Chill Weekend in Quito

This past weekend I just stayed in Quito. Most of the other BU kids went to the beach, but I had a lot of work to do and they all left Thursday night and I had a quiz in class on Friday. It obviously was not meant to be.

But on Thursday before everyone abandoned me, I went to this huge orchid exhibit with Rachel, Caitlin, and Kayla. It is an annual thing and there were orchids and other plants from all over the world. It was super beautiful. I took a bunch of pictures with Rachel's camera so when she puts them on facebook I will add them to this. I had fun making up my own names for some of the orchids. To give a few examples there were panda orchids, tie die Rorschach orchids, screaming baby orchids, to name a few. After the exhibit, we went to this cool little cafe with a great view of Quito.

On Friday I just spent a lazy afternoon and evening hanging around the house. I watched 3 movies, read my book, and drew sketches of a couple of the flowers in my garden. It was nice to have an evening to myself and not have to worry about how I should be doing homework.

On Saturday I pretty much just spent hanging out with my host family. I went for a walk in Parque Metropolitano with Matele (my host mom), and her niece from Guayquil (another city in Quito) with her 3 kids. It was a pretty short walk because the kids got tired pretty quickly, but it was pretty and I want to go back sometime and explore more. Matele and I then went home, had lunch and rested. At 5 I went to my first Latin American Catholic mass. It was interesting. I could hardly understand the priest at all (he was mumbling and I think the microphone might have been a little to loud) so I can't really tell you what the sermon was about (we also got there a little late so we missed the first part). I can tell you he in general sounded very angry, even when what he was talking about was not something you would think he would be angry about (like love for example). I think it was his way of being intense. After mass we went out for ice cream with the niece and her kids. We got these amazing sundays. I got blakcberry ice cream in a cone bowl with strawberries, choclate sauce and chocolate shavings. It was awesome! Later on Saturday night I went to see Si Señor (Yes Man) with Jana, another international student. I was pleasantly suprised by the movie. It was funnier than I thought it would be.

Sunday was my host niece Sammi's birthday. She just turned 13. She is super adorable and sometimes comes to stay with Matele so we have hung out. The birthday party was at Matele's daughter's (and Sammi's mother) house in Cumbayá (the town where my university is). It was a gorgeuos hot day. The party was a little awkward because I had never met half the people thee and when there are lots of different Spanish conversations going on at once I get lost pretty easily. But then I started playing with the kids at the party on the trampoline and that was a blast. I must say the trampoline is a great invension. We also had great food at the party. I had mashed potatoes for the first time in many months which was awesome. We also had chocolate cake.

All in all, even though I had no super exciting adventures or travels, I had a lovely weekend.