she speaks english

today i woke up at the same time as always. 11:30am.
just like everyday i had breakfast.
but then my host family and i all packed into one vehicle and were on our way "into town" whatever that meant..either way...we were leaving our city. Cuenca.

i brought my camera and carried it in it's case since it was raining in the morning.
i also brought my ipod since i had a feeling the car ride might be a good hour or so.
we entered another city with some weird name that i forget..but just like everything else..

it looked like a totally different city than cuenca.
there were stray dogs everywhere..just like in cuenca.
bu the way people dressed was different.

after stopping at where i thought we were going to walk around and shop..
we got back in the car and drove the way we came into the city as if we were leaving.
we stopped at a gas station and i had to use the bathroom. which was located outside.
and it was the most disgusting bathroom i've ever entered in my whole entire 16 (almost 17) years of living. it smelled horrible and i literally did everything in there with my feet. i refused to touch anything. at this point it had stopped raining.of course, when i came out my host sister started laughing and when we walked back to the car i saw that my host mom and brothers were also laughing at me and my facial expressions upon leaving that bathroom. my oldest host brother looked at me and said "how was it?" and the only thing i could do was make a disgusted facial expression. when my host dad got into the car and asked why we were all laughing..my host sister explained and all he could say was, "welcome to a third world country"

i tried a couple different fruits today and a coconut juice..and also a thing that looked like a pancake but wasnt. the first fruit i had already tried once before but i figured i try it again...and i didn't like it and my host sister knew from the first time i tried it that it was not tasty to me at all. at this point it had stopped raining.

we stopped and ate at a restaurant. i ate chicken. and drank sprite that came in a glass bottle. after looking down at my chicken to take a bite i noticed through the transparent table that a dog had just ran under it...this restaurant had its door open so a little stray dog walked in and out as he/she pleased. and after another few minutes, i looked around the restaurant to see a chicken walking around picking up scraps. i automatically put on a confused face because things like that don't happen in wisconsin and my host mom just said "the first time i saw that i had the same thought"



after driving around and my host dad stopping what felt like every block to ask for directions to go somewhere (i didn't know where we were trying to go..i either had my ipod in or didn't understand what they were saying)

after another 30 minutes or so of driving around, we stopped at a place to ride go-karts...naturally, i was EXTREMELY excited because i love go-karts...but at the same time i was also nervous because it seems like those "rare occasions" where someone is injured while abroad...would happen to me...things like that always happen to me. worth the risk though!

after my host dad, brothers, sister and i all got into our go-karts one of the workers there came over and attempted to explain to me in spanish how to operate the thing. he was using hand motions too but i felt like a bobble head because i just kept nodding even though most of the time, just like always, i had absolutely no idea what he was saying. i knew that the right pedal was go and the left was stop...i didnt really think there was much else for me to know. but after he turned to one of the other co-workers and said "ella habla ingles" (she speaks english) i knew maybe there was something else.

after my host mom and dad translated for me...i realized i had pretty much understood most of what the man had said. the only thing that made me nervous was that there were no seatbelts on these go-karts and that the helmet i was wearing didn't buckle because the buckle was broken. awesome.

they started the go-karts and all of my host family that was driving (everyone except my host mom) took of super fast. i figured since i really didn't feel like dying and i didnt know what i was doing...i should probably take it slow and play on the safe side. i kept getting lapped, and i drove REALLY slow around the corners. my host sister and her brothers were absolute maniacs and my oldest host brother hit me at least 4 times and then was removed from the course (hahahahaha) i could tell my host sister was laughing at me for driving so slow but shortly after i got to do the laughing because she ran into the tires that outlined the track. i'm STILL laughing about it when i think of it because the look on her face when she realized what happened was priceless. on the last lap i sped up a little more and had more fun because i was driving faster, but when i turned the corner and slid a little i decided it'd be best to go back to being a loser and driving slow. :P

when we finally did stop to shop somewhere it was just a little shoe store with fasionable boots that my host mom and sister each bought a pair of. i really wanted to buy a pair, too seeing as though they were super cute and i've always wanted a cute pair of boots...but i knew that later on i'd find something just as cute that wasn't sold in america and i'd regret buying the boots there.

we walked through some open air markets that sold fruits and vegetables. we didn't ever really stop to look..we just kept walking and walking. and the only thing i could think to myself was "and i brought my camera today because.....??"

it gets dark here at about 6 so at about 5:30 we headed back to cuenca and were going home. i'm just as tired as i am everyday, but this city never sleeps and there is never silence. you will never hear absolutely nothing happening outside which is different for me since i come from an extremely tiny town.

more soon!
ashley