A beautiful day in Quito

Yesterday I felt homesick for the first time which was no fun! But I feel a lot better now! Today was really nice, I decided to explore downtown Quito more. Anna and I took the trolle bus to the colonial center and walked around a bit. I had read in my lonely planet book about a really bazaar church called Santa Catalina de Siena...there are 23 nuns that live there but they are only allowed to talk to one another for 1 hour per day. They also make natural lotions and wine and remedies for illnesses and you can buy them in the front of the church from this rotating door that keeps the nuns hidden. The artwork in the church was also weird.. lonely planet made it seem even weirder than it was too! There were some pretty standard paintings of jesus and the virgin mary... and there were also life size dolls of god knows which saint? There were also strange nativity scenes made out of really random things (i.e. the birds in the scene were bigger than the minature people. It was pretty hillarious and we also got to go to the top of the tower to see a pretty nice view of the city. Not as nice as the basillica, but pretty good. It was a dollar to get in, which was worth it.
We also went to la iglesia de la compa~nia de jesus which is made almost entirely of gold which could probably help the insane amount of poor people in ecuador (over 60% fall below the poverty line). The church was beautiful with lots of cool barroca stile paintings.
I also bought my first shirt in Ecuador, it was $10 and it's for going out... i only brought one relatively fancy shirt so i thought i should get another. I also bought two cute pairs of earrings today in a market: 2/$2.
After el centro we went to parque de elijido (Elijido Park) where at the beginning of the 19th century a president was burned alive... but we did not go to the park to see any horrible things like that, we went because every weekend there is a mini art fair. Paintings line a few blocks on one side of the block and they are just gorgeous. I'm probably going to buy at least 3 paintings to go back with me because they are just beautiful!
From there we walked to la mariscal to get a late lunch. We went to a place called mongo which is a mongolian barbeque, kind of like flat top. It was really good, but way too much food. You get soup or salad, garlic bread, a drink, and all you can eat vegetarian buffet stirfry (create your own) for $4. I love how cheap it is here!! I'm still full and it's been 6 hours since I ate!
Afterwards, we went to Anna's house to watch the last episode ever of Sex and the City, she bought the season for $8. By the way, I don't know if I've already said, but Dvd's here are about $1-2 and they are good quality. I also met Anna's abuelta who is a great example of the loving culture in Ecuador. We greeted eachother by kissing one another on the cheek and she said, how precious you are! nice to meet you. And then i asked if i could get a drink of water and she said, "of course, my love" I LOVE THE PEOPLE HERE! Even strangers will be so kind and warm to you, "my dear, my love..ect" Last week my host family got in a big fight...it was my family vs. my brother esteban because he is seperated from his wife and hasn't seen his kid for a long time and he's been really upset about it lately and they wanted him to make more of an effort... anyways it's really complicated but even when they were arguing it was sooo sweet! they just wanted to support him and help him any way possible and the argument ended and he went for a walk and when he returned they all said sorry to eachother and that they want to be there for eachother no matter what and that they loved eachother and all this stuff and it was just so beautiful... it's cheesy, but i almost started crying because it was so cute!
I also planned some trips today and ahh, i feel like i don't have enough time in ecuador!!! We are going to Guayaquil on the coast next weekend for 3 days - there is a festival there this weekend for the Guayaquil independence day. The next weekend I'm going to two volcanoes, Tungurahgua and Cotopaxi, for Volcanology. The next weekend I think we are going to this place called Vilcabamba in the south where everyone lives for a really long time! It's really calm and beautful there with lots of places to hike and good massages! The next weekend is another long weekend to Cuenca where there will be festivals for All Saint's Day.. and there are 3 more places I for sure want to go, plus at the end of November (don't worry mom, before you come) I might be going to Bogota, Colombia for a free U2 concert and to travel ofcourse as well!
I'm so excited and I love it here so much! All I can think about is how I'm goign to have all these amazing stories to tell my grandchildren or something. To say casually, "yeah... I saw Bono from U2 in Colombia for a free concert and in the same year went to Rio de Janiero for Carnaval" AHHH this is absolutely crazy! I'm so lucky to be able to do this! Sorry about the rant...
So tomorrow, I may be going to a town near cotopaxi for my host-siblings' other grandma's bday. There will be more Cuye (guinea pig) apparently!
Also, I have 2 tests and a presentation next week. The presentation is literally this: "Why the native terrestral mammals of the galapagos are endangered or threatened. The case of the rat of Santiago Island." Believe it or not, but it's really hard to find information about this rat! Well wish me luck!