Easter and Holy Week

Things here in Quito picked back up right away after the return from the beach trip. Two days after we got back, I went with the fam to see a dance show at a local museum and fine arts venue. The dance troupe consisted of 5 young women from Spain, and they performed traditional Spanish dances with some modern touches. The music was mostly Spanish but there were also a few songs with some Arabic sounding music mixed in, and there was even one that sounded like Irish music. The dances were wonderful, and I especially liked the faster dances more than the slower more low-key ones.

Last week was Holy Week, which is very important to the people here because the Ecuadorian population is 97% Catholic. One established tradition here is that in almost every household and restaurant, the people serve a special soup called ¨fanesca¨ that's only made during Holy Week. It's a grain based soup so it has peas, corn, a few different kinds of beans, and the broth is somewhat thick and is really flavorful. People also add little fried pieces of bread, fish, onions, and hardboiled egg on top of their bowl of soup. The first day I tried it, I thought it was decent but also a little strange because I guess I wasn't used to the flavor combinations. However, it grew on me a lot by the second day and I ended up eating it every day that week! Another reason why it's a special dish is because it's totally unique to Ecuador--you can't find this soup in any other country.

On Thursday I went with Alejandro and Mayory on a night-time visit of the historic center to tour the churches. A lot of the churches are extremely old, some of them from the 1600's. There were lots of people out and about doing the same thing, so it was also a good opportunity to people watch. Many of the churches were pretty crowded but it was worth it because there were special decorations, sometimes music, and ceremonies specific to Holy Week. Lots of churches also boast altars, columns, and various structures that are handmade and covered in gold, so they are really pretty spectacular. In addition to the artistic aspects of the wood carvings and gold designs, there are often paintings and statues as well. So while the churches in the center of Quito obviously serve a religous purpose primarily, they are museums of sorts as well and definitely historic places.

Easter itself was very laid back. There was certainly no chocolate or Easter bunny involved, so in the spirit of my family's traditions I bought chocolate eggs and Alejandro and I hid them around the first floor of the house for his parents and sister to find. They definitely love their sweets so they were able to locate the eggs pretty quickly, and I think they enjoyed doing something fun and a little bit different from their usual customs. We had a family lunch together and afterwards, in the true spirit of Latin America, we watched a Barcelona soccer game (Barcelona is actually not the Spanish team but rather an Ecuadorian team from Guayaquil and one of the family's favorites) before attending evening mass.

Nothing much to report from this week except for the big move out of the apartment this weekend. Oh the joys of packing and unpacking... Anyway I'm sure it will be a nice relief when it's all finished!

In other random news, the family doggie is going to have puppies soon! She's an English bulldog and super sweet, and it seems likes it's starting to dawn on her that there are little things living inside her because she's been acting hungrier, lazier, and a little bit more confused than usual. I can't wait for the puppies to come and I have a feeling all of us will be wanting to keep them rather than sell them, which is the current plan because bulldogs are rare here and therefore bring a good price. We'll see what the family ends up deciding once the pups arrive.

Well, time to get started on enjoying the weekend! Hasta luegito!

23!

Presenting...my first post as a 23-year-old! I feel like I'm getting up there--only 7 more years until 30! Wahh okay, now I'm just scaring myself.

Okay, so the birthday beach trip: it was fabulous! I went with Alejandro and we took a night bus and arrived at the beach house around 7:30 am. I have to admit, I was kind of wiped out by the time we got to the beach. I never sleep too well on the night buses leaving Quito to go to other destinations because the descent down the mountains is very curvy and jolty, so it's easy to get a bit nauseous. Anyway despite the fatigue, I hit the pool and the beach right away! I guess seeing the ocean and crystal clear pool water woke me up a whole lot.

We lucked out with the weather on the whole trip. Remember how it was raining and cold non-stop in Quito? At the beach, it was hot hot hot! and very sunny. It made jumping in the pool and ocean that much more refreshing.

We brought a lot of food with us to save money, so we did a lot of our own cooking and food preparation. There was lots of cereal eating, pb & j sandwiches (which always reminds me of the beach), fresh fruits, pastas and soups at night, and so on. We were also lucky because there was a man that sold bread that came to our apartment almost every day, and he had the BEST breads I have ever eaten. All of them were soft, and he had some with cinnamon sugar, some made from yuca and banana, some filled with chocolate, some that were like regular rolls but slightly sweet, empanadas, etc. Amazing! I wanted to bring him back to Quito with me.

We ate out a couple of times, too: the complex we were staying at has a few restaurants right on the beach, so a few times we had lunch at tables in the sand literally spitting distance from the ocean (a couple times at high tide the waves came up to the table and even tried to take our sandals with them). It was kind of funny eating at the restaurants because they always looked at us funny when we ordered a vegetarian pasta for me, first because that wasn't even on the menu, and second because everyone at the beach eats seafood. Period. For instance, I think Alejandro ate shrimp for at least one meal every day (he also happens to be a bit obsessed with that particular food item). Anyway, despite the peculiarity of my order, they still managed to get it right, so I was a happy camper.

Aside from doing a ton of swimming, we took walks on the beach almost every day. Between swimming and walking, I had no reason to sunbathe--I got tan enough (even a bit burned) without laying out at all. And that was WITH obsessive amounts of sunscreen, so that's how strong the sun was. Anyway, the walks were really nice, and we got to see other parts of the beach, other little cabañas, and one time we walked for what must have been a few miles to a little town in the distance (we were staying at the other end of the beach). It was exhilirating to walk that far, but I think my feet hated me by the end of that excursion. (Note to self: long walks in sandals are to be avoided.)

Following the example of Laurita A, I did some shell and sea glass collecting, which turned out nicely. My favorites were the hot pink and iridescent shells, of course.

We managed to make friends with some of the local beach bum dogs by giving them bites to eat when we were at the outdoor restaurants. The two female dogs we named Princesa and Negrita and the two males we named Mordido (¨Bite¨ because he sometimes tried to bite our water bottles and sandals) and...I forget the name of the other one...oops. We were tighter with the females anyway--they were more loyal and accompanied us on walks more than the guys. Princesa was kind of like a black lab, but a bit smaller and skinnier, and it looked like she had just had puppies because she had a saggy tummy. Negrita was probably my favorite: whenever she saw us, even from a distance, she would come running and walk with us, and one time she even guarded our stuff when we took a dip in the ocean. She looked like German Shepherd, maybe mixed with something else. I'm sure many of the dogs around there are mutts because there are tons of street/beach dogs in Ecuador that are mutts. We also made friends with a really cute little kitty. We named her Chiquita because she was tiiiny and seemed like she was pretty much skin and bones. Usually beach cats are super wary and don't come up to people, but we called to her and she came right over to us and let us pet her and everything. We felt awful because she looked so hungry and was meowing. We were on our way to pick up a pizza for dinner, so we started walking and she followed us! Then we felt even worse, so we forced the pizza guys to sell us some topping meat and some cheese to give to her. They ended up giving us a lot more than we expected, and Chiquita ate it up in a flash! She even kind of nipped Alejandro's hand when he tried to move the food off the plate because she thought he was taking the food away. Haha silly girl. At any rate, we felt like good samaritans and I think Chiquita was very satisfied that she decided to befriend us.

As for the events of my actual birthday, we ate pancakes at a little cabaña we discovered on one of our walks. Delish! I can never get enough of pancakes. Then we did lots of swimming, ate lunch at one of the restaurants, and in the evening we had banana splits at another cabaña while watching the sunset (which was glorious!), and finally shared some white wine while listening to our favorite Latin music. It was an excellent, excellent birthday and I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend it!

It was obviously difficult to tear ourselves away from the beach, but of course we had to come back at some point. The trip back to Quito and up the mountains was a lot less nauseating and actually very beautiful. Ecuador has some of the most gorgeous scenery I have ever seen. There were rolling green hills, palm trees and many other varieties of trees, flowers of all different bright colors like pink, purple, red, orange, and yellow, and little towns. The mountains are also very impressive when you're traveling up them. I think I spent the majority of the trip just gazing out the window.

So that's that! I know this post is very long, and thanks to all of you that stuck with it to the end, haha. I'll save the updates about Holy Week and Easter for next time. :)

Better Late than Never

Wow, sorry I let so much time go by between my last post and now. Let's see, where was I...the new volunteering job is great! The kids are (still) really cute and I have a lot of fun with them. So far I've spent almost all my time with the preschool kids, so ages 4 and 5, but I think soon I'm going to start helping with English in the other classes. The preschool class here is more similar to the preschool I worked at in the US than it is different. The activities are what one would expect: the kids learn English, do drawing and art projects, sing songs, put on plays, practice their letters, reading, and writing, and learn about different themes within the curriculum that are constantly changing (right now we're on the ¨plants¨ segment). It's also great that the school is a bilingual school, and I wish more schools were like that in the US. I think two of the main differences I see between this preschool and the other one I worked at before is that at the school here there is definitely less money (not very surprising, even though it is a private school), and there also seems to be a little less discipline, although on the other hand maybe a little more affection. Oh, one more thing: the preschoolers have workbooks that they work in and even have homework! They get down to business here early...

Let's see, what else is new? The coast here is in a state of emergency because of the torrential rains that have been taking over the country. Quito hasn't been affected much, but unfortunately certain regions of the coast got pounded. The water was waist high or higher in some parts, and a lot of people (mostly poor) have had to leave their homes or have lost their homes altogether. It's pretty sad.

This weekend the weather finally shifted and there was a tremendous amount of sun yesterday. I went to watch Alejandro's pick up soccer game, which was a lot of fun, but unfortunately there was no shade at the field and I got a wicked sunburn. I keep forgetting how freaking strong the sun is here, something that is definitely better not forgotten. Luckily Mayory has some sort of strange burn-relief cream from Germany and it appears to be working and erasing the burn. Let's hope it keeps up the good work because this mess hurts!

For the next week I'll be making sure to stay out of the sun because this Friday I'll be leaving for the beach to celebrate my birthday. Sooo psyched for that! So don't y'all be surprised if another entry is a long time coming. : P

xoxo