4 months...are you serious?

           Well actually 4 months and a week now, but still unbelievable. As I think of its now, I’m only a month away from my mid way point of my year. That’s ridiculous, and really sad to think about. I know it’s still a whole lot of time, but not if it passes as fast as the past 4 months have. Anyways heres my update on Ecuadorian life. To sum it up in a nutshell. It’s great. I literally can’t think of a single complaint I have of this amazing place. I love everything about it. I’m so close to all my friends and family now they feel like I’ve had them all my life. It’s starting to feel like this is my life and home here and back home in Vermont is just a memory. Weird. Anyways now actually being able to talk with people and understand just about anything it makes things much better, because now I can take part in decisions or conversation and actually speak up. I also get more of just whats going on around me, so I love that part. Still dancing and playing tennis every week and at school I was actually just pretty much forced to play basketball for their club. I think they figure because I’m tall and American I must be awesome at basketball…wrong. Well at least that’s a wrong statement back in the states, but here they all suck, lets be honest {Just like I do at soccer compared to them) so I get to model my mediocre basketball skills in an upcoming tournament later in January. So that should be fun. As for my family, I really fell part of it and they include me in everything including choirs or things like that which I really don’t mind what so ever. It’s the least I can do for them for taking me in for a year.

            Last week on Friday, all of my senior class and I went to a poor children’s school to spend time with them for Christmas. Each of us brought a bag of candy, an article of clothing, and a gift and then we got to give them to our buddies face to face which was so great to see their reactions. Like I think I said in an earlier post, I don’t really get to interact and deal with younger kids like I do back home teaching tennis and just with family friends. And I really miss that. I’d have to say kids are what I love most after tennis, and if not tied with tennis. So all these kids had different presentations for us like dances and singing and stuff and it was super cute. They sang “Santa Claus is coming to town” in English, which I thought was amazing for their age in a poor school, and all my friends push me up there so I sat next to them all and sang with them and it was a really cool moment. I think the coolest thing of that day though was to sit with the kids as they received, and opened their gifts. They were all sooo excited and to see their faces bright up like that almost solidifies in me that what ever I end up doing in life, its going to be dealing with young kids. So that was a great day that I’m sure I will remember for a very long time.

            What else.  The dates and info for our next rotary trip came out. The next trip is to the amazon for 4 days and 3 nights in this eco lodge in the jungle. I’m so excited and can’t wait. My group is going the 20^th -23^rd of January. So that’s the next thing I’m really looking forward to, Besides Christmas. Which I’ll tell you all about after the fact because it going to be a lot to say. So until then, Feliz Navidad y Propero Año Nuevo.

Festivals of Quito

 This past week was the festivals of Quito, and there is a HUGE amount of, not only country, but city pride here in Quito. So with teh festivals theres a week of bull fights, parades, family gatherings, concerts and tons of special events in the city. I went to my first bull fight, and then 3 others in the past week. I never knew they were so popular in Ecuador or south america. I always thought only in Europe for the most part, but yet again, i was wrong. They're definitely hard for me to watch because I love animals so much, so seeing the bull getting speared and tourmented its hard to watch. But as for the actual fighting part with the matador and his cape. I think that part is amazing. All the different moves and bravery that is shown is such great entertainment. The guts it must take to litteraly kneel a foot in front of the bull and throw your cape to teh side and just stare into the bulls eyes, has to be significant. The other thing I really liked about it was that everyone dresses up really fancy and they only serve wine and sangria. All the men wear nice pants, a tucked in button up shirt, nice shoes, and then a sweather over the shoulders. Talk about preppy. And the women all wear the big hats and nice dresses or fancy cloths as well. You wouldn't think people get so dressed up to watch a bull get killed.
As for the killing of the bull part, the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, outlawed the killing of the bull in the arena. Almost everyone here hates the guy, he has the worst approval ratings I've ever heard of. But because its such huge tradition for the matador to kill the bull as the finish of the fight, everyone who is a supporter of bull fighting is out raged. Anyways so I actually don't mind it because there no way I would be able to watch that. Other than the bull fights I went out alot to concerts with my friends and family. Had some nice family dinners with my grandparents who came up for the weekend as well. Played lots of cards and had a great time. Now back to reality in school and such. But no worries. Two weeks and its christmas vacation. Count downs begun.

Koda: 2 , Ecuador: Alot

When an exchange student gets the chance to do something he or she  knows best, they jump on the opportunity. This is because they're usually treated or seen as these naive clueless kids because we're always asking how to say the simplest thigns or always asking what we should do or how or these types of things. It sounds stupid but because of this they will ask you if you know how to do the simplest things, and you just want give em a little slap on the face and say "I'm not dumb." But instead you say oh yeah i know how. So like i said, when you get the chance to do something you're good at you want to show that you're not dumb, incapable or lost and kind of in a little way, shape or form, rub it in their face. So with that being said, a week or two ago i got a few chances to display my briliance and talent. The first was in math class (which is the math that I did like 3 or 4 years ago, so its really easy for me) there was a few hard problems where the teacher gives in class and the first few to get it done correctly gets a point on the next text or some reward like that. So in this one day I was the first done with all of them and got all the free points and extra credit, even though i dont need them. All my classmates were like KODA! how can you do this ?(reference to the response i wanted to say above) but simply just said i already did this a few years ago. One of the problems no one could get and i was the only to actually get it done. So score 1 for Takoda! The next event that week was during our little recesses. For the first time since I've been here i saw an american football. Some kids were throwing it in the courtyard area. I was watching and laughing at how bad they were but i wasnt just going to over and be like hold on let me show you, that would be rude. So i just sat by quietly until butterfingers dropped yet another ball and it rolled over to me. So calm and collected i picked it up and threw across to the other kid in a nice spiral right at him. They all turned and just stared in amazement. So they told me to come over and throw with them. So of course i did and they were all like how do you do that. And my answer was just I'm from america, if you went there and picked up a soccer ball, itd be the same for you. So i taught them all how to throw a spiral.With both situations what was so cool wasnt the fact of actually doing it, but being able to show others how and helping them. Because this is the feeling you rarely see as an exchanger, you're always teh follower and being taught. So being able to teach others and have them look to me for guidance was a really cool feeling that i hope i can continue in other activities. Score 2 for Takoda!
       Also that week was Thanksgiving which was really cool to share with my friends and family here. I had asked if we could have a nice dinner and of course my family was on board and we invited some of my good friends as well. So we had a nice roasted chicken (its impossible to find turkey here. Its a thing of imagination), mashed potatos, a salad, and my friends brought a delicious peacan pie. So that was a really special dinner for them to in a way honor me by being there and sharing it with me. Definitely a thanksgiving I won't ever forget. As for the homesickness part during the holidays, its not really there. I honestly didn't even think of thanksgiving until a day or two before. And with the family gatherings back home I didn't really feel to homesick surprisingly. I still love you guys, but i have a great family as well as great friends here that really help me and make it easier for me.
       There was also for school an iniciation of some sort for the 7th graders. We all got matched up with one or two of them and it was a day of games at a park and having tons of fun. The point of the day is to get your little buddy as dirty as possible via eggs, dirt, paint, ect.. And at the end we make this disgusting mixture in a kiddy pool. It was gelatine, milk, water of course, ketchup, mustard, mayo, hair gel, eggs, onions, dirt, flour, rice, coke, spit, and a bunch of other stuff i have no clue what it was. So at the end they all wlak in a line and a group of us are dressed like tribal people and we have this kiddy pool in front of us and with branches fron the trees we use them like a paint bruch and cover these kids in this nasty fluid. Then theres someone who throws flour in there face and spraying coke all over them. Its pretty much hazing, but the kids love it. They went through 3 times each. So the whole thing is to welcome them to the school pretty much because its 7-12 grade. So after we finished that the president of our class was about to give them a little speech but all the kids and my friends started chanting KODA! KODA! KODA! and i was like oh jeez this is bad. So because I'm new as well they had me walk through and get the same treatment and it wasnt too bad until i started to walk away and my friends pickes up the whole kiddy pool with everything left inside and comes up behind me and puts it on my head and then hugs me and wrapps me in it. It was nastyyyy. But it was a great day cause i finally got to deal with little kids again which i love so much. I dancing and just goofing with all of them. it was great. It was a great week

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.

145 exchange students, 16 countries, and a week on the beach

The hotel rooms and courtyard

talent show

 I thought I had the best and nothing could top the trip to Mompiche, wellll………..I was wrong. This trip to Crucita, Manabí was amazing. What made it better was that all the exchange students from all of Ecuador were there, 145 to be exact. And like I keep mentioning all exchange students are so fun and just love life so all that energy around was incredible. So another 9 hour bus ride and we arrived at our hotel which just so happened to be right across from the beach, so that was awesome. 

The excitement of arriving

Everyone was so excited to meet all the people they hadn’t met yet, everyone had a grin from ear to ear. We got there in the afternoon so we just hung around from the night and got to know everyone. The next day we went to a beach that was down the road a little ways and had a blast. We played soccer, Frisbee, and tons of other little games on the beach. Not to mention just swimming in the ocean and playing in the waves. Also the weather was perfect, as always in the coastal region here. It starts out a little over cast in the morning and by noon its blue sky, hot, and sunny. So even with lathering the sun screen on everyone, and I mean everyone, got sunburnt. After the beach we went to this look out place, el Mirador, which was atop a hill and over looked the coast and town we were in which was beautiful. Tons and tons of pictures were taken here with all the exchange students, which was perfect for picture taking. After that we had a talent show night which was such a great idea on rotary’s part. You could do it by country or just by yourself, obviously the goal being to display the talents of everyone. So countries did dances and songs that are traditional to their country. A friend and I decided some what last minute to throw something together. She plays guitar and has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard. So I grabbed a trashcan and flipped it over and gave it some rhythm and also beat boxed and we ended up getting third place. It was such a surprise but it was great. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150439595775482 (The link is for the video I made of the whole trip with various videos.) And after that we had a big dance party, which we had every night actually. 

Volleyball on the beach

bonfire on the beach

The next day we just went to the beach across the street for a sports day. We had soccer, volleyball, little races, tubing out on the ocean and other little things. There were tournaments in the soccer and volleyball, which was really fun. Except for the fact that the Brazilians just made there own soccer team and just destroyed everyone else as you could imagine. 

parade in Portoviejo

 

at el Mirador

The next day was the most fun I think. No one really knew what we were doing but they told us to wear our rotary blazers and long pants. Well we ended up being in the independence parade of the city Portoviejo. So this group of 145 gringos all waving their flags and singing their national anthems and going crazy were walking down the street and for some reason the locals LOVED it. They were all cheering for us and would try there English or other languages they knew. Also everyone wanted pictures with us, which was really funny. So that was a blast. After that we went to a market in a town called Monticristi and we all bought traditional hats, shirts, pants, trinkets, and other native things. 

dance party in the rotary club

Then that night was our final night so there was a formal dinner at the rotary club in Portoviejo. So we went there and before the dinner we actually got to ride the chivas, which are these party busses pretty much. It’s a bus that drives around a town or city and plays music and you dance on top, inside, along side, or anywhere you want. So with three chivas we had 145 kids packed onto these things driving through the streets just dancing and having fun. Then with our final dinner they introduced us country by country as we walked out to our tables and sat. There were multiple speakers and then dinner and everything like that. Then there was a king and queen that were picked out of everyone. So every country elected a king and queen from their country and then they all went head to head in a runway show down which was hilarious to watch. And then after as always we had a giant dance party until 3 in the morning. The next morning it as quite sad as everyone gave their hugs and kisses and goodbyes. The next time we’ll all be together again isn’t until February I think when we go to the amazon. But overall it was amazing. I’ll admit the rooms, food, and hotel itself was much nicer at Mompiche with the all-inclusive resort. But this was just simple which I liked a lot more. The people though make it what it is. We would be put in a run down warehouse for a week and still have the time of our lives. These are without a doubt friends I’ll have for a lifetime. I love them all.

Gotta love sunburn

Patriotism  at its best

the chivas