Feliz Dia de Amor y Amistad

First, Happy Valentine's Day!  Here it's also called Day of Love and Friendship.  

Flowers from Andrew :)

It's been raining a lot in the past week, which lowers the temperature.  Not always sunny in Ecuador I guess.  I'm feeling much better.  It's about time, I've been sick for so long that I've started seeing the humor in the situation.  Also, I have fully learned my lesson: the next time a doctor tries to give me a Penicillin shot I will kick them in the throat.  Just kidding, I'm a peaceful person, I will say no thank you.

I told myself to take it easy this weekend and get homework done, since I am traveling the next two weekends (woah!).  The plan didn't work out. Below are some high lights of the weekend:

Saturday felt like 3 days to me. I left Lumbisi at 8:30am and returned at 7:00pm. 

Quito to buy yarn (by the way, I sometimes knit) and more Ecuapants.

Lunch at Guido's house (my Ecuadorean friend, his name... some of you may think it's funny, it's pronounced Gido) This lunch turned out to be an epic 6 hour event.  The four of us from Lumbisi were an hour late and still the first to arrive.  Guido and his friends are from the Oriente, which is the East of Ecuador (Rainforest area).  We helped a little, but they cooked most of the meal (delicious).  We didn't actually start eating lunch until after 2pm.  It was fun, but definitely some awkward situations. Such as when we struggled to find a good way to exit graciously 2 hours after we had eaten.  Also, during lunch Guido's friends kept telling me to relax, and I had no idea why.  Apparently I looked scared/tense because I was concentrating so hard on understanding the conversation... I need to work on managing my facial expressions.

Valentine's Day Dance in Lumbisi.  It was held in the stadium.  It turned out to be fun, there was a mixture of dancing and sitting and watching people perform (sing).  Guido and one of his friends actually came for a while.  Fun.. awkward.. certainly entertaining.

Sunday I had crab for lunch.  Rosa bought them live and a few hours later they were sitting fully intact but cooked on plates.  Delicious! I think I might be spoiling my Ecua-family.  I'm used to eating crab the way they served it, but I would venture to say that most people from the States would be scared and/or have no idea how to eat crab that way. It was a fun meal for sure.  Crab parts flying everywhere. Banging the shells open with our spoons.  At the end of the meal I had crab meat in my bangs. Pretty violent way to eat, I guess.

Om nom nom