just another blogpost

Hola a todos, it has been a while since I had some time. This is a lazy Sunday afternoon so finally I can write another blogpost. The last weeks have been busy and some interesting things happened. My friend Boen came for a weekend to Ibarra, I went to Quito with my best friends (some YFU people) and last but not least: I'm an adult now.

When Boen (also from YFU Flanders, a great friend that lives in Quito) came, we did some nice one day trips. On Saturday we went to Otavalo for the market cause this market is just too awesome. In the afternoon we met with Kathleen and Jana to make a delicious spaghetti. We made so much that we had leftovers for 2 days. During the night we chilled with friends from my school. On Sunday we slept quite long. So in the afternoon we did a small trip to Cotacachi, a town next to a nice volcano. In the town there wasn't a lot so we discovered some nice nature: we took a taxi to Cuicocha (caviameer / guinea pig lake). On Monday he went back to Quito, the city I went to explore a few days later.

 Indeed, after 3 months and a half it was time to explore the capital and second biggest city of this country: Quito. This city is located between the mountains and it really is a very very very very big city. The best things in the city to my opinion are the historical centre and the new, modern centre. For exaple, the whole south of Quito is very dangerous, same as the upper north. We have a very nice group of YFU friends and it was really cool to see them all again. We visited lots of nice things like Quicentro, El Panecillo, the Centro Historico and the Telefrico. To bad there were lot's of clouds for the Telefrico, a telefrique that takes you to the top of a mountain (till 4100m) and then you have this epic view over Quito and you can also see how huge it is. The parents of Noë also went to a typical restaurant with us and invited us to eat cuy/ guinea pig. It's not bad but I like the chicken wraps from KFC more. 2 very nice weekends and we're already making plans to do another trip in the holidays that are coming.

The last weeks we had juegos internos at school. This means we played basket and soccer against the other classes. My classmates didn't let me play often cause for them winning is more important than having fun and I think they didn't had much confidence in me. Most of the people in my class are really childish and they can be really iritating. Luckily almost everyone in my school knows my name and that I'm the 'gringo from Belgium' and they are nice to me.

Christmas is also coming! People started to decorate things since half November and since last week we also have a Christmas tree. I have to say that a lot of this things have a high level of kitsch. Actually I'm not really in the mood cause it's still like 25 degrees the whole time BUT my family probably wants me to make stuffed turkey Hove-style (like the famous version of my grandmother).

Last week Thursday I had my 18th birthday! WOOOOOHOOOW I'm an adult now. At school they surprised me with cake and they sang 'feliz cumpleaños'. Then they putted my face into the cake of course. After school I skyped with my parents and in the evening my lovely ecuadorian parents invited some people and we ate something, played games and they sang for me. We ate cake and there was also a package from Belgium with some movies and lots of cards from my family and friends. That made me really happy! My friends from school also slapped me with a leather belt, 18 times, and it was really painfull. Gotta love the ecuadorian traditions! Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes and the nice package you guys are great!

THE NEXT POST WILL BE IN SPANISH

As always, thanks for reading!

Un abrazo,

Vincent