well hello there

Well hello there study abroad blog, long time to talk.

Okay, so where did i leave off? Okay, so I spent a week on vacation and that was pretty rad. So we got in a bus at a lovely and brisk 7 am on a Saturday morning. We went to visit the Picapedreros which is an indigenous community here. We listened to them talk and whatnot and hung out there for a little bit. Then we drove to a "mine" which is basically a bunch of white stone and we climbed on top of that. We then stayed with another indigenous group at their community; they call themselves Achik Nan. We stayed there and learned about their culture and helped plant trees and pulled weeds in their farm and milked cows and played with sheep and whatnot. Then we visited the Chimborazo group as well. After that, we hiked for like 4 hours around the Chimborazo Volcano. We went up into this little thing they call a temple and we were 5000 meters above sea level. Then when we hiked down, we ran down the hill and had such a good lunch. Eating after hiking is the best thing. Then we all fell asleep on the couch and I surrounded myself with a fortress of pillows. We also spent nights playing soccer on some concrete court, and the stars were so bright cause there's no city lights. We would walk down the street to a convenience store that was practically empty and 8 year old kids would be working. It felt a little children of the corn-esque but then you realize its kind of sad and heartbreaking to see.

The day after we hike that long trek, we wake up at 6 am to sit in a bus for 11 hours. I fell asleep so fast on the bus after trying do some homework on the bus. I woke up around noon to get lunch, and I ate a full pizza. I then got back on the bus after lunch, listened to music, hung out with some friends and talked, tried playing soccer on the bus, fought, and played cards. We started playing Hearts, Euchre, 13, plop and spoons. Then we arrived at the coast. Shorts and t shirts and the sun. We got out of the bus and took this little motorized boat for literally 2 minutes and got off on our island. The island is not what you'd expect. All the houses appear to be kind of run down and nobody has jobs. Literally nobody has jobs. You do little side chores for people to make money. It's peculiar. But this is what I needed to see. We saw a hospital there and walked around the entire island. We went to the beach and if that beach was in California it would be swamped with people. It was gorgeous and perfect temperature. There were only like 10 people within sight. It was amazing. We played beach soccer against some locals and it was so much fun. We also took a boat around and saw shrimp farms and manglares and and went hiking in this little forest thing to see monkeys and whatnot and climb trees and there were snakes in there apparently. But then another day we painted a wall for a school. We started pretty carefully and by the end, about 4-5 of us were covered in paint from head to toe. It was awesome and fun. And after all this, we got in the bus at 7 am, and got ready for a 10 hour bus ride. This time I couldn't sleep, it was 75% listening to music and thinking and 25% playing cards and hanging out. Everyone was burnt out and whatnot.

I felt so relaxed, but at the same time I was worn out. I realized all the work that was waiting for me back home. I just hung out with some of my really good friends for a week on a vacation and I still felt like I needed break when I got back to Quito. That night I fell asleep around 9, that's the earliest I've fallen asleep in a year since I used to work at the Stryker warehouse. And aside from that, I haven't fallen asleep that early in probably 5 years. But now I'm starting to feel good again. I've got 5.5 weeks of classes then like 2 days for exams and then life should get interesting. I am planning on flying down to Santiago on the 19th possibly the 18th of December, hanging out there for 4-5 days with some friends then flying back to Quito on the 24th and getting in late at night. Then spending Christmas with my familia and then on Boxing Day my parents are flying in. Then I'm heading out to the coast on the 31st to spend new years and like 5 days out there. I've just got to get through these two weeks and then I can relax for a few weeks and get ready for finals. Why are colleges so obsessed with making students give oral presentations? But school is going pretty well for the most part. I did infinitely better on one of my midterms than I was expecting so that was nice.

I guess in reality, in my subconscious I was expecting my study abroad experience to be more like my plans on the coast where you are in the middle of poverty and pain. But regardless of all these things, everyone would come up to talk to us and want to get to know us and we'd walk by and they'd say hey and protect us. It was really awesome to be a part of a community like that for even like 4 days. I felt safe there. I didn't have wifi or a phone to communicate with anyone. I didn't take anything in my pockets when I'd leave the hostel/house thing. It was so liberating. You don't have to talk to anyone and in your mind you can't like go talk to someone from home. You just have to be there mentally. You have no other place for your mind to be. It's the best.

Lastly, I'm just gonna do a little recap of everything here and where I'm at. I'm just kind of trying to find any motivation to work as hard as I can for the next 6 weeks even though mentally it's hard to get yourself back into it after a week off. Not only after a week off, but a week off on study abroad. There's little battles that you constantly have to fight within yourself that you just don't really get at home. 6 months is a long time I have found out, haha. After school gets out, I know that my time here will fly. And I'm doing my best to not wish my time away here cause I know how fast it can go and how much I will miss my time here even the moments I dread like school and the bus rides. And lastly, my brother asked me to be the best man at his wedding which is awesome and something I wasn't really expecting. I think that's all for now. First post of November for this blog was a long one, I'll try to keep the new few a bit shorter. I will also be posting up pictures from my trip soon. Very last thing, it feels good to be a part of the eastern time zone once again. Goodnight all.