So...I´m here! I absolutely love it and am feeling very at home, despite how different it is from there. Everyone at CBC is great! I mean, who wouldn´t want to go to a college where not only do you get to go to the professors´houses for dinner (and they constantly tell you you can come back any time) and where it only costs 40 cents round trip to get to the nearest mall. An adorable Ecuadorian girl came up to me on the bus a few days ago (Ecuadorians don´t really have personal space issues) and started petting my hair and hugging me and wanted a picture taken. My roommate Ahna took a few pictures, so sometime I´ll try to figure out how to post one. So basically, life is great, and I´m having a blast!

So for those of you who may be curious from my last entry (which is probably nobody, since I doubt anyone reads this anyway) I did get photoshop two days ago, which is incredibly exciting. Yay!! I thought I was getting my Spanish-English Bible yesterday when another UPS truck came, but it was just a sucky little "insulin pen carrier" from the insulin company. The reason it sucks is that it's way to small to be of any use to me, and in any case we already got a soft ice chest to transport my insulin in. Still, at least I didn't have to pay for it. And who knows, maybe it will come today. Or not until monday. Who knows?

In other news, I get to see my friend Chelsea tomorrow and monday, since her mom and my mom are currently canoeing somewhere. Since I haven't seen her for about a year, that's pretty exciting. Still loads of random stuff to get for Ecuador, but I think we're going to Erie on tuesday. In the mean time, I'll be lazing around with intermixed spurts of packing what I do have and writing thank-you notes. Doesn't that sound fun? Anyways, I'm going to go...I've run out of things to say.

One week from tomorrow, I get to hop on a plane in Cleveland and not come back until Christmas break. This is exciting. On the other hand, there are still millions of things to do, most of which involve making sure my 4 month supply of insulin can be taken on the airplane without some security person thinking I'm a terrorist. Oh, and I still haven't started packing, but just from testing it out it looks like between my books and my bedding and towels, approximately half of my bigger suitcase will be taken up. Yay....

Apart from all the stress of getting ready to leave, I'm really quite excited to be going. I can't wait to get there and be like "Aaaah! I'm in ECUADOR!!!" I feel like I check my e-mail at least 3 times a day, hoping for either a word about who my roommate will be or any other info from CBC. In other good news, I have my visa, all my textbooks, and most of the supplies I'll need. I'm just waiting for my Spanish/English bible and my Adobe Photoshop CS2, which may actually be here right now since a UPS truck just pulled up. I'm going to check. Later!

~Kira