vamos a la playa...

¡hola! como le va?

i am back in action after a long weekend at the beach with cristina, isidro and paoli (her niece who is an english teacher). it was nice and relaxing... hotter than hell... but a nice break from the chilly weather in the andes. the beach itself was nice, but nothing to write home about... i am not entirely sure why they rave about how beautiful their beaches are. it only reminded me of panama city, florida and the spring break crowd. but who am i?

anyways. i spent the majority of my time lying around on the beach and at the pool, enjoying some running at sea level (THANK goodness), and reading. i have finished 8 books (i think) so far and am currently speeding through my 9th... and last... i am not quite sure what i am going to do about the plane ride back. but i will cross that bridge when i get to it next week. paoli and i also went out on friday and saturday nights to these shack things on the beach where they blast salsa music and serve drinks and juices until about 5 in the morning... i only lasted until my usual 2 AM... mostly because paoli ended up sleeping until like noon and i didn't want to waste the days away... and also because it is SO MUCH harder to go out when you are 1) a gringa and 2) when you are constantly straining to hear what people say so you can begin to attempt to understand them... to be completely honest, it's draining. and of course there are always numerous lessons on how to teach the little white girl to salsa... which is generally very embarassing and awkward. but i am improving. (the whole moving your legs, arms and hips in different directions at the same time is what gets me...) anyways. a lazy beach weekend... reminiscent of spring break florida style.

OH WAIT. here's the crazy part of the trip... lengthwise, in the united states, the drive to the beach should take MAYBE 3 hours. MAYBE. but here, it is a different story. the roads are so potholed that cristina was forced to weave around them... all. of. the. time. (which also made it impossible to sleep... even when we left at 5 AM.) like seriouly. ALL of the time. it is the biggest pain in the butt ever created and makes the trip take roughly 6 hours. in the heat of the equator... sans air conditioning. yes, the car HAS ac. it is american. but do we USE the ac? no. of course not. this is ecuador and ecuador does not do anything by the books. typical. so yeah. of us in a little car... sweating like crazy for 5 hours... oh right. and i had found out that i had parasites the day before... so that was fun too. my 9 day stint of miserable time in the bathroom was FINALLY diasgnosed as parasites, even when the tests were negative. so basically i got 3 different drugs, killed my parasitic amigos, and i'm fine now. awesome. :)

this week in the hospital is shaping up to be pretty interesting. i started an IV yesterday with the help of a nurse... the guy's veins were pretty bad and it took 3 times... but... i mean... it was my first time. lo siento? and i left the hospital early today because i am going back later tonight to learn how to suture. there is this crazy nurse that i love (and only understand roughly 50% of what she says) and she is set on teaching me things. so that is good. she told me to come back after 7 tonight, because i can learn how to suture a head shut. she said it doesn't matter how pretty the head sutures are because people are not going to see them. ¨good practice¨ is what she called it. haha. awesome. qué más? umm...

last night i had an interesting debate with isidro which kind of put me in a foul mood. we were talking about school and university and medical school and life and blahblahblah and basically it got to the point that he was like, ´man, i wish i had your life because i love to study.´ and i was like... umm... no. no, my friend, you do NOT want the life of a pre medical student at vanderbilt. i know i chose it and i am sticking with it, but trust me. it is hell. and it went on like that for awhile and i got frustrated because 1) it was like him telling me about how easy the studying life is and 2) i want so desperately to be able to pick the perfect words to explain my thoughts... but it is impossible. sure, i can communicate my point effectively... but. i want others to really feel me. to understand me. in time, i suppose.

after that conversation, crsitina was like... what's up... what's going on... i said nothing... blahblahblah... but we ended up talking about the impossibility of saying 'i want your life.' i mean, sure, you CAN say it. but it is not possible to really know that. hypothetically, you don't know my life. you cannot possibly understand what happens day to day and what i go through. and it is the same vice versa... how can i say, 'oh i want YOUR life.' it just does not make sense. and this paragraph is meaningless because i cannot explain myself.

but that is where i am.

and i am off to make tacos for lunch. yesssssss! NO RICE FOR ME! :) only 9 more days in ecuador. wouw. crazy how that works.

abrazos,
sarah