Hello! For starters, here's a picture of Quito from the east side. Quito is one long, thin city oriented North-to-South. This is looking across the city towards my house, which is somewhere over there. I've looked but so far haven't been able to pin-point exactly where it is, but I know it's got to be almost straight across, maybe a little left to center in this picture. This picture was taken from the entrance to a great big park on top of a hill. In the back of the picture, you can see the mountain Pichincha, that towers over the city.
There's not too much to report at this time, my life's been pretty constantly good, though I wish I could say that much for others in the program. Within a week, three have been robbed and another is now so sick that she has to return to the States because five doctors here weren't able to figure out how to make her better. Fingers crossed, she'll get all healthy and be able to return in January.
Tidbit: Did you ever wonder what happened to all those Sacagawea 1 dollar coins that were minted back in 2000? Well they all found their way here. It could have something to do with the fact that in 2000, Ecuador changed its currency from the Sucre to the American Dollar. Regardless of the reason, you're much more likely to get Sacagaweas as change than paper dollars. People here are all about the coins. Let's say you're on a bus (25 cents) and all you have is a 50 cent piece on you (yes, 50 cent pieces are as popular here as the Sacagaweas). Well you give the bus-money-guy your 50 cent piece and from here, two things might happen. He might be nice and give you a quarter, but there's also a pretty good chance that he'll use this opportunity to dump some other change on you. It could be two dimes and one nickle, or if he's really in a bad mood he could even give you like three nickels and ten pennies. Yeah, crazy. The good news is that what goes around comes around, and chances are you'll just pass off your handfull of change to the next bus guy.
Contrary to the general opinion held in the States, here I would rather carry around a pocket full of 20 Sacagaweas than a 20 dollar bill, simply because shop keepers are stingy with their change. You try to buy a 2 or 3 dollar thing with a 20 dollar bill and it's possible that the guy behind the desk will just stare at you with an unamused look and shake his head. He'd rather you didn't buy anything than give you that much change. Luckily, there are ATMs around town that help you out a bit. It's common here for ATMs to give you 10s and 5s. I think one of my friends even said he got 1s out of an ATM once.
I sometimes wonder why the dollar and 50 cent coins haven't cought on in the States. I guess it's a matter of convenience: easier to carry around several pieces of paper than disks of metal. Maybe it's also because things are more expensive in the States, or possibly it could be because cashiers don't mind giving you a ridiculous amount of change. I wonder if I'll start carrying around more coins when I go back to the States. We'll see.
So below, I've posted a picture of the front of my Spanish classroom. I've been staring at this twice a week for the past um-teen weeks and every time I've wanted to take a picture of it and now I finally have. Now I didn't take a picture because I thought it looked nice or because it reminded me of something, I took it because there's something interesting about it and I want you guys to try to figure out what's weird, or unexpected about this picture. It'll probably help if you click on the picture to enlarge it.
For those of you who can't quite get it or who are not quite sure if you're right or not, I've written out the answer below in a simple substitution code.
A=N, B=O, C=P, D=Q, E=R, F=S, G=T, H=U, I=V, J=W, K=X, L=Y, M=Z
Answer: Gurer vf n penpx va gur jnyy orybj gur punyxoneq gung unf orra cynfgrerq bire. Guvf penpx pna or frra rkgraqvat hc guebhtu gur punyxoneq, vaqvpngvat gung gur punyxoneq vf abg n punyxoneq ng nyy, ohg engure vg vf whfg gur jnyy cnvagrq bire jire jvgu punyxoneq cnvag.
Interesting, huh? I'd be interested to see if anyone got it or if you saw something else unexpected in the picture.
That's all for now, take good care everyone, and for those whom it applies, keep warm. I hear thigns are starting to get a mighty bit chilly up in the more northern regions.
~Joey
1 comment:
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you atucally went up to look at it and know that it isn't a seperate thing. That's pretty cool. I've always thought it would be fun to get some of that stuff to use somewhere in your own hoouse. Could be fun. Hope I was vague enough!
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