grab a soda and take the phone off the hook... this is what nearly 2 weeks as an exchange student looks like, all at once:


So, the last time I was here was just after the parillada:


The candidates for Reina de Guayaquil


A few exchangers and Mariuxi, Ayla's host sister


By the river!


This is such a cute picture :]
From left to right: Karlijn from Belgium; Michaela from British Columbia, CA; Rose from Belgium; Thimo from Deutschland; Nils from Deutschland; Yours Truly; and Liz the Aussie. Ayla had already gone home by now.

School this week was pretty plain, nothing out of the ordinary. Sometimes it still shocks me that this foreign place is starting to feel so familiar. Spanish classes are coming along but mostly, like in school, the socializing is the most enjoyable aspect. The other students here this year are just beautiful, all-around wonderful kids.

Then, this past Sunday, we went to the big futbol game: Barcelona, who we support, vs. the rival Emelec. You think the Yankees and the Red Sox have devoted fans... It was electric. Barcelona is yellow, red, and blue and Emelec is blue and white. For miles before the game the traffic was horrendously dense, and literally every car except a few of them had either a passenger wearing yellow or a passenger wearing blue. The game itself was not so wonderful, we lost 1-0, but watching the spectators was very entertaining. There were colored smoke bombs, fireworks, banners, and a sea of colored jerseys. We bought eggnog-flavored popsicles and bottles of water and sat in the [supposedly very dangerous] mixed section. Since it was Barcelona stadium, though, mixed simply meant that there was a ratio of about 10:1 Barcelona to Emelec supporters. An added bonus: Barcelona's goalie lives across the street!



Left to right: Emelec section, another mixed section, Barcelona section.


Again, the contestants for Queen of Guayaquil taking advantage of a sponsored photo-op.


The one in the red is my neighbor!


The seats were metal and the steps were concrete so the rowdier fans startd fires on either ends of the stadium


Today the exchange students got the distinct priviledge of helping out at a field day for blind children. It was truly awe-inspiring to watch these children work around their problem, the same way you find new ways to hold a hairbrush, tie your shoes, open bottles, etc. when you have a bad cut on your hand. You wouldn't say "I have to go barefoot, I have a cut on my hand and can't tie my shoes" but, by the same token, that's what some people expect from disabled children. Sometimes we expect them to say, "I can't play soccer because I can't see the ball." But what about soccer balls with jingle bells inside? What about friendly volunteers who guide the ball back when it goes off the wrong way? It was so amazing. I have never felt a drive to help children with disabilities, they've always made me nervous more than anything else, and I'm amazed at how much fun I had with them today.


Local rotarians and some awesome exchange students, front row from left to right: Michaela from BC, CA; Karlijn from Belgium; Thimo from Germany; Kourtney from Piqua, OH; Yours Truly; Ayla from Germany; Ayla's host sister Mariuxi [from Ecuador...]; and a boy I don't know!


I just think this is a great picture of us :]. Our cheeks were sore so we were tickling each other, hence Karlijn's flamingo stance. Oh, and on the end is Julio, he's our counselor here and usually does our amazing photography.


More soon! Being so busy, it's hard to spend much time in fornt of a computer, but there's more excitement in the works, and more pictures, too! Stay tuned!

Pah-ree-ya-duh?

It's true what they say, the more you occupy your time, the happier you'll be. And I have been highly occupied! School is pretty fun, very very different but in some very good ways. I remain with the same group of studets all day except for English and French classes, where we're divided up by our capabilities. I'm also learning a lot; in my National Reality class [I love the name!], we talked about the classes in Ecuador. 51% of the population is what's known as sub-employed. These are the kids who beg for money on the street, the men with the Squeegies and windex, the women with bags of strawberries that wait at stoplights and pray for someone to roll down their window. There are also some mothers who rent their children out to beg for money, and the person who rents them collects every coin they make, so we are strongly discouraged from giving them anything.


Yesterday was a big Rotary shindig, called a Parillada, which means BBQ. I arrived in the neighborhood of 11:00, and Ayla, Kourtney, and I waited by the front door and gave new arrivals the rundown: where to buy food, what's available for purchase, where the bathrooms are, etc. Around 2, we sat down and ate, and after that we sold raffle tickets to the guests, $1 a piece for a drawing for a gold bracelet. I very proudly sold nearly 30 tickets!

We also had some special guests at the parillada: the cadidates for Queen of Guayaquil! They came up onstage and did their catwalks and then just hung out in the VIP room a lot but it felt like seeing famous people! Later there was live music and all the exchange students were in the middle dancing together when someone decided we should go dance with the little kids onstage. We agreed on one condition: Julio, our counselor, had to come up with us! We nudged each other into shaking, rattling, and rolling our way through a few songs, including Aretha Franklin's "I Will Survive". Lots of pictures, which I'll upload tomorrow, since my camera is charging.

That's pretty much all for now, so I guess I'll close this off with a HUGE congratulations to my oldest brother Justin and the lovely Jamie on their engagement today! Best of luck!

back again!

So last night was spanish class #1. What a motley crew we are! Some of us are nearly fluent, some of us can't string together a sentence. Last night we learned some background about Ecuador, made a video of our starting point to show our progress, and got our first lesson in Spanish: the alphabet! Tonight we're going to work on nationalities and numbers. It's pretty tiring but worth it.

And today was the casa abierta! Lots to do and plenty of visitors, including an elderly man all the way from Queens! It's a small world, after all. The highlight, and the end of the day, was the talent show. What diversity! All the songs were in English, of course, but so many groups from every grade performed, PLUS one teacher they called the "Latin American Idol" who sang "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra. I was so excited to hear it! The entire third year baccalaureate, aka "Seniors", did a musical montage performance as the finale. And, since the set included two different songs from Grease, of course we had an Ecuadorean John Travolta and an Ecuadorean Olivia Newton John. It was wildly entertaining and, while I don't have pictures, I instead have two videos which I will upload to YouTube, one of which is the dance the Seniors did. Stay tuned, as they say!

busy busy busy!

So, school started yesterday. I can honestly say that I love it! Everyone is really really nice and welcoming. Everyone wants to know, what's my name? where am I from? New York, like the city? do I speak Spanish? do I have an account on MSN messenger? do I have a cell phone? do I think the boys here are cute? do I like Ecuador? do I like the school? do I like the teachers? And on and on and on! It's so sweet, they're so intrigued. School is really easy, there's a lot of down time and a lot of stuff I've already studied. My Spanish is continuing to improve, and tonight is our first Spanish class; tuesday-thursday from 7-9 every week until around mid-December. Should be an ENORMOUS help.

Tomorrow is an open house at my school, and the theme is... English! Debates in english, dances to American hip-hop, a spelling bee, games, food, and english, english, english. I'm not allowed to speak spanish all day... what a shame. I'll bring my camera tomorow for sure and take plenty of pictures, but for now, Ciao!