At the mo´ I am in Quito, with Jorge. Yes, still with Jorge. I tried to break up with him, and I did, sucessfully, for about a week, but it didn´t stick. My suggestion about the date and switch? Don´t do it. It doesn´t work.

Yea, so I broke up with Jorge because he was basically driving me nuts. He´s a real good dude..he has a good heart and he´s bastante tranquilo, but he keeps bugging the CRAP out of me!! It´s hard to explain..we just don´t communicate that well. We don´t have the same sense of humor. He keeps doing these annoying little things, and I say to myself, Chloe, let it go. You´re only with this guy for another week and a half, then you´re free! Take advantage of the ass while you can! Don´t look a gift horse in the mouth! But no, I don´t take my own advice. Instead of just letting these little annoyances go, I have to bring it up. Then he totally doesn´t get what I´m talking about, which makes me more frustated, I end up being a heinous bitch, I feel guilty, we get along well for about another half a day, and then the cycle begins again. I am way more trouble than I am worth to this dude. I don´t even understand why he likes me! I wouldn´t be putting up with me, that´s for sure.

Also though, I have spent like the last five days with him nonstop, which probably doesn´t help. I originally broke up with him for all the above reasons, but also because of the Edison thing. Whom I still like more than Jorge, but what are you going to do. I actually DID get up the nerve to talk to Edison about this whole thing (took me about two weeks to do it). I´m glad I talked to him about it, because now everything is on the table, but elas, nothing is going to happen with him. Not that I really thought it would, but it was worth a shot. But once again, it has been proven that a bird in the hand is indeed better than two in the bush.

I feel bad though. I have really done this boy Jorge kind of wrong. I´ve never really hurt anyone before, but I seriously hurt this dude when I broke up with him. He was like, seriously depressed. His friends were telling me, ¨I´ve never SEEN him like this!! It´s like he wants to DIE!!¨ This of course did not make me feel very good about myself. I have been very, very selfish with him, is the truth. And then, after I broke up with him, smooshed his little Latin heart into a million pieces, he wanted me back!! WTF? Can I seriously do no wrong with this guy? I even told him about the whole Edison thing, all that business. Now at least though I think I have been enough of a heinous bitch that at least he doesn´t want to marry me anymore.

Anyway, so I´ve kind of been traveling with him this week. Over the weekend we went to Ibarra up north a bit. Now we´re in Quito. There are like a billion fiestas going on right now because of the anniversary of Quito´s idependence or something. Yesterday though I spent all day in bed being lame because I was hung over from Monday. I felt pretty stupid about that, but oh well. Hopefully I´ll do better tonight, but I´m not sure.

Anyhoo, I feel like I´m complaining too much. On to other things.

During the week when I was broken up with Jorge, I visited my friend Marissa who was volunteering at a hacienda lodge hotel thing in the pàramo. The place is at about 12,000 feet, and you can definitely feel the thinness in the air. It´s beautiful up there with all these rolling hills, ice-covered mountains, great views. Wild horses and bulls in the mountains. I hiked around a bit and rode a horse a few times. I know, Chloe, riding a horse? Almost as funny at Chloe using a machete. But yes indeed, I rode a horse -- chaps, poncho and all. Course they gave me the calmest horse, and I almost fell off at one point, and I could barely persuade him to do more than trot, but whatever. It was fun.

It was pretty freaking cold up there though. Although not as cold as you might thing at 12,000 feet. We are basically directly on the equator after all.

Anyway, after that little visit I went back to the lodge. It was then that I decided I was being retarded with Jorge and decided to give it another whirl. This is, of course, after I tried with Edison and it didn´t work. God I´m awful!! I´m still confused. I just have to keep reminding myself that this situation is nothing that grave, after all. He is in general sweet and cute. Metrosexual, actually. Dresses way nicer than me and takes a shower like thre times a day. We just don´t have that much in COMMON, is the problem. I don´t know why he doesn´t see this as much as I do. He´s from a tiny town in Ecuador and has left the country I think one time in his life. I´m from all over the place in the US and have traveled to a bunch of countries. I have a university education, he went to school until he was 12. Perhaps this is the root of our communication problems. But at least he still knows more Spanish than I do. And when he tries to speak English, it is absolutely precious.

Bla. What is your PROBLEM, Chloe? I´m going through a personal crisis I think. Well probably what it is is that it is time to move on. I´m probably going to be at the lodge this weekend, then I have one more week. Then for Christmas and New Year´s I´m flying to the Galápagos to spend the holidays with my homegirl Christina. That should be awesome. So..I think what my problem really is is that I´m ready to get a move on. Although I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at the lodge and will miss it lots, as well as the people in it. Especially the people in it, I should say. I am definitely the type of person who likes to stick around in one place for a significant period of time, rather than move around all over the place. It´s very tiring to travel actually. Fun, but tiring.

That´s about all that is new in my life. Trying to work some things out I guess. And sometimes, I just want to speak English SO BAD...I haven´t spoken any significant English in a few weeks now. At least my Spanish is getting pretty good, if I do say so.