Never putting curtains up in Ecuador AGAIN.....

So I had curtains made by Hannah (argentina).  The curtains that have been in my apartment for the last oh, year were just to big and drape like...AND you could most def see through them.  I went on the quest for tela (fabric) and found this really nice color (olive green color) .  My friend Hannah studied design in school and made her own curtains that turned out pretty cool so I asked her to make mine.  After waiting about 2 weeks (this girl is super busy with work) she finally sat down and did them, so tonight I put them up!  They turned out pretty cool, the only problem with curtains here is they have these needle/clip like things that you have to put into the fabric in order to hang them up.  So it took me almost an HOUR to put up THREE curtains, haha but quite the experience of finger pricking and trying to line up these clips into the curtains.  All in all I have the new curtains up and they are better than the old lady ones that I had before!

This past weekend was thanksgiving and I decided to stay here in Ambato.  We had an inauguration for the new gym classes and other health fitness classes that Bienestar will be giving to students in the morning.  It was a great time, dancing bailoterapia, and seeing so many students turn out for the event.  I hope as many AND MORE turn out for our event next week!

Then later that afternoon, about 8 of us got together at the Economista's house to cook an Argentinian/American Thanksgiving.  We grilled all the meat and then had green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and deviled eggs.  It was such nice time to be with "family" and friends here in Ecuador.  I said the "prayer" (yup that's right mom) and got teary eyed thinking about my family all together at home, enjoying their meals.  Next year I will be celebrating with them :)

Lets see what else has been going on.  We are finishing up all the planning that we need for the event December 6th at the University.  We have all of the institutions confirmed and now need to figure out a way to get certificates printed for all 100 participants...there is no budget whatsoever for this event, well I mean there was but all the money was used up to print out the materials for our sexual health campaign "Por mil motivos"...sooo we have to figure out how we are going to do it..

The girls group is coming along nicely and they look like they will be ready to present next friday.  Crazy to think all of this planning and hard work, both by us as leaders and by the girls, all comes down to a half an hour presentation!!! But none the less it will be a blast to have the parents see what we have been working on.

On another not so positive note, there was a suicide this last week, a student of the University.  The student was the son of a secretary at the University and, because Ambato is such a small city, Chino's family knew the guy pretty well. His youngest brother is Mayra's age and the oldest was a compañero of Chino in school. Apparently he was a very very intelligent  guy, had written 3 books, all containing material about suicides, etc and in the last one, had reached out for help.  He only sent it through e-mail to three close friends, none of whom took the time to read it over before he decided to take his own life.

Chino and I went to the wake.  The saddest thing I have ever seen.  I had had interactions with the mother because of her connection at the University.  I just can't imagine what it would be like to lose your own child.  Makes you really think about the important things in life, and how we dwell on such little things, that in retrospect do not have as much impact on us in the long run...

Gotta live each day and be happy for what we have!!!

Alright hope Thanksgiving was splended for all of you who are reading my blog...there are people out there reading besides my mom and howard right??  haha

buenas noches!

Christmas is just around the corner...wait, but what about THANKSGIVING?!?!

So here in Ecuador, as Im sure in the states, everyone is getting ready for Christmas.  Stores have their santas and trees for sale.  The only difference I think, is that here, families have already begun putting up their christmas trees!!!! Chino´s family put their tree up this weekend.  Last year I helped, but this year had some other things to do.  So Chino´s mom and grandma put up the tree, just the two of them.  They decorated it very nice with bows, and different muñecos.  No homemade ornaments, and no lights (i think those were too old).  Makes me miss decorating the christmas tree at home.   Every year we put up the tree together.  My sister and I would usually complain about having to find and bring the heavy tubs but once we got going it was so fun to see the different ornaments that we had and talk about where they were made, bought, or who had given us as a gift. In a way it makes me excited to think about that fact that next year I will be sure to be home and help put up BOTH trees (mom and dad´s)

Well the most anticipated event of the fall is over.  I took the GRE on saturday November 17th.  It was hard.  That´s pretty much all I can say, haha.  I started studying around August, and by the end had done several practice exams and was feeling, for the most part, pretty confident.  The test was at the Fullbright Office in Quito.  Chino went with me, bless his heart, on friday and we stayed at his aunts house.  We arrived and did a test run to Fullbright, then had dinner.  I got a good nights rest, and ate a good breakfast.  Everything was in order.  I arrived at the testing center on time to check in and find my seat.  The writing section wasn´t that hard.  The reading comprhension had it´s challenging parts and the math was ok.  Luckily the scores are based on the number of questions you answer right, so lets hope I guessed well!

These next weeks are going to fly because Im working both at the University and with the girls group on semi-big events.  At the University we are prepping for our WAD (World Aids Day) event Dec. 6th.  For the girls group we are doing our final presentation Dec. 7th.  After that I can wait tranquila for the 20th to role around to see my rents and go to THE GALAPAGOS!!!!! Wahooooo

Not sure what to do for Thanksgiving....PCV´s are meeting in Guaranda, I went last year which was pretty fun.  I also think that we will do something here in Ambato, so it´s probably going to be a matter of choosing one over the other...Plus we have the lanzamiento of the rumbaterapia, pilates, and yoga on that saturday that I would really like to be at.

Alright, enough of an update for now. Until next time, Happy Turkey Day and Black Friday, Madrugan temprano y compran muchooooo (get up early and buy lots!)

November starts out with a bang!

Well Im happy to say that I can start this blog saying that we have Obama for another four years!!  I had a great time at another PCV's house, where we streamed the results live on her computer and used a projector from work to watch it like on the big screen..ahh the peace corps life.  Sadly Romney took too long to admit his loss and so I couldn't stay awake to see Obama, but I watched the next day!

It's so funny because everyone here asks who people vote for.  Im pretty used to it by now, talking super open about my political views, and even getting weird looks when I talk about how yes homosexuals SHOULD have the right to get married...lol hopefully I don't get back to the states and start asking people who they are going to vote for.. :-/

I arrived from Cuenca this last sunday.  We had a three day weekend, partly because of the Cuenca fiestas (and also because of the Guayaquil ones..what can i say, they love their fiestas).  Chino and I drove down to Cuenca on friday morning (let me be specific we left at 4:30 AM!!!!!) thinking there would be traffic.  Well there was like no traffic because we arrived in Cuenca around10:30 AM, only took us 5 hours, which was pretty good.  We checked into a hostel recommended to us by some other volunteers, super lindo :)  We dropped off the car and walked to the Centro.

The military were preparing for a welcome ceremony for the President.  We then walked around the center and in the evening took a tour of the city in one of those double decker buses.  Yeah, not such a good idea because the cables that they do have hanging around in Cuenca were super low and would've clotheslined us if we hadn't ducked, haha.  But all in all it was a nice tour.  We traveled up the top of one of the mountains and were able to look over the whole city!

We went to eat at one of the restaurants down by the river, and then walked around the area that has different bars, restaurants and discotecas.  We were too tired to go out out and decided to walk back to the hostel around 11.  We stopped by the main park to watch a "teatro de la calle" (street theater).  It was pretty funny!

The next morning we tried to wake up to go to the park and see the program for the president.  It was supposed to start at 9 and we arrived around 9:25, thinking it wouldn't really start on time (because NOTHING starts on time here).  Well turns out they had started and ENDED, haha.  BUT-we saw the presidents party flags and a bunch of people along the street, so we crossed and realized that the president was in one of the buildings talking.  We waited right outside the building where he was and were able to see him and many other political figures come out!!! It was so neat the passion that the people have for their president.  We got some pretty good fotos, I'll try to put them up on facebook. The closest I've ever been to a president!

In the afternoon we went to the National Park close to Cuenca.  Really gorgeous countryside and such fresh air.  We stopped by a little family restaurant in this ANCIENT house and had habas, choclo con queso and caldo de gallo, y locro de papa...YUM!!

We came back to the hostel and slept, completely exhausted from all the walking we had done in the past two days!  We didn't end up waking up till 10 PM and went out to eat at this middle eastern estaurant.  I had Ginger chicken, so good!  Then since we had taken like a 3 hour nap we decided to see what night life there was.  We ended up going into the first clubs that looked like it had people.  It was really inside was a pretty good size, with different rooms decorated, and really good music! 

Cuenca is absolutely beautiful. It is very clean and organized.  Even though they were in their fiestas and every night there were a lot of people, it wasn't like partying out of control and seemed really safe to walk back to the hostal at night.

Sunday we woke up and ate breakfast then got the car and headed to some ruinas de Ingapirca that were supposed to be on the way back.  Well lets just say that they were a bit farther than we thought..haha We did about a hour guided tour and then walked down to this inca face that is on the side of the mountain.  They aren't sure if is natural of man made, but pretty incredible-looks like an Incan....it started to rain towards the end of the tour, so by the time we got to the car we were completely empapados!!

We then made our 5 hour drive back through the mountains to the querido Ambato.  We hit really bad rain and hail getting into Riobamba but were in Ambato by about 9-10 PM.

Monday was back to work.  We are doing a lot of preparing for our World Aids Event on December 6th.  I also did a nutrition conference for some 500 students on tuesday!!  I think they really liked my presentation..pretty interactive, well as interactive as a presentation can be for 250 students (one group in the morning, one in the afternoon)!!!

Sharon, Bianca and I are preparing with our girls group for our final presentation that will be on December 6th or 7th as well!  So many good things going on this semester, it makes it harder to image how I will ever leave this place.  I've completely lost count on how long I've been here.  People ask me and I tell them over a year...Over a year, wow!

Monday is another feriado, Ambato's independence day.  So there will be a parade of some sort and it looks like PC will be visiting me....so we'll see!!

Chauuuuuu