I Suck at this blogging business

So yeah, it s been forever since i wrote... hmmmm so a little update
Ramadan started on saturday and i think this has been the hardest for me, because this is my first ramadan away from my family but also i am in a country were they know nothing about Islam, except maybe about Bin Laden but that is pretty much it. So throughout my teenage years, I always had friends that were fasting and most of the ppl in my surrounding knew about Ramadan. But here nothing, a lot of people don t even know that there are other religions. I have never explained so much in my whole life about Islam, its history, how i am muslim, and don t believe that Jesus is the son of God.l Here i would say 98% of the population is Christian ( so u have the catholics, evangelist etc etc) and 2% other religion ( but so far only met one muslim, he s a french teach, he´s from Tunisia). So the only religions they know about the Christianity, so i have gotten so many reaction when I have said that i am muslim, from surprise, to ¨oh¨, to ¨urg¨, to ¨u re the first muslim i have ever met¨ ( this happens about 99% of the time). Anyways this is a whole other subject and probably will be a post latter on. The subject of religion here in Ecuador is a huge and contraversial one.
So what else have i been up 2. Hehe last Sunday i went to a soccer game... It was the 2 teams from Guayaquil, Barcelona and Emelec. There is such a huge hate btw these 2 teams i could not believe it. So i went with a bunch of friends and bought the cheapest tickets, the tickets were u are sitting with the ¨pueblo¨the people. Hehehhehe. So we get there early, the line is huge to get in, everyone is pushing and swearing, the BO is really bad, and it was soooo blooddy hot. Anyways we get in, find a seat, well sort of .. a place to sit... kindda random place on the stairs... So were just sitting around, ppl are swearing at the other team like i ve never heard. I can now write a book with all the swear words in spanish. Ppl were chearing and singing songs... mostly involved insulting the other team and calling them random names. I reallly enjoyed the game... the team I was chearing for lost 2-1 :(, and we left 5 min before the game was over because the said that the stadium will be total chaos at the end of the game. Barcelonista, the supporters of the team that lost are complete savages hehhehehhe ( that is what most people say) but i would also call Emelecistas savages. Anyways i had such a great time, yet next time i will buy the tickets that are a little more expensive and watch the game sitting and not standing up.
Apart from that been working , the next month is going to be super busy considering there is a national conference coming up, so im busy prepping for that.
Hmmm What else have i been up 2.. I am currently looking for an apartment in guayaquil, man it s gonna be really interesting trying to find that. A 2 bedroom furnished apartment for 150$, yeah so far it s kindda tough but still searching
Anyways that is all i can think about right now as an update!!!

Random note: In one month i am home!!! Yey i can t wait i am soooo excited!!! I really need this 2 week break!!!

Hope all is well in u re worlds!!!

WOW it s been a while!!

So Yeah it's been quite a while!!!!
SOrry guys i am so bad at updating my blog!!! So for the past 3 months life has been super busy, with some high and some lows!!!! But it comes with the package of working in another country with a complet different culture. MC life is different and sometimes quite difficult because de reality of AIESEC here is quite different that that in Canada. I will not go into the details of all that happened in the past 3 months but an update of the past 2 weeks and hopefully i will be able to write more often about my experiences now that life as an MC member is not as hectic as it was at first, but still a little hectic. Here is an update!!!!

First of all... u guys should so use skype... i had a nice conversation with Reena ( a friend from MTL) the other day for 20 min for free... it was great!!! so here is my name : dalal84 (truly not that original)
SO the past week has been a little interesting, 2 weekends ago, decided i needed to get out of the city, so 4 girls ( 2 british and one ecuadorian and me)decided to go to this spa ( ecuadorian style), i was told that we can get massages and mud baths, so i was ok , that sounds nice...So we arrived and the place looked very nice, we first went to the pool, then jacuzzi (the water was wierd, thermal water or something like that) which is amazing coz i haven't taken a hot shower in ages. Then we decided that we wanted a mud bath, so this was shock number one, it was this pond filled with mud, let me tell u it was really really interesting, at first i did not want to go in but then i decided what the hell i am here, so we went in this pond and started putting mud all over myself, it was a very interesting experience. Then i wanted to wash it off and one of the girls i was with was like " no u have to let it dry, it's really good for the skin" so yeah i let it dry, let me tell u i felt like a statue of clay, hehehhehe, so then when the mud was dry it was impossible removing it, it required like 10 min in the dirty water of the pond ( removing the main part) then 10 min in the shower... Ooooooffff but at last i got most of it off. After this nice experience we decided that we deserved a massage, it was only 4$ for 20 min, so what the hell, it s cheap. This is were the second shock happens. So i go to the room and this lady comes in with fisherman gloves (the super thick plastic ones) and with a huge plastic aperon (sp???), Then she tells me to lie down and take of the top of my bathing suit. so i lie down and take the back of my bikini off, so she starts massaging my legs with this slimy aloe vera time of cream, super super slimy. She then moves up , she gets to my "culo" hehehhe and she removes the bottom of my bikini and starts massaging it... at this moment in time i was like what the hell!!!!! and i quiickly move and pull up my bathing suit. So she continues doing my back which was very nice. Then she asks me to turn around, so i tie the top of my bathing suit and she looks at me and tells me, no no take it off, and i was like no gracias i am going to keep it on. SO she again starts with massaging my legs and then moves up until she reaches my chest, she actually tried to massage it!!! can u believe it!!!! thank god i said no and had my bathing suit on!!! man that was sooo wierd. She then quickly finished and told me that i could leave. So at the end i felt like and abused fish... i was all slimy .ahhhhhhhh. hehhehehehhe. Then went to talk to my friends and unlike me they had taken off their top and had the women give them a full frontal massage!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!Well that was the story of that weekend, heheh then after the spa went to the beach surf town but it was raining and cold, so we just partied that evening. The following day watch a surf competition. Then we each parted our own way. I went to Manta (the city i lived in last year) spent 2 days there catching up with old friends. All in all it was a very nice weekend.

The rest of the week was doing AIESEC stuff, outputs of conferences. The following weekend was nice, it was the going away party of ALAIN an intern from Canada, it was sad seeing him leave considering we got along really well and i could speak french to hime, now there is no1 to speak french 2, Oh well!!! But he is coming back soon and he lives in montreal so i wasnt so sad because i will be seeing him again soon!!!
Apart from the rest of the weekend was relax, watching movies!!!

Well back to work!!!

Super filled week!!!!!!

So i ve been here for one week, and it s been super super super super busy. Most of the week was spent in transition, were my days started between 7 to 9am ( can u believe that I, DALAL wake up at that time, i seriously dont, I never did that during the year!!!!!!) and the days would end between 8-9 pm. In other words 12 HOURS DAY AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Anyways the good thing is that i am really enjoying what i am doing and learning all the details about AIESEC Ecuador and being MC. Apart from that the people on my team are awsome and hilarious, mostly the italian( Luigi) and the Swiss (Gio) but the rest of the team (Francesca, Carlos and Chiripa all ecuadorian) is really great, all crazy in our own little way.
Sinon, friday was my welcome party ( fiesta de bienvenida) with that of Mathieu, Aurelie and Ina (new intern for AIESEC Guayaquil), it was really fun and there were all the interns, ( about 8) from various countries in the world. Quite the multicultural party!!!! Saturday slept in.. man was that great!!!! sleep!!!. Then did a city tour and in the evening went to the disco....The disco was quite interesting and huge... and played a lot of reggeaton ( yeyeyeyeyey) and techno ( a little boooo) but still at the end i had a great time.
The best day of the week i would have to say was sunday were I did nothing but sleep (until 2pm) and bum around!!! IT WAS GREAT!!!!" I heart SLEEP!!!!!!
Apart from the my spanish is getting better, still not that great but i am working on that part :D hehehhe. The family i am living with is great and in a couple of hours i am going to SALINAS, a beach front city for 3 days were will have our transition, a little change in scenery!!!
So that is pretty much it and i am getting harrassed for the compu!!!!
Miss u guys lots
MUAH!!!!!
Dalal, out

Made it 2 Ecuador

Well right now i am in the AIESEC guayaquil office, after being in this school since 7 am this morning ( it is 8:30pm right now) . So the past couple of days have been very interesting, dealing with my brother´s wedding (which was awsome) , me leaving for 1 year, saying bye to some of my friends whom i will probably not c for a very long time and saying bye to my family who i will miss a lot. So , it has been a pretty much very hard week but i made it to Ecuador without having cried 2 much. I arrived with Mathieu and Aurelie ( Ceeders from HEC) at 4:40 am, because we arrived early there were only 4 people but latter on we met about 8 others, so it was so nice to know that there were so many people for woke up early to pick us up :D
Anyways went to Juan-K´s ( staying with his family) house got changed quickly then went to the univeristy ( he had class early) then bumbed around, meeting old friends and chilling until 1pm, where my meeting for work started and it finished at 8 pm. It was really interesting and i learned a lot but i am sooooo tired that it was hard 2 concentrate. My team is so nice and funny, i am really excited to start working with all of them. Well now the meeting is done and just waiting for Juan-K sister to finish her classes.
That is it for today..... miss u guys already
Muah!!!

Dalal...out

YEY I am on Nomadlife!!!

So, this is the same blog but with a new URL!!!
YEyey. I was told to introduce myslef a little. For those that don t know me my name is Dalal, i'm currently living in Canada but will be moving to Ecuador for an MC term. That is all i feel like writing :D yey I ll update more after my exams!!!!

More random stuff

So yeah last time i had to leave really fast so i did not really finish what i wanted to say.....
Well the rest of last week was kindda regular, teaching, matching, eating ( yes they tend to give me way toooo much food)!!!! And then comes the weekend, my favorite part of the week hehehehheheh so i woke up saturday morning at 4 45 am to be able to catch the 6 am bus to Montañita!!!! That was a little hard but in the end i made it on time... So me and the 2 other trainees went and bought our tickets and then got on the bus... let me tell u that was the worst bus i have ever been on..... the front doors stays open the whole trip, they stop at random places to pick up ppl and some windows are missing. Yeah it was one of the bumpiest trip i have ever been on.... so much for sleeping!!! Anyways we made it to Montañita 4 hrs later with my rear end hurting a lot. Montañita is a small surfer town, it is soooooo nice.... and as i am soooo lucky the weather was horrid the whole weekend, i think the sun came out for like 5 min during lunch!!! Well we got there around 11am and then went to this little hostel.... it was so nice and confortable, there were hammacks (sp???) everywere, i had my own room with hot water yes hot water i took a 20 min shower quite nice and all this for the price of 5$ yes u heard right 5 $ !!! I wish i had more weekends here because i would go back in a heartbeat. Anyways there are soooooooooooooo many white people in this place i heard more english that i heard spanish. Around 1 pm we met the other trainees and friends from Guayaquil. So at the end we were 8 people from all different countries, USA, Australia, England, New Zealand, Scotland, Macedonia, Ecuador and last but not least CANADA!!!! hehehehhehehhe. So it was quite the english and mutlicultural weekend. After lunch( which was a really good sandwhich), the trainees and I took surfing lessons for 2 hrs and it costs only 10$ way more cheaper than in Dominican. The instructors were super nice and had a great time. I well a lot but managed to get up like 4 times but at the end of the lessons i was all brused up and hurting ....so then went in the water and just relaxed and then took a little nap on the beach...... that is life.... After that we were all tired and hungry so we went back to the hostel took our showers got ready and then went and ordered pizza and ate it in the hostel while playing some hilarious name finding games... quite entertaining.. After that we went to this disco and bar and danced the night away............. had such a nice night...... the funniest part of the night was that this one ecuadorian dude came and asked me how come u are not blond and have blue eyes!!!!!!! DAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! people here think that everyone who is not latin are blond.... slightly understandable considering there were soooooooooo many blonds in montañita but still come on!!!
The next morning i woke up at 9am and as i am such a lucky person again it was raining and the weather was horrid but i was told that the waves were huge and that we should go watch people surf. Anyways then Iwent to breakfast with the 3 people that were up, guess what i had? A crepe filled with fresh fruit!!!!!!!! yum yum.... The whole weekend all i ate was gringo food not any rice at all..... I refused to eat it hehehheheh After breakfast we walked around town a little, then we went to the beach and watched the surfers!!! Man that is quite amazing to c.... and it makes me want to learn how to surf even more :D...... so after that being the fish that i am went swimming for like 2 to 3 hrs ,,,, at one point i was the only person swimming except for the sufers..... The waves were huge the current pretty strong and it was cold but as most of u know that will not stop me from swimming in the ocean..... the water was so nice and warm!!!!
After that we went and ate fresh shrimps with french fries........... Yeah that was so good..... Then it was time to leave.... I was so very sad but that is life ...... though i did not go back to manta but went instead to Guayaquil. There i went to JK´s house and ended up sleeping until the next morning. At JK´s house there was another trainee from Switzerland, Sandra.... So on monday it was here B-Day.... so i mostly spent the day helping out with the shopping and preparation.....In the evening we went up the cerro of Santa Ana .... which is this place u go up 442 stairs to get to the top and from there u have a beautifull view of the city!!! It was super super nice but really windy. After that we went back home and started to cook real crab... as in they are alive when u put them in the boiling water !!!! That was quite the interesting experience. The crab was super good but man is it complicated to eat just for such little meat.... Anyways the rest of the night was just talking with aiesecers and just chillin....
On tuesday i went to the Uni met up with aiesecers chilled a little then went with Jorge to the Bahia, it is a huge flea market, there i bought some shoes and random stuff. Then back to school, had dinner and then we went with some friends so the Malicon, which is the really nice walkway beside the river..... Really when i was there i felt like i was in a developped country, everything was super clean and modern!!! The guys i went with were sooooooo soooooo funny, they just kept on joking around, i could not stop laughing, so that was quite the nice walk... Then went back home and took the 8 am bus to Manta because the aiesecers there would not stop msging me and asking me when i was coming back hehhehehhe awwwwwwwww. Then got there did some matching and that was pretty much it for the day. Today , i had to face my worst fear..... but it was just one step. AIESEC here are organizing and SDL Seminario de desalloro de lideres...leadership development seminar for the students in the uni. They have key speaker for 2 days that come and talk. Anyways due to the lack of technology, we have to go talk to all the classes in most of the faculties......... yes talk in front of about 30 students.... So today i did not do any talking but had to go in front and hand out flyers, yet i have to get mentally prepared because im gonna have to do it next week ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh............ I know u the EB in mtl right now must be like.... how come she is doing it there and not here........... Well i have no choice here they are making me ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i was about to start crying when they said at one point that i was from Canada and that everyone was looking at me ahhhhhhhhh. Anyways that was pretty much it for today and right now i am writing this blog....
So some random facts about the past 2 weeks

1. Girls here match ( as in cloths wise) like i have never seen before, as in the earring, belt, purse, shirt , shoes..... It is crazy.... i sometimes look like a bumb.... well even in canada i usually look like a bumb
2. Oh yes i saw a yellow watermelon.... As in u know usually it is pink but this one was yellow and it tasted just the same .... wierd....
3. In guayaquil they took me to c the rich people´s houses and then the poor people´s houses man let me tell u the difference is unbelievable i was in shock
4. Here they really like making jokes about gay people.... i don t know why? Usually not that funny
   
5. I am right now having the worst craving for anything but rice and fish hehehhehehheheh coz that is all it eat. For one meal i had rice, fish, pasta, and avocado.... imagine the amount of calories.... points wise it must have been something like 40pts
6. I was told like 10 times this weekend that i looked like an Ecadorian and that i was lying and that i was originally from ecuador hehehheheheh I am quite happy that i blend in so well :D less staring
7. I really wanted to go to Baños this weekend, which is this super nice place but nobody wants to come with me.... boooooooooo the sucky part of being 1 ceeder

Priya thanks for calling me......... it was sooooooo nice hearing u re voice and the same goes for the EB!!! Miss u guys lots
Dalal out!!!

Wow its been a while

So yeah..... it s been a while since i have written... wooops..... lo siento (Sorry) .... What have i been up too hmmmmmm the past 2 weekends have been awsome!!! I am having quite a nice time :d

So Saturday the 11 of June!!! That was the mini global village day and city tour!!! So around 2 we met the other trainees and a couple of aiesecers and we then went to the 2 flea markets in the city. One of them is quite huge and has a lot of people harrasing you to buy a w hole bunch of random stuff..... But it did not have any money and was not really in the mood for bargening, yet one of the trainee bought a Tshirt and it was nice to see how people buy just everyday regular stuff from sandals to bikes. After the tour we went to Lili ´s house for our mini global village, were all the ecadorian were to bring their food and the trainees and me, make tipical "comida" (food) of our countries. Me being a canadian heheheh for those of you that don t know ;) i made pancakes with maple sirup. Let me tell u that was quite the challenge. First the pan they had was horrid everything kept on stiking and then the heat was not even so have the pancake was cooked and the other half not... so the bottom line was that i took me 2 hours and a half to cook like 20 pancakes. Meanwhile the ecuadorian were eating all their own food and when i came out to eat i found that there was almost none left!!! And yes i got a little angry and told them off a little, how this food was mostly made for the us the "extranjeros" to taste and they ate it ..... Well when i was done the pancakes i put them out i swear they ate them in like 3 min. Yeah quite the expenrience. Luke and Vladimir made some really good food also :D quite fun dinner, then we played some games and watched a little TV. At around 11 oclock we started getting ready to go to a reggeaton concert, some singer called Keno Rankee or something like that. The club that the concert was in was great , so nice and the music they played before was amazing i was soooo pleased, then the concert started and they were having technical difficulties (not really surprising) because in clubs ppl throw beer everywere in the air... so by the end of the night i was soaked with alcohol beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk..... another reason why i ll will not drink, that stuff smells and sticks and is just horrid.... sorry for the drinkers out there. But the concert was pretty good but the singer is such a pimp... ie male slut.... sorry for my french... hehehhe..... he asked some girls to go up on stage and dance dirty.... suck a disgrace to the female kind..... grrrrrrrrrr................. i could have slapped him......... So the rest of the night was quite nice and with a lot of a dacing , went home and tried to sleep because the next day we were going to montecriti... to do some hicking ( El Cerro de Montecriti)

Sunday: So yeah i did not really sleep that much the night before because the stupid rooster (sp?????) would not shut up, alll bloody night at all times aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh i could kill it and eat it!!!!!!!!!!! Even now sometimes i can t sleep because of it. Well enough about that stupid animal. So we went to montecristi let me tell u that montain was horrid it was sooooooooooooooooooooo steep the trail was so small and just rocks on the bottom part and mud on the top part. So it tooks us about 2 hrs to reach the top and i managed not to fall once.. Once u are at the top u are in the clouds so u cannot really see ahead , that was quite amazing!! Once at the top we sad down ate tuna sandwich with other random stuff. Then we started going down let me tell u i feel at least 15 times, my pants were all full of mud my nice addidas were all ruined but it was soooo much fun, i was laughing my head but at the end all my muscles were hurting, my bumb was killing me ....and i was the second last person to finish because i had to take a couple of breaks because i just kept on falling. At one point I was walking like a duck so falling down would not hurt as much :D. Anyways we finished and then took a break :D drank some water and gatorade and ice cream yum yum :D Then took the bus and went to the beach to just relax on the sand and put my feet in the water and watched the sunset, the beauty of living my the beach hehehehhe i don t mean to make any of u jealous. Then went home ate some more rice and fish watched a little tv and slept. The rest of the week was just regular .......... ahhhhhhhhhh ok i am getting kicked out of the office aaahhhhhhhhhh i ll finish this tomorrow

miss u guys lots

Dalal

Regular Day

Well today i went and bought pancake mix ( yes u can find it here ) and KRAFT DINNER (As a joke btw me and Luke) for the mini global village tomorrow. I will be representing Canada nicely!!! Also i bought tickets for a reggeaton concert tomorrow tonight!!! I was warned that i will get quite the cultural shock tomorrow. Hehehhehehheh we´ll c. Apart from that i spent the day trying to find cheap tickets for one of the trainees coming from India because from there, there is no way that he can buy a ticket until here!!! Hehehheheh!!!! and i had an english class, were all we did was talk about food and music, they are quite funny!!!
I´m quite excited about this weekend it s gonna be quite fun..
Oh yeah well i am so sad because 2 weeks ago they change the dates for the National Conference that I was supposed to attend, to the 16th of July, 3 days after i leave!!! GRRRRRRRRRRR i was quite sad and angry, but i will still be helping with some of the logistics and fundraising before hand :( Oh well as Martha would say ´suck it up, walk it off´ :=D.
Jaime has 2 brother that are fisherman and today they were getting ready to go off to sea for 2 weeks, man i have never seen that much food in one living room. Like bags and bags of rice, like more than 100 bananas, like 20 huge 3 L bottle of soft drinks, a lot of water, yeah well i ll stop there!! Quite interesting!!
Apart from that nothing really new!!!... Hope everyone is doing well!!!

Random facts

1. i don t fit in my pants anymore!!! :( This really sucks..... I m trying to eat less rice but that would mean i would not eat anything.
2. So a regular meal, is rice, meat and some form of banana ( i am not sure if i said this before)
3. To go to the Galapagos for a week costs 1000$ hahhahahha yeah quite quite expensive
4. I´m pealing again :(
5. AIESEC wise, the maximum they can ask for sponsorship here is 300$, yeah quite the amount
6. There are 103 delegates coming to the National Conference, there are only 5 LC in the country, yeah quite crazy no?
7. I have very bad chocolat cravings, here they don t eat a lot of chocolat and they only place u can find good chocolat is at the SUPERMAXI and its quite expensive
8. I founds today frozen foods for the first time ... yum yum quite tempted to buy frozen fries and chicken fingers!!! I know i am quite americanized
9. I m really sad i m missing the GRAND PRIX Weekend but i m trying to make it up by having a great weekend

miss you all!!