Just finished my first week in Quito, which is a really great city. We´re not here for very long - 10 days, then we´re on the coast for a week, then 10 more days, and we´re done - so I´m trying to cram everything in. Highlights:
1. Tuesday we went to La Basilica, which is a beautiful, old stone church that took 163 years to build. You can climb up into these giant towers, probably doing something like 800 stairs, some with questionable safety precautions.
2. The weather here has been surprisingly Seattle-like. It´s usually fairly sunny in the morning, and then around 2 pm (right when everyone leaves work to go home for lunch) it pours down rain for about 30 minutes. This week has been rainier than usual, which I appreciate. It helps me miss the Northwest fall a little less.
3. Wednesday Ecuador lost to Chile, which was the end of any World Cup aspirations. It was pretty heartbreaking, although the loss to Uruguay last Saturday was really the crucial nail in the coffin. Then Friday night we went to a Liga game, which is the most popular team in Quito. I love how much soccer there is here.
4. When we were in Los Chillos, we were taking Spanish classes for 5 hours a day, which were basically the biggest waste of time I´ve ever experienced. In Quito we start with our "Culture and Development" seminar, in which we have 1-2 lectures a day on different topics central to Ecuador from important people in the field. The subjects have included Development, Women, Human Rights, the Indigenous Movement, and Migration. It´s super interesting, but we really only have a week and a half of these lectures.
5. Friday night we found a bar that had relatively cheap shots, including some that they light on fire. You have to sip them through a straw in order not to burn yourself. Baller.
This is a short one. We leave for the coast for a week on Wednesday, so I´ll update after that.
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