Dusty Blog

I know I've let the blog collect a lot of dust bunnies, but I'm back in action now! There's been a lot going on, but there's finallyyy a break in the action to fill you all in. The main highlights of the past 2 months were: 1.) the Maná concert, 2) Mothers Day, 3) a new job, and 4) my uncles' and cousins' visit here. And in addition, the anticipation of many pending trips.

#1 Maná

Maná is a rock group from Mexico that I've loved ever since I heard them for the first time in my Intro Spanish class during my first semester at Wellesley. They're not hard rock at all--it's kind of hard to explain their style. Their music has a lot of Latin flavor mixed with rock, and they have a mix of fast, energetic songs and slower songs. They are super famous in Spanish-speaking countries and they even have their popularity among people in the US, too. Anyway, I've become less and less of a concert person as the years roll on but I always knew I could make an exception for Maná. I think I had actually just told that to Alejandro a few months back. Anyway, lo and behold, I heard that Maná was going to be performing in Quito. Alejandro and I immediately ran out to buy our tickets because we knew they would sell out quickly. They were selling tickets on the first floor of one of the malls in Quito. We took one look at the line wrapping around the floor and decided it would be way better to buy online. That turned out to be the way to go: no lines, no fuss, and much less painful. Finally the eagerly anticipated day of the concert arrived. The concert was at the main soccer stadium in Quito and we had really good seats--not necessarily right up against the stage, but we weren't that far away and were directly in front of the stage. The weather was nice enough to cooperate which was marvelous, since we were at an open stadium.

As for the concert, it was amazing! I would say it was the best concert I've ever been to. There was no warm-up act so Maná came out right away. Their entrance was excellent: there was a screen covering the front of the stage, and one by one the band members´magnified silhouettes appeared, culminating in the lead singer's silhouette and his trademark long wavy hair. The stadium was packed full and everyone was screaming with excitement. The concert lasted 2 1/2 hours and the band played a mix of new and classic songs. It was great to be outside because the music wasn't so loud that it blasted your eardrums apart. Plus, the vocals were very clear so you could hear all the words which made it easier to sing along. There were also three screens, one so you could see the band members better, and two to provide images to accompany the songs. For instance, in one song about a heart pierced by thorns there was a picture of a cartoon heart with thorns spiraling around it. It was cool to be able to listen to the music and kind of see it at the same time.

One of my favorite parts of the concert was the drum solo. The drummer was like a madman up there playing his drums like a fiend (in the best sense of the word). He started out with very basic rhythms and then worked himself up to frenzy mode. He was playing so fast and with excellent technique the whole time. He even did little tricks like playing really fast while tossing one of the drumsticks in the air, playing behind his back, standing on his stool--you get the idea. In other words, incredible! I've always loved the drums even though I have absolutely no experience in that department, but even so, it's thrilling to see someone be able to play an instrument with such talent like he did.

The finale of the concert was also excellent. First, at the supposed end of the concert, there was an open suitcase on the stage. Each band member stepped into it in turn and slowly began to be lowered into it, making it look like they were all getting packed away into the suitcase together. It was pretty funny. Then, after much cheering and calling for them to comeback, they reappeared to play a bunch of songs, about 5 or 6. At the beginning of the final song, the lead singer started to unfold what looked like a Mexican flag. Then all of a sudden the crowd began to see bits of yellow, blue and red. When the whole flag was unfurled we saw that it was the Mexican flag attached to the Ecuadorian flag. I thought that was a nice touch, and as it turned out, Quito was a special place for the band because they kicked off their first ever international tour in Quito. At the real finale of the concert, flames spouted from the top of the stage and fireworks shot into the sky. All in all it was a concert and an experience to be remembered forever. And of course, I'm addicted to their songs now more than ever before.

#2 Mothers Day

Mother's Day was a lot of fun. After making sure to call my mama, we went to Alejandro's aunt and uncle's country house in Puembo, one of the valleys outside of Quito. His mom's whole side of the family came. We had a big barbecue and I tried fritada for the first time, which is a really yummy traditional pork dish. They made it differently than they usually do in restaurants here, and it was marinated, juicy, and reeeally good. The actual process of barbecueing and getting all the food ready took a while indeed, so in the meantime we all entertained ourselves with conversation, beer and wine. Alejo's uncle even let me pick out my own personal wine from the wine cellar to share with whoever I wanted. (Of course I picked the closest thing I could find to Riesling.)

The wine was excellent, and after mingling and finally sitting down to eat and eating ourselves stupid, we had to decide what to do next. I was in big danger of passing out from having such a full belly, but I decided to suck it up and take a walk around the property with Alejandro. We ended up playing a little bit of soccer: he took shots on goal and I was the goalie. That started to attract some of the cousins over to participate, and before we knew it we had a game going. I remained goalie for the whole game and my team won 10-8! Not bad considering I was playing in a skirt with stockings, a nice top, and no shoes. After that, a bunch of us played about 4 rounds of Ecuavolley, with 3 people on each team and a soccer ball instead of a volleyball. All I can say is ¨Ouch¨. The games were very fun and sometimes intense, but I must say that volleyball was never meant to be played with a soccer ball. End of story. I ended up having bruises up and down my forearms for a few days afterward but I still like to think it was worth it. All in all it was a really nice day, weather and activity wise, and I know we all had a great time. We got there at around 11 in the morning and didn't leave until 8:30 or so, so that should tell you something. Incidentally, tomorrow we're going back to the house to celebrate the first communion of one of Alejandro's cousins, and it's a suit and tie event. Why do I get the feeling I'll be playing goalie again tomorrow in my formal black dress with my heels cast aside...

#3 New Job

So after realizing that private English classes weren't going to cut it financially speaking, on a whim I took my resume over to an English institute after I saw a job opening with them in the classifieds. I took my resume in, had an interview the next day, and by the third day I was hired. I'm teaching advanced classes since I'm the only teacher who's a native speaker. I really get along well with my boss, my fellow teachers, and all of my students--everyone is so nice.

I started out as full-time, but that proved to be pretty complicated. First of all, my schedule was less than desirable because there was a 3-hour hole in the middle of my day when many people don't take classes. I needed to go home to have lunch, which meant waiting for and catching buses to and from the house, which added up to a lot of time en route to places and not much time for lunch or any type of relaxation before heading back to work. Second of all, I wasn't aware that I'd have to sometimes work 9 or 10 hour days to make up hours when students canceled their classes. 9 or 10 hour days may be doable in some jobs, but I discovered that it is more than exhausting when you're teaching. All in all, it turned out to be a lot on my plate and I felt a little overwhelmed and a lotta tired and stressed.

So a few days ago I changed my contract to part-time, so that means I work 5 hours a day in the morning or the afternoon, but not both in one day. So that makes it a lot easier in terms of transportation and not having to worry about making up canceled hours, etc. I feel a lot more relaxed and now I can just concentrate on giving good classes. I usually work with my students on reading stories, learning new vocabulary, listening skills with videos and cds, and different types of grammar exercises. My salary pales in comparison to literally any job you can think of in the US or another developed nation, but at least I'm making enough to support myself while living here and certainly more than I was making giving private classes. I'm happy I took a chance and I know I'm getting really good experience which will help boost me up the ladder in the future, either here or in the US.

# Family Visit

Last but not least, the family! My mom's two brothers, Nick and Mark, and her sister's two daughters (my cousins) Sara and Francesca, came to visit me about a week ago! We had such a blast and it was so wonderful to see all of them. It felt like it had been a long time since I had last seen them. The first night they got in, the girls decided to turn in after the long trip and since it was about 1 am, but the uncles powered on through and Alejandro and I accompanied them out to knock back a drink or two. It was great to catch up and chat about anything and everything. In the following days we really had a jam-packed schedule--by the end of each day we were completely wiped. The girls and I didn't even have the energy to go out dancing--imagine that! But it was worth it because we got in a lot of activities.

We did the cable cars up the Pichincha mountain, played a few rounds of air hockey at the amusement park at the cable cars, walked around the colonial part of Quito and visited about a thousand historic churches, went to Otavalo which is a town 2 hours north of Quito with an incredible market on Saturdays and a few lakes nearby that we saw as well, visited artisan and food markets in Quito, went to the bar sector a couple times for a drink or pizza, hit up a Saturday night party, made a time of it at Alejo's aunt and uncle's country house with a nice dinner, dancing, and even a sleepover, took a short tour of one of the more upscale malls, went to the Equator, walked in the biggest and most popular park in Quito called La Carolina, watched a playoff soccer/fútbol game that was important for Ecuador at a bar on a projection screen, and if there's anything else, I sure as hell can't remember because we packed so much stuff into 5 days. We even had time for the cuzzies to curl up in bed and watch some episodes of ¨Friends¨ together, one of our traditions. We tried out a bunch of different restaurants and even ate empanadas the size of our heads, which was quite thrilling, not to mention mighty tasty. I can't reiterate enough how much fun I had with my fam and how great it was to see them. It's definitely a visit I'll always remember. :)

#5 On the Horizon

Coming up: Wellesley in Quito (aka 3 of my closest friends from Wellesley are going to be visiting in a week!)

And, the big ¨Meet the Parents/Family/Friends¨ trip back to DC with Alejandro in August for a month!


Okay, I think that should tide you all over for the next 2 months (just kidding). I'll try to be better about updating. But hey, I have a valid excuse now--I'm a working lady! Nevertheless, I'll try and make sure the blog doesn't collect too much dust and will attempt to give it a good cleaning now and then.

xoxo

Kinda Sorta Like Back in the Day

Yesterday I felt like I was revisiting the ol' college lifestyle of parties and party aftermath. Here's what happened: I hadn't gone clubbing or partying in awhile and I kind of had a craving to do so. As it turned out, one of Alejandro's groups of friends (he has a few different social circles) was having a shindig at this one guy's house (his name is El Cuervo, don't ask me why and I still have no idea what his real name is) as a belated birthday party and because he's visiting from the states. I had never met this particular group of friends and Alejandro hadn't seen them in months, so we decided to check out the scene. The get-together was at El Cuervo's family's (ridiculously large) house in Puembo, a valley right outside of Quito where many of the wealthier crowd choose to live. Anyway, the gathering turned out to be much more of a shindig than a raging party--people were barbecueing, listening to music, playing ping pong, chatting, and having cocktails. My portion of the bbq consisted of bread, which I happily ate until it disappeared and then I was stuck because there was absolutely no food in the house and I chose not to be desperate and eat mayonnaise with a spoon, although for a second I considered it, but I bet that was the vodka tonic doing the thinking for me.

Anyhoo, after meeting and catching up with people, playing ping pong (or rather, trying to improve my sadly obvious lack of skills), singing and telling jokes, a bunch of us decided to hit the pool and jacuzzi. The water was excellent and I think there were about 5 or 6 of us crammed in the jacuzzi at one point. Although crowded, we were having so much fun that we stayed in there for a couple hours, which doctors may or may not recommend, but so what? No offense, doctors (you know who you are). Between all the joking around, general silliness and lots and lots of laughing, it was great for me to get to know some of Alejandro's friends better. We were having so much fun that we finally rolled out of there around 3:45 am and got back to the house at 4:15 or so. Needless to say, yesterday was one of those lazy days where I woke up with my make-up still on (my eyes felt like the Itchy and Scratchy Show after that smart move), stayed in my pajamas until 5 pm, took various naps throughout the course of the day, and accomplished very little but felt good about everything in the end. Oh, and I took an hour-long walk, so I did actually manage to get my butt out of the house, a feat requiring a great deal of motivation indeed.

Now it's time for me to head off to work at the elementary school, get started on the new week, and accomplish the many things that slipped through the gigantic cracks of this weekend!

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

Don´t Worry, I Don´t Have a Sketchy Van and I´m Not Offering Anyone Candy

I´ve recently added a few more activities to my collection here: freelance translating and editing, and a spanking new volunteer job at a pre-k to 4th grade school on the same block as my host family´s house. By a stroke of luck Mayory is friends with the director of the school, so that was a good way in. I went to visit today and to see all the classrooms and meet everyone. The kids are sooo cute and the staff is really friendly. Some of the preschool girls came up to me right away, gave me a hug and started asking me my name, where I´m from, etc. Anyway, my work there will be mostly with the 4 and 5-year-olds. I´ll be keeping an eye on them, playing with them, and in most, if not all, of the classrooms at the school I´ll be helping out with teaching and coaching English. I´m really excited about this job and I start tomorrow! I´ll let you all know how it goes. :)

What´s Missing from the Superbowl Down Here?

The commercials! The Superbowl is being broadcast here, but it´s being transmitted by one of the local South/Central American Fox networks, so that means no million-dollar-per-second exquisite Superbowl commercials are being shown here. Poo. Everyone knows that´s the best part of the evening. Thus, I´m only watching the game half-heartedly while typing this. I guess the better question is, Why do I even care about the Superbowl/commercials? Answer: the commercials because they´re funny and entertain me, but I really don´t care about either (especially not the Patriots and their ¨dynasty¨). So maybe a channel change is in order...

Other than that, nothing much new here. Rained for about a week straight. That was ¨fun.¨ I bet the Quiteño vegetation couldn´t be more happy. The weekend has been nice weather, and tomorrow I might be taking a trip to Ibarra with my fam. Ibarra is a city about 2 hours north of Quito, and I´ve never been, so that should be intriguing.

Okay, time to really change the channel away from fat guys jumping and falling on each other and skinny guys getting flattened. Tata!