Updates!

Whoooops, sorry I haven't updated in so long! With school wrapping up, there are tons of tests, finals and projects, oh my. 

Anyways last weekend my friends and I went to another soccer game! This soccer game was for La Liga, and completely different from the last. It was a night soccer game and absolutely insane. There were fireworks going off all the time, people climbing fences and chanting and lots and lots of singing. The whole game we were standing and singing. The atmosphere was unbelievable. I didn't bring my camera because I heard these games got a little crazy so I have no pictures.

The day after Thanksgiving, our program hosted a wonderful dinner. The coordinator of students made us a big 'ol turkey! It was fantastic. A lot of students cooked things as well such as green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, twice baked potatoes, stuffing ect... Due to my cooking history, we decided it would be best if I just brought the drinks lol. 

Thanksgiving definitely wasn't the same without my amazing family and a crazy abundance of food, but it was still a great day.

The day after our feast, a few of my classmates and I had a field trip. Our first stop was visiting a Shaman medicine woman. Our program would only pay for one cleansing so my friend Emily volunteered to have our soul read to see if she needed a cleansing. Well the Shaman lady said people were envious of her therefore her soul was not calm and she needed a cleansing. The next twenty minutes were extremely intense and really strange. Emily had to take off her shirt and pants and get spit on a lot. Seriously though, the Shaman lady had this special mixture of liquids which she spit and rubbed all over Emily. She then blew fire at Emily, spit flowers on her and hit her with leaves. I feel like if that happened to me, my soul would be very unhappy and not calm at all. At one point the Shaman lady had to go leave the room to throw up because all the bad spirits were transferred through her. CRAZY RIGHT!? My friends and I decided we didn't want to get a cleansing, but wanted a diagnosis of how our soul was. We rubbed a candle all over our body where she then lit it and said some spell. Most of my friends went before me. One girl was told she has a calm soul and she will marry her boyfriend, another was told she needs to focus more in her studies and can marry her boyfriend after completing school and another was told she has a tough choice between two boys. Then it was my turn.... The Shaman woman told me that my soul is not calm, there is a bothersome boy in my life and that I have bad luck. She told me I really needed to get my spirit cleaned because I am a "maleta de mala suerte" (I carry people's bad luck...) WHAT!? Thanks a lot lady for the crappy diagnosis. I of course do not believe in this "reading of souls" but when I told my host family what the Shaman woman told me, they were really concerned lol. Que loco. Below is a picture of her desk and some supplies.

So the next few days are going to be FANTASTIC! The next two weeks are FIESTAS DE QUITO! I originally thought this was the independence of Quito but it's just the foundation of the city. Oh Tuesday night we rode through the city on a Chiva! (a party bus) My friends and I decided to dress up crazy for this, just because we can haha.

That was a fantastic night until I went into a park to use the restroom and my camera fell out of my purse without my knowledge. Didn't realize until it was too late that my camera was gone :( It is absolutely in the black market by now. My friend Jessica went to the park on her way to work at 6:45am and it wasn't there. R.I.P. CAMERA. With that being said, I am so sad because Quito has SO MANY CRAZY ACTIVITIES the next few days, and I can't take pictures of anything. I'll try to steal my friends pictures and still post blogs with photos though.

Today my friends and I are off to the park because there is a crazy 10 hour concert! Tomorrow there is a parade we are going to where I will hopefully be able to see Correa, the president here! I don't have class for a week :) Yay. I'll update soon about how the Fiestas de Quito are going!

p.s. I go home in two weeks...I cannot believe it. Who would have ever guessed that Ecuador is the coolest country ever? I'm not ready to go back to America. I want to come home for Christmas then come back to Ecuador. Pleaaaaaaaase mom?!