Birthdays and Valentines

Yesterday was a pretty lazy day. I was sick, as I usually get sick once a week in Cuenca now. It's always the same thing. I wake up fine and within an hour I'm on a sneezing/runny nose rampage. It usually lasts all day and I feel awful, but it cleared up for the most part by late afternoon. I went down to the bank to see if I finally got paid for January, but was told that the check wouldn't clear until Monday. So hopefully on Monday I can pay the rent for last month.

My friend Diana invited me out for her birthday to a dance club, so I met up with her and her cousins that I'm also friends with around 10 p.m. It was an older crowd at the club, but we got a couple bottles of rum and danced for a while. Her new boyfriend is from Spain and we talked for a little bit about how I used to live there, and it was actually hard for me to understand him at first because it's been so long since I heard a Spanish accent. My friends told me that when I first got to Cuenca I sounded more Spanish, but now I sound more like I'm from Cuenca. I really can't tell the difference at all when I'm the one speaking.

We talked for a while and also danced a good amount. The birthday girl was unhappy that she was turning 25, so the cousins made a point of yelling happy birthday every so often. I mentioned that the same day was my grandfather's birthday, easier to remember because it's on Valentine's Day. I'm kind of surprised that Valentine's Day is a big deal here, but there were little pink hearts all around the city and people were selling flowers and balloons saying "I Love You." It's also weird that it was in English, and not in Spanish. But I guess it's universally understood.

Today a friend from Guayaquil is coming in and there's another birthday party later on at night. My throat is kind of hurting today, probably from the cold, so hopefully it doesn't get any worse before moving on to travel again on Monday. Soon enough I'll be in Peru.