Quito Week Something

A few interesting things from the past week.

One, I have had some good food in Quito outside of the house recently. I had some major cravings for Indian food, so I went out one night with a girl who is studying here. We went to a restaurant where the waiters definitely knew more Indian English than Spanish. I got some delicious samosas, and I was very contented. I got some vindalu as well, and I left feeling very full and very happy.

Later in the week, I finally got some of the shawarma that is all over the city, always tempting me. We were all sitting around talking about how good it is one night, and bam we were in the car and headed to a restaurant. And the shawarma was declicious. I think I finished mine in under five minutes, and I had to restrain myself from licking the plate.

So to change the topic completely, the other interesting thing that happened to me this weekend had nothing whatsoever to do with food. I got a call from a girl who sounded super-sedated during the week, and she explained that she was a friend of my professor and wanted to invite me to a concert on Sunday. Super chevere, I’d love to go.

So on Sunday, I met up with Magali at the mall, and we headed to the concert. Which was in a religious worship center. I immediately thought, what have I gotten myself into? Yep, I was invited to a Christian rap concert. Oh, how funny. Complete with singers in pants entirely too large for them, backwards baseball hats with tags still on and oversized crosses hung on big, gold chains. There was also a dance troop of girls suited in black tank tops and camouflage fatigues. No instruments… just rapping about Jesus Cristo. Magali was dancing… almost everyone was dancing. I was not dancing. I was looking around, amazed, wondering how to get out before the end. I did escape, simply by saying that I had to be somewhere… and I got away from the raised hands and stopping feet as soon as I could.

The other fun stuff for the week had nothing to do with God, thank goodness. On Thursday I went to see Max’s defense of his undergraduate thesis. Every undergraduate has to defend a thesis in order to graduate, and from everything I’ve seen it is an intense process. It was at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, and Max was super nervous. He studied business management, so he and his co-defender (you can work in pairs) presented a business model for an internet flower business. For the most part, I understood the conversation. Sometimes there were jokes among the three stodgy professors and the two students, and other times there were admonishments and berating. It was an intense hour and a half, with Max reaching for his water often. Max’s family and his co-defenders family were there, and there were times when Max’s mom or dad would try to speak up in protest when the professors were being excessively combative. Max had to look over a few times and shake his head at them. In the end, after the grilling and fumbling and talking ended, the professors granted the students their diplomas. There was a capping and gowning ceremony complete with an oath for each student at the end, and after the official end we toasted with champaign and snacked on appetizers. For someone who didn’t even go to her college graduation, this was quite a big deal. Not everyone is the same way – Rudolf Jr. defended his thesis in the same week, and he didn’t want anyone as an audience, and he said the only thing he wanted was to be finished. But I was glad I got to see a pretty typical ceremony.

Later in the week, I got together with Rudolf and his friends to play a fierce game of Texas Hold ‘Em, a game that I learned to play here. We antied $2 each, and I was in the game for about three hours. Then I got bored and sold my chips to Fabian, who had already lost $3 worth of chips. But there was a lot of swearing, drinking of whiskey and cigarettes came out for nerves. I enjoyed myself, especially when I came out of nowhere with a full house or flush… but betting games wear on me after a while. It takes too long to get to the end…

So that was my week. Next week, Neil comes… and we’re going to do a lot of Quito exploring before heading down south to Banos, Riobamba and Cuenca. I’ve posted some pictures, so check out www.picasaweb.google.com/winnab .