2 weeks later and a few pounds lighter...

Here I am trying to keep up with my weekly blog post that I promised you all! (cue the applause)

So first of all I thought I would share some things I've learned about myself since living in Ecuador.

-I am way more of a picky eater then I thought I was, hence the few pounds lighter. I skip a lot of meals and replace it with this stuff:

-I also learned I am capable of drinking my coffee like this without loads and loads of vanilla creamer!

So obviously I have done a ton of evolving while I've been here.
Jk.
But really.

I really don't have anything to complain about with the food though, we have our own personal chef that cooks all our meals for us, which is basically the best thing ever. I am just so picky, I'm learning not to be though. I at least try everything that is cooked for me, I even discovered I don't actually hate fish like I always thought I did!

-I learned that my social anxiety is also much worse then I thought it was. The language barrier definitely doesn't help either. This is something I will be working very hard on while I am here. We had a game night at our house last night and there ended up being about 40 people here and I tried to stay and mingle as long as I could but this is something I will have to take baby steps with, just attending and not hiding as soon as the first person showed up was a big deal for me.

-I'm not as bad at public speaking as I thought I was........ so I've been told. Unless everyone around me is lying. Still not something I think I will ever really look forward to doing but knowing I don't completely suck at it is pretty great :)

-I actually really love learning! Who knew?? I always thought I hated learning and taking classes but when you put yourself in the environment that works for you then learning is actually pretty fun. I am enjoying all my classes so, so much. Even if some of them are very challenging for me. *cough*public speaking*cough*
We take a class called 'Inspire' and right now we are learning about rejecting the normal in our lives. We are working on rejecting what is normal for us and not accepting that the way we've always done things is necessarily the way things have to be. For example I've always accepted that I am uncomfortable and awkward in social situations but If I choose to take steps towards not allowing myself to feel uncomfortable and putting more effort into social situations that does not have to be my normal anymore. I can be comfortable at a large gathering of people I don't know if I choose to. Being uncomfortable all the time doesn't have to be normal for me anymore. So like I said, something I will definitely be working on among other things.

-There is an app that you can borrow ebooks from your local library! Mind. Blown.
How did I not know about this before. Its called Overdrive if you were wondering.

-I value alone time much more then I realized I did. I've always known that I need to have alone time to kind of recharge but I didn't realize just how much I enjoy being alone. I realize how lame this probably makes me sound but I love doing things by myself. It never occurred to me how I spent most of my time by myself because I didn't have the option of doing most things with anyone because I usually didn't have anyone to do things with me so I just did them by myself. Since the only thing I can do alone here is walk across the street and only during the day time my Independence has felt a little choked. The only reason I can't do things alone is because of safety issues, so it totally makes sense and It doesn't upset me by any means it has just really opened my eyes to some of my personality traits that I wasn't aware of. 

-Also we took a personality test. I'm 89% introvert. Surprise, surprise. Not gonna lie though I actually thought the percentage would be higher.

- We did our first campaign on saturday morning: The dream Campaign.
Its where we ask people to write down a dream they have for their life and take a picture of them. Some people let life pass them by and never really think about or pursue what they really want in life. We hope to remind them to keep dreaming and going after what they really want in life and that you are never to old or young to dream :)

"Mi Sueno es Adoptar"-My dream is to adopt.

In case you don't know my dream is to adopt and not only adopt but to adopt a special needs child, specifically a downs syndrome child. A few years ago I read an article about how special needs orphans are treated in other countries and it was one of those things that made me so angry that I knew I had to do something about it. Reading about these children stirred something inside me that has never left. I know I cant change the entire world but If I can change the world for at least one child, if not more then I've done what I've been called to do. What was kind of ironic was right after I took that picture we went and talked to our first person that day and it was a woman with her 4 year old daughter who just so happened to have down syndrome.

I felt almost like it was a little bit of a confirmation that ya that is what I want and what I'm supposed to do. Sometimes I wonder if I will be cut out for it or if its what I'm supposed to be doing but after seeing this little girl I knew it was. She was so adorable, she took the pen and paper from us and plopped down on the ground and started coloring all over her mom's paper.


I just realized I've written quite a bit in this post which was not my intention, I'm looking out for all you ADD peeps like me. So I'll share a couple fun things real quick and be on my way!

Please look at my super cool new Ecuadorian phone.

What?? Who knew these types of phones still existed! I almost broke it immediatly after recieving it because its so light I accidently flung it across the table. whoops. But it survived.

Also I got this shirt.

 It's basically my life motto.

Give me all the pizza!!

K I'm really done now, keep an eye out for me next week ;)

-Jamie