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!
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