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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 19th, 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.)
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