June 5th Blog

Hello to whom it may or may not concern.

We are writing to you from the depths of the Ecuadorian jungle called Loja. Yesterday, we went to a place called el Cisne. There wasn´t much in Cisne except a ginormous church and llama. Then we went to aguamania, a water park, where we had some delicious lunch. We had a lot of fun going down the slides in different position together. Then we all went home to our respective families and spent the night at home with our hosts and packed our bags for the journey soon approaching...on Saturday.

Forever yours,
James and Alex

June 4th Blog

Wednesday, June 4th:
Today the Cary Academy students started off the day by seeing the Ecuadorian education first hand. We stayed with our respective students for their first two periods. Each student got to see what it was like inside an Ecuadorian classroom. “Unfortunately, it was hard to see what a classroom would normally be like as all the students huddled around the Americans like wolves waiting to pounce on the loan sheep” said James Bennett. The students at Colegio Iberoamericano seemed very interested in talking the Americans.
Next we left the school to see a festival in downtown Loja. The inti-raimy festival is an annual festival “celebrating the gifts that mother earth gives us to survive”. We were able to shop at last as we sifted through many tents of handicrafts. There were lots of jewellery and key chains and other souvenir things. The students (girls especially!) really appreciated all the time to shop. Later we all treated ourselves to ice cream and went back to school.
Once back at school, we went back to our students´ classes. A lot of the students got to go to the English class at Colegio Iberoamericano; and found it to be a lot of fun. The Ecuadorian students would ask the Americans to use English and read to them. But because it was the end of the day, most of the Ecuadorians were anxious to get out of school. After school, many of us were going to see the new Indiana Jones movie, but for some reason that fell through and we ended up going to a party, after which we all went back to our exchange hosts´ families. Tomorrow we all look forward to visiting Aguamania, a water park. We’ll post another update then!

NOTE: The internet has been quite slow and non-functioning at times. Today (Thursday) the internet is better and hopefully many parents should receive e-mails from their students. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Todays blog was written by Nick and Erin.

June 3rd blog

Hi, Katja and Lauren here. Today, Tuesday, we had quite the adventure to a small town called Vilcabamba. We left around 8:30 for the hour long drive through the mountains. Many of us slept, listened to ipods, and talked on the way there. Most of us were excited for the horse back riding trip in store for us; however, many were extremely nervous. When we arrived in Vilcabamba, we set out on the horses right away. We were matched to certain horses depending on our skill and experience level. Still, not every owner was able to control their horse. During the scenic ride with gorgeous views of the mountains, many riders experienced a few problems. Ritu´s saddle fell off almost immediately, throwing her into barbed wire…Ritu is fine. Lauren´s horse moved at a glacial pace (and enjoyed pooping all over it´s legs multiple times), while Katja´s didn´t move at all. Aneesh fell off his horse… twice. Nonetheless, many riders galloped along joyfully to the River of Longevity. Here, we were able to wash our face three times which, according to local legend, gives you back fifteen years. Apparently, this is why villagers who live here live to be over 100 years old. After our break, we finished our trek back to the square, where we dismounted our horses and stretched our legs. We boarded the bus again, some of us thankful to be off of an animal and in a vehicle, and headed to the farm/mountain house of the principle of Colegio Iberoamericano family. Here, we enjoyed a delicious meal with an amazing dessert, and followed it with a nice swim in the pool. We all enjoyed the view of the mountains surrounding us. After a long relaxing time spent socializing in English (a special treat for many of us), we boarded the bus once again to head back to the city. We arrived around 6 o´clock in the evening, and joined our exchange students once again. The Ecuadorian students hosted a party for us, so we were able to be with both our American and Ecuadorian friends. When the night finally wound down, we all returned home to sleep after another full and exciting day, dreading the early wakeup needed to accompany our host students to school the next day.

June 2nd Blog

Aneesh scores!!!


Jeffie and Alex's studious look!

Lauren and the governor (Gene Simmons?)

Too Cute!!!

Alex Rosenthal and I (Jeffie) are currently typing in a really stagnant keyboard with Spanish intentions in the Colegio Iberoamericano. So, here goes:
Today, we were fortunate enough to wake up at 5:30 in the morning, seeing as the school starts an hour earlier. Not the best morning in the world. But, school here also ends an hour earlier, so I guess we´re even. Ha! Alex was sick with dysentery (he ate bad fish) and I had an excellent breakfast consisting of steamed mole (corn) covered in eggs and cheese. So, basically, I won the breakfast competition against Alex. We drove to school at 7:00, and reunited with all of the dashing North Carolinians for the first time since we left Quito. Many had visited a nearby city called Cuenca over the weekend (like me). Alex was MIA during the weekend due to the horrible symptoms of his belly.
We congregated in a room that was conveniently situated next to the computer lab; therefore, all of us hopped on the internet. We e-mailed our parents/fed our facebook addiction (Alex and I both say: Hi Mommy!). Anyways, after that, the Colegio Iberoamericano gave us a welcoming ceremony by playing their catchy Ecuador National Anthem and the school anthem (which had a little Latin swing). Dr. Samaniego gave us an oration of sorts where he spoke to the entire school (all of 100 students) and our exchange group. The students are all required to wear a uniform. The girls wear skirts, Alex Rosenthal-style high socks, a button-down shirt, and a yellow tie with the school´s insignia. The only difference with the guys is that they wear slacks instead of skirts. Dr. Samaniego and Mr. Berger share surprising similarities in their method of delivery: long pauses, random emphasis on words, and exaggeratingly drawn-out sentences. For the record: Alex DID NOT fall asleep during Mr. Berger´s graduation speech. Needless to say, all of us exchange students were horribly fidgety in the biting cold drizzle.
After that, we took a bus ride to a small elementary school, Zhucos Primeria, on the top of a mountain. Cary Academy brought every child a highliter orange/neon green back pack filled with school supplies. Some children attending Zhucos Primeria must walk up to two hours from the homes to the school. The majority of the families are living in poverty. The students were very gracious to have us there, and the kindergarteners sang and gave us cake. The children then performed a traditional Ecuadorian dance on a basketball court. They were cuter than the March of the Penguins, and they didn´t even need Morgan Freeman narrating.
After we were torn from the children, we toured downtown Loja and met the governor, who looked like Gene Simmons of KISS. He told our exchange group that if we so desired, a police escort would be provided. But, we would honestly never need a police escort, even the security guard of the school has a shotgun, not to mention the armed soldiers on every corner and every store.
A soccer game was organized at night. We won´t go into much detail because we lost 12-2, even after they gave us one of their guys. But we will say this: whatever you have to say about Mr. Alvelo, the man can play soccer. Mr. Berger wasn´t too shabby either. Even Aneesh scored.


Shout outs:
Hey mom! Give a hug to dad! And Obi-Wan! And a firm salute to H. (Alex Rosenthal)
Hi dad! Hi mom! Hi Murphy! I miss Chinese food. (Jeffie Chang)

May 29th blog

Today is a travel day, as we leave the beautiful city of Quito and head to Loja.
Once there, we will be met by our host families and begin our second phase of our Ecuador exchange. We will be living with our host families for the weekend and experiencing authentic Ecuadorian culture and lifestyle. Thus, the next blog will be Monday, June 2nd as we begin our activites with the students and faculty at the Colegio Iberoameicano in Loja.
In the meantime, here are some more pics from over the past few days.
Have a nice weekend!!!

May 29th blog

Today started out bright and not so awake at 5:30 A.M, all of us waiting to get on a bus at 6:30 A.M for a three hour trip to the town of Ibarra. Breakfast consisted of fruit and other various foods, coffee, hot chocolate, coffee, fruit juices, coffee… From Ibarra we took a “train”, meaning a trolley cart being pulled by what looked like half of a truck… into the mountains for some beautiful scenery of the crevices to tunnels to some really tall bridges, which the conductor felt necessary to stop in the middle of them (this is a problem for people with a fear of heights…). Anyways, after a long and very scenic trip through the mountains, we arrived at an African American – Ecuadorian town, where we were greeted by some young kids playing their style of music. The guides to this town were part of a social project, and we ate a delicious lunch of soup, a main course and a delicious papaya dessert at their restaurant. After filling our bellies with some very cultural dishes, we stopped at another town to visit their crafts market, where some of us bargained for better prices, and others just paid full price. After our fill of bargaining and looking even more like tourists with our hats and colorful scarves, and jade knives, we got back on the bus for two more hours of driving. Back at the hotel at six, we had some free time to go eat and then we met back at the hotel for some pool fun. Overall, it was a great day, and all of us are looking forward to sleeping in, seeing as we all got about two hours of sleep last night… (it made for very interesting breakfast conversations and bus rides...). Tomorrow we head off of Loja for some more fun. Yay!

Padres, cuidansen mucho. Los amamos.
For those of you who don’t speak Spanish, that means: parents (wow, how formal..) take care and we love you…

-- Christine (and Aneesh.. who sat here…)

P.S. Aneesh ate his veggies! (and he wrote this part!)

May 28th Blog

The group had a fun day today! We got on the bus at 830 am and began our tour of Quito. First, we went to La Basilica Vato Nacional, which had a beautiful gothic exterior. From there we traveled to La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús. We weren´t allowed to take any pictures inside there because of its gold leafing. The church was made and designed by Jesuits. Then we went to the Franciscan monastery. It was being remodeled. Then we went to see the Winged Virgin statue on top of El Panacillo. After returning to the hotel, we explored Quito on foot, in groups. We got lunch and some people went to the mall. Then we went to dinner at a very nice restaurant before returning to the hotel once again and now we´re writing this blog at 11.

--Emily Bissett and Brandon Wilson