Hello everybody, well i just am starting my fourth week here in Quito and im definately starting to get used to living here. I understand at least a general idea of the layout of the city, at least where i live, and am beginning to at least communicate with people i dont know. I went through the apparently very common two week drag period in which you feel homesick and wanna go home. Now, however, im happy to be here and excited for the next day. Lets see what has happened since i last posted... Well last tuesday was the birthday of one of the students that goes to the school so we all decided to go out and party in The Mariscal, or the club section or town. Clubbing seems to be a big part of the culture here, so even on a tuesday the clubs were completely packed. Alvaro, my house father, who is not to adverse to partying himself, took us to a club that he likes to go to every tuesday. He was very generous and bought us a mesita where we could all sit and drink and talk when we werent dancing. Now anybody who knows me, knows that im not the biggest dancing enthusiast but in Ecuador there is no choice. I tried not to embarass myself too badly, but after the a few drinks i stopped worrying and just had fun. After a while, some of the people wanted to go to a place that had more latin music as apposed to the techno we were listening to, so we moved on to another place where we all danced salsa. By now it was already one in the morning, so some people went home but other, more hardcore partiers such as myself hahah, went to another underground club, as they called it, and danced for a good while more. After that, everybody left except for me and alvaro. On the way home he asked me whether i would prefer to go home and sleep or hit up one last place on the way home. I told him that it was late and i had class the next day and i thought it would be better to go home and get some rest. He shrugged and said, ahhh lets do one more. haha. We went to one more club and didnt end up getting home until five thirty in the morning. Needless to say it was difficult to get up for class in the morning. That day, however, we had a field trip around some of the churches in the historical district so i forced myself to get up. When i got to the bus that we were going to take into to town from campus, i was relieved to see i was not the only one a little under the weather. Practically the whole class was recovering from the night before. We went to the plaza de San Francisco, where theres a huge church that we took a tour of. Walking around the historical district in itself is really pretty. The buildings are made of stone and ornately carved to show the grandeur of its former glory. However, right next to these ancient cities are the poorest of the poor people begging for money and food. Homeless indigenous women begging while their children juggle balls in the street for pennies. The ancient buildings, so beautiful and ornate and the signs of modern poverty and economic divisions, create an interesting juxtoposition that cant help but be noticed. We then went on to some other museums and churches whose names escape me right now but they too were very pretty. Pictures of them are on facebook now under the Ecuador album.
Lets see what else, on friday our compostition professor took us to the El Teatro Sucre, which is one of the oldest theaters in Quito. She took time out of her day to take us there and show us an expedition of some paintings that were very pretty. Then she got us a tour of the theater which also was really cool. We all sat in the presidential box, where the president of Ecuador had sat just the night before. It is a very pretty theater and i wanna make sure i go and see something there before i leave. After the tour we all went out into the plaza that is in front of the theater and had some coffee and desserts. While we were there, however, somebody stole the purse of our professor. This was a very sad and she immediately fell into tears when she found out. She informed the police and with a few questions we found out that it was older man who was pretending to talk on his cell phone at the cafe and snagged her bag. The police ran in the direction that the witness told us that he had gone but returned empty handed. This was a good wake up call though to the students who all payed special attention to their bags for the rest of the trip. It was also however a very sad turn of events for our Ecuadorian professor who had taken it upon herself to take us there and paid a dear price. We´re all going to pitch in and get her a new bag, fortunately she had her wallet in her pocket with her ids and money.
We also went to a show that night were we went to see some indigenous dancing. It was really cool and the dancers and musicians were incredible. The musicians would just pass each other all sorts of instruments and they could all play them perfectly. After a while of dancing, the dancers, there was about 20 0f them, jumped down off stage and grabbed people in the crowd to dance with. Soon the whole crowd and all the dancers were dancing to the music all over the theater. It was a cool and exciting experience.
Classes are going well, im getting good grades as expected. In fact my house family even makes fun of me about how studious i am, saying that me and Nati, the grandchild of Alvaro´s mom who is the same age as Sequioa, are the two most studious people in all of Quito. She smiles and giggles at this and i assure them that Nati is much more studious and will someday be a doctor.
Today was Fathers day here in Ecuador and i think in the US too but im not sure. Anyway, Alvaro and his mom, Laura, took me with their extended family to a very fancy hotel in downtown Quito to have lunch and celebrate. When we got to Laura´s sisters house her son, Alvaro´s cousin, Mario gave me some pills that he said would help me eat as much as we possibly could at the coming all you could eat buffet. After he saw my pause he assured me they were all natural and not bad for me. I took em and we were on our way. We go to the hotel and when we checked in we recieved a glass of champagne and were led to our tables. When we got there, there was food everywhere and with our medicine induced ravashing hunger we all dug in. After about ten minute the lights went low and some bellly dancers took the stage, i suppose to entertain the fathers in the crowd. The music was so loud and it was so dark that any form of commmunication was eliminated so we were all forced to eat and watch. After the belly dancers finished, forty foot projection screens were lowered from the ceiling and the Italy vs Brazil soccer match was put on for the crowd to watch. This was awesome and Brazil ended up winning 3-0. After the game we were all very full and decided to go home and take a nap. I did some homework and now im watching soccer highlights from the weekend in my bed in my room.
Things are getting more and more fun and this weekend we will be going to a town called Los Baños for a couple nights with the class. Should be a good time, everybody in the class is really nice and fun to hang out with. I still miss you guys a lot and think of you all, all the time. Happy fathers day to you papa and to you too Sky.
Love always and forever,
Charles
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