Blackout, classes

So, there was a total blackout of all of Quito last night. The lights went out for about half an hour around six and then came back on. They went out for another half hour around eight. Meche tells me the electricians are on strike. Luckily, after the first time it happened, Juli was still around and gave me a candle and some matches for the second time. Unfortunately, they were the most jank matches I’ve ever seen, and their pilot light was out, so I couldn’t light one from the stove. By some strange stroke of luck, there were some souvenir matchbooks on the bulletin board in my room, so by the light of my cell phone I was able to safely light the candle. Unfortunately, I just finished the book I was reading (which was fabulous, by the way), so I entertained myself playing purble place and mahjong on my computer.

This week has gone pretty well. I finally picked my classes. I’m taking human ecology, north and south: processes of colonialization (which I will learn is not the same as colonialism), and two gringo literature classes. They’re all pretty small classes. The gringo classes have less than 10 people and the other two around 25. So, I have to talk in class, which is both a blessing because I need to improve my speaking skills and a curse because I’ll actually have to work (oh no!). The ecology and history classes also have a lot of reading, but I haven’t had too much trouble with comprehension. I come across lots of words I don’t know, but I can get the gist of the readings without looking all of them up.