LA PLAYA!!!!!!

okay, so i just got back from my first rotary trip!!!!!!! Im home from school right now because we got back last night really late. it was an 8 hour bus ride, which was long and sleepless...but the trip as a whole was amaaaaaaaaaazing!!! it was so much fun! I met more than 100 other exchange students and we all had such a great time together!!!

every day we ate tons of different seafood, which by the end got kind of old, but it was good too. We had lots of different kinds of shrimp and fish. and i also had calamari, which really surprised me, because it was so good!!!! We also, of course, swam alot, which was completely thrilling and fun, especially since it was my first time swimming since i got here, and i loooove swimming!! We all had a blast. We´d just stand in the water and jump over waves for hours. it was highly entertaining. The waves were HUGE, which was definately part of the fun! i swallowed sooo much salt water from that...jaja. Everyone had so much fun being tossed around by the waves and just chillin in the water or on the beach. It was pretty relaxed and so much fun! That´s pretty much all we did during the trip...we swam alot, spent a lot of time on busses, hung out in hammocks, played beach volleyball and soccer, and ate tons of seafood. It was completely fun!

I think the best part about it was all the exchange students. They were all so much fun and everyone was so nice and helpful to everyone else! That´s what made the trip so much fun. I made so many great friends on this trip! The next trip isn´t until February! we´re going to the amazon then. i´m completely excited!!!!!!

i finally have a little sister!!!!

So, this blog is about my cousin Sarahi. Sarahi is 6 years old and she is THE cutest little thing ever! Ive always wanted a little sister, anyone could tell you that. And although Sarahi ISNT my sister, she´s really close. Her family lives in the apartment under mine, so all she has to do is come up the stairs to hang out w- me.

She can be kind of annoying sometimes, as all younger siblings/cousins can be, but most of the time, i really enjoy having her around! she´s really sweet and cute and helps me with my spanish alot! I also watch lots of movies with her in spanish, and she explains them to me (in spanish), which really helps me alot with spanish! oh and want to hear a really cute story?? okay, yesterday in school, i was called out of class because sarahi fell and scraped her knee and wanted me. Isn´t that cute? They sent another little girl to get me and i was really worried because all she said was, ¨Sarahi needs you.¨ so i was like all scared that something horrible had happened to you! but no, she just scraped her knee. so i just put a bandaid on her scrape and stayed with her till she stopped crying. I´m telling you, it was the cutest thing ever!

So even though Sarahi can be really annoying and irritating, i really love having an honorary little sister! she´s a lot of fun and she teaches me a lot, even when i´m too tired to be taught! She really makes my adventure here in ecuador even more adventurous!!!!!

QUITO!!!!!!!!

Heyyyyy! okay, so i wanted to tell you about Quito because i think it´s absolutely amazing!

Okay, so my favorite part of Quito is this whole living in a big city thing. I love it! i´ve always wanted to live in a big city, and now i am! it´s soooooo cool! I love all the shops and there´s tons of malls here! in Quito alone, i think there´s like 9 malls! i completely love it!

The transportation is pretty cool too! there´s 3 different kinds of buses that run here. The red ones are like subways, which was really exciting when i rode on one for the first time! I went with my Friends Kruskaya and Anjelita. They didn´t warn me about it before hand, so it came as a total surprise. It was super fast and crowded. there was barely any room to breath!!!! Wow, it was crazy! then you had to like run to get out of the doors before they closed. It was scary, but i totally loved it! it was definately worth experiencing. The other buses are blue and yellow, and i believe that they just go to different parts of town...but i´m not sure because i haven´t ridden on either of those yet! The other form of transportation around town, of course, are taxis! But i´m totally scared of those. People told us that we need to be really careful when taking taxis in Quito because if the drivers know you´re American, they´ll try to take advantage of you. So, i don´t use those if i can help it.

Traffic is crazy here! If we want to go to the supermarket, which is like a 1o minute drive from my house, it takes like half an hour to get there! I´m totally serious! Everywhere´s super crowded too, so lines pretty much anywhere, are superrrrrrr long! It´s totally different, since Houghton´s so small, but I´m getting used to it, and i like it!

My favorite part of Quito is the trees and mountains! The trees are soooo big and amazing looking! they look totally exotic! And the mountains are amazingggg! they´re big and gorgeous, and look completely amazing with the sky behind them. It´s just so great! Since you can´t really see mountains in Houghton, they really excited me, which made my family laugh because here, there´s nothing really that special about mountains! But i think they´re amazing! there´s volcanoes here that are really gorgous too!

So, that´s my brief discription of the crazy amazingness of Quito!