I was expecting it to be warm in Quito and that first day was pretty cold. I had given most of my warmer clothes to Mabel and Pilar in Huancayo and also Josselyn and Estefania in Lima. I still had a few long-sleeve jackets, so I put them to good use. Leah and Leo had told me that it was hot in the mornings and rained in the evenings. She said I probably thought they were liars since it rained the whole morning. It was nice waking up to the sound of the rain on the roof though.
I helped Leah make pancakes for breakfast. It was the first time I'd had pancakes in a long time and the second time Joshua had ever eaten them. After that we watched Shrek 4: The Final Chapter with Joshua. Leo came home from work in time for lunch. He works at a country club as a trainer.
After lunch, we took advantage of the clear skies to take Joshua to the park for awhile. We couldn't do very much on the grass since it was soaked from the morning rain. The area around the slide looked like a miniature lake. We went to a cement area to the side of the park and I kicked the soccer ball with Joshua, while Leah sat with Lucas. We would kick the ball a couple times and then he would go get the water bottle from Leah, take a drink and then give it to me so I could take a sip. After a bit he said his tummy didn't feel so great and Leah told him to stop drinking so much water. :) Of course he didn't listen.
We came back to the house and baked some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and artichoke dip to serve when Leo's friends came over. Some of the people who he trains at the country club wanted to meet Lucas. There were two women and two men who came over to see Lucas. They were all in their early to mid-twenties, so younger than all of us. I liked how one of the girls kept on calling everything "buenazo," the cookies, the artichoke dip, and things in stories they were telling. In Ecuador it means really good, but upon looking it up on the internet I found it has different meanings elsewhere and can't be used in the context of a good artichoke dip. :) I love the differences in Spanish words between Peru, Ecuador, and Mexico, but it also can be very confusing for me and the people who I'm talking to!!! For instance popcorn is canchitas in Peru, palomitas in Mexico, and canguil in Ecuador. And for avocado you say aguacate in Mexico and Ecuador, but in Peru you say palta. It's really cute when Joshua says avocado because he mixes the Spanish and English words together and says aguacado. :) I was enjoying the conversation up until the "buenazo" girl asked how old I was and if I was married. When I said no, she said to me, "Oh, then you're never going to get married or have kids then. I see." After that, I didn't think she was so "buenazo." Leah also commented later on how rude the girl had been, but seeing that she's only twenty-one, Leah and I must seem like we're old as dirt. So I could only smile at the ignorance and naivete of her comment. :)
Shortly after, Leah and I left the gathering to go eat dinner with her two American friends who also happen to be from California. Leah asked me if there were mostly Jewish people in California because all the people she had met from Cali were Jewish. That would be an interesting statistic to look into: Just exactly what percentage of Californian expatriots in Ecuador are Jewish??? :) Her friends Gina and Shannah were so sweet and amidst their own gossip they asked questions about me and my travels. Gina is petite and very girly with a mass of curly black hair. Her personality reminded me of my friend Monica, full of energy and talking a million words a minute in both English and Spanish. Shannah is taller and almost tomboyish, with a more laid-back personality. We ate pizza and salad and never let the conversation go silent. Shannah had brought her dog and they told her to be careful walking home. They joked that it didn't matter if it was day or night, you could get robbed in Quito. I guess Shannah has been robbed once for each of her ten years in Quito. Leah told me that her boss at her first job in Quito started sending a car for her after she, hugely pregnant with Joshua, was robbed walking to work. They talk about it so "matter-of-fact"ly, sort of like how minor fender benders there are normal and people make their own road rules. We were driving along one day and Leah asked me if this guy with a small trailer attached to his car had hit her and I told her he had. She said, "Oh, well, I don't want to deal with that right now," and kept driving. When a man rear-ended us while Leo was driving, Leo got out to talk to the driver, but Leah said that he usually just got money from the people and left it at that. Such a different attitude!!! :)
By the time we got home, it was late and we were all tired, so went to sleep hoping for good weather in the morning...
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