Cold, High, and not a ski bum in Colorado

Yes, that is a goat tied up in the playground.

La Basilica de Quito

La Basilica otra vez

Mi Ciudad

This blog might or might not have any pictures depending on whether this Internet cafe allows it or not. Things are rolling along as usual here in Quito finishing my second week of Spanish classes. I'm trying to crank up the work load so that I will be conversable within three to four weeks time. We are now firmly entrenched in the rainy season here in Quito, what they call the ¨winter.¨ Every morning it is bright and sunny at about 68 degrees, which gradually increases to about 73 by mid-day. By 2 or 3 o´clock the sky has gone from a bright blue to a dark gray and a semi monsoonal rain drenches the city for about 3 hours, bringing it down to a chilly 50 degrees by night time, perfect for bundling up and crawling into bed.

I am not sure if it´s the pollution here or the home cooking, but the entire city seems to faintly smell like a campfire 24/7, which actually helps to bring back the fond memories of campfires as a kid on boyscout campouts.

The weather took its toll on me this past week and I came down with a massive sore throat followed by a cold which is still clinging through its last throes this weekend. I joined a group of ex-pats here in Quito called the ¨South American Explorers,¨ and they have a ¨club house¨ here, which is actually this very nice 100 year old 5,000 square foot house with a library, porches, free coffee, tea, and Internet, all for 50 bucks for the year. So one afternoon when I was feeling particularly bad from this cold I went over there, sat by a warm fire while the cold rain fell outside, drank tea, and watched a movie.

Despite the infirmity, Stewart and I managed to make it out Pub Quiz twice this week after work. Pub quiz is a two hour long event that several of the English style pubs here hold to cater to gringos (me and probably you reading this). Small groups from 3 to 5 people vie for the prize of a free pitcher of beer through several grueling rounds of trivia. We won the first night when one of the categories was serendipitously ¨anatomy¨ The question of the night was ¨how many bones are in the human hand?¨ Stewart quickly countered with ¨29¨ only to be shot down by the judge saying that there were 27. Stewart pointed out that the judge failed to include two commonly forgotten bones that are not entirely separated from the other bones but technically separate bones, and then offered to name each bone. The judge would have none of this back-talk and failed us on the question...

This afternoon were are going to try and watch the Auburn game in the only place in Quito that gets US television over the countless damn soccer games, the personal residence of the US Marines that man the Embassy here. Yes, somehow many years ago the US government bought a piece of property right in the heart of what is now the business district. Thirty story tall high rise buildings encumber this house that more closely approximates the playboy mansion than a barracks. And we will be there all afternoon watching AMURICUN football!

Blog points:
1.) Many of the busy intersections here with blind entrances here do not have stop signs, so what to drivers do? Stop anyway and look because no one has right of way? NO, they simply continue on at the same speed and honk there horn very loudly in the hopes that the other person will heed. This is all very amusing unless your room is right next to an intersection...

2.)The other night I walked by a chic bar in the tourist district in the pouring rain. There were several covered areas outside these bars, but occasionally there would be a gap between the covers, so what did they do? They went out and bought like 20 umbrellas to hang between the gaps...

3.)My teacher was explaining the seasons to me, and as I tried to figure out what each one was (she speaks no English) it occurred to me that she had written them: Summer, Winter, Fall, Spring¨ I corrected the order and showed them back to her. She just gave me this puzzled look and shrugged. THEN it dawned on me that they don´t have real seasons here, just rainy (winter) and not rainy (summer). She had no idea what the seasons were, just learned them from school...

4.)Everyone, and I mean every single bloody person here in Quito, has a stellar car alarm for their not so stellar car. They are the kind that cycle through like 20 different sounds, and are so sensitive that I myself have personally set off two by just leaning on cars waiting for the road to clear. There is not 15 minutes that goes by without hearing one. This is also amusing unless you are trying to sleep and they go off on the hour....

If you gotten this far, my new phone number is (011(us only)) 593 08-5385667, feel free to call me whenever you want, it about 40 cents a minute for you, just to warn you. You have to dial the American exit code first 011 and then the rest of the number.

Take Care,
Merrill