I wrote a really long entry the other day, but then the internet cut out and I lost it. Ah well.

Things have been going well here. It is nice to feel like you are getting used to a place. I like routines.

I get up every day at about 8, get ready, and go to the Ecovia at about 8:45. This is by far the worst part of my day. I absolutely hate the Ecovia in the morning. It is always packed, and people are so terribly rude. Plus I swear the bus drivers drive more crazy when there are loads of people. I'm always clutching my bag, holding on to a bar for dear life, counting down the moments until I can get off. To make it worse, people are really pushy and rude about getting on and off. Today some guy blatanly shoved me aside on his way out. I was totally out of the way, I think he just wanted to be a jerk.

Anyways once off the bus I walk to the tienda that is right by our work. Actually there are two tiendas next to each other and a bakery. Sometimes I go to the bakery and get some bread for breakfast. I never go to the one tienda because the owners are incredibly rude. I always go to Carlos's store. He is this nice middle aged guy who is always wanting to know how you are, and greets me by name whenever I see him. Even when I walk by on my way home he waves and says to have a good night. I always get a juice and a banana from him in the morning. I then go to the office and get some coffee and go settle down at my computer. Around 11 I start counting down the minutes to lunch. It is not that I dislike my job, but I just get restless and hungry mid-day an am ready to walk around and get something to eat. .We ussually go to lunch at 1. There are a bunch of Almuerzo places around our office, so we walk around reading the menus until we find one that sounds appealing. As much as I complain about the rice, for 1.50-2.50 almuerzo is a pretty good deal. My favorite part is always the soup. Ecuadorians make really wonderful soups. My favorite is a cream of spinach that always comes with a bowl full of popcorn to put in. It sounds strange, but popcorn in soup is the best idea ever. Depending on how long lunch takes, we sometimes take a walk, or go sit in the park for a bit. We get an hour for lunch, but sometimes we take a little bit more time. We are learning that ecuadorians don't rush anything. Some of the ecuadorians at our office take up to two hours for lunch every once in awhile.

Once back from lunch, it is back to work. On Mondays and Wednesdays I have a spanish lesson at 5, so I get to be done a little early which is really nice. Luis, my spanish teacher, is really amusing. He is probably as tall as me, and is always wearing a suit. He loves to joke around, which makes class more fun. Sometimes he frustrates me because he will make me say a word over and over, or not believe that an english word exists. For example he asked me once what prender mend, I said to loan, he said no to lend, I said same thing. We had a ten minute conversation about this. Later he did admit that he had been teaching it like that now and people seem to remember it better, so that made me feel good. But at the time it was super frustrating.

I get out of spanish at 7. Depending on the day, I might go home or go meet up with some friends. Some nights, like tonight, I just want to relax. So I make supper and then watch a movie or bad ecuadorian tv. The other night I watched the ecuadorian version of dancing with the stars. It was amazing. The outfits, the songs, the bad jokes. I actually understand most of tv now, which is really cool.

So that is a basic rundown of most of my days.

What else is new. Oh I got a haircut on Monday, which was absolutely horifying. My hair was just bothering me, my bangs were way too long. So I printed out a picture of what I wanted and walked into a hair cut place. I tried to explain to her what I wanted, and she nodded and told me it would cost 7 bucks. They washed my hair, then asked again what I wanted. I explained again. Then she just started cutting what looked to be huge chunks of hair off my head without measuring or anything. She eventually slowed down, and I have to admit I do like it. It is shorter than I wanted, but I think I may have told her the wrong length. All in all not bad for seven bucks.

Last night was pub quiz, which we did horribly at. Oh well, it was fun. I am not sure what I am going to do this weekend. I am sure I will figure out something.