hace dos semanas lo siento

its been two weeks sorry.

so when i dont write for two weeks i start to forget all the minor happenings that take place during the week so i dont really know where to start. all i can say is that a lot has happened. so lets start off with one major thing i finished FOTR so now im deprived of an awesome adventure through middle earth and everything seems a little more bland. i found that i really wanted to inside the book and take part in the adventure. this is really embarrassing but whatever its not like im going to be seeing you guys face to face anytime soon. ok so i went on a hike through this ecological reserve that belongs to host grandpa and it was like a jungle so i really enjoyed it but anyway thoughts of FOTR kept on coming into my mind and i actually wanted to see if i could walk and make almost no noise... like a hobbit. anyway i miss the book and i want to read the other two which i dont have. but since i havent been reading FOTR i read The Merchant of Venice which is a fantastic story and play i really enjoyed it but then i finished that in like 4 days so now i need to move on to another book. i think ill start miracles by cs lewis . The bottom line with this is that since there arent very many people to speak english with i find comfort in reading in english so im going to need to pace myself or else im gonna be stuck here without a book.

oh and ive made really good friends with the other foreign exchange student from taiwan we spent like a good 6 1/2 hours hanging around a mall. it was pretty cool because we had to order everything in spanish like icecream hamburgers movie tickets it was pretty exhilerating (dont think i spelt that right. i guess it runs in the family ryan) to only be able to speak in spanish with all the food people. we watched inception fortunately it was in english with spanish subtitles so we could still understand. the malls here are absolutely amazing they totally put the galleria and arden to shame. the one we went to had like 5 fountains, a climbing rock wall, rollercoaster, that funny thing where you put these kids in clear ball and put them in water and you can just laugh at them because they hardly stand for 3 sec. and the fall hard. its like watching a hampster wheel but with kids instead. and they have a legit food court. it was a super fun night and when we got into the cab jenny (other foreign exchange student) realized that she forgot her address, so we had to stop by my house wake up my host bro, it was midnight, and have him look it up online and then we went back to the cab i dropped her off and then i went back to my house. i barely had enough money to pay the cab driver i was about 50 cents away from having to make him wait again while i got more money from my room. it was a close one.

the next day i hung out with Mrs.McKeons cousin which was super fun we went to another mall and hung out there and had dinner. she brought her husband Ricardo i believe and her other cousin Orlando and we just hung out at the table doing our best to to communicate because neither of them spoke much english. they asked me what i wanted to be when i grew up and i said i wanted to be a missionary then a pastor... theyre all christians so that was good but they started asking all these questions about my church, why i wanted to be a missionary, questions about denominations, so basically questions that i have no idea how to answer. but i did my best to answer them and i think i did well enough. were gonna meet up again sometime soon theyre all very cool people Ricardo looked like pastor Ramon from vino nuevo it kept on tripping me out. also that friday my host bro got so sick that he couldnt drive so then i didnt need to go to school upon request from my host mom. so that was awesome. i chilled and walked down to our nearest juan valdez where i chilled, read, and drank delicious coffee. on that sunday i went to my host g-pa´s finca as i said before and chilled there all day i did this ridiculous -walk-across-this-skinny-rope-thats-hanging-over-dirty-water-and-try-to-make-it-across- thing and i got wet, first because i weigh a lot so the rope sagged into the water up to my knees, and second because i have horrible balance so i was swaying to and fro if you want the actual visual go onto my facebook and watch the video. we also went on a hike through the jungle to a sick waterfall that we stood in and relaxed. it was amazing i loved it.

so this last week was my first day of water polo practice it was awesome but shoot im out of shape. by the end of practice my arms were shaking. oh and as it turns out here you dont really need to egg beater so all these guys are just jumping their way around the pool and it takes all the fun out of game to be honest. and they dont play rough here i would hold a guys arm and he would get angry with me on my second day of practice i pulled a guy back by pulling on his suit and he told on me to the coach i mean come on really. anyway i guess ill just have to water myself down so i dont get in trouble. but it was great to be in the water again ive already started to get back my speedo tan. oh and thats another thing here they dont wear speedos its either jammers or suits. during the second day of practice i went to go get a drink of water and everyone was staring and smirking at me, but the cool thing about being an exchange student is that i dont have to care what they think so i just continued walking right in front of them. something really cool this week was that we have these cool days called interclases and its basically a full day dedicated to having sport competitions between the other 3 classes in our grade. and you dont even need to participate so you could just be a lazy bum all day and do nothing. this was my original plan because i am a lazy bum but then i realized if im going to be here for a year might as well participate in school so i played volleyball. at first i was worried about my knee but then i starting hitting a ball around with some other people and it didnt hurt so i was super excited. it was our turn to play so i went out onto the court and we start to play its been a good three years since i actually played a game so i was a little rusty to start but as soon as i got into a rhythm i was rocking those tenth graders. we ended up winning too so that was great and the best news was that my knee didnt bother me in the least so thank you physical therapy for the hell that you put me through two times a week it really helped. oh and i changed buses which was a surprise for me but this bus is primarily older kids so thats cool in which my other bus was all elementary school kids. i wont have any long debates on justin beiber or how many seasons of avatar last airbender there are but thats not necessarily a bad change. and this bus is much more comfortable because it has head rests. it doesnt sound like a big deal but i assure you when youre trying to sleep and you dont have a head rest and you hit a pothole (which are everywhere here) and you smack your head on those two little plastic circles where the head rest is suppose to be, a head rest makes all the difference.

so today i wake up and i have to have a physical for my insurance policy deal so i cant drink water i cant eat and i cant go pee... what a horrible way to start the day. anyway we get the physical started and he´s asking me all these questions which surprisingly i could answer and then he starts to take my blood pressure and my weight and height. and then he starts to leave i was confused because i was supposed to be taking a urine test and blood test as well. but as it turns out i dont because the only reason why i needed to take them was because he read my weight from a report a long time ago with my height info so he thought i was fat, but then he saw that im just a big dude so he called it off. good and bad came out of this good: im not a fat guy who needs a blood and urine test; bad: i didnt drink water, go pee or eat all for nothing... i hate physicals. also today while i was writing this blog my mom comes up the stairs and then calls me and signals me cutting my hair... ok cool lets go. so we go to this hair place and after waiting a while the guy calls me up so i start to head over to the seat. and then he starts to ask me what i want i immediately turn to my mom with a face of both panic and amusement. panic because i have no idea what he´s saying amusement because i already told my mom that i didnt care about my hair so the guy could do whatever he wanted. then the guy and my mom started talking i caught the words Juanes (rockstar here) and moderna and then the guy turned back to me and started saying stuff so i just said si and nodded and let the guy work. i figured if im gonna live here might as well look like i live here, and this guy could make that happen. his first order of business was to thin out my hair cuz i have a mop for a head, then he grabs a buzzer and then angles out my sideburns, at this i had to try my hardest not to laugh. and then he just starts to clip wildly at my hair. then he grabs a lot of gel and spikes up the back of my head and the back of the top of my head leaving the front flat... and then my mom said moderna. she then proceeded to call me a papacito (translated-hot stuff) and we left my maid said that i look like teenager for once (good? bad?) and my fam likes it so i guess its fine ill need a couple days to get used to it but it really doesnt look that bad and im sure i can make it my own i dont think ill spike up the back though. and ya i just got back from youth group so that was fun i feel like a punk because they translate for me but they say they like it so they can increase their vocab im looking forward to the day when i wont need one.

so yup thats about it. until later