Adios a Quito! Can you believe it, ISP is actually here!!!

When Faba and Leonore told us that once we left Sangolquì, everything would FLY by, I definitely did not believe them. THEY WERE 100% completely correct. The first month in Sangolquì was more of a relaxing, getting-to-know-ecuador month. We went to the jungle, had 10 days with our host families in Quito, went to the coast, had 10 more days with our host family and have now left to our perspective ISP locations.
This past week was crazy! Monday through Wednesday, we had our usual guest speakers in class, and had normal days. Then all of a sudden Thursday came, we had about two hours of class to go over final ISP touches, and the day was over. Let me just inform you a little of how unorganized the ISP project SEEMS:
The last two days on the coast we spent at Alandaluz, and ecoturism resort three hours south of Manta. Leo and Faba spent most of the time having interviews with us about what we wanted to study and where we wanted to do our ISP. Most people had no idea and I think only half of us left the coast with even a city in mind of where we would do our ISP. Anyways, we get back to Quito and Faba and Leo don`t really say anything to us about finding ISPs or advisors for our ISP. Apparently, the whole time they were making calls behind the scenes, finding advisors, organizations and places for us to live. But still, Thursday came around and some people didn´t know where they were doing their ISP. Sketchy, eh?
On Friday we had a 3 hour long open book final that consisted of two big essays. It was so weird because it did not even feel like we should have been having a final. I definitely learned a LOT in the culture and development seminar (I have many opinions about ecuador and people´s views of the USA that I definitely do NOT agree with), but it was not as intensive in terms of writing papers and taking tests as much as we were constantly living in the culture and having discussions (ie arguing a lot haha because everyone in my group loves to share their opinion... it´s much better than having a quiet group though) and being intensive in the sense of the experience as a whole. It´s difficult to explain. Anyways, the essays incorporated the whole month... i mean EVERYTHING we have learned, so it was sort of hard. Apparently past students have said they thought the final was fun, but I definitely don´t agree. As Jake said to Leo when she told us this, "are you sure there wasn´t some sort of communication problem, like saracasm or something" haha. I think there must have been.
Friday afternoon we went to a really cute hidden part of town called Guàpulo to a cafe called ChiQuito. It was SOOO cute! Reneé had explored this part of town and wanted to show us and I´m so glad she did! They had delicious sandwiches, and games to play (chess, pick-up-sticks, etc.) and great tea! We went into the cafè and it was overcast and we left and it was POURING. We took a bus to the Mariscal and found a place to rent costumes. They were EXPENSIVE for ecuador! I was an "Ecuadorian pirate" haha (I´ll explain). Marcello wanted to be a pirate and he found a great costume. Then Audry wanted to be a pirate to match and she found a pirate costume. Then Liz found a pirate costume. And I tried on a dress and apparently it was supposed to be a witches costume, but I wanted to be a pirate too, so I wore a pirate hat hahaha. It was great! That night we went to Audry´s because her host Mom set up a big costume party. Apparently, one of the cousins hosted it. There were probably 100 people total and they were all between 18 and 25 years old so it was really really fun! We danced a lot, took pics, and met a bunch of Ecuadorians. It seems in Ecuador girls don´t normally wear skirts or dress very risquè, but for this, let´s just say us Americans were very PRUDE and conservative haha. There were some amazing costumes though!
I went to be around 1:30 am because I was exhausted (I know, I´m lame, the party went until 4.. :( but I had an excuse becase I had to get up at 6:45am (or so i thought) to go to Mindo with my family. So I get up at 6:45 because my parents say they are going to pick me up at 7. I text them at 7:20 to ask when they will be there. Then I call at 7:30 and they say the won´t be there until EIGHT!!! AHHH! STUPID STUPID ECUADORIAN TIME! I could have gotten up at 7:50 EASILY... so annoyed. Anyways that´s okay. we drove for about 2 hours to ´cascadas verdes´and walked a very short was to some waterfalls. Lets just say my host mom wore platform sandals to go "hiking" so I knew we weren´t going very far at all. It was really fun though and I went swimming! We went up to where we parked and hung out with a lady who lived right there. She had a sugar cane juicing machine (old fashioned), so we helped her juice the sugarcane and got to have some. It was delicious!! It tasted a little like lemonade, but obviously different. The machine was sort of like a giant grinder that had a big log on top that you spun (it´s hard to explain, but I have pictures).
We left and went to Arashà (if you ever want to go to a semi-nice ecoturism resort near Mindo, GO THERE!!!). One of the dads who came with us knew the owner so we got in for free. We went swimming in the pool and went in the hot tub and it was fabulous! Then we had lunch and I had the most tasty salad ever! It was like a FULL PLATE of vegetables. You might think that is normal in the US but here, that is very very rare! I had to argue with my host mom to tell her I didn´t want to put dressing on the salad. She was so confused and kept telling me i HAD to put it on cuz that is what the dressing is meant for. Can I just say I´m excited for Mom to come here and go crazy seeing what people eat lol.
We made it back to Quito around 7:35pm and I rushed to call a cab and pick Audry up at her house because most of the group was meeting at Café Mosaico for a good-bye dinner. It was SOOO AMAZING! It had the best view ever of Quito!! We got there around 8:15pm and stayed until 11:30 pm. It was so nice to have closure with Quio and say goodbye to friends before we left. Audry and I shared a delicious Gyro and greek salad and everyone had delicious wine (don´t worry, I´m legal to drink it now. yay!) If you come to Quito, you HAVE to go to this restaurant. It´s more of a romantic date place, but I think you can definitely break the rules haha.
I got home around midnight and started freaking out becuase I wasn´t packed and thought I needed to bring a suitecase to Audry´s house to leave it there for the month. My host mom woke up and told me I could leave it at here house (even though they are moving??? I´m not sure what is going to happen when I actually need my stuff...)
I was up until 2am packing and listening to horrid karaoke that the neighbors were loudly saranating me with (there was for sure some alcohol included in their activities that night). Of course (thankfully), I can sleep through ANYTHING. I got a whole two hours of sleep and woke up at 4:15am to shower. My host dad was home for the weekend and offered to drive me to the bus station, so Tito, Olga and I got in the car around 5:00am. Freak-out time: The gate would not open and we could not get out and I thought I HAD to be there at 5:30 am. Olga went inside to look for a key so we could unlock the gate and open it manually, but after 20 minutes of looking, Tito decided that was not going to happen so he broke the lock haha. It was sort of funny. We finally made it to the bus stop around 5:45am and of course, we being americans who get places on-time, were the first ones on the bus.
We left around 6am and spent 10 1/2 hours!!! on the bus to Cuenca. It was LONNNNG. Luckily, we went with a private company so the bus was pretty nice and because it was on the PanAmerican highway, the roads weren´t too bad. The drive was very pretty and green, so that was nice, but it was fabulous to finally get to our hostel. We are staying in El Cafecito, and it´s SOO CUTE! We walked around a little last night and went back to the hostel for dinner. It was delicious, there were a ton of people around and the music was good. Let´s just say I LOVED it and I love Cuenca. It´s so cute and reminds me of Spain and has lots of cute cafés, shops and restaurants and pretty churches. I am staying here today and tomorrow Megan, Jake and I are headed to Loja to meet our advisors and start our ISP. We are also getting together to watch the election... so nervous. I think everyone in our group (except for one girl who I feel really bad for because I know she is voting for McCain but because everyone else is for Obama she just sits back and doesn´t say much) is voting for Obama. I think it´s funny because a lot of people are saying they arent going home if McCain wins.. we´ll see. I don´t know who you all are voting for, but GO OBAMA!!!
I can´t believe I´m actually starting my ISP in two days!!! I haven´t spoken with my advisor (Olmedo) because he has been in Bolivia, but his wife, Maritza, seems SOOO nice!! I´m very excited and I think I can live in a hostel which i´m even MORe excited for!! I will try to keep y´all more up-to-date (sorry I´ve been slacking). Hope all is well at home. The pics of fall are GORGEOUS and I miss y´all a lot. Chau Chau for now!