Family Weekend

I only have two full weekends left in Ecuador, and next weekend we are going to the Galapagos, so that means only one weekend left in Quito. To seize this weekend, I spend ALL day Saturday with the family. First, Sophia and Amy demanded in dressing up in their Belle and Snow White dresses and giving a talent show.

Sophia as Belle, playing the Recorder.

Then we went to Amy and Sofia's school, La Presentación, to see and participate in the "feria"/class olympics. There were dances, skits, tons of children; it reminded me of camp...

Me, Sophia, and Azucena

Me and Amy

Me, Amy, and Fabri

Then we went to their tennis camp and watched them learn how to properly serve. Of course both girls are WAY better than me.

After a quick lunch we went to their Oratory Class where they present weekly poems on some sort of theme. This week's theme was 'Quito' and they couldn't find poems that they liked, so Azucena wrote very nice poems for both girls. They performed them SO well and I was so proud of them, but the judges were obviously wrong and didn't give neither Amy nor Sophia a medal. Jerks. :)

Amy frantically waving her hands to make a point.

And then, very late in the evening, we ate Domino's Pizza and Coca-Cola (as a treat for the girls) for dinner. I really am going to miss my family. They're all so great.

Ojitos!

This is Fabricio, my little host brother who just turned 1 1/2. I love him.

Mi Casa and the Government?

So, my house is located across the street from the main political/governmental buildings. The financial building, Congress, and other main branches of the Ecuadorian government are all situated next to the Casa de la Cultura, so it seems like there is always something going on on the other side of the street.

Every weekend in the park that is right here there is an artisanal fair where people from all over the country come to sell their paintings and other works of art.

Almost every weekend there has been some sort of big concert in the Casa de la Cultura, and we can hear it from our front terrace, so sometimes we sit outside and listen as a family. It's cute.

But on days like today, there are HUGE protests that clog the street in front of my house as literally thousands of people march from who knows where in order to change something about society. According to my mamí, I'm not allowed to go near the other side of the street on those days because if something were to happen and I were to end up in jail for being a protestor, I would be in a world of trouble. So I don't go near it, although I do want to get a picture one of these days. Some pretty huge governmental actions are supposed to happen in the next month, so I'm sure I can sneak a picture sometime soon.

El Carmen

I apologize for the incoherency of this post; I'm exhausted.

There are some days when my brain just can't think in Spanish, and Friday was one of those days. At one point during the day, my host mom asked if I had anything planned for Saturday, and I said no, because in reality I was up for things like shopping or touring the city some more during the day. Well, around 6 o'clock that night she told me to pack my mochilla because we were going to go to her mother's house and we might go tonight or tomorrow morning, we weren't sure. So, at 9 o'clock we all piled into the car for a 4 hour drive down to the coastal region of El Carmen. Big misunderstanding on my part at some point. Picture this: steep mountain roads with perilous drop offs, dangerous curves, and the thickest fog you've ever seen, while my dad was driving at least 70 mph. It was terrifying. At 1 am we arrived at abuelita's house; she lives on a farm with chickens, ducks, cows, cats, dogs, and plantain trees by the millions:

On Saturday we woke up and went to the beach, which I was told would be a short drive away. An hour and a half later we reached the ocean. There was the weirdest juxtaposition of rich, beach front stores and poverty-stricken shacks on the other side of the street. Also, the sand was black, and when I asked Sophia (6) why she thought it was that color, she said "it's because the sun is so hot here that it burns the land to a crisp and gives us black sand!". Duh, how could I have not known.

An hour later, Sophia got stung by a jellyfish and we promptly departed the vicinity. It was a little terrifying. She's fine, but in order to calm her down we bought ice cream and went swimming in a very nice pool near by:

When we returned to the house, I met most of the family (I lost count at 24 new faces and just smiled and nodded all day long). I'm also pretty sure the chicken we ate for dinner was alive and well that morning; I'm almost considering becoming vegetarian...

Hola gatitos!

And this morning we woke up, I saved a baby duck from getting stuck behind the water heater, sat in the hammock for a while, and then we went out into the jungle. We picked limes, plantains, bananas (yuck), and mandarins right off the trees. It was really cool. Apparently the family grows plantains and exports them to places like the USA and Canada, so look out for those Ecuadorian stickers on the plantains, they might have come from my family!

So that was my weekend! No shopping or touring the city, just family family family. It was fun, but really intimidating and exhausting.