the love of adventure: Cedron!

Hola hola hola. Lets see what happened today. Everyday is different and it is what you make it. I want to be intentional about speaking more spanish. Lately its been really easy to talk to the whole semester crew in english and not put myself through the espanol struggle. I decided to not make plans and come home for lunch.
This morning had classes and boy is my art class going to be a lot of work! We have reading and papers every class and just got assigned 70 more pages to read. We have another novel to read on top of that and two quizzes our second week in! I think this class will be more difficult than the one at Loma! Who knows. I'm glad that I am interested in the subject and the professora is really cute and fun. We are learning about Mesoamerican art and central andean art. Its nice when we are learning about something and then we get to go visit local museums later on and see what we are learning about when we visit the ruins this weekend and when we go to Machu Pichu. This experience has been unreal as of yet and I have already been in the honeymoon stage of traveling and I think I am back there again! I will have been here a full month on Sunday!! Craziness!!
Today after classes got to talk with one of the teachers here teaching english to the locals. There are several dozen teachers coming and going and various groups that go through CEDEI all the time. It keeps things flowing and its nice to have new faces to meet. I met Andy and Rob yesterday and spoke with Rob a little today. Its so funny because his english accent is so thick. At first he didn't talk much and I thought he didn't speak english. Turns out there are quite a few people who after graduating or just during summers will travel the world and teach english. Some of the other teachers spent a couple years in China and said the amount of Chinese they learned in 2 years was the equivalent to how much spanish they learned in 3 months in Ecuador. My friend Jenny also has been telling me stories about her "WOLFING" this past summer in Hawaii. She lived for free in Hawaii working on various farms! She went with a friend and said it was an awesome experience. However, she didn't live with electricity or an inside bathroom, or cell service. I think that would be a great time, not sure if many people would agree. She got to soak up the culture and meet new people and work out in the tropical Hawaiian sun for 5 hours a day. They have wolfing all over the world and sounds like a cool way to travel!

I came home for a little almuerzo finally and went on a little drive with mi mami. We took her baked goods to a friend. Mami works at a Panaderia(bakery) and works partly out of the house as well. She does stuff on her own because she's de best! We delivered her goods to this cute, little, old woman who had an immaculate mansion of a house. It was complete opposite of what I would later.
Mami dropped me off at CEDEI and I went to one of the friendly worker's house. Tatiana invited me over earlier today and I thought 'why not!' We took the bus to her house which was a 20 minute ride through the city. We walked up to her house and were greeted by her little sister and her little cousin. I was in heaven. I've been missing my Warren Walker kids and this is just what I've been missing. Her little brother we met later inside and he is 7 and her sister 5 and her cousin right around there. We met her mom and she served me bread and drink of cedron. Cedron- this delightful hot drink that is MAGICAL. She put sugar in it but it is out of this world! It tastes like real tea that has a taste similar to thyme..i think... I dunno but it was incredible. After our little snack we took a stroll around their town. This part of town is way different than where I'm used to living with my family here. Her house makes me realize how you never really know how well off a person lives. Her family is so much fun I loved hanging out with them. Her mom wouldn't let me leave without taking part of the cedron plant home! I ended up taking a taxi home, because who knows where I would end up if I went on the bus home by myself for the first time. The taxi was expensive but worth it.

I had a little cafecita with papi when he got home from work and when the girls arrived home they were really hyper and making fun of Gabby for not being able to sit indian style. Mami complains that she eats to much pan (bread) and Isa says she looks pregnant. Its funny how honest they are..but I think Gabby really does end up taking it personally. Isa is older and picks on Gabby. Gabby confides is Bruno (our dog) hahah and wants to be a vet when she gets older. Isa is studying in the university to be a lawyer.

My first experience with public transportation :)