Hello!
Sorry for the slow update time...my computer is once again out of commission.
Last weekend was Halloween! Big deal in the States, especially Madison of course, but not as much here. People know what it is and everything, but it's not like people are trick or treating and carving pumpkins. Well, considering we are 13 American volunteers here at the Center (and love any excuse for a party!) we planned fun activities for the kids. During girls program, we had lots of fun dancing, face painting, playing musical chairs, and decorating the bat cookies. In the picture you can see some of the cute little kitties.
I started off the day dressed up as a soccer play (super creative), but then during girls program some of my high school students came up with their faces painted and convinced me to go with them down to the beauty salon where some of my other high school students painted my face! It was kind of creepy looking on me, but they did a good job so I kept it on for the party with the high school girls - and then because I was busy the whole rest of the day, my face was painted all the way traveling to Banos and even when I went out dancing there for the night!
So beyond all the Halloween celebrations, this past weekend was a long weekend for us as it was
the Day of the Dead and then the celebration of the foundation of Cuenca. Therefore, I had a fun traveling adventure. I started off going to Banos with 3 German guys where we danced until 4am, and then road bikes Saturday to the Pailon del Diablo again (I was there a couple weeks ago with other volunteers), but this time we got soaked! Then we went to Rio Bamba in order to catch a bus to Cuenca for the festivals. Well, the last buses were full on Saturday night, so we ended up spending the whole night in a dark, and honestly a bit scary, bus terminal. Praise God we stayed safe and made it out on the 5:30am bus to Cuenca.
In Cuenca, I met up with 4 other volunteers, Cinthya, Adam, Jessica, and Lauren, for the rest of the weekend. We enjoyed hiking in the national park (Cajas) for the day, and also being part of some of festivities and just exploring the town. The best part was dancing along to this crazy, 
relatively unorganized show in the main plaza in celebration of the city. We even got sprinkled with these makeshift fireworks that shot out right at the crowd. We all were laughing so hard and grabbing onto to whoever was around us to duck. Oh, Ecuador!
On a final note, it is sad how much I miss football and am definitely still following all the Brett Favre news. How crazy! Don't worry you all though, I'm still rooting for the Packers! As an alternative, I have been able to go to 3 Liga soccer games now, which have been fun! Tonight I got home from La Marin (downtown) at 8:55pm and quickly put on jeans and ran over to the stadium for the game with Jess. We had a blast and Liga won so they are in the semifinals for the South American Cup! We sat with La Muerte Blanca (the craziest fans), so it kind of has a college atmosphere and people are standing and chanting the whole game. It was a fun 2-1 victory!
Sorry about the very scattered blog, but I'm tired and just wanted to put up a quick update! Life is good though and I am really enjoying what I'm doing.
Much love,
Taylor
Sorry for the slow update time...my computer is once again out of commission.
Last weekend was Halloween! Big deal in the States, especially Madison of course, but not as much here. People know what it is and everything, but it's not like people are trick or treating and carving pumpkins. Well, considering we are 13 American volunteers here at the Center (and love any excuse for a party!) we planned fun activities for the kids. During girls program, we had lots of fun dancing, face painting, playing musical chairs, and decorating the bat cookies. In the picture you can see some of the cute little kitties.
I started off the day dressed up as a soccer play (super creative), but then during girls program some of my high school students came up with their faces painted and convinced me to go with them down to the beauty salon where some of my other high school students painted my face! It was kind of creepy looking on me, but they did a good job so I kept it on for the party with the high school girls - and then because I was busy the whole rest of the day, my face was painted all the way traveling to Banos and even when I went out dancing there for the night!So beyond all the Halloween celebrations, this past weekend was a long weekend for us as it was
the Day of the Dead and then the celebration of the foundation of Cuenca. Therefore, I had a fun traveling adventure. I started off going to Banos with 3 German guys where we danced until 4am, and then road bikes Saturday to the Pailon del Diablo again (I was there a couple weeks ago with other volunteers), but this time we got soaked! Then we went to Rio Bamba in order to catch a bus to Cuenca for the festivals. Well, the last buses were full on Saturday night, so we ended up spending the whole night in a dark, and honestly a bit scary, bus terminal. Praise God we stayed safe and made it out on the 5:30am bus to Cuenca.
In Cuenca, I met up with 4 other volunteers, Cinthya, Adam, Jessica, and Lauren, for the rest of the weekend. We enjoyed hiking in the national park (Cajas) for the day, and also being part of some of festivities and just exploring the town. The best part was dancing along to this crazy, 
relatively unorganized show in the main plaza in celebration of the city. We even got sprinkled with these makeshift fireworks that shot out right at the crowd. We all were laughing so hard and grabbing onto to whoever was around us to duck. Oh, Ecuador!On a final note, it is sad how much I miss football and am definitely still following all the Brett Favre news. How crazy! Don't worry you all though, I'm still rooting for the Packers! As an alternative, I have been able to go to 3 Liga soccer games now, which have been fun! Tonight I got home from La Marin (downtown) at 8:55pm and quickly put on jeans and ran over to the stadium for the game with Jess. We had a blast and Liga won so they are in the semifinals for the South American Cup! We sat with La Muerte Blanca (the craziest fans), so it kind of has a college atmosphere and people are standing and chanting the whole game. It was a fun 2-1 victory!
Sorry about the very scattered blog, but I'm tired and just wanted to put up a quick update! Life is good though and I am really enjoying what I'm doing.Much love,
Taylor
yay! I'm glad to have my Tay Tay fix. I'm glad you have found a new sport to fill up some of the football hole in the heart.
ReplyDeleteMiss you,
Katie