preparing for the rainforest...

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Hello all,
So I am feeling better although I have a nose that runs at the most inappropriate times! This week consisted of lots of touristy stuff. Wednesday we went to a museum that used to be a hospital. It was cool but more cultural than medical. Then spanish class in the pm. I believe that was the day we tried pizza hut and it was goooodd!!!!!!!!!
Thursday am we went to a museum of an artist named Guayasamin. It was pretty cool. He has a unique style that everyone copies off of here in Ecuador and tries to sell those paintings. We also stopped in some pharmacies and realized how easy it to get antibiotics for cheap and without a script. I believe if I heard correctly you can get valium over the counter here! Then spanish class. Then after dinner we went to pub quiz to benefit CENIT, which is a school for working children. It was pretty cool to do my first pub quiz in a foreign country. Friday we went to the Equator!! Best part of the trip! It was so cool to be able to try to balance an egg on a nail (i was not successful), see water drain in different directions depending on whether you were north or south of the equator, and some other cool little tricks. Apparently the French thought they discovered the equator but they were off by 200 meters. Then about 15 yrs ago, GPS was used to find the correct location, but apparently the indigenous already knew the correct location b-c of their sun clocks,dials, etc.
Today, saturday we went up the mountain in Quito on the Teleforico which is just a cable car. Unfortunately, it was very very foggy up there so we couldn´t see much up there. Once up there you can hike up another 500 meters to the very top, but we didn´t do it since we would not be able to see anything anyways. Then we had lunch at the awesome texmex tasting restaurant here. Walked around town a bit.
We are leaving to go to the rainforest tomorrow and will be there until Thursday. It is a 7 hr bus ride and then we will take a motorized boat to the lodge we are staying at. We will be doing health brigades everyday there. So right now we are all trying to finalize our rank lists for residency and make sure everything is perfect b-c we wont be back from the rainforest until after the deadline to submit our lists and we do not know if there will be internet there.
Only one more week left in Ecuador. 😞
I am not homesick at all, but I will appreciate hot water, plumbing, and my lactaid milk!

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