School, school, school, school, school

School, School, School. School, School. Nearly three months off did not help my dedication to studying, and with a whole country of distractions at my hands its been nearly impossibly to hunker down and work. This is especially sad because day one I was assigned a story due the next day. A 5 page paper in Spanish due the day after with a presentation, and an observation based anthropology assignment due the day after the paper. WTF. Not that I was expecting it to be easy but that's a bit much. It also doesn't end there, we have another paper due the following monday, and the wednesday after that. Not going to lie I feel a bit overwhelmed. I also do not have reliable internet with my host family, and I don't want to have to use my brothers computer everytime I need to write a 5 page paper in Spanish. I have been going over to a fellow SITers house to work, but when the gringos get together, like we did yesterday, nothing gets done. Today I went over to pump this thing out, only to arrive and find out a thunderstorm had knocked out the power; and with it the internet. (Disclaimer: I'm done venting now. Sorry for the complaining). These last three days, other than the school stress, have been pretty awesome. Superbowl Sunday was great! The gringos and I had a reunion at the local TGI Fridays to watch the game with a few of our host family members. With only two days separating us at the time I haven't been more excited to see a group of people in a while. Monday was the start of classes, I was a bit dissappointed to find that I palced into the lower intermediate level; the lowest here in Ecuador. As the days have gone by though, I'm finding more or less we are all about on the same level. The advanced speakers are a bit ahead, but not by much. I've also been working hard to catch up, talking with my family as much as possible. And they're beginning to open up to me now that I can hold a semi-decent conversation, which has been really rewarding. I've been learning a lot of words and today got the chance to brush up on my written Spanish with a friends host brother.While at my friends house, the one with the power out, we sat and talked with her mom and host brother in Spanish for three hours. It was fun, I really like her family. They are really nice and interesting people and I think I bonded with her host brother by sharing the same favorite soccer teams and a love for rock climbing. We ate zuccini cake which was absolutely delicious! Forgot to mention this but earlier during school we were told to go to the market and haggle for some fruit. The haggling didn't go so well, but on the other hand we got tons of fuits to eat. In hindsight this wasn't the best idea because we ate a lot of them on the spot and I am now suffering the consequences. Nothing too serious, but I haven't really had much to eat after then out of fear that things wont go well. Back to tonight. I came home to spaghetti tongiht, Im guessing my mom made it because I mentioned my Italian heritage and she has noticed that I haven't been eating much (by Ecuadorian standards, I challenge any westerner to come here and try to out eat on of these guys). Last night I had mentioned wanting to help change the water bottle on our water machine, you know, trying to not be completely helpless. My family had told me they didn't have an extra, so I told them it was cool and went about my business. Today I came home to a new bottle waiting for me to hook up. Apparently my mom told my dad not to do it specifically because I wanted to. These people crack me up. I was hoping the gesture would get them to start asking me to help out a little more, at times I feel like im useless, but they interpreted it as me REALLY wanting to change the water bottle. And so, well, I did. I really like my family, they are genuinely nice. Today I found out my brother wants to persue grad studies in graphic design in Argentina after undergrad here in Ecuador. It's been great getting to know them and I cherish the time I have here. I think I'm starting to miss home though. It hasn't even been two weeks but I find myself thinking about how comfortable home is and the friends I have there. As well as the ease of access I have to calling friends and family just to chat. I miss you guys a ton! At the same time I'm having the time of my life, everyday is something new, and I feel like my Spanish improves 1000X with every conversation. That's all I've got for today. Not posting because I don't have internet but I'll write again soon and hopefully get these up shortly.