Just one little shot...

So, the first week of classes is over. I can tell my Spanish is improving a great deal, though there were some frustrating moments during class this week (mainly because, for a while, I felt like I needed to be in a more advanced class than I was placed into, but it´s gotten better now). Friday I went shopping with my sister, Silvana, at the mall and then actually spent the rest of my Friday night just hanging out, talking to my host brother and mother and watching a telenovela. It was really fun, though, because I realized over the course of the night that it was actually becoming much easier to understand and speak in Spanish. Nice to know I am making some progress.

Saturday was, in a word, nuts. I met about 8 other people from my program and took a bus to Ilahlo (spelling?), this giant mountain visible from my house in the valley. It is beautiful and has a giant cross on the top. One of the girl´s host dads came with us...and that´s where it kinda went downhill. Because instead of taking the slightly easier trail up Ilahlo, which has a lot of switchbacks, he decided to lead us up the slightly less well-known, INSANE trail up the mountain. This one LITERALLY went straight up the ENTIRE time and, not only that, but, due to the recent rain, was at many points swamped with mud! Needless to say, I really broke in my new hiking shoes, which are now completely coated in dried mud from this trip.

It pains me to admit that, about halfway up the mountain, I literally could NOT continue. Besides the fact that I was red-faced, drenched in sweat, and completely out of breath, I finally had to sit down because my head had begun to spin a bit. My friend, Nicky, had stopped as well because her knee had begun to bother her. Two host brothers that had accompanied their sisters on the trip were the last in our group and stopped once they caught up with Nicky and I. We decided that, despite feeling weak and lame for doing so, we absolutely could not continue, and the two Ecuadorean brothers, being the true machistas that they are, offered to escort us down the mountain (really, I think they were OVERJOYED to have an excuse to stop).

So I did not manage to see the top of the mountain this time, but had we taken the regular, SANE trail, I know we all could have made it. Later that night, slightly recovered from my hour and a half long stairmaster adventure up the mountain, I went out with my host sisters and their friends to a bar in Quito called the Western. After a couple drinks there, we went to a Karaoke bar, where I discovered that there a terrible karaoke singers in all languages, apparently. However, we did listen to two rather astounding renditions of Guns and Roses songs by some Ecuadorean guy who proved to be absolutely incredible!

OK, so the next day, it REALLY went downhill. I woke up with a sore throat, but attributed it to the smoke from the bar the night before. Well, NO. By that night, I could barely talk and I woke up early the next morning with the rather panicked feeling of not being able to really breath. So my host mother whisked me off to the doctor on Monday morning, where I was diagnosed with laryngitis and received antibiotics, an anti-in flammatory, and a GIANT shot...in my ass. My academic director, Lenore, later told me that in Latin America, they don´t think you can really get better unless you get a shot in the ass for everything.

I feel slightly better today, but definitely taking it easy. I knew that sooner or later, I´d have a terrible day...or a few...and I have. But things will get better...just as soon as I am no longer taking these terrible antibiotics (soooo NAUSEOUS as a result!) and my ass is no longer sore from that shot. :)

Hasta luego,
ç
Alex