So after a few weeks of constant travel between classes a few of us decided it was time to settle down for a couple weeks and get to know Quito, especially since we have another long week of travel coming up with Carnaval at the end of this week. Our first adventure in Quito was very American of us, we decided to bake cookies and watch a movie before we had to buckle down to write our essays. We went on an excursion to Supermaxi (I know kinda funny name, they have Megamaxis too) in search of cookie dough, cuz really that is the best part and we wanted to make them quickly. We didn't find that but were able to find a betty crocker mix (with over 300 chips in the bag it said) Score! When I talked to my mom about making the cookies she said that was fine and we should use the microwave-oven thing on the counter since it would be faster. Well the first batch came out great after about 10 minutes or so but the following ones each took about 30 minutes or more, and since we could only find a pan big enough to make 4 cookies at a time you can probably guess that we ate more cookie dough than we ended up getting cookies haha.

The rest of that weekend consisted primarily of working on our essay which with the topic we chose took a lot more research and time than expected and ended up being more than five pages over what it was supposed to be oops. Hopefully though we do as well on it as we did the previous one. I have been really fortunate in the group work here the two girls that I have been working with are great and we work really well together, the only issue is we are all major perfectionists making the editing process go a little long sometimes, but the end product is worth it. So far I have been extremely impressed with the CIMAS program. They all are so supportive and willing to help us with whatever may come up and the classes and lectures are all really good with very prestigious people being brought in to speak to us. It is really a much higher level than I expected especially after the quality of classes on my last study abroad. I also am very appreciative that all the classes are in Spanish. Although at first it was very difficult to make it through the day with so much Spanish because my brain was just so tired after a few hours, it now has become much easier and I can even multitask like I do in classes in English at times if the professor is speaking clear enough. My comprehension of the language has increased drastically and I really believe that a lot of it is due to the classes being taught in Spanish.

Since we decided to stick around Quito we ended up hitting up La Mariscal or Gringolandia (Gringo Land HAHA). We were celebrating one of the girls in our program 20th birthday and ended up at a few different places including a place that had a strawberry and chocolate crepe!- which I of course ordered and then it proceeded to make me sick, maybe the Ecuadorian crepes not such a good idea. (Though I think it was partially due to remnants of being sick the week before in Santo Domingo).

This last weekend we went out to La Mariscal again first for some Indian food which was SO delicious, I am starting to remember and miss all the wonderful variety of food back home. For the rest of the weekend we had made some grand plans to do things around Quito like hike Pichincha (the volcano that sits right above the city) go to some hotsprings that are nearby and go to Mitad del Mundo (where the equator line is) though unfortunately the weather had some other plans for us and decided to downpour, to a point of almost flashflooding in some places, for a good majority of the weekend which kept us indoors much more than we wanted to be. Instead of being an exciting outdoor weekend exploring the city, it ended up being an indoor watching movies and going out to eat type weekend. Saturday night though we did go out for awhile and a friend and I had previously seen these huge things of beer with a little tap on it, so naturally we decided we would need to order one. Unfortunately the bar we wanted to go in was very full and extremely smoky, so we settled on one down the street that had a lot more room, and for good reason, it turns out it was more of an older persons sport bar type place, not exactly our normal scene but we made it a good time. ( Oh and Dani they were playing a Bob Seger CD and Night Moves came on, I thought of you!) Later that night we met up with some Ecuadorian friends and ended up going dancing at a Salsa, Meringue, Latin Music place which was really fun, though unfortunatly I am not that coordinated to move the way that they all can.

Since many of us have been fighting being sick and it just kinda keeps rotating through the group, including myself- my stomach currently does not appreciate it when I put food in it which tends to be a problem, though no worries we are currently negotiating a deal to allow me to eat again, it was probably not too bad that some of our plans were changed and we ended up having a pretty chill time in Quito wandering around to bookstores and movie places. Although Quito is much too busy and kinda crazy for me it is starting to feel like home and I am able to figure out my way around most of the time without too many problems. I love you all and miss you and can't believe that I am already half way through my time here!