Highlights of Week 7

Another month gone by? How crazy is that!

I know I haven't posted in the past three weeks, so here is my first of three posts to catch you up.

I met with my counselor, Paty Guzman, on Monday the 14th for a meeting so we could talk. I had reached out to her for a meeting because at that time I had a couple of issues I wanted to talk about and hear advice on. I am really comfortable talking to her, and she is very considerate of how I'm feeling. She offered for me to stay with her while my host parents were on their trip to Argentina for the next 9 days so that I didn't have to stay with my host mom's older parents. I was sooooo relieved that it worked out.

I was still on vacation while living with Paty, so I was pretty much just doing things when plans came up as long as she was okay with it- which she was. There are different housing communities in the city of Machala, one of them is Ciudad Verde where 2 of Paty's children and a couple of my exchange friends live. This worked out well for hanging out with my friend Jessie and the kids from the other Rotary club in Machala while Paty was at her daughter or sons house in the same community. 

I don't know about exchangers in other countries, but I am pretty sure exchangers here in Ecuador pass the time by watching a boat load of movies. When they are so cheap to buy here, how could you not? I am going to come back to the US having seen a ridiculous amount of movies over the year. Anyways, I went to the movies with my friend Simone one night and we saw "We Are The Millers" in Spanish- no English subtitles or anything (although I guess you could read lips for the English if you really watched close enough). There was also a movie night at Jessie's house with six of us piled on Jessie's bed, watching movies like "Saw VI" and "Hangover III" while simultaneously pigging out on chips and cookies. 

I went to church for the first time with Paty on Sunday. The prayers and order of the service was practically the same as what I am used to back home, only it was in Spanish and was a lot less formal here. By less formal I don't mean that they take religion and church less seriously here, but it is harder because they don't have the money to run a church with the same organization and quality as I am used to experiencing in the US. But I enjoyed taking the time to reflect and focus on specific things for more than a minute. 

I experienced “ecuavolley” for the first time and it was painful. They play with three people and the guys use a ball that may be bigger than a soccer ball and is certainly harder than one. The net is higher and it was impossible for me to serve the guys ball over the net- I barely got the girls ball over. When I went back to school, one of the gym teachers asked me if I wanted to play for the school team. I hope I can! 

I did have to go to school on Monday and Tuesday before leaving for my Manabí trip. I ended up sleeping over at Simone's house Sunday and Monday night to make it easier to get to school in the morning and we got a large amount of time to hang out together. The only highlight of school was talking with friends and holding a little kitten that my classmate Pamela was nurturing. It was adorable, but not something that would ever be allowed to happen in a classroom back home. It was a big distraction.

I experienced two big soccer games for Ecuador. The first and more important of the two; Ecuador vs. Uruguay. It was a close game, but Ecuador won 1-0. The win put us in the World Cup in Brazil. It was an exciting day for our country and in the city there were fireworks and people riding around with flags and wearing the Ecuador jersey. In preparation for the next game, I went out and bought one of the $5.00 Ecuador jerseys in the center. The next game was the night before I left for Manabí; Ecuador vs. Chile. Chile won 2-1, but we were already in the cup so it wasn't a huge disappointment. It was kind of cool to watch and think about my other exchange friends from my US district who are in Chile right now. It was also nice to celebrate and watch the game with my school friends.