A Day in the Life of Zach

I said a few days ago that I was going to educate you on the culture of Ecuador. I have a list of topics made up...but I figured I would do something different. Here is a day in the life of me, in Quito:

6:15- I wake up because the sun is coming through my window. I roll over, pull the blankets over my head, and try to sleep a few more minutes.
7:00- This must be when everyone begins to drive to work because this is when car horns start blowing. By now, I am awake...and I probably won´t go back to sleep. My bed is comfortable so I continue laying there for another 30 minutes.
7:30- Now, it´s time for me to start getting ready. I only have an hour to get to the spanish school. I gather all of my shower stuff and head to the bathroom.
7:33- I walk in the bathroom and turn on the hot water and wait for it to make it´s way from the water heater in the kitchen. This takes approximately 3 minutes.
7:36- The water is steaming, so I step in. I make sure the large window in the shower is barely cracked so that the neighbors in nearby apartment are not blinded by my white, American posterior.
7:45- I get out of the shower and head back to my room to get dressed. I put on my clothes and make my bed because it would be rude for me to leave my room a mess in someone else´s house.
7:53- After getting dressed and making my bed, I head to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I have to be careful not to swallow any of the water out of the sink when rinsing my brush so that I don´t contract E-coli which could lead to bad number 2´s.
8:00- I head to the kitchen where Cecilia, my host mom, has a slice of pineapple waiting on me. I pop two pieces of toast in the toaster, layer it with ¨marmalada de frutas¨, and eat the toast along with my one ¨omelette egg¨, as Cecilia says.
8:15- After discussing the weather, breakfast, and some Spanish with Cecilia, I head back to my room to gather my things. I put $5 in my back pocket in case of a mugging, my keys in my left pocket, change in my right pocket, and grab my backpack.
8:21- I´m out the door!
8:22- I wait a minute for the elevator to get to the top of the apartment building, then I ride it down.
8:24- ¨Hola, amigo! Buenas dias,¨ I tell the apartment guy as I walk out the front door.
8:25- Now, I´m at the intersection of Seis de Diceiembre and Orellana. I rush across the road to keep from getting hit by a taxi all while having a bus honk it´s horn at me. It´s not very often that a unusually tall, red bearded gringo is running across the streets of Quito.
8:27- I turn the corner of Yanez Pinzon street and head towards the language school. I pass many people in suits who are headed out to work. I, the gringo (American), am in my Gap pants, an E&H tshirt, and either my trusty North Face sweatshirt or my favorite Old Navy sweatshirt.
8:30- I arrive in front of the Equinoccal language school and hit the button to have the gate opened for me. After they look through their little security camera and see it is me, they buzz me in.
10:30- By this time, I have had two hours of español and I want a break. My teacher lets me go get a drink of water and chat with my friends at the school for a bit.
12:30- I am starved! After having them buzz me out of the gate at the language school, I head straight for my apartment.
12:43- After taking my backpack to my bedroom, I head straight to the kitchen where Cecilia has a plate of food waiting on me.
1:07- I usually finish eating my rice and whatever else around now and I head to my bedroom to put some more change in my pocket.
1:15- I leave now to head to the internet café to check my email, check my facebook, and update my blog!! Yea!
2:45- Depending on the amount of email and such that I have, I usually head out of the internet café around this time.
2:45-5:15- During this time, I may go a park, a museum...something like that. After I am done with that, I head back to the internet café before it gets dark to check my email and facebook one final time for the day. Sometimes, important messages come within those three hours!
6:15- I usually head back to the apartment around this time.
6:25- I arrive back at the apartment and head for my bedroom.
6:32- After thinking about the day for approximately 7 minutes, I pick up my book I´m reading and read until around 7:45.
7:45- I head to the kitchen a fix a ham sandwich...yeah! My splurge of American food each day.
7:55- I head back to my bedroom and do my Spanish homework. Usually, it takes me around 45 minutes.
9:00- I go to my closet, grab my toothbrush, floss, head to the bathroom, brush my teeth, floss, and then I head to bed.
11:10- I usually wake up around this exact time every night. I think there is a really loud plane that goes over around this time every night.
11:13- I´m back to sleep.
12:30- A car alarm goes off. Awake again. Then, I´m back to sleep and sleep until 6:15 the next morning!

Wow...that turned out much longer than I expected. I hope you like it though.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.