4 Months and Counting

Okay so I have been here over 4 months now and to me that is just ridiculous. I can't even believe how fast the time has gone by. It feels like yesterday I was calling my Mom in the airport to say goodbye. Everyone says the first few months are the hardest, so I can only imagine how fast the next months will go by. As each day goes past I learn more and enjoy living in this beautiful place more.

So in the past few weeks we have had vacation because of Christmas. In these few weeks of vacation so far I have gotten the oppurtunity to do so much. Last week I went to the hospital with my host parents and watched my host father do 3 surgeries. One surgery was a torn meniscus and that was lacroscopicly. The second was removing cancer from a young womens throat. The third was a car accident and the boy needed sugery in his legs and arms. I thought the blood might gross me out, but it didn't. It was so interesting to see how intricate the work is and how they know exactly where to cut. I also had the anestheologist teach me about the drugs they use and about how they put people to sleep and furthermore how the drugs control the comfort of the body. It was all so interesting. Getting the oppurtunity to watch a surgery made me realize that is what I want to do with my life. It takes truely special people to do it and the rewarding gift of being able to better someones life is truely wonderful. I look forward to watching more surgeries and bigger ones. It is such a wonderful oppurtunity to be able to watch and learn about surgeries here and also learn about names of things here in spanish. This will surely open doors for me.

Last week I also went to a poor school here in Loja. These children don't pay for a uniform or for the school. The kids at the school also get fed there. For most kids it's the only meal they get all day. Most kids at the school have around 10 siblings and many of their parents are only around 30 years old. It was truely sad to see these kids living in such poor conditions. The kids are so sweet and truely want to learn. They may not have a lot, but they give their all to learn what they can. The school however, does not have many supplies and all supplies are great appreciated. Anything they can get truely helps. It broke my heart to see these children who are so full of love, to just not have the same oppurtunites as other children. This just makes me realize how truely lucky we are in the USA to have so many wonderful oppurtunites. If there is any way you could help please contact me. Anything is truely apreciated.

So yesterday was Christmas. It was deffinitally the worst day here in Ecuador. It didn't even feel like Christmas whatsoever. Not to mention in Ecuador they celbrate at Midnight of the 25th so during the day on the 25th we did not do anything. It really bummed me out because I love Christmas and it just wasn't the same. However , it wasn't all that bad. The food was great and my host family gave me beautiful white gold diamond earrings. So beautiful and so generous of them. I am truely blessed to live with Lily and Diego they are great people. I got to skype with both my Mom and her family and also my Dad and siblings. I recieved my package from home about 3 days before that and cried when I read my card. I have such an amazing family and being away from them makes me realize how lucky I really am. I could not ask for a better family. I am glad they all had such a good day yesterday. I am looking forward to next year with them.

So last night I read that my Amazon trip is the 13-18 of February. That takes place during Carnival. For me I think Carnival is one of the most important holidays here in Ecuador and I told my host dad I really did not want to miss it. I mean I can always come back to Ecuador to see the Amazon, but I can never experience Carnival in the same situation with my friends again. When I told my host Dad that he totally agreed and said that Carnival is very important. He told me that if I did not go with Rotary then we would go to the Amazon as a family. That is so amazing and great. Once again, how blessed am I to have such wonderful hosts parents.

Well thats all for now. I am off to Vilcabamba for the day. We are going to have a big family barbeque. I will be back tonight to spend more time with my family. I can not wait. This will be such a fun day. I'll write soon. Most likely after New Years.

Another Week Here

So we did not get to have a thanksgiving and that totally was a bummer, but I mean t's not a tradition here so I couldn't really expect that. However, my mom also reminded me that I will get to experience other holidays like Carnival. So now I am also trying to keep myself positive about that. However, in the past week other than no Thanksgiving, not much has happened.

There have been some ups and downs this week. For example, some people here are just so ignorant. They don't seem to realize they are just rich kids here. They dont have friends in other classes, only kids from like Liceo and Egugenio. It makes me mad when they say that Americans think they are better then them, when most people in my school think they are so much better than half the people in this town. I mean sometimes we can't even go places because it's filled with "chulos" or people who dont have a ton of money. To some extent okay I understand, but they make it so obvious and it has really started to bother me. I do not like that it's all about social ranking here. Another reason why I love the USA, many classes can intertwine and you can hang out wiht people from many different schools.

This past weekend we also went to Erika's house because Thanksgiving day was her birthday. It was nce to have everyone together. Although I am usually much happier just hanging out with Vale, Erika, Ana and Pedro. They are so much fun and really are such a amazing people with great hearts. I honestly am so happy and blessed to have gotten the chance to know them. That's also why this Thursday only they will come to my house to celebrate Vale's birthday. Another funny thing, all four of our birthday's are within 3 weeks of one another. Nice to be able to celebrate them all together.

I almost forgot. This week in school we started sports. Everyone has to play, because they are like intermurals. The school basketball team has not yet started. Each day we play a game. My team is doing really well and I am having a lot of fun. It's nice to remember why I love basketball so much. Another thing about school is that we now have a new American. She was born in the USA, but her Mom is from here. She is going to school with us for 3 months. She just arrived today so I hope she likes our school and fits in. She seems like a really great girl and I'm sure she will have a very good time.

Christmas is almost here and I am feeling very sad lately. I miss not being home with my family making hot chocolate and watching the 25 days of Christmas on ABCfamily. I miss getting our tree and setting it up. Oh and I especially miss Dunkie's gingerbread donuts, mmmmm! All I really want for Christmas from my parents is hand written letters. I think that should get me through the holidays okay. It will still be hard, but I am hanging in there. I can onlyremember that I will have many more christmases to follow.

I am also bummed because someone took $30 from my wallet. I know it wasn't our maid, she is always soo good. I leave money in my pockets and she puts it on my nightstand or even in my wallet for me. We have had a few people working in the house lately and it's a possability they went in my room while I was at school, it's just a really big bummer because that was my money for the month. I don't know lately a lot has been going wrong.