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Published: March 3rd 2007
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A mutant banana
It looked like one banana... but it turned out to be three! Madness. Good news everybody! My washing is back, and it's generally cleaner and definitely smelling better than it did before the maid got her hands on it. And I have pants again. Hurrah!
Soooo what's happened recently...? On Wednesday the Quito gals met up with an ex-GAPper to get some tips on the nightlife, travel, safety, work, shopping, food, families... It was all very thorough, and fairly useful, though a couple of points were slightly worrying, for example the fact that she was on her 5th phone (one stolen, one lost, one run over, another stolen, one survived!), and also the fact that it is apparently very easy to fall in love and decide to move in with an Ecuadorian. It could happen to anyone, or so I hear...
On Wednesday night we were out for ladies´night in our local club, called the Bungalow (very retro). I just cannot get used to how strong the drinks are. It's as if no one had ever thought of measures... We had a reasonably wild night, but still managed to get a taxi home for the standard $2 (bargained down from $3 - we're getting good at this). Unfortunately, we got to sleep at 2am, and were
Cars are sooo big here!
It isn't even a matter of perspective! up for 7.15am to go and climb a big hill in blazing sunlight. We managed it, in varying states of roughness (Imo had lost her voice through... being too wild, I suppose; Louisa was found collapsed in a chair first thing in the morning, with a glass of water balanced on her chest because she was too exhausted to lift it to her mouth...) but it wasn't too hard a task because our teachers copped out and decided to hire taxis to drive us most of the way up the hill. I think to be honest we would rather have risked the climb and the sun and possible muggings rather than climb into one of those tin boxes on wheels, but we were voted down. So we got to the top, looked at the freaky statue of the Virgin Mary who is supposed to guard over the city, but who has freakishly long, witchy fingers, and looks like a penguin from some angles; and ate mini Ritzes, which are going to be responsible for me putting on about 2 stone over the next five months. They're just not that great in England, but here I can't seem to resist their
At the start of the night...
Probably the best photo of us from Wednesday night. It went downhill from here... biscuity charms! Then we rattled our way back down the hill and into one fo the city´s cemetaries, which made for a very strange and surreal experience. Most of it was made up with long, tall white walls, each housing about 20-30 cuboid shaped tombs. The idea is that the bodies are sealed inside, and the bricked up part is decorated with flowers, pictures, carvings, photographs, messages... It was very beautiful until someone pointed out that we were actually surrounded by hundreds of sleeping bodies. Another part was a graveyard as we would find in England, but I was later told that this part was reserved for unborn babies and children up to the age of 2, who are angelic and are thus given back to the earth. Then there were the children´s tombs, and the huge Spanish crypts. They were the strangest sight: huge greek-style temples and monuments, all set aside for the richest families. Many were very old and time-worn, but some were obviously recent, and you could look inside and see the empty spaces reserved for living family members. We all left feeling a little bit sombre. We were then taken to a monastry museum, which I
must say was NOT riveting. At least I can say I have visited a museum during my Gap Year. The best bit was climbing on the roof and seeing all our teachers who had stayed outside in order to avoid the boredom of looking round endless bare, minimalistic rooms covered in dark paintings of martyrs and long-forgotten priests. To round off the day we went for a gen-u-ine Ecuadorian hot chocolate and cheese sandwich in a café in the old town. It was quite nice, but I think I ruined mine by putting some cheese in it. However, I'm reliably informed that that's the custom here (though I really don't recommend it).
Today was our last day in the Escuela. I learnt some more subjunctive phrases, which were positively inspiring, and then we persuaded our teachers to go head-to-head with us in a Spanglish scrabble-off. The idea was that they'd play in English and we're play in Spanish, but it all went a bit to pot because we left them to keep score, but I reckon they got a tad over-excited and accidentally-on-purpose forgot to record about three of our words, which rendered the whole exercise a bit pointless. Not a
Oh dear
Oh deary deary me bad way to end the week, though. And tomorrow morning we are to enjoy our last breakfast chez Miguel and B_____, before we are picked up by Wilson, our chauffeur, and shipped off to our permanent families. I'm not completely impressed with the arrangements though, because up until today I had been told that I'd been staying with one family, close to where I am currently, and down the road from Claire, who I should be working with, but today I received a piece of paper informing me that I'm actually going to live with the family that was supposed to be Imogen´s (and whose address doesn't even appear to be on our map of Quito), and Imo is with a different family altogether... And Georgia, who has been travelling and is supposed to be arriving on Saturday or Sunday, is not actually included in the plans at all, and so might never actually be picked up from the airport. Brilliant! So I've no idea when I'll be able to get on the internet next, or where I'll be living, or where my washing will be... wish me luck!
Ta-ta!
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Dad
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Living arrangements
Hope your new family turns out to be fine; do not wish to hear that you have moved in with an Ecuadorian boyfriend. Bye, Dad xx