“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.