So.....I have been in Quito now for a month! And things are starting to get hairy........teaching at two Universities, and both positions are projects run in conjunction with actual projects with practical applications in the real world....(more explanations later as these things start to happen - I hope they come to fruition properly!!!!????? whatever that means.....) Don't ask me how this all happened, as I like to think of things as being purely theoretical......well, the simplest answer is I have assumed Ana Maria's life for the moment, while she is away in the States for a year!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, life is alright. I think I have finally acclimated to the altitude (we are at 2900 meters), and I think I don't smell car/bus/truck exhaust anymore, either!!!!! As well, I have flirted with danger here and there by walking at night. The usual recommendation is to take cabs after nightfall, no matter how short the distance is......After class the other night, I could not bear losing another opportunity to have a casual walk-off from the trials and tribulations of the students, by walking 15 minutes to meet Jazz and Jessica for dinner. I was talking to a friend on the phone, giving her my location at every intersection......then advising her to call the police if something happened! (needless to say, I made it alright...luckily, as most people here put zero trust in the police, after the customs dept., possibly the second most corrupt gov't agency?????)

Anyway! Jessica is in town.....a friend from Grinnell who I had lost contact with for the past 15 years! We just reconnected thru Marky Mark about a month before I left NYC. She also just decided to leave a job of 8 yrs......to move here to Quito for a short stint, to work with the Kallari cooperative, a group of about 800 Amazonian Kichwa families who produce organic fair trade coffee & cacao.....they also have a little cafe in Quito, and do some other things.....She wants to work with them in promoting products abroad...so keep an eye out for their chocolate...very good!

They also make a nice gringo-healthy lunch.....we got to dine with the finest group of foreigners in this backpacker neighborhood (by day - but by night it is full of drunken quito kids) here, Mariscal which is north of the historic center.....they made some nice sandwiches with challah bread???? Jess is going to do some baking with them....and some new pastry ideas, as well!

So.....later after class (which is 4 nites a week till 9pm!) I head down - by foot, in the dark back to Mariscal to meet Jazz and Jess for dinner at Indochine! Jazz & I have been trying to go here for a week now.....it's the only Vietnamese place in town and relatively new!!!! and thank god....it's a real Asian place......hmmmm......it's been a little tough.....getting good international food here.....

Oh, and the first place I've been able to procure a good vodka martini without having to talk to the bartender about how it should be.....

Anyway! The owners are a 1/2 Vietnamese & American.....then an Ecuadorian from DC who trained in Paris...with last night, a waiter from Brooklyn..and bartender from Argentina.........We met these guys below, from NYC who are from the NY Latin American Film Festival who are doing a little thing in Quito tomorrow night. The surprising thing is that the girl next to Jess, is her brother's - who is in brookyn - new "friend" who Jess has never met before! Quito, mind you, is a quiet town and almost nothing seems to be happening anywhere to the visible eye.......alright! I will figure out pics and this slow connection at home........(I've kind of slacked on the incessant foto taking, and let my flickr account go unpaid....but will figure that out in a bit)


OH! and happy birthday to my little Ana Maria, in faraway Cambridge....que triste!!!!! bueno!!!!!