5 Days left in EcUaDoR!!

Hey Everyone!

Sorry that I haven't posted anything new lately!  I still feel like I have so much to write about related to the experiences that I've had over the last couple of weeks.  Sadly my time is running out, but I will be sure to share these stories and pictures once I'm home!!  I'm hoping to find the time to make an actual photo book off of shutterfly.com...that way my whole trip will be organized and much easier to share with everyone!  Can't wait to be back in cold, cold Wisconsin!!  Ahhh, see you all soon!!  XOXO

Love Always,
Aimee

CEDEI School Performance!

This past Thursday, we had the opportunity to attend a CEDEI school performance.  I’m not sure if I have completely explained the whole CEDEI School situation...and even if I have, I am going to try and make it more clear.  There are two CEDEI Schools that we have been involved in during our time in Ecuador.  We teach classes that are taught in English (such as language, math, & science) at CEDEI School.  This is where all of our students attend school.  Then, there is also a CEDEI School for older students along with international students that is located in downtown Cuenca.  This CEDEI School is where we have our classes and whatnot.  I hope that this all makes sense!

The school performance took place at one of the local malls. They had a stage set up and everything.  We walked to the mall after we finished class and got there a little early.  Oh my am I glad that we went up and saved seats right away.  By the time the show started, the place was packed.  All of the seats were taken and there was basically only standing room left open.  Our seats were right up in front, so that we could cheer our students and friends on.  Not all of the grades at CEDEI School, where we teach, had the opportunity to perform.  Many students that were not performing still attended the performance.  It was neat to see the kiddos out of the school setting, and with their families.  It reminded me of the different school activities that I went to with my family when I was young!

~The stage that the students performed on!~

~The crowd at the mall~

~Two of my sixth grade students that attended the performance~

There were two different classes from CEDEI School that performed and then the fall semester students also did a skit.  The first grade class did an awesome dance that was taught to them by the dance instructor from CEDEI School.  These kids were absolutely adorable in their costumes and I have to say that they did a great job dancing.  For some reason I can’t get the videos to post on my blog, but I will definitely show you all once I get home!  Their performance was great…I was truly impressed! 

~Some of the first graders, before their dance performance....so CUTE!~

~One of the little boys during the dance performance~

The other class that performed was the seventh graders.  They sang a song that was taught to 
them by the music teacher at CEDEI School.  It was neat because the song was actually written by one of the students within the class!  It was funny because the little kids came out on the stage and busted out their moves like there was no tomorrow.  When the seventh graders were performing their song you could tell that some of them were nervous.  The age difference and awareness of surroundings is so interesting!  There are two students within the seventh grade class that have special needs.  The expressions on their faces were so priceless.  Words cannot describe how excited they were to be up on a stage and included in what was happening!

~The seventh grade class singing their song!~

~The sign that they held up at the end of their performance!~

A couple of the other performances were done by older students from CEDEI School, where we take our classes.  The last performance was done by our fellow fall semester international students.  They did a skit about being a study abroad student in Ecuador.  The skit included different experiences that they have had as a group along with the cultural differences that they have experienced.  I have to say that their skit was pretty funny, and I could relate to many of the scenarios that they included. 

~Pretending to get RoUdY while watching a soccer game!~

~This was the end of their skit...pretty much summed up what living in Ecuador is like~

As the CEDEI School performance came to an end, most of us had tears streaming down our face.  We are all coming to realize that we only have about two weeks left before we head home.  What a bitter-sweet thought this is.  We are definitely all excited to get home and see our families and whatnot…but on the other hand we are leaving a city in a different country that has been our home for the past two months.  I’m thankful for the experiences that I’ve had thus far, and can’t wait to see what’s to come for the next two weeks!  I do know one thing…that time is going to fly by!

Talk to you soon!

Love,

Aimee

Family Fun!

For the past five days it has not stopped raining!  We were praying for rain, but not this much rain!  There had not been rain in a really long time and a water shortage was beginning to start; therefore we truly are thankful for all of the rain that we have received.  They were starting to turn off the water for a few hours a day before all of this rain came!  Hopefully it will clear up soon.  I think all of us girls need some sun to brighten our days!  We are getting so close to being home that some of us are feeling a little homesick…so if you could keep us all in your prayers that would be wonderful!

This past weekend we didn’t have any trips that were planned for us, so we decided to do our own stuff.  On Saturday morning we took a trip to CEDEI School which is where we teach everyday.  We are in the process of working on our beautification project.  All of us are so busy with teaching and taking classes everyday that we really haven’t had a lot of extra time to work on this huge project; therefore we came in on Saturday morning to try and get on track.  The first step in this project has been the painting portion.  We are painting the boring white walls to make them colorful.  The theme that we are using is from the children’s book Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom.  The walls will be painted a solid color and then we are going to paint the palm tree and letters from the alphabet on top of the solid color.  I think it will look awesome, once we are finished!  I will be sure to post before and after pictures at the end of our trip.

At this point in the day it was pouring outside, but we didn’t just want to sit around our house for the rest of the day.  We worked on homework for a part of the day and then walked to the market to go shopping!  I think our parents thought we were crazy for going shopping in the pouring rain!  It ended up being super fun!  We were originally planning on going on a Cuenca tour, but with the rain we decided not to go.  Trying to take pictures in the pouring rain would not work out very well; plus for the tour we have to sit on the top of a double-decker bus that doesn’t have a cover.  It’s kind of weird that we want to go on a tour of Cuenca now, rather than at the beginning of our trip.  Well, we did receive a short tour right as we arrived here, but all of us are starting to realize that we don’t have very many pictures of Cuenca and we thought that a tour would be a great opportunity for this.  We’re going to try and go on one this weekend! 

After shopping all the girls came back to our house and we hung out for a little bit.  For dinner, we ended up going to the pizza place that’s right in our neighborhood.  It was delicious!  The rest of the night was relaxing…we didn’t do too much and headed to bed nice and early!

On Sunday we had an awesome day with our family!  First, they took us to a zoo that was about 20 minutes away.  I love the zoo at home, so I was super pumped.  The zoo here wasn’t anything like the zoo at home, but it was still a lot of fun.  We saw a lot of neat animals! 

This was the entrance sign for the zoo!



The ostriches were absolutely hilarious!  I thought that they were going to nip at me, but our Dad had food to feed them so they didn’t.  My favorite animals that we saw at the zoo were the monkeys.  They were so cute!  There was one that was out of the cage.  At first he was kind of hiding behind the fence, but as soon as he saw that our sister had a bowl of food he came right out.  I have never been so close to a monkey!  After the monkey was finished eating a banana that our sister had given him he sat back down on the fence.  All of a sudden he jumped on Laura and quickly jumped off…I’m guessing because of her loud scream.  I guess these monkeys are known for looking in people’s pockets for food; it probably thought Laura had something to eat in her pocket.  Here are some pictures of the various animals that we saw at the zoo!



The pretty peacock spread its beautiful feathers!





As we entered the zoo, our dad bought Maria Rosa a bowl
that was filled with different foods to feed the animals.
There were bunnies roaming free around the zoo...
they were so cute!





MONKEYS!!



This is the little monkey who was out of the cage,
he's pretending to be shy!



Once he saw the bowl of food that our sister
had, he was out from behind the fence in
seconds!



We had to walk out on this bridge order
to see penguins & some other birds...
it was sooooo wobbly!



Penguins!



 

These were some other birds that were underneath
the bridge; our guide told us that they were
from the Galapagos islands & you
can tell because of their blue feet!



TURTLE!



Crocodile...yikes!!



There were a ton of colorful birds that we saw
at the zoo; this is a colorful parrot that was
chatting with our dad...he was pretty
good at getting them to repeat
after him!



After the zoo, our family took us to a well-known waterfall.  This was actually a waterfall that we had looked into going to see at the travel agency, but we decided not to do this trip because it’s the dry season here right now.  As a result, the water level in many areas is very low which causes the waterfalls to not have very much water.  It was very thoughtful that our family took us here anyways!  We walked up a ton of stairs to reach the waterfall!  It was still beautiful and I couldn’t believe how tall it was!  We actually saw people swimming in it!  If I would have brought extra clothes I would have for sure taken a quick dip!  Our Dad was sure to explain how much further the waterfall usually comes out, but because of the low water level it didn’t reach the normal point.  I was glad that we were able to see the waterfall with our family!



~The steps leading up to the waterfall~



The path that we walked on was very pretty
with a lot of different greens! 



~The bottom half of the waterfall~




I tried to take a picture that showed how tall
the waterfall was, but I couldn't fit it all in...
so here is what I was able to capture!


For lunch our family took us to a secluded hotel.  It was a pretty hotel, but it was definitely in the middle of nowhere.  We took a long dirt road that lead us to the hotel.  It was the bumpiest ride that I have been on since I arrived here…which is hard to believe!  We took the pick-up truck to all of these different excursions!  On our way to the hotel there was a huge hill and an older man at the bottom of the hill.  Our Dad picked him up and gave him a ride!  It was so funny…this little old man was so cute!  He stood up in the back of the truck and pounded on the top when he wanted us to stop so that he could get out!  I wanted to take a picture so bad, but I didn’t end up taking one.  That was a neat little side story that I thought I would share…such a different culture here!  The food that we ate for lunch was actually good!  By the time we were done eating, it had become completely cloudy.  We were literally in the clouds and couldn’t see 20 feet in front of us.  It took us a while to get home, but it was a fun family day and just what we needed!




Here is a glimpse of the restaurant inside of
the hotel!

 I love that our family took us different places!  They are so thoughtful and generous!  Only about 3 more weeks with them!

Love you all,

Aimee

House Tour!!

I know this may be a little delayed, but I finally have pictures of our host family and house that I can post!  All of us girls that came to Ecuador through the Early Childhood program at Whitewater live in the same general neighborhood.  Laura (my roomie) and I have the longest walk compared to everyone else.  It’s kind of a bummer, but the house we live in is beautiful!  Not to mention that our family is amazing as well!  We have truly been blessed!

First, I thought I would tell ya a little bit about our host family!  I’m pretty sure that I mentioned just a few basic things about them in one of my first blogs.  We have two parents who live at home with us.  Our Dad is an engineer and stays busy with work everyday.  The only time that we really see him is super early in the morning and late at night.  Our Mom is the biggest sweetheart in the world!  She is a stay at home mom and does a wonderful job taking care of the house.  Laura and I have three siblings and two of them live at home.  Carlos is our brother who is 19.  He is studying to be a doctor at the University of Cuenca.  Christina is our 18 year old sister who doesn’t live at home.  She is currently attending a University in the capitol of Ecuador, which is Quito.  Lastly, we have Maria Rosa and she is our youngest sister who lives at home.  Maria Rosa is 9 years old and she goes to a grade school in el centro de Cuenca.  El centro de Cuenca is the term that they use here for the downtown area which is located in the middle of Cuenca.  Maria Rosa loves to hang out with Laura and I.  On a daily basis she asks us to play Uno, which has been fun!  We also do our best to help her with her English homework!  She has been teaching me a lot of basic Spanish vocabulary and laughs often when I call different items the wrong name!    

Overall, our family is great!  We actually had the chance to meet our sister who goes to school in Quito over the Cuenca Holiday.  She came home for about 4 days.  We had the opportunity to hang out with her a little bit, but she was busy with friends…which was no surprise to us.  I wish she lived here though…she was so much fun! 



*From the left...Dad, Maria Rosa, Mom, Carlos, Christina*

 Oh yes, and I can’t forget that we have a dog and a cat as well.  The dog’s name is Poncho and he is an outside dog.  He runs free during the day and then sleeps in the garage during the night; I guess you could say that he just comes and goes as he pleases.  The cat was in the house before I moved in.  I’m allergic to cats, but I usually don’t have any reactions to them unless I touch them.  Well, this cat has a ton of hair and I was having major sneezing attacks at the beginning of my stay so we had to ask the family to keep the cat outside.  They were totally fine with this, but oh my goodness this cat cries like a baby.  I recorded it on my camera…you will all laugh so hard when you hear the crazy noises it makes!

Poncho

Matilde

 Our house is located on the top of a hill; therefore each day we have a steep road that we have to walk up and then a bunch stairs.  This doesn’t sound too terrible, right?  We didn’t think so either or we at least thought that we would be in shape by this point in our trip…but no we still breath hard every time we walk up this way.  It’s all worth it though because the view from our bedroom it amazing!  We can practically see the majority of Cuenca with all of the mountains that surround the city!  At night it even looks neat because of all the lights and whatnot.

This is a view from the top of the stairs!

 

Alright, time for a house tour!  There should be a description beneath each picture to describe what part of the house it is!  Here we go…
 

~A view of our house from the outside~

~Living room - this room is a quiet room the house &
our family doesn't seem to spend much time here...I
really like to do homework in this room~



~Dining room - we don't eat at this table, but our dad does
a lot of his "office" or computer work here~



~Kitchen ~ just like any kitchen in the states, this is where we
eat most of our meals...there are usually dishes all over
the place, partically because a lof of the food that's
made takes quite a bit of preparation~



~Laundry room - this little room is right off of the
kitchen...our family does have both a washer
& dryer; most families in Ecuador either have
just a washer or nothing at all...our family is a
little less traditional than most families~



~Family room - this is the first room at the top of the stairs; our
brother & sister who live at home with us tend to be in this
room most of the time~



~Parent's bedroom - this room is right next to the family room;
we have found that the whole famlily spends a lot of time in
here together, which is quite different from what we're used
to at home!~



~Our brothers bedroom - down the hall from the
family room is where the rest of the bedrooms are
located~



~Our litte sister's bedroom - she has a lot of toys in
her room and loves the color pink!~

 

~ OuR bEdRoOm - Laura and I each have our own beds; there is
also a large closet where we keep all of our clothes and other stuff;
we also have our own bathroom that is connected to our room,
which has been super convenient!~



~The view from the top floor - the middle of the house is open
on all three floors, which is pretty neat!~



~Stairs leading to the basement~

~Basement - this part of the house is absolutely HUGE; our
family has quite a few "fiestas" down here with kareoke~



~Another part of the basement - on the left is the bar & to
the right of the bar there is more seating~




~The bar area - the actual bar table top is a beautiful
oak wood~



~Haha I thought this was so funny; there
is a popular alcohol called "Grants" &
most of the glass cups within
our house have this label~



~This is the outside room that is off of our
basement - this is also where wet laundry
is hung...oh yes, and our mommy!~

Thanks for taking the time to learn about my host family and see pictures of our house!  We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful family!  It will be exciting to come home to see our own families, yet very sad to leave our host family!  Hopefully we will somehow be able to keep in touch with them once we return to the United States!

We are down to 18 days until I get home!  I’m starting to get really excited to see everyone!  I hope all is well at home and that it’s not getting too cold yet!  Love, love, love! <3

XO,

Aimee

HaPpY bIrThDaY mOm!!

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Mom,
Happy birthday to you!!

I just wanted to wish my mom a very happy birthday today!  I hope that your day was filled with joy!  I wish that I could have spent the day with you, but we will have to do something special once I get home!  Thank you for being such a blessing in my life...I do not know what I would do without you.  I love you & miss you very much!  Sending you lots of LOVE from Ecuador!

Love you always,
Aimee

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15...verse 13

Saraguro Weekend!!

This past weekend we went on an awesome trip to a city called Saraguro!  It was one of my favorite weekend trips that we have taken so far.  The two study abroad groups were combined for this trip; which means that the fall semester students joined us.  We left early on Saturday morning to meet at CEDEI School where we take our classes.  There was a bus that picked all of us up and in no time we were on the road!  It was about a three hour drive through the mountains to get from Cuenca to Saraguro.  We were blessed to have an awesome bus driver though!  The ride went so smooth and trust me, with all of the mountain driving that we were doing…it could have gone a lot worse!



~A view of the hotel from the front~

We arrived to Saraguro safely and the first stop that we made was at the hotel we were staying at.  As we drove into Saraguro I could tell that it was a hard working city that held a lot of the cultural traditions.  We were pretty much in the middle of no where, but it was so beautiful and peaceful.  The hotel that we stayed at was very cute.  They gave us about 45 minutes to get settled in and pack a backpack with layers for the hike because of the temperature changes.  As we walked out towards the dirt path that lead up to the back of our hotel, we saw an interesting ride waiting for us.  I don’t know why, but I was super pumped to go for a ride on this thing.  The only thing I didn’t know was that it was going to be about an hour ride on narrow, bumpy roads.  All I can say is that I’m thankful that Dramamine works for an extended amount of hours…the ride was still worth it because I won’t forget it. 

~Our bumpy ride ro our hiking destination~

~Jenny & I sat in the back of the truck on the way home...we
were actually being bounced off of the bench because
of how bumpy the ride was.  The bad part was that the
only bench that wasn't padded was the very one that we
sat on...haha!~





~A traditional house in Saraguro,
from the outside~

 



Once we arrived to our destination, we received a tour of one of the traditional homes of this area.  It was incredible to see the inside and outside of one of these homes.  For me, it’s hard to believe that people live in such a way. 
 
 


 

Corn that was hung inside of the house...





~Desks that were within the house,
for teaching purposes~

After the tour we went on a short hike and we ended up at a point in the mountain where there was an amazing view.  At this point we were given the option of going back or hiking for two hours to reach a lonesome tree in a far off mountain that we could see from where we were standing.  Not everyone chose to go on the hike, but I would say that the majority of us wanted to go.  Let me just say that this hike was not at all what I was expecting.  Our tour guide was practically running so it was tough to keep up.  The whole two hour hike just to reach the tree we were walking on a path that was about a foot and a half wide.  On one side there was either rock or mountain that went up.  The other side was a straight drop down.  Heights have never affected me until this trip.  Oh my goodness was I hugging the opposing side of the huge drop.  I mean if you take one wrong step, you’re gone.  This sounds harsh…but it’s so true.  Okay, I’ll be positive now…the natural views that we saw while hiking were amazing!  Pictures just don’t do justice! 

Beautiful view # 1...

Beautiful view # 2...

Beautiful view # 3...

 

Relalaxng, while playing the
haha game!


We had finally reached the lonesome tree and it was time to take a deep breath.  Most of us got comfy and laid down to enjoy the beauty that surrounded us.  No words can describe how sweet it was.  After resting for a bit our guide instructed us to all scream as loud as we could off one side of the mountain and then to silence ourselves at the same time.  We did just what he said and it was soooo neat!  An echo is something that you have all probably heard, but the echo in the Andes mountains was incredible.  We rested for a bit longer and then headed back to base one where we started and would meet up with those who chose not to go on the hike.


I did not really enjoy hiking when I was younger, but I LOVE it now!  With how much hiking that we’ve done during my time in Ecuador, I have grown to have a passion for it!!  Arriving back to our starting spot felt so good!  I looked back at the lonesome tree and couldn’t believe how far we had hiked!  Before heading out we participated in a cultural activity.  They passed around the drink and each person took as much as they wanted.  I personally did not like the drink.  The drink had some sort of alcohol in it and they warned us not to drink too much of it because we would be having a “boom boom” party later that night!  I took one sip and was done! Uck!  While we were participating in this tradition there were little kids running around because we were right by our guide’s house.  Of course I was super distracted by the kiddos and wanted to play.  There was a little boy that was jumping around my friend Ashley and I.  He was a cutie pie!  The one funny thing was that we both thought the child was a girl because of the braids that he was wearing, but we thought wrong.  It is tradition in this specific city that both boys/girls and men/women have long hang!  Ya learn something new everyday!

Starting to pour the traditional drink into the cup that
everyone drank from.  The leaders of the group were
required to drink first!



Laura, Ash & I after taking a drink!

Here is the little boy who loved Ashley & I...what a cutie!



As we started to head home on our sweet ride..we saw these
women siting outside of a chruch.  It looks as f they are
putting together a flwer arrangement!  I thought it was
really pretty so I snapped a picture!


 

Here is a picture of the weaving factory
 that we stopped at!



After every last drop of the drink was finished we got back on our interesting ride and headed back to our hotel.  We didn’t have but time at the hotel because we were off to another planned event.  I grabbed more layers, because it was freezing, and hopped on the bus.  Before heading to dinner we went to a weaving factory.  Weaving is something that this city specializes in.  I was in awe of the wooden machines that they use to make everything that they do!  After taking the time to look around and observe a demonstration we headed to dinner at a restaurant.  This weekend was full of trying new foods!  I’m a picky eater and I thought that dinner was pretty good.  Trust me, for me to say the food here was good…means that it was delicious to everyone else.  The chicken was super good, definitely my favorite part of the meal!

 

This was taken during the weaving demonstration.  I was shocked
at how quickly he was able to work this tool!  Also as I mentioned
before, it is traditional for men to have long hair. Every man that I
saw had long hair and wore it in a braid.

Above is the dinner that we ate at the restaurant.  The soup on the left was the first portion of the meal that we recieved.  On the right you will see the yummy chicken that we ate and below both of these pictures is the dessert.  It was some sort of fruit in a sauce...that was good as well!


For an hour or so after we finished dinner we had the opportunity to listen to live traditional music.  This was something that I really enjoyed.  I took a few different videos on my camera, but I was unable to post them on my blog…so I’ll have to show everyone them once I’m home.  The group of people played a few different songs and then we were invited to get up and dance.  Everyone was a little shy at first, but after a few minutes we were up and dancing!  Ahhh, it was sooo much fun!  We also had the opportunity to go up and play some of the instruments that they had available!  A small group of the fall semester students went up first.  Some of them actually have musical talent, so when they played the instruments and sang…they sounded decent!  Then it was our turn!  Our group does not have much natural music abilities, but we still rocked it up there!  We sang “Old McDonald” for everyone and pretended like we knew how to play the instruments!  At least we made everyone laugh!  We were pretty wiped out after the big musical/dancing fiesta, so we headed back to the hotel and hung out for a bit and then hit the hay.



The band that played the traditional music for us!

It was our turn...and we rocked it..haha not really, but it was
still fun! 



The traditional energy ceremony that
took place...

 The following morning we woke up bright and early to eat breakfast at the hotel.  We had a couple of activities planned for us.  First, we took a short hike to observe a traditional ceremony that took place on the top of a hill.  The goal of the ceremony was to receive energy.  It was neat to watch, but very contradictory to my beliefs.  There was a lot of spitting/blowing of water over plants and asking the North, South, East and West for energy.  After the ceremony we headed to the center of the city to go SHOPPING!!!  There were a bunch of market stands with pretty jewelry and other gadgets.  I love going shopping on our different trips because every market has different types of stuff! 



This picture was taken in front of our hotel.  There was a neat
circle built within the brick wall that overlooks the city!

The cooked guinea pig!!

Yes, the moment that you have all been waiting for.  Lunch was the last thing that partook in before heading back to Cuenca.  As I mentioned before, this weekend was full of trying new foods.  Well, as I type this I am trying not to gag…but yes I tried guinea pig.  I HAD to do it!  I didn’t know when the next time would be that I would have the opportunity to do this.  Lets just say this is NOT good meat at all.  I ate the smallest piece and it took me about 5 minutes to chew through.  Guinea pig meat is very tough and full of fat.  Each person received a different part of the guinea pig.  My friend Brianne got a leg and Laura had hair on hers.  Yeah, I know pretty sick.  Blah!  I ate it, but never again!

  

Yum, the leg of the guinea pig!



Not a fan of eating guinea pig!



The Saraguro weekend trip was a ton of fun!  I couldn’t believe how much we packed into a day and a half!  I can’t wait to show you all more pictures from this weekend!  I tried to post as many as I could…hopefully it isn’t overwhelming!  Love you all!

Xoxo,

Aim

P.S.  I finally took some pictures of my house and host family…so this will be one of my next blogs!