This week has been so busy!

I guess I should start with last weekend. We just stayed in Quito and hung out with, planning to do some touristy stuff around here. On Friday we went to the Basillica, a cool gothic church that was built in the 1800´s. We got to climb the clock tower and the bell tower and they even let you ring the bell! It provided an amazing view of the city and was one of the coolest churches we have seen. Being inside the clock tower was cool too! It was kind of cloudy... if anyone remembers my obsession with the Hunchback of Notredame as a child you will know this was really exciting for me.

Saturday we went to the Mitad del Mundo, o middle of the world. It is basically just a big tourist draw where they have a monument to the equator. I made it to the northern hemisphere, the closest i´ve been to any of you in a long time! We found out when were we there that the line is about 100m off, and they didnt have the technology to determine where it really was when they build the statue? It seems silly but the real line is cool. They let kids do experiments with water and watching it sink dierectly into the ground and not move one way or the other and then something else with eggs that we didnt see. Besides the line it was a little touristy town, with cute little shops and restaruants around. Clonial women dancing. It was fun and we got some good practice learning how to use the busses, as we had to take three to get there and it cost 75 cents instead of a fifteen dollar cab ride. Saturday night we tried to go out to the discos but found them empty. Mike is trying to make ecuadorian friends so that when i leave he will have friends that speak spanish. It was a failure because no one was there. Sunday is an election weekend and they have a ¨dry weekend¨ mandated nationally before an election, so people normally just dont go out that weekend the discos close down early! On Sunday we went to the artisan market and found two markets. I restrained myself and dídn´t buy much but I did get this cool rose-butterfly sculupture that is made out of recycled metal. It sounds wierd but it looks really cool. The artist had some cool pieces but the rose was within my price and size range. After that we went to the park and played soccer! It was so much fun and I think the other team was impressed with the skills of a white girl. I also don´t think they knew that I could understand what they were saying, but sometimes it is more fun that way.

The week flew by. Mike and I volunteered Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and the soccer ball we bought was the big attraction. On Tuesday it had gone over the fence and down in to this car dearlship and when Mike went to retrieve it he ran into some problems. The owner was furious b-c the ball had broken a windshield and was taking it all out on Mike. He did a good job fighting with the guy though and came back with two soccer balls! We also adopted one of the kids financially, his name is Moeses and he has six brothers and sisters with one on the way. He is a sweetheart and does a good job keeping his brothers and sisters in line. It costs 25 dollars a month so Mike and I are going to split the cost and we made a minimum commitment of one year.

I had an oral exam and a written exam on Friday so thursday was spent studying for that and getting ready or the weekend.

On Friday we left for Atacames at 330 PM. I puked on the bus again! I think it is a combination fo the heat, the air is light and you cant open the windows, and the smell, which is not good. We got there around 10 and settled into our hotel, which wouldn´t give us the rate we settled for on the phone and wasn´t actually on the beach! We woke up on Saturday morning to find the electricity shut off, which turned out to be a different silly national law, but I was still annoyed and we switched hotels. For the same price we moved into a hotel beach side with a pool. A bunch of professors that just finsihed their year were taking over the rest and were very interested in us, so we talked to them quite a bit over the weekend. We had a blast and only got a little burnt! Plus today we went on a whale watching boat ride and saw some humpbacks, way cool! I have a few pics I will put up later. We decided to leave tonight bc it is cooler at night and maybe if I can sleep I wont get sick. I also have a lot to do next week including a thirty minute oral presentation to the dierector of the school, a paper written on the topic of my exposee, a cumulative exam for the past four weeks and an oral exam. So tomorrow I am still going to miss school as planned, but I will have to go in in the afternoon and get to work. The oral presentation-power point is complete but I have barely started my essay. Needless to say, I will probably not update until I get to the Bogota airport on Saturday morning! I love and miss you all!

Happy Fathers Day dad!
and happy 50th mom (tomorrow)

Make it a good one!
Marcy