For the most part this has been a pretty uneventful week. Im still getting used to a lot of little things around here... like the grocery stores are called Megamaxi here... and I was just getting used to saying Bilo instead of Kroger. And the dish soap here comes in a strange little round tub and is this akward semisolid flourescent green mass... And Im still not used to not being able to drink tap water...

But anyway the last few days were full of classes and such. I have mid terms coming up this week already for my first bimester! I have to do an oral presentation for my spanish class, so my friend Eryka and I are acting out our very own dialogue that we have named "La gringa blanca a y la bruja negra" which is "The white gringa and the black witch." Its sort of a play off of Snow White except I eat a poisoned plantain rather than an apple and I wake up from my slumber thanks to the help of a crazy shaman rather than a charming princes. I think we definitely improved the story...

This morning I went to Parque Histórico with some members of the International Club. It has a bunch of UEES students who are Ecuadorian trying to practice their English as well as new exchange students. Parque Histórico is a combination of a zoo, garden, and historic houses. I went a few weeks ago but didnt get a chance to bring my camera.

This little guy was licking our hands... Even though right after I took this picture we got yelled at by the tour guide for touching the animals...

This is our group on top of the bird tower. If you look in the uppermost left hand corner you can see a birds nest. These birds are some of the largest in all of South America.

This guy was my favorite. Hes a tapir and he had some crazy teeth. He didnt move the whole time we were there...

This is a church that was taken from the Malecón (a historic part of downtown right off the coast that has recently been completely renovated). It is from the 1800s and is painted in all blue and yellow which are the colors of Guayaquil.

This is another of the historic buildings that was transported from the Malecon and preserved at Parque Historico. You can walk around the insides of them as well.

This is the middle of the park where we all stopped to rest. The entire tour took almost three hours. They had fresh fruit stands serving all sorts of Ecuadorian food and fresh juices. I got fresh coconut juice which was delicious. They were also serving tortilla de verde which is made of plantain and filled with cheese, as well as madero, which is sweet plantains stuffed with cheese, empanadas and a bunch of other Ecuadorian street foods.

The guy in the picture was our tour guide of the day, Fabriscio. I forgot how much we stand out here when walking around until we got to the park again and almost every worker and tour guide recognized Eryka and I from our trip a few weeks ago. They kept pointing us and saying that we had already seen this, even though I had no clue who they were...

These are just some crazy local fruits and crops of Ecuador. Theres a type of banana in the top corner. The large round green fruit is called mate and is supposed to taste terrible... it is most common to cut it in half, hollow out the insides, dry it out, and use the gord for bowls and cups... or chamber pots! There is also some sugar cane, cocoa, and achote, which is just used to dye things red.

This is the group at the end of the tour looking over the river!!

Im resting up now and then heading to the movies with Rafaela (the demon of a five year old that lives in my house) and my host Mom. I woke up this morning to Rafaela hysterically crying... well more like yelling... because the dvd player wasnt working so she couldnt watch her disney princess movie... so now we are taking her to the movies this afternoon. Im not sure she doesnt need to be put in time out instead, but oh well, I just follow along. After the movie I am headed down town with some friends to go to the newly restored Malecón which is now a really nice area with live music and small bars!!