Little over 2 weeks into my trip now and still enjoying every minute of it. They warn you about culture shock and the period of missing home a lot after you get through the ¨honeymoon phase¨of being in a new country but I´m starting to think that may not happen - no offense to any of you back home of course. These past few days have been a lot of fun, it was real nice to get away from the big city for a bit. The weekend started on Thursday night, of course, when a bunch of a friends and I headed out on the town (La Mariscal). Following plenty of dancing I made friends with a real cute dog on the streets and named him Favre, I´ll try to put the picture of my new friend Favre up when I get a chance. After school on Friday me and 6 other friends from Wisconsin set off by bus to Otavalo, a village about 2.5 hours Northwest of Quito. We found a really nice hostel with a great a rooftop terrace fully equipped with comfy hammocks, a pool table, and great views of the surrounding Andes mountains.
The next morning we woke up bright and early to check out the famous market. Every Saturday Otavalo hosts a huuuge market with countless stands and homemade things for sale, definately made the trip out there worthwhile. We came back pretty tired (after a really scenic, nice bus ride) and ended the night with a little bowling.
Yesterday Fernando and I met up with several others at the soccer stadium to watch the match between Ecuador and Sweden. This was a really great, unique experience and the environment was a ton of fun, the entire place was covered in yellow, blue, and red - the colors of the ecuador. I even picked up a spanish cheer or two, they´re a lot more tame than those at Camp Randall during football games... The second half was really intense and both teams scored a goal before it ended in a 1-1 tie.
Now it´s back to school for the week, but I´m really enjoying some of my classes. In two of them we´ve been learning a lot about the many native and indigenous cultures and histories - pretty interesting stuff. I added some more pictures to the yahoo photo site and I´ll try to post the most recent from Otavalo and the futbol match soon as well.
My best,
Brett
Me at the market in Otavalo
Part of the Wisconsin crew at the soccer game
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