Neener's Travel Blog

For the last few days I was in Ecuador it wasn't really sinking in that I would be leaving so soon. It didn't hit me until after school the last day I was there - after saying goodbye to everyone. Or at least thinking I was saying goodbye to everyone. We went home and there were so many clues I should've caught on to... but as we know, I can be rather oblivious at times... So Eli and I went for coffee. She talks about how it'll be a nice last, relaxing family dinner and what all we can do this evening. We get home. Nathan is sitting on the couch in the dark. "Hey, Shaneen, guess what?" "...What...?" "SURPRISE!!!" Everyone jumps out from their hiding places. "Are you surprised?" "...Uhuh..." I was not expecting that at all... We had a great time. Mexican, cookies, people piling on top of each other, people piling on top of me, everyone making fun of me mercilessly. Ah, good times... good until we had to say goodbye anywa...

*sigh*

On Wednesday after school we went to Mitad del Mundo aka the Equator Monument. It was about as exciting as you expect a monument to be. :) Makes for some pretty great photo ops though. That's what makes things so fun, anyways. Being able to share them with the people you're closest to. Being ridiculous together. And, boy, are we good at that! XD

Jr Sr was absolutely amazing!!! Spent some time in the morning setting up at the hotel, lugging trees up the stairs, putting together the center pieces, sort of helping stringing lights on the trees... Went over to the mall and bought jewelry to match my dress. Finally. XD Had lunch and all that and went to our cita for nails and hair. I had my first pedicure and manicure ever! Pretty awesome. I got a French mani and pedi. That's as French as I get. XP Got my hair done and it turned out pretty much like I wanted it. I liked it. :) Then we headed up to Hannah's to get dressed and make-uped. Fun stuff. "The entrance" when the guys arrived was sort of awkward... "hey..." (What else should I say...? :/ ) We had our pictures taken, of course and then all packed into the Maloy's van and headed over to the hotel. Had more pictures taken. Stood around. Took pictures. Sat around. Walked around. Finally got to go in! Sat and waited. The banquet was super fun. All ...

Today was a great day. :D My back is feeling better, as is my leg. Today was the last day CSO is going to Pan de Vida. Sad. :( But we had pizza and Fanta to celebrate a great time and everyone was pretty wired. XD A bunch of us were running around taking pictures of everything and everyone. And of course there was that one girl, as there always is, that did NOT want her picture taken and was going to do everything in her power to ensure that her picture was not taken. Which of course led to everyone trying to take her picture or help those with cameras to take her picture. I greeted and handed out fichas today, which I've done most days. And I put lids on the cartons at the end. Brady was in a crazy mood today, just like everyone else. He was singing some "chi chi wow wa" song or something... Sonia and me were teasing him about making it up. "No, it has nine verses or something like that!" "Wow, Brady, you made up NINE verses?" And then he and some oth...

Haha, just kidding. Sort of... Anyways... well, this weekend was a long weekend for Ecuador, too. We didn't go anywhere, but Nathan stayed with us. Translation: I had an older brother for the weekend. Complete with getting made fun of and getting beat up. What fun! :/ A Charlie Horse. He gave me a Charlie Horse! For no reason! It still hurts... :( On Monday we (Nate, Eli, DK and I) went shopping at another market type place. We rode the trolly there. Haha, before it left Eli said, "You're gonna go flying." I had nothing to hold onto... the trolly starts and I go flying... I grabbed Nate's arm and thank goodness DK was behind me. XD When we got there I got three pairs of earrings and a funky colored leather journal. Pretty sweet stuff. Today we had another BYOM. So awesome!!! Rick and Luke and Jones and a bunch of others were part of the group that performed at the end. They did a song from each of the decades Rick has lived through. Man, they...

I've been saying that a lot. Really high pitched. It has to be said high pitched. Examples of its usage: I love Toni! I love tacos! I love Combos! I love Mini Joes! Apparently I use it in reference to food quite a bit... heh, heh... Other things I've picked up here that I'm saying lots: "beast/beastly", "stud/studly/stud muffin", (in response to "Why?") "Why not?". I've also started making random noises randomly and my klutziness has increased immensely. Yep, Ecuador is rubbing off on me. I love Ecuador!!!

Went to Otavalo today - the major market town area of Ecuador... It was so fun! We started out at the market, which had jewelry, scarves, bags, paintings, doodads, thingamabobs and things of that sort. I got a few gifts for people. Got some jewelry for myself - a fun necklace, a necklace that matches my cow earrings, and a bracelet that matches my earrings for Jr Sr. It was cool seeing Aunt Cathy, Uncle Earl and Eli bargaining. And I actually understand some of it!!! Then we headed to leather town. Got a really awesome leather jacket and a really cute (not leather) purse. :) Then we went to wood town. There was some pretty cool carvings and such. Uncle Earl talked to one of the store owners who was working on a carving while we were in there. He was making some carvings out of cedar and orange tree wood. He said the carvings he was working on took about four days to complete. So shopping was so fun! As shopping always is when you find what you're looking for... :D

Spent the weekend at the beach. It was so awesome! I went boogie boarding for the first time and I loved it! It was so fun! We swam in the ocean tons. I thought my eyes might burn out of my head (salt water=not fun in the eyes), but other than that it was fantastic! We went out for a night on the town, drank batidos (kind of fruit smoothie-ish. Nate and Eli both had coconut ones and I had a banana one. Then we went to this other place that sold batidos five times as big. Nate and Eli shared another coconut one and I had an orange one that tasted more like grapefruit.), went shopping. I got some pretty fantastic earrings - one of them has cows on them. XD

Last Saturday Uncle Earl took us kids plus a couple of Zach's friends to Mindo. We went to a Butterfly House first. That was really cool. We got to see quite a few butterflies actually coming out of their cocoons. Had a couple butterflies land on me. We spent quite a bit of time just walking around looking at all of them, and standing in front of the cocoon cupboard watching them come out. After that we went on a zip line. It was really fun. There were a few cables that you could do tricks on with the guides. I didn't - I was feeling a little sick still. It looked pretty sweet though. We went with a few American girls and they were so funny to listen to. Some of them would scream all the way across - it was NOT that scary. XD Then the boys went tubing on the river while Eli and I stayed in the car. I slept. We were going to stay the night in Mindo, but by about 3:00 we had already done all we wanted to do, so we headed home.

I was in Makuma (a little jungle village) from Monday to Wednesday. That was an experience. Uncle Earl and another worker worked on motors and plants and stuff; they got a LOT fixed for them. I spent a lot of time hanging out, entertaining myself. Journaled, read, listened to music, stood there looking around. One sort of exciting thing happened I guess. The first day I sat down outside the little office and suddenly something flies toward me. It looked like a nut (it was actually a pepper of some sort). Then one flies at me from the other side. What on earth is going on? Then I hear giggles. And see someone peeking around the corner. As soon as I saw her, she disappeared back around the corner. There was a boy as well. They continued to peek shyly around the corner and giggle about seemingly nothing for quite some time, until they finally worked up the courage to come sit by me. Two other boys joined them. And I was actually able to talk to them a little!!! I asked t...

Went up to Papallacta for the weekend, this time with Uncle Earl, Zachary, Caleb and Caleb's friend Luke. We left Saturday morning and got back Sunday afternoon. It was so much fun! We went quading up to somewhere up the mountain... We all took turns driving, and I did pretty good! Contrary to what is apparently popular belief I CAN drive a quad without driving off the mountain side! We went to an old, abandoned cabin. It is said among the MKs to be haunted by a shape-shifter. She is an old woman who can turn into a young woman or a wolf. If you go exploring alone, she will eat you. If you are in a group and got the bad luck of being stuck in the back she will make you go crazy. One man walked all the way back down to Quito because she made him go crazy. And we went to explore the cabin she is said to haunt. It looked like your typical broken down, old haunted cabin. Holes in the floor. Rickety stairs. Grimy windows. People's names were written all over the wall...

Spanish classes are going fairly well, I think. I'm learning stuff, so that's a good sign. Today I went to Pan de Vida and people kept trying to talk to me. Yeah, 'cause I look like I would be fluent in Spanish. I actually answered one question the first time I was asked though without too long of a pause! This guy asked how old I was and I said 'diez y siete'. Whoot, whoot! Couldn't understand another word he said, but I was pretty proud of myself. Earlier today I went to chapel tribes and Eli had to go the bathroom and told me to tell our leader. When our leader asked where Eli was, I said, "She went to the washroom." "...Oh, ok." I was wondering why that seemed like a difficult thing to grasp until DK said, "Washroom is Canadian for bathroom. Just thought I'd translate for everybody." Then later on in Study Hall, this one guy asked what grade I was in. Since everyone here is American, I've gotten used to their...

Nothing out of the ordinary has happened recently. I'm just in Ecuador, why would anything out of the ordinary be happening? Haha, every day here is exciting. Even if nothing particularly exciting happens, it's all wonderful. I've been sat on, multiple times. By three guys. At once. Yes, I did almost die. And, yes, it will most likely happen again. But even that has become a normal occurrence. I have never walked so much in my life. And I love it. I love to walk places. I also love to wear shorts and flip flops almost every day. Seeing the mountains out of nearly every single window has become common place. Receiving some sort of injury (all small, but still painful enough to be annoying) compliments of Nathan, Josh and Daniel are to be expected. Laughing so hard that my stomach hurts has become a daily occurrence. So, nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Unless, of course, you count when I scared the bajeebers out of Natha n during Honey, If You Love Me be...

I survived! Nathan and Eli didn't kill me!!! The jungle was really fun. On Friday we went white water rafting on a Class 3 river. So much fun. The third rapid was the best. The guide says people usually flip over on that one, but we didn't. We stopped a couple times along the way - once to take a break and once to eat lunch. When we were rafting, in between rapids, we could get out and swim alongside the boat. And towards the end we got to do a rodeo. Meaning we could take turns sitting at the front of the boat while we went through the rapids! That was my favorite part. It was so cool! I don't even know how to describe it. It was totally exhilarating though. Super exciting. Every time I hang out with Nathan and Eli, I manage to get wet. Somehow we always start to have a water fight of some sort. ALWAYS. And I nearly always get super soaked. I can never just get a little water on me. I get soaked. SOAKED. Fun fun. XD We went to the sunrise service this...

Have I mentioned I love it here? Yay for 7th period study hall! It makes my day. Even when I have no clue what anyone is talking about. Today was cool. I went to Caleb's Spanish class as a guest. They were putting on a Spanish cafe. I had to speak in Spanish. That was interesting. I didn't talk much. My Spanish lessons haven't gotten that far yet... And tomorrow we head to the jungle! Thursday to Sunday. Nathan is coming with us so he has a family for Easter. Fun fun. I may be dead or seriously injured by the end of this trip. That many days with Eli and Nathan could be fatal. Hehe. .

Basically it's official. I'm staying here. I love it!!! I love the people!!! I am staying. Saturday was awesome. We went to the cast party for Eli's play. That was fun. The chili and cookies tasted so amazing! The best I have ever eaten. And everyone was so overtired... wearing bowls on their heads... talking with stuffed dogs... laughing hysterically at Pixar's shorts. And stupid things people said. Sunday I went to downtown Quito - the tourist area. Saw some gorgeous churches. I loved the Basilica. So intricately awesome. When I got home (it was just Uncle Earl, me and some other visitors) Nathan was here. That was fun. XD Whipped cream... water... all over... yeah. Today I had my first Spanish lesson. It went pretty well. The teacher is really nice. It was mostly review, but some new stuff as well. Went to the first half of the soccer game, before we had to go shopping for snacks for this weekend. It was such an intense game. 2-0, for the other t...

I have gone to Eli's drama every night so far and let me tell ya... it is amazing every time. I love it. I'm probably going again tonight. Yesterday I went to my first Ecuadorian soccer game! That was fun. Saw some pretty sweet wipe outs and collisions. Like Nathan and a guy from the other team were both going for the ball and neither was backing down and they connected and flew through the air and landed at the same time. It was great. XD After the drama last night Hannah and Nathan came over for a bit and we had ice cream. Oh my. Hannah + Eli = SAVE US!!!!!!!!! Haha, oh man, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. My stomach muscles still hurt. And have I mentioned how many times people have come up to me and said, "Are you the cousin?" or variations of that question? It amuses me. Or when Eli is introducing me to someone: "This is my cousin from Canada-" "I know." A little creepy? I think so... Ok, I don't know how wel...

Okay, so I didn't place much importance on this until Elizabeth told me the real story... (Oh, also to all the people involved in this plot, I feel dumb. But I also think it was really awesome and funny. And to everyone else, I know you'll enjoy this story.) So, I arrive in Ecuador and meet everyone at the airport. Nathan (Elizabeth's boyfriend) clearly had a speech impediment and trouble walking and the like. Elizabeth had never mentioned it before, but Nathan obviously had special needs. He was really sweet, though, and I liked him. We were walking out to the car and some British guy calls out to Uncle Earl, asking for a place to stay for the night and a ride, because he was trying to go to Lima to visit his aunt, but had missed his connecting flight and there wasn't another one until the next morning. So Uncle Earl agreed to take him to HCJB guest housing for the night. The whole way there this British guy talks to us about 'football' and singing and d...

Well, the flight went pretty well. Got through the airport without any hassles. Got to see Uncle Earl, Elizabeth, Zachary and Nathan. :) They brought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Got up far too early this morning - 7:30. Okay, it's not THAT early... Went with Aunt Cathy to the school. Hung out in her room mostly. Got to hold their snake! :) That was cool. Had lunch with Uncle Earl - mmmm, fajitas. Came home and unpacked. Good stuff. I'll get pictures up eventually... some day... perhaps...

So. That was interesting. For starters, as you already know, I didn't know about going to Florida until the day before. Secondly, I didn't know I was staying in an actual dorm (not a hotel room with Aunty and Uncle like I thought) until 10 minutes after arriving! Yeah. I was a guest student for the weekend and slept in a dorm room with my cousin's girl friend and her two room mates. Ryan's girlfriend, Meghan, is so nice. I just love her. She has a great sense of humor and is so easy to talk to and get along with. I love her. :) Pensacola is, um, nice...? Haha, no, it was actually pretty nice there. If you can ignore all the weird rules that seem, no, that ARE, a little overly conservative, it is actually a really get college. There is a Bible Manuscript room with all these old Bibles and such. So incredible. They had the tiniest Bible's EVER, scrolls, a shofar, and other neat things. They had Bibles in a whole bunch of different languages, as well. ...

So, today was more shopping. Mostly stuff for the Ecuador family. We went to a Christian bookstore and I found a lot of books that I will need to read eventually. And then Aunty asked if I remembered when her and Uncle used to buy me dresses, and if I wanted her to buy me one of the dresses I tried on the other day. So went to the mall, and she bought me one of them. :) It is so cute. It reminds me of Alice in Wonderland for some reason. This morning Aunty asks me, "Would you like to go to Florida to see Ryan?" Uh, would I? It was more of a 'Would you like to? Yes? Good, because it's already all planned.' So we're going to Florida for the weekend...

Today was, without question, the best St. Patrick's Day I've ever had. And not only because it's the first time I've ever really celebrated it. We went out for lunch with Cam and his girlfriend. That was fun. She seems pretty nice. Then I went to Alice in Wonderland with them. We were supposed to see it in 3D, but that was just one big fiasco... so I saw it in regular theatre again. I think I liked it better the second time around. And then Uncle, Aunty and I went to a St. Patty's party! Oh, Plank came too. We got all decked out in our St. Patty's apparel. The party was really fun! All the people were really nice and friendly. We did this introduction thing - we all had sheets of paper with a random fact about each person and had to figure out who matched up with what. My clue was that I'm writing a novel. And I have never talked so much to a stranger about anything, particularly that. But one of the men there got me talking and asked me a whole bunch of q...

Helen Parr asks the kids how their day at school went. "Nothing to report," Violet replies. Nothing much happened today. Aunt Shirley and I went shopping. I found a couple bolero-type sweater things. I found these two really cute grey dresses, but seeing as I never wear dresses, except for special events, I chose not to buy them. Even though they were very cute. Like, really, really cute. I got to talk to daddy, mommy and brother on Skype tonight. That was cool. Especially once we got my mic figured out. It was really good getting to talk to and see everybody. I can't believe I leave Texas next Monday. How have I been here for over a week already? Is my time in Ecuador going to fly by just as fast? I know it is. *sigh* So, I'm taking my cousins advice and living in the moment. And I'm taking everyone else's advice and taking tons of pictures.

We went shopping a bit today. We bought great things to dress up in for the St. Patty's Day party on Wednesday. Feather boas. Headbands. Jewelry. Great stuff. Aunty is a lot more enthusiastic about it than I am. Probably part of it is because I've never really celebrated St. Patty's before. I only put on something green to avoid being pinched. After that, we went back to the scrapbooking store. Yes, the same place where the infamous stamping class took place. And lo and behold the class instructor was there. I almost started laughing all over again. Aunty was very impressed that she talked right to me. And slow enough for me to understand everything, although some things were a bit difficult for me to comprehend. I am only 17 after all. I'm still learning. We went out to Aunty and Uncle's property to go fishing! We had a hot dog roast. The whole time we were fishing I would get some nibbles and think I was going to get a fish, but no. Oh, oh! No. Maybe, maybe! No. A...

I had to get up much too early to get ready for Sunday School this morning. I think it's a State's thing, to have adult Sunday School before the church service. After that we went to La Madeleine for breakfast. That's right, it was French. I haven't died yet so far, so I think I'm safe. Then we went to a church service at Christchurch Baptist. Aunty described the church as a mini-Pensacola. So for any of you who know what that means, it paints an interesting picture. It was actually a really good service though - I enjoyed it. A family group sang for us, and holy moley the little girl was amazing! She was only in grade three and had the most beautiful voice. It didn't sound like a child's voice. It was so beautiful. All the people I met were very nice as well. The pastor, Pastor Pope (that just kills me... Pastor Pope), was really cool. I was wearing my angel wings necklace and he asked if I was an angel. For all you LoE-ers, I instantly thought of Pascal. S...

I've seen many interesting signs here so far. One telling people to "Drive Friendly." One telling you to "Buckle Up." And those aren't billboards like we see in Canada. These are actual roadsigns. I've seen a sign for Uncle Bob's storage something-or-other. But my personal favorite has been "Watch for Ice on Bridge". Yes, I will definitely keep an eye out for that. On days like today with 22 degree weather, that ice can come out of nowhere. Today we went to a fruit market, which reminded me of Costa Rica, of course. It was really cool. Then we went to Galveston. I am in love with the buildings there... They were gorgeous! All the pretty ones looked like castles or old mansions. Not old as in tumbledown, but old as in...old... Just really pretty. And I fell in love! There was a ship. I wanted it. Pictures had to suffice. I don't have room for a ship in my suitcases. We also went into an Army Surplus store that daddy and brother would hav...

This could be classified as the most interesting day thusfar on my adventure. I got to go shooting! We went to this place and got to shoot at targets. I used a .22 and a 9 mm. I was so close to a bullseye! Right on the edge of the red circle. I was doing pretty good. And I'm not just saying that, Uncle and Aunty said so, too. I think towards the end I was getting quite a few shots close to the centre. I got to keep the targets I shot at. After that we went to Willie's and I was forced to try crawfish. Considering that I do not really like seafood, I thought crawfish was actually pretty good. I wouldn't give up beef for it or anything, but eating crawfish doesn't kill me like other seafood does. And I really don't mind prying the little suckers apart - that's half the fun. There was a man at Willie's wandering around making balloon animals for everyone. Well, for all the kids and women. He made me a purple dinosaur. Like Dino. So, yeah, that was my day 5. Qui...

Well, day 5 of my big adventure. Clearly, I arrived in Texas safely, as did all my luggage. Thank goodness. So far I haven't had any big adventures, but it's been nice and relaxing. I've finished reading Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict already. What a hilarious book! Laugh out loud fantastic. I've gone on walks with Aunty and the dogs everyday. The weather is so nice. It reached 26-27 degrees yesterday. I've seen lots of interesting wildlife: ducks, turtles and turkey ducks aka the ugliest bird known to man. Aunty says it has a face only a mother could love. And in my opinion that's stretching it. My favorite story of the trip so far: Today Aunty and I went to a stamping class, which was a total bust. The instructor was, um, well, interesting. Part way through the class she comes up to Aunty and says, "Am I going slow enough for her to understand everything?" Aunty says, "Yes." The instructor walks away and Aunty and I l...