Peeling Petals

The night began with a couple cervazas, the drunken men sitting in the booth in front of us were screeching Kareoke. Fantastic! We then headed to the cultural center to witness the many forms of dance Ecuador has to offer, my favorite was the afro-ecua dance with women bopping their hips from side to side with a full bottle of rum floating on their heads. You bet I was on the edge of my seat. Salsa, cumba , ranchero, and traditional ecuadorian music vibrated off the walls making my heart beat from side to side. The best part of the show was the fog machine, they liked to set it off whenever the crowd started to answer their cellphones. Fog machines, drums, and cerveza...the night just can not get better!...but it did. The group then headed to kareoke where romantic songs were the hits....my amiga sang ace of base and rocked the house...the ecua´s didn´t quite appreciate seeing the sign. The next day we were offered to eat lunch at a friends house, we traveled to the surrounding town, Guano, and ate lots of greasy meat, this time three different types. We headed to the center of town where they have an inca mummy hanging out in a box, that was quite interesting. They placed a mummified mouse next to it juuuust so. Finally, what we had been waiting for all weekend, we then headed to the tauro. Some makeshift stands carved from bamboo made a pleasant seat to watch drunken teenagers get pounded by some massive bulls. I chewed on some natural sugar cane and cheered for the toro. My classes began this week, Monday i had 1 student, Thursday I had 30. As you can imagine, in one class i have people who only know the word ¨hello¨to people who are more grammatically correct than me! It was hard, frustrating, and quite an experience. ummm, what do i teach? My basic class has three teenage boys going through puberty, i found that chocolate wins them over. You bet i was in the dumps, every motivated person without expectations still never reaches their expectations. I get off the bus a couple blocks away from my house and see my new bff´s at the local flower shop. They give me free flowers and ask if i want to go their camp. I´m excited about my new friendship, flowers make my days sunny. I honestly believe when i wake up to the sight of flowers, my day is started on the right foot, that and the Bill Withers song A Lovely Day humming out of my radio. By the way, 2 dozen roses cost $1.80, I couldn´t be more excited. My mother likes that i have flowers in my room. After my chaotic week and a bit of homesickness, my mother came in my room to ask me if I was missing my family. As usually i act like nothing was wrong, ¨no¨, she walked over to my now droopy melon colored roses and started to peel the petals away. Ecuadorian roses have mucho petals. Together we peeled the ugly petals away and !vuala! New healthy beautiful roses to wake up to. I don´t think that i can forget about my week, but i think that i can peel away the bitterness and wake up to my flowers feeling a bit sunny...an important lesson in maintaining a healthy relationship with ecuador.