What A Wonderful World

I realized that a link for my blog was posted on the home page of Admissions, and you’re probably wondering why you clicked on the “student blog” link and got to my blog, and my postings about my uncle’s wedding and my trips to the beach and Boston, since it totally has nothing to do with the life of a KSC student (other than the fact that a KSC student posted it). This past semester (Jan-May) I studied away in Quito, Ecuador, as part of my Spanish major requirement. I thought it would be a great opportunity to not only look back on my adventures myself, but also to share them with anyone who wanted to read them. Since coming back, I have written several entries about the goings on in my life now that I am back. If you are interested in reading my adventures while I was in South America, my advice would be to go to the archives and choose my postings that were written from Dec-mid May. Also, those links to the right that are in Spanish have all my pictures from when I was in Quito, feel free to look at them!
I will post about my life as a Keene State student once school starts, which is the last week in August. However, you should check back before then because since I am a Resident Assistant, I will be sure to have interesting stories to tell about my life as an RA, including training (which btw, partly takes place in the Berkshires!!)
Welcome, and feel free to comment if you have a questions, or would just like to compliment my wonderful blog!

Hello all! Much has happened since I last wrote. First, a week ago today (July 12th) my uncle Steve got remarried! I helped my new Aunt Sharon set up for the wedding, which was in the backyard of my Steve’s brother (my uncle) Phil and Aunt Joanne. They have a beautiful house right on Lake Winnisquam. It was nice too, because after I was done setting up I jumped into the lake, clothes and all. It was so relaxing and refreshing. The wedding was fun too. I relived my clubbing days in Quito and got jiggy with it on the dance floor. And, I got to watch my grandparents dance together. Man, they are great dancers! My mom said when she was younger they used to go dancing all the time, and it shows. They are in their 70’s, but they are sharp as ever! This was also fun because after a mistake by the DJ had us dancing to Cotton Eyed Joe two times, my cousins and I decided a dunk in the lake is what we needed. It was so refreshing, even if it messed up my hair. It turns out that I got so jiggy with it I was sore the next day. All my muscles ached. This past Weds, my parents and I went to the beach. My grandparents bring their trailer to the state park and camp there, so we had free parking and free lunch courtesy of them. After, I did my favorite thing in the whole world- lay on the beach like a useless bum. I wanted to go boogey boarding, but the lifeguard flag was red, which meant the waves and rip tide were at a dangerous level. I couldn’t even ride the waves, so I basically sat on the sand in the water and got my hair wet, then came out. But, I had fun lying like a bum on the beach. I also went for a long walk from the state park to the boardwalk (probably about a mile one way) to get Blink’s Fried Dough. I don’t know if they are at any other beach, but at Hampton, they have a bright orange sign and two locations, one on each side of the boardwalk. The great thing about Blink’s is that you can have almost anything on the fried dough. I always get mine with chocolate sauce and sprinkles. This is always part of the Blink’s experience. After a long day of lying in the sun being useless, we headed home. I am now very tanned. I haven’t done much since then, just mostly hanging out at home and such. But, I am excited to be returning to Keene in less than a month. Plus, I found out that part of RA training this year will be at a camp in the Berkshires! Sounds like fun! That’s all for now, stick around for my next post, coming soon!

Happy early July 4th! This week has been fun. Monday, Josh and I took a roadtrip to Boston. We weren’t exactly sure what we wanted to do there, but we were bored and needed to leave Hudson. We drove down to Medford, where we hopped on the orange line at Wellington Station. We got off right by government center, in the heart of the tourist district. We went looking for this Irish pub that was supposed to have delicious food. We found it, and decided to split the Freedom Trail appetizer, which consisted of nachos, french fries, buffalo wings, chicken tenders, onion rings, and potato skins. It was a mountain of food, and we ate almost all of it. We decided we needed to have Boston creme pie, so ordered it we did. It was so worth it. Interestingly enough, supposedly there was a plan to capture Paul Revere, and the plan was discovered at this pub. Pretty neat. After leaving the restaurant, we walked over to tourist central- aka Fanuiel Hall and Quincy Market. I had my fun making fun of tourists, and we got to watch these cool performers. Afterwards, we decided to walk around Boston. This is easy for us to do because we pretty much know our way around Boston. We walked into the financial district, and then continued on down by south station, right onto the piers. We took a bridge into East Boston, and ended up all the way by Logan airport. After our journey back into Boston, we saw Get Smart in the theater right on the common. It was such a good movie, if you haven’t seen it already, you should! Anyway, after that we walked around some more, and I made more cracks at tourists and even quacked at a duck boat. We then decided to look at expensive crap that we could never afford, so we went into Barneys, Neiman Marcus, and Saks. Boy, rich people sure do pay alot for polo shirts. We decided to head home, because by this time it was almost 7. We had to make a stop at Texas Roadhouse for some lovely meat and rolls though.
The next day we decided to go to the beach. It was such a nice beach day, up until the sun decided it wanted to hide behind the clouds. We decided to go eat some dinner and get some Blink’s fried dough before heading home. Oh, and I watched him waste his money at some shooting games in the Hampton Casino. And we also ran into a high school friend. Pretty fun day.
Other than that, I really didn’t do anything fun this week, except maybe mow the lawn. It was nice to actually do something for once, I have barely any friends in Hudson anymore, as most of my friends go to Keene State and live in other states.
Happy July 4th to all! Hope you all are doing something exciting.
On a side note, I relinked my photos from Facebook. For some reason, they had expired. So enjoy!

Hello to all my faithful blog readers! I decided to keep up my blog somewhat over the summer, although there really isn’t that much going on. Yesterday I took a trip up to Keene to run some errands on campus. I ended up talking for hours about my wonderful abroad experience to many different people. I also hung out with some of my RA friends who were up there for the summer working summer conference. After all my errands on campus were run, I had a reunion with KK and Marie. Since Marie lives in Sullivan, it was only a short drive to her house from the campus. Marie made some amazing meatloaf and potatoes, and I brought ice cream. We chatted about how much we missed Quito, as well as told stories about our experiences here since coming back. I really want to be back at Keene State with all my friends. Most of my friends from Keene State live in other states, so the only time I see them is when classes are in session. Back here in my hometown, I have only a handful of friends, and we all work, so we hardly ever see each other. Once classes start, I will start to look back on my years at Keene State. I will resume doing tours of Keene State, and I anticipate many students will have questions about the life of a Keene State student, which I will be happy to answer in my blog, kind of like an FAQ of student life. I will continue blogging during the summer, however it will be about my life away from Keene State. Until next time! Chao!

Wow, it’s hard to believe the last time I wrote I was still in Quito. I miss Quito so much! I just wrote my host parents an email, and that made me miss them. It is great to be back, but I wish Quito was easier to get to. I had more fun my five months in Ecuador than I’ve ever had in one summer here. But, let me back track a little about my arrival into the good old USA.
I left for the Quito airport at the ungodly hour of about 4:30 am. My flight left right around the time it was supposed to, which was about 6:45. Marie and I lucked out because there was a Colombian next to us, so we could still speak Spanish if we wanted to. He spoke English to us, because he needed to practice, however. As soon as we landed in Houston, we could feel the hostility. Now, before we left Quito, we got thoroughly drug searched. Our bags and carry ons were checked completely for secret compartments or false things that we could have taken drugs out of the country with. The whole time, the INTERPOL officers were nice to us, making small talk about our stay in Ecuador. They were so nice and patient with us while we found our bags, while we took our time getting back into the airport, etc. In Houston, it was all rushed. This woman must have yelled the same thing about 100 times while I was in line. And what annoyed me was that some of these people didn’t speak English, so what good is people who yell if the person you are yelling at doesn’t understand you? Oh, and it was funny too because the CBP officer was asking us how to say liquor in Spanish. I guess you had to be there, but we thought it was funny because as a CBP officer, he should have known that. Anyway, once we cleared customs, we decided we wanted to eat something. This almost gave us a heart attack. My lunch at Popeye’s was about $8. I’ll tell you, that was a blow to my wallet after being spoiled on $2 lunch in Quito. After eating, I hung out with Marie until she boarded for Miami. After she was on her plane, I waited at my gate for my flight, which wouldn’t leave for a few more hours (I had a 5 hour layover). During this time, I met a nice Venezuelen couple who was also going to Boston. I was so excited because I got to practice my Spanish! The flight to Boston was typical, nothing exciting happened. It felt weird being back in my homeland once I did land.
Since arriving back, I’ve mostly been substitute teaching. I work, go to the gym, and hang out at home. A few days, I’ve hung out with Lindsey, but the rest I spent at home. What a boring life. If I was in Ecuador, I would have such a better life. I would be at the bars on Friday nights, having fun with my friends, and during the day I would walk around the beautiful city of Quito. Now, if I want to go anywhere I need to drive there, which of course costs money that I don’t want to pay. I’m just not the same since I’ve come back, mainly because I am still used to the life I had for five months. When I tell people I dislike the life I have here in the US, they don’t seem to understand. I guess you have to have lived in another country to truly be able to understand.
I can’t wait until I graduate, so that I can return to Quito. I miss my host parents, I really feel like they were family to me during my time there.

It´s hard to believe my days here are winding down. KK leaves on Saturday, followed by me and Marie on Weds, and Braulio on Friday. Tomorrow is our last day of class, but of course that means that I have two oral presentations to do. I also want to pack this weekend as well.
I don´t really remember when the last time I wrote was, but I´m sure nothing interesting has happened since then or else I would have written about it. KK´s friend Alex (female) is here visiting and we´ve been having fun. We went to our last ladies night yesterday, which I will miss. Tomorrow night, we plan on having a huge going away party for all of us, which should be exciting. I will probably update in the next few days, because Im sure more interesting things will happen.

I am still without internet. I mean, the computer in my house has internet, but sometimes I just want to use my laptop. Anyway, KK and I are in an internet cafe. The best thing about this cafe is they have cheap coffee and pastries and the internet is free! We’ve been here for a few hours just relaxing and catching up on things we missed on the internet. I have a little more than two weeks left here in Ecuador. It’s a bittersweet thing. I really love it here, but at the same time, I do want to return to the US.
Last Sunday, I took a walk because I was bored. I know my way around Quito, so I just kind of left my house just kind of walking. I ended up walking to the airport. It was really cool because every Sunday, the main street in Quito, Amazonas, is blocked off to cars, the only people on the street are bikers or walkers/joggers. It was really neat, I was walking in the road with everyone else and having a fun time! Amazonas takes me to the airport, so that’s where I rested. I had my camera, so I took pictures of what was around me. The whole time I was there, two planes took off and a small plane landed. I was hoping a big plane would land so I could take a video of how close it gets to the road and the buildings, but none came. It was a nice relaxing walk, and go figure, a few minutes after I left, a big plane was about to land. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.
This past week has been mellow. Class is class as usual, and last night we hung out and partied at KK’s house. Nothing too crazy though, just bought some drinks and sat on her patio and drank and talked. Today is also looking to be a mellow day, as we dont currently have plans for tonight. Tomorrow I plan on taking my weekly Sunday walk to the airport and possibly going to the artisan market to buy goodies.
Other than that, I really have nothing much to say. I uploaded my 5th picture album onto
Facebook, so you can find the link on the right side of the page.

So I am still without wireless. I think it is a problem with the wireless in Quito, because none of my friends get wireless either. Anyway, these past few days have been fun. Friday night we went to Rusty Burger, the best burger place ever. The owner is from California, and he remembers us from the last time we were there. We told him he should open Rusty Burger in Boston because we love it so much. We even took pictures with him. After Rusty Burger, we went to the liquor store near my house and had a mini fiesta in my house. After this, we went to Nobar and danced the night away. Yesterday, I went out with my family to lunch. It was my mom´s father´s birthday, so we went to this ceviche place. Ceviche, for those that don´t know, is a combination of my least favorite foods. So I got the steak. Then last night, all my friends and I went to this AMAZING Argentine steak house. Now, here´s how you know you´ve adapted to the lifestyle here. This steakhouse has filet mignon for about $8, and my steak was about $7. The bottle of Argentine wine we shared was $15. Now, at first glance I thought these prices were expensive. I mean, the previous times we went out to eat, we paid about $3 for lunch. To me, these prices were expensive. Craig quickly pointed out to me that a good filet mignon in the US would be about $30, and the bottle of wine that we got would easily be about $50. That made me happy, so I decided to order this amazing steak. MY GOD WAS IT GOOD. It was the best steak I´ve ever had for the price. The potatoes were amazing as well. The wine was also good, and what was interesting that unlike previous wines I have had, this does not have a strong taste at all, which according to Craig, is a sign of an excellent wine. He also taught me alot about wine in general, which is good because as soon as I turn 21 I am planning to go to wine tasting parties.
One thing interesting about this particular Argentine restaurant that led to an interesting conversation last night was the service. Now, the standard here in Ecuador is you get your appetizer, when you have finished that, the server takes it, and you wait a little bit for your entree. Once you´ve finished your entree, the server takes the plate, and once again, you wait a little before getting dessert. Now in the States, it is the complete opposite. You get your appetizer, sometimes you don´t even finish before they bring you your entree, and before you even finish they ask for dessert. Now, I personally like the way they do it here because you have time to let your food settle. Last night upon arriving, I wasn´t hungry. However, it was about a good hour between the time I arrived and the time I got my steak, so by then I was hungry. And that´s how it should be. Why are we so impatient in the States? We want our food. I know I was one of those people that would wonder where my food was if I was waiting more than 10 minutes. Yet last night, I found myself not even caring. Marie, who has been a server for many years, says people get mad if the service is slow in the States? Why, it´s better to allow your stomache to digest one thing at a time, that way you don´t feel like you´re going to burst after you leave a restaurant.
Speaking of my previous mention of prices and the US, I think I am going to get a rude awakening when I get back to the States. It´s hard to believe that here I think $4 for a cocktail is expensive, when in the States they are twice that. And nevermind gas, I read an article that said gas is at about $4. What a rip off, I think it´s time to start digging in ANWR. I also decided that during the summer if I need something at Hannford, I am going to walk (yes, walk). It´s probably a little more than a mile, and I´ve walked my fair share here in Quito that I could care less. Yep, what a rude awakening I will get when I get back.

I apologize for such the long gap between posts. The internet here has been having problems, so I haven´t really been able to spend all that much time online.
I had an absolutely amazing weekend! KK’s boyfriend is back in Quito, so we did most things this weekend with him. First on Friday night, the three of us went out to Diablos, a new club that has great drinks. The owner is Cuban, and after talking to him, Craig wanted a Cuban cigar, so we went looking for one. It was rainy and cold, so we only walked about a block before we stopped under heated lamps. We decided the bar with the heated lamps looked cool, so we went in. I ordered French fries, a martini, and an amazing Oreo cheesecake. It was so worth it, everything was amazing.
The next day, the four of us (KK, Craig, Marie, and I) packed our bags and headed for Banos, the city that has Tungurahua, the currently active volcano. It started out great as the tunnels in Quito were filled with water, so we had to wade the water in the taxi. We caught the bus, and we paid this dude who we thought (we as in everybody on the bus, not just us) was the guy who was collecting money on the bus. It turns out that dude wasn’t really working for the bus company, so everybody on the bus got robbed $4 by this dude. Then, we spend SIX hours the bus in what should have been a 4 hour bus ride. Why? Because Tinguraguhua decided it was going to throw a fit and cause a landslide, so the road going into Banos was blocked. No worries, we had fun standing and fooling around on the bus. By the time we got to Banos, it was almost 10 at night. We quickly found a hotel and paid $3 for a tour that took us to a mountain high over Banos. On the mountain, we could see the whole city of Banos. We could also see Tinguraguaha, the smoke, and faint orange glow of the lava coming from the cauldron of the volcano. It was well worth the $3.
The next morning, we did some shopping after breakfast. I bought a shirt, a leather coat, and some souvenirs for my family. Next, we headed over to the thermal baths. These are truly amazing. In case you don’t know, Banos in Spanish means baths, which is what this town is famous for. The water from the baths all come from the volcano, and the one that we were in was about 118 degrees F. It was so relaxing and filled with minerals. We stayed there for about an hour. After changing and all that, we decided to rent dune buggies. This was probably the best adventure ever. We rented the dune buggies for 3 hours, Marie driving with me as the passenger in one and Craig driving and KK as a passenger in the other, and we drove to a waterfall. At the waterfall, we took a tram over the river and the water fall to the other side and then back. It was really fun. We also had a picnic lunch right by the waterfall too. Afterwards, I drove the dune buggy back. It was so fun, even flooring the petal we were only going about 10 miles an hour. It was especially fun through the tunnels. The dune buggy adventure was probably the best part of Banos. Afterwards, we stopped for more food and taffy (which is also what Banos is known for) and then headed back to Quito. Nothing exciting happened on the way back, except that we saw a flattened tractor trailer bed. We got back into Quit around 9, and by the time I got home it was almost 10. But it was well worth it. I had an amazing time. I will put photos up in the next few days, either when I go to an internet cafe or if the internet starts behaving.
Tomorrow night we are celebrating Marie´s 25th birthday. We are going to Rusty Burger, this amazing burger joint, then we are going to buy some beers and drinks and go to my house and hang out for a bit before going out clubbing. It should be fun. We plan to live it up as much as we can, because we all have less than a month left here!

I added my fourth photo album on the Blogroll, be sure to check it out! It is mostly of my trip to Ibarra and Mindo, along with the car that fell off the cliff.