On Friday we celebrated Eboni's 21st birthday with cake and ice cream. Then we hung out in Lumbisi, we talked about the street dogs and how to avoid them. Also we discussed our difficulties in trying to find an appropriate Spanish word for "awkward" since so many things really are awkward when you study abroad.
Saturday a couple of us from Lumbisi went to La Basilica del Voto Nacional. It's an amazing Gothic style cathedral, that has animals such as anteaters instead of gargoyles. The inside reminded me of the book Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett. We climbed to the "top" along the way there were beautiful views of the city. In order to get to one of the towers we had to walk across a creaky wooden plank and climb a ladder. Then we climbed up stairs/ladders to get to the top of a tower. In my Ecuador guidebook (Lonely Planet) it describes the climb up the tower as an activity for daredevils. Definitely scary but worth it. From the top of the tower we could see the 2 clock towers which almost perfectly framed the hill with the statue of the Virgin Mary. Picture perfect :) After the Basilica we went to a artisans market. Everyone bought "ecuapants" which are extremely comfortable and lightweight.
Sunday almost the same group of us got up early to go to the Liga vs. Barcelona soccer game. I invited a friend (Ecuadorean!) who is also a conversation partner. Turned out to be a good idea, because him and his friends knew the way to the stadium and they helped us buy tickets. Since there were no "official" tickets being sold anymore, we had to buy from ticket scalpers. There were so many of them! It felt a little shady, considering our Ecuadorean friends kept checking to see if our tickets were fake. Also, the rivalry between the two teams is really intense. There were policemen in full riot gear on horses and other policemen with shields near the Barcelona entrance. Barcelona (yellow) team is from Guayaquil while Liga (white) is Quito. There were public announcements that essentially said, "For your personal safety, fans wearing their team's jerseys should sit with others wearing the same color." We cheered for Liga. Whenever someone wearing a Barcelona jersey came near our section everyone would stand up and shout angrily. For U of I folks, the entire crowd felt like the Harassing Illini Club (I think that's what they're called).
After the game we ate lunch (pizza with corn as a topping, delicious!) with our Ecuadorean friends. It was awkward, they talked about us and we talked about them in our respective languages. We would all sort of understand each other and everyone would just laugh. A good intercultural experience I suppose.
Well when I got home wearing my new Liga jersey I found out that members of my Ecuadorean family are not Liga fans, instead they are Nacional fans (which is another rival of Liga). Oops! Josue asked me how much my jersey cost, after I told him he said, "Well that's not too much to burn!"
Unfortunately I've been sick again. I'm working it out though, I seem to be on the mend today. I saw a doctor yesterday, who I believe over prescribes medication. I slept most of yesterday, occasionally some members of my host family would come into my room to make sure I was okay. My host family was making fun of me last night, they said that I got sick because I wore the Liga jersey.
I have pictures but Blogger won't let me upload them right now. I will see if I can get them on Facebook and post a link later :)
Check below for pictures taken in Feb:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=612838&id=774675412&l=1c8b8d19e3
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