La Bosque

After last weekend's craziness, I decided to stay in Quito this weekend to explore/ relax/ not spend a bunch of money. And I got to do all of those things, which was really nice.

On Thursday, we took a field trip to the Museo del Banco Central and learned about the history of Ecuador from indigenous peoples up unto the colonization by Spain. The museum was divided into two very distinctly different parts based on these two very distinctly different time periods and influences. One part was full of these really beautiful artifacts made by indigenous people and dioramas of tiny little villages of people carrying even tinier little babies on their tiny backs and walking into tiny huts and petting tiny dogs. The other part was full of religious sculptures and paintings ("hella baby Jesus'" as one amiga put it). It was really a stark contrast, which was fascinating in itself. Not to mention our tour was completely in Spanish and our really great tour guide said "vamos por áca" before each transition, which became funnier and funnier as the tour went on. Anyway, having gotten our fill of Ecuadorian culture and history, we then went to McDonald's. Yup. Hahaha. This McDonald's was super nice and SUPER busy. I've never seen a bigger or more crowded McDonald's, especially one filled with really formally dressed, professional-looking people. Another interesting glimpse at Ecuadorian culture.

On Thursday night we met up with another amiga that I know from the Seattle U photo program who has been living in Quito for the past few months and we went to this really cool exposición de fotografias at this bar where her roommates work. It was a really cool mixture of art and animal rights awareness as the theme of the collection of work was basically illustrating the cruelty and inhumanity of bullfighting and were accompanied by beautiful animal rights quotes by people like Mark Twain and Ghandi, in Spanish, of course. It was cool to attend this kind of event in Quito. Me gustó mucho.

Yesterday (Sunday) I went mass in the forest with my family. That's probably actually not the best way to describe it, but on Saturday when they asked if I wanted to go, that's how they presented it to me. "Vamos a la misa en la bosque". I'm up for just about anything in the bosque so I happily agreed to go, which for whatever reason seemed to come as a surprise. Anyway, we drove to this really adorable little church in the middle of a forest (more or less), went to mass with my mom's hermanos, had a picnic, walked around a bit. Then, I thought we were going home, but instead we went to this restaurant and had delicious tortillas and HELLLLLAAAAAA beer. Like, omg. There were 10 or 11 adults in total and by the end of the meal there were 25 empty bottles of Pilsener Grande. They serve/ drink the stuff like water here! It costs just about the same amount, anyways. I miss water. The day was really great but consisted in large part of my brothers making fun of me for being Chuchaqui (the Quechua word for hungover) and the rest of my mom's family making jokes in Spanish at my expense that I couldn't understand. All in good fun, I'm sure, but it got pretty exhausting pretending to understand and go along with them every time they looked at me and then burst into laughter, so I checked out early (unfortunately only mentally, because I still had the rest of the day with them). Most of the jokes were about how I should marry my mom's nephew and become part of the family. And then there was my old uncle with 3 or 4 teeth who's Spanish was IMPOSSIBLE to understand, but most of the time he didn't even give me the chance to try, electing to use some strange mix of sign language and interpretative dance as means for communicating instead. Omg, hahahahah. Here are some pictures.




The dancing, toothless wonder that is my uncle!
Mamacita


This week we have our first fieldtrip. We're heading North for a couple days to stay with indigenous families and go to indigenous markets and who knows what else, then I think at least some of us are going to stay for the weekend. Tomorrow I'm going to cook for my family!! I think that I'll make spaghetti with a giant green salad because I miss spinach and other green veggies so much! Today when I got home around 8pm all of the lights were out. A good portion of Quito's electricity is powered by water and this has been an exceptionally dry "winter" which has greatly affected the electricity and also the amount of vegetables that are grown. Que interesante.

Anyway, I'm about to engage in one of my favorite activities here: sleep. Ahhh, can't wait :)

Besos!!

Another day, another dollar

Today, although fairly ordinary, was a really great day, especially considering that I woke up with an awful sinus head/face ache, my nose was running uncontrollably and I felt like my lungs were full of sand.

But! On the bright side! I found out that CIMAS has this hidden little library where I was able to check out "The Poisonwood Bible" (in English) and "Mil soles espléndidos" or "A Thousand Splendid Suns" (in Spanish, obviously) . Reading has been a really delightful little vacation for my brain since being down here, and since I just finished the book I had been reading, this discovery couldn't have come at a better time. I had asked my family last night if they had any books in Spanish that I could read and the one that was on the breakfast table waiting for me when I got up was titled "Cómo lograr felicidad en su VIDA FAMILIAR" or "How to Achieve Happiness in your Family Life". Upon skimming it briefly, I found it to be chalk full of Bible verses. I'm actually not sure if it's a joke or not, because other than the requisite 2 or 3 graphic portraits of the Virgin Mary peeking from behind various calendars and wedding announcements, my family doesn't seem religious at all (I asked my dad if we were going to mass one Sunday and he was a little taken aback and nervously conceded that they try to make a point of going on the last Sunday of the month hahaha). So, I brought the book into my room and put it on my stack. We'll see what happens from there.

Lolita and I went to the little produce stand around the corner from my house to buy choclas (corn on the cob, one of about 4 billion different varieties of corn commonly consumed in Ecuador) and some cheese because we all have to bring in platos típicos ecuatorianos for class tomorrow. This means that I have to wake up at 6:30 in the mañana to cook corn on the cob for my fellow classmates and professora. It's an interesting life that I lead... I'll likely have pictures tomorrow.

Today we also went to this Colombian Panadería that we had visited before, which employs the tallest, most beautiful men that I've seen on my entire trip thus far. I actually think that in reality, they're just tall. And by tall, I just mean less than a head shorter than me. But that counts for a lot these days. Needless to say, I will be returning to this fine little establishment.

Anyway, I just finished my second giant mug of ginger/lemon/honey tea that Lolita made to help my cold, and I'm anticipating an early morning of cooking, so this is it for me tonight!

Besos!

What a weekend

Whew, what a weekend. I've been putting off writing this entry for a number of reasons, including but not limited to the state of pure exhaustion that I found myself in upon my return to Quito early Sunday morning. But a day and a half and many hours of sleep later, here we go!

We (4 others and myself) took a night bus from Quito to Coast, which meant leaving at 8:30pm and arriving around 6 in the am. The ride was not bad at all and I think that most of us were actually able to sleep quite a bit. When the bus stopped, we stumbled into the morning coastal air that immediately clung to our bodies through our clothes, and walked immediately in the direction of the waves. We started to regroup and decide where to go from there when we were bombarded by a pack of stray dogs and shortly thereafter, an extremely intoxicated Ecuadorian man and his somewhat less intoxicated friends. It was kind of a startling introduction to Puerto Lopez that none of our groggy brains could really deal with, and we ended up making the decisions to hop on the next bus to Montanita, a tiny little surfer town about another hour South. We got ourselves a hostel here and joined the multitude of other extranjeros on the sandy white shores for a day of sunbathing and swimming in the brilliant blue waves. Later on, the guy who ran our hostel took us on a short hike up the road to a lookout with this cute Catholic church where we watched the sunset. I couldn't think of a better place than watching the sunset over the pacific ocean to spend my 21st birthday. Of course, that was only the beginning of the night... ;)
Our adorable little bungalow/hostel

The next morning our group split up. Some remained for a lazy day on the beach while Kraig and I returned to Puerto Lopez in hopes of visiting La Isla del Plata. Unfortunately, by the time we had all eaten our delicious breakfast of fruit and yogurt and real coffee (!!!!!), and then said our goodbyes, it was already too late in the day and all of the tours had already left for the island. But only a few short minutes after coming to this realization, we were approached on the street by two men who wanted to take us on their boat to another island where we could swim and snorkel and see animals for only $15. We, of course, were down. So we followed these guys to the beach, handed over our money and hopped onto this rickety little wooden boat (just the two of us) with our costeno captain who was nearly impossible to understand. What we did understand was that every time we saw a pelican or blue footed booby (and there were A LOT of them) he would point and say the name over and over again until I took a picture. So I took a lot of pictures of birds hahhahah. It was really really beautiful and we got to snorkel and see some pretty rad fish. I happened to lose my snorkel on the swim back to the boat, and the guy jumped in and looked for about 45 minutes before he found it, while Kraig and I sunbathed in the boat. It turned out he was going to charge me $75 bucks if I had lost it, so thank the sweet baby Jesus that he was able to scrounge it up from the ocean floor. After the triumphant return of my snorkel, we hopped over to this island where he dropped us off and we swam to shore. Not knowing exactly how long we were supposed to be there or what we were supposed to do, we just did some more sunbathing, and eventually returned to the mainland where we got to shower and read and eat and be really lazy until we met up with the others again to take another night bus home to Quito, where I sat next to a really interesting guy from Santiago who luckily spoke better English than I speak Spanish.
This is a really crappy picture, but the side of that cliff was covered with Blue Footed Boobies
Upon arrival to my house at about 6am, I was greeted by my mamacita who told me that it was my Grandma's 87th birthday party later on that day and that after I slept, she would come pick me up and we would go and eat and dance and partayyyy! My dad is one of 11 siblings, so this party was HUGE! There was a live band consisting of some drums and then wayy too many brass instruments. They basically played the same song, or part of a song, over and over and over again all afternoon and we danced and ate tons of food. There were all these crates of beer and really classy boxed peach wine that various people would carry around with a tiny little cup and shove at peoples' faces while they were dancing until they chugged the cup, handed it back, and the pourer would move on to a new victim. My tiny little mom was the one who seemed to be in charge of this for a large majority of the time, although I never saw her drink a drop of the stuff herself. It was a lot of fun, but I checked out early to do homework and sleep some more. Here she is pretending to chug a glass of Pilsener.

Mi abuela, the party animal

All in all it was a fantastic and exhausting weekend, although my Spanish suffers from all of these gringo adventures. Tonight after dinner, my brother, in typical older brother fashion, informed me that I used to be able to speak better Spanish when I first got here. Ouch. Jaja. But it is true that the transition from a weekend of speaking English to trying to converse with my whole family is pretty rough. Time to buckle down, I suppose.

Anyway, goodnight all. xoxoxox

Beer and Ice Cream

I'm becoming a little addicted to blogging. And it's weird, because I always felt that blogging was kind of self-centered and self-important, like, who cares about all these mundane little details of my life?? But, I mean, whatever! It's actually really cathartic and is a nice way for me to reflect on my day/days and share with all y'all. And those who don't care won't read it. Doiiii.

So, last night I had this really really epic dream. It was the first that I've remembered since being here. You know how sometimes with dreams, you remember one main part, and then when you start to describe it to someone, you realize that so much more than that happened? That just happened. But the really epic part of my dream was when I flew into this airport, and apparently I was in Cuba. But I got off the plane and before you even leave the airport, there are these two beaches. The one of the right was Russia (???) and then there was this little barrier made out of concrete blocks and on the other side was Cuba. Anyone could go to Russia but you had to have some sort of special visa or something to go to Cuba, but we didn't want to get one so we just ran onto the Cuba side. Ha! Take that, TSA!! So there we were on this beautiful beach in Cuba, and I don't really even know what else went on, but I was at that beach for basically what seemed like the whole night (IRL). The main meaning that I took away from this dream was "I'M SO FREAKING EXCITED TO GO TO THE BEACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I also REALLY want to go to Cuba. And I'm only realizing now, as I write this, that it's probably because I've never actually been to a tropical beach (the closest being San Diego). So yeah. Tomorrow I have Spanish class and then dance class and then come home and pack and then go out for some early pre-birthday drinks and then catch a night bus for 10 hours to Puerto Lopez and spend the next 2-3 days sleeping in the sand, playing in the water and hiking around a really cool island. Rough life...

And today was pretty excellent too. We got out of class 3 hours early and then went out to lunch as a group at this Greek/ Lebanese place. I had a delicious falafel sandwich and an Ecuadorian beer all for under $4. And then, as if that wasn't enough, we decided to go to the mall to get ice cream! It was a day of indulgence, as before today, I hadn't eaten out or had ice cream since being here. Yum yum. Then I met up with a friend that I know from SU photo classes who is living in Quito for a while and we walked around and talked a bit and then met back up with the others to go on a bit of an adventure to buy our bus tickets for tomorrow. After wandering around a somewhat seedy part of town as it got duskier and then dark, we finally found our bus company, and after a little bit of confusion and negotiating, bought 5 tickets to the beach. Hellllz yes. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a youtube video of dancing blue footed boobies, complete with original song, on the island we will be visiting this weekend. This is what my (real) dad sent me after I told them where I was going. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBZGL5y11jE. jajajajaj thanks, Dad.

Tonight I came home just in time for dinner and found that I couldn't really speak Spanish. My family teased me pretty hard core and told me that I wasn't allowed to go out with my friends anymore because they were bad influences and spoke English with me. And then to really rub it in, they proceeded to talk about plans for my birthday right in front of me, as if I didn't know what was going on. Sheesh. But I also am having some trouble speaking English now, so pretty soon, I'll probably have to revert to signs or interpretive dance. Consider yourselves warned.

I wrapped up the day with my first skype sesh with the parents. Even though the first 15 minutes was spent with them trying to get their camera hooked up (to no avail hahahaha) it was still nice ot talk to my OTHER family. ahahhaha just kidding guys :)

And for some reason, I decided to write emails and blog instead of writing my two page Spanish paper that's due tomorrow. But since I finally figured out that I have to flip the switch for hot water a whole hour before I want to take a shower, I figured that would give me an excuse to be up early writing a little (informal) paper. We'll see how that goes. I'm going to take lots and lots of pictures this weekend, so check back next week to see those, too.

Until then!
Maria-Teresa xoxo

Adjusting

I didn't take any pictures today, nor did anything really exciting or out of the ordinary happen, so I'm not even sure if I should blog, but here I am, forging ahead.

It's been interesting as the "honeymoon stage" of this trip is wearing thin. Now don't get me wrong, I still love it here, but like anywhere you go where you have to settle into a semi-permanent routine, that transition is a little tricky. My attitude has changed a little from finding everything exciting and interesting to getting a little claustrophobic and antsy with even only one week of classes under my belt. The thing about this program is that while I live with an Ecuadorian family who speak only Spanish and am learning to navigate a new, foreign city, I still have Spanish class 4 days a week from 9-3 with the same 6 other students, all from Western Washington. Spending so much time with so few people who are so similar to me is already starting to make me a little crazy. And, I mean, our group gets along pretty well and we have fun together and work as a team really well, but still... I sometimes feel like I never left home during those hours spent in a classroom with fellow Americans/ Washingtonians. So, I'm trying to figure out a way to not go crazy and make sure that I'm really taking advantage of my experience abroad. Spending time with my family here is definitely one of the best things that I've discovered so far, and I really want to make some other friends here, who speak Spanish and who have a little more of a varied set of life experiences than I do. I'm also trying to figure out if I can stand spending the next 5 months in a classroom and what an alternative to that might be... but anyways, enough about that.

Yesterday, we had the first of 7 hour-long salsa classes that are incorporated into our program this quarter. Pretty cool, huh? Not only was it a really good time, but it was also a good workout, as well as a group bonding activity as we all made complete fools out of ourselves together. But it was also impressive how much we improved after only one hour of introductory class.

Today, after school, I came home, sat on my roof in the sun and read. It was really beautiful and peaceful and a good way to recenter myself after going a little stir-crazy during the school day. Then I decided to go off and explore by myself a little, because that's something that I have yet to do here. So I wrote a note for my family and hopped on a bus. It was kind of a mixed experience. In one sense, it was nice to be out and about by myself for the first time since being here, because that's something that I like to do back home. On the other hand, it was a lot more stressful than I had anticipated. It's a completely different experience altogether to be the only white girl who speaks hardly any Spanish on a bus of rowdy Ecuadorians. On top of that, it was starting to get dark and I could just hear the voices of my family and all the people at school telling me how bad of an idea it was to go off by myself, especially after dark. So I basically just rode a bus downtown and then back home. It's frustrating to not be able to feel as independent and confident as I usually do when I'm off by myself, and it's really frustrating not to feel safe exploring the city where I live. I definitely realized how much I take fore granted that feeling of confidence and security that I have at home. I know that I will start to become more comfortable in this city as I do more exploring and get better at Spanish, but right now it's hard to ignore all the intense warnings and horror stories that are ingrained into our consciousness by those who are responsible for our well being. Not that I want to completely ignore them, but I also know that I need to have my own experiences and figure stuff out for myself, because that's how I learn. Basically, I feel like I'm in elementary school again.

But! A few of us are going to the beach this weekend! We're heading out to a place about 10 hrs away by bus called Puerto Lopez and we'll get to go to the Isla del Plata, which is what our guide books call "the poor man's Galapagos". A weekend away from the smoggy city will be so nice and is much needed. Hopefully I'll be able to bring my camera and get some good shots.

In the meantime, I finally updated my flickr with more photos, so check that out if you so desire. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtsenecal/

Love you all, and thanks for reading another probably-too-long blog entry.

BESOZZZZZ!!

PS I hope this didn't come off as too negative, that wasn't my intention at all. I know it's definitely a stark contrast to my other colorful and bubbly posts, but it's all a part of this experience that is unfolding more and more everyday. Very exciting.

Weekend #2

Hola hola!

The completion of tonight's giant load of Spanish homework marks the end of weekend 2 in Ecuador. It was a week of learning, going, cooking, dancing, photographing and hablaring.

On Friday, we had a city tour with CIMAS and when I got home I washed my clothes for the first time since being here... by hand. It was definitely an experience, standing on the roof of my house, looking out over the neighborhood and scrubbing my underwear. Needless to say, I will certainly be more conscious of how much wear I can get out of my clothes before they require washing again... it's quite a process. On Friday night, we went out dancing in Gringolandia (hahaah) for the birthday of one of the kids on the program. We danced basically all night and woke up early the next morning to take a bus to Otavalo. Otavalo is a little town about 90 minutes north of Quito that hosts one of the biggest markets in South America (Ecuador has quite a few claims to fame for being such a pequenito country). It is a largely indigenous population that sells lots of different things, from fruit and vegetables to ponchos and jewelry.
This is the alpaca hair (fur? idk) sweater with alpacas on it that mi amigo Kraig bought for only $12. What a steal. Who doesn't need an alpaca sweater??Here we are at a little pie shop that our guide books recommended. Yum yum! Somehow, I was able to escape Otavalo having only bought a piece of apple pie, 7 mangoes for a dollar and this incredible skein of yarn for only $2.50. I couldn't resist. It would have cost at least 20 bucks in the US!

Today, I went shopping with Lolita. And by shopping, I mean we walked to a little fruit stand about 3 blocks away from my house where Lolita pointed and talked rapidly to the fruit woman who filled our basket with broccoli, cauliflower, onions, pineapple, cantaloupe and I don't even know what else. It was glorious, and cost less than 8 bucks for more than a giant basket full of fresh produce. Now, I should say that not all families are like this. A lot of my friends here go to the giant super markets with their families a couple times a week, but I have still yet to go. I think it's so cool that my family lives this way, especially because I just found out that my parents rent out a couple houses in our neighborhood, which means that they have quite a bit of money. They live simply and healthily and naturally. They also have a lot of natural remedies and teas, and I finally asked my dad to write them all down for me, so now I have an ongoing list of "Hiervas Aromaticas" in my school notebook for future reference. I think I'm going to start writing down recipes too.

Anyway, when we got back, Lolita started teaching my how to cook "Tortillas" but I soon came to discover that Ecuadorian tortillas are not like the normal corn or flower tortillas that I was expecting. Instead, we basically made mashed potatoes with this sauce and then made little balls out of them with cheese in the middle and fried them. Omg..... fried, cheesy potato balls... yeah. And on top of those little bundles of heaven, we also had soup, ensalada (radishes, carrots, tomatoes), avocado, meat and then a fried egg on top. Holy crap. Talk about a heart attack on a plate, but dios mio! It was so delicious. We ate around 1 and I definitely wasn't hungry for dinner or anything for the rest of the day. Apparently it is a special meal, like, for weekends or special occasions. Here are some pictures of this day of cooking and eating... and mi perritos.

This is Andy, the baby. He wants to play ALWAYS. A little annoying, but pretty darn cute. And pretty darn fascinated by the camera.
And here's Lukey, the little old-man dog. Lukey really likes me and follows me all around the house. He rubs his little old-man dog head against my feet and sits on the floor right next to my spot at the table and watches me while I eat. He also has very little patience for Andy and growls anytime Andy gets too rambunctious.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that we also had fresh pineapple juice!
Lolita y Andy in our kitchen.
Look at all that food!
The "tortillas"
And the finished product!!
After lunch, some relatives came over I went to my room to do homework, but I fell asleep instead. This afternoon, Manuel, Lolita y yo went to the park and walked around a bit. So basically today, I ate, slept and strolled through the park. Not a bad end to a busy weekend...

Next weekend is my birthday weekend!! I'm voting for a trip to the coast, where we can lay around in the sunshine, drinking pina coladas, but we'll see. I have a feeling that whatever we end up doing will make for a memorable 21st birthday in Ecuador :)

Chau for now!!!

Un otro dia hermoso!

My lunch today: $1.50 para todas!
Another beautiful day.

Solo Fotos

I'm excited to have somehow finagled my way into my bedroom before 11 tonight and am reveling in the solitude. So this blog will be a short one (also, I have tarea).


Went to a giant mall in the city called Quicentro today. A few friends live nearby and it's easy to give that as a destination point for mis padres, although none of us are really mall people, so we usually just explore the general vicinity. Today, though, una amiga wanted to get a watch so we wandered inside and saw this store. If you can't read the sign it says "Sunglass Hot" hahahhahahahah como... sunglass HUT? Yeah, that's the one. Anyway, I loled when I saw this and then totally embarrassed my friends by whipping out my camera to document it. Que gringa! Oh well, it was just too good to go unnoticed.
The next two are pictures of my friend's house. I had to wait for him in his courtyard while he dropped off his school bag because it's really important to the families that they have advance warning before friends come over. And it was such a beautiful day today! A little smoggy, as usual, but by far the clearest and warmest day yet.


And this is a kind of crappy picture from a parking lot. But this city is so amazing because it's completely surrounded by mountains. You can kind of see them in the background there. It's pretty incredible. I want to try and take more pictures from el centro pero I obviously don't want to carry my nice camera on the bus so I just take my little point and shoot that fits in my pocket.


Oh and I'd like to make a few corrections. First of all, my brother's name actually IS Fabi. Glad that I finally cleared that up before I passed the point of no return. Also, in a previous post I wrote that guinea pigs are called "cuyos" but they're really called "cuyis" pronounced coo-eez. My bad. Still pobre, nonetheless.

Buenos noches!!

School, cell phones and dominos: Day 3 of Ecuador

Aye aye aye I CANNOT believe that I've only been here for three days. Tonight at dinner, I was talking with my family and my brother, Diego, who just got into town yesterday, was asking me what I liked about Ecuador. I was already going through the long list in my head, trying to translate what I love so far about this trip when my dad jumped in "She's only been here for a very short time! Very short! (in Spanish, of course)". Oh yeah! It really feels like I've been here for much longer. Everything just feels so natural.

So today was my first day of school. I emerged from my room to find the house bustling with activity. My host dad started asking me all sorts of questions about cell phones (it's never too early to be asked about 7 million questions in another language) ((yes it is)) and in the end, I ended up getting one of their old ones, which saved me about $50-70 on buying a new one that works here like I was expecting. I only had to buy a card because it's a pay as you go type of deal. So I started off the day, phone in hand. My dad walked me to school because it was the first day (adorable) and we picked up Laurita and her dad on the way. We live about 3 blocks and 5 minutes away from CIMAS, so the walk was short but it was so nice to meet up with all of my amigos when I got there. There are six other students in my Spanish class and all the rest (20 or so) are in the public health class. We separated for the first part and then met up to take a placement test, eat some delicious fruit salad and spaghetti with veggies and listen to a lecture on the megadiversity of Ecuador (in English, thankfully). A solid start to school, I think. And the great thing is that on a lot of days we only have class until 12 or 12:30 and never have school on Fridays!

After school, Laura and I wanted to go meet up with some people and explore the city, but it was the first time we were attempting to go out by ourselves. Trying to convince my dad of this idea was reallllllllly difficult. Just think about how hard it is to try and convince your parents to do something that they are unsure of. That is muy dificil in and of itself, but in Espanol!??! Talk about exhausting. So we gave up for a little bit and went into my room to concoct a plan which involved calling a friend and getting bus directions to his part of town. Now more collected and prepared, we went to my dad again with Kraig's phone number, the name of the place we wanted to go and the bus we knew we needed to take. This went over much better. My dad drew us a map, we promised to be home in time for dinner and then we finally head off for our first adventure without the parents! It was soooo nice! We met up with some others at a big mall but none of us are big mall people so we went to this Lebanese restaurant and got cervezas. I can't even tell you how nice it was to sit around with some friends, speaking English and drinking beer. I think it was exactly what we all needed. We all had to get home for dinner, so three of us shared a cab home, which actually ended up not really taking us home and with me yelling at the driver in Spanish because I thought he was trying to rip us off, but as it turns out I think he really just had no idea where he was going.

So, when we finally got home, it looked like we were having this delicious bean sopa for dinner. It probably looked like that because we were all eating said delicious bean sopa, but then when I went into the kitchen to wash dishes, I was shooed out and told to go sit at the table. Next thing I know the bell rings and Diego comes back with a pizza box from Dominos. I think I freaked out a little hahahah it was like some weird form of culture shock that I just thought was hilarious. They didn't as much. So we ate pizza and then I suggested we sing to Diego, but because I was the one who made the suggestion, I had to sing him the English version all alone after we were done. Not a great birthday present for anyone.
Here's the birthday boy with his birthday pizza!
And here's my spot at the dinner table. A well rounded meal :)
After dinner we probably talked for about 2 hours. It's really exciting being able to converse in Spanish that much and I greedily tried to keep the conversation going so that I could show off more of my Spanish :) I felt really rejuvenated after a day away from my family and a chance to speak English with my friends. I think it's a really good balance.

Tomorrow, Laura and I are going to walk around a little before school ("trotar" as opposed to "caminar" my family informed me) so I'm going to hit the hay.

Today was just such a good day and I can't even believe that this is my life right now hehahehhahhahehhaee wow.

Mas fotos- 2nd full day in Quito

Hola again from down South,

Day 2 proved to be just as exciting as day 1, even though they seem to have a different definition of descansar than I had in mind... I got to sleep in until 9:30 or so, but then I kind of felt bad because it seems as if their entire lives revolve around me. And sure enough, when I finally made it out of my room at 10 and kissed Lolita buenos dias, she promptly asked me what I wanted for breakfast. Guys, this is the life. Except no, that's not true. The FIRST thing she did was look down at my stocking feet and ask "donde esta tu sandales??" Aye aye aye. For some reason (I think it goes along with the mindset that nothing has ever been colder than 55 degrees) it's like committing a mortal sin when you walk around the house with no shoes or sandales and they had to loan me some so that I could avoid such debauchery. But alas, old habits die hard, not wearing shoes in the house being one of them. I'm learning that, at least in my house, there are quite a lot of rules that seem pretty silly to me and if I was at home, I wouldn't follow them. But here I am. A good deal of them are to keep me safe, I know that and appreciate it, but then there are some like I have to push my zappatos all the way under my bed so my amigas won't trip on them when they come over and I can't take a shower at night because I will catch la gripa. Hmmm, been doin it for a lot of years now folks and I'm still happy and healthy. But whatever, that just means that now I have to wake up at 7:30 instead of 8 because apparently I have to shower before I eat breakfast.

ANYWAY, tangent, sorry. Back to the rest of today. Manuel, Lolita y yo ate breakfast and then Javi (yeah, that's it), Mati y Christian came down because apparently we had big plans for the day, which I think Manuel had told me about but I always tend to understand more after I do it and can then look back and say "ohhh so THAT'S what he said". Not SUPER helpful, but keeps me on my toes. So we were in the middle of another such conversation where all I know is that I need sunscreen and my camera and then all of a sudden "vamos!". Everyone else is dressed and ready, but I am still in my PJs and clearly not ready to vamos. SO I RUN into my room, change, grab stuff I think I will need based on what I understood of the conversation and run out the door where they're all sitting, waiting for me. Geez.

We all pile into the truck (including 6 month old Christian because apparently no one uses car seats here) and head off to some unknown (to me) destination. It's only when we finally arrive that I realize we are at the actual equator. So cool! I was at the middle of the earth today. Nbd.
The whole place is one big cultural/ historical celebration. There was traditional dancing and music, which is where the inspiration for Paul Simon's "El Condor Pasa" came from. Lolita and I paid $3 to go inside that big monument behind me and went up to the top where again, there were 360 degree views of Quito. Then on the way down there are like 8 floors all filled with artifacts and history about each of the different parts of Ecuador. So, about this: I thought we were just going to go up to the top and look around, I didn't even know there was this museum aspect. It was super cool and Lolita acted as my tour guide because apparently she knows everything about everything. But what this meant for me was that for an hour straight she spoke rapid Spanish about the history and culture of Ecuador and I said "ahhh si" about 5 billion times. I probably understood about 30% of what she was saying. Dios mio!!! I've never been more ready for a nap than after that one hour.
This is baby Christian dancing to the flouta.
Then we went to a parque that is pretty close to my house. It was really really incredibly beautiful with tons of Eucalyptus trees, play grounds and apparently miles and miles and miles of trails (and, of course, 360 degree views of Quito, because I mean, why not?). It was nice, Manuel and I walked around and he explained a lot of stuff to me that I actually understood. It wasn't until I got home and googled the park that I found out that it's actually one of the biggest natural parks in Latin America (some sources say it's the biggest) at 600 hectares. Now, to be honest, I don't really know exactly how big a hectare is, but judging by the size of this park, it's freaking massive.
I actually have quite a few pictures of me from today because my family discovered how fun it is to take pictures on my camera so they, especially Javi y Manuel were constantly asking if I wanted my picture taken. The result is a bunch of awkward pictures of me by myself in front of whatever it was we were by when they asked to take the picture. It is cool though because they don't have a camera and Javi was telling me that he's excited to get to see pictures of the baby for the next 6 months :) And they were way into seeing the pictures on my computer and also asked to see pictures of my family. It was really cute.

A couple more things, even though I know this is quite long already (so much for me not blogging, huh). The food: Lolita cooks three meals a day. Mostly meals consist of soup with potatoes or yucca and vegetables and chicken. I think that usually they eat more pork and beef, but on the first night I was here they were grilling me with questions and eventually deduced that I prefer chicken so we've had it for almost every meal now. We also have bread and eggs and lots of yummy natural, homemade fruit juice and rice, of course. They are simple but satisfying. We are always comparing the fruits and veggies that they have here with what we have in the US and normally I find myself saying "yeah, we have that too, but it's bigger" to which she responds "ahhh porque de las quimicas." They take great pride in their organic (but they don't call it that, just naturales) and cheap produce, which is something I sure could get used to. One thing that they do eat are "cuyos" or, yep, guinea pigs.
We saw this little guy roasting on a stake at the equator and all I could say was "ohhhhhhhh pobre cuyo" which they though was hilarious. It's really quite gross to look at though and they'd probably have to trick me and hide it in some delicious sopa for me to eat it, but even then... pobre cuyo. I also tried to my host aunt what a ferret was the other day, to no avail. It's probably for the best...

At dinner the past two nights we've had conversations about our respective presidents, immigration, drug trafficking, racism, travel and some other stuff. It was pretty cool, but also made me realize how much more I need to learn. So that's what I plan to do with the rest of my evening: lay in bed and spend some time with my 501 Spanish Verb book. My little Spanish dictionary (thanks, Mom) that I've been carrying around has been my Bible for the past couple days and is actually really helpful for both parties involved. But school starts tomorrow and I'm ready for a) some interaction with other people besides my family (I spoke no English today. Zero. Except for a few words to the baby because they want me to speak to him in English haha) and b) working a lot more on my Spanish. I will eventually post more photos on my flickr. Here's the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtsenecal/ but there aren't more Ecuador pics yet.

Well, buenos noches!! Te amo!