A Taste of America

Thanksgiving in Ecuador, which I thought might make me feel a bit lonely and homesick, turned out to be one of the happiest nights I´ve spent in this country. Almost all of the volunteers got together with Byron and Monica--UBECI´s founders and leaders--at their house for an elaborate dinner prepared in part by all of us. Before digging into a feast of pumpkin soup, two types of meat, an incredible homemade stuffing, fresh mashed potatoes, bowls of cooked veggies, delicious pasta and fruit salads, the ever-popular panadería bread of Ecuador, two different kinds of pies, and even cranberry sauce, we all went around the table and talked about things we´re thankful for. Even the Ecuadorians, English and Austrian at the table took part. Although many of us said a lot of the same things, usually some modified version of "I´m so thankful to be here experiencing the Ecuadorian culture and for all of us being together," the time felt so special and it was really the closest I had ever felt to the rest of the volunteers. It is such a wonderful thing to listen to people 100% and to recieve that genuine attention in return when it´s your turn to speak. As yesterday was the first day of warm weather after what feels like weeks of rain, my Austrian friend said "I am so thankful for the sun."

This picture definitely doesn´t do our meal justice--worthy of royalty, in my opinion--but here we are before the first course :). (About an hour later, I would literally feel more full than I ever had in my entire life....)


On a somewhat bittersweet note, I offically have one work week left with UBECI--after that, it´s about a week and a half of traveling and then boarding the plane. I´m so torn right now--it´s almost impossible for me to imagine leaving the kids and the staff of UBECI and most especially my host family. I love practicing Spanish, I love traveling and I have learned and experienced so many new things in this country that I couldn´t even begin to explain how much I feel like I´ve been changed for the better. On the other hand, I truly cannot wait to be home on December 16th. Any sounds or decorations or activities that are in any way Christmas related make me long so much for my extended family get-togethers, caroling in my neighborhood, maybe seeing snow, and most definitely seeing my best friends again. I´ve been subconciously counting down the days for a while.

It hasn´t quite hit me yet how soon I won´t be here anymore, but I am trying to mentally prepare myself for some of the craziest transitions and hardest goodbyes of my life so far in the next few weeks. I do remember how jumbled and emotional I felt last summer when I came home from Paraguay...and I guess there´s no true preparation for that. But, as much as I´ll miss Ecuador, I really can´t express how excited I am to see Arlington again.

So that´s that....

PS. I will FINALLY have some pictures of the incredible kids of UBECI next week--I can take my camera to the markets my last few days! I am so excited to share with everyone the most IMPORTANT thing I´ve been doing for the last 3 1/2 months. Stay tuned ;).

Fútbol, Music and So Much Rain

I thought it was worth mentioning that on Wednesday I went to my first ever soccer game: Quito´s LIGA vs. some dumb team from Argentina in the quarterfinals of the South American Cup! Let me tell you, these people are CRAZY about their fútbol. When LIGA came out onto the field, random people in the stands were setting off fireworks. There were guard dogs between the tiny section designated for the opposing team and Quiteño LIGA fans. The other team got rolls and rolls and rolls of toilet paper (THAT´S why there´s never any in the bathrooms, I thought). Also, I can´t quite imagine how I´d feel if tens of thousands of people screamed "HIJO DE PUTA" (that´d be "son of a bitch") in unison at the sound of my name. Sorry, fútbol players of Argentina. Anyway, with our gringo blessing, LIGA dominated, so we´ll also be seeing the semifinals live in a few days!



My (relatively new) friend Alex, another gap year kid from Maryland, and I have been getting together to sing and play guitar a lot recently-- we´re covering a few boy-girl duets, and I actually can feel my mood improving because before a few weeks ago, I hadn´t really sung at all. We managed to pull ourselves together for a "concert" for Alex´s host mom´s birthday on Thursday...and even though some of the songs were pretty rough, I had the best time! It was so liberating to really sing. I´m really exciting for these jam sessions to continue, hopefully until I leave. Alex has even taught me three chords on the guitar-- that´s three more than I knew two weeks ago...!

In other news, rain has been a virtually constant presence in my life since around 3 pm Saturday afternoon. I have never felt the need to use the phrase "soaked to the bone" in a literal sense, but this week just might tip me over the edge. I really don´t think I´ve ever experienced anything like it! But the weather hasn´t stopped us-- I and my friend Anna took a trip to the Otavalo artisan market on Saturday (my final touristy souvenir shopping opportunity, I think) and a bunch of us went to QuitoFest, an annual free music concert, on Sunday. We became totally drenched both days but had good times anyway. Still hoping this rain will not continue for the rest of my time in the Quito (only 2 weeks and 5 days, if my plans stay as they are now! WHOA.)....

November Nonsense

A rundown of all of the exciting things that have happened so far this month:

On the 5th, our superiors threw a Halloween party, although the holiday is not actually celebrated in this country. My host mom was kind enough to provide me with a costume. I have no idea what I was, but I liked it! Here I am...dressed up as something...with my friend Natasha:


On November 6th and 7th, my friends Karl and Alex and I stayed in the town of Mindo, famous for its butterfly gardens and ziplining!

Here I am, being the scaredest I have ever been in my entire life....


Alex, me, and some ginormous butterflies.


There were also hummingbirds everywhere! Lots of bird feeders all around town for tourists´ viewing pleasure. They are so tiny and move SO quickly! I don´t think I had ever seen a hummingbird in real life before!


As for work, I have basically assumed the job of resident market homework support girl for the rest of my time here. It is probably the most frustrating task I have taken on in my entire life-- it is hard to break the culture barrier in terms of the education system, sometimes the language, the sheer absurdity of most assignments, that I don´t know a lot of these kids very well, and also that they just don´t know where to begin most of the time. I am learning to possess an incredible patience, which is a very welcomed lesson, and I feel more prepared for the challenge every day.

¡Feriado!

After a seriously not-so-stellar week (several days of silence due to illness, 3 trips to the immigraton office, a new Visa that I STILL have to fix, working in the markets very little, some seriously ridiculous UBECI drama...et cetera?), I was super excited to celebrate the Ecuadorian holiday this weekend with one of my many families. Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead--kind of the Latin American equivalent of Halloween, but a little more symbolic in some countries) is this Tuesday, and basically the entire country had been in feriado mode since Friday night and will be until Wednesday.

My host mom, Diego (my older host brother) and I went down to the valley Tumbaco, where my host mom´s parents live, for a big family reunion on Saturday morning. The Ecuadorian tradition on Dia de los Muertos is to eat guaguas de pan, or bread in the shape of babies, with colada morada, a hot drink made of blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, and other fruits. In some areas of the country (indigenous-populated places, I imagine), locals take these foods to the grave to eat with their deceased family members. However, my family is not that into the soulsy part of the holiday and prefers to just take part in the commercial aspect :). So, after an extremely hearty lunch on Saturday afternoon, all of the cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents took a trip to the grocery store to buy an ungodly amount of flour, sugar, leavening, salt, fruit, etc. to make enough guaguas de pan and colada morada for a small army.

After many hours of labor--and a couple mess-ups along the way--we had approximately 2348579346 pieces of bread (though not all babies) and a giant cauldron of delicious fruit juice.

My "host aunt" and me kneading dough....


So...I had been told that the specialty of the house was empanadas. I had not been told that they had never actually made bread in the oven before. It took a while to perfect. But the seemingly burnt pieces were still delicious on the inside!


It got better and better every time!


My very own authentic guagua (okay, so it´s slightly burnt...and the eyes and buttons fell off in the baking process) and colada morada.


We spent the night in Tumbaco, and filled up (again) the next morning on the treats we had made the night before. I didn´t eat again until 8 pm that evening.

I had a super great time with everyone this weekend. But being with "my" entire extended Ecuadorian family made me really miss my actual extended family. It´s the "familial" feeling in general, I guess...being comfortable with friends, being in my own house, whatever. I have a while left here, but I really am looking forward to going home at this point. I don´t think that´s a good thing...and I´m hoping it´s just because I´ve had a lot of time to myself in the past several days. I guess I need to keep busy.