Futbol, Food, and Family

After a not-so-sufficient 4.5 hours of sleep (during which I spoke a little bit of Spanish to my host family in a dream!), I woke up to go to the futbol game. I met four other girls from my class and we walked over to the stadium, which is nice and close to to our school, which is generally the designated meeting place for group activities, even though it's closed on weekends. Outside the stadium there were what seemed like hundreds of people selling jerseys. I bought a white Barcelona jersey for $6, and after we went in the stadium, Edan bought one for $5. It turns out the the audience at futbol games is probably 90% male. We were a group of 5 white girls, so we sort of attracted some attention. A couple guys actually came up to us, asked to take a picture with us, and then ran off to get good seats. I can't blame them though, since we take pictures of/with people here all the time.
We sat in the Barcelona section. It turns out that they're from Guayaquil, not Spain, although they have almost the same jerseys. Yellow is their main color, so we were pretty much in a sea of yellow jerseys and flags.
There are all sorts of vendors selling beverages, food, gum, cigarettes, noisemakers, hats, and random things like bubble blowers for kids that pretty much consist of a cup, straw, and sponge so you don't spill soap on yourself. These vendors walk through the aisles throughout the entire game, passing everyone many times.
First we watched Nacional versus Universidad Catolica, which is one of the local univeristy teams, whereas Nacional is a pro team (I think. My knowledge of teams here is pretty limited). U Catolica won which was exciting. The second game was the important one: Independente del Valle played Barcelona, and they tied 1-1. We didn't really care that much who won, but everyone around us was super into the game. There are a bunch of songs for Barcelona (and a vendor selling a $1 CD and page of lyrics).
Near the end of this game, fans were not so happy with the ref, so they threw tons of water bottles and probably other trash as well toward him.
Four hours of soccer was a little much for me, and sitting on a concrete bench was definitely a little much for my back, but the game was a super interesting experience.
Random side-note: they use 'super' here as an intensifier, so, for example, if food is particularly delicious (rich), they say it's superrico!

After the game I walked for a while until I got to an area where there were actually empty taxis, which took a while. I went to the Pajonal, the restaurant owned by one of my host mom's brothers. The food was fabulous as always, but I also enjoyed seeing the family again, since Richard's party was a bit of a bonding experience. My host mom's sister (I think that's who she is anyway) has two ACLAS students that are staying with her; they are a couple from England who have done a ton of traveling and are here for three weeks to take 5 hours of Spanish classes ever day. I wish them the best of luck haha. Since my Spanish level is higher than theirs, I was able to follow their conversation with the family no problem. A couple of the relatives got out their laptops and hooked one up to a projector and we started watching music videos of Italian opera and then Mariachi orchestras and then Louise Armstrong and then the Beatles, etc. My host parents asked if I wanted to stay or leave at about 5:30, and I said I was enjoying being there so I stayed with another one of my host mom's brother (I think she has 8 siblings, and 3 half-siblings) and his wife, along with the English couple and 4 or 5 other family members. We were there until 9:30 pm haha. It was enjoyable although I probably would have left at 5:30 if I'd known what staying there entailed.
We took a taxi home, and it was so nice to have real Spanish speakers to converse with the taxi driver and to explain that we live on a one-way street so you have to circle around the block. It was also interesting to be in a taxi with people who aren't so concerned about how much the taxi-ride costs. I always ask how much it will cost before I even get in, but they didn't even ask until we got home, and they didn't bargain at all.

Since I went to the Amazon, where there could be malaria, I've been taking doxycycline, which you take every day for a month after. You're supposed to take it with dinner but I normally take it in the evening since I keep it by my toothbrush so I don't forget. I have had zero problems with it even though there's an extensive list of side effects. This time, however, I took it immediately before going to bed, several hours after eating and without any water since my bottle was empty and I don't drink the tap water. This was the biggest mistake I've made here; I woke up with terrible heartburn, which I've had all day, despite eating a number of Tums (here, they pronounce it like toooms haha). I am not a fan.
I've also been bizarrly sore on my upper calfs from walking on Saturday. I've never been sore here before and I don't know how to stretch that muscle haha.

This morning I ran to school for my service learning meeting with Monica, one of my teachers. I don't know why I have these meetings because I don't have any problems or need any help, but for those reasons the meetings go quickly. I went back home and socialized some with the family who was over, and then Carla, my aunt, dropped me off at the trolley stop. (The trolley is a bus in which people are literally packed like sardines.) I asked her what her opinion of Americans was since we were going to talk about it in class, and she said she really admired the promptness and the fact that if we start something, we finish it. She also commented that the incredible American influence here is sort of a bummer, but it's more the fault of Ecuadorians than of Americans. When I talked to another aunt today, she said she's been to Disneyworld 6 times, and a great-uncle said his grown daughter has been two or three times with her young kids. Disneyworld/Miami are the places to go for vacation for Ecuadorians.

10 days of class left and only 4 short weeks until I head home!

Love Alex