waka waka ayy ayyy

Went to capoeira last night it was HARD CORE! We did training drills and such. I'm not so good at the slow handstand cartwheel type things and i always look like a fool but hey! its great. lol My capoeira buddies are slowly fizzling out on me..!:( Jenny no longer wants to go and Lisa broke her foot..but a friend Kellie (cute little blondie with curly hair) came with me last time. She really liked it will prob keep going. Last night I went with a new friend Leah. She arrived this weekend with a big new group from Ohio. There are 3 guys and 9 girls. They will be here the rest of the time we're here and will stay in Ecuador for a little while after we leave. Leah did well, but i felt bad because her first impression of Capoeira was probably a little intense.
Went on a run! Thats right I can run again!!:):) My knee is much better and doesn't hurt like it has been the past 6 months! Praise God!! I went running this morning bright and early at 6:30 with my friend Luis. He works at CEDEI ( our program) as the door/security guy. It was great he ran super fast and it was tough for me but I got to push myself and speak spanish! He was practicing his english so it was pretty funny I would ask him questions in spanish and he would answer in english..haha it was comical.

After our run Luis apparently kept running for another hour!! crazy but I went and walked towards CEDEI and was kinda lingering because my class didn't start for another half an hour. I heard music coming from across the street and realized it was a church. I stumbled in and sat in the back next to an older man. It was perfect. I sat and journaled in the back while the church sang beautiful spanish hymns. It was the best way to start my day.
Later in my 8'oclock (everyday) spanish class my friend Jessica was in tears and left class. Please pray for Jess her parents are getting a divorce and it just happened last semester.  She doesn't know where she's going to live  when she goes home and having to pick who to live with can't be easy. The divorce is finalized either this week or next week and today is her mom's birthday..:( Can't imagine trying to go through that..let alone being in another country. Pray for her strength and for her to feel comforted at a time like this. Luckily she has two of her best friends from her school that are also in our semester program.
After class I sat and read outside. The sunshine was gorgeous today. I'm reading Eat.Pray.Love. and really enjoying it. I also have started re-reading Abba's Child. (one of my alllll time favorite books in the world) My friends lent me these books and I'm sooo grateful for that!:) I walked around for a little bit con mi amigo entonces went out to lunch with some girls from the group. We went to this tucked away little Columbian food restaurant. It was splendid! The owner was such a nice guy.
* embarrassing story*
so I was eating my meal and of course I load the spicy on to it so I'm already looking pretty water eyed and red faced ...than because we have 8 girls crammed at one table my plate room is kinda limited...hahha so I go to fork the next bite and of course the entire plate flips onto my lap and the floor.....hahaha it was probably like my 4th bite.
The owner was so nice he gave me the same dish free of charge and came with a damp rag to help a sister out. haha Loved the spicy aji because you can't find that much in Cuenca, it's becuase it was a Columbian place they had different styles of food and spoke differently.

Yesterday
sooo sooo great. For my world lit class my professor had Ruthie and I ( the only students in her class) over to her house. We arrive at the hotel/hostel and walk up to the private HUGE apartment. Its gorgeous and has high windows and ceilings. The colors are so vibrant and the kitchen feels clean and refreshing. We watch 'Frida' the movie and have lunch. This was a wonderful class. The movie was great and the food was delicious. Not too shabbyyyyyy.

Last week
It was my mom's birthday here on friday! We went out to dinner (BIG DEAL). I've only been out to eat one other time with them and that was Valentines day. We went to the same place both times...hahah. Its called Fruitilados and its a food and dessert bakery place. I got a banana split.:)yummm. I gave her my present when we came home which she loved! I painted her a little something the first week or two i was here and saved it. Than I got her some inexpensive hand soap ( which I secretly just wanted because the downstairs bathroom had been lacking soap for the past few weeks....), and some Victoria Secret love spell lotion. They will kill for that stuff! In Ecuador everything is cheap except for the imported American stuff; Victoria Secret, Bath & Body works, name brand clothes, blow dryers, peanutbutter...haha and technology stuff. So she loved it and I know how valuable that stuff is here so hopefully she felt appreciated.
saturday-
can't say enough how beautiful Cajas is!! We went camping this weekend and had a great time. The 3:30 am hike was by far my favorite and it was so much fun! I didn't have a headlamp and was hiking by moonlight!! We kept an extremely fast pace and booked it up that mountain. It was hilarious all trying to stay warm at the freezing temperatures at the top waitng for the sunrise to come. My hands felt like they were going to fall off!!! But that's something that will be remembered! When we all had to suffer through  it together it just made the sunrise that much more worth it!