The weekend in 30 minutes or less

The bus leaves at 4:00 and I´m going to try and fail to recapitulate the entire weekend and today all at once. So Friday I met with my buddy, muy chévere, and we even went out to one of the plazas on campus because some guys were throwing guavas down from a tree. It´s another alien looking fruit. Almost right after we had salsa class. Yes, dance. The instructor thought we were too stiff and had us do hip exercises to loosen up. I felt a little too ballety. We did partner dancing, too, which was endlessly entertaining because some guys seemed afraid to touch me, some pushed me around, some didn´t know that breathing space is kind of necessary to dance, some had no rhythm at all, and some were actually fun. Like I said, SO entertaining, and we still have another class to go! On the bus Lola and I set up a time to meet and run in el Parque Carolina, so I got dressed and practically ran to our bus stop. I waited like 25 minutes for her, but she never showed... probably because she´s in intermediate and has a hard time with Spanish, plus she´s kind of shy and talks really quiet and really fast. I got all packed for the weekend and Z helped me call a cab (after giving me this cute little safety lecture) so I could go to La Mariscal with Maddy. I completely fail at calling cabs... although it cost only $4! We walked around a little bit and sat in a restaurant that had sand as floor. We were about to leave when we found some other kids from the program, and we all went to Mongo´s, which I loved because it´s a reference to Genghis Khan. It was cool because there was live music and a lot of dancing. One of the workers (who looked younger than me... all of the guys look young here)asked one of our girls to dance, and kept at it for like an hour or longer. We found one of our buddies, Priscilla, and she showed a us a ´real´salsa place, although it was boring because there was only old people :( A couple of us decided to leave because we had to be at the bus at 7:30; I´m glad I left with the group I did because one girl lives practically in the middle of nowhere and we dropped her off first. Brenden Eng was really chivalrous and I had the driver drop off Maddy and me first even though he lived closer... now I know why they teach you how to give directions in Spanish II. I woke up and had the best shower ever (I reeked of smoke; their smoking laws, if they exists, are nothing compared to Ohio´s) and got to the bus on time. The guide was really nice, but I kind of just wanted to sleep! We stopped at a gas station and I bought yuca rolls (normal bread except yellow and salty) and more drinkable yogurt! He took us to this store where this lady makes some kind of traditional figurines... I wasn´t too impressed (probably because I was still a little sleepy... you know how I am) but I did get some postcards. I should probably get a lot. More. Next we went to a mirador (lookout thingy) with some people in traditional dress, a boy with a llama, and a little store. They also showed us how they make the famous Panama hats which are really Ecuadorian, not panamanian, and they´re foldable!! Some indigenous girls came on the bus to sing and sell scarves. The bus went next to Otavalo. Oh, my LORD! Google it, PLEASE! It´s this huge indigenous market that has everything but cheerios!! Normal people do go to the fruit and animal markets (the latter of which I heard was disgusting, although I didn´t get to see it :( ) but the main attraction is the tourist market with all maneer of (´handmade´) indigenous stuff. To see what I mean, google it. I wandered around a little bit, thinking we had more time then we did, and bought some stuff, spending all the money I had brought with me. I´d give you a nice lowdown of what I got, but I´d kind of like it to be a surprise for my family. After that we drove off again to this Hacienda, which felt really European... although we were greeted by an indigenous band! I´ll have to go steal some video from the other students so you can see; I was stuck in the back (speaking of audiovisual stuff, I have pictures but not the time to find the best way to post them here...) They fed us a huge meal (potato soup, hominy, pork, potato pancakes, peanuts, and sherbet for dessert), but I was really more excited about looking around the grounds a little bit, all of which were beautiful... flowers, ponds, trees and such. Very relaxing. It´s a hotel; I could´ve stayed there a while. PLUS they had a photo of Freida Kahlo (Mexican painter with a unibrow). After that was my favorite: we went to lake Cuicocha, which is basically this lake inside a volcano, plus islands. There´s no fish (sorry Dad) as a result of the volcano, but there are really cute nonmallard ducks and these cool looking birds. In addition to just being beautiful to look at (plus it wasnt a city) we got to go on this boat out on to the lake all together. Super cool (literally it was cold) and I have pictures. Back to Otavalo to stay in a hotel... and we ate dinner (more soup, rice, really good chicken, and vegetables with fruit for dessert) and relaxed in our rooms; I stayed with Melanie and Margoh, and I´m really cool with both of them. We left at 9:30 for a karaoke bar, but it was kind of boring because it was pretty much just a pregame and the songs weren´t that great. It did make me really appreciate that I don´t drink, though, because I was out of money from Otavalo (not including some change and $5 I had hidden in my sock to keep myself from spending anything). Everyone else went to a discoteca and I wanted to go, too, because I wanted to dance, but I´d gotten back kind of late the night before and you know what happens when I get too tired, so I just went to bed. TO BE CONTINUED...