Apocalypse

Yesterday we got together and watched the disappointing loss of the Estados Unidos to Ghana- found a good pub to get a burger and watch a game though. Mary Anna and her friend Jen met us there too it was so good to see them!! Then last night Sarah Charles Walt and I met up with Mary Anna and Jen at MAs hostel which frankly I am very jealous of- this would be a totally different trip if we all got posted up in the same hostel. We hung there for a little while and then hit la mariscal which was out of power!!!! all the bars were pitch black and lit by candles! We went to a shot bar and all got "apocalypses" very fitting for the situation- which consisted of every kind of hard liquor available and were on fire. haha! we met some other Americans from Kentucky and even a girl from Tennessee. after some shots we headed to the bungalow and danced for a good while. solid fun night for sure. we leave for the Galapagos tomorrow at 7 am!!!

We're backkkk

Regresamos a Quito! Riobama was an experience for sure, a nice quiet break, half of the group got food poisoning, bound to happen sometime so i guess thats one thing we can check off our list. Our host mother was so precious and our house was amazing. I will steal and post others pictures soon (my camera was stolen, I don't know if I mentioned that or not). After an entertaining 3 hour bus ride home today we all met up for Mexican food and drinks tonight. Tomorrow we are picking up our tickets for the Galapagos and having our farewell dinner with our sweet spanish professors whom we all love!! Im sad I can not take spanish again next month, our teacher Amporo has really made June amazing. I can honestly say my spanish has improved vastly from class and speaking with my family, taxi drivers ect. I am finally starting to feel comfortable here. It took a while but I am glad that I am staying longer. July will be a whole new experience. The agenda currently holds: a white water rafting trip in the jungle, a weekend in a country side hacienda, a trip to the beach, a week in the biodiversity station as well as our upcoming week in the Galapagos and on top of that, two very interesting new classes and a whole new crew of fun people. Cant wait!!! Hasta luego.

Riobamba!

We are now in Riobamba, a smaller city south of Quito. The past few days have been a serious adventure. Thursday we got up early drove the give hours to Riobamba and went on a tour of the city- then Thursday night Addison, Hunter Sarah and I got hooked up with the honey moon suite? It was hilarious. Jacoozie (spelling?? ) huge king sized bed, but it was only one night so we got some cots and made it work! Then Friday we went to an indigenous village where we spent the night in cabins and they told us about how they grew all their own food ect. It was really neat. Our bus driver was a crack head and kept us cracking up the whole time- he loved to repeat anything we told him to say you can only imagine. The next morning we drove up to Chimborazo- the highest peak in Ecuador and the closest point on earth to the sun! All the boys got really sunburned because we didnt even think about how the snow would reflect so much sunlight! By Saturday night we were all really sick of the same traditional ecuadorian meal (bread, soup, avacado, chicken or beef, rice, veggies and the occasional sketchy dessert) Sunday we went to a market and bought some regalos (presents) and then rode a cable car across a really nice lookout. While we stopped to take pictures a group of Ecuadorians came up to ask and asked to take pictures with us then asked if Molly would be in one of their music videos- maybe the sketchiest and funniest thing ever. Sunday night we met our host families in Riobamba, we were all really hesitant and worried but it all turned out fantastic! Hunter, Addison, Meghan and I got put with the same family- we have the nicest mom, she is an older single woman and she lives in a huge house for Ecuador- lots of bedrooms, a great dining room and in walking distance from our school!!!! She was so so nice and we are all excited to live together for the week- her house is like something out of a museum, clearly built before electricity its so quaint and cute i wish we could stay for the rest of the summer. I was glad to see our spanish teacher today, Amporito after a whole week with out her! Our final exam is Friday so we are going to start preparing for that soon. Riobamba is so nice!!! cobblestone streets, nice people, less pollution and noise. Everyones spanish is really improving too. A week from today we will be on a boat in the Galapagos! Yay! Thats all for now! Chao!

Arroz y aguacate

Its been a fairly uneventful week so far. Today after school Sarah and I found a really nice chocolate store behind the school (bad news) as well as a really nice restaurant a cheap pizza place and we bought some movies! I got the first season of Glee as I have had many people telling me I needed to watch it. Tomorrow is a regular school day and tomorrow night we are all going to a Beatles themed bar, "Strawberry Fields". That should be fun! Thursday morning we leave for our week long travel to Riobamba. I had a not so good bus experience this afternoon- while walking to my second bus a group of guys whistled and yelled (which is not not normal for any day for any girl but specifically girls with blonde hair) and i ignored them as usual and got on my bus, well they came too and sat next to me! They tried talking to me for a minute but I continued to ignore them and decided to get off at the next stop. When the next bus arrived it was so full that I couldnt get on and finally when I did get on a bus, it was so crowded that I couldnt get off at my stop! Good news was that I walked a different way home and saw a cute part of my neighborhood and a quaint restaurant on my street that I had never noticed before. So although that was a little frustrating, it turned out ok. Im debating buying a tobogan to wear during my commute... met a girl from Germany today on the train who was here doing volunteer work for 10 weeks! She had been all over Ecuador and said Quito was her least favorite... great! But that really just got me excited for our trip to Riobamba which is smaller, less busy and more safe. As for the title, Arroz y aguacate (Rice and avacado) This is literally almost all that i eat on a daily basis. Except for my pbj sandwich i pack for lunch plus a granola bar and sometimes they'll throw in some tomatoes or potatoes. Its simple but it gets the job done. Signing off for now. Adios!

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do...

...So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

Thanks Mark for that. Last night was an adventure which started in the Mariscal as I'm sure many more will, next to the club owned by the host family of our friend Matt. Ridiculous. In Ecuador instead of buying drinks you buy an entire liter of alcohol to split with your friends, so people are constantly walking around the bar with fifths of liquor just shooting it straight- it is crazy. Sarah and I got some off the record salsa lessons from a few friendly Ecuadorians, Addison proved he does not kid around with fist pumping and Walt got a chance to show off his inner Chippendale. Needless to say after arriving home at 330 and waking up at 630 to leave for Cotopaxi, my morning wasn't very pleasant. After 3 million hours on the worlds bumpiest road we arrived at a rainy Cotopaxi. I let the rest of the group hike for me while I enjoyed the great view from the bus. Hey you can't do it all and I got a tshirt so people will never know the difference. Afterwards we got the best meal of the trip at a family owned restaurant outside the national park- popcorn, potato soup with cheese and avacado, beef, fresh tomatoes, rice, coke in a glass bottle and strawberries and cream for desert- all for 6 dollars!!

I really felt the need to give a more serious plug of the effects of being here thus far. Every day I think about how dang lucky I am, and all of us for that matter, to live in the US, in Mississippi, in Oxford/Jackson, to go to Ole Miss, to have families, dogs, clean water, good food, big houses, great friends, ect. Its so sad to see so many kids and older people begging on the street, to hear stories about good people not being able to visit a dying relative in the US because they can't get a visa, and just in general to recognize the blatant injustices occurring all the time and knowing at the same time that for some reason you are an exception to the rule. There are so many problems and issues with the world that are so easy to ignore when you are laying on a green comfy couch in the KD house and life is perfect. With this I will say that I have come to appreciate my friends more than anything, I miss all of them so much and I now know how much I take for granted being with them all the time, eating, hanging out, just simple everyday things. I can barely even think about Stephanie with out crying! All of this has been said before obviously, and we've all heard the speech but I think I can really appreciate the genuine understanding of really not knowing how good you have it, until you dont. So there is my serious plug no. 1 for the trip.

Tomorrow marks week number 3! We have school until Thursday and then we are packing up for Riobamba. We're all staying in different hotels for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night and then for week 4 we are staying with a new host family in Riobamba. Luckily Amporito our fantastic spanish teacher is coming with us! After the week in Riobamba we have a farewell dinner and then Hunter, Sarah, Walt, Charles, Davis and I pack up for our trip to the Galapagos! When we return from that all the fun July people come in and we start our second month of class!

How many things can I check off my bucket list in one summer?

Well Id say today was the start of what is sure to be a fannnntastic weekend. We had our mid term today- no clue how that turned out. Afterwards a few of us watched the Uruguay and France game at school and then around 4 all of us met a bridge right next to my house and payed 3 guys 15 dollars a piece to jump off it.

It was incredible. If someone could find a place to rig up a bungee jump in Oxford they would seriously make a million dollars. It was an awesome rush for a post test day. These guys were so cool and they are going to hook us up with a cheap and awesome jungle white water rafting trip in July. I think next week we are doing another jump but this time from a bigger bridge right near our school. Afterwards we grabbed some pizza and beer and all headed home to get some sleep before our weekend adventures. Zip line through the jungle, hike Cotopaxi. Here we go...!

¡Buenos Dias Y'all!

My typical morning commute. Today I found myself in between a woman literally with her shirt off and breast feeding and a man with no teeth trying to sell me a bootleg copy of Shrek 3. Throughout this I am simultaneously attempting to avoid permanent hearing damage via the timeless classic "Total Eclipse of the Heart" played at a deafening volume in spanish over bus speakers. Some of you may have already read this on my fb status, but its just too good not to share again. I know you think im exaggerating but Im not. For the most part. :) But really, things have been pretty slow paced which is actually kind of nice. This week we are just going to school and studying but next Thursday we are all leaving for Riobamba which is a city about 120 miles south of Quito. We are studying there and staying with a new host family for 9 days, as well as traveling around that area and doing some hiking. I don't know what to expect- I've stop trying to expect anything- but it should be fun! I have a midterm Friday so I am trying hard to make an A on my first test! Tonight I think a group of us are going out for dinner and drinks since we really cant go out Thursday before our exam. I bought 3 movies for 5 dollars yesterday!! The movie place is right by our school so I will probably be making a few more stops there. I found out last night that my family has hosted 5 other girls before me! They def knew what they were getting into I guess. Also I may have mentioned this already but my host sister Maria spent a year in Michigan and her host mother and sister are coming to stay with us for almost the entire month of July! Our house will be so fun and full of people!! But it is already fun now, my family is so sweet I just wish I could talk/ understand them better! My little brother Mateo helps me with my spanish homework because I am basically doing the work of a 3rd grader. I'm outtie for a siesta!

Domingo/Lunes

Sunday we visited some hot springs in Papayacta! Very fun except I left my bathing suit dang!!!! Then Sunday night we got tickets to the Quito vs. Barcelona Soccer game- this was CRAZY. Fans are out of control and this was not the place to be a blonde american girl- luckily we had all the guys with us! After the game we grabbed taxis and headed home, I ate an avacado with tuna for dinner which was excellent and then talked to my host sister, Maria Laura for a while. Turns out the family she stayed with in Michigan are coming to visit us here! The mother and daughter are coming to stay for almost a whole month! I will be able to translate for them some... haha! Im going to take it easy this afternoon, watch a movie and maybe go walking with Sarah later. I will post next time something worthwhile happens!!

The past two days have been amazing! After school on Friday we got everyone together and went to Pinchicha a mountain right next to Quito. The view was amazing!! A gondola took us up 4000 feet and once we got there we could see all of the city. Words and pictures really can not describe or depict some of the incredible scenes we have seen. We hiked around the mountain for a few hours, Davis and I didnt eat much for lunch so we got pretty tired early on and the rest of the group galavanted up a huge incline and played around for a little while. We met a missionary group from Birmingham while we were on Pinchicha and they gave what they thought would be a helpful ride back down the mountain. In actuality they led us to a pretty sketchy part of Old Town, far from all of our houses! We walked around there for a while which was scary for a few minutes but finally we were able to hail a taxi and eventually get home. We left at 7 this morning on our first excursion to the highlands! The drive was amazing it really felt like we were in the Truman Show or something because the scenery was so fantastic. We made a few stops and tried an indigenous fruit that was pretty good.. it tasted like something in between a pear and... something ive never tasted. Then we tried some local biscuits and goat cheese which I was hesitant to eat at first but were actually really good! Next we stopped in Octavalo, a great town with an incredible outdoor market. The weather was literally perfect and the market atmosphere was so fun! I bought a fadora, a pair of overalls, a shirt and some bracelets- all very cheap. It was fun to barter with all the venders. They think just because we're gringos that we are going to pay double! Sarah and I bought some big Pilsners and just enjoyed the surroundings for a while, lots of crazy food tons of people endless things to look at. After that we headed out for another quaint town called Catacochi? I may be spelling that wrong. It was soo cute. If I ever moved to Ecuador this is where I would want to live. Cobble stone streets, bright colored buildings- so cute and SO quiet. This was a really nice break from the urban jungle of Quito. For lunch I had some grilled camarones (shrimp) which were humongous and delicious! After this we went to the base of a volcano, who's name I can't remember!! There was a crystal clear lake at the bottom so the group hopped a boat and sailed around the islands for a half hour or so. We met students from Clemson, Boston College and Georgetown today. There are so many American students here it is crazy! Tomorrow we are headed to some hot springs and another mountain! Should be great!!

I think the most interesting part of today was just seeing all the people who lived in the highlands and realizing how different their lives are from ours. They all still wear indigenous clothing, and walk around with llamas, goats and pigs. It is incredible how it is a completely different lifestyle from ours back in the US and even here in Quito. The number of beggars was really sad, old women would tug on our clothes and you could tell some of the little kids working in the market were so tired, but still knew exactly what to say to sell their products. I'm going to try and post more pictures, we have Addison Dent with us on our trip who is basically a professional photographer so I can't wait until he posts his pictures too! xoxo Chao!

Primera Semana

A week! we made it. Tonight we are going out and tomorrow morning getting up early for Octavalo, a famous street market where we can buy all sorts of cool stuff! Nothing too exciting to report except that we found out you can buy 5 DVDs for 50 cents!??!? We may have to ship a box home... today we are taking a gondola up Pinchicha, a near by mountain for some sight seeing, maybe a little hiking and possibly horse riding. Sunday we are going to some natural hot springs in the country side- should be a bueno fin de semana!

Gringo-land

Yesterday was funnnn had a great spanish class with our teacher, Ampora- she is hilarious. Then we did our homework together and waited on the 300 level class to get out. We met a teacher from Ole Miss who is doing an exchange here at USFQ, he's teaching intensive english for the summer while a professor from USFQ is teaching spanish at Ole Miss this summer it was funny that he just automatically knew where we were from- maybe our northface jackets and pearls gave us away. After we hung out on campus for a while and the 300 class got out we decided to split up before dinner. Some of us went to Quicentro Mall again so some guys could get phones and then I went over to Sarah's house and met her very sweet host mother. We ate some dinner over there and some very fresh strawberries and got a taxi to my house where I changed really quick, talked to my family and then we jumped back in the taxi (shout out to Christian our driver) and headed to La Mariscal, the night life district.. also known as "gringo land", gringo being an endearing or offensive term for foreigner depending on who says it and in what context. We ate dinner at a place called Red Hott Chilli Pepper they had good Mexican food and played American music. The craziest part of the night had to be on our way to dinner when we bumped into a family from Jackson! And they were Ole Miss Alumns!! They told us exactly where there condo was so that we could go visit them during football season, it was hilarious and we got a big group picture with them. After dinner we went to a club called the Bungalow, notorious for travelers apparently. It was cool, 3 floors, the top one with some pool tables that we basically had to ourselves for a while. After bungalow we went to another outdoor bar that had nice big porches that you could look out at a lot of the district and just people watch. Around midnight we grabbed taxis and headed home. Apparently things dont get rowdy until around then so we will have to stick it out and stay up later here pretty soon. I'm off to breakfast school and def a siesta!

No donkeys allowed

Just in case you were wondering, you're not allowed to bring Donkeys on the buses in Ecuador. Hopefully I will be able to post a picture of this sign soon. Today i woke up and got myself to school. 2 buses, 45 minutes, a million people. Thank goodness I met a nice girl studying at USFQ from Missouri who rides the bus at the same time as me so we squeeze in together and stick out like a sore thumb. I'm thinking about taking a taxi for the first part of the commute starting soon because it is so crowded and you can be easily pick pocketed on the first bus. Its only like a dollar or so for the taxi ride which may be worth it. We had class which I really enjoyed. Our teacher barely speaks english but she is very nice and very engaging, especially since there are only 5 people in our class! Me, Sarah, Walt, Davis and Addison, all Ole Miss kids! I feel like I already learned a lot today so I think that will just improve with time. After school we walked around a big mall for a while, then through a park near that. The city is huge, its hard to gage where everything is, but after we explore a little more it will get better. Got a little homesick today- I read that it would happen with the culture shock and being tired and all but then my host mom gave me some magical tea... no mushrooms from what i can tell :) but it made me feel a lot better! Some of us are about to meet up at the mall to get a few groceries and eat some dinner together! adios!