Only in Ecuador

I had the opportunity to see Erick and Efren again.
Last night Andres and I met up with them at the mall.
It was the first time in 5 months that I saw Erick in person and the first time in 5 months that I saw Efren at all.
You remember Erick and his best friend Efren right from that day we explored beach after beach?

The great thing about this meeting is that I was actually able to understand a good majority of what they were saying where as the time before I was so lost.

WE decided to get pizza together.
We all loaded into Efren's car.
On the way to the car I asked Erick all sorts of personal questions.
You know the catching up sorts.
We drove to Pizza Hut.

Pizza Hut was having a deal on carry away pizzas. Buy one and get one free.
We ordered our pizzas and sat there talking as we waited.
Erick and Efren told animated story after story.
I love seeing my friends laugh and joke.
Even if I get overwhelmed after a while by trying to understand.

WE got our pizzas and walked across the street to a gas station.
We bought a giant soda and the people working at the gas station let us sit at a table inside and eat our pizza.

I ate so much pizza.
In case you didn't know, Pizza is my weakness!!!!!
We sat there talking and joking and just catching up.
It is really funny because I understand a lot of Spanish that is spoken around me, but if a person looks directly at me and speaks to me I get so nervous that my brain just stops working.
I get so worried because I know they expect some kind of answer.

You know you are in Ecuador when a guy (who is not quite all there) walks into the gas station with a toy gun and no one freaks out even a little.
It looked real enough that if he was in the States the police would have been there within minutes.
He just walked around the gas station looking at things.
It was very interesting.


I was sad to see the night end, but I know we will have more good times together in the future.