its not hot

late last week there was a day that it didnt rain. the next day, it didnt rain until 5 pm or so, so, during that day and a half i was under the impression that the rainy season had finally run its course and the sunny season was about to start. its rained each day since (not to mention the 30 previous days). the rain is something that i will have to get used to here. i intellectually understand this fact, but, i am so accustomed to thinking of rain in a different way. where im from, it rains every so often. on those days, you sit around and laze without any guilt. the next day is sunny again and you go on about your life. this works great. one is not normally caught off guard by the rain and on sunny days, one can walk around confidently - one can even make plans to do things that involve being outside hours in advance. here is different. here, if you laze around waiting for the sunny day to come, you will have never left your house (and although i do like my apartment - it isnt the optimal choice). you just get wet. you hurry around when it is sunny for fear that you will get dumped upon at any moment, so you want to get to where you are going. you hang your clothes to dry and they get rinsed over and over again.

nevertheless, it is almost christmas season here. people are stringing up lights and putting little santa clauses around everywhere. i cant help but thinking that santa must be a bit warm in his north pole outfit. i also cant help but thinking that all that wool must smell like dog after a while since everything gets so wet here. ive never thought that it is a good idea for cultures to adopt customs of other cultures without some adaptation. give santa some shorts for the daytime. give him some llamas to ride instead of reindeer. give him a raincoat for the mid afternoon or some gore-tex gear. give him a fleece for the night. dont just put santa clause in south america and assume all will be well. this is recipe for disaster.

surely ive mentioned before about the salsa/merengue/reggaeton phenomenon here in ecuador. one does get the feeling being here that ecuadorians have adopted these musics and see them as their own or at least coming from a very similar culture. however, because they speak spanish does not make cubans, dominicans, or puerto ricans much like ecuadorians. for example, i see my breath almost every day. this does not happen in the above mentioned countries. surely the lack of seeing ones breath (and the accompanied outfits) has influenced the tempo and rhythm of the musics.
the main square here has imported palm trees. just because there are palm trees in ecuador (on the coast) does not mean that it makes sense for cuenca to give its citizens the false sense of being palm-tree shaded, tropical people. the indigenous of cuenca wear sweaters, long tights and felt hats each day, and they listen to the flutey music that you would imagine andean people to listen to (the reason the flutes are so popular in their music is because the music was meant to copy the sounds of nature - most prevalent of such sounds being the wind). the young wear skimpy outfits (i know theyre cold) and listen to reggaeton.

but of course you cant blame ecuador. im just mentioning because this is where im at. 10% of ecuadorians have immigrated and the money they send back represents the 2nd largest source of national income after oil. this money has made ecuadorians enamored with foreign things - to the extent that they neglect their own (none of my students could name for me a current ecuadorian author, or a poular ecuadorian pop band). it has also given ecuador a false sense of wealth. you can often see huge suburban houses here in ecuador, with two cars in the driveway, but unused. these houses are built by people in other countries and are rarely used. people have learned to become consumers with the money being earned in the u.s. or spain, or italy (the 3 most immigrated to countries for ecuadorians) and the prices of regular things here in ecuador have risen as a result - in response to an intangible market force.

however, i was able to get fillings done for $15. as some of you know, i spent lots and lots of money - a ridiculous amount unworthy or blogspace - on dental work. here, $15. i also got some sort of laser procedure done that will reduce the sensitivity in some of my teeth. plus a cleaning and two fillings costed me less than $100. not bad. the fillings are white, the technology was up to date (unlike in new york where the technology was a little too futuristic for its own good, ie. clamps, suction, novacaine for each cavity, multiple appointments, etc.) and the service was quick. i was in and out since not a million hourse were spent clamping metal things onto my teeth, or waiting for novacaine to settle in (i admit that sometimes novacaine is necesary - but for smaller cavities, i would prefer teh seconds of pain to the hour of numbness), or waiting for x-rays to develop (here they used a camera the size of a pencil to search into my mouth for cavities. the images were projected and magnified onto a big, clear screen). by the end, i almost felt cheated to have to leave so soon. so, if you are with bad teeth, and you are uninsured, and you live in new york - come to ecuador. for the price of a ticket and then the price of dental work, you will save money over an equivalent amount of dental work and the price of a metrocard. its a nice experience.