Ecuador: Day 5 and 6

Day 5:
It was cold again on Tuesday, the clouds filed the sky and overall it was very gloomy weather. I didn’t have the greatest morning. Firstly because the contest I was planning on entering, ended the night before and I hadn’t entered yet. That put a bit of a damper on my whole day. I started a drawing which didn’t work out and listened to my book on tape. At 2:30 we met Ivan, one of Eduardo’s friends who drove us to the college. We got a short tour around the college and then went to the classroom where Greg was going to teach. We ate lunch at this yummy restaurant across the street, mom and I split a taco salad which was very good.
Mom and I sat in the back of the classroom while Greg got his equipment set up. I decided to start a series of drawings of the characters in the Pendragon series. Because the last book came out recently, I’ve been trying to read or listen to the whole series again so that I have a clear memory of everything. Thus I have been really inspired to draw the characters. I drew throughout Greg’s class and almost finished two drawings which I quite like.
Greg had all of his students show their portfolios and it was interesting to see all the different styles and types of art. There were some I liked and some I didn’t, as I suppose it is with all art. The portfolio showing went longer than expected, maybe because there are 40 people in the class and thus Greg’s talk started late. He talked to the students about finding their personally vision (another way of saying heart virtue) so that their art will be truly theirs. I think its a good thing for the students to learn because I feel some of them are trying to do what others have already done, or fit into a mold.
It was a long night but I had fun drawing. We got home round 10:50 and after eating an apple I crashed. I was exhausted.

Day 6:
Mom woke me up early this morning so that I could go eat breakfast with her and Greg (lately I’ve been asleep when they went to the restaurant and they would bring me back something). I felt rather like I was back at school because the curtains made the room seem dark and I walked half asleep to the bathroom. Eduardo showed up unexpectedly and joined us for breakfast. Greg had a really awful head ache and waited back in our room for someone to come help him open the safe, which was stuck. I had some fruit, black tea (my favorite) and a little pastry. It was quite good. Since Greg still hadn’t shown up after about half an hour I decided to go up to the room and see if he was going to join us. He was waiting for someone who had gone to fetch a new battery for the safe. I decided to wait in his place while he went to eat. In the end we needed to get an entirely new safe installed in the room. Greg was feeling really bad so mom, Eduardo and I went out while he stayed behind to rest. Mom needed a little bag to put her things in so we headed over to a little market. It was really neat because it made me think of Morocco this all the rows and all the hanging hats and scarves and handmade things. There were so many things I liked and they were all extremely inexpensive. For example there was this awesome hand-woven backpack in yellows oranges and greens for only fifteen dollars! I probably would have bought a ton of thing but Eduardo said that next week we’ll be visiting a village where all these things are made and mom and I figured it would be better to wait until then. Unfortunately mom couldn’t find a bad that was in the right colors or right size. While we were there I got a scoop of Guarabana ice cream which was delicious. I wonder if I can find Guarabana back home...
Next we visited the National Cultural Museum of Quito to see some artifacts from the Quitu (the original people of Ecuador) and Inca’s. They were really neat and I enjoyed seeing all of the pottery and sculpture. We also saw some painting and sculptures from the colonial period (when the Europeans began to come over) which were also nice, but not as interesting as the ancient pieces. We took a cab back to the hotel checked in on Greg, who was doing better and went up to have lunch at the restaurant. Mom and I split an asparagus soup, which was really yummy, and a turkey and Dijon mustard sandwich, which I also enjoyed. After we drove to the university and met with a biologist. Mom had been interested in talking to him about the native plants of Ecuador and where the good distilling places were. He was a neat fellow and I enjoyed listening to him talk.
We went over to the classroom I began typing this post while Greg set up. Throughout the talk I drew and listened to my book on tape. In all it was a really fun day.