Peeling Petals

The night began with a couple cervazas, the drunken men sitting in the booth in front of us were screeching Kareoke. Fantastic! We then headed to the cultural center to witness the many forms of dance Ecuador has to offer, my favorite was the afro-ecua dance with women bopping their hips from side to side with a full bottle of rum floating on their heads. You bet I was on the edge of my seat. Salsa, cumba , ranchero, and traditional ecuadorian music vibrated off the walls making my heart beat from side to side. The best part of the show was the fog machine, they liked to set it off whenever the crowd started to answer their cellphones. Fog machines, drums, and cerveza...the night just can not get better!...but it did. The group then headed to kareoke where romantic songs were the hits....my amiga sang ace of base and rocked the house...the ecua´s didn´t quite appreciate seeing the sign. The next day we were offered to eat lunch at a friends house, we traveled to the surrounding town, Guano, and ate lots of greasy meat, this time three different types. We headed to the center of town where they have an inca mummy hanging out in a box, that was quite interesting. They placed a mummified mouse next to it juuuust so. Finally, what we had been waiting for all weekend, we then headed to the tauro. Some makeshift stands carved from bamboo made a pleasant seat to watch drunken teenagers get pounded by some massive bulls. I chewed on some natural sugar cane and cheered for the toro. My classes began this week, Monday i had 1 student, Thursday I had 30. As you can imagine, in one class i have people who only know the word ¨hello¨to people who are more grammatically correct than me! It was hard, frustrating, and quite an experience. ummm, what do i teach? My basic class has three teenage boys going through puberty, i found that chocolate wins them over. You bet i was in the dumps, every motivated person without expectations still never reaches their expectations. I get off the bus a couple blocks away from my house and see my new bff´s at the local flower shop. They give me free flowers and ask if i want to go their camp. I´m excited about my new friendship, flowers make my days sunny. I honestly believe when i wake up to the sight of flowers, my day is started on the right foot, that and the Bill Withers song A Lovely Day humming out of my radio. By the way, 2 dozen roses cost $1.80, I couldn´t be more excited. My mother likes that i have flowers in my room. After my chaotic week and a bit of homesickness, my mother came in my room to ask me if I was missing my family. As usually i act like nothing was wrong, ¨no¨, she walked over to my now droopy melon colored roses and started to peel the petals away. Ecuadorian roses have mucho petals. Together we peeled the ugly petals away and !vuala! New healthy beautiful roses to wake up to. I don´t think that i can forget about my week, but i think that i can peel away the bitterness and wake up to my flowers feeling a bit sunny...an important lesson in maintaining a healthy relationship with ecuador.

Delicious Ecuadorian Recipes

TORTILLA DE ACELGA

Finely chop one bunch of chard, including stems. Boil for 5 minutes in salted water. Drain well.
Beat an egg, maybe two. Add the chard and some salt. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Pour in half the egg mixture. Layer some cheese (Cecilia uses fresh mozzarella), then add the rest of the egg mixture. Cook it for a little while, then flip it. Cook until it's done. If you want the authentic version, serve with white rice.

FLAN DE TRES LECHES (THREE MILKS FLAN)
Blend for about two minutes the following:
• 250 g (about 9 oz.) crema de leche—I think that's just heavy cream
• a 397 g (or about a 14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
• an equal amount of whole milk (i.e., use the empty condensed milk can to measure your whole milk)
Pour into an oven-safe dish. Bake at somewhere around 150 to 180 C (300 to 350 F) for 15 minutes or until it looks good.

Did you ever feel like you were naked in a crowd of people?

aaaaaaaaahhhhhh, breathing in the fresh air of Riobamba is wonderful for my nose. Quito´s pollution produced strange substances in my sinuses. thankfully, that is over. Going about 100mph on a crochety bus down a steep hill, my first sight of ¨friobamba¨ was a dump truck on it´s side with about 50 indigenous ecua´s staring in to the driver´s seat. ummmm. I arrived to a mansion of a house, bummer, i had a fantastical view that i would be living in a hut. Lesson number 1 everyone, a developing country does not mean that everyone lives in a thatched roof hut. My bedroom is so pink that i feel my family is quitely asking me to try out for the next ¨riobamba queen¨pageant. i will wear my comforter, and i will win. jajaj. I wake up, 6:30am, to a christmas song screeching from the oil truck. it rides around the city all day playing that damn song. I hear the woman selling paper from the street, she buzzes our apt for about 5 min. i take a hot steamy shower, limpio. my parents don´t speak a word of english, and have many laughs over my spanglish. Breakfast is cafe with bread, lunch is fantabuloso (rice, potatoes, plantains, fresh cow´s milk/cheese salsa, ahi...lots and lots of ahi...., some form of meat still on the bone which looks like it was killed about an hour before i ate it, and fresh squeezed juice..everyday) dinner is te with bread. riobamba´s streets are filled with fruit stands and cut open pigs. suprisingly my stomach has handled fried pig with great delight. the market on saturday stretches for about a mile, it has everything from handwoven wool scarfs to deisal jeans. Pineapples are 80 cents. I walk to my place of work which is in the bellavista neighborhood, south of the city. I am a gringa, and everyone...i mean everyone notices that i am a gringa. The men do some weird whisper-whisle sound to me from their trucks which are blasting salsa music. My family is kind, they think i look europa and not american. I am one of three females that work at SECAP. The rest are 40 year old men that commonly ask if i am single. Lesson 2, something is wrong with you if you are not married or without a boyfriend at age 25. i think it´s freedom, they think it´s weird. I guess I am a cultural learner. Last night i went out with my younger hermosa, i shared a couple pilsners with her and her friends. We talked about Pres. Bush, Coldplay, and again why i am single. As we walked home she latched her arm around me, a very natural latch. I asked what it is like walking down the street with a gringa, for everyone and their mother stares at me like I am some amazon woman. She told me she doesn´t like gringo´s, shit, buuuuut she likes me. With pride she stated ¨You are my gringa sister¨. With that and her latched around my forearm, a strange confidence erupted in me. I wanted everyone to look at me at that moment.

Elections justify a true democracy?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7020420.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7022623.stm

More than words.

My day begins around 3am when the neighborhood dogs start to throw their afterparty outside my bedroom window, usually i am able to roll over in my red mustang tonka bed and fall back asleep for another two hours. 5am i wake up to the quiet beep of my travel LL Bean alarm clock and drag myself to the shower in which i do my morning ritual dance to the cold water coming out of the faucet, it looks similar to a traditional Swahili hop. I take about 15 minutes to breeze through the paper, of course only really understanding the pictures. They have images of dead people and naked people in the daily newspaper. I arrive at my practice teaching site at 7am and hang out with 15 of the coolest Eucadorians i have met thus far. Today they told me how to make Poble, a traditional ecuadorian alcoholic beverage. The best part about teaching in the early morning is that i am still waking up, so my personality can be defined as a hyper overly-tired gringuita, they love to laugh at me and I love it becuase it makes them talk....in English! I had an amazing class today, my youngest student Natalie who is 10 years old spoke about her family. I started to tear for that was the first time she spoke in class. nice. At 9am my co-workers and I head to a ¨gringo¨cafe to shoot down some delicious real brewed coffee before we start the day. After flashing smiles to the waiters these past two weeks, I now get a free cup of honey with my coffee! Shweet. Then it is training until 5 pm with an hour break for lunch. Lunch consists of lot of rice, avocados, frutas, and bathroom breaks! I head to Spanish class from 6-8 where my teacher everyday tries to persuade me to get an amigovio...not quite a boyfriend, not quite a friend. She laughs at my Spanglish, she has an addictive laugh! Yesterday she kept the window open for our class of 6 students, we are on the second floor of a house, a cat tried to jump in our class. Animals like to meander around rooftops here, many homeless cats and dogs. I then head home to my family, the kids attack me with the water guns I brought them (bad idea). Due to my lack of communication en espanol, i have made up some cool handshakes with them. Felipe constantly pokes me and says whaz up. Samatha hides in dark corners and scares the shit ouf of me everytime i turn those corners. She makes sure i´m awake when i´m at home! Cecilia cooks a delicious meal, always starts with a suculent soup. We eat dinner until 10pm, at this point I lesson plan. Not much time to miss friends and family, plenty of time to wish they were here spending every minute of my adventures with me here in Quito. Kareoke tonight, i think i will choose Extreme ¨more than words¨for last time it was a hit!

Bumps in the road will only lead me to better places

I don't speak Spanish. I don't even have a full grasp on grammatical rules in English. Does anyone? My bags are not packed, and I feel anxious to call everyone I already said goodbye to one last time before my departure to Ecuador. I'm leaving in two days. The question, am I ready? Life has taught me thus far that these experiences, immersing yourself into a different world, can only be awe-inspiring if you have a willingness to learn and an enthusiasm to try. I get it, however, actions speak louder than words. I might be rethinking that statement while visiting a cockfight. Am I ready? Well, if walking into a Walmart and learning about the people and culture there can teach me a few things and put a smile on my face, then I think Ecuador will suffice. I look forward to bumbling my words while ordering "cuy" (guinea pig delicacy), i'm excited to think about the adventures i might have searching for contact solution in the town of Riobamba, and finally no matter what medicine i need...i'm sure it will be the one I left back home. Many bumps in the road are to come, but that is what makes this a one of a kind and memorable experience. Here I go, I'm on my way.