Today we finished our first week of classes. Class has been great so far. We finished the morning with a couple rounds of Cuarenta which was fine by me. We leave in a few hours for the coast and Isla de la Plata. We'll drive through the night on a chartered bus and arrive in the morning. I'm very excited for our first venture outside of Quito!
I'm posting today because I experienced something really cool this week. Ecuador has not had a great showing in the Olympics to date. The only athlete to ever participate in the games was Jefferson Perez who won a medal in Atlanta and in Beijing for speed walking. This year, an Ecuadorian runner, Alex Quiñónez, has brought incredible excitement to the country. He qualified first in the quarterfinal, and third in the semi. The final was this afternoon and we all gathered at school to watch it. Before the race they panned city streets all over Ecuador. It was amazing to see the pride among the Ecuadorians, pride brought fourth by a man who was given almost no support by the government and probably had little chance of winning. But for once, Ecuador was getting some attention.
The race started at 2:55 and we were all packed into this tiny classroom at Vida Verde. We were with two Ecuadorian natives: my host mother Rosa and another teacher at the school, Freddy, with whom we'll be traveling this weekend. Their demeanor was filled with pride and, as Rosa kept repeating, nervous excitement.
Time for some Cuarenta, some pizza, and a night on the bus.
Hasta Pronto!
Noah
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