New Closets!

Ahh...My lovely host dads hired workers to fix my closet this week. Even though it took 3 days to complete the job (this seems unnecessarily long to me), it was well worth it! I can now, a month and a half into my stay, unpack my suitcase.

That said, tonight I have to pack my suitcase. This is because my dads are taking me to Guayaquil this weekend for their Independence Celebration. I´m pretty jazzed for this excursion to a more tropical climate (not in the mountains) and for the massive festival that is this weekend. Coastal cities are also known for their amazing seafood dishes which I plan to sample, as well.

On a more personal note, I was surprised yet not surprised to find my spirits a little lower this week. It´s strange the memories that pop into your head at a moments notice. This weekend is my best friend in the entire world´s wedding. Before leaving for Ecuador I even helped plan the engagement with her fiance. In short, I´ve known for longer than she has that I´d miss their wedding but this doesn´t seem to ease the lil pang of sadness I´ve felt all week. But I wish them all the best and hope the day is beautiful, full of friends, family and merriment! Rhys and Jon, I love you guys! (P.S. - Send pictures!)

This past Sunday, I went to a local church called English Fellowship. Nearly everything is in English as the name suggests and the pastor I think is from South Carolina. The story of how I got to this church is very telling of Ecuadorian society and worth sharing:

About a week and a half ago I was waiting at the bus terminal near my house after work. It was my first time taking the bus to my new Quito host family house. I knew the name of the bus I was supposed to be on and I knew there was a gas station with an orange sign on the corner where I was supposed to get off. While I was contemplating the best way to successfully execute this public transportation venture, the girl behind me in line started asking me questions in English. I turned around and began chatting with her about how she learned English and what her name was, etc. She told me she had actually studied abroad in the States and her name was Daniella. She then asked me, almost out of the blue, if I was a Christian. I said yes and she explained that she´s actually working towards becoming a missionary. Our conversation continued while boarding the bus, riding the bus, and also while missing my stop. Luckily her stop was the one right after mine, so after disembarking, she walked with me back to my corner by the gas station. I got her number and told her I´d call if I could swing church this week.
As it turned out, I could swing church. After a couple of text messages, she told me that she had a meeting on Sunday morning, but that her friend Ivan would pick me up at that same gas station. I was a little leary of this 3rd party especially because he would be driving me in his car to a place I wasn´t familiar with. This probably wasn´t an exemplary performance of street smarts, but I did it anyways. As planned, Sunday morning I jumped into Ivan´s silver Volkswagon (admiring the German craftsmanship and simultaneously missing my Passat, Ruby) and rode with this chatty Ecuadorian guy to church. The people were nice and I ended up having a pretty good discussion about American government with Ivan on the ride home. He invited me to have lunch with him and some of his friends the following Wednesday. That Wednesday (yesterday to be exact) I met up with Ivan again and met his buddy from the university, Antonio and also his new friend from Norway, Anneth. Two Ecuadorians, an American and a Norwegian enjoying almuerzo and each other´s company. Pretty amazing.

And this is just how it goes in Ecuador. You meet someone once and they introduce you to their friends and before you know it, the contacts in your cellphone have doubled.

Perhaps in another post I´ll tell you the story of how I came upon my guitar. It´s pretty interesting as well and involves a couple from Canada.

Well, I must be off. I have other lunch plans today and I have to run some errands before work and the trip to Guayaquil.

Chao!