Galapagos, New Family Members, Babies, The Month of Festivals and The Definition of Family

Hemili and me in the GALAPAGOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dictionary.com defines family as any group of persons closely related by blood, as parents, children, uncles, aunts and cousins. If there is one thing this exchange has taught me, its that the definition above is completely and utterly false.  Family is what you make of it. I have had such an amazing blessing of getting to live with three families. I have gained Three mothers, Three Fathers, Four Sisters and Four Brothers to add to my Biological brother, mother, father and Japanese host sister. Through the other kids here i have been blessed to make a best friend i know i will miss tons. Hemili is my best friend in the world. I consider her as more of a sister than a best friend. Friend have come easy to me for the first time in my life. I am proud to consider most of my classmates to be close friends and my closest friends from school to be Gabi, Nicole and Andrea.  SO back to life! Since the last time I wrote, I have gone to the Galapagos, met my new baby brother, lived with the Mesias Family for a few weeks and just had so much fun!
So Galapagos! Pretty much the best trip so far! I absolutely loved it. We flew into an airport on the island of San Cristobal. We snorkeled, saw sea lions, and just hung out. We went everywhere on boat. One of the best experiences of my life. We also got to walk through the town that was there and see many a cool little shop. We also went to the island of Santa Cruz for two days. Did more walking, spent a day on the island on Floreana and got boarded by strange marine type men. Below are photos and descriptions of all the fun i had.

Jackie and me making hearts on the
 beautiful beach of Turtle Bay.

As a district we are all trying to take photos in
landmarks in our host countries. This is mine

We left for the Galapagos on the day of the Woman,
So the flight attendants gave us lollypops

I spent almost the whole time with Jackie! Love her TONS!
This was on our excursion to find bread :)

Ontop on a giant hill on one of the islands

Me and my Baby Boobies hat :)

Us in the drivers part of the boat

Me drinking fresh spring water!

Me and my amazing sister sitting on a boat! Te Quiero Hemili!

D5100 Representing in the Galapagos!

Me and a GIANT Turtle 

Partying in the front of the boat with Jackie!

Some of my best friends :)

Jackie and me at night in San Cristobal

I thought you could only find these in Hawaii, Guess i was wrong

More Jackie and Hailey Photos!

Jackie and Hailey Love :)

I really like Whales........ Julie :)

our boat where we were swimming/snorkleing

Rachel, me and Jackie on the plane!

The weird navy guys that boarded us, they were there taking
 pictures and asking why we werent inside the boat.

my absolute fav moment. I walked to close to the edge of that... There was a sea lion and it barked, so i jumped and screamed. Being the great friend Jackie is, she told me to make a scared face and she would take a pic. I took two steps back and she counted 1, 2, the sea lion barked, i screamed and she took the photo :)

Dorky me after we got off the plane

Beautiful day in the Galapagos!

Snorkeling!

Us on the BOAT! 

So i love this picture, but the turtle was so grossssss

Me and my sister :)

So after i got home from the Galapagos i went to live with the Family Mesias for a few weeks while my parents were out of the city. They were so amazing! I absolutely loved them. I had a sister my age and an older sister who was an exchange student and and older brother. With them i went to the Rodeo! Just saying, American rodeos are way better, so we just went to the part for dancing! It was so much fun! There was great music and i met a guy who was traveling through ecuador and had hooked up with some Roteract kids that introduced us because he didnt know much Spanish. After the two great weeks with the Mesias family i came back to the Mendez Family. That is when i met the newest member of my family, Marcelo André Méndez Machado

Marcelo André Méndez Machado

My beautiful sister and me last night!

So this month is the festivals of Riobamba (my city!). There was a free concert the other day that was amazing!!!!!! and last night they closed down a major section of the city and had a bunch of live music and people dancing and stuff. Next weekend is another HUGE concert with one of my favorite musicians right now Nene Malo. As of today i only have 50 days left. See you soon USA! Ta ta for now!