last post!

Quick sum up of my last few weeks in Ecuador!

            Its about 4 in the morning, and Im sitting in a corner of the Quito airport waiting for my flight looking…possibly sticking out a bit… being rubia and all and eating bananas and peanut butter, oh and I made myself a fruitloop necklace and am munching on that lol…but story of my life here.  Anyway, the last few weeks have flown by, but have been fan flippin fantastic! The weekend after school I spent with my family in Cuenca.  My sisters and I went to Cajas National Park, which is a whole new world when its sunny.  I had been once before, but on a cloudy rainy day (still awesome!).  We chilled and explored, and I went in the freezing lake and they thought I was crazy of course.  The páramo is the ecosystem of agua, and the grounds are delightfully soaked, so I took off my shoes and hopped and squished around.  We also ate some of an edible quinoa tree, and saw a hummingbird.  We returned to a table full of an enormous pot of crabs, along with crab soup.  Quite a fun lunch…hammering crabs, meat flying everywhere…crabs are fricken tasty too.  Sunday we all went to the biopark zoo I have talked about, so my family could meet my best animal friends here, and I could say some last goodbyes.  We saw a lion feeding, the escapy monkeys are followed us around (those guys are still running the place I tell ya), the new chiquito black monkeys, the bears, the cocrodile taking a sun bath, and all the others.  We returned to a delicious stuffed rosemary chicken, napped and watched movies, and then I took my fam out for a last dinner…lots of fun.  Monday I left with Katy and Lindsey to meet the others on the coast.  We spent a week relaxing, soaking up the sun, reading, eating seafood and drinking beer, reading (read hunger games finally…so good!), and getting our asses whooped by the waves (meant for surfing). Oh, and I of course got pretty obsessed with shell hunting, and ended up making a pretty awesome mobile with beach wood, colorful string, and a ton of different shells for my family.  Which I of course proceeded to break, because I always seem to do that (but my mom’s a museum art restorer so that’s okay I guess)  Friday (4/20) we decided to go out with a bang in Montenita (the las vegas of Ecuador), and that we did.  Montenita is unbelievable…truly a non-stop party on the beach.  $250 coctail stands and ceviche stands line the beach, and the town is basically composed of bars and restaurants.  We started our nights with coctails on the beach watching the sunset (well for me a few shots of tequila inside a beer), later stumbled upon dollar tequila shots, and later stumbled upon a bar with a sand dance floor pouring tequila straight in your mouth all night long for free…the night followed beach and rock adventures, headlamps (the cities lights went out), dancing, a troll hat, hot dogs, and more.  One night was sufficient in there to say the least, and the next day we all headed our ways, Goldann and I to Cuenca.  I went for a last few beers at the beer house with my sisters, and a last few hotdogs.  I don’t think I have yet mentioned that I have become a bit of a hotdog hamburger fiend here.  They really know how to do them…4-5 sauces, onions, eggs, ham on top, sometimes hotdog on top of hotdog, sometimes fried egg on top, chifles on top. Peaches, pineapples, almost anything you can imagine.  The next day my sisters and I went to baños is Cuenca, which is steam saunas, and hot pools and such…really relaxing.  And later, my sisters and my brother and Goldann and I went to see hunger games!  I spent the final day in Cuenca with Goldann visiting our teachers, and wondering around and what not, had dinner and watched Simpsons with my fam, and then they surprised me with an amazing book of pics and messages from all of them.  I really have been blessed with my family here.  I have been so comfortable and so happy, and they have truly accepted me into the family.  They are truly good people, with good hearts, and a genuine care and interest in life and people. We have spent so many fun times, and have had so many interesting convos, and learned so from about and from each family member.  I have gotten to know them all really well in my time here, and it will be a pretty hard shock not seeing them everyday.  However, I’m confident that we will have more time and adventures together in the future.  There are people in your life that you meet, that you know will be in your life forever, and they are those people.  Yesterday, I flew from Cuenca to Quito, and today I fly from Quito home to the US.  Again, my family being awesome and all, my mom and my sister planned some work they had to do in Quito around my plans and came with me!  So yesterday we spent the day at my aunts house and in the city.  My sister and I went to the museum of water, which is pretty sweet….equipped with a huge bubble exhibit, and a number of rain and gas and storm exhibits.  We wandered around the center, the squares, and a few churches…which was especially fun, because she is an architect, and has worked a lot of Quito, and could tell me all about the buildings and churches, and history.  We went for a last meal of delicious garlic camarones (before I return to the feo shrimps of the US) and a last few pilsners (the kind of horrible beer I have grown to love here in Ecuador).  We went back to my aunts, and spent the night chatting and laughing.  I napped for a few hours, and that brings me here to the airport, sitting in my corner and attracting stares per usual.  Adios Ecuador, con much gusto!  By the way, I am dreading returning to English…its kind of a feo language, and I love speaking Spanish…also I have been constantly thinking and dreaming in Spanish, and I’m worried how fast I might loose it!  Choa!