Week 6

So this week at CIMAS (because of Carnaval) was a two day week. But it might as well have been a week off, because CIMAS is stupid and we didn't do anything anyways. Allow me to explain...

So On Wednesday, when we got there, we had a lecture as planned, except that she went over by 45 minutes, thus taking out 1.5 hour lecture to way over two. Because of this, we didn't get out scheduled break, which turned out to be not such a catastrophe after all. You see, Dr. Suarez and his lovely wife decided to take an additional day at the beach for their vacation, and because of this, the scheduled "course evaluations" could not happen. So we had three hours of free time, and then Spanish. Now if you'll remember, this was the day that we were "compromising" for last week's lack of activities and beginning five minutes early. And that probably would have happened, except now CIMAS employs cooks to cook us lunch every day, and they didn't even get there until almost 2:00, when Spanish is supposed to start. So we were all almost a half hour late to Spanish because we had already paid for lunch and I at least wasn't about to forefit 1.50.

So that was Wednesday, and Thursday wasn't any better. We were supposed to visit SOLCA, the local cancer hospital, but then they announced (after we all got to CIMAS an hour early for this trip) that we couldn't go for health safety reasons. Ok, fair enough. So they told us that instead, the man from SOLCA who would have showed us around was coming to CIMAS in 15 minutes to give us a lecture instead. Again, ok, fine. So we waited. And waited. And waited. And when 11:00 rolls around (keep in mind we got there at 8:00), we colectively decide that he's probably not coming. So we again had free time until 2:00 Spanish. So for those of you who are keeping track, we were there from 8:00am until 4:00pm, and the only thing we did ALL DAY was Spanish. We did take a midterm in Spanish though, so at least it wasn't a total wash.

Today Kelsey and I went to the artesenal market in Quito so that I could begin my search for the alpaca chaps that Robert and Bob want so badly. Unfortunately, there were no chaps, but I did get some of the coolest shoes I have ever seen in my life, and I also got a Panama hat for my dad. So it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Afterward, I had dinner at Kelsey's house because my family went out somewhere. It was nice, Kelsey's family is similar to mine, and they are really nice people. After that they called me a cab and I came home (though not before being asked to go on a date with the taxi driver, which I politely declined). So now I am just hanging out, I have no plans for tomorrow or Sunday except to call home, so it should be a pretty relaxed weekend (like always!).