EATaly- Part 2

This is my final post of our trip to Italy. Even though we took the trip a month ago, it's taken me a while to post all the pictures. Sorry!

And of course, an entire post dedicated to Gelato. Oh yum. Take me back.

Gelato.  Don't be fooled, in the 9 days we were in Italy, I had more gelato than posted, but then you'd be spending like a year and a half scrolling through the pictures. 

EATaly

Yep. All the food.

PIZZA

Spaghetti

My only vegetables in 10 days... oops.

Ravioli, green sauce, and provolone.

Olives? Yes please

Lemon Ravioli

Seafood Risotto

Bruschetta with gouda cheese and mushrooms.

The best pizza I had in Italy. I don't remember where the restaurant was though... somewhere in Venice.

Johnson Day

Every fall, Colby students get together with PPD (the Physical Plant Department) in order to do a day of community service on campus, called Johnson Day. This year we participated in Johnson Day activities with Dave (PPD Representative) and the Spanish Club. Our task: clean all campus signs. We got really into it.

Made-to-order doughnuts at Kennebec Café to start the day

SO excited.

What happened to all the raked leaves?

Lunch with Dave (left)

Pancakes for Dinner!

For Saturday night, what we deemed the "night of rest", a bunch of girls came over to my house and made pancakes for dinner with a movie screening afterwords.

The menu included plain, chocolate chunk, and cinnamon pancakes, with REAL Aunt Jemima ("Made in the USA for Export Only") syrup, pineapple, orange and peach juice, and other fruits. Yum!

Look Dad! I'm making pancakes! Thanks for teaching me!

The film screening of the Little Mermaid, because two of these lovely ladies had not yet seen it (BLASPHEMY!). After technical difficulties in which Prince Eric would only babble in Spanish, we fixed it and completed the Disney experience with flying colors.

Hope your weekend was fun and relaxing as well!

Quilotoa

For a brief trip, a group of ten of us ventured to a small town called Quilotoa, which exists for the sole purpose of making the crater lake of the volcano a tourist destination. After an exhausting, frustrating series of events involving buses and transportation to the remote town, we made it to our hostel, which was adorable. There, among the clouds and cliffs, we decided to try cuy or guinea pig for dessert:

It was tough and really salty. Glad I tried it, but not gonna eat it again...

We woke up in the morning to clear, bitterly cold and windy skies, but decided to hike down to the lake. The local myth is that the inactive volcano now holds a bottomless lake, which once absorbed a runaway train back in the days (but there are no train tracks anywhere...?)

Really cold. Really windy. Really pretty.

So we hiked down to the lakes edge and then hiked back up, a little bit upset that the 6-hour loop hike was not at the base of the lake, but rather around the rim of the volcano.

So we hiked back up and started to hike the real Quilotoa loop, with the beautifully blue lake on one side and this on the other side of the ridge:

We stopped for a potluck lunch and a quick nap before turning around and heading back to the hostel:

Fruit, peanut butter, granola bars, oreos, what else could we need?

And after another 5 hours of transportation, we arrived back in Quito late last night where I promptly fell asleep in my warm bed. Despite all the headaches of the actual transportation, it was a perfect short trip and was totally worth it. If you're ever in Ecuador, Quilotoa is a MUST.

Pizza, Postre, Película, Oh My!

Thursday night, a bunch of us got together and ate delicious pizza from El hornero and then made a pizookie (pizza cookie):

Basically it's undercooked cookie dough with tubs of ice cream dumped on top. So delicious.

The anticipation!

The aftermath.

Then we watched Moulin Rouge, which I have been craving for WEEKS. It was super fun, and a really relaxed night, which is just what we needed after a crazy week of classes.

All We Do Is Eat..........

I honestly think I eat 100 pounds of food a day. But today was especially a large amount of delicious comida. For lunch, we had a few hours (4) to eat, and so a group of us went to eat at this restaurant called "Verde Esmereldas". The lady who owns the place is a host mom to one of the girls in the group. The mom is from Esmereldas, which is on the coast and is known for its delicious seafood. The restaurant itself is really pretty, and very upscale by Ecuador standards. I will have to get pictures sometime, because it was beautiful. And since we have connections there, we got a free round of Ecuadorian beers and fried bananas (which I did not eat because I HATE bananas... that's rough). So, we got there around noon and sat outside on the patio eating appetizers and chatting until 1:30, when we started the 12-course meal. It was crazy. I've never eaten so much in my life. We ate empanadas, fried plantains (which I'm also not a fan of), and Ecuadorian French Fries for appetizers; ceviche, soup, some sort of fish, a bunch of different rices, and a curry with shrimp for the main course; and gelato, cake, and a cookie for dessert. They also made their own passionfruit juice, orange juice, and a special juice with some fruit that is found on the coast that I can never remember the name of. So. Full. There's a picture floating around somewhere of the destruction, but of course I forgot my camera. But, the crazy thing is that for 11 people, we each paid around $17 for this meal.

This is a picture of the "standard fruit" that we always have at the house. There are pineapples and those silly fruits that I don't know outside in the cupboard. We eat more fruit than vegetable here, which is interesting but makes sense.

Tonight is movie night, according to my mamá. She's taking an english class at the university so she can refresh her memory and become a teacher again after a 10 year hiatus. Therefore, the movie tonight has to be in english. Hallelujah. My brain hurts from all the spanish. And tomorrow we are going to a small village in the lowlands called "Nanegalito" for the weekend. Don't worry, I won't forget my camera. Just cross your fingers that I don't get bitten by a malaria-infected mosquito. Caio, caio!