pics

Here´s some pictures from Mateo´s birthday party and some new year`s celebrations. They were playing a game where you popped the balloon and inside there were instructions on a charade you had to do. The little kids were too embarassed to really do anything so they ended up just bursting the balloon. For new year´s a bunch of people got dressed up and worked their way down the road into town dancing all the way. It was pretty funny to watch.

driving

I was on the bus the other day and noticed that the speedometer didn´t work. I started wondering why they wouldn´t get that fixed because i remembered a time in a rental car with a broken speedometer and the fact that we had to go back and get a different one since without the speedometer it was really easy to go to fast on the highways. This got me thinking about the fact that i´ve never actually seen a speed limit sign in ecuador or any kind of speed trap. so i guess a speedometer isn´t really neccessary. plus the roads here pretty much enforce a natural speed limit because of all the potholes and the curviness. just thought i´d share that random observation. i´ve been helping out at one of the hostels here this past week because their dog fell and hurt her back so i´ve been giving her shots and physical therapy. but other than that there´s not much to report.

nice leaving time

Wow, so I don't have to start this blog with sorry i haven't posted in awhile. i figured i'd do one now since i still have free internet here in quito. The seminars have not been particularly exciting and they foiled my plans for reading in the back since they moved all the chairs into a circle (i think they might have noticed me reading in the first session). last night peace corps took us out to a really nice restaurant on a hill overlooking old town quito. it was really fancy, with a fancy sorbet they brought out between courses to cleanse the pallet (all i could think of was the movie princess diaries at that point). i was disapointed i didn't have my camera for the party afterwards complete with a mariachi band (which i don't think is really ecuadorian). i'll have to get some pics from the other volunteers. i think some people are pretty bummed that this is the last time we'll probably see each other (or at least are all together), but honestly i haven't seen most of the volunteers in my training group very regularly so i'm not too worked up over it. that's not to say i don't like them, but i've gotten used to not really seeing them already. so it'll probably be awhile till i post again, just an fyi, and i hope everyone reading this is doing well.