A Quito a Quito!

Well this weekend we all chilled around the fabulous Quito. Thursday I had 2 tests and a quiz so naturally Friday after class was spent rewarding myself for getting through the week. I went to a salon near Anne's house and we each got our nails and for only $3, so we might (most def.) will be back. After that we trecked over to my house and on the way stopped at a store kinda like Macy's only smaller and cheaper. I bought a purse that I've been eyeing since the first month and also a coin purse to match so that my camera could have its' case back that I had been using as a wristlet. Friday night Anne, Willow, Lauren, and I went to a Western restaurant for pizza in celebration of one of our Ecuadorean friends birthday. Naturally we were late and felt really bad for being late on her birthday, only to realize that she too, and the rest of the gang, were running behind. We like to call it the "Ecuadorean hour", where all Ecuadorians are late, basically no matter what and it's ok... according to them. The pizza was great and so was the company but we all headed home around 9 because of the draining week at school.

On Saturday Shanna, Lydia, Anne, and I spent the day being tourists, jokes on you, we've been here 3 months! We took a double-decker bus tour (like those in London) and toured the city like we had no clue what anything was. There were 12 stops on the bus and we had the chance to get off at any of the stops we'd like, but we'd have to wait another hour for the next bus to pick us up. So the first stop we got off at was the basilica. This was an amazing sight to see with all the Gothic-Roman architecture spread across the building. After taking in the view of the second floor, and lots of pictures, the hike to the top was on. We got to the gift shop about 3/4 of the way up just fine but when we exited the shop we saw a long wooden bridge to a flight of stairs that was basically a ladder going straight up. The stairs were tiny and the only thing you could do was look where you were grabbing. After this we had 2 more of these stairs/ladder type things to climb only outside the building with wind and sun to knock you right off onto the cement below, very far below. I never have been too fond of heights but this made me realize how much I don't like them. After being coached with some encouraging words from my friend Lydia below I made it to the top, even if I wanted to give up about 100 times. The view from the top was amazing, we could see Quito as far as the eye could see, we never really realized how big the city was. After this we hurried down in fear of missing our bus, and for me just in fear. We rode the bus to the Virgin watching over the city and look lots of pictures again and then headed back to where we got picked up. This was a well worth it trip and a great way to spend out Saturday.

Sunday was my first futbol (soccer) game in Ecuador! We went to La Liga (our team) VS. Barcelona, a team from the South of Ecuador. This rivalry was huge, so huge that the two teams had to buy tickets at completely separate locations, sit in sections where we couldn't even see each other, enter at opposite sides of the stadium, and police officers were EVERYWHERE. On the way in Lauren and I had to basically throw our belts away because they could be used as weapons. We were told that we could get them back later, but we threw them into a huge bag with 60 million other belts got a sticker that matched one on our belt and walked away never to see them again. After the game we asked about them and the people we were with said it's very hard to find them again, so without looking we walked to our car. To say the least I was not happy and now my pants will be falling down for the next month. The excitement for the game was constant and people were always cheering and singing. La Liga finally did make a goal, the stadium went crazy and Lauren, Anne, and I got knocked over by crazy fans. In the end it was a super cool experience and La Liga did win, thank heavens in favor of our safety. Exiting the stadium was chaos, being pushed and squeezed, and watching the Barcelona fans be caged off until we all left, we couldn't even leave at the same time. We were told that before all these precautions were put into place for these 2 crazy sides lots of people got hurt and there were lots of problems.

The rest of today will be spent doing some homework and getting ready for another week.