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!