Last Saturday I FINALLY did one of the BIG tourist attractions in Quito - the teleférico! I went with my new jungle friend Nick. It was his last day in Quito, so we decided to spend the day finishing being tourists (for him). The teleférico is a cable car that goes up the mountain Pichincha. When we got to the top, we were 4300 meters up. 4300 meters up = lack of OXYGEN. I walked five steps and was panting like I had been chased by a rabid dog (let's not re-live THAT experience, please). I quickly realized that my dreams of being a mountain climber were not going to come true (Let's take a moment and picture me being a mountain climber. HAAAAAAA Good one!!).
Later in the day, we went down to the Mariscal - the "downtown" of Quito where a bunch of restaurants and bars are - to watch the World Cup semi-finals. Look at me being intense! Nick was cheering for Germany, so that meant that I was cheering for Germany too. The men next to us (and pretty much EVERYONE else) were cheering for Uruguay. At one point during the game, when Germany was down, the man next to me looked at me and yelled, "ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!! ONE HUNDRED DOLLARSSSSS THAT URUGUAY WINNNNNNNN!!!!!!!" At first I stared at him like he was a maniac, and then I said, "Ha?! Ha!? No??! Thanks! Woooooo Germany?" He shrugged his shoulders and went back to his beer. In the end, when Germany won, I looked at him and said, "One hundred dollars?" He didn't like that very much.
We spent the rest of the day shopping for souvenirs for Nick's family (nothing like living here for 3 months and doing a little last minute shopping), saw a movie, and then met up with our other jungle friends Bibi and Kyle for a drink. They were REALLLYYYYYYY tired because they spent the day in Baños (remember when I was terrified to tears? Their trip wasn't that intense...). I then had to say bye to Nick, whom I had known for a total of TEN days, but I felt like I knew him forever! Maybe it's the jungle? Anyways, it was so sad to have to say bye to one of my new friends. I think that that's when it hit me that soon I would be the one leaving and I would have to say bye to EVERYONE. Dang. What a wonderful day I had though, with my new friend Nick. He kept making me laugh, because every other thing that I said, he would say, "You are SO American!" and then I would just say, "Yeah, I know!" Yay America!!
And then Sunday. The World Cup Finals. A holiday bigger than Christmas in Latin America. I embraced my Dutch heritage and put on an orange shirt (I look horrible in orange), painted my face (not PAINTED painted, just the Dutch flag on my cheeks), and met up with Bibi and several people I didn't know to cheer for Holland in the finals. We started at a Dutch cafe/bar thing that was SO packed that we couldn't see the TV. And it was packed with Dutch people, who are TALL. I've never seen so much screaming and shouting and ORANGE in my life. It was fun to watch. I couldn't understand anything, either, because everyone was screaming songs in Dutch, so I pretended. 
When we got sick of not seeing the TV, we moved to where Nick and I watched the Germany/Uruguay match the day before. Still JUST as packed, but there was at least sitting room. Instead of watching the game, I made new friends - go figure, me not being interested in sports. The one guy was Turkish, but lived in Germany for a long time, so when he got mad, he would yell in German, and if he got REALLY mad, he would SCREAM in Turkish. I just laughed and laughed. And then it started pouring rain, and I got wet, and then I was mad. What a day. Holland lost the match, and people were seriously DEPRESSED. I was sad for them, and I gave condolence hugs as if they'd just lost a loved one. A LITTLE too intense for me, but whatever. At least I tried.
On Monday, I started SUMMER CAMP. Oh my GOD what a joke. I'm "in charge" of the English portion. There are 9 kids. Three of them know English REALLY well. Three of them are pretty good. Three of them aren't even old enough to read. Great. And they're all in the same group, so that makes it extra difficult, because one topic is both WAY too simple and WAY too hard at the same time. I've resorted to playing games like duck, duck, goose. They like that.
On Wednesday, we took a field trip. I had no idea where we were going, but we went to a "farm". It was more like a petting zoo, but the kids LOVED it. It was ok. I mean, it's only SO exciting to look at a goat. And a llama. And a donkey. And nasty guinea pigs. When the kids got done with all of that - YAY! There was a horse that they could ride! So, they all took their turns. And then, I KNEW this would happen, but I was DESPERATELY hoping that it wouldn't: "Teacher! YOU DO IT!!!" I said that I don't like horses. DO IT!!!!!! DOOOOOOOOOOO IIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After about 8 minutes of saying no, I finally gave in. And then they all laughed at me. This is why.
I couldn't get on the STUPID horse. The kids never speak English to me, either, so this summer camp where I'm supposed to be teaching them English is actually a great opportunity for me to practice my Spanish. At least I'm getting something out of it. That and horse-riding skillz. GOD. I wanted to die. And they have swimming every day and BEG me to swim with them. I conveniently have forgotten my suit every time.
My favorite thing about this "camp" is the ages of the kids - Sebastian: 5, Zulay: 6, Angie: 7, Camila: 8, Violeta: 8, Carlita: 9, Jennifer: 10, and Nico: 11. The little kids are SO affectionate and always want to sit by me and hold my hand and be hugged. I LOVE IT. I have NOT been around kids enough in Ecuador, so now I am SO happy :)
Tomorrow I'm going with Bibi and two new friends - Audra from Ohio and Gabe from Canada - to climb Cotopaxi. Some huge mountain. I want to say it's something along the lines of the highest active volcano in Ecuador? I don't know, Google it :) Hopefully I survive - I could hardly handle going up a mountain in a cable car...
Until next time,
Sara the summer camp counselor
Sarah, oh, so soon you will be home...how will we contiue your writings on the life and journeys of a college graduate, still finding her way???? I don't want the writings to stop and the illustrations simply make it more gloriously enhanced and even more readily.
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