Free Fallin'

So, apparently I wasn't as enthusiastic about blogging again as I thought I was. I really do want to get back into it, however, so am starting again now. Fifteen days after the last time I said this. Oops.

This past weekend we, my Quito friends and I, had a surprise visit from a great friend in Ibarra (two hours north of Quito). She was in town right before her trip to the Amazon. We met up with her and hung out doing randomness during the day. She was staying with a close friend of mine and we were planning to have a sleepover after going dancing or something. Before all of that I went to get a haircut.. bad idea. It was a really, really bad haircut. So I have to fix that today. Not much I can do but get it pretty short. I'm actually really pretty excited about it. :)

Anyway. That night we split up - I went with Nik to his house to mess with some stuff and Kaeti and Ariel started walking to Kaeti's house. It's approximately four blocks, possibly even less, between the two and it was at 7 PM so we figured everything would be okay. Well, we were wrong. A couple of drunk guys proceeded to mug them, stealing Kaeti's wallet and phone and Ariel's phone. The worst of it all was the dude pulled a gun on them. Scary, no?

After that they took a taxi the rest of the way to Kaeti's house and called us at Nik's place. We met up with another exchange student, Maggie, and my host parents (who were in Quito at the time) picked us up and dropped us off at Kaeti's so we could be there for comfort.

Not so good times.

Last week I was invited to volunteer with some exchangers who teach English as a second language in the south part of Quito. I was sick at the time so today will be my first day. I am stoked!

Before that.... uhm. Well, on the 26th of February there was a festival for La Paz (Peace) where the exchange students were there only for photos afterwards. Kind of ridiculous. I love Rotary, I do, but here in Ecuador it's mainly photo shoots. I have asked my counselor if I could work with Rotary on their service projects many times and he has yet to get back to me. It makes me wonder if they do anything. At all. Err. Anyway, the festival allowed me to hang with people I hadn't hung out with before which was fun. We're planning an Indian cooking class (sort of.. I bet it ends up I cook and they talk about nothing related. Oh well.) for sometime in the future and they seem like the type of people to travel around on day trips with me.

What else? I went dancing with Alex and Nik a couple weeks ago which was pretty fun. Normally I would hate it but it caused me to want to take salsa lessons. We'll see. The further in the past that experience is the less likely I am to follow through with the classes.

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I return in ninety-three days. It's crazy how fast time flies. I really want to return sooner but whether I will continue to feel that way is unsure. It would be nice and relaxing to be home but at the same time kind of sad. There are a lot of things going on between now and then anyway... But returning at the end of May is enticing.

What else?

I promise the next will be more about thoughts and thought provoking things. And I promise it will be sooner.. :)

Chao.