Christmas in the Sun

Down here in South America, it seems that the most common way to celebrate Christmas is with dinner on Christmas Eve. While in Lima, Colleen and I met a lovely Peruvian family (the family of one of Colleen’s friends), who went on to invite me to spend Christmas Eve with them. So I arrived around 9pm, but we didn’t actually eat until midnight. Instead we were just chatting, the two sisters, their parents, and the Irish son-in-law as well as his father, who had arrived a few weeks earlier to spend the holidays. And the person it was hardest to understand? The Irish son-in-law’s father, who has a rather thick Irish accent, and speaks no Spanish. So there he was, rather excited to have someone to talk to other than his son, and all I could do was smile and nod and pretend like I understood most of what he was saying… The other father, Lucho, was also excited, but for a different reason – he’s a coach and wanted to recruit me to play basketball… Anyway, at the stroke of midnight, they grabbed a blanket, put baby Jesus in the middle, and started dancing around the living room, each person holding an edge of the blanket (Yes, they made me dance too). After baby Jesus finally made it to his crib, we went outside to the patio to watch all the fireworks – yes, fireworks, all over the city, and we had a good view because we were on the 13th floor. Actually, we set off some fireworks as well (though I stayed far away from them, lol). After all that, we finally sat down to eat.

So after getting back to my hostel around 2, 2:30am, I woke up at 7:00am to go to the airport – I’ve never seen one so empty. Needless to say I had a lot of time to kill before boarding the plane. When I finally made it to Santiago, the airport there was even more abandoned - no need to wait in long lines for customs or immigration.

So I had Christmas lunch with my friend Josefa and her family, outside in their backyard, as it was probably about 80 or 85 degrees outside. You see, right now, it’s summer in Santiago, and the sunset isn’t until around 9pm.

Since then I’ve been here in Santiago, not really doing anything exciting; just catching up with old friends and my host family, taking a mini-vacation from my backpacking trip.

Next time I’ll tell you about that backpacking adventure through Ecuador and Perú that I had with Colleen.

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!

Crime in Quito

Have any of you ever seen anyone get robbed at gunpoint? (on a side note, did anyone ever think that gunpoint was a place? Because I did, for longer than I'm willing to admit...)

But, let's get back to the seriousness of the topic at hand. Diana, Mauricio, and Jose Mateo just came home - they were out buying milk. On their walk back, a few blocks away from our apartment, they saw, across the street, a man robbed at gunpoint. Needless to say, Diana is a bit shaken up. What do you do when you see something like that? There were three men - one with the gun; the other patting down the victim, cleaning out his pockets; and the third passed by in a gray car to pick the other two up. Diana tried to catch the license plate, but it was completely white - no number.

I didn't see this happen, but it shakes me up a bit as well. It makes me think about the time I was robbed on the bus - I'm thankful I didn't realize it until after the fact; I'm grateful that I wasn't attacked. (Most of you probably know already, but about a week and half after I got here, my bag was slashed on the bus and someone took my phone and my camera).

Rainy Season

I don’t think that it was just my imagination when I looked up Ecuador online, and read that the weather was supposed to be “spring-like” year round. And yet, here I find myself shivering in the V!VA office, wearing shirt, sweatshirt, scarf, and rain jacket, wishing I also had a hat and gloves. If you can believe it, it’s actually colder in here than outside.

So what does the rainy season entail? Well, every afternoon, without fail, it doesn’t just rain – it POURS, often accompanied by thunder, some lightning AND, every now and then, HAIL. I experienced my first hail storm this past weekend. On Saturday, after a rare sunny morning (which I took advantage of to go for a jog in the park), it began hailing around 1 in the afternoon. I mean, in a matter of minutes the terrace outside of my room was COVERED in little white balls – it looked like snow on the rooftops nearby. And it sounded like a mob throwing rocks at my windows.

As I mentioned, my room is on a terrace, accessed by a sliding glass door. It’s not very well insulated, and so most of the time I'm in my room is spent under the covers. This all reminds me of my apartment in Chile, where I spent part of the winter. We had no heat there either, but at least I had my hat and gloves…

By the way, I apologize to the few people that actually read this blog for not having written in a while. Lately I’ve been consumed with sickness (nothing serious, just the general colds and slightly feverish states that often accompany prolonged periods of cold and wet) and/or graduate school applications. Therefore, there has not really been anything exciting to comment on. As far as work goes, I’ve been given more editing tasks, for which I am grateful. At the moment I’m becoming an expert in the wildlife of the Galápagos Islands. On a sadder note, all of the writers/editors/interns who were in the office when I arrived are now gone – the last one, Allison from Arizona, left today. Other writers/editors have come in to replace them – but I am now the only intern – which, on a positive note, means more copy-editing for me – yes, I do actually enjoy copy-editing.
I’m sorry I don’t have any exciting trips to tell you about. As I said, it’s the rainy season, I’ve got applications, and next weekend is the Census, which means that everyone, citizen and non-citizen, has to remain in his/residence on Sunday the 28th from 7am to 5pm – there will be no public transportation, and you will be fined (I think it’s just a fine) if the police find you outside during those hours. Oh, and there’s no alcohol buying or consumption from Friday night until Monday afternoon. Talk about hardcore. Needless to say I won’t be able to take a trip next weekend. I guess I’ll have to settle for seeing Harry Potter :-).

On Holiday in Ecuador

I had Monday and Tuesday off this week (everyone else in Quito has off today as well – it’s like a ghost town. For once I didn’t have to wait 5 minutes to cross the street to get to the office.)

I woke up Friday morning without any definite plans of what I was going to do. That quickly changed when Carlos and Diana invited me to go with them to the coast – they said they were going to follow “La Ruta del Sol” (Path of the Sun) working their way from North to South. I was like, sure! So I left work early and we hit the road at 4:30pm, and arrived in Esmeraldas a little after 9pm (the trip usually takes about 6 hours, but with Carlos driving…) So it was Carlos, Diana, Mauricio, Sabrina, Jose Mateo, Peluche (the puppy), me and a couple of suitcases. We had dinner at a Cuban restaurant owned by one of Carlos’s friends. Then we crashed at a hostel and set off early the next morning to start visiting the beaches. First stop: Atacames. Here we had breakfast, where breakfast can be anything from green plantains and coffee to a full plate of fish, rice, and lentils. I had the bolones de verde (balls of green plantains stuffed with cheese) with coffee. And, of course, there are jugos y batidos naturales everywhere (fresh fruit juices and shakes). After breakfast we took a quick walk on the beach, just long enough for the kids to make a little habitat for hermit crabs out of sand and water in a plastic cup. These cangrejitos kept them thoroughly entertained in the car throughout the rest of the day, and they kept adding to their collection at each new beach. My sister used to collect cups full of hermit crabs in North Carolina – of course she would actually bring them back to the house and leave them on the back porch until they died and left a HORRIBLE stench – ah, memories…

La Playa Escondida

One of the more memorable beaches we stopped at was completely deserted, which makes sense I suppose, since it was called Playa Escondida (hidden beach). I’ll have to see if I get some of the pictures from Diana.

We decided to stay the night in the tiniest of towns, Mompinche. The beach here was also relatively deserted, and it was actually a little cold, too cold for me to get in the water anyway. And the town was basically one dirt road leading to the beach. After we had dinner, Carlos said, let’s go walk around – 5 minutes later and our walk was over. Although back at the hostel I met a guy from Barcelona and a girl from Switzerland, and chatted with them for a while.

Well I decided that I needed a little more excitement, so on Sunday I hopped on a bus back to Atacames to meet up with a friend. There were actually parts of the beach that weren’t crowded at all, so it was quite nice. Both Sunday and Monday were mostly cloudy though, so no tan L. The water felt great though. And Atacames has a very lively nightlife, to say the least. The bars that line the edge of the beach start blasting music in the late afternoon and keep it up until the wee hours of the morning. Luckily we were staying with a friend who lived outside of Atacames, so we got to sleep in peace and quiet (except for the roosters’ cocka-doodle-doo-ing in the morning).

But the best thing about the beach… fresh seafood J and so far my stomach is okay, so even better!

Another word on food:

I always find it funny the way Ecuadorians react to the things I eat/cook. In terms of eating habits, I’m no typical American by any means – in fact lots of people in the States consider my gastronomical choices with a curious glance. Anyway, anytime I’m snacking on something I’ve bought from the supermarket, Jose Mateo always wants to try some. Here’s the tally of his likes/dislikes:

Peanut Butter: like

Raw Carrots: Dislike

Raw Celery: VERY STRONG dislike

Whole Wheat Crackers: Like

Raw, unsalted almonds: BIG like (I was quite surprised at this one, since Ecuadorians, my family included, LOVE their salt)

Now, back to this past weekend. My friend made us breakfast on Monday – there were eggs, onions and tomatoes – and I had bought a carrot the day before that I still hadn’t eaten, so I asked him to throw some carrots in there too. So he makes an omelet of sorts, except he didn’t do much chopping, because the tomatoes and carrots were dispersed in big chunks. I found it quite satisfying, as did my friend, but when he offered it to our host, she declined with a look of disgust on her face, and an exclamation of how feo (ugly) it looked. She’s like, you two can eat what I cook, but there is no way that I can eat what YOU cook. I think that pretty much sums up the situation in my house too, I doubt the family could tolerate anything that I’d make for myself. On the other hand, I eat just about everything (EXCEPT intestines).

What? Christmas Already?

Did I mention that my family has a puppy? That means, that when they decide to keep him in the laundry room (right next to my room) – I’m the one that has the pleasure of hearing him yelping and banging against the door….

So today is October 23. I think it’s the 23 anyway. You want to know what the family did today? They put up a CHRISTMAS TREE.  Actually, there’s a huge Christmas tree next to one of the malls by the park that has been up for about a week and a half now. I guess this is what people do when they don’t celebrate Halloween or Thanksgiving.

I should probably mention that I went out for the first time last Wednesday, and was reminded of how much I take the good old non-smoking American bars and restaurants for granted.

Ok, you knew it was coming – I always have something to say about FOOD.

After eating rice, soup, and potatoes, with a little bit of meat for most of the last 2 and a half weeks, you have no idea how psyched I was when the girls and I went to lunch on Thursday at this place called Magic Bean, and for $5,  we got soup (with avocado it – weird I know, but surprisingly good) and a plate of, get this, GRILLED chicken, BROWN rice, AND salad. Oh and a jugo gigante (gigantic juice – freshly squeezed of course).

And today, after my jog in the park, I found, get this, BAGELS, REAL bagels, of ALL kinds, even MULTIGRAIN. I actually tried a Quinoa bagel – someone needs to start doing that in the states because it was a-MA-zing.

And that’s all for now – time to get ready to go out, as I listen to soundtrack of sirens, alarms,  airplanes, and barking dog that I’ve become so used too…

WEATHER

So, it’s a lot colder here than I expected. The only time it’s hot is when you’re in the sun, which really isn’t a good place for me to be, given that I’m pretty much as close as you can get to the sun right now (the equator’s only about a half hour away). Not to mention that we’re in the rainy season, so the sun doesn’t even come out that much anyway… That being said, it’s not THAT cold, at least not enough to warrant the big winter jackets, gloves and scarves that the Ecuadorians wear at night. (Although if you go up into the mountains those things are indeed necessary). OH, and hats – hats are essential – every time the family goes out when it’s sunny, everyone wears a hat.

The sun rises around between 6 and 6:30am every day – so on those clear sunny days, it’s impossible to sleep past 7am (I have rather transparent white curtains covering the very large windows in my room). It gets dark pretty early, between 6 and 6:30pm, basically by the time I get home from work.

School

I’m not going to school here, but the kids I live with do. They start at SEVEN O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING. Who DOES that? Then they get out around 1pm. So that means they get up at 6am and have to go to bed around 9:30pm. Actually both Diana and Carlos go to bed around that time as well, so no late-night Skype chats for me (the Ethernet cable is in the kitchen).

Soccer/Shopping/more typical Ecuadorian cuisine

I went for a jog last Saturday morning in the park that's about 30 seconds away from the apartment. The best part about that? The big cup of fresh squeezed orange juice that I bought for a dollar after I was done. There are a bunch of vendors throughout the park. Later on that day I went back to the park to play soccer with Mauricio, Jose Mateo, and Carlos – and, get this, I actually impressed Carlos with what little ability I have left, lol. He was like, hey you can play! (after I had stolen the ball from him).

Sunday we were a little late for Church, Carlos and Diana had been out pretty late dancing the night before... we had another Spanish priest.

For lunch I met up with Rachel in la Mariscal and then we went to an artisan market. You know what I realized? All of the artisan markets in South America are pretty much the same. Basically I've already seen or bought everything that I saw in Quito in Spain, Chile and Argentina, which makes the buying of souvenirs a bit more challenging...

Monday night – It was just me and the boys (Diana stayed overnight at the hospital with Sabrina, who is having surgery today). So we went out for dinner – out to the street that is. I'm not sure what part of Quito we were in, but the street was lined with food venders shouting out their offerings in an endless string of sounds: EMPANADASGUATITASHORCHATAMORCILLA. I thought there were a lot of people there, but Mauricio told me that on the weekends there are HOARDES of people, that you can't even get to the street with your car.

So, what did they give me to eat this time? First a very yummy drink that reminded me of rice pudding, even though it's actually made from corn. It's called Morocho, which I drank while eating a cheese empanada. I was quite full after that, but there were two men standing in front of one of the vendors, holding these foot-long tongs, offering samples to the passersby. Carlos tells me I have to go there and get a sample. Go! Go! Try it! - and gives me a nudge in their direction. I didn't really want to, but he was so persistent – so I take the sample off one of the tongs, and I bring it back, giving Carlos a look as if to say, are you REALLY going to make me eat this? Mauricio meanwhile is telling me it's just like gum, I have to put the whole thing in my mouth and chew it. So, I suck it up – literally – I pop it in my mouth and chew this nasty rubbery piece of something with black stuff oozing out of it – for about 2 seconds that is, before I promptly spit it out in disgust. THIS is when Carlos tells me that I just tried intestines. That's right. INTESTINES. Enough said.

On an unrelated note, I just came back from a dance class at the gym across the street - it was like zumba by  

x 100. it was INTENSE. No kidding - I almost fainted, several times.

Ecuadorian Spanish

A few words on Ecuadorian Spanish:

1. "Chevere" means cool
2. Que bestia/ que bestialidad could mean something REALLY cool, or something really horrible.
3. Latin American parents are much more affectionate towards their children than us North Americans, at least as far as I've seen. Diana and Carlos's nicknames for the kids include "amor de mi vida" (love of my life) and "mi tesoro" (my treasure). My mom used to call me "pumpkin" - it's just not the same.

1st week of work

Here's what I've been up to for the last week:

Friday Oct. 8^th (Ambato) After visiting Quisapincha in the morning with Andrés and Maria, I had lunch at la Mamiña's, (that´s what they call Rocío's mom – I'm not sure what her real name is). What we ate I can´t remember. Quisapincha is know for its leather, and its ecological farm. María was showing me all the plants, flowers, animals... Apparently Ecuadorians like to eat guinea pigs (cuy).... that is one type of food I will NOT try. So around 3.30pm I traveled back to Quito with la Mamiña – I slept most of the way. She was going for a prayer meeting that Carlos and Diana were hosting, which I wound up attending. There were about 3 or 4 other couples. After singing some songs, accompanied by a guitar, we talked for like an hour and a half, most of it dealing with the couples' children. They basically asked me, “what did your parents do to make you turn out good? Lol. Oh! And I had mote for the first time that night - mote is a hard corn that's peeled with calcium carbonate solution, and then boiled in salt water, according to the internet) de todos modos, I liked it.

Saturday Oct. 9^th 

I spent all morning in the kitchen with Diana while she made lunch. She showed me how to make oatmeal juice (jugo de avena), which was actually quite delicious! I'll have to make it in the States if I can find all the ingredients. I also helped Jose Mateo with his math homework. Later on in the afternoon Diana took the kids and me to two of the malls, both of which are pretty close to the apartment. The object was to see if there was WiFi in the food courts – no such luck. But I was able to get some groceries at Super Maxi. At night, around 10, I´m sitting at my laptop in the kitchen, and Carlos walks in, wearing pajamas, and asks, “Quieres ir a conocer Quito?” (Do you want to take a little tour of Quito?” I said, sure! So he changes clothes, we take Jose Mateo and Mauricio with us, and we head out in their red station wagon. First stop: La zona rosa, where all the bars and nightclubs are. We find a parking space, hop out, and wander around. This area actually looks a lot cleaner than Bella Vista, the neighborhood where we used to go out in Santiago. After a short walk, we pile back into the car and head for Quito Antiguo (the old town). This part of the city was named a UNESCO world heritage site in … It's happening place – young and old are walking the steep cobblestone streets. There are clubs, restaurants, and even some souvenir and chocolate shops are still open. Carlos bought me a drink called canelazo, a delicious spiced cinnamon rum drink. 

After wandering around the old city for a bit, we up this rather large hill, at the top of which is a huge statue of the Virgin Mary. From here there are spectacular views of the city. And we tried to count the churches - there are ALOT. Some are really really old. Anyway, after that we went to the President's house, and then a snack, a Shawarmi from a Middle Eastern restaurant - it's chicken shaved off a stick (you ever see those big slabs of meat on a stick in the window?) in a pita, with some lettuce, tomato, and, to my surprise, two french fries. It was delicious.

Sunday Oct. 10^th

Mass was at 10:15am, and only took about 45 minutes. I noticed right away that the priest was from Spain (can't miss that Spanish accent!).  The only music was a woman singing and playing guitar, as it usually is in most South American churches that I've seen. In the afternoon, since it was Sabrina's birthday, we went to Vulqano Park, an amusement park, but NOTHING like what we have in the states. The only real roller coaster was this little rinky-dink thing that bangs you up more than anything else (I have the bruises to prove it). I also made the mistake of riding el martillo (the hammer), you know, the thing that swings back and forth, and goes higher and higher until you eventually make it all the way upside down and around - that one hurts like  a ***** too cause it presses you up sooo hard against the restraint. Not to mention the fact that I was a little queasy afterwards… I got banged up pretty good from the bumper cars too - those things are NOT meant for people with long legs.

Monday Oct. 11^th

First day of work! Diana walked me over to the office, it's about a ten minute commute. It's a very small office. There were two staff writers and two other interns in one room (all from the US – Emily, Rachel, Desiree, and Allison), and the rest of the building was tech people (all Ecuadorians). There's another company or 2 housed here as well, all owned by the CEO of V!VA. For lunch I went with the girls to Casa del Queso (House of Cheese), which is actually on the way back to my apartment. For $4.50 you get a cheesy entree, salad, and a glass of wine or juice. When we went they were out of juice, so wine it was! 

I basically spent the day getting acquainted with the website, the print guides, and some other writing and office regulations materials. My first assignments were to write a few entries for the Costa Rica guidebook (volunteering, working, etc.) I was a little surprised to be doing writing for a guide book, considering I've never actually been to Costa Rica.

Tuesday Oct. 12^th

More of the same, with a blog post about teaching English in Latin America as well.

Wednesday

More of the same. Fixed menu at a vegetarian restaurant for lunch – where there was only one thing that I didn't like – I'm not even sure what it was. Humitas con café for dinner. (Humitas are mashed up corn – they can be sweet or salty, I like them sweet).

Thursday

Emily, said she liked my dress, and that I´m so fashionable – I know, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor too. 

Lunch at an Indian Restaurant in La Mariscal. Corn with cheese for dinner (are you noticing a pattern?)

A word on lunch. Lunch is the main meal of the day for Ecuadorians. It usually consists of two dishes: a soup to start off with, and then the main plate (which ALWAYS includes rice).

Friday

Rachel and I had lunch by ourselves today, since everyone else was leaving early to go to Banos. She wouldn’t have guessed that I’m a Jersey girl, and I told her that no one does, lol. We got tacos in La Mariscal – they were pretty good.

There's a tradition in the office called Beer Fridays - The last person to write "not it" on their gmail status has to go get beer for everyone at 5pm. The office was a bit depleted today, with three of the girls going to Banos at 2pm and, well, a bunch of others just leaving early. But Rachel, Paula (editor in chief), and I stuck it out (I got the beer).

Oct 9th Quito

So I arrived in Quito on Tuesday, Oct. 5th. I came here to do an editorial internship with VIVA Travel Guides for two months. I start on Monday. I'm living with an Ecuadorian family of 5 - mother, father, 2 sons and a girl (10, 12, and 14). They have a patio one floor above the rest of the apartment - and up there is the room where I'm staying. They are a beautiful family - very very nice people. Anyway, the day I came to Quito, they sent me off to a place called Ambato, about 2 and half hours away, where the rest of their extended family lives. They wanted to show me around their home city. One place they took me to, about a half hour away from Ambato, is called Banos - a big tourist attraction actually. I guess I should mention that all these places are in the mountains - the greenest ones I've ever seen. In Banos there are beautiful waterfalls and hiking trails, and lots of spas and hotels and hostels. There's one waterfall in particular, called Pailon del Diablo (The Devil's Hollow), where you can actually go up and stand behind the waterfall, that is, after crawling up a ways on all fours to get there.

One of the great things about Ambato - everything is so cheap! There's no WiFi around, but I went to an internet cafe and paid 55 cents for 40 minutes online (Ecuador uses the American dollar, quite convenient).

One of the great things about Ecuador in general: the fruit - the fruit is so fresh - it's incredible! and freshly squeezed juice with every meal. I'll never be able to drink tropicana again...