happy birthday to you!

Hola! Not too much has been happening around here.
Yesterday I went with Marybel to the fruit market, where we bought a whole bunch of fruits and vegetables. Now there is a huge branch of plantains sitting in our kitchen. Like, there are at least 40. :) The market was really cool though. There are tons of fruits and vegetables, lots of which I’ve never even seen before. There were also a lot of chickens that were going to be someone’s lunch. I didn’t like that part so much.
Today I went to a birthday party for a 7 year old! It’s the second party for someone under the age of 10 I’ve been to in like a week. At least I’m moving up though- the last party was for a 2 year old. Maybe eventually I will get to hang out with kids my age... it might be a while at the rate I’m going right now, though. :) Birthday parties here are ridiculous. Today, there was a mariachi band and like 6 clowns. And they served dinner to everyone there- at least 50 people. OH! And when they sing the birthday song, they sing part of it in English! Except it is not actually English, it is just something that at one point in time sounded like 'happy birthday', and eventually morphed into something a lot closer to 'abby burtay'.
There was an Ecuador soccer game today, against Colombia, so throughout all of Portoviejo, EVERYONE was wearing either soccer jerseys or yellow t-shirts. Also, on all of the busy roads in town, there were millions of people asking if you want to buy a little flag with a suction cup on the end so you can stick it to the inside of your windshield. We said no. Anyway, my host parents took me into town to get a soccer jersey, and I wore it this afternoon. :) It didn’t seem to help the team though- Ecuador lost.
This Monday is my first day of school, and I’m scared. :/