Week Three: The Short Week (and shorter post too!!!)

Just a reminder, this is September 23-27. I’m slowly getting close to catching up. There will probably be another post later today to get full caught up.

Friday we had our first major paper due. It was called the Personal National History Paper. As I briefly said before, all of the papers we write are based on conversations and interviews we have with Ecuadorians. At times this can be tricky, but I’ve also found it is a good way to start conversations with some people. When I got my friend, the store owner, talking about how dollarization affected him I ended up being staying in the store for over an hour listening. However, it is also a little difficult getting used to basing papers of first hand interviews, rather than research conducted in the library.

That night was the first night that I skipped out on my family to go hang out with the Gringos. Some people might not understand this, but it just shows how big of the experience the home stay is here in Ecuador. Your family is truly YOUR FAMILY. For the time you are here you do everything they do, eat everything they eat and much more. Therefore, you see Ecuadorian life through the lens of your family.

However, sometimes this can be a very interesting lens to look through. Remember, here in Ecuador it is common for the kids to live with their parents until they get married. So, for example, one of my friends siblings is 29 years old… This leads to some interesting family dynamics. These 20 some year olds do not have the independence that were used to in the States. So, when we all get together as a group (SIT students) we share stories about our families and what is going on in our/their lives. And, we get stories like… So my mom keeps bugging my brother because she wants him to brush his hair. So, this morning while he was eating breakfast she brushed his hair for him… He’s 22 years old. Or… Last night I was watching tv with my my two brothers and my dad when my mom came out with the nail clippers and cut everyone’s nails… So, I think you get the point. Family dynamics here are a little bit different here.

So, Friday night I ended up at a ‘bar karaoke and cuyes’ (cuyes are guinea pigs, a delicacy here in Ecuador) since one of my friends has a brother that is into karaoke big time (she’ll be at home doing homework or something else in the house and have her mother and brother out in the tv room practicing on the karaoke machine). After an hour or two of karaoke (everyone sang) we all worked our way over to ‘Red Hot’ a club in El Triangulo, one of the main hangouts in the town. In the final count 22 of 23 students of the program showed up. I think that just goes to show, yet again, how cohesive of a group we are.

Going back to the theme of sleep. I have been more tired in this country than I can remember being for a very long time. For example, after 9 hours of sleep on Friday night I got up, ate breakfast, got ready for the day (although we weren’t going anywhere) and then went back to sleep!!! In total I ended up sleeping for between 13 and 14 hours on Saturday. And, on top of that I was tired when the end of dinner rolled around and went to bed at 10:30. Who knows…

Sunday we went to Pablo’s ‘campo’ house in another Valley north of Quito. I’m definitely becoming a fan of Ecuadorian picnics. Just in case one animal is not enough you get chicken, salchicha and a mini steak. On top of this 5 people plowed through a 3 liter bottle of Coca Cola. In regards to Coke I have definitely been noticing a trend… Families and groups of friends here love drinking Coke. At the local store down the street groups of students would buy a 2 liter bottle of Coke and polish it off before they headed home for the day. My family buys Coke when they want to hang out and talk in the Kitchen or for a meal (such as a picnic) with other families. On a practical level this makes a lot of sense. You are 100% safe drinking carbonated drinks here in Ecuador, but the same cannot be said about drinking water or juice. However, I really think that there is more to it. Coke here seems to be the symbol of hanging out and having fun with your friends. Also, it seems to be a small symbol of prosperity – it is American after all. Maybe you completely disagree with this conclusion, but my brother did tell me that ‘Coca Cola’ is the second most recognized word in the world. I haven’t checked that, but I sure do believe it.

Who is Pablo? At first I thought I knew. He was my mom’s brother. However, by the end of Sunday I was not so sure. I was starting to think that something had been lost in translation. After picking up on a lot of small clues I was starting to think that Pablo might, in fact, be my mom’s boyfriend… Hopefully I would find out in the coming week.