Feeling Independent

Quick update. Today turned out to be one of the best days I have had here yet. Definitely the best “normal” day. If those exist.

This morning, I got up early so that I could find a shop somewhere in the city from which I could buy yarn for my weaving class. One of the shops listed on my syllabus for the class is in Tumbaco, the next suburb out from Quito, passed Cumbaya. To get there, I only had to stay on the same bus I take to the university and get off a few stops later. Easy. As long as the bus-boy can tell me where to get off. It was easy to get to the bus stop, but the store I was looking for was a small hole in the wall place off of a side street. A side street that wasn’t quite where I was told it would be. Fortunately, the police officer I asked for directions, after wandering around for about 10 minutes, was not a typical Ecuadorian citizen and told me precisely where the yarn store was. So I went on my way, found the store, communicated what I wanted to the people working there, and bought yarn for my class. I even made it back to Cumbaya and on campus in time to get some homework done before class started. Classes went well.

Apparently I hadn’t been doing what we were supposed to be doing in my weaving class. I’d been doing the next step. Oops! So I spent the last 10 minutes of class learning something totally different from everyone else because my teacher felt like showing me how to do it.

Once classes were done, I hopped on the bus toward Tumbaco again. This time, my stop was a little earlier. I got off at the Ventura Mall, went inside, up to the third floor gym, and looked around for some circus. Hanging in the corner were two silks, one red, one orange, with absolutely no rigging whatsoever. The gym is apparently used for gymnastics classes as well, so there are plenty of safety mats around, which made me feel a little better about the rigging set-up.

The silks teacher eventually showed up, towing her daughter along (the daughter was probably less than 2 years old). Apparently the classes that I had seen the poster for were super basic-level classes because the other three students that she had there were under the age of 13 I’m sure. But I just wanted to get in the air, so I was ok with that. Most of the class was stretching and conditioning exercises, since the class was at such a basic level, but I was able to talk to the teacher, Camila, about circus opportunities in Quito in general. There doesn’t seem to be much, but I might be able to do my ICRP with an artsy school in southern Quito that Camila was affiliated with. At least she said she would check it out for me. I paid Camila for the class once it was over 9 it was not expensive in the least) and headed home feeling pretty satisfied, though I wish I would have been able to just play a little on my own and not feel confined to the activities of the class. I was looking for a place to practice more than a place to take conditioning classes. (Which isn’t to say that conditioning classes aren’t good for me, but I want to do more in the AIR and less on the ground!) I think I’ll go back sometime, but I’m not going to be going twice a week, which is when the lessons are offered.

Basically, today has been a wonderful day. I’ve been able to go out and accomplish things on my own, speak Spanish, and enjoy being here. Next on the list of things to do: see what surprises tomorrow holds.