Hey dudes. Back from the stinky country of Ecuador.

Seriously, i've never seen such a depressing, drab, colorless place. The buildings were all blank cinder block and the people all looked miserable and sickly. Hence the medical mission.

We ended up at some ridiculous altitude at which we were actually driving through and above clouds by bus which was pretty cool but kinda freaky.

The streets are full of what ever animals want to be there. Dogs fuck all over  the place and people bring donkeys to town meetings. We kept seeing cows hanging out on street corners or being carried in the backs of pick up trucks. The main form of transport seems to be groups of people crammed into pick ups which is kinda freaky with all the huge cliffs and points in the road where you lean over the edge and stare straight down into valleys.

The mission part itself went pretty well. I was assisting my mom in dentistry along with two other dentists and another dental assistant. Between our own clinic and the clinics around us, i saw some pretty unbelievable medical things. There was a girl with a cleft palate, a lady with this weird half-ear, and an old man whose gums had completely grown over his upper canine teeth. Totally grown over. my mom thought it was jusr bone underneath the gums at first, but nope, huge, freaky teeth that took around an hour to remove.

Best medical thing: the man with the crazy eye. It was this old, 85 year old man who came into the clinic with this bandage over his eye. He had had surgery two years before and had never changed the bandage. And he wouldn't say what surgery he had had. He probably didn't know. So we took the bandage off and i swear i have never seen anything like it. His eye was basically gone except fir this little white patch in the back where the nerve endings were. The skin was missing from above his eyebrow, all around the sides, and down into the cheek. The skin that remained was all red and cracked, and the area between was swollen and pussing and gross. They cleaned his eye out and came away with this disgusting basin of puss. Of course, they decided to do this right in the station i was working in, so i got to watch the whole thing. Yay? Turned out the guy had had cancer on his eye that had spread, but the surgery didn't really remove all of the metastasis and so he still has cancer.

So, yeah, the mission days were tough, but i'm pretty glad i went. People were pretty appreciative.

At the end of the trip, after coming back from the villages surrounding Latacunga and Guaranda, we came back to Quito and got to go to all the artisan markets which was pretty cool. One day at the market, we were walking up the street when we heard this thump and a bunch of screaming and everyone crowded around this area. Everyone was saying this girl had been run over by a car. I freaked when a priest walked over from the nearest church. We were sure she was dead, but one of the doctors from the group went over to help, and turned out the girl had been hit and slammed into the wall and had only had a concussion. She survived, but after that, i basically avoided crossing streets as much as humanely possible.

But besides all that gross stuff, i got to see a whole bunch of the natives in traditional clothes and buy some really weird stuff, and see some pretty gorgeous scenery. Plus, we helped around 2,000 people in four days, including performing a c-section. cool as shit.

By the way, if you're ever offered a fruit called Chittymoya, take it. It's the most amazing fruit ever created.

So i've decided to do my first post in forever, mostly out of guilt that James has posted so much about his European adventures and i didn't post anything the whole time i was there. In my defense, computer use in Spanish hotels is ridiculously expensive. Like, two euros for fifteen minutes which just feels unnecessary, especially when you're too tired to type.

Anyway, the flight to Madrid through Munich was pretty not fun. The whole first day was probably the low point of the adventure as it included insane jetlag and nausea and a mean waiter who was personally offended when i was to sick to eat his paella. Madrid is a really gorgeous city, though. The next day we went to Seville with a stop in Cordoba which was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. La Mezquita in Cordoba (this cool old mosque turned church) was so shocking pictures really can't do it justice. Same goes for the Moorish palace in Seville and the gothic temple (where i got to see Columbus's tomb).

Day after that, we packed up for Torremolinos on the coast of the Mediterranean (yeah, i swam in the Med, bitches!). Day after that we went to Morocco after hours of bus and ferry travel. That was a pretty cool experience, though the smell in the market place is something i never want to experience again. But despite all lack of sanitation, the town there was awesome and amaxingly stereotypical. Our tour guide reminded me so much of Borat. He loved inserting phrases like "guys, please" and "you should be able to" at inapproprate places in his speech.

Day after that we left for Granada and day after that, it was Valencia where i bought some oranges that were confiscated on the plane ride home. The church cathedral in Valencia was awesome and i got to see one of the many claimed Holy Grails, and the severed arm of St. Vincent.

Next was Barcelona which was pretty freakin' sweet, especially the overload on Gaudi architecture, and the Dali house (aaaaawesome!).

Most of these cities involved three to eight hour bus rides in between, so it was, counting German cities, 10 cities and three countries in 11 days. Six fucking hotels and four flights.

I kinda dont't expect anyone to read all this, but there ya go.

Why, who are those dashing young robber barons?

dude, you guys, voice of John Waters, right here

It was the mustache that made me finally realize. Plus the pink flamingo and, you know, obvious voice.

Answer: totally Chris Ware, man.