Hola!

Written by: Kiley

I'm glad Maria has been keeping you all entertained on our blog because I definitely have beenfailing to do so. Honestly, I think it is because I don't feel like I am traveling in Cuenca, therefore I forget that people might want to know what I am doing even in my home away from home.

It has been so wonderful to be able to spend time with my friends from here. Some days it feels like there aren't enough hours in a day to see everyone that I want to spend time with. This week I'm going to try to be better about going up to Tania's house (Friend that just had the baby) because being down in the center is just so convenient to spend time with everyone else without having to travel by bus.

Usually every afternoon I go have lunch with my friend Sandrita and new friend Blanca. Blanca also now works with Sandrita at CEDEI, so when 1:00 p.m. roles around there's a little party on Calle Larga (Long St.). Maria has been helping teach English at a school so she has not been attending these wonderful dining events. Maybe this week though, as she told me tonight that she probably won't be going anymore.

I have been spending a lot of time writing and reading while here in Cuenca. My friend Prisi and I are doing a daily writing assignments where she writes in English and I write in Spanish. We then swap notebooks and correct each other's errors. Every day we write about a different topic of life. Yesterday's theme was, "What is love? Not who, but what?" Last night I spent the night at her house and it was so beautiful to realize that we were still talking in bed at 4:00 a.m., in Spanish, about life, while I'm now living in Ecuador. Sometimes I forget that I'm speaking in Spanish all the time here. So refreshing and challenging at the same time.

After Prisi dropped me off at the hostel my friend Soledad (Where Maria and I stayed our first week in Cuenca) came over and we made Ceviche for lunch. It's a typical dish here that is made with blended tomato juice with onions (mine without onions), lime, some greens, and our choice of meat was shrimp. This afternoon I then went to the movies with my friend Kler (Claire). Maria opted not to go since we had no idea what any of the movies were. We ended up watching a horrible French movie that was all French with Spanish subtitles. We survived it by making jokes about how horrible it was. Long story short- vampire girl, outcast boy, killer father, ...vampire girl kills the bullies that pick on outcast boy. Most of the movie we spent throwing popcorn at each other and trying to ignore the guy two seats down from me that kept staring at us like a piece of meat, with no shame.

Tomorrow I plan to go up to Tania's. Tuesday we will go with a friend Silvana to a few neighboring towns to help her with some research she is doing for her thesis. Wednesday night I'm going to the Cuenca soccer game with Kler; I'm guessing Maria will join too. Thursday afternoons are with Prisi, and who knows about Friday. Time flies when you're having fun, right?

Hope you all are well.
Kiley