Amoeba

This is in my intestines.

Stool Sample Kit. (shovel included)

Of course, if I am going to get sick, I mind as well get a horrible parasite! Woke up at 12am to use the bathroom, my host mom heard me and assured me that I needed herbal tea, so I sat up with her as she went out to the garden and cut off some random leaves to make my tea. I did not get back to bed until about 1am. Woke up around 5am to repeat my bathroom instance. This went on until the time I was supposed to get up for school. I then decided I don't think I could make it to school. By 8am, my mom was at the pharmacy buying me a stool sample kit. YAY. I had to take it right when she got home. I gagged, this was not my favorite thing to do. By noon my stool was being sampled and we had to pick it up at 12:30pm. This is when I found out I was diagnosed with Amoebas. My whole family got really worried and insisted on me drinking water, although anything that went into my body came straight out with in 10 min. I was not a happy camper. We made a doctors appointment for 2:30pm. We got there and the doctor was still on siesta (a break in the day from 12-2 where places close) he arrived a little after 4pm. I was currently about to die in the waiting area. Finally it was my turn and he told me that we needed to get an IV in soon, because I was very dehydrated. So he wrote out a prescription for me, and I had to go to the pharmacy to buy all the needles, tubing, and solution I would need for my IV. As soon as I got back the doctor was ready to get me on it. Instead of the usual rubber banding of the upper arm, I had to use my other arm to apply pressure so my vein would show. (I love U.S. doctors as of today). I was feeling much better after the IV, a little dizzy, but better. I got home and only have had one bowel movement. Thank goodness. My stomach still does not want to see, smell, or eat food, but it is feeling better, which is a major plus to me! I will be on medications for the next 15 days, to get rid of the Amoeba. :(

Med #1

Med #2

Med #3

Overshare.

Last night, was my first really sick night. Spent about 3 hours (from 3am-6am) on or next to the toilet. Not my favorite night. Then at 7:40am when I had to get in the shower, I started not feeling so well and had to quickly finish up the shower and RUN to my room! I talked to a nurse and if this continues I have to get a stool sample to see if it is a parasite. So far 16 out of the 22 people in my group have had anywhere from 1 to 3 parasites, 3 people have ended up in the hospital. So far I am good, during the day I have been feeling much better. Hopefully it was just a short 24 hour flu.

Paragliding!

On Saturday morning we headed for paragliding. It happened to be a bit to cloudy so we had to wait a few hours. So our tour guide and all of us went out for a lunch. When it was time we went to go pick up the boys who were going to be our lead flyer. I mean boys, they were all 20 except for the head instructor. Randi and Regina got to go first they took off, off the top of the mountain and flew around for about a half hour and came back down on top of the mountain. Then Erica, Ruth and I got our chance. While I was getting strapped in I was talking to my flyer, I told him I was a bit nervous, kiddingly he replied. yeah me too. I laughed and asked him if he was nervous because it's his first time too, he said yup! haha. When we got strapped to the parachute two people have to hold you otherwise you get pulled back by the wind. So two people were holding my front they let go, and just told me to run.

So we ran, I literally ran right off the cliff, my friend said it was funny cause I kept running even when we were already off the cliff, I didn't know when to stop! When you are in the air you have to push a seat under you and then just sit back and enjoy the ride. Once in the air, my flyer told me we had to land again. I was like okay. Well in the meantime it began to rain...so he was like it will be okay. Turns out two strings were twisted, but it would not really effect the flight. The view was breathtaking. We did some tricks in the air, some twirling, and just some calm gliding. We when landed at the bottom of the mountain where the rest of the crew were to meet us after we landed. It was such a rush, and we hope to do it one more time before we leave!



Champion paraglider and I



Catatumo

On Friday a group of four girls and I headed off early in the morning to Lake Maracaibo. We hopped in jeep and started on our journey. We stopped at two waterfalls to just take in the beauty of nature.

We also stopped on the side of the road and our crazy world known tour guide, Tony Martin (the Steve Erwin of Venezuela), just told us we had to get out for a bit. He then told us we were looking for the famous red-legged tarantula that lived in the area. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for me, we did not find one.

So we hopped back into the jeep to the lake. We made one more stop to eat lunch and to pick up whatever we wanted to eat for dinner and breakfast at an outdoor market.we picked up sausage, chicken, tons of veggies, potatoes, yuca, fruits and more! We also sat down and ate a lunch of rotisserie chicken, yuca, and coleslaw it was delicious! When we got to the lake we had to get into a boat.

 We took a slow boat ride down a river to our palafito, (house on stilts in the middle of the lake). On our way we were pointed out all the different animals that were in the rainforest surrounding us. We saw howler monkeys, parrots, toucans, iguanas, condors, vultures and so much more.



Monkey!

 We finally arrived to our palafito where we settled in, set up our hammocks for the night, and our guide made us dinner, while us girls played drinking games (without alcohol, because it was election weekend, and it was illegal to buy or consume any alcohol during election weekend.)



Our hammocks in which we slept



After dinner we went for a night safari in our boat again. We saw different huge birds, owls and crocodiles, one was about 9ft long! On our way back the phenomenon of Catatumbo began. It lasts about 7 hours and it is lightening without thunder. It lights up the whole sky. It is such an amazing sight to see. It did not seem real while I was laying back in my hammock, in the middle of the lake, watching this. It was surreal. In the middle of the night some of us had to move our hammocks because it began to MONSOON. well, close to it. It was quite a sight at 2am. Then I had to get up to pee, thanks to the rain. The toilets went directly into the lake! This was not a lake you come to swim in! At 6 am we woke up for breakfast, and headed out for our next adventure of paragliding!

Just some down time.

So this past weekend, I really did nothing. I went to a hotel and sat by the pool all weekend. It was amazing. I also tried to work on my pickle craving by going to Subway, but they did not understand that I just wanted pickles, so I had to buy a whole sub with pickles on it. They were still not the same, but they did the trick! I also had three tests this week already, two written tests and one oral. So far I have a B+ on the one I got back! YAY, off to a good start! This week has been really stressful with all the studying and everything. Luckily this weekend we are off to Catatumbo and paragliding!

TAXI ride with 7 of us!

Hot Mess

Today was my first mental breakdown! We got so much homework today in our classes, and in one class a teacher told me that I did an assignment wrong and needed to re-do it. It was not what I wanted to hear at the time and I started balling! First mental break down...is done! Time to celebrate a girl from our groups 21st birthday tonight, and tomorrow...homework.

Also, random fact, it is definitely okay for men to pee on the grass right off the sidewalk. I don't think it is that cool when I have to pass peeing men in the morning.

Special Visit

Mérida is currently getting ready for the visit of Chavez tomorrow. I doubt he will be stopping by our American school, but the streets are already running crazy with people, horns, flags, extra police, helicopters, and more. Note to self: DO NOT WEAR RED tomorrow. If you wear red here you are considered a Chavista -or- a follower and voter for Chavez. --I will be sure to not wear my red rain coat, let's just hope for no rain.

School

It's weird to be "living the life" in the sun and by the pools...and yet still have hours of school and homework. Although as hard as it is, it seems much easier because I do not have to deal with going to work. School is hard. But slowly getting easier, thank goodness!

Craving

For the past few weeks I realize that I have been craving Milwaukee pickles, really badly. I finally went to the store to find a small jar of pickles, which cost about $5, for a SMALL jar. I could not wait to try one...they were awful. Guess i will just keep on craving pickles.

Water.

I have decided that I am really sick of the governments ways already. Sometimes they will just shut off a neighborhoods water, without notice, to save money. Well I can tell you that I was not happy when I was almost through with my shower, and the water was shut off...I wish I could have a talk to this government, but I guess its better I just keep my mouth shut, from what I hear Chavez is not really a huge American fan. I just want running water all day.

Relaxing weekend in Merida

This is the first weekend we actually just stayed put in Merida. It was a lot of fun not having to pack up for the weekend. On Friday a bunch of us decided to go to coromoto heladaria, which is the Guinness Book of World Records, for the most flavors of ice cream! You can get anything from beer, to strawberry, to passion fruit, to beef, taco, ham and cheese sandwich, vodka, coke, and about 900 more! It was crazy We we also went to the zoo on Friday, it only cost 50 cents to get in. We also got to hold a snake and get some great pictures with them. It was quite a small zoo, but fun none the least. On Sunday some of us went to the pool, it was AMAZING, they had the best strawberry daiquiris ever! And of course I had to get home on time on Sunday to watch the Packer game with my friend Mark through our computer! All in all it was another amazing weekend here in Venezuela!

All the different ice cream flavors at Coromoto!

Loving the pool

Works of art.

Aguas Termales

This past weekend we got up early about 5am to go to the grocery store to pick up our food for the weekend! We packed everything is our packs and headed to pick up our rental tent, sleeping bag and pad, which we also had to get onto our already heavy packs. We soon got on a bus to take us to a jeep, the jeep then took us about half way up the mountain. We then got out to get ready for the hike. When we had to crawl under barbed wire I knew we were in for quite an adventure! We hiked about 2 miles to the first campground. Some of us decided to take a further trip to a different campground. So our hike continued. We camped with cows surrounding our tent. Once our tents were all up we went to the hot springs! It was so amazing, it was like one big hot bath. When we got out it was FREEZING. So we started a fire at our campground to start our dinner for champs, hot dogs, tuna, and chips. After dinner the sun sank behind the mountains very quickly. We stayed up until what felt like the middle of the night. We all crawled into our sleeping bags, and realized it was just after 8. It had been a long day though! We woke up early to pack up and get going for the day. It was so amazing to wake up on the side of a cliff. Our tent was about 1 foot or 2 away from the edge of a cliff.

Our tent near the cliff

In the hot springs!

Night in the Andes Mountains

Missing home.

As amazing as it is to be surrounded by mountains, you will always have the feeling of missing family and friends. It's hit me a little, but it does not get me down. So far, one of the things I miss most are my 3 year olds! I see all these kids on the bus, or on the street walking to school, and I just miss my class! Although I of course brag about how smart my class is to other people at my school, so I get talk about them at least. You should all know I miss my family, friends and class, very much!