That's right--I did, in fact, go and see the Vagina Monologues with my host parents last night!!! They had tickets and mentioned something about it, at which my face lit up because I never could go see the play in the states. Turns out there was still an extra seat next to them IN THE FRONT ROW! Not only was this arrangement great for the view, but because the venue was a small café I could still hear perfectly well. See, when trying to fully understand spanish, it's easiest when it's as loud as possible. So, I don't know what the play is like in the states, but it was hilarious at times, tragic at others, and hilarious again pretty soon. One monologue got the audience participating as we learned/performed a rally cry for the Movimiento Pro-Chucha (slang for vagina). 
Ah, it was all really great, and I even understood almost all of the monologues that were performed with thick French and Germent accents (which were really funny to hear!), though I had a little more trouble with the Quichwa accent. The problem is that so many words slip into the daily vocabulary here, but I have no idea what they are. [My favorite newly learned words are guagua for baby/kid and ñaña/ñaño for sister/brother] Oh, and let me backtrack a bit. Upon arrival, I paid my $20 (how much did you pay, Eli and XT?) and as we walked in, we were offered a little cup of canelazo. Canelazo is cinnamon, jugo de naranjilla (an orange-esque fruit juice), and some type of liquor. Not bad, amazingly enough, in that you couldn't really taste the alcohol, but only smell it. Then, after the play, we all went to the outdoor patio where we had appetizers and waited for the tables to be rearranged for dinner. The dinner was rice, beef, chicken, potatoes, and salad, and chocolate mousse for dessert! All of these foods were included in the price of the ticket! Oddly enough, we had to buy our own non-alcoholic drinks, i.e. water. Go figure. And, as we were eating, Monica went and had the three actresses sign my placemat! 
It was a wonderfully pleasant evening, and you would have absolutely loved the café, Mom and Miss Bonnie. It's called Café de la Vaca, or Cow Café, and everything was decorated accordingly. It turns out that Monica also has a thing for cows, as I had suspected based on the kitched décor, but she also has lots of other farm animal decorations, so I wasn't sure of her true love. Cows it is. This morning I returned to the centro commercial (where the café is located) with Monica and Sofy (my host ñaña) to check out the 30-70% off Valentines Day sales. You'll be pleased to know that I am just as bad a shopper in spanish-speaking countires as I am in the U.S. I was done browsing in approximately 1/10th of the time it took Sofy to shop, and I worked really hard not to acknowledge my impatience! In one store, however, there was another person named Karla, so every single time her friend called her name, I turned and said, "Sí?" She never was calling me, but at least it spiced things up a little. Shopping, ugh. Part of the problem is that all the clothes are expensive and U.S. styles. If I don't buy them in the U.S., why would I buy them in Ecuador?
Anyway, we drove there and back on the Vía Intervalles (because the mall is one valley over) on which there is a toll. A 16 cent toll, to be exact! How crazy is that to have to have pennies all the time! I guess they didn't want to lose any money when the country dollarized, nor would travellers agree to pay more than necessary. So 16 cents it is.
One last update: I returned to Quito on Thursday to retrieve my passport, and though the opened 25 minutes late, I made it back to school on time this week! And hopefully, I will never have to deal with the Ecuadorian government again!
Oh, and another new development is that there are no extracurriculars on Friday afternoons, so lots of the teachers play tennis, fútbol, etc, and I went swimming! Now, it's been at least 9 months since I've gone lap swimming, and I still haven't adjusted fully to the lack of oxygen up here, AND the pool is a curved, bean-like shape so I kept running into walls I shouldn't have and the flip-turns were hard from an angled, slippery surface. Yea, I didn't do so well! But it still felt great (partly because it is really warm water) to exercise, and I plan on making it a regular occurance!
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