"No te vayas"

I had breakfast with the family.  That was at about 10am.  Joaquin had already showered.  As we ate Adriana said it was my last breakfast with the family, but I assured her I’d get up early for tomorrow’s breakfast.  I simply can’t miss that.  Carlos even said something like I had to get up for it.  So, today was my 2^nd to last breakfast in Quito.

Carlos, Juanjo, Joaquin, Martica and I then went to a mall in el Condado so that Carlos could pick up some tennis shoes he had asked Cesar to save for him.  Cesar works at the Converse store.  The mall was really nice.  I think I liked it better than the others I had been to because of the design.  We chilled at the Converse store for a while until Carlos bought his shoes and a few other things.  We walked around, Juanjo got in a kids’ maze that was set up I think for the holiday season, we got ice cream and looked for a digital camera for Joaquin – “¡La mas barato!”  Yes, that’s how he would say it.  We were all very hungry so we were glad to head over to gramma’s house for lunch and hang out there for the rest of the evening.

I had a credibly good time with all of them.  As always the lunch was good – Adriana made sure to cook the beans for me since she knows I love them… plus she loves beans as well.  I played “five coin” with Joaquin, Micaela and Juanjo.  Five coin is a game that Joaquin showed us which require a coin, we used a quarter, and to start off one of the players spins the coin.  The next person has to keep spinning it, then the next, etc.  Whoever makes it stop loses.  I really liked this game.  Maybe I should say he’s not really sure that’s what it is called.  We also played a cool game Rumikub. When it came time to leave, everybody began to say goodbye to me and I got a little emotional.  Don Hernan hugged me for a long time and told me that I was always welcome there because they are now my family as well.  I was very touched with what they had to say.

Oh yeah, Don Hernan made me laugh during lunch when he was talking about how his illegal dvd's weren't working.  Jessica was saying that they aren't good quality, after all they are $1.  Don Hernan made sure to clarify that they were "un dolar cincuenta."

Later that night Yonseili and I went out with Robert Pattinson, I mean, Joaquin.  We waited forever for a taxi.  We decided to go to calle Floreana to see if we could get one there and then headed towards Amazonas.  A white car approached us and asked if one of us was "Denis," and that was our driver.  We had seen that car on floreana with the hazard lights on... maybe he was lost.  He said something was going on with the car, whatever.  We just wanted to get to Coffeetree.

All I have to say is that I will really miss Coffeetree.  We had a good time hanging out.

Highlight of the day: Hanging out with the fam.

CoffeeTree

I woke up, had breakfast and got ready to go to the museum with Yonseili.  We had invited Joaquin but he had already gone so he obviously wasn’t interested.  We walked to Quicentro where Yonseili got something to drink and from there we got a taxi to take us to El Museo del Hombre.

The museum was good.  Guayasamin was very talented and I really do enjoy looking at his art.  I couldn’t pass up buying a poster of one of his paintings.  I look forward to putting it up on my wall in my future home.  Yeah, I thought that far ahead.  The museum guide girl talked really fast and therefore Yonseili and I just decided to go our own ways.  I am very glad we went before leaving.  Our pics are good, the view was great, and the weather was perfect.  We headed home.

I went to the market with Joaquin to buy a few more last-minute things.  I couldn’t believe that it would be my last time there.  I felt amazing knowing I learned how to negotiate and knowing what things should cost.  I even recognized some of the vendors.  I looked at the time and freaked out.  We were supposed to meet Carlos at the house at 1:30 and that’s the time it was.  Sh*t!  Joaquin had no problem agreeing with me that it was my bad, but I also knew that Carlos wouldn’t be mad.  So we headed out and thankfully I was satisfied with my last-minute shopping.  We took forever to get a freakin’ taxi and when we finally did we got home at about 2:15ish.  Although the original plan was to eat out (Carlos, Joaquin and I), Carlos said that Adriana was on her way from the party she went to with Juan Jose.  Joaquin almost died of starvation so I had to steal bread for him.  I got it from the top of the microwave.  He really couldn’t get it himself because he felt bad.  When she arrived we all went out to a good seafood place right around the corner.  Ceviches Manabita I think is the name of it.  I could be completely wrong.  I got ceviche de camarones because I actually craved it.  Back home, before I came, I never would have craved seafood.  There was a man playing the guitar and it was nice.  I got a little emotional because Carlos lately has been making toasts and saying it was a pleasure to have me at their home…

The rest of the evening I packed… that is until Yonseili and I went with Adriana to CoffeeTree.  It was girl’s night out and we enjoyed it very much.  The dj and music was good.  We heard a lot of good old school songs.  As always it was a pleasure sharing time with Adriana.  She asked us what we liked best and didn’t like about Ecuador.  Yonseili and I agreed that the worst thing were the scares with suspicious men/activity.  The best thing was Adriana and her home.  She got teary-eyed.

The weather was insane.  There was a lot of fog and we thought that hopefully it wasn’t like that on our flight day.

Highlight of the day: Girl's night out!

Yeah... it's official. I'm leaving.

Since I’d said I’d go, I had to wake up early to go to Glenca’s house with Adriana.  Of course, if I would have known what I know now I wouldn’t have gone because Adriana and I were late for Yonseili’s presentation.  It was time-consuming to get a taxi due to the rain.  We had to be at Glenca’s at 8am and arrived at 8:45.  She talked about authority and what the bible says about it.  I made it a point we had to leave early, but of course Ecuadorians are always running late so I shouldn’t have counted on me telling them to be enough.  They still wanted to have breakfast.  Adriana had made empanaditas to eat there.  They took their sweet time eating and talking.  I was dying inside from the stress, the anxiety.  We finally left and I knew that we wouldn’t make it.  Adriana was super calm and kept telling me we’d be fine because they probably wouldn’t start the presentation right at 10.  And to top it off the taxi driver we got was all calm.  I had to breathe in and out and hope Yonseili wouldn’t kill me.  We asked the taxi driver to wait for us outside the house while I ran in, brushed my teeth and got my exhibition stuff.  Para la calle Noruega y 6 de Diciembre is where we headed.  I prayed to God that the presentation wasn’t over.

When we got to school Adriana and I had begun to go up to the top floor but then Carolina stopped us and told us the presentation was elsewhere so she walked us.  We walked in to Yonseili’s very nice presentation.  She was smooth.  Yonseili and I had a heart-felt moment after everyone left the room.  Regarding my presentation, I must say Yonseili’s affected mine in a good and different way than I thought my presentation would have been.  It was a very sentimental moment I think for many in the room, especially us two.

After the presentation Adriana and Yonseili accompanied me to the historic center so that I could look for some jerseys.  The weather was absolutely horrible.  We were in traffic FOREVER!  I finally got the jerseys right away and we were in traffic for another 45 minutes and that led us to arrive to our presentation just in time.  After our graduation we said our goodbyes.  I felt so relieved to be done with school.  We came home after graduation and I just hung out.  The rest of the evening was smooth.  I finished a lot of my packing today.

Highlight of the day:  Graduating of course.

Busy day

I worked on the academia’s presentation today, most of the day.  To start the day we went took a taxi down Shyris to find a printing place Yonseili had been to before.  We both needed to print out pictures for our exhibition.  The guys at the printing place were very helpful and for a change we had good customer service.  I also couldn’t believe the incredibly good price we were getting our prints for.  We paid and walked to El Jardin to talk to the same guy Yonseili’s been talking to about her USB that’s not working correctly.

We arrived and I noticed the guy was kind of hiding.  Yonseili asked me to tell the group of employees for help.  Then the guy came and as he helped her I sat at a nearby couch to watch Pirates of the Caribbean that was being played at one of the display flat-screen TV’s.  After about 30 minutes he ended up telling her she had to go to some tech-place to get it checked out to confirm it really isn’t working in order to get it replaced.  We had to go home because it was Yonseili’s lunch time.

For my exhibition stuff I had to go to the papeleria at the corner to get construction paper.  Pretty much the rest of the night I worked on my presentation at Yonseili was at her house working on her bizcochos that are to be passed out at her presentation.  It rained a lot.  The internet connection is always lost due to the heavy rain.  Joaquin had never heard such loud lightning.  By the way, it’s really cool to hear him speak Danish.

Highlight of the day: I will miss the rain, actually the weather all.  I've learned to appreciate the weather here-you get it all!  The thunder, although I'm not a fan, was perfect.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños Juan Jose!

Adriana woke me up because I had asked her to since I went to sleep at 3:30am.  I had breakfast and then got ready to go to school because I had to help Carolina with the Christmas event the academia puts together for a foundation.  I didn’t really know what was going on until I arrived to the school.  The project that was there is Covi from the Carolina Park.  It was very nice; they had good kids and a good teacher.  Before the kids arrived I helped with a few things and then 5 girls from the Academia, including me, went over to the park so that we could help walk the kids to the school.  It’s only a 4-minute walk.  We met them, walked them to the school, and a lady “clown” was waiting for them.  The kids had a lot of fun; even the students enjoyed watching the kids play whatever the “clown” wanted them to do.  The kids got candy, prizes and snacks.  When the show ended we took a picture and walked them back to the park.  Next I headed back home to help with Juan Jose’s surprise party.

Yonseili was there because she wanted to make the cake for Juan Jose.  She was very stressed due to her human resources class presentation that was today.  She was looking for any excuse to not work on that presentation.  The decorations we put up were so cool and the dining room had a complete transformation.  Adriana was kinda stressed as well hoping everything would turn out okay.  As asked to, Carlos’ family came over at 3, half an hour before Juan Jose arrives from school.  Then, the time finally came and we heard the buzzer – John Joe had arrived.  So we all went into the dining room and waited for Adriana to walk in with him.  When he walked in we yelled “¡Sorpresa!”  He hugged everyone present and then we all had delicious hot dogs. 

Overall the party went well.  Juan Jose had no idea about the party and I enjoyed everyone’s company.  Carlos’ family is very easy to get along with.  The number 6 candle was blown out three times, he opened his gifts, Carlos and his nephew Alex made a dog out of a long balloon.  Yonseili couldn’t really be there because she had to leave to school for her presentation.  As a matter of fact she left about when the family arrived.  Everyone left early and we cleaned up.  I vacuumed the living room carpet because it was a mess and it wasn’t letting me breathe.  Their vacuum is nice to work with. 

Later we did something amazing… we finished the puzzle!  Martica helped us out with that.  Then I helped Joaquin with his Spanish homework.

Highlight of the day: (The surprise party)

Just let all your anger out Yonseili!

I woke up and saw Yonseili at my desk.  “Whaaaat?” is what I first thought…

She was working on her Human Resources homework and apparently she had been at my desk for two hours.  I had no idea because I was still working on my z’s.  I must admit it was very nice to wake up and see her.  I don’t mean to sound cheesy, but it really did make me happy to see her there, it was a good surprise.  She worked on her assignment for a while.  As I made my bed after I went back to sleep again and then got up, I bugged her.  Yes, I just felt like doing it until she ‘had it’ and got the pillow and hit me once.  This may sound violent but it was all in good fun.  I then told her, “let out all your anger,” and that’s what she did.  She hit me several times as she said something that upset her, including: I never went to Chile!  I never had Chilean olives!  I couldn’t help but laugh after every hit and every sentence.

After I made my bed we went downstairs to have bread and chocolate with Adriana.  Yeah we brought up how we were leaving soon and it always gets a bit quiet.  I showered and got ready to go to Super Maxi with Yonseili because we needed to get a few things there.  We were looking at wine and I noticed two guys were fishy/shady.  I kept my eyes on them and got a bad gut-feeling.  From then until the time we paid I was a bit scared and I am still traumatized that we were possibly looked at as victims of whatever crime.  One guy just walked back and forth, and then they both went away.  Then we saw them again and one went near the door and I saw he was talking to someone far away outside the store as the other dude was somewhere behind us with an empty shopping cart.  We went out a different way after paying and waited to see if anyone was following.  I was really worried but we got out, got a taxi and went home.  Thank God we got home safely.  I talked to Adriana about it and she said that many have kidnapped kids and held them in a car in the parking lot while they wait to see the parents run out in panic so that they can take them aside and ask them for money.  Horrible.

I worked on the computer for a while and then had lunch.  John Joe did dance a bit for me it; it was great.  Joaquin arrived and later we had a conversation about religion.  It was interesting.  We have different views.  Let’s leave it at that.

When Yonseili got home from school she came over and took a test on my computer.  For dinner we had sanduches and soup.  Since Juan Jose’s birthday is tomorrow we went to el Jardin to buy him a gift.  We then saw that it was closing so we went to Quicentro and found gifts there.  I got him an activity kit and Joaquin got him a Magnetix toy.  We got them wrapped there.  Afterward I helped Joaquin with his Spanish.  I went to sleep really late.

Highlight of the day: Yonseili!

¡Feliz Cumpleaños Raquel Paliz!

I woke up feeling like crap but throughout the day I felt way better.  We didn’t do much today until the night.  In the afternoon Raquel called us to invite us to her house for a little get-together for her birthday.  She told us she’d be blowing out candles, but apparently the plans changed a bit later in the day.

We left to her house at about 6:30 to be there by 7pm.  We were the first guests there so we helped her with the nativity set she had next to her amazing, beautifully decorated Christmas tree.  Her cat had bumped down a lot of the nativity set so we mainly needed to reorganize it.  I asked her who would be going and the following were present:

Relatives:

-Her husband

-Her son Paul

-Her niece and the niece’s husband and daughter.  By the way this girl (the niece’s daughter) had a contagious laugh.  She looked really cool and was about 13.

Friends:

-“El arquitecto” and his wife

-A lady

-Paty the director, along with her sister Sandra and her husband

-Gina Longstreet (student)

-Stephanie Spivey (student)

-and us

The get-together turned out to be a little party.  The husband and son were not expecting that at all until about 6pm so they hurried to get treats for the guest and sandwiches from El Español.  We really had a great time. 

Highlights of the night:

-         Singing happy birthday to Raquel

-         The chocolate cake

-         The dancing!

-         The drive back home

Singing happy birthday to Raquel:  She definitely got a little emotional when her husband was doing the toast and that wasn’t easy to see, but I hope that God blesses her with many more years and that all her wishes come true.

The chocolate cake:  Thick and rich.  Scrum-diddly-umcious.  Gina served the cake pieces and holy smokes she gave out huge pieces.  I couldn’t finish mine.  I tried, I really did.

The dancing!:  It was the coolest thing to have fun dancing with chill people and simply not at the Bungalow.  Raquel did not hold back and danced a lot as well.  She has a lot of energy and passion and it was very obvious tonight.  She danced all night and very well.  I now know why she used to be the dance instructor at the Academia years back.  I love her! She’s sooo cool!  The music at first wasn’t too fun because her husband was not choosing good music.  Yonseili saw a Kumbia Kings CD and told him to put that in.  That’s when the fun started.  Later her son brought his iPod and the real fun started.  He has a lot of good music.

The drive back home: Eventually the party had to stop and Raquel and her son took three of us back home.  We first took Raquel’s friend (the lady) to her house and then they dropped us off.  On our way there Yonseili scared us all with her scream after she thought Paul wasn’t going to press on the breaks because of some dogs that were up ahead.  Paul’s reaction was hilarious and kept saying things like, “P*ta” and “Chuta” and a bunch of other funny stuff because Yonseili almost gave him a heart attack.  It was really funny.

Highlight of the day: Being present at an amazing person’s birthday party.  We will definitely never forget Raquel.

Otavalo Take 3

So Yonseili was my alarm today since I am letting Joaquin use mine for school.  She called me at 7am so that I can get ready to go to Otavalo with Joaquin.  We ended up leaving at about 9:30, went to fybeca to get money from the ATM and then got a taxi to take us to the bus terminal Carcelen.  When we bought the ticket we headed to the bus and I noticed we were probably on the wrong one.  We got off before it left, asked two men nearby which bus we had to get on and turns out the guy we bought the ticket from sold us a ticket to a bus that doesn’t even go to Otavalo… what a liar!  Anyway, one of the men was driver of the other bus that passes by Otavalo and he said he’d tell us when we should get off.  So we hopped on the bus and got to Otavalo at around 12pm.  We were dropped off about 2 blocks from the market so the nearby taxi driver charged us $1 to get us there.  It felt good to be in Otavalo but I was also sad to think it would definitely be my last time.

The market was good, we walked around, bought a few things and for a while split up.  I later received a text from Joaquin asking if I was still in the market.  Apparently he was talking to a guy who knows how to play charangos and sells them as well.  Joaquin knows how to play the guitar and was interested in buying a cheap, “trashy” guitar so that he wouldn’t feel bad about leaving it behind when he left to San Francisco.  A charango would be easy to carry around.

We left to eat at the place that I had eaten at the last time I was here with Yonseili, Vincent and Lauren.  I don’t know the name of it at the moment, but there we got nachos, I got chocolate and Joaquin got lemonade I think.  He tried the nachos with hot oriental sauce.  He barely put any on it and his tongue was burning up.  It was insane to watch and I obviously couldn’t help but laugh.  He thought I was “hard core” when I ate it.  I just let him know that back home we put sauce on everything so it’s no big deal.  Before we left the restaurant he talked about the charango and wondered whether he should buy it for $70.  I encouraged him if he was thinking about it that much so we went back to the seller and when the seller saw Joaquin he laughed.  The seller wasn’t surprised it seemed.  I asked the seller if he could lower the price and he went down to $60.  Joaquin chose his charango (they all had different designs), chose his charango carry bag, and also received an instruction booklet on what chords he could play and also included songs he could play.  I then took a picture of them two.  The picture is pretty cool.

We had to head back home immediately to make it back in time for the Liga game he said he’d watch with Carlos at home.  At one point the bus driver was taking his time and the people on the bus were yelling at him to hurry up.  As we got closer to Quito the bus driver was driving really fast.  I think he was also in a hurry to watch the game.  Really.  We finally arrived at about 4ish when the game was about to start and headed home.  The taxi driver wanted to charge us $3.50 although I told him the guy in the morning only charged us $2.  He didn’t believe me but, whatever, we were in a hurry to get home so we took the lame cab.

Martica and Yonseili were at the house with the family.  Carlos was upstairs in front of the TV of course and Joaquin joined him.  Liga won!  Before the game even ended, because Carlos knew they’d win, the guys went out somewhere to celebrate and shortly after them Yonseili and I got ready to meet Raquel at Sweet & Coffee to give her a goodbye/birthday present and our presentation papers so that she could revise them for us.

On our way to the Sweet & Coffee place, we saw many cars pass by with Liga flags and they were all beeping.  It was crazy to see how so many people could be so happy about the win.  We met up with Raquel and as always it was good to see her.  She told us she would take the papers home and give them to us later so she could really edit them well.  She took us home.

Yonseili ordered pizza and we had that for dinner.  I’m still feeling sick.  I laughed plenty with Yonseili.  I took a little nap before I officially went to sleep.

Highlight of the day: Saying goodbye to Otavalo… although it wasn’t easy, I was happy to have gone one more time.

Parillada at night and under the rain

All day I worked on my presentation.  Of course I had breakfast which was: boiled egg, arepa colombiana, and hot chocolate.  Joaquin left at about 10:30 to the school so that he could go with the Donald guy for a hike to the Pichincha.  Apparently a girl from Germany, Florentina, slowed them down and therefore they did not get very far.  By the way, Florentina is the same girl that volunteered at the same place we did and who, as my gut told me, turned out to be not so nice.   But anyway, the rest of the day wasn’t too exciting, and I had to decline my host family’s invitation to go out and get the tent, chairs and table for tonight’s parrillada so that I could work on my presentation.

They got back from getting the tent and went out again to get all the meat.  When they came back from that I helped Carlos put the tent together.  This tent was lent to him by his cousin I think and therefore he wasn’t sure how to put it together.  In the end we were able to get it together with our amazing teamwork.

We had a quick and light lunch, sandwiches, so that we weren’t too full for dinner.  At around 6ish Joaquin was home already and Yonseili came over so that we could all set up and take everything up to the terrace.  Ah yes, I forgot to say that we had our parrillada up at the terrace of my house.  We decorated the tent with balloons, strings of confetti and Christmas lights that were a bit tangled but nonetheless all looked well.  When we started our parrillada it was not raining and throughout the rest of the night it was sprinkling, then raining, then sprinkling again.  The best part was that we didn’t give in to the weather and we all stayed up on the terrace on a beautiful night under the rain in good company.  Carlos was in charge of the meat, Adriana gave him spoonfuls of the food while he cooked, Juan Jose was drawing in his notebook.  I will really miss the Polit Family.  Then they surprised Yonseili and me with two cool sweaters… they were LIGA sweaters!  They said it was with mucho cariño.  When they asked Yonseili to bring the wine, she came upstairs and said that maybe that should use that wine for a better occasion but they said it was a very special occasion.  That meant a lot.  You see, I also forgot to mention that the point of tonight’s cookout was kind of like a goodbye thing since we only have 9 days left.  Yonseili and I can truly say that just as we are bummed to leave them, the Polit family is really sad to see us leave.  They are now saying things like how they will miss our loud laughs at night.  December 21^st will be a bitter sweet day.

Highlight of the day:  De ley, the parrillada.  Yonseili and I couldn’t help but get a little melancholic.

"¡Salvate Alicia!" - John Joe

I went with Yonseili to the internet cafe to print out stuff.  We went down Genovesa and Yonseili bought a sandwich on that street.  I believe they were called "megasanduches."  She got the sandwich to go and came over to my house to eat it, otherwise Clementine would chew her out or tell on her or... so many things...

We had told Joaquin we'd pick him up at school so that he could see the mercado artesanal so that's what we did at 1pm.  He took the bicycle to school today therefore we had to ask the new guard to please look out for it while we came back.  At the market we bought a few things ourselves and Joaquin didn't really buy anything.  We split up from Yonseili because he was hungry and we looked for a place where he can grab a sandwich.  Yonseili caught up to us and we both went to some random place down the street.  We didn't go back to the market but we did go to a nearby CoffeeTree.  There we got nachos and drinks to just hang out... until we heard thunder and right in the middle of her talking Yonseili said, "We need to go now" and continued talking.  It was pretty funny.  We got our check and went for a taxi.  While we were sitting we saw several people nearby sitting by a monument/statue and the girls in the group were getting their hair braided with beads and stuff.  We were tempted to do it.  Maybe before we leave?

We dropped off Yonseili at school and I walked home with Joaquin since he had his bicycle.  It was raining but not too much thank God.  I had lunch at home and after that went to the ATM with Joaquin and Juan Jose since Joaquin needed money.  We went to Yonseili's and my dear Fybeca.  I got medicine as he was at the ATM.  Then we waited for a while until Juan Jose was done looking at all the toys in there.  As we were walking home we had to hurry a bit because it started to sprinkle and we wouldn't want John Joe to get sick.  All four -Adriana, John Joe, Joaquin and I- played one game of Jenga and then it was just Joaquin and me.  I had been wanting to play for the longest time so I was happy I finally got to.  I beat Joaquin in a 2 out of 3 game.  He wasn't too happy, but it was funny.

Then we watched Alice in Wonderland in my host parents' room.  A very good movie.  The best part was watching John Joe get all excited and yell at Alice, "¡Salvate Alicia!" as he moved his hands excitedly.  For dinner we had empanadas and they were good.  Tonight's plans, originally, were to go to La Ronda with Carlos and Adriana but they backed out because of the weather.  Us three still went and while we waited for the taxi that never arrived, we played category.  We finally decided to just go out and look for one.

La Ronda was definitely a love more lively than Wednesday and so we went to the first restaurant that Brian, Yonseili and I went to there.  I got my chocolate with four pieces of fresh cheese.  We explained to Joaquin you could put the cheese in there and he freaked out.  He thought it was extremely weird.  We walked around for a while, he tried the Canelazo and liked it, and overall liked La Ronda.  ¡Buenas noches!

Highlight of the day: I must say it was Juan Jose’s reactions to the movie!  It was great to see how a little kid can get into a movie like that.

"I thought it was some cultural thing..." - Joakim

In the morning I went with Yonseili to SUKASA to ask about her computer because it was giving her trouble again. We were there for a while and weren't really able to get anywhere...

The rest of the afternoon was 'chill'... I know I use that word a lot but it simply means nothing out of the ordinary happened.  I did go with Joakim to MyBike to put air into one of Juan Jose's little basketballs so we could play at the park for a while.  We wanted Juan Jose to go but since he's on a tight schedule he really couldn't join us.  So Joakim is very competitive.  Every time he missed he would say the 'f' word or say 'dammit' and would really try to shoot the ball correctly.  Anywho I was happy to hear Yonseili scream my name as she was walking by the park on her way home from school.  She said she was going to go get pinchos from around the corner.  The pinchos place was closed but Yonseili still stopped by a nearby store and bought a coke.

Tonight I helped Joakim out with his Spanish homework.  He needed to practice his irregular verbs and I must say he is very good.  When we went over the "Caber" verb I got a huge laugh.  You see, what I was doing is saying a verb, for example Caber, and when I would say "yo, tu, el, nosotros, ustedes" he would have to say "quepo, cabes, cabe, cabemos, caben."  Well, when he gave me the answer to "yo" instead of saying "quepo" he said "cago."  He said it with such assurance that it was too funny and I burst out laughing.  He then thought about it and realized what he said.  I laughed too much, but that wasn't the funniest part of the day.

Highlight of the day: During dinner I put on rancheras so that Joaquin could listen to them.  I introduced him to Mana already and he seems to like, I was curious to see what he thought about the 'real' Mexican music.  So as we were eating and listening to the music Yonseili knocked on the door.  At that very moment I had just begun to tap my fingers on the table to go along with the beat of the song that was on.  I could see from the corner of my eye that Joaquin was a bit confused and I just kept going to the beat.  When Adriana opened the door to let Yonseili in he asked me why I was doing that and I told him why.  I burst out laughing the second he told me he though it was some kind of cultural thing to bang the fingers on the table when someone was coming over.  LOL!  All I could say is that I wish he would have done it so that I could get a bigger kick out of it.  I am just glad he has a good sense of humor.

Re: My health, I'm definitely sick with a cold...

"Whatsup" - Brian

Because we were running a bit late and we didn't want Joakim to be late we took the taxi.  We figured we could accompany him to school again and we could do something else on the little trip.  So when Joakim asked us on the taxi what we were going to do, we thought of going to the consulate.  We went to ask what we had to do to leave the country.  The kind of rude lady let us know that we didn't need to do anything special as long as we had our passport.  From there we went to a nearby used book store and bought a few books.  We got an english-spanish dictionary for Adriana and I got two books full of anecdotes and other neat stuff.

We were excited to see Brian today!  He messaged us on Facebook yesterday that he was in town but was too tired to catch up with us.  We looked forward to catching up with him today.  When we came back home, Brian sent me a text, "whatsup."  After a few failed skype-call attempts, he called my cell and said he was by parque Carolina so we went ahead and invited him over while we finished getting ready and headed over to pick up Joakim from school.  We'd told him we'd go with him to the mall to get a cell phone and look at cameras.  So then I heard the buzz, picked up the phone and it was Brian!  I went downstairs and it was crazy to see him with longer hair.  Yonseili was at her house in the meantime and later came over to see Brian.  It was the three-musketeers feeling all over again, it was simply surreal.  We then headed to the school to pick up who Brian kept referring to as "Charles" for some reason... okay buddy.

Brian talked to us about all the places he went to and what he did.  He worked on a farm for two weeks I believe, surfed at Canoa and actually stayed at the place my host dad had recommended we'd stay at if we went called Coco Loco managed by a cool Mexican guy, and was spit at by a shaman.  Too funny.  We arrived to school and waited for Joakim to get out of class and then waited a bit longer because he was talking to his brother.  You see, it's hard for him to communicate since Denmark is six hours ahead of us. And  I thought we had it tough.  By the way, in case I haven't said it before, we call Joakim "Joaquin."

At the mall Yonseili helped Joakim with the cell phone at the Movistar stand.  In the meantime Brian and I were counting how many people we saw picking their noses... well it was more like Brian because I didn't catch many.  You see, it's not rare to see people here pick their nose.  There is one move that Yonseili and I call "the subtle" because the -usually- men use their thumb to pick their nose and the rest of their hand to try to hide it... it's quite funny.  There we saw William the professor from school and he chat with us for about two minutes and then moved on with his life.  We were all hungry so we grabbed a bite and then left the mall.  Yonseili went to school and the rest of us went to my house.  We chilled there untili Yonseili came home with cake and candles... for who you may be wondering?  Brian's birthday is December 10th so we decided we'd do something before he left back to the U.S. tomorrow.  We 'snuck' in the cake and while Joakim and Brian talked in the living room, Yonseili came out with the cake and lit candles while Adriana took pics and I recorded.  He made a wish or two, I don't really know, and then blew out the candles.  Of course we sang happy birthday!  All he could say is that he knew we were up to something.

We ate the cake and tried to convince Brian to go to La Ronda one last time but he wanted to go to bed early since his flight is at 6:30 in the am.  Nonetheless all four of us went out to the Sweet & Coffee place and just chilled there for a while until we grabbed a taxi and dropped off Brian.  It was so sad, but we are sure we will see him in New Mexico!

We then asked Joakim if he wanted to go to La Ronda to see the place and he was up for it.  When we got there, however, we were a bit disappointed because it was kinda dead.  We are sure it's because of the Fiestas de Quito that had everyone tired of the partying and probably also because it was a weeknight...we went up and down the one road and then got a taxi.  We asked the taxi driver to pass by the plaza grande and then by the Mariscal since Yonseili was invited to go to a goodbye thing at the Huaina's bar.  She and Joakim got down there and I headed home but not more than 4 minutes later, they were coming up the stairs and into my room because everything was closed.  Again, I think the Fiestas were plenty for everyone that they could skip this one Wednesday.  I must say that the ride back home with the taxi driver was good because he had the radio on a good station where they were playing music by John Morrison and John Lennon because John Morrison was born December 8th and John Lennon died that day.  The taxi driver and I talked but he was not creepy at all.  Good music and good conversation.  We chilled in my room for a while before the lights went out! Chao!

Highlight of the day: hanging out with Brian!

deniSe, Brian, Yonseili

By the way... seems like I'm getting sick because my throat is feeling funny...

New Lock and 14 New Keys

We walked Joakim to school today for his first day.  We took our same old route down Shyris.  It was crazy to walk to school again.  I didn't think I'd be doing it again.  We were with him until all the introductions were over... Yonseili and I always get a kick out of watching Paty the director say the same thing every Monday.  It's great how she says the same things with the same enthusiasm every beginning of the week.  We always say she should just record herself and just smile and nod throughout, maybe even do a little bit of hand movements as flight attendants do before we take off... it's a funny thought.  We talked to Paty after she finished talking to the new three students, including Joakim.  One of them is a male from Holland and the other is a female from France who's parents-in-law are from Ecuador.

We could breathe again the second she said that our presentations can be about anything we'd like.  Yonseili immediately knew she wanted to talk about New Mexico and I still need to think about it, but I think I will talk about my experience abroad.  Paty told us that what really matters is that we give our presentation with enthusiasm and not stress about it.  They just want to see us talk Spanish.

We came back home and I accompanied Yonseili to the nearest key making place because she lost the keys and thinks she did so right outside the gate.  To be safe her host parents asked her to get a whole new lock for the gate and make about 8 keys for everyone.  After that I had to take a shower because I hadn't done so yet and then accompanied Adriana to the school to talk to Santiago.  Joakim had his orientation today so he got home at about 6pm.

Highlight of the day:  I would have to say getting the whole new lock was interesting, but walking to school was a lot cooler because we hadn't done so in such a long time, maybe once after Brian left.  Actually, the new lock thing caused Joakim to try other gates because, although we mentioned to him what had happened, he didn't know the lock change was done...so I will decide and say that the highlight of the day is getting the lock changed.

“Yeah, right now I wish my mom was Mexican, too.”

I got up and got ready to go with Glenca and her family to a farm – or so I thought.  I was ready by 10am but they showed up at about 10:45am.  Yonseili couldn’t go so I just went with them.  I’m guessing the farm was closed because of Quito’s Independence Day or due to maintenance.  So they took me to the Panecillo, parque Alameda, and to restaurant Pacifico.

The ride was good.  I sat in the back of the little land rover with Glenca (daughter) and Emilia.  Interestingly Glenca had Martina (the baby) with her in the front.  (Luis her husband was driving.)  We made a quick stop before arriving to the top.  There, Glenca and Emilia got some shades.  –Yes, some of the stuff I put down seems pointless but I like to remember details.-  Luis and Glenca talked to me about the city almost as if I hadn’t been here 4 months, but of course I still appreciated it.  One thing they did tell me that I did not know was that it’s law for Quiteños to have an Ecuadorian Flag outside their homes for their independence day.  And here I was thinking these people were really patriotic… they’ll get a fine if they don’t do it.  Anyway, the Panecillo was cool.  You can definitely get a good view of the city, north and south.  The virgin monument is really big.  We went inside it to get a little higher.  Click here for more info on it.

Next stop was the park.  We walked around a bit and then got on the little boats.  I got in with Luis, Glenca and Emilia.  Mom Glenca stayed out with Martina because the boat wasn’t big enough.  When we arrived at the park I saw a little red boat with “TITANIC” painted on it.  I thought it was funny and little did I know we’d be getting in that one.  Jajaja.  Luis rowed.  We did that for about half an hour.  Some people didn’t know how to row so we’d be crashing and yadda yadda yadda…

Finally we went to eat.  I was tired, sleepy and hungry.  Pacifico was the chosen place.  As always the place was packed.  I ordered fritada and couldn’t finish even half of it.  It was too much meat for me.  I took the rest home.  I arrived at about 4:15ish and went straight to the bed.  The dang intercom/doorbell disrupted my sleep twice.  I was supposed to have accompanied Joakim to the Apple store so he can get a special outlet connector for his Mac since the outlets in Denmark are different.  But I got here later than I thought so no one was home.  They went out to the mall and had lunch over there.

 

At about 6:30ish they got here.  At 7:30ish we had dinner and Yonseili joined us.  I’m glad Joakim really tries to be a part of the conversation even if he doesn’t understand everything.  After dinner I noticed he didn’t quite want to be alone in his room so all three of us just chat in the living room.  We asked basic questions and we gave him the 17 post-its with advice we wrote out for him.  He really appreciated that.  He asked us about our Spanish and asked if both our moms were Mexican.  We nodded and said yes, that’s when he responded in his accent, “Yeah, right now I wish my mom was Mexican, too.”  Yonseili and I burst out laughing.  At first he must’ve thought that the Academia was damn good.  The rest of the evening we just hung out and "broke the ice."  

Highlight of the day:  Going to the Panecillo.  I saw all of Quito.  The weather was perfect.

Bienvenido Joakim Andersen "2 the 'meddle' of the world"

We got ready early in the A.M. to go to the airport.  Carlos went to the Liga game so Adri, Juanjo, Yonseili and I went.  We made a sign that said:

Bienvenido

Joakim Andersen

"2 the 'meddle' of the world"

Yonseili drew a chiva on the right hand corner and we all signed our name and the country we are from.

First Adriana was told he'd be arriving at 9am... then 10.  But when we were over there waiting Paty called her to let us know he'd be arriving at 10pm because his flights were cancelled due to bad weather.  Since Yonseili had to leave early because she had to meet with her host mom, Adri, Juanjo and I went to the internet cafe to try to print out some clipart I helped them out with for his homework.  Freakin' document didn't wanna open so I had to go home and then returned later with Yonseili.

Oh yeah!  The nerve some taxi drivers have... correction - a lot of them have.  We took a taxi from the airport home instead of walking outside the airport so of course the ride was not cheap.  Adriana told the driver where he'd be taking us and he said $5.  I guess because she didn't wanna waste too much time she accepted and we got in.  We arrived to the internet cafe and she was short ten cents.  The driver shook his head in such huge disapproval and almost took off with the door open.  I took my time closing the door.  What a jerk.  He overcharged us at least $3 and he still gets mad for ten cents.  Laaame.

We just stayed indoors until night time when Adriana and I went to the airport for Joakim.  We knew he's 20 and that he was coming from Europe, but had no idea what he looked like.  I now know what my host parents have been through every time they wait for a new student.  You gotta wave the sign at everyone who fits the sex and age you are expecting.  It was funny.  We were there since 10ish and he came out at about 12:15 since several flights came in at the same time.  The airport staff don't help, everything looks disorganized.  Adriana asked one of the guys if all the people who flew in Continental already left, and he said yes JUST so that he didn't have to go back there for us to ask for Joakim with the sign of course.  Good thing we waited because he definitely came out a bit later.

*I've decided I really like airports.  I like seeing the different people that arrive and even more the reunions of families.  We saw Cubans arrive and actually in the morning we saw a reporter waiting for (and) the Olympic team of Ecuador.

After waiting and waving the poster at different guys, we waved it at one guy who (is) skinny, tall, white and was looking at all the signs people were holding up.  He saw ours, nodded and smiled at Adriana.  Then I said hi and we headed out.  He speaks very little Spanish right now but I'm sure he will learn a lot in this first week.  He seems cool, is willing to talk the little Spanish he knows, and was very tired.  He said his flight was cancelled twice in Denmark.  That is where he's from.  When we got home I was translating everything and it was funny when we were 'all' having a conversation at the top of the stairs he said "Yo no entiendo," and laughed along with us.

Highlight of the day:  Welcoming Joakim.  Being at the airport gave me a weird feeling.  I imagined Joakim was feeling the same thing we felt when we arrived.  And I can't believe we're leaving in two weeks.  Will be a bitter sweet day that day.

Smashed and ate crab

Carlos cleaning the cangrejos

Woke up and felt great.  It was a good night last night and I looked forward to the day.  I had breakfast after my host family did because I woke up kind of late.  Adriana sat with me for a while to give me company before she continued doing housework.  She told me that Glenca would be coming so that we could have crabs for lunch.  At noon they went out to get them and I stayed home.

Emilia, Juan Jose's buddy, was expert at this

Lunch was ready at about 3ish.  Those present were my host fam, Yonseili, Martica, Glenca and her family.  Her two older girls smashed the crabs and ate them like professionals.  I had no idea what the heck I was doing, but it was a great experience.

After that Yonseili and I went up to my room to try to work on our presentations.  Geeze, this freakin' paper has just been tormenting us.  We've definitely procrastinated... too much.  But no worries, we will get it done.

No thank you

At night we watched a movie with my host fam: Come, Reza, Ama.  We actually watched it without any computers in front of us.  My host mom offered to make spaghetti after she saw Julia Roberts eating some.  Then we saw pizza, but we didn't eat that.  The pasta was good enough.

Highlight of the day: Eating crab!!!  Smashing it was cooler.

"¡Con Cristo de rumba, el diablo se derrumba!" - Pescao Vivo

Talk about a long day.  Nonstop.

Our guide...

4th of July, yay!

Yonseili gave me a call bright and early.  She thought we should go to the historic center so that's what we did.  At 10:30 we headed over there and Vincent met us there.  But wow, the ride over there was way too long.  With all the traffic and the people out and about it took us almost an hour and $4 to get there.  The historic center was super crowded.  There was a lot going on even a protest from workers who wanted their jobs back at Petroecuador.  We went to the wax museum.  It wasn't as fun as I thought.  After that we went to Eloy Alfaro and 6 de Diciembre because there was a market set up and tents where people were selling typical Ecuadorian food.  We ate hornado and just walked around the market.  The place was way crowded as well.  Then we went to the mall and just hung out.  We stopped at Cinnabon and I got some stix; they were good.

IDK who these people are
to be honest

Our taxi leaving the historic center
and on our way to eat

The traffic was insane!  Too many people and cars out and about.  It took us forever to get home.  Since we knew it would be hard to get a taxi on our way to the concert we called my host family when we were getting near the house so that we could just use the same taxi.  The taxi driver was interesting.  He asked what we thought of his country.  We always give the response that it's been good and bad.  Then, as usual, he asked what was bad.  We mentioned a few things, including that taxi drivers have no problem overcharging.  He was supposedly all bothered and he asked that when we go back home that we 'burn' all those bad experiences and just talk about the good.  Sure buddy.  Then I was totally confused...

Nope, didn't eat cuy today

When we were all in the taxi (Carlos, Adri, Martica, Yonseili and I) we talked about all the people who were out on the street partying and brought up how nasty it is when they pee in public.  Adriana said the government should make an effort and put porta potties out during such festivities.  We all agreed except the taxi driver.  He told my host dad, "Y usted siendo Ecuatoriano como podria pedir algo asi."  What the...???  He just told us to take only the good stuff but he doesn't agree with putting porta potties and just put up with the public peeing?  Say what?  Apparently he thinks it would be a waste of time because they wouldn't be used anyway.  Before we got off the taxi he reminded me and Yonseili to forget all the bad stuff.  Al-righty then.

la familia

It was a good thing we left to the school when we did, about an hour and fifteen minutes ahead of time.  There was already a line outside the place.  What was horrible is that we waited even after the show was supposed to start.  Yonseili and I were getting frustrated because of the crowd that just kept growing.  I was starting to feel claustrophobic and so we left the line for a while to have a seat on the floor by the doors where the people were not.  When we were finally let in we got good seats.  As we saw that the concert got good, Carlos, Martica and I went to the front where the crowd was jumping up and down and singing along.  It was amazing.

Pescao Vivo from Colombia

The band playing was Pescao Vivo from Colombia.  It is a Christian band and their songs, their lyrics were good.  We three did get a bit 'emo' when he asked us to close our eyes and pray along with him.  I truly enjoyed this.  After them, two guys got on the stage to also play the same kind of music but in a different genre: hip hop.  They were good but we had to leave soon after because Juan Jose was very exhausted from his long day.  Martica's husband Cesar came in a taxi to the school and Carlos, Yonseili and I had to get a separate one.  Thank God it didn't take us long to get one.  A lot of people from the concert were walking down the street as well to get a taxi, but the area is not very safe.

With Martica

with Carlos and his new Pescao Vivo tee

Amen.

All three of us were hungry so Carlos treated us to hot dogs at los Hot Dogs.  This place started as just one stand but is now all over the city.  They are good hot dogs and according to Yonseili the burgers are really good as well.  Oh, and their aji is hot and good.  We walked home from the hot dog place and saw a lot of people partying on the street by their cars.  We also saw a few guys completely passed out on the street, others peeing, and most, if not all, looked waaaay too young to be drinking so much.  Sad.  I stayed home, had tea with my host parents and just talked.  Good night!

Highlight of the day: The concert of course.