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On Wednesday morning, we were awakened early by the local, annoying dog barking. Ok--who forgot to close the bedroom window last night? As we sat at the dining table Wednesday morning, around 10:00am, the lights went out in the apartment. Inasmuch as we had heard workers in the stairwell, neither of us gave it much thought, at first. After 15 minutes or so, I poked my head out the door and noted lights in the stairwell.
Thursday morning we were awaken early by the sound of loud sonic booms - fireworks set off by the local churches to honor the saints. It sounded like shotguns fired from the next room. Didn't matter that the windows were shut! The lights were not yet back on. We enjoyed a Cuenca breakfast of tuna salad because we weren't sure how long we could safely leave it in a powerless frig. It was tasty and satisfying albeit a bit oniony for breakfast. Nonetheless, we were overjoyed when the lights came back on at about 10:00am. God, Martha, and Empresa had turned our world back rightside up. Later that morning, we were sitting at the table when there was a knock at the door. A man who introduced himself as Fabian, Martha's brother, entered with a big bag. He brought us a toaster [long story], light bulbs, a liter box of wine [Concha y Tora, our favorite Chilean vineyard], and wine glasses -- a peace offering from Martha, or she was still working on that romantic evening. Nonetheless, we were suitably grateful and thanked Fabian profusely and continued the thankfulness into emails to Martha and Flor as well. We ventured out in the afternoon to the Greek Cafe for a cafe and piece of cake ($1.50 total). Afterwards, we stopped in the Simon Bolivar Language Academy to sign up for classes. We start private 2-hour lessons on Monday, everyday for a week. They are one-on-one. Both of us took Spanish in school but have not used it much since. We will see how this goes now that our needs are more immediate. If anything, it might help us to communicate with out landlord.
Friday was a comparatively quiet day. Between Diane and me, we spent a couple hours trying to program a universal remote to control the DVD player. It was ugly but eventually Diane outlasted it and came to some peace. The landlord had stocked some movies and we had watched an Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston movie Tuesday night. Remarkably it was in ingles. We found out most were in espanol. Part of problem is that movies in Ecuador, while inexpensive [$1], are invariably unprofessional copies. Alberto had instructed us that 'there are no pirates in Ecuador. We're pretty sure he was talking about illegal movie copies. So our two significant accomplishments for Friday were: Getting the remote to work for the DVD and figuring out why our internet wouldn't connect. We ventured out in the afternoon to go see Mark, a gringo we met at Casa Ordonez. He is an IT security guy and has bought a condo in a building not far from us. It may be a possibility for us to rent July 1st. He determined it was our internet service, not our Verizon Manager. We came back to the apartment and the manager said his was out too and had called. In about an hour, he knocked on our door to inform us all was well and the internet service was fixed. That was really nice of him--typical of the Ecuadorians--considerate and friendly. Friday evening we were able to watch 'The Tourist', in ingles. It is a Angelina Jolie/ Johnny Depp romantic drama. Life is good.
So, we close for now. We are enjoying our new life here in Cuenca. It hasn't been without some frustrations here and there but for the most part is leveling out and quite pleasant. We have two extra bedrooms and would love to play host to our friends and family anytime--just pack your earplugs if you want to sleep in.