once i got out they pulled me back in
so if you didn´t know ( and you probably didn´t) it´s election time in Ecuador. Yes the ecuadorians will all be going out this Sunday to vote for practically everyone Mayor, President, Assemblista (like senator/ congress person) etc. They voted on a new constitution last year and i guess because they did that they need to vote for a whole new batch of peeps. I don´t really know much about the canidates just their propaganda, which is an extremely entertaining thing. Unlike in the states where you might see a Obama bumper sticker, yard sign and tv ad in Ecuador they go all out. There are signs on buildings, billboards, buses, flags, cars, on the tv, they have like parades of cars for a certain candidate with people in giant heads of the canidate .. its crazy. The signs are different as well they don´t just say the persons name (say like an obama stickjer) they all have the persons face on them, with the color of their party, the number of their party ( all of the parties here have a number for instance the president (Rafael Correa) his party´s number is 35), what they´re running for and probably some kind of slogan, which makes all the propaganda look like an advertisment for the ten o´clock news (at least to me). The current president´s propaganda is pretty intersting, the colors of the party are a lime green and a colbolt blue color and in most of the propaganda Correa appears. Sometimes he´s smiling with his arm around the canidate, other times its just his face, when we went to the beach i saw propaganda for someone else in his party with a like faded ghostly correa in the backround (it was strange). Anyway other interesting propaganda is Antonio Ricaurte who is running for mayor, his parties color is pink so there are like a ton of pink flags around Quito with a screen printed che esque picture of his face with his name and alcalde (mayor ) on the botton. The slogan for Ricaurte´s propaganda is "Quiteño tu eres el dueño" which i translate into "Quiteño you are the owner". Another person running for office is Marth Roldos, she is the daughter of a guy who was president or vice president (not sure which) in the 80´s (i think) and apparently was a really good but was assinated. Anyway so she gets brownine points for that and i think she´s really into women´s rights issues. anyway she seems cool and one of my professors here is also running for assemblista under Marth Roldos´s party so she probably has a good plan. Another candidate is Lucio Gutieres who if you´ll believe it actually was president , recently, but got kicked out for unpopularity by the people. apparently he spouted a lot of leftist ideas when he was running for president but when he got in office he did a 180 and implemented very right wing ideas. anyway i just find it incredible that he has the gall to run for president again, seems a bit crazy. But my host mom´s nefew Fernando Balda is running for assemblista with Lucio´s party (whicn i believe is fairly conservative). anyway its interesting my host cousin is running for assemblista and i see his pictures along my bus route ... kinda weird/ cool. Anyway last but not least i leave the most entertaining propaganda for last. Two guys are using the bat symbol (yes that bat symbol) in their propaganda. Which i find hilarious not only because they´re using the bat symbol but also because these guys are like the nerdiest looking guys on the face of the planet. It´s not like they´re a very cool, kinda hot bruce wane look no they´re pretty nerdy looking and then using the bat symbol just makes them seem nerdier. Anyway if they do get elected there are two things Quito must do 1. install the bat man light thing 2. make them wear bat suits to every meeting of congress oh and 3. start selling bat mobiles or get Morgan Freeman. Anyway that´s about it for now i have a whole pile of stuff that i´ve done here that i have yet to write about ( trip to Quilotoa (crater lake) and la playa!) but i´ll get to that at some point ( I hope). Anyway for now i´ll enjoy the alcohol free weekend (seriously ) tonight starting at 12 you can´t sell alcohol because fo the election, and the elections not until sunday, how weird. also everyone has to vote (its mandatory) though i think you can do absentee and there is someway to get out of voting but i think its a lot of hassle. anyway hope the dawn of the end of the semester isn´t stressing you out too badly (its stressing me out i have a 20 pg ISP to write by the 14th of MAy :() and hope the weather is nice and warm. miss you all,and be glad you didn´t have to hear a whole other batch of campaign ads for another semster (though most are fairly entertaining like one that government used with the melody to hey jude but with the lyrics "patria". anyway chao for now.