A step in the Right Direction

6.14.11

So compared to my last blog, this one is gonna be a dud, but I’m still going to update you on this past week anyways because there were a couple things that happened worth blogging about…. And I’m trying to make it a point to blog at least once a week.

I’ve been having a difficult time with my counterpart. A counterpart is a person of your village/community/town/organization with whom Peace Corps “assigns” to you to help you integrate into the community and start work. Basiclly, this person is your work partner. Well, my counterpart hasn’t tried contacting me since I’ve gotten to Cuenca. She shows up to La Red (the organization I work with) every once in awhile. And when she does she likes to tell me I’m going to help one of my fellow PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteer) with her Spanish, which is definitely not my job, or I’m going to go on a 5 day trip that will cost me $50, which is a huge chunk out of my monthly living allowance. Those are just a couple of examples.

I’m not trying to bash on my counterpart because she is a very good person at heart, just VERY tough to work with.

So PC assigns you a person to work with, but at any time if it is not working out with this person you are free to find a different counterpart who is more motivated, easier to work with, etc. And that’s exactly what I did on Wednesday. There is this girl, Angie, who is in the office every single day without fail. She runs the organization and is very good at her job. Without her, I’m not sure what my other coworkers would do… or if the place would even run. We even call her “Mama Grande” since she knows the answers to everything.

And on top of her being the “Mama Grande” of the office, she is my age and we get along great. So Wednesday I decided to talk to her about becoming my counterpart and the “job duties” of a counterpart, what I expect of her, what she should expect of me, things like that. She was very interested, which made my day! And now she is my counterpart, woohoo!

During our conversation I asked her if she could explain the structure of the organization and the projects La Red was working on. So I FINALLY know what my organization does and the external projects we are working on. It only took 7 weeks…. But it's a step in the right direction J

One of the awesome projects I’m helping them work on right now is the first national community tourism conference in Ecuador. Up to 750 can come. We are doing marketing right now to the Universities in town. Tourism is a popular subject of study and many of the Universities are even interested in helping us run the 3 day conference. Pretty cool. But I will save my organization and what it does for another post. On to the rest of the week.

Thursday. Thursday was an exciting day. I went to work, ate lunch, then Marcia, Daniel and I went to a town called Gualaceo, about 45 minutes away to buy shoes. This town is known for their cheap shoes, boots, heels, etc. I was soooo excited to be going and buying new shoes. I’m SO TIRED of wearing tennis shoes every day, while the rest of the girls and women dress up.

At first I was disappointed because all the heels were adorable, but too expensive for my PC budget, and the boots I came across were ugly... Until the very last store, go figure. The last store we came too had all kind of sales going on and a super cute pair of boots I liked! So guess what? I bought 2 pairs of heels, 1 pair of casual light yellow tennis shoes, and 1 pair of black boots all for $58. SCORE! I have been such a cheap ass the whole time I’ve been here and have hardly bought anything. It felt so good to spend money! And now I get to look cute, wear heels and not look like a dude when I go to meetings or out on the weekends.

Friday was real low key. I worked, went to the gym, and sat in on a meeting that Marcia had at the house with the Spa girls.

Saturday, Hannah and Kristin from my omnibus (aka-my PC training class, we were omnibus 105) came to Cuenca to celebrate Kristin’s bday. After getting ready Hannah and I met up with Kristin and another girl at a restaurant to have a drink and dinner. Later on, Kristin had some bracelets for us girls to get in free at this one bar/dance club so we used them and went dancing. It was a fun night! I even wore my super cute, new black boots! J

 Us girls at the restaurant :-)

The Bday girl!

Sunday. Hannah left and I went to the store with Marcia to get a plastic container to put all the manicure and pedicure tools in at the Spa. Well….. we ended up buying 44 small aluminum bottles, 2 small plastic containers, 2 medium containers, 2 locks, a role of plastic, 1 laundry basket (for my dirty clothes since I didn’t have one), and masking tape. I should have known that would happen… I should have known.

Later in the evening I started feeling yucky. My stomach hurt, I had a headache, my body ached, the whole works… then came the diarrhea. Fudge. I had diarrhea all day Monday and all day today, Tuesday, I’ve had it. Thank goodness it’s not accompanied by stomach pains, so I don’t feel all that bad, just pretty tired. I ate the tiniest bit of some nata Sunday evening, which is the stuff that hardens at the top of the pot after you boil milk… I think. They eat is by dipping bread in it bc it’s a little watery with cottage cheese like chunks in it. I think that might be the cause of this. My stomach isn’t used to unpasteurized milk. But then again, you never know if that’s it or not.

So the past couple of days I’ve been going to work, coming home and eating lunch, and then laying down and napping on and off in the afternoons. I hope this passes soon, like right now, and my bowels get back to their normal schedule soon.

As always, questions and comments are welcome! As well as updates on everyone's life in the States! My email is Siegmund.Heather@gmail.com.

Heather

AWESOME Friday, Not so good Sunday

This post is soooo long, but you will not regret reading the whole thing, I promise.  Just another weekend in my Ecuadorian life…. Happy reading J

My first couple of weeks/weekends in Cuenca I was so bored. Now they seem to be the total opposite, but I am definitely NOT complaining. The past 2 weekends were busy and I am traveling for work the next 2 weekends. And on top of working starting to move along slowly, I’m starting to feel like a true part of my host family (although they have made me feel right at home from the get-go) and I feel like I am integrating well and getting to know my co-workers. Life is good. Now on to my weekend.

***FYI- as I write this I’m chowing down on a fun size bag of reduced fat cheez-its my sister sent me J They are sooooo yummy and oh how I’ve missed them! And I’m topping it off with a Granola Thin my friend Lauren sent me***

I guess I will just start from the beginning… Friday. Friday, by far, has been the most fun day/night in Ecuador for me thus far. My friend Hannah came into town around 3:30 so she could go to my work party with me in the evening (she is somewhat affiliated with my org). We chatted and caught up with each other’s lives then we started getting ready for the party… American style. I felt like I was back in the States. She straightened her thick head of hair while I showered and blow-dried my hair, all the while jamming out to tunes on the computer, having ourselves a drink, and telling each other funny stories of our Ecuadorian lives. Then we headed to my work party that started at 7.

The party started at 7, but no one showed up until about 9. That’s how Ecuadorians work. At the party were my coworkers, Hannah and I, a group of people from the province of Esmeraldas, and a few other random people. The party started off slow with everyone getting to know each other. An hour or so in I helped Angie and another woman unroll tamales to serve to everyone.

Holding up the wraps from the tamales

Showing off all the nasty tamale gook on our hands

After we ate tamales someone brought out the homemade dark rum. Here in Ecuador it is not normal to have your own drink and sip on it, instead they will mix the liquor with some coke, poor it into shot glasses, pass them around, and then everyone takes it together. And that’s exactly what we did until 11:30 while chatting and dancing. It was so much fun! Of course everyone wanted to dance with the gringas. Dancing here is totally different than the States. Here you do a little 2 step back and forth while never making eye contact with your dance partner. Kinda weird, but its slowing becoming normal to me. You dance the whole song, then sit down, or someone else asks you to dance. We did this the whole evening while taking some breaks every now and then.

With some folks at the party

Doc giving a speech and toast (he's the one in the green sweater with red polo)

Friends!

Oh I should mention that my Ecuadorian friends have been trying to teach me Salsa. And bloody hell is it hysterical. 1. Because I totally suck, and 2. Because I’m a Gringa, and everything a Gringa does is funny. But it is fun none the less. Also, my dance lessons continue at all of our gatherings. Have I mentioned before that dancing is a HUGE part of the Ecuadorian culture?? Well, it is.

11:30pm came and everyone decided they wanted to go do some more dancing. So that’s exactly what we did. We danced until about 2, then finally made our way home.

But not before Hannah and walked around in the pouring rain trying to find some very popular Ecuadorian street food. We were unsuccessful since it was like 2:30am, so home we went with empty stomachs.

When we got to the gate to my house I came to the realization that I forgot my gate key (I live in a gated community and I took that key off of my ring to go to the gym so I didn’t have to carry all my keys). Shit. I had all my keys, but the outside gate key. It’s now like 3am and there is no way in hell I was going to ring my host family and ask them to buzz me in, so I decided I was going to climb the fence. That was successful, but not without a nice scratch down my right calf from the pointy black iron fence. Oh well, no pasa nada. I went to my house, buzzed Hannah in, and we were safe and sound from the rain. Soakin’ wet, but out of the rain and ready for bed with hungry stomachs.

Such a fun night!

Saturday we got up, had lunch at a Colombian restaurant downtown, grabbed some ice cream, and went back to my house and watched a movie. Hannah took off back to her site about 4:30 then I headed up to the Spa. Marcia was there giving one of her friends a manicure so I had coffee and chatted with them while her nails dried. They asked me to help them make a torta mojado de chocolate. Basically it’s a double layered chocolate cake with an awesome chocolate frosting on top and in the middle of the cake. I had no plans for the night so I told them yes. I had to look up a recipe and we went and bought all the ingredients that we needed. The cake took us about 2 hours to make, 1 hour of that time was baking the cake. It turned out soooo freaking delicious. Marcia’s friend Carmen helped me make it. Carmen’s husband and daughter ended up coming over to eat with us. Everyone was raving at how awesome of a job we did J Here is a pic of the cake and us chowing down:

The oh so yummy cake!

 chowing down :-)

So that was Saturday, now onto the hectic hectic Sunday….

Sunday morning, Marcia, my host mother, woke up to a phone call from one of the neighbors who live above the Spa saying there was a lot of smoke coming out of the Spa. She immediately woke up my host brother Daniel and off they went to the Spa, about a 1 ½ minute car ride from our house. Sure enough, smoke was pouring out of the spa.

Turns out a candle on a shelf above one of the massage tables was left lit… it ended up dripping onto the bed, as well as one of the machines used to give massages, which was turned off, but still plugged in. The wax burned a HUGE hole into the bed and melted most of the plastic on the machine, which then dripped onto the curtains that were leaning against the machine.

I had no idea none of this happened until about 9:30am when I came out of my room to eat breakfast and Marcia began to tell me the story. She then showed me the burnt curtains with the melted plastic from the machine on it. We were able to save most of the curtains, we just had to cut the part of the curtain with all the melted wax and plastic on it, then we sent Daniel to take all the curtains to the dry cleaners. After breakfast the whole fam and I went up to the Spa to clean.

We got to the Spa and OHHHH MYYYYY GODDDDDD what a freaking disaster. I have absolutely no idea how that place didn’t burn down from a fire. I mean seriously, how the hell was there NO fire?? Just a TON of smoke that covered EVERY SINGLE little thing in the whole entire place. The Spa was a complete burnt mess. There was black dust on everything, and I mean everything…. Every curtain was black, the lime green walls were grey, the red walls were now burnt red, there was a huge BLACK mark on the red wall where the burnt bed and machine were smoking, the floor was now black, the doors and the opaque glass walls throughout the Spa were grey. And me explaining this to you does this filthy place no justice. Because it was WAY filthier than I am able to describe.

So we began to clean. The girls who work at the Spa came down to help, as well. We moved all the furniture and machines outside and took everything off the shelves. We then began to throw buckets of soapy water all over the walls and scrubbing them with brooms and brushes.  This was kind of doing the trick, but not quick enough so we brought the hose from outside in and started spraying away. Cleaning the walls took FOR-EV-ER(<--- in the “Sandlot voice”)… my girlfriends back home will be proud of me for quoting a movie! But thank goodness the black spot came off of the wall and most of the black came off the other walls, as well. Now it was time to scrub the doors and opaque walls, along with every bottle and container in the whole place. Don’t forget this is a spa, hair salon and nail salon all in one. And that means there were, excuse my language, a SHIT TON of bottles and other small things to wipe down. Along with decorations, pictures, clocks, scales, chairs, shelves, desks, the list goes on. So we got that done and now it was time for the floor. There was so much water on the tile floor from throwing buckets of soapy water and bringing the hose in. So we scrubbed the floors and started squeegeeing the water out the door Ecuadorian style. I then realized that some of the water wasn’t leaving and was trickling back behind the main front desk where all the wires of the phone, computer, credit card machines, and radio were… which were all plugged into the wall, and we were all standing in that water that was touching all those wires. I freaked out, told Marcia and we turned the electricity off to the whole place until we got all the water out and the wires dried.

The floor was clean so we now moved all the furniture back inside, rigged the burnt bed, put the sheets back on the bed the other beds, reorganized, and got the hell out bc we were all so tired.

FINALLY, the 5 of us were done cleaning about 4pm. Finally. None of us had eaten so Marcia bought chicken and we ate back at the house, but not before a prayer thanking God for watching over the Spa that night. For dessert we finished off m fabulous chocolate cake. The Spa girls loved it!

I really wish I had pictures of the Spa, but I thought it would be completely rude to take pictures like an investigator while Marcia was so upset and mad all at the same time. Upset because of what happened; mad because the girls didn’t blow out the candle the night before.

The day is over. I watch TV with Marcia for a bit, then say peace out and head to my room to relax, play some computer games (yes, computer games), and hit the sack.

I left out the part about how absolutely FURIOUS I was by the end of the day, but that’s another whole post in itself and I am not about to write 2 or 3 pages more. I apologize.

I still am so amazed there was no fire… Marcia is one lucky person.

I wonder if next weekend will top this one? Probably not.

Heather

Ziplining??? You better believe it!!!

5.27.11 Ziplining

This is a really long post, but there are pictures to go with it so it’s very much worth your time.

So a couple weekends ago I had a pretty fabulous weekend, it was Memorial Day weekend to be exact!

Friday was the Ecuadorian holiday of the Battle of Pichincha so I didn’t go to work, instead we played. Three of my co-workers and I went ZIPLINING!!!!!!!!! That was my first time ziplining, and oh boy was in an incredible experience! And it was only $8.

We arrived about 10:15am, and of course the guides weren’t there yet. So while waiting for the guides to show up we just horsed around, took pictures, and jumped on a trampoline like teenagers. It was so fun! When the lady who works the lobby got there, we went inside and played ping pong and half a game of pool until the guides finally got there.  So we harnessed up, took pics, and off we went. There were around 10 people in our ziplining group.

Me catching some serious air on the trampoline!

 My friend David worn out from jumping. We were the only 2 who would get on the trampoline.

 Playing some pool waiting for the guides to arrive

 Harnessed up and ready to go!

We got to the first cable (there were 6 cables in total) and my coworkers and I were the last ones to go in the group. It went smooth. As we were starting the second cable it began to rain, no big deal, it was still awesome. I saw the 3^rd cable and wanted to pee my pants… it was longer than the first two and the ground was further away. Cable 3 was the first real adrenaline rush I got. It was fantastic!

Me on Cable 1. Short, but sweet ride!

  Flying on Cable 3

Cable 4, the fastest, and by far, the longest one yet. I swear it felt like I got up to about 100mph. On this cable my friend David and the guide decided to be the last ones to go and do “superman”. Oh, and in case you are wondering we did have a camera and took lots of pictures. I took a video of David and the instructor ziplining like “Superman” with the guide. Prrrrrrretty hilarious.

Cable Fourrrrr. Holy Awesomenesssss!!

So I thought Cable 4 was the greatest thing in the world…. Until I got to Cable 5. Cable 5 was DEFINITELY the cable where I went about 100mph, the fastest and longest of them all. Talk about a serious adrenaline rush through the forest in the middle of nowhere with the ground about 200 yards below me.

Action shot on Cable 5!

  My face while landing after Cable 5!

Up until this point, this post has been awfully boring… so let’s spice it up a little with my Cable 6 adventure. At Cable 6, my friends decided they wanted to do “The Superman”, and just that we did. The guide hooks up Angie and David and off they went. Then its Miguel and I’s turn. It was hysterical from the beginning. In order to the “The Superman” the person in front has to wrap their legs around the person in back and hook their feet. The front person was me, and well, I’m short. I had the most difficult time hooking my feet. Such a difficult time that Miguel and I were laughing so hard we were crying. Okay, so I finally get my legs around him with my feet just barely hooking. 1,2,3 and off we go, and I’m flying through the air head first and arms out, just like I’m flying. It was the most awesome feeling in the world. It seriously felt like I was flying!!! Until…

 "Superwoman"!!!!!!!!!!!

I realize we are slowing down… and then we come to a STOP about 20 feet from the landing board. Now, here we are hanging from the cable approximately 200 yards and 20 feet from the landing spot. Miguel tried to pull us, that definitely wasn’t working. So I start laughing because what else is there to do when you are hanging in the middle of nowhere from a harness? No worries though folks, we were perfectly secure and connected to the cable, the only place we were gonna go was forward, not down. So here I am laughing hysterically, almost uncontrollably. It didn’t help that I could see Angie and David laughing on the landing spot, as well. I couldn’t see Miguel, but I could definitely hear him laughing. By this time my feet came unhooked from around Miguel and I’m hanging from the stomach harness, instead of the comfortable normal sitting position since we were doing the “Superman”. And holy hell was that harness digging into my stomach!! It hurt so bad.

 Pic of us stopped before the landing

After about 2 minutes I get my laughter under control bc the guide was trying to give us instructions on how to start moving again. I had absolutely not a clue what he was saying since it was all in ziplining terms, but Miguel understood and tried explaining to be what to do. I’m pretty sure he was telling me to grab the cable, so I tried to pull myself up a little so I could grab the cable above me, well… I couldn’t do that and start laughing again because I see Angie and David laughing at me while I struggle. And since it was a sudden laugh and the harness was DIGGING into my stomach.................................. Are you ready for it? I peed my pants a little bit. Yes, my dear blog readers, I peed my pants a little. And by little, I mean little bit. Like only 1 or 2 drops, but I still peed my pants. I didn’t even realize I had to pee, but there was so much pressure on my stomach from all my body weight, that I couldn’t feel anything but the pain from the harness in my stomach. So, of course, I start laughing uncontrollably, again. 1. Because I peed my pants, and 2. Because no one else knew what just happened but me. Tears were pouring down my face from laughing. BAHAHAHAHAHA, holy crap, was it funny. Finally, the guide had to come out and get us one by one.

 Guide unhooking our harnesses so he could pull me back to the landing!

Guide helping me back

We then had to do a 20 min steep, uphill hike back to the lodge. Great experience? I think so!

That was Friday.

*Okay, I’m back. My host mom asked me if I wanted a manicure at the Spa…. Of course I said yes. My nails are so pretty right now! Long and painted J* Take a look

Now on to Saturday. This will be quick though because I did absolutely nothing since it was pouring down rain all day. Seriously, I didn’t come out of my room but like twice, to eat. I stayed in my room all day and watched movies. I did do 25 situps and 15 pushups every hour so my day wasn’t completely wasted.

Sunday. Sunday was nice and tranquilo (aka-calm in English. If I have to learn Spanish, then you should have to as well). A family of my host mother came over with 24 live crabs to cook. We had to kill and scrub them clean with a brush before we ate them. That was fun and really simple. You just have to open their “mouth?” and stick a knife in it. The knife punctures their lungs and they die rather quickly. We cooked from 10:30-3. We made soup  out of the water we cooked the crabs in, salsa to put in the soup, shrimp to put in the soup, patacones (traditional food from the coast made from green plantains), rice, and potatos. It was all so delicious. They put a WHOLE crab on my plate and said, “here ya go.” Haha. I actually believe that it was the first time I’ve ever eaten crab legs. I even ate the guts inside the head!!! Don’t worry, there was salsa and lime juice mixed in. Oddly enough, I kind of enjoyed the flavor. I ate 2 crabs. They were so messy and yummy.

The bucket of 24 crabs ready to get boiled and eaten!

 This thing was on my plate and I ate every last bit of it. DE-LIC-IOUS!

  My host mom holding up a crab

 All of the ladies hard at work in the kitchen!

  Host mom and her friend

After lunch I went with the family’s daughter and her father to drop the littlest daughter off at her cousin’s Ben 10 birthday party. Then we went to their house because the dad wanted to show me all his old country CDs his friend brought him from the States. First person in Ecuador that I found that actually likes country music. Man did he have some old CDs.

On the way back to my house he bought his daughter and I an ice cream cone with the chocolate syrup that hardens on top. Scrumptious, obviously.

When we got back to the house we listened to the CDs Josh sent me for my birthday. They loved them and ended up transferring all 350 songs or so to their laptop computer. Then we ate again…. I was soooo freaking full. No wonder I’ve gained so much weight since being here. But it was so good!

Us girls then did manicures and we all drank coffee. The family ended up leaving about 8:30pm. It was a really fun, relaxing day full of cooking, chatting, laughter, English lessons, food, and many many crabs. The family was super nice. They want to take me to go fishing in Cajas National Park and to eat brick oven pizza!!! Can’t wait for those days!

Doesn’t this post make you want to get on a plane right now and come visit me??? Look at all the fun you all are missing out on.

My NEW Mailing Address!

I just realized I didn’t put up my new mailing address so here it is with the details again (or maybe I am just ready for more packagesJ):

Heather Siegmund PCV

Casilla 01-01-1916

Cuenca, Azuay

Ecuador

-Use Standard USPS for sending packages
- Keep the package under 4 lbs… If it’s over this weight the package will be very expensive both for you and me. If it must be over 4lbs, it is easier to send it in 2 packages.
- DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT claim anything in the package when they ask you if there is anything perishable... yada yada yada at the post office, SAY NO SAY NO!!! I don't care what is in it, SAY NO! Make up the stuff you put on the shipment card and say everything is used, even if it’s not! For example, put Spanish books, paper, stationary, notebooks… things like that. Don’t actually write what is in the box, for your sake and mine! It is also less likely to be looked through and/or cut open J
- put the cool, awesome things you’re sending me in the smallest box you have, but that also fits everything, of course
- It has been taking 3 weeks for packages to get to me
- put everything that will leak, melt, sweat, explode, etc. in ziplock bags to prevent it from getting on everything else.
- DO NOT send me checks or cash (although people have been sneaking cash into books and other things they send and it has reached me successfully!)
- Make sure to stuff the package so nothing rolls around and/or breaks (tampons make good stuffing)
- Tampons are awesome space fillers and I could always use more tampons. I have a huge box at my house in The Lou so feel free to use those

-if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to send me an email or Facebook message!

IF you are sending a package here is my "wish list":

-My casual cotton dresses from home!!! (My sister knows which ones I like so ask her)

-Head bands (not sports ones)

-Nice semi-dressy shirts from my closet

-Spaghetti strapped tank tops

-My skinny jeans from my dresser

-flats from my closet

- Cute sandals (not the flip flops)from my closet

-my black, grey, and/or tan boots from my closet

- Almonds

-reduced fat peanut butter

-Reese’s peanut butter cups or reese’s pieces

-pictures of you all in the States so I can hang them up in my apartment when I move J

-healthy granola bars

- books… I have a lot of free time and I’ve already plowed through the one my sister sent me

-Crest White strips… if you’re feeling rich.

-body spray/perfume

-Jewelry

-any healthy snacks

-cute over sweaters from my closet or new ones.

-anything else you want to send me that isn’t on this list

If you haven’t noticed I’m really missing my cute clothes and shoes… I thought I was going to be living in the campo (deep country) bc that’s where most Volunteers serve, but I actually live in the 3^rd largest city in Ecuador where women dress up on a daily basis, including heels. So it would be nice to feel like a girl again, as well as fit it with the rest of the girls/women.

Things I do NOT need:

Flavored drink mixes

Pony tail holders

Socks

Sports headbands

Body soap

Cotton balls

Bandaids

Underwear

I get just as excited when I receive letters, too! So feel free to send me a .98 cent letter rather than a $20 package! J

Thanks to EVERYONE who has already sent me letters and packages!!! They make my days/weeks every time I get one and that is NO exaggeration. Seriously, thank you so much.

Ciao,

Heather

A Big Congratulations to a Co-worker!

I haven’t written in a while mostly because I don’t really know what to write about. Nothing crazy exciting has happened in the past few weeks. Well, I guess there are some things to write about…

One of my Ecuadorian friends (let’s call him M) graduated college a couple weeks ago on a Tuesday with an undergraduate degree in Tourism. I work with him so my other co-workers and I went to his graduation.

Before I go any further I want to explain that in Ecuador they don’t have fresh, sophomore, junior, senior, nor do they have a set graduation date at the end of each year/semester.  Every student graduates on their own time… I still don’t fully understand the whole concept, but the graduate on an individual basis.

With that being said, the week before M graduated I accompanied him to the University… at the time I had no idea why, but now I know that he was actually going to ask some advisors if they had set a date for him to present his thesis and/or graduation date for him yet. The advisor told M that he was still waiting for the transcripts to be reviewed and returned to him, but they should be in his office by the afternoon and to come back next week. M shrugged his shoulders said thank you and we walked out of the guys office.

We then went to a lady’s office. M asked her if they set a date so he could present his thesis to the panel and graduate. She told him let’s plan on Tuesday (I think it was a Thursday at the time), unofficially. Well, it became official and M presented his undergrad thesis to the panel Tuesday morning. They liked it and he graduated right then and there; the only graduate of the ceremony in a small, tiny room.

With his one hour presentation of his thesis approved, the staff went and got his cap and sash, brought out glasses of champagne, as well as some individual pastries. The ceremony started as about 15 of us stood and watched. He and his mother stood in front of 4 administrators, one who was reading his “graduation rights” to him… She then picked his cap up off the table, said some more words, gave him a piece of paper to read, then put his cap on him and he was a graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Tourism. We clapped and cheered!!!!

Administrator reading something to M.... I will call them "graduation rights"

 M accepting his "graduation rights"

 M getting "crowned" with his cap! He is officially a graduate!!!!!!

The champagne glasses were then passed around, we all took one raised our glasses and were about to take a sip when M’s mother put her hand up and wanted to say something. It took her a couple minutes because she was tearing up over this great moment. She went on to say how proud she was of M for working so hard and pushing through the hard times and couldn’t be happier for him. Then M gave thanks to his family and friends for all their support… he too had to stop a couple times to wipe his tears. By this time everyone was wiping tears from their eyes, including myself! This was such an amazing moment J There is a small percentage of Ecuadorians who are blessed with the opportunity to go to high school, much less college, so you can imagine this moment of greatness as M got to walk out of that room with a cap and sash on and a diploma in his hand. And his parents and family smiling as they walked out behind him.

We all took pictures, drank a glass of champagne, ate pastries, and chatted in the courtyard for a while then all went our separate ways.

All my co-workers and I getting our pic with M!

 

M standing next to his mother holding his diploma!

Felicitaciones, Ingeniero!!!!! (Congratulations M!) Diploma well deserved!!!

That Friday M had a graduation party at his house. Not wanting to be the Gringa (word Ecuadorians use for “white foreigner”) who came empty handed to the party I made a double batch of oatmeal raison cookies J(It only took me 4 ½ hours… I had to mix everything by hand since my host family’s mixer can’t even handle a stick of butter, haha. Plus, we only have one pan to bake cookies on) and I also bought a bottle of vodka to bring over.

Soooooo, I get to the party and NO ONE brought anything, no gifts, no alcohol, no food, nothing. Turns out all the alcohol was provided. So the vodka stayed in my purse the whole night and never got opened. I did put the cookies on a table that had a couple other sweets on it. And let me tell you I couldn’t have been more “famous” at this party. I felt like a star! Haha. I was “famous” for two reasons: 1. Because my cookies were the best they’ve ever tasted… no joke, people wouldn’t stop telling me how delicious they were, and 2. I was the only white person there and everyone wanted to talk to the Gringa with the terrible Spanish accent. Haha.

The party was a great time. We danced, laughed, and were merry until 4 o’clock in the morning J

Some friends and I at the party!

 My coworker Angie and I :-)

Everyone dancing and having a good time!

My first Ecuadorian party was a success!... Everyone told me how good my Spanish was (always makes me feel good when people tell me that even though I still think my Spanish is terrible), I learned some cuss words, bonded with my co-workers, was taught how to salsa (I’m absolutely terrible at it), and I was also taught how to tell the drunk, whistling, nasty commenting old men off who think I don’t speak Spanish. That’s a successful night, right? Haha

***Happy Birthday, Grandma Fern!***

The sun receives it's first point

5.18.11 

Soooooooooo…. I laid out in the sun on Sunday…. And got a little burnt. Okay I lied, A LOT burnt! The sun wins this time.

Sooooooo I laid out in the beautiful sun on Sunday and got a little burnt(okay, a LOT burnt). I laid out for 2 hours. Every time I've laid out here in Cuenca, I've laid out for this long.... but this time I got FRIED, like an egg. I was beat red after I got out of the shower Sunday afternoon, I didn't feel like I was burning when I was laying out and I put sunscreen on TWICE even. The only difference I can think of is that I normally lay out in the afternoon, but this time I laid out in the morning from like 1030-1230. I have no idea what happened, but I'm a lobster, and it hurts like hell.

After I was showered my host family and I went to the store to buy a piece of an aloe plant so I could bathe myself in that! And then later in the evening my host mom made me some home remedies for sunburns... beaten egg whites to put all over my burns (to take away the soreness) and shredded carrots to put on my face (to take the redness out). I beat the egg whites until they were foam and she shredded the carrots. I was directed to put the egg whites on the burns on my body and sleep with the stuff on overnight and to put the shredded carrots on my face, but to take them off after a few minutes. So I went into my room and went to town with a spoon spreading egg whites all over the burn. I let them dry a little bit and then laid down and put the carrots on my face for like 15 minutes then took them off. I had an orange tinted face afterwards, haha.

And OMGGGGGG when I got up off my bed after I took the carrots off I thought I was going to die!!! The egg whites had completely dried and when I moved I felt like my skin was ripping off. My main burns were my face, eyelids, neck, armpits, upper tummy, and upper thighs. I did little as possible so I didn't have to move.

Sleeping was MISERABLE, the egg whites were dried to my skin, they were flaking, so I was sleeping in "crumbs" AND my skin felt like it was tearing off. I got up at 730 and jumped in the shower to rinse the egg whites off.... I couldn't take it anymore. OH, and did I mention my eyelids were sooo freaking swollen this morning that I put bags of ice on them for 20 minutes after the shower and took some ib profen. That helped the swelling some!

BTW, the carrots and the eggs whites worked!!!! (surprisingly!) My face was less red this morning and my sunburn didn't hurt as bad as it should of. So thankfully, I am not in that much pain. Don't get me wrong, my armpits and eyelids hurt, but def not as bad as they should. The eyelids are the worst part, those hurt the worst.

And here is the evidence that this actually occured:

Burnt and sad before the pain started!

Taking a picture of the nice red burn line on my neck

 

 Shredded carrots on my face! You can also see some of the egg whites.

 After math of the shredded carrots...an orange face!

 Dried egg whites all over my stomach

  Burnt Icing my swollen eyelids on Monday morning. I put my pajama

pants over my face before the ice so my eyelids wouldn't freeze!

 Swollen ugly face! Que fea! I took this picture after

 I iced my eyelids Monday morning. (with a grin on my face because

I felt so weird taking pics of myself I couldn't stop laughing)

UPDATES:

It’s Monday night and my eyelids hurt pretty bad to the touch, so I put a rag soaked in nasty white vinegar on my face for 20 minutes… it’s supposed to help with the with the soreness.

It’s Tuesday morning, and my pain is worse than yesterday, go figure, but the redness is wayyyy down and my eyelids hurt way less! My eyelids were swollen still so I put ice them for 20 minutes. (the swelling in my eyelids goes away during the day)

It’s now Tuesday afternoon and the pain is WAY down! And my eyelids don’t hurt anymore. My upper stomach hurts a little bit, but not bad at all.

Wednesday morning:  face and eyelids looked normal this morning, but my face is beginning to peel, ughhhh. Thank goodness I dodged the blistering stage since I took action right away, but I don’t think I can avoid the peeling. I have been soaking myself in lotion like 3 times a day trying to avoid this, but I think the peeling is inevitable.

Here's the score so far: The Sun:1, Heather: 4

At least I got a good base tan going... Rainy season looks like it’s coming to an end, and yes, I do plan to lie out again once I’m totally heeled J

Heather