im not at ut anymore

one week of real classes is complete. the first few days at puce (pontífica universidad católica de ecuador) was a reminder that i certainly was not at u.t. this semester. no online registration, no hyperlinks to campus building maps from my online schedule, but rather a semi-chaotic search for classrooms in a variety of buildings, professors that didnt show up for the first class or randomly changed the times of the classes without telling anyone, and classes closing and opening on a whim. buut, after several days of not having a clue of what was going on, i am now enrolled in 17 hours im finally assured that i am taking the following classes:

-national and international human rights from the perspective of gender (at puce)
-popular andean religious practices (at puce)
-spanish (at ies, my study abroad program)
-globalization and international relations (at ies, a very economics based class, which is tough, considering ive never even had economics in english yet at u.t.)
-service learning (at ies, where i will get to do 70 hours of service work, plus class once a week to discuss issues that we encounter in our service...i hope to travel to ibarra, a town 2.5 hrs away, to teach english for six weekends with an indigenous rights organization)

my classes are difficult because of the fact that they are very discussion based, and even in english classes i am not that much of a talker sometimes (for example, im not crazy about debates in any class, but a debate in globalization last thurs was nearly hell for me), so in spanish its going to be very tough. but i am really enjoying what im learning.
also, classes are two days a week in two hour blocks, which is looooong. but hopefully ill adjust. and im taking classes for 18 hours each week but only getting 15 hrs of credit... but no class on fridays! im super pumped about that.
another thing, in my two puce classes, there are only a total of 4 ecuadorian students, which is terribly disappointing. most of them i am taking with the same ies kids in my ies classes. and two of those 4 are adult women lawyers in my human rights class, who seem cool, but not exactly the key to getting into the social scene here...
but overall, classes are really interesting and i can´t wait to begin my service learning.

enough enough about classes. last weds i got free tickets to see pepe romero, a world famous spanish classical guitarrist, at the teatro sucre. a gorgeous, heavenly even, show in which pepe played more rapidly than i thought possible, on the neck of the guitar, while drumming a ritmo on the other side. so beautiful. and he encored 5 times! it was hilarious, he really looked like he enjoyed, like he was created for, what he was doing.
also attended last week was a ecuadorian jazz concert in the cute cafelibro and a rock concert to celebrate "un dia sin auto" (a day without a car) to celebrate biking. entonces, a week of looots of enjoyable music. this past weekend = a trip to mindo, a cute town 3 hours away, more on that to follow...