My weekend came and went too fast for my liking, but it brought with it a lot of new bits of life. Friday, Melissa and I finally went out for lunch. It was quite good. In Quito, and probably a lot of Latin America, at lunch time some restaurants serve a menú. A menú is that particular day’s set meal, and generally consists of a variety of dishes. We went to a restaurant in Cumbaya that one of the fellow K students had suggested, and we actually really liked it. First, we were served jugo de mango. Jugo, or juice, is probably one of my favorite things in Ecuador. At almost every lunch, we have some sort of jugo. Thus far, I’ve mostly had jugo of fruits I’ve never heard of, or tasted. My favorite to date has been jugo de naranjilla. I don’t actually know what this specific fruit looks like, but it tastes like a SweetTart, the candy. It’s pretty interesting, and I like it a lot. An Ecuadorian specialty is jugo de tomate de arbol. This specific tomato is a little sweeter than our classic tomato, and is a lighter shade. It makes great jugo, let me tell you. It’s a weird taste, a little vegetable-y but still sweet, and it’s started to grow on me (not literally!).

So anyway, we started with jugo, and then were served a sopa. I literally think the stole this particular soup recipe from my madre because I think I ate the same soup for dinner Thursday. It was potato-y and onion-y and delicious. Then we had a course with frijoles, arroz and carne: beans, rice and meat. I honestly have no idea what the meat was, but it tasted like (and therefore probably was) pork. I haven’t really eaten carne since I’ve been here, only pollo (chicken) because I’ve told my madre that’s the only meat I’ll eat, so the pork was a not-quite-pleasant surprise. But the rice and beans were good. The menú ended with watermelon. It was a nice taste to end on. And after all that food, we only paid $2.50 each. My my, I love living in Ecuador.

After we ate our almuerzo, we wandered around a nearby mall. I ended up buying new sunglasses, and Melissa bought a book about La Malinche, the woman who birthed the Mexican mestizo race. If any of you ever get a chance to read about la Malinche, do so. She’s an interesting woman, and many people have a mixed opinion of her. She was an indigenous princess, highly educated, and very good with language. She had been captured by a different indigenous group, and was being held prisoner when Cortez arrived. She was given to Cortez as a gift, or in exchange for something, I can’t quite remember. But she became Cortez’s aid. She translated for him, and helped him make deals with indigenous tribes. Many people consider her a traitor to her race. She later became Cortez’s lover, and therefore was the mother of the mestizo race in Mexico. For that, she is heralded a hero. It’s really an interesting story, and an interesting debate.

But I digress. After the mall, we made our way back to Quito via the bus. We walked back to my apartment and started to plan our next adventure. One of the other K students, and one of my good friends, Alison, invited me and Melissa to meet her at the Museo Guayasmin that afternoon. So Melissa and I pulled out my map and tried to figure out how to get there. They tell us that we need to know where we’re going, even if we take a cab, so they don’t drive us all around town, or something, in an effort to rip us off. We ended up finding a cab driver who knew exactly where we were going. He dropped us off, and eventually Alison, and another K student Dan, met us at the Museum.

Apparently they give guided tours for free at this museum. It was pretty cool, even though it was entirely in Spanish. Guayasmin, it turns out, is an indigenous Ecuadorian painter who is well known for his depictions of the indigenous struggle and the Ecuadorian fight for justice. One of my favorites in the museo is a painting called "Los Manos" which has a total of thirteen different paintings of hands. Each different painting depicts a different mood or emotion. My favorite of the thirteen was "Los Manos de Protesto." Ecuadorians are infamous for taking to the streets when they desire change or improvements in their way of life. In the past ten years they have overthrown two different presidents. This painting really captured all of that fight.

After the museo, the three of us went out to Quicentro, the big mall in the middle of the city. We went to a restaurant called "Crepes y Waffles" which sold delicious nutella-covered, and other such tastey treats. Alison, Dan, Melissa and I throughly enjoyed ourselves. I hadn't really gotten the chance to know Dan before we left, but he is super funny. We call him "Tio Dan" which means "Uncle Dan" because he's living with the parents of another K student's host family. Technically, he'd be his Uncle. Tio Dan has become an alter-ego for Dan, and he makes statements like "Tio Dan fainted in the girls bathroom." (which he did, by the way, the other day. We've had three K students faint since we've arrived. We're not sure if it's anything worse than altitude sickness, but it was pretty scary.) Overall, it was a fun day.

Saturday, we had our final Spanish class in the morning, and we had to take an exam in ours. I feel like I've learned a lot, and I definitely have started picking up a lot more Spanish. It's nice. After class, Melissa and I went to a Mexican restaurant in Cumbaya, and then went back to our respective homes. I had been planning to either go to the partido de futbol (or soccer game) or go out dancing later in the evening, but when it came down to it, I felt really tired. I actually spent a lot of the day watching The West Wing on my computer. Boy, am I glad I brought that. Nothing better than The West Wing to make me happy.

Also on Saturday, my host sister, Anita, had nose surgery. She had been sick since I got there, and after various doctors appointments during the week, we found out she had to have surgery. She had it on Saturday. When she came home Saturday night, my whole familia was there. And by whole familia, I mean Anita, her boyfriend Marco, Marcia, my madre, and her boyfriend Jorge. I've begun extending the label of "family" to include Jorge and Marco because they tend to come around a lot, and treat me as a part of the family. Marco and I have a lot of fun together because he likes to make fun of everything. There are different accents for different parts of Ecuador. And on Saturday I was treated to a complete revue of all the different accents, brought to me by Marco and Anita. It was probably the funniest thing I've ever seen. Then Marco started to imitate American accents. His New Yorker accent is absolutely hilarious. Oh good fun.

Sunday, I slept in. Alison called me around 10:30AM and asked me to go with her to Old Town to see la Basilica. I got dressed and met her at Rio Coca, the bus station. We took Ecovia, which is the bus like that runs into Quito. I'd never been on Ecovia before, but it is just as you'd expect a bus to be. It's jam packed, and half the people have to stand. But I enjoyed it, actually. Mostly because at every stop we were like "hey, where are we? Is this our stop?" We ended up getting off probably two stops after when we should've, but we walked the difference. The Basilica was beautiful. It's this giant church that was built over many decades in the 1900s. It's has fantastic stained glass windows, and instead of gargoyles, there are turtles, iguanas, and monkeys. Really cool.

Anyway, we walked at the end of mass. We watched the communion, and then went and sat in the back of the church. At the end, I heard them say the Hail Mary, and then "Let us go in peace!" in Spanish. It was cool for me. Afterwards, we stuck around and took some pictures, then walked to la Plaza Grande, where we ate lunch.

It was then we realized that we had recieved text messages on our phones inviting us to meet some of the K girls at Quicentro, so we decided to take a cab there. So we were waiting on the side of the street for a cab when suddenly I heard Alison scream. I looked over to see her holding her neck and this guy running away from us. Apparently, some ladron, or thief, had noticed Alison, who is blond-haired, blue-eyed, and decided she must be some rich gringita whose necklace was worth a lot. It turns out that though the necklace wasn't worth a ton of money, it had a lot of personal value. And we were really shook up. We got in a cab, and rode to Quicentro. We started feeling better after we were in the cab. There was nothing we could have done, anyway. Old Town is infamous for being thief-central. And once they decided to rob you, there's nothing you can do. Even if you report it to the police, it's unlikely to have any affect on the ladron. We made it to Quicentro alright, and ended up having a great afternoon just sitting and getting to know each other, and having fun.


Monday, we had our first day of orientation. Talk about BLAH. It was really boring. But I did meet a lot of other exchange students. It was really strange to see all the gringitos at the bus station. So yeah, that was dull. After orientation, us K kids found Karla and Gabrie, two of the Ecuadorian girls who studied at K last year. We went out to a restaurant called "Sharma Hot!" for lunch, and just reconnected. It was really nice. Afterwards, I went home and hung out with my entire familia again. Marco, Anita and I ended up watching Power Rangers, Sponge Bob, and The Simpsons in Spanish. I was laughing the whole time. It was absurd.

Tuesday, was another day of orientation. This one was a bit better, mostly because this absolutely hilarious guy gave the lecture on Politics. I wanted to take one of his classes, but it was in English, so I don't think I can. After orientation, all us K kids went to the Cafeteria for lunch. Then Alison, Melissa and I went to Quicentro for a while. I ended up having to leave early because Anita had a doctor's appointment. My madre had been joking the night before that the whole family was going to go with Anita to the appointment, and I ended up taking that as a hint to go with the whole family to the appointment. We've been told that Ecuadorians are not pushy with their suggestions, but generally mean what they say. I ended up taking this hint, and I'm glad I did. I had a great night with my family, going out to eat afterwards, and it was great. On our way home, my madre turned to me and thanked me for coming. I'm definitely feeling like I'm part of the family. It's great.

Today, we had our first classes, but I'll bore you with that info tomorrow when I have more time.

Again, if you read all this, you deserve a medal.