Awww

Yesterday was the last day of classes for my first semester at the University of Cuenca, and it was a relief to finally get through the week. It was tough because there was hardly any material to cover and the students were already taking midterms for their other classes. As a result, they had no energy or concern for English class.

For the first class in the afternoon, we watched Forrest Gump, or two hours worth anyway. We only made it to the part where Jenny returns to Greenbow, Alabama for the first time and then we ran out of time. The students who actually showed up seemed to enjoy the movie. Moreso than my other class enjoyed Sin City, which I showed on Thursday night. I'd forgotten how much violence and gore was in it, and since there's only about 5 guys in the class, most of the students hated it.

My night section was always a little more laid back, and when we got to the room at 6 p.m. the students were speaking in Spanish, but I didn't even bother yelling at them about it. We waited for the Pizza Hut to arrive (the highest quality pizza here) and ate in a circle so we could talk and joke around. We didn't have any wine or cuy, but the students surprised me with a gift. Everyone pitched in to buy a t-shirt that says "Cuenca" and they spray painted "Level 4th, C/E 2008". I love the fact that they reversed "Level 4th". I'll wear it proudly.

After the present, it became a photoshoot and everyone wanted to get a picture with me. I tried to get them to do a review for the final, but most of the class didn't care, so I just passed around the sheet of things to review for them to look at if they wanted.

Some of the students were going out dancing and they invited me, so I went out with 5 of my students. First we jumped in the truck of one of my students, who apparently is a national champion at ATV racing. There wasn't enough room in the cab so we jumped in the bed of the truck, and I felt oh so Ecuadorian. We grabbed a drink at Cafecito, where I taught them some bad words in English, and then went out dancing at a club until about 3 in the morning.

One of the nice things is that a lot of my students are tourism majors, so they want to take me to Cajas National Park and be my personal tour guide. Also, on Sunday there is a cuy festival in a barrio of Cuenca, so one of them is going to take me so I can finally try it. And tonight I'm going to a birthday party of a friends cousin. So it's shaping up to be a nice little weekend.