Oh yeah, I have a Blog...

Sooooo…..there was this one time when I had a blog that I would occasionally write on but then one day I decided to take a 4 MONTH break….my bad.  I have now been told by a few people that I need to write again. So here I am, writing again.  I don’t know that I will be able to tell you all that has happened in these 4 magical months but I can tell you that they have been unforgettable and I thoroughly regret not writing about them. 

  Let’s see…where to start? Well I know you’re dying to know if Stephen and I are still together…and well….you better believe we are! (That’s the main reason that these last few months have been so magical).

Some of the adventures we have been on….Hmmm…we’ve gone to Utah a few times to visit the Slade’s.  We went down for conference at the end of April, and then a couple other times after that.

Beth and I completed our SWEET FAST on Easter and here are some of the pictures that ensued... It was a wonderful day, and not JUST because of the sweets…

The gang...Spartacus included :)

Remember that time that we lost Catch Phrase to the boys…? I am sad to inform you that their winning streak has yet to end…

 Stephen turned 23 on June 29^th and that was an awesome day!  We went to Chick Fil A at 6:30 in the morning for FREE Chicken Biscuits and later that night we all went to Pizza Pie Café (Stephen LOVES pizza…probably even more than he loves me…) and after that we had cake…but not just any kind of cake, this was an AVENGERS ICE CREAM CAKE! It was DELICIOUS!

What? You didn't know I was dating Iron Man? 

 We had Virg’s Bridal shower as well…lots of delicious food and skanky gifts some awesome presents!  It was way fun!  (Megan and Kakamoe were able to come up to Idaho and be with us for the weekend and we had a blast!) However, due to the nature of some the gifts she received, I will refrain from putting pictures of those up…however you can just go to this site and look around, I’m sure you’ll see some of the things she got (Ben, you’re not allowed to be looking…)

Aren't they precious?

  Independence Day was EXTREMELY fun.  We went to Egin Lakes and got burned to a crisp BUT later that night, we went to Café Rio and we went and saw the fireworks in Idaho Falls.  The fireworks were absolutely stunning. (Aloe Vera was our best friend for the next WEEK)

 School has been stressful this whole semester, but luckily I have three, yes three, days to go and I will be finished with my 9^th semester of college! I only have 2 to go!!! (If all goes well…) If you were wondering, the classes I took this semester were, Statistics (DISCLAIMER: I HAVE to take this class for my major (Sociology), this is NOT a class I would have voluntarily taken…I am ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE at any sort of math so it has been…um…interesting…we’ll see how I do after this final exam, eek!), Sociological Theory (this is the class that I have with Stephen, however, we don’t sit next to each other because we both know that we would not pay attention at all…everyone in the class thinks it’s weird, our teacher included, BUT it works for us…I still stare at him  from across the room I can still see him though, so that’s all that matters), Sociology of Religion, and Law & Society (Both of these were EXTREMELY interesting and I am so glad I decided to take.

 What else?  Stephen and I are frequent bowlers, we’re not that great at it, but it’s the appeal of beating each other that keeps us going. HA. We also like to go see movies…some of the movies we’ve seen recently are…The Avengers (this movie is seriously EPIC. If you haven’t seen it, I STRONGLY suggest going to see it, you will NOT be disappointed!), The Lockout (unrealistic, not worth seeing again), The Amazing Spider Man (Another one that I STRONGLY suggest seeing!), Battleship (meh, it was OK), Snow White and the Huntsman (I enjoyed this one A LOT more than Stephen did), and a few others, so yeah, we like our movies.  Oh and don’t worry, we have tickets to see The Dark Knight Rises this Friday, so I should be reporting about that, hopefully.

 There is not much else to say, I'm sure I will think of things later that I could have told you about, but alas, I cannot think of anything else at the moment.  OH! One last thing…Stephen went home to Chicago for his sister, Rachel’s, graduation the first weekend in June.  Yes, I was pathetic that weekend without him.  But, you wanna know how awesome he is????  He was going to be gone on our three month anniversary which I was so terribly sad about, BUT he made me a dozen Duct Tape flowers and gave them to Beth before he left to leave at my doorstep that morning.  How lucky am I? It was precious.  He MADE THEM! Seriously?

  I know, I know, you ladies are all wishing he was your boyfriend, BUT,  I'm sorry, he is definitely taken. It’s OK to cry.  He’s amazing and I am so blessed and so amazed that someone like him would fall in love with me.  I thank my lucky stars for him every single day.

 Well, that’s all.  I know this post was EXTREMELY long so I completely understand if you stopped reading after the first paragraph of rambling…I tend to go on, and on, and on, and on…Anyway, it has been a GREAT semester and I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

Also, if you get the chance, you should check out my roommate, Beth's, blog! She just started it and it's awesome!

 lifeaccordingtobeth88.blogspot.com

See ya soon!

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!

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!