Forever and a Day

It seems like it's been forever and a day since I left Chicago O'Hare Airport.. But it's only been a week and 5 days. HAHA How time flies. So far, I still love Ecuador - I don't think I could ever hate it. The people here are so awesome and kind, and their food is ama-zing. Especially their fruit. We have a different type of fruit juice every single day; it's so crazy that there's such a wide variety of fruits available in Ecuador - many of them exist only here!! My host family even made me an entire list of all the fruits that I have to try while I'm here. There were a total of around 50 something fruits, and I've only tried like 20 something. I'm excited that there's so much more to try!!!

This week has been long, but at the same time, it went by fairly quickly. Mostly it was the same thing everyday - Spanish classes starting at 8 and then ending at 1, except for Tues and Thurs, which ended at 4. On Wednesday, a bunch of us went to San Luis shopping mall, which is the really nice shopping center I was talking about. Lucy, Abby, Laura W. and I walked there right after class to get some lunch. Lucy and I had Sushi by NOE, and it was surprisingly super delicious. It was kind of expensive (by Ecuadorian standards - $7.50 for 8 pieces of great maki rolls), but I guess that's kind of expected when we're in such a place eating sushi haha. Abby and Laura had hamburgers, which was apparently really similar to American burgers. This was super surprising because many times in other countries, "burgers" and not really burgers, but weird versions of them - mind you, they taste awesome, but it's not the same.

Thursday we had another one of our longer sessions, so we had to stay until 4. Afterwards, Sophie, Kara, Chris, Andréa, Lisa, Dan, and I went to the "Mercado del Sangolquí," which is the outdoors market I was talking about earlier (I think.. I can't keep track anymore). Well, it's kind of like those Korean markets you see on television, where there are a bunch of older people selling fruits, veggies, meat, clothes, shoes, anything else in the world at much lower prices. But the fruits and veggies are more fresh than they are in the stores! I saw whole chicken, the kind you see in the stores frozen, with their feet tied together and up in the air - kind of like a yoga position. It was hilarious!! I really wish I had taken my camera, but I didn't because I'm stupid and forgot :(

I seriously haven't been taking any pictures lately, mostly because all I do is go on a bus to classes then take the bus back. Or I go to the mall... And I'm 99.9% sure everyone reading this blog knows what a mall looks like. But tomorrow I'm going to a "piscina," which is a pool, but it's a natural outdoors pool in the Amazonian area, so I'm for sure taking bunches of pictures!! Apparently there's a super cold pool (which is really good for your circulation), and then there's a therapeutic hot spring heated by the volcano!! So excited for tomorrow. We're leaving the house at 6 "punto" (sharp) with my host family's cousin and her family!

Yesterday (Friday), I hung out with Maria Daniela (Daniel's cousin) who is 17 years old and super funny. The way she acts is so cute, and you can definitely tell she's young haha. After class, I rested for a bit because it was FINALLY Friday. Then my host mom and I picked up Maria Daniela and went to Quito to pick my host brother up from work. We all went to Quicentro, a HUGE mall in Quito - bigger than Woodfield! And they had so many American shops like AX, Puma, Hilfiger, North Face, etc. I seriously don't think I'll feel like I'm in Ecuador in a month when I'm living in Quito because it's so similar to the states. I bought a swimsuit (one-piece) because my host mom told me not to get a bikini lol it's solid black with pink straps. It's simple and cute and cost almost 30 dollars..... Apparently that's cheap here? :( my moneys... But I needed one to go to the "pool" tomorrow. It was kind of weird when I was buying it because my host mom and Maria Daniela's parents were helping me pick out a bathing suit... Talk about a little bit awkward lol. But it seemed perfectly normal to all of them.

I really liked that because it made me feel like I was really part of their family and they thought it was normal to help me pick out a swimsuit. Maybe I'm just super awkward and weird. :O After the mall, we all went to Pizzas por Bolivar, a delicious Ecuadorian pizza shop. It was amazing!! The pizzas here are different because they're all thin slices (kind of like New York style, but not as wide) and there's no tomato sauce on it. I'm not a big fan of tomato sauce so I enjoyed it. And this restaurant has a factory where they make their own cheese. It was great. The cheese tastes different in a good way - more fresh and milkier? I can't explain it, but it was really good. They put this chili powder on their pizzas instead of pepper flakes, and it tastes so much better because it's spicier. By then I was really tired, but we had to pick up my host dad from the airport because he was on a business trip in Guayaquil. But we literally had to stall an hour and half because his flight got delayed. So we went out for ice cream. There's this really good ice cream chain store in Ecuador called Pingüino, and they sell these ice cream bars called "Caseros" - I had a "coco" (coconut) flavor and it was SO good. In Ecuadorian coconut ice cream, they actually put coconut shavings in the ice cream, which makes eating it so much better/fun. Awesome.

After we picked up my host dad, which I don't remember at all because I fell asleep on the way, we went home, which I also don't remember because I was sleeping. Today we didn't really do much. After breakfast, we just chilled at home until Maria Daniela's family came over for lunch, which was soup and lasagna. Yummy!! We all had so much that the three of us (Maria Daniela, Daniel, and I) walked around the neighborhood and stopped at a park. It was super calm and pretty there. We saw a caterpillar making its cocoon in a tree!! It was awesome - I wish I had my camera to take a picture, but I didn't :( The caterpillar had like this silk string that started at the top of a tree branch and was all the way at the bottom, twirling itself as it climbed up, making its cocoon. Nature is super cool. On our way back, we saw a parrot in someone's backyard and it started talking hehehehe. All it could say was "Hola" and "Pepina," though, so it wasn't that fun. But it was really cute! He was talking in this super, super high pitch, and when we asked him what his name was, it just kept saying "Pepina," which is a type of fruit here. Haha when we got back, I had to finish an essay so we went upstairs and Daniel and Maria Daniela did karaoke while I typed away. Afterwards, Maria Daniela wanted to Daniel to take pictures of her (like model shots) because Daniel is apparently really into photography, which was really cool. He has so much equipment like lighting stuff and this intense flash bulb and various lenses.. Made me feel super amateur LOL. She had an intense photoshoot. It was really funny because every time I looked up from typing, she kept laughing because I was looking and she kept telling me not to look at her hahaha. For dinner, we had empenadas with cheese inside and hot chocolate. SUPER DELICIOUS. Wow, I love empenadas. Today was a super exhausting and tiring day.

Keep checking loveleekukies.smugmug.com for updates :)

With love from Selva Alegre,
Gina