It’s 7:00 PM on Tuesday and I just walked in the door after a long day of class and confusion. Although last weekend wasn’t quite as exciting compared to Baños and Otavalo, I did travel to Laguna de Cuicocha (very similar to Crater Lake in Oregon) with my volcano class. Cuicocha is close to Otavalo, so we spent a long time on the bus, but it was worth it! The lake was absolutely beautiful! Sadly, I neglected to bring my camera on the trip because I didn’t know what Theo (the professor) had in store for us; so the picture below is of the free postcard we received upon our arrival.
I spent the rest of the weekend writing papers and memorizing words for my conversation class. In between, however, I found the time to take a walk with Angela (to listen to all of her crazy adventures) and to buy season six of “Sex and the City” and “City of God” (the movie). DVDs here are insanely cheap. It only costs two dollars for almost any movie (well, probably pirated ones) and some of them aren’t even in the theaters yet. I also bought a mixed CD of the best reggae songs in 2007, which was only a dollar. If buying random CDs and DVDs doesn´t kill my budget, my new obsession with Ecuador soccer could definitely put my spending over the top! I went to my first fútbol game in Quito last Wednesday between Nacional and Liga (the two biggest club teams in Quito). Because I’d wanted to buy a jersey for a long time, Sam and I decided we were going to be Liga fans about an hour before the game and picked up a couple of jerseys from El Jardín (the mall near my apartment). The game itself was amazing! We (about seven of us from Oregon) got seats right by the crazy fans who were shouting curses, banging drums and throwing toilet paper on to the field. It was great fun to watch the game while eating delicious hotdogs, joining in on the chants that we didn’t understand and marveling at how close the planes overhead would come to the field as they landed at the airport nearby. Liga won 2-0 (of course) and then we stuck around for a little bit to watch the next game between Barcelona (the most hated team in Quito from Guayaquil) and some other team. It was hilarious to see Nacional and Liga fans go from screaming at each other to turning on Barcelona as the team entered the stadium. In addition to club games, there are some really exciting matches coming up later this month between Ecuador and Venezuela and Ecuador and Mexico. Hopefully I’ll be able to go, but Julie and I are thinking about heading to the coast in a couple of weeks, so we’ll see what happens. The picture of the barbed-wire fence, by the way, is the only thing separating Liga and Nacional fans.
Returning to my confusion(mentioned at the start of this blog post),Today went pretty smoothly until Sam and I tried to get back to Quito from USFQ, and got on the wrong bus. Eventually, we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere on the side of a freeway and had to find our way back to the city on two more buses that literally went just about everywhere possible in Quito before finally dropping us off somewhat close to our homes two hours later.Since I wasn’t in a hurry, it was funny more than anything, but I definitely learned my lesson! I also cheered myself up by stopping for juice at my favorite fruit-stand. It’s a little store about a half-mile from my house in which I can sit down, pick out any combination of fruits that my heart desires (today I got fresh-squeezed orange juice, blackberries and bananas) and watch as they blend it right in front of me for only 50 cents! I love it and look forward to it every day now.
I should probably get some rest because tomorrow I've agreed to sit at
a booth for three hours and convince Ecuadorians to study at UO. Apparently the program is in trouble because too many students leave Oregon to study at USFQ, while not enough Ecuadorians go to UO. I’ll do my best to represent Los Patos (The Ducks)! I also am going to talk with my Social Problems in Ecuador professor tomorrow about places to volunteer. The final photos are of my friends Quena, Michelle and me at the Chiva (many moons ago), and a street in the historical district (I thought I’d throw them in the mix just for fun). ¡Adiós! ¡Que te vaya bien!
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