wi-fi in loja

as you may know, i have been trying to get a job at a university here. and well, it's been a struggle. they want to hire me but the problem is that i don't have a visa yet. now, here's what i have discovered. to get a visa i have to be contracted by an organization. the university used to contract people without visas and then they got into super big trouble with the government and had to pay loads of money. a lawyer advised them not to contract people without visas. what the administration still fails to understand is that in my contract there would be a clause that states that the contract has no validity until i get a work visa. but it's friday and no one is at the university. if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

back to the wi-fi title. i have just discoved a secret. well, maybe it's not a secret but i feel like it is. for the past month here in ecuador i have been going to internet cafes to check my emails and whatnot. sometimes i would take my computer with me, but usually not. the cafeteria of the university has free wi-fi. and it's the bestest and fastest connection that i have found here so far. yipppiieeee! it totally makes my day or my month.

other news. these first 2 weeks of september are the weeks of the feria in loja (basically a big fair/fiesta). there's ferris wheels, bumper cars, stalls and stalls of things to buy, and concerts. i've seen two pretty good bands so far. one ecuadorian band called kruks'n karnak. and a colombian band called cabas. good music if you ever get a chance to check it out.

the feria is in honor of the virgen mary (also known as la churonita) of cisne (a town about 2 hours from here) who is brought on foot to loja for a month and then returned to cisne for the rest of the year. she is kept at a cathedral here in the center of town and every night for a week there are loads of fireworks right in front of the catherdral. also in her honor. ah, la churonita.

my birthday

well, i've been in loja for almost a month and it's pretty much been a vacation. one reason it's been a vacation is because the people in the legal department at the university i'm going to work at are on vacation so i can't start applying for a visa yet. not until monday. hopefully. you never know around here.

last weekend was my birthday and it was really great. first, we went to the house where i'm going to be living soon. i'll be renting a room from another Baha'i who's moving here from the states. the house is ginormous and beautiful. later on we went home and to my surprise everyone had decorated the house and there was a cake and snacks for my birthday. and as is ecuadorian tradition (or so i've been told) i had to take a bite from the cake and then everyone pushed my face into it. as is clear from this picture here.

after that our friend hal took us to a russian ballet on ice that was performing in loja. how surprising. it was beautiful. we got to see swan lake and the nutcracker.

other than that, i've just been hanging out and practicing lots of spanish.