February 7, 2010

Best. Day. Ever. Part Two.

After we got back on Friday, I went home and unpacked, only to find that my Steri-pen, my MOST PRIZED POSESSION, was gone. I thought and thought and thought, but could not think of anyplace it could be. My only hope was that it was maybe in Kelsey's bag since she was my roomie and maybe somehow got misplaced. But she too had unpacked, and said that it was not in her stuff.

And so I was sad, but life moves on even without water sanitizers, and so we went out for sushi. This time it was Kelsey, Jessica and I, and we had a good time. Afterwards, we decided that dessert was on the menu, and so we went to Crepes and Waffles for ice cream. Again, delicious. Everyone else went out after that, but I went home because I really don't care to hang out with anyone else from this program anyways.

When I got home, I went into the kitchen and there was a woman standing at the sink....I said hello and then immeadiately went to my sister's room to get the scoop. And so...I now have a new roommate. Her name is Natasha, she is from London, and she is a little weird. But whatever. She only is living with us for three weeks and then she is moving to Ibarra to teach English.

On Saturday, we went to Natasha's welcome barbeque. It was alright, but I was definitely ready to get out of there by about the fifteenth minute. When I got home, I just hung out for the rest of the day because I knew that on Sunday we would have to work on our essay all day.

Which brings me to Sunday, which was the best and worse day yet. I got up in the morning and packed my stuff to go to Kelsey's to work on the essay. These six hours were nothing but frustration because they want us to write scholarly essays on information that we do not have and do not have access to. The Ministry of Health in Ecuador doesn't even publish the statistics on Malaria for each year, and so how we are even supposed to begin an essay on Malaria and Ecuadorian culture is beyond me. Did I mention that there are no public libraries here???

So after hours of struggles, we finally (hopefully) have a topic that is feasable, and will finish the essay tomorrow and present on Tuesday.

And then to back this day up a little bit: When I got to Kelsey's, I used her internet to Skype home because I could not get a good connection at the internet cafe I had previously been at. While talking to my mom (real mom) and telling her about my Steri-pen woes, Kelsey decided to take one more look in her bag....and lo and behold! My Steri-pen!! I knew I couldn't have lost or left it on our trip because I DON'T lose things. But it's back and for this I am happy.

Ok. So to then fast forward, while we were working on our essay, Kelsey's secret other student that lives in the house with her came in and said if we were interested, the American Embassy was holding a Superbowl party and we could go with him if we wanted. Ummm, is that even a question??

So at 6:00 (because the game started here at 6:30) we headed up to the Embassy. And it was AMAZING. They had pizza and beer and chips and salsa and guacamole and chocolate chip cookies....it was just like being at home. Everyone there was American...it was so fun. And to top it all off, my Saints won. Could it have been a better Superbowl? Probably not.

Afterwards, we just came home and now I am going to bed because I have to be at CIMAS at 9AM tomorrow to work on our essay, even though we don't have class. This is week 5 here, and the time so far has seemed like it has gone fast. Hopefully this will continue. Until then, 118 days left....

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