Back to the Movies

With a newly delivered stack of movies from Casey and Lara, I seem to have my work cut out for me for a few weeks to come. On Friday night I was out until 4:30 a.m., so yesterday I just wanted to hang out. My plan was to either play Frisbee in the park or basketball near the stadium, but it started to rain for most of the afternoon, and I knew I wasn't going anywhere.

Instead, I watched "Live Free or Die Hard," with Bruce Willis. I'd seen it when it came out in theaters, and it was definitely a good choice for a rainy day. After that movie and a walk around the neighborhood, I settled in with "Bella," a movie about a Mexican-American soccer player who winds up as a chef in a New York City restaurant. It was a good movie with a poignant story, and helped me kill a couple of hours.

To top it all off, I texted my friend Jamie to see if she wanted to go see "Slumdog Millionaire" at Millennium Plaza at night, and she was more than willing to go. She also invited on of her friends/students to come along. The movie was playing at 8:55, and Jamie and I got there early enough to sit with a coffee and talk before buying the tickets. Her student, however, showed up late in typical Ecuadorian fashion. They almost didn't let us in because we went in late, but we got through. We did miss the first few minutes of the movie however, which is something I hate doing. I also love watching the previews, which is half of the fun.

I thought the movie was great and worth all the hype, even though I hadn't heard about it until a couple of weeks ago. And now for the third time in a week I've gone to the movies here in Cuenca. It's a nice option to have for when I don't want to be stuck in the house but I don't feel like going out to a bar or club.

For some reason last night I had very vivid dreams in English and Spanish, and one of my dreams included an extremely vivid 20 minute haggle with a hotel promoter in Trinidad, Cuba. I was trying to get a good deal, and eventually got him to $44 for two nights including all meals and drinks and a private boat. I have no idea where this dream came from, and I'd only heard of Trinidad, Cuba because a couple of friends went there a few weeks ago. But I don't even know where it is.

Since I did no work this weekend, I need to spend today going over class journals and lesson planning--not something I'm looking forward to. I see that today is St. Patrick's Day and there will obviously be celebrations in Boston, and other parts of the world equally. Yet there is no sign at all of the holiday here. There might be two or three Irish pubs in Quito, but not down here in Cuenca. At least I don't need to worry about paying three times the price for a Guinness today, even though it would be a nice change of pace. I'll probably just watch two more movies today.