Dancing and Futbol

Thursday night my friends and I spent a cultural night at Seseribó, the best salsateca (salsa club) in Quito!! Three of my friends came over my house after my classes ended on Thursday and at 9:30pm we took a taxi to Seseribó. We met up with some other exchange students from our program there. I was a little worried about going with all Gringos, but it turned out not to be a problem.

As luck would have it, I ran/danced into my salsa dance teacher that I had an official lesson with weeks ago. He remembered me and we danced about 3 or 4 times throughout the night. Being a professional salsa dance teacher, he was incredible. I decided I´m a moderately good salsa dancer, if the guy can lead. If they can´t...its really hard to make it work cuz they are supposed to be leading. Seseribó was a lot of fun and defintely a place we will return to.

Friday we went to the Termas de Papallacta. After a two hour bus ride and a 2km walk, we arrived at a series of pools naturally heated by the local volcanic activity. We relaxed in the jacuzzi-temperatured water for hours admiring the mountainous surroundings. It was quite relaxing and the locals also enjoying the pools were interesting to talk to. In the afternoon we took a taxi back to the main road, in attempts to beat the rain, and flagged down the bus back to Quito.


Saturday night I went out dancing again with my salsa teacher. We went to a discoteca that was almost completely filled with gringos. Not the kind of place I´m usually looking to go to in Ecuador, but it was fun. It was pretty great when the salsa music came on and I was one of the few people in the whole place that could salsa.

Sunday some friends and I went to the ECUADOR VS. BRAZIL SOCCER GAME!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! This was a HUGE game for Ecuador. 1. Its a qualifying game for the world cup 2. They are playing Brazil!!
We barely managed to get tickets. The only tickets available when we went on Thursday were in the nicer section of the stadium and they came in a package with tickets for the Brazil game and Paraguay game on Wednesday.

My friend Katie and I made a friend while waiting in line to buy tickets. He explained to us how the different sections of the stadium work and how the ticket sales work. Its really complicated and I´m glad we had some help.

I was also interviewed by some television station while waiting in line. It was incredibly embarassing mainly because I couldn´t understand the rapid questions they were firing at me. Thankfully, our friend fed me some answers so I was able to say something and they would move on to the next person in line.

On Sunday, we (Katie, Humberto, and I) got to the stadium 3.5 hours before the game and I felt like we were the last ones to arrive. Thousands of people were milling about in front of the stadium all of them (including us) decked out in yellow Ecuador soccer jerseys. We got Ecuador flags painted on our cheeks.

Here, I was interviewed THREE more times within a matter of ten minutes. One filmed my cheeks being painted, then interviewed me. Another one by a guy with a recorder that looked like it was for a radio station. And another by a television station where the guy interviewing me said he had family in Ohio....He said we might be related. Ha. I said "Posible."
They all asked me the same questions: 1. where are you from? 2. how do you think the game is going to turn out? 3. (optional) can you give a yell for Ecuador?
Again, all of these were difficult to understand and highly embarassing. I´m not sure why I attracted so many interviews....

In the stadium we had pretty good seats on the long side of the field but closer to one of the goals. Not too far from us were the Brazil fans. We witnessed some interesting yelling/name calling/conflict. There were gaurds all over the stadium, but most of them watched the game more than the people. There were no problems though, it was safe.

The game was crazzzyy. The whole time everyone was yelling, jumping to their feet, cursing, chanting, and singing. The guys behind us were very vocal. I learned some new vocabulary.


Ecuador played incredibly well, controlling the ball most of the time and had a lot of opportunities at goals. I was not that impressed with Brazil. Ronaldinho did not do anything amazing. However, in the second half Brazil got lucky and somehow scored a goal. The stadium was absolutely silent except for the explosion of excitment from the small Brazileños crowd. Thankfully, Ecuador came back and tied the game. The roar from the crowd after the goal was unbelievable.

The game ended in a tie, which is kind of that awkward not bad, but not good, position to be in.

My friends and I defintely were involved in the game. We were yelling, screaming, and jumping with the best of them. My heart beat was not regular for the whole game. It was a very emotionally draining experience. I went home and slept right after the game.

Wednesday we went to the Ecuador vs. Paraguay game. Paraguay was #1 and Ecuador was #7. Ecuador dominated the whole game, having many opportunities at a goal, and scored one in the second half. The crowd was very optimistic that we were going to win after the goal. But with less than 30 seconds left in the game, Paraguay got uber lucky and tied the match. Grrrrrrr....... While still possible, this tie makes it very hard for Ecuador to qualify for the world cup.