Don't pass out in the sack!

Saturday was one of the strangest days of my life. I signed up for the international students’ welcome party, run by the international programs office because I figured it’d be a good way to make friends and it’d be fun. Well it sure was something!

The Lumbisi girls took a cab to my house where Danielle had joined me so the taxi driver wouldn’t have to drive all over Cumbaya and charge us a ton. So I woke up at 5:30 so I could shower and get ready. Since we were going to get ‘very dirty’ I didn’t want to be smelly too. When I went down for breakfast Pato was up. I have no idea why he was up so early, but we had breakfast together and chatted until Danielle rang the bell. Keunae had also called that morning wanting to know how we were getting to Quito so I invited her to share our cab. We picked her up in the plaza and made our way to the ‘tribuna de los Shyris’ which is like stone bleachers on the edge of Parque de la Carolina that faces out towards the street and the parking lot that is in between the two lanes of traffic. It’s odd. We were there really early, like 7:11am and the buses weren’t leaving until 8am.

Daniel, the Office of International Programs director, was there so we waited with him while everyone else showed up. He made fun of us for still being on American time, where everyone is early, as opposed to Ecuadorian time where everyone just shows up whenever. Once everyone was there we all piled into buses very similar to the one we took to Otavalo- aka the pogo stick bus- and we were off, to where I had no idea.

I mostly slept on the way- luckily this bus just looked like the other one, the ride was fairly smooth- but I woke up near the end of the ride and we were really high up in the mountains. The road was basically on the side of the mountain so the drop was really steep but the view was amazing. Eventually we pull up to a little plaza in some little town and we were there. At least that’s what the bus driver told us. In the plaza we divided into groups led by an Ecuadorian student and we marched up the mountain to get to the hacienda where we were actually going. I was glad I wore my hiking boots because it was a fairly steep climb.

Once we got to the house we all basically collapsed into the chairs set up for us under a little tent and wondered what to do next. Most of us were pretty thirsty and looking for water when Daniel and the other coordinators start putting beers on our tables. Keep in mind it is now about 10am. So we sat around talking and drinking beer since it was all we had. Guadalupe had sent me with a lunch, as always, but since Danielle came over to share the cab she added stuff for her too. So we ate fruit with our beers. At 10 in the morning. Oh yeah, it gets weirder.

After a while someone announces that it’s time for the games to start. And “bring your beers, there’s no games without the beer!” If I wasn’t already wondering what the hell we had gotten ourselves into, I was now. We found our groups again and gathered around the circular corral that had nothing in it but a tall pole. Our group’s name was “chocolate sensual” which looks like English written out but it’s Spanish, trust me. It's ridiculous in both languages.

The first activity was to have two representatives from each team try to climb the pole, which was greased. We were also told that there were three marks on the pole and that if you only got to the first one you would have to take 1 ½ shots. If you got to the second, 1 shot and so on. So to recap: we are on a school sponsored trip, with university representatives at 10 am in the mountains where they have given us beers and now we’ll be taking shots of Zhumir, an Ecuadorian, fruit-flavored alcohol, from these representatives.

The greased pole climbing didn’t go well for anyone really. Bianca did pretty well but probably only got to the first mark. So it was 1 ½ shots for her. Then we did a potato sack race relay. With an alcoholic twist of course. You had to hop to the pole, down a cup of beer that was at the base, continue to the other side of the corral and back so someone else could do it. There was also at three legged race and that game where you spin with your forehead on a baseball bat then try to run. But, of course, all games involved getting shots of Zhumir poured down your throat. Or in my case, up my nose…

Chris and I did the wheelbarrow race, in which I was the wheelbarrow. Unfortunately I had no idea before deciding this that I wouldn’t be able to support my weight while walking on my hands so we fell immediately. Once we got to the pole in the middle I had to lay on my back and have a shot poured in my ‘mouth.’ Only the girl basically poured it all over my face and shoulder. Mostly what ended up going in, went up my nose. Given that that’s my preferred way to take a shot normally it wasn’t a problem, I just wasn’t expecting it is all. After that my shirt smelled like mango, it was delicious.

After all that madness I had to take a break so I sat the last few games out. By this time we were inside a cloud and it was getting cold. Since we were in the mountains the clouds literally engulfed us by the afternoon. Being inside a cloud is not as cool as it seems. It’s pretty much just cold and damp. I watched everyone play flip cup from afar with Mary and Emily who don’t drink and therefore had nothing to do for hours. They couldn’t even sit nearby since there was always someone coming around with a bottle of Zhumir to pour some in your mouth. It was a little too intense for me after a while, though one group seemed to be really enjoying themselves. They called themselves los borrachos (the drunks) so that was to be expected.

Finally, at 1pm we were allowed to eat! We had pulled pork with mote, some kind of orange potato like stuff, salad and plantain. Chris and I went back for seconds of meat and the potatoes. It was really good. During lunch they passed out masks and big confetti shooter things. It was weird.By the time we finished eating the clouds had really rolled in and it was getting pretty cold. A bunch of people were dancing in the tent, but a bunch of us were really tired and didn’t join them. Danielle and Betty even climbed into two of the beds in the hacienda. Once we finally left we had to go wake them up.

When we did leave it was raining so we had to make the trek back to the buses in the rain. Back in Quito we grabbed a cab after turning down two- one didn’t know where to go and the other wanted to charge us way too much. We went back to the supermaxi stop and we got ice cream at Kikos. We wanted hot fudge sundaes but I don’t know if they exist here. I’ll have to find that out. We settled for that chocolate that hardens like the dipped cones at DQ. It wasn’t great but it was good enough. From there we went to the cinemax and I got the 4th season of Dexter since I was close to finishing the 3rd season.

Once I got home I watched a bunch of episodes of Dexter and then went to sleep. It was a nice ending to a most ridiculous day.

That's plenty for now.
Hasta luego,

Caitlin