Carolina y la mariscal

So now that I´ve assured my parents that I´m fine and everything is fine, I can write about what happened to me on Saturday.

I went to a park near my house-La Carolina-to do an anthro assignment where I had to observe people. I spent 45 minutes observing and then went to look for a new spot to watch from. I was about to sit myself in front of a tree with my little notebook and fresh mandarin juice, and two guys mugged me. It was 11 am! on a saturday when the park was full! crazy stuff. But I was so innocent there all by myself with my cellphone visible in my pocket. (something they told us not to do) All he did was threaten me, take the phone, and leave. Completely not violent and surprisingly not scary. Obviously I´m upset that that was money down the drain but honestly...I went home decided i was going to include the experience in my anthro paper, and my hostmom said we could go that same day to get a new phone. The fact that I went home and started writing about my mugging from an anthropological point of view and that I had the option of getting mugged in the morning and having a new phone that afternoon was more overwhelming than the actual mugging. Seriously? That´s my life? That´s how much privilege I have? that I can get mugged and easily buy again what I lost and use the experience for academics meanwhile these guys are mugging gringas at 11am...so much to deal with.

So now I have to figure out where to put my phone when I go out. I may need to buy a wristlet or something.

So far that and getting sick have been the worst. But last week was so fun. Wednesday I went to my friend´s apartment. They´re from the U.S. but they´ve been here since August so they´ve already done the host family thing and now they have this amazing apartment. Makes me a little jealous but I also like being taken care of like this. So that was cool, then thursday was avatar, and then Friday I went to la mariscal where all the bars and clubs are and where all the gringos go. Friday was soooo great for a few reasons. I was with a big group of friends which is always more fun, before going out I was at a friend´s house and her ecuadorian friends came over and that was fun and it was nice to hang out with ecuatorianos, then even at the mariscal we met a bunch more ecuadorians. So I met a lot of nice people and got to speak more spanish. I didn´t drink too much, didn´t eat the food, and had a blast.

This weekend I hope to be travelling to the coast to this place called Atacames. Stay in a hostel with my peeps, beach, baila, etc.

later days...