Saturday night, & first day of classes

Well, didn´t get to update yesterday because it was Sunday and the Internet place was closed. BTW-Let me just say sorry for any grammatical errors or spelling errors I make. I know it doesn´t generally bother the general public, but it bothers me! I am on a spanish computer and it is a bit different!
Anyways. Saturday night, el seis de enero, is an odd mixture of holidays (in my opinion). Imagine Halloween for adults (think skanky costumes, bad makeup, and scary masks) mixed with the 4th of July (fireworks, a parade, parties, street vendors), mixed with something like Dancing in the District or Knoxville´s big bash downtown. There were a ton of people crunched into about 2 blocks around a park. There were street vendors selling yummy-smelling but weird looking food and the usual trinkets. A stage was set up with a band, either called reggaeton or playing reggaeton, playing music with people dancing. A parade with men on stilts and firebreathers, etc. Oh yeah, and a LOT of cross-dressing!! haha. The guys were kind of funny, because they all put on the catholic school skirts and did their hair in about 20 different little spikes. I didnt actually see anyone asking for alcohol, or selling alcohol, but I am sure it was present....
I spent most of the time in the house, watching the family play cards (Suca´s cousin and sister and her son) and watching them eat. I say watching because I had a bad migraine, so I was not feeling up to participating. We went outside a couple of times to watch the festivities, where I was repeatedly asked by little children to move because they couldn´t see around my tall self :) Haha
Yesterday was again, a whole lot of nothing. I think the only notable thing I did was have a good convo with Suca about shopping and watch a lot of Spanish TV to try and pick up new vocabulary.
TODAY! The first day of classes. I was so excited last night, I couldn´t sleep. Weird, huh? I can usually sleep very easily! We met at 8 this morning and took a written exam to test our level, and I think I am level 6 out of 10? If my understanding is correct. Afterwards, the group of us took a tour around the city center, with the director pointing out all the notable sites and telling us some history. When we went back to the school, we were given our schedules and our groups, and we had a ¨culture class¨which was listening to an older gentleman tell us about the Mongolians coming to the Americas with the wooly mammoth (Mam-MOOTH) and the eventual colonization of South and Central America by the Spanish with Cortez. Interesting, and I understood a decent bit of it, which I supplemented with my previou Latin American culture class (Thank you, Dr. Thomas!)
Then, I had my first REAL class, a one-on-one with a professor named Ruth. For an hour and a half, she drilled me on the different form of the commandments, like ¨pick this up¨in the informal singular, formal singular, informal to a group, and formal to a group.
My brain is fried, and the rest of the day, I will have two classes more than I had today! And everything will be in Spanish! I spoke for a while with a guy from britain named Jamie that is about my age. He is here for 3 weeks, and he knows hardly a lick of Spanish, so it was all in English (I´m bad, I know) I need to stick with Spanish, but it was SO nice to be able to talk in English for a while with someone!
Anyways, tomorrow is another day much like today, and Wednesday, I think starts dance and cooking classes :) Watch out men of the US! I am going to be a Latin terror in the kitchen and on the dance floor! Haha
Thanks for everyone´s encouragement, and if you have ANY helpful tips regarding learning Spanish (I am looking for the ¨por¨song) please give them to me!! Thanks, and love and hugs to all!

What to do with myself??

Oh boy, for the second time today, I have written a novel and had it deleted by this computer! Frustrating. And for the second time today, I will be shortening what i wrote the secodn time around.

Today is my first full day in Cuenca, and I dont know what to do with myself. After sleeping in, I wandered around the house a lot, read a lot, ate lunch, did the dishes, and have now ventured out by myself. I am looking forward to classes starting on Monday to give me something to do, and to help with the language barrier. In addition to language classes, I will also be taking classes in cooking and dancing. Bailé! Haha.

Didn't sleep so well last night. After going to bed at 9:30 (for lack of anything else to do) I tossed and turned until 11 when I fell asleep. Was woken up repeatedly by fireworks, which are apparently very popular here. Despit their apparent appeal, I thought someone was shooting a cannon into my room about 3 am this morning....haha

Tonight should be interesting. Today is Jan. 6, which means it is the day on which they celebrate the Magi bringing gifts to baby jesus. However, to celebrate this, the adults apparently dress up in costumes and go to friends houses asking for liquor....interesante, no? Will write more when I find out what this is all about. Piedad told me we were going somewhere tonight to watch it or something....

Hope everyone at school is enjoying being back, and I hope everyone still at home is enjoying being at home! Love you all, and I miss all your faces! Thanks again for praying for me, and keep it up! -Lauren

Here in Cuenca

I am here in Cuenca, and all went well once I woke up this morning. I slept in a bit, then went downstairs and took a taxi to the airport. There was apparently a bit of confusion about where to drop me off at the airport, because I wasn´t quite at the airport. I went to the office the taxi driver dropped me off at(there are several outside offices around the airport) and he sent me to the carrier I needed across the street, who sent me back across the street to their office, who then sent me into the airport. I had no idea where the airport was, but I followed two guys in uniform who looked like pilots. Lucky me, I found it.

Once in Cuenca, Piedad, the mother, picked me up, and took me around the city just a bit, then back to the house. It is really nice. I have my own bedroom and bathroom. When they said her daughter lives close with her two children, they weren´t joking. You walk out onto the patio and turn left, and there is the door to her daughter´s house. She is nice, and apparently speaks english. Cuenca itself is very beautiful, with a river right along one of the main roads wheer it looks like a lot people hang out.

Anyways, today is a much better day. I am feeling a bit more confident and settled, and looking forward to classes starting on Monday. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and words of encouragement! I love yáll and am so thankful for you!

I`m here.....

Hello friends- Thanks for your prayers. I made both of my flights today, and I have my arrangements for the morning flight to get me to my city. Today went OK with getting on the flights, a few moments of panic at the Knoxville airport when i thought I might not make it on (remember, standby) but I did, and I got bumped to first class on the atlanta-quito flight.

Once I got into Quito though, I realized I put way too much in my one big bag, and it is dang hard to put on by myself! After struggling with that for about 10 minutes, along with my new sweater that is shedding everywhere, I was ready to get out of the airport. Lo and behold, to my surprise, no one was there waiting for me, as I had been told there would be....not good. I caught a taxi to my hotel, which is very nice, and now I am contemplating a bubblebath, bedtime, and a good cry.

It`s stressful being alone and not speaking the language well. I attempted to have a convo with the concierge at the hotel about how I need to learn spanish, and he rattled off something that I didn`t catch a lick of.

Today´s prayers requests: 1) Make it to Cuenca and meet my family and hope that they`re really cool so I can be comfortable. 2) Start relearning spanish!3) That the Lord would give me comfort and strength right now! I know I must rely on him!!

Sorry to sound so down. I am just a little freaked out! But I love and miss everyone, and can't wait to share some stories when I get back!

Gearing up for my trip

As most all of you know, I will be traveling tomorrow (Thursday, January 4) to Ecuador for a month to take classes and learn about the culture and practice my Spanish! I'm pretty sure I'll be able to access the internet once there and at school, so I'm going to write about what's going on with me on here, and on facebook. Feel free to stop in and see what I'm up to!

(This is a picture of Cuenca. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so it should be pretty cool!)

Right now, I'm asking for prayers from y'all! Many of you have asked how to pray for me while I'm gone, so here are a couple of things:

1-Pray for safe travels. I fly Thursday from Knoxville-Atlanta-Quito, Ecuador. On Friday, I get on a flight to Cuenca, Ecuador, where I will be staying for a month. Once there, continue praying for my safety!
2-Pray that I make all the flights I need to (I'm flying standby the whole way) and it could screw things up if I don't make a flight!
3-Pray for a friend for me. I am worried about not having anyone who I can hang out with while there. Preferably, pray for a Christian around my age who doesn't speak English, so I can't cheat with them :)
4-Pray for my health. Two big concerns are altitude sickness (7,000 ft. above sea level) and general stomach concerns, from new water and foods....

Thank you friends, and I will be sure to keep you all posted! Love-Lauren