Week of June 6th

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Work, food, Quito! That basically has been my week. I´ve started working at the Clinica Santa Barbara. So far I´ve seen a few operations, watched work done in the biochemistry lab, worked with the nurses (taking blood pressure, weighing/measuring patients, etc.), worked in the nursery, and shadowed a pediatrician. All very cool stuff. Everyone who works there is incredibly friendly and working there is a great opportunity for me to speak Spanish and for many of the doctors to practice their English. We´ll see what this coming week brings!

Monday night, Royal and I went to La Foch and sat next to Amelia Vega, Miss Dominican Republic and Miss Universe 2003. Yea, no big deal. Tuesday, Royal, Julia and I started private salsa lessons at Mariana´s house with David, a friend of Miguel´s. We´ll be taking them twice a week every week, so basically I´ll be dancing like a pro by the time I return home 😉
Amanda, Royal and I went out Friday night with some friends of Nancy´s, and spent a wonderful evening chatting and practicing what we had learned of salsa, cumbia, samba, and reggaeton.

I must also mention how great a cook Nancy is. She loves to make typical Ecuadorian food (that I can never really remember the name of) and can list and explain all the typical dishes from each region of Ecuador. In the evenings, I´ve been thoroughly enjoying watching all that there is to watch on TV, telenovelas. I think I´ve discovered my favorite, Cuna de Gato. I´ve also learned a few Ecuadorian card games, most importantly, cuarenta. It´s so popular here that there are weeks devoted to cuarenta competitions held around the city. I still need to play a few more games to get the hang of it.

Sunday, we all headed to church at La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora Del Perpetuo Socorro (Our lady of Perpetual Sorrow). Afterwards, Nancy, Gustavo, Juan Jose, Aracely, Royal, Sandra, and I went to the Parque la Carolina, a huge park about 15 minutes from our house used for exercising, running, biking, etc. However, I had only one goal in mind: dancing. Every Sunday they have two public aerobics dance lessons. The instructor (all muscle and who had on the tightest white booty shorts I have ever seen in my life and pretty much stood with his back/butt facing us about 90% of the time) led us through an hour of dancing to techno/pop music. It was awesome.

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[Sarah]

Living in Ecuador
About three years ago my family and I moved to Cuenca, Ecuador. It has been an amazing experiance for all of us and we would like to share and help other people when they come here. We've written up a report on things here in Ecuador. If you would like more information please e-mail [e-mail]