The next few days

The next few days I will summarize. On the first full day I was here, I slept until about 11, got up, ate Frosted Flakes, and went with Jannett driving around the city. My first impressions being made by the older and more run-down part of Quito, I was not impressed. The buildings were shabby, roads badly paved, and generally un-kept looking. Since I had arrived at night, I assumed all of Quito looked like this. The rain didn't help. We got back to the apartment and I attempted to connect my computer, but the outlets were only 2 prong, so I had to get an adapter. Internet here is spotty, I am lucky enough to get it at one part of the apartment, in the living room by the window. Jannette fixed me lunch, which at that time I knew that Ecuadorian meals are very different from ours. Their breakfasts are about the same as ours, but lunches take the place of dinner and usually have more than one course. Soup comes first, then chicken/ rice/ pork or something other substantial, then is dessert. Dinner is usually only some bread, or white corn mixed with cheese or chicken and coffee or tea to drink. I am slowly getting used to this reverse of dinner and lunch.
The next day, me, Jannette and her friend went driving out to the mountains and had lunch there at a restaurant that made its own cheese from the cows out back. I had no idea what to order, so they ordered for me. I had pea soup, chicken, rice, orange and onion mixed together and a drink that had fruit only grown in Ecuador.
Saturday, the whole group met at the apartment of our trip advisor, and we took a bus all around Quito. We saw the virgin of Quito, a military point, the house of the president, and 2 amazing churches. The house of the president is white, like ours, but much less security. The people walk around it just like it is any other building. One church we went to was under renovation, but the part that we could see was beautiful. The walls are coated in leaf gold, and there are many old paintings on the walls. The other church we couldn't go inside, but the outside was interesting enough. It is very ornate, and instead of the regular gargoyles, there are animals found around Quito, the rain forest and the Galapagos Islands. It is very strange to see cement ant eaters, turtles and iguanas sticking out from the roof of a church!
Sunday, me and a girl in the group took a taxi (my first taxi ever) near to where the president's house is. We visited a museum, watched a street painter paint amazing pictures using only spray paint, stencles and pieces of paper.