Since it was St. Patricks day today we decided to head into town early and have breakfast before our Spanish lesson. We went to Bananas cafe and had pancakes with fruit and coffee. They were proper pancakes like the ones at IHOP only better, but they were so filling I needed to nap after eating them. They were good but I think I'm done eating breakfast out now for a while, I'm going to stick to my healthy breakfast of fruit, granola, runny yoghurt, and juice, yummy.
At 11 we had our spanish lesson. I really enjoy them although we have such a long way to go yet. It is starting to make more sense the more we do and the more I try and converse with the locals. This afternoon Mike made me buy my own cookies; if the number of cookies I am eating is anything to go by I'll be fluent by the weekend and next week this blog will be in Spanish!
After we were done we walked towards home and found a store that we haven't seen open before. It's a little museum place that has sombreros, jewellery and woven things that are all made in Cuenca. Mike almost bought a hat but couldn't quite pull the trigger. I tried on some silver filigree rings that were all handmade and beautiful. We asked the lady how much they were and I thought she said $81.00, turns out she said $11 (I know I said the spanish lessons were going well but I have a real hard time with the numbers); the prices here are crazy. Anyway, Mike bought me one but it's not a birthday present, it's just a Thursday sorry I've been sick present. i even got to choose a little handmade basket to put it in.
This evening Mike made beans; they were lush, even after adding the cardboard looking and smelling fake meat to them. We haven't had beans since we've been here even though they are supposedly a staple of this part of the world (they usually have meat with them). I wanted tortillas with mine and since we don't have a microwave I had to heat them in the oven. Stupid flipping oven, the first flame went out so I tried to light it again and singed all the hair on my left arm when the flames shot out at me. I smelled like burnt something or other for the rest of the night, Mike is going to have to light the stupid oven from now on.

Mike: I'm sorry you can't use the mod cons! Hey, I was sick, how come I don't
get a present?