Rain, rain, go away....

This past weekend was also filled with local activities. On Friday we had a field trip with our Service Learning class to visit all of the organizations where students did their volunteer work. It was a long day, but it was cool to see all the places we’ve been hearing about all semester. For me it was interesting because one of the places we visited was a private school, so it was interesting to see the differences from the public school I’ve been volunteering in. On Friday night a few students and I went to our Ecuadorian friend’s soccer game. On Saturday morning I arrived at the school I volunteer at just before 7am to begin preparing for the presentation of the play. Considering we were working in a pretty shabby classroom, I think we transformed the space really well. We also had stage makeup, which I think make it all the more fun for the kids. Overall it went really well! Unfortunately because we had agreed to do it on a Saturday to make it easier for the parents, that meant that some students didn’t show up. We had to improvise a little, but in the end it worked out just fine. The best part is that the parents were thrilled and want Arteducarte to continue working in the school! They’re in the process of deciding right now whether they will or not—some of the teachers don’t support the program at all, supposedly because it disrupts their routine. Anyway, I officially finished my volunteering today—103 hours of service complete! On Saturday afternoon I went to the Historic Center with my friend Liz. I haven’t spent any time there since we went during orientation and there’s so much to do! Unfortunately we couldn’t do everything because we didn’t have a lot of time and it was the Ecuadorian version of Labor Day, so certain museums and stuff were closed. We took a tour of the Presidential Palace, which was pretty cool and saw the outside of the Basilica, which is really amazing. Unfortunately we couldn’t go in, but I’ve heard the outside is more impressive anyway. On Sunday I did work all day, and pretty much finished the rough draft of my first real research paper in Spanish! Still got a couple more to go…although the fact that "winter" (aka the wet season) has finally arrived and I may never wake up to a blue sky again or have an afternoon without rain might help motivate me. (Hopefully that's not true though...)

Things I’m most looking forward to at home:
1) SINGING
2) Driving myself places
3) Brushing my teeth with sink water (I’m a little overly-cautious…)
4) Letting my safety guard down (not completely, of course)
5) Less-polluted air
6) Regaining my own eating schedule/habits
7) Getting away from constant cat calls (it’s pretty inevitable if you’re white…)

Things I’m most sad to be leaving:
1) Speaking Spanish (mom, wanna help me out with that this summer?)
2) Being able to hop on a short, cheap bus and be somewhere totally different and amazing
3) Mountains

The play:

The Historic Center:

Inside the Presidential Palace!

He's real...

The Basilica