(usually) Lost in Ecuador

This

is a historic blog post. You’ve all stuck with me through happy spasms of blogs, depressed blogs, ‘I’m Going Somewhere Awesome and Oh My God It Is So Awesome’ blogs, ‘Man This Sucks’ blogs, ‘What Am I Doing Here?’ blogs, ‘I’M SO BORED AGHHHH’ frustration blogs and ‘I’m Finally Learning Spanish and Life Seems to be Okay Now’ blogs. Last August I’m guessing most of you tuned in, hopeful to get a little entertainment (or perhaps just to claim that you’d been following my doings) and now, this is my last blog post from Ecuador. Strange to think, I know. But before I get all reminiscent, why don’t we cover the week?

Last Sunday was another slow day. We’ve been having some familial technical difficulties around the house lately; Karen had moved all of her clothes and all of Jose Andres’ items to my grandmother’s house (on my host dad’s side; the house that Dad and Judy stayed in when they were here). Yeah, a little tense. They had a long, long discussion on Saturday night that I was not privy to, since it was a Karen/Host Mom thing, and I guess they got some sort of decision worked out since after we did the shopping on Sunday, we went over to pack up the rest of Karen’s things. We ended up staying there for 3 hours, to my slight annoyance – I was really tired, for some reason. I’ve been a bit more irritable than normal, if that’s possible for me, and I’m suffering from a serious bout of lethargy. I pretty much feel like sleeping. All the time.

Being a good girl, I decided to get up early on Monday and go to school. So I did. There was no school. So I went back home and went to sleep. Such is my life. Despite my lethargy, I was DESPERATE to do something in the afternoon. I just felt like the week would never end (although it’s gone really fast), so I walked around for about an hour outside. It didn’t take off the edge, but eh.

Tuesday I did attempt to go to school and finally succeeded. The only real reason I went was for Oliver, since it was his last day, and I wanted to say goodbye to him. I also managed to fob off all my pins on the happy masses of my class. Kevin was being stupid as usual; I told them all ‘take two’ and he takes six, and then tried to get more. I told him off in Spanish, and then proceeded to regulate the pins a little more strictly. Goodness gracious. Other than that, Tuesday was generally uneventful. Daniela came over to my house to talk for a bit in the night.

Wednesday all I had was Rotary, and I went with my host parents and Ketita since Ketita had to do a little presentation about the USA. To my excitement, my old host family and their son were there as well! It was so great to see them! You have no idea how much I missed them!

…I hope, dear reader, you can see the sarcasm in that statement. Actually it wasn’t a big deal. My life is not a soap opera, no matter how much I talk. We just never made eye contact/talked to each other for the entire meal, with my old host parents pointedly discussing the year with Ketita while I talked with Fernando on the other end of the table. It could’ve been worse. I wasn’t rude – I greeted and said goodbye to them, although I can’t say it was anything particularly fancy. I gotta wonder what they said to Fernando. My current host parents were cheerily talking about how amazing of an exchange student I am, how good I am with Jose Andres and helping around the house, and just generally how much they love me. I watched Xiomara and Jimmy exchange a look somewhere along the lines of ‘What?’. Yup. It is what it is. They never did pay my current host parents for the pension for December, but finally my host mom just said: “Forget it. They will never pay.” Pepe is the new president of the Rotary club, so he refitted the sound system and WANTS TO MAKE THE MEETINGS SHORTER (along with outfitting the club with a fully stocked bar). I let go a sigh of relief, although it will only apply to the kids next year.

Thursday morning I became irrationally frightened. I woke up at six in the morning to the sound of on-off, regular tapping noise that sounded like it came from my door. My sleepy mind tried any and all ways of rationalizing this sound, because it was coming from the bottom of the door – Maybe it was Jose Andres? No, he couldn’t knock like that for an extended period of time. Then I thought, something mechanical? And imagined a machine at my door knocking, but that wasn’t right. I was trying to keep myself from freaking out, because I kept telling myself there had to be some logical reason that that noise was occurring, but somehow the image of that creepy little girl from the Ring kept popping up in my mind, and I knew if I sat up I would die. I couldn’t go back to sleep since it frightened me so badly.

I finally sat up.

It was just the sound from my host mom’s treadmill. She’d moved it so it was right outside my room. I felt slightly silly, but I know it was mostly because I’d been still mostly asleep that I’d thought like that. Whatever.

Friday I wanted to go to school. Couldn’t. Got LOCKED IN THE HOUSE. Some bright person locked the door from the outside and I was the only one at home, so I had to patiently wait until someone got home at one in the afternoon. Nice, I know. I was disappointed – I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to my course as a whole, although I did send messages to everyone that I had the email or Facebook of. Later that afternoon, Childerico came over with my passport (thank goodness that’s kind of important), and I’d been packing all afternoon. I’m pretty much done with my packing, thanks to yesterday – All I have left is shower stuff and my clothes for tomorrow. Please, God, don’t let my suitcases be overweight. It’s not like I have a ton of stuff. The problem is that IT’S ALL HEAVY. Thank the good Lord that I went home for that week or I would’ve DEFINITELY been overweight. I did a bit of shopping yesterday as well; I’m pretty much set. All I need to do is buy three more identical things. Last night I went with Daniela to the San Gregorio University (she made me a little pull over and got me a shirt for  going away gift! Awwwww.) and then we went to the Fiesta Facebook, which was pretty much a giant modeling show. I left early since the lights made my eyes hurt, and that brings us to today.

Saturday. My last ‘complete’ day in Ecuador. Tomorrow we’ll be going to Guayaquil right around five o’ clock, since I technically need to be in the airport three hours early, and my flight is at 11:10 at night. I. Can’t. Wait. Today I wanted to sleep more than I actually did; like I said, I’m uncommonly tired lately. I should probably go to church tomorrow (sigh I want to sleep in tomorrow), and today I think I’m skipping out on Amina’s little party thing to go do something with my host sisters. Eh. Like I said. I don’t really feel like doing anything but just having a little time to myself.

It’s been one incredible year. I wouldn’t say I’m a completely different person from the Allison who sat down to type my first blog a year ago, but I would definitely say I’ve changed (hopefully for the better!), week by week. I’ve learned more about myself here than I ever could’ve just by staying in the United States, and although there’s still a lot I don’t know, I’m willing to continue growing. I’ve seen breathtaking sights that most people go their entire lives without even knowing they exist. My memories consist of not only the times when my life was perfect, but also the times when I had to struggle through. Even when I did have to, I always knew that this was the best time of my life so far. I can’t forget the people that I’ve been so blessed to meet – My host family (Carlotta, Alberto, Ketita, Jose Alberto, Karen, Jose Andres), Course Sexto F of Manabi Technologico, the Rotary companeros in my club Portoviejo Rotary, my other Ecuadorian friends, and last but certainly not least, the exchange students that were like my family and although they aren’t here anymore, I’m keeping them close in heart (….I’m being cheesy today). Hopefully I’ll be going to Europe next summer, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Thank you so so so much to my family, especially my Mom , Dad, Brent, and Lindsay, who have supported me every step of the way and ensured that every day of my year was the best it could be with their love and words, even though they are thousands of miles away at the moment. I really do love you guys! I don’t know exactly who is reading this thing, but to my friends who tell me they miss me and talk about what I’m missing and rail at me for leaving, I love you – Even though you thought you were giving me a bad time for not being there, it just reminded me that nobody has forgotten me and I’m still loved over there. AND TO MY ROTARY CLUB (if any of you are reading aside from Dad) THANK YOU. Without you, this year would’ve never happened – Even though I signed up late, you got me on board!

This next year will be a decisive one. On July 19^th, my mom’s family is relocating into a smaller nearby house, so it’ll be a rush to try to get that figured out in the short time I have to get everything sorted out. I find it ironic that I have to pack again as soon as I get back. I also go to Clearwater Arts Camp at the end of July, and then I have to get my school year all sorted out, and keep up the sports and the such. Many kids here worry about having to return to the ‘real life’, and for a short time, I worried about it as well, but now I look forward to it. I know now that I am perfectly equipped to handle it, and the truth is, I’m ready to go home.

Again, my love and gratitude to all of you, and hopefully, hasta luego! I’ll see you all soon, and God bless!

Chao, por la ultima vez.

(Man, I have to eat like, half a bag of chifles. I don’t want to throw them away because they’re so good, but I bought too many… Oops is an understatement.)

(Okay, who else thought Justin Beiber was a girl the first time they heard that song ‘Baby’? I’m not kidding. I was so shocked.)

Hello my fellow residents of the United States (I choose to believe most of you are from the USA). It’s around 9:30 on a Saturday night here in Portoviejo, Ecuador, and we had just lovely weather today, although I didn’t get out much. Oops! All I did today was clean house, exercise while watching Sleeping Beauty (yup) and then we went to the end half of a birthday party for a close relative. Karen ended up in tears at the end for some reason… I didn’t understand why, as I only caught a bit of the conversation. It’s been a little tense around the house lately; Karen expressed a desire to me to move out, and I think she might actually do it.

Anyways, last Monday. I went to school, yada, didn’t do anything there. Monika showed up right around break to say goodbye, and we skipped out on the rest of school to go to Centro with her so she could get some last minute shopping done (she didn’t actually buy anything). Oskar hung out with us too, right there at the end, and then we all went home to eat lunch. A couple girls from my course, Monika, and Jan came over to my house just to talk a bit, and then that was that.

Tuesday. Eh. I got up at 8:00, and, um, school starts at 7:00. Yeah, I hadn’t been planning on going. Instead, I slept in a bit, and then I went over to Jan’s house at 8:30, since we’d determined that I’d be going over as it was his last day here. He was a little annoyed with me, I’m afraid; although I believe it was more of nervousness about getting everything done and then that odd mixture of feelings you get when you’re about to leave more than anything else. We went to school so he could say goodbye to everyone, then it was back down to Centro with Monika again (Japan and someone were playing soccer, can’t remember who, but Japan lost… Was it Paraguay?) so they could buy flowers for their host families. Back to Jan’s house, we ate lunch, and then it was time to wait. His host mom showed up and we had civil conversation, but yeah, finally, it was time for him to leave. They dropped me off at my house, and I guess you could say it was emotional for me. I told Jan I was afraid I was going to cry (which I did, profusely), and he told me not to think about it. Pfft. Germans. It was pretty much one of the toughest days for me. I don’t know how to write about it, really… How am I supposed to describe that? It’s rather bittersweet, really. I might get to go to Europe next summer if I’m a good/lucky girl; so I have that to look forward to. But a year still seems like such a terribly long time to wait to seem them all. Oskar and Monika came over a little later, although I was still under the weather, you could say. They took me down to Centro with Florian where I proceeded to start crying AGAIN when I had to say goodbye to Monika and Oskar. Oh dear.

That night I went over to Florian’s house for a bit, to cheer myself up, and we talked for a bit with Marvin before we had to go. Didn’t cry that time, thank goodness.

Wednesday I couldn’t go to school. Really, I couldn’t make myself. So instead I slept for a long time, lazed around the house. I went to Rotary that night, but imagine my surprise when the taxi pulls up and the club is completely dark. We didn’t have a meeting; but no one bothered to tell me. Thanks, guys, thanks… A waste of two dollars.

Thursday I did go to school, although it was with reluctance. As I feared, I was feeling a little ‘down’ when we were even lining up to head into class. I was doing so-so up until the break, and yup, you guessed it! Started crying again. Everyone kept asking me about Monika and Jan and if I missed them and where were they and if I’d ever see them again, and it was impossible NOT to start crying. At least I wasn’t wearing mascara, and my classmates were extremely supportive of me. I went to Oliver’s class after the break, just so I wouldn’t be alone in my class. I mean, not alone, but I’d gotten so used to having Monika and Jan with me that being there was almost a physical reminder that yes, they’d left and I was alone. I know I’m technically not alone, but it sure felt like it. Everywhere I go I remember doing something with the people that have left, and I can’t help but be waiting for them to show up even though I know they’re not crying. Oh man, gotta stop this – I’ll make myself tear up again.

Friday, again, I didn’t go to school. But it wasn’t because of my emotional girly feelings, oh no – They’ve started exams and I’m avoiding them religiously. I went out with Daniela and a couple of her friends. We wanted to go to the Don Omar concert, but we just ended up sitting on the sidewalk talking, which was fine with me as well.

Today I already talked about, right? ;D I guess the countdown is beginning. This is my second to last post, now. I haven’t the faintest if I’ll do a follow up post when I’m in the US. I probably will out of habit, but just to think – I only have a week left here, and then I’m gone. As for how I feel, I’ve been exercising the heck out of myself and going to bed early every night. It helps. I’m not staying home alone, either – I get out and do stuff. I love Ecuador, but it isn’t the same now. I guess I’m kind of just waiting for not this Sunday, but next Sunday.

Love you all, until next week – My last post in Ecuador!

Chao!