The Weekend!

The weekend was very fun. I was nervous about being away from the group for so long, but it turned out to be just fine. On Saturday my host student, her parents and I piled in the car and we drove through the mountains and even saw some waterfalls. We spent pretty much the whole day driving and we got to hang out at a resort place to swim and eat dinner. On Sunday we went to church first. My host student's father is in construction, and so he and an Australian missionary helped build the church that we went to. I got to speak English to the Australian man and his wife! It was nice. The man even let my text home on his cell phone. After church we went to lunch at a family member's house, and then we visitied Vilcabamba for awhile. There's a neighborhood there where people from Hollywood vacation, so we drove around and looked at the houses (and horses!). We then went back to the house where we had lunch and had a snack and played cards. They taught me a few new games (Spoons, for example, and a game where we made animal sounds). It was hilarious and I had a great time. That was my weekend! I didn't get to see any CA students, but it was fine because I was having fun.
-Rachel McNeill

Que pasa chicos! so, pretty this weekend was awesomeness in a bottle. It all started off with a late start to Saturday. After a night of relaxation and rest, I awoke at 10 to get ready for Jose's sister, Odalis', first comunion. The church and service were beautiful. After meeting some of his extended familly, we walked around the city for a while, looking for a place to eat. We decided on 200 Leguas de Mar, a famous seafood establishment in downtown Loja. I strongly recommend the seafood with rice. After our enourmous meal, I went to one of Jose's friends houses to chill with his amigos. A couple of the exchange students were also there, and we all went to a park to play their version of American Football, which is quite different from our version. After serveral minutes of being puzzled, I quickly discovered that a more apt name for this game is rugby. After another night of rest, Jose woke me up so that we could go to a pool in Vilcabamba. Though we stopped in the middle of no where, we made our way to one of the nicest pools I have ever been to. After a hamburger and some fries, I made the terrible decision to jump into the freezing pool. It must have been close to absolute zero in there! After chilling at the pool for a while, a couple of the exchange students and I were lead into the center of Vilcabamba, where we walked around the town center a little. After finding our way back to Loja, Jose treated me to pizza.

-Kenji Jameel