Fiestas de Quito

So it's 11:30pm and I'm working on a paper due in about 15 hours (don't ask how far along I am) so there is clearly no better time to update my blog.

This weekend we celebrated the founding of Ecuador's capital with basically, the entire city.  The celebrations started last Friday (Nov 28th) and went all week and finished on Sunday December 6th.  It was really cool, everything was kind of thrown off for the fiestas, very fun.  Class attendance by the Ecuadorians, needless to say, was quite low and very sketchy all week. 
There were bull fights all week, although I didn't go to any.  I figured, knowing myself and my beliefs, although it'd be a cool cultural experience, I think it'd make me really uncomfortable, so I decided to opt out of that one.
Lots of partying going on all week, every day.  Ecuadorians really like to party, and it's not nearly as taboo here as it is there.  "Chivas" (which translates to goat, but don't get confused) are a favorite of everyone, and while you can see them year-round, during the fiestas, they are EVERYWHERE.  Basically, it's a big bus/truck thing with a live band on top that slowly drives around the city, filled with people dancing, drinking, singing, blowing whistles, and basically just having the time of their lives.  Between 1-4 chivas/night passed my house every day last week.  I should mention that while I live by a busy road, it's nowhere near a party district.  The chivas just go everywhere.
All week there's been partying and celebration, and it all culminated this weekend.  By Saturday, almost all the buildings had both the Ecuador and Quito flags flying.  We gringos went out on Saturday night to celebrate too,  (I partied in my yellow Ecuador jersey; I was proud).  We went down to the Mariscal (the gringo-land area filled with lots of clubs, bars, people, etc; we usually go out there, as much as it pains me) and it was FILLED with people (Lolo and I were squished on the bus on the way down there, full of drunk futbolistas coming from the game going out to celebrate; they sang the entire way and would break out into "Mi Lindo Quito" about every 3rd song).  More people than I've ever seen there.  All the bars and clubs also upped their prices for the weekend, which wasn't cool, but wasn't too bad since we just partied in the streets with all the Ecuadorians instead.  The police/army were everywhere (and enforcing stupid rules in my opinion, but i won't get into that) but it was still kinda sketchy, both despite and because of the police.
Us gringos tried to get a Chiva with some of the other USFQ gringos, but there was drama and too many people so us Kalamazoo kids decided to get off and hang out together instead (also will not get into the issues I have with the other gringos).  Although we had a chiva fail, it was still a fun night.  Coincidentally (or not???  haha) Quito and the Berg twins (Tor and Tova) share a birthday, so we spent the night celebrating with them too, culminating with both twins being hoisted into the air on Nic and Nathan's shoulders while we danced around singing happy birthday at midnight.  All in all, a fun night.  It's cool to be part of something bigger than yourself that everyone is a part of, with everyone out and having a good time all for the same reason.