Friday, September 3, 2010

La Ronda




THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: I have wandered all my life, and I have traveled; the difference between the two is--we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. - Hilaire Bellos

'Twas simply a great day. Thank you God for everything.

The weather was perfect because there wasn't an extreme today; it was well-balanced. In the morning you were okay with a good sweater, later you could take it off, then put on a light sweater, and finally a good sweater again. It was just right.

Yonseili and I had so many good laughs today since the morning. For starters, as we were walking to school I noticed she was wearing a pink shirt. Well, guess who else was wearing a pink shirt? Yeah, the one and only deniSe. Then I also noticed she was wearing a brown sweater, and although I was wearing a green thick sweater on top (that I bought at the mercado artesanal), I too was wearing a brown sweater underneath that. It was priceless.

Our Spanish test was okay, could have done better but could have done worse. For marketing, our professor Nacho took us to an advertising agency, McCann Erickson, and that was cool. McCann Erickson has been very successful and has received many awards for all their good work. They do their best to get the best results for their clients like Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, and a few other big ones. BTW, I learned that a Chevy Tahoe here costs $90k and in Venezuela the'y're like $115k. I don't even want to imagine how much other vehicles cost. After that Yonseili and I went to eat at a place called Perico de los Palotes where we ate hamburgers. They passed.

At 3pm we had to go back to school to meet up with fellow NMSU students to meet with Kristian Chervenock and Jeff Longwell. The purpose of this reunion was to find out how things were going for us. You see, basically, we are the guinea pigs of this program. We are the first group from NMSU to go to the university, and not just the academy which is just to learn Spanish. We went over our likes, dislikes, what could be improved, etc. It was nice to feel like we were fully supported and that if there was anything we needed, we knew who to contact.

Our plans for the evening were to meet up with other students at 6pm to bowl at the Centro Comercial Iñaquite. So we went by Brian's house to pick him up on the way and we walked over to the mall... little did we know we were going to be the only ones there from the school. We just chit-chat for about half an hour waiting for everyone and decided to jet. We made a quick stop at a Movistar booth so that Yonseili and I could get a chip for the cell phones that my host parents lend us. So, where to go next? Well, we were told by several people that a good place to go was La Ronda. Brian had gone earlier in the day so he agreed.

La Ronda was amazing. There were so many people walking around of all ages and although there is alcohol available, it was a totally different from the Mariscal. La Ronda is in the central historic part of Quito, so the buildings all around are beautiful and the rocky streets are narrow. I absolutely loved the happy environment. It was also awesome to see a mime. We ate at Chaquiñan cafe bar. There was a guitarist playing live and the songs here was playing were good, songs from Mana, Leo Dan, Bacilos... etc. I ate Brochetas de pollo and to drink I had hot chocolate... I think it was the chocolate Abuelita from Nestle and it was "delish." You can read more about La Ronda by clicking on this link:

And we got home safe and sound, GAD.


You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. PSALM 139:3 NLT

Highlight of the Day: At La Ronda we watched folkloric dancing in a small plaza. The women were dressed and danced beautifully. Towards the end they went towards the audience surrounding them and picked out people to dance with back on the "dance floor." Brian was one of them, and then later we and other people joined. It was so much fun.

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