Pastel Bruno

Yesterday the Pitzer crew came over because my Ecuadorian mom made me a dinner for my birthday. It was really nice. She made chicken lasagna, salad, garlic bread, and an amazing Pastel de Bruno, which is one of the like 40 recipes she has in the SuperMaxi cookbook (just goes to show what a great cook she is!). She named it after her grandson Bruno because he loves it so much, and indeed it is great! It’s an orange cake that has chocolate frosting and walnuts all over it, delicious! Even poor Emily who had food poisoning from eating an empanada at the Liga game the night before had to try some.

My bro, Diego, and Bruno were also over to celebrate. Everyone sang happy birthday, it was so funny to hear both the Spanish and the English version being sang while my mom, clapped the entire time (she’s so cute).

The girls made me some cookies and gave me a trotugita shirt, to represent the awkwardness joke that we have among each other (LOVE it). Anina also made me a foil representation of a tortugita with a leash and all J My mom gave me flowers and some Ebel (the Latino version of MaryKay) brightening(?) lotion. Bruno and Maria Paulina gave a really pretty green necklace.

It was a lovely time, too bad I couldn’t go to GringoLandia to continue to celebrate with Anina, Jessica and Alex because my knee is hurt.

Oh yeah, my knee…

So on Thursday, my actual birthday, I went to go volunteer, for the first time, at La Fundación de Reina de Quito, which is a learning center for kids with Down syndrome. I spent 3 hours with the 5-6 yr old group and I helped out with all the activities, from cognitive skills work (like learning colors and shapes) to physical activities (learning to dance and crawling through hula-hoops), crafts and eating lunch. It was really fun but also hard and draining (especially when I was trying to work with little Gabby who refused to allow me to help her use the scissors correctly so she tried to stab me instead!). I had class right after so I had to take 3 buses back to USFQ. On my first bus I hurt my knee. It kinda felt like it popped out of its socket. It hurt a lot when it happened but it wasn’t a big deal until later that night (at the Liga game).

Yesterday, my mom took me to a family friend who’s a doctor and I got some pain meds. Fortunately, I’m feeling much better and can actually walk without limping now. Maybe tonight I’ll go out to GringoLandia.

Confetti Galore!

Yesterday was my bday! Big 21! Although not so big here, since I can obviously drink here with no prob. To celebrate, the Pitzer group and I all went to a Liga game. Liga Deportiva Universitaria is Quito’s fútbol team which everyone here is obsessed with. The game was fantastic! Probably one of the best sporting events I have ever been to. When we got to the stadium, which is pretty close to my house, there were tons of people out on the street and in front of the stadium. It was crazy! There was a huge pre-game celebration since it was the opening game of the season and Liga won Ecuador’s championship last season. On the field there was live music and then an awesome fireworks display. Then, when the Liga players came on the field, huge, and I mean huge, amounts of confetti fell everywhere. Everyone was completely covered in white hole punched paper circles.

All the major fans were cheering during the entire game on the goal sides. They jumped up and down and ran up and down the stairs switching spots with each other, all while singing, beating drums and chanting to various different songs about Liga being the best and drinking cervesa. Liga ended up losing to Atletico de Medellin (the Columbian champions) 0-1, but it was still quite an amazing atmosphere to be celebrating my bday!

Oh, and I also had my first “legal” drink at the game. Jessica bought me a huge cup of beer that got confetti in it despite my efforts to cover it. It still tasted good :D

El Bus y Cumbayá/USFQ

To get to school every morning, I have to ride 3 buses…kind of a pain in the sense that it takes two hours out of your day. It’s especially annoying when I have to wake up even earlier because the first bus that goes by my house is always packed and will not stop to pick me up if it’s full, therefore making me wait around till the next one. Yesterday, I was forced to go on the third bus because the first two were packed. I jumped on after two women, and I thought for sure that I was the last person, but then a rather larger man pushed me from behind and broke my sunglasses that were in my backpack…not the best morning.

But at the same time, I’ve been discussing with Emily, the bus ride offers a time for personal reflection, which I tend to enjoy.

La Universidad de San Francisco de Quito is located just outside Quito, in the valley of Cumbayá, like the song, which I think is kinda funny. It’s a really pretty campus about the size of Oxy but all bunched in together so that all of the buildings are touching each other, so really it’s a lot smaller than Oxy. Most of the architecture is Spanish looking with fountains and tile all over the place (bad idea since it rains a lot here and it gets super slippery). There’s also a small pond with a waterfall that randomly turns on and off. I’m not quite sure why the on/off situation, but it tends to be distracting when I sit in the grass near by to do homework (which I have a lot of btw, didn’t think this would be the case, Kristen).

I’m taking 4 classes at USFQ and the Pitzer Seminar

1. Marketing: Principios y Fundamentos – It’s a very interesting class that I am enjoying a lot. The professor has a lot of experience and we look at all kinds Ecuadorian media and advertising, such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_BQk_2Zd04 What do you think about that? Interesting no?

2. Moneda y Banca – My hardest class because I’m having a hard time with the terminology and Ecuadorian bank/financial system examples, but I’m working on it. Also, super fascinating to learn about Ecuador’s economy, or lack of?

3. Antropologia Cultural – which I was hesitant to take, but because of time conflicts had to take anyways. A classic Oxy “think critically” class.

4. Sexualidad y Atraccion – The professor is Cuban and has very distinct views on sexuality than the “typical” Ecuadorian, more liberal you might say. My favorite class so far. (I have also made two good Ecuadorian friends in this class -- Monica, who has some interesting views on homosexuality, and Santiago, who happens to be Alex’s host brother – both are super chévere!)

5. Ecuador: A Country in Development – or the Pitzer Seminar. It has a community service aspect (I’ll be working with children that have disabilities) and a huge research project, possibly on race or gender (thanks Oxy)

SuperMaxi y la Comida

Most of the food we get at SuperMaxi. Although it may sound like a rather large feminine product, it’s actually the largest supermarket chain in Ecuador. They sell pretty much everything and have a rather inefficient way of checking out. When you get in line with your shopping cart, you have to put all the food in the checkout counter and leave the cart there. You pay, and they put the food in another cart. This creates the biggest mess of carts ever and people are always pushing them around to try to get through. I’m not quite sure why they don’t just make enough room between the lines to allow the one cart that people can keep just the ONE shopping cart.

The food is pretty good. I’m especially enjoying the large selection of fruit that I’ve never tasted before. We have 3 meals a day…

- El desayuno – I have a glass of freshly squeezed fruit juice, some fruit and bread with cheese or jelly. Mi mama gives me the same thing everyday, with varying fruits, but I like it.
- El almuerzo – Usually consists of soup, rice and bread with some kind of chicken.
- La merienda – For mi mama y Alfie, it’s a cup of coffee and bread, for me its an actual meal.

My fav foods so far are the empanadas de morocha (shredded beef) and la sopa de locro (potato soup with cheese and avocados), so tasty! I also love the fruits, guanabanas especially.

Random…
- Peanut butter is “disgusting” here, Ecuadorians don’t like it. When I told my bro about peanut butter ice cream, he was grossed out. They don’t know what they are missing out on!
- The milk, and some yogurt, comes in a bag (at least what mi familia has bought)…kinda gross, so I have yet to drink some en mi casa
- Eggs are NOT refrigerated here, but apparently the US is like the only country to do that, weird.

Mi Familia Ecuatoriana

Mi family is very nice, loving, and quite affectionate. Florencia (Flor), my mom, is super sweet and always hugging me when she can. She works for Tupperware and has 15 women that work for her, which basically means she only goes to the main office like twice a week and pretty much spends the rest of the time at home (where she cooks a lot, luckily for me). Her husband, Alfonso (aka mi papa Alfie), is a journalist and film critic that works from home. I also live with my bro, Jose, who is 27 and works for a tourist company as a tourist engineer (which I’m still not quite sure what that means). I also have another bro, Diego, who lives a few blocks down, but is always at my house for some reason, and a sister, Maria Paulina who also lives a few blocks down. She is a communications professor at the Catholic University. She has a son named Bruno, who is way too tall and smart for his age…he recently told me that he really liked National Treasure, but the production/direction could have been better, and goes on to explain certain things --what 7 yr old child says this?

Mi casa is pretty nice. I have my own room and bathroom downstairs, right next to the kitchen and the patio, where Frida, our dog, stays.

Ya Llegue!!

So two of the girls on my trip started a blog and I decided to start one on my own (1st one ever!) for the sake of keeping my travel "adventures" documented.

So here it goes...

After leaving AZ at 9 p.m. on Thursday night and three different flights (AZ-CA-Panama-Quito) I got to Quito on Friday around 2:30 p.m. (Ecuador time, which is 3 hrs ahead of CA, and 2 ahead of AZ). I was the 1st one of the 5 students on the program: 4 women (Anina, Emily, Jessica and myself), and 1 male (Alex, who also goes to Oxy). The program director, Maria, and her husband, Chris, picked me up and dropped me off at the Hostel de Santa Barbara because they had to continue to pick up the rest of the students. It was nice to have some time to relax, (and take what ended to be 4 hr nap) before they came. I ended up eating dinner with Maria afterwards and watched CNN en espanol til the rest of the girls came, which didn't end up being until 10:30 p.m. at night (unfortunately Alex's flight was canceled due to storms in San Fransisco--he has yet to arrive).

Today, I woke up, had breakfast with the girls (the traditional pan con leche), and started la tarea de Orientacion, which was to take the bus to El Centro Comercial "El Bosque" and buy some cookies. This was quite the adventure let me tell ya because we had to ask people for directions and most people told us different things. We (Anina and me) soon figured out that bus drivers were the most reliable source for directions. This came in super handy when we accidently got off at the wrong stop and the driver told us to get back on (ha, would have been awesome to get lost on the first day!). Buses are only 25 cents here, so cheap! Ecuador uses US currency by the way, that's pretty nice. And most things are relatively the same price as in the US, except for the toothpaste I had to buy (it was only 68 cents)!

Quito is very green (a nice change from AZ) with many beautiful flowers. Ecuadorians are quite friendly, the guys especially, haha. I'm looking forward to the 2nd real day: more orientation, a trip to a museum, and meeting my homestay family!!