Did you ever feel like you were naked in a crowd of people?

aaaaaaaaahhhhhh, breathing in the fresh air of Riobamba is wonderful for my nose. Quito´s pollution produced strange substances in my sinuses. thankfully, that is over. Going about 100mph on a crochety bus down a steep hill, my first sight of ¨friobamba¨ was a dump truck on it´s side with about 50 indigenous ecua´s staring in to the driver´s seat. ummmm. I arrived to a mansion of a house, bummer, i had a fantastical view that i would be living in a hut. Lesson number 1 everyone, a developing country does not mean that everyone lives in a thatched roof hut. My bedroom is so pink that i feel my family is quitely asking me to try out for the next ¨riobamba queen¨pageant. i will wear my comforter, and i will win. jajaj. I wake up, 6:30am, to a christmas song screeching from the oil truck. it rides around the city all day playing that damn song. I hear the woman selling paper from the street, she buzzes our apt for about 5 min. i take a hot steamy shower, limpio. my parents don´t speak a word of english, and have many laughs over my spanglish. Breakfast is cafe with bread, lunch is fantabuloso (rice, potatoes, plantains, fresh cow´s milk/cheese salsa, ahi...lots and lots of ahi...., some form of meat still on the bone which looks like it was killed about an hour before i ate it, and fresh squeezed juice..everyday) dinner is te with bread. riobamba´s streets are filled with fruit stands and cut open pigs. suprisingly my stomach has handled fried pig with great delight. the market on saturday stretches for about a mile, it has everything from handwoven wool scarfs to deisal jeans. Pineapples are 80 cents. I walk to my place of work which is in the bellavista neighborhood, south of the city. I am a gringa, and everyone...i mean everyone notices that i am a gringa. The men do some weird whisper-whisle sound to me from their trucks which are blasting salsa music. My family is kind, they think i look europa and not american. I am one of three females that work at SECAP. The rest are 40 year old men that commonly ask if i am single. Lesson 2, something is wrong with you if you are not married or without a boyfriend at age 25. i think it´s freedom, they think it´s weird. I guess I am a cultural learner. Last night i went out with my younger hermosa, i shared a couple pilsners with her and her friends. We talked about Pres. Bush, Coldplay, and again why i am single. As we walked home she latched her arm around me, a very natural latch. I asked what it is like walking down the street with a gringa, for everyone and their mother stares at me like I am some amazon woman. She told me she doesn´t like gringo´s, shit, buuuuut she likes me. With pride she stated ¨You are my gringa sister¨. With that and her latched around my forearm, a strange confidence erupted in me. I wanted everyone to look at me at that moment.