Today was a pretty typical day as far as life in Ecuador goes. There is a rhythm and a schedule here to some extent, but its not surprising for an event or opportunity to just come out of nowhere.
I went to bed pretty early last night, so I got up sometime around 6:00am to finish my Spanish homework. That’s probably pretty shocking to my mom, and not at all to Jerry, who listened to me attempt to get down from the top of the squeaky bunk bed at ridiculous hours all last summer. Also potentially surprising, I tend to actually eat breakfast here, something I almost never bother with in the States (as I run out the door with ten minutes to make it to COA or Albemarle Music).
Around 8:00 I head out to language class so I can take a leisurely pace down the hill. This morning I stopped by the office to drop off a couple of things for Phil and Ramiro, and headed on down to the Trole and off to language school. I have a tendency to arrive at the Mango Tree about 20 minutes early by North American standards, which is roughly 30 minutes early on Ecuador time. I’m doing three hours of Spanish classes each weekday right now, with a fifteen minute break around 11:00 that I use to go grab some Doritios or coffee or just walk around a couple blocks of the Mariscal.
At noon I head back to North Quito on the Trole and try not to get anything (else) stolen. And for now, that’s about where the daily routine ends. On Thursdays there is lunch/staff meeting at the office, so I’ll head back there immediately. Otherwise, for the next couple of weeks my afternoons are pretty slow paced. Whenever my fried brain recovers from language school, I’ll work on my homework or practice guitar.
Today I was apparently more wiped out from Spanish than I thought, and after lunch and doing some writing, I just crashed on the couch and had a really trippy dream until Matt called to remind me about dinner at his and Marlo’s house and came over to get me. I must have really been out, because it rained for the first time since I got here and I was entirely unaware of this until somebody mentioned it at dinner.
Kelsey and I (the only two current interns) had a really awesome dinner of lasagna and bread and salad with the Jensen family and then got a tour of their new home and had an air hockey tournament (Nick seemed to win the most games, but Matt came out the champion due to our “bracket system”- or lack thereof). We spent a little time talking about the book we’ll be reading together and then Marlo, Kelsey and I headed up the street to the Bryans’ new place to help Casey paint.
That was one of those unexpected events/opportunities to which I referred earlier. I did have a heads-up, but it was a kind of vague thing, but I don’t mind painting, and it was a coll chance to just hang out and get to know Casey and Kelsey better. Marlo touched up the family room while Casey painted upstairs and Kelsey and I tackled the office. It was a pretty fun experience, especially as we wondered why some things are done the way they are in Ecuador: why did the roof guys shingle the balcony (as in the floor and rails)? why did the carpenter shellac a wooden table he knew was to be painted? why is the sleeve in the curtains sewn smaller than the size of the curtain rod?
Tonight I came home and had a message that my schedule for the afternoons next week and weekend had been completely altered, and then I got an invitation to go with Gedeón to the beach next weekend to run sound for them again.
As I was telling Kelsey this evening, during Quito Quest our printed schedule for our teams almost never made it more than three days without being totally trashed and re-written. It’s nice to have a semblance of a routine each day, but I love the adventure of having unexpected things happen all the time.
