This morning as I rushed to get out the door I debated over whether or not I should bring my purse and camera with me. 

We were in a huge hurry because the bus for Nigeria leaves at 9am and it was now 8:35.

I decided against the purse and it turned out to be the best choice.

We rushed off to the church taking city buses and hoping we would beat the clock.

We made it with time.

I got in the van and two little girls started asking me all sorts of questions in Spanish.

Most of them were "how do you say *blah* in English.".

I did my best to help with that but I had a little trouble with their little voices.

We got to Nigeria and it was great to go back.

I talked with Pastor Caluca a bit and felt bad telling him that I am leaving 2 days.

After church we went back to the main church andtalked with people there. Andres had to meet with people about some worship thing and I talked with Chicho and his girlfriend.

Turned out that Andres had to play tonight and he had to practice in 2 hours.

We caught a bus real fast so he could take me home.

On the ride home I leaned over to ask Andres a question and the next thing I know two men are standing right there in the isle and they start telling us to give them our cell phones.

They then start feeling my front pockets for my cell phone. 

I started telling them in Spanish that I didn't have one.

I bet they felt a bit let down when the white girl didn't have a nice cellphone and really didn't have one at all.

They also took Andres's wallet but decided they didn't want it and just gave it back.

Then one of the men didn't want to leave empty handed so he took my watch off my wrist. 

The funny thing is that my watch was worth less than the money I had yet in my pocket when they left.

That poor watch was on sale for $7 when I bought it 2 years ago, it also had chalk in the face from wearing it coaching, the band was falling apart and smelt like it had come off of a corpse. 

  

As soon as they left Andres asked me if I was ok, which I was. 

I told him that they just took my watch.

Then some women around me, not understanding got all worried and thought they had taken my phone. They were so worried until Andres explained that it was just my watch.

I am just so happy that I left my purse at home or they may have gotten themselves my new camera and my Debit card which I had just put in my purse a few days before.

This is the reason that I do not have photos of really anything that I have done here. 

It is too risky to take my camera or a purse with me.

Well that is my adventure of a day.

Now I am going to go hang my laundry and probably read until Andres gets home.

It is our 6 month today.

I think we will celebrate with our last $1.50 hamburger for a while.

God gave me a wake-up call.

THis morning I woke up at a very early hour (something like 4am) and couldn't go back to sleep.
As I lay in my bed half afraid to sleep again due to the bad dreams that I had started having, God started speaking to me.
So many things that I had been thinking about for days were suddenly so obvious to me.
Things were so clear.
It was one of those "well of course that is happening Hanna." or "No wonder you feel this way look at what you are doing and thinking here" sort of realizations.
After an hour or two of listening, surrendering and crying I felt a sudden peace and slept so well.

When I woke up I talked with Andres about everything that had happened.
There were aspects of our relationship that were suffering.
THe funny thing is that a few weeks ago I had told Andres that the one thing that will be the biggest thing to work out  in our relationship will be that instead of addressing issues that are bothering us, we will simply keep them in to avoid hurting one another.
As I talked with him this morning about all that had happened this morning it was really interesting that he had been thinking about a lot of the same things but just didn't say anything.



After I made things totally right again with God and my boyfriend I felt a confidence come back to me that I had been without for a while now.
I was starting to become worried at my apathy.

Today was the end of that.


I officially turned Andres into a coffee drinker today.
He was always like "I don't drink Coffee.".
I convinced him this afternoon that he should drink some coffee.
After confusing him and his Dad immensely by my super strange coffee making methods.
It seems to be the strangest thing to people here that I put chocolate in my coffee or make it with cold water instead of hot milk.

We drank coffee then headed off to do some Christmas shopping.
Then a walk to the church for worship practice.
 Of course we stopped and got street hamburgers on the way home.
Then once we were in the house Andres laid down on his bed and was like "we should drink coffee again.".
I then grabbed him by the feet and pulled him off his bed and said "ven conmigo" (come with me).
He then said "that sounded like a real latino".
Second time today that he said my Spanish sounded good.
Another Life Goal= achieved.
Sad news is that I leave in one week and will probably lose my Spanish accent and comprehension. :[
Have to make sure that we watch movies in Spanish or something.


That is all for now.
Got to finish watching Transformers 2.

Vamos a la playa manana!!!!!!!!!!!
(we are gong to the beach tomorrow)
WOOOHOOOO!!!!
I will be sure to remember my camera and memory card this time.

Learned a whole bunch of Spanish swear words the other day.
Will I use them? Never!
I now know them though.

Andres's Mom came home early because she is not feeling well. I am so worried.
I am about to go snuggle in bed with her and just hug her.
Poor thing.
She walked in the door an hour ago and I went up and greeted her and then just hugged her. I could tell she was so tired. :[

Have you ever had one of those wonky days?

One of those days where you try to catch up from the crazy night before?

This is sick Hanna trying to convince Andres not to take pics of me.

Lets back up.

Moments after I posted my last blog, about having a fever and what not Andres's mom walks into Andres's room where I was about to fall asleep. (Andres had left at by now to go to his mandatory work Christmas party.).

She comes in the room and begins hugging me asking me how I am feeling. 

All I could get out was "horrible".

It was taking all of my brain power just to understand the Spanish.

She then tells me to come with her. She has me lay down in her bed and begins putting cool rags on my forehead to cool down the fever.

She instructs me to close my eyes and sleep. 

SO I lay there with my eyes closed as I listen to her and Andres's Dad, Jorge talk to each other.

She then sends Jorge to Andres's room to sleep and she snuggles up next to me.

Every time I stir at all she pats my back and does the soothing mom thing "shhhh shhh shhh.".

After a few hours I can no longer sleep and was having weird dreams when I finally did sleep.

Just as this is happening Andres gets home.

It is 2:30 in the morning. 

I get out of bed and sit on the couch. 

Poor Andres is so exhausted he can hardly walk yet is worried for me so he tells me that he will not sleep until I do. 

Then his parents wake up and it seems like there is a ridiculous amount of talking going on at the other end of the house. After a few minutes both parents walk out the door. 

Apparently Andres's sister,Carla was at her work Christmas party and was ready to be picked up. 

Finally I grab Andres's hand and walk him to his room as he is fighting to keep his balance. I then push him onto his bed, kiss him on the cheek and tell him goodnight.

Carla and everyone else gets home and go to bed while I still sitting on the couch unable to sleep.

An hour or so goes by and I hear Andres's alarm going off but I don't hear him even stirring.

So I go and wake him up. A few minutes later  still no sign of him, so I go back to his room and find him fast asleep again.

The poor boy was so out of it.

He got ready for work and managed to get to the couch and sleep there for a while until his ride arrived.

I felt so bad. He was so tired that he could hardly walk and he had to go work.

I then went to bed and slept until a terribly late hour. 

It was early afternoon before I left my room.

I only got up long enough to eat, then went back to bed.

Andres was so tired when he got home, but he was trying to be a strong man and all.

I kept telling him that he should sleep but he was all like "I can't sleep now.  I am not tired.".

I then made him lay down and within minutes he was fast asleep.

That was at about 5pm, I didn't see him again until he got home from work today.

The poor boy slept straight through until this morning when his alarm went off.

I also went to bed just a few hours after he fell asleep. I didn't really sleep much but rather just laid there because I was to tired to do anything else.

The good news is that I woke up feeling much better today.

I am still tired and have a headache, but I am not nearly as bad as the last two days.

The last two days easily feel like a blur still. 

At least I am on the mend though.

That is a blessing.

One of the hardest things ever..

is trying to pretend you are ok when you really are not.
I woke up with a fever this morning.
I tried to convince myself that I was fine.
After all of these years of being the "frail one" I have gotten pretty good at pretending.
I got up, took a shower, ate my lunch, and then went back to bed.
As soon as Andres got home from work and saw me, he knew right away that I was sick.
What a hard day to have a fever.
It was over 90 degrees today so getting cool was very hard.
I would not suggest getting a fever in Ecuador if you ever have the choice.

Andres is at a work Christmas party until the AM hours. Guess who is sleeping in his giant bed until he gets home? ME!!!!!
Then he will get home and I will shuffle to my little bed, or I will tell him to sleep on the couch. haha

Spent way too much of our day napping and reading.

What a good day.

Today was a long but great day.

Estoy preocupada por mi familia.

AYYYYY!!!!!

Been in a funk all day, well for a number of days honestly.

Eso no es Bueno.

On that note, here is a beautiful song.

ENTIENDO!!

I love when people come over to the house here and we are all sitting at the table, and they ask my parents here if I speak Spanish, and I just sit there are awkward hearing everything that they say about me.

At first it was (in Spanish) "This is the girlfriend of Carlos Andres, She doesn't speak or understand any Spanish." which was only part true because I understood what they were saying.

Now it is "this is the serious girlfriend of Carlos Andres, she understands Spanish but doesn't speak.".

Always interesting to listen in but not be able to speak. 

When I am tired I seem to be able to speak it without thinking.

This morning the momma came into the room and woke me up and was talking to me in Spanish, and in my half awake state I spoke one sentence in English and the next in Spanish. 

I have a feeling that I will get to Dubai and start speaking Spanish with my family, or not have the ability to speak very good English.

After I listen to Spanish for a few straight hours I try to make English flow like Spanish and it ends up sounding like crazy jibberish.

So funny.

Andres laughs so hard at me.

Discovering new happy music!

Finding new music! Things must be good if I am looking.

Thought vs. Taught

Can you believe that Spanish speakers have a lot of trouble with the "th" sound?

The things that you don't even realize. 

One of my new favorite things to do is see which of my Spanish speaking friends can make this sound.

Whether I am helping clean Marcel's apartment/ recording studio with 3 other SPanish speakers, or sitting in the living room with Carla's boy friend.

 I will ask them to say words like "thoughtful" or "This" and see which can pronounce it.

My friend Checho was a bit confused the other day when he was trying to figure out the difference between "taught" and"thought".

Both words end up sounding about the same.

I totally understand where they are coming from though. 

I remember in Puerto Rico when I would try to pronounce the Spanish words and everyone would laugh at how off I was. 

I love the magic of this place.

I love the simplicity of Ecuador.

People here want to love life, even if it is a simple life. 

I really appreciate that. 

It is so different than the States.