5 Months!!

Last Sunday I officially hit my halfway point here in Ecuador. I've been here for 5 months, and only have 5 left :(. These past 5 months have gone by incredibly fast, a lot faster than I want them too. And I know that these next 5 will fly by and be over before I know, which really makes me sad. I am loving my experience here right now. I remember when I first started thinking about doing an exchange over a year ago, my heart was set on only doing 1 semester. I thought that that was the perfect amount of time, and 10 months is just way too long. Thats almost an entire year! But now that I'm here, I can't imagine having to leave right now if I was only doing 1 semester. At the beginning of every exchanger's experience there are a lot of ups, but a lot of downs. That something that almost every exchange student can agree on, but lately, my life here is clicking perfectly together.

Friends from school

Exchange students

I love my family here so much. My host mom has been so helpful and sweet, and my sibling and grandparent always keep me laughing. There have been a few events this past months when I wasn't enjoying myself too much when I was out doing something, and all I wanted at those moments was to hug my host mom and to have her comfort instead of begin the situation that I was. These are the moments that I realize how amazing my mom here is, and how lost I would be without her. I have a great group of exchange students in my city, and we always get together to enjoy Guayaquil together, because we are all in the same boat here, so we have so much in common. It's impossible not to get along with the other exchange student. I take my last exam this friday, than I'm done with school for 3 months until May. I'm very excited for summer, but at the same time i'm gonna miss a lot of my friends in school that I became so used to seeing every day. I love going to school so much now, I almost wish it wasn't ending, but I know that I will be seeing my best friends from school a lot, because all they talk about now is taking me with them when they go to their beach houses!

Cuenca

Everything is so perfect right now, and I love Ecuador more and more every day. I have a very busy summer coming up which I'm really excited about! For Carnival which is on February 11, some exchange students from my city and I are going on a road trip up the coast for 4 days. All I know about this holiday is that its a giant water balloon fight in the streets all day long, and sometimes they point oil or chocolate syrup in the balloons as pranks. Sounds like we will be pretty messy by the end of the day! Than not the 27 in February my parents are coming to visit me!! When they come they will get to see my city, our mountain house, the beach, we will go to the highlands and the capital, and of course Cuenca. I'm very excited to go there because everyone who has been has told me that its the most beautiful city in all of Ecuador because all the roads are brick and the houses are very old and antique. This city is very calm and relaxing, which explains why it is one of the most popular cities in the world right now to move to when people retire. After that I have my trip to the Galapagos, than to Peru to go to Machu Piccu in April!

Cuenca

I will stay very busy this summer, and the time is going to fly by, so all I can do is try to enjoy every moment of it.