¡Sale Albo!

 It's pretty much been business as usual around here- workin', schoolin', hangin', only gerund nouns, basically. 

    Things at the orphanage are great- in the past two weeks there have been two different teams from the States that have come to help out. Both from Boston, one high school group and one college group, it was refreshing to speak English at work! I also started a new project for the home, electronic memory books. Basically, I am making scrap books on the computer using a special software. Most of you know, this is my ideal service opportunity. I am loving it!

     School is, well- school. Papers and procrastinating- nothing new there. I have discovered that I can listen to my iTunes playlists (sample: Canadians, songs with numbers in the title, food titles...) and play spider solitaire for hours and still write only half a page of a paper. Single spaced.

Now, the fun- and to explain that obnoxiously showy Spanish title (Tom Brice called me a "show off" on the phone on Wednesday.) Last night the semester abroaders went to a Liga Futbol game.Obviously I don't enjoy or understand organized sports, but a Liga game requires little to no sports knowledge to enjoy.We got to the stadium early, like an hour and half early. The perfect amount of time to take in the scenery. The south end of the field is a section called "Muerte Blanca"or white death. Liga's home jerseys are white, and for home games this section is filled up with the craziest, most die-hard fans. So crazy in fact, that they lit fire works from the stands when the team came out onto the field. (The picture above is just a google image search, last night the smoke was red, and much more intimidating.) During this gaseous,smoky haze they also chant, "Sale Albo, Sale Albo, Saaaalleeee Albo!" (come out white, come out white.) That one was easy- two words while jumping up and down. Got it. But, there's also a bunch of longer songs the fans sing during the game (whilst jumping, screaming obscenities, and gulping down the Pilsner like they're going to the e-chair...)  Lucky for us- Chelsea's host dad came to the game with us. Gus has been a Liga fan for all of his 30 somethimg years and was more than happy to teach the gringas a thing or two about his favorite equipo. There was one more chant we learned- "Yo soy de la U!" (I am of the U.) Even with expert townie guidance, I think we had the most fun jumping around and yelling out spanish sports phrases (my vocabulary has grown exponentially...) "Eso Es!" (that's it!) "Si Se Puede" (Yes they/you can!) "GOL!" (goal, duh.) I would like to believe that our expert gringo cheers helped herald in the 3-0 victory for Liga against the Argentina International Club (?) 

In other news, Alyse and I are getting our noses pierced today and i'm heading outing out to the jungle town (?) of Baños for this hopefully, lluvia free, Carnaval weekend. Carnaval is the weekend leading up to fat Tuesday and is practically a national holiday here. Schools get all of next week off and almost everyone doesn't work Monday and Tuesday. I'm going to the artesian markets in Otavalo with my host family on Saturday and the study abroaders are doing Baños Sunday to Tuesday. But wait, there's more! Tuesday night we're also going to see BACKSTREET BOYS in concert. As in, transplant a large portion of my life from '98-'00 and bring it to Latin America. If that's not chevere, I don't know what is!