in america.

in case you don't already know, i am back in dallas. i got in late tuesday night after a long day of delayed flights and missed connections. 

it has been great to be home so far. i've gotten to do laundry at home, eat good mexican food, and flush toilet paper down the toilet... little things that you take for granted until you don't have them for six months. 

so glad to be back! 

morgan elena stallings.

i have literally been trying to upload photos to this thing for two days. i've finally given up, so now this post is not only two days late but also pictureless. i blame it on the third world. luckily, she deserves her own post any day of the year and not just on her birthday...

over the past six and a half years, morgan (also known as gans, djganner, morghanne, morgie-poo) has become one of my favorite people to be around and one of my best friends. i met her over six years ago on bid day (i think... it was sometime around then). although i am fuzzy on the exact day, i remember one thing clearly: i immediately like her. she was easy to talk to and a lot of fun. that has not changed. 

throughout college i enjoyed attending countless date parties with her, living next door to her in the chi-o house, and taking the occasional SB trip to destin. she always brought the party... trucker hat on head and diet coke in hand. i also loved how people would always mistake her for that jcrew model. i love the memories i have of her from college. 

but i am most thankful for the past few years we've had... the dallas years. by nothing other than providence, we both moved to dallas after graduation, and instantly became what we like to call "DBs." in the sometimes rough post-college/pre-ready-to-be-an-adult phase, morgan was always there for me. i was always amazed by her ability to work long hours, then come out in her work clothes, and then go do YL stuff for a few hours. and by her ability to drive a standard while texting. she's pretty hard-core. 

i'll never forget our countless roadtrips, living room dance parties, OTH marathons or the time i made you sing to me on the beach. in the words of fall out boy: thanks for the memories. 

 you are the best, morgan. lovies. gypsies fuh life. 

"never shall i forget the days i spent with you. continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours."    --beethoven

for my sister, on her birthday.

my sister has been, without a doubt, one of the most influential people in my life. to quote my good friend jane completely out of context, "it is a truth universally acknowleged" that growing up with an older sister has a profound effect on a girl. 

i'll start from the beginning. our history is kind of funny. kerri was the model baby. not only was she born with good hair and a mild temper, she was literally a baby model. at age 2, i think. and as i imagine it, she basked in all her 4 and 1/2 years of only-child glory. 

enter: me. now, i don't really remember the early years, but as I'm told, Kerri was highly disappointed with my arrival. always good-natured, she liked the thought of my coming, but later complained that all i did was "poop and cry." 

i can't blame her. she was the first child, and the first grandchild - an experience that could only reinforce that to someone so young and influencial that she is, in fact, the shiz. then, with no one consulting her first, comes a crying, screaming, demanding baby. 

i'm afraid the following years didn't improve the situation much. i think it was at the age of 3 when i realized that i liked the spotlight. and that i caused a lot of trouble. and that i wanted to be just like paula abdul. and that i liked to make my sister make up dances to amy grant songs and teach them to me. 

i have no excuses. 

but she soon learned, and it wasn't long before she was saying, "hey, crawl through this gutter and we'll be right behind you!" only for me to look back and see no one. 

but enough about that. what i really wanted to say was thanks - to my sister, that is - for putting up with me for all those years.  thank you, for so may things: 

thank you for feathering by bangs everyday for kindergarten. who knows how i would have turned out without some decent feathered bangs. 

thanks for pushing play on the tape player all those times i demanded the family to watch me perform. and thanks for choosing quality music including wilson philips and ace of base. 

thanks for setting a fashion example by shopping at gap from the age of 12. 

thanks for keeping your room clean because it was easier for mom and dad to deal with just 1 completely out-of-control bedroom. 

thanks for getting your own phone line when you were 15, and letting me use it when I was 11. because we know i needed it.  

thanks for helping me set up my first email and IM account. I owe my middle school social life to you. 

thanks for letting me rollerblade with you and your friends when you were in high school and i was just an 8th grader. that must have been annoying. 

thanks for always supporting and loving me, no matter what kind of shananigans i was into. 

thanks for always bringing some perspective and making me laugh, when my type-a perfectionism got the best of me.  

thank you, most of all, for loving and following christ with your whole heart, and showing me how to do the same. you are the best sister. 

all of this to say... 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! last year of your twenties! woooooo!

"children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connections can supply."

-jane austen, mansfield park

this time of year.

first, i apologize for my absence from the blog (as well as for pissing morgan off - see comment on previous post. i'm sorry dear. this post is for you). while things have slowed down a bit here, the lack of updates has not been so much because of inactivity here (i still need to update on my trip to the jungle and melissa's visit), but more so because i've had so many different thoughts in my head the past month or so, and i don't know where or how to begin expressing them in pixel. 

the month of november marked month 5 of my time here. it was a tough one, but also full of saving graces. in november, the ache of missing people reached new places. the luster of all this adventure began to fade and i noticed more and more the inefficiencies and annoyances of living in a third-world country. i started to feel a little resentment in my chest as i thought about missing engagements, birthdays, baby showers and funerals these past few months. my heart had already gone back to Texas. 

on november 23, i noted in my journal that the concept of home seemed so distant. the holidays were approaching and i was missing home, or more accurately, the people who are there. three days later, a great friend arrived to spend thanksgiving here, bringing a piece of home (and pumpkin!) with her. it was just what i needed, and suddenly i realized how much i had to be thankful for. 

and now this season of advent seems so appropriate. it is a season of waiting, of anticipation, and of hope - the exact feelings i have in relation to my return. just the thought of it makes me smile. 

So here's to the waiting that brings hope, and the hope that brings life.  

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, 

For love would be the love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

But with the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. 

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for though: 

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing. 

- T.S. Eliot

mateys, beware.

you think america has problems? 

that rapidly decreasing DOW is nothing. yesterday, i received an email from the quito consular with subject line "warden message: piracy concerns off ecuador coast." 

that's right, pirates. who even knew those still existed? 

the subject line is usually as far as i get on these warden emails, but i figured this one was worth the read. and i was right.  

The U.S. Consulate General and U.S. Embassy Ecuador wish to inform American citizens visiting or resident in Ecuador to use extreme caution when sailing near the coast of Ecuador, as there was a recent incident of armed robbery at sea off the coast of Ensenada de Pedernales, Manabi by modern day pirates. Recreational craft, merchant vessels and fishing boats are all at risk of attack by pirates. This incident highlights the continuing danger of maritime travel of the coast of Ecuador.... Before planning a trip at sea, research anti-piracy measures.

oh, ok, good to know. i will be sure and do that, warden. pirates? seriously? 

futbol.

and by that i mean soccer. and by that i mean south american soccer.

this past sunday my roommates, along with some ecuadorians, and i went to an authentic south american soccer game. deportiva quito vs. barcelona (which are both ecuadorian teams - i don't get it either). all the people i was with were going for barcelona, and they informed me it would be beneficial to my livelihood if i rooted for barcelona as well. little did i know it would be beneficial not only for my livelihood, but also for my actual life. 

i decided to go along with it since i thought barcelona's black and yellow uniforms looked cooler. 

we arrive to the stadium to find the fans seated in entirely different sections, separated by tall fences. that's interesting, i thought. 

go barcelona.

i knew soccer was a big deal here, but i had no idea just how big it was. i have never seen anything like it... streamers, flags, horns, puffs of team-colored smoke. and cheers to the tune of "llora, quito, llora." meaning, "cry, quito, cry." it was like an aggie game on crack. and that's saying something. 

the game ended in a supremely anticlimactic tie. this non-even, however, did not stop the fans from throwing pilsener bottles, trash, half-eaten hot dogs and anything else they could find over the 12-foot partitian. never had i felt so grateful for chain-link, and never had i made such an effort to exit so quickly from a jam-packed stadium. 

"some people believe soccer is a matter is a matter of life and death. i'm very disappointed with that attitude. i can assure you, it is much, much more important than that."      --bill shankley

take heed.

my sister sent me some advice on how to act now that Obama has been elected. i guess she thought i could use some help? huh. 

5 things white people shouldn't do. 

she also sent me some advice for black people. just in case i decide to become a black person, maybe? i do like fried chicken and rap music. again, huh. 

5 things black people shouldn't do. 

"see, it's not about races, just places, faces. where your blood comes from, it's where your space is. i've seen the bright get duller, i'm not going to spend my life being a color."   

-L.T.B. rap performance from MJ's Black or White

pro-life.

I just saw this video this morning on Randy Alcorn's blog. His blog highlights some critical points about Obama's stance on abortion. The video is extremely graphic but sheds light on an issue that has been somewhat overshadowed this election.




I hope you go vote today... and think and pray before you do.

elsie in ecuador: the rundown.

*i wrote this blog yesterday morning, and i have been trying to upload pictures to go with it ever since. i guess blogger just doesn't want you to see them. for now, check out my picasa albums for illustrations. 

as you know, LC came to Ecuador last week to visit. it was a week of firsts in more ways than one. it was the LC's first time out of the country, first time to throw toilet paper in the trash can instead of the toilet, and the first time that she's ever realized that international travel is c-o-o-l. she was my first visitor in ecuador. for both of us, it was the first time to climb to the top of the basilica, bike down cotapaxi, and hike through the andes. here are some highlights of the trip, in somewhat of a chronological order.

day 1: LC's bday. we spent the day exploring quito's artisan market and old town. LC started off the week right by making me pose with her for a ridiculous number of self-timer pics, buying a ton of ecuadorian crap, and mocking tourists. it was a hella good time.

one of our many self-timer pics inside the basilica.

day 2: cotapaxi. who wouldn't think biking down the world's tallest active volacano isn't a brilliant idea? apparently, LC, among others. but i thought it sounded like fun and i was planning the trip. to our surprise and delight, this idea was a winner. we both loved the ride, and we met some crazy continental airline employees who are hopefully going to hook us up with some sweet buddy passes if we send them our millions of amazing pictures.

after the bike ride, we hitched a ride with out guide (bikingdutchman.com) all the way to quilotoa. we arrived to quilotoa, a small indigenous village in the mountains, around 5:30pm. we were somewhere around 15,000 feet and it was COLD. i mean, we layered on all 5 pieces of clothing we had in our backpacks, hats and gloves included. we did, however, get to see some quilotoans practice their dances and songs for some sort of upcoming indigenous festival. very authentic.


day 3: hike from quilotoa to chugchilan. you might be wondering why we would go to some random, tiny indigenous village in the mountains to freeze our buns off in a ghetto-fabulous hostal. just look at the pictures... that wouldn't load! ugh.

laguna quilotoa is an old volcano that now has a lake in the crater and it is absolutely breathtaking. we hiked around a portion of it in the morning en route to chugchilan, our next destination. my lonely planet book recommended hiking from one village to the next, siting it as one of ecuador's most "enchanting experiences." enchanting it was, easy, or even moderately difficult, it was not. that hike was straight up hard. my legs are still a little sore. but i LOVED it. it was probably my favorite part of the whole trip.

LC loved it to, just had a slightly different way of expressing it. (will try to post pictures again later... her expressions were priceless). 

"are you kidding me, ecuador?!... screw the andes... if only i were in america, i could call someone and tell them to get their ass and their car over here and pick me up...."

after 4.5 gruelling hours, we made it to our destination: chugchilan's black sheep inn - our splurge for the week. a bit pricier than your average $10 a night hostal, but well worth it. it is an eco-friendly lodge with amazing food, comfy beds, and warm rooms. we met lots of interesting people here too, which was fun.


day 4: travel back to quito. this day was pretty low-key, which was good considering neither of us could really walk. nothing much to speak of. our driver did stop on the way home to let me go to the bathroom "a natural." that was neat. and, we went to dinner at one of my favorite places, vista hermosa (which means "beautiful view"). it's on a rooftop and has great views of the city. the clouds were pretty.


day 5: papallacta. still having trouble walking, we decided to head to papallacta, a little town about 1.5 hours from quito that has natural hot springs. we thought it would be good for the muscles. it was. then, we hitchhiked home. oops. turns out, hitchhiking isn't so scary after all! roberto was really nice, and even bought me lunch at an ecuadorian truck stop.


it was such a great trip, and we had so much fun. not only did we get to explore ecuador and hike through the andes, but i got to see my bestie and have a little piece of home here for a week.



"life gives us brief moments with one another... but sometimes in those brief moments we get memories that last a lifetime."

elsie in ecuador.

i know you are all dying to hear about LC's big trip. we had a b-last. so much fun. i will try to post some funny stories later, but for now pictures are better than nothing! i've been playing around with a new online gallery... click the picture or the link to view.





Click here to see my whole gallery of photos

feliz cumpleanos, elsie.

lauren-nicki is 25 today. and here are 25 of the reasons i love her. 

25. she is in ecuador today. 

24. she loves politics, america, arkansas and wal-mart. 

23. she can always make me laugh. hard.  

22. she has great hair. and will tell you about it. 

21. she can recite the presidents in chronological order. 

20. she loves to take pictures and document everything.

19. she recorded every episode of SYTYCD for me, and brought them to ecuador!

18. she wears really cool glasses/sunglasses.  

17. people often stop us on the street and ask her if she is nancy mckeon. 

16. she has great taste in music. 

15. she burns great CDs. 

14. her dance moves are outta-control bad-a. 

13. she has 1,479 friends on facebook. and claims to have a "personal relationship" with each. 

12. she is helping write this blog... JK! kinda. 

11. her skin is really, really clear. 

10. her fashion motto is "you can't go wrong with a polo and pearls." and she doesn't shop at abercrombie and fitch. 

9. she is friends with my sister. and pat. 

8.  one of her love languages is facebook wall-posts. 

7. she has a dog named susan. she's also had dogs named jennifer, shannon michelle, robert, and jason. 

6. she likes to watch documentaries with me. 

5. she "trained" to come on this trip. 

4. she calls or skypes me an average of 3x per week. 

3. she's well-endowed. and she puts up with me trying to making her uncomfortable. 

2. she is the most loyal friend i've ever had. 

1. she loves jesus and others so well, and with her life, challenges me to do the same. 

love you LC!!! thanks for being my BFFAE. 

this is my confession.

sometimes, i just want to look people in the face and scream, I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU! 

in english. 

scussi?

*this post had to take a short hiatus due to the fact that my mom was surprising my dad with this puppy... or, in my opinion, not telling him so that he wouldn't say no. the puppy is now home, and the blog is back. 

so, i got an email from my mother today informing me that she is getting a new puppy. one to be friends with kaiser, our current dog. i can´t even explain how jealous i am. i mean, puppies are my FAVORITE. look at this lil punkin. mom, why do you have to get a puppy when live in a different country?!? i just can´t wait to meet this lil guy.


in other news, i just got my fancy new multiple-entry visa. i am officially a resident of ecuador. whoop.

brilliant sunday.

sundays have become somewhat traditional here in quito... brunch followed by a soccer game in the park. a bunch of the people at work play on a team together. i am, of course, the full-time cheerleader. this sunday, though, we mixed it up a bit and went to quitofest after the game - quito's version of ACL. we were only there for a few hours on sunday afternoon, but we heard some great hip-hop reggae. it's all the rage. 

the classic self-portrait with heads cut off. from top, clockwise: faruq (top), me, milton, malena (she's suisse!). faruq and milton are our star soccer players, and make for excellent spanish conversation partners.

milton took one for the team in order for us to get a "real" picture. 

view of the stage and park. lots of people.

the sky looked cool. notice the bowling pins flying through the air. there were jugglers.

view of quito from the park. bottom center is the basilica, and that big hill is pichincha.

"a sunday well-spent brings a week of content."  --anon. 

thoughts from joe.

seems like coffee always provokes good conversation when accompanied by a friend, and clear thoughts when alone. i was just thinking about this the other day over my cafe con leche, and today i decided to blog it. 

for the past six years of my life, i have been surrounded by people who love jesus. it has been such a blessing... the lord gave me the most solid friends and loving family i could ask for. now, for the first time in my life, i can count the number of christians i know (here) on one... finger. one of my students, geovanna. she is probably in her forties and is married with kids. i don't think we'll be hanging out much. 

the point is, the people i spend time with day in and day out do not believe in jesus, and probably think i'm a little crazy for doing so. they don't understand why i don't get drunk, never want to smoke pot with them, or why i'm the only one who hasn't "hooked up" with anyone yet. 

this aspect of life has undoubtedly been challenging, but completely refreshing at the same time. when faced with peopled who do not understand your lifestyle, it makes you consider, really think about, why you live your life the way you do. when "that's the way everyone around me does it" is no longer an option. that was never really the reason, but now i know it, and i am reminded of it daily. like my alarm clock reminds me to wake up in the morning, i am reminded of it. 

now, i know that i'm okay with being looked at differently, with being somewhat of an "outsider" for the cause of christ. and i am certain that the momentary struggles here will not, cannot compare with what is to come. 

there's joy in that.

"in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith --more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:6-7

chocolate chip cookies and football.

i'm watching monday night football right now. dallas v philadelphia. and i'm into it. like, i am loving it. it's weird. 

but i think i know why. 

as much as i'm enjoying this adventure here in ecuador, there are a few things i miss. some things that have surprised me, and some not at all surprising. like, this week, i started to really miss football. aggies. cowboys. china spring cougars. my thoughts have been with them all. 

i also realized tonight that i haven't had a chocolate chip cookie since i got here. that's two and a half months. has got to be some kind of record. in my dallas days, i was at JD's chippery weekly, if not bi-weekly... ok maybe every other day for a fresh semi-sweet and regular one-pump vanilla dc.

those days are gone. 

the weird thing is, i just now noticed it. just today. it is funny how some of the little comforts of home are not really comforts at all. what has comforted me here has not been chocolate chip cookies, but something much, much richer. 

but, at least for tonight i can enjoy some good ol' texas football, even if i am sitting on the most uncomfortable futon-couch ever made. comfort is mine. 

"if you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair."     -- c.s. lewis

listen to this.

this song not only not only tells the story of the incredible journey the larsens have gone through the past few months, but is a great reminder of what a precious gift we have been given - life. 

life's song.

"more things are wrought in prayer than the world dreams of."    --alfred lord tennyson

just some random details concerning my life in ecuador.

it seems like my blog posts are getting fewer and far between, and i apologize. it is not for lack of happenings. life has picked up a bit lately. i finally have an actual routine, complete with three hours of spanish class a day. and while nothing super significant has happened, some little funny things have happened. after all, life is in the details...





that makes me uncomfortable.

i´m not that easily embarassed, but a few things have made me really uncomfortable in the past few weeks.


first, we don´t have a washer/dryer in our apartment. this is normal. it is also completely normal for one to take their clothes to a lavanderia - a laundromat, of sorts, where they do the laundry for you. well last week was the first time i had to take my laundry... literally all of it. i was confident in my choice of lavanderia because i had gotten a recommendation from a friend - near the apartment and has the low price of 35 cents per pound. not bad. i hauled, i think, 15 pounds of laundry there, almost all of my clothing, and definitely all of the *neccessities. i handed my massive laundry bag to the hombre and, to my detriment, he proceeded to count out every single peice of clothing before placing it in the scale... every shirt, every sock, and every pair of underwear. just a little uncomfortable, but i´m getting used to it.

also, it´s pretty obvious that one of my students has a crush on me. he likes to make little comments about it in class. i´m not saying this out of conceit. believe me, you do not want an ecuadorian 19-year-old to have a crush on you.



bus stories.
we take a lot of bus trips in ecuador. they realy aren´t too bad. usually pretty ghetto-fabulous with fringe hanging from the windows and orange carpet on the ceiling. if you´re lucky, sequins and at least one virgin mary figurine.



on many of these bus trips, however, there were three of us (leah, dani, me), forcing one of us to sit alone. naturally, i found myself sitting by ecuadorian strangers more than once. this is where you have to try to play your cards right and not end up beside someone who doesn´t value personal hygiene or drools and/or snores while sleeping.



my favorite stranger to share a seat with so far was santos. santos is a preshy little indigenous man who wasn´t afraid to strike up a conversation with a gringa. he was the first indigenous person i had a real conversation with, maybe because most of them speak only quichua, but also because i had always been afraid to talk to them.



in our short time beside each other, i learned that he had eight kids, five girls and three boys, he lived a little ways outside of quito, and that he taught quichua, among other things. he also looked out for my belongings when i dozed off. it was just a neat experience to talk to someone who clearly came from quite a different world.




and another neat thing happened.



on these buses, it seems at every stop, at least a few people get on to sell their good of choice. usually food of some sort. they walk around and offer samples, and make another round for people to purchase.



so on one of these particular bus rides, we were famished. like, probably about to just waste away. finally, a man gets one selling some type of nut, or chip, or little fried thing. i don´t know. as he walked around offering samples, dani waves him over, ¨she wants one!¨she says, pointing to leah. so naturally starving leah takes the sample. i tasted it too.



tasted like a mixture of burnt peanuts, lard, and... hmmm... dirty gym sock juice.



he comes back around and when leah politely declined to purchase, he was not happy. he gave her a good, long glare, and under his breath uttered a certain spanish superlative, ¨puta.¨



that´s spanish for bitch.





home.

i finally have a home! we moved in two weeks ago, and wasted no time getting settled in. after nearly two months of living out of a suitcase and hopping from host family, to hotel, to hostel, having a place to nest could not come soon enough.

and now that i´m here, in my nest, reality is setting in. my life here is real, and semi-permanent. i´ll admit that the first month or two felt somewhat like a vacation, or at least like an extended study abroad program. but for three weeks now, i have gone to a real job, bought things like sheets and towels, and got my own set of keys to my apartment. i really live here. it's still a little unbelievable, but i like it. i like it a lot.

banos pictures!

baños!

a is for adrenaline. b is for baños.

i'm kind of a homebody. i mean, i love to travel and go on adventures, but i also love resting and staying in for a night of sex and the city and takeout. that is why last weekend, i almost did not go on our last group trip, to baños. it had been a long week - the first of work, complete with two days of puking my guts out and sharing a tiny hostel room with two other people... i wasn't exactly a walking mountain dew ad. not to mention that we had been on multiple-hour buses for what seemed like the past 67 consecutive weekends.

but, everyone else was going. and i'm 24 and still a sucker for peer pressure.

friday night, we got on a bus around 10:30pm. four hours later, we're in banos. not to worry - breakfast wasn't until the ripe hour of 8am, to be immediately followed by some sort of outdoor adventure. do they have red bull in ecuador?

the next day, somehow, i'm up at at 'em right on time for coffee, juice and bread (a typical ecua-breakfast, a sorry excuse for one, if you ask me). at breakfast our options were presented to us: repelling down waterfalls in t minus 20 (a 3-4 hour feat), or a leisurely hour-long horseback ride up the mountain, taking off in an hour. most of the group chose the latter.

naturally, i chose the former.


and i was so glad i did. repelling down waterfalls is f-u-n. we went down four, the last one being about a 150 foot drop. we also made friends with our guide, paolo, who proceeded to invite us to go climbing with him (for free!) that afternoon.

um, ok.

we hiked to a wall that looked just like the one from princess bride. amazing. i had so much fun, it made me want to start climbing regularly. the funny thing is, i didn't once feel tired or notice my fatigue that day. adrenaline is real thing, my friend. and while red-bull is hard to come by here, there is a strikingly similar knock-off that tastes pretty good. pretty, pretty good.

that night we had a typical ecua-night... dinner and dancing, which was a mix of regular and salsa. by 12:30, i was having to prop my eyelids open with toothpics. i finally called it a day and hit the pillow, maybe harder than ever.

in the end, i was definitely glad i chose to forgo a little rest to experience a once-in-a-lifetime kind of weekend.

"those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music."

--angela monet