8/31

So, as I noticed there was no milk in the dairy section of the grocery store yesterday, I embarked upon an entire aisle of non-refrigerated boxes of ¨milk¨. I wasn´t sure what to make of it, and as I was alone I just pretended to read the boxes. I know that ¨leche¨is milk, so I was confident that I was on the right track. I also understood that they all contained no preservatives and needed no refrigeration. Easy. So I decided upon the most attractive box with a swiss maid, or something, on the front. I took it home, drank it with my cereal, and was surprised with the most creamy delicious milk I´ve had since Japan (there´s just something about Japanese milk). Anyway, I noticed a little saying on the front of the box, ¨La mujer sabor¨or something, so I look up sabor and only find saber in my measly index of a dictionary and it translated as ¨to know¨. So I´m thinking ¨the woman that knows¨which probably referred to that swiss milk maid. Then Sean told me later that sabor means ¨taste¨, and I was convinced that I just had breast milk on my Cap´n Crunch, you know - translating that ominous phrase as ¨the taste of woman¨. Luckily I have Sean around to get me through these situations, because the real phrase on the box of milk is, ¨La mejor sabor¨I guess meaning, ¨the best taste¨. Mujer/mejor, sabor/saber. These are the trials I go through daily. And by the way, I got Cap´n Crunch with Berries, which is what I consider to be the real Cap´n Crunch, while Sean has believed his whole life that Peanut Butter Cap´n Crunch is the original kind. And I thought I knew him, I thought to myself. The whole experience of eating cereal really is a comfort thing.

Today I visited Sean´s school. It´s beautiful. There´s a pagoda there and a little pond. There are little garden areas between buildings. A bit of Kyoto in Quito, really. Since it´s the expensive school in Ecuador, there are tons of people walking around like models. Popped collars, big sunglasses. Terrible, really. As promised, we did go to that Chinese place around the corner and I had some of those famed spring rolls. There as awesome as expected. Sean actually brought some home from school for me yesterday. I was so excited. ¨I blogged about these already,¨I told him! They have a strong peanut butter taste that made me miss Alex´s Oma´s Dutch-Indonesian cooking. I´m guilty of eating peanut butter by the spoonful, and when I spent that semester in Japan, one of the only things I requested from home was peanut butter. My parents sent me the huge economy sized jar of peanut butter. It was like gold in that kitchen. Geez, I could ramble on about food forever...

Tomorrow, Sean and I are planning on visiting a nearby town called Otovalo, which has a huge, famous market. There´s a slight chance that we won´t make it there, though, since we have no idea on how to get there yet. We´ll see. Today I bought this beautiful amazing orange/black dyed shawl made out of alpaca wool. It´s the most perfect article of clothing I´ve ever owned. It´s the perfect length to wrap myself in, but still look civilized. It´s warm, but still light. Quito is really sunny, but since the elevation is so high, it´s also pretty cold. When I say ¨cold¨I mean like a cool Spring night in Wisconsin. During the nights when the sun is gone, though, I´m chilled to the bone. Just a note, to pack warm clothes if you´re planning on visiting.