a day in santa cruz

On Monday, April 18th, I went in to the city to pick up my LAST paperwork here! My carnet. It's like an identification card, there's no equivalent in Canada. I'll post a picture of it yet sometime! It was my FIRST time going to Santa all by  myself and getting a taxi by myself! I made a cultural blunder along the way, when I got into the taxi my first question was: do you know where this place is? He said, yes I know. And then he said very pointedly, buenos tardes. OOPS. Greetings first, ALWAYS. So not a major blunder, just a little bit rude.

Later on that day I met up with our MEM team, we went bowling and to Papa John's for pizza, as a goodbye to a couple that left this week. They were the pastor couple at our church in Villa Nueva, and now they're moving on to new things in Canada. Papa John's has a reputation in Santa Cruz as having the most American pizza, the closest to home. Pizza isn't a thing here. This was DELICIOUS. A wonderful time was had by all.

 this was my quick lunch take out. Can't remember what it's called. You can get it at the grocery store that's closest to the Pailon taxi stand in Santa Cruz. It's a very thick dense dough with chicken and sauce on the inside, and I think it's deepfried. deliciousness

 MEM team at Papa John's

the most north american thing I've seen in a while!