Recap part 2: Don't sweat the big stuff; you won't have a chance anyway

I literally saw the blind leading the blind today. I was walking down the street and there was a string of three blind men holding hands and making their way through the crowd. I just thought it was amusing and deserved to be noted.

So on with the recap:

Saturday:
We took a trip to Cajas National Park, about an hour from Cuenca. It's incredibly beautiful, but a little hard to breathe when you're climbing up the mountains, since we started out at nearly 4,000 meters, which is nearly 13,000 feet. It was freezing in the morning! There were a few snow flurries, which our guides said they had never seen in Cajas before. I was very grateful for my made-of-awesome Under Armor shirt. (You wear it one way and it keeps you cool; you turn it inside out and it keeps you warm!) Since we can't go anywhere here without doing something academic (I know, I know, it's a 17-credit hour school trip. That doesn't stop me from wishing I didn't have to do work), we had a scientific activity to do for Dr. Melampy. Admittedly, it wasn't bad at all. We broke up into groups of four, and each group made an X on a patch of ground with two long pieces of string. Each group member chose a quadrant and counted the number of open flowers and the number of potentially flowering species within that area. We stuck a thermometer into each quadrant to measure the ground temperature. We did all this twice, once on a west-facing slope and once on an east-facing slope. Apparently we were expecting to have a higher average temperature and more flowers on one side (west, maybe? I forget. I'm not very scientific), but when we combined all the data yesterday both sides wound up being about even.

After lunch we took a four-mile hike. The temperature was probably up to the low 50s (Fahrenheit, of course, not Celsius like they use here), and once we got moving most people took their jackets off. It was definitely an adventure – there was a big dark cave, a few streams to be crossed by leaping from stone to stone, large piles of llama dung to avoid, and a big patch of mud that tried to suck people in like the molasses guy in Candy Land. I, fortunately, managed to get only my boots and the edges of my pants muddy. Poor Natalie and Antonia got stuck up to their knees. Everything was so green, and it was eerily quiet – except when we were getting yelled at by Professor Martin for speaking too much English! Unfortunately we had a few headaches and one person throwing up due to altitude sickness by the end of the hike, but I think everyone would still agree that it was mostly a very fun trip.

All last week through yesterday, the city of Cuenca was celebrating its independence, which it won 189 years ago. Our big projects that are due Friday all have something to do with the fiestas. I have to write about las Noches Cuencanas (Cuencan Nights), or the little celebrations that are held in all the different neighborhoods, so Saturday evening I went to a local mall for one of the Noche Cuencana fiestas. It was in the parking lot. There was a banda del pueblo, or local town band, playing traditional music – two clarinets, an alto sax, two trumpets, a trombone, a snare, a bass drum, tenor drums, and cymbals, for all of you band geeks. There was food for sale, and a lot of people were drinking zhumir. I unfortunately couldn't stay long enough to see them set fire to the castillo, which is a big tower built out of some kind of flammable material and decorated in the colors of the flag, but there were fireworks being set off periodically, not nearly far enough away for my comfort. (I forgot to mention that when we went to the rodeo, they were setting off fireworks from inside the ring. We tried explaining to some of the Ecuadorians that you couldn't do that in the U.S., and they were like, “Why? It's not dangerous!”)

Everyone wanted to go out that night for Halloween, and I didn't want to be the only one staying home, so I went. It was fine when we were at the bar just talking and things, but then we went to a club, the same one we went to last time. In all honesty, going to the club last time was not nearly as fun as I made it sound when I wrote about it. I am just not meant to be a club-going person. It's dark and loud and the lasers are too bright and there are too many people and everything smells like alcohol and cigarettes. In my opinion, what people do in a club qualifies as dancing in the same way that rap qualifies as music – maybe-kind-of-sort-of-a-little-bit-if-you-really-have-low-standards. I was not having any fun at all, so I left around midnight and took a cab home. At least I only had to pay $3 to get in instead of $5 – because certain girls in our group are willing to flirt shamelessly enough with the bouncer to get us all a discount. These are the same people who seem to feel it's necessary to get up on the little stage at the club and promote the idea that all American women are stupid and promiscuous. Can you tell I don't appreciate it?

Sunday:
Sunday was just a rough day and I already wrote about it. It did get better once I got home from the aunt's house and went to an Internet café with Lauren. I got to look at pictures of my two-week-old pseudo-nephew all dressed up for Halloween. I'll admit I cried a lot about that too, but it was out of happiness.

Monday:
The school was closed for the fiestas!! Sleeping in was a welcome treat. I went to Milenium Plaza to use the free wifi and actually started researching for my project. (By the way, the mall's name actually is spelled “Milenium.” I do know how to spell the word in English. I feel this compulsion to uphold my reputation as winner of the fourth grade spelling bee.) There were huge fairs of artisans all over the city, and there was one near the mall, so of course I had to check it out. Prices are so amazing here, and I'm not even good at bargaining yet. I spent less than $35 and got a pair of earrings for myself and Christmas or birthday presents for seven people. I was thrilled!

Monday night I went with my friend Lauren to another Noche Cuencana celebration, this time in a park not far from the school. There was a much bigger crowd there than there was at the mall. A huge stage was set up, and it had a set of amazing smart lights. (Am I a theater geek? Do I spend huge amounts of time with the master electrician? No way.) A guitar trio played and sang for about an hour, and then las reinas del barrio, or the girls who had been elected queens of the neighborhood were introduced.

Then it was time for the second musical act, whom the emcee introduced as “one of the most sought after artists in Ecuador.” Her name was Lady Laura, and she was a vision in a bright yellow sleeveless unitard with gold and pink sequins and purplish-red hair. She actually sang and danced very well, and the whole crowd seemed to know the songs, but between the outfit and the two back-up dancers, two big tough guys dressed all in black and doing super-cheesy hip-hop moves, Lauren and I found it absolutely hilarious. It got even better when I realized that one of the dancers reminded me of someone from our group. Also, all three of them were periodically chucking CDs into the crowd, and man, could they get some distance with those things! They were just like square Frisbees with dangerously sharp corners. I took video of one of the songs on my digital camera, because I just didn't think I would be able to adequately convey the cultural experience without it. Don't worry; it will make its way to YouTube eventually.

Once again, we didn't stay long enough to see the castillo burning. It was getting both very late and very cold. I'm not a huge fan of fire (I know, I too wonder why I hang out with the people that I do), and I had already had my fill of open flames. There were lots of people wandering through the crowd with boxes full of candy and cigarettes for sale, and some of them were had lit candles nestled down among the mints and gum. Totally exposed flames being carried in cardboard boxes through a crowd of a few thousand dancing people. Forget being kidnapped or mauled by a jaguar – you won't die from the big things in Ecuador. The little stuff will do you in just fine.