I have internet!!!

I am SO SORRY that this blog has thus been SO EMPTY but I now finally have internet at my homestay, so there is about to be a deluge of posts. Yes. But just so it doesn't all come at you (if anyone is still reading this...haha) in one downpour, I'm going to bullet-point things in Ecuador that I have never experienced, never thought I'd experience, are interesting, etc., and then post steadily about them. But YAYY I can blog again!!

Okay. Things I have enjoyed/learned/been schooled in here in the middle of the world:

• Almost crying on the first day of my internship
• Subsequently learning AutoCAD and ArcGIS in two days and feeling really useful (or at least, I learned everything I needed to know for my work)
• Also meeting the mayor of Ibarra on my first day O.O (apparently he is also the president of all the mayors of a region or something like that--I was nervous)
• Being a mother (okay, more specifically, learning more about mothering because I have an 8-year-old host....niece?...named Maria Celeste. An interesting experience because I have thus far been convinced that I will not have children)
• Eating something called helado de paila (literal translation: ice cream from pan/pan ice cream)
• Being integrated into my host mother's crazy and crazy awesome extended family of brothers (my host mother's name is Cecilia btw, or Ceci), sisters, in-laws, and children (aka my first encounter with them was at the colonial type house I wrote about earlier, and then karaoking with them and a 12-pack of Ecuadorian beer, Pilsener, of which each bottle is equal to at least 3 cans of beer, at the house--no worries, I did not partake very much, and they laughed at my initial shock)
• Eating fritada! My favorite food of Ecuador, and probably its most famous =] (fried pork--it's ridiculously good here)
• Also visiting a legit meat market....oh my goodness O.O--I was glad to be out of there by the end
• Inadvertently attending a Seventh-Day Adventist church service. I was extremely uncomfortable for the first 10 minutes I was there, because I couldn't remember if 'Seventh-Day Adventist' meant it was a Mormon church or not, but then I finally figured out that Mormons belonged to the Church of Latter-Day Saints (it was definitely the word 'day' that messed with my mind)
• Going to an AMAZING night market in Ibarra that is just FILLED with fruits, vegetables, and activity--the cheapest prices and biggest variety and dang but I sound like a salesperson oh well and gahhhhhh amazing....
• Going karaoking with my colleagues in the middle of the day, during working hours (I promise there's a good explanation for this--part of which includes me being clueless for a good portion of my time here and therefore not knowing what's going on until it actually happens. Okay, I'm not sure if that should be considered part of the good explanation haha)
• Getting really sick with slight fever and lots of traveler's diarrhea (sorry if that's TMI) for one day (praise the Lord! Only one day!)
• Attending my first funeral? Or the first one I remember attending. For the mayor's mother, no less =[. Even the President of Ecuador came later that night (yeah, the mayor really is a big shot, but a good one). And you would not BELIEVE the amount of arranged flowers that came in--filled the auditorium and even flowed out (I snuck in a picture...felt kinda bad =/ )
• Getting my nails done??!?!!!?? (Sorry this is so trivial after the last bullet point, but this is the first time I've ever done it)
• Learning how to babysit six crazy balls of energy (aka kids) at once, by myself
• Going to Quito for the weekend with the aforementioned awesome extended family and other intern who lives with me (Rachel), and doing stuff like visiting Mitad del Mundo (or the exact placement of the equator), hearing Ecuador lose to Argentina in the first 35 minutes of a fútbol game because Argentina had scored 3 goals by then (two by Messi, and Ecuador still at 0), exploring a street called La Ronda at night (amazing--my favorite part of Quito--like Bourbon Street in New Orleans but much more family friendly), and riding the Teleférico up a mountain for a breathtaking view
• And finally, explaining to my 8-year-old host niece why she should be okay with her mother (my host sister, Maria Teresa) getting married (!!!!! It was so surprising! We were at the end of our weekend trip in Quito today, and Maria Teresa had been talking for hours with an ex, and then when we got back to Ibarra, she was like, yeah...we're getting married. And everyone was like O.O and her daughter, Maria Celeste, ran to the room crying, and then Rachel and I were excited and happy for her. Anyway, more about this later)

So yeah! That's a summary of what I've been up to so far--I'm sure I forgot some things, but I will try to fill in all the interesting details as I make up for the past 2-3 weeks. I should really go to sleep now, so hasta mañana =].