Friday is the day to pass out

Last night was interesting to say the least. We went on a city tour of Quito as a group (really awesome--I have some great night shots), but I was the only one out of the 15 of us who was invited by my host family to go out. Well, actually, the best friend of my host-mom had a 20-year-old daughter, Claudia, who wanted to take me out, so I decided to take her up on her offer. At 11, she rolled up in her mini-Chevrolet outside my gate, and the car was already full with two other guys and girls. Not going to lie, it was a little awkward at first making small talk and just jumping in a car of someone you've never met to go out on the town together, but we quickly acquainted ourselves, picked up another girl (who lives at the top of this gigantic hill in Quito, which was damn near impossible to get up in the manual transmission car on a cobblestone street), and parked outside of Club Ciento Ochenta y 2. Already, I'd had five glasses of this traditional Ecuadorian drink made of sugar-cane liquor, cinnamon, and an orange-like fruit at a restaurant with the group earlier--thanks to Erica and the grandmother on the trip who thought it would be funny to see me drunk--but they were just small glasses, so I was at that perfect, relaxed state where I didn't have a care in the world and was ready to dance. The club was packed, and we first had to wait outside for 30 minutes until someone from inside noticed us and gets the bouncer to let us in. In my infinite wisdom, however, I had left my ID at home--I mean the drinking age is 18 here, so why would I need it?--so I had to use Fabian's extra ID. Somehow, the bouncer, who even examined the ID with a flashlight luckily let me in. From there, it was the general club scene but just a little more expensive than I remembered partying in Mexico. First of all, there was a $12 cover with no drinks included. I only brought $17, and I wanted to save $5 for a taxi in case my driver decided to drink (she had already almost killed us on the way there after running, oh about six successive red lights). So, after some quick math, I realized drinking wasn't really an option. Thankfully, my group bought a bottle, and once again, being the skinny, nerdy white boy, was told I had to take a few shots by myself in order "to salute Ecuador." I'm always fine with free alcohol, but the Ecuadorians only know sweet things, so the chaser was this sickly sweet lemonade that nearly made me gag. We had a good time dancing to salsa, some American tunes (I recognized one of the few gringas there from my flight from Bogota haha...plus somehow I must exude America because a few Ecuadorians who had lived in America came up to talk to me during this interlude), and then some Latin pop classics from last summer--like Iskander and Juanes. Que chevere! The only downside of the night (apart from returning "early" at 4am--I have to wake up each day at 6:45) was the fact that for some reason the bar, which is really exclusive and a lot of Quito's wealthiest citizens' kids go there, decided to pepper spray us. I had never before been pepper sprayed and at first thought I was just allergic to the smoke which was everywhere (Claudia kept a pack of Marlboro's in her breasts), until I started noticing that everyone else was coughing and crying, too. So, in order to counteract the effect of the pepper spray, everyone whipped out their cigarettes to "clear the air." When I woke up this morning, everything that had been on my person reeked of smoke.

However, I woke up at 6:45 on time and recounted my tales to Alexandra over breakfast. I helped out with a discussion at the private school where we're working, America Latina, for 10th graders about the U.S. involvement in Iraq. And then, just like at the Emergency Hospital in Rostov-on-don two weeks ago, I felt slightly faint. First, my feet started tingling, then my sight became blurry, and recognizing the symptoms, I decided to eat some crackers and drink some water while sitting down. I didn't actually feel better until six hours later--I think it was related to the fact that I had ice in my water last night at the bar, and today my toilet made me a little nostalgiac for Mexico. Luckily, I was fine by the time I had a meeting with a consultant to the National Health System of Ecuador (overarching organization in charge of Ministry of Health), where I got some great information for my research project. Then, we went to Universidad de las Americas where we particpated in a conference about ESL programming with our Ecuadorian counterparts.

Now, it's 9pm again, and I'm about to repeat last night, this time with people from the group. I had a great dinner (don't worry Judy, I'm definitely gaining weight haha), and hopefully tonight will be fun. Unfortunately, we have to be ready to leave at 8:15 for the huge market in Otavalo which we're visiting tomorrow. Should be really cool, but I still need some sleep.

Ok, so this post was ridiculously long, but I just feel the need to compensate for the lack of other posts....jaja.