Thanksgiving, etc.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! What a silly couple of days I've had. Before getting into Thanksgiving, lemme just say that Annie, Bess, and I move into our apartment one week from today! Hooray!! Also, next weekend is the Fiestas de Quito, a celebration of the city. The celebration has already started, really, but the official holiday is next weekend. We're going to get a chiva, a party bus, to celebrate.

Wednesday night, the Ecuadorian fútbol team, Liga, won their championship 5-1 in a super epic game that I actually watched and enjoyed. Later, Annie, Keon, Scotty, and I met up with "the Funkers," our Ecuadorian friends who are in a funk band. We went to a bar called Lennon, then we all kind of split up. The United Statesians ended up at Psycho (of course!) where we befriended some dude named Lenin (seriously!). We talked a lot about music, books, and politics. It was excellent.

The next day was Thanksgiving, or for all you hispanohablantes, El Día de Acción de Gracias. Annie came over early and she cooked a salad and I made vegetarian stuffing. I had never made stuffing before, but it turned out awesomely, even at the high altitude. Our empleada, Rosita watched/helped and was fascinated by the whole process (and all the butter we used).

Stuffing success! Two cups of butter!

Annie and I got fancy, then Keon came over and we took a taxi to Martin's apartment. Bess was already there, and we continued the cooking. In addition to stuffing and salad, we had green beans, sweet corn, rolls, mashed potatoes, apple pie, apple crisp, ants on a log, and a lot of Pilsener. And no turkey! In fact, it was a completely vegetarian Thanksgiving. Alright!

Roommates! The Beaver Dam!

One of the coolest parts was that Martin's Ecuadorian roommate and her boyfriend were there, plus, in addition to Martin, there were two more Germans who had dinner with us, Jan and Ezia. It was something completely different for everybody: Thanksgiving not in the States, and a new holiday altogether for the Ecuadorians and Germans.

Scooter feeding pie to Martin, who is obviously enjoying it a lot.

After dinner and drinks, we all packed up and went home. Just kidding! Jan, Ezia, Scooter, Keon, Annie, and I went to a drum&bass/dubstep show at a bar in La Mariscal! Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!

Friday night, Leslie, Dave, Cameron, Scooter, and I went to the Centro Histórico to see the beginnings of the Fiestas de Quito. We drank a lot of canelazo and took a lot of pictures. Then we went to La Mariscal and ran into our Ecuadorian friend Jonathan who took us to a club called Next Level where he works, I guess, and got us in for free. We danced, played pool, got drinks in fishbowls... it was a good time.

Last night, Annie and I planned to go to a big band show that was put on by the music department at la Uni, but on the way there we got a phone call from my long-lost friend, Edgar, who I hadn't seen since we met at the internet café. He said there was some club on Shyris that was free to get into, and we could hang out, etc. Annie and I get there before he does, and the bouncers won't let us in without ID. The thing you have to understand is, in Ecuador, no one cards. Everyone drinks. Everyone goes to clubs and bars. No one cards. And what's more, the age to get into said club was twenty-one, which doesn't make ANY sense because the legal drinking age is eighteen. The dude asks us for cédulas, and we tell him we don't have them because we're foreigners. We do have our censos, but neither of us are twenty-one, so we play the extranjero card. The dude talks on the phone to Edgar (who I have to call for help) and lets us in. Ha!

We get in, they give us two plastic cups, and we go to the bar. And the bartender dude just gives us drinks. No paying. No nothing. He just pours some margaritas into our glasses and walks away. Awesome. We sit down and wait for Edgar. The club is huge! A giant room with a dancefloor and two bar areas and tables and lights and it's like, legit! Like a real club for real people. Crazy.

Edgar eventually gets there, and he's with three friends, Alex, Alejandra, and some girl whose name I never learned. We drink, we talk, we dance. Annie dances with some GIANTMAN, and I bounce between Edgar and some Cuban dude in a shiny Armani shirt. Hahaha. We dance to some normal clubby music, and then a mariachi band comes in! Or something? I don't know. And someone wins some kind of prize? And from then on, it was straight salsa music the whole night. Edgar tried to teach me how to dance--bless his heart, he was so patient--and I was awful, like really awful, but it was fun anyway. The friend whose name I don't know was a dance champion. She was from Esmeraldas, which I guess automatically makes you an amazing dancer.

So that's the story of how we went out four days in a row. I have a hundred million thousand gajillion projects and papers and tests, PLUS we're moving soon, so I suppose I should start doing some work.

Chao!

Gina.