What a Day! (5 more to gooooooo)

Dear Chris Kwon,

This morning, I woke up bright and early to go to FUDIS for the second to last time in my life. I walked into the kitchen just as Antonio was leaving for "work." I felt bad, because Susy immediately rushed to serve me breakfast. She sat with me while I ate and I finally asked her if I could leave my suitcase while I traveled. She quickly said yes, then asked about my travel plans. She's so stoked I travel. As I was waiting at the crosswalk by my house, some old woman said something to me. I thought I had been staring off into space, so I snapped to. I finally realized that she wanted me to help her cross the street. Justifiably, the street is really dangerous. There's no crossing signal. I decided to pretend to be a boyscout, so she grabbed onto my arm and let me lead her across the street. She was so presh, running while I was basically crawling I was moving so slowly. A bus was headed right for us, but we made it just in time. She thanked me and said "hasta luego."

I got to FUDIS and someone else was finally there. Annie and I worked on homework for a while until the director came and asked if we would help clean the basement. I didn't even know there was a basement. It is probably SUPER dirty. We gave disgusted looks, so she put us on "fruit sorting duty" instead. We went to the kitchen to find 3 huge crates of plum-like fruits. Our job was to sort out the bad ones, then bag the little ones so they can be sold at a market. I guess it's okay to sell random fruit from a bodega in a Cancer shelter in this country. (Starlite swapmeet, anyone?) Olivia (girl from U.S) told me that an eye doctor came to FUDIS, gave free eye exams, then gave out free glasses. Wow. Apparently, of the 30 people screened, 20 of them needed glasses. Olivia said she was heart broken when she found out that most of them couldn't read and glasses were sort of unnecessary.

Instead of class, we went to another museum. This time, we went to Mindalae Museo, which was more of a culture museum. I found this one much more interesting. Afterwards, we hung out at a cafe next to the museum for a long time with our teachers. It was a relaxing, work-free afternoon.

Tonight's dinner lasted way longer than it should have. At first, it was just me, Antonio and Susy. Antonio left, so Susy talked to me (again) about the importance of travel. She told me that she used to go to Uruguay and buy beautiful clothes for really cheap, then sell them here in Ecuador. I told her that my dad does the same thing with antiques. We talked about that for a long time. Susy was so hyped. Ibeth (host sister) walked in and we talked about my dad's collections for a long time. As all conversations do here, our conversation changed many times. We then talked about my beach trip. We then transitioned to Ibeth's schooling. She wants to go to grad school in Paris. (So jealous). She's fluent in French (and in english- I wish I could hear these people speak english). Ibeth (and the rest of this family) hate the president and the government here. Ibeth told me about the corrupt voting system. Apparently, in the last election, they voted at tables. Ibeth said she would count 30 people at the table, but the news would report that there were 50 people at the table. The missing 20 evidently voted for Correa. Strange.

One of my homework assignments tonight was to research a local food. I had been eating what I thought was skin in peanut sauce. As it turns out Guatita, the dish I have been eating, is cow stomach covered in peanut sauce. I have always hated it, but now I feel sick just thinking about it. YUCK.

Yeah, this entry was boring, but I have been swamped with homework. I have 3 essays, presentations, reading, and more due in the next week. I have 5 days of classes left, then Schorn is coming, then I am going to the beach, then OMG is coming, then I am going back through the Sierra. Remember kids, no matter how upset we are with our elected officials, we are lucky because usually our corruption doesn't end in murder (Note the "usually"). So friends, go out there and wave your flags with pride. U.S.A, I miss thee.