blame it on the a-a-a-a-altitude

So I lied when I said I was going to be better about blogging... Last Saturday a bunch of us ended up going to Diego's house in Pifo for a barbecue. It was a lot of fun, met more people and spoke SO much Spanish. Sunday, rather than study, Liz and I went on a pretty long walk around our neighborhood to gather our bearings. It helped a lot. Also, I found the most delicious granola at this one market. I'm going back for more tomorrow. Monday & Tuesday I had a ridiculous amount of work for my language class but everything ended up going really well... I guess. I mean I only need a 60% for my credits to transfer P/F so my standards seem to be dropping a bit. Wednesday we had a potluck where everyone had to bring in an Ecuadorian food and then Thursday was my last day. I can't believe class is over already. Everything is just flying by.

Tuesday night I went to my first real futbol game! My sister and I went to see Liga play... apparently they're pretty good. We "sat" in the cheapest section, with all of the diehard fans. It was a... new.. experience. Throughout the entire game there was literally NO sitting. Everyone has to stand. Also, everybody sings these 5 different songs/chants nonstop. Literally, nonstop. I really can't explain it. It was just insane. By the last 20 or so minutes the police were in our section pushing people back with shields, etc. Oh, and Liga won 2-0!

Wednesday night I saw Inception, or "El Origen" in Spanish with Christian, Emilio, and Juan. Liz, Lily, Kelly, and Diego came too but I never saw them because this movie theatre has assigned seats?! It was stupid. After, we went to Christian's for a little and I made it back by my 2:00 curfew, on the dot. Thursday, after class I went to get my Censo which is basically my id card saying I'm a student and am allowed to live here. I feel so cool now.

Then that night we (Liz, Lily, and I) left for Banos! (add a squiggly line over the n... I don't know how) So, our tickets were $3.50 for seats 39, 40, 41. However, upon boarding the bus we realized the last seat on the bus was 38. We were those gringas, getting totally taken advantage of, but it was the last bus of the day so we decided to rough it and sit/sleep in the aisles for the 4 hour ride. It was really cute though because all of the passengers took a liking to us and were screaming at the bus guy for ripping us off. Unfortunately, their screaming didn't get us a seat buuuuut oh well.

Banos is a lot like a beach town, mentality wise, but in the middle of the mountains. It has a lot of adventure sports/activities so it's a pretty cool atmosphere. Friday morning we went PUENTING! It was..... awesome, breathtaking, etc etc etc. It's similar to bungee jumping but there are cords on both sides of the bridge so somehow you start swinging. alskjdflkjds It was so cool. After puenting we rented bikes and rode for about 3 hours to see these waterfalls. Unfortunately, it rained basically all weekend but we made the most of it, ponchos flying in the wind. Either way it was beautiful. I've just never seen so much green. We decided we didn't want to bike back (a lot of hills) so we HITCHHIKED! It was really weird though. I don't know if it's just because it's here or what but it didn't seem like hitchhiking... it seemed really normal to just flag down a random truck with a middle-aged man in it. I can't explain it.

That night at dinner we took advantage of some cheap sangria and listened to this band (Pan de Agua... supposedly they have a myspace). We all fell in love. Ok I checked, they do have a myspace. This morning we were all really stiff, especially our necks, from puenting, so we treated ourselves to full-body massages and facials. It was only $20 and far more satisfying/legal than my Vietnamese massage last summer. Then after some wandering around the town we caught an afternoon bus back to Quito.

Monday is my "final exam" for class and then at midnight the whole group is leaving for Rio Muchacho. It's an all-organic farm on the coast where we're volunteering for a few days. So much to look forward to!

Oh! I almost forgot to explain my title. It's become a joke here that if you're out of breath, tired, etc you blame it on the altitude, but surprisingly it really does cause most of our issues here. But a couple days ago I received the worst news of all... it makes you gain weight! Something about metabolism, then you adjust, duh da daduh, according to my resident director I should expect to gain 10-15 lbs. gasp.