a slew of activities

so i have to make a correction. the week of pre-vacation/skipping school was the 2nd through the 9th. i was so confused when looking at what i needed to update yall on, so i'm pretty much just saying this for myself. great. thanks.

ok so a few weekends ago was relaxing and so great! i actually did not travel for the whole weekend.. it's been a while since that has happened.
On Friday, me and 4 friends decided we would try some random bars on Eloy Alfaro instead of going to the Mariscal where we typically go to dance or do whatever (all of the gringos go there and it's always hoppin haha). We ended up going to this karaoke bar and it was soo small, like the size of my mom's room here and it was completely full except for 5 seats at the bar, lucky for us. We listened and sang for a bit with the people that were already doing karaoke, and then we decided that we would treat the crowd to some gringo singing. We sang Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) , Don't Wanna Close My Eyes (Aerosmith) , and ___ ! It was ridiculous, and even some of the Ecuadorians were singing along! Then, Taylor and I decided that we weren't tired yet and wanted to go dancing so we went to a discoteca called Bungalow and after dancing with a few creepers found a fun random group to dance with until about 2:45 or so. It was glorious because it's been too long since I had last danced.

Saturday, my friends Taylor, Jen, Colleen, and I went to a zoo in a town about 45 minutes from Quito called Guayllabamba. This was only the 2nd time I had been to a zoo in my life and I was so excited!! (first one being when i was like 8 and pissed off.. or for what i can tell from the pictures!) So we saw a bunch of crazy awesome animals, including lions and tigers and bears, oh my! and some monkeys and the biggest turtles I have ever seen and probably will ever see in my life time! I got lazy that night and decided not to go out so I watched like 8 episodes of friends and ate in bed! it was fabulous.

Sunday, about 7 friends and I went to eat breakfast at this cute place in the Mariscal called the Magic Bean, and I had some delicious french toast and yummy batido! After, 4 of those friends and I went to the LIGA/Quito Deportivo soccer game, which is big because both teams are from Quito so there were SO many people there. We all bought jerseys to wear and support LIGA and they were only $5! For the first half of the game, we could see pretty much nothing of the game because there were so many people, we couldn't even squeeze down into the bottom of the stands, so we watched from the top of Sur Baja (where the crazy fans, "muerte blanca", sit) and since I'm only 5'2 1/2", that didn't work out so well for me! At halftime, we squeezed down to the bottom of the stands and stood happily while cheering with Muerte Blanca the rest of the game and LIGA won! (1-0).
That night I went with my brother Diego, sister Cris, and my mom to my oldest brother, Milton's apartment (married with a baby!) to have tea/coffee and cake. So since I don't like tea or coffee, but didn't want to have to ask for water and be a loser, I actually tried hot tea! Diego told me that if I put lemon juice and sugar in it it's not that horrible, so I did, and he was soo right! It was delicious. Pretty proud of that. Then, we all went to the airport to pick up my brother Pablo who had been gone for 2 weeks traveling in Chile and Argentina with a friend since he was on break from school. I was so tired when we were there, but we all decided to eat a 2nd dinner when we got back at like 11 pm, so I couldn't pass that up!

Overall, very lovely weekend, but very tiring!