More Football and Strike Action

I was pretty sick all weekend, so all I had to look forward to was watching the NFL Championship games on Sunday. I was pretty disappointed to find that ESPN International wasn't showing the NFC Championship game. Instead, a soccer game was being shown. Luckily, however, the AFC Championship game was shown later that night. It was nice to watch the game, and since I'd known who had won the NFC game, it made it interesting to know that this last game would determine the Superbowl. I still find it funny that the Spanish commentators say "touchdown" like they would yell "goooooooool." I had nothing invested in either team, but it was fun to watch.

And now back to the strike news. The heavily anticipated indigenous strike against the new mining law that is set to start at midnight will undoubtedly affect how we are able to get to our conference on the coast. Getting to the coast from the mountains is a hassle as it is, without added problems from road blocks and picket lines. Under no circumstances are we to cross a road block. It could be a really bad situation, because apparently we have to go to the conference no matter what, even if the roads are completely sealed off. Since there are only a few roads in and out of Cuenca, our options are pretty limited.

It's an interesting situation, because we are told that we must find a way to the conference. However, we are also forbidden from crossing any road blocks, and if we feel unsafe we are instructed to return home. So we find ourselves in a catch 22. There's even talk of classes being canceled tomorrow because some of the students won't be able to make it into the city from the surrounding areas. That would in turn create more problems for me because I'm already missing classes from Wednesday to Friday. And this is all towards the end of the semester. Things are about to get pretty interesting here.