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.