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Published: February 21st 2007
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The height of fashion
I call it Sunday morning cool. I think I´m going to have to learn how to abbreviate and miss stuff out in this blog, but for a bit I´m going to enjoy reporting EVERYTHING.
So we woke up at 6am sharp, not feeling too jet-lagged, I think it was more to do with the dog that just would NOT stop barking from dusk til dawn. I don´t know what its problem was. And by the way, altitude sickness is a doddle. All I got was a bit of the old dizziness and random feeling out of breath after standing up and sitting down again. But nothing too serious. So far breakfast is my favourite meal, it´s usually two different kinds of fruit, freshly made fruit juice, white coffee, bread, bizcochos (little pastry biscuit things that we are addicted to), an orito or two (tiny mini bananas) and manjar de leche, this crazy caramel spread, which is AMAZING! Why don´t they have it in England, eh? So far new fruits I´ve tried are big papayas, water melon, prickly pear, tree tomatoes.... and some other vegetables and things that I don´t know the name for. The food is amazing, I haven´t had anything yet that i haven´t liked. However
we went to a supermarket yesterday, and the amount of food and drink that was by Nestlé and Coca-Cola was pretty shocking. On the first morning our madre took us up to the rooftop to show us the view, and it was absolutely breathtaking. We stayed up there for so long, just looking at the city laid out beneath us, and the volcanoes in the distance and the forest behind us... I can´t describe how incredible it is, so I´ll post a picture and that might give you an idea. So the first morning Imo and I went a-wandering around the Miraflores section of Quito, which seems to be quite well off. There was a festival going on until today, so everywhere was fairly quiet, but we get stared at everywhere we go, and we´re´pipped at by about 70% of drivers. The only place where we didn´t get stared at was the supermarket, because everyone was too busy shopping to notice. On the first morning Imo got water thrown on her for no particular reason, but apart from that everyone seems very friendly. We started Spanish lessons on Monday, which are one-to-one, with excellent teachers who really know their stuff.
Ez, Sarah, Imo on the rooooof
This is our rooftop view over Quito. Trippy, no? My Spanish appears to be improving rapidly, though I am quite scared of my teacher, who gave up grammar after about three hours on the first day, and began to grill me on the differences between South America and Western societies. According to her Ecuador is far from socially stable, and a large part of that is OTT male masochism, which prevents women from getting proper jobs, even if they are better qualified than men. I could feel the bitterness radiating my way. But at least it was good to hear a real Ecuadorian perspective, even if I am scared that she might kill me. And on Monday evening we had our first free salsa lesson, which was great! Slighty cramped and sweaty, and with a total lack of chicos to dance with, but nevermind! I think we have another sesh tonight, provided our teacher hasn´t given up on us as rhythmless hopeless cases.
So apart from that, our life is made up of: getting up at 7am, shower, breakfast, explore town, trying not to get run over, learn some grammar, sit around and wait for lunch, scoot down to la escuela, salsa (or not), scoot on home, sit around
Quito
Pretty and wait for tea and try to work out where the maid has put everything... eat tea, steal bananas, look at our watches, think "hmmm 8.30pm... time to be settling down" and sleep by no later than 9.15pm. Brilliant! Might be going out on the town tonight, apparently it´s ladies´night and one of the ex-GAPpers is going to take us out for free drinks! At the weekend we're hoping to go to the centro del mundo, where you can stand either side of the equator, and possibly Otavolo, an indigeno village with an excellent market. It is beautiful and sunny outside so I´m off to catch a tan (rather than the shameful burn that I got on my first day. Boo hoo.) Love to everyone, muchos besitos...
BYE
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Ovidio
non-member comment
Really funny
It is really funny the way you described your language teacher and the way you are all "everything latino women desire but cannot have". now you have a "OTT male" commenting on your page.. your teacher, maybe, had a bad experience with someone or she isnt happy doing what she does..... ah the incident with the water. i guess you already know it was because it was carnival and in almost the whole country people throw water to each other in these days. I hope you enjoyed that tradition but quito, for being a cold place sometimes, is not the perfect place to play carnival, i prefer the coastal region... Have fun the rest of your time in ecuador!!