How I love male bondage... two sock puppets and a marionette... now that's a party!
So when I wrote that I would be updating every Tuesday, I lied!
Fun things:
- There was a death in my town and I don't know the details... but the funny thing was that Stef's parents asked her if people die in Canada... and didn't understand why she thought that was a wacky question!
- I bought pants for $18 because my old ones are dead.. .sadness! But it was still fun cause Gloria came with Stef and I to Quito to buy pants and they started off saying it was $22. Gloria started negotiating and said she brought her kids here all the time and she could get pants for $18. The storekeeper finally agreed on $19 so I said OK and gave her a 20. Then she went to give me change. She came back with a dollar and I was about to go when Gloria said that she owed me one more. I kept my mouth shut and the store person looked confused but Gloria was so adamant and she went and got me another dollar. Gloria is the shit at bargaining!
- Also that day, Gloria, Stef and I are locked out of the house. First she wants Stef to climb the front gate which Stef attempts but it's too difficult since there are spikes sticking out of it. The neighbour is home and lets us in. But we don't have the key for our door either. First we try to open a window but it doesn't work. Then we see Gloria on the roof yelling at us to come on up. We get there and see her wrapping rope around her legs like she's about to repel of roof. It was frightening. She only had rope around her two thighs though and nothing around her back which scare me because I think she'd flip over and die. But then, she positions herself abover a hole and I realize that that's where the hole in my bathroom ceiling leads to. Also, that's when I realized why there was a ladder in my shower (I guess cause the last time Gloria locked herself out and needed to do a Mission Impossible, there was no ladder and it was awkward). So she gets lowered down into the bathroom and then it's all good. We are let in. Weird!
So last Wednesday, I didn't go to work at all. I left the internet place around 1pm after switching a billion computers and still not getting my iPod of doom to work. I really hate this! But Stef came in and we uploaded some of her pictures on facebook. Then we went for lunch at our cafe place. After that, we wandered around and ended up in front of Niall's school. Since he was in there teaching his afternoon special classes, we decided to go find him and say hi. We walked in, got led into the class by a random teacher. We ended up staying for the whole lesson. We were quite the distraction for the kids. It was fun. We got to correct him a few times! Then we walked around the town where Niall said two funny quotes... "I hate the term 'male bonding'. It's like they poured glue all over us and stuck us in a tin can"... and "Only people in Niall's circle of love get to call me Niall". Yeah...
Then Niall took us to his friend's place. The mom is the music teacher at both Niall and Stef's schools. We were there because one of the daughters needed to interview "Gringos" on camera for her English class. That daughter didn't show up for a bit so Stef, Naill and I sat and talked to the other two daughters and an 11 year old son who was really quiet but really cute. I really like this family. They are really friendly and funny. They also had a keyboard upstairs so Stef and I went crazy. We left around 7:30 after being interviewed. The dad drove both Stef and I home because she had missed the last bus to Juan Montalvo. On the way home, he told me that he and Gloria went to the same high school. Small town. That night, I was grumpy for my iPod.
Thursday, nothing much happened. I went to school and tought my grade 7's. They are the oldest grade and do seem to pick up English the quickest. That afternoon, I was really tired so instead of going to the office, I took a nap. I am a bad worker... but really the office is boring and there is not much for the to do there. I have to find some more stuff to do.
Friday, I woke up and I'm not sure what I did. I know I went into the office for the bare minimum of time and then got a call from Stef who said she was going into town. Oh right, I went to the office and had nothing to do so the secretary asked me to do her homework... type out her homework on the computer. I am really only used there for my typing skills. Stef was at Gloria's school that day because there was another soccer tornament between the schools. They do so many soccer things that I wonder when they have time for actual school. I meet her at our internet place and we walk around town. I think we have Chinese for lunch that day. That afternoon we were heading to Dustin's place to play soccer with his family and Monica (Western girl). We head to a bread place and buy 16 buns and cold cuts. We also ask both our families and Stef gets permission to stay with me this weekend. We head up to her place to get her stuff and then take a bus (that wouldn't come for the longest time) to Dustin's. Sadly, it is raining that day and so no outdoor games. We end up playing asshole with the whole family who are really cute and clueless about the game. Firstly, they all show us their cards when they are good... also their strategy is to play the high cards first and save the 3's and 4's for last. Stef and I were playing on a team because we had too many players. We kept getting prez, except one game when Dustin stole our title. It was a really fun day though. We all ate and it was good. Then Dustin's mom invited us to go sit by the fire in the kitchen and it was lovely as well. This house is really different from any one I've seen so far. They it is really what you would imagine a house in a third world country would look like. To get downstairs, I had to climb down a scary ladder... but the family is soooo great. Also, they apparently own so much land in the mountains and three other houes... interesting. That night, we head back into Cayambe and Stef and I watch The DaVinci Code. Yay English, well sorta. We understood most of it except when they started speaking in Latin and the subtitles were in Russian.
On Saturday, we wake up and eat breakfast. It's fried chicken. They really like their meats fried for breakfast... well anything fried is good. Then Gloria asks if we want to go to church. We're kinda confused. But then find out that it's Martin's first communion. It's fun. He just had a haircut the day before. He is sporting a killer mullet. It was a nice time and at the end, a lot of little girls ran up to me and Stef and gave us their white roses. We were confused and Gloria informed us that this meant that they liked us and that we were welcome in their country. Sweet! After that, Stef and I left to buy groceries. We were going to try and make cookies for the day because Niall was making a "traditional" Canadian meal (meatloaf and mashed potatoes) for his family and we were invited. We were also planning on making breakfast for my family the next day. The grocery bill was not cheap. $30... which is a lot by Ecuadorian standards... for food. Anyways, we go home with our stuff and then realize we need a recipe for the cookies. We got one that was oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip and were satisfied. We start getting all the ingredients together and realize that the peanut butter was not peanut butter, but was caramel. Oh well... just as well! We then try to bake. It was impossible. The oven over here has a fire on the botton and the dial for heat is really confusing. So in the end, we had charred bottoms and uncooked tops and also broke two glass baking things. We gave up... and ended up frying the cookies in the pan that I had just purchased as well (since their pan is always filled with about an inch of oil... for all the deep frying). It trurned out not too bad. We didn't add any more oil to it so it was same ingredients. The chocolate melted so we didn't have chocolate chunks so much as melted chocolate. (Also, we had chocolate chunks because they don't have chocolate chips here so we got a bar of milk chocolate and broke it up). We didn't make lunch at Niall's but had so much "cookie" that we weren't hungry. We brought over the stuff and also some flowers to Niall's. Shawn had come up for the day from Pifo and so we all hugged and such.
That night, Niall's sister Lizeth took us to meet her friends. We were all heading to the Miss Cayambe competition together (p.s. that weekend was the Miss Cayambe competition). Actually, they call it the Queen of Cayambe (La Reina de Cayambe). It was sorta fun. We first stoped by a restaurant and had some drinks and then went into the stadium. The girl we were cheering for was the cousin of one of Lizeth's friends. Mostly, it was fun but just too long. We got into the stadium at 7pm and the thing was supposed to start at 8pm. But this being Ecuador, it didn't start until close to 9. Then it lasted until 1:15am. LONG! The girls only came out in two different outfits. One Ecuadorian costume and the second was evening wear. Then there was the question period where the questions were like "What would you do as queen for the children of Cayambe?", "How would you represent our city?" and "How would you define peace?" In the end, the one with the hottest bod won. Not the cousin... and Lizeth's friend was really really sad/mad. Also, during the thing, us four Queen's kids did the oil thigh. And also we started a wave... and we started a confetti fight. It was really fun. We were all covered. But then it went downhill as the little brat kids behind us started being brat kids. One of them ended up opening his glow in the dark stick thing and spraying everyone with the liquid. Then an adult in the back opened a box of wine and poured the stuff onto the kid. It was interesting. Oh and also, Stef sorta got a boyfriend who was really cute and dancing with both of us and asked her if she wanted to be his friend and then go to his house after the thing. Stef pretended to not understand which apparently wasn't good enough for him because after that, he went and found himself and another girl who looked like she was 12. Weird night. Then Miguel was there and we all took a cab back except Luis got the cab to drive really far to drop off this girl. And then expected us to pay for half the ride... yeah... no! The cab driver spoke English though and then wouldn't believe that I come from Canada. I get that a lot! A LOT!!! But I was tired that night and didn't want to argue so I just said... do you want to see my passport? Then he backed off. We got home that night around 2am and went straight to bed.
The next morning, we woke really early and made breakfast. We started at 7:20 and weren't done the French toast, scrambled eggs and sausage until two hours later. The French toast took the longest because we had to do it one by one in the small pan. But the weirdest thing, around 9am... Gloria comes home with her own food and offers us some. We were really confused. There is usually a lot of miscommunication but it seemed like they knew we were going to cook for them. In the end, they ate our stuff too. Then Stef and I sat down to watch a movie... Once upon a time in Mexico... but we were so tired not even Johnny Depp and Antonio could keep us awake. Both of us fell asleep. Then Stef left to go to the internet and go home. I went back to my room and napped some more. That night, I started the book that Ali lent Stef who lent me... The Poisonwood Bible.
Monday, school in the morning... reading in the afternoon. Kids can't seem to learn anything. It is frustrating.
Tuesday, no school because Gloria is taking us to Quito. First we thought her brother was sending a cab but then we were taking the bus... then I thought she was going to visit her brother but when I asked, she said she was going specifically for us. It is really hard communicating with her still. That morning, Stef comes over early and we drop off our laundry at the lavadaria. After that we go visit Niall at school and then head to our cafe and chill. Then we get back home to meet Gloria who is late but when she shows up, she tells us she doesn't have her keys either... then there's the acrobatics (read above). We head to Quito, buy stuff. Stef gets a bathing suit for Baños because her original one was robbed. Also, she gets a team Ecuador jersey. I get a pair of pants for $18. Then we meet her brother and there is no introductions. They really don't do that a lot here. We didn't end up talking to him the whole time. He drives a cab and took us to our fav spot where there's McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut all within 3 minutes of each other. We get McDonalds. Gloria and her brother disappear... but not before we pay him 1 dollar each. We thoguht he was coming to do us a favour... apparently we did him a favour because yeah, we paid more than we normally would. Anyways, McDonalds is still heaven and we listen to really cheesy music. Jesse McCartney anybody?!?!? Gloria finally shows up and says she's going home. Stef and I hang back and bit and tell her we'd meet her back in Cayambe. We don't stay long and head back on the bus in 30 minutes with fries! That night, I read some more and watch half of Law and Order SVU.
Wednesday, I was all gearing up for school because I am not going Thursday or Friday because of Baños. But Gloria tells me not to go and that I would go with her instead. I head to the office first and type something up first and then she gets me and we meet the prez of the place where I work. All three of us drive to this hosteleria for a conference about child rights and such. It was kinda long at 3 hours but I understand a lot of the stuff and in the end, I got a certificate. Then, I meet Stef, we get food and chat and then get our laundry. That night, I go home and watch a whole episode of Law and Order SVU and finish my book. Weird book but diaspora was a main theme and it was coolio. Also, I took a African history course last summer so I remember a lot of the names mentioned. Oh historical fictions.
This morning, I woke up really early and now I'm in Quito... trying to figure out my iPod but still no! Hate life... hate... but excited for this weekend!!!!
Fun things:
- There was a death in my town and I don't know the details... but the funny thing was that Stef's parents asked her if people die in Canada... and didn't understand why she thought that was a wacky question!
- I bought pants for $18 because my old ones are dead.. .sadness! But it was still fun cause Gloria came with Stef and I to Quito to buy pants and they started off saying it was $22. Gloria started negotiating and said she brought her kids here all the time and she could get pants for $18. The storekeeper finally agreed on $19 so I said OK and gave her a 20. Then she went to give me change. She came back with a dollar and I was about to go when Gloria said that she owed me one more. I kept my mouth shut and the store person looked confused but Gloria was so adamant and she went and got me another dollar. Gloria is the shit at bargaining!
- Also that day, Gloria, Stef and I are locked out of the house. First she wants Stef to climb the front gate which Stef attempts but it's too difficult since there are spikes sticking out of it. The neighbour is home and lets us in. But we don't have the key for our door either. First we try to open a window but it doesn't work. Then we see Gloria on the roof yelling at us to come on up. We get there and see her wrapping rope around her legs like she's about to repel of roof. It was frightening. She only had rope around her two thighs though and nothing around her back which scare me because I think she'd flip over and die. But then, she positions herself abover a hole and I realize that that's where the hole in my bathroom ceiling leads to. Also, that's when I realized why there was a ladder in my shower (I guess cause the last time Gloria locked herself out and needed to do a Mission Impossible, there was no ladder and it was awkward). So she gets lowered down into the bathroom and then it's all good. We are let in. Weird!
So last Wednesday, I didn't go to work at all. I left the internet place around 1pm after switching a billion computers and still not getting my iPod of doom to work. I really hate this! But Stef came in and we uploaded some of her pictures on facebook. Then we went for lunch at our cafe place. After that, we wandered around and ended up in front of Niall's school. Since he was in there teaching his afternoon special classes, we decided to go find him and say hi. We walked in, got led into the class by a random teacher. We ended up staying for the whole lesson. We were quite the distraction for the kids. It was fun. We got to correct him a few times! Then we walked around the town where Niall said two funny quotes... "I hate the term 'male bonding'. It's like they poured glue all over us and stuck us in a tin can"... and "Only people in Niall's circle of love get to call me Niall". Yeah...
Then Niall took us to his friend's place. The mom is the music teacher at both Niall and Stef's schools. We were there because one of the daughters needed to interview "Gringos" on camera for her English class. That daughter didn't show up for a bit so Stef, Naill and I sat and talked to the other two daughters and an 11 year old son who was really quiet but really cute. I really like this family. They are really friendly and funny. They also had a keyboard upstairs so Stef and I went crazy. We left around 7:30 after being interviewed. The dad drove both Stef and I home because she had missed the last bus to Juan Montalvo. On the way home, he told me that he and Gloria went to the same high school. Small town. That night, I was grumpy for my iPod.
Thursday, nothing much happened. I went to school and tought my grade 7's. They are the oldest grade and do seem to pick up English the quickest. That afternoon, I was really tired so instead of going to the office, I took a nap. I am a bad worker... but really the office is boring and there is not much for the to do there. I have to find some more stuff to do.
Friday, I woke up and I'm not sure what I did. I know I went into the office for the bare minimum of time and then got a call from Stef who said she was going into town. Oh right, I went to the office and had nothing to do so the secretary asked me to do her homework... type out her homework on the computer. I am really only used there for my typing skills. Stef was at Gloria's school that day because there was another soccer tornament between the schools. They do so many soccer things that I wonder when they have time for actual school. I meet her at our internet place and we walk around town. I think we have Chinese for lunch that day. That afternoon we were heading to Dustin's place to play soccer with his family and Monica (Western girl). We head to a bread place and buy 16 buns and cold cuts. We also ask both our families and Stef gets permission to stay with me this weekend. We head up to her place to get her stuff and then take a bus (that wouldn't come for the longest time) to Dustin's. Sadly, it is raining that day and so no outdoor games. We end up playing asshole with the whole family who are really cute and clueless about the game. Firstly, they all show us their cards when they are good... also their strategy is to play the high cards first and save the 3's and 4's for last. Stef and I were playing on a team because we had too many players. We kept getting prez, except one game when Dustin stole our title. It was a really fun day though. We all ate and it was good. Then Dustin's mom invited us to go sit by the fire in the kitchen and it was lovely as well. This house is really different from any one I've seen so far. They it is really what you would imagine a house in a third world country would look like. To get downstairs, I had to climb down a scary ladder... but the family is soooo great. Also, they apparently own so much land in the mountains and three other houes... interesting. That night, we head back into Cayambe and Stef and I watch The DaVinci Code. Yay English, well sorta. We understood most of it except when they started speaking in Latin and the subtitles were in Russian.
On Saturday, we wake up and eat breakfast. It's fried chicken. They really like their meats fried for breakfast... well anything fried is good. Then Gloria asks if we want to go to church. We're kinda confused. But then find out that it's Martin's first communion. It's fun. He just had a haircut the day before. He is sporting a killer mullet. It was a nice time and at the end, a lot of little girls ran up to me and Stef and gave us their white roses. We were confused and Gloria informed us that this meant that they liked us and that we were welcome in their country. Sweet! After that, Stef and I left to buy groceries. We were going to try and make cookies for the day because Niall was making a "traditional" Canadian meal (meatloaf and mashed potatoes) for his family and we were invited. We were also planning on making breakfast for my family the next day. The grocery bill was not cheap. $30... which is a lot by Ecuadorian standards... for food. Anyways, we go home with our stuff and then realize we need a recipe for the cookies. We got one that was oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip and were satisfied. We start getting all the ingredients together and realize that the peanut butter was not peanut butter, but was caramel. Oh well... just as well! We then try to bake. It was impossible. The oven over here has a fire on the botton and the dial for heat is really confusing. So in the end, we had charred bottoms and uncooked tops and also broke two glass baking things. We gave up... and ended up frying the cookies in the pan that I had just purchased as well (since their pan is always filled with about an inch of oil... for all the deep frying). It trurned out not too bad. We didn't add any more oil to it so it was same ingredients. The chocolate melted so we didn't have chocolate chunks so much as melted chocolate. (Also, we had chocolate chunks because they don't have chocolate chips here so we got a bar of milk chocolate and broke it up). We didn't make lunch at Niall's but had so much "cookie" that we weren't hungry. We brought over the stuff and also some flowers to Niall's. Shawn had come up for the day from Pifo and so we all hugged and such.
That night, Niall's sister Lizeth took us to meet her friends. We were all heading to the Miss Cayambe competition together (p.s. that weekend was the Miss Cayambe competition). Actually, they call it the Queen of Cayambe (La Reina de Cayambe). It was sorta fun. We first stoped by a restaurant and had some drinks and then went into the stadium. The girl we were cheering for was the cousin of one of Lizeth's friends. Mostly, it was fun but just too long. We got into the stadium at 7pm and the thing was supposed to start at 8pm. But this being Ecuador, it didn't start until close to 9. Then it lasted until 1:15am. LONG! The girls only came out in two different outfits. One Ecuadorian costume and the second was evening wear. Then there was the question period where the questions were like "What would you do as queen for the children of Cayambe?", "How would you represent our city?" and "How would you define peace?" In the end, the one with the hottest bod won. Not the cousin... and Lizeth's friend was really really sad/mad. Also, during the thing, us four Queen's kids did the oil thigh. And also we started a wave... and we started a confetti fight. It was really fun. We were all covered. But then it went downhill as the little brat kids behind us started being brat kids. One of them ended up opening his glow in the dark stick thing and spraying everyone with the liquid. Then an adult in the back opened a box of wine and poured the stuff onto the kid. It was interesting. Oh and also, Stef sorta got a boyfriend who was really cute and dancing with both of us and asked her if she wanted to be his friend and then go to his house after the thing. Stef pretended to not understand which apparently wasn't good enough for him because after that, he went and found himself and another girl who looked like she was 12. Weird night. Then Miguel was there and we all took a cab back except Luis got the cab to drive really far to drop off this girl. And then expected us to pay for half the ride... yeah... no! The cab driver spoke English though and then wouldn't believe that I come from Canada. I get that a lot! A LOT!!! But I was tired that night and didn't want to argue so I just said... do you want to see my passport? Then he backed off. We got home that night around 2am and went straight to bed.
The next morning, we woke really early and made breakfast. We started at 7:20 and weren't done the French toast, scrambled eggs and sausage until two hours later. The French toast took the longest because we had to do it one by one in the small pan. But the weirdest thing, around 9am... Gloria comes home with her own food and offers us some. We were really confused. There is usually a lot of miscommunication but it seemed like they knew we were going to cook for them. In the end, they ate our stuff too. Then Stef and I sat down to watch a movie... Once upon a time in Mexico... but we were so tired not even Johnny Depp and Antonio could keep us awake. Both of us fell asleep. Then Stef left to go to the internet and go home. I went back to my room and napped some more. That night, I started the book that Ali lent Stef who lent me... The Poisonwood Bible.
Monday, school in the morning... reading in the afternoon. Kids can't seem to learn anything. It is frustrating.
Tuesday, no school because Gloria is taking us to Quito. First we thought her brother was sending a cab but then we were taking the bus... then I thought she was going to visit her brother but when I asked, she said she was going specifically for us. It is really hard communicating with her still. That morning, Stef comes over early and we drop off our laundry at the lavadaria. After that we go visit Niall at school and then head to our cafe and chill. Then we get back home to meet Gloria who is late but when she shows up, she tells us she doesn't have her keys either... then there's the acrobatics (read above). We head to Quito, buy stuff. Stef gets a bathing suit for Baños because her original one was robbed. Also, she gets a team Ecuador jersey. I get a pair of pants for $18. Then we meet her brother and there is no introductions. They really don't do that a lot here. We didn't end up talking to him the whole time. He drives a cab and took us to our fav spot where there's McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut all within 3 minutes of each other. We get McDonalds. Gloria and her brother disappear... but not before we pay him 1 dollar each. We thoguht he was coming to do us a favour... apparently we did him a favour because yeah, we paid more than we normally would. Anyways, McDonalds is still heaven and we listen to really cheesy music. Jesse McCartney anybody?!?!? Gloria finally shows up and says she's going home. Stef and I hang back and bit and tell her we'd meet her back in Cayambe. We don't stay long and head back on the bus in 30 minutes with fries! That night, I read some more and watch half of Law and Order SVU.
Wednesday, I was all gearing up for school because I am not going Thursday or Friday because of Baños. But Gloria tells me not to go and that I would go with her instead. I head to the office first and type something up first and then she gets me and we meet the prez of the place where I work. All three of us drive to this hosteleria for a conference about child rights and such. It was kinda long at 3 hours but I understand a lot of the stuff and in the end, I got a certificate. Then, I meet Stef, we get food and chat and then get our laundry. That night, I go home and watch a whole episode of Law and Order SVU and finish my book. Weird book but diaspora was a main theme and it was coolio. Also, I took a African history course last summer so I remember a lot of the names mentioned. Oh historical fictions.
This morning, I woke up really early and now I'm in Quito... trying to figure out my iPod but still no! Hate life... hate... but excited for this weekend!!!!