dos meses, dieciseis años

hola everyone, sorry I haven´t writing in a while! I´ve been so busy! (thats good though! :)
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there was an AFS orientation in a town called Playas (literally meaning "beaches") and we got to meet with the AFS kids from guayaquil! which was really cool- I liked seeing all of them. we went to the beach, and at night to a discotecha! then to guayaquil before returning to piñas.

I went to guayaquil again the next weekend with kids from my school(it was a school trip). we left at 4 in the morning, drove to guayaquil, spend to day around the city, in malls and the centro. then we went at 7 at night to the Feria Of Duran .. a HUGE fair! there were so many people there! which was a bit overwelming, but we went to a concert there with a really fun band to watch and I liked that. we all danced and danced. at 2 in the morning we got in the bus to return and arived in piñas at 5 in the morning the next day!

I´ve been taking a dance class with the exchange students! so far we´ve learned salsa, merengue and Regaton! it´s really fun, and the dance instruster, Laurena, is really sweet.

the other week we celebrated our 2 full minths in ecuasdor! I went out with the intercambios for pizza, and we made toasts and it was really nice :)

I was in a parade for the birthday of my school. each class dressed up as a different culure -- my class, sociales, went as geishas. FEMA went as Hawaiians, Mechanica as giant tools. The exchange students then got to go out in costumes representing the cultures of each country. I went as the statue of liberty, Kevin, Annika, and Kristin in trajes de alimania, anders as a viking, and chris as the mascot of the school -- an ant with a giant paper mache head. (the profesoras of the costurera made our costumes for us- they did a really good job too!)we walked in a huge parade train arounf the streets of piñas, then there was a huge party afterwards in the park. people sang and danced, then they called us up and we sang happy birthday in english in front of everyone! and we danced too to the music too! haha

I think I´m doing really well with spanish. enough to even say "I speak spanish" I can understand and speak to people. it´s so cool! and I don´t have to think as much in conversations now!

My friends here are so amazing! the one sad thing though is that they´re all leaving in Febuary for Universities in cuence, and guayas, and quito! oh well though, we still have a lot of time, and I know I´ll meet new friends too! it´s so easy to meet friends here.

we moved levels of my building, cause the people who owned the building wanted to have the top house. so we did like switches -- a couch up, a chair down, a table up, a table down. the new level is the same size, jusat set out different. it´s just as nice though

my mom here is really nice too! she´s very sweet, and we still are watching the Novela every night and eating lunches at a resturant in town.

on saturday, I went to another big party in the coliseo at my school. it was like reina del orchidias, exept with SO many more people! bands played spanish music, and we dance -- I´m finaly getting how to dance! it ended around 2. this whole month I there are parties for fiestas de piñas in the weekends.

my 16th birthday was yesterday! yay it was nice an cool, which was nice for me :) at school everyone was so cool - they all came up and gave me hugs and wished me a feliz cumpleaños and many more. the people in my class were like -- she needs a cake! she needs a cake! 50 cent everyone! and then they went out an bought a cake and brought it to class! they sang and I blew out the candles. then they said, take a bite out of the side of the cake now! go ahead! and I was like "okay.." so I leaned down to take a bite -- and they pushed my face into the cake! I had frosting all over my face!
haha, turns out it is a tradition at every birthday in ecuador! I said "ha, I had no idea!" and everyone asked "what you don´t do this in the US??"
after school I had a little party with the exchange student at my house, we ate snacks and cake, and danced, it was a really nice party! and it starty to rain like crazy outside! :)