I´m here, alive, and well!

Hola de Ecuador!
Finally I´ve gotten a chance to update. It´s been really hard to get on computers, because the computers at CIMAS are ridiculously busy all the time and it´s nearly impossible to get a turn. Anyway, I´m here and my family seems nice. So far it seems like my mom is talkative, smart, and very nice and my dad is a little quiet. He is a retired military man, and now he has a cow farm (finca de vacas) in the mountains where he spends about three days a week. My mom stays at home and cooks and cleans, and unlike many families we don´t have a maid. I feel a little awkward around my family around mealtime, because the families here don´t seem to eat together, which is a big change from home. And whenever I want food, my mom tells me to sit down and gives me SO MUCH FOOD. Either they eat a lot here, or they think Americans eat a lot and they give us a lot to eat. Pretty much every lunch and dinner there is soup, rice, some type of meat, sometimes salad, bread, juice of some type (this morning it was naranjilla, an orange-like fruit that we don´t have in the states), jelly, sometimes coffee (yes mom and dad, I am starting to drink coffee). Breakfasts are equally huge, with eggs, fruit, juice, coffee, and bread. The coffee they have here is very different, because here they heat up milk and add coffee crystals, so it is much less bitter and much weaker than in the US. Think a weak Cafe au Lait, and that´s what you get here. OK, more about my family: I also have a 26 year old sister, who is writing her thesis for her architecture masters or doctorate, I´m not sure which. And I have a nearly 22-year-old brother who is in college studying music, though I think he studies fiestas more than musica. So far my sister is my favorite; she always seems happy to see me and chats a lot, though she doesn´t go out or do very much other than work, study, and do things with their church (My family is evangelical, though they don´t try to convert me :) and I don´t think they drink at all because there hasn´t been any alcohol in the house).
The last two days we spent at an Ecoresort called Sapos y Ranas in the town of Bancos, which is bonitisimo. We hiked through the jungle and swam in a river, as well as in a swimming pool, and made bread and juice from sugar cane and lime and milked a cow. One thing I really liked about Bancos is there there are chickens wandering all over the place, though they are very colorful with brown and red feathers or black and white spots. I took a few photos of them. When we were milking the cows, a few of the brave chickens would come up to the cows and start trying to eat their food, and then the cows would moo at them and kind of shoo them away with their heads and the chickens would all scatter. It was pretty funny.
Today, we went to the mall to look around and so I could buy shampoo and a razor, which I forgot to pack, and now Becca and Nora Skelly and I are in an internet cafe. So everything is pretty cool. Tonight we´re going out somewhere to dance or something. Tomorrow we´re going to go to Quito Antiguo around the churches. They close off the roads on Sundays so people can ride bikes around the markets. I think I´ll try to attend some of the Catholic masses around here at the old churches so I can see them and see what mass is like here, and see if I can follow it en español!
I´ve got to go, I would love to get replies to my posts so I can keep up with what you guys are doing! Adios!