So¡¡ Next week will mark my fourth week at Santa Lucia. The time has really flown by incredibly, incredibly fast. It has been a fun, but challenging month. I´ve never done so much physical labor or gotten so much exercise in my entire life. Or spoken so much Spanish either.

Speaking of physical exercise. I am happy to report that in response to my former question posed, has Chloe made out with any Ecuadorians yet?, I can now give a definitive, yes. Yes indeed.

His name is Jorge. He lives in Nanegal and is related to Santa Lucia, although he´s not actually up at the lodge that often. I´ve really only been hanging out with him on weekends, which is good because it leaves me to flirt with the workers up at the lodge. For some reason I find myself being much more forward in Spanish than in English. Sometimes I say things and I think, oh my God, did that really just come out of my mouth? At least I´m putting to good use all the new vocabulary they are teaching me.

Anyway, back to Jorge. He is tall, dark, and handsome, and, not surprisingly, younger than me. Twenty-two to be exact. I know, I know, shut up. But who the hell cares? He also speaks no English, which is great, because it gives me a great opportunity to practice Spanish. Killing two birds with one stone, if you will. Also, he is making my time in Nanegal at lot more fun, because, let´s face it, there´s not a whole lot to do here. But Jorge knows like every single person in town, so we just go at hang out in the square or whatever and I meet all sorts of random people.

There is, however, a problem with this situation. I don´t actually like him THAT much. I mean, I do, but he kind of bugs me. He wants me to be his freaking girlfriend and like, relocate to Ecuador, though I think recently I´ve made my point about THAT. So..I´m not sure what to do. Keep hanging out with him for lack of anything else to do? Break it off because I´m not that interested anyway? I really don´t want to hurt him; he´s really sweet and surprisingly sensitive.

Okay, next problem. Remember that guy Edison I mentioned a few emails ago who works at the lodge, the one who I said I had a crush on but I didn´t think he liked me? Well, I´ve made pretty good friends with Anita, the cook at the lodge. She´s my homegirl up there. We talk. Of course everybody and their mother knows about me and Jorge (and you can´t even IMAGINE the shit I´ve been getting about it), but I´ve probably talked more about it with her than with anybody else. I also told her I liked Edison, and, as any good girlfriend would, she asked on my behalf if he liked me – not mentioning the fact of course that I had asked her to do this. And he DOES like me. And he was GOING to tell me, but then Jorge swooped in. That might even be the fact WHY Jorge swooped in, I don´t know. I´ve liked Edison from the beginning; I didn´t start living Jorge until he brought it up.

The plot thickens. Jorge and Edison are BEST FRIENDS. What the hell am I supposed to do??? If I drop Jorge and hook up with Edison, I will no doubt be from then on known to all of Nanegal as the American slut, not to mention the fact that I could do some serious damage to their lifelong friendship. Why oh why do I have to live the life of a woman in a Venezuelan telenovela??

Well, Anita promised me she was going to talk to Edison again and tell him he needs to talk to me. We´ll see what happens. Either way, I would like to talk to him about it. My friend and fellow volunteer Brian told me I definitively could not do anything with Edison. And well, I probably shouldn´t. But damn it, I´m on vacation. What if I break it off with Jorge beFORE hand, and conveniently hook up with Edison a few days later? Would THAT be okay?? *sigh* I don´t know what to do…I´ve never been on this side of the equation before.

Why can´t I ever have this sort of problem in the US? Maybe it has something to do with my being more forward in Spanish? Maybe it has something to do with my J-lo style junk in the trunk? Remember the other guy I mentioned in my last email, Wilson? The one I said I thought probably liked me, but he was WAY too young, like 19? Well, the other week he kept bugging me and bugging me and bugging me until I was finally cajoled into kissing him – no big deal, pretty g-rated. But still. Then, I found out last week – from his mom – that he is not in fact 19, but in fact 17. Jesus. I feel like Mary Kay Laturneaux.

Anyhoo, enough about my silly love life. Like I said, life at the lodge is good. My Spanish is improving, I´m getting in shape, it´s fun. My birthday was on Thursday and I turned the big 26. By Ecuadorian standards I should at least have three kids by now. I´m so behind. I better get on that. No, but it was fun. One of the workers Julio plays the guitar and Anita and Maria know the words to a bunch of folk songs, so we had kind of an impromptu dance party. We drank a bunch of rum and made this alcohol out of sugar cane juice. Unfortunately though, I didn´t get drunk enough to make out with Edison.

I feel pretty settled here, pretty comfortable. Maybe too comfortable? I´m nervous about moving on again. All my old fears are coming back, worried about doing it by myself, finding people to hang out with, getting the right bus, etc. Should I just get a move on before it´s too late? I don´t know what to do¡¡ There are a couple friends I would like to visit, but it´s really hard to coordinate because I don´t have good email access. I don´t know what my next step will be, but I think I will be here for a few more weeks at least. Assuming hopefully that the entire town doesn´t turn against me if I dump Jorge for Edison. Could I possibly, just possibly, pull off the date and switch? Stay tuned to find out.