DAY 16: I woke up at about 3 a.m. feeling a little feverish. I popped a couple of ibuprofen and went back to sleep. I woke up around 7 with the sun feeling better, but still a little feverish, but managed to finish my homework. I had to write a story in Spanish using as many of the new verbs that I had learned. I wrote one about the final battle between a secret agent and an evil scientist -- in the end, the secret agent defeats the him, but not after saying "Hasta la vista, PUTA!"

My tutor Rosa saw that I wasn't my usual energetic self and said that I probably had La Gripe because I'm not use to the rapid change in temperature.

On a normal November day in Quito, the weather is like this: you wake up and the sky is blue, the sun is shining and you look out the window and say like Ferris Bueller, "How can I possibly be expected to go to school on a day like this?" But you go to school anyway since you already paid for it in advance in cash, and sit with a tutor for four hours and conjugate verbs. After class, you walk around to soak in the sun and its 80 degress F temperature and maybe grab something to eat. As you eat, you notice the clouds come in and the temperature drops from the mid 80s to the mid 50s. A sprinkle turns into a drizzle, and a drizzle turns into a rain, and the only thing to do is to vegg out in an internet cafe and write a blog entry whose third paragraph is about how fast the weather changes on a normal November day in Quito.

I TOOK IT EASY the rest of the day. I hung out in my bedroom and just rested for a bit (picture above) after lunch. Then I went out to wander in the area and ran into the two Danish blondes. I tagged along with them as they went back to the Biking Dutchman office to complain about last Saturday's trip to Cotopaxi, how it wasn't fair that we couldn't do everything that had been promised because we always had to wait up for the 24 other Brits of varied ages and previous biking experience. We thought we'd have to make a strong case to get any compensation, but our guide had already explained to the owner the situation, and the woman gave us each ten bucks back and a free T-shirt. This works out great because ten bucks can get you about nine 30 oz. bottle of beer here and the t-shirt could be used as a change of clothes when you vomit all over the shirt you're were wearing.

I went back to school to pay off my housing. Carmen the director of the school had nothing to do so we played a round of Cuarenta until Mike, My Spouse In Air Quotes, dropped by to pay off some of his debts.

"What are you eating over there, at your family?" Mike asked me. "For breakfast for example."

"Fresh juice, a big plate of fresh fruit, eggs and croissants."

"Wow, you get eggs? I only get a roll with some cream cheese and some pineapple marmalade."

I told him Arne and I would be out next week and that he should try to switch to Blanca's house.

"Eggs. Man, I love me some eggs," he said.

THE RAIN LET UP late afternoon and I walked back to the Mall El Jardin and practiced my Spanish by asking around for an adapter for my camera, so that I could simply use my Sony MemorySticks in a 3.5" floppy drive. I looked all over but couldn't find one. I even went into Radio Shack since they say "You've got questions, we've got answers." But their answer was "No tenemos."

At least I managed to leave the store without being asked for my zip code.

AT DINNER, Gabi saw that I looked a little tired and I told her that I felt a little sick. "Oh, la gripe," she said very nonchalantly before asking me to pass the juice. "Es común." ("It's common.")

Gabi had grown up in a house where, for the past ten years travelers had been coming and going, and she probably had seen hundreds of them suffering from La Gripe. I was just another number and was glad it wasn't just me.

After dinner, I still felt a little grippy but still had some energy to go out partying with Arne, since he invited me to hang out with his friend from Texas who lived in Quito and apparently knew all the cool spots and lots of chicas. However, we I asked him what the plan was, he said he wasn't going anymore because he too was feeling a bit sick. Apparently, La Gripe had gotten him too.

So I popped an ibuprofen and went to bed at nine and slept for ten hours.

I woke up the next day, a refreshed new man. La Gripe had come and gone.