more carnaval pictures

gettting ready for action
making sure he can't get away
we got him!
all in good fun

crazy carnaval

as beth and i returned from quito on the last day of carnaval, we thought we had escaped the dreaded egg-smashing, flour tossing, water drenching carnaval activities. i mean, hey, we had the carnaval-free streets mapped out to a T. we were carnaval-avoider experts! so, that night, we went to a local hamburger joint with lindy and were happily enjoying our hamburguesas and watching some crazy guys drenching people with water and flour on the nearby corner. we noticed a guy we knew and were telling him not to get us because we were eating. we thought food would keep us clean, but we were badly mistaken. the guy returned with handful of flour and put them in our hair. it was on. so, we all decided to get him back. we went to the local store to buy some eggs to smash on him. however, he was on a bike..so it was more difficult. as we were walking back to our houses to load up on eggs, flour, and shaving cream, i saw him with 2 eggs....and the next thing i knew they were smashed in my hair. notice the picture below.
so...it was on. once you are dirty, you are in...because now it doesent matter how many eggs get smashed on you. i loaded my purse with 6 eggs, a whole bag of flour, and a bottle of shaving cream. beth and lindy were loaded with flour and eggs as well. we walked and searched the streets for marlone (the flour sprinkling, egg smashing guy) but we didnt find him! but now, we were loaded and we werent going home until we got someone. so we roamed the dark streets looking for our victim :) we didnt find anyone yet...until we saw some young boys with huge buckets filled with water...but since i was loaded i wanted to get them...so i faced them with my flour and eggs....and they drenched me with 2 buckets of water...and my egg that i threw against one of their backs did not break. (egg smashing tip: you have to do it against their head for it to break) so...we were still on a mission! we met up with rachel and ivan..who both did not want to get destroyed by our ammunition. but now ivan could help us...since he is friends with the guys we wanted to get. we went to marlone's house and hid on the side of his house. ivan called him out to "talk" while we were waiting with eggs, flour, and cream. the plan worked! we ran out and i held him down while we COVERED him with eggs smashed in his hair, flour all over his clothes and head...topped off with some shaving cream. the best part of this sabatoge was that he had JUST TAKEN A SHOWER!!! so he was all clean...not anymore!! thats what you get when you mess with gringas :)

now, we had to get Pato...our other friend who is always joking around with us and goes to our wed. night bible study. so we went back to our house to load up and ivan called pato to ask him to come over and watch a movie and eat some desserts. he said he needed to take a shower and he would be over in 15 minutes. perfect! enough time for us to devise a plan. we decided that rachel would meet him at the gate, like she normally would...and we would hide along the sidewalk behind the trees. when he walked up, we would attack. i would hold him down and we would get him really good. so...we waited and waited. ivan was kinda nervous because he was tricking ivan for us :)

he finally arrived...and now was our chance. we jumped out...it was perfect. he had just showered and gotten all cleaned up....but he was a good sport about the whole thing. he said we did the best job at getting him (which is all i cared about ...if we were going to do it...we had to be the best :))
we got the other guy better, but we still got pato pretty good. beth has some action shots i can add later...but these pictures still give you a good effect. enjoy!

the new bug killer

last night as i was making the necessary preparations for bed, i saw 2 cochroaches who were asking for trouble. i knew they had been in my bathroom because i had seen them the week before, and they escaped too quickly for me to get them. so now was my chance...excpet i knew that i was out of bug spray....so, i looked frantically around to see what i had close--hair spray! so, i sprayed them until their deaths...it worked well too! hairspray does wonders...but thats kind of scary that i put something that kills into my hair....hm....maybe ill just use it for an unwanted bug killer for now on.

quito getaway...

with canaval in full effect, monday and tuesday free from school, mixed with a great need to getaway from shell, beth and i took the bus to quito on friday afternoon. waiting for the bus in shell was an adventure. i dont know how we didnt get clobbered with water balloons, sprayed with foam, or have a bucket of water dumped on our heads...but we didnt! we just walked away with a small spray of water..from an old man! for some reason, we made the young high schoolers feel sorry for us. they said we were "tourists" so not to get us wet...and at that moment, we were glad that we were considered "tourists" because normally, we would see it as an insult...since we LIVE here :) we like to be set apart from the normal "tourist" :)

we were kind of nervous what kind of carnaval action we would find in quito...but were happy to find that we saw nothing! we were able to walk without fear :)

on saturday, we discovered a free university soccer game that we could attend, which we thought would be fun to experience...so we watched a half of the game. it was crazy. a lot like a high school football game with a lot of school spirit...execpt they sell beer there. there was a huge cheering section with a small band and all! it was exciting.
at the game


band shot


crowd shot

after the game, we got some beautiful $8.00 haircuts...shampoo, style, and all! i will miss some things about ecuador! then, we went back to relax...to find Gilmore girls was on tv..and i was a new episode! that was great...after that, we hit up a local mall and movie theater. we got tickets for Babel, and went to a fondue restaurant..one of Beth's favorite types of food. i have never been to one like it, but have always been curious. so, we tried it and got a combo where you could try every kind of fondue. we had a 5 course meal. bread, bread with cheese fondue, an ecuadorian inspired salad, various meats and fresh veggies with chicken broth to cook them, and fruit with chocolate, and an espresso for me :) after about 2.5 hours of slow and fun eating, we saw babel...which is an interesting movie...it was in like 4 languages, english being on of them..but when the other languages like japanese were being spoken, the subtitles were in spanish. we got the jist of the movie, but i would like to see it again to get all of it. it was a great day!


ok. so, the trip was going so great....and i was wondering, when could this trip get any better? well, i realized it the next day when i realized something i ate the previous day did not agree so much with my stomach...because i was paying for it ALL DAY! it was miserable, except when i was sleeping all day. i literally slept for 12 hours. beth can attest to it. i felt really bad because we were on our break...but being sick at our nice hotel with room service and TV didnt make it so bad for beth. and i had a comfy bed to sleep in :)

the trip was great. we had an uneventful bus ride back, besides seeing a car flipped upside down. we made it back to shell, anticipating our drenching walking back to our houses. but, being such natives, we knew the back roads to take..and we stayed dry! i couldnt believe it! i mean, i was ready! camera in a ziplock and all! we knew the compound where we live could potentially have danger awaiting though. and we were right! just then, some girls ran up to beth with a bucket filled with water asking to drench her, expect she had a good excuse since she had her camera and all....they asked her to come back out though so they could get her. well, they should have known better :)

we might pay for that later though.

picture gallery

wednesday night bible study
this is the group that meets each wednesday....this is an older picture, but i like it. it is great because each wednesday, the group keeps getting bigger and bigger! it might be a problem when we run out of chairs at beth's place...but that wouldnt be a bad thing.

coadi
this is a new pet of one of my student's families. it is an animal from the jungle...i think it is a relative of the racoon. it has sharp nails and likes to climb. it is very interesting! only in ecuador would you have a pet like this :)









shadows
our class just finished studying light and shadows...and i thought this would be a fun class picture.


















sunday night singles/jovenes(young people) gathering
each sunday night, all of us people here..usually singles, get together for a meal and sometimes a game on sunday nights. it was a tradition that was started last year, and is continuing on this year! i love it! it is a great way to meet all the short-term people who come in and out all the time...and a good excuse to cook some fun types of food!