What Can $2 Buy You These Days?

Well, as I just discovered today, an actually decent haircut in Quito! Can´t really beat that, can ya? I mean, I suppose I could cut my own hair for free, but I don´t consider that ¨beating¨ anything--except maybe beating my hair with an ¨ugly stick¨.

Oh, and my jeans reappeared today. Apparently they were mixed in with the employee´s laundry. So that takes care of that super important mystery that should have made its way onto Dateline but didn´t and as a result I was a little disappointed.

Tomorrow: fuuuuuutbollllllllll!

Childhood Nostalgia, The Case of the Disappearing Jeans, and the National Fútbol Team Down the Toilet

I forgot a few things that have happened recently:

--On Friday I went with Alejandro to a big mall in Quito, El Quicentro, to start my Christmas shopping. My goal is to make the whole shopping for Christmas presents dealie nice and relaxed this year, so I´m starting a bit earlier than usual. Anyhoo, we ended up wandering into the mall´s arcade, something that spurred a mountain of nostalgia for both of us because we each got to play our favorite arcade games from our childhood. First we played air hockey, undoubtedly one of the best games ever invented. I won the first game 8-5. We tied the second game 9-9, although this is still somewhat disputed because I managed to slip in a goal right when the air disappeared from the table. However, so as not to run the risk of damaging any male egos, I decided to leave the score at 9-9.
: P (Besides, I had the other win under my belt. I could afford to be generous, haha) After that we hit up some legit arcade games like racing and skiing. We were about to make our way out when I spied a most wonderous sight: my favorite arcade game of all time, Tekken 3. Right now I´m giving away some of my nerdiness, but it´s all good. That game provided good times for all in Cape Cod every 4th of July kef time (¨kef time¨ = massive Armenian reunion at the beach to tan, eat, get drunk, and dance, not necessarily in that order). It´s basically a martial arts game where the object is to beat the hell out of your opponent, but that description degrades the game too much. It´s all that and more--cool characters, secret moves that were awesome but that we didn´t know precisely how to create, so we would just pound the buttons at random and somehow emerge victorious more often than not. Anyway, I ended up playing a bunch of games here in Quito and enjoyed every second. I think my brain must have released a ton of endorphins because I left the arcade practically high. Good, good times.


On to other random occurrences and unsolved mysteries: I´m now down to 3 pairs of jeans out of the 4 that I originally brought to Ecuador. The thing is, I´m not exactly sure how that happened. Something that´s different here from back home is that we dry our clothes outside on clotheslines because we don´t have a dryer (I do my wash at host fam´s house because the washer in my apartment is kind of funky and doesn´t work so well). It´s not so bad drying clothes this way, even if it takes somewhat longer to dry and it sucks when it rains and you have to rush out and bring all your stuff in--if you´re even at home. The fresh air somehow works its magic and makes the clothes all fresh as well. However, apparently the problem with drying clothes this way is that they sometimes disappear. I guess I left my clothes out for too many days or something and one of my jeans got mixed in with someone else´s laundry. The thing is, we searched everyone´s closets and the jeans still haven´t emerged from hiding. I don´t think they were stolen because the employees at the house are trustworthy, not my size, and nothing else of mine has walked away. But still, a strange case. Luckily they were my least favorite pair of the ones I brought, so I´m not too bummed.

Of course, here fútbol counts as major current events. The Ecuadorian national team lost last night against Paraguay...5-1. Ouch. The team´s director/head coach resigned more or less immediately after. Good move on his part, I think. And good riddance. When the team plays, it looks like a jumbly chaotic mess. This Wednesday should be interesting because there will be another game here in Ecuador against Peru, and I happen to be going (my host family has family from the States in town and so it´s going to be a big family outing at the fútbol game). I may be kicking myself later on Wednesday night for paying to see another bloodbath, but at least the evening will involve family bonding time, snacks, and watching some live soccer, regardless of who wins or loses.

Students, Temblors, and Being a Good Samaritan

Looks like I´m writing this just under the 2 week mark. Score!

There isn´t too too much to report. My teaching schedule is filling up--I had 3 students this past week on various days and 3 more are going to start this coming week. I think that should be enough to keep me busy and pay my bills. So far I really like my students. They´re 3 guys between the ages of 29 and 30-something. They´re all really nice. Mostly we just do lots of talking and I correct their errors and help explain bits of grammar here and there. I give classes out of my host family´s house when their restaurant´s off-hours, so I feel very comfortable and it´s not like I´m inviting strangers into my house, nor do I have to travel at all to go to work.

On Thursday night there was a ¨temblor¨ here in Quito that ranked 6.7 on the Richter Scale (note: temblor is definitely different from an earthquake--I guess it´s more or less like a tremor). However, I failed to even notice because I was super engrossed in a Skype conversation with a friend. So I guess it really wasn´t all that serious. The place in Ecuador that felt the tremor the most was a city called Cuenca, about 8 hours away from Quito, so I´m guessing we didn´t get the full force of anything here.

Today was a particularly busy day. Alejandro´s marketing class organized a community service project for street children from Quito, so I went along and participated. It was an all-day event: we played tons of games like soccer, freeze tag, Ecuavolley (basically volleyball with 3-person teams, 3 hits per side, and breaking lots of the official rules about how to hit the ball), sang songs, did face-painting, 3-legged and wheelbarrow races, tug of war, and other random games that I don´t know the names of as well. We also had a barbeque (I had a heads up and brought my own lunch). Basically it was a really good opportunity to connect with street kids and be good influences for them, even if only for a day. There were 2 little girls in particular that I talked with a lot--they were so cute and friendly! It was also nice hanging out with people my age from the university and networking a bit.

Now it´s time to watch the national team´s game against Paraguay. Ecuador seriously needs to win or else they´ll be in deep you-know-what. Here´s to staying optimistic!

Self-Employment

Ahh it´s been awhile, so here´s the latest: I´m officially employed! Well, in a freelancy sort of way. I took Manuel´s advice and put an ad in the paper here offering 1-to-1 conversational English classes. A lot of people here apparently want to practice conversing and listening in English, so I got a bunch of responses. I´m still figuring out schedules and responding to calls, but so far it seems like a good gig and more relaxed than lots of other jobs would be. So I guess I´m sort of an ¨independent professional¨ or something to that extent.

Friday was a holiday, El Día de los Muertos (day of the dead). I went with Alejandro and Manuel to the town center (Quito Colonial) to visit the church where Manuel´s parents, grandmother, and aunts are buried. We left flowers in the catacombs and they said prayers. The weather was nice that day so we walked around a bit and I got to see the house that Manuel grew up in, as well as the house the family used to own 20 years ago. The colonial-style houses are amazing: they´re huuuge, often with an open patio in the middle where you could park 4 or 5 cars, and a ton of rooms. The style of the houses obviously has a very rustic and historic feel because they were built in the 1600´s (at least some of them). We also visited a museum in the town center that´s in the building that was the first hospital not only in Ecuador, but in all of Central and South America. Very informative, but I was about to pass out from information overload by the end of the tour. Later in the afternoon we went to a family-owned ice cream shop that Manuel used to go to when he was 5, so it´s been around for about 3 generations or more. They specialize in ¨helado de paila,¨which is ice cream made in a special kind of pot. I suppose it´s sort of like sorbet--the ice cream is made with fruit, ice and sugar, but not with any cream or milk. It was delish!

Saturday I went to the Quito zoo (which is actually outside the actual city) with the family and the new host student that´s staying with them (she´s actually in her 50´s or 60´s and is from Michigan). There was an abundance of silly monkeys and big cats, but also some stranger animals that are native to South America. As always, it was a little sad to see wild animals cooped up, but also cool because they´re pretty amazing, and how often do you get to see them in person?

Ahh I forgot about the trip we went on last weekend to the town of Cumbayá in the valley Tumbaco. It´s only about 45 min from where we live in Quito. I went with Alejandro, Mayory, the exchange student, and Alejandro´s aunt, Tia Giomar (pronounced Yo-MAR). Tia Giomar is building a country house in Cumbaya and she wanted to check out the progress. They have a nice piece of land with some fruit trees and a lot of space to use for basically whatever they feel like. The house itself is gorgeous and humongo. It´s basically done being built, so I´m hoping she has some sweet parties out there for the fam soon, hehe. After seeing the house we did a little wandering around the town, visited the church and town square, and did a bit of window shopping. It´s a very quaint town and definitely a good place to get away from the city once in awhile.

Well, time to jet: from 3-7 I´ll be busy giving classes, one of my first more full days. Hopefully I´ll be better about updating this here blog and do it more often than every 2 weeks. : P