A few random things...especially food!

Last night I ate a Tamal-it's a popular Ecuadorian meal, wrapped in a corn husk or giant leaf. I don't really know all that much about it but it's delicious! i was going to find a picture of it on the internet, but when you google Tamal+ecuador very different things come up that look way weirder than what I had yesterday. I also had a granadilla...that was delicious! but real crazy. It looks kind of like an orange on the outside, but with a flatter surface. you cut open the top kind of like what you would do to a pumpkin, and eat the inside. The inside looks like tiny sunflower seeds but are encased in blobs of goop. It's really sweet, and when you start eating more, the inner layer of the skin kind of looks like those little things that sway underwater in reefs. Here's the inside!

in fact, I'm eating my granadilla right now!

Yesterday my host mom made strawberry juice, and she sent me to school with some! sooo good. except, i lost my juice sometime during the day before I got to drink any:( I also lost my favorite SMC sweatshirt somewhere on campus, no idea where, as well as my only SMC pen that I had in my backpack, and one of my penguin earrings that i was gonna rock on the day of the Penguin Plunge. Never in my life have I lost so many things in such a short time period!

Also last night, my host mom came in with my dinner plate (it's totally normal to watch tv and eat dinner, and it's always presented on a wooden platter with a cloth doily). Every cup has a dish, and the other day my host sister brought my a banana on a dish! ok anyway, last night, dinner: my mom came in with chicken with peppers and apples (curious mix, i know) and then "white carrot" but told me the Spanish name so I could look it up in my dictionary...I wish i hadn't because it was PARSNIP! I mean it tasted great when I first tried it, but after she told me what it was, I had that weird feeling that I "knew" I wouldn't like it only bc it's parsnip

The other day my host mom made me crepes for dessert after a huge, delicious lunch. They were with apples and lemon juice and were SO GOOD. I told her i absolutely needed to return to the states with that recipe, among others of course.

My host mom asked if I like tuna (it's my fav, in a can) but I'm a little worried because she said she's gonna make it into something that sounded strange, but we'll see. Since Ecuador is pretty Catholic, it's common for people to eat fish every Friday, not just during Lent.

ok, moving on for now

the bus: Ecua busses have right of way, and if you try to mess with them you will get smushed. It's scary riding the bus to school, on winding hilly roads. I can't imagine what it will be like when we start taking long adventures across the small but wild country. it's 25 cents everywhere, and even though i originally thought the bus to school was 26, the sign is wrong it's only 25. so every day i spend a dollar going to and from school, and depending on where my service is i might have to spend more for traveling.

i like sitting in the front because then i can see when i have to get off the best, but it's really nerve wracking because you can see how badly the drivers tailgate! they are so close to little cards and other buses, and weave in and out through the lanes as if they are a single person on a motorcycle.

earlier this week on my way to school, i had to stand in the doorway and hope i didn't fall out! the bus is SO PACKED from my house to the bus station, and i finally just sat down on the step because I was nervous i would fall should my foot slip the tiniest bit. Granted we were still in the city so it wasn't all that fast or scary, but still, it was an experience.
I also don't love the act of leaving the bus: because I go to to the Rio Coca station, everyone on the bus leaves to catch a different bus. everyone pushes past each other and wants to squirm to the front. It's not so much fun walking an entire bus' length trying to squeeze my way through people. Believe me, I'm a city girl at heart when it comes to walking and getting around, but I also like to respect the order of exiting, and I wish Ecuadorians would let the last rows exit and go in order! especially because people like to get so close to you already.

sneezes: my first day on the bus, the bus driver sneezed, and even that sounded non American! no one hear says bless you or "salud" as we used to always say in Spanish class. you don't even get acknowledge, and i feel rude not saying bless you! one time my sister sneezed, so i said salud, and 5 minutes later she said it to me but in a funny like "you said it to me so i'll say it to you back now haha" way.

there's always bugs! ughh ok so im always hot, so i like to keep the windows open. only the thing is, there's no screens on the windows. and since its dark at like 6-6:30, i need to have the lights on. therefore, lots and lots of little gnat like flies are in my room. seriously, i think they multiply. When im sitting in my bed, reading or something before i go to sleep, they flock to my night table, and it's gross. i feel like i kill 10 every minute, and they especially like the odd looking bear lamp on the table, and i have to spin the bear around to find more! I might tape some screen to the window if my mom ever gets a chance to send me a package/the ecua post gets it to me before i leave.

right now i'm sitting in the lib. my 2nd class of the day was cancelled, and i need to buy a CD with all of the articles for my class but it's not ready yet. and since no one is online, i've been wandering the internet aimlessly. earlier, the power went out. now this is a kind of crazy occurrence. Ecuador is used to it, due to the lack of rain lately they don't have a lot of energy so the power gets shut off a lot around here. Luckily schools and hospitals etc are on generators, but it's still so funny sitting inside when it goes off and no one does anything. In the States there might be a few screams, groans, ppl moving quickly etc, but here it's totally normal. I almost hope for the power to go out when I get home, just so I can act like an Ecua and feel reverse culture shock about something so silly.  The power also went out when I was in the hospital for my checkup, and same thing-no response.

Ok one more thing for now-it's always funny to use your vocab that you learned in school when you get to the native speaking country, only to find out that what you studied so much is completely wrong or never used here. ojos del sol: i believe i learned these were sunglasses, but my mom had a field day laughing at me on the bus, as i'm sure others did if they overhead. here they're something like gaffas, not "sun eyes". oh well. at least i keep learning new things!