Everything Comes to an End

Dear Chris Kwon,

In this [SUPER LONG] entry, I will be outlining my beach trip/spring break

(pictures included), discussing my final days in Ecuador, as well as sharing my thoughts about a country under-appreciated by us.

SPRING BREAK

Mompiche

Home of the black sand beach (I brought some home with me) and also the sight of our things getting stolen. E lost her ipod, phone, and $100 to that robbery. Al lost her camera and I lost about $10. ¡Que pena!

This beach is isolated and quiet. The locals are all men. As I noticed in other coastal towns, there is a huge rasta influence on the locals. The women are nowhere to be seen and the men sit around and smoke. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of musical talent here.

Canoa

1 hitchhike (hitchhiking doesn't exist in Ecuador, because nothing is free. We paid $5 to be taken to a small town) and 2 buses later, we ended up in Canoa. We loved this place, which is full of butterflies, rainbow colored tents, and happy people, but we had very limited funds, so we moved on quickly.

Bahía de Caráquez

Bahía is more of a city. There were tall buildings everywhere. Tall buildings meant banks. Al and I were able to get money. We felt pressed for time, so we decided to stay the night. Our room was super sketchy. The first place we went had bed bugs, so we relocated to a place that reminded me of an old victorian house. It was slanted.

T, a girl from our class, and her dad had rented a car and were in Bahía. They offered to drive us to Puerto Lopez, so the next morning, we crammed 6 people in a small car and drove through Portoviejo and Jipijapa (prounounced Hippy Hoppa for all you non-spanish speakers). Outside of Portoviejo, you can find tons of hourly motels. I don't know why, but it's sort of like the brothel section of Ecuador. Jipijapa was nothing more than a huge bus transfer area. The entrance to the town did have a huge statue of corn (pictured).

Puerto Lopez

This was the leaving point for the Poor Man's Galapagos. The town itself was decently sized. Although I lost a whole day to illness here, I still enjoyed the quiet fishing town/ huge tourist starting point. Al and I went to Isla de la Plata and saw blue footed boobies up close as well as mascaras (pictured at left). All of the mascara birds were hatching eggs, so we saw tons of babies and tons of eggs up close. I would recommend this place over the Galapagos for anyone on a budget.

Montañitas

The unofficial Cancun of Ecuador, I never saw anyone over the age of 30, except some misplaced tourists from Colorado. There are two main groups of locals here: the nomadic artisan craftsmen and the local surfers. We had our fair share of both of them. The craftsmen were really interesting. I think I preferred them. They were just enjoying life. The surfers were also just enjoying life, but in a different way. The two groups went to the same events, but never spoke or crossed paths. It was an interesting experience. I was sick for most of Montañitas (hence, there are no pictures), but the rest of the girls LOVED it. Save for our horrible hostel located right across from a discoteca that played extremely loud music until 5:30, I liked the surf town. I realized here that I am not much of a partier and enjoy the more tranquil life style. We went to a local reggae show one night, which was really fun. It was raining and the roof broke, but everyone kept dancing in the rain.

Guayaquil

Guayaquil is sort of like Tacoma, in that it doesn't sound all that appealing and if you just travel through it, you would probably never give it a second thought. It's just another big city. Fortunately, with a good tour guide, places like Guayaquil and Tacoma can be amazing. Our family showed us a wonderful time. Every city has nice, inviting places. As I mentioned before, the family was warm and inviting. I hope someday I can be that hospitable.

Cuenca

Cuenca was full of beautiful churches. It is considerably colder than the beach, so it was a climate struggle, but I quickly got used to it.

I think if we had not been there on a Sunday, we may have had a different experience. This is the only city I felt truly safe in. It is said that the water is potable and there is very little crime at night. Always take caution, however.

Baños

Who doesn't love this place. A, E and I all agree that this place is probably the best spring break spot. It's unknown to anyone outside of South America (maybe even outside of Ecuador), which keeps it somewhat pure. There is something for everyone in Baños. We watched E jump off the bridge and we enjoyed the views of the waterfalls. Anyone who ever goes near Ecuador should make Baños a stop on the list. You won't be disappointed.

FINAL DAYS

We made it back to Quito at around 4 on Tuesday. After a lazy afternoon, A, E and I went to the Mariscol to find me a hostel for the night. We had planned on staying out until 3 (time for E to go to the airport) but I couldn't make it past 12. E went to the airport early and A and I passed out.

The next day, I woke up and sat around my expensive ($17) yet comfortable hostel room. I walked to the artisan market with the intent of buying some expensive colorful shoes. I decided against it and bought some hemp for bracelets and some really cool earrings. I caught a bus to my old park and met up with S. We walked around Carolina as I told her about my coast trip. She has another 2 months in Quito. We watched a local soccer game, then parted ways with the promise of talking more frequently while in the States.

I had called my host mom earlier to see what time was good for picking up my suitcase. She told me 5. I went to the house at 5 to find she wasn't there. I decided to wait. After an hour, I figured she probably had purposely been gone, so I asked my empleada to call a cab for me. She and I had a proper goodbye. I will miss her. I don't know what happened between me and Susy, but I'll probably never hear from her again. Weird.

That night, I paid for a room at the $6 hostel. I wasn't planning on sleeping, since I had to be at the airport at 3:30 am and had no means of alarm. I repacked my bags and hung out with the other hostelers. They were all really cool. There was a lot of Spanglish going on and I absolutely loved it. I'm not bilingual, but I understand enough that I feel like I am. Spanglish is my new favorite language. A guy named Eli from Toronto had met two guys at the Teleferiqo that day. They came over and were planning on going out. I told them I knew the Mariscol pretty well, since it was were all of my class went to celebrate weekly. I took the three boys (one was of Indian descent from Australia and the other was a big old teddy bear from Belgium) and then a girl from Argentina to Shawarma. I wasn't planning on going out, but somehow got roped into it. We danced for hours. It was a lot of fun. I got back to the hostel around 2, took a shower, and headed to the airport. It was a good way to end my Ecuador experience. A night with complete strangers, speaking accented English.

At the airport, I paid too much to check a second bag. I tried paying with one of my debit cards, only to find that it had been expired since January. Wow. I literally had one debit card and my passport as the only forms of valid ID on me for the past 2 months! The security at the Quito airport is crazy. They have normal security, then more security at the gate. I went through the gate security and realized there were no bathrooms and no food services. I had two hours before my flight. I fell asleep.

I woke up and got on the plane, where I fell back asleep for most of the flight. In Houston, I had to go through Customs. I made it through, dropped off my bags, bought a starbucks coffee and relaxed. I decided I would try to get an earlier flight (my flight was to leave at 5:30 that night and it was 1). I was put on standby for a 3:00 flight. I was the 8th person on the standby list. I went to the gate and waited it out, I didn't have much faith. My name was called and they told me I had a seat: 10B. It was almost time for the plane to take off, so I rushed to a pay phone and left a message on my dad's phone (for a dollar?!) that I would be getting in 3 hours early.

I rushed back to the gate and was in line to board, when they called my name again. They told me that 10B had showed up. Ugh. BUT they had a seat in first class. I was moved up to 4E. Okay, no extra charge? Nice. I watched tv the whole time. We actually got hot towels too.

I made it home and my dad was ready with a welcome sign (it actually said "Truck a bucka" which is my childhood nickname sort of). He took me straight to the Tacoma Mall (it has changed sooooo much) and I got a free new phone. I came home and got my new driver's license. I flushed toilet paper down the toilet. I wore a seatbelt while in the car. I drank tap water. I am already overwhelmed with everything I have to do, but I'm very happy to be home.

Will I miss Ecuador? Of course. I am only beginning to experience culture shock. I have come back with a new perspective on life and on the U.S. I am lucky to be from here and have come to appreciate how lucky I am.

This is my last entry. Thank you for reading it. I hope you weren't totally bored or annoyed. My parting words: Go. Travel. Explore. Share.

Keep on truckin'

Ali Jensen

36 hours left in Ecuador

Dear Chris Kwon,

Cuenca is not very exciting on Sundays. The only thing opened are churches. Outside of the churches, however, there are tons of street vendors (anything from cotton candy to people in barny outfits selling bubbles) and marching bands. We walked around the city, then enjoyed the comfort of our hostel (if you're ever in Cuenca, stay at Hostal Cafecito). We took a night bus to Baños, which turned out to be a 6 hour ride to Amabato, where we were dropped off at the side of the road- not at the bus station. Fortunately, a man from Brooklyn who now lives in Ecuador, helped us find a bus to Baños. We got there at around 6, found a hotel and passed out. At 9, we woke up and decided what to do. We rented bikes with the intention of going to all of the waterfalls near baños. We reached the first waterfall after a huge struggle with uphill biking. We convinced a chiva driver to drive us to the rest of the waterfalls. They were very pretty. At the last one, we could swim in the waterfall. We went back to where we left our bikes (which were surprisingly still there). We ended up walking our bikes most of the way home. Later that night, we watched 7 years in Tibet at a precious little restaurant. This morning, Annie and I got massages and we left Baños at noon.

These past few days have been pretty lazy. I'll post pictures with brief explanations in the next few days. Schorn leaves in a few short hours and I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow. I have no idea where I am staying the night tonight, but I'm sure everything will work out. I have no phone, no clean clothes and no plan. I feel like a true adventurer. SOOO expect a more feelings-filled entry with tons of pictures soon! Keep on truckin

From 1st to 3rd

Dear Chris Kwon,

This morning, Lynda made us a delicious breakfast of an omlette with spaghetti noodles and ham. (It was good, minus the ham). We went to the bus station around 9 and bought tickets for a 930 bus, which turned out to be a 950 bus,which actually never came. We finally left at after 11. We were planning on stopping in cañar and going to the Ingapirca ruins, but our bus took WAY longer than expected (6.5 hours as opposed to 3 hours). We made it to Cuenca and found a cute hostel. We found some food and have just been sitting around since. This town is (Surprise) completely different from any other place. It´s the third largest city in Ecuador and it´s the most european one i´ve seen so far. So far, I like it. It seems safe and it has a ton of churches (I LOVE photgraphing churches). Tomorrow, we´ll explore cuenca, then part from alex and go to Baños. My eyebrows are out of control and I´m exhausted. Someday I´ll post pictures (of the places I´ve been, not my eyebrows).

4 MORE DAYS left here. RIP Rosemary.

How Many Malls Are In Guayaquil?

Dear Chris Kwon,

After a wonderful evening sleeping in a hostel with a leaking roof that is close to a discoteca that blared music until 5 in the morning, I was ready to leave Party City, aka Montanitas. We bussed it to Guayaquil and were immediately overwhelmed by all the people at the bus station. Alex bought minutes for her phone and we called Tito. He told us he'd be at the station in 5minutes. A short time later (actually close to 5 minutes) we met up with the whole clan from the Galapagos. We all crammed into the family car (a very nice car).

We introduced Erica and Annie and explained that Annie needed to go to the bank to get money. The family was extremely helpful and took us straight to the specific bank. We walked on the Malecon (the boardwalk) after the bank. Tito showed us the important parts. We walked up Las Penas, which is a neighborhood with a bunch of stairs. The top has a pirate-themed museum and a gorgeous view of the city from a lighthouse. We walked back down the 400-something steps, completely drenched in sweat, and met up with Ricardo and Lynda (Brother and Mom). We discussed our evening's plans with Lynda and Tito. We were going to go to Cuenca tonight and stay somewhere there. At first, Tito's dad suggested we stay at his family home in Cuenca. We eventually decided that we would stay the evening in Guayaquil (a few hours is NOT enough to get to know this city, according to our hosts) and head to Cuenca in the morning.

Lynda is the manager of a bunch of ice cream stores in malls all over Guayaquil. We stopped at two different malls and two different ice cream places. At the first, she made sure we got her discount. At the second, she gave us free slurpee-like drinks. YUM

We rode back to their house and jumped in their pool (their backyard is a patio with a pool- so nice). I love this family. The dad, Francisco, blares disco and salsa music. It was quite the experience. We got out and Linda had bought us Burger King, so we chowed down on that. It was like summer! Francisco took us out for an evening tour of the city. It's WAY different than what I expected. This city, like the rest of this country, is really diverse. It sort of reminds me of LA, because it is spread out and there are some really nice parts and some not so nice parts. I enjoyed the tour. I like Guayaquil. I love this family. And that is how I feel about my day. Cuenca tomorrow?

Coastal Craziness

Dear Chris Kwon,

Monday night, I was stricken with a horrible illness that kept me vomitting all night. I slept all day Tuesday in Puerto Lopez. This morning, I decided I couldnt live that way. Alex and I went out on a tour of Isla dela Plata- the poor man`s galapagos. It was soooo much better than the galapagos. Granted the weather was nice, but we saw blue footed boobies really close and we hung out with birds and their new born`s- so presh. We snorkled and had an exhilirating boat ride. Some people on our tour were from Lewis and Clark in orgeon. It`s weird how many PNW people I`ve met here. I guess we just like to travel.

Sorry these blogs aren`t very detailed. These internet cafes are frustrating and I have no patience.
As for now, I am currently in the last destination for my beach tour- Montañita. It´s party central. Hopefully, I´ll be surfing tomorrow. 8 more days cats!

CIAO! Ali

Different day, different beach

Dear Chris Kwon,

We enjoyed a lovely morning in the Pacific Ocean. There are as many butterflies in Canoa as there are hammocks (both very popular). The butterflies fly over the waves. It´s like nothing I have ever seen before. I wish I could show you pictures. Soon, children. Soon. We returned to our cabins and jumped into the pool. I showered and Annie realized her wallet was missing. Her debit card stoppedworking right before we left, so it wasn´t that important. Unfortunately, she lost her camera. Now, Erica and I are the only ones left with cameras.

We were all out of money, so we had to leave the gorgeous populated beach of Canoa. We hopped on a bus to San Vincente, then took a water taxi across the bay to Bahía de Caráquez. The whole trip was fast. The scenery changed quickly. Canoa is a small beach town with old wooden shacks that house everything. The beach is gorgeous. Bahía de Caráquez is more like west seattle. There are some big buildings, a HUGE boardwalk around the whole town, and the beach is somewhat lacking. We has ceviche for lunch and ice cream for dessert. The ice cream was to die for.

Annie had no way of getting money today. Tomorrow, she should get some money from a bank- without ID? Oh Ecuador. Alex and I were able to withdraw money from here in Bahía. Erica was not, so she is currently on the phone with her bank. We have all had issues and it´s been such an amazing experience. I met two people today originally from the states. Both separately devoted their lives to travel- living on the road for over 10 years. I don´t think I could do it, but it´s wonderful to meet such incredible people.

Tomorrow, we are planning on getting to Puerto Lopez, which is the starting point to the poor man´s galapagos= Isla de la Plata. It will probably involve transferring in Manta. I hope I have my camera at the end of the trip!

Quick recap of the contents of this trip now:
4 girls
2 cameras left
2 functioning debit cards
2 phones left
limited money
a will to make it out with some possessions left

RECIPE FOR ADVENTURE

BEACH

Dear CK,

I´m in a precious town called Canoa. We left two nights ago from Quito at 1230. We have been to 3 beaches. Last night, we stayed in Mompiche. After 12 hours of sleep, we woke up at went to a black sand beach. Some of our things were stolen while on that beach- although there was NO ONE in sight. Curious... We ended up taking 3 buses to our next destination, Canoa. We rented a cabin and it has air conditioning! We just realized that there are no ATMs in this town and we are working with about $60 between the 4 of us- mostly alex´s money.

Besides many hours on the bus and as many mosquito bites, this trip is fun. If nothing else, it´s definitely an adventure.

Au Revoir Quito

Dear Chris Kwon,

The past few days have been bittersweet. I had only written a little bit for my last final paper Sunday night. I worked on it Monday morning and managed to draft the most boring paper of my lifetime: Indigenous plants in local medicine. Monday evening, I decided to go see Alice and Wonderland instead of working on anymore homework. It was good, but not great. The theater was about a 15 minute walk from my house. It got out at 9:30ish. I walked all the way home, which may have been stupid, because it was late, but I ran for most of it and returned untouched and unrobbed.

Tuesday was more of the essay-editing, finals-preparing day. Yesterday, I woke up feeling sick, but told myself that I can't be sick, because I am going on vacation. I made it to school and crept through my finals. We had a goodbye party with our host families after school. I hated it. I don't like "mixers" especially with people I don't talk to normally (my host mom, the other host parents). The only thing my host mom said to me was "I put your suitcase in your room." Haha. I rode home with Antonio, Susy and Ibeth. I enjoy listening to their family interactions. Unlike my classmates, however, I don't consider myself a part of their family. They're really nice and have done a lot for me, so I'm grateful for them, we just never got too close.

I picked up a cab and met some friends in the Mariscol. Our two original teachers went out with us (precious, I know). We sat around and talked for a long while, then people wanted to go dancing. I had to pick up Schorn at the airport, so I hailed a cab and waited for her at international arrivals. I was super jazzed about life, so I struck up a conversation with a young man sitting next to me. The conversation originally made fun of the obviously U.S guy behind us. He was speaking spanish, but his accent was horrible. It sounded like the most sarcastic impression of a southerner you can think of. Erica arrived and I was super stoked! We taxied to her hostel and checked her in. This was when I realized I had left my phone in the taxi. I had gone almost 2.5 months without anything happening to my phone (two people had theirs stolen) and then I left it in a taxi? To make things worse, I had had that phone for a looooong time and it was definitely my favorite. STUPID!

I did some detective work and found out some information about the guy who took my cab after I did. His name is Chris, he's staying in Schorn's hostel, and he was going to the airport to pick up his sister and then returning to the hostel that night. I had a brief feeling of hope. I called my phone about 2010 times, but no answer. No one seemed to know Chris's phone number either, but everyone in the hostel (which was a surprising amount of people) were very helpful and sympathetic. I tried to wait out Chris's return by talking with interesting hostel guests (including a canadian who works at a chocolate lab in Ecuador and a bunch of people with dreads), but grew bored and convinced Schorn to set out to find my friends (and professors).

My classmates frequent the Mariscol way more than I do. I realized I had no idea where they were, or how I would find them. I asked someone on the street where one of the popular bars is located (I know some names from listening to the stories at school). He pointed me in the right direction. As I was walking there, I ran into one of the guides from the Amazon- again! We saw him last week too. He was with another one of our guides (he remembered me, I didn't remember him). They decided to try to find my friends with us. I went into maybe 4 bars and had no luck. I had one option left, so we headed down the street. I saw a girl in a dress that looked like Autumn, one of my classmates, so I yelled her name and ran towards here. It turns out, that wasn't Autumn. Classic.

I then heard my name and found all of my friends in line for a bar! Relief! The rest of the night was pretty dull. I took Schorn back to her hostel and we ran into Chris. I had never really met him, but I was sooooo excited to see him. I asked him if he had my phone. He said no (I think everyone in the hostel had told him about me), but he knew the name of the taxi driver. His name is Jeffrey. Great. In a city with almost 9,000 taxis, there has to be more than one with a driver named Jeffrey. I am marking this as a lost cause. I am officially phoneless for the first time since 7th grade. The thought frightens me, but I'm sort of excited to see how my two week trip will work out with even less helpful tools.

I'm not sure when I'm leaving for the coast. Either tonight or tomorrow morning. I'm running on 5 hours of sleep. My only real plan for the day is to pick up Schorn at 12. I'll try to keep in touch as best I can, but I'm not sure how advanced all of the hostels will be.

Keep on truckin' and good luck with finals!

Happy Women's Day!

Dear Chris Kwon,

This morning, Antonio watched me eat breakfast. I can't get over his blue eyes. They're different. He asked me if I had a lot of homework. I truthfully told him that I have 5 essays due Wednesday. I told him I was going to go out and enjoy life today, however. He seemed amused and pleased by the response.

I met Edan at the mall. We decided to get coffee because we were both tired. I love Juan Valdez. It's sort of like Starbucks, but cheaper and better. We finally made it to the Ecovia (bus thing) and went to the Mariscol (partyland). I received a call from Taylor who wanted to go biking with us. E and I walked around for forever trying to find anti-malarial pills. No luck. We met up with T and headed to yellowbikes, where we met some really cool people. They spoke perfect

english. One of them told us about her coast trip and spent a good 20 minutes writing in my notebook about all the places I need to go on my trip. We rented bikes for an hour and it was $5. They told us we could take longer than an hour. (If you come to Quito, use their services).

One of the main streets is closed on Sundays here, so we rode on that street. It was so much fun. We made our way through Parque

et. It was so much fun. We made our El Ejido, where I took a picture of Quito's version of the Arc du triomphe. We made it to Centro Historico. The designated bike route crosses through all the plazas in CH.

The first plaza we rode through was Plaza de Teatro Sucre. There

was a jazz festival going on. I actually enjoy live Jazz. We listened for a bit, then moved on to Plaza del Gobierno, where they were

celebrating Women's Day. We didn't stay long there, but it was exciting. I have had a pretty woman-empowering weekend. With groups of women, I have climbed a mountain and biked around a city. In a machismo country, it's nice to be recognized.

We headed back to the other plaza and listened to some more jazz. E and I bought some sweet bicycle t-shirts and T bought some ice cream.

We trekked back and the ride was surprisingly flat. T wanted to check out an artisan market in the Mariscol, so we walked through that. It reminded me of the inside of the Starlight flea market in Tacoma. The word for flea market here is "mercado de pulgas" which literally translates to "market of fleas." The three of us walked across the street to a DVD shop. We went crazy. All DVDs here are bootlegged, so we bought some (okay, I bought two and E and T bought a million each).

T headed home for lunch. E and I rushed back to the Ecovia and ran to Mr. Bagel before it

closed. I had to get my bagel to go, because I was meeting Sam Phillips at the botanical garden. I'm writing a paper in one of my classes about the indigenous plants here and thought this garden would be useful. S and I wandered around the gardens (I didn't take any notes), took a million pictures of flowers, and discussed our travels throughout Ecuador. I have seen S more times in the past two months than I have in three years. She is here until May. We laid around Parque Carolina (my home park) and talked about life in general.

My feelings for Quito progressed to love today. There are so many secrets in this country. Quito is a fascinating city and the guidebooks do not do it justice. Seattle and Tacoma both have facebook groups that share all the secrets of each city. Unfortunately, I don't know of one for Quito. My advice to all of you is to just explore explore explore. You will find something interesting, like my favorite picture of the day: The Ecuadorian's wheelchair!

Also, in honor of women's day, go out and respect a woman today! 3 days left of class and then vacation! EEEEEEEEEE

Women's Empowerment at Cotopaxi

Dear Chris Kwon,

Since we last spoke, my life has been rather dull. I finished my work at FUDIS, wrote a 7 page paper about my experience, and have rid my mind of all memories of that white-walled place. I celebrated by going out on Thursday night. Most of us went to dinner. Denise and I split some food and I paid WAY too much for it. I ended up getting home at 3 in the morning (very unlike me, I know).

Yesterday, I did nothing. I pretended to work on my many essays due next week, but really just relaxed. I at dinner with one of my empleadas and she was very sweet. She has three kids. Her son, who is 18, knows how to cook, because she would never want to have raised a man who can't cook. Such a liberal thought in this country.

This morning, I woke up early and beat the morning traffic (aka no one else was awake in the house when I was). I had a modest breakfast and walked to the mall, where I met Shaunté, Denise, Edan, Autumn, and Taylor. We boarded a van and headed to Cotopaxi. Cotopaxi is the world's largest active volcano. It's 5,897 meters. You do the math. We went to the museum in the national park, yawned a bit, and moved on to the hike.

The hike wasn't very far, but it was one of the most difficult things I have ever attempted. The guide told us that it usually takes 30 minutes to an hour to get up to the refugio (base camp). I made it there in 40 minutes. My head was racing and my heart was pounding. As pictured above, base camp is 4800 meters, which is almost 16,000 feet. That's about 2,000 feet above the top of Rainier. I came ill prepared, because the base of the hike provided high winds and hail! It was really about 40 degrees, but I was freezing in my rain jacket and nothing else.

The person who ran our tour was a woman, all of us participants were women, and our guide up the mountain was a woman. Mom, be proud, a group of fine spirited women overcame the treacherous hike to the base camp today. The hike down was amazing. The ground is steep and made entirely of ash and rock. We skied down the hill. We took tons of jumpy pictures too. We were supposed to eat lunch at a lake, but we were all frozen, so we ate in the van. The guides found us amusing, because we were all very animated. I had an amazing day with those ladies.

The rest of our class went to Papallacta, which is a town with spas and hot springs. They had a good time, but I don't think I could have handled pure relaxation. Tonight, some of us went to eat pizza in Gringolandia. It was pretty delicious. I enjoyed our relaxing dinner and was somewhat relieved when everyone decided to call it a night after dinner instead of going out.

I still have many assignments due by Wednesday. I am keeping a very calm (or irresponsible) attitude about it. Instead of freaking out and planning on spending tomorrow doing other things. Biking in the morning, botanical garden with a friend from home in the afternoon, and possibly a movie in the evening. Let's see if I can live up to those expectations.

Bon soir amis.

Tito Alvarado

Dear Chris Kwon,

This evening, at approximately 10:33 pm, I received a phone call from my big little brother, Tito Alvarado. He is the oldest son that I met of one of the families from Guayaquil in the Galapagos. He calls me his "little dwarf" and I call him the "Big Friendly Giant." He called me tonight with a list of grievances about my "essay" on my blog about my adventures in the Galapagos. I wish to make this statement:

"Thank you, Tito. Your comments have been taken into consideration. If I found said comments useful, I made changes in the "essay." I appreciate your concern about my blog entries."

Me and Tito. MISS YOU BROTHER!

What a Day! (5 more to gooooooo)

Dear Chris Kwon,

This morning, I woke up bright and early to go to FUDIS for the second to last time in my life. I walked into the kitchen just as Antonio was leaving for "work." I felt bad, because Susy immediately rushed to serve me breakfast. She sat with me while I ate and I finally asked her if I could leave my suitcase while I traveled. She quickly said yes, then asked about my travel plans. She's so stoked I travel. As I was waiting at the crosswalk by my house, some old woman said something to me. I thought I had been staring off into space, so I snapped to. I finally realized that she wanted me to help her cross the street. Justifiably, the street is really dangerous. There's no crossing signal. I decided to pretend to be a boyscout, so she grabbed onto my arm and let me lead her across the street. She was so presh, running while I was basically crawling I was moving so slowly. A bus was headed right for us, but we made it just in time. She thanked me and said "hasta luego."

I got to FUDIS and someone else was finally there. Annie and I worked on homework for a while until the director came and asked if we would help clean the basement. I didn't even know there was a basement. It is probably SUPER dirty. We gave disgusted looks, so she put us on "fruit sorting duty" instead. We went to the kitchen to find 3 huge crates of plum-like fruits. Our job was to sort out the bad ones, then bag the little ones so they can be sold at a market. I guess it's okay to sell random fruit from a bodega in a Cancer shelter in this country. (Starlite swapmeet, anyone?) Olivia (girl from U.S) told me that an eye doctor came to FUDIS, gave free eye exams, then gave out free glasses. Wow. Apparently, of the 30 people screened, 20 of them needed glasses. Olivia said she was heart broken when she found out that most of them couldn't read and glasses were sort of unnecessary.

Instead of class, we went to another museum. This time, we went to Mindalae Museo, which was more of a culture museum. I found this one much more interesting. Afterwards, we hung out at a cafe next to the museum for a long time with our teachers. It was a relaxing, work-free afternoon.

Tonight's dinner lasted way longer than it should have. At first, it was just me, Antonio and Susy. Antonio left, so Susy talked to me (again) about the importance of travel. She told me that she used to go to Uruguay and buy beautiful clothes for really cheap, then sell them here in Ecuador. I told her that my dad does the same thing with antiques. We talked about that for a long time. Susy was so hyped. Ibeth (host sister) walked in and we talked about my dad's collections for a long time. As all conversations do here, our conversation changed many times. We then talked about my beach trip. We then transitioned to Ibeth's schooling. She wants to go to grad school in Paris. (So jealous). She's fluent in French (and in english- I wish I could hear these people speak english). Ibeth (and the rest of this family) hate the president and the government here. Ibeth told me about the corrupt voting system. Apparently, in the last election, they voted at tables. Ibeth said she would count 30 people at the table, but the news would report that there were 50 people at the table. The missing 20 evidently voted for Correa. Strange.

One of my homework assignments tonight was to research a local food. I had been eating what I thought was skin in peanut sauce. As it turns out Guatita, the dish I have been eating, is cow stomach covered in peanut sauce. I have always hated it, but now I feel sick just thinking about it. YUCK.

Yeah, this entry was boring, but I have been swamped with homework. I have 3 essays, presentations, reading, and more due in the next week. I have 5 days of classes left, then Schorn is coming, then I am going to the beach, then OMG is coming, then I am going back through the Sierra. Remember kids, no matter how upset we are with our elected officials, we are lucky because usually our corruption doesn't end in murder (Note the "usually"). So friends, go out there and wave your flags with pride. U.S.A, I miss thee.