Things are pretty much back to normal in Ecuador. The president is safe in his mansion and the police are back at work. The police force did not come to an agreement with the president and the country is very politically unstable but there are military men roaming all the streets to keep the peace and to keep things safe. We just have to be more cautious than normal and be very aware of our surroundings. My host mom bought our street guard a giant can of pepper spray.

I had a pretty boring weekend since I was on house arrest for most of it. We weren't allowed to go outside until Saturday (we were locked in from thursday morning until saturday morning) and we had to be inside by dark saturday and sunday. Luckily, on Friday we were allowed to take taxis to each others houses so we spent the day Friday watching movies and eating oreos and ordering in Chinese Food. However, by Saturday morning, we were all so restless we spent the morning just walking around Parque Carolina (a huge park nearby with tons of vendors and sports fields). In the afternoon, I played in a soccer game with one of my Ecuadorian friends. It was really fun but the girls were pretty bad. Even though I am also very bad at soccer, I was in way better shape than most of them.

I am back to classes and work (teaching English at the school) this week. Friday, however, we leave for the Amazon!! It is one of the trips that is arranged by my abroad program. They sent us the itinerary today and it looks very intense but awesome!! Just to get to the place we're staying we have to take a plane, a bus, and a boat, and a 5 hour hike. I have to start taking my malaria pills soon and the 3 most common side effects are personality change, hallucinations, and vivid dreams. I'm a bit scared...