My last post in Ecuador.

So this is going to be my last post in Ecuador, how sad is that?  That means that I am leaving in four days and they will be some of the saddest and happiest days of my life.  Gees, I don't want to leave my beautiful babies and this beautiful country and all of the friends I have made.  I wanna live here forever and adopt all of my babies so that I don't have to live a day without them.  When I go back to the states, I'm starting back at school which should be fun to see my friends, but I also think its gonna be hard adjusting back to real life and its gonna be hard to not miss my babies.

So anyways, enough of the sad stuff.  So since the last time I wrote, I have had some wonderful adventures, absolutely wonderful.  We had Christmas down here and on Christmas Eve, we went to some of our sites and we gave them Christmas gifts that we had purchased with some of the donation money.  We also had a family come down from Minnesota that brought a whole bunch of toys and so we were able to give them those too.  The sites we went to were, TA, which is an orphanage for children that have been taken from abusive homes.  We went to a boys orphanage way out by the Equator, and lastly we went to Casa H, which is another orphanage near the boys.  We dont usually go to these but since it was Christmas we decided that we should.  We also had presents for LAS and our special kids but we weren't able to make it to those sites on Christmas Eve so we gave them theirs on a different day.  It was so wonderful giving gifts to these children who dont have anything, and it was so sad to not be able to afford a gift for every child.  I decided that when I become famous, that ever orphan in the whole world will get a Christmas present.  It was a very emotional day but I so grateful that I got to experience it.

  So yeah that was Christmas and it was awesome!  The other adventure that happened this week was...we went to the BEACH!  We drove up early monday morning and came back tuesday night, and it was so much fun.  The beach we went to is called Atacames and it was so pretty.  Here are some pics from the trip.

Our hotel

So the men down there, all walk around with their shirts like this...

 So that was our beach trip, it was just so much fun.  We wanted to stay longer but our babies needed us to come back.  Tonight is New Years Eve and they have some crazy traditions that I will write about later and post pics, so look forward to that!  Next time I write, Ill be back in the states, so see you soon! Chao!

101 in 1001

So this week in Ecuador has been sort of uneventful.  We had several visitors and it was two of the girls' last week so me and Amber only went to LAS twice this week! Crazy right?!  So I had plenty of time this week to make this list.  The list is of 101 things I want to accomplish in 1001 days.  Im gonna post this somewhere on my blog to remind me and so that I can cross things off. So here goes...

1. Lose all weight
2. Go on a cruise
3. Leave the country at least once
4. Go to Beth's homecoming in Cali (April 2011)
5. Buy Mom and Dad a Kindle
6. Save money for college
7. Go to D.C.
8. Volunteer more
9. Save money for Lasik 
10. Join WW
11. Limit eating out to twice a week
12. Only 2 cokes a week
13. Sponsor and SVP child
14. Get a credit card and build credit
15. Pay Mom and Dad back for Ecuador
16. Run another 5K
17. Go to Cedar Point, OH
18. Graduate from college with degree
19. Watch 26 movies I've never seen starting with each letter of the alphabet
20. Answer the "50 Questions that will free your mind"
21. Complete a 365 day photo challenge
22. Pay for the person behind me at a drive thru
23. Come back to Ecuador at least for a visit
24. Read at least 50 books that aren't for school
25. Go on a road trip with friends
26. See Harry Potter #7, 2nd half, at midnight
27. Learn to play the piano better
28. Skydive
29. Save more money than I spend
30. Host a mystery party
31. Host a holiday party
32. Go to the movies at least once a month
33. Do "Couch to 10K"
34. Cook at least one new thing once a month
35. Limit sweets to once a week
36. Learn to play the guitar
37. Blog at least 4 times a week
38. Complete an 1000 piece puzzle
39. Go to a Josh Groban concert
40. Try Geocaching
41. Go to a concert at least 2 times a year
42. Go to Warped Tour at least one summer
43. Write a list of 101 things that make me happy
44. Ride a roller coaster in 2011, 2012, 2013
45. Save money to go to Greece and Ireland after 1001 days
46. Play muggle Quidditch
47. Write missionaries more (Beth, Virg, Heather)
48. Make a quilt out of my t-shirts that I don't wear anymore
49. Send Beth a package filled with wonderful things
50. Go to General Conference at the Conference Center
51. Take Mom out to dinner
52. Take Dad out to dinner
53. Always tell my parents I love them
54. Get a least a 3.8 every semester
55. Buy an expensive dress when I lose all my weight
56. Make a photo book for Ecuador
57. Make a budget
58. Go to a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show
59. Go White Water Rafting again
60. Floss every day
61. Take my makeup off before bed
62. Save $5 for every task completed
63. Donate $5 for every task not completed
64. Learn to French Braid
65. Read all of Jane Austen's novels
66. Go Paintballing
67. Visit Nashville
68. Get an iPhone
69. Give 5 "I saw this and thought of you" gifts
70. Answer 5000 Question Survey
71. Go to a Book Signing
72. Do "Race for a Cure"
73. Read Book of Mormon again
74. Send a secret to Post Secret
75. Fit into smaller jeans by end of year 2011
76. Work at a summer camp
77. Get a facial
78. Finish a book of Sudoku puzzles
79. Ask 20 friends to suggest one book and read them all
80. Do a 101 snapshots challenge
81. See All Time Low live
82. Find out my blood type
83. Read the entire Chronicles of Narnia
84. Visit my older sister and my nieces
85. Take a pic of these completed tasks and make a collage
86. Get new bedding for apt for later
87. Get new glasses
88. Do karaoke
89. Put my favorite/inspirational quote on something for decor
90. Float down the Ichetucknee River with my family
91. Learn to drive a stick shift
92. Spend a day at the spa
93. Volunteer in a Soup Kitchen
94. Sing at an old persons home
95. Have a monthly board game night
96. Go to the Iron Bowl
97. Participate in Operation Beautiful
98. Witness a flash mob
99. 100 strangers photo challenge
100. Make a patchwork quilt
101. Read 20 of the "1001 books to read before you die"

So thats it.  Thats my list. I don't think its completely out of reach...do you? Thanks for coming! Ill try and post more pics soon! Love you and cant wait to see you!

Ecuador at its finest

Wondering what the blog title is about?  Yeah I was too until I realized what it was and then it was kind of violent and gruesome, but cool at the same time.  Last week and the week before, we had "Fiestas de Quito."  Pretty self explanatory, but basically the people of Quito celebrate their city for about a week and a half.  Awesome.  Let me tell you, these people know how to party. Our next door neighbors had a party going on from around eight o'clock at night to about 5 in the morning. A very loud party.  None of us got any sleep that night, it was bad.  But the whole time they celebrate, they have parties all the time and signs that say "Viva Quito!"  It was so much fun to see all of the spirit and patriotism that they have for their city.  So the week and a half of the "Fiestas de Quito" is the only time that they have the bull fights the whole year.  They built a whole stadium just for this time of year.  We went two Fridays ago and it was...interesting.  I was pretty sure I knew what was going to happen because I think I have seen it on Discovery Channel or something with my dad, but my roommates didn't know that the bull was gonna die... Its like a Harry Potter complex where, "neither can live while the other survives." Either the matador has to die, or the bull has to die.  The day we went, there were gonna be six bull fights, however we were done after three.  But it was kinda cool, I know that sounds vulgar and disgusting that I think that its cool that they were killing a bull for a spectator sport, but hey, its all part of the culture so why not embrace it?  Here are some pics from the day.

Look how close he is!

This was our favorite one, he was the cutest, his name is Diego and he was awesome with his bull.

Ok this guy, seriously was magic.  He had stabbed it but then it hadn't died, so his
assistants were gonna help him and then he was like "NO!" So he gets off of his horse
while the bull was still alive and he was face to face with the bull, the bull could have
charged him and killed him, but he puts his hand on the bulls horns and then the bull
collapsed. Seriously. Magic.

So did you know that panama hats originated in Ecuador
not Panama? I didn't until today when Amber told me.
Look at all of those hats!  Everyone was wearing one!

So yeah it was a pretty cool day and the whole stadium was outside, so it was pretty hot but still fun.  Oh, the other thing is, we never felt so united with the country when we were there because randomly someone would get up and scream as loud as they could, "Que Viva Quito!!" and then the whole stadium would scream back, "Que Viva!" We did that several times. It was awesome!

So much has happened...

So, like the title says, so much has happened since I last wrote, and I am sorry that I haven't been able to write, I don't have access to a computer very often down here, so when I get the chance I write.  Also since there have only five of us for about two weeks, we are struggling.  Usually we go to bed at nine o'clock every night because we are exhausted!  Tomorrow we go down to four volunteers, which should be way interesting... But anyways, since I last wrote, we have been to Otavolo, we saw Harry Potter 7, and we had Thanksgiving, all of which have been eventful.

Otavolo is the biggest outdoor market in South America and we got to go! It was so sweet too! There were so many stands selling so many things, it was ridiculous.  I really cant explain to you in words how wonderful it was so I'm just gonna show you in pictures.

Cool huh?  We spent all kinds of money there, but luckily we got our Christmas shopping done!  Another place we went while down there was called The Pie Shop.  Let me just tell you, I have tasted heaven, and if all of heaven is that great, then I don't know what I'm doing here.  They have awesome sandwiches, but its sure not called the pie shop because of their sandwiches.  We tried their apple and chocolate pies.  The apple was good, but the chocolate was.... well there isn't a good enough word to describe the chocolate pie.  Just Heaven.  In my whole life, I have never and probably never will have another pie that tastes as good as that one.  I would come back to Ecuador just to have some of that pie...oh and to see my babies, that probably should be reversed, but thats how good it was.

Us enjoying the pie.

Another thing that we did, we saw Harry Potter 7, and...It.Was.Awesome. Need I say more?  Ok I will, I laughed, I cried, I was scared and I was happy.  For the most part, I cant wait til the last half comes out! The only thing is, I don't want it to end! Aaah! What will I do with myself?!  I cant' believe that ten years have come and gone that the first movie came out and I saw it with my mom and my cousin, when I was eleven years old, the night it came out and then again the next day.  Incredible.

The last thing I have to write about is Thanksgiving and how we celebrated here in Ecuador.  As you may know, Ecuadorians don't celebrate Thanksgiving, I believe only Americans and Canadians celebrate it, but don't you fret, we had an American Thanksgiving with our Ecuadorian family.  The Chicaizas cooked the turkey and it was off the chain! It was so good! We also indulged in, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, homemade rolls, a green salad, pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll, and apple pie.  We didn't eat until about eight o'clock that night because we still went to work in the orphanages even though it was Thanksgiving, but that was why it was so rewarding in the end.  Also, you should be impressed because I HOMEMADE the pie crusts, my mom doesn't even do that, even though I assure you she can because my mom can make anything delicious, just ask my dad.  Now I wouldn't have resorted to this, had they sold them at the Supermaxi, but they don't, so I made them with my own two hands.  They turned out delectable!  I wish I had a pic to show you, but I don't, sorry.  That was my thanksgiving in Ecuador, it was awesome.  I missed my family in the states like a fat kid misses cake.  It was my first thanksgiving not at home with my fam, so it was hard but Im so glad I was here in Ecuador, because I still got to be with people I love, my babies. 

Well I have to go, but stay tuned til next time, when I will be writing about the bull fight I will be attending tomorrow and another field trip.  I Love Yall! Chao!

LAS Fieldtrip

So its been about two weeks since I've written, but dont worry, I have a good reason, its because we are really short on volunteers and I haven't had much time to do much else, so yeah, here I am now.  Also, I dont know when the next time I will be able to post is, because, when I do my blog is when my roommates are at night shift and since we are cutting those this week, due to the lack of volunteers, they will all be home so, yeah, it just depends on when they are willing to let me use their computers, Im just warning you. 

So this last Friday, we got to take some of the older kids at LAS on a field trip and we went to a park called La Carolina. And guess what we did? Paddleboating. Be Jealous.  It was way too much fun, let me just tell you.  There were two volunteers in a boat and then two kids, and they sat on our laps and let me tell you, we got a leg workout...But it was so worth it, although I know the kids enjoyed it, I think they enjoyed the candy that we were giving them more.  After we paddleboated we fed them lunch, which consisted of pan (bread), yogurt, crackers, and whatever else we brought for them. We each were in charge of a different kid and I had Jorge, and he ate almost all of my candy, which was ok with me, because he treated me like his best friend :-) It was awesome. We only got to hang out with them for a couple of hours, but it made them so happy, so it was definitely worth it.

In other news, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, comes out Friday!  Im so excited! And the other good news is that the new Josh Groban CD is now available, and it is awesome, as expected.  Oh man, life is awesome isnt it?  Miss you and love you!

Ecuador and the Jonas Brothers

Yes.  I have seen The Jonas Brothers.  THEY WERE AWESOME!  There were so many people there too.  We were so amazed that that many Ecuadorians like The Jonas Brothers.  They even would sing along in ENGLISH.  We had so much fun.  We made shirts that said We Love Jonas Bros with a sweet techniques that I learned from my sister.  We jumped around and sang all night long and people kept staring at us but as my friend likes to say, "Were white, we can get away with anything."  So it was ok that we looked white because were gringas.  Since we paid $35 bucks for our tickets and not $100, we had to stand on the ground in the back, so we didn't get great pics, but since I have a super sweet camera I had a great zoom and I was able to take multiple shots at once (Thank you Dad for always finding the best electronics before letting us spend our money on them, or your money for that matter).  So in the end I did get some pretty sweet pics.  Basically we had an unforgettable night :)

Last Friday we went to Teleferiqo, which is basically just a place you can ride gondolas up a huge mountain and see the view of the city from way up high and it was breathtaking, literally.  When we got up there and had to hike some more and all of us were about dying by the time we finished especially being in 9,200 feet altitude.  Talk about ridiculous. Man. It was worth it though.  Take a look.

So until next time...Chao!  I miss you all so very much but I am having the time of my life.  Love you!

I really need to do better at this whole blog thing...

So like the title says I really do need to do better, I just get caught up in things and then we go out and do stuff or I am just too tired, but I am trying.  So these past couple weeks have been way good.  A couple of Fridays ago we went to Mindo and it was absolutely beautiful!  They have a zip lining place there that has the best scenery and it has 13 different zip lines and they were amazing!

These are just a couple of the views that we were able to see while up there.  That is my friend Kelsey going down "The Beast." It was awesome! Extremely fast and high and just everything.  So after we did the zip lining, we went to a butterfly farm and they had some pretty cool butterflies.  They had some really huge ones and some that mated for 2 days straight without moving! They were basically amazing.

So these girls are 2 of the girls that I live with; Aimee and Beth. They're awesome.

Anyways, that was the butterfly farm.  We then went rafting and they basically combined a bunch of tubes and put them together and we floated down this river with two guides who didnt speak English...but they were there to get us out of rough spots and they did all of the work.  We basically sat there and got wet.  Oh and that water was absolutely freezing, like ridiculously cold!  Unfortunately I dont have any pictures of that because I didnt want my camera to get wet, but it was so much fun.  Well this is all I have time to write right now but keep reading because next week I am attending a JONAS BROTHERS CONCERT IN ECUADOR!  How cool is that? So you wouldnt want to miss out on those details....anyways I gotta go. Love ya!

Things that make Ecuador, Ecuador

So not much has happened since I last wrote, since that was only two days ago but I still have some things to tell you that I have not mentioned yet, that need to be written.  I will put up more pics too.  So there are so many cool things about Ecuador and then there are some things that could be...altered...a bit.  So here we go.





This is a view of Ecuador from the top of the Basilica


1. I eat RICE EVERY DAY.  After this trip, I dont know that I will ever be able to eat it again, unless it is with Beef Tips or Swiss Steak, and that is it.
2. DVD's are $1.50.  Best day of my life when I found this out, ok maybe not the best, but it was pretty close.
3. They have Pan (Bread) stores on every corner and you can get fresh bread whenever you want!  They also sell cokes and other stuff there too, but they are called pan stores.
4. Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way here. Run like Forrest Gump when you are crossing the street.
5. The Ice Cream here ROCKS. Enough said.
6.  You cant flush toilet paper down the toilet here, you have to put it in the trash, after its been used...SICK.  Apparently their plumbing cant handle it.
7. Dont drink the water unless you wanna catch a parasite like my friend Katie who has one and she has named him Henry.
8. Coke doesnt taste the same, but people drink it like its their last day alive.
9. The driving/traffic/drivers here are insane!  They cut people off all the time, they honk, and I dont think they believe in blind spots.  It is actually quite scary.
10. The American places to eat here are the following: Pizza Hut, Domino's, Papa Johns, Sbarro, Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King and KFC.  Random right? Definitely. If only Chick Fil A would go international...
11. Taxi drivers love to rip Americans aka Gringas off. 
12. The mountains are A-mazing.
13. Dont smile at the men, they get the wrong idea...
14. Walmarts dont exist here. Instead they have the Supermaxi and the Megamaxi.  Basically a regular walmart and then a superwalmart.
15. At parties youre supposed to go around to every person and personally tell them that you have arrived and usually you exchange a cheek to cheek embrace.  Personally, I would just rather announce myself right when I walk in the door, takes much less time and effort and reduces the amount of germs passed around...Also at parties, there is no sitting around when the music is going, YOU HAVE TO BE DANCING. No questions asked.
16. When you are stopped at a red light, there is usually someone trying to sell something to every car.  Anything from gum to toilet paper.  Also at red lights there is sometimes entertainment at the front of the line usually a man juggling sticks that are on fire and they are way good.  I havent seen one dropped yet.  Oh but after they finish their show, they do want money...
17. The people here dress like its 40 degrees when really its like 70 or 75...
18. They use dollar coins, and 50 cent coins like no other, they would rather have those than paper.  Oh and alot of places dont take twenty dollar bills, they only like small change, so you better have those on hand or you're out of luck, they only problem with this is that the ATM's give us twenties...brilliant right?
19. IF there are American food products in the store, they are WAY expensive.  For example, a jar of JIF peanut butter is around six or seven dollars...not cool.  A six pack of twix minis? 7 bucks! Really? However, a bottle of water? 25 cents. Now thats what Im talking about.
20. Bargaining is EVERYTHING.

Well that is all I have gathered at this point in time about the culture here.  Its way different than the US but its pretty cool. The kids are doing great.  Two of the girls that I have become pretty close with are leaving this week and thats pretty sad because they are awesome. 



So there are some other sites that we go to each week but they are only a once or twice a week, as opposed to LAS that we go to everyday.  We have special kids boys and special kids girls.  At the two different sites there are four kids.  Four boys and four girls.  They all have a handicap of some sort but they are the sweetest.  The boys are: Enrique, he cant talk very well but is so sweet and he eats extremely fast.  Pablo, doesnt talk very well, he just likes to laugh and he loves picking up things. Carlos can talk he just doesnt like too and he likes to flick people, its not hard or anything, its just a bad habit he picked up and he flicks everyone, even strangers. Edison is the last one and he is the most normal one, he can speak well and everything, he just had a bad childhood so he isnt completely normal but he is awesome.





The girls are: Mariella, who is blind and cant walk and is also mentally handicapped.  She is so sweet though. Maria just has a mental handicap, we arent exactly sure what, but she loves to talk and eat and be a girl.  She LOVES men too, everytime she sees a man, she yells, HOLA! COMO TE LLAMAS? (Hey, what is your name?!)  She likes to play damsel in distress too. Tereisa is mostly deaf so she uses sign language alot but can fend for herself pretty well. Jessica is the last one and she is only eleven, and we dont know exaclty what happened to her either, although we do know that she was born normal but her parents abused her so much when she was a child that she is just permanently damaged.  She used to not be able to walk but we have got her walking and she doesnt talk really, she just looks around, she is the cutest thing though. All of them make me smile. 



I am talking about this one because I was just assigned to be their site leaders as soon as the site leader now leaves which is soon, so Im just going through training right now, but that means I will be with them every week, and help them and do activities with them so I am excited for that!

Unfortunately, I dont have any pics of the girls yet but Im working on it! Well this is all I have time to write right now but there will be more pictures to come and more interesting facts and field trips that I cannot wait to write about! Love you!