Per your request Dad

To begin....thank goodness that crazy woman alaska didnt come one heart attack away from being our next president...

Now that I´ve alienated all my republican friends...

Life here in Machala continues to be good. My family is still awesome, I´m still employed, and I just got back from my first Ecuadorian wedding, which was a blast. But let me start a few weeks back, because there are some things I wanted to write before I forget them.

People have been asking me if I´ve gone out here in Machala yet...and while I have (halloween I went to a discotec with my students.....), I´ve only been out a few times, because my weekends here have been incredibly busy, and I´ve already travelled a decent amount. Even the weekends during which I am here have been busy. For example, last month was Lizette´s birthday (that´s my eldest host sister if you haven´t memorized my Ecuadorian family tree yet). So we had a party here at the house. Apart from being really well organized, this party was also a lot of fun. It started out a little awkward, because there were two groups, Lizette´s work friends (very professional), and then family friends from high school and stuff like that (not so professional), but once the beer and mint liquor began to flow, it got pretty loose in a hurry. We danced for a quick minute....a very long quick minute....and then one of the guys pulled out his guitar, and we spent literally over an hour and a half listening and/or singing to Ecuadorian songs. After three or four songs, the guy would start to play an American song and look over at me...as if to say, yeah buddy, I know about your culture.... After a while people started to chant for me to start singing, but the problem was that as I listen to music first and words second, I didn´t know most of the words to the songs he was playing. Finally...at about 4 in the morning, I sang Radiohead´s "Creep" to a crowd of about 25 people...which was interesting to say the least... A few of us then stayed up talking and tomando-ing until the sun rose...

This party also turned me on to what are the best hot dogs I´ve ever had in my life...I´m not kidding, they are absolutely amazing down here...and definitely rival mexidogs from Cookout...which, for anyone who knows me, is a HUGE thing for me to say. The hot dogs here are served with ketchup, mustard, mayo, potato chips crumbled on top, and the best thing in the world, onion sauce, which is sweet and delectable. Really...they´re amazing.

Other weekends I´ve been to Guayaquil, as I´ve related, Jambeli (the beach island only a 20 minute boat ride away...if anyone comes to visit we are staying at least a night there, it´s awesome), Cuenca (for their independence day parties, where we went to a parade, saw Correa in person, and also had an almost 2 hour long discussion over sexism and racism (with other volunteers, not with Correa), a hydro-electric plant and my second of the three petrified forests in the world (on a field trip with Arlene), as well as this wedding in Zaruma, two hours away and a candidate for the Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad...

Zaruma is a pretty sweet city. It´s an old mining town, my family told me multiple times how it was my people who came down to their country and took their riches from them. We actually got to go to the mine and tour it, going way down underground. Since my family is so short, they took much pleasure out of me smacking my head into the rock ceiling multiple times....it´s a really good thing I had my hard hat on...

The wedding itself was awesome. I was a little apprehensive, considering they dance at weddings, but this was the first time in a long long long time that I´ve had fun dancing, and I´ve finally begun to learn how to move without looking like I´m made of plastic. Good thing, because they played Rihanna´s "Please don´t stop the music", the only gringo song they played, and everyone pushed me onto the dance floor because it was "my music". So, for the Lazo extended family and the friends of their newly wed cousin, their image of Americans dancing to hip hop/rap is of a white kid with ties to Norway who is gangly, tall, and until 2 hours before that moment, rigidly inflexible when it comes to the hip region. The food was absolutely amazing tho! And I had long conversations with extended family and apparently made an excellent impression...unlike German, who refused to dance even tho 7 guys including a little cousin and our host father asked her....there comes a point, and I know this because I´ve reached this point....where you stop worrying abotu being uncomfortable, suck it up, and do soemthing because it´s respectful of your hosts and reflects well on them...needless to say things have not improved with her...

Oh, and also, I´ve changed my opinion on whiskey somewhat....before it was my least favorite trago, now, after a night of only being able to drink Johnny Walker mixed with ice and water, it´s actually grown on me a little bit. I´m sure you´re thrilled to hear that mom....

Finally, when the new couple went around and took pictures with every table, it turned out so that I occupied the honorable position of standing right next to the groom, as if we had been friends since elementary school...they should get a laugh at that when they look at the pictures...

I´m literally falling asleep in my chair, so I´m going to go to bed, but I´ll be putting up new pictures soon and finally writing an entry on my classes, so stay tuned!