The rest of it

I left off having me go to bed. I did forget to mention that after the lake on Saturday we went to this street where pretty much all they sold was leather products. Not terribly exciting, but still cool. Next we got a wakeup call at 7:30 and went to breakfast at 8 (hot chocolate (WIN), bread, fruit including banana, strawberries, maybe mango and pineapple OR eggs but I got fruit, and pineapple juice). I packed up and went downstairs to wait/study with some other kids at a table. I forgot to mention that last night we saw this guy who was supposedly a raggeton star named Fuego. A bunch of the girls went and got pictures with him, but as it turned out it wasn’t really Fuego but a friend/band member, so we renamed him Fuego Falso. Well, as it turns out, we were sitting at a table in a common area outside of some general rooms when Fuego Falso sticks his head out the door and asks (in English), “Hey, could one of you guys by any change bring me a towel? We don’t have any and I can’t find my pants.” Somehow or another we kept out wits and Jacob went to the front desk. It’s a story we told over and over. Once we got out of there we went to another village that just started a business cooperative. The first thing I noticed when I entered the fairly poor-looking house-looking business place was a HUGE satellite, which I assumed was for TV. It wasn’t! Ana María told me that she asked someone about it, and he said that as soon as the cooperative had made enough money they bought internet access in order to help the business grow, but they bought it for the whole village. Anyway, this cooperative works with totora, a kind of reed that you can make into boats (idea stolen from some Bolivians), mats, furniture, and miniature llamas. They did a couple of demonstrations and let us take a try at weaving. If you’re that interested, I’ve got a business card that says their twitter : @totorasisa. No web site yet. Next we got on the bus and it started going up and down all of these unpaved backroads. I have to say, that bus driver is my hero because I think even Dad might have been a little wary to drive a normal car down those roads, let alone a huge tour bus. We arrived at Parque Cóndor, a kind of bird zoo that is a lot like Back to the Wild (www.backtothewild.com) in Castalia. Basically they rescue huge birds of prey, return them to the wild if they can, and keep them for education if they can’t. It was pretty cool figuratively, hot and sunny, and they had this really awesome demonstration where the birds got almost a little too friendly with us. There were two bald eagles and two Andean condors, the bird of Ecuador. Freaking huge, google it. My girls will like this one: there’s this one hawk or eagle, and instead of a male having multiple females like normal, the female has multiple males!! I took a picture. I also took a couple of pictures of flowers for Beth’s next art project. After that we went to Cabañas al Lago, this touristy spot for lunch (possibly yucca chips, steak, salad, French fries, something like flan). Needless to say, it was on a lake and some of the kids rented wetsuits/jetskis/speedboats etc. I explored a little bit and found a lamb and Saint Bernard, and an extreme tire swing. It was an interesting place because the whole lake/hotel/restaurant thing was very much rich/money oriented, but on our way out I say a woman and girl hoeing some land (by hand) right on the other side of the street! During the whole trip, I loved looking out the window (when I wasn’t sleeping) to try and figure out what people’s lives are like. There were a lot of cows and pigs everywhere, some chickens and stuff. Rural places were really rural: beautiful but obviously without any comforts I’m used to. I did see a lot of corn, but most of it was all dried out… which really pained my North Ridgevillian heart knowing that out corn is probably almost ankle-high by now (that is, if the rains didn’t make sowing impossible). Enrique and Z drove me back to the house to unpack, eat dinner (soup, fish, potatos, tomatoes) and go to bed. That was the weekend and this is this morning. Sleep until rudely awakened by alarm. Batida of strawberries for breakfast with PB&J, read on the bus. I had Academic Writing this morning, and we talked a lot about Otavalo. We also did some paragraph structuring and a punctuation exercise, which I loved. Nerd. Afterward she showed me the secret bakery in the University. Oh. My. Lord. I’ve complained before how Z was too healthy, but now all my problems are solved. So much bread… so much chocolate (it’s a chocolate store too, you know). I got a croissant with nutella and read, then went to Survey where we talked about this Mexican story where this guy is convinced his and his sister-in-law killed his brother but it really had to do with the institution of the Church, blah blah. Lunch: Mushroom soup, salad, rice (big surprise), pork chops, chocolate mousse, “orange” juice. “Orange” not because it was fake but because it was different from normal orange juice. I finished up, printed a compo, and spent some quality time in the library with Gabriel García Márquez (famous Columbian author whose story called Big Mama’s Funeral I’m presenting tomorrow, Mom, not my new Ecuadoran boyfriend) and an article on how Indígenas reject mestizaje. Then I blogged to you. Then I sat on a bus next to Charlie, whose eyes Z admired. I told him so, and I became his “daughter.” Which led to Charlie asking Germán how to say “I do” in a Spanish marriage ceremony (it’s “acepto” in case you ever need to know). Fun. Walk in the rain back home with Maddy and Jacob while telling stories about the weekend. At home I buckled down, ate some dinner (corn soup, fish, rice, and green beans) and finished some homework and played some solitaire and blogged a little but knowing I should start my Survey paper. I also was ALMOST sucked in by pictures of the State track meet, but unfortunately my internet was crabby so the pictures didn’t load  And now back to me telling you almost the same thing every day (until Friday) excepting the random facts, most of which I’m sure I repeat.
Random Facts: I’m starting to get sick of rice. I have a really weird tan line because I was wearing a t-shirt and put sunscreen on my neck, but not far down enough so it looks like a necklace tanline except the opposite. We’re making plans to go to the beach next weekend. The car alarms are still annoying. “Nalgas” means “buttocks” (Thanks, García Márquez). I was wondering today if Dad is still wearing that stupid moustache… but now I remember he’s in Canada with Will. Dress in normal clothes when going to the Mariscal otherwise they might take you as a, um, loose woman (NOT learned by experience, but by observation). I’m starting to figure this language thing out. I speak and think in both English and Spanish, I feel without language, I dream in images, and I narrate in English. The weirdest thing ever, though, is that my memory is getting mixed up. Whenever I remember old conversations, I can’t remember if they took place in English or in Spanish. I’m not just talking about conversations here, but things like random chats with the running club… it’s like my brain has dubbed some of my memories. Weird. I was actually cold this morning.