haha, the nightlife!

Well, Friday night, I had the most fun ever! Ismael says to me, "hey, what are you doing tonight?" and I say, "nothing." so he says, "let´s go to Guayaquil!" and I say, "yeah, that sounds fun! do you know your way around there pretty well?" ..... "uh...no, not really. i hardly ever go." hahaha, so we got a group together (so we wouldn´t get lost) and went. We left at about 8:00pm and when Marcelo asked what time we would be back, they said maybe around 10:30 or 11:00 and Marcelo says, "well that´s dumb. you´re going to get there and immediately have to come back. enjoy the city, guys." so...we did!

We walked through some plazas, took some pictures at a fountain. I went with a really fun group of good friends. (from left to right: Jennyfer, Ismael, Me, Gabriel and Esther. Not pictured here is José...because he is taking the picture. you will see him later. he is in an orange shirt.) While we were taking this picture, a man walked up to us and started passing out little booklets of poetry that he wrote. Then, right there on the spot, he made up a really funny poem about Jennyfer and we all laughed. So we bought one of his little books for a dollar.

Then we walked through the boardwalk by the river to the Malecón, which is where we always go with the missions groups during our free day. It was much prettier at night. We laughed and laughed! There were little girls selling roses and one of the little girls was so persistant. She would not leave without us buying a rose. While we were trying to take a picture together, she actually stuck the rose in Ismael´s pocket and wouldn´t take it back. He kept trying to give it back and she would not have it. She only wanted the money for it. It was hilarious. We finally had to just set the rose down on the ground and walk away. We couldn´t stop laughing at the fact that she actually shoved it in his pocket.

We went up to the lighthouse that you have to climb about 400something steps to get to. It was so beautiful up there. There is a little outdoor museum a little bit below the lighthouse that is dedicated to the Santa Ana which is a ship that something happened to at some point in Ecuador´s history apparently. I don´t know, I didnt read any of the plaques since I was too busy goofing around with everyone. We kept taking pictures in places where we weren´t supposed to be. There were these pirate statues all over the little park area and they were behind the chains that you weren´t supposed to cross. So everywhere we´d go, Gabriel would look around for the guards and then go,¨one, two, three" and we´d all run as fast as we could to where the pirate was and snap a picture and then run back. It was a blast. We were acting like kids and it was so much fun!

We climbed up this little rock-wall to a tree that was growing half way up it and took a bunch of pictures there. Ismael actually climbed the tree. I am pretty sure that wasn´t allowed. On the way back down the hill, Ismael thought it would be hilarious to push me down it. Turns out, it was hilarious.

After the museum we walked down the stairs but went around the back way this time and found a little park. We played on the swings and the teetertotter until the guard came and kicked us out of the park. She said, "hey, this park is for little kids, not for big jerks like you." and Ismael says, in complete seriousness, "maám, with all due respect, we may be big, but we are not jerks.......so....Jennyfer can still play here, right?" (because she is short. her nickname is enana which means midget. i have yet to figure out if that bothers her or not. haha) We all roared out in laughter and the guard just walked away. We left after that still laughing and went to eat a late dinner at KFC. The funny thing about restaurants here that we are familiar with in the United States is that the combos automatically come with rice. So we had fried chicken with rice and beans and it was a great time. We were so tired after all that that most everyone fell asleep in the taxi on the way home. We got home a little late (1:00am...oops) and the boys got a talking to from Marcelo for keeping the girls out so late. haha. Next time we will be a little more careful about the time.

I had a blast! You know, this is going to sound silly...one of the tiny worries I had before coming here was that I was not going to be able to laugh nearly as hard as I love to laugh because I thought I wouldn´t understand the humor here because of the language barrier. But I am glad to know I was so, so wrong.