Cuenca, Compadres, and Cuy!

I arrived in Cuenca last weekend; around September 27th I believe. Although my bus experience was an interesting, yet grueling experience, the optimist in me has come to the conclusion that it has made me a stronger person. I’ve always thought that patience was one of my strengths, and the bus ride (although I did explode for 30 seconds) reinforced the idea that I am, in fact, a very patient individual. Since arriving in Cuenca I have been teaching, planning, and stressing non-stop. My first day at La Universidad de Cuenca had me add two new classes, I didn’t know I would be teaching; one of which I had to teach right when I got on campus. Thanks to my tremendous intellect and my amazing ability to think on my feet, I was able to teach for two hours very decently (yes, not good, not bad, but very average).

La Universidad de Cuenca

The students here are amazing. I get along with them great and hopefully they see me as a breath of fresh air. Most of the professors here are somewhat “aged” and from what I understand from the students, don’t bring a lot of enthusiasm to their classes. Since I believe I am the antithesis of “stand-up and lecture”, I think the students will definitely benefit from a little bit of change. Although I am the youngest faculty by at least 15 years, I get along with the other professors pretty well so far. They have been very welcoming and I appreciate their openness to a young gun like myself.

Compadres and Cuy

Keith and Laura arrived in Cuenca towards the end of last week because they didn’t have to teach until yesterday. Even better, they brought some of our friends! Tara, Sarah, and Jamie came down to Cuenca because they didn’t have to teach as well. Although I had to teach during the week, I was able to hang out with them after classes at night. Thank God I don’t have to teach on Friday mornings because Thursday was pretty fun/crazy/interesting. We all went out to dinner for Sarah’s birthday at a nice Italian restaurant. Keith and Laura were not feeling well so they went home, and the rest of us (me and three ladies) proceeded to go out. Well, since it was Sarah’s birthday we apparently had to “go big or go home”. We went to an upscale night club called “Brick” were Tara and Sarah forced the club owners to give us free alcohol and a free bottle of champagne for Sarah’s birthday.

see also: Bouncers
Bartenders
Other Bar staff

Well we finally received some compensation for the birth of our dear friend in a dreadful bottle of something, and we proceeded to make the dance floor…Jamie and I worked on our salsa-ish dance technique (I like to think of it as salsa meets hip-hop) and needless to say, we are getting pretty damn good. After we almost got in a fight with the bouncers on our way out, meaning Tara and Sarah fought with them while I tried to make friends with them, spoke with them in broken Spanish, etc. we topped the night off by hanging out by the river. Tara swam to a rock, which was funny, but also dangerous. Girls, will be girls. Wait. Yea. Something like that…
The next night the whole group met up again for dinner. This time we decided to try “Cuy”.

see also: Guinea Pig
Rodents
Pets in the United States

After Jamie telling us about her pet Guinea Pig named “Top Not” we decided to dig in; although it did taste delicious, it was extremely rich, and I couldn’t eat that much. The experience was interesting to say the least, and I was able to check off another weird dish that I had never tried before.

More teaching this week followed by a weekend trip to Quito for the Ecuador vs. Uruguay game! World Cup Qualifying baby!!! Get excited, Ecuador needs to win!