Language Camp!

From the beach

View from my balcony

Looking down from a restaurant

Oh my god, I have no idea where to start or even how. I literally have no words to describe how amazing the last week was. But I guess I'll try my best. So I got on the bus with about 30 other exchange students bright and early sunday morning and so began the fun. Instantly everyone was talking with everyone and laughing and having a good time on the 8 hour bus ride. I mentioned it in an earlier post i think but I think it's quite amazing that the instant you meet another exchange student you're friends. There's this connection of experiencing this new country and lfe together, it's really amazing. Anyways after a long but fun bus ride we got to Mompiche which is the region of beaches on teh coast and we were in the Royal Decameron Resort. I Had looked at some pictures of it online and was like wow this place is pretty nice, but I had no clue. This is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my life i think. On top of that its all inclusive, so once we had that green bracelet we could do anything we wanted, well almost anything. The whole thing costed $320 for 5 days which at first I thought was alot until i realized how much we got to do here. Theres always buffets and different ethnical restaurants that you just walk in and eat as much as you want and walk out pretty much when ever you want. There's soda fountain machines you just help yourself too and everything you can think of. If I were to pay for all the food and drinks I had I would easily have used that 320 in only a few days. So other than that there were 7 pools, 3 hot tubs, 6 bars, 4 restaurants, 2 tennis courts, an amphitheatre, a small movie theather, a discoteca, 3 different beaches to go too and then the normal accomidations of a hotel. So needless to say this place was out of this world. But what made it so much fun wasn't all these perks, but it was the 68 other exchange students I got to spend the week with. I don't know why but all exchange students no matter from where are so much fun just love life. It's so great to hang with them because there's never no laughter or smiles, it's alwasy happiness.

A small group of us

2 of the 7 pools

It wasn't all fun and games all week either, we did have 7 hours of spanish class a day. It started out slow because there weren't really any levels to the groups, just split into 5 different groups. So it started really basic with stuff I learned 4 or 5 years ago but it picked up and it was more of a good review for me all week but still really helped my spanish. So that was good. With the common language being english through all the students, it was used a lot between eachother. I tryed to use as much spanish as I could because I've been told over and over my other exchange students in the past that to no get sucked into speaking english with the other exchange students. It was hard though because this beeing our first meeting a lot of people aren't able to speak in spanish yet because it's early in the year, but I still spoke with the people who could respond and only spoke english if they didn't understand. The weather was okay, nothing special. It was cloudy and little rainy a few days and then beautiful a few days. A very comfortable temperature, nothing too hot but it was still warm enough to always want to cool off in the pool or ocean. I would feel safe saying the ocean was warmer than a few of the pools, it was amazing. The second best thing of this place just below being with all the exchange students was the dancing. If you're reading this you probably know that I love to dance. Well this place is one big dance party. There's ALWAYS music playing and theres dance classes on the main pool deck 5 times a day. You just join the group dancing with the instructors in the front. I have come to a conclusion that I was born to live south america because of the dancing. It's all the dancing that I love to do in the states. Its the fluid salsa, samba from brasil, rumba from cuba, and just the constant wave like motion in the body accompanied with the quick feet is perfect. When I would dance at the front of teh group just behind the instructors people would come up after and ask me when the next session was or about some step because they thought I was one of the instructors, it was great. One of the men that was teaching told me I was the best gringo dancer to come that he's seen, so i was quite proud of myself. Along with teh classes there are shows every night that are something different in the amphitheatre. It's usually somehting to do with dancing but not always. One night it was all the latin american dances, another night was danced from around the world, another night was a game show thing, and another night was another game show. But all the shows are by the same group of dancers. During the day this group of staff is helping out around the resort and then take breaks to do  dance classes and then at night become the stars. I want that job so bad. Maybe one day I'll go back and ask for it. All in all though I came out of this week with a tonnnnn of stories, awesome memories, a little bit better spanish, but most of all, a great group of new friends from all around the world.

One a many beautiful sunsets

Another sunset

 

monthiversary

WOW! I can’t believe it’s been an entire month that I’ve been here in Ecuador. It’s crazy. It literally feels like I’ve been here for maybe two weeks. But at the same time when I think back on everything I realize how much I’ve gone through. Anyways today was a good day for my monthiversary. I went to school as normal but there wasn’t any class today because a lot of the teachers were at workshops. So my whole grade was in the auditorium for the entire day with a  few breaks watching movies for out classes and doing some group activities. So it was nice to switch it up a little and not have classes. After school I went to my brothers Capoeira class with him which was so much fun. I’ve always loved dancing and acrobatics so this was a great combination of everything. I’ve never done Capoeira before so it was a new experience for me but I gotta say it was awesome. Not to mention a GREAT workout, which I’ve been in much need of lately. I also got to meet other kids that aren’t in my school, which was nice for a change.  After that my dad came and picked us up and we went to get my sister at my aunts house and then went grocery shopping. In the store I really got one of my first feelings of being part of the family. I mean I’ve felt it before but something about today was different when we were all grocery shopping. I don’t know if it’s that its been a month, or if it was that I was helping picking stuff out and going around the store getting things, or if I cant some-what keep up in their conversations in Spanish now and can even pipe in. I don’t know but it feels great. When we got in the car I also told them that because it’s been a month that from now on no more English and only Spanish, unless it’s for a translation of a word or I need to understand something, otherwise it’s all Spanish. And the rest of the car ride home I actually had a full conversation with everyone, it was great.

            On Sunday I leave for my language/intro camp with all the other exchange students in Ecuador with Rotary. I’ll be there until Thursday and everyday it’s Spanish classes so hopefully I’ll be even better by this time next week. So my next update will probably be when I get back, unless something crazy happens in the next two days.

week 3

A view of Cotopaxi from outside Quito

This past week wasn’t too to eventful but still fun nonetheless. Last Saturday there was this Mexican festival in this small town about an hour from Quito and it’s a tradition with my friends to go every year so I of course tagged along. It was a really fun day. Everyone dresses up like a Mexican cowboy or farmer accompanied with a big hat. Then we just walked around the bustling streets where were probably the same amount of horses as there were people. There’s lots of traditional food and drinks as well as music everywhere. One of the main attractions though is the “plaza de torros” which is a bull-fighting ring that is completely made out of bamboo tied and nailed together. It was surprisingly big in diameter and three stories tall. What attracts people most is that anyone who can man up enough to jump in the ring can run around with the bull. My friends usually all do it so that meant I was too was about run for my life from and angry bull. But in the end they decided that this year the ring was especially un-sturdy and the bull rams into the sides a lot and can collapse the ring. So right when I finally built up to courage to do this we walked away, I was a little bummed.

A beautiful setting for some tennis courts

A small soccer field at the tennis club

            The next day, Sunday, I got to finally play tennis for the first time, which was a HUGE relief. If you’re reading this you probably know how much I love tennis and how I’m used to playing almost everyday. So going almost three weeks without playing was quite difficult. It was actually the longest I haven’t played in around a year I think. Anyways my uncle is a member at one of the clubs here so I went to go play with him. The club is absolutely beautiful. So while we were waiting or our court there was these three people warming up below us and the man came up and asked if one of us wanted to be a fourth to play some doubles. My uncle and brother right away told me to go so I got up and walked over. I started to talk with this man and he turns out to be one of the directors of the Quito Sur Rotary Club. Now I’m in the Quito Norte Club so it’s different but still a small world. Well he’s also part of the Rotary International, which is the part that deals with us exchange students, so we connected pretty fast. We exchanged cards and information and plan on meeting soon to play some more tennis or just meet up and talk. So that was a great connection that I got to make.

            Monday and Tuesday I was sick and throwing up. Whether it was because of the first real exercise at 10,000ft or just my stomach getting used to everything, I don’t know, but either way it wasn’t fun. I got better though and went back to school Wednesday. Thursday was the first rotary meeting for my club so I got to meet all the other exchange students in my district, which was really nice. There are three other students and a fourth one coming, a boy from California, a girl from France, and a girl from Germany. The other boy comes in December and is from Brazil. It’s really neat how the instant you meet another exchange student you become friends. It’s like an unspoken bond of being on this adventure together makes you friends automatically. It’s quite the feeling.

            This weekend wasn’t too exciting. Watched a lot of tennis in the US Open which was some good quality family time cheering for the different people. So that was fun. It’s always said that exchange students gain weight at the beginning of the year because of the new food and everything, well I’m definitely feeling the effects. Seeing my stomach bulge out a little bit motivated me to go for a run this morning. I was good for the first 10 or so minutes but then I hit a wall and my lung were on fire. Thank you altitude! Tennis is stop and go so I didn’t really feel it before, but non stop running was tough. My muscles also got tired a lot quicker as well. As I write this I can still feel my lungs burn a little when I take a deep breath, it’s that cold mid-winter day trying to hustle out to your car to start it and run back feeling, it’s not a good one. But hopefully little by little I can work my way up to being accustomed to it.

            The last thing I’m going to touch base on is the language aspect. It’s amazing the improvement that I’ve made in just over 3 weeks. I’m starting to understand a lot more and almost keep an actual conversation. A little landmark was the other day in school I actually understood almost the entire class which was a great feeling (no it wasn’t English class). My speaking is still a little lacking but I figure you have to understand what’s being said to you before you can respond. So that’s where I’m as with that. I’ll let you get back to your day or night that matter.

traditional music and churches made of gold

Iglesia De La Compania De Jesus

Traditional dancing

This was taken a different day but it was just outside quito

So this post is a little bit late but I’m just getting around to it. This past Sunday I went to the center of Quito, which is the old part of the city. It was so beautiful. It’s the colonial style houses and steep coble stone streets. Every Sunday they block off a handful of streets and there’s music, street performers, artwork, dancing, and much more. This past month was Ecuadorian culture month so it was really busy everywhere we went. The music was all the traditional Andean music, which I love so much, and it was accompanied by the traditional dancing by the natives. It was really cool to get to see this up close. There are also A LOT of churches in the old part because most everyone here is either catholic or Christian. Anyways we went into a lot of the churches and walked around and I have never seen anything like them. These churches are completely different then what I’m used to seeing. They are all quite big and all the statues and podiums are made of gold so everything just shines. It was really enchanting. There was this one church that is almost always closed but was open for this one day so my family jumped on that opportunity in a blink of an eye.  They kept telling me how special it is and rare that we get to go inside. I kept thinking to myself what would make this church so special because all the other ones I thought were special. As soon as I stepped in I understood. Pretty much the entire inside was gold.  It was amazing.  We also went to a few museums that were there as well. One was the coin museum that was about the money here in Ecuador since the Incan and Mayan money. Anyways after a few hours hanging out and walking all over the downtown we walked back to grandmothers house (my dads side) where every Sunday the whole family has lunch and dinner together. That was really fun as well because the family is so great and I get alone great with all of them. I can’t wait for next Sunday so I can walk back into the old part because that ‘s the part I like most about any city, it’s where all the history is.