(Wednesday, June 30, Day 14)

"The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps."


Phrase of the day: Puedo tomar una foto con Usted? No!... Can I take a photo with you? No!

Snap, two weeks! It feels like two months since I haven't seen you... haven't played outside... haven't eaten rice - totally kidding - that's at least twice a day here... haven't ridden a bike (I look for one every day when I'm walking around. Someone must have one that they hardly ride, right?)...

I guess having class 6 days a week now will help? priceless. (Yeah, we have "cultural" class on Saturdays begining this weekend. The choices were dancing, cooking, agriculture, something else, and arts and crafts. I was busy eating an empanada when everyone was signing up, so I'm in the arts and crafts group. Hopefully it's color pencils or else we may have some issues! Cross your fingers).

Finally a picture of my classroom:
Much better than some of you imagined, I'm guessing. It is a community center in one of the neighborhoods. Really it's just the room you see, a bit more seating in the same room, and two bathrooms. It doesn't have any wholes in the ceiling, so no complaints here! (Well one minor complaint by everyone else, it's freezing inside because it's all concrete... we wear jackets and even scarves some days... but it could be much much worse! Plus it makes our facilitator want to have class outside after lunch, which is great!!). Really, she's awesome and would probably let us have class outside if we just asked, but still.

Plus she hooks up tons of things for us. Today we went to see someone she met who is a "shamman" type lady, but really she was just into holistic healing methods, raki, and some other stuff. Who would have imagined here in Cayambe? She's actually the only one within a decent number of hours, but still. Her teacher is a Buddhist monk who lives somewhere in Quito she said. She had a statue of Buddha and pictures of Shiva and Hannuman in her house. And next monday we're going over there because she's making us some sort of pastry. See, always hooking things up!

I see a lady quite often with her street food...
totally reminds me of India. I won't dare try it though... my goal is to be sick less than everyone else here. (I think at least 10 people have had upset stomachs and the usual already... I'll pass for as long as I can at least!)

BUT I did eat here tonight for snack!
They were good. Definitely not the best empanadas I've ever eaten, but the lady lost 20 points when she didn't want to take a picture with me (imagine!). I had them right out of the boiling oil, so I should be fine. They were filled with a bit of cheese, and she put some sugar on top.

Speaking of sugar, people love it here. Like 3 tablespoons in their coffee and tea. And I mean tablespoons, not teaspoons. I also drink tea every night now. But not by choice really. I just need to get the most water in me as possible, you know?

Tonight I was home alone with Juan, the cousin who is living with the family for the summer. He is working at the Flower plantation in the kitchen with my host mother and he goes at like 4:30am. Anyway, this kid does so much around the house. I see him sweeping, washing dishes(he tries to wash mine but I don't let that slide), and he always warms up my food whenever no one else is home. So we went out for dessert. I asked him who had the best pastries/cakes, and he said he'd heard that some place on the other side of town was great. I think he just imagined he was showing me where the place was, but we definitely crushed it. He had some sort of cherry cake with orange juice (yeah, i thought it was odd too), and I had some cake that had fruit on it(surprise, surprise! ha).

All this sugar talk, I wish I had some ice cream! Make sure you eat lots this weekend and have a
Happy 4th of July!