Hola! I´m back in Quito after a few days. our first full day in Quito we woke up and did morning movement on the roof of the hostel with a beautiful view of all of Quito and the Andes. After that we went to breakfast and then broke into groups. Quito is an extremely dangerous city, so we need to travel in groups of at least 3 with at least 1 guy and we have to take a cab everywhere after dark. so maya, sean and i were in a group and they let us go explore the city from 12 to 5. we had a few things we needed to do like make copies of our passports, find out information about the bus to Otavalo, buy books for kids, etc. it was a noncompetitive scavenger ... read more

its june 17 at 10:40 pm right now. i'm sitting at my house, preparing not for my year off, but for my summer. i will leave on thursday for 9 1/2 weeks of camp. that means i have 2 weeks in september to come home, unpack, do laundry, repack, and go to california to begin my year. the other day, when it was 103 degrees out, my mother and i went to REI. we spent $1200 on the things i needed. let me back up. i joined a program called leapyear leapnow. on september 14, i will go to california for a 10 day retreat at the program's campus. there, 20 people ages 17-21 will work on campus building, gardening, cooking, etc. we will get to know each other and learn good group dynamics. we will ... read more