The Fam was here!!!

As though I didn´t already consider myself to be super lucky to have such an amazing opportunity abroad, this fact was once again validated as I was blessed enough to have my sister and my parents come visit me a couple weeks ago.

Julie arrived on a Monday night (after a lot of hassles at the airport) and I was SOOOO excited to see her. Unfortunately she came during a busy time at school for me (I had three exams and a presentation) but she was able to keep herself busy by reading and enjoying the weather (when it was enjoyable) She got to see my campus, meet most of my teachers, and even sit in on my presentation...hahaha...I´m sure she loved that. But it was fun to show her off to all my friends.

When I was finally done with school and my Spring Break started, Julie and I headed to the beach. It was a long, difficult bus ride, especially for someone who isn´t used to traveling by bus, but we finally reached our destination of Puerto Lopez and were greeted by sunshine and beautiful beaches. We took a taxi to Los Frailes (and by taxi I mean little man with little motorcycle with little bench in back) and it was truly the most beautiful beach I´ve ever seen. And there was hardly anyone there, which just added to the already tranquil atmosphere. We spent the day there, but then had to head back to Quito so that we could pick up our parents at the airport.

We got back to Quito early on Friday morning, took a little nappy, and then visited el centro historico for some Good Friday festivities. It was VERY rainy, so we mostly just saw umbrellas, but every once and awhile we were able to catch a glimpse of the Jesus dolls that were marching through the streets. Overall, a nice little cultural experience.

Then we went to airport to get the rents, though I may or may not have confused the flight times and we may or may not have been two hours early to pick them up....oops. But they arrived, and it was also really amazing to see them. It was so nice to have my family all together again!

Friday night we laid pretty low, had some dinner, and then hung out at the hotel. But we were up and at ´em early on Saturday morning to go the market in Otavalo. It was fun to take my parents on the bus and allow them to see all the scenery that I see everyday. They seemed pretty impressed, which made me a happy camper.

The market was a great time. I really think everyone enjoyed themselves, as well as the VERY reasonably priced merchandise that was available. At times it was a bit overwhelming having to barter for everyone, but I had a great time, and it made me happy that my family was, as well. We had a nice little lunch at a cafe (where my father actually ate something he enjoyed!) and wrapped up the day with a few more purchases. Very lovely!

When we got back to Quito, our family, my friend and his mom who was visiting, and a bunch of my friends all went out to the bars in the Mariscal. We started ordering beer towers (the pride of Ecuador) and once the flow started....it was tough to stop it. We engaged in our own little game of flip cup (by the way, my parents are champs due to the lovely preparation they had from Badger games) and everyone got a little silly....which led to karaoke....which led to getting asked to leave the karaoke bar.....ahhhhh such is life. It was a great night though-lots of fun.

Sunday was Easter and we went back to the downtown-historical area to see Pascua parades and view more churches. Later that night, my host family invited us all over for dinner. I was really worried about this, though I´m not really sure why. I was afraid it was going to be awkward, but it wasn´t at all. Luckily Julie can understand a lot of what is being said, so she was very helpful. Also, turns out my host brother speaks English pretty well (I had no idea) so he talked to my parents quite a bit too. It ended up being a very cool experience for me because clearly my parents and sisters are the most important people in my life, and my Ecua fam has just been SOOOOOO amazing to me and have been vital to why I´ve had such an amazing experience here, so it was great having them all together. Very emotional.

Sadly, on Monday morning, we had to say goodbye to Julie, but I was so happy she came. Hopefully she enjoyed being here as much as I enjoyed having her. I took my parents to my campus, and I think it´s safe to say that they were very impressed. I really do go to school on a beautiful campus, and even though it was Semana Santa, I was really happy that the buildings were open and I could show them around.

Later that afternoon, we rode the teleferico, which is the cable car thingy that takes you up the volcano, Pichincha. It was a little bit cloudy, but you still felt the impact of how HUGE the city is and how beautiful the view is, as well.

I also got to take my parents, along with two of my friends, to Papallacta, which is a little place high up in the mountains that has natural hotsprings. I think this was right up my parent´s alley. It´s basically like 15 different hot tubs filled with lava-heated, natural water of varying temperatures. It was a very relaxing way to spend the afternoon, and enjoy more of the scenery that Ecuador has to offer.

On their last day, my friends and I took them to the Kingman museum. I don´t know how many of you are art aficionados, but Kingman was the teacher of the famous Ecuadorian artist, Guaysamín. I was a little worried about this too, because Rex and Nanc aren´t too into the museum scene (self-admittedly...I´m not criticizing) so I wasn´t sure if they would like it. But they ended up really enjoying themselves, I think, haha. We had to translate all of what was said, which was a little exhausting for both parties, but all in all, it was a really cool experience.

Since they had to leave early in the morning on Friday, I ended up leaving them:( on Thursday night to go to the beach for the rest of my break. We had a nice little dinner, and then I headed out. They had a shuttle take them to the airport in the morning, and as far as I know, everything went according to plan.

It was truly incredible to have my family here. I miss them so much ( and everyone else too, of course) I was so happy to have the chance to share with them what it is about this country that I´m just so enamored by. Though they only had time to see a little fraction of what I´ve seen and done, I´m delighted to know that they have a grasp on the concept and are really clued in on what I´ve been up to.

My last few days on the beach were wonderful. I have a friend who is currently doing his internship in Puerto Lopez, so it was fun for us to spend time with him and just relax for our last days of Spring break.

I can´t believe it´s the end of April.....where did the time go? Hopefully, everyone is doing well. I miss you all...we´re getting close. Much love. Cuídense. Love, Laura Lynn

Que Lindo es Mindo

Okay, sorry it´s been a couple weeks...again...This past weekend we went to Mindo. It´s a very ecologically-friendly, waterfall-packed town about two hours from Quito. We arrived (in the rain) on Friday night. Of course we were immediately attacked by hostel owners as we got off the bus who were trying to get us to stay at their respective places. So we picked a place, grabbed some dinner, and laid low for the night so that we could get an early start in the morning.

On Saturday morning, we went on a hiking tour of a bunch of waterfalls. There were actually supposed to be seven, but I think we only saw three...it´s kind of hard to tell. Our adventure started with a six kilometer hike to a cable car thingy that took us to the other side of the semi-jungle (We´re not really sure if it was jungle, forest, or what...) Once we got there, we hiked to our first waterfall. At this point it had started raining, which wasn´t really a big deal because we were mostly covered by tree branches and such. When we reached the waterfall, there were dozens of people swimming right beneath it....they pretty much looked really cold...but when in Rome....so we jumped right in there too. Possibly the coldest water I´ve ever swam in, but totally exhilarating. You pretty much had to jump right in otherwise the sharp, pointy rocks would dig even further into the sole of your foot. Ouch. But it was super fun.

Then on Sunday we did some extreme tubing down the rapid-y river. It was really cold, and really scary, but completely worth it. It´s kind of hard to explain, but there are a bunch of huge intertubes tied together and you sit with your butt in the middle of all of them with your feet toward the outside. Basically you go crashing and thrashing down the river in which the huge pointy scary rocks are everywhere you look. We had two guides with us and luckily one of them was pretty much on top of me the whole time because otherwise I would have surely fallen off and been a lost little river rat. When we finally got back onto shore, we all got attacked by a bunch of little bugs (especially on our feet and ankles) and are still scratching today, which is a bummer, but such is life. In fact, the little bug bites woke me up last night because they itched so badly! Yikes. Once again, though, it was totally worth it....as is everything I´ve done.

On a more exciting note....my sister is coming!!! Julie gets here on Sunday night, so I´m making sure to be back from whatever adventure we go on this weekend in time to pick her up with my host brother. I´m so excited to see her, and then my parents come on Friday...keeps getting better and better. Though I CANNOT believe that it is already our Spring break...I´ve never experienced time moving at such a rapid pace before coming to Ecuador. I can´t wait to show my family around and let them get a little taste of everything I´ve been exposed to while here. I´m so lucky!

Hope this finds everyone happy and healthy. Love you all!

Sunrise, Sunset, Sunburn

So as soon as we got back from the jungle, I had to prepare a little presentation for the one class that I have on Fridays(LAME). So I stayed up late Thursday to work on that. Friday morning, I gave the presentation...I´m pretty sure I made up a lot of what I was saying, but I´m already over it. Then we went home, got our stuff packed up, watched a little basketball at a local sports bar(unfortunately the Badger game was not on TV in Ecuador, very sad). Anyway, around 10:00, we headed to the bus station.

Once again, my friend Tylenol PM and I got along splendidly as I slept almost the entire way to Bahía, which was about 8 hours south of Quito. We arrived early Saturday morning, and hopped on a boat that would take us over to San Vincente, which was on the other side of the bay. Then we had to ride a bus about twenty more minutes until we finally reached our destination of Canoa. Honestly, it was probably the most beautiful beach I´ve ever been to. Aside from the white sand, and the bright blue water, there were huge grass-covered cliffs, and gorgeous rolling hills all around us. It was amazing.

We stayed at a hostel called Bambú, and each ¨room¨was actually it´s own little cabaña..it was right on the beach, and it was really nice. There were hammocks all over, and a porch swing on the roof of one of the buildings that overlooked the water.....sooooooo pretty, and quite clean, as well.

We spent all of Saturday on the beach and in the water. The waves were huge, and the ocean floor was really smooth, so it didn´t even hurt when they slammed you into the sand. We played frisbee and football, and enjoyed the view. Later in the afternoon, we went for a walk to the cliffs and made friends with a bajillion crabs that were inhabiting the rocks...We walked around the cliffs and rocks for awhile, then I of course slipped and fell because it wouldn´t be a real trip if I didn´t somehow get injured. No biggie.

That night, we went to one of like three bars that are in Canoa and talked with a lot of interesting people. We made some British and Australian friends who are living in Canoa for four weeks to learn Spanish...it´s customary for them to take a year off between high school and college to travel...not a bad deal. Then we all went back to the beach and sat around a bonfire-it´s so fun talking to people from all over the world...I feel like I learn so much from meeting new people.

Since we all got a bit too much sun on the first day, we invested in a shady tent umbrella thingy (that´s a technical term) for the second day. I was pretty much fine, with the exception of my hands...I don´t know what´s wrong with me, but my hands are extra sensitive to the sun. So they were hurting quite a bit, despite the fact that I wore SPF 50 AND reapplied it. The only thing that gave them relief was to be in the water. So I spent a LOT of time in the ocean on the second day, and that is how I think I got my face so burnt...once again SPF 50...I know we´re on the Equator, but MAN did that sun do a number on me.

So after another long day of playing in the sun, I was really hurting. Luckily, I was distracted from the pain for a bit when the sun started setting. ¡Qué maravillosa! It was sooooooooo gorgeous. I´ve seen the sun set before, but never like this. It was just amazing. I took a ton of pictures. Breathtaking...

So we packed up our stuff and got ready to catch the bus that would allow us to catch the boat that would allow us to catch our other bus back to Quito....got that? It´s a lot less complicated than it seems. At this point in the trip though, I was miserable. I was applying aloe vera like it was my job, and doing anything to keep my skin cool....including dunking my tank top in the dirty dish water at a local restaurant....it was not fun. And I felt bad for my friends for having to look at/put up with me.

Anyway...we got on our bus, and since I knew that it was going to be a rough eight hours, I thought I was prepared by taking wet towels and wrapping my hands in them. I also tried taking some more Tylenol PM hoping it would just knock me out and make me forget about the flames that were my hands. Yeah....not so much. Instead, I was all wet, got my friend all wet, made myself really cold, and didn´t have anything dry to warm up with, and couldn´t sleep for the life of me. It was a really super fun eight hours....yay!

We got back to Quito at around 5:30, and I went home and tried to sleep, but all I could do was run my hands under cold water. So after about three hours of that, I started to get ready to go to school. After my first class, I decided that what was going on with my hands was not normal...I´ve been burnt before, but this was an intense pain that I´ve never experienced.

I went to the university clinic and the doctor told me I had first and second degree burns on my hands.....yikes...so he gave me some pills and some cream, and hopefully I´ll be better in a few days. Again, I was wearing sunscreen....lots of it...just a testimony to how intense the sun is here. And it´s already a little better, in case anyone was worried...I´m fine.

Anyway...it was a great trip, besides the burning. I had a lot of fun, and I am thinking that I am going to take my parents and/sister there when they visit...it was just so pretty.

Back to class for me, but again I hope everyone is doing well. Keep in touch. Love you guys

From the jungle to the coast

So scratch Mindo...we got to the bus station, and learned that there was no bus until 4am. So we just went ahead and decided to go to the jungle.....completely normal, right?

So we hopped a bus to Tena, which was about a five hour bus ride from Quito. We didn´t get there until 2:30am, went to our hostel (which we actually booked in advance on the bus, weird) and went to sleep.

We tried getting up early the next morning so that we could go find something cool to do, but early is a relative term, and we pretty much missed a lot of opportunities to do any day-long or overnight trips. But instead we found an agency that offered a trip to the jungle.....

The jungle! Who goes to the jungle? It was insane. We hopped in the back of a pick up truck(like always in Ecuador) and started driving toward the jungle. Everything around us was so beautiful, and we had to keep reminding ourselves where we were. Unfortunately our ¨reminder¨came in a different sort of fashion this time...while we were driving along...not paying attention to anything but the view. All of a sudden we hear/feel this crash....we hit a dog! And by hit I mean killed! It was the saddest thing ever...I was so upset. My friends told me not to look back, but I couldn´t help it, and I saw the little guy suffering and it was awful....pobrecito perrito.

So that was bad news, but luckily the rest of the trip compensated. We took a little motorized canoe to the jungle, put on our super cool jungle boots, and started our three hour hike through the Amazon. It was absolutely amazing. We had great guide who showed us tons of stuff about how the natives utilize almost every resource in the jungle to some capacity or another. We walked through a river, swung on vines like Tarzan, and saw some ridiculous wildlife. I´ll put up some pictures soon.

It was so incredible...such a great experience...like usual. I´m sure I will have more to add later, but for now we have to head out and get ready for the beach......what a life!

I miss you all, all the time, every day. I hope everyone´s happy and healthy. Take Care!

Love Laura Lynn

Don´t worry, I´m still alive

Sorry that it´s been awhile since I´ve updated...there´s this strange thing called school that I am apparently enrolled in, and all of a sudden I had an obscene amount of work to do. Tests, papers, presentations...weird.

Anyway-I guess I don´t have all that much to report anyway. Last week was my host mom´s birthday, and we had a little gathering at our house. Even though she told me about it, I still managed to come home at the most awkward time and walk into a room full of all my extended family staring at me and the flowers I brought her...I pretty much brought the conversation to a screeching hault ( I think I was late, but it´s hard to say when you´re on Ecua-time) Anyway, we had a lovely little dinner, that is after the dancing...

My brothers and sister (who is currently living in Argentina with her husband) decided to surprise my mom (and me) with a mariachi band for her birthday (They neglected to tell me that the band was ¨from Laura¨too) We were all sitting in the living room, when we heard this live music, and sure enough the band marched right into the house and had us all up and dancing and singing in no time. It was really fun, and another great experience to add to the list.

The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent helping one of my friends celebrate her 21st birthday. Obviously it isn´t as big a deal here, as it is in the states, so we did what we could to change that. It actually ended up being a really nice weekend...no traveling...just hanging out in Quito.

So to make up for our chill weekend, we are going to take two trips in one week. We dont have class tomorrow, so we are taking a trip to Mindo, which is an area about two hours from Quito that has amazing waterfalls and a lot of eco-tourism. While studying at McDonald´s with a friend (how cliché is an American at McDonald´s, ew) we met a guy who had just been to Mindo and has a friend who is living there. He gave me his phone number and told us that he would set us up with a really nice place to live and have his friend show us all around. People are just so nice here, I love it. So I will be giving him a call here shortly and hopefully something will work out.

I have to be back on Friday to give a presentation, but then on Friday night we are planning on going to the beach again...different beach. Hopefully this time I will be able to avoid any juvenile urination....I guess we´ll see.

So that´s it for now...everything is GREAT! And if anyone is ever interested, my mom figured out how to call my cell phone, so if you ever want to actually talk to me, I would LOVE to hear from you. You have to dial 011-593-9-510-1104....hopefully it will work!

Love and miss you all, and again...keep the emails and such coming. Hope you´re all doing well and staying warm, for those of you buried in snow!

Carnaval....woooooo....continued

This was our Barbie piñata that entertained us for quite some time...we´re so weird.








Anyway...to continue from Ambato. On our last day in Ambato, we went to a bull fight.....ay de mi! It was really difficult to watch...I had never seen anyone hurt an animal like that before, but it was a really good cultural experience, to say the least. Plus we got really cool hats...








Okay, so we headed back to Ambato to get our stuff, grab some food, and head for Baños. PS-we had the dumbest waitress in the history of waitstaff personnel ever. And it was not the fault of our poorly spoken Spanish, she was just not intelligent enough to handle complicated things like water and such....

So we got to the bus station to get on our bus to Baños, but of course, there was no bus to Baños....wonderful. Since we had reservations, we needed to get their that night. So we hired two taxis to drive us the 45 minutes from Ambato to Baños...it was more expensive obviously, but it was ok. Then I broke the window in the cab, and I thought the cab driver was going to kill me....oops.

So we got to Baños and everyone was pretty tired, so we just kind of hung out and went to sleep. Our hostel in Baños was really nice because we all got our own bed and a bathroom with HOT running water.

Our first full day, we walked around to inquire about what to do. We stopped at a place called Aventurandes where they offered just about everything you could think of. To start off, we decided to jump off a bridge...you know, no big deal.

So we all hopped in the back of a pick up truck and drove to the bridge. It was actually two bridges that were parallel and you put on a harness and free fall between the bridges over a cute little bubbling brook....which wasn´t really as cute when I thought I was about to plummet to my death....needless to say, once I got over how ridiculously scary it was, I jumped....and it was exhilarating. I am so afraid of heights, but I was just like, ¨Laura, you´re in Ecuador, just do it!¨ I´m so glad I did...It was so much fun.




The first picture is the congratulatory bridge we made for people to run through after they jumped. The second is of my friend, Leah, dangling in the air above the water.

After we jumped, we got back in the truck and drove back to our hostel...being careful of course of the water that was being thrown at us from time to time...I guess it´s a pretty easy target when you have the back of a pick-up truck full of gringos.

Later that night, we planned on checking out the night life of Baños. However, upon leaving our hostel, we were all immediately under attack. The foam war had begun and we were without ammo....so we went back inside to change into some not-so-nice clothes and then we sought out some foam vendors so we could protect ourselves. IT WAS CRAZY. It was like four blocks of complete strangers just attacking anyone and everyone with foam. I felt like I was 5 years old-I had a huge grin on my face the entire time...even when it was covered in foam. You had to be careful though, because if it got in your eyes, it really stung. I was soaking wet from head to toe in foam...it was no holds bar, and everyone just went insane. My friend, Adam, spent like 30 dollars on foam alone, but it was almost a necessity.

Then we went to a big stage that was in the middle of town where there was some sort of performance. It ended up being a bunch of attractive young ladies, and so obviously Adam and Kraig invited themselves up on the stage to help them out....it was hilarious. They were singing and dancing with them and having a great old time. We all just stood out in the audience laughing our heads off.....crazy kids. Finally, we had enough and decided to retire for the evening. Despite the fact that I was soaking wet and had really blue and pink hair, I was too tired to shower, so I just went to sleep.

The next morning we had to wake up early because we were going white water rafting! We met our tour guide and loaded up a big van and started driving to the river. On the way, we stopped to check out this beautiful waterfall called La Novia, which means The Bride, because the waterfall looked like a veil. I am obsessed with waterfalls, so I was pretty pumped about this little stop. When we arrived at the river, we all got outfitted in helmets and life vests, which actually made me pretty nervous. Then we had a little instruction time so that we could pretend like we knew what we were doing once we were in the water.

Then it came time to pick positions in the raft. So Kraig and Brett were the captains, and then the guide had to pick the members of each of their teams......Lo and behold, I was last (traumatic dodgeball nostalgia) Of course everyone got their jollies that I was the last one to be picked....the guide swears he did it by weight and that I was the smallest, but....I don´t know...it was traumatic/hilarious nonetheless.

So we finally get in the water, and it is sooooooo amazing. The views are sensational, and again I think to myself how incredibly lucky I am to be here. We head through the first couple rapids, and they are pretty intense, a little scary, but really fun.

About 45 minutes or so into our river adventure, the divider in the raft pops off, and the air is no longer distributing itself equally. Contrary to popular belief, and just because I might have been flopping all around the raft....it was NOT my fault.

Our guide made this hilarious face while telling us that this had never happened before. Great! Okay....so we kept going until we got to a place where we could do a little regrouping. Of course, it had to be like the rockiest most difficult terrain to maneuver ever. We all ended up having to split up....the hombres had to stay behind and help fix the raft, and the women all got split up and we had to go rafting with strangers.....well whatever.

So my friend, Jackie, and I got into a raft with the new people, who were pretty nice. However, the guide on this raft had a little surprise for us. He thought it would be really funny to push us into the water! Oh, hahaha, you funny little man. Actually, it ended up being really fun when I wasn´t scared to death that I was going to get decapitated by a rock or eaten by a piranha. So we made our way down the river, and it seriously was so much fun. My arms hurt, but it was totally worth it. I was quite worried about our boys, though, because they were nowhere in sight. But alas, we all made it down the river, with only a few difficulties. They ended up using a rope as a temporary divider to get down the river. So we all reunited, had some lunch, and headed back to the hostel.

Later that night, we bought tickets to go on a Cheva, which is a big party bus that has roof-top seating. We obviously went to the roof and started driving up to the top of a volcano. It was really fun, but a little bit tricky trying to avoid cables and branches and such while driving in the dark. Once we reached the top, the view was incredible.
Then we were entertained by people who did cool tricks with fire...

By the time we got back, we were all so exhausted, that we just wanted to go to sleep. It was such a great vacation, though. Everything was fun, incredible, crazy, unbelievable, you name it. I just cannot say enough how grateful I am to be here, to share these amazing opportunities with the amazing people I´ve met, and to be exposed to such incredible beauty.

I hope life is treating you all well. I also hope you all know how much I care about you, love you, and miss you. Cuídense mucho.....much love! Love, Laura Lynn

Carnaval.....woooooooooo

So the last five days were probably the most fun, crazy, and incredible of my life. Carnaval was nutso and our accompanying trip was equally as cool. We left Quito on Thursday afternoon and headed to Ambato....let's see...Ambato had some sort of Carnaval fesitval going on, but we weren't really sure, so we just walked around. This is where we saw art...aka artists using live, naked people as their canvases...it was actually really cool. I'm not going to lie, it pretty much made me really uncomfortable, but I still watched.....very brave souls...good for them. As we continued walking, we came upon some dancers in some sort of stadium, so we went inside to watch. They were really cool, and the guys were phenomenal shimmiers (I just made that word up...they shimmied) Then this other guy with really, really attractive long curly hair (not)came into the middle and started singing-I would also like to mention that he was wearing women's shoes---and I was just watching like a happy little gringo, which apparently translates to, "Please come over here and bring me on stage with you so I can look like a total idiot when I try to dance with you while holding my huge backpack" which is precisely what happened....my friends had a lot of fun with that one. There may be photo documentation....anyway...

We purchased a pinata earlier in the day, so that was the activity for the evening. It was a Barbie pinata, which makes it WAY cooler. We thorougly enjoyed buying ridiculous things like dinosaurs and jumpropes to put inside. We're funsters... Oh, another portion of the evening that may evoke some jealousy....we played charades...AGAIN---we are so cool.

So earlier in the day, we had received some flyers that advertised a really fun foam party! Cool! Okay, so we went to the foam party, but there was a MAJOR lack of foam. Basically it was a bar and every like 25 minutes, the ceiling would squirt out like .02 ounces of foam. I thought it was hilarious. So the foam party was kind of a bust....but we were going to be compensated....

Okay...to be continued...I must go to bed now. LOVE YOU ALL