Black Friday

Well, maybe it´s not SO bad. But a few things went awry today - I´ll run them down for you to get them out of the way:

Tom woke up feeling pretty bad, and had to go to the doctor, an American-educated, English-speaking doctor in the tourist section of town. He has strep, and was prescribed antibiotics and told to stay in bed for 24 hours. He feels a lot better and is counting the hours down.

Sara is feeling a bit sick and spent the afternoon in bed, but self-medicated, and then felt good enough to come out for supper and the first half of a concert before calling it a day. She went to bed in a pretty good mood.

I either lost my wallet or had it pickpocketed, hard to tell which. I´ve canceled the credit card and the ATM card, but I´ll have to improvise the money situation somewhat.


Heavy sigh. Here´s the rest of our day:

We transfered hotels and they´re very happy to be back at the Hotel San Francisco. Because I was going to the doctor with Tom this morning, the students´scheduled visit to the University San Francisco de Quito in Cumbaya followed by lunch at my former student Melissa´s house in Tumbaco had to be put off, and Brendan and Chloe spent the late morning and early afternoon reading in the Plaza Grande, Quito´s most majestic sqwuare, right in front of the Presidential Palace as Tom and I were off at the doctor. They actually wound up meeting and conversing for a while with a student of USFQ, in a weird coincidence.

Around 2:00, the students who weren´t ill, Quinn, and I went to Cumbaya on public transportation and had the university tour after all. (Quinn and I actually bowed out partway through to play foosball in the student union area. Quinn won, 14-10.) The students were impressed with the place, which was only built in 1994. Our guide was very energetic and knew a lot about the institution.

Riding the trole back to the hotel, we were sitting kind of far from the door on a VERY crowded car, and I knew our stop was coming up soon, so I made my way toward the door and signaled the students to do the same. There were a couple of stops to go yet, but I figured it was better to be prepared. Of course, the students read my body language as "Get off at the next stop", which they did, unable to see me in the crowd. They were looking around expecting me to get off when we caught sight of each other through the closing doors. I signaled that I´d get off at the next stop, thinking they´d probably get on the next train and meet me there, but as we pulled away I saw them getting off the platform to walk to the next stop. Quinn and I met them halfway. Wow, this trole is really troublesome. Good for slapstick, though.

We were back at the hotel to check on Tom and Sara by 6:00, and both were feeling much better. All but Tom went to eat supper in the chicken restaurant downstairs in the hotel, and then walked three blocks form the hotel into the UNBELIEVABLY gorgeouos, recently restored neighborhood called La Ronda, Quito´s most famous colonial street, for a concert in which Jeff Eckels, husband of Melissa, played bass for some modern renditions of the pasillo, a traditional song format from Ecuador. We had an introduction to the Ecuadorian rules regarding concert-going, namely: Constant conversation is fine; standing up and walking across the view of everyone in the middle of a song is fine; picking up your back-row seat and carrying it to the front to magically turn it into a front row seat for youself and your family of three is fine; bringing a dog is fine. Surprisingly, there were no cell phones going off. It made for some very fun debriefing after the concert. The music was good, though, and the venue was gorgeous, so everyone had a good time.

Tomorrow, we are going to go up in the teleferico (cable car) to the top of Pichincha, the mountain that overlooks Quito. Yes, it is a volcano; no, it isn´t active. And the possibility of clouds ruining the view is pretty high - but, after today, our luck is bound to turn.

Tom just came down! Feeling good! Things are looking up!

Mr Johnson