Beach TRIP!

So I went to the fabulous beach here in Ecuador. In the city of Montanita. I took a 6 hour bus trip with my friend Jasmine and we made it during the night. Can I just say I hate national music here in Ecuador and movies that have so much action there is no dialogue and there is a reason they didn't make it in the box office. I was subjected to both on my trip there and back. But, it was great once I was there. I stayed in a house with some guy friends the first night and a hotel next door the next night. It was super fun. We had mosquito netting that looked like it was a princess bed. Double purpose! looks cool and protects you! haha. Anyway, I got a lot of beach time in the morning, it was so nice! I even found a couple sand dollars! Some were still alive so I threw them back. I could have learned to surf because apparantly there are no sharks here, but I didn't feel like eating seawater up my nose that day, so watching the amateurs was fun! I got a trenza in my hair too! It's when they rap hemp and some beads around a piece of you hair. The guy said it could stay for up to a year! haha. We'll see. I like it though. I got a fake tatoo as well! I had a lot of fun walking around and buying jewelry. I stayed in the actual town called Olon, which is like 2 minutes away from the action in Montanita, so We HITCHHIKED! wahoo! It was a first, but we ended up doing it like 5 times. I think the bathing suits helped, just kidding(well one time I was wearing my bathing suit). Anyway, there aren't really frequent buses and taxes are people in old cars say taxi. So you can just flag someone down and sometimes they charge you a quarter other times they think you're cute and just drop you off. It was fun. I stuck my thumb out and everything, finally I can use my hitchhikers thumb!
Anyway, I got sunburnt, but it has turn to a lovely bronze color! haha. I want to go back, I couldn't remember why I had to come back to Cuenca when i was there. It was like there was a memory block on the reason to come back. So me staying with the boys created soem jealousy issues with the boyfriend since I had a fiasco with two, before. basically they were fighting over me like a teenage flick! Que ridiculo! Anyway, it was worth it and invite anyone who wants to come visit me to the beach! love you all and hope to be planning a trip to a waterfall nearby to show you the pics!

PS the llama pictures were great cause I was thinking ¨llama face!¨from emporer´s new groove. it was great at the time, don´t worry I laughed!

I´m still alive!

So I know it´s been a few months and it is all my fault and I´m sure some of you were wondering if I got lost, but nope, just lazy. So one major festival I have to relate is the one calle dCarnival. It is in the beginning of February. The problem with this is that the natives are so zealous about the activities they start in January. THey throw water baloons. It doesn´t matter old, young, dressed up or not, they will nail you. I got hit 9 times! Yes, I counted. One time after church in the back of the neck. It hurt a lot the next day. the problem is they throw them from moving vechicles so it adds a bit of velocity. Cowards. I had a few choice words when I got nailed, but what can you do. So the days of carnival, if you are smart you hide in your house. I went to play despite the freazingness. The first day Rolando got me soaked head to toe, I got him back plenty, but in less time. Thanks to my skills learned growing up with vengeful brothers always trying to catch me for something my evasive maneuvers worked quite well. Roli only caught me cause I came back towards the house. One of the days I went to Gualeceo(a town) where they throw you in the river and then throw flower on you so you have to go back in the river to wash off. Some places they throw paint or rocks, I like the place they throw flowers. Anyway I planned ahead and brought a change of clothes and was going to change to my swimsuit there. Bad mistake, I was in the back of a truck and everyone started throwing water baloons at each other before we got there, therefore, soaked freezing Jessica. Oh well.

End of February I did two things, I went to Inca Perca ancient inca ruins, and I joined a gym. Still going by the way. Some of the pics below are of those ruins. I went with my two buddies Myra and Tatiana. we had fun. We´re kinda the 3 musketeers we go to the gym and do lots of stuff together. That was fun. I faked being a college student and so I kinda look latin I got in for a buck instead of the 6 dollar gringo price!

In January I started classes at the university again and it´s more fun now that I know what I´m doing. I also moved out of the house and got my own apartment! It´s cool, although I had to learn how to adjust the propane tanks for hot water. You learn something new every day. I also took another trip to a place called chobshi. It is ruins of the people who were here before the incas called the canaris. The river pics are from there. It was great but lots of climbing. As usual in all the pictures I am being a dork and had a lot of fun at the same time.

Latest news is that roli made me dinner and there is a picture of how he arranged it so fancily. cool, I know, don´t worry he isn´t coming home with me although I wish he could meet everyone. Except for that whole not speaking english part. Anyway that´s about it for now. General conference was fun, I chatted with the gringo missionaries and made chocolate cookies which turned out really hard, I blame the altitude. i did make my first apple pie though, that was a success. I didn´t get seconds. anyway I love you all and can´t wait to visit and talk to all of you again in July when I come back!

Left:my kitchen Middle:stove and stuff Right:Roli and me

Left:food he made for dinner Middle: LLamas!llama face! Right:Claiming territory

Left: cool trees in the canyon. Middle: On top of the wall Right: Canyon
Roli cooking and to the right me posing! cute!


Top left: cool mud wall

In the canyon to the left

Below being sacrificed by Tati

Right bottom: I am indiana jones!

Below: Face of the Inca, Can you see it? Middle: hanging on for dear life.

then I repeated the pic, oh well i'm not perfect

I love christmas, but goodness it was too short. Only a week and then I came back. New year's was good here. They burn human size manican's that represent all the bad from the previous year. Kinda feels like home since my brother's are piros and there were a bunch of fire works. Oh I got my first midnight new year's kiss, wasn't as cool as I though it would be since I can kiss my boyfriend whenever, but it' s a check on the list of the things I've wanted to do my whole life.

So I'm finishing up finals at the university and I get a month of till the next cycle, but I still teach in the afternoons. Hopefully I get to go to the beach for the weekend to hang out in a couple weeks. There is a thing called Carnival here where they just eat and throw water baloons at poor unsuspecting streetwalkers. It doesn't start till first week of February, but yes they like to get a jump on the baloon throwing early! ugh. yes I've been hit in the leg! I was so mad, but what can you do when they drive away in a car? Any way here's a picture or two of christmas and me and roli! Hope to write more when something exciting happens.

Oh I did go to the hotsprings again, still gross,but cute little town and great french fries after!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

I just love singing Christmas Carols, but what´s funnier is when you can´t remember how they start in English anymore because you´ve sung the Spanish ones so much. Qúe ridículo ¿verdad? I get to go home in 10 days, but it will take me like 2 to get there! Sick! Oh well hopefully I will be supplied with enough pirated DVD´s to make everything alright just chilling in the airport. It´s possible I will have someone to pick me up in Columbia and show me around the capital, but if it doesn´t work out I´m getting cosy on the plastic chairs baby!
Update on Baños. WEll, they are hot springs, and the water from the volcano flows into cement pools, but goodness gracious they are not the cleanest pools I´ve ever seen. And I would like to add, there is a reason speedos are restricted to only professional swimmers that need them to race. There needs to be a label ¨Not for recreational purposes!¨Sick, anyway pools were dirty full of people. But still fun, I just pretended I was at Fern Ridge, the lake in Oregon where we always go and people say is dirty. The water was perfect temperature despite the cleanliness factor. I kicked everyone´s butt when we had races though. Finally all those years of swim team come in handy! I even tried the butterfly, although I hesitated to submerge my head in the murky water. In the end, good experience but I would like to stick to the wonderful hotsprings of Utah that, at least the ones I´ve been to, are clean and not crowded with people.
I also had a chance to go to the hippie market, I even bought a cute belt made of seeds from fruits. Super cute! I actually discovered another market while walking around, so that will have to be our next trip. OOH! and for those of you who have read Anne of Green Gables and know how many times she was proposed to? Yeah I kinda feel like her, not that so many people have proposed to me, but still it´s fun when someone wants to marry you! NOT THAT I WANT TO MARRY HIM, just fun little comparison between my life and literature. Don´t worry I´m coming home without a ring, I still have adventures to go on! Anyway TTFN.(Ta ta for now, winnie the pooh)

SO 20 days until Christmas if you weren't counting now you know! Wahoo. Plus this Saturday promises to be an exciting one. I have finals in the Abe Lincoln afternoon classes this week, Saturday I teach till 12:30pm then some of the friends and I are going to the hippie area of the city for compras!(to buy jewelry!) sweet, then I'm going to Banos the hotsprings with tons of people, it's at the base of a mountain. Makes me think of the beginning of the movie Volcano when the couple gets boiled by lava when they are swimming. Yuck, but still excited to go. Then hopefully some sort of baile or activity at night. OH and thursday a whole lot of fun playing basketball! We'll see if it turns out to be as fun as it should be, don't worry there will be pictures! These new pictures are of me after the Cuenca futbol game when we tied, I was just excited about my new shirt. This is a picture of my friend monica and me, we're tight! yo