Two exciting things that happened last night

First of all, I had an unusual dinner. The first item on the menu was some kind of clam or mussel, which I've never had before. It was very chewy. I forget what it was called in Spanish because it had a long name, but it's the light brown chunks in the photo below:

Then we had sushi, made by a Japanese woman who has been living in Ecuador for a while. I wanted to talk to her in Japanese, but lately, whenever I try to say something in Japanese or think of a Japanese word, all that comes out is Spanish! I can produce literally almost nothing in Japanese now! Anyway, the sushi toppers were classically Ecuadorian (except for the sukiyaki furikake): avocados, eggs, and plantains. Wouldn't be Ecuador without plantains!

More importantly, however... I got to change rooms! I'm so happy! The new room is the one that the Venezuelan guy who was also staying at the house was living in, but he went back to his home in the Canary Islands yesterday and now his room is mine! It is so nice because it has its own bathroom which is waaaaaay cleaner than the communal bathroom that I've been using, and there's no creepy crawlspace under the bed. And it has the towel storage, so I can just grab extras to take to the beach. But the bathroom is the most important thing. I found a snail in the shower when I showered last night before dinner (and a worm last week) and was just thinking about how much I really wanted to be able to use a shower that didn't have animals and weird smells coming out of the drain and that evening it really happened! And the hot water shower head works in the new one! Yay warm water! The only sketchy thing about this room is the giant box of mangoes off to one side and its accompanying swarm of fruit flies. But I don't mind little Drosophilas!