This Past Weekend

Leslie and I had a lot of fun this past weekend. It really started on Thursday night, even though we had to teach on Friday. Thursday night we went out with the other international teachers and some of the national teachers to a bar/club called “Once” downtown. It's definitely not the nicest of the clubs here, but the drinks are good (the mojitos had lots of real mint in them) and resonably priced and they play good music. I didn't drink enough to ever feel the effects of the alcohol, and neither did Leslie really, but that can't be said for a few of the people who were with us. After chatting with everybody for around an hour-and-a-half or two and trying a cheeseburger (first time I had let myself try a burger down here. From what I hear, it was a pretty good burger for Ecuador. I'd put it somewhere between Applebees and Dairy Queen, Applebees being the better of the two.) we ended up dancing. I wasn't really feeling it, especially because all the music was latina so all the nationals knew what to do and I didn't. That and I just really wasn't feeling it for some reason. Leslie and I left early at around 10:30, “early” considering that we normally go to bed at 10 to get up at 6 in the morning for work.

Friday we didn't really do much of anything. We had gone out the night before, even though we cut the night short because we had to work the next day. We just lounged around at home, I think Leslie might have made something for dinner and I just wasted time on my computer, might have played poker or something.

Saturday the Razorbacks hogwolloped the Texas A&M Aggies in Dallas at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. The best part of it all was that we won by playing great DEFENSE. Yes, the Aggies hadn't really been tested yet this year so their statistics were a little on the higher-than-real side but we still did a great job of, well, gimme a minute to think of the right word, I don't like “bottling up” or “bewildering” because they don't really describe how pysically we dominated their offense. “Dominated” is too generic. “Jackhammered” would be good except that normally refers to a great rushing offense. I'm not really a big fan of the word “decimated,” especially after learning what it really means in Latin class in high school. “Rampaged” is a good word, but it also sounds more like offense than defense. How about this: Our defense built a concrete wall and when they tried to break it down, we beat them back like a pack of powerful and handsome sheepdogs herd sheep. Except they were a pack of powerful handsome Razorbacks.
On the Ecuadorian-side of things, we went out with Pepe Luna, the music teacher at our school and his friend Juan who is a tour guide here in Cuenca. They're both great guys, especially considering that they're willing to hang out around town with a couple of gringos. We eat at a nice vegetarian restaurant on the east (far) side of town and had some really good conversation, mostly in English. Juan is completely fluent and Pepe is trying to get better. We also spoke a little bit in Spanish, giving Leslie and me a chance to get some practice in as well. Then we went up to Turi, Juan practicing his tour-guideiness on us as we went through the city to the south-end of the valley. Cuenca calls Turi its balcony. Turi is a church up the side of a mountain on the south side of town, which has developed into an observation area both for tourists and for cuencanos (some cuencano took his girlfriend up there to be romantic, and Juan and Pepe both love showing off their city). It's really more of a cuencano spot than a tourist spot, even though any good city tour will take you up there at some point. Juan, Pepe, Leslie and I had a beer up there, looked over the city and talked about the bad words in both English and Spanish. When Juan asked me what happens when you say “nigger” in the United States I told him he'd get shot. And depending on where you are, that's pretty much what happens. He thought that was a bit much, but Leslie and I explained that most people won't even say that word in conversation among friends or when discussing racism because of how powerful it is here; we all just say the N-word. Most people probably wouldn't write it in their blogs, either, but I refuse to let any word hold ground over any human being and everyone who reads this blog knows that I would never use it in reference to a person. Like I said, Saturday was an incredible day. Did I mention the Razorbacks beat the Aggies 47-19? That's a thromping. Even moreso because we started out terribly, going down 10-0, then resurging and scoring 30 unscored points before halftime. I'm glad Caldwell DVRed it at home from his Ipod Touch, because when I get home I'm gonna want to watch it.

Sunday, two very blogworthy things happened. First, Angel took Leslie and me up to Cajas to try trucha. Cajas is the national park just beside Cuenca and is considered the most important and most beautiful national park in Ecuador The drive up was marvelous. The road goes up a ravine in between two stretches of mountains that are simply gorgeous. And on the way back down, you can see Cuenca in her valley and the peaks of several mountain ranges behind her. Gorgeous. The trip itself is worth the trip. And the trucha was amazing as well. Trucha is either the Spanish or Quechua word for trout. Quechua was the language of the Incas before the Spaniards showed up. Almost all Ecuadorians (and Peruvians and other South-Americans, I would think) blend some quechua words into their Spanish, and most of the time don't realize the difference. The restaurant we went to is called “Restaurante Guevara” because a man named Guevara used to catch all of the trout serrved at the restaurant. He was a simbol of “the old ways” in Cuenca; he only used the most traditional methods for catching his fish. The trucha is served whole, with a few slits cut into each side to make sure it cooks thoroughly. I'm not going to upload the picture of her trucha that Leslie took, because I think the eyes of the fish may be looking up at the camera. But the meat came right off the bone and was delicious. We also tried horchata and canelaso, which I'm going to put on the “Strange New Fruits” list when I'm done with this post. Unless you can't handle your food looking back up at you, I'd definitely recommend going to this restaurant. There are several trucha restaurants along the road that leads into Cajas, and they're all aesthetically more pleasing than Guevara's, but any Cuencano will tell you that Guevara's has the best-tasting trucha. However, if your Spanish isn't all that good and you ever want to order trucha anywhere, I strongly recommend that you let an hispanohablante order it for you because "chucha" means "pussy" and that's a mixup you definitely want to avoid.

There's more to come, including our trip to WalMart and the dinner Leslie made and a couple of things from Monday, but Leslie and I need to go shopping right now so I'll post about them when I get back. I hope she's not mad that I let her nap for an extra 30 minutes.

Sorry I didn't end up finishing this post yesterday evening; I was too tired when I got home from running errands. I ended up letting Leslie stay home and just did it all myself. Which is for the better considering how much walking I had to do, and how much Leslie hates how fast I walk when I have to get somewhere.

We ended up doing some shopping when we got back into town, the usual grocery stuff and then we head over to WalMart. Technically, it's called an hipermercado (hyper-market) and it's the Avda. Las Americas version of the Coral in the Mall del Rio. It was packed. I mean, it was a Sunday afternoon, but I think we had to wait 30 minutes in the checkout line. Another interesting thing is that if you want something expensive, they put it in an airtight bag and bring it to you when you're checking out. You just tell the person at the register your name and your item comes up and they send for it. I guess it cuts down on theft.
But two important things happened. The first, and quite possibly most important, is that I saw an all-glass chess set that cost fourteen dollars, and all the pieces were shot glasses. When I buy it I'm going to call it "Gentleman's Chess," but that won't be until I'm in the mood for an impulse purchase (another impulse purchase will be the Simpsons poster where all the characters are drunk and wearing Real Madrid jerseys, I need that poster). The second most important thing that happened was that we bought a scale for weighing ourselves to see our progress. First, and this sucks, we had to buy the expensive one because my weight doesn't gauge on the cheap ones. Second, I've lost over 10 kilos since I've been here. I was around, probably a little under, 315 when we arrived in Ecuador and now I'm just under 285. My current goal is to get under 120 kilos, which would mean weighing less than 265.

Monday the mother of one of Leslie's and my students brought us home from school, which was really nice of her. A couple of our co-workers think we should try to get a ride with her every afternoon, but I'm not going to press her for more favors. At least not yet. Also, I was supposed to have my first saxophone lesson, but the guy (Gregorio Romero) canceled on me. I had that lesson today, and it was good I think. Though I'm not sure this guy is actually a saxophone teacher, just a really good saxophone player. But I'm gonna be able to learn from him, and at two lessons a week for $40 a month I'm certainly not going to complain.

We also got paid on Monday, cashed our checks on Tuesday. That's pretty exciting in itself: no real need to explain. It was kind of interesting though, to get an entire paycheck cashed in ten dollar bills.