What a weekend! Fantastic in many ways and extremely hard in others. Thursday in class with our 10th graders - Ally and I covered the words 'by, until, during, and for' in future rense writing. We asked our class to write a paragraph about what they would be doing in 5 years - to help them understand we first wrote a paragraph about me: In five years Amanda will be teaching cooking classes in Alaska. She will be married to a handsom Ecuadorian man and they will have twins. During the next seven days Amanda must meet a handsom Ecuadorian man. Then for three years Amanda must gain a lot of experience. Until then, she has to keep living her life. By 2013 Amanda needs to be pregnant. Then she will live happily ever after.
Well, I did meet a hot Ecuadorian man... well 2... but I only gave my email to one of them =)
OK, so let me explain the rest of Thursday's events! Kathy and Tracie came home with me after Spanish classes so that I could pack for Baños. Then we met Gustavo and Andrea at the mall. We took a taxi to Gringolandia where we had nachos and quesadillas with 2x1 drinks. Our pictures were crazy-amazing because we were toasted. At 10 a live band was supposed to be playing at Azuca but we wanted to dance so we went to Tequilla Sunrise and danced for 2 hours and had a blast. Tracie and I were eyeing a guy so Kathy went over and grabbed him and he started to teach us how to dance.
Tracie spent the night and we tried to sleep, but 5:30 came way too early. After showers, eggs, and bread we were ready to fetch Gustavo. His mom, Ines, reminded us to wear sunscreen, drink bottled water, and not to drink alcohol unless we called to have her join us. The drive to Baños was beautiful and we were able to see all but one of the important peaks.
Our hotel was spectacular - Kathy, Tracie, and I shared a room with a loft. The bus took us a few miles down the road where were we road a zipline contraption called a canopy - 8 riders at a time - across a river so we could hike around a waterfall. We went farther down the road to another waterfall and went on a lovely hike. We almost died on the bus ride back... the roads aren't quite big enough for a big bus! After dinner we went to explore the town but the bars were full of 11 year olds. The next morning while Kathy, Tracie, and Ally went on a hike I sat by the pool and listened to Ally's iPod - that was very refreshing. Our drive back to Quito was pretty uneventful! Carol and Becky encouraged us not to start withdrawing or preparing for the end this week but to seize every moment that we have left. That was encouraging, as well as the converstaitions with Tracie and prayer with Kathy. On Sunday Gustavo and I found cabinas and called the states. Then we met up with others for lunch and took the teleferiqo up the Pichincha. After sushi we went and watched Angels and Demons. This weekend was nice, but seemed to fly by too fast once again. Check the GFU blog for pictures, we've been trying to upload photos!