sunday evening photo extravaganza!

that's right--it's time for a bunch of pictures! i had a fantastic weekend and saw a whole bunch of great things. the first week here has been very stressful and difficult in many ways, but i didn't decide to do this to work on my tan, so i'm glad the learning opportunities have already started. and besides that, it's been lots of fun!

quito is divided into new quito and old quito. new quito looks like an american city, and old quito looks like this, with plazas and colonial architecture. when i saw that statue in the distance i just HAD to go see it. so i did. by the way, did you know you can make the pictures bigger by clicking on them? you can.


here's a shot from halfway or so up.









here's me and the statue. i think we hit it off ok.











this guy's name is marco. he saw me try to get that picture about 10 times before i got it right. he asked if i needed help, and i said we could take each other's picture. i think he thought that was weird, but eventually he agreed. that's the city in the background.








here's the city. it's big! and isn't it pretty? it's tucked away in a valley. anyway, that's what i did saturday morning. saturday afternoon was church stuff time.








awana translates to oansa in spanish. remember the balloon under the legs and the last kid has to run it back to the front? these kids are ok at it, but i totally would have won if they let me play. oh, i pleaded! i begged!







if i didn't tell you the kids were awesome and i had a lot of fun with them, i think this picture would probably cover that fact. or the next one.









take a minute to soak this picture up. first notice that i very nearly made it into the picture. next, notice that the camera is on the ground, and then notice the hot chocolate spilling out of the cup that my camera is about to soak up. now notice once again how cool all the kids are.







this morning i went to mass at the cathedral you may have noticed sticking up in some of the other pictures. here's what it's like inside.









here's the cathedral from up close. i don't know who thought the clocks were a good idea...i guess it was high tech at the time or something.








ok, so that's it for the photo fun! i have about a million other pictures, but i'll spare you. until i get mangled hand photos, of course.