My Last Few Days in Quito: Wednesday

Wednesday was my last day of class. I had purposefully left my last day open to do whatever I had missed during the first three weeks. But I was tired from the night out before and in no mood to relearn the subjunctive tenses of verbs. Half way through class I asked my profesora if we could take a break and walk around the corner to find a new charger for my phone. I knew I would never be able to explain what I was looking for, so I sold this as a learning excursion. She agreed and we were on our way. And then she stood back and let me do all the talking. It was ugly. But I walked out with a functioning charger. For $5. Awesome.

On the walk back I still had no desire to study so I asked her if I could treat her to lunch since it was our last day together. She had no problem with this and so after collecting our things, we walked across the street to a Cuban restaurant and ordered two Lunches of the Day. There was meat, there was yuca and rice, there was bean soup, there was some sort of fresh fruit drink. And there was a sweeeeet dessert neither of us cared for. And this cost me $5 total. Thanks teach! We chatted about Ecuadorian politics, about our families, about her thinking I wasn`t happy with my teacher. I reminded her I was on vacation and school was not my idea of vacation. So it was not the profesora but the class that I wasn`t enthusiastic about. But I thanked her for all the lessons and she wished me luck on my travels. She actually wished me a lot of luck. I think she was concerned with how little I had learned and how much longer I was planning to travel on my own.


After class I decided to hit Quito`s cultural museum. Lonely Planet gave it rave reviews and I figured it would be good to get a bit of history of the country. If nothing else, I could get more pics for the blog. The cab ride was short; it was only a few blocks away. But it was long enough for me to leave my glasses in the cab. If this had happened after the museum, I wouldn`t have been as annoyed. But now I had to stand inches from each description to read what was going on. Regardless the museum was great. At least the first half with all the artifacts. Who knew Ecuador had so many ancient cultures? Who knew they liked to make so many homoerotic sculptures? The collection was vast (not just erotic stuff) and descriptions were in English and Spanish. Had I gotten there before 3pm I would have spent more time trying to read the Spanish first. Beyond ancient history there was also the history of the conquest. This was comprised of many religious pieces and lengthy descriptions. This hurt my head and thus I moved through quickly. To modern art. Ecuador`s modern art movents seem to be directly related to the modern art movements of the U.S., just occuring a few decades later. And sorry Ecuador, it wasn`t very good. But modern art in the U.S. bores me too. And so at 5pm I ended my tour with camera still in pocket. I was scolded the first time I tried to raise my camera so no pics for the blog after all.

Back to Gringland I met my roommate for a big steak dinner at an Argentine restaurant around the corner. Steak and Fanta. Mmmm mmmm. And then I caught a cab to meet my host on the other side of town. The plan was to get coffee and say goodbyes. But when I arrived outside of a convention center, I learned she had just been at a lecture with her class and she and the other students were going for pizza and beer at a "western" bar just down the street. Not kidding, the server was dressed in full cowboy outfit. There was U.S. western decor every where. Things were a little quiet at first as everyone was speaking quickly in Spanish and I just stared blankly. But after we hit the second large tube o´ beer, speaking slowed and it was time to question the gringo. And off I went in Spanglish with my host interpretting when necessary. Four tubes o` beer and two pizzas later (and me explaining that Catholism is not the only form of Christianity - when I said I was not Catholic but protestant, it was inferred that I was not Christian), we realized we were the only ones left in the bar and the bar staff were waiting patiently for us to leave. I was put into a cab and directed back to Gringoland. I drunkenly slipped into bed around 12:45am.