Celebrate

I feel like we're always finding reasons to celebrate around here.  Dessert on Tuesdays, Chapel on Wednesdays, we frequently find something random to do on Thursdays (except we usually have a lot of homework so we're kind of distracted :), Friday is a reason to celebrate itself, Saturdays are perfect for activities, and then throw a birthday, guest, or other event in the mix just for fun.  Needless to say, there have been very few dull moments since I got on that plane to Quito three months ago.  It's good though.  It's good to celebrate together, even if we're just celebrating the fact that we're together, the fact we're in South America, or the fact that we're eating really yummy food.  We've also been toasting (or "cheers-ing") recently.  It reminds me of the (often aggressive) toasts we do in the BBC or the caf.  It's possible a glass got broken the other night.  And no, it was not my fault :)

 

Last week was our last normal week of class.  We still have a Spanish final and presentation on Tuesday, but after that our academic work is done.  There's a LOT happening between now and the end of the semester -- we are going to be experiencing a whole lot of Ecuador right up until that last minute.  But conversations about going back to the States are slowing becoming more of a reality.  There are moments when I look forward to going home -- to being reunited with my family and friends and going to Annah's birthday party and going sledding and taking a hot shower and living in English.  And there are a lot of moments where I get really nervous about going home -- that I'll "fit-in" (this is a negative term -- it's what happens when your abroad experience doesn't affect how you live your life at home), that I'll forget all my Spanish, that I'll forget to let God be in control when I'm immersed in the crazy busyness of day-to-day life, and I know there will be a lot of people, places, and things here that my heart is going to miss.  And while I think it's important to process those thoughts to some degree, for now I am going to keep celebrating the time I do have here.  I'm going to celebrate the little things and celebrate the big things.  And I'm going to make a toast with my mango juice: "Cheers!  To Jesus!  And to that Quito life!"

 

Without further adieu, a few pictures from the celebrations of this weekend:

(side note: Abby's family is here right now! Yup, in Quito.  She's hanging out with them for the week, hence her absence in my pictures :)

 

Our wonderful Dianna is our in-house beautician - whenever we need a haircut, this gal is on it!

Lette, Melissa, Hannah, and Dianna
Our for dinner for Melissa's birthday!!

Saturday afternoon = spontaneous Girl's Day!
We headed out after lunch, got some delicious gelato, spent a long afternoon at the art walk/market/park, ate some delicious Chinese food, and finished the night at a craft fair.  So good to spend an afternoon moving slowly and enjoying each other's company.

Me and Bethany
That chopstick life.

Hannah, Bethany, Christy, Dianna, and Lette
Picking up our race packets!
We followed up this event with celebratory stop at Dunkin Donuts.  Clearly a necessity.

On Sunday morning 10 people from our program ran in a 5K race to raise awareness for domestic violence.  It was a duo-run, so we each had a partner (guy-girl) and ran relay style.  It was so fun to be in a race environment again, especially because there was so little pressure.  Justin and I took a close second (as in close to first) among our 5 pairs.  We were pretty proud of that!

After the race we went back to the boys apartment and made chocolate chip pancakes.  By 10am I had two of my very favorite things on the same morning.  I was so happy.

After the race, breakfast, church, and lunch, we spent a while in the park close to our apartments. On Sunday afternoons the park is so busy -- people come out with their families to play sports, picnic, walk, etc.  It's actually really neat to see.  We threw a Frisbee and a football around, enjoying being outside and out of the busyness of the city for a bit.  It's amazing how the atmosphere of the park feels so distant from the city.


"I will CELEBRATE before the Lord..." -2 Samuel 6:21