First Weekend in Quito

So I never expected my first weekend in Quito to be like this!!! This will be quite a long post so bear through but it will be full of interesting stories, and I will do my best to explain all that happened!!

THURSDAY:
So in the morning we went up to the Panecillo, which is the highest point in Quito. There is a big statue of the virgin Mary and it is very beautiful. I learned that there is controvery about it because her back faces the south, and people of the south feel that she is "turning her back on them", just a little fun fact :). The view from this place was literally breath taking, I got a panoramic view of the entire city. For my first official views of the city it was so beautiful. It was a good site to see on the first day! After this we met Enrique and Carlos. Enrique is the minister of education in Quito and has proven to be an incredibly interesting character (read on for stories!) and Carlos is our translator for the month, he is very nice! We went to visit 2 of the 4 schools. At the first school, Calderon, they were having an open house which was very fun. The first surprise of the trip was seeing a 16 year old girl do an "interesting" dance to a Britney Spears mix..I will let you imagine what we saw! We then headed over to Bellavista, where we did not get a chance to meet the students but did meet the principal who was very nice. After that we went to the hotel and had our first dinner together, full of laughs as always. Then enjoyed a relaxing night of movie watching with my roomies.

FRIDAY:
This was the day that was FULL of surprises, holy ta moly!! So during the day we went to the final two schools to meet the teachers and principals. First was the school I will be at, Inca. Here there is a huge language barrier that I honestly did not expect it too be this bad, but luckily my spanish is gettting a lot better so in a few days I might be able to talk to most of the teachers! We also visited Zambiza, which has a lot of similar teachers and the same principal. Inca is a small school and they don't have a lot of resources or space, but we were lucky enough to get supplies donated so that will help them out a lot! After lunch we went to a school in the town of Cumbaya and it was a very pretty school. They have more resources at this school including a culinary program! We joined in a dance witht the class, it was so much fun! We were able to find the song and download it so look for our ESLE dance video, coming soon :p!! There was a journalist that wanted to ask us a few questions on the program for a local paper so we spent some time doing that. We then got served a meal by the students..so amazing; potato and cheese soup, yukka (similar to potato) and then fish from the jungle! I am not usually a huge fan of fish but this was so delicious!! We were then served a local drink called CanelaLaso; it has a whole bunch of fruit juice boiled with a bit of alcohol in it! The drive home was very fun, we took some detours to take some pictures with Enrique and then got to see a very fun side of him. He was hyper and was making us laugh so hard! He is also famous for his surprises and warned us that he had one waiting for the evening!! We ate quickly at the hotel then headed off to the ballet, which is actually just a cultural dance by Equadorians. It was fun to watch their style of dance. Then the spotlight shines on us and we get a special introduction, compliments of Enrique. We watch a bit more of the dancing and then all of a sudden here a street marching band play so we all turn our heads to see Enrique at the door waving us over, naturally we all get up and run to the door! This is a holy parade we are now basically in, filled with cucuruchos...google it to see a picture lol! So we are now walking down a street filled with purple versions of people that resemble a cult, perfect. Next thing we know, Enrique is stopping this holy parade, just for us to take pictures!!! The leader is not impressed at all, but that doesn't stop Enrique!!! After we walk beside the parade for a while he leads us to this big wooden door and does a secret knock and we get in, go up to the top of this building where we are surprised with the most amazing (and VIP) veiw of downtown Ecuador!! It was pretty and a very nice moment to be standing there looking at the nightlife of Ecuador culture. We then dead to a church called San Francisco. Seeing the inside of this church was so surreal. The inside was so amazing, pretty indescribable. (Pictures coming soon!) After this we walked the streets of downtown and went to this tiny little cafe where we had some more CanelaLaso, but this time it was mucho stronger so I only could drink a little becuase it was too much for me! The guys and a couple girls did a good job drinking the two pitchers we got. This night was filled with so many surprises but it just kept a huge smile on my face the whole time and made me fall more in love with the city.

Next up for Saturday, touring the old city...stay tuned!!!

-d