13 - University with my friend Karina

Last Friday I took La Metrovia early in the morning to meet my friend Karina to go to her university with her. I met Karina through her mom, Gloria, who I met at the Fundacion Alberto Spencer at the beginning of October (see blog entry 7).
To get to her school from my house I had to take 4 buses! When we got there all her friends were sitting together outside. I already knew a lot of them because I met them at Karina´s birthday party. We all walked to class together and one of the boys carried my backpack for me. ¡Qué machisimo!


The classroom was pretty small. There were about 30 metal desks, empty cement walls, and a white board and table at the front. Before the teacher came in everyone was loud, joking, and having fun, but as soon as the teacher came in everyone took their seats. The teacher was pretty strict. She took one look at me, asked what I was doing in her classroom, and then made me move to a desk far away from everyone. I felt like a trouble maker in grade school.
After class, which didn´t last long because they just had a short quiz, I went with Karina and a bunch of her friends to a bar/discoteca around the corner. You had two options to get in to the bar. You could either pay $1.00, which included a drink, or you could pay .50 cents and not get a drink. I think almost everyone just paid the .50 cents. No American college student in their right mind would ever skip a deal like that.
Inside was a dark room with a few tables and chairs, a disco ball, and blazing music.


I sat down with a few girls and one of the boys brought over a bottle of Pilsener. We drank the beer the same way people here always drink. Pour some beer into a plastic cup, pass it to someone, they chug it down, and pass back the empty cup for it to be refilled and passed on to someone else to chug.
Not long after getting to the disco Karina´s friend Juan Pablo invited me to dance with him. People here dance all the time. Dancing is a huge part of their lives from the time they´re very little. In my life I only danced at Bar Mitzvahs, weddings, and drunk college parties. I stand no chance dancing with Latinos.



Although I know I looked really silly, Juan Pablo was a great teacher, and there´s a slight chance that I´m improving.

Like I said before, inside the bar it was dark except for the disco lights, so it felt like we were dancing all night. In reality, by the time we left it was only 10:30 AM, and the sun wasn´t even up all the way. Oh how I love Ecuador.