Too much to tell...

From daily to weekly to once a month. My blogging skills seem to be getting worse and worse as time goes on her in ecuador. There is no way that I can possibly remember every little trifling detail of these past few weeks, not that it would be that interesting to know everything that I have done in class and eaten anyways. So, I guess I will just go point by point of what I can remember that seems slightly important.
Modelado...yay for clay. Finally finished up with the skulls and I greatly enjoyed destroying them and getting ready for the next project. Now we have been working on retratos which is not very easy for me. I like the employee who is being our head model and talk to him a lot, but other than that the contours and profile are continually messing me up. At least Howard is understanding and is helping me with tips here and there. It is not going to look great by the time I turn it in, but at least i do not need this class for anything back in the states.
Tae kwon do, the class I was so excited about is losing my interest quickly. The teacher is not very good and I still do not know how to block properly. I cannot wait to take lessons in the states where I will actually be taught everything in an understandable sequence. I do manage to get into trouble in that class for talking too much. Any other class I am more or less a model student, but not this one. I really do try but sometimes I am really tired or the repetitious activities are just ridiculous. So, I talk, in spanish and english. And, I get punished¨ for my little crimes of sociability. No worries, the worst punishment is bringing pizza to class and I found gummy pizza for tomorrow. :)
Enough about class for the moment and onto better and more exciting things. Like trips! Mindo was a fabulous trip! So much vegetation and plenty to do. It was the first time I had ever stayed in a hostal and I did enjoy it. Waking up to a rooster was not much fun but watching fluttering hummingbirds as i ate breakfast was great. We hiked up to a waterfall, Christy jumped in it incorrectly and got bruised, we played in the icy cold water and even zip-lined for free. No need to explain how we pulled that one off. We even had like a mini tour guide in the form of an 11 year old boy who just kind of followed us around and told us how to get to where we wanted to go. Unfortunately, we had not planned very well and did not stay for nearly long enough and a return trip is now in the works. I might eventually even get the pictures online.
My attention span is pretty lacking right now and being in front of a computer for so long (I was registering for spring classes earlier) is not helping. So, this measly glimpse into the past couple weeks will have to suffice because I need some fresh air even if it is cold and rainy outside.

Another Monday, Another Week Gone By

Though it is not really necessary for me to report, I am not the best bloggers in the world considering I do not write new posts regularly. I do believe that this is just going to have to become a weekly thing, which is good since if I actually wrote everyday then there would be way more information about my daily life than anyone really could ever want to know. That being said it is time for e to try and remember what all I have done in the last week.
Last Monday could not have been all that interesting considering I cannot remember much about it except basketball practice going-ons. Marcos chilled out in the gym with me for a while and helped me with some of my homework for a class the next day but eventually he got irritated that he could not get any work done, mainly because I would not shut up. He also had other work that he could do in the editing lab that would not require much concentration so he could put up with my incessant chatting. The tennis team ran with the basketball teams that day to warm-up, and might I just say that there is a very nice looking tennis player. Alas, he is an athlete which means I am staying far away lol. The editing lab was pretty cool and I messed around there for a little while, and then rode back home with Christy. Tuesday was basically as boring since the skulls were not turned in during modelado, I got an even crappier partner in tae kwon do and really wanted to fall asleep in my last class of the day. When people say never say it cannot get any worse listen to them. I regret ever saying anything bad about the blond girl since my tiny new partner was terrified of me and kicks and did such a bad job holding the pads that I tore some skin off of two toes. On the other hand, her bad positioning of the pads meant skin torn off her thumbs from my kicking. How thrilling Tuesday was as one may see.
Wednesday was filled with doing homework on the bus on my way to school and trying to find a ax machine. You see, on Tuesday I printed out these forms from NCSU for Christy and me so that we could go ahead and get them filled out and signed and faxed. Well, they did get filled out and signed but they are still not faxed yet. You may think it is not that hard to get around to but yet it somehow has been for us. I was quite happy that Wednesday was the last day Christy would be going to basketball practice for the week since sitting around can get pretty boring. I went shopping instead of being bored out of my mind since little Manualita had turned 4 the day before. The perfect gift for her in my mind was makeup since the child loves the stuff and puts it all over her face to the point of looking like an adorable clown. I was also searching for fabric to make a fleece blanket for Gaby and baby Alejandro who will be born in October. No such luck but exploring was indeed fun. Thursday came around and we started off the day right by being late to class. Christy was running behind and then Rosario wanted to chat. At least we were only a few minutes late. I had four different partners that day in tae kwon do, one of them being Christy which made up for being stuck with the scared girl again. The professor also decided to chastise us for talking too much in both English and Spanish and for Christys cussing. Therefore we have to bring pizza for the class tomorrow. Christy is also going to be providing liquor. I said I would not chip in for the Zhumir. Anyways, modelado was fairly boring since the skulls still were not due. I started to put on the facial muscles and then started goofing off with Carla who was working on the eyes and mouth. At one point we were bored enough with our work that Carla gave me a clay eye ball to put in my skull and then made a tongue for my skull. Even Howard our professor cracked up over it and the last minutes of class were spent repositioning the eye and tongue for comic relief. I am so happy that the skulls are due tomorrow and that we are finally moving on, even though Carla and I have started moving on already.
The rest of classes on Thursday were fairly bland as I was in ready expectation of going to the baby shower with Christy and Rosario. It was fabulous and quite an estrogen overload. There were hand-knitted baby clothes hanging up, napkins cut out in the shape of baby clothes with little bows on them, a cake with the name Alejandro on it and plenty more. The games were also fairly amusing. Christy won the word search one and receive a set of knives and i was close to winning the game of fetching the safety pins out of the rice without looking. Lost by two. It could only have been more fun if I had not hurt my foot earlier that day. Yes, I kicked with all my might and not much form that morning hurting my dear right foot. The university clinic had to get me a bandage and some ibuprofen. It still bothers me a little bit even now so I am going to have to behave tomorrow in class and not over do it. Back to the baby shower. My favorite part had to be teasing Christy about Juan Pablito who Rosario wants Christy to marry. We joked that Christy could get an extravagant baby shower like that one if she had a baby with Juan Pablo. She was not amused with it but we were having too much fun with it all.
Friday was the day I had an essay due and a quiz in my one class. To top that off I had to bring chocolate for the class for being caught talking in English. The bright side was that I discovered a new type of chocolate that I simply love. The down side was that after the quiz we had to listen to an oral presentation and an ensuing argument over racism. Bleh! That will have to be my only comment about the whole experience. I did not stay after class to mess around in the ceramics taller and instead headed back to Quito to watch Ghost with Christy to mourn the death of Patrick Swayze. On my way back I got followed again, but this time by a youth. Christy was good enough to chat with me on the cell phone and the kid left me alone after two blocks. No big deal, it was even daylight. After the movie viewing it was nap time and getting ready to go out to Mariscal. I even bothered with makeup for it. We would have made it over to Galos sooner except Christy got us lost on the bus on accident and we ended up having to take a taxi from 10 de Agosto to 6 de Deciembre. We made it nonetheless. The highlight of getting to Mariscal had to have been that Christy, Marcos and I got to ride on this thing called the gusanito all the way there instead of a taxi. Think of a carnival ride sort of like a train but instead of a real train it is a caterpillar sectioned off. Make it motorized and ready for the streets and you have the loco gusanito. The driver did lots of mini swerves that made it hilarious and at every red light everyone on the thing jumped out of their seat and ran to another seat before the light changed. Dumb? Yes. Fun? Certainly. It also helped that I was not drunk like almost everyone else on the thing. The actual rest of the night was more or less spent babysitting drunken friends with Marcos trying to ensure that no one got hurt or did anything too stupid. The main event was scolding Christy for taking a drink from a stranger. HUGE no no. Thankfully it was not drugged and we all did manage to get back home with much thanks to Marcos. Though the night was not over for Christy until after she bit Marcos and Robs ears as she got out of the car. Oh the joy that was to remind her about the next day.
Saturday did not hold much excitement. I went over to visit with Rosario and play with Emilita and Manuelita and Christy finished her painting. It was tiring yet fun and eventually I had to go back to my own home for the sake of napping. The siesta was very necessary with there being the bonfire that night with Santiago and Lorena. I took my nap and went back to the little darlings and helped get them ready to go in a hurry since little Nico was on his way and he has retro virus. We couldn't not let the girls get that. The drive to the fogata was exciting as always with a stop or two along the way to grab beverages - water for me, beer for Christy and whiskey for Santiago. Funny enough the water ended up being a hit since people poured water to mix with the whiskey so it would not be as strong. Who knew that bringing water would be such a great idea? It was chilly and the fire was a hassle to keep going, and playing ¨never have I ever¨ with drunk adults is always interesting if not completely awkward. Thankfully someone went out and bought chips and we all scarfed them down, especially me since I had not remembered to eat dinner before I left. By the time I got back I was plenty tired and ready for some sleep.
Yesterday was pretty dull. My family got dressed up to go to the supermarket, leaving at noon supposedly to return by 2 30 with some lunch for me. They did not get back until 4 with some lasagna for me. I had done tanning on the roof and had a nap with the dogs in the meantime. In hunger I had drank hot chocolate and ate lechera flakes which helped greatly until their return. With their return was the unexpected arrival of Christy and Vanessa come to do homework using the Internet at the apartment. We ate, drank hot chocolate and did not really do any homework at all. It was not until a couple hours after they left that I managed to be productive, partially because of their ridiculousness with photobooth on the mac and partially because I was keeping track of the Steelers game. My team lost! So disappointing. Well, that basically catches everything up from last week more or less. I would talk all about today now but I really ought to get some essay writing done for a study abroad scholarship application. The work and fun never stops and I might as well take advantage of no class being in the computer lab right now.

It´s already been another week?!

Obviously, I have not been very good about keeping up with this blog the last week. It seems like everything is just go go go and then when the weekend finally comes I am too exhausted to do anything much more than eat and sleep. Pretty pathetic, I know. But in my defense at NCSU I get to take naps during the day in between classes and such and even when I have classes back to back it only takes about 15 minutes to get back to wherever I am living. The bus route I have to take here lasts an hour. If I want to take a taxi it will not only cost me $10 but it will still take 20-30 minutes depending on traffic and the cabbie´s knowledge of the city. Anyways that seems like enough excuse making for one session. Time to focus on random events that I can actually remember from last week.

Lunch with Rosario and the family was pretty good, well the soup was awesome and that was basically all I would eat. The kids were fantastic and have finally stopped being so shy around Christy and I, which makes since after we played with them for like two non-stop hours. Ecuador lost the futbol game to Columbia, but it was hard to be too upset considering half of Christy´s host family is from Columbia. Talk about a house divided. I got to baby little Nico and have him fall asleep in my arms which was adorable and made my day completely. The next day I made it to church for the first time while down here and was thrilled to meet another gringa there. We stuck together through the service and then Jenna came over to my house to hang out and get to know each other a little more. She was with a completely different type of program and was not studying at a local university. Instead her program had them in poor and kind of dangerous parts of the city and they have like 8 week internships in rural villages at the end of the semester. Though her group had been playing everything safe more or less they had encountered so many problems in the 3 weeks they had been there. A host family molested their international student, people had been robbed, a girl got attacked in a taxi and Jenna herself had been followed home. Thankfully everyone was ok and no harm had come to my new friend from that experience of hers. Nonetheless she was not in good humor about the whole situation and said that she was actually in the process of switching programs entirely and going to costa Rica to join a program there 2 weeks late. I did not want to lose my new church friend so soon but I could understand her worries and figured we could at least enjoy the time we had if indeed she would be leaving in a week.

Not really sure how some people do smart things and end up in bad situations and others do dumb stuff and turn out just fine. My group would be the latter group. That very Sunday we decided to go to Guapulo for a fiesta thing they were having there. I invited Jenna along so she could meet some actual nice Ecuadorians and Christy was of course up for the fun. It would have been better had Galo actually known where he was going, but he didn´t. We were a little lost before we found out that from where he had parked the car we had to go all the way down this hill into Guapulo. How did we get there? (Do not freak out my parents.) Galo had chatted with some stranger about how to get there and the four of us got into the stranger´s car for a free ride down the way. No worries - we were perfectly fine, the guy was nice and I was ready to strike if he tried any funny business. He did not, the stupidity ended safely and we made it to Marcos and Scarlet. Wow. the festivities were rare. People were dressed up like clowns, gorillas and cowboys while people riding in the back of trucks threw oranges into the crowd. People collected those oranges like Halloween candy - I have never seen anything quite like it before in my life. I did get a nice eyefull of some pigs´heads ready to be bought and eaten. Ewww. Being with a vegetarian did not help the case very much. When we decided we had had enough (aka no more oranges) we made our way part way up the hill to a cute cafe where we enjoyed some tea and hot chocolate. Marcos then gave us a lift back up to Galo´s car and everyone arrived safely home. Yay!

The school week was about like any other except Christy getting sick and me barely being able to move for a couple of days. Monday brought on a writing project in pairs during creative writing which I thoroughly enjoyed as the four words Andrea and I received for our narration were: elephant, tree, monday and bridge. The story got to be about a depressed and lonely elephant. We did not actually finish it that day and we would get to finish up on Wednesday. Monday was also the day elected for getting Christy´s passport back and getting censos. that was a bit of a disaster. She was feeling awful, we got lost and never actually made it to the passport place. Rosario did not understand on the phone that Christy did not have her passport back yet and her directions ended up leading us to the place to get a censo. So after riding up and down 6 de Deciembre for half an hour and asking tons of people how to get where we needed to go, only I walked away with a censo. Christy would go with vanessa on Wednesday instead. Due to her not feeling well, Rosario was immediately informed upon us reaching the house that she was ill which got Christy locked up in the house the rest of the day. Yes, it was a low blow to a friend but she had to get better and who knows it might have ended up being the swine flu if she did not take it easy.

Still not feeling her best there was no tae kwon do for her on Tuesday morning. No, I had to go by myself. Any day that i would ever try to be early I can never do it, that day I was at the martial arts classroom by 8:05am. It was hard to kill that much time. On top of that the rest of the class decided to be late that day. The best was yet to come though. We practiced other kicks that day, kicks that we had to do at waist level and then, oh the pain, face level. Let´s just say that after professor dude stretched my leg out so many times for me to get it right I was in true pain. i was praying for it to be time for abdominal just so the torture would stop. I was never happier to run to ceramics than Tuesday. On the bright side of life, since she skipped her first two classes, Christy decided not to go to basketball practice either which meant I got to go home earlier.

Wednesday brought with it new fun seeing as I forgot my partial narrative about the baby elephant at home. I therefore had to spend the entire bus ride to Cumbaya rewriting. It actually ended up better and Andrea loved it but I still felt a little bad about it. Worse still when I realized that it had been in my backpack all along. What I rewrote was good though so it ended up not mattering, but still that was rough. I went home by myself that day since the others were off to get their censos. I did not eat lunch by myself though as Marcos needed someone to eat lunch with early and he took me to this cheap place that was pretty good. Quite happy. The rest of the day passed in decent boredom.

Oh dear, tae kwon do was back to its usual craziness on Thursday with the return of Christy, which was good. The bad was that I got a new partner who is basically a blonde ditz who does not understand the meaning of extending your leg for a good kick. I miss my old partner :( The rest of the day passed with general ease after my partner disappointment, but not until after a surprise quiz in global lit. Of course I was put into the group with the question about the story I had not really read like the other one. I wrote on the opposite question instead since I actually had something to say about that. I know, its terrible and dishonest but the class is filled to the brim with natives and I did not want to look stupid. Whatever, what is done is done. I finished my freaking out about the whole quiz thing by basketball practice and commenced on writing my story for creative writing which is not due until September 28th. See, I do not procrastinate about everything, just the things that do not interest me very much. The joy of writing made up for my grand disappointment upon arriving at home only to get a phone call from dear Jenna to say that she would be on a plane the next morning for Costa Rica. As easily as i got a church friend, I lost her.

Well, thank the Lord for Fridays since I was exhausted by the time it came around. I really really love fridays. I get to sleep in and then only have one class followed by play time in the taller de ceramica. Life is always good on Fridays. Vincent brought chocolate to class that was delicious, I had fabulous bread to snack on for lunch and I spent 3 hours in the taller. Happiness! I only need 15 hours outside of class in the taller but I already have ten completed. You could say that I like the class and am enjoying the challenge immensely. The rest of Friday is kind of a blur to me and I have no idea what I was up to which probably means I did some napping and messing on the laptop.

Saturday fun started late since I slept in until about 10am. My host family was going to a wedding at 12 so I did not really feel like getting up right away. But when Christy called about a mall trip I was game. We crammed into Carla´s car with Vanesa and Rosario and were off. I bought a mini stapler that uses tiny staples at the bookstore for $1.30 which just made my day. The day could have been completely perfect had we not been abandoned by the host mommies there. It was not intentional. Carla does not have a cell phone, Rosario left hers at home and did not know Christy´s number and after looking for us they left. We took a cab back to the houses. The other two needed to nap before going to the free QuitoFest concert which I was just not interested in attending. So while they napped I spent some time watching Rosario paint and then headed back to my house to get ready for a Saturday night youth group like thing at the church. I got there and it was great, I right away made a new friend who was wonderful and welcoming. Though i had left my Bible back at the house I was still able to follow everything well, except the song whose lyrics I did not know. It was all spiffy until it was time to leave. Why? I got followed part of the way home by some creepy guy. he had shone up an hour late to the meeting and then hung around not talking to anybody while I was chatting away. I tried to lose him outside by going to the bathroom because he gave me the creeps. did not work. So I pulled out my cell and tried Christy who had no reception and then Galo. Galo answered and I kept him on the phone. Relief - I thought i had lost him - no such luck. by the time I needed to cross the big intersection he was right beside me again. Galo was not getting off that phone. Due to God´s great mercy and protection the guy quit following me once we had crossed the street. Galo was a good friend and stayed on the phone with me until I was safely at the house and all was well.

Yesterday was not so eventful. Went to church as the only gringa. Got back in time for my family to leave for a visit. napped with the dogs for a couple hours to pass the time until they returned with some lunch for me, which was supposed to be by 3pm. they got back by 4pm instead which ended up being fine. I scarfed down my food and started doing some homework, shortly after accompanied by Christy and Vanessa. Yay homework party! By 7pm it was time for them to leave and go eat some dinner and I went to watching movies on youtube. Lupe´s brother came over for a visit but I mainly just said hi and nice to meet you and was back in my room with hot chocolate until I fell asleep.

So that basically catches everything up. I would write about today but this is already so long and I have to get back to the gym in time for basketball practice ending. Adios.

First full Week of Classes

Well, it has past. I have now been in classes for an entire week. It has been challenging, fun and exhausting, but well worth it. Best memories of the week include getting better at taekwondo and being late to it on Thursday followed by Christy constantly disrupting the class. Good thing the teacher likes her and chooses to just laugh at her. We were only 30 minutes because I woke up at 7:20 instead of 6:20 which was not good at all. My host mother did not think to wake me up even though she has to remember that I have 8:30 classes and must leave for the bus by 7:15am to be on time. It all worked out fine so it does not really matter anyways. I have also spent 5 hours outside of class working on my skull for my clay modeling class. If I put in like two more hours I might finally have that darn thing right. He is still a bit too fat right now and needs to have his features smoothed and thinned out. I may never be a Rodin but I am certainly going to get this skull right. The best day of class was definitely Tuesday when they were celebrating the university's 21st birthday. There were balloons everywhere and all the class were let out at 12:30 to enjoy a mini "fiesta" including cake. I did not eat any of the cake but I did enjoy get out of class 30 minutes early. Having a short Tuesday made it better that I stayed with Christy at the university until 6pm on Thursday. Since she is so tall the basketball coach recruited her to practice with them a couple days a week to prepare for an off-season tournament this fall. After intense tae kwon do and then two hours of training for basketball, she was ready to pass out. We both ended up going to bed quite early that night, myself getting almost 12 hours of sleep. How glorious!
Thankfully, we are getting the hang of the bus system. We know which buses to take and where is even the best place for us to be in those buses, especially the trole bus that takes us home. One has to be right by the door when the stop is there or there is no way you are getting out with people cramming in so quickly. Today Christy and I ran into one of my classmates on our way to class and he showed us the third bus he takes in the morning which is actually much more reliable than where we usually wait for a bus to Cumbaya. Needless to say, we will be taking that bus for now on in the mornings.
I am sure that I have forgotten many things since I have not blogged much this week. So I suppose I will just focus the rest of my time on today. It has been pretty much perfect so far. After a decent amount of sleep last night I was able to wake up rested and ready for the day. Then a most marvelous shower, even if i did have to continually mess with the knobs so i was not being scolded or frozen, make me feel fresh and like a layer of dirt had been washed away. The fresh squeezed juice coupled with my hot chocolate made me even more ready for my one class of the day, even if the majority of the class was missing. class went by quickly with enough amusement though I did get caught talking in English and the "punishment" for that is having to bring chocolate for everyone in the class. not the worst punishment since I know where little 10cent chocolate is. Two hours later I reluctantly left the ceramics taller with Christy to ride the buses back with a friend, though both of us could have probably spent a couple more hours there if not for hunger. I have not felt much like working on homework quite yet and will probably focus on that tomorrow and have instead contented myself with cleaning my room (it did not take long for me to get it messy) and watching a Doris Day sequel to "On Moonlight Bay" through youtube. Now I am tired but will fight to stay awake so that I might be able to chat with beloved Annie tonight. Guess I will just do some more abdominal exercises to help myself with my martial arts moves. That's all for now. For after tomorrow's lunch with Gabriela, Rosario and the kiddies.

Skyping con Juan Pablo y Comiendo mucho pan

What possibly could be worse than not knowing a word in Spanish, missing a bus stop or being late to class? Having a bakery "una panaderia" right now the street. There is always fresh bread that smells wonderful and the pastries they make are so tempting. I am so thankful now that I no longer have my class de panaderia since I manage to eat so much bread and cheese. Like today, riding the buses back from the university, all Christy and I could think of was food. We knew that as soon as we made it to her apartment we were getting the brioche that she bought yesterday and eating it with the cheese from the panaderia. It was pure torture that the buses took so long this afternoon! It seemed like every red light teased us and made us hungrier. Finally we did make it back to the apartment where Rosario practically mandated we eat to our fill of lentil soup, lima beans, rice, fish (didn't happen) and Christy's yummy bread. What is funniest is that we actually did consume all the fish, rice and lima beans without problem and Rosario was so happy about it. I truly do not believe that wonderful woman could be happy if we were not constantly eating her food. You walk into the house and after greetings of hugs and kisses the first topic is always food. Do not get me wrong, I love to eat, but I do not think that my tae-kwon-do class is going to keep the pounds from packing on from all this great food here in Ecuador. A last note on food that I really do not want to actually admit but must is that I ate garbanzo beans tonight. Yes those chick pea things that when they come out of a can smell so terrible I could just vomit. These were fresh and cooked really well and I was fully enjoying them before I ever even thought to ask what I was eating. My jaw might have dropped open a little when Lupe told me. I was that shocked. Oh well, I guess I am learning to eat plenty of new foods here that I do not choose to eat in the US. It's at least healthy.
Yesterday was a slight disappointment I must say. Christy and I had this lovely idea that we would go out on one of our terraces and sun bathe in the afternoon. It is kind of like we think that if we get more tan we will not stick out so much and it will be easier to barter in the markets, even though that is not true at all. That is not the point. The point is that our plans were cruelly crushed by rain. Sad. This might have made for a poor day had there not been the skype session. I had left Rosario y Washington's apartment to do some homework at my own and a little over an hour later I got a call that was an invitation to go to the skype session at santiago's house to talk to Juan Pablo. rosario's son that is currently living in London. They had even asked christy why I had ever left in the first place. It is like being a part of two families here and I love it. Within five minutes of the session Rosario was bawling with delight to "see" her son and began begging him to come and visit her soon. We might see him in October, but who knows. Two hours later after plenty of pleading, joking and laughing the conversation ended downstairs with coffee, hot chocolate and lots and lots of bread. I swear I probably ate a whole loaf combined of the toast the sliced bread and the little toast bites. And all of it with butter! It is not that I cannot control myself and I just rudely eat and eat, it is that Ecuadorians, or at least these ones, never think that you have eaten enough. say you are full and they will give you a couple more pieces of bread. Until you cannot possibly conceive of eating more there is no way to convince them that you have indeed had plenty. Food. Food. Food. This seems to be all I can talk about today!
Well, I have other things going on in my life besides eating well. Like school for example. My two classes went well today, especially advanced grammar. After class i had to wait an hour for Christy to get out of class so we could eat. The ENTIRE hour was spend standing in the book store waiting for my turn to purchase two compilation notebooks kind of like those you can get at Sir Speedy in Raleigh. Their system is ridiculous and really needs to be revamped. They do not even accept cards or checks - only cash. I could deal with this since the compilations only cost like $5 each but the waiting is excruciating. Now I have those two but I have to go back tomorrow for two more that were not there yet! Needless to say, with 4 classes, three of them back-to-back, tomorrow does not hold much joy for me. I am sure there will be good in it like tae-kwon-do in the morning and the fact that Christy added the global lit class I am taking, but I really do not want to go back to the bookstore. But maybe I will be able to make my blob of clay look more like a skull like those of my classmates', and if not oh well. I will just have fun entertaining myself with the wet dirt. Es todo.

Cumpleanos, Viajes y Up-chai

Its been an eventful last few days which is why it has taken me so long to get around to writing. Thursday was a little crazy with changing class stuff around, being late to three out of four classes and the start of celebrating my birthday. No, I do not know why we started early. So, Christy and I got a ride to school with Galo, the only problem being that we ran behind and then on top of that we couldn't find a bus to take us to his apartment. Ten minutes after we were supposed to be there we finally arrive and he takes a few more minutes. Then, of course, we run into traffic. Bad traffic. Which translates into ten minutes late for tae-kwon-do. The teacher was not thrilled with this but that soon passed when he saw that Christy was even properly dressed out since she had taken Galo's advice about not really doing anything that first day of class. Wrong. I had worn a cami and legging with a knit dress over so that I would be ready, Christy had see-through leggings covered at the top by a tiny skirt and to top it all off a tube top. That made for a fun class. No balance and way too much talking kept the teacher laughing at Christy for the whole hour we were there. At our release it was to the library to work on class stuff. She added a class that started at ten and rushed to it and i continued on the computer. What ended up happening is that I dropped my Friday baking class and added a Tuesday/Thursday clay modeling class. Since I added it at like 10:10, by the time I got to the class i was 15 minutes late for it. Second class to be late for that day. I am the only person in the class who does not have an art background. At least the professor is originally from the US and is patient with my lack of skills. The way the classes are set up for me on Tuesdays and Thursdays is that I have about 5 minutes to run from tae-kwon-do to the taller and then the same amount of time to run from there to my first lit class. Needless to say as I still have some issues navigating around the campus, I arrived a couple minutes late. This did not matter as the university had double booked the classroom and we had to get a new one. I was so thirsty and quite hungry and could only pray that class would end soon. When it finally did we tried a Mexican restaurant that was not very impressive. Finally my day was coming to a close. Thankfully Christy gave up on us taking cycling at 4pm and I just had to make it through global literature. Ha. Ha. Ha. Of course it is a class with like all native speakers. one international other than me was there but she might as well be native. This class is going to kick my fanny. I'll survive. The rest of Thursday consisted of hanging out at Galo's apartment and them talking me into going out to Mariscal. I wish I hadn't since it was boring as all and too many people were drunk from all the pregaming. The only fun part for me was that I got to be the designated liquor pour-er which I was surprisingly good at for not being a drinker myself.
Yet my amazing friends did end Thursday and welcome my actual birthday wonderfully. We got to leave early from Mariscal but not before Christy had found a place selling chocolate cake. Therefore, on the whole ride home all of us in the taxi just devoured this amazing chocolate dessert. I was sooo happy. I even got to sleep in since my first and only Friday class doesn't start until 11am. We even made it on time though we were relying on Galo again. And as a birthday treat not only did I buy like four desserts from the bakery on the street but Christy and I met up early to practice some tae-kwon-do and yoga, and for me to be the first to see her in her fabulous "Stellar Electric" costume that she was wearing the whole to celebrate. class even went well followed by some pizza for lunch. Then it was off to the local craft market and shopping for the night's mini feast. It was wonderful to get to cook again after a couple weeks and the food turned out well, though touching bleeding chicken breast was almost enough to make me a vegetarian. The biscuits were a hit and Rosario absolutely fell in love with them. We also got to use the potatoes so I could make some homemade mashed potatoes. The funniest part of the night was that I had stopped by a florist to buy some roses for Rosario for being so fabulous (18 roses for $5!) and she had gone out and bought me these lovely small roses for my birthday. She was so shocked that I had bought flowers for her, but she did eventually accept them. One of the best "presents" was getting to meet Christy's "host nephew" Nico who is 13 months old and the cutest and most awesome baby ever. And after enjoying the meal with everyone and cleaning up, the guests left - family to their home and friends to go party and Christy and I to chill. If I just had my friends and family from the US it would have been a perfect birthday!
Oh the adventures and amusement that came on Saturday! Christy and I got to go on a road trip with Nico and his parents to El Mitad del Mundo and other cool sights like Cotacachi to see the laguna and volcanoes. Left at 9:30am and did not get back until like 6pm which meant hours of fun with little Nico in the back seat. That baby had his picture taken so many times yesterday! I have also come to the conclusion that after being exposed to Ecuadorian, especially Santiago's, driving i no longer ever have the need to ride a roller coaster again. It is almost like a game on highways - how far to the other side of the road can you get to pass other cars in your lane without getting hit by cars in the other lane coming right at you. It was as exciting as it was crazy and plenty of fun going pretty fast. Nico slept most of the time like a perfect baby and when he was awake he was generally perfectly pleasant in every way, offering us plenty of amusement. The ride back I could not say much about since I slept the majority of it. Christy slept for a total of one minute and her picture was taken during that time. Rosario just laughed about it all when we returned to the house where we made true Colombian hot chocolate and had cheese and bread to our fill. The hot chocolate alone is fantastic but then to add to the richness they put cheese in it and then eat the cheese. Sounds weird but actually tastes pretty good. The night ended with Christy and I getting the dishes done while playing a game of "keep Nico away from Rosario's gallinas." Rosario loves hens and roosters and has plenty of class and ceramic figures, pots and then linens with gallinas. Nico likes to play with the ones on a double shelf near the ground. Nico always has the aptitude for breaking them. We did everything like grabbing him up and flying his giggling self through the air when he got too close to them to Christy giving him limes from a basket to play with instead. Persistent baby. Yet, no gallina met death last night. Victory! I absolutely can't wait for two weeks to pass to go on a day trip to the Colombian border with Christy, Lorena, Santiago and, of course, precious Nico. Que brutal

Fiestas, Nuevos Amigos y Tatuajes

Two nights in a row with little sleep. It is not a good idea and now I will have to go to sleep ridiculously early tonight so I can be ready for mi clase de Tae-Kwon-Do at 8:30am. Last night I did not take my chances at the movies again, instead there was una "fiesta" in Mariscal, which is actually a pretty sketchy place for foreigners to be, but it was organized by people from the university to welcome us new students internacionales. many people had fun getting drunk - something easy to do at high altitudes, but for me it was a bust. At about 7pm Galo picked Christy and I up from my house in his car and we went to his apartment to meet up with some other people. This was probably the most fun of the night since my fellow classmates downed an entire bottle of liquor in 20minutes, mainly by means of a drinking game. While in Ecuador I guess. Then it was the bus to Mariscal y la fiesta. I mainly attached myself to a friend named Christina and we met some new people and enjoyed watching the dance stylings of drunken Americans. Through the "graciousness" of having a tummy ache I finally persuaded Christy to leave with me around 11pm. Oh taxis durante la noche! It was fine and we got safely back.
Still, 7hours does not mean happiness for the first day of classes especially when that first class is at 8:30am and you have to leave for the bus by 7:10am. I suppose I should at least be thankful that I knew which buses to take to get to school, and that Christy, another student that we met on the last bus and I made it to USFQ by 8am. using the map to find my classes had to be like reliving the first couple days of freshman year all over again. As if I do not stick out enough with my lighter hair and light skin, I just have to carry a map around too. Yet, i found my first class just fine and there were three other students - only one a guy and he is the only student that is local and not international. Fabulous! I am already not the best writer in Spanish and now I have to "compete" against a native speaker in my creative writing class. This will be a long semester but at least I am going to learn plenty. When that horror was over and I was done embarrassing myself I met up with Christy and we did some exploring before my last class which included her spilling blue ink from a pen that busted on the plane all over where we were sitting in a cafe-like area. Those blue dots are going to be there for a long time. Relief washed over me a little later when I entered my advanced grammar class. All the students are American and I knew three of my classmates. Praise God for those small blessings. The professor is hilarious. Even though she is like 50, she insists on us calling her Ana maria and not professore or senora. We also found out that she married one of her college professors and we all joked about the fact that she did in fact get an "A" in the class. It will be a fun semester to have her as a professor except for the fact that we have oral presentations, my least favorite things in the world no matter what language. i had a little time to kill before Christy got out of her jewelry making class, so I decided to explore the book store for some class materials. Epic fail. At least she got out of class early and after some meandering through campus we went for some lunch off-campus.
Envision this. I Love NY Pizza sized slices of pizza for $1! I got two slices and a bottled water for only $2.50!!!! What is not to love?! It was also here that an adventure began. Christy and Galo both had one more class and I was going to wait for Christy so we could ride buses back together at 4pm. That so did not happen. What did occur was a decision was made that in order to celebrate the first day of classes, my fabulous friends would skip their classes and we would co to Caracol so that galo could get an ear piercing and for Christy to get her third tattoo. Since I was done with classes I was game and we drove off in Galo's car. What transpired afterwards was a run to my house to get them money and my camera, them "pre-gaming," then bargaining for lower prices, and subsequently a new tattoo and piercing for a grand total of $67 and barely no money left to my name for the time being. There were still three beers left at the apartment and the two locos wanted to finish them, which was then followed by more friends, Keon and Anna, coming to visit. Needless to say I was not getting home very soon. Instead we eventually went to Christy's house with her wonderful host parents who I had met the day before (omw her host dad, Washington, makes the best juice ever!) and we had dinner there. Rosario happily fed us rice, salad and a spaghetti dish that had overkill cilantro. It was a great time and I feel ike that place is a second home. She is even allowing us to have a birthday celebration for me on Friday where will are going to cook rosario and washington an American meal complete with chocolate cake, corn on the cob, fired chicken and biscuits! This will be one of the best birthdays ever!
But all good things must come to an end. This end took place when I got locked out of my home for the second time. Oh the third floor people double-bolting the darn door. If two women ahd not been leaving I would have had to make a couple phone calls again. Lupe graciously spent a few minutes teaching me how to open the door when it is harder with the double bolt. hopefully, i will not have cause to test that new skill out. That is more or less my last day and now I can barely keep my eyes open and just want some sleep. A couple Bible chapters, a few hours of sleep and a decent shower will do me some good and prepare me for the glory of my second day of classes. I cannot wait to see Christy in her costume for tae-kwon-do class.

Adventures por La Noche y con el Transporte Publico

The first of my nighttime excursions took place last night. I had not really planned on doing much of anything besides some reading and playing with the dogs as usual. Yet as fate would have it my friend here, Galo, decided that we ought to go see a movie. I was unsure at first since I did not know how Lupe would respond to the request but after much debate I got up the courage to ask. I received an enthusiastic "yes." Well, maybe not a "yes" but for simplicity sake I will not go over the Spanish. Anyways, I was taught to use the keys and after having a sandwich for la cena, Galo was on his way to pick me up. Since I have only been here a couple days my directional skills are still sparse but somehow after some confusion he did successfully make it here - though I had begun to lose hope at one point.
There is a shopping center only a couple blocks from where I reside called "Plaza de Americas" where there are plenty of places to eat (including a horrid McDonald's), a drug store and a movie theater. It was hard to make a decision about what movie to see, and eventually it came down to time and what the cashier recommended. An interesting fact is that not only do movies only cost like $4 to see, but when buying the ticket they actually assign you a seat. You have a choice of seat depending on what is available. I was rather amused by this. The chosen movie ended up being "The Knowing" which goes by the name of "El presagio" here. If you thought about seeing it don't bother. I do not like scary movies and granted this was not a horror film there was too much suspense and the like for me just for a disappointing ending. The only part I took away optimistically is that the Spanish subtitles gave me a chance for some Spanish practice and I can now say I did something at night.
The only other mentionable event was that I got to buy some more minutes for my Ecuadorian cell phone that the university urged all the students to buy for security reasons. I had walked away from the Movistar place with 20mins but that had unfortunately only translated into 4mins for an international call home. Therefore, all my minutes were used up pretty darn quickly. But now I have some which are going too fast with trying to stay in touch with friends from the university. Oh well.
Now when Galo dropped me back off the true fun of the night began. Yes, I had been given a set of keys. No, I did not successfully make it into the house. Why you might ask? Well, the person living on the third floor apparently double bolted the second door (kind of part of the garage-ish door) and I could not get in because I was only prepared for one bolt. So there I was outside of the building. Thankfully, I was through the original gate so it is not like I was stuck on the street, but I was still a bit worried. After trying for 10 minutes to get into the door, unaware of the bolting issue, I did the only thing I knew how to do - use my new cell phone. If only I had the right number for the house. That failed so I tried Lupe's celular. Strike two. She really only sues the thing when driving and away from the house. At this point I really thought i was going to be locked outside for the night. God was gracious enough to not put me through that. Instead the third time calling was the charm. Manuel is a doctor so he answered his phone and within minutes mama Lupe came to my rescue and solved the problem. I shudder to think what might have happened had I not bought more minutes. Though if I had been thinking more clearly I could have pressed a button that "paged" the floor and they probably would have still been able to help me. Yay for my first night out! :)
Lucky for me, Quito is full of such adventurous experiences such as these. This I learned during my bus tutorial today, which I apparently was not supposed to have. The university never communicated that class start tomorrow, and my dear Lupe thought that my classes started today. So like a good host mother she got me onto the trole bus, instructed me through the transfer station and bus and finally saw me on the Cumbaya bus. At the final bus she smiled and said, "buena suerte," and call if you have trouble coming back. I was shocked to say the least. What?! She was just leaving me there? Sweet, Lord what was going on?! This was before I found out the assumption that class were today. I did make it to the university stop and spent 10 minutes finding the cross walk across the street. Then I went to the library at the USFQ campus just to find out that i do not know a password for the library computers. I was ready to go back. My bus lesson had been good enough to get me onto the right bus to the transfer station. It was there that I first encountered some problems. Which platform for the right bus? I had to find a guard man and ask, though it did take a couple minutes to explain that I eventually wanted to end up at el estacion de la"y" with the trole. The kind guard walked me to the right place and I started feeling better. I then followed the people off when the bus stopped all the way to the trole station a block or so away. getting on the thing took minimal effort since I choose to follow people like I am in a herd of cattle when I need to know where to go.
Everything was grand: the trole was packed, i was fairly certain I was on the right bus and soon enough I ought to be at la "y" from whence I could walk 10 minutes to my residence. Ha. ha. ha. Silly me. I forgot a cardinal rule about the trole bus. When your stop is coming you had better be right by the door or you have no chance of getting of because of all the people crowding on. I learned this the hard way as I watched la y go by, and another stop go by until I got off at the next one. It was a nice walk in the sun to get back. A cat call by a construction worker did life my spirits a bit though. I do not wish to exaggerate but I estimate that about 20-25 minutes later I arrived back at the house. I related the experience, found out the incorrect assumption and laughed with Lupe about it all. Gracious as He is, God did give me a treat by way of there being a wireless connection going on in the building. Happiness! Now my microsoft office is activated and will not die on me after 20 more accesses and I have been able to write this on my own laptop and check my class schedule and emails all from the convenience of my own little room. What a way to start off my day. It seems like a good idea now for me to take a nap considering I only had 6 hours of sleep last night and there is a welcoming party I am supposed to attend tonight for the international students. With any blessing I might not get double-bolted out again :)

24 de Agosto

My second full day in Quito is now coming to a close, and as I have had some chocolate mousse cake with a hint of weird jam filling and “chocolate con leche” I am at my leisure and contentment to log my day’s activities. Yes, I am a bit melodramatic but I suppose that is what comes of reading excessive amounts of Jane Austen novels. Besides my recent snack, the earlier part of the day went well and was full of information. My alarm went off at 6:35am this morning which was not too awful except for the fact that I had previously woken up at 5am and was then in no humor to get up. Nervous jitters got the best of me though and I quickly got ready and headed to breakfast. I truly doubt that I am ever going to get used to this wonderful treatment – Lupe prepared for me toast and set out several different spreads for me but what was honestly flattering was the glass of fresh squeezed orange juice and the fact that she heated up milk and mixed it with chocolate knowing that I like hot chocolate so much. I am also not allowed to clear my dishes from my eating place, which is actually more aggravating than convenient. On occasion I offer my assistance in cleaning up and such but to no avail since Lupe will have none of it and constantly tells me, “No te preocupes,” or basically “don’t worry yourself with this.”
Since I will be learning the ropes of the public transportation system tomorrow, we drove in one of the family cars to the campus which is approximately 20 minutes away in Cumbaya. Unfortunately, I have to allow an hour for my public transportation on a regular school day which would not be so terrible if I did not have 8:30 classes 4 out of 5 days a week. This is going to be fun…maybe. Soon enough I was united with the two other NC State students I know of and met some new people. Before leaving for the group tour I was even reunited with Galo who had done study abroad at NCSU and had a Spanish class with me there. For a college orientation it was anything but formal. The founder of the university was quite amusing with what he had to say, though by the end of his talk I had more confidence in the institution knowing that it is the top ranked university in the country and graduates 85% of its students whereas the public universities only graduate about 8% of their students. Astounding to be sure! Part of the education problem stems from the fact that there have been 8 presidents within the last 10 years. That never calls for much stability.
Once the founder welcome talk and a short health talk it was time for a campus tour. I managed to be in a group with my friend Christy from NCSU and with tour guides who did not guide very much. After like 15 minutes of walking around I knew nothing more of how to get around the campus and was only more knowledgeable in the bars across the street – as in which had the best prices and which is the most popular with the university students. This might have been welcomed information for me if I actually did drink. At least the majority of the other students seemed pleased with this knowledge. We ended with nearly 40 minutes to kill. The group sat around for a bit talking more (guess what about: drinking) when Christy and I decided to do some exploring on our own. There was a scheduled break anyways and she needed to get internet access for her laptop. I wanted to use a restroom and not be so bored outside. The library was located, facebook was checked and I made a new acquaintance in the process who I am glad to report is in my Tuesday/Thursday morning Tae Kwon Do class. Then thinking it was time to go back to the main meeting place we ran into another tour group still touring – bet they will know where they are going on Wednesday – that had another NCSU student in it. We walked a little with them and then found that outside there were some refreshments offered. Thankfully we had a good 5 minutes to grab a couple Oreos and a little glass of Sprite before everyone returned to the main room.
I had every confidence at this point that there were just the two hours left and then I would be reunited with Lupe and get some lunch. Ha, yeah right. After a humorous yet informative politics talk and a frightening safety talk, the final speaker came up and went 40 minutes over her allotted time. It was miserable to say the least. I know about m-time and p-time. There was no necessity of being told every little difference between cultures, or at least she might not have read directly off of the PowerPoint. At length it finally ended. I was silently praising God with hallelujahs that it was over. This is not to say that I had lunch upon returning to the house. No, that did not take place until an hour later at 3pm. Needless to say, I was famished. Yet Lupe did not disappoint with a home cooked meal of some type of meat, a potato thing with a herb I dislike (cilantro?), fried onions and pepper and plenty of rice. Ok, so the potato thing was not pleasing and I do not even like peppers and onions. So what? Be proud of me all you who know my sad eating habits – I ate every bit of those veggies by cutting then up into small pieces in my rice, and made it through most of the potato patty thing. The meat was delicious and I had no problem with that. My filling meal followed by my fruity soy juice made me content.
An hour or so later a new adventure took place. What could it be but my first purchase in Ecuador! The item bought was none other than a cell phone, go figure. The things are apparently necessary to keep touch with friends at the university and for safety reasons. I do not believe a university person has ever told me that buying a cell phone was so important. The wait at the Movistar store was a bit excruciating with my lack of patience, but it was an experience to remember. So I now have a pay-as-you-go Nokia cell. All the features are in Spanish which makes it fun to figure out the options and the only part somewhat English is that the time is not military time. Of course, it is already dead in a sense considering I used my 20 “local minutes” to talk to my family for like 4 minutes. It was worth it though and I will just have to buy some more tomorrow. It is not really any more expensive than using a phone card and is certainly cheaper than using my US cell which costs $3 a minute to use down here. I am satisfied.
A nice finish to my outing ended with one of my favorite things. Chocolate. Lupe went to buy bread for cena tonight and the store had desserts or postres there also. She purchased her favorite bread and then proceeded to buy a form of cheesecake for herself and picked out a chocolate cake or “pasta” for me. I also finally got to buy a gallon of water (only $1!). Back at the house we enjoyed our snack and that brings me back to the beginning. I am thankful for the snack even with the strange jam since it will well hold me over until dinner, which will as always be small. Sooner or later I will get used to this change of pace where I do not eat constantly around the clock and eat three large meals instead of one. Es todo, entonces adios!

The adventure has now begun...

23 August 2009
It is hard to believe that I am finally here in Ecuador. After months of planning and anticipation, here I am sitting in my new room and reveling in the realization. Yesterday was a decent adventure. It was the first time that I have ever navigated an airport completely by myself and that was a bit frightening. Several times I had to just sit back and take a deep breath, saying a prayer for strength and comfort to make it through. God was even good enough to let me connect with another NC State student at the baggage claim so I was not alone going through the last part of the process in the airport. Walking through those doors to find my host family was made easier by knowing that I had other students behind me. My host mother had a sign with my name on it that helped me to easily find them. The only issue I encountered was not being able to call my parents right away as they wanted me to for the knowledge of knowing that I was safe and had made it there just fine. Of course, yet again I was provided for and was allowed to use Manuel’s cell phone at the house to call my mom and quiet her worries – and let her finally be able to relax and go to sleep.
The house is more of an apartment but it is still spacious and comfortable enough for me. My room is simple and has more than enough room for all my things, which are not numerous to begin with. I have a little table in my room with two chairs where I am sitting right now as I write, a simple metal desk that will come in handy when classes start, a beside thing that has a lamp on it which is very convenient, a mirror and dresser and a decent wardrobe that Lupe provided with hangars for my clothes. Good thing considering I did not bring any. What makes the room homier is having the two little dogs come and visit whenever my door is open. Coqui is by my feet right now and begging for some attention and petting, he is a tad spoiled. His compatriot Negrita is a poodle who is also spoiled yet terribly loving. It is harder to miss bandit when I have two little amiable companions. They even jump on the bed like Bandit. The last part of the house well worth mentioning is that if you walk up a couple flights of stairs past other apartments then you will be taken to the roof. The roof itself is nothing special but the view it affords of the city is just breathtaking! Lupe says that it is a good place for me to bring friends at night. I might just take her up on that sometime. Of course, it will have to wait until I have my own key, but I am in no hurry for that.
I awoke early this morning due to the constant noise of cars and motorcycles going by outside. This was not a big deal since it gave me plenty of time to attempt to eat breakfast and take a cold shower. My tastes and appetite have no yet conformed to the atmosphere and food yet, though Lupe said not to worry about it that it was normal. With the shower I am pretty sure that I just did not pay enough attention to my tutorial – though it had seems so easy at the time. Guess I just wasted less water that way. After I was dressed and dried off a bit Lupe invited me to go on a walk to become acquainted with the surrounding area. We took the dogs too who were extremely energetic and quite rebellious during the walk. Lupe showed me a Christian church since I had said I wanted to attend church while here. I was also shown the main avenue that people go to where, not surprisingly, you could find the mall fully equipped with a McDonalds. How I would love to go somewhere that did not have an American restaurant. Don’t get me wrong, its good comfort food if you get homesick or desire accustomed food, but I find it does take away from my experience a little. It was hot outside, still is as I am writing, and we decided to head back to the house by way of a shortcut. While doing so, Lupe told me how to orient myself with the mountains if I ever get lost and pointed out the Movistar store where I am apparently going to have to get a cheap temporary cell phone. It seems that everyone, or at least the people I will be regularly hanging out with, all use cell phones to stay in touch etc kind of like in the US. Coming here I thought I was rid of a cell phone for four months, but come to find out that is not true. I only hope that Lupe is right about it being cheap. Also, I would love it if I could call home and friends with it instead of having to buy phone cards. That will soon be figured out I suppose.
For now, I am just taking it easy at the house until 1pm when Manuel will return and the three of us will go for an outing. We will eat lunch in the historic district – which I am very excited to see – and tour some of the area. Though I probably should, I will not be taking my camera. Due to safety concerns I will not even be carrying a purse the majority of the time. Plus I have four months in this wonderful place to explore and take pictures. There is just no point for me to go overboard today on photos. And I love the idea of not carrying around a purse too; if I cannot fit something comfortably in my backpack with my books then I do not need it. Basically, I just need a sparse amount of cash on me, writing utensils and my trustworthy lip gloss and I will be perfectly fine to go through the city and attend classes. That will not be hard for me to acclimate myself with. Having no wireless internet connection will be a slight struggle since I wish to keep in touch with everyone back home, but I can use the Ramirez computer as needed which is a blessing. Therefore with my flash drive I will be able to write out my daily adventures and post them regularly so that you know how things are going along down here in northern Quito. That seems to be all I have to report for right now, so hasta luego – it is time for a short nap and some Jane Austen before lunch! J

8pm
As I am taking a break from reading for a few minutes as dinner should be taking place soon and the little dogs have left me alone for the time being, I thought it in my best interest to recount the afternoon before I forget it all. I did get to read more of Sense & Sensibility which I am enjoying thoroughly, and I also had the pleasure of a restful siesta. How tired I truly was did not dawn on me until after I had slept an hour or so. The pleasantness of waking up from the nap at 1:05pm would have remained had the house, including Negrita and Coqui, not been completely silent. I became immediately worried that the worst had happened. Lupe had said we would go out for lunch and a tour at 1pm – maybe they had decided not to bother me in my slumber and had simply left! It did not quiet my fears any when I did not see the main car in the driveway when I walked downstairs. Just to be sure I even walked up to the roof. The gorgeous panoramic view could only bring so much joy when I was hungry and felt abandoned. This all could have been avoided though had I had the guts in the first place to at least call out for Lupe, for when I finally did after wondering around for 20 minutes in the house she came speedily out of her room readily inquiring after me. Apparently, Manuel was simply not back from the hospital yet and we were just awaiting his return. My fears were thus unfounded and I sorely wished that I was not such a picky eater that I had eaten next to nothing at breakfast.
The outing was splendid though! We drove to El Centro of Quito where we were to eat and start the afternoon tour. The first building pointed out to me was the president’s residence – ironically a huge white building. The US is not the only one to have a White House I suppose. Where we ate was a place that at first seemed to me like a mini mall with several floors of souvenir type places and food. To my astonishment though it did have fast food dining options and places where postcard and such purchases could be made, it actually housed the bishop on the top floor. The bishop! Here he lives in an upper floor all business with the church and below him is like fair game where commercial enterprises are free to take place. If this were Bible times, I wonder what Jesus would have said to that? I guess it technically is not a temple or a religious institution, but it still shocked me. On the other hand, the bishop’s residence/mini shopping place did afford me a splendid lunch. Hunger had been with me too long and I was praying for food that I would actually enjoy eating. If only I could remember the name of the place, but alas it escapes me now, but the prices were cheap and my food was delicious. Imagine a little combo meal of rice, beans, some fried thingy and a piece of meat with a drink for $3. No lie. I was thrilled and now hope to find such reasonably cheap prices for food around the university so I do not ever have to be concerned with going over budget for my food. The only negative of the meal consisted of the dessert that Lupe bought for me to try. The name was strange but basically translated into cheese and figs in sauce. At first look it could have been mistaken for cheese cubes on chocolate chunks, but the first bite would have been more than enough to say otherwise. I have never been a fig person and I only tried it to not be wasteful. But I definitely do not care for any more figs for a while. I made myself eat my two cheese cubes covered in the rich fig-y sauce. Then I was done. Lupe was eating the second half of it anyway and I was thankful that it had only ever cost $1 to begin with.
I have never known a place more filled with museums and churches than Quito. Whereas the US has a fast food place on every corner, Quito has a church, a museum or a convent – or some combination thereof. There is a basilica that is the oldest church in Latin America. Time to eat!
8:43pm
It was definitely time to eat, for I was once again quite hungry. And I have just come to the realization that I am becoming one of those annoying people who say way too much about every minute detail about their day when writing. So I promise to not be so bad, especially once classes start and I do not have much time. But until then while everything is new and wonderful to me I will just continue to report everything I find amusing no matter obnoxious it might be.
Back to the tour… The church was gorgeous and I do plan on going back sometime to tour it and appreciate its history even more than I did on first sight. One museum that we walked by was actually a hospital originally, the first hospital in South America I believe is what Lupe said. Just walking through the numerous streets and soaking up all the cultural and historical richness was bliss in and of itself. It is my sincere wish that I visit as many museums and cultural landmarks as possible in my four months stay in Ecuador. Otherwise, this trip will just not hold the same significance. Anyways, we were in El Centro for a couple hours before we headed back to the car and headed for a short glimpse of northern Ecuador. More so, it was an excursion for Manuel and Lupe to get some coffee. I was graciously treated to some hot chocolate with marshmallows for I was not brave enough to try the version with cheese. As it is, the way they make the hot chocolate here as it was also in Peru, is that it has the chocolate flavor and all but is lacking in much sweetness so one must add sugar to the drink until it has an agreeable taste. Along with this the three of us partook of these tea cookies that were good but to me a tad bland. At least they tasted better than the fig thing enough for me to eat two upon prompting, yet not a third when pleaded with to eat the last one. After such refreshment we walked around in the mall right down the sidewalk. I swear it is bigger than Oak Hollow mall in High Point and probably has more name brand stores in it too. It was amusing but I have always preferred mercados and random side street shops when in foreign countries to large commercial establishments. Maybe I am just weird but that is my taste.
On coming home I continued to enjoy all of the sights I could see along the street and the people watching. Some of the obvious poverty is heart breaking especially children trying to sell mandarins on the street corners, but there was still joy to be found in the ride. Since being back at the house, I have not done too much. A short nap and plenty of reading have been my main employments, though Negrita did offer me some company by lying in my lap during my reading. She really only wanted to be pet which I obliged her with for a while. Then I had the pleasure of sitting down to dinner with Lupe and watching a Spanish version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” I actually got a couple questions right and even enjoyed my food! J It was a simply corn dish with two little slices of cheese on the side. I believe it is called something like amita, but I will have someone correct me on that point later. To compliment this there was this soy juice that has fruit in it. It is pretty good. The late dining thing is going to take some getting used to, along with eating large lunches and tiny dinners. All in all, I find that it will be good for me as I am already eating healthier in a sense, and smaller dinners are encouraged for improved, or at least good I guess, weight. In any case, that has been my experiences so far and though I dislike thinking of the fact that I have to get up at like 6:30am tomorrow morning for orientation, it will be nice to meet the other international students, have a tour of the campus and figure out everything like the cell phone and buying my books for classes on Wednesday.