A beach weekend...

Thursday night I headed west to the beach with my friends Liz (de Nebraska), Ali (de Tejas,) and Liz's boyfriend Jorge (de aqui, Quito). What an adventure!

We went to Atacames, which was a beach I originally had no intention of visiting, because it's reputation is: dirty, too much music, touristy, basically nothing special- or attractive. But Liz's family has an (almost-beachfront) apartment with a pool they were letting us stay in, so how could I refuse?

We took a night bus which departed at 11PM, getting us in on-time at- get this- 5:12 AM. I was able to doze, but can't sleep that well on these buses. It was dark when we got off, and we took a taxi to the apartment and promptly passed out (well, after gorging on a little chex mix and talking). I killed a snail on the way inside. There were no lights outside the door, and I heard this huge POP sound after I took a step... only after we turned on the light was the truth revealed: I had mercilessly slaughtered a defenseless animal. The mama snail had pulled herself over to the baby I killed and seemed to be mourning. It was sad.

But first, let me go back to the taxi. There are no "taxis" in this town, but motorcycles with wooden seats attached... hilarious (mototaxi). Half the time we all squeezed on one, with two people balancing on the sides, or we split them and went 2 and 2. These vehicles go on highways! It is hilarious. Hopefully I got a good picture of them.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of awesome warm-ocean swimming, jellyfish stings (tally: Ali- 2, Liz- 1, Jorge y Yo: SUERTES!!) ceviche (I LOVE CEVICHE! de camarones (shrimp). DELICIOUS, and tanning. Quite relaxing. We went out Saturday night, to the infamous Malecon- beach stip with bar after bar, which actually look like tiki huts and are basically identical, right on the beach. After dancing salsa with some locals, Ali and I wandered off and started talking to some locals on the beach.

People on the coast have such a different accent than the sierra, and it can be really hard to understand. I generally have no problem conversing with people. My Spanish is far from perfect, but I can speak and understand pretty well, and sometimes I had no idea what these guys were saying. One of many differences is that they never pronounce the 's' and the end of a word- so Estados Unidos becomes a ess-tah-doh u-nee-doh with a very heavy accent.

We left at 2:30 Sunday afternoon, after one last delicious seafood meal (camarones encocados, or shrimp in coconut sauce, is amazing!). Halfway through the trip we were driving through some town which was having, just our luck, a riot. I of course freaked out (remember my worries about bus hijackings), but it was fine, just an annoyance- there were police there but it took almost half an hour to clear a path for the bus to go through (it was a small riot, taking up about a third of a city block, but not even fully from one side to the other). Jorge's parents picked us up in Quito and we went to McDonald's because we were starving (the buses don't really do meal stops), and drove us home, which was really nice of them.

I need to stop writing these entries on Mondays because it ends up being just about my trips and nothing else, but they are the most interesting parts anyway. Today I had a bad day, with my professor talking to me about how apparently I don't care about his class, when it is the only one that matters to me. People here gossip like they are in high school and it is unprofessional and revolting (which I wrote to him in an email... as well as referencing that I seem to be considered a bitch with a chip on my shoulder. I probably shouldn't have written that, but I don't care, I was furious).

Next semester I am taking Nicaragua in Transition, a health class at Beloit (with Marta! Yay!) which goes to Nicaragua for spring break. I am incredibly excited for it. It studies how microcredit helps low-cost financing in the country. I am also applying to (and hopefully living in) the Spanish house. I only have about seven weeks left here, which is really strange, and I'm not sure I like already being excited about things for next year, but it will be nice transitioning back to Beloit where I have a campus I know, am not scared of being robbed whenever I step outside the house, am not whistled at by every other man on the street because I'm a gringa, and have an amazing support system which is sadly absent here.