Fiestas de Quito

So it's 11:30pm and I'm working on a paper due in about 15 hours (don't ask how far along I am) so there is clearly no better time to update my blog.

This weekend we celebrated the founding of Ecuador's capital with basically, the entire city.  The celebrations started last Friday (Nov 28th) and went all week and finished on Sunday December 6th.  It was really cool, everything was kind of thrown off for the fiestas, very fun.  Class attendance by the Ecuadorians, needless to say, was quite low and very sketchy all week. 
There were bull fights all week, although I didn't go to any.  I figured, knowing myself and my beliefs, although it'd be a cool cultural experience, I think it'd make me really uncomfortable, so I decided to opt out of that one.
Lots of partying going on all week, every day.  Ecuadorians really like to party, and it's not nearly as taboo here as it is there.  "Chivas" (which translates to goat, but don't get confused) are a favorite of everyone, and while you can see them year-round, during the fiestas, they are EVERYWHERE.  Basically, it's a big bus/truck thing with a live band on top that slowly drives around the city, filled with people dancing, drinking, singing, blowing whistles, and basically just having the time of their lives.  Between 1-4 chivas/night passed my house every day last week.  I should mention that while I live by a busy road, it's nowhere near a party district.  The chivas just go everywhere.
All week there's been partying and celebration, and it all culminated this weekend.  By Saturday, almost all the buildings had both the Ecuador and Quito flags flying.  We gringos went out on Saturday night to celebrate too,  (I partied in my yellow Ecuador jersey; I was proud).  We went down to the Mariscal (the gringo-land area filled with lots of clubs, bars, people, etc; we usually go out there, as much as it pains me) and it was FILLED with people (Lolo and I were squished on the bus on the way down there, full of drunk futbolistas coming from the game going out to celebrate; they sang the entire way and would break out into "Mi Lindo Quito" about every 3rd song).  More people than I've ever seen there.  All the bars and clubs also upped their prices for the weekend, which wasn't cool, but wasn't too bad since we just partied in the streets with all the Ecuadorians instead.  The police/army were everywhere (and enforcing stupid rules in my opinion, but i won't get into that) but it was still kinda sketchy, both despite and because of the police.
Us gringos tried to get a Chiva with some of the other USFQ gringos, but there was drama and too many people so us Kalamazoo kids decided to get off and hang out together instead (also will not get into the issues I have with the other gringos).  Although we had a chiva fail, it was still a fun night.  Coincidentally (or not???  haha) Quito and the Berg twins (Tor and Tova) share a birthday, so we spent the night celebrating with them too, culminating with both twins being hoisted into the air on Nic and Nathan's shoulders while we danced around singing happy birthday at midnight.  All in all, a fun night.  It's cool to be part of something bigger than yourself that everyone is a part of, with everyone out and having a good time all for the same reason.

Dia De Gracias

Yesterday we finally got our chance to celebrate Thanksgiving here in Ecuador. Last Thursday was a pretty homesick day for probably every gringo at USFQ that I encountered, but last night definitely made up for it. All 30 of us K kids organized and put on one heck of a feast for each other. We had the party at Sari's house, which is huge and is kind of like hogwarts with lots of hidden rooms, stairways, and an indoor pool and spa which a few of us enjoyed before dinner (reminded me of swimming at grandma's house in Maui).
Each person/pair brought something to share, and god we had tons of food. Lolo and Sari spent Saturday cooking the beast (which was awesome, I must say) and everyone else brought everything. With 30 people, we had tons of food and just as much dessert. We had turkey, gravy, jalapeno cornbread, mashed potatoes, stuffing, meatloaf, veggies, pumpkin pie, apple pie and crisp, tres leches, and so much more. I brought haupia for everyone, and apparently it was well appreciated :) We all were stuffed, to say the least. My madre (and apparently others' too) teased me about how I ate a tiny lunch to "prepare myself" for dinner. Here, lunch is such a huge deal that a giant dinner is rare. I definitely followed that Ancog saying "If you stop you get full" and just powered my way through dinner. Needless to say I am still not that hungry today.
All in all, although we all missed our families, it was a great time to sit and enjoy the company of our own little Kalamazoo-Ecuador family with good food and friends. With so much love going around the room, it definitely felt like the real deal.

All of us after our great Thanksgiving dinner

Happy Halloween, sorta

Ok, so Ross has called me out on my incorrect statement. Mauna Loa is in fact, the LARGEST volcano (in terms of area covered), not the highest, that belongs to Ojos de Salado in Chile. Cotopaxi, turns out, is the second highest volcano on earth. (Thank you Wikipedia) They still make the claim that it's the tallest, and that's still wrong.

Also, I did some weird blogging, but I have another post about my trip to the jungle a few weeks ago (Oct 18th) in case that was not-apparent. It has a cool picture of a frog.

This weekend is Halloween, and I'm kind of bummed that Ecuador doesn't do it like the US, but they've got parties going all weekend (starting today) for Dia de Los Muertos [Day of the Dead] so it's ok. Por ejemplo, At the moment I'm listening to a marching band that's at the school across the street. They also have awesome traditions like colada morada which is this warm thick fruity drink thing with pieces of fruit inside and it's delicious. They also have guaguas de pan [bread babies, yes, I know, I eat babies] which are sweet bread (sometimes filled with yumminess) in the shape of small children with colorful frosting decorations. They're delicious. Om nom nom.

The K program is taking a trip this weekend, and us ecology kids are headed to the coast, which should be awesome. We're bummed we can't have a Halloween party, so the 8 of us are going to have a party with ourselves. Hopefully dressing up in ridiculously resourceful costumes. I bought some chocolate coins, so at least we can be mildly festive.

I also made mochi on Wednesday, which was adventurous as I don't know how to bake well, and this was my first time in altitude and my oven is sketchy to say the least (my madre doesn't really know how to use it) but I managed it! It's not as good as usual, but it's a definite personal victory for me :)

No sé.... éste semana....

So I don´t really have a topic for this post, but I felt like I should do some sort of update.  It´s been an ok week, I started off sick on Sunday afternoon/Monday, so that was kind of a downer.  Not anything serious (some people have had to go to the hospital and get antibiotics), just really tired and a sniffles.  Solution was to sleep it off (tons of siestas this week) and I think my madre may think I´m a little crazy, but that´s ok.

This week I watched more fútbol than I have in my entire life,  it´s intense.  Last Saturday Ecuador lost to Colombia but we won Wednesday´s match against Bolivia.  Fútbol here is entertaining, as basically the entire country stops for a few hours while the national team plays.  Literally, there were so few cars on the road (the first time I´ve heard quiet streets in Quito) and the only time you heard people was when they were yelling at the tv.  Also, everyone on planet earth wears their yellow national jersey.  It´s kinda cool and I kinda wish there was something like this in the US, it´s just so unique for apparently every single other country except the US (from what I hear about France, fútbol is huge there too)

Classes have finally started to get going (slowly but surely) and I finally have some homework to do.  Sadly, I´ve been waiting for this as I am usually very bored in my house when I go home after school.  All my classes are cool and I´m enjoying them lots.  The dork in me is loving my Tropical Rainforest class and all the ecology I´m learning.  Volcanology is also cool (we got to smash rocks in class yesterday to see the inner parts for identification), and my Spanish class is actually turning out to be pretty fun.  I´m also slowly meeting the few Ecuadorians that I have in my classes, especially through my Tropical Rainforest class and my drawing class (the only class I have where there are more Ecuas than gringos).

Life in Ecuador is proving difficult and challenging for me, but it definitely has its up days, especially just hanging out around campus or actually getting out and doing things.  This weekend our K College group is set to visit Otavalo, another city a few hours away.  This town is apparently one of the centers of indigenous people and thus also home to the largest artesian market here in Ecuador, so it´ll be fun to go buy some cool stuff while we´re there.

One of the things I´ve been enjoying the most recently is reading everyone else´s blogs from all over the world.  It still is such a crazy thought for me to imagine me and all my friends in all corners of the globe!  I´m checking up on friends in Thailand, France, Senegal, Japan, Chile, Spain, South Africa, and everywhere in between!  So crazy!  Love for all from Quito!

Clases y Gringos

Today was the first day of classes, sort of. On Wednesdays I only have 2 hours of class, and after standing in front of our first class for 15 minutes, another faculty member came out to tell us that our professor is actually in Guayaquil until Friday so we don’t have class till Monday. With 50% of my day cancelled, I only had “Programa de Investigacción del Campo” today. This is the class that K College creates so we can get credit for doing research projects down here. It’s just the 8 K students in the ecology program, so that, in addition to my almost entirely international student Tropical Rainforest class lead to a very gringo-filled day. Still haven’t really met many Ecuadorians much, but tomorrow…. maybe? All my classes (Spanish, Volcanology, and Human Ecology) are pretty gringo-filled, although I am taking an art class in hopes of meeting some Ecuadorians that way.

We were warned ahead of time that it’s difficult to make friends with many of the Ecuadorians, since they’re pretty cliquey and it’s hard to enter, especially as a gringo. We were also warned, that as ecology students it would also be hard since we only have 2 electives outside of our 4 required classes.

On USFQ: It looks and feels like a country club. I know we were also warned about this ahead of time, but it’s true. It actually kind of reminds me, in a way, of Punahou, and how many of the students have lots of money and put much of their ego into their appearance (clothes and otherwise). It’s a very different environment than K, were most students wear fleeces and have nalgenes (not to say that K kids are all hippy environmentalists, although that would be awesome…, but simply that I get the sentiment that it’s a lot more relaxed in terms of appearance and status). Or maybe I’m oblivious to it at college, I’m not sure. In any case, there’s definitely a different vibe coming off the students, both Ecuadorians and gringos alike. At the international student party last night, there was definitely the vibe of some sort of pressure. Last Saturday, all of the K kids went out together (with a few Ecuadorian friends too) and we had a great time just hanging at the bar and dancing at the discoteque. At the party last night (which was gringo-landia for sure), there was almost a “stiff” feeling to the energy being emitted. It was interesting. Also interesting was that I once again felt very small compared to the very large, much older looking Caucasians that dominated the majority. After being in Quito for only one week, it was actually difficult for me to speak in English and be in the company of very white, very American students who are all much larger than I am. These are many of the same sentiments I felt when I first arrived at K for LandSea. After only week, I’m already feeling these things, so it’ll be interesting to see what comes after being here for longer.

Regardless, I am very excited to have something to do, like school, and to be able to be learning again, especially about super cool things like biodiversity in Ecuador, of all places! Although it reminds me a lot of home (lots of hibiscus, eucalyptus, and other flowers and trees, little birds that look like our java sparrows, and a larger bird that I think is some sort of myna…), there are still tons of things I don’t recognize. The fruit, for one, is very different. Have you ever heard of a guyanaba? I haven’t. Or tree tomatoes? I had it as a juice for breakfast this morning, and it kind of tastes like raw guava or not quite ripe strawberry guavas. Although guayana is guava, so that’s familiar, as well as Lilikois, although they have a Spanish name I can’t remember. We also have some of the hugest plantains/bananas I’ve ever seen too.

All in all, Ecuador has been a broad mix of things very familiar to Hawaii due to their tropical similarities, yet completely different from the United States as a still developing world.