Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying

Breathing just passes the time

This weekend I traveled with my host dad to Cuenca. Cuenca is the second largest town in the Ecuadorian Andes (after Quito) and it is more contemporary than any other town in the country. For lack of a better word it is… cute. It is filled with old churches that have the most amazing architecture and wide cobble stone streets. But it also is very western is some ways; there are a lot of restaurants that you can eat real food at (read not rice and meat). There are also a lot more foreigners in Cuenca. I found my self-hearing English more than I had almost all year (minus possibly Otavalo). We left very early Saturday morning and go there about 1 in the afternoon on Saturday. We then checked into our hotel, ate lunch, and headed out to get my host dads chip and bib for the next day. For those of you who don’t know my dad is a crazy runner and about every other weekend travels to a different town to run a different race. Our living room is filled with over 300 medals and 50 trophies. He brings home new trophies almost every time he leaves to run. He is planning on going to run a marathon in Peru in May and has been avidly training for that, but that doesn’t stop him from running as many races as he can before that.  After we got him all checked in we headed on a self guided (read: us walking and looking at things) tour of Cuenca. We went to the central park, some markets, and other old buildings and just enjoyed getting to know a new city. The next day was the race, I am not able to run at this point because of my hip, but I love the race vibe and it was fun to get to wander a bit alone while my dad was running. It was a 15k race and my dad came in at about 55 mins, that is fast guys. He got 4^th in his age group and was quite sad about it because he missed out on the prize money and the trophy to add to the collection, but as he said “it was in gods will”. The race was huge, bigger than I have ever seen, but it was so cool to be part of it, even if I was only watching and going support for my dad. But it had to end and we had to get home, so we hopped on the bus and headed home, to Guaranda. It was wonderful weekend and I have wanted to go to Cuenca since I got here, so it was awesome to get to do that.

  I have been home for about 12 hours and in about two hours I will take off on the trip that I have been waiting for all year… the Galapagos! It was a crazy turn around, but totally worth it, I am so excited. I will be going to these amazing little islands with about 30 other AFSers from the mountain region of Ecuador. I am so PUMPED!!! I cant even put my enthusiasm into words. I will tell you guys more about what we did and saw when I get back on Saturday or sometime then when I get to writing a blog post. Either way I hope that you are all doing wonderfully and love as always.

Livin’ life on the loose. 

When two families/worlds colide.

I love the family
Longer than longevity
Mother tells me what to be
Taller than the tallest tree
I love the family
Sister loves me tenderly
Sitting on my daddy's knee

Crazy. That is the one word to describe life currently. I have such a hard time finding things to write about because it is all so normal now. In a mere two and a half months I will be on an airplane headed back to the states. This fact makes me overwhelmingly sad and excited at the same time. I love it here. I love the family that has taken me in and now calls me their daughter, sister, friend, I love the other AFSers who I hang out with on a daily basis who have helped me get though the craziest moments in Ecuador, I love my house and its crazy number of stairs, I love being able to speak, think, and communicate in Spanish, I even love the seven grain and fish stew that we ate for good Friday. But I know going home will be a good thing, it will be change and it will be a new chapter of my life. This summer holds adventures and fun as it always does, but it will start off bitter sweet for me. I have already shed tears over the prospect of having to go, note to self do not listen to I’m Leaving on A Jet Plane, it holds to true to my situation. 

The US family with Guaranda in the background.

My parents and sister came for a week and half visit a couple weeks ago and it was wonderful but also a lot more work than I was expecting. We started off our crazy family adventures by picking them up in Quito where my whole family decided they needed to be their to pick them up, even though I told them it was not needed. Then I threw them head first into ecua culture by a night at my Grandmothers house in Quito. The next day after a lot of conversations and negotiating we headed off to Mindo, a small town 3 hours out of Quito where we rode horses, went bird watching (saw over 50 species in 2 hours one morning!!!), swam in waterfalls, soared above the Ecuadorian jungle and just had a lot of good catch up time. My Ecuadorian host mom joined us for this part of our crazy adventure and it was then I realized how much I have been just going with the Ecuadorian culture and how much translating of culture (and language) I had to do for her and for my US family. Everything from the fact that we like to eat big breakfasts in the States and smaller lunches to how my family talks about every decision and it is not just the decision of the “man of the family”. It was very eye opening for me and for the others as well. Then we headed back to Quito where we dropped off my host mom who had to head back to Guaranda because she had classes at the university and we headed to a town called Baños. Here we spent some serious family time just chatting, going to the natural hot baths in the morning, eating food that is not rice and meat, and just enjoying each other’s company. After that it was off to my town (Guaranda la ciudad de mi corazón.) where we spent a crazy week with my family doing everything that anybody would ever want to do in my little town. We went to markets, near by towns, statues on hills, families houses, to eat cuy (guide pig), and I, unfortunately, had to go to school some days.  It was awesome to get to show them my life here and very tiring because the easy life I have built for my self was thrown away and I was the host, not the one being hosted, and I had to live up to the standards of Ecuadorian hosting, they are quite high. But it was fun. We finished out the trip by heading to Otavalo a huge market city right out side of Quito that has everything you could possibly want to buy in Ecuador. It was like a huge farmers market but with things not as much food. It was wonderful and I got a lot of my shopping for gifts done there. Then back to Quito and the airport to drop them off and send them back to the states. A wonderful visits that I won’t soon forget. Thanks guys! <3

Now I am just finishing what we would call in the states spring break, but here it is Easter vacation (separation of church and states is no existent here). It has been a very calm week and a half of vacation, I haven’t traveled much but I have been able to keep my self fairly occupied. I spent a lot of time helping teach English classes, hanging out with the other AFSers, helping out in the house, going on errands with my host mom and just chilling. It has been a wonderful break, but tomorrow school starts again. But don’t you worry; I won’t work too hard, the next week I am off to the Galapagos with AFS. It should be awesome.

Livin’ Life on the Loose