the journey begins...: The words of LB,"Una Pichanga!"

Earlier this week, Melba (my host mom) tells me that we are going to La Ronda with the other church ladies for a Valentine's Day night out. I had no idea what to expect, but boy, was I in for a surprise.

After class, Liz and I waited till our host moms were meeting us up by the Youth World office. What we thought was that we were driving there, but to our surprise, we were taking the Trole. Apparently, it is best to avoid the Trole at all costs during rush hour which is around 6pm. Remember how I mentioned that normally the Troles are packed like sardines? If that was being packed like sardines, I don't know how to describe this situation. The Trole platforms were packed to capacity, and Liz and I had to be the only non-Ecuadorians to live up this phenomenon. There's a great deal of pushing and shoving, and I'm sure pickpocketing in between as well. We were blessed to get a Trole that was empty, which meant we had seats! Never thought I would see the day I would get a seat on the Trole. We rode it till probably close to the end of the route, which meant this thing was packed to capacity or even more! Women were getting stuck between the doors, people shoving people around, and I don't know how children were able to breathe. It was even an adventure making our way through to exit on our stop. There was a lot of pushing and shoving.

We finally completed our journey to La Ronda, which is in the old part of Quito. The buildings are beautiful, and it was just a cute little town feel. I imagined this is what Spain or Europe must look like. We walked down the streets, while we waited for everyone to arrive. To our surprise, it ended up being about 15 girls/women for the evening out. We tried Empanadas de Morocho, which were delicious from one of the restaurants. Then, we were on a journey to find a restaurant to have cheap, Ecuadorian food because they wanted us, Americans, to have the full experience. After three restaurant attempts, we found a great little hole in the wall found after climbing a narrow stream of stairs. The ceilings were quite low for us, Americans.

We enjoyed great conversations over our long dining table and many laughters. These women know how to enjoy themselves. There were many singalongs, joking, dancing, and getting serenaded by two gentleman with guitars. We also discovered an interesting favorite of Ecuador, which is hot juice. It's like your average fruit juice served hot as if you were drinking tea. We tried great food and enjoyed every moment of it.

BUT...let me tell you, after we ate, which was about 10pm, the night wasn't over for these ladies. We were headed over to the karaoke bar. Disappointingly, we didn't end up singing our songs, but had good times regardless drinking our virgin Pina Coladas while listening to sad, love songs for couple hours.

Our night became complete as we headed back to the Trole, when we encountered a group of young Argentenans causing a great scene because they didn't agree with the policy of paying an extra quarter after midnight. It was craziness with the Trole security and staff with lots of shouting, throwing hands up in the air, and disappointed looks from our host moms that mentioned they were disrespectful of this country.

All in all, the whole day was an EVENTURA as Lily and Melba would say. It definitely was one experiencia cultura we will not be forgetting.