Hi again!

We spent this weekend exploring the giant city of  Quito which was very fun.

SATURDAY

Mich and I woke up and laid out on her sunroof for a couple of hours, and then we decided to go get lost. Michelle only just got her license this summer; in the past she would take the taxi when driving around the city. We spent an entire hour trying to find the restaurant “the Magic Bean” and we definitely wished we had taken a cab. Finally we just parked somewhere and decided to walk. We asked for help every block or so, and thanks to the good people and storeowners of downtown Quito, we finally reached our destination : ) The food was great. The magic bean is a restaurant/coffee shop/bar, and it had a really cool open vibe. Later we drove to Metropolitano, a big foresty park in Quito. We drove through and took a baby hike, but it was getting a bit chilly so we walked back to the car.

Our next stop was the grocery store, and because this store is in the middle of the city, we had to park underneath it! I am so used to driving to Meijers and parking in a regular lot that it never occurred to me that people who lived in big cities would have to park like this. One of the reasons that we went to the grocery store was I wanted to buy some food from home. I miss silly things like American chips and regular bread, but above all, I miss milk. No offense to Ecuador, but their milk is SO nasty. Sorry, but it is. It comes in a box, and doesn’t have to be refrigerated until after its opened. It tastes so funny, and about a week ago I stopped trying to drink it. I feel my bones becoming brittle. So one of our missions was to find regular milk at the store.  Everything is in Spanish, so I left it up to Michelle to find it for me. We finally found a liter of refrigerated milk in a bag. I was so happy. After walking through the aisles of the grocery store, I quickly realized that they don’t have any of the same brands that America has, and when they do, they are crazy expensive. We found Tropicana Orange Juice in a regular gallon carton, and it was selling for $8.50 !!!!!!!!! I wanted to cry haha. We did manage to find Pringles and Chips Ahoy, which was comforting. After making our purchases, we walked downstairs to get our car and I immediately bit open my bag of milk. I must have looked like a crazy person, but I was so excited that I didn’t really care. My high went down pretty fast; this bag of milk tasted EXACTLY like the regular Ecuadorian warm milk. I gave it to a homeless person on our way to the next stop, Teleferico. It was probably the most unique donation that he received all day, but he was pretty happy so I guess God had a plan for me buying that nasty milk after all.

Teleferico was our next attraction in Quito, and it turned out to be one of my favorite things we’ve done on this trip. Its pretty simple, just an hour ride up and down a mountain in a floating cable car, but the view was incredible. Of course, my camera didn’t do it any justice, but we could see the entire city. On the way down the sun had set, so it was so awesome watching the lights come up on the city. Like many experiences I have had these last couple weeks, although no picture could capture it, I know I will never forget the view from on the top of the  mountain.

SUNDAY

As always, I wake up a good 2 hours before michelle does, so I spent the morning testing out a good 50+ DVDs that we have bought in the last couple days. (did I mention that DVDs sell 7/$10 here? I am now the proud owner of the entire SATC series : ) Once Michelle woke up, we got ready and drove to church where her parents were preaching. Michelle’s parents are missionaries and are often asked to preach in churches around the city. This church had 3 servies, and each service lasts 2 hours, with the sermon lasting 50 minutes! What a long day it must have been for then. Michelle and I only went to half of one of the services, and unfortunately it was completely in Spanish. The frustrating thing for me is I recognize so many words and phrases but never quite enough to understand the whole idea behind it. Even though I didn’t understand everything, I LOVED watching the Jokisches preach. They do a kind of tag-team deal, and they have such incredible passion for the Lord. They had the congregation laughing, clapping and amen-ing all over the place. I have learned so much about love and spirituality just from observing them live their everyday lives. (for example, they are ALWAYS praying. Every single time we drive anywhere with her parents, as they pull out of the parking garage they hold hands and Guillermo says a quiet prayer blessing their prayers. I only wish I was faithful enough to pray as much as they do), Anyways. Since their focus as missionaries is marriage counseling, their sermon was on fidelity and respect in a marriage. Pretty ironic, eh? ; ) According to them, people cheat when they have low self esteem and don’t know how blessed they are in their relationship. Just something to think about … hah : )

After church, we went to a pastelleria (pastry shop) to grab a quick lunch, and then shopped in Quito’s market. I am finally done shopping, thank goodness for my bank account. So that was a relief! My proudest purchase of the day was a pair of Llama earings. They are pretty funny : )

An interesting thing about Quito is it rains every Sunday. It sounds crazy; mich used to tell me that back in the states and I would just kind of laugh because I thought it was ridiculous. But it hasn’t rained in a week here, and like clockwork, this afternoon it started raining. We got some AMAZING and super cheap icecream at this place called Corfu. It really reminded me of coldstone, but the amazing thing was it was SO much better and only $1.60 for ice cream. On the way back to the car I picked up 25 roses for $1 ! That’s right, one dollar. One of Quito’s most abundant crops is roses, which makes them super cheap. I swear, if Quito had regular skim milk, I could definitely get used to living here.

Tonight, after dinner Michelle’s mom did therapy on me! A few days ago I was asking what kind of therapies they used with the people they counseled, and Jacki mentioned a sort of quazi music therapy. I was immediately interested, and she offered to show me. They have this sound clip of waves on their little shuffle ipod, and I have been falling asleep to it the last few nights. This sound clip is actually designed for therapy with the way the sound rotates from one earbud to another, kind of like surround sound but so much crazier. Its hard to explain. During the last month or so I have been sleeping just awfully, only able to fall asleep to Will & Grace (haha) or another TV. But since michelle doesn’t have a TV in her room I have just been lying still for a while until I fall asleep from exhaustion. However, these waves are so hypnotic that when I used them the last few nights I was asleep within 5 minutes! Amazing. Anyways, Jacki (mich’s mom) uses this kind of interactive therapy to help people deal with pain in their lives with that same ocean sound, and we tried it tonight. While I listened to this music on the ipod she quietly asked me rhetorical questions, and prayed for me. She had no idea what painful experience I was thinking about, which made her words even more striking. When she was praying, I could feel God speaking through her. She helped me see my situation with a different perspective, and gave me such a good way to think about my life. I am so grateful for her and her prayers, and I am amazed at how much I felt God walking with me today. God is good.

Tomorrow, we are planning on meeting up with the calvin group at night, and actually visiting a jail tomorrow morning. I am very excited. I will write again soon!

Enjoy the pictures!

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