Pitahaya...

Found my favorite fruit in Ecuador. It's called Pitahaya fruit, and it's delicious! It's funky looking, It comes from a cactus and it taste like kiwi only it's bigger and sweeter, and white on the inside! I could eat one everyday, wish I could bring them home with me too! I was eating one today and thought I should share with all ya'll

It's all good!

What's up to all that read this blog! I hope life is going well for you and your family.
Here is the newest news of Quito. Really still not much, Spanish, Spanish, Spanish. This past weekend I got the chance to go see El Refugio though. Marlo and I took a trip to the Middle of the World too! Or as you would say it here...La mitad del mundo. It was HOT that day, I burnt my head a wee bit. This week other than spanish I've accomplish finally meeting up with Laura, whom I'll have connection with out at Carmen Bajo. We talked a little about my homestay, although I still don't know exactly when it will be. And some extra things that could be a big help to Carmen Bajo. So that was nice. Okay then, I don't have too much else to talk of at the moment.

While out at El Refugio this weekend we enjoyed eating lunch in this really cool playground thing. I snapped a quick picture of the family awesome style. You have Mikala, Marlo, Matt, and Nick. They are a really cool family. I love the fact that they are from Chester. I had the chance to meet them, and get to know them a bit over this past Thanksgiving holiday before coming to Quito. It's fun to be able to talk about Chester, and our friends there, and church. Plus they are superb hosts. Not only do I get to live her with them. But every Monday they envite all of the other interns over for a homecooked meal and a bible study! It's been Great!

Muy Interesante

Yesterday on my walk down the hill to Spanish class, I saw the most interesting of things!
These construction workers were unloading bricks from a truck. This building is approximately 4 stories up by now. So they are tossing big ol slabs of brick up this platform thing. One guy stands on each platform. They had a good rhythm going on I was amazed at how fast they were moving though while tossing slabs of brick in the air. What if someone drops one? They were all talking away too. Those dudes must have some killer muscles. Other than that not much is new still my daily Spanish lessons which gave me a fairly large headache today. One day at a time. I can't wait to get out to Carmen Bajo and start working though! This is what I look most forward to daily.

Emilia es muy cansada

So far I have 3 days of Spanish class under my belt and one Sunday attending a Spanish speaking Church. I tagged along with the Jensen's to their church this Sunday. Marlo attempted to translate a lot of what was going on. Soon though I'll be attending Carmen Bajo services seems how I'll be working there. I get that much more time to get to know the ladies. So far it's school all the time. I go 4 hours a day, and study about the same amount. Mondays all the interns get together here for a bible study. My first one was this past Monday, it was muy interesante. Mondays and Thursdays are bible study days in which I'm grateful for those few hours sans spanish. Plus getting to discus God and the amazing way he brings his Glory to us is always a great mood lifter!

Today after spanish class I stepped out into a down poor. I walk possibly 4 or 5 blocks tops to the Trolly from school. I was completely soaked. My pants were somewhat dry, but my hair was dripping, my glasses were usless, and my bag and sweatshirt were so heavy. I think Quito should make everything rain proof bags and all. I mean yea I have rain resistant Jacket, wasn't wearing it, wonder how it would of held its own. But back to quito seriously because it's mainly always a 60% chance of rain, why not just walk around in plastic slikers all day? Could you imagine how uncomfortable? but dry!

That is about it, back to Spanish class Son las oche y media. How's everything in everyone elses life?
Shoot me emails keep me updated!

All my love!

English Please...

Spanish sounds as though it just rolls right of the tongue. But you see when I speak a the spanish, I can only speak in one way, with a thousand tenses (or so it feels). Past/Present, formal/informal, feminine/masculine, and the list of speaking rules goes on. English is fun, you can play with words ALL the time.

Bonus to the day, I didn't get lost on my way to my first Spanish Lesson, and it was just Faulcie (I can not pronounce her name very well, I feel bad) and I. So there is 3 weeks, where it will be only Spanish and I have to decipher it. PLUS I ordered a double shot of espresso. I'd ask about Americanos, but I didn't see it on the list, and I can't speak fluently enough to start asking questions. So I downed 2 shots, delicious!

Non Bonus, I had to wake up at 7am. This altitude makes you sleepy. I love the fact that I can do fine on 6 hours of sleep. But here 7 is rough and 8 I still wake up yawning. Hopefully that will get better otherwise I feel like I sleep too much. Even though it's normal.

I babysat tonight too, It is Matt's birthday so he and Marlo went to dinner and a Movie. While I warmned up leftovers and watched Bolt with the kids. Good times. They are funny, and a bit insane, but all in good health.

And that pretty much sums up the day. LONG. My head hurt so bad after walking out of that spanish class. I am to study everyday this weekend the notes I took today, and review them Monday. Plus I'm doing Rosetta Stone on top of that for extra help. That's a lot of language.

Exploring....

It's only Tuesday and I had to think about what day it was for a moment. It's been a whole lot of playing since I arrived. I wrote about hanging around on Sunday. Monday, Mikala, Marlo and I went down towards the historical part of Quito. Climbed around on the Basilica, the church is beautiful. It has these funny clocks upon both towers that add an interesting touch to the structure. The clocks look like they are from the 80's and the Basilica was built in 1892, so they look kind of out of place. It seems like the clocks would at least have roman numerals or something of sophistication.

After that we walked down past the presidents home, and ate somewhere around there. I had my first fried plantain stuffed with cheese and spice stuff. It was delicious but I don't understand how they turned it into a stuffed pocket the outer shell was all plantain. Non the less delicious. Later that evening I learned how to make peppered jelly. Supposidly it goes well on crackers with Cream Cheese. It looks like we did an A+ job. We'll be tasting it later this afternoon to find out! Marlo and I stayed up talking until a little after 11pm, it was nice.

Today we began the orientation progress, and hopefully tomorrow I will be getting enrolled in Language school! Then I'll have two weeks of that going on. I attempted some Rosetta stone today. The kids were laughing at me. Hopefully I'll catch on soon.

Tonight we'll be going to a pancake dinner, because it's Fat Tuesday here.
I'm excited because it will be the first time I get to meet some of the Youth World People!

9300 feet up

Oh to Travel....Love it.
In the wee hours of the morning 3:30am Jeff and Bryce and I got up to head to San Fransisco airport.
They saw me off for my journey to Ecuador. The first two flights were okay, I slept on and off for a majority of the air time. Then the last flight which took off at 3:55 pm was scheduled to arrive in Ecuador at 10:20pm. A supper fog supposedly took over the city of Quito making it impossible to land. So we circled the city, ran out of gas, flew to a neighboring airport refueled and returned to Quito to circle twice more upon FINALLY landing at 3am. 5 hours later poor Matt, I felt bad having no way to contact him. What fun would it be to have a normal flight right?

Missed church in the morning it starts at 10:30. But seems how Matt was up until 3am, as was Marlo because she waited for Matt's call that I had arrived. I'd been traveling forever, and slept in until 12:30. Technically it's 9:30 Californian time. But none the less it was over 9 hours of sleep I haven't had that in ages.

My first day I got a tour of the Super Maxi (grocery store) ate some booger fruit, yea fruit!
and the kids gave me a tour of the park at the end of the street. I got to see their offices and bedrooms and the parks kitchen. The dirt waterfalls, there is a lot going on in that park.

And that's all the news for now. I start classes in a few days. It's the Carnival holiday so the kids school is closed, and Youth World Offices are also closed up until Wednesday.