Demasiado Depedida-ing

In Latin culture saying goodbye is very important and saying goodbye has its own word, despedir, and a going-away party is referred to as a despedida. I love this part of Latin culture, but lately there have been far too many despedidas for my taste. I'll rewind a little bit though and give you an update on what's been going on.

About two weeks ago my dad and my aunt arrived in Ecuador and I spent their visit serving as a tour guide and translator. We did all of the typical tourist things in Quito but the highlight of the trip was visiting Baños. When we were about half an hour away I called the Reinosos. I had been expecting that we might go to dinner with them or coffee, but we ended up with the family serving as our constant tour guides for the entire time we were there. We hiked to waterfalls, drove dune buggies around the town, drank canelazos and a million other things. It was an amazing trip. My dad and aunt fell in love with the family immediately and once again Baños was full of cariño.

Yesterday I saw my dad and aunt off at the airport and today my dear friend Emma and her boyfriend Angus left for the United States as well. With so many people leaving I know that my life here is going to be a little different again. It's great to be here for a longer amount of time than most people, but saying goodbye is really hard. My other extranjero friends are here for as long as I am so I won't have any more despedidas until my own so that's a bit of a relief.

Today was our Dia de la Madre program at the school and to my dismay I forgot my camera. As many times as I've seen kids perform in different programs, I never get tired of it. I hadn't seen the kids for almost two weeks so I received a lot of hugs.

Now it's back to normal life as I'm working tomorrow and Sunday and then the whole week until Friday. I've almost forgotten what normal life is like here. I have less than two months of 'normal' life here and then a month of traveling, then a month of crazy wandering around the states before grad school. I have a feeling it's going to fly...