ano viejo MADNESS.12.31.10-the new year

Today was sunny and hot just at a perfect time when I could sit outside and soak up the rays for a little while and than God ordered up some showers and thunder!:) Its great. When I walk up the large hill to go to school in the morning its cool enough so I don’t sweat too bad in my school clothes and when I walk back down it warms up. The weather keeps me guessing and I love the constant change. My room is perfect. It has a nice window a loft.

The family is hilarious. Today is ano veijo! In the beginning of lunch we all sat around quietly eating and towards the end when everyone was probably waiting on me to finish I had a hard time cutting my pork? When of course I should have just eaten it in one piece because there went my entire plate of rice on the ground. The building tension in my fork and knife gave the rice a little sling shot affect and the rice flung all over me and the ground…hahha good one. I kind a just laughed because I was really embarrassed not knowing how rude my actions were. I picked off the rice up off my lap and my shirt and threw it away, while the little family of four just watched me… I grabbed the broom and Marcela told me not to worry and do it later.( ps yesterday I totally was eating my soup and thought they were waiting on me again so I lifted the bowl to my mouth..and ya that was rude, because whatever the following words that came out of Marcela’s mouth indicated that, that is rude and you don’t do that here….lol) So Gabby told me that it was totally fine and didin’t matter, just didn’t help that the table was silent while I was picking up the rice off my lap…hahha After the main part of the meal their neighbor, which is a nun? Wears a little head thing. A catholic nun I think. BTW Xavier said a prayer today before lunch, it was beautiful. Their vecina gave them lasagna, papa dulce, fried pan with sauce-syrup, and weird sweet dessert with egg. Marcela loves desserts and can’t stop herself sometimes its so funny. “ o que Rica!” The family ended up tackling Xavier to try to make him eat the weird egg desert, while Xavier kept biting into the mango next to Marcela making her whole body shiver. It was hysterical.

Ever wanted to be a fly on the wall? Ever wanted to be a fly on the wall for another culture experience and really feel apart of the family? Well I did!! It was really cool I got to totally be apart of a family without having to say anything! Haha. I just felt like I was watching a movie and was entertained while being present in the actual family event! Well I wish I could’ve said a few things here and there but I couldn’t understand a thing…until the end of dinner when they were bickering over who does the dishes..lol

 Walking back from school-in the café, the munecas(big life size dolls- that they later burn for good luck..) were on the front of cars. There was a harp player in the park with amps so you could hear him playing from the entire parque square, there are still fireworks going on all the time.

The fiesta started when the family came over around 6:30 and they didn’t leave till about 2am.

Everyone was super loud and fun at dinner, the food was great and the dancing was fun. They are all very family oriented which is so nice to see. Everyone when greeting eachother and when leaving hugs and kisses the left side of the cheek. (just makes kissing sound with lips). I wrote this kind of fast so don’t mind the mistakes! I just want to write down things so I can look back and remember too! In another week I’m off to Quito to meet my semester crew and to travel through the jungle for the first week!!:) Misquitos here I come. EEEKS!

The fam for ano viejo (the old year-the end of the year fiesta)

doll they set of fire for good luck...hahah

Mama Marcela, Gabby and funny Grandma Laurda

                                        Papa Xavier setting the doll on fire and lighting fireworks

 The ultra safe fireworks going off in every direction with a little boy running around in a spiderman    outfit.... hahah

                                      

                                  

                          Dancing in the streeet, jumping over the fire and dodging exploding fireworks...

Dancing in the house till about 2 am 

Pigs feet, Paint and RAIN!:)

SO..my watch doesn't work!(My only means of a functioning alarm clock).. Luckily my body naturally woke up at 7:00?! . Jumped out of bed and made the trek to school on time. My 8am grammar class is killer if I don't get a good nights rest.. and its killer if I do. haha. Its good though, I have to struggle through it to make my spanish better. Last night I had my first DREAM IN SPANISH!! Super stoked!! Although in my dream I didn't understand what was being said... nonetheless I dreamt in spanish! An accomplishment in itself!
After my grammar class for 2 hours I have my conversational spanish with Professora Soledad. She is a blast. Its good that my grammar professora is strict and gets down to the nitty gritty and than to have a  change of pace and practice what I learn in real conversation. We went to el mercado; diez de Agosto. All the local markets around here are named after dates. This one was huge, with everything from medicinal herbs to raw hanging meat. The fruits and vegetables were beautiful with many little Ecuadorian women sitting behind the stands peeling and waiting patiently to sell to any friendly customer.
                                           Me and professora Soledad. ( I'm tall here! well I also wear boots..)

                                                Pig legs?..sick nasty and the smell you can only imagine...

My house mom making empanadas! I helped!:)

tomorrow is a HUGE FIESTA. no work or school! they celebrate ano viejo (the old year)

instead of celebrating the new year-the end of the year.

My house mom has been cooking a lot. Its tradition for all families to gather and have a HUGE FEAST 

dress up and dance!

After Christmas in Cuenca it is common for guys especially to start reeking havoc up until the 'carnival', which is in March. The havoc= throwing water balloons and lighting off fireworks at random. Its funny, Bruno will get scared sporadically because of the fireworks. Yesterday I had a DRIVE BY WATER BALLOONING! A car full of boys attempted to target me with 2 bombas de agua but failed miserably. Scared me half to death though, wasn't expecting that! (Fortunately I had been warned though)

                                         I painted  for my house mom's birthday (isn't for a couple months..)
                                                    Painting while raining= new favorite pass time

Well I have more spanish homework and have to wake up early!! Although school is canceled my grammar professor still wants to have class in a cafe...still at 8 in the morning..lol

Goodnight and Godbless! God is GREAT!!:)

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. 

James 4:8

The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you...But whein in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them.

2 Chronicles 15:2,4

We wish to see Jesus.

John 12:21

O, Lord we have waited for You; our desire of our soul is for Your name and for the remembrance of You.

Isaiah 26:8

When two or three are gathered in My name, I am there in the midst of them.

Matthew 18:20

Baila!

Woke up in the morning and got to pick what to wear! (from all my clothes that arrived in my bag yesterday!)  yay! I took the 30 minute walk to school and have it timed already! I had my two spanish classes and today I have my first two hour dance class at 6. I made a mistake and looked at my classes for art and music- which start at three o clock and made the walk to school three hours early...haha. Its nice and sunny out today, just makes the walk a little more steamy, but the sun feels bueno. Tomorrow my conversational spanish class will be while we visit  the market place and a museum!:)

On my walk up and down the streets I notice something peculiar with the way men respond to white women such as my self...lol. There are the traditional cars honking and cooing (common in south america) but also something I laugh at every time, the men will smile and give a thumbs up...It's so strange I just giggle to myself, because its usually the old men in little trousers...?! hahah

Last night after giving my family the gifts from SLO, which they LOVED by the way!( Good job mom!) my house mom was curious about the almond brittle. She is so cute and kept saying...¡O que rico! (oh how rich) They all love sweets and the youngest one keeps nibbling on a stash that she has from Christmas. I showed Marcela, the mom, online the recipe for almond brittle and translated in spanish for her. It was great.:) They had never had any type of brittle before. I showed her pictures online of what it was and that led into a plethora of other pictures of various desserts. She would clasp her mouth and say "o que rico!" and sigh as her eyes lit up at all the decadent chocolate cake pictures. She works at a little bakery across the street and loves to cook.

The family was puzzled at the little package of beef jerky..haha they were a little timid to try it at first, than the dad, Xavier  would just exclaim...its just meat! They all ended up liking it although it was very spicy for them!

My dance class was SOOO FUN! Oh my gosh. I can't wait to dance!!! Me and another girl were taught by the instructor, Danny. (His real name is Luis Daniel.) He was a good teacher and really emphasized movement in the hips- but thats no surprise its Latin Dance! We learned Cuencano Salsa, a little Cubano, meringue, and some jive! It got real sweaty. Our teacher was very good at moving his hips...a little too good if you ask me..?! If ya know what I mean.

Than I made the trek back to my house, for the first time in the dark..! It was totally fine and there was a lot of people and lights on the streets.

(pictures from yesterday)

                          In the courtyard of my school building

walk back from school  for lunch 

My house family at lunch :) (without Xavier)  

the whole family-holding my gift for them from SLO

and Bruno :)

My first day of school :)

Today I made the 30 min walk to my school by myself. Luckily it is just a straight shot with one turn at the large cathedrals..haha so it would be pretty hard to get lost. The walk was great, great for people watching and there are a lot of people around so it is safe. It is crisp in the morining and great on the lungs for some fresh mountain air. I had 4 hours of spanish today and my elective classes start tomorrow. My first class was spanish grammar with professora Fabiola. She is very good and thorough. It feels like I'm cheating by writing in english right now! haha She is extremely extensive and sharp on little details. I had a small break inbetween my 8-10am class. My conversational spanish class started at 10:30 and went for two hours as well. My professora Soledad was so much fun! We chatted in spanish the whole time and she said she was expecting me to know much less, but that I could understand quite a lot and was very impressed!:) My spanish is coming back! Slowly but surely. I got to hang out with the family last night and me and my house mom chatted awhile and she explained some spanish with me. She has a lot of patience and is so cute and quirky. In my conversational spanish class mi professora told me that every friday..(which means 2 fridays-for this 2 week program) we will go to some visit some local cathedral, or cafe or restaurante! I'm so excited!! This is totatlly my thing! haha.

Yesterday I learned that the city of Cuenca is highly religious and most everyone is catholic. There is drinking and partying- and they drink a lot, but always go to bed at a reasonable hour. Unlike Spain where most everyone stays up and doesn't go out untill 12 at night, here they go to bed at 12 or 1 at the latest. Everyday the family will gather for lunch and after lunch take a siesta- a small nap. I have taken a nap both days and let me tell ya its amazing! Just a little fifteen minuter will do the body good!

Praise be to GOD. I GOT MY LOST LUGGAGE!!! It turns out that I didn't have to carry it over to the different airlines and it ended up in Cuenca somehow! Thank you for all of the prayers! Me and my house mom after lunch went and picked it up at the airport. This truly was a miracle!!

Tomorrow I am going to start my dance classes, and later in the week my art and music classes.:)  My cooking class will be throughout the semester. I probably already wrote that but it's just because I'm so EXCITED!

Cuenca!!

Today was amazing. I woke up at 6 am to pack up and meet my driver to go to the airport by 7 am in Quito. I couldn't sleep last night thinking about everything in Cuenca, I was just too excited! I was nervous that I wouldn't wake up so I set 2 alarms on my watch and had the front desk man make a wake up call. It was very cold in Quito last night and I didn't have my large suitcase only my carry on. I made it to the airport on time and sooner than later I was in Cuenca meeting my house mother, Marcela and her two daughters Isabel, 18 and Gabriela 16. I already loved them before I met them. :) It was so good to meet them, however I still have not received my large suitcase (wasn't there at the Cuenca baggage claim) and I couldn't give them my house gift that my mom so carefully picked out. I was so excited to present them with this gift, but now I need to worry about not only recovering their gift, but all of my clothes! There was a mix up in the airport and a miscommunication with the baggage, so we are working that out and I spoke with the administration at my program.

We drove about ten minutes in their little car back to their house. It is stunning. The streets are like cobblestone and the hillsides green from the ample amount of rain year round. I met their golden lab,  Bruno. Later we had lunch, their biggest meal of the day. Marcela made us a sweet golden rice, tilapia (fish) with a tangy lime cream sauce, fried plantains, salad, tomato juice ( pretty good actually!), and set on the table was salsa and hot sauce (homemade). The meal was exceptional! Everything had amazing bursts of flavor. The culture here has a small breakfast, a large lunch and a small dinner, which can consist of left overs from lunch or dessert and coffee or just coffee. Their lunch is an important time for family. Everyone comes home and there is a break in schools and work. Its so nice to see how intentional family time is to them. Within one day I got a great feel for their little family, the city and a little glimpse of the program for my school.

After lunch we walked about a half an hour into the city where the cathedrals are and the centro and the parks. Its a beautiful walk and fun to people watch. There are a lot of little bakeries along the way and a lot of little shops selling games/dvd's. The little old women with extremely long black braids and colorful blouses are here and there eating some type of traditional food. I spoke with some of the people running CEDEI the program for interamericanos. It looks like this semester is going to be a BLAST! My first two weeks I will be taking spanish, art, music and dance. (My cooking class will be integrated into my semester long classes. :)) In the semester long program we will be taking periods of time off from 5-8 days to do excursions...And when I say excursions I mean the Galapagos Islands, the Jungle, and Machu Pichu. I'm not quite sure I fell into this program other than that God is GREAT. And I'm not sure I deserve all of this!

My two new sisters walked with me up to the program office and met me back to walk back down to the house a couple hours later. They are so sweet and fun girls. I love Marcela and the father Xavier is so welcoming and such a little humble man. :) I love this family, this city and everything already. Myria one of the program leaders informed me of all the upcoming festivals and holidays...!! I'll keep ya updated. The end of the year festival is celebrated here instead of the new year. That will be on the 31st and Marcela my house mom will be cooking for it two days in advance! haha BIG FIESTA!!

Please Pray for my lost luggage!! and that God will encounter the 2 new groups arriving tomorrow. ( They will be here a month, my semester long group will be here in two weeks)

God Bless! I will be waking up at 6:45 to have breakfast and make the walk to class manana!!:)
Buenos noches!

My room:)

 My walk with my sisters to CEDEI offices/school

My mini tour of the city walking distance from my school and house

ps..
In my devo today:

He Himself is our peace.

Ephesians 2:14

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

John 14:27

Quiet Chaos!

Estoy aquí y estoy a salvo! Me siento como que he de hablar en español!

The flight was fine and everything went smoothly! Just after the quick van ride from the airport to the hotel my spanish exchange was a jump start into this new foreign culture. My van driver was great, although meeting a man in a shiny black jacket standing outside the airport doors with a piece of paper with my name on it...was sketchyyy. haha. He drove me around and showed me some of the cathedrals and little parks. the buildings are beautiful and the little Hotel de San Fransisco is so cute. There is a little court yard outside of my room and there is a man at the front desk that will be here all night. (Makes me feel more safe:))

The city of Quito was beautiful of what I saw just driving through it. A beautiful sleeping city. I snapped a few photos.:)

I can't WAIT to meet my house family tomorrow my mom helped pick out some really great little souvenirs from SLO. I will also be waiting patiently to meet all of the members of our program in 2 weeks when the students that I will be going to school and taking excursions with!

Wore my money belt today..just from the airport to the hotel, but I felt safe! haha. I'm currently in the hotel room and watching Friends.:) But I'm gonna take a shower and hit the hay my flight tomorrow is early and my ride will be here at 6:30 am. Its three hours ahead here. So right now it is midnight!

Good night!!!!:):)

pre-trip butterflies

Trying to get the feel of Ecuadorian style and taste.:) 

I have been in the midst of packing, seeing friends, traffic school :(, and wondering about life abroad. (If you have any insights on whether or not to get an international phone, let me know!)

Its great to see friends and family at home, the weather has been so unusual! Its been raining non stop day and night! I guess I just need to get used to that, in Cuenca it has an average 2 inches in January and February and 3-4 inches during March through May!

4 DAYS TILL DEPARTURE!!!

The pre-excursion plan!

As of now, I have no plan. I realize HEY!! I leave in 6 days ARIELLE you need to get a lot done before you leave for 4 MONTHS! hahah So first thing I do..make a blog at 2 in the morning...haha (Hey its a start!) So this is way for me to write all my thoughts for the day or the week, or whatever. I hope that you can enjoy my experiences as much as I do!
As I look into some of the details about Ecuador, I have learned that I am indeed living there during the rainy season! It's supposed to rain everyday about and stay relatively even keel 60's-70's weather. The animal the llama is quite abundant, and the mass majority of the population is Roman Catholic. The cathedrals are everywhere and the city Cuenca, where I will be living with my home family has about 30 churches in the vicinity. My house family is a family of 4. The mother is a business woman, the father is a private employer and they have 2 daughters; Gabriela and Isabel, ages 18 and 16. (My mom was happy about that...)
COUNT DOWN TILL DEPARTURE...6 DAYS....