well its been a pretty low key weekend. friday was also a low key day at work. jack and i didnt really have anything to do on friday so we ended up researching beach houses to rent during a break we have in may. after work i went home and i met on of pepes friends who is visiting from belgium. she is backpacking all the way from here to argetina. im a little jelous but me and pepe are already planning the same type of trip. anyway her name is anita and she learned to speak spanish in valencia spain so it is very easy to communicate with her. friday night pepe, anita, some of pepes friends and i just hung out here at the house on the upstairs patio. i decided that this weekend i would only speak spanish and no english and so far (its sunday night) i have been completly successful. we ended up talking global politics. i asked anita what has happened to her government (belgium has been going through some political problems lately) and then we talked about bush and all the problems that my country has around the world. i had to do a lot of defending of my countries foreign policy (this wasnt the first time this trip). the funny thing is that i feel very patriotic when i can slightly change the image that my country has in the eyes of people from other countries (i hope that makes sence). saturday i didnt really do anything and it felt really good. i took a long nap and read in the hammock for a long time. saturday night we went to the birthday party of one of pepes friends. it was my first party at the house of someone else. people were very well dressed (i went in flip flops) and there was a lot of dancing but still a lot of fun. this time i talked politics with some of my ecuadorian friends. aperently president correa (current ecuadorian prez) isnt really liked here in guayaquil. he is seen more as a dictator because he disabled the power that congress once had. we all got home very late and i fell asleep so easy last night. today was more of the same as yesterday. i just read and slept. tommorow i start work early in the morning going to the slums. i giess ill be well rested for that.
-mark