pantuflas :)

Gosh, I'm so bored. Today, I stayed home sick because my nose was runny and my throat hurt. Later, my stomach hurt, and I got a massive headache. What is going wrong with me? Today I researched universities, made braceletes, and watched TV. I'm starting to sense a pattern of my life here. I got a text from my friend from school asking where I was today and if I'm okay, which was really nice because I felt like I'm actually getting friends here, which is awesome!
Editors note: I missed the next day too. I was planning on going but I missed the bus, and my dad told me I didn't have to go because I still felt sick.
Oh! I found out that the package I sent to my family in the USA, my mom opened it and it was completely empty. That makes me so mad! My mom will be sending a few things soon, and I'm really nervous that when I receive it there will be nothing in it.
I forgot to put these few (slightly unimportant, but still notable) things in the last blog:
On the way to Banos, we stopped in Salasaca again to look at the market, and I bought a scarf and a pair of slippers. The scarf was only $2.50 (it was supposed to be $3.50! I'm getting better at bargaining...) and the slippers were only $4.00 and they make me look like a really cool clown.
My favorite words in Spanish: sonrisa (smile), aduana (customs), and pantuflas (slippers). I really love the Spanish language.
Written two days later:
These days have been much better because I leave my house to go to those of my extended family. There are more people who enjoy conversation, like Cristina, which is nice.
Today! We had a presentation on sex and the diseases that come with it. The person started out by saying that one in every whatever number of Ecuadorians has an STD, and then said that if you know two gringos, at least one will have a disease. Well, here I am sitting in class, the convenient gringa, so I'm at the front kind of but the about 20 people in front of me turned to me and just started laughing. Also, the whole class had to take an English test to see what level they were at, and I looked at it just for fun. The three words you had to use in a sentence were: ambitious, punctual, and keen. I literally have no idea what keen means, and almost no one uses the other two words. That just showed me that sometimes the stuff you learn in classes doesn't actually help you out in the real world. The last thing I remember from school is that Pepa (ten-year-old cousin, real name is Pepe but he calls me Dayana so I call him Pepa) saw me at lunch from his class balcony and called and waved to me. I really love being in a school with some relatives- well, two.
School I thought was fun today, and we got out 30min early (at the same time the sciences class does!) so that was nice. I really don't like the classes Productos & Servicios or Economia, and both are because of the teacher. He said that in the U.S., the company most robbed is the bank, and he said it like it was new information. I don't know, I just kind of thought that was obvious. He has that voice that's kind of like a know-it-all, and I think that's what most bothers me. But I think there will always be one teacher/administrator/coworker/whatever that you don't really like, so I'm just gonna deal with it!
So what has been going on other than school?
Well, yesterday it was an aunt's birthday, so we celebrated for lunch and then all hung out. Later, I went to the "almacen" (kind of like work place/store) with Chi Chi and Mayte, and I don't know that I would say it was interesting, but there was internet access. In about a month when it comes time to apply for universities, that's where I'll be spending my days. I talked to David (my host brother who I never met who is in Florida) on Facebook and he gave me advice about my life here and about getting along with Mateo, which was nice. Chi Chi, Mayte, and I got straciatella ice cream (that ice cream would literally be the reason I gained weight here) and then after the almacen we got chicken and curly fries. My dad was kind of mad because he said that I'm spending more time there than at my own house, but that was the first time I'd actually stayed up there for the day so it was kind of weird.
Today, school was fun. Then I went up to Chi Chi's house for lunch (maybe I'm going to start to spend a little more time there) and then we all talked for a while. Not much really happened other than chatting with family... Molde called Corentin again (it's becoming something daily) and again the message on the answering machine went something like "Corentin es feo... OW OW OW OW OWWW!" I still love that kid though, he's so interesting.