A Full Weekend
I´m happy to report that I´m all moved into the new apartment--yay! It´s nice to have that over and done with because I abhor packing and unpacking. Luckily I don´t have much stuff with me here. (I can only imagine what it´s like to move an entire house full of stuff to a new locale.) I discovered that one of my favorite things about the new place is that in my bedroom, one wall is entirely composed of windows, and from this window I can watch the sun set every night. Suh-weet!
In other news, I finally cracked and now have a cell phone. Since I moved out of the house, my host fam and I figured it would be best to have a surefire way to communicate. Luckily, Alejandro is getting a new phone soon so he gave me his old one. I´ll also be finetuning my texting abilities because that´s primarily how I´ll be communicating with everyone. The cell phone services here are a bit different than in the states. For example, as far as I can tell most people rely on prepaid services by buying prepaid cards, and with those cards you can call or text until the money runs out and you have to buy a new one. Text messages are obviously way cheaper than making calls, so a lot of people rely almost exclusively on texting. The other thing that´s a bit different is that if you want to call or text someone who has a different phone service, it´s wayy more expensive. For that reason, Alejandro has 2 phones: one for his fam and friends with one service, the other for his friends that have the other service. Anyway, slowly but surely I´m learning the ropes with all this phone stuff, and I definitely feel more comfortable knowing that I can get in touch with my fam whenever I need to.
Other than taking care of all the apartment stuff, I went to my first fútbol game with Alejandro and Manuel! It wasn´t an international game; 2 Ecuadorian teams were playing. It was a lot of fun and I got to refine my knowledge of bad words! It´s really something when the entire stadium is chanting ¨hijue puta¨ (son-of-a-bitch) at the refs, haha. Despite the crappy refereeing, our team still managed to win 2-1. Another amusing moment came at the end of the game when the refs were leaving the stadium: they had to have police escorts with raised shields surround them because the fans throw stuff at them when they´re exiting! I guess I know what job I won´t be taking down here...
Today is a pretty busy day because it´s election day here. It´s not the presidential elections but rather the selection of members for the Assembly. The crazy part is that last time I checked there are at least 300 candidates for various positions (130 people will be elected in all). How is anyone supposed to decide who to vote for?? Not only that, voting isn´t optional--every citizen has to do it. Something else that´s also a little different here is that there´s a ¨dry law¨that goes into effect 36 hours prior to voting: no one can purchase or consume alcohol for that period of time. Obviously people probably drink in their homes, but you´re not supposed to, and anyway if you get caught you´re in for a little trip to the carcel.
At any rate, many of the people I´ve been talking with here about the elections are a bit on edge because they´re nervous that the candidates of the president´s political party will receive the majority of votes. And if President Correa´s party holds the majority in the Assembly, they could ostensibly revamp the constitution and dissolve the Congress (which right now is dominated by members of the opposition). So all in all it looks like it´s going to be an interesting week. Quito and Guayaquil are the main sites for major political protests, which actually happen fairly frequently. We´ll see how many there are this week after the results of the elections are tallied.
Alejandro is less than thrilled about election day today because he was selected by the government to be a ¨Presidente de mesa¨. In other words, he´s in charge of a voting table at one of the voting sites in Quito, has to make sure everything is running smoothly, give orders to 6 or 7 people working under him to maintain order, and then count all the votes at the end of the day for his table. It´s basically an all day job, lots of work, and zero compensation. Fun, huh? At least he gets a lunch break--the fam and I are going to visit him and have lunch in half an hour.
Later today I´m going to browse the paper for job listings and such. I already have 3 people that are interested in private English lessons, so I´ll probably start with that this week to earn a little cash until I can find a legit job where I´d have steady salary and would be speaking Spanish rather than English. Hopefully I´ll find something sooner rather than later!
In other news, I finally cracked and now have a cell phone. Since I moved out of the house, my host fam and I figured it would be best to have a surefire way to communicate. Luckily, Alejandro is getting a new phone soon so he gave me his old one. I´ll also be finetuning my texting abilities because that´s primarily how I´ll be communicating with everyone. The cell phone services here are a bit different than in the states. For example, as far as I can tell most people rely on prepaid services by buying prepaid cards, and with those cards you can call or text until the money runs out and you have to buy a new one. Text messages are obviously way cheaper than making calls, so a lot of people rely almost exclusively on texting. The other thing that´s a bit different is that if you want to call or text someone who has a different phone service, it´s wayy more expensive. For that reason, Alejandro has 2 phones: one for his fam and friends with one service, the other for his friends that have the other service. Anyway, slowly but surely I´m learning the ropes with all this phone stuff, and I definitely feel more comfortable knowing that I can get in touch with my fam whenever I need to.
Other than taking care of all the apartment stuff, I went to my first fútbol game with Alejandro and Manuel! It wasn´t an international game; 2 Ecuadorian teams were playing. It was a lot of fun and I got to refine my knowledge of bad words! It´s really something when the entire stadium is chanting ¨hijue puta¨ (son-of-a-bitch) at the refs, haha. Despite the crappy refereeing, our team still managed to win 2-1. Another amusing moment came at the end of the game when the refs were leaving the stadium: they had to have police escorts with raised shields surround them because the fans throw stuff at them when they´re exiting! I guess I know what job I won´t be taking down here...
Today is a pretty busy day because it´s election day here. It´s not the presidential elections but rather the selection of members for the Assembly. The crazy part is that last time I checked there are at least 300 candidates for various positions (130 people will be elected in all). How is anyone supposed to decide who to vote for?? Not only that, voting isn´t optional--every citizen has to do it. Something else that´s also a little different here is that there´s a ¨dry law¨that goes into effect 36 hours prior to voting: no one can purchase or consume alcohol for that period of time. Obviously people probably drink in their homes, but you´re not supposed to, and anyway if you get caught you´re in for a little trip to the carcel.
At any rate, many of the people I´ve been talking with here about the elections are a bit on edge because they´re nervous that the candidates of the president´s political party will receive the majority of votes. And if President Correa´s party holds the majority in the Assembly, they could ostensibly revamp the constitution and dissolve the Congress (which right now is dominated by members of the opposition). So all in all it looks like it´s going to be an interesting week. Quito and Guayaquil are the main sites for major political protests, which actually happen fairly frequently. We´ll see how many there are this week after the results of the elections are tallied.
Alejandro is less than thrilled about election day today because he was selected by the government to be a ¨Presidente de mesa¨. In other words, he´s in charge of a voting table at one of the voting sites in Quito, has to make sure everything is running smoothly, give orders to 6 or 7 people working under him to maintain order, and then count all the votes at the end of the day for his table. It´s basically an all day job, lots of work, and zero compensation. Fun, huh? At least he gets a lunch break--the fam and I are going to visit him and have lunch in half an hour.
Later today I´m going to browse the paper for job listings and such. I already have 3 people that are interested in private English lessons, so I´ll probably start with that this week to earn a little cash until I can find a legit job where I´d have steady salary and would be speaking Spanish rather than English. Hopefully I´ll find something sooner rather than later!
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