Bloody Ecuadorean Weather

I thought that, travelling to exotic tropical places, I'd escape the English weather. How wrong I was. It was disgusting last night; I got drenched on the way home. This morning was the same. It's cold and wet. AND I hear England is getting snow! So not fair!! Plus I've got a stonking cold. Couldn't speak when I woke up this morning. I thought that with all the exciting fruits I'm getting I'd be more than meeting my vitamin C requirements.

I've just finished my first week of classes in the Academia. What have I learnt? Well, I'm not fluent yet, that's for sure. My vocabulary is certainly growing (the fact that you can often just add an "o" or "amente" to English words helps), but I'm a bit useless at conjugating my verbs properly. We had a test this morning, our weekly review - it's like being back at high school! I did alright with parts of the body and adjectives, but my little composition was a bit shitty. I got confused with estar and ser, which both mean "to be". Practice is the key, I'm sure, I just need the confidence to try what I think I know with Spanish-speaking people. It's not the fear of getting it wrong that makes me wary, it's the fact that I can never understand the replies! This morning the maid (whose name I STILL don't know!) was chatting away to me, trying to speak clearly, but even then I didn't really have a clue. It's a bit demoralising when two of the other people in my class of four have absolutely no problems. Now I know what it's like to be the dunce of the class! I'm definitely improving though.

It's really interesting to learn about the culture of Ecuador. Most of the exercises try to incorporate social issues. We had a (very slow paced!) debate about the pros and cons of immigration the other day, and we've covered national festivals, religion and education too. This afternoon, in my one-to-one class, we went through an article translated from an English newspaper about an affair between the mother of a Premiership footballer and her son's teammate, who was only 14. We got into the legality and propriety of underage sexual relationships, all in Spanish, it was a little bizarre!

I'm getting to know the other traveller-types in the school too. There's a real mixture. There's probably about 30 students at the Academia, and at least 15 are between 18 and 25. There are some more mature students, they're really fun too. There are a variety of nationalities, with the inevitable collection of yanks, but fewer English than I expected, and a surprisingly high number of Danish students. Most people chat in English: I'm so impressed by the Icelandics and the Danes speaking near perfect English and learning Spanish! I'm getting to know more of my fellow students. At first it seemed a bit cliquey, since some of them have been here for over a month. But it's not really. Some people are here for aaaages. Their Spanish will be great, but I think I'd get reeeeally bored staying here for so long. I'm already itching to get off travelling again. Can't wait for my tour of Ecuador!

This week has been mostly filled with learning Spanish, but there have been more exciting moments. As well as the amazing soups and veggie meals I'm getting for dinner, I got lemon meringue pie for dessert on Tuesday! My maid tried to scare me by telling me it was made of fish, but surprisingly I wasn't fooled. Bless her. The Ecuadorians do think I'm weird to be vegetarian. I hate to think what the reaction will be in Argentina, home of the best steak in the world. So, because I just can't resist all the good food I'm getting, I really need an alternative strategy to stop me putting on an extra 3 stone. I'm walking to and from school (it takes about 45 minutes) - except this morning when I got a taxi (for $1.80) because the weather was so disgusting - and I went for a run on Wednesday. It's incredibly tiring at 3000m! Good job too - I got lemon meringue pudding Wednesday night as well. My host mother seems to be on a diet and has no carbs or dessert and really small portions, whilst I get a huge bowl of soup (which sometimes consists of pasta, potatoes, cheese and milk), a big plate of rice, bean mush, salad and sometimes fried and caramelised bananas, followed by a huge slice of pie. Still, I think it makes the maid happy that I have a good appetite!

Last night there was a dancing class in the Academia. It was led by a really cute black guy with the fastest feet and hips in the world! I just about managed to keep up with the first few moves, but then it got so fast I coudn't even see what his feet were doing, let along try and copy him! It was really energetic and good fun though. We did a bit of salsa, marangue and tango. Think I'll have to have had a fair few drinks to try them out for real! Marilyn, the Swede, besides being a genius at Spanish, is also an amazing dancer and did a few songs with the teacher after the class. Wish I could dance like that! We went into the area of Quito nicknamed "Gringolandia", for obvious reasons, for a meal after. It was one of the most expensive places in Quito: I paid about $7 for a dish of veggie spaghetti and a diet coke!

Tonight the plan is to go out dancing in one of the salsa-teques. Oh dear! I'll be trying not to make a huge fool of myself. Tomorrow a few of us are going to go to "La mitad del mundo" (the middle of the world), a site right on the equator where the water goes straight down the toilet when you flush it, and various other interesting gravitational or magnetic phenomena occur. There's a museum and such like. And on Sunday, weather permitting (which, as in England, it probably won't be), I'll be going up el teleferico (a cable car) into the mountains for a bit of hiking. Quite excited about that. It'll be practice for Cotopaxi, a big 6000m-plus ice-capped volcano that I'd really like to climb. Only problem is that you need crampons and stuff... and I'm not great with heights...

Finally, I'd like to draw your attention to a statistic of which I am most proud.

Items lost so far: 0

To all of you who are placing bets, ha ha ha. (Admittedly there is another statistic of which I am ashamed. Items left in the computer room of the Academia: 1 purse. But that doesn't count, because someone handed it in for me. Right?)