Dancing Through Life

Dancing through life

Swaying and sweeping

And always keeping cool

Life is fraughtless

When you're thoughtless

Those who don't try

Never look foolish

Dancing through life

Mindless and careless

Make sure your where less

Trouble is rife

Woes are fleeting

Blows are glancing

When you're dancing

Through life...

Well its time for a blog post and I decided that it was time to do the classic blog post: un dia en mi vida (a day in my life). For reasons mostly revolving around the fact that I don’t have a typical weekend day (or at least haven’t yet) I am going to do the best to summarize a typical weekday.

5:40- If I have to take a “shower” this morning I roll my butt out of bed and head down stairs to put a hug pot of water on the stove.

5:41-5:59 Chill… sleep, watch TV, or go on face book till the pot of water is nice and hot for my “shower”.

6:00- One of two things are happening.

1)    I am carrying my huge pot of water up stairs and poring it into a tub of cold water that it will mix with to make a semi warm bucket bath

2)    My alarm goes off and I scramble to find it while my host sister (who often sleeps next to me because my beds bigger, and really I don’t enjoy sleeping in a twin bed alone, to much empty space, and we chat (to the best of our ability) till we go to bed. Its quite nice actually) wakes up and we both decided its to early.

6:08ish- I am either

1)    Getting out of the shower and heading back into my room to get Vicky (my host sister) out of bed.

2)    Dragging my butt out of bed and getting moving.

6:08-6:40- I get dressed in my uniform, straighten my bangs if I took a shower that morning (if not a pony tail is always in order), and all that good stuff. I also do 5 minuets of core every morning… exercise is so not prevalent here so this is my way of doing something small to say semi a little bit in shape.

6:40- Run downsairs with my backpack because I am always late.

6:40-6:47- Eat a piece of bread and drink a cup of “aguawita” or instant coffee, what ever is given to me that morning. 

6:47-get a call from Giulia my cousin who walks to school with us (Vicky and me) and we head down the two flights of stairs to street level where we meet up with her and do “hola’s” and “que tals” and of course the typical kiss on the cheek.

6:47-7:00- Walk to school and chat about how our last night was and how much we are not looking forward to whatever double periods we happen to have that day.

7:00-7:40- First class. (This changes by the day but for sake of you and I not going crazy with my full schedule we are going to use a Tuesday.) English… this is one of three things for me; a letter writing class, a class that I get to practice my reading aloud, very slowly, skills as I end up reading most of the text book, or a class that I get to practice my (possibly) future profession as a teacher because I end up teaching most of the material and translating a heck of a lot.

7:40-8:20- Second class. Physical Education. Tuesdays are good days for me because I have P.E. Now I am not saying that I enjoy endless basketball drills and marching. But I do get to wear my P.E. uniform all day, and for those of you who know me… pants are 100 times better then a skirt. So it’s a good day.

8:20-9:00- Third class. Computers. Now when I first heard this I thought I was going to be simple. Given that most people here don’t have access to computers a lot I thought I was going to be typing and such. But no, when they say computers they mean programming, and I don’t know computer talk in English… in Spanish… fun. But at least we get to have partners because there aren’t enough computers for us all, so that helps a ton and a half.

9:00-9:20- First Break. This means a snack of some sort; typically kids in my class are selling food that the money is going towards our end of the year graduation trip.

9:20-10:00-Physics… not too much to say about this. Its physics…

10:00-11:20- Double investigation. This is a class where we talk about different things everyday. I don’t know the main theme of the class… I haven’t been able to figure that out yet. Hah.

11:20-11:40- Second break. More food, chatting, last minuet homework.

11:40-12:20- Vocational orientation. This is a class meant to prepare the oldest grade for leaving school and heading out into the real world. We talk about different types of people and different jobs.

12:20-1:00- Drawing, this is not a normal art class. This is a class devoted to drawing buildings and their interiors. Its hard, but a good change of pace.

1:00-School is over… or it was over way before this, because we get out early probably about half the days for some reason or another. School assemblies, thunder, no water… anything.

1:00-2:00- Lunch of soup, rice, some sort of meat and a small savory salad with the family.

2:00-3:00- I normally just end up chilling in my room. Skype, facebook, journal, blog, whatever needs doing.

3:00-6:30- I head out with friends, go visit family, or do homework. I try to get out and do stuff because it’s a lot more fun then just chilling at home, but some times that opportunity doesn’t present its self.

7:00-8:00- Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays… I head out to the equivalent of Ecuadorian Zumba. An Ecuadorian dance workout class. It’s a fun time and it exercise that I can do with others and feel good about.

8:00- Dinner- almost always leftovers from lunch.

8:30-9:30- Watch movies or chill with the family. They also really like to take car rides around the city. My brother drives and much engine gunning and smelly car go on. Haha.

9:30- Bed, I get Vicky and we head off to bed. An early morning is coming.

That is a summery of my day… as average as they get. It never actually goes like this, but for sake of this blog post this is a good summery. Love and miss you all.

Livin’ Life on the Loose.

Circle Of Life

It's the Circle of Life

And it moves us all

Through despair and hope

Through faith and love

Till we find our place

On the path unwinding

In the Circle

The Circle of Life

Not going to lie… I am quite tired so this one is going to be short. But it has been well over my week goal so I am gong to squeak one in.

Last Thursday I arrived at school like any other normal day. Apart from the guys selling encyclopedias to the excited student crowd I didn’t see anything strange as I entered the school. But slowly as I walked to my classroom I noticed groups of the older students huddled together talking in low, quite, almost sad tones. I didn’t think much of it; often this just meant they had a test they had forgotten about or something of that sort. But when I entered my normally crazy, loud, and loca classroom full of girls they were all huddled I groups crying and hugging each other I knew something was wrong. I walked up to one of my better friends in the class and trying to sound sad (even though I had no idea what was going on) asked what had happened. Turned out that one of the English teachers had died the night before in a mix up with here pregnancy at age 54. I gave all my friends huge hugs and tried to help where I could.

We then just sat in our room like it was a normal day; nobody came or left, except for the inspector to have the usual yell at us for our skirts being above the knee. Then somebody came in and told us all to go home and change into our nicer uniforms. I didn’t understand why (nor did I have the nicer uniform tailored yet), but it didn’t seem to be a big deal because nobody moved. But half an hour later a woman came in and told us all to take our stuff and leave, she then proceeded to lock the classroom behind us. At this point all the class presidents (and when I say class I mean from each class room, not the whole grade) left to get flowers and one by one everybody else left to change their uniforms. Eventually I left with my host sister and went home where she changed into her nicer uniform and I changed out of my gym uniform into my skirt and sweater. When then headed back to the school where the whole school had lined the main street of Guraranda for the funeral procession to come threw. The family and car with the casket walked down the street and into an area with a stage behind the school that I didn’t know existed. Slowly the whole school filed in after the family and faced a stage with over 60, what I would call, arranged flower centerpieces and the casket on it.

The priest entered and proceeded to get dressed on stage in front of the whole school and then gave about an hour and a half sermon. The service was ended by handshakes then everybody sat back down and friends and family went up and gave speeches about her and her life. This was all concluded at about 11 when everybody left to go home for the day, because clearly no more schoolwork was going to get done.

Later that afternoon there was a church service at the local church for her as well, much of the school attended this service, but I opted to hang out with some other AFS friends, I had had quite enough Spanish speeches and crying for one day. But it was an experience that is for sure.

Livin’ life on the loose. 

Take a run on the Wild Side

A Hustle Here And A Hustle There

New York City Is No Place Where They Said:

Hey Babe, Take A Walk On The Wild Side,

Said Hey Honey, Take A Walk On The Wild Side.

It’s been more then a week since I have last written, life has been crazy. But here is an update. 

I was having some problems with my host mom and wasn’t very happy. I am not quite sure what was going on, but it was clear that I needed to change families. But I really didn’t want to go to a whole different family because that was going to be a huge change that I was not ready to take, but I was able to move in with my host uncles family. They were super nice and are very welcoming. The transition has been quite smooth and I am grateful for that. My family now has a dad, Hilbert, a mom, Fernanda, and a host sister, Vicky. They are all so nice. Vicky is my age and goes to my school. She is in my grade, but in a different class. She has been the best in-terms of welcoming me and making me feel at home. I am so excited to be here and look forward to having many adventures with this family. They are awesome. I, of course, have to deal with the whole “being a guess in the house”, but I am sure that will change soon. Tomorrow school starts so a routine will be established and I think that will help. But life is good and I am happy. My new room is now decorated with all the cards that I have been getting. A new address will be coming soon, but for now the old one is fine, the letters will get to me. 

The day that I got to my new families home my host uncle asked me if I had interest in going down to Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador, to run a 10k. Now, me being the crazy enthusiast that I am immediately accepted. (My host dad is a crazy Ecuadorian runner and our whole living room is filled with trophies and metals. Hundreds of them.) Now I am not saying that I am regretting the choice to go. It was an awesome weekend and so worth it, but the fact that I had hip surgery 4 months ago and have only run about 5 times since then… sorta caught up to me. I was dieing, but I did for fill my goals and finish under an hour and not last. So life is good.

Things that you must to do be an Ecuadorian racer:

1)    Go out to cheep Chinese food the night before. We went to this little shop that my dad clearly knew that sold “ethnic food”. The place was packed with what looked like beastly Ecuadorian runners. It was quite strange, and I got introduced to about 10000 people because I think my dad knows everybody who runs in this whole country.

2)    Wake up at 3:45 a.m., because you have to leave at 4 to get a cab and the race starts at 5. This is the beat the Ecuador heat as the race was on the coast… but it wasn’t my favorite part.

3)    As walking in the pitch black into the stadium where the start is, you have to pass two different types of creatures: people who look like they could qualify for the Olympics their leg muscles are so large and llamas.

4)    Drink a lot of Gatorade… in the states we have beans, gu's, gels, blocks, jells, powders, and who the hell knows what else to help us get our proper energy for the race. All you need it turns out is good ol' Gatorade.

5)    Start the race to a whistle. Who needs guns anyways?

6)    Run like a crazy crazy crazy fast person. Very few of the joy runners here, all fully trained ready to run Ecuadorians.

Livin’ life on the loose.