Jess's 21st Bday Celebrations!

On Friday night, after the Pilsener stalking, we all went to Jessica's house for her first birthday dinner. We had dinner with all of Jess's family, including her hot host brother, Gustavo, and her host sister's fiance from New Zealand. They made tacos, or what to me, and to everyone not Ecuadorian at the table, were bean burritos. Although not my mom's Mexican food, which the best, of course, they were still good. We also had legit Sangria with fruit and bday cake.

After dinner we went to Plaza Foch and bar/club hopped all night. We went to a place called No Bar, which is the most tourist filled bar I've seen here, and danced to some great music, offset by horrible techno. We also went to Macondo's, which was more of a bougie lounge with even better music, and met Jess's US Embassy friends and then Huainas, our usual dancing place.

On Saturday, we went to get our nails done and read trashy magazines, for about 3 hours. It was cool, only ocho dolares for both a mani and a pedi, and I'm pretty sure they did a better job than anyone else I've ever been to. At the salon we met a lady that told us she used to be a host mom to international students. She asked us if we liked to go out, and we said yes, that we usually went to el Mariscal and la Plaza Foch. She told us to be careful there, because there were a lot of homosexuals in that part of town and they were super dangerous. She also proceeded to tell us that Americans fall in love with ugly Ecuadorians, and that we shouldn't do that. She told us that she once had a host daughter who fell in love with an ugly Otavaleño, and that she just didn't know how anyone could do that, afterall, he was Indigenous, and all indegenous people are soooo "horribles"...Hmm, she was definitely the most blunt racist/homophobic person I've heard here, I wonder why she's not a host mom anymore.

Afterwards, we went to El Bosque and bought lots of food at SuperMaxi to cook for Jess's second bday dinner. Emily and Jess cooked chicken parmesan, spaghetti, vegetables, garlic bread, and salad. I made the birthday cake. Out of a box, I might add, haha. We also had wine, and later on, for Jess, Pilseners and Piña Coladas. It was all so yummy! That night we went out again, this time to Pipas, where I tried hookah for the very first time, then back to Huainas, to dance all night. Good times!!!

Sunday, the girls went to Quicentro, what we think is the best mall here, and I stayed home, all day long, studying for my Econ and Marketing tests --I hadn't read for marketing since my last test, oops. It sucked, but luckily, they are both over and I think I did really well!