View from the road somewhere between San Vincente and Canoa
I was going to go to Colegio Cruz del Norte, but my host mom wanted to send me to the same school as my sister, so she talked to the headmaster of her high school, Cristo Rey, and he said I couldn’t go there… But then she told him I was going to Georgetown next year, and, since Cristo Rey is Jesuit/very religious, he liked that I was going to a Jesuit university, so… I get to go there now! The week I started was the “Olympiadas,” meaning we only had three classes in the morning and the rest of the day, all the grades played team sports against each other -- volleyball, basketball, soccer, some version of soccer on pavement. I played volleyball; we lost by a loooot. Anyway, I’ve been in regular classes for two weeks now. I’m in class Sexto Fima, meaning grade 6 (the 12th grade equivalent here) and in the Physics-Math specialty class. There’s about 35 other students in it, and we have all of the same classes together; although I think that would bother me in the US (wait… sounds oddly reminiscent of IB…) it’s at least nice because I get to know the same group of people better. I don’t need grades, which is good, because I would probably only pass English otherwise (I’m in the advanced class...). Above is me rockin' the uniform! My friends at school are good about trying to only use Spanish with me, although sometimes the conversations I have go something like this:
Friend says something in rapidfire Spanish
I repeat one word that I don’t know with a question inflection at the end
Friend nods vigorously
Me: “No entiendo.”
Friend attempts to translate the word into English
Me: “Oooooh. Ok. Si.” fail to mention that I still don't understand the other 10 words in the sentence
Two weeks ago, my host mom’s sister and her family visited; we went to the beach both days at Canoa, a coastal town. Portoviejo is only about a 20 mile drive from the ocean which is WONDERFUL. It’s gorgeous here, with a great view of the mountains right along the beach. The water’s also about 35 degrees warmer than the Massachusetts Atlantic. I also went to a quinceneara for one of Pamela’s cousins; it reminded me more of a wedding than a Sweet 16. This past weekend, a bunch of students from Cristo Rey went to the hospital dressed as clowns and visited sick kids (really young ones, about 2 and 3), which was nice, and they were adorable. Then in the evening I went to a barbeque at one of my classmate’s houses, with the rest of the girls in my class. I ate way too much, which seems to happen a lot here! The food is delicious, speaking of which; I like it because there is fish involved in almost every dish. Ceviche, the signature food of Portoviejo, is like a cold soup with raw (is it raw? I’m not sure actually) fish, or you can get it with shrimp. You add lemon and herbs and tomatoes, and mustard. Oh and the other thing everyone eats here is chifles! They’re basically banana chips, or you can get the madura version. They. Are. Everywhere. So back to this past Saturday… after the barbeque, I went to a formal party for Friends of Rotary, hosted by the Rotary Club (self-explanatory), around 10. I stayed until 3 am, and spent the better part of it being exhausted and wishing I could sleep. It was pretty fun though, all of the other exchange students in my district were there, some of which I hadn’t seen since the plane ride over from Atlanta.
Today I went to basketball practice at my school (last week I went to volleyball twice). I was pretty bad…but it was fun! I also swim a fair amount with my host mom, at the University pool. Tonight at 9 I have a Rotary Meeting; they’re every Wednesday from 9 to midnight, and all the rotary exchange students in my club (there’s 3 clubs in Portoviejo, making up the district) go to them (there’s 10 of us in this one). I’m surprisingly not too tired... horraahh!
No comments:
Post a Comment