Attack Bugs, Zip-lines, Waterfalls....all in a day's work

Every month we take a trip as a group with Xplorer. September it was TeleferiQo and this month (October for those of you who have forgotten) we went to Mindo. 

Mindo is about an hour and a half drive out of Quito. We met at Xplorer and headed out around 9:30. The drive up was long, and by the time we got there I was glad we were there, but it was fun anyway. I sat in the middle of the van. Behind me was Claudio and Adam singing at the top of their lungs and in the front of me was Gabi, Emily and Brian who were having a conversation that I would add my two cents into every so often. When I wasn't getting a headache from the singing, I talked to Saara who was sitting next to me. It was a rather pleasant drive up. 

We got to Mindo at around 11am. We changed into our swimsuits and hopped into the back of a pickup truck that was going to take us to the waterfall. Or at least that's what we thought. The pickup truck ride was really fun,  we got to see some absolutely gorgeous scenery, but it was also a little painful. By the time we got off the pickup my back hurt and my leg was completely numb. We got to a clearing with cute little wooden hut and talked to this old woman for a while. She convinced us to stop at the zipline on our way down to the waterfall. 

So the zipline wasn't too far down this gorgeous wooded path. So we stopped there. If you haven't seen the pictures on facebook, the zipline is these two metal cords and you put on harness and strap yourself to the cord and glide down to the other side. Then you walk to the other cord and glide back. Just looking at it I was terrified. Both Gabi and I decided that we valued our lives too much to actually go on the zipline, but everyone else went. Gabi and I became the official photographers, however I am not so sure how good a photographer I was though, because I was  little busy trying to keep the mosquitoes away from my legs. I think I came home with about a zillion mosquito bites. And guess what, mosquito bites here don't just itch, they seriously bleed. 

After the zipline we were all ready for some swimming. So we continued down the path... and although there were still a lot of trees on the path, it was super muddy. My shoes kept getting stuck in the mud (obviously flip flops weren't the best choice) so I walked barefoot most of the way. Feeling the mud between your toes is a really neat feeling, but I also had to keep my eye out for sharp rocks.  The waterfall was a lot farther away than I thought it was, and as we walked I couldn't help but notice that when we were done swimming we would have to walk all the way uphill to get to the place the pickup could meet us. 

Well, the water at the waterfall was really cold. So I didn't actually swim all that much, but it was really beautiful. The air was a lot more humid in that part, probably because we were in the jungle. But even though I was really hot and muddy, I really enjoyed our trip. 

We took the pickup truck back to where we parked the van and we ate lunch at this cute little restaurant. Then we got ice cream and headed home. We drove through rain and fog to come home so it was truly a day of beauty. I have included some pictures on this post but I don't think any of them truly captures how beautiful it was. 

Hasta Luego, 

Zoe

P.S. The pictures seem to be having difficulty uploading, so I will work on that and get back to you. But if you are my friend on Facebook you are welcome to look at those. 

P.P.S. There will probably be a rest of the week post sometime today too, seeing as I haven't written in a week the least I can do is two posts today. 

How do you lose a mall?

Ok, so the title was Emily's idea. But I think it accurately describes our day today. 

First though, I am going to talk about yesterday. After school I came home and had lunch. Then I went on the computer and procrastinated homework. I had not had a very good day at school so I just read my book and checked email and stuff. Gabi showed up around 3:30 and we headed over to Emily's house for a sleepover. When we got to Emily's house we went to the grocery store and bought ingredients for sugar cookies, homemade oreos, and breakfast the next morning. It was a little expensive, but it was a little pre-halloween celebration. (We always find something to celebrate.) We baked like all night. Well, for 2 hours. And although we had not eaten very much of the dough (eggs here are left out of the fridge, and so we were pretty sure that eating dough with raw egg in it would be even more dangerous here than in the states), we still we pretty full after only a couple of cookies. I was convinced that we had absorbed the sugar through breathing or something. But anyway....Gabi and Emily were convinced they were going to stay up all night. So after a rather thorough cleaning of the kitchen we moved out to the living room, armed with pillows, blankets, and an extra mattress. We watched Dance with Me, (this was the only full movie I watched), Made of Honor (I saw the first half an hour or so before falling asleep), and Premonition (which i didn't see hardly any of, except for I woke up at around 3am and watched the last half hour without glasses so I really only saw the fire in the explosion and heard the actors talking). Then this morning we made an American breakfast for ourselves and Emily's host mom. Scrambled eggs, bacon, french toast and orange juice. 

Gabi had to meet some friends at El Jardin mall and so we walked over there from Emily's house. However, we got a little lost. Ok, so like really lost. We sort of forgot the way to the mall.  We found it eventually and Emily kept saying "How do you lose a MALL?" I didn't wear my best walking shoes so my feet hurt by the time we got to the mall. But, I love El Jardin mall. It was so cool. It turned out that Gabi didn't have to meet her group, so we got to hang out at the mall together. We walked around the 2nd floor and the food court, but it was really great. Emily wanted to buy some clothes so she ended up buying 2 skirts and a shirt for about $50 total. Things were still pretty cheep there. (Of course, we are also just really good bargain hunters.) Then we went back to Emily's house and watched another movie. This one was called If Only. It was really sweet and a little depressing, but it was good. Then Gabi and I had to go home because we both had lots of homework to do this weekend. So I have been working on homework for the past 2 hours. I did about half of the stuff that really needs to get done this weekend, and then I think tomorrow I will finish that stuff and attempt some of the stuff that I don't really have to do because I can use to Gringo excuse to get out of it. 

Tomorrow I am headed to church and youth group. So that should be fun. 2 days until our Mindo trip. (And yes, I am counting.) 

I have just added pictures of our baking experience to this....

Hasta Luego, 

Zoe

Swimming!

So today was an adventure. I went swimming in the school pool with Emily. It was really cool. We were a little nervous because we had never used the school pool before and we didn't know how. But it was easy to figure out. It is free for students, so all we had to do was buy a swim cap (you are not allowed to swim without one). We changed in the girls locker room (which is surprisingly not very separated from the boys locker room) and jumped into the pool. We swam for a while (about 30 min), I tried to teach Emily how to do breast stroke...I am not sure I was a very good teacher. But it was fun. 

Ok, so that was yesterday. (I know, I know it says today, but I started this post yesterday and am finishing it today). 

After swimming I came home to find Gabi and a classmate at my house. (Gabi's classmate, not mine.) We had agreed that she could do her project at my house since her mom wouldn't let her do it at theirs, but who knew she was going to show up so early. So I had fun distracting them from their project while I did absolutely none of my homework :-) 

Today I went to school. I know, surprised aren't you. Nothing too exciting happened. We didn't do anything in Math or Biology...and in Investigation we watched funny videos. I got my test returned to me in Social Studies (you don't even want to know what I got on it) and I took a test in Philosophy. (I probably didn't do too well on it, because I didn't understand half the questions, and 3 of the questions I answered in English.) Then I had gym. We didn't do too much. We just did a few fitness test things (jumping into a sand pit, throwing a heavy ball, and running a short distance) and then I played basketball for a while until Christina got hit in the face with the ball and I had to take her to the nurse. So Christina and I sat and watched the rest of the game, while I simultaneously helped this girl with her English homework. (I think the blond hair is a "English tutor" beacon.) 

I don't know what's going on in my life for the rest of the week. Next tuesday we are going to Mindo with Xplorer (which would have been fun anyway but it is extra fun since we get to skip school). I think I might go swimming with Emily again tomorrow. 

Chao, 

Zoe

Giant Cookies, Super Computers, and the Apocalypse

This was a really cool weekend. On Friday I met Emily and Gabi at Xplorer and we all went to my house. A while ago I bought a double chocolate chip cookie mix at the Super Maxi that I never got the chance to bake. So Gabi, Emily and I baked the cookies. Only we had a rather small cookie sheet and it was round, so instead of making lots of little cookies we just made one huge cookie. It was super good. I don't know what comes in Betty Crocker mixes in Ecuador but there is definitely something special about them. We cut out three pieces to share with my family (My host mom, Andrea and Andrea's Dad) and then we ate the entire rest of the cookie by ourselves. Straight out of the pan. With a fork. Emily taught us how to play a card game called Golf and so we played cards until about 9:30 at night. Gabi had already established with her host mom that she could sleep over, but when we were done playing cards Emily decided it was too late to go home, so she slept over too. We felt like little girls. We played MASH, which I had never played before and guess what? It has nothing to do with Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in case you were wondering. MASH stands for Mansion, Apartment, Shack, and House and it is a game about your future. I do not remember exactly how my future turned out, but I think it might involve me driving a dump truck and marrying someone  in a pink and orange striped tux. So Friday night Gabi, Emily and I all slept in the same bed. Emily didn't think we could do it without having someone fall off in the middle of the night. But it definitely worked. I slept in the middle, and it was super cold that night, but I was so cozy warm. Normally I sleep with a sweatshirt on, but Friday I had to take it off in the middle of the night. (Don't worry, I had a t-shirt underneath.) 

Saturday morning we went to Emily's house and hung out. Then we went to the Plaza de Los Americas to see a movie. But the movie we wanted to see wasn't playing for another 2 hours. So we wondered around the Plaza, which looks exactly like a California mall. There weren't really any clothing shops, so we were forced to eat ice cream (ok, well not forced exactly) and then while Emily talked to her parents on the phone, Gabi and I sang For Good over an over again. We finally ended up seeing the movie, which turned out way better than we thought it would. We saw Eagle Eye, which is like this really cool spy movie about like evil supercomputers and plots to kill the president. I thought it was suspenseful and had a really interesting political message as well. I won't give too much away because I think you should all go see it (if it is still playing in American theaters). After the movie we ate dinner, like Americans, at a gourmet pizza restaurant. The restaurant was completely empty, because Ecuadorian dinner/almuerzo time is like 3 at the latest and this was about 6:30pm. The pizza was amazing, but Emily and Gabi thought I was really weird for ordering a pizza with sliced tomatoes on top. Apparently they don't eat like italians in Idaho or Missouri. (They both ordered Hawaiian pizza.)

Last night I didn't sleep very well, so I decided to forego church so that I could sleep in. I slept until about 9:15 am, and then got up to eat breakfast. My sister Paola had shown up at some point last night so she, my host mom and I all ate breakfast together. Paola is convinced that Obama is the antichrist, and this morning we had an entire discussion about the apocalypse and what exactly it would entail. (Apparently it will take 7 years, and the antichrist will reign over supposed peace for 3 years. That is all I really understood from the conversation, the rest of it I just smiled and nodded.) Today my entire host family was at home, so we ordered chinese food and had like this huge lunch the 6 of us. The rest of the time I have been reading my book and desperately tying to figure out the 15 physics problems that i have to do for Wednesday. 

I should get back to those...

Chao, 

Zoe

Ho hum

So despite being attacked by bees at the beginning of the week...life here has been relatively uneventful. I have finished clases de Español so I have nothing to do afterschool, so I have been forced by boredom to do my homework. Not all of it, mind you. But some. Enough to feel accomplished. As you might have noticed, I don´t really plan ahead, so I have no idea what my plans for this weekend are. So sorry, to be a disappointment but this seems to be a rather short blog post.

Desperately trying to think of something to talk about....................................................................

Still thinking............................................................................................................................................

On Wednesday Emily and I went to the mall and I bought plastic covers for my notebooks. Its really strange here, they like to put little plastic covers on everything, notebooks, textbooks, even reading for fun books. I don´t really understand, but in an effort to get better in class, I decided to buy some. Let me tell you, it definitely makes my notebooks feel more organized. I don´t really know why or how. But it does. I also bought a blue and red pen because mine have already run out of ink. Yes, that is how much I use them. Our notes have to be mighty colorful. Although no one here seems to have heard of highlighters. When you buy pens here you just take them, just as they are to the cash register. The store just has a bin full of pens organized by color. They don´t come in packages or anything.
Other than that I can´t think of anything else to write. So this will have to be it for now.
Oh, I had cordon bleu for the first time today. Yeah, as a school lunch. Although I had a migraine so I didn´t eat much. But oh well. I guess that wasn´t that exciting.

Chao,
Zoe

Mutant Bees

So, yesterday started out like any normal day. I woke up at 5:30 am,  and lay awake in bed for 3-4 min planning how best to change into my uniform without freezing. The planning never works, but it gives me a few more minutes of rest. I always have to jump back in bed halfway through the changing process to warm up. 

I got to school on time...which means half an hour early. Don't ask me why the buses feel the need to pick us up early just so that we can hang around school for half an hour waiting for the people who live close enough to school not to take a bus to show up. My first class on Monday is a double period of Literature, which I can't help but sort of sleep through. Then comes Physics, a double period of that too, I would pay more attention to physics, because its really interesting, and our teacher is really funny, but I sort of have no attention span by the last 45 min. It's sort of sad. I feel like a 5 year old. I have to like doodle in my "borrador"(aka notebook that does not have to be perfect) and every so often force myself to pay attention. 

The real exciting part of my day came right after our first recreo. Normally, we have these hugely patriotic military ceremonies first thing on Monday mornings, but yesterday for some reason it was scheduled for after first recess. So there I was, dressed in my ugly school uniform, standing in a line, and for no apparent reason, having to turn in a certain direction whenever the guy in front yelled a certain word. Then, just as I was getting ready to tune out one of the speeches that I never pay attention to, a saw a girl in front of me jump to the side as a bug flew past her. This happens a lot, girls here are very squeamish. But this time, the bug flew right at me, and underneath my glasses. I reached my hand up to flick it off my cheek, and was touching it just as the girl in front of me turned around and told me to watch out. I didn't know what she was talking about until it was too late. Because as my hand reached the bug I felt a painful sensation and as I knocked the bug off of my cheek I realized that the bug, was a bee. So I was rushed to the nurses office. It didn't hurt too much at first, just a little burning sensation, and really I wasn't wondering whether I was allergic or not (this being my first bee sting, I had no idea whether or not I was allergic) instead, my weird mind was wondering if maybe this was some special kind of bee, and that when the pain was gone I would turn into BEEGIRL, THE AMAZING GIRL SUPER HEROE! Like Spiderman, but with black and yellow stripes. Unfortunately I don't think i have turned into Beegirl...but if i had, would I tell you? 

The nurse gave me a pill, and sent me back to the ceremony. I was thinking that it would have been a little bit more big of a deal and that I would have to have an ice pack or something. But no. She just sent me back. I think she might have regretted that a little later...

Back at the ceremony I was back in my usual habit of not listening to the speeches, when I noticed I was sweating a lot more and feeling really clammy. I also felt a little queasy. That's when I remembered the last time I had felt that way...last time, I fainted. So I tapped the girl in front of me on the shoulder, the one who had taken me to the nurses office the first time, and told her softly "No me siento bien" which was the only way I could say how I was feeling. That I didn't feel good. She took one look at me and yelled for the Inspectora, and said that I was a whole lot paler. So I got rushed to the nurses office again, this time accompanied by two girls, probably so that if I collapsed or something they could support me easier. The nurse made me lie down with a pillow under my feet and I stayed there for the next 2 classes, and then I went back to class because I was feeling better. 

I am doing fine now. Last night I had a small fever, but it was probably just a side effect of the bee sting. I went to school like normal today, and currently have no plans for the rest of the day. I will probably just hang around the house and actually do my homework for once. Yes, I know you are amazed. 

Or maybe beegirl will be off saving the world...who knows, keep your eyes out for an amazing flying girl in a bee costume, it just might be me. Or it might just be a striped plane, bird, or maybe just a projector. You never know. 

Hasta Luego, 

Zoe

Feriado

So I found out today that a holiday weekend (like this weekend) is called a Feriado. I think i already gave you a full (two post) update on Friday, so here is Saturday and Sunday of the Feriado.

Saturday, I woke up late, for once. It was truly amazing, I slept in until 8:30. It felt like a miracle. I finished Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne (see below) and ate breakfast. Then, I cleaned my room and hung out while I waited for Gabi. I ate lunch with my host mom, Paola, Andrea and her friend. Oh, I forgot to mention that it was Andrea's birthday. She was having fights all day with her mother because she wanted to go out with her friends, but my host mom wanted to know where she was going, and what she would be doing, and didn't want Andrea going out with her friends by herself. I mean, thats what I think they were fighting about. But I am not totally sure because I only caught bits and pieces. Gabi showed up around 3pm and we went to Quicentro together to run a couple of errands. As we were leaving a bunch of Andrea's friends showed up and I assumed that she was going to go out with them. However, when we returned at 4:30pm Andrea was still here and in a pouty mood, so she probably didn't go out. Gabi and I hung out in my room for a while. Eventually Andrea left. Paola had some friends over and so she introduced us to them. They were both "Arabes" as she calls them. (One was from Palestine and the other from Jordan.) They were very interesting to talk to and they both got a kick out of showing Gabi and I music from their home countries. So then Gabi sang for them and I played the flute. By that time it was getting late and my host mom was anxious about Andrea. Paola knew that Andrea was out drinking and partying and told her mom this but my host mom refused to believe this. My host mom was becoming really stressed out and her heart started to hurt her a little bit. So they called the doctor, who would come in a little while. Paola went out with her father to look for Andrea. The doctor showed up as Gabi and I were getting ready for bed, since Paola wasn't back yet, I sat with my host mom while she had a heart scan or something, and then took her blood pressure. Everything was fine. Andrea is staying at her dad's house for a while. I don't know when she is coming back, but she is in BIG trouble, that is one thing I know.  I saw that they took away her computer upstairs, so it looks as if she is grounded. 

Today Gabi and I went to church. It was really great. The church I go to here is English Fellowship Church, and it is very different, style wise, from LaSalle. But I love it. Everyone there was so welcoming and as soon as I walk in it feels like home. Gabi and I went to lunch afterward and then hung out at my house until youth group. Paola took Gabi and I to youth group so that we could learn how to take the "metrobus" there so that we wouldn't have to waste money on taxis. It was really easy. 

I think that this experience is really formative for me, spiritually. Not only am I reading books like Jesus for President, and going to a new church, but I see people all around me everyday who have faith. My two best friends have very strong faith and it unites them, even though technically they are from different religions.  Its easier to see here that faith is a way to unite very different people. My host mom and I disagree on many things politically (although I haven't exactly mentioned this to her...). But she has such a strong faith in God and Jesus that I can't help but admire her. Although she may believe some things that I don't agree with, she never wavers in her beliefs, and that is what I admire. 

It's been a very spiritual day for me. I think that today was what God had in mind when God came up with the Sabbath. I went to church, pretty much slept, and then went to youth group. I feel like I have done nothing today but explore my faith, ask questions, and praise God. And it feels good. 

Love, 

Zoe

P.S. I have added a list of the books i have read while i am here as well as the day I started to read them (most of the time you can assume that the day I ended it is the start date of the next book). I will try to keep this updated while I am here, so you will always know what I am reading. (If you can't tell, the top book is always the one I am currently reading.)

Disappointment

Ok, so the Mitad Del Mundo trip didn't happen. I am still not really sure why. I think it might be because my host moms niece came over. So we had lunch with her. Then Gabi came over and listened to music and played sims. Originally I thought Gabi was going to come to the Mitad del Mundo with us, but we never went. So Gabi had to go home. Nothing else really happened today. Maybe tomorrow will be a little more exciting. I am sorry, but I think I am getting used to life here, so everyday is no longer an adventure. Actually, that is somewhat good, because adventures are exhausting and make you really miss home. Although sitting around doing nothing also makes me miss home. So really, nothing has gotten better on that front. Hope everyone has a good fin de semana and I will probably write more tomorrow. Not that it will be any more interesting than today. But who knows. 

Almost Truant....

So to many of you who know me, it may seem like I have relapsed into my old habits of not going to school. I assure this is not the case. I went to 2 whole days of school this week plus one half one. See? I did go to school. 

Ok, well I am sort of kidding, but not really. I didn't go to school on Tuesday, as it said in my last post. I did go to school on Wednesday, a full day of school, and then again on Thursday, only because of student council elections we only had classes until 9am and then elections until 11:15am. But I didn't get to vote (because I don't have my passport # memorized) and so really it meant that I just had Math and Biology, and then I got to roam around the school and talk to people. It was really fun. Unfortunately in order to get home I had to sit in the hot school bus for like half an hour before we even started moving because the voting went long. Oh yeah, and I had to wear the ugly monday uniform (not exactly sure why). Other than that school was fun. 

School is really hard here. My Biology test involved a 500 word essay on the levels of organization of life and i sat there for 5 min wondering if I even knew 500 words in Spanish. So I wrote like a 300-400 word essay I think. Except I don't know how relevant it was to the topic. Then I had to compare these 3 things, only I didn't know what either of the three words meant, so I just made it up. I didn't have time to get to the 3 question. So I think I probably failed that. Math is sort of interesting, because even though I did the same things in math last year, our teacher here has a different way of doing a lot of things. And frankly, I like his method a lot better. Its a whole lot shorter. 

I didn't do much yesterday because I was really tired from the week. So I went on facebook, and watched T.V. with my sister Andrea. And I slept. 

I don't have school today because it is Guayaquil Independence Day. I don't exactly know what Guayaquil became independent from, but we don't have school so that is all that matters. I am not exactly sure what I am doing today but I think it involves going to the "Mitad Del Mundo" (literally, the center of the world, aka the equator). I will bring back pictures. If your lucky there might even be another post today detailing my Mitad Del Mundo trip. 

But for now, 

Hast Luego, 

Zoe

P.S. I have changed my layout again...I guess it is just really hard for me to make up my mind. 

Blood and Fairies

Today was a great day, but before I tell you about today I should probably talk about my not so good day yesterday...

    I woke up and I really didn't want to go to school, but I did anyway. It was the day I had to take my "Examenes de Laboratorio" (aka Lab Exams) at school and I really wasn't excited about having to go to the nurse to get blood drawn. I don't even know what the blood was for, just that they needed it. But last time I had blood drawn in the states I fainted. So I was really scared I would faint again, and I really didn't want to get blood drawn without my parents there. Long story short...I didn't faint, and they got the blood they needed, but I cried throughout the whole thing. I felt like a little kid. The nurse gave me a piece of candy. (Which made me feel even more like a little kid, "thanks for being such a good girl, here's a lollipop.") But I couldn't stop crying. Everyone was really nice to me. The evil witch lady inspector even gave me hug, but i just needed to cry. I cried all through 2, 3, and 4 period (I would have cried through 1st too but I was getting blood drawn so i didn't go to it, although I did cry when they took blood...) Otherwise it was a pretty normal girl. I went to Spanish class, talked to my parents at night (and cried through that too), and went to get ice cream with Emily.

    This morning I got to wake up later than usual. That was great. Because guess what? I didn't go to school. Xplorer was having a little fair at one of the high schools here and they asked me and Brian to come along. It was really fun. We handed out flyers and talked to some of the students. There was this other booth of study abroad programs and Brian kept talking about how they were the "competition" and so I just wanted everyone to know that we so totally beat them. I think just about everyone who passed through the room was holding a flyer that Brian or I had given them, and our table was a whole lot more popular because we brought popcorn and lollipops. And we brought real, live, Americans. ¡Que Chévere!

    My mom is back from Guayaquil. So I will be sleeping at my own house tonight. Which is a little bittersweet. Emily's house is right in the middle of everything so we are so much closer to anything we might want to do. And hanging out with Emily and having an extended sleepover is really fun. But I am glad to have my own room back. I won't have to pick my clothes out of a pile on the floor. YAY. Also, my house has wireless internet, Emily's new apartment hasn't gotten internet yet, so I don't get to check my email as much. (I haven't checked my email since Saturday, and boy am I missing it.) Also I get a bus to school, whereas at Emily's house we have to walk to the public bus (although we do get to get up later in the morning). I am so grateful that Emily's family was so kind and let me live with them in my family's time of need. They have been so nice to me and really made me feel like this is my home. But I am glad to be going home.

 

I am listening to the Wicked soundtrack and I don't know if any of you have figured it out yet but I am obsessed with it. It is so good. When I get back to Chicago I really want to see it again. (Do we have a Chicago cast of Wicked?)

Benalcatraz Gone Crazy

I will get into more about the week soon, but i wanted to start by telling you all that my host mom´s sister died suddenly yesterday. I know that she was sick, but I don´t think anyone was really expecting her to die. My host Mom flew to Guayaquil last night so if you could hold up her and her family in your thoughts and prayers I am sure she would greatly appreciate it.
I am staying at Emily´s house for the next 3-4 days because I can´t be home alone. It was really stressful last night leaving at such short notice, and so i forgot a few, rather important things, but I think I can get to the house this weekend to pick them up.

Ok, but other than that, this was a pretty easy week. I didn´t have school on Monday, so Emily, Saaramaria and I went to Creepes and Waffles for a celebratory meal, and then we developed pictures and put them up on Sofi´s wall. Then I had Spanish class which was fun. Although, I did start feeling sick and I had to go home, but when I woke up Tuesday morning I was feeling fine.

Tuesday was just like a normal day. I got up early, went to school...yeah nothing really exciting there. Wednesday I went home before Spanish class so that was different.Thursday I hung out with Emily before her Spanish class and then I went home. So its been a pretty boring week.

Yesterday the coolest thing at school happened. So it started out normal, but when I got off the bus and walked into the courtyard there were all these banners and stuff that were not there the day before. So I was wondering what was going on, but I figured it was just like a basketball or soccer game or something that people were getting excited for. Then after bilology I walked into ¨recreo¨and it was like ¨Benalcatraz¨had gone crazy. It was so cool. Eveyone was screaming and holding up banners. A lot of people had their face painted and had taken off parts of thier uniform to reveal colered t-shirts and stuff. Everyone was screaming, and there were drums beating. Emily said that it looked/sounded like we were going to war. And thats really what it sounded like. Different groups were yelling what sounded like war chants and people kept coming up to me trying to put stickers on me or wanting to paint my hair. When I looked at it from above it looked like there had been a prison break at Benalcatraz.

I don´t know if you've figured it out yet, but these are the campains for student elections. I know, that was not my first thought either. If student elections were like this in the states I would totally vote. (As it was I didn´t even know we were having elections last year until it was voting day.) These elections are seriously a big deal. Next week we get to go watch debates, and we only have a half day on thursday because we are voting. So we vote and then we get to go home. I love it. I am going to try to bring my camera to school on Monday so I can post a picture of the craziness, because my description does not do it justice by a long shot.

Chiao,
Zoe