Friday morning, Laura and I went to work at the school as usual, but Laura had been getting sick and that morning she felt awful. So when we got our lunch break at 1 (we tried to tell them that lunch is supposed to be at 12, especially when breakfast is at 6:30, but they don't think so) we decided to just stay at home for the rest of the afternoon. I brought some work home with me on my laptop, and Laura, bless her heart, took a much needed nap.
Saturday, I slept later than I planned - I had set my alarm for 11, but forgot to change the day. Way to go iPhone, helping me sleep late! Laura had scheduled herself a haircut appointment, and came back with rave reviews for the place, thank heaven! I was worried about haircuts while I was gone, but the lady that owns GiGi's speaks fluent English and has a kid at Emmanuel School with us. Laura said she cut hair just like anyone in the US. Plus, she does pedicures, for only $3! Definitely going to jump on that train!
We switched to cleaning mode Saturday afternoon, finishing up what Laura's mom had started when she was here last week. Thank you so much Ms. Charlotte for making the apartment all bright and shiny! We got all the floors clean, the furniture Febrezed, our laundry done, and everything picked up and organized that had gotten out of place during the week. Yay for a clean apartment to start a new week!
Saturday night we cooked a good home-food supper and cleaned out leftovers, and then we turned on a DVD. Tristan and Isolde. Love those tragic romances!
Sunday was different for me. For one, church doesn't start until 10, or really about 10 after. The church we go to is actually at the school. It's held in the gym, so technically it's a semi-outdoor church. Think tent revival, but not as stinking hot, haha.
First thing, their praise band starts the service. It's different than Thaxton for sure! For someone who actually loves singing out of a hymn book, any praise song service is strange. But to have it in Spanish...automatically throws you for a loop! I do have to give it credit, it makes learning the Spanish words easier because they are familiar songs, and you do have the words very large on a screen in front of your face. I think my favorite yesterday was 'Come, Now is the Time to Worship' in Spanish.
The youth are very much like ours at home. Yesterday they all got up and each gave a small testimony about going to Teen Mission (kind of like youth camp), and did what we'd call a drama.
The normal preacher didn't preach, which I was a little disappointed over. I had met him at the school, and he is very nice and personable. Plus, his name is Domingo, which in Spanish means Sunday. What a perfect preacher name, huh? The preacher yesterday wasn't as good, Laura says. He was rather monotone in his speech, and let me tell ya, if you think a monotone preacher is bad at home you should try hearing a monotone sermon in a language you don't understand. Let's just say, I read a lot of the book of Genesis.
Sunday afternoon Laura and I ate at La Napoletana, one of the nicer restaurants close to the church. We chose it based on the fact our Sunday shoes were bothering our feet, and we didn't want to walk all the way back to the apartment and cook, haha. But the pizza we ate was good, and we got to watch all the other patrons being uber enthusiastic about the soccer game on TV.
After eating, we came home and changed into capris and t-shirts. That's actually rare for us. T-shirts aren't something Ecuadorians wear. They'll wear polo type shirts, or fitted tees, or button down shirts, but I've yet to see anyone with an actual t-shirt on. So we save ours for our days or afternoons off.
With our t-shirts on, we went to the 27th of February market. It's a funny name, yes. Even funnier, it's named for the street it's on. Everything is very fresh, and very cheap. Laura bought some veggies, bananas (for 10 cents each), strawberries, and a tiny tart fruit called ubinas. I bought a bottle of sugarcane syrup for $1 (like runny molasses), mini oranges for $1, and tomatoes to make tomato soup for $2.25. You can't get tomato products like spaghetti sauce or soup here, except ketchup. Just tomatoes.
We ended our lazy weekend just laying around. I finished one of the books I'd brought, Laura laid out on our balcony for a while and went for a run, we both Skyped. All in all, I think we had a well deserved, relaxing, amazing weekend :)
The market goodies
Sugarcane syrup. They make it in big batches, then sell it by the small bottle or 2 liter bottle size.
Unwrapping the ubinas
You have to wash all the produce in a special fruit wash.
Very fresh, pretty tomatoes.
Gorgeous big strawberries, perfectly ripe.
Gorgeous hibiscus plant they were selling at the market
Have no idea what the orange/pink flowers were, but they were pretty!
Ah! Such a cool post! I know you are so excited!
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