As usual I feel like I can't remember a lot of last week... the usual class & internship, I guess. Thursday we "learned" this ridiculous thing in Spanish class called perifrasis verbales... I think my professor made it up. I'm going to skip Spanish class today just to avoid doing my homework that's due. Gorgeous boy said hi to me twice. Well actually he said hola but same thing. I think we're going to get married. Hmmmm EDIT-- so I started this blog during my break on Tuesday before Leadership but guess what happened. I was standing outside of class waiting for the class before to leave and Gorgeous boy TALKED TO ME. He actually even touched my shoulder and then invited me to this Halloween party on Thursday night at this one club. LAlalalallalalalalalala Then we sat next to each other and he asked me on a date and kissed me..... well we really did sit next to each other anyway.
Throughout the semester we have to go to 2 small-group sessions with BCA, so I did my 2nd one Tuesday night. It was a discussion about public health and it was actually really easy in Spanish.. I feel like a lot of medical words are sort of the same you just add ia, or something like that. Liz went too so there was a lot of social work emphasis so it was pretty interesting. Wednesday night Liz, Lil, and I ate at Red Hot Chili Peppers, this 'famous' Mexican restaurant in La Mariscal. Thursday night we had a meeting about what to pack, etc for THE GALAPAGOS!!!! We leave Friday morning ahhhh I am sooooo excited.
Friday morning Liz, Lily, Milton, Andres, Carlos, and I left for Esmeraldas, a beach about 5 hours away. I drove with Milton and I just kept having these moments staring out the window like I am just road tripping in Ecuador and everything was so beautiful and perfect and I just don't want to come home. Ever. Also when Milton got tired from driving or whatever he made me sing to my annoying music. He actually wanted me to sing... out loud! That never ever ever happens. We got there while it was still light out and I played beach soccer with the guys. I don't know why girls never play pick-up sports like that. It was so much fun! After the beach we went back to our hotel where we were literally the ONLY guests, and hung out in the pool. We got this suite so all 6 of us were able to be in the same room so that was really nice. We drove to Atacames, a "city" about 15 minutes away for dinner but then no one really wanted to go out out so we just hung out in the hotel.
Saturday was a very lazy day. We just hung out on the beach alllll day. Lily and I went for a pretty long walk and guess what. There were sand dollars EVERY WHERE. Hundreds of them. I decided to only murder 10 but it was beautiful. I've always heard about beaches like that but this was the first time I actually saw one. Which reminds me... I don't know why but I did not take one picture the whole weekend. I just forgot about my camera I guess.
After the beach we hung out at the pool again and we started drinking this stuff called Nectar. It's some type of alcohol that literally tastes just like black licorice. It was feo. And for some reason, people mix it with straight up lemon juice so it's the most sour effing drink in the world and then STILL has a black licorice aftertaste. It was disgusting. I don't understand. We went to Atacames for dinner again and went to this seafood place. Thank god they gave big portions because I just ate Liz's and Lily's. I ordered this seafood pasta that literally tasted like someone had dropped it in the ocean. It was terrible. After dinner we went back to the hotel and just sang and danced all night. There were some really awkward horrible parts of this weekend which I've decided to just bypass altogether.
After my internship on Monday... oh no actually I just remembered a really sad story from my internship. There is one boy in my class, Juan, who is 14(the oldest in the class) and severely autistic and the most absolute sweetest boy ever. He can't talk at all and it's really hard to get him to focus on anything but he is always smiling and giggling. But on Wednesday in the first 5 minutes I noticed he was crying, not sobbing just tears running down his face. This went on for over 2 hours and it was just terrible because he has no way to communicate how he feels. The social worker came in and was asking him if this hurts, etc and he couldn't respond. It was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. I love him. My teacher said she thinks his mom might have yelled at him/hit him or something and his moods are obviously a lot more affected by things like that. :(
After my internship on Monday I went to the post office to mail some birthday packages (get excited!) and to the supermarket. I met Liz and Lily there and then we sat in an ice cream shop and just talked for a few hours. Hmmm so Tuesday I already said- Gorgeous boy and skipping Spanish but wait.... the best news ever.... ON TUESDAY MOM SAID I CAN CHANGE MY TICKET TO STAY OVER BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well technically it was one of those we'll talk about it deals because it costs $250 to change but I'm sure that she'll cough UNDERSTAND THAT I DON'T WANT TO REGRET THIS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, THE CHANCE TO SPEND NEW YEARS HERE AND SPEND A FEW MORE WEEKS WITH MY FRIENDS HAVING SOOOOO MUCH FUN BECAUSE THERE WON'T BE CLASS AND I'LL BE ABLE TO TRAVEL MORE AROUND THE COUNTRY & TO COLOMBIA AND ANDRES EVEN STARTED PLANNING OUR TRIP TO MONTANITA. I'm seriously never leaving Ecuador. I can't. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
Anyway. Last night I had my first FIVE HOUR long guitar lesson with Milton. I didn't really feel like I was accomplishing that much because I can't hear music in my head and as soon as I pick a finger up it can't find it's way back to the strings... like seriously I can't even tell which finger is which, especially on D they're all spread out weird, BUT he gave me one of his guitars to practice with and I've been playing all morning and I can almost get the whole way through Jewel's You Were Meant For Me. He's a really big Beatles fan and has a whole book of just Beatles' chords so I'm going to take on one of theirs next.
This week is pirate week at USFQ and supposedly if your professors aren't dressed up as pirates on Thursday you can leave class so I'm pretty excited because there is no way any of my teachers are going to be pirates. I don't really understand the point of the whole thing but there is this giant ship in the lagoon so it seems like a big deal. Tomorrow is the Halloween party at Epica and Lily, Liz, and I are deciding between the Teletubbies and Powerpuff Girls... I really wanted to do the Ninja Turtles because Jakki found me this awesome homemade costume but they're boring and I guess it's not slutty enough for them, even though I've always felt green is my color. Then Friday morning THE GALAPAGOS GALAPAGOS GALAPAGOS..... yeaaaaaaah
I'm sorry my blogs are going downhill but it's really hard to write everything I've been thinking and feeling and also my English is getting a lot worse.
Mom, PLEASE let me stay.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
busy busy busy
I can't believe how much I did this week. Sometimes I really do feel like I'm on a 5 month vacation... School can't possibly be this fun. It's weird but I have officially gone to the movies more times in Ecuador than I have in my entire life. Monday I saw Wall Street (2 apparently, but I never saw the 1st). I guess I liked it... blows Letters to Juliet out of the water anyway. Then Tuesday night Liz and I went to Milton's house to watch the Liga match. We were the only girls in what was clearly a "boys' night" and then Liga lost making it more awkward/tense because they are all complete hooligans and can't live if Liga loses. After the match we watched some of the news on the miners. Oh and we watched 2ish hours of 2 and a Half Men which is seriously the most popular U.S. show here. I have no idea why but everybody watches it. Also I really can't believe I used to have an old man crush on Charlie Sheen. Like really.
After my internship on Wednesday I did homework all afternoon. It was really exciting! Thursday after class I got lunch with Laura, Kelly, and Erika- this super nice Ecuadorian. We finally ate at the vegetarian restaurant I've been DYING to eat at, so naturally it was a complete disappointment. That night Liz, Lily and I went to eat at El Pobre Diablo, mostly for the awesome live jazz music they advertise which never actually happened. Fortunately the food was good, but I'm still a little mad.. no a lot. Afterwards Carlos picked us up and we went to Aladdin (which you HAVE to pronounce Ah-la-DEEN), this bar/hookah place. It was really nice and some other people showed up later on. Today Lily came over at like noon because none of us ever have anything to do on Fridays. We did some homework but mostly wasted a lot of time talking. Liz came with us for dinner and we got Indian food in La Mariscal. We all got different dishes and split them.. it was delicious. Like I want to go back... now. Carlos joined us after dinner again and we all got ice cream and talked about our amazing camping trip for.... tomorrow! We're going (along with Andres, Milton, Felipe, Diego, and Kristen) to Cotopaxi- the tallest active volcano IN THE WORLD! I'm so excited. SO EXCITED! I don't think I've gone real camping-in-a-tent-and-everything since senior year of high school. I wish I had Mad Libs.
Oh Tuesday I got 2 old Spanish quizzes back and got a 19.5/20 and a 20/20 on the other, which I'm really excited about because I think I failed the quiz we actually took on Tuesday so that will help compensate. ALSO on Tuesday I got my leadership essay back and got a 96%! Granted it was in English but this professor is super tough. He speaks 4 languages fluently and studied/worked at Yale and Harvard, so I'm ecstatic. And in front of the whole class he congratulated me on my "superb" reflections and writing ability (muahahaha) causing GORGEOUS boy in my class, who absolutely never notices my existence, to look at me so it was a fantastic day. Que mas... on Tuesday I finished my first ring in jewelry-making and started a pair of earrings, so I finally don't completely hate that class since I have a finished product. Actually, with the exception of the teacher.. no as a result of the teacher I love all the people in my class. They've all taken me under their wings, even the brooding "cool" boy in my class. Tomorrow we have a test.. in jewelry making.. and it's just an in-class essay about what we've been doing but I'm really nervous because I don't really retain any of the words for the tools. Everything is just maquina to me... I think it's because I don't know the words in English even so I never have any idea what he's talking about.
My internship is still going really well.. challenging at times. Wednesday while the kids were at recess I was writing these reports for the parents with the teacher I work with and she just started telling me how pleased everyone there is with me, how they weren't sure if they were going to allow students to keep volunteering, I always show up and am so enthusiastic. It was really nice to hear buuuut I don't think she realizes I'm taking the internship for 6 credits so I'm sort of cheating. It's not just an at-will volunteer job like with a lot of the other students.
So clearly I did not finish this post. On to camping!!
Overall it was probably one of the best weekends of my life. Top-ten definitely. We left around noon for the 2 hour car ride. We were separated between 3 cars; I rode with Lily, Carlos, and Milton. We had the best Glee, Wicked, Beatles sing-along ever! When we got there Andres, Diego, and Felipe stayed at the site to set-up the tents and the rest of us went to climb part of Cotopaxi (the world's tallest active volcano). We only climbed to 15,780 feet but even that was so tough! I wasn't getting altitude sick but just breathing was so difficult. The view was definitely worth it though. That took a couple hours and then we met up with the other guys at this look-out by a lake to watch the sunset. It was gorgeous :) and the cheap boxed wine really heightened the experience.
Once the sun went down we went back to the campsite to eat. It took between 2-3 hours to start the fire, SERIOUSLY. The wood was definitely not dry enough but finally it started. We just finished eating hotdogs and sausages when Felipe brought out this like 50 lb. piece of steak. mmmmm Oh! And Andres made canelazo, which usually I hate but I really liked the kind he made. It's this fruity alcoholic drink. It's served warm, which combined with the thick consistency is what throws me off I think but Andres' version wasn't thick and I really liked it! It was naranjilla flavored.
After dinner we started to drink/make s'mores and just talked around the fire for hours. At some point we started playing music from someone's car and dancing in the field and it was just amazzzzzzing. Milton finally accepted that I can't dance and settled for jumping/running around the field with me. Felipe bodyslammed Lily into a car while trying to pull-off their infamous "figure-8"... just a lot of stuff I guess you had to be there to appreciate. Around 1 or 2am some of us decided to climb this hill to see the stars, even though it was completely cloudy and raining a little. We finally gave up but then couldn't find the path so we just had to machete our way down this mountain. Also, I guess it was the fog or something playing tricks but the campfire looked like it was 5 miles away until we were literally 100m from the site. It was the weirdest optical illusion ever and we were all miserable and crying that we were going to die. Oh yeah also there were wild cows around us all night so we went on some adventures trying to capture them and ride them... I guess it seemed a lot cooler after so many rum & cokes at a high altitude.
Oh I almost forgot! So my mom gave me 3 sleeping bags for me, Lily, and Liz to use. I also brought 2 pillows- the only person to bring a pillow. When we decided to go to bed around 3:30ish I had no sleeping bag OR pillow. And no one would let me go look in the other tent or cars because they were being annoying and I was drunk. I have never been so frustrated in my life but also couldn't stop laughing to truly express my anger. Ahhh. So finally Lily and I "went to sleep" sharing a sleeping bag. It was the longest, WORST night's sleep of my life. At the best points during the night up to my thighs were in the sleeping bag. We had to sleep on our sides but I had no pillow so my head was at this god awful angle but I had all my clothes on because it was freezing so there was nothing to put under my head. Every 10 minutes or so throughout the whole night I had to flip to the other side... it was just terrible. When we woke up we discovered that Milton was in my sleeping bag, using his as a pillow in the other tent which no one would let me search. Liz was using one of my pillows(even though she had her own sleeping bag) and the other was in Milton's trunk. I could've killed someone. BUT it was all too much fun so I decided to spare lives.
Despite sleeping for MAYBE an hour and only having a 2 hour nap I forced myself to go to Nikki's on Sunday. Her mom offered to teach us how to make guaguas de pan y colada morada. Since we'll be in the Galapagos during Ecuador's version of the day of the dead we'll miss having those 2 things. Part of the tradition is to make these little breads shaped like dolls with manjar inside(I really don't know what a translation for that would be)and colada morada, a hot, fruity drink with a lot of chunks of fresh fruit floating in it = delicious! Then you eat these 2 things in the tombs of your dead ancestors... we skipped that part.
Today after my internship I continued to catch up on lost sleep with a 3 hour nap. Oh! And Pancho invited me to a party for this Ecuadorian magazine next Wednesday! I'm so excited to be able to dress up :) Even though I know everyone we meet through school, etc are super upper class it still feels weird to be invited to such a party.. Anyway that's all I can remember and I really never want to leave. Time is going too fast I can't stand it.
After my internship on Wednesday I did homework all afternoon. It was really exciting! Thursday after class I got lunch with Laura, Kelly, and Erika- this super nice Ecuadorian. We finally ate at the vegetarian restaurant I've been DYING to eat at, so naturally it was a complete disappointment. That night Liz, Lily and I went to eat at El Pobre Diablo, mostly for the awesome live jazz music they advertise which never actually happened. Fortunately the food was good, but I'm still a little mad.. no a lot. Afterwards Carlos picked us up and we went to Aladdin (which you HAVE to pronounce Ah-la-DEEN), this bar/hookah place. It was really nice and some other people showed up later on. Today Lily came over at like noon because none of us ever have anything to do on Fridays. We did some homework but mostly wasted a lot of time talking. Liz came with us for dinner and we got Indian food in La Mariscal. We all got different dishes and split them.. it was delicious. Like I want to go back... now. Carlos joined us after dinner again and we all got ice cream and talked about our amazing camping trip for.... tomorrow! We're going (along with Andres, Milton, Felipe, Diego, and Kristen) to Cotopaxi- the tallest active volcano IN THE WORLD! I'm so excited. SO EXCITED! I don't think I've gone real camping-in-a-tent-and-everything since senior year of high school. I wish I had Mad Libs.
Oh Tuesday I got 2 old Spanish quizzes back and got a 19.5/20 and a 20/20 on the other, which I'm really excited about because I think I failed the quiz we actually took on Tuesday so that will help compensate. ALSO on Tuesday I got my leadership essay back and got a 96%! Granted it was in English but this professor is super tough. He speaks 4 languages fluently and studied/worked at Yale and Harvard, so I'm ecstatic. And in front of the whole class he congratulated me on my "superb" reflections and writing ability (muahahaha) causing GORGEOUS boy in my class, who absolutely never notices my existence, to look at me so it was a fantastic day. Que mas... on Tuesday I finished my first ring in jewelry-making and started a pair of earrings, so I finally don't completely hate that class since I have a finished product. Actually, with the exception of the teacher.. no as a result of the teacher I love all the people in my class. They've all taken me under their wings, even the brooding "cool" boy in my class. Tomorrow we have a test.. in jewelry making.. and it's just an in-class essay about what we've been doing but I'm really nervous because I don't really retain any of the words for the tools. Everything is just maquina to me... I think it's because I don't know the words in English even so I never have any idea what he's talking about.
My internship is still going really well.. challenging at times. Wednesday while the kids were at recess I was writing these reports for the parents with the teacher I work with and she just started telling me how pleased everyone there is with me, how they weren't sure if they were going to allow students to keep volunteering, I always show up and am so enthusiastic. It was really nice to hear buuuut I don't think she realizes I'm taking the internship for 6 credits so I'm sort of cheating. It's not just an at-will volunteer job like with a lot of the other students.
So clearly I did not finish this post. On to camping!!
Overall it was probably one of the best weekends of my life. Top-ten definitely. We left around noon for the 2 hour car ride. We were separated between 3 cars; I rode with Lily, Carlos, and Milton. We had the best Glee, Wicked, Beatles sing-along ever! When we got there Andres, Diego, and Felipe stayed at the site to set-up the tents and the rest of us went to climb part of Cotopaxi (the world's tallest active volcano). We only climbed to 15,780 feet but even that was so tough! I wasn't getting altitude sick but just breathing was so difficult. The view was definitely worth it though. That took a couple hours and then we met up with the other guys at this look-out by a lake to watch the sunset. It was gorgeous :) and the cheap boxed wine really heightened the experience.
Once the sun went down we went back to the campsite to eat. It took between 2-3 hours to start the fire, SERIOUSLY. The wood was definitely not dry enough but finally it started. We just finished eating hotdogs and sausages when Felipe brought out this like 50 lb. piece of steak. mmmmm Oh! And Andres made canelazo, which usually I hate but I really liked the kind he made. It's this fruity alcoholic drink. It's served warm, which combined with the thick consistency is what throws me off I think but Andres' version wasn't thick and I really liked it! It was naranjilla flavored.
After dinner we started to drink/make s'mores and just talked around the fire for hours. At some point we started playing music from someone's car and dancing in the field and it was just amazzzzzzing. Milton finally accepted that I can't dance and settled for jumping/running around the field with me. Felipe bodyslammed Lily into a car while trying to pull-off their infamous "figure-8"... just a lot of stuff I guess you had to be there to appreciate. Around 1 or 2am some of us decided to climb this hill to see the stars, even though it was completely cloudy and raining a little. We finally gave up but then couldn't find the path so we just had to machete our way down this mountain. Also, I guess it was the fog or something playing tricks but the campfire looked like it was 5 miles away until we were literally 100m from the site. It was the weirdest optical illusion ever and we were all miserable and crying that we were going to die. Oh yeah also there were wild cows around us all night so we went on some adventures trying to capture them and ride them... I guess it seemed a lot cooler after so many rum & cokes at a high altitude.
Oh I almost forgot! So my mom gave me 3 sleeping bags for me, Lily, and Liz to use. I also brought 2 pillows- the only person to bring a pillow. When we decided to go to bed around 3:30ish I had no sleeping bag OR pillow. And no one would let me go look in the other tent or cars because they were being annoying and I was drunk. I have never been so frustrated in my life but also couldn't stop laughing to truly express my anger. Ahhh. So finally Lily and I "went to sleep" sharing a sleeping bag. It was the longest, WORST night's sleep of my life. At the best points during the night up to my thighs were in the sleeping bag. We had to sleep on our sides but I had no pillow so my head was at this god awful angle but I had all my clothes on because it was freezing so there was nothing to put under my head. Every 10 minutes or so throughout the whole night I had to flip to the other side... it was just terrible. When we woke up we discovered that Milton was in my sleeping bag, using his as a pillow in the other tent which no one would let me search. Liz was using one of my pillows(even though she had her own sleeping bag) and the other was in Milton's trunk. I could've killed someone. BUT it was all too much fun so I decided to spare lives.
Despite sleeping for MAYBE an hour and only having a 2 hour nap I forced myself to go to Nikki's on Sunday. Her mom offered to teach us how to make guaguas de pan y colada morada. Since we'll be in the Galapagos during Ecuador's version of the day of the dead we'll miss having those 2 things. Part of the tradition is to make these little breads shaped like dolls with manjar inside(I really don't know what a translation for that would be)and colada morada, a hot, fruity drink with a lot of chunks of fresh fruit floating in it = delicious! Then you eat these 2 things in the tombs of your dead ancestors... we skipped that part.
Today after my internship I continued to catch up on lost sleep with a 3 hour nap. Oh! And Pancho invited me to a party for this Ecuadorian magazine next Wednesday! I'm so excited to be able to dress up :) Even though I know everyone we meet through school, etc are super upper class it still feels weird to be invited to such a party.. Anyway that's all I can remember and I really never want to leave. Time is going too fast I can't stand it.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
I'm practicing blogging more often.
Yesterday after breakfast Liz, Lily, and I went to the botanical gardens in Quito. It was the perfect weather to just stroll around and of course everything was beautiful. The gardens are in El Parque Carolina and there were so many people out and so much going on. Ahh it was such a nice day. We ate a bunch of things from random vendors for lunch and then walked 500 miles to the mall. Quicentro has become "our mall" solely because there is the best ice cream place in the world in it, but we can't actually afford to shop there. All the malls here target the upper-upper class of Ecuador and everything is ridiculously expensive. I seriously don't know where middle-class families buy their clothes.
After dinner I had a really long gossip session with my Ecua-mom, sister, and cousin. It was such awesome family bonding :) I'm never leaving. Really.
It's weird(I don't know if that's the right word..) but I really like when it's just my mom and sister or just my dad and brother at dinner. I don't know if it's because when everyone is there so much conversation is going on that I can't follow, but when it's only like half the family I talk so much. This week my dad went to Peru on business for 3 days and the night he got back I had dinner with just him and my brother and we talked for seriously like an hour straight. It was amazing.
Last night 9 of us went to Tapas & Vinos, my new favorite place in the world. It costs $25 a person, which is ridiculously pricey for Ecuador, but you get UNLIMITED wine and food allllll night. We were there for over 4 hours. Ahhh the food was so good- they just bring out these plates of the most random assortment of everything one after another. Random vegetable assortments, breads, cheeses, sausages, quail eggs, empanadas, shrimp, Spanish omelettes, French fries... and your glass is literally NEVER empty. They refill it when it's like half-empty. Obviously it doesn't make that much sense to go there after dinner but I didn't know... Unfortunately though, as a result of the whole "unlimited wine" bit, I doubt I'll be getting all that much work done today. My head seems to hate me.
I love Ecuador.
Yesterday after breakfast Liz, Lily, and I went to the botanical gardens in Quito. It was the perfect weather to just stroll around and of course everything was beautiful. The gardens are in El Parque Carolina and there were so many people out and so much going on. Ahh it was such a nice day. We ate a bunch of things from random vendors for lunch and then walked 500 miles to the mall. Quicentro has become "our mall" solely because there is the best ice cream place in the world in it, but we can't actually afford to shop there. All the malls here target the upper-upper class of Ecuador and everything is ridiculously expensive. I seriously don't know where middle-class families buy their clothes.
After dinner I had a really long gossip session with my Ecua-mom, sister, and cousin. It was such awesome family bonding :) I'm never leaving. Really.
It's weird(I don't know if that's the right word..) but I really like when it's just my mom and sister or just my dad and brother at dinner. I don't know if it's because when everyone is there so much conversation is going on that I can't follow, but when it's only like half the family I talk so much. This week my dad went to Peru on business for 3 days and the night he got back I had dinner with just him and my brother and we talked for seriously like an hour straight. It was amazing.
Last night 9 of us went to Tapas & Vinos, my new favorite place in the world. It costs $25 a person, which is ridiculously pricey for Ecuador, but you get UNLIMITED wine and food allllll night. We were there for over 4 hours. Ahhh the food was so good- they just bring out these plates of the most random assortment of everything one after another. Random vegetable assortments, breads, cheeses, sausages, quail eggs, empanadas, shrimp, Spanish omelettes, French fries... and your glass is literally NEVER empty. They refill it when it's like half-empty. Obviously it doesn't make that much sense to go there after dinner but I didn't know... Unfortunately though, as a result of the whole "unlimited wine" bit, I doubt I'll be getting all that much work done today. My head seems to hate me.
I love Ecuador.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
A State of Exception...ally blown out of proportion politics
I probably should have blogged about last Thursday... like Thursday. For those of you who live under a rock and missed the big news- Ecuador's police force went on strike. I was sitting in Casa Tomate, the building for all the international programs, trying to find a quiet place to finish my paper which was due in about 30 minutes. I start overhearing a group of directors and students from the Boston University program talking about a police strike, not safe to be in Quito, etc. Finally, my curiosity could not be tamed and I called Daniel, our resident director. I explained what I had overheard and he responded, "Oh I'm actually sick and have been in bed all day. Let me make some calls and call you back." Then ten minutes later he called to tell me, "The police are on strike find any BCA-ers and tell them they are not to leave the campus." Eventually word starts getting around and Casa Tomate fills up because while everyone else's parents are picking them up or they're driving home, public transportation isn't safe for us so we're forbidden to leave. Over the next couple hours there were several rumors flying around- the president has been kidnapped, the president is dead, they tried to burn the president alive... Unfortunately it wasn't quite that exciting.
Wednesday night President Correa had signed off on a bill that would cut Christmas bonuses and lengthen the service time to gain promotions. So the next morning all the police went on strike and confronted Correa at the presidential palace where he stupidly came out yelling "If you want me, take me. Here I am! Kill me! Kill me!" He's really theatrical. So they threw tear gas at him and hit him with some clubs, but the military intervened and got him to a hospital. Also at this point the police had managed to shut down the airport and close all highways going in and out of Quito. So while all of this was going on we were just stuck at USFQ, but it was actually kind of cool because there is a really big culinary program at USFQ and there is a cafe where the students usually sell what they make but they were just giving it all out so it wouldn't go to waste! Also I was almost hoping we would have to sleep there because the whole experience sort of reminded me of The Prisoner of Azkaban when Sirius Black is in the building.
Alas, after a few hours we were allowed to go home but still no public transportation, so directors were taking some students home and the Embassy sent some cars as well. Then for the rest of Thursday and Friday morning we weren't allowed to leave our houses. Thursday I basically just sat with my family watching the news all day. The president did end up being kidnapped, in the hospital, and held hostage, so there was a shoot-out (on tv) between the police and the military and eventually they got him out alive. The State of Exception ended yesterday so everything is "normal again." Ten people were killed and Quito and Guayaquil(the biggest city in Ecuador) were seriously looted- ATMs just pulled out of walls completely.
On Friday Liz, Lily and I ventured out to a cafe to do some homework. Really the only thing I noticed was that the streets were a little more deserted but I didn't feel in danger or anything. That night Carlos joined us for a movie- Letters to Juliet. I would really like my $2.50 back, seriously. It was pathetic. Saturday Quitofest was cancelled because of the strike :( so a bunch of us went to Diego's for a party and it was so much fun. Basically we played flipcup for 3 hours straight(Ecuadorian's are obsessed with flipcup for some reason) but the girls finally won. I managed to pull myself out of bed by 2pm on Sunday, went to the grocery store, and watched Ironman 2 with my family. So... those grad school apps are still waiting for me..
This week I had a ton of work due so it was sort of horrible. Thursday I went to lunch at Carlos' because my last class was cancelled. He has this gigantic garden with a ton of different fruit groves. Apparently, what we consider limes Ecuadorians say are lemons. Lemons and limes are both lemons. A lime is a completely different fruit that is actually sweet. It was so good, whatever it was. Then he 'helped' with my Spanish homework. Thursday night Liz, Lily, Carlos, and I went to La Mariscal and met up with Andres and David. We were trying to find sangria but "the best" sangria place in Ecuador closed early for some reason so we settled for cheap wine.
Yesterday I went with Liz to the post office, which is conveniently a 45 minute trip, to pick-up a package from her dad. Afterwards we stopped for lunch at some random little Ecuadorian restaurant. While we were eating a man came up to us and tried to give us our money back because we were friends of "Ivan Maldanado." I don't know why we didn't just take the money, but we were like we have no idea who you're talking about. "You don't know Ivan? He owns this place and he just called and described you two and said you were to eat for free." Then it got really tense and all the employees are looking at us, pacing, making phone calls. It was bizarre. Ivan must be a scary man whoever he is. Then last night Liz, Lily, and I saw Personal Effects, which I guess I'm just indifferent to.
The weekend of the 17th we were supposed to go to a cloud forest, Bomboli, but our director moved it to the weekend after the Galapagos, so we rearranged some of our trips and I have realized that this weekend is my last free weekend until.... I leave :( Time is going to fly. Tonight we're going to Diego's house in Pifo for a party and sleeping there (It is going to be freezing). Next weekend we're camping, the following weekend is the beach, and then the Galapagos! Words cannot really express my excitement for that. Oh and mom and Johnnie officially bought their tickets to visit, so they're coming for 8 days over Thanksgiving :)
Breakfast time!
Wednesday night President Correa had signed off on a bill that would cut Christmas bonuses and lengthen the service time to gain promotions. So the next morning all the police went on strike and confronted Correa at the presidential palace where he stupidly came out yelling "If you want me, take me. Here I am! Kill me! Kill me!" He's really theatrical. So they threw tear gas at him and hit him with some clubs, but the military intervened and got him to a hospital. Also at this point the police had managed to shut down the airport and close all highways going in and out of Quito. So while all of this was going on we were just stuck at USFQ, but it was actually kind of cool because there is a really big culinary program at USFQ and there is a cafe where the students usually sell what they make but they were just giving it all out so it wouldn't go to waste! Also I was almost hoping we would have to sleep there because the whole experience sort of reminded me of The Prisoner of Azkaban when Sirius Black is in the building.
Alas, after a few hours we were allowed to go home but still no public transportation, so directors were taking some students home and the Embassy sent some cars as well. Then for the rest of Thursday and Friday morning we weren't allowed to leave our houses. Thursday I basically just sat with my family watching the news all day. The president did end up being kidnapped, in the hospital, and held hostage, so there was a shoot-out (on tv) between the police and the military and eventually they got him out alive. The State of Exception ended yesterday so everything is "normal again." Ten people were killed and Quito and Guayaquil(the biggest city in Ecuador) were seriously looted- ATMs just pulled out of walls completely.
On Friday Liz, Lily and I ventured out to a cafe to do some homework. Really the only thing I noticed was that the streets were a little more deserted but I didn't feel in danger or anything. That night Carlos joined us for a movie- Letters to Juliet. I would really like my $2.50 back, seriously. It was pathetic. Saturday Quitofest was cancelled because of the strike :( so a bunch of us went to Diego's for a party and it was so much fun. Basically we played flipcup for 3 hours straight(Ecuadorian's are obsessed with flipcup for some reason) but the girls finally won. I managed to pull myself out of bed by 2pm on Sunday, went to the grocery store, and watched Ironman 2 with my family. So... those grad school apps are still waiting for me..
This week I had a ton of work due so it was sort of horrible. Thursday I went to lunch at Carlos' because my last class was cancelled. He has this gigantic garden with a ton of different fruit groves. Apparently, what we consider limes Ecuadorians say are lemons. Lemons and limes are both lemons. A lime is a completely different fruit that is actually sweet. It was so good, whatever it was. Then he 'helped' with my Spanish homework. Thursday night Liz, Lily, Carlos, and I went to La Mariscal and met up with Andres and David. We were trying to find sangria but "the best" sangria place in Ecuador closed early for some reason so we settled for cheap wine.
Yesterday I went with Liz to the post office, which is conveniently a 45 minute trip, to pick-up a package from her dad. Afterwards we stopped for lunch at some random little Ecuadorian restaurant. While we were eating a man came up to us and tried to give us our money back because we were friends of "Ivan Maldanado." I don't know why we didn't just take the money, but we were like we have no idea who you're talking about. "You don't know Ivan? He owns this place and he just called and described you two and said you were to eat for free." Then it got really tense and all the employees are looking at us, pacing, making phone calls. It was bizarre. Ivan must be a scary man whoever he is. Then last night Liz, Lily, and I saw Personal Effects, which I guess I'm just indifferent to.
The weekend of the 17th we were supposed to go to a cloud forest, Bomboli, but our director moved it to the weekend after the Galapagos, so we rearranged some of our trips and I have realized that this weekend is my last free weekend until.... I leave :( Time is going to fly. Tonight we're going to Diego's house in Pifo for a party and sleeping there (It is going to be freezing). Next weekend we're camping, the following weekend is the beach, and then the Galapagos! Words cannot really express my excitement for that. Oh and mom and Johnnie officially bought their tickets to visit, so they're coming for 8 days over Thanksgiving :)
Breakfast time!
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