small pleasures

small pleasures

-allowing the elderly to take my seat in a jam packed bus after an already tiring day

-allowing those trying to push their way past to go in front of me, only to find one man holding his hand out in gesture to allow me to pass first

-finding comfort in old friends

-making new friends with people you would have never met had they not been on the same program because of things like different friend groups or majors at k

-climbing the roof of my house and lying on my back just to watch the stars

-walking in the rain completely drenched, and having an elderly gentleman come up to me with an umbrella to walk with me and keep me dry

-making massage and head scratch trains with a line of people after smoking and getting drunk at 2 am on a thursday night

-thursday dinners, good people, good food

-stopping everything

-stopping class in the middle of the hour cause we can hear the entire school scream "gooooallll" and then dismissing class based on that cheer

-greeting each other with kisses

-sharing the common belief with someone that watching a house or barn burn in flames would be absolutely beautiful and not thinking thats crazy

-playing guitar on my porch in the sun

-telling someone they have a beautiful smile without worry about other connotations

-dancing like no one is watching, in the middle of a bunch of people at a bar

-taking shots with my host dad

-allowing the rain to pour so much louder in my head that it drowns out everything else

-laughing uncontrollably at something thats not even that funny

tradition

so thursdays have become somewhat of a tradition for some of us k kids.. jordan, who is a kid on the program with us that i never knew before ecuador, is an AMAZING cook and one night he jus invited a bunch of people over to his house for a dinner, all pretty much cooked by himself.. and oh man it was SOO good.. and ever since then (like 3 weeks ago) we've had a dinner at his house every thursday night.. a few weeks ago we had steaks and mashed potatoes and salad.. it was delicious and i got the recipe for this amazing whiskey sauce that we poured on top of the steaks.. this past thursday we had tomato soup made from scratch (which i must say, i dun even like tomato soup, but this was pretty damn good) and grilled cheese sandwiches with freshly made pesto, cheese, and some other stuff.. also delicious, and not as expensive as the steaks which was nice.. after we ate, some people left and some of us stuck around.. we jus hung out, drinking around his dining room table, some people smoked (which even though i dun really like the smell of smoke it really added to the mood and atmosphere of the rest of the evening in the best way possible) and we listened to really chill and awesome music. by this time it was probly around 10 pm-ish and i dunno who started it, but we ended up creating a chain of massages and head scratches.. and we switched spots so that we got everyone's different techniques.. it was just the greatest thing ever and we didnt end up leaving till 12 or 1.. yea.. thats right.. we spent about 2 hours giving each other massages and head scratches.. it was a beautiful thing.. got home around 2 am and slept like a baby

friday roxy and i went to our icrp meeting which the last time we went was a living night mare cause we spent all of 20 min in the place and 4 hours of travel time.. it was just a bad day.. but this trip was significantly better.. every bus we had to take (3 one way) came right as we walked up to the stop, and again we spent about 20 min in the place.. and this time it only took 3 hours total.. its really far away from our house.. anyway the good news is that we found an icrp place to work at, yay.. what a pain in the ass.. anyway we got home, napped and then got ready to go out.. we went to a pretty good indian restaurant and ate dinner and then went out to this bar called afro bar in the mariascal, which was absolutely ridiculous cause they had huge tv screens with music videos but were basically porn films.. i had my first margarita there though .. it was DELICIOUS.. way overpriced but i'v decided i really like tequila in drinks, but i dun really like taking shots of it.. the salt is really what bothers me most i think.. anyway after that we went to our friends diana's house who is from ecuador, whom we met through mali and juan... it was SO great.. there were a bunch of people, but it wanst over crowded and juan is the WORLD"S GREATEST bar tender ever so he was in charge of drinks and made us a bunch of different kinds.. it was soooo good.. also it was the reason for my hangover today :p but it was SO worth it and iv been kinda bummed that i havent really met any ecuadorians or have many friends out side the k group, mainly cuase im shy and introverted but with a couple drinks in me that totally changes things.. anyway they played great reggeaton which i am now addicted to and we all danced with eachother.. it was just such a good night.. there's really no other way to describe it :-]