3 Months

wow. I cannot believe that I have been here for over 3 months now. It's the weirdest feeling. I feel like I've been here for a a few weeks, maybe a month, but when I think about everything I've done and experienced it feels like a whole yeah. It's mind blowing for me. But my update is very good. Having a great time ( as always) but now with tennis and actually being able to participate in other activities because I understand whats going on is a huge moral boost for me. For the language they say 3 months and you shoudl be good, as I mentioned in an earlier post, but I must say its definitely more than that. I mean the improvement is amazing when I think about it. I can actually hold a conversation with someone or a few people and understand almost everything they say and can say almost anything i was too. Still when I'm in a group of people it's hard to get everything and keep up but it's coming along. In school, unfortunately, I can actually understand the majority of the material being taught so if I'm scared to actually do the work cause then they might give me more cause they know I understand. So I use the I don't understand card sometimes. But I actually have taken some tests and done some work (for the teachers I like) and they really respect that and see my effort in class so that's all fine. Still the chemistry teacher is making my life harder than it should be. She got mad at me today actually cause I was working on work she assigned a while ago but I've been plugging away at it but it's pretty hard in spanish. And she said to me what happened 3 months and you'll be with the normal class doing all the normal work. Well lady it doesnt work like that, Its not like 3 months and snap your fingers and I can speak and understand perfect spanish. But whatever, i have the support of all my classmates so thats nice. With some other teachers when they want to ask me something they still ask who speaks good english and can translate. I get kind of offended because I can understnad everything shes saying but I usually just do what she says before they translate it and the teachers always look dumb founded. ANYWAYS I cannot believe that my exchange is almost a 3rd the way done. I still feel like I just got here and am getting started. Amazing how time flys when your having fun. Now as for the actual activity of my 3 month anniversary two days ago, I went to the Ecuador vs. Peru world cup qualifying soccer match. I went with about 20 other exchange students so of course it was an absolute blast. Its at the same stadium I went to a while ago and i wrote about with picture below. But because it's ecuador, it unites everyone and EVERYONE wears the ecuador jersey which is a bright yellow so the whole stadium, besides the small section for the other team, is bright yellow. It's a really cool sight. So we all painted our faces and bought jerseys and went all out for the game. I learned all the chants for ecuador and all of that good stuff. As for the game, Ecuador won 2-0 which was great. Everytime they score everyone throws their beer and you get drenched in beer. Its a little gross but at the same time its part of going to the game so its all in good fun. So that was a great day cause I also got to skip school for the game. But 3 months in and i wouldnt change a thing. Being here I think a lot of home or friends as would be expected, and when I think of some of the best memories I have of vermont, my family, friends, and even harwood, I always ask myself if I had the chance would I go back to relive it and relive everything in between then and now. They may be amazing times of my life, but the answer is always no. I love where I am now in life and I wouldn't ever want to change that.

It's about f**king time!

Sorry for the vulgarness of the title but it's really how i've been feeling lately. As most of you know I haven't played much tennis at all since i've been here and it's been driving my crazy. I've been trying to stay positive and used all my resources to try and find ways to play but nothing was happening and it was quite frustrating. Anyways a friend of mine at school told me about some tennis classes that he goes too where you don't need to be a member like all the other places in quito. So i asked him for the number and called the guy a while ago but he never returned my call. Finally he did at the beginning of the week and gave me details and all of that and this week I went to the classes. For where i'm at right now they're perfect. They remind 100% of the classes i used to take and teach at at Tucker Hill Inn with Smitty. It's a few teachers and then just a group of about 10 kids in total that all play and just have fun playing games and things like that. Theres levels too so theres still good competition. It's not at a level as high as I usually play at but like I said, it's perfect for where I'm at now, which is quite bad to tell you the truth. Not playing for so long really takes a toll on your game. But just after my second class yesterday i was already getting back into the swing of it. (Tennis pun!) Anyways so I'm quite happy to be playing once again, and not to mention to actually use all these tennis cloths that i brought that were beginning to look useless. Weekend plans are looking like some parties with friends and family and then tuesday of next week Ecuador is playing Peru in a world cup qualifying match and its another home match so all my friends and I are going to that so that'll be a blast. VIVA ECUADOR!

Vacation

I know this is a bit late but better late than never right. Last week was vacation for day of the dead and its very celebrated holiday here in Ecuador. I was under the impression that it's only really significant in Mexico, but i was quite wrong. So everyone travels for the vacation to gather with families in various location. My family went to Riobamba which is a city about 3 hours south of Quito so an aunts house on my moms side of the family. It was beautiful. The city itself is kind of runned down and not as nice as quito but it's known as having some of the best mountains around the city. Being somewhat isolated from nature here in quito, it was such a relief to get out and hike and enjoy the wonders of nature. We hiked Chimborazo which is a inactive volcano. The peak is at 6310M which is about 19,000ft, but we only hiked to about 5000M (about 16,000ft) but still that the highest i've ever been. It was amazing. With teh first steps i took from the car at around 4000m my lungs were already burning. The farther i went the worse it got. Exhaustion kicked in a lot fast and my muscles just didn't want to move. It's amazing the effect of altitude. But never the less my father and I pushed forward to the second check point where we were greeted by a wonderful cup of hot cocoa. The last 100ft or so though was tough. Every 15-20 steps we'd have to sit on a rock for a few minutes to catch out breath and rest a little before going again. It was a littel scary at one point because I was really out of breath but when I breathed in I didn't feel like i was getting all that much air because it's so thin so it was a little nerve racking but i had to remind myself to just breath slowely. Scuba diving helped with that as the general rule for breathing (if i remember correctly) is 4 seconds on the inhale and 12 seconds on the exhale. Anyways that was amazing views above the clouds. I also played some tennis with my uncle each morning at a club that hes a member at and that was really nice. Besides that we really just hung out with teh family for the days and played cards and games and watched movies. So it was really fun bonding time. We went on other various walks as well through the city and as well as outside in the farm fields. It was a great vacation though that i'm so happy i got to share with my family.