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 :)
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