Cuenca Day 1

Cuenca
I arrived in Cuenca yesterday evening.  It was easy enough to get a cab and get to the Hostel.  I had a bit harder of a time getting the room worked out in spanish, but it all worked out just fine.  Granted, I had pretty low expectations, but I am thrilled with my hostel choice.  It's pretty darn cheap ~12 for my single room with a private bath.  The room is, of course, fairly basic, but it's clean and about twice the size of my previous room - aka, there is plenty of space to walk around the bed and includes a bench and small luggage table.  It also has a little terrace off of it.  My previous room had about an extra foot on one side and barely enough room to have two people stand at the foot of it, along with the small round table.  It was tiny - but it was only for two nights.

After checking in last night, I ventured across the street and had some pizza.  Nothing was open, being sunday and all & the resaurants that were open, closed early, so I was just happy to find something close.  On my way there (all 10 steps), I meet 4 travellers that were stranded outside their hostel, waiting for the hostel owners to come by, so that they could grab their stuff.  He was supposed to be there by 7 ("for sure") and didn't end up showing till about 8:30.  Unfortunately, the 3 that were leaving that night, had already missed at least one bus, but hopefull made the 9pm out of town. 

After they collected their stuff, Tom, the traveller that was sticking around another day, stopped at the pizza place and we had a few drinks and chatted for awhile.  It never fails, I always meet somebody within minutes of arriving in a new place.

The Hostel
I'm staying at Hogar Cuencana.  The hostel owners are fantastic!  Celso and Maggie, have been very helpful and kind.  Celso helped me figure out getting to my school this morning, no thanks to the directions they mailed... 

They gave me two addresses.  One called "Address" and one called "Location".  The difference is beyond me... Celso called both numbers on the receipt for me with no luck.  There was either no answer, or it was the wrong number, for all of the numbers we (he) called.  So... off to find the school.  I tried finding the first address, which was close by.  when I couldn't find it, I walked to the second, which was 10 or so minutes away.  I found the address, which was promising, however... It was actually a theatre group or something of that sort instead.  So, I trecked my keister back up to the hostel.  Celso tried calling again and called another number we found.  Finally!  Turns out, the first address did exist, it was just tucked away on the side of a cafe.  Celso walked me over to help me find it, which was really awesome of him. 

When I got back from the initial place, Celso's wife was really great too she made sure I knew where the kitchen was and made me coffee, showing me how to do it there and where everything was located.  She's also going to bring me some coffee from their farm, so that I don't have to drink instant coffee.  I had coffee from their farm today & it is so fresh, your eyes pop open just smelling it, it's really amazing, it actually surprises you when you smell it.  She also said she'd do laundry for me for free if it's just a little, or very cheap if it's allot.  I feel like I've been sort of adopted, I love it. 

Exercising Ecuadorians
Ok, not to make fun of them, I really don't mean it that way, but not being ready for it, I was trying hard not to laugh when I first saw this... it made my random hiadeous to find the school that wasn't there, well worth the frustration.  I walked across the river and off to find this "school" and at first, just see a guy stretching with his foot up on the railing.  perfectly normal, except he was swinging his arms -- a little odd, I thought, but ok, maybe he's just getting circulation going.  a few more steps and there is a woman alternating between stretching against the wall and doing a full body shake.  Not just any normal shake it off type shake though, it was like she was trying to shake off the heeby jeebies (sp?).  But what do I see next?  A speed walker coming at me, swinging her arms all the way above and past her head and back down.  Then there's a little old man passing me while shaking purposefully from head to hip and stopping every once in awhile to make another jerking motion that I couldn't identify or begin to describe.  At this point, I'm highly amused and grinning ear to ear -- and along comes a very masculine looking man... in very tight, almost spandex pants and matching top, with brite blue shoes - walking... almost quickly, but obviously very serious about his work-out.  There was nothing wrong, or off, or disabled about any of these people, so I hope it doesn't sound like that.  They were very purposefully doing all of these things as part of their workouts... though I can't figure out what any of those exercises were doing much in the way of excercising, but oh well.  I don't know if this explanation does it any justice at all... no one thing by itself was goofy enough to remember, but it was the combination of all of it, one after another, that just had me in stitches as I was walking along this morning.  The best way I can describe the combination of them, is to refer you back to the show "Friends", if you remember the episode about how Phoebe runs.  Anyway, It was definitely a very bright spot in my spanish school location confusion.

Lunch
I went to a place called Karma and had a great fixed lunch (apparently they all do that here - it's called merza, which I'll likely adjust later when I find out the right spelling and pronunciation).  It was small, but plenty big enough, including a really yummy carrot soup (sounds terrible, I know, but it was awesome) and a small amount of steak strips and onions in some amazing sauce, with rice and a plantain.  It also included some yummy fruit drink of some kind.  It was, no joke, $2, and amazing. 

Spanish School
I got through my beginner placement test scheduled for my morning classess, starting tomorrow morning.  So, like a good student, I'm off to do my reviewing I've been assigned to be ready for tomorrow.