tranquilo domingo

31 de enero

Today was a very relaxing day, so I won't bore you with too many details.

After breakfast and a shower, I worked on Spanish homework on the terrace for about an hour.
I then decided to take a walk, trying to get to know the neighborhood a little better. I basically made a giant circle in a new direction from my home (new as in the only direction I had not walked yet).

Once home, I had lunch with Martha, Marco, and Pancho's (Adriana's boyfriend) mother. She was there to get help with using the computer to build her resumé with Martha. We had a pea and carrot salad and potatoes prepared by Margarita. [Oh yes Margarita. She lives in a room behind the house and I guess she lived with Marco growing up as well. I believe Martha said she has an intellectual disability, and this, the fact she is missing most teeth, and I am still very subpar at Spanish, I can hardly understand the sweet woman. She has given me many hugs, and helps with laundry and sometimes cooking]...okay back to the meal. Martha had also prepared papaya juice. Pancho's mom brought some wonderful fish filet, which we dressed up with lime ("limón", not to be confused with lemon which is "lima"). For dessert we had some canned peaches.

I talked (a slight overstatement, listened would be more accurate) with Martha and Pancho's mom for a while until I decided to go to my room to work on more homework, blogging, reading and relaxing.

Vivi, Adriana, and both their boyfriends drove to Colombia this morning. They were going to get Andrés' (Vivi's bf) TV fixed. But apparently, many things are cheaper in Colombia including toilet paper, pads, and technology. Once they all arrived back home we all had dinner together. This was fun eating with everyone again, even if I didn't totally follow the conversations. We had pasta, chicken, and a yogurt pea salad. Following this was bread, cheese, coffee and some cookies.

I helped with dishes until Martha kicked me out of the kitchen and told me to relax, she is so sweet.

After writing I am going to read a bit more before I call it a night.

Buenas noches,
Zoe

¡Reunión de la familia!

El sábado de enero. My family, so kindly, included me in their family reunion.

Martha prepared a breakfast of yogurt, papaya, coffee, bread, smoothie and scrambled eggs which I greatly enjoyed with Vivi.

I was told we were leaving at 10:30 and the Geiger in me had me all ready to go by 10:25. The rest of the family besides Marco was still getting ready and cleaning. I think it was because of this and the amount of people we had to available car seats ratio that Marco drove me to his mother's house to go in one of the cars there. The house was only a few blocks away and WOW was it beautiful! It was grand and antique and filled with family members of Marco. He has 6 brothers and each one has a wife and children, some with children of their own. His mom was especially sweet. Although no one in my car ride up knew English, I conversed pretty alright I think...

We drove up to Guayllabamba, a small agricultural town about 45 minutes northeast of Quito, to a very nice hostel. I met one of the cousins who was 20 and talked with her for a while (in Spanish of course). Once everyone arrived we enjoyed a bowl of mote with tomatoes, pickled onions, some other wonderful flavors and bits of pork. FYI mote is corn but boiled and cooked. It's very delicious, here is a picture of plain mote I stole from the interweb:

We then started the games in the courtyard. First we played a game where we each had to name a fruit which had not yet been names. We played until a couple people repeated fruits and had to dance in the middle. Then we played American football! This was a lot of fun. It turned into each team hiding the football under our shirts, with the rest of the team pretending to do the same and then all running together to the other side of the field. In the next game, I was paired with Vivi, and we had to keep a tomato between our foreheads while we danced. We didn't last long, but then again only about two partner groups did. There were a few more games after, some in which I did not participate in but have pictures. Another one in which I kept losing and so we finally moved on...It was a combination of me not understanding the rules (everything was in Spanish) and also being humiliatingly poor at accurately throwing a ball far enough. In the last game we had to balance eggs on a spoon we carried in our mouths and get from one to the other end of the field and back without dropping it.

Since Carnival is in a week and the family gets together a week earlier, they all celebrate it during the reunion. This consists of water fights, or rather dumping water on people, and spraying something similar to silly string everywhere. While I knew there would be a pool, I did not anticipate these activities. It was really fun and I felt very included into the family of 26. I was soaked by the end, but luckily escaped being thrown in the pool by hiding in the sauna. I had a dry skirt in my bag, Martha lent me a dry shirt to wear and an aunt lent me some flip flops,...my undergarments remained wet...

After the games we had a wonderful late lunch of more mote with the same onions, tomatoes, and spices, but with more pork, avocado, and toasted corn (tostada, like a gourmet version of corn nuts). On the side was a cooked banana (YUM), fresh lemonade. For dessert was some sort of delicious mouse-y, fruit-y cake and coffee.

Everything was so wonderful and fun, and I felt so welcomed by the family. I slept most the way home and was only at Marco's mother's home for about 10 minutes before Martha and Marco picked me up. Once back at the house, I quickly changed into some warmer clothes. Some of the family was continuing festivities and going to Martha's father's home. I was invited but very tired and decided to stay back.

After reading a few pages, I decided it was a good time for a nap, which turned into a 12-hour sleep...oops.

Feliz fin de semana,
Zoe

viernes 19 de enero

Classic delicious breakfast followed by a walk to the bus joined by that nice man again.

We had another show today!

My favorite costumes of theirs!

That makes one everyday this week. I met and spoke with some of the tourists after the show. One was from Seattle, and another couple who were very excited to meet me, are visiting their daughter in Seattle in a few weeks. I also met a Physical Therapist from the states! She was very interested in how I would like to integrate dance into my profession. She said she had always thought dance would be really great for many children with disabilities. It was really great to chat with her. They all wished me luck and thanked me for volunteering my time at SINAMUNE.

After the show the students went home while the staff and volunteers had a seminar on fire safety, given by some firemen of Quito (bomberos). This is likely because of the small electrical fire that happened a few weeks before. PS. I don't think there are smoke detectors here. The first half was a lecture and you guessed it, I did not understand much. But following the lecture, the firemen started controlled fires for staff to learn to use the extinguisher. The first fires were started on a pile of clothes, paper, and newspaper with lighter fluid of sorts. The second fires were started using a gas tank (one I believe is used here for the stove). This one made me a little nervous. Nevertheless everything was fine and I even have a few photos.

At 1 I left with Martina, Kathi, Albita (the other volunteers), and Christofer (teacher), for some encebollados and beer. After refueling, Christofer took us to the Central University of Quito (where he studied Psychology). We found a spot outside the performing arts building to sit and play cards. There were bands playing the whole time. Unfortunately they were what I would call "Screamo". Regardless, I enjoyed observing the University lifestyle here and noting how similar it was to those in the States. They even have a fair amount of hipsters here! I also met one of Christofer's friends who studies theater and dance there. She only spoke Spanish, but it was great talking to her. She seemed like so many people I know from the dance program at Western, aka a really awesome gal.

When it started to get dark we walked down into the central Mariscal area at Plaza Foch. We stopped for a cheese-stuffed tortilla for only 50 cents. It was delicious, and something I will be looking around more for while I am here. They were looking for a bar go to, but being the lame-o I can sometimes be, I decided to catch a taxi home at 7:30... Not sure why I have such little motivation to go out at night and go to bars here, but I am really enjoying being home early and getting lots of sleep.

My family was actually even still out (making me feel a little more lame), but I found some left over arroz relleno in the fridge and warmed some up for dinner. As I was finishing my dishes Marco (host dad), came home. I heated some water for us and we had coffee, bread and cheese while we chatted about places to go in Quito.

After a shower, some catching up with my folks, and booking a hostel in Baños for next weekend, I fell fast asleep.

Zoe

3 in 1 (martes-jueves)

I've fallen a little behind so this entry will cover Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Luckily for my readers, my days were pretty typical so this should not be too long.

Papaya and kiwi, or banana and pineapple began each morning just right. That is with coffee, yogurt, granola, and a fruit smoothie of course :)

On one of the days my walk to the bus was joined by the same nice man from last week. He is so cheery, sweet, and not at all creepy. He adds a wonderful delightfulness to my morning walk. It is great to meet men here like that, sometimes or often rather, that is not the case (i.e. the nice cop who escorted me to the ATM machine but then asked for my number and if we could go out dancing.... to which I said no thank you).

On Wednesday night, I had a little reunion at Diana's restaurant with her, Carlee, Quinn, Grant and Emma (the last three are study abroad students at a University here). Diana, 8 months pregnant, just returned from Costa Rica and wanted to hear all about our first few weeks. She is an amazing human being; so caring, thoughtful, strong and truly dedicated to her job. We were the first to try a new addition to the menu, PIZZA! This was different than one might imagine though. Think crust like pastry thin, flaky, and sweet. It was scrumptious. We were also given dessert options for which Carlee and I split a slice of banana and quinoa cake, and a slice of some chocolatey nutty goodness cake.

At work I had been asked to help translate and e-mail draft to a Cultural Department in Miama, requesting an invitation for SINAMUNE to take part in an arts festival there. So exciting! I am happy to be of more help to this amazing foundation. Using SpanishDict.com I managed to create a draft, but it didn't quite sound right. After dinner on Wednesday, Diana and Carlee helped me figure out just what they were trying to say and how to change words and phrases to ones more common in the United States. For some of these, such as "nos despedimos" or "we say goodbye" I had to just remove for we have no relevant saying in English that would suffice. This process was fun and very helpful for my Spanish language education. Wahoo Spanish!

Today, around 11:30, while I was teaching a dance class to about 20 students, all of them spread out and took seats in the chairs. Martina and I were both very confused. This cofusion grew as more and more students came upstairs to join them in the seats. Confusion about what is happening is quite a common occurrence for me, but this was even more confusing than normal. Next thing we knew, all of the teachers, students and some guests in vests with boxes of candy joined us. Bags of mixed candy were handed out to each student, faculty and volunteer!

Apparently, this was supposed to be for Christmas, but either SINAMUNE or the people who brought the candy bags (not sure because #languagebarrier) had been too busy until today. Also, one of the guests in vests was actually one students' father. The kids were all so happy. To thank them, Pamela, who is blind mind you, hopped on the piano to play and sing, another student on the drums, and two more on microphones to sing. Everyone joined in to sing three songs. Almost every student was participating. I had never seen so many of them smiling, laughing, dancing, and singing all together. It was a wonderful experience. I was very thankful Christmas came so late :)

Before Spanish class, since I had my homework done, I spent my break wandering through the market. I found some coffee to go, which is quite rare here, and enjoyed it as I pondered what else I may want to purchase while I am here.

Spanish classes were great once again this week. I have started re-learning past tense! This is handy, since I have been speaking in only present tense these past few weeks...

Crowded buses: This morning I spend half my ride in the doorway, being smooshed by the door each time it opened, and stepped on by a large man trying to exit the bus. On my way home from Spanish classes, the bus is often so packed I don't have room to take off my sweater and free my sweat. These are a few of the things I will not be missing.

On the contrary, I will be missing my family here dearly. Tuesday and Thursday night I spent talking with Martha throughout dinner and well after. Also on Tuesday I met her dad and spoke with him for a while. He is very sweet, just like Martha. The family has invited me to their family reunion this Saturday and I am very excited and honored to be joining them!

This adorable lil' guy is Colón. He belongs to Pancho, Adriana's (my host sister) boyfriend. He is a pitbull puppy and so very playful.


















Hope this is sufficient for a three-day catch up.

Cheers to the Weekend,
Abrazos,

Zoe

lunes 25 de enero

Becca and I shared papaya, banana, bread, something like hot chocolate made with milk and coffee. It rained hard all through the night. I learned a valuable lesson with this: if it is and has been raining, I must leave 20 minutes early... Becca and I left at 7:20 (my normal time) and by 7:50 there still was no bus so we hopped in a taxi. Ten minutes late, and $5 later, we ran into Sinamune. It was no big deal, but as many of you know, being late is a large stressor in my life. In other words, I really, really, hate being late.

Anyway, Becca was warmly welcomed to sit with the tourist groups and watch the performance. It was awesome to have her there. I even snagged a picture of her dancing when the dancers invite the audience up with them :)

She went to a coffee shop and I finished volunteering. I taught warm ups for two classes and then helped Rosita in teaching the Cumbia choreography. She had us both wearing skirts to enhance our instructions (the skirt helped to show directions as we dance holding the ends of the skirt). The last hour and a half I was alone teaching two different classes with the more disabled students. Per usual this is difficult and honestly I do wish Rosita would stay with me for one of them, but it is getting a little easier each time.

After work, Becca and I went for Encebollados with the other volunteers, Albita, Martina, and Kathe (which I learned how to spell today...pronounced kawt-ee). Since it had finally stopped raining, Becca and I decided to go to Mitad del Mundo!

For 15 cents we caught a bus right to the museum. Apparently this monument was built before people with GPS's realized this is not really the center or latitude 0º0'0" but really about 300 meters off. Regardless we paid to at least get close to the monument and take pictures on the line. The whole area was very beautiful and peaceful. We stopped at a small outdoor restaurant on the property for some ice cream for Becca and coffee for me.

We did walk over to the actual equatorial line....but it cost another $4 to get in and since it was a small area, with many people waiting in a line to take pictures in front of the sign, we decided not to go in.

Once back at my house here, Becca and I said our goodbyes and she left in a Taxi to her hostel in Old Town of Quito. I may see her tomorrow but Sinamune and Spanish classes have my day pretty full.

I enjoyed a stir fry and burger (sans bun) with fresh naranjilla juice with Martha and Vivi. ** I found out what fruit I had in Otavalo: Ovos! (Picture on the left)

I worked on some homework for a while but am now ready for some sleep.

Saludos,
Zoe

¡OTAVALO! & meeting up with Becca!

On SATURDAY morning I enjoyed a breakfast of tree tomato juice, yogurt with granola, bread and coffee, all prepared by and eaten with my host dad Marco. Him and Vivi organized a cab for me to get to the Carcelén bus station to catch a bus to Otavalo. This station had enough signs and friendly people where I could fairly easily my way to buy tickets and board the bus. (a whoppin' $2.50)

The whole assigned seating didn't really work out. Someone was in my seat, so I went to another, got asked to move from there and then sat on a stool in the front of the bus for the first 5 minutes of the 2 hour ride. Thankfully, the man collecting tickets on the bus kicked the man in my seat to the stool and I got a real seat for the remainder of the ride. Behind me was a sweet lady and elder man asking about my travels. They were surprised to see a white gal of my age traveling alone... The woman told me all about places I should go in Ecuador and got my name to find me on Facebook. She even shared her chips with me. Another classic Quito sweetheart.

*Which reminds me. I met another one of those Friday on my walk to the bus in the morning. This middle aged man popped up next to me. At first I was startled but he was very sweet and excited to hear about my travels. A very jolly and social man.

In Otavalo, I met Becca!!! She is a friend from Western Wa University who has been working and traveling around Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador for about 5 months! For the past two weeks she was working on a coffee farm in the Intag Valley near Otavalo.

The sign says Otavalo but the bus moved too quick to get a good picture.  

We checked into an adorable hostel that had been suggested to her called Hostal Valle de Amanacer. Becca had not had Encebollado yet and so we found an outdoor restaurant to enjoy some wonderful food. Then we quickly got to shopping in the famous gigantic market of Otavalo where I found many gifts for others and a couple for myself :) It was really, really hot and sunny so we were relieved to find a man selling coconut juice for 50 cents. Yum.

We found some fruit, chocolate and a few beers to bring back to the hostel and enjoy in the common area with hammocks. After some wonderful catching up, relaxing, and enjoying some new fruits (granadilla and something else will find out soon), we headed out for some dinner. For $1 we had some chocho beans, corn and some other wonderful flavors and then found some crepes for dessert...hehe with nutella of course.

SUNDAY
The next day we headed back to the market for a few more gifts (looking at you friends in the States ;)) First, of course, we had some lovely breakfast at our adorable hostel.

After eating some more fruit and laying around in hammocks, we decided to head back to Quito.
We took a nice walk to and around Parque Bicentario right near my house. This very interesting park was the Quito airport until a couple years ago. The runway is now a perfect place for walks, biking, rollerblading, running and pups. Finding our way home was a little complicated, the entrance we came in had been padlocked when we tried to leave. We turned the other way and walked until we found someone to ask whadup and where is the exit. Luckily it was not too far from my house and we found our way just fine. Even stopped for a cheese empanada and pan dulce on our way back.

My sweet, sweet host family made us dinner and sat with us chatting. Becca had a ukelele and since they had never seen one before, insisted on her playing something. She played Elvis Prestly's Can't Help Falling In Love With you. It was great. She has brought this uke around with her throughout her travels.

After dinner Becca and I watched a show and are now winding down for some sleep. Excited to show Becca SINAMUNE tomorrow.

Muchos besos,
Zoe

viernes 22 de enero

My morning began with papaya, coffee and juice. Probably also some bread but I can't recall.

Rosita and I spent the morning working on choreography with some students who are scheduled to perform Monday. She had me teach Maria Jose, one lovely chicita some ballet to Somewhere Over the Rainbow, another song the orchestra plays beautifully. We went upstairs to practice with the music and people seemed to be really excited seeing ballet. This type of dance is not popular here, nor is it very affordable when it is offered. I am happy to be able to share my passion with these students.

Since it was Friday, after recess we go to the nearby "park" (actually someone's giant backyard) to play games. Some teachers had me lead a few games and exercises with hula hoops. On the account of my broken Spanish, I misunderstood Rosita and the schedule. Apparently, I was supposed to stay back and help more with choreography and rehearsal. I was really bummed, not only because I messed up but also because I wanted more time to teach Maria Jose. After I returned to Sinamune, Maria Jose had to go back to class. I am hoping next week we can work more together.

The last few hours were more rehearsals, but the students were very tired and not so attentive. It was a struggle. I apologized to Rosita about earlier and thankfully she said, "No te preocupes" (don't wory about it). I still felt bitter at myself for it.

After 1, I went for lunch and beers with the other volunteers at Sinamune: Albita (Germany), Katy (Austria), and Martina (Switzerland) Christofer (works at Sinamune), and Jaime (who just left Sinamune for another job). We had encebollados again, my favorite food here besides the fruit, and shared a few beers. Pilsner is the main beer here. Katy had me try a chocolate-ey beer that was very rich and yet delicious. We sat around in the park for a while listening to music and talking. We listened to Katy's ipod and went around, each choosing a song. I was pleased to find I listened to a lot of the same music as the European girls (Tallest Man on Earth, Jose Gonzales, Amy Winehouse, Milky Chance, Shins, etc.) It was wonderful bonding time and pretty cool to be among people from only countries other than America.

At home I had amazing spaghetti with chicken, tomatoes, and greens. I was really exhausted from the day, and from being slightly burned again, so enjoyed a nice early bedtime at 9:30.

Abrazos,
Zoe