Fin de semana 3

¡Hola! I meant to blog earlier this week...but I got held up A LOT because this week's been quite busy. Very busy!

Class is going well. As of two weeks ago we had a new addition to the class in the shape of a Swiss-German (¡Claro! ¡Todos los chicos de la escuela son de Suiza!) lad called Marcel. Patricia left last Viernes along with loads of other people and we had a big party at the apartment that a Galés lad Matt is renting. Good times! After the party we went to una discoteca at my end of town which was awesome...not really my kinda music but about half of it was gringa, so that's always a bonus!

I spent the night afterwards (or the late madrugada, depending on which way you look at it) sleeping in a hammock at Matt's. The chap from Jersey, Luis, stayed over as well as one of the guys who was leaving, Swiss-German chap called Sandro. We had a wicked fry-up in the morning before collapsing in front of a DVD with two of the multidinous American girls, the sisters Ashleigh and Alicia. I believe Alicia is the baby of the school - ¡tiene solamente dieceseis años! I went home to rejuvenate before we all went to eat out in style at the remarkably cheap Italian restaurant in Cuenca. Very authentic...We went to a few bars but most of us were too tired from the night before!

Anyway! Enough of all that. On Tuesday I stayed late after school to watch the weekly film that gets shown. This week it was a Colombian film called...Los Niños Invisbles. It was such a sweet little film, although naturally very odd. I'm not sure I'm too hot at following las temas latinoamericanas, but it was a fun time to be had by all.

Wednesday was a beautiful day (for once! We had a minor flood in the south of the city last week owing to copious amounts of rain - but nowhere near me. Anyway, from what I've been hearing that's remarkably similar to England...) so I got up early and went out sketching near la escuela, which is a BEAUTIFUL part of Cuenca. Luis saw me when he left class and I joined a short excursion up to a ceramics workshop and viewing platform overlooking Cuenca. It was a fabulous view, but the photos won't come out too well as the sun was directly facing us =( Still, it was really nice to be out in the sun for once!

After school on Wednesdays there is a classe de baile, Salsa to be precise. Everyone else told me how much fun it was so for the first time I had a bash at dancing Salsa with everyone. He estado divertido, ¡pero tambien muy cansado! Afterwards we headed down to a bar next to the escuela and had a drink and some comida before some of us went off to the discoteca. A fun night was to be had by all, although perhaps a little too much cerveza was imbibed...Nevertheless, it was a cracking time!

Unfortunately, since I got home at 4am I was really really tired at class (as well as a bit chuchaqui - pero no borracho, ¡serio!) and all my stuff was at Matt's apartment, which was locked! It didn't matter too much though - the teachers are all really friendly and understanding of 'Los Ingleses'. It seems the stereotype has spread!

Last night Marcel and I had arranged to go to a local restaurant and sample the local culinary delights. This involved papas, mote, innumerable salsas, a drink called Zhumir (yikes!) and, of course, the local delicacy cuy. Look it up :P It's very tasty, if a little strange for us gringos. I think we can safely say the entire excursion to the restaurant was a success - we had 21 people in total! ¡Increíble!

After that it was ice cream, a bar and then of course the discoteca, which was full of westerners! They always are, of course, in Cuenca, but it's always fun. Last night, por ejemplo, we met a bloke from Cornwall who's TEFL in a local school. Nice guy...never did catch his name!

I got home at...5:30am and slept very poorly before I decided that I wanted the apartment cleaned - so I had to leave! And that brings me to now, sitting in Cuenc@net opposite the school in the city centre.

Aieeeee, I'm having a wonderful time! I love Cuenca and su gente - and all the other estudiantes as well. It's just a shame that Matt and Luis are leaving real soon - I'll have to keep up the impetus with the social stuff!