I love my Ecuadorian life!

I Love My Ecuadorian Life!

7/6/12

            After I last wrote in my blog, I went to Santiago’s house very frustrated after Spanish class. Yet to my surprise, Santiago and his brothers and friends all encouraged me about my Spanish, telling me that I had improved and things like that. I started to realize how much better I was than I thought, seeing as I could understand all of them and have a conversation with them.

            That night Santiago and I got pizza to celebrate his passing all of his exams! As you have probably seen on Facebook, we now have the “title” of dating, so you can all stop wondering! =) The pizza and hamburgers with fries, as usual, were delicious. We also got banana splits because Santiago told me they were his favorite.

            As we were walking to the bus, one of Santiago’s cousins stopped and told us we could ride with them. We got to talk to them on the ride, which was nice! They, of course, tried to speak a bit of English, but I only talked in Spanish!

            When we got back, we went to find Jeymi, one of our friends, who wanted help with her speech. Her teacher asked her to give a speech in English (how crazy) at the graduation. So I helped her translate into English and then pronounce the words correctly. She practiced with me so many times I had the speech pretty much memorized! Yet I was glad to help and excited to hear her the next day.

            On Wednesday Santiago came to my house early for his graduation. To my horror, I lost my lip ring while getting ready. I definitely had a typical “Mom” moment with my host mom as she asked if I checked the bed. I assured her that it was while I was washing my face, rather than while sleeping. However, when I was too lazy to make my bed, Santiago made it and FOUND my lip ring!

            Santiago got into his cute little uniform at his house, and I waited with his brother to go to his graduation. We arrived around 12 and sat down. The graduates stood to the left of their chairs with their parents. Before the commencement, they walked with their parents to their seats. They started off the graduation with their national anthem and some words from several different people. Then they called names in groups of 4 (there were 40 something students graduating). Two students would go up at a time, and their parents would put on their caps and gowns. They would be given their degrees and cheered for before sitting back down in their attire. Oh, and they also had one person in each group go up to recite this thing that basically said the four of them would represent their school well and do good things in the future. I made sure to get up close to take pictures when they called Santiago’s name! =) (Oh, and in case you were wondering about age, Santiago is actually only a year younger than me! He just graduated later.)

            Then Jeymi gave her speech in English and then in Spanish. It was nice knowing I could actually understand both! They had the typical throwing of the caps and several other speeches and even a poem before the ceremony ended. Also to my surprise, each student was given a glass of champagne for the toast!

            After that, several pictures with family and such were taken. I waited for a while and then went to Santiago’s house to eat. Then we went back for the party, which included a lot of alcohol, loud music, and dancing. Much of the goal of these parties is to leave completely “borracho”, which means drunk. As I said about the previous party I went to, there were people handing out shots and encouraging people to drink. In America, when I graduated, we had a party for the students to encourage people NOT to drink. The whole party was geared towards getting students to come to this school event instead of elsewhere to drink.

            We pretty much just danced the entire party and hung out with Santiago’s friends, who were a lot of fun! Santiago would point out the drunk people, who pretty much were a lot of guys that were just sitting in the sidelines watching people dance.

            Yesterday Santiago came as I was making pasta. After I ate, we went to take the bus to Condado to buy some food! I bought a lot of good stuff, if you can see the picture on Facebook! Included foods were Pringles, wafers, milk, bread, butter, yuca chips, tang, peanut butter and jelly, club crackers, Ecuadorian moon pies, macaroni, and kernels for popcorn. I was very excited with my purchases.

            We ate dinner at McDonalds and then came back to Santiago’s house for a bit. I got to Skype with my best friend Emily back at home, which was nice! Then we headed back home to put away all of my wonderful food!

            Today I got to sleep pretty late! I woke up around 11:30 to get ready. Santiago came late (as always) and helped me make pasta. After I ate and did a little of my homework, Santiago took a nap. I did the dishes while he slept, and then we headed to his house. I was trying to Skype my parents today, but it didn’t happen! So I’ve been here at Santiago’s just hanging out and waiting for him to return from a meeting.

            Today as I filled out more things to do in my schedule, I couldn’t believe it has already been a little over a month. I only have 3 and a half more weeks here, and I don’t want it to end! There have been so many ups and downs and times where I just breakdown. The other day at the party I had to just leave for a bit before returning because I was so overwhelmed with everything. There are so many cultural differences, and sometimes being around so many people makes me extremely uncomfortable! There have been times where I’ve loved my Spanish and times where I felt inadequate. Yet through all of the craziness of being here, I’ve had the time of my life.

            I love my Ecuadorian food shopping sprees and my incredible food. I love my Ecuadorian family that wakes up late at night to make me tea. I love my crazy Ecuadorian boyfriend that cooks me food and is really good at dancing. I love my Ecuadorian friends that beg me to teach them English. I love my Spanglish because sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish and end it in English. I love the walk to my house in which I see plenty of cows, dogs, and horses. I love my Ecuadorian life; it is the greatest. =)