Finalmente, estoy aqui

Okay, so it's been a pretty crazy few 3 weeks, not going to lie. I feel pretty terrible that I haven't wrote on this because this was my way of keeping in touch with the world, but I've just been so busy.

First, I have to say that I made a mistake about one of my "brothers" in Quito.!! The older brother of my homestay family (David) is living Arizona. He went to University of San Francisco for his undergrad in Chemical Engineering and now he is getting his PhD in Arizona. Also, the brother who lives here (Diego) isn’t really interested in Chemistry—I was a bit confused. But, he is studying medicine. Oh man was I off!! Haha.

Every day (Monday thru Friday) I have class at Fundacion CIMAS from 9-5 (mas o menos). Fundacion CIMAS is an NGO focused on development in Ecuador by educating students about the history, politics, economics, cosmovision, and development theory in the country. The organization is just fabulous. We talk about all the things that I’m passionate about and interested in. When I get home from CIMAS, which is about 5 or 6, I have dinner with the fam, do homework, and either go to sleep or go out. So basically I'm either too exhausted to write or I'm out haha.

On the weekends, I have been traveling a lot. But, the weekend after my last post, I stayed home, because I had to do laundry with my home-stay mom all night, which was totally fine, but didn't get to go out...But no worries ladies and gents, I've definitely made up for it. I went out wedensday night to a bar called Bungalow 6 in the Mariscal (touristy part of Quito) which was reallly fun--got some free drinks! hehe. Its free for girls from 7-10!! Plus, I became friends with one of the bartenders and we would have gone for drinks and coffee a couple of times to practice my spanish more which has definitely helped. Then, the weekend before last I went to Banos which is near Ambato. (South of Quito--see map). Banos is known for many things: the banos (which are "baths"--more like hot tubs but as big as pools--and the source is from the nearby volcano), hiking, rafting, biking, canyoning,bridge jumping, and of course the nightlife. I did everything except canyoning. Yup that's right. I jumped off a bridge, twice! The ropes are tied around your waist and you jump off and hold onto the ropes like a swing (see pics). But, the second time, the ropes were attached to me from the back instead of the front, so I had no rope to hold on to (pretty scary!) and so when I jumped off it was like I had no support on..and I felt like an angel flying in the air. I can't even explain how amazing it was!! Definitely you need to check out the pictures that I uploaded to dotphoto (see link on the right). So amazing!

Then this past weekend was Carnival, and we--5 girls on the program-Me, Carla, Emily, Aviva, and Christina--went to Atacambes which is a little bit South of Esmeraldas (30 min south). This place is known for being crazy during Carnival--oh and it was. There were thousands of people of there. Unfortunately, no pics because I was afraid of it getting stolen (lots of robberies there---good example: my phone was stolen this weekend). But, I'm going to go more into detail about this trip another day because I have another trip tomorrow with my class sooooooo--i'll definitely write again when I get back. I'll try to be better and keeping up with this!

Miss my family and friends--love you bubby--hope you get better soon..........