I like my gringas...burnt to a crisp...

Super stressed, don´t want to talk about it. Anyway...

I went to the beach this weekend!!! Hello, Playas, Ecuador! It was nice to meet you, por fin. You are beautiful and weird and wonderful just like the majority of the other Ecuadorian oddities I encounter on a daily basis. Who knew that a 2 hour, $2.75 bus ride could´ve been just what I needed to relax. (Ugh, I´m so high-strung in this city...but I´m so irritated about it that I can´t even think about it or I might explode, literally...)

Anyway...the beach. Thank the Lord. Salt water, huge waves, beers at 11am..., random vendors selling sunglasses, dresses/clothes/shorts, encebollado on the beach, crickets made out of palm leaves, yanno, the usual. OH - and the sun. There was a lot of sun. Despite our repeated application of ¨bloqueador¨ (sun screen...)...we got FRIED. Absolutely and 100% fried. I almost had to call Peace Corps Nurse Kelly at 10pm when a compañera (Sarita!!!) got violently ill. It was just ridiculous how burnt we got. I can´t lay on my back or stomach. I take ibuprophen 4 times a day (yes, this coming from the weird girl who refuses to take medication...), I´ve applied 3 various kinds of aloe-based lotions/creams/gels repeatedly...it´s just insane. I hurt all over. It´s so dumb. My tattoos hate me (although, I must admit, they are the ONLY part of my body that I covered with sunscreen because I love them so much!) We could barely wake up to go with Bridge for her AIDS support group workshop in the morning because we were just SICK from the sun. So silly. Apparently living on the equator has it´s quirks...as if we didn´t know that before. I guess we just got another really painful lesson in equator-living......

Ahh, well, I had a nice weekend despite my serious burns.

OH ANOTHER CRAZY STORY.......

Checked my mail Thursday and YAY I got a letter from my brother Zak (thanks, Stinky Bubba!!!) and my Uncle Toby (thanks, Tobs!!) and a slip advising me that I have a package to pick up from my MAMA BEAR!!!!!!! Please, let me grace you all with the story.......

1.) I took the slip to the normal package pick-up window and am directed to the other part of the post office, around the corner

2.) I go there

3.) The guard at the door informs me that I need 2 copies (2? No idea why...) of my ¨cedula¨ (identification) and passport in order to enter the building

4.) I go make copies across the street and return to the guard...he signs some papers illegibly and unlocks the dumb secure door to let me upstairs

5.) I go upstairs, take a number, sit around and watch Sarah open amazing packages from her super awesome family (she got her packages with no problem because they were under 4 kilos...that is like the Peace Corps recommendation but my mom is just so cool that she can´t follow the rules....lolol, thanks mama!)

6.) Finally the guards let me cut in front of a bunch of people (I think...)...and I give my slips of paper to a young Ecuadorian lad sitting behind a glass window...he types some stuff in a computer and directs me to the customer service desk (yes, they actually have those here...se llama ¨servicio al cliente¨)

7.) I take another number, sit around some more, eat a Reese Cup from the good ol´ USA and lick the wrapper...(thanks, Sarah´s family!!!!!!), por fin I talk to the lady at the desk...she tells me that I have to accept the package and the ¨impuestos¨ (taxes) involved so I do that...

8.) She then tells me that the taxes are $70...

9.) I almost puke but compose myself just in time...

10). She also proceeds to tell me that I can´t pay at the post office, but instead I have to go to the bank (ANY bank...cualquiera...) to pay the money directly into the post office´s account (what??????)...so despite the fact that I´m a broke Peace Corps Volunteer, I go to the bank with all my jolly papers...

11.) I get my money out of the ATM and head to a bank where we proceed to wait in a line for 30 minutes (banks are ALWAYS ALWAYS packed full here...alwaysss)

12.) After joking with Sarah about how this probably isn´t even going to be a fruitful bank trip because I probably don´t have the correct papers...and after discussing a colon irrigation system with a strange man...IN ENGLISH...we get to the front desk at the bank and it´s our turn!!! YAY!!!

13.) That´s when I hear the following line: ¨Umm, you need another paper. We can´t process the payment with these ones...¨

14.) CHUZO!!!!!! Umm.......crud.........so we head back to the post office (I´m almost in tears at this point...)

15.) I talk to another bank worker and he tells me that I need to come back Monday because I have to wait 48 hours after the package was accepted to even print out the paper I need for the payment (wish I would´ve known that in the first place...thanks...)

16.) So I go home, explain this dumb story to anyone and everyone who will listen...and Ryan and I go back to the post office today (Monday, just like the guy told me) so get my package, por fin...HOWEVER, the nice bank man tells me that no one sent in a copy of my passport and cedula to Customs on Thursday when I went initially...

17.) He said he´d send it right away (ya mismo...)....and the punch line of the story??? I have to go back tomorrow............and repeat steps 1 - 12........

OMG, shoot me.

(*NOTE: I hope this post doesn´t discourage anyone from sending me packages!!!! There are only Customs issues like those mentioned above if they are over 4 pounds, that´s all. Mom just thought she was above the international mail rules. LOL Please feel free to send me anything! I have gotten several things/envelopes/packages/letters with no problems. My e-mail address is in the previous blog post and if you e-mail me I will send you my mailing address. Thank you for understanding...and following the rules so I don´t have to pay $70, 4 hours of my life, and lots of grey hairs just to pick up a packageee....)

I hope this gives everyone a little peek into my life. LOL Okay, so these things don´t happen everyday and they are perhaps not a fair representation of what I deal with...but this is it for me. This is that I have done in the past few days...

I´m living the dream, man. I´m enduring paradise...enduring paradise!!!!!

I love you, Guayaquil. I really do.

OMG - BY THE WAY - Happy 1 YEAR anniversary to Shadow and I today. This has been the craziest, most eventful, wonderful, insane, stressful, exciting, hardest, most profound, and satisfying year of my entire life. Thank you, Sugar. You are the best. I love you with all my heart. Come visit me now, dang it!!!! Come and keep me sane in this crazy place. I adore you. Un montón de besos...

Today is...my 2nd month of service in Guayaquil!!!!!! WOWZER!

I´m alive, I promise!! I really am! I´m still kicking here in Guayaquil, livin´ the big city life as well as I can. Poco a poco I´m getting to know the city and its ins and outs. It´s a different world here compared to where I come from and por eso sometimes I feel a little loca. 

I´m trying to make friends here. So far the workers in a local sanduche place have graced me with their friendship! They make the best Ecua-style vegetarian  sandwiches around. And for only $1!!! Alright, my Peace Corps budget can handle that. The bartenders at Black Coffee (yes, that´s really the name of the bar...) have taken a liking to Sarah and I. We never say no to free beers and tequila shots...even on the occasional Tuesday night. :) It´s these simple things that keep me going and make me feel comfortable in my new life here. 

Wanna hear a scary bus story? No? Ah well...too bad!...

So yesterday on my way home from Bridget´s house I waited about 20 minutes for a bus (the 129) on this street corner...a few of them passed but didn´t stop because they were ¨full¨ of people. Aka: no room for the lonely gringa. Anyway, finally one stopped and I hopped on, having to stand in a cramped area near the front  (Ecuadorians are very small/short...and they are accomodated very comfortably in the city buses here which are tinyyy...). So I´m not really paying attention because I have a large landmark to guide my journey (the Mall del Sur which is right by my house). I thought this large landmark would be sufficient to catch my attention....

However, we began to embark on an unfamiliar road, no mall in site. At every stop a handful of people got off. The bus was emptying slowly. It´s also on it´s way to night fall which sometimes makes me nervous in my new surroundings. The only things in my view were dilapidated houses, dirt roads, rocky sidewalks, people walking too quickly, with worried, heads down...where am I?? Then the bus stops. The last few people get off. The driver turns the engine off. I am worried. ¨Disculpe, señor...¨ Apparently we had passed the mall and I didn´t even notice. Chuta!!!! So I explained to him my dilemma and he kindly offered to drive me back to the mall. Duh, gringa. Ugh. He left the bus and I´m now officially afraid of every person walking by who gazes up at me. The lonely gringa in the empty bus. Out of her element. Another bus 129 pulls up and I switch over to that one making a point to ask the driver if he´ll pass by the mall. It´s now dark dark dark and I´m later than I thought. But...asi es la vida. I was never so happy to see that silly Mall del Sur and I hopped off the bus as fast as my legs could carry me. It´s amazing how comforting familiar settings are...seeing the ¨malabaristas¨ (fire jugglers) under the bridge twirling their balls of flames has never felt so much like home. Scurrying across the streets in front of dangerously insane bus drivers never felt so good. Hearing the gross cat calls of inappropriate men has never sounded so sweet!!!!!! Ha! Oh, Guayaquil...

BREAKING NEWS: Tal vez (that means ¨perhaps¨...sorry, Spanish words are just cooler sometimes!!) some of you have noticed that I have recently deactivated my facebook. This decision was based off of the following (to put it simply...): It has been rather difficult to find my balance between my life here and my life there, in the U.S. I know that may sound silly, but it really has proven to be a challenge for me. I want to establish myself and my comfort zone here but it´s hard when I´m always trying to communicate with those in my life back home...ahhh, confusion. It´s just already an emotional/mental stress and struggle at times to be here and living my relationships and friendships through facebook just proved to be too difficult as of right now. I may ¨reactivate¨ it at some point, but only when I´m more comfortable with it. I´m sure a load of Peace Corps Volunteers are struggling with these same technology-based issues...it´s not as easy as you´d think, for those of you at home. Technology is a blessing in some ways, but it´s also very burdensome and stressful in others. I know you all can somewhat relate or at least understand what I´m saying, so I´m gonna hop off this soapbox...

Anyway, I´ll try to do better with updating my blog since I promised all of you that I´d update it WAY MORE than I am updating it currently. :)

If any of you have questions, comments, suggestions, concerns, e-mail me at everlys1561@gmail.com!!! My blog and my gmail are the only two internet-based modes of communications. I´m seriously considering starting a photo page (Picasa? Flickr? Not sure...) in order to keep all of you updated (since I obvi won´t have fbook albums to update anymore...) However, I´ll keep you posted!

Also, if any of our mutual facebook friends are asking what happened to me, please ¨no sea malito¨ (LOL Sorry...dumb Spanish talk again) please send my blog link, e-mail address, and/or skype name (sarah.everly156) to them, will you?? And if you´d like to write me an old-fashioned snail-mail or send any packages (creamy peanut butter, Reese Cups and Peanut Butter M&M´s would be greatly appreciated.....) please e-mail me and I´ll forward you my address. 

Thanks for reading my dumb blog. Please don´t worry about me, I´m ok. I´m gonna go save the world now.....

Paz, amor y Ecuador,

Sarita Altita