This ain´t your typical company picnic...

Yesterday was a reunion of the Colegio de Medicos de Zamora-Chinchipe, which is basically the doctor´s association for the province. Turns out I´m actually going to be working with the Colegio rather than the hospital. They want to me to do work on a medical magazine they are trying to produce.

Anyway, they had a doctor from Cuenca come and talk ALL DAY LONG about how to write medical journals. Monica was laughing at me because I kept falling asleep, but it was hard not too! I felt like I was back in school, listening to a boring lecture, lights turned off, it was hot...you know what I´m talking about..

So after the reunion, I´m thinking it´s time to giddyup but hold on...it isn´t a company meeting until we bust out some whiskey and guitars! Seriously, within 5 minutes of the lecture ending, one of the doctors opens up a bottle of whiskey, unwraps his Marboloros and grabs a guitar. So we sat, drank and sang for about an hour or two. Very bizzarre...but very enlightening! We dined on ancas de rana or frogs legs. They were really good! I thought it was fried chicken until someone told me.

Then, after the mini-fiesta I went to Zumbi for a birthday party. One of my co-workers in FODI, Yadira, invited me to her mom´s birthday party. It was really fun...again, the only gringa there but I had a blast. Ate some food, danced all night...drank some ridiculous liquor that tasted like gasoline. But hey...I´m just living the Ecuadorian dream.

Doctor Mauro y Doctor Ivan jamming out. They had to put their cigarrettes down in order to do so. However, Doc. Mauro did know some Nirvana...pretty hip hombre.

The US Ambassador´s house (from swearing-in). Absolutely gorgeous, really foggy though so we couldn´t see the apparently amazing view.

Um...two gorgeous doctors I work with. Yes...I´m in heaven as you all probably know. Doctor Daniel is on the left and Doctor Yezid, or Doctor Gato, is on the right. (Gato means person with light eyes). Yummmm.

One of my host sisters, Valeria. She is the devil...don´t be deceived by this picture. She´s not that bad...I have made it my personal mission to work on manners with her.