Sick Day

Hello everyone!

Today I woke up and my cold/cough thing was pretty bad, so I got permission to stay home and sleep.  After sleeping 2 extra hours and going to breakfast, I wanted to leave my room so that the maids could come and do their job in peace.  That's why you are all getting another post so soon after the one yesterday!  "Let's think of something to do while we're waiting...."

Last night we went to this great shawarma place for dinner.  It was along the "malecon", which is a boardwalk along the massive river here, and was about a 15-20 minute walk.  The time was 6:00, and it was getting dark and the sky was overcast.  Exactly my kind of idea of a trip out - no sun to aggravate what is already burned!  (Speaking of which, my burns hurt a lot less today)

There's a lot of things to see along the Malecon, many of which are statues.  There is a statue of a pig/warthog thing.  From what we could tell, there was no real purpose for having the pig there, but it made a nice photo op.

 



 

At the shawarma place, I got some shawarma with rice and beans.  Many people on this trip know that I am a "rice and beans kind of girl."  Ever since serving in the DR, I love rice and beans.  The meal was amazing and very filling, and I even had some to take home with me.  This is my delicious shawarma.

 

 

There were some that were thankful that I had extras!  We ran into a mama cat with her two babies.

They were so cute!  I fed them some of my chicken shawarma because they looked like they were really hungry.  The mama cat ate some and gave some to her kittens.  I think I can already hear my dad groaning and saying that we should let them starve.  He tells me that all the time about my cats.  Hahaha

 

A week ago, we went for a walk up to the lighthouse.  What a view!  It was 444 steps to the top (of the hill, not the lighthouse).

This picture doesn't do the view justice.  After climbing those stairs in the heat and humidity, being up at the top of that lighthouse was beautiful.  There was even this breeze that cooled us down and everything.  If you ever visit Guayaquil, you should visit this lighthouse.  You can see in the picture right above the river that I was telling you about that goes along the Malecon.

There's an ice cream place near the hotel we're staying at. It's called "Nice Cream."  I love that place.  The ice cream is so creamy! (Not the mashed potatoes...a reference to "While You Were Sleeping").

When I was 7 years old, my parents took us (minus Tom and Jake who were too young at the time) to Italy.  We had gelato every day, which was a 7-year-old's dream!  Wait, who am I kidding?  It's still my dream to have ice cream or gelato every day.  Anyway, I always got the flavor "stracciatella", which is "chocolate chip" in Italian.  As you can see, the Spanish version of chocolate chip is spelled similar!  I have moved on to other flavors, but stracciatella will always hold a special place in my heart and I couldn't help but take a picture of this for old times' sake.
Lately we have been teaching a lot in the hospitals.  I have been helping Alyssa teach CPR the last couple of times.  Alyssa is our CPR queen - she has taught CPR about 10-15 times already since we've been hear.  She's taught it so many times that I'm pretty sure she could save herself if she went into cardiac arrest.  I'm kidding - you can't do that, but she still is an amazing teacher.  It also makes us think about this scene from the Office:

The Office - Stress Relief Part I (CPR Scene)

Watch it if you want to laugh your head off. But you might need to watch this scene first to get some background:

The Office - Stress Reliefe Part I (Fire Drill)

Well, I think that's it for now.  I'm just trying to get over being sick.  It's crazy to think that in one week, I will be getting on a plane to come back to the States.  Dang!