so as you all can see i have changed the background of my blog. why? you ask, well i have received quite a few requests to have it done so, i guess white on black after reading a novel of a blog is hard on the eyes. anyway lets get on with it shall we, so i am now goin into the home stretch of my trip ill be changing families on saturday and then i will have roughly 3 months left. its really kind of odd to think that ive passed almost 7 months outside of the US its now starting to hit all of us exchange students that were gonna need to jump back into reality soon and not gonna lie were not really looking forward to it. think about it, if you were chillin in a foreign country just to chill, no obligations (except highschool over again,) no job but still being paid 70 a month, able to travel the country, learn a language and a culture stress free, would you want to return. we do want to return to families and friends, but to the universities, jobs, and chores (for those of us still living at home) heck no. but hey, youre not truly adventurous until you can apply exciting adventures to the mundane everyday life, so thats gonna be my next challenge.
i should now talk about all the stuff ive been up to for the past month. well ive gotten involved in some salsa and bachata dance classes with the other foreign exchange students in my city and i absolutely love it, dancing is super fun and its really pushing me to have confidence in myself. cuz when youre dancing you need to lead (if youre the dude) and if you cant trust yourself to execute the turn or to move across the dance floor youre goin to look foolish and sloppy and lost. and ive been thinking about this a lot actually, that ive never had that kind of confidence in myself in my everyday actions i love to follow people im good at following directions, not the best at giving them, ive always been timid in the chance that i might be doin something that another wouldnt appreciate, so i would do nothing. But since ive been in this class the teacher, who is super cool, has been teaching me how to handle the girl, how to hold her tight and lead her through the turns, the turns that i want to do and have to initiate. so i cant pause and think if my partner wants to do this turn or not, no, shes going to do this turn and its up to me to guide her though it. it has been a super cool experience learning all of that and this last thursday i had a great day in the class because it was just me and my friend monika that night so we were just dancing and dancing and dancing, and i finally started to let go of this idea of what she would want and just started ¨to do¨ and in a dance the girl wants to be lead she wants to be shown where to go by someone who has confidence in their actions, and im gonna guess that thats how it is in a relationship as well. no girl wants man who cant choose, and doesnt have confidence in himself and where the relationship is going. of course a relationship isnt a man tyranting over the woman but neither is the dance, a nod of the head, a lock of the eyes, a push or pull of the hand, a whisper in the ear are the communications between the two, so the girl isnt lost and being swung out of control. so ya thats what ive learned from dance class. and just a funny story now, my dance teacher took monika and me to a dance club/bar where there were just a bunch of old people dancing these fantastic dances, i was just mesmerized (thats not how you spell it is it) by the fluidity and grace of these viejitos. and every once in a while monika and i would dance and it was fun and all the old people sitting would be staring at us cuz we were the youngest ones in there at least by 25 years, and some other people danced with me, one of the people how worked at this place, my teacher of course and my teachers friend, and were gonna focus on my dance with my teachers friend. first off hes gay... yes. we were all just sitting at the table i had my ginger ale and some trail mix just snacking away when this man, really tall, kinda old, wearing a very tight red shirt and very tight pants grabs my hand and takes me to the dance floor. i had no idea what to do, so i went along with it. i was always used to leading so i held my right hand up, but he just shook his head and grabbed my left hand and pulled me close. at this point i think i had a face of panic because my teacher was shouting at him through her laughs to stop dancing with me, but he continued on for a bit longer putting his head close to mine as we swayed back and forth but then he finally let me go and i just kinda looked at him with a nervous laugh and then he let out a belly laugh and we went to the table, everybody was laughing and then i realized that he was just a funny gay man. he did wink at me a couple times through the night though.
lets see what else.... i had a bad experience with a river. two other guys and i got in an intertube to float down this river so i was pretty excited. our adventure started in us trying to situate our weight evenly on this tube which was difficult and we fell more than a couple times but we got on finally and embarked down the river. we realize that we were vearing to the left a bit to much so we tried to paddle to the right, but of course it didnt work and then my friend yelled out HIJUE PUTA which is kinda like son of a b&%$# (i censor myself in english but not in spanish) and then he bailed i had no idea what was goin on so i stayed on the tube... bad idea. we were heading for this bamboo branch thing, but it wasnt bamboo as i found out a couple seconds later. it was something like bamboo but it has 3 inch thorns on it so i was pretty scratched up after that, but the tube was fine. so we all mount up again and we had a choice to see what was further down the river or we could walk back up and do it again, so we continued on... another bad idea. we were goin down no bamboo thorns this time but we did hit some small rapids which were fun and when we finally stopped ourselves we realized that we were kinda far away and we needed to walk against the current with this giant tube... barefoot. one might ask why didnt we just walk on land? there was about a 7 ft cliff on both sides. another one might ask whats wrong with being barefoot? rocks. lots of rocks. big rocks small rocks smooth rocks pointy rocks ( i want to read dr seuss now) but the majority of the rocks was the big pointy ones. not very feet friendly. so we go despite the feet pain trying to find the best way to lugg this giboondous tube with us. after much pain and about 10 meters we finally find sand which was like fresh rain on wilted lettuce ( stole that from jrr tolkein) it was great, what was great too was that there was a trail heading up the cliff, so after a couple minutes rest i told the other dudes that i would check it out so i start up the trail and about my third step in i let out a scream. i lift up my foot and i find a thorn about a centimeter long lodged in it. crap. ok so i went on i yell again. thorn again. and then another, and then another. crap. so i stopped walking the trail went on a bit more and then it turned so i lost sight of it. i then turn around to tell the others that this might work and when i lift my arm there are 3 gigantic mosquitos lined up on my forearm so i kill them one hit since there were so close but then i see 2 more on my other arm and then i feel them on my back and then on my legs. crap. so i run back down the trail of course finding some more thorny friends along the way and i jump into the river. i told the other guys that there was a trail but a lot of thorns and mosquitos they said well try it, because we were so exhausted from those ten meters and now the water was even faster, so we all head up the trail of doom and were goin along making plenty of friends with the thorns and mosquitos when the trail stops. crap. so one friend says that he´ll go into the water and we´ll roll the tube over the edge and he can catch it. so he went and me and the other dude stayed but with each passing second the other dude is getting more and more ansy and then he finally lets out a scream saying damn mosquitos and takes off running, i too then realize that i was being eaten so i start to walk back when sudennly ¨PSSSSSSSSSSS¨ oh yes the tube popped. now the bugs are all over me so i throw the tube over the edge and run to the water. after soaking in the water and a couple good scratches we think of a new strategy, daniel (other dude) and i will float down and hopefully find another way out while cristian (other dude) stays and yells for help. so we start to float down and then we come to a fork in the river one to the left and the other to the right more towards where the cars are, so i stop myself but daniel keeps goin on unable to stand, when he finally gets his footing hes about 20 feet away from me and unable to move. he gives all he has arms and everything and he gained like 5 feet, so i start to look for a way to help when i find a bamboo pole (thornless) pretty well attached to some underwater roots and debris so i grab it and start walk out holding on to it to help fight the current when i felt it break lose and then i go into survival mode and start to swim as hard as a could and then daniel grabbed my hand so i got my footing but then he lost his so he fell back and as soon as he got his footing i fell back. but then we stand up and were up to our upper thighs in this stream. i feel like this story is getting very long so im sorry im gonna speed it up. so after many tiring attempts i finally arrived at another bamboo tree this time it was actually living above ground so it was strong i grabbed daniel and we swung ourselves to the shore where we were able to climb out just in time to see the sun decending behind some giant puffy clouds and behind the mountains, we called to cristian and then we hiked through farmland over and under electric and barbed wire fences all the while being eaten by mosquitos. when we finally got to the car i was pissed, swelling up and itchy. no good. but it was an adventure.
so i just got back from a trip to a colonial city where all was white plaster and wooden windows it was super cool to see and it was also my first experience in a hostal which was cool. we went to this little town about 45 min out where there is still an indiginous population but the funny part is that this isnt like the leather loin cloth animal skin hats or anything like that stereotypical northern american indian, these indians live in the mountains in a rainy climate, so heres their attire: leather sneakers, long socks, purple skirt with pink trimming (for dudes too), shirt, dark pancho, and a small fidora looking hat held down with an elastic band, and most importantly and funniest part they all ride motorcycles. i guess there was a time they rode horses but they exchanged it for an iron one. it was a super cool little trip just the weekend but it was fun.
im sure some cooler things have happened during this past month but i cant recall them at the moment, but im positive that a story will pop up sometime when im back home. well yup until later.
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