Random Thoughts

I have so much to say, this journey is absolutely amazing. Everyday is an adventure, and I´m definitely soaking in every moment here. I can´t believe June is just around the corner!

So here is a collection of random timbits for you...

-Eggs are not refrigerated.

-I am woken up by our rooster at 5am every morning, which is proceeded by my entire family getting up.

-I have lost track of how many times I have hitched a ride on the back of a pick-up truck. It´s one of my favourite modes of transportation here in the mountains.

-Jhon loves playing the radio and every odd song is in English. Some popular ones: Black Eyed Peas ¨I gotta a feeling¨, Taylor Swift ¨You belong to me¨, K´naan ¨Waving flag¨ (this song just came out and is sung partly in English). And then some American artists like Beyonce and Jason Mraz have Spanish versions of their songs as well. Now usually I don´t listen to mainstream music but its definitely a treat to hear or speak English in this community high in the mountains in Ecuador!

-I love the way some of my students mispronounce English words because they will pronounce every letter. For example, pronounce every letter of the words ¨five¨ or ¨pineapple¨. ha! Claudio in grade 4 will jokingly mispronounce ¨five¨ because he loves my response to him and the whole class laughs. He´s such a funny boy.

- It´s pitch dark by 6:30pm!

-The weather: the sun has a high intensity in the afternoon, but when the sun sets around 6pm, it´s COLD! Now I know I am Canadian and the coldness should not be an issue but its actually really cold! I often wear two sweaters at night and I sleep in a sleeping bag with two blankets, in jogs and a sweater. Ya, its that cold.

-Here in Convalecencia, many families have motorbikes, they call them motorbikes but in our eyes they are dirt bikes! And dirt bikes are the perfect vehicle for where I am living. I really only see dirt bikes, pick-up truckes and the bus, if there is a different vehicle driving through, we know that they don´t live here....Imagine sitting on the back of a dirt bike driving through the mountains, the sun is setting, and in the distance you can see lights from different small communities in the mountains....its phenomenal.

-Took my first hot shower this morning. It was glorious! Dear friends, please never take for granted your hot showers in Canada, mine are rare.

-Stray dogs....everywhere!!

-Go figure I get my first sunburn while I am hanging out on the equator! My host family laughed because I got it when I was with Letty and Maria at Letty´s school. They were fine, but I was burnt as ever. My professors at school thought it was funny, too. Why is being burnt funny?! Suncreen in now being generously applied everyday.

-I always find myself on unexpected adventures which I absolutely love. For example, just yesterday I went to visit my friend Alanna, Alanna was going to help her host father, Juan with his cows, so I was like, ¨Chao!¨ And Juan invited me to come along. So Alanna jumped on the back of his dirt bike, and I jumped on the back rack of the bike. The three of us rode of into an isolated part of the mountain. It was breathtaking, then Juan whipped out three bags for us to collect blackberries. So there we were, Juan, Alanna and myself, just picking blackberries surrounded by mountains.

So pretty much Ecuador couldn´t be more beautiful and I couldn´t be more happier.

Thank you for reading my blog...its so comforting knowing that I have all your support back home in Canada. Next blog post, stories from my work placement.

-m