my new ecuadorian family

I LOVE my ecuadorian family and all I can say is they make up a million times for the families I have stayed with in the past. My Mama (her name is Mercedes Toro but I call her mama) is fabulous. She is super nice, completely understanding and treats me like a daughter. My papa, Galo Sr., is hilarious and always cracks jokes with me. Sometimes I don´t quite understand them (what can I say, I´m sorta slow sometimes haha) and I get really confused then mama tells he´s joking and I sometimes then sort of understand what is going on. He´s really super nice to me. He´s a civil engineer and contracts out to people. It´s nice here how they have almuerzo as a main meal because then everyone comes home for lunch and you get to see them. Anyways, I also have a sister, Estephie (short for Estephanie) who is 17. I love her so much and it´s great cuz she´s like the sister I never had. She is a senior in collegio and wants to be a lawyer (dad, you´ve got another one on your side... I don´t know if that´s a good or bad thing). She loves make-up and manicures and pedicures and LOVES basquet... ie I think she would be infatuated with Patrick if she met him. I haven´t had a chance to show her any pics of the fam or my friends yet, but I will soon. The internet was down yesterday and Saturday night, so I couldn´t get on. That´s why I haven´t written for awhile.
As a group we came to Los Chillos (which is the name for the valley we are in) and then I came to my host family´s house in Sangolqui. They have a three-story house in an urbanizacion (which is pretty much a neighborhood) and I have my own room on the top floor next to Stephie´s room and my padres room. I have a bathroom right across the hall which I share with Stephie. I also have a TV. I LOVE IT!
Friday night I went grocery shopping with my padres (this is a much bigger experience in Ecuador than in the states... at least in my opinion. There are more fruits here than one would EVER imagine. I´ve got to try a lot and almost all of them are RICA!!). We picked up Stephie at the chocle, which is a big huge statue of rainbow colored corn. She had taken the bus to Quito and was coming back. Then we picked up Galo Jr. at the San Luis mall. Galo Jr. is 20 and really nice but he´s never home (hmm who does that remind you of haha) because he is always with Liz, his girlfriend. She seems very nice though.
Saturday we went to both of the older brother´s houses. They are both married. The second oldest brother wasn´t there though because he works in the jungle and has a schedule of 20 days on, 10 days off. Mom and Dad, you would love this: We had to take the truck becuase their grandson is staying with them and we had to fit his bike in the back, so Stephie and me sat in the bed of the truck on pillows. It was totally safe (not) lol but it actually wasn´t too scary. We listened to every variety of ecuadorian music and it was really interesting. We then went to the other brother´s house (Adolpho). He is very friendly and told me if I ever want to come back I am welcome and also that he is coming to visit us in the US next year haha. I said okay and he´s welcome too.
Saturday night Stephie and I went out to a bar/restaurant with her friends. There were people EVERYWHERE and of course everyone was dancing. There was defintely at least a 20 degree change between inside and outside from all the people dancing and moving around. I danced too cuz nobody could see me in the pitch black so i figured i wouldn´t be made fun of too horribly. The music here is fabulous. Stephie said she would make me a CD so hopefully she will.
Yesterday Stephie and I went and got our nails done. it cost a whole THREE dollars. can you believe THAT??? And it only costs $5 for a pedicure. Im definitely going back. they do these crazy designs though so I might calm it down next time. I´ll take a pic of my nails in the current state and put it up. Right now they are half light pink half neon pink. it´s loco. Then Last night we went to la momia which is the mummy. It was in ENGLISH. i was slightly ashamed to say it, but i was SO GLAD. it was so nice to be able to understand it. I actually liked the movie too. the acting wasn´t so fabulous, but the action and scenery was great.
Anyways, I´m about to go to some aerobics/dance class at the community center. My friend Joanna from the program is going and wants me to come so i´m going too. I´ll let you know how it goes. Chao!