Lindsey and Laura arrived on St. Patrick's Day. I had on my Clover socks on, which is the only time they have been worn for the appropriate season. I bought them last year at Stein Mart AFTER St. Patrick's Day on sale.
Wednesday-Lindsey and Laura rode the Ecovia. Of course it was a jam-packed morning, but we managed. The Green bus wasn't bad. They waited on me. I took the hardest test of my life. I'm in my 8th semester of college and have never taken a test that hard in my life. It's a 1000 level class. The teacher told us it was OUR problem if we all did bad because we had all the information. The whole class met outside the building and we had a gripe fest.
After we got back to Quito, we went to Hassan's and had great food. I had the Falafel plate again and loved it. We walked took a cab to Old Town and walked aroud a while Laura was sick on the plane the day before and also sick off and on Wednesday and Thursday. We went to Rose's and bought a few things (grocery wise). We walked up the hill (5 streets away, BIG hill) to their hostal. Laura stayed there, but Lindsey went to my apartment with me. She met Camila and Tia Rita (my hater). We went back to the hostal and we watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. My pirated DVD skipped, but that was tolerable. That movie was very disappointing. I was really excited about it, but O my! They could have done so much more with it. The movie was so incredibly slow. Disappointing. The night guy called me a taxi. Taxi driver tried to charge me $4 for 4 blocks because it was night. No Thanks. I gave him $2. Jerk.
Thursday- I went to campus by myself, took my Jazz test, got an 83, got back to Quito, realized I forgot my keys (THE FIRST TIME), let in by Luis, laughed at by Ximena for forgetting my keys, chilled, then we to L&L's hostal. The owner talked with me a bit. We walked down to a big street, got a cab, drove to the entrance of TeleferiQo. We paid our $8 for foreigners, got in line, and got in the sky cab. Two Ecuadorians got in the sky tram with us, and he took our picture. (TeleferiQo is a sky tram {like a cab on a sky lift} that goes up Pichincha.) We got to the top, Laura had altitude problems. The clouds came almost immediately, so we had bad, and then NO, visibility off the volcano. After taking a tram down with 3 Middle/High schoolers (they talked a little to us), we went to the mall and got ice cream. Then we went to my apartment, Laura met Camila, we grabbed Superman Returns, and walked up the hill to their hostal. I slept almost the entire movie. The nightman called me a cab again.
Friday- We planned on going to Papallacta (Hot Springs), but I didn't think I could handle the bus for that far since my tummy woke up in a bad mood. Instead, we went to the Equator. Ecuador said, "Hi, Here's some rain for you." We shopped and shopped. Then we went to the real line, and our tour group had 2 people from Maryland and 1 from Quito (AKA Married an Ecuadorian woman {Bless her} and now lives here). He was a know-it-all and needed slapped. One lady had a question or comment for everything like what the wood type in the remake of the hut was, or that she knew merrygolds were strong scented (They were/are used to keep fleas off the guinea pigs). UH! We got on the bus around 5, and drove to Quito in the dark rain. I expected the bus to go to the Terminal we got on because we paid .40 like last time. WRONG! We ended up heading back to La Mitad del Mundo. I asked a lady and she told us that, so we got off the bus at a random stop. We tried to flag a taxi, but no luck. We were standing there with 5 or 6 other people, but still not a great idea. A random silver car pulled up on the perpendicular road to where we were standing. She hollared, "Taxi?" We got in her car. If it had been a guy, we would NOT have done that. She said $2.50 which was very impressive. We got stuck in Traffic, but made it to my apartment. We mutually agreed on $3, because I had no idea where we were when she picked us up (Could have been anywhere!) + traffic, so I was thankful to make it back to my apartment. Nice lady. I walked them back to their hostal. Nightman called me a taxi.
Saturday- We were going to the market at Otavalo, and my friend Deanna was going to go with us. I saw a cab outside my apartment at 4:28am. By the time I got through all the doors and down 5 flights of stairs, the cab was gone. I walked to Lindsey and laura's and woke up the nightman AND the owner. We went back to my apartment. I messaged Deanna, and we took a cab to her place, then to the terminal. We got on the bus, and headed out. We bought lots of things, and left Otavalo. We had Sushi at Kukkos. The waiter was so bored and was cracking us up. He walked us out, and didn't go back in until we had turned the corner. Deanna went home, and L&L and I had tea with Margarita's family later that evening. Her sister and niece got in from Germany that day, so we met them. Margarita apparently has a brother too. I met him, and Tia Rita and Anita Sofia also came up to visit with us. Interesting. German, Spanish, and English were spoken off and on (majority was Spanish). Walked them back to their hostal, and the owner gave me keys to the gate and the front door so I wouldn't have to ring the bell (Thank you 4:30 wake up call, right?). Nightman went to the road and got me a cab. ($1 to my apt!)
Sunday- Deanna got to my apartment around 7:40am. We walked to L&L's, took a cab to the Terminal, and paid for 6 people to go with us. Then I held out my fingers and said "Cuatro." The lady shook her head and said yes. Then the 2 people standing behind us who I paid for, paid for themselves. Then Deanna said we only needed 4 seats, so the lady gave me back $4 and marker on our ticket 4 seats. Uh. A dirty man and a boy were in 2 of our seats. No big deal... Well, he stank, kept scratching, rammed his seat into my bag and bounced it until I moved my bag. Deanna called him a bad name and he turned and looked at her, then did nothing but continue to stay too close. Jerk. Papallacta was beautiful. It's a hot springs, and is incredible. It's higher up (3300m), so it was cool. We sat in several different pools, some warm, some hot, some cool, some with regular water--cold. We enjoyed ourselves. My camera is officially waterproof. I took a pic of Lindsey underwater. We had lunch, and stood outside in the 50 degree weather and light wind waiting for a bus for about 20 minutes. We managed to all get seats, which was impressive. A little boy on the bus reminded us of Ephraim. Cute, but is a brat. Go figure. We got around to go with Margarita's family to Old town. I went and got them, and we ended up not going with them. I bought Toto's Greatest Hits and A Lot Like love on Saturday, so we watched it. I feel asleep the last 15 minutes. Lindsey got snippy with me, and instead of getting the nightman to call a cab, I walked home out of sleepy anger.
Monday-Met them at their hostal at 6:30am, gathered the last little bit, paid, and took a cab to the airport. They got into check-in, and I left. I played Tetras all the way back to my apartment. I met Margarita in the hallway this morning, and she asked what I was doing with my sisters today. I said they just left and she told me about something and then asked again what I was doing with my sisters. and I answered thinking maybe she meant what they were doing tomorrow, so I said class. We ended up in English that they left today. Whew. I had Crunchy PB on bread and some rocking Strawberry juice for breakfast. Now, I'll get around for the day. (& I'M NOT RE-READING THIS TO PROOF IT. MY APOLOGIES.)
No comments:
Post a Comment