Where do the umbrellas come from?

And now, some things I think about in my day:

1. Somehow, whenever it starts to rain, the streets are rapidly inundated with umbrella venders. I have no idea how these women do it as they´re selling other dry-weather goods when it isn´t raining and carry everything with them for their day. Several of them work quite a way from their homes so either they´re storing these umbrellas somewhere or they conjure them out of thin air. Either way, I´m keeping my eye on these umbrella venders...something fishy is going on here.

2. Several of the streets here are one-way, especially in the tiny, built-for-horses streets of Old Quito around my house. This in itself doesn´t present a problem, but the direction of the one-way seems to change sporadically. I´ll be walking down a one way street, sure that I´m facing the oncoming traffic, only to have a bus come up on me from behind and blow me aside. It also seems like the one-wayness may change from day today. Everyday on my way to my internship I´m absolutely positive about the direction of traffic, only to be proven wrong once again. Que misterioso...

3. Continuing with transportation, as I walk to my internship I often practice how I´m going to argue with my next taxi driver about prices. When the family went out to dinner the other night, the starting price for Charo was $2 (a full dollar below my cheapest ride) and she bargained down to $1.50! Although I really don´t mind paying the extra dollar or so, I consider it part of my integration process and a step toward "fitting in." With that in mind, I´m going to demand $2 when I go out this weekend and see what happens...most likely I´ll just be stuck in the rain without a taxi...

4. I realize that my Spanish is hardly flawless, but in most of my daily interactions I´m pretty confident that I´m putting together a convincing combination of vocabulary and grammar. However, whenever I go to the bank or a restaurant, people often completely misunderstand what I´m saying regardless of whether I´m expressing my needs clearly or not. For example, when I went to the bank the other day for change ($20 bills are completely useless) I asked (in perfect, clearly enunciated Spanish) for 2 tens, 3 fives, and 5 ones in exchange for the 2 twenties I´d just gotten from the ATM. The man looked at me and asked, "4 tens?", which is about as far from my order as he could have been. We then progressed to "2 tens and 4 fives?", finally arriving at the correct order after I yelled what I wanted for the third time. I guess we´ll just have to deal with it.

5. I´ve also been wondering if 5 boys in Sol de Primavera think about anything other than stilts...ever. The first thing they say to me in the morning (even before "buenos dias", because respectful greetings are really important in the foundation) is "When are we doing zancos?!" regardless of whether it´s their turn or not (which they all keep track of meticulously). This continues for about 20 minutes, during which I´m saying, "We´re not going to talk about stilts right now, no, seriously, not now, I don´t care, do you have lots of homework today?, no, you don´t have stilts today, no, we´re not talking about this, stop" I hear the same thing all day from these 5 boys...these kids need a hobby.

6. Speaking of my kids and hobbies, I´ve been teaching several kids how to play chess (a few already knew and Sergio is really really good) and we play other games all the time. The problem is that if I look away from the game for a second, which I always do to keep track of the other 15 kids in the room, the game is suddenly, miraculously shifted to the advantage of my opponent. When I explain to them that just because my Spanish isn´t perfect, it doesn´t mean that I´m stupid and that I´m completely aware of their cheating, they admit to cheating and after a quick reprimand continue with the game. This wouldn´t be so bad but the cheating is ssooo rampant, with the same kids playing the same games cheating the same way! I´m going to continue my crusade against this but so far haven´t gotten through to them why they can´t cheat in general, not only in the specific case...

Also, an update of what´s happening RIGHT NOW! I´ve been watching the Ecuador/Brasil fútbol game with Charo and JuanCar and Charo reminds me sssooo much of my mom with sports (although you´ve gotten better over the years, I know Mom). She cheers when anyone scores a goal (even though the score right now is 5-0 Brasil) and has mentioned several times how she doesn´t like Ecuador´s uniforms, preferring Brasil´s bright yellow. Also, whenever we finish eating Charo says, "Time for the dishwashing minga!" The minga is the traditional indigenous system of reciprocity and means communal work in general but for us it means that Charo washes, I dry, and JuanCar puts away. This is pretty much what every family does but it´s way cooler here because it´s called a minga...