The last week has gone by very fast.
We went to Baños for the weekend with a total group of eight students, and seven girls. Well, seven girls ended up being a little much for poor Mikey, and quite frankly me as well. We left Friday night and got to the city in the pouring rain. We had no idea where we going and as one of the other girls had the guidebook and map, we were at the mercy of her to figure out where our hostel was. It took about a mile of running through puddles, but we got there. The Hostal we stayed at was "Plantas and Blancas" Plants and White, and it was really nice, covered in pretty plants with a nice restaurant on the top level. There was a view of a waterfall and it was a nice town, except it was a nice and rainy the whole weekend. The other girls were basically afraid of the rain and didn't want to go on a hike to the other falls even though it wasn't that rainy, just a little muddy by Saturday. We ended up settling to go to the hot springs, and they were lovely. I guess I was picturing the hot springs from the video game "Oregon Trail": meaning natural, with a stone pool. Well, it was a little more industrialized than that. They were more like pools filled with hot mineral water, and the iron made the water look brown and a little dirty so... a few of the other girls wouldn't get in of course. We just hung around the rest of saturday and Mike talked me into going bungee jumping. That left me with all night to worry about it, but we got up on Sunday morning and headed for the bridge. There were three people that went before us and it was comforting to watch them jump and watch it all go smoothly. Mike and I decided to jump together, which I think helped because we were both trying to be the brave ones. If you look at the pictures you can see that I clearly was not as terrified. We jumped 100m off the San Francisco Bridge and it was glorious! We kinda swung/bounced around a little after than and then the lowered us to the ground which was nice b/c I think it would be a lot scarier to get pulled back up! It was really cool and we bought the pictures on a disk from the licenser to have a memory! One more thing off the "Life list"! We headed back to Quito. We took the bus back to our house and didn't get robbed so we are now official bus riders! But more on being robbed later...
This week we started our volunteer work Remar International, and here in Quito they have a childrens home for kids whose parents are either teenagers or drug addicts in recovery. Some of the parents live at the home and others don't. They are about 60 kids total at the place and we are volunteering from 230 to 630 on M, T and W. These poor kids have nothing. They play soccer with a flat basketball and one of the three swings is broken b/c it is missing an "S" hook to connect the swing to the chains. Mike and I have a little shopping to do this weekend. Not only that, we are the only volunteers in the afternoon. They are amazing though, with beautiful smiles and a sense of the world so different from my own I am still trying to understand. They don't whine or complain even though they have next to nothing, and all of them look starving. We played hide and seek for hours on Tuesday and they just really enjoy the attention that we can give them. The little toddlers make me the saddest though, from what I have observed they are pretty behind in their communication skills and sometimes i think they go without getting their soiled "diapers" (not huggies trust me) changed for hours. All together though the organization seems like it is pretty well put together and when Mike leaves (two months after me) he is going to put them in contact with the our university here to try and coordinate more volunteering. I'm excited to go back next week. I have a little friend named Samuel, he is two and just adorable. I will try and bring my camera, but it will be a huge attraction for them and I don't want it to get damaged/stolen. They already ask if they can have my watch ten times per day, after pushing all the buttons 100 times.
Yesterday was awesome! We went to the Ecuador-Argentina national teams soccer game! Our friends had stood in line for over seven hours to get tickets on Monday (and we stood for three of them, and Mike has SERIOUS burns on his feet), and we were warned it was a madhouse and to get to the game early. Half of my class left at 1030, for a ten minute walk to the stadium, and the game started at four. Mike and I stayed for the rest of class (yeah, i know, nerds) and ended up getting there at 2. I bought a sweet soccer hat (pictures to come, and ty it is all yours) and boy was I glad I did when it started pouring at 2:15. I bought a "plastico" which I assumed was a poncho from a lady for a dollar. It was a colored trash bag. She must have made a killing. I hovered in the rain, saying I could wait out the rain, and then it started hailing. I think I laughed for about five minutes. Monday we got burned to a crisp so we could sit in the hail. Reminded me of something that could happen in Michigan really. The rain stopped about twenty minutes before the game was scheduled to start, I was soaked but relieved the rain was over. The game was awesome, Ecuador ended up winning 2-0 and every time they got a goal (both in the second half) the crowd went crazy! We go beer poured on us and I got to hear "gol" in real life! A dream come true :). I learned lots of bad words too, so it was "real" culture! The guy next to us, who was clearly drunk after 12 beers, had money on a 3-0 win, so he was jumping up and down and probably the most excited man I had ever seen over a single sporting event.
The last adventure was today! As I was walking to school, around 3PM some kids around seven years old bumped into me as they were trying to sell me candy! I thought it was odd, but told them I didn't want any and kept walking. About two minutes later I realized my camera was missing from the pocket of my sweatshirt. I knew it was those little brats, and started running back to the corner where they were selling the candy. Of course, they weren't there. I crossed the street and looked towards the bus stop and saw the three little boys, noses in the air, messing around. I started running towards them and once they noticed me they started running towards the bus. I started yelling, in spanish, that they had robbed me and to make them stop, hoping someone walking by would do something about it. They got on the bus, so I started yelling, "stop the bus" and I think they heard me. I mean a blonde sprinting down the street and yelling in spanish does draw a lot of attention. I get to the bus and the kid sets the bag of candy on the stairs. I realize the bag has my camera in it so I snatch both bags of candy and thank the bus driver. I walk away just as Mike catches up to me, then I realize: not only did I get my camera back, I stole their candy. Serves them right the little brats! As we were walking back, goods in hand, a women who sells things on the same corner approached us and told us that these boys are always selling candy their and causing trouble. That she was going to tell them to stop coming to our corner. In the mean time, I am going to avoid that corner because next time I may not be so lucky as to catch them! I am thankful that I got my camera back, and that it wasn't a more serious robbery, but don't worry Mom I wouldn't never fight back against anyone that weighed more than fifty pounds.
This weekend we are just sticking around Quito, lots of touristy things to do. We go permission to miss one day of school (don't see why one more would have been such a big deal) so next weekend we are going to take a long weekend on the beach! :). I've never seen the Pacific Ocean and I love long weekends, so I'm looking forward to it already! Hasta luego! :)
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