Hiking

15 km with some great friends to see some amazing parts of the country. A trip I will never forget. 

25/09/2013

I don't know if other bigger universities are like this in the United States or if this is just an Ecuadorean thing, but there are a lot of classes canceled here. At K you are lucky to have 2 classes canceled a semester.  Here you have two classes canceled a week at least. It's ridiculous. I'm slowly falling out of love with Italian. I forgot all the little nuances of learning a new language. The irregular verbs, memorizing conjugations, etc. Listening to music in that language and trying to hear specific words of lyrics. If you've learned another language, you know what i mean. But i mean, i'm still doing well, i just have to keep forcing myself to study. I'm proud to say my trip for this weekend with the guys got approved. We are going to latacunga and doing hikes and whatnot. I'm sure I'll be posting pictures and whatnot sunday night to procrastinate. Music is becoming my central focus of entertainment (from television). I almost never watch tv. Marci tends to have it on in the background but I'm not too focused. My ear is getting much better. Forcing myself to speak is still a tough issue. It's not a lack of confidence in my ability, it's just that in English 80% of what i say to friends or whatnot is a joke and/or puns. Here its a bit different. I dont really have that ability. So i refrain from speaking and feel like i can't speak unless i truly have something of value to add to a conversation. its a bit humbling and frustrating at the same time. That's one of the hardest things about being abroad. I'm slowly trying to break off communication with friends to a bare minimum. Its kind of taking away of my experience if i know i can come home and talk to someone from back home. It's kind of a complicated feeling to have and not anyone back home really gets it. I've also stopped taking my first bus to get to school. its always hot and crowded and probably dangerous but instead i walk the mile or so to the central bus station which saves me money each day, its more comfortable and just way more benefits. It actually takes about the same amount of time on the way home due to traffic. Overall, still loving it here. Of course there are minor bumps in the road but nothing too major. I mean, I want to extend my trip an extra week, if that gives you any doubt. Its kind of refreshing to be here, but I won't lie, there are times I dream or the first few seconds I wake up and it feels like I'm back home. I can honestly say I haven't had a normal dream since I've been here. I can't give an example but nothing about it feels natural. Things here can be sort of surreal, inexplicable, but encouraging. I feel like there's nothing I can't do and this place only reinforces that. Yeah, egoboost. Just what I needed, right? The food aspect is getting a little old, but I'm trying to spice that up with either cuy (guinnea pig) or guitita (cow intestine) soon. Hopefully within the next few weeks. After this week I have to start studying for midterms so that'll be boring, but from october 10th til like late november I should be able to travel and whatnot a lot more. Back to studying before the weekend starts tomrorow!

holiday

so today was my first experience with an ecuadorean celebration of sorts. it was my "nephew's" birthday today so we had dinner and whatnot down stairs. we had cake, sang, ate pizza, watched football regular and american. it was pretty fun. i got to work on my spanish for another 5 hours or so. yeah, those celebrations go on foreverrrrrrrrrrr. it was a good time though. met some new people. right now i'm just listening to afi and working on some homework. another busy week. i am kind of already getting annoyed at repetition during each week here of waking up getting on the bus going to lunch then class for like 5 hours then coming home but working at chicos de la calle will help break that up along with this guys trip starting friday night. this weekend was pretty fun. went out to an ecuadorean bar with some friends and there was a live band and we started hanging out with ecuadoreans and then randomly we had a request to have our pictures taken with some different group of ecuadoreans. it was pretty fun and random. then saturday i went to watch tennis at a nearby tournament with a friend of mine. it was really sunny and hot out by i had a good time. there was a volcano in the background which you can see in the pictures i uploaded. the link is still in my last post. slowly missing things from home a little bit but overall i am starting to realize how many things i can live without. it's pretty eye opening. i can't wait to go on my trips to active volcanos. it's going to crazy. less than two months away.

Weekend

Ahh, just got back from Otavalo. What a long trip. Had to get up at like 530 yesterday and around 7 today. I'm exhausted and about to start some homework but I don't have class til like 1 so that's fine. I really do just want to sleep in for the first time in over a week but I can't really. Maybe tuesday or something. Overall, I'm feeling pretty alright, a good nights sleep away from feeling good/great. After this week I'll probably feel better. Anyone that wants to see pictures here you go https://www.facebook.com/smyd415/media_set?set=a.10201246616780029.1073741826.1009860756&type=3 it was actually really nice to just get away from the city for a bit and see something new. we saw a bunch of crazy stuff that is kind of hard to explain, like the cleansing, musical instruments, mountains, we went boating on a lake that was located inside a volcano and a bunch of other fun stuff. We got to see a bird show type thing and that was pretty fun. I tried some food that I never would have in the US. Overall, it was pretty solid, but I need to do some homework and sleep.

month

I guess technically now its been officially a month. so far just been making weekend plans, planning my icrp (these project that K forces us to do in which we help out the community, learn about it and write a paper) and working on homework. I've had 3 of my last 4 classes canceled including one potentially in the morning. They don't even tell us, we just show up sit there for 10 minutes then a TA walks in and tells us to leave. It's pretty cool cause you never see it coming. Changes the tone of any day. Anyways, I start my ICRP on Friday. I'm working at a foundation called Ninos de la calle (children of the street for you English hoodlums). I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to be doing, I just know I'm going to help make a difference and that's how I'll spend most of my Friday morning to early afternoons from here on out and January. I'm pretty excited but it won't be easy. Also, this weekend we are going to Otavalo, next weekend I'm going to a beach resort type place, then the weekend after we are going hiking on a volcano or something. I'm not sure I entirely understood, but I know it sounds awesome. Anyways, I'm slowly falling in love with the Italian language. I'm just a wannabe polyglot. I forgot what it was like to learn a new language since its been 8 years. Surprisingly not as hard as I recall, maybe its just my spanish knowledge that helps with a mix of it being my favorite class. I am hoping to get some days where I get home before 630. Going to school and coming home on a bus is starting to wear me down mentally cause of the starting and stopping from rush hour traffic and jam packed buses. By the time I get home, relax for 20 minutes and eat dinner with Marci and have my night time coffee and bread, its already 8 or 830. Time moves by so fast here, it helps that I don't have classes til the afternoon but that just means I'm up later working on homework. Still haven't slept in past 1030 here and on weekdays I'm up around 930 or 9 quite consistently. So that's about it for now. Maybe after this weekend I'll finally put some pictures up, but until then, I'm a bit too lazy. Night folks.

a month?

so in three days i'll have officially been here a month, that's pretty weird, huh. So today I played soccer with some ecuadorians which is becoming quite customary. They're pretty cool guys and invited me to go to a beach house with them next weekend but i'm already going to otavalo with the rest of k. nothing has really changed too much. i'm just getting annoyed with school cause i want to be traveling and relaxing but it is what it is. so since i don't have much to say about that, i'll just rattle off all the music i've been listening to since i've gotten here.
Brand New- Deja Entendu (amazing album) favorite tracks are 3-6 and 10 but who am i kidding its all good
and brand new's other three albums.
Box Car Racer - self titled (watch the world)
Blink-182 - every thing by them (listen to not now)
My bloody valentine - loveless (sometimes and some other good songs)
Twenty | One | Pilots - Vessel (run and go, fake you out, ode to sleep)
Silversun Pickups

That's all I can think of for now, good night all.