First Weekend Craziness

So a lot of you have been asking about my first weekend adventures. Well, here they are! I am basically going to copy this straight from my journal:

Friday:
So today was officially a crazy day. I mean I feel like I didn't do very much but I am still so tired! This morning I woke up to the school outside my window...at about 7 am! Who starts school that early? Anyways, the kids were all singing and dancing it was pres. (bahaha, that's for you julie and family) But it was so cute, and I just found out it's a religious school which is great. I spent about half an hour watching them sing/dance and then play soccer. I really wanted to jump out my window and join them! Well I spent my morning "helping" my mom clean the kitchen. Okay, so she didn't really let me help, even when I asked.
This afternoon I met the IPSL girls and we went to El Centro Historico. We basically just walked around, but I didn't realize on Sunday that it was so hilly! Great workout. Well we were super hungry and decided to eat at this small, authentic, Ecuadorian lunch place. Yeah, a little too authentic. The food was less than acceptable, I'm suprised we didn't die. We were all laughing cause we had no idea what anything was, but it was a good bonding experience, ha. Good thing we only paid $1.50 for the whole thing! We decided we needed real food so we had ice cream (it fixes everything!). That night we saw La Princesa y el Sapo (The Princess and the Frog) and it was so cute. Annnddd I understood almost all of it! For dinner we went to this place that Susanna knew about. Um it was a little sketch. BIG event of the night: there was the woman who had claws for hands (!!) at the table next to us. Well I don't know what happened but she passed out and fell off her chair, it was so scary. But her friend just picked her up and sat her in her chair and continued to drink/smoke...and her friend was basically unconscious! Yep. crazy.
Then came trying to call a taxi. Basically it was seven white girls standing on a corner at about midnight laughing and trying to call a taxi. Probably not a good idea. Yeah, it was super funny but we FINALLY got two taxis to come. Oh, I am going to have to get used to being the last one on the taxi cause I live the farthest north. Perfect.

Saturday:
Today we all went to El Mitad del Mundo (the equator). It really wasn't what I was expecting because it was a lot more touristy. But don't fear, we took TONS of pictures straddeling the equator. We wandered around, watched some not so authentic, but really cool indigenous dances, and ate a little place that had really good food! Since this wasn't the true equator we decided to find the real one. Well, we got on the bus that we THOUGHT would take us to the place, but yeah. Again, another really sketchy situation. We ended up in this little town in the middle of nowhere that only had the original monument of the equator. There were a lot more details to this day but I don't think you all want to know every detail of my life, and this is getting reallllly long.

Sunday:
In the morning we went to the "club" (it's a sports club that my host dad works at and is a member of). I basically spent WAY too long in the sauna and hot tub, and swam a little bit. But it was good to relax and just chill with the family. But honestly, it made me miss my family a little bit... :(
After that we went to a family members house (the daughter of my mom) and just chilled. I got to meet their cousins (um. very nice looking. haha)
That night we took taxis to Mariscal for my friend Kara's birthday (21!) ha. We ended up eating at this restaurant and got desserts and juice. But afterwards we went out and she had her first glass of wine. It was a ton of fun and I'm pretty sure my crazy laugh came out for the first time since being here. Great. They officially think I am crazy.

Well there it is! My first weekend in Ecuador. It was tons of fun but I am excited to travel outside of Quito to the crazy places I have been reading about in my guidebooks. Love you alllll, chao.