This is The Life

Takin' in

A whole new scene

And I'm swimming with a new crowd

Well like me start out my saying… I am not pregnant. How do I know this?!? Well today I got a blood test that confirmed this. Yesterday I woke up with a massive headache and didn’t feel good at all. After using the age-old test of getting up showering and eating breakfast I knew that today was going to be a day I spent in bed. By that evening I had a fever of 38 C (100.4 F) and was a sick mess. My host mother decided (even though I was convinced all I needed was water and sleep) that I needed to go to the doctor. There I got a complete physical and they told me that the only problem I had was a headache and fever. Really?!? I didn’t know that… haha. I could have told them that. But this is a different culture and apparently you go to the doctor for any possible illness. I spent most of the say sleeping and/or listening to music in my bed. I had no energy to do anything else. I had to abandon our plans of doing to the disco techa that evening. (Sorta like a dance club. They are all over in Ecuador.) The next day (today) I was whisked off to get a blood test. Turns out nothing is wrong. So that is good… no crazy Ecuadorian parasites or anything. But that has been an adventure. Lets just say that the doctors and blood draw clinics are not the same standard as in the US.

But enough of my illness talk. There has been a lot of other very cool stuff going on. Two nights ago I went to a basket ball game with my Aunt and Uncle and their host student. It was awesome!!! The two teams were rivals and from different provinces in Ecuador. We were rooting for the Bolivar team (the province we live in). At the end of the first quarter we were up by 7 (I think) points. The next two quarters our luck changed. By the end of the third quarter we were down by 17 points. But that last quarter saved us… we slowly started gaining them back. In true Latin American style the crowd was crazy and every call by the ref had an effect on them. At one point the ref made a call that the crowd disagreed with… water bottles were thrown on to the court and the whole place when up in madness. It was very exciting. We ended up winning 84 to 77, and much rejoicing was had. It was a good game and lots of fun. I hope that in the future I can attend more games.

Other then those two things I have been living life with my family. I tag along with who ever in going into center (the middle of town) and do errands with them. We almost always have a meal at somebody else’s house in our family. I can feel my Spanish getting better and can understand a heck of a lot more then when I got here, but it is always a struggle. My speaking has only improved a little bit, but I am sure it will get better. Life is an adventure. In a week(ish) I start school. I will be going to an all girls’ school that I can walk to from my house. We get our uniforms next week. AFS will possibly have a day trip to another city next week some time, if that comes threw. It is all very fun and exciting. Although I am going to be ready to have a more regular schedule with school and such. I have stopped being treated like a guest as much, witch I appreciate a lot. No more ice cream for breakfast, but that is ok by me. ☺ Well a brief update on my life.

Livin’ live on the loose.