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!!!