Highlights from this Week:
·
Monday – I went to the clinic for what I hope
will be the last time, at least for a while.
The doctor finally realized I have a cold and gave me medicine for that,
which is definitely a good thing. Later,
I played Frisbee with Carolyn, Cecilia, Daniel, Kirstie, and Zack, and we had a
wonderful time throwing the Frisbee with a moderate amount of success and just
visiting and talking in a mix of English and Spanish.
·
Tuesday – This evening, I met with a couple of
other people interested in teaching English as a Foreign Language classes and
we talked about what we could do to get that started. Considering we’re all friends, we got a
surprising amount accomplished and we hope to advertise and start the classes soon.
·
Wednesday – Happy February! I helped at Muñequitos this morning and a
group of us talked again about teaching EFL this afternoon. We’re still figuring out exactly where we’ll
be teaching, but we found a book series, True
Colors, that should be very helpful.
·
Thursday – Happy Groundhog’s Day! I’m still waiting on news as to whether or
not Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow (if that even matters in Ecuador, where
the only two seasons are Wet and Dry) but, hopefully, everyone in the States is
celebrating whatever our beloved groundhog’s decision was.
·
Saturday – We had a minga in the organic garden.
We stripped bark off trees, carried the poles into the garden, and
painted tar on the ends of the ones going into the ground, which was quite a
bit of work, but also fun, especially with friends. My host brother, Patricio, and his wife also
came to visit and my host aunt and cousin joined us, so we had a lovely evening
together. As of today, I’ve been here in
Ecuador a month…hard to believe it’s been that long already…
·
Sunday – Happy Super Bowl Sunday! My family started the day with Mass in El
Quinche, which is a semi-nearby town with a huge basilica dedicated to the Reina del Quinche, the patroness of
Quito. I was surprised at the busy
atmosphere around the church (there were many vendors outside and a steady
stream of people moving about the church hall), but Mass was lovely as it would
be anywhere. Later, I went to watch the
Super Bowl with Paige, Danielle, Javi, and Tayler. Unfortunately, many restaurants and bars in
Cumbayá aren’t open Sunday evenings and you can’t get the Super Bowl online
outside the United States, so we couldn’t really watch the game, but we did
watch the score (Go Giants!) and enjoyed hanging out together and visiting.
Random Notes:
·
Try cooking for your host family. They’ll appreciate your help in the kitchen
and (most likely) very much enjoy whatever you make. Remember, though, ingredients here may be a
little bit different, so you’ll have to be flexible and be able to slightly
alter recipes and just generally experiment.
Also, remember that we’re slightly below 9,000 feet here, so you’ll have
to adjust lots of recipes for the altitude.
·
There are three different words for bananas and
two different words for plantains. Mini
bananas are called oritos. Regular-sized bananas are called guineos.
Big bananas are called cedas. Green plantains are called verdes.
Black plantains are called maduros. Did you notice the word plátano wasn’t in there anywhere?
You can use it (I do), but I’m not really sure that’s what anyone else
calls them…
·
La que no
podía amar is a telenovela on
television weekdays at 8:00 PM. It’s
good (once you get used to the emotional roller coaster all the characters seem
to be on) and you should watch it.
·
Fried empanadas
(bread with cheese inside and sugar on top) are, in my opinion, slightly better
than baked empanadas (though they’re
both quite good). However, fried empanadas are usually sold on the
street, so I would wait a while before sampling them if I were you, so your
stomach can get used to the food here.
·
The correct way to say “goodbye” here as a
casual farewell is “Chao.” I have the unfortunate habit of saying “Hasta,” which I believe was made up by
English speakers, since I’ve never heard anyone here use it.
·
People sit down to eat here. That’s not just dinner, but also breakfast
and lunch. No one eats during class
except gringos. No one eats anywhere
there’s a sign that says not to eat. I
guess I can’t really comment on this, since it’s so different from what I’m
used to, but also such a wonderful thing.
I mean, people actually have time to sit down and eat!
