Destination #5 Hipster or Homeless in Portland

So here we are finally on the west coast and on our way down to california. I have some more family that lives out west in Portland. They are my awesome cousins Robin and Caitlyn! We were gonna stay at Caitlyn’s house in the city and she is a cook so we were exited to have some great food. It was funny though because we were wondering if because she and her boyfriend are cooks, they would make good food all the time or just make microwave meals at home because they would be sick of cooking XD. That night was chill and it was just nice to sleep and lie down again. The next day we went out and Caitlyn brought us to Higgins; 

the resturaunt where she works. We told her about epic meal time and she was inspired so she decided to order us the biggest meat plate that her resturaunt called the charcuterie platter. Even though it wasn’t exactly like epic meal time, Vegar and I enjoyed it very much. It was like gourmet meat so yea… it was awesome.

Here is the website for higgins if you wanna go eat there some time and help my cousin out XD  http://higginsportland.com/

Sooo Portland, like Boulder, is known for their pop culture and their hipsters. The thing about Portland though, is that there are many street kids too which are like a dirtyer, more hippy like breed. Street kids are usually troubled children or kids who are bored and want to live an exiting new world as a homeless person. They travel in packs and are usually found on the street never begging for money but busking with exotic instruments. They usually have at least one mangy dog with them and they always wear brown clothes to match the color of their dogs and the dust in their hair. Sounds gross but they always look like they’re having the time of their lives. You can only see street kids on the west coast of the U.S. You would never see a street kid on the east coast because the real homeless people would rip them apart. Also the weather there is sooo much better than it is here.

 

Destination #4: Jimi Hendrix Land Seattle

    

When we got to the bus station in Seattle our friend Nikita was right there waiting for us to get off the bus. It was so great to see her and she said that we looked like really awesome getting off of the bus with our full-out hiking backpacks on. The first thing we did was go and get some Vietnamese food and go get some Seattle gifts at a gift shop before heading to Nikitas house. After settling in at Nikitas we had a good night sleep. The next morning all Vegar could think about was going to see Jimi Hendrix’s grave because Nikita told us that she lived really close to it. I made a wonderful breakfast of hash browns and eggs and we were off.

Its not that im not happy, im just not a morning person.

After breakfast we headed out to see the sights of Seattle but first we had to go see Vegars idol, Jimi Hendrix.

 

As you can see by his face, he was ecstatic.

Nikita and I with Jimi photobombing us

 Then we headed to the city feeling accomplished and honored by Jimi’s presence. So the first thing that we did in the city was of course to see the space needle. The space needle is like the empire state building to Seatlers…or what ever you call them Washingtonians XD. When we got there it looked epic.

like a giant starship protruding from the ground.

It was really nice until we got there and we realized that it wasnt open till later. So we bought some tickets and went exploring.

We ended up going to this mall type place and it was really fun cause they had a whole kids section that we got caught up in with funny mirrors and a giant chess/checkers board.

Then we went and got some of Seattle’s best coffee,…. Starbucks XD

I don’t know why I didn’t know this before but Starbucks was from seattle and the first Starbucks was still in seattle running the same way it did in the beginning. It was brown instead of green pretty much that was the only difference.  Well, after a long while of messing around and coffee, it was time for us to venture up into the epicness of the space needle.  It was cool we just went up into an elevator and then you could see the whole city and practically see into canada from there.

Me creepin on Vegar XD

It was amazing seeing the views from the space needle but after a while we had seen enough and it was time to head over to Pikes Place. If you never heard of pikes place before, it is one of the main tourist attractions of seattle.

We were getting hungry so Nikita told us that there was a great russian food place that she heard about so we were on our way to the Mothaland

Vegar points to Norway on the Russia map XD

Nikita is ukrainian btw

 Really good russian food from seattle … who would’ve thunk it!

lol… Vegar approves

So yea the Russian food was a nice touch to our Seattle trip. Next we fentured out through the marked to see what was up. We first saw the most famous part of the market, the fish market part.

Here they might take a nice fresh fish and throw it at you…

 i didnt get any good pics of that but heres one someone else took

So that was interesting and then we went out to see some of the vintage stuff they had there such as the vintage posters.

Vegar was very interested in these

We also saw these giant piggy banks all around the market and were forced to do some pretty touristy things. XD

After that XD we went to the world(well at least in Seattle) famous, Gum Wall!

This is most literally a wall of gum. Its like people from all over stick their gum on this wall and it is horribly DISGUSTING yet AWESOME and BEAUTIFUL at the same time XD

Looks like I got some gum on my shoe… Damn!

NOOOOO dont do it man…. its sacred XD

We chilled for a while after that and then went to see the troll on bridge St. Which was literally a street with a bridge going over the whole street. It was actually kinda cool.

After this Vegar and I screamed a quote from the movie Troll 2

So then we went back to Nikita’s house and we made an awesome meal. So I had been really into this online show called epic meal time. They’re these Canadian frat boy college kids that are always hungry so they make these outragious meals made usually of different meats or fast food and they make it into a giant crazy meal. I really wanted to make a specific meal with nikita and Vegar and they were down two, so we went out and got the ingredients and made … THE MEATBALL DEATHSTAR

Here are some pics of the preperation!

I had fisted that meat into that bowl XD

a quick view of what will be in the guts of this baby

We had to take a nice pic of us before the REAL cooking went down… somebody might have died during it we had to be safe XD

Pouring in the rest of this frankenstien monster

serious stirring

pouring in the blood

Into the oven it goes

Is she ready yet?

Yes she is!

Victory shred while the baby is in the oven again after saucing and cheezing,

 

Epic meal time BOOM noise when food is on the table!

We slept good after that meal… and we were alot more polite about eating then they were XD

Next day we went out to the park and played some futbol and guitarra and then we had to head out, looking just as cool as we did when we left.

  

Now we were off to my cousins house in Portland, Oregon.

Destination #4: The Big CO (Denver) & Hipsterland CO (Boulder)

After our bus ride from South Dakota we went south down to Colorado the land of the Rockies. The views on the bus rides were starting to become extremely awesome now. Going through the Rockies was something im not used to at all. When we finally got to my uncle’s house in Denver we were relieved that we both would be able to sleep in a comfortable bed.We got settled in the Bro-cave or my uncles RV. It had AC and we had our own kitchen and shower inside but we only used it for sleeping.

     Now that we were officially “out west” Vegar really wanted a real american cowboy hat. When he told my uncle that my uncle went out and bought us both cowboy hats .

This is kind of what they looked like.

     So as far as my relatives in Colorado go, they are all awesome! My two cousins that live in Denver are avid rock climbers, pro surfers, skaters that skated with the lords of dogtown when skateboarding started in california, and  Lance Armstrong status bicyclists. They could probably be good at any extreme sport if you let them try it. Well they were psyched to have us come up to CO cause they knew that we were into rock climbing.  To be honest, I had never tried to go rock climbing on real rocks before this and I was kinda nervous to try it in the land perfect climbs. Vegar on the other hand was looking forward to this the whole trip. We went to a small mexican restaurant in Denver to talk about where we were gonna go and we decided to set sail for El Dorado: The lost city of gold! or at least for rock climbers it was just as exiting. Many of the “firsts” in rock climbing were achieved there such as the first 5.10 dificulty level climb is there… which is huge btw for all y’all who don’t care !

     Well we decided to go there and it was all planned out for the next day. Then, later that night, my uncle brought us to a real biker bar to see one of my dads old musical friends Ralph Dafermo. He was playing keyboard for a blues band at the biker bar and it was real interesting to watch. See, my family is a musical family. My dad was an instrument repair man back in his heyday and plays all kinds of instruments but his main instrument is most definitely the saxophone. My dad has always been into Jazz music and Blues but he will play just about any type of music you ask of him. 

     So apparently my uncle had invited everyone he knew to this bar and it was real exiting to meet all of my dads old buddies. The music was great too and Vegar really enjoyed it. He was tapping his leg to the beat and playing air guitar when the guitar player played a solo.

     We slept good that night and the next day we went climbin’. Eldorado Canyon was probably one of the coolest places that I have ever seen.

This is the website for Eldorado Canyon if you wanted to check it out.

http://www.parks.state.co.us/parks/eldoradocanyon/Pages/EldoradoCanyonHome.aspx

It looked as if it was something from a Disney park and we were going to climb in it. The hike up to the spot where we were going to start actually climbing was really steep in itself but was really cool because while you walked up you were able to see other crazy climbs such as the Bastille which is behind Vegar in this pic. There are people lead climbing on this rock face too if you can see them.

So my cousins Rick and Steve hooked us up and we went a climbing.

Vegars almost a pro now  Just kidding but he’s pretty damn good

I’m crawling up the crack

then after we were done climbing my cousin steve went up and unhooked all the bolts and he was just wearing flip-flops!

This is the view of where we were climbing from the actual ground

Just some fun bouldering

     The next day we went on a bike tour of Denver with my cousin steve. I rode the fixie bike and it killed my legs and but soo bad, I don’t know how the hipsters do it. That night we went to visit our friend in Boulder.    

Ok so after a fun time in Denver we went to go see our other Colorado friend; another buddy from the year in Ecuador, HAYLEY!!!! She goes to CU Boulder with my other Friend Zoë.  In Boulder we stayed at Hayley’s college house thing. She lives there with a bunch of friends and they like to party.. a lot so yea but her sister also owns a venue in Boulder called Astroland and that night and DJ spooky was DJ-ing there so we were all gonna go there and dance and stuff  The vibe there was pretty chill. The only problem was that the place was literally filled to the brim with Hipsters! http://www.latfh.com/ The majority of them were standing outside the venue talking about DJ Spooky and smoking american spirits and only like 25% of them were actually dancing. Vegar, Hayley and I were included in those 25%  .

This is DJ Spooky in action at Astroland that night

http://astro-land.org/ this is their website if you wanna check it out

The next day we were completely wiped out so we decided to go out and prepare for the BBQ that we were supposed to have that night. But first Vegar got his tatoo. Now Vegar had been thinking about getting a tatoo for a while, actually we came up with the idea that we would both get tattoos that say Chévere(that means cool in spanish). If we didn’t get tattoos, we would get piercings instead. I ended up getting an earring by the end of the year and Vegar still didn’t have anything. I was wondering if he would ever get a piercing or a tattoo but when I got a text asking me how much he would have to pay for a tattoo in the US I knew he was serious. So back to the story, he got a tat on his ankle that looked just like this

It was pretty dope. But yea so after that we went out to see what Boulder had to offer. We went out to Pearl St.; which is like Boulders main touristy area. Interesting fact! Pearl St. was designed by the same architect as Church St. in Burlington VT and Ithaca commons in Ithaca NY.  While we were there I went out and bought some bison horn earrings and Vegar bought a CU Boulder football because they don’t have american footballs in Norway. The USA is the only place that you can get them. Then we went and saw the college ourselves… it was a pretty cool place. I would like to go to college there I think. On our way back to the house, it started to downpour rain and when we finally got back we were completely soaked.

Later that night I ended up going to the store and buying some groceries to make a gigantic calzone! It was amazing filled with pepperoni and bacon and lots of cheese. After that we were all full and were just ready to chill.

Well yea so next day we got on that dreaded bus again and took the longest ride ever to see our very good best friend Nikita in Seattle Washington.

Destination 3: 4th of July on Mt.Rushmore? How Patriotic!

So yea from Wisconsin we decided that It would be cool to do at least one touristy thing and go see Mt. Rushmore on the fourth of July. When we got to Rapid City,which sounds like a huge city but was only really a touristy town, we were really hungry and we had to go get some real american fast food. We couldn’t find any Micky D’s or Burger Kings but we did find a Hardees. That is something that you probably won’t find on the east coast. But we were definitely hungry so we went right in and got the biggest, baddest thing that they had. Well that was according to Hardees, The Monster Thickburger!

THE BIGGEST AND MOST AMAZING FAST FOOD BURGER EVER!

Well yea. We ate that and you guys are probably starting to think that this is turning from a life story blog to a food blog. You’re probably right. I mean its hard for someone like me, who absolutely loves food, not to talk about food. And if worst comes to worst you guys can go out and make some of these things. I’m not gonna put up recipe’s or anything but you guys can go and use the amazing World Wide Web to go find recipe’s for these great foods yourselves.

So after we ate we decided that it would be a good idea to go and find a camping ground to stay for the holidays. Because we are complete vagabonds and don’t have our own transportation, we had to call a taxi and go to the closest campsite to the Big Rapid City. 

Which I think is kindof a joke name because the city itself is kinda small and everything in it kinda dies down around 5 o-clock.  After $9.30 of taxi fare we found ourselves at Lazy J’s RV Park and camp ground. Once we got settled in we passed out so we could be ready for the next day of super american tourism.

     Waking up the next day was kinda annoying. The nice lady in the office told me that she gave us the campsite in the shade but she was wrong. We woke up in what could have been an oven. After having to recuperate from our horrible morning wake-up, we decided it was time to figure out how we would be able to see los presidentes on Mt. Rushmore. We ended up buying two tickets to the Best of the Black Hills tour. This was the shorter tour of the day. It would be 5 hrs long and not the full 9 hrs that the main tour was. We first went to Mt. Rushmore. It was pretty cool and the fact that it was 4th of July made it even cooler but OMG it got really boring really fast.

After seeing so many tourists wearing the american flag we guessed it was time to head on back to the tour bus. Our next stop was even more boring though.

It was crazy horse memorial which is kinda cool cause it’ll be way bigger than Mt. Rushmore; all the heads in Mt.Rushmore will be able to fit in the head of crazy horse. I felt kinda bad at this but actually kind of cool at the same time. Whats crazy about this place is that it is an unfinished statue of the well known native american Lakota warrior. The reason I felt bad was that there is a whole family that has its whole life completely dedicated to completing this monument. I really do think that the American Natives need some type of recognition. Considering that they have had the worst treatment of all the races and cultures in the United States but this guy, Korczak Ziolkowski, a sculptor from Boston chose to set his whole life on this project. He ended up dying in the midst of making this gargantuan mountain carving. And now his whole family is going to spend their whole life working on it too. I mean I guess this is their life but what happens if they finish it before they die? What will they do? I don’t know. Whatever but yea, so we saw that and I was able to snag a rock from the site so now I can say that I have a rock from crazy horse memorial and that I was at crazy horse before it was finished. Hypothetically if it ever does get finished .

Well after crazy horse, we took a nice drive through Custer national park where there are tons of wild buffalo allowed to roam.

Cool huh?

We unfortunately didn’t get to see many buffalo but were definitely able to see plenty of white-tailed deer. We finally were able to eat after a long day of touring and I was surprised that we ate (here comes the food blog stuff) just a nice dinner. But it was just like supposedly what an old cowboy dinner was like. It kinda reminded me a little of summer camp because we just went through a line and they would just plop a potato and some beans and a chink of meat onto your plate. Then you would be able to drink some hot coffee out of an old fashion coffee cup. 

This is pretty much it, along with some apple sauce and a biscuit.

After dinner there was a nice country, bluegrass, and cowboy music concert for us and then we went right back to our nice cozy campsite. There we played guitar around a firepit and watched 4th of july fireworks from our amazing view spot. From there we could not only see the fireworks from Rapid City, but also all the fireworks from every other town as well. They don’t call it big sky country for nothing.

The next day was pretty nice too. Our bus didn’t leave for Denver until around 6 in the evening so we had to spend the whole day walking around in the city. It was kinda nice to see what there was to do in Rapid City, we just chilled in lots of cafes and relaxed until 6.

Then we were on the road again,

until next time,

East Coast Kid + Vegar el Vikinga!

Destination #2 Small Town Wisconsin

Well we left Athens Ohio with an open mind and bellies filled with veggies. We were totally ready for something new and exiting. While on the bus for Cincinnati OH I called our friend Robert from Traverse City MI to make sure he would be ready for us to come up to his house. But when I talked to him he was surprisingly in Florida on his own little pre college road-trip. Luckily, Vegar and I have discovery passes so we could bypass Michigan completely and go straight to our friend Claire’s house in Waupaca Wisconsin. On the way up to Wisconsin we had to go through Chicago IL. We had a 3 hour layover there so of course we had to go searching for some good deep dish pizza. We decided to go to a place called Pizano’s Family Pizza. It was recommended by a man wearing a Chicago Indians jersey so we assumed that it was the place to go. Unfortunately the place didn’t open up until 11 in the morning so I decided that the next best thing to eat in Chicago would be an Italian Beef. Juicy, Meaty, Deliciousness would be the definition of this Chicago treat for sure.

After a long bus trip from Chicago to Wisconsin we realized that Milwaukee has one of the best bus stations in the midwest, every other greyhound bus station had literally four things that you could get but in Milwaukee there was a legit cafe. But yea, after that city we went to Waupaca WI

where my friend Claire lives. The bus stop in Waupaca was also the truck stop so it was kinda weird being dropped off there but it was normal really soon because her dad picked us up and brought us through her town. We then realized that her town was really small. It was nice to be welcomed with traditional Wisconsin cheese curds and ironically pasta with pesto. Its funny because in every place we’ve been so far we have had pasta with pesto. We had a good nights sleep that night in a real bed. The next day we were able to sleep in till around 11 which was amazing considering the schedule that we were now used to. We would be on the bus for a whole day and then we would transfer buses at for example 3 o-clock AM. We were becoming crazy for sure. But the day after was perfect. Vegar made us some norwegian french toast that was pretty good. Claire took us on a short tour of her town and then we went to get ice cream.

This is Clair, Vegar, and I BTW

After that we went to her friend’s house and swam in their lake  it was really refreshing we then had Wisconsin bratwursts and coleslaw after.

It was my first time eating these great sausages and it probably won’t be my last. Later we went to one of Claire’s friends going away/graduation parties and then we went to a patriotic community band concert for 4th of July. For Vegar this must’ve been UBER american I can only guess.

After the patriotic music we went out to eat at a typical Wisconsin Bar&Grill. Vegar got a southwestern burger and I got a typical Fried Perch with a twice baked potato. Now, for me this twice baked thing was kinda weird. Maybe some of you guys already know what this is but for those of you like me who didn’t this is what it is. 

Its pretty much a normal baked potato but then right after it has already been baked they scoop out the insides. Mash them and mix them with an assortment of spices and bacon and cheese. Once you’ve mixed up the innards with your favorite fillings you stuff em right back into the once baked skin and then you pretty much pour as much cheese and bacon bits as you want on top and then bake it again. There for it is called a twice baked potato but to be honest I don’t think that I’ll ever settle for a “once baked” potato ever again.

But after that Claire brought us straight to the place where she and her friends hang out and play scrabble, The Truck Stop. The same truck stop where the bus dropped us off to be exact. Well after a huge dinner and a patriotic day having a strawberry shortcake did the trick. Slowly but surly all of Claire’s friends began to show up  to play. By the end there were 13 of us all packed around a corner booth table playin’ an intense game of scrabble. After that was all done we headed back home to Claire’s house and had ourselves a good night sleep.

Next day was slow and super chill. We woke up late around noon and then I made a southwestern style omelette. Then we headed out to the Waupaca park. We played guitar and hacky-sack on the stage and then went back to the house. Had a nice Barbeque meal with the family and then we went out onto the kayak and paddle-boat. It was a great day. At night we packed up all of our stuff and drove up to Tomah to catch our next bus out of there.

Our USA Roadtrip, Destination #1 Hippyland Ohio

So we left two days ago for our first destination on our road trip, Athens Ohio. Our friend Jaymee lives there in a hippy commune and so we were able to spend a whole day with her. But first we had to take Greyhound Buses all the way from Bridgeport Connecticut to Columbus and it felt like forever. It was a whole day of traveling and we were lucky enough to have a night bus too so we could get a “good” nights sleep. I unfortunately didn’t think to bring a traveling pillow or even a hoodie in my carry-on bag so I was left to lean my head on the seat in front of me… I would sleep for short periods of time and wake up with a little bit of rug burn on my forehead each time XD. It was nice though cause on the last bus, our driver was pretty hilarious. He would talk for a while but he cracked jokes all the time and it made us laugh on our way. Well when we finally got to Athens Ohio we were sooo releaved to have our good friend Jaymee pick us up at the Athens University in her old car and we went straight to a humble little cafe in town. This place was awesome, not just the cafe but the whole town was amazing. It was like Burlington Vermont but was a little smaller. Later that day, Vegar and I were able to walk around and enjoy the city and play guitar and hacky-sack in the University courtyard. When we got to Jaymee’s house in the evening we realized that she lived in the most EPIC place ever. It was like she lived in a zen garden and there was like a pond right behind her house and a few other people had houses and community gardens and other hippy commune type things. We hadn’t taken any showers or changed our clothes since we left my house a full day before and it was terribly hot and humid so there was no hesitation for us to jump right into the pond. It was really refreshing. We chilled for a while after that and painted a picture with Jaymee and then we went inside to make some pesto from her garden. Dinner was pretty legit and then right after we had a bonfire with some of Jaymee’s commune mates. After a full day of being  Peace & Love flower-children, Vegar and I were definitely worn out. We had a good nights sleep and woke up at an early 8 o-clock to take one of Jaymee’s famous yoga classes. It was definitely … interesting Now we our on our way to our next destination, Travers City Michigan,… and we have a 26 hour bus ride to look forward to. YAY!

Peace, Love, & Happiness people.

East Coast Kid.

Life at school

Sooooo I haven’t updated this blog in like forever and I know that tons has happened this year that you guys should know if im gonna keep this thing goin’. Alright heres the lowdown,

• I came back to this school and I realized that I was finally a real senior   I would actually have to do a lot of work again and life would just be extremely different and it definitely was! I was like 2 years older than most of the seniors in my school. I was the only one with a legitimate beard and I feel like I was a little bit more mature than a lot of them too. But I still didn’t have many friends considering they all graduated while I was gone so I wanted to be more active in my school and I joined lots of programs this year such as both school plays and the tennis team.

I played Thenardier in our School Musical and I was Francis Nurse in our production of the Crucible,

Ironically both were old people

• I still kept in contact with my Ecuador buddies and actually some of them came to the USA just to see me and some other stuff that’s less important. “Just kiddingggg” but yea for his vacation my friend Isaac came all the way from Ecuador to stay with some family in Utah of all places  and on the way he spent Thanksgiving with my family in Massachusetts. Here are some pics from that,

 

We have a family tradition of playing Frisby Golf (Frolf) when the whole family is around, so Isaac was down to join us.

Mmmm delicious, thanksgivin’ food the morning after the big dinner. You can prolly tell we just got up .

In this photo we’re either playing charades or having a dance party .

     But yea we had lots of fun when Isaac came but not only did Isaac visit me, Friedrich, one of my bro besties, came to visit for new years. We went to New York City for three days straight only to come back to CT by train at night to sleep. I know that if I had a place in the city we would’ve stayed there instead. I got tired of the big city by day three but by then Friedrich was only getting started. He had become a genuine New Yorker, walking as fast as most country people run and just shoulder bumping people if they get in your way. New York isn’t the friendliest city in the world, ’ tell you that for sure.

We took a tour the first day of the whole city. By the end we got bored and became mischievous.

We prayed in St. Patty’s Cathedral

We played with lego’s in the lego megastore

Had delicious NY Burgers, rice pudding from Rice to Riches, and Ice Cream from Ben & Jerry’s

All in all it was pretty friggin awesome. Oh but it was really snowy then cause we just had our first big snow of the season then, so we had some fun with it and had an epic snow battle.

Im losing of course   but its all right  

And my friend claire came to NYC to visit me and I went to see her there

So yea this year has been a blast, finnally I have graduated high school

 and am on to my next adventure, college! But first I have to go on this Epic trip to visit all of my friends from ecuador. Just like some of them came to se me. I am going on this road trip with my dear friend and Brotherviking, Vegar! So yea, he is coming tonight and tomorrow we leave for the roadtrip of a lifetime. It will be amazing and im soooooo exited.

I shall be continuing this blog while I am on this trip and if not while then right after. I want you guys to know that I am still writin and what im doin on this trip of a lifetime…  I seem to be having lots of those. Haha I wanna keep having these trips. Iv’e gotta stay young while I still can.

Well, East Coast Kid out,

catch ya on the flipsideee

CHAPTER TWO: LIFE AFTER ECUADOR & OFFICIAL SENIOR YEAR

Well here I am back in BPTCT and ready to rock. I’ve seen a few friends since I got back but for the most part everything has been chill. I’m planing on going to NYC with my friends from school and then  maybe going to this huge music fest called Rythem&Roots with my family. Todo bien aqui en la casa. I’m going to be doing my senior year this year. And then after that… THE U.S.A ROAD TRIP with Vegar and maybe Wally. College after that… oh Jeez life is flying by. Haha I still remember when I was in middle school… and preschool for that matter. Well, my blog shall continue , do not fret…

EAST COAST KID IS BACK AND READY FOR MORE COOL STUFF TO BLOG ABOUT!!!!

The Big Return Home (vuelva a la vida real)

My last day in Ecuador was not exactly what I expected it to be and I was really uber scared and excited to be going back to CT. I knew that I was gonna be reunited with my family again and that would be awsome.. I missed them alot, especially in my last days. I woke up in the morning on the last day and knew that I was going to be going home deep inside but on the outside I just felt like it was just another average day in the Quito summer for Coulter. I was gonna get up a bit late and then head on over to Quicentro mall. I basically did just that, but instead of hanging out with the exchange studends that day, I was with other ecuadorians. I spoke pretty much spanish only and had a great time just chilling and enjoying the vally and quito.

The day that I went home was way early for me.. but I managed to go to the airport at 6ish haha… but my flight was cancelled till noon so i spent the whole day with my friends for a final farewell. We ate typical food like tostados and well… pancakes for me … my first american meal ; and last ecuadorian one! 

I got on the plane at 12:30 and took off to my home land of New England and now here I am. With my family, and well everything is ok.

Thanks to Rotary for the experience of a lifetime

and to my perents for supporting me

but aslo to my older cousin Angela for inspiring me to go on this journey

and well yea….lots of ands but thanks must be spread

THANK YOU EXCHANGE STUDENTS OF ECUADOR 2009-2010 you guys are the best and thanks for helping me through this year.

me and two other friends Pia and Nikita wrote this song for us and exchangees all over the world going back to thier countries …. here are the lyrics

I’ve known you guys

for a while now

but its time to go

is that so

How can you fit a whole year in a package

my luggage is packed, but I cant bring you with me

looking back, how can any other place be home

people disappearing every day

at the airport on their way

making plans to see eachother make  us feel okay

cause we have no choice to stay

-
I have alot of things that I didn´t  have before

gave a lot of things I dont want back anymore

saving all the memories and I know it was worthwhile

flag staring back at me on my wall

signed from all the countries I can´t recall

when I think about it, the worlds so small

-
How can you fit a whole year in a package

my luggage is packed, but I cant bring you with me

looking back, how can any other place be home

people disappearing every day

at the airport on thier way

making plans to see eachocher make  us feel okay

cause we have no choice to stay

-
I was a foregner when I left home

now that I´m here I´m back on my own

I try to talk to them how I did with you

but they dont understand like you do

the web we wove will never break

I hope our paths will cross someday

cause the bond we have is undescribable
 
Undescribeable…

Ive known you guys

for a while now

but its time to go

say it aint so

I have alot of things that I didn´t have before

gave a lot of things I dont want back anymore

saving all the memories and I know it was worthwhile

fin

(I love all you guys “the exchange students of Quito Ecuador 2009-2010″)

East Coast Kid

The Last Trip :(

Well the final trip that we had with all the exchange students was epic to say the least. The trip was of the whole country of Ecuador, starting in the southwest in Guayaquil and ending in my home sweet home for now, Quito.
To start our awsome trip we Quito kids had to take an 11 hour trip from our city to Guayaquil.  There we got to our hotel and met with all the other exchange students of Ecuador. We had to get dressed in our rotary blazers right away for a “parade” that we had. But it actually turned out to be a rotary meeting for ecuador. Muy aburrido pero supongo, bueno pues. So the same day, becuase we were in the wonderful city of Guayaquil we went out with the rotarians and adventured a bit. First we went to this plaza that was pretty friggin cool. A place with hole in the wall resturaunts and bars and pubs and from what I saw nightclubs but all on steps going up and up and up (very tall). Well at the top was a cool fort looking place that had cannons and plaques all over the place. This was all at night mind you so then we went to the hotel and the next morning we all headed out. I kinda wish that I couldve stayed in Guayaquil a bit longer just so I could maybe see my friend Raul who was an exchange student last year 2009 in my home, Connecticut USA . 

Well en la proxima dia we went to Machala …. and on the way we saw many a banana plantation and caocao plantation. We finally got to a shrimp place tho and chilled for a while… some cerimony for rotary but I didnt catch all of it. We got to see shrimps though… a few hehe. The fruits and fish on the coast were pretty interesting but my favorite part of this trip were the sierra and mid-sierra/oriente places such as Cuenca, banos, and Riobamba. When we hit up banos, that was super awsome, A volcano had just exploded in the area so if you looked up you could see poofs of smoke and other volcanic stuff. We also were able to see a wonderfull waterfall and sorta kinda go through it. I did so with my normal person clothes on and no bathing suit. Very wet but worth it.

My favorite city in ecuador has been chosen to be Cuenca. Cuenca was a B-E-A-utiful and super chill. The accent there is amazing too. They all sing when they talk in Cuenca. The people are alot nicer than the ones from Quito and that made me think that the Cuencanos compared to Quitenos are like Bostonians compared to New Yorkers. I felt like I would definatly live in Cuenca if I had a choice and our hotel when we were there felt like we were in our own apartments and was really awsome too. The only problem was that it was separated from girls and guys in Cuenca, but the awsomeness of the hotel really made it okay,

Riobamba… a very small city but a city none the less. Way up there in the mountains and was kinda chilly. We went on some cool tours there though. One of them was to go up into the mountains with an Indiginous Quichua guide and we learned about century plants from where tequila is made and also we heard the rumbling of tunguragua, a volcano that was also erupting at this time.

When we finally reached Quito I was kinda sad cause I knew that we would soon end this wonderfull year of joy and happines… but at the same time was relived that I was “home” once again with my exchange friends.

Well the year is coming to an end

my next blog should be about the real honest to god end

and that may me a bit depressing but what evs eh

EAST COAST CT SHALL WELCOME ME WITH OPEN ARMS

you readers have been awsome

thanks alot for your support

Coulter (east coast kid) Davis