I made it!

August 24, 2008

Greetings from Ecuador! I arrived late Thursday night because my plane was delayed, but I made it. Nothing really happened on Thursday other than my host family picked me up, we had dinner and I went to sleep.

Friday every one had to work, which was a good thing because I had altitude sickness (a headache, tiredness, and shortness of breathe). I still have it a little but I’m starting to adjust. But all I did on Friday was sleep and unpack my stuff.

Saturday we went to a going away/ birthday party. Carlos (the father) has 7 brothers and sisters and one of them is a monja, nun and she is moving to Guayaquil which is 8 hours away. I talked to her a bit, she was an English teacher at a Catholic school and apparently she won a Fulbright grant in the 70’s so she spent 2 years in Chicago. She was really excited to meet me so that she can practice her English because she thinks she needs to practice more but her English is pretty great.

As for the birthday party part, it was Blanca’s birthday ( I don’t know how she’s related but she is) so they celebrated that at the same time since the whole family was there. The food was great! We had pig and it was honestly the best food I’ve ever had. This pig would have made an vegetarian change his/her eating habits to at least include this pork recipe.

After we at the whole family made speeches about how they love their “tia” and how they will miss her when she moves. Then Carlos played the guitar for about 4 hours while everyone chatted amongst themselves. I met two women who spoke really great English, they both studied in America and now they are part of a business which exports flowers to the U.S. I think exporting flowers to the US is one of the biggest businesses in Ecuador, but I could be wrong. I also met a man from Canada who came here in 1998. He married and Ecuadorian woman and now lives here. He said that it took him two years to lean Spanish (but I don’t think he had any formal instruction before he got here). I didn’t really get a chance to talk to him long.

So after four hours of socializing we had dinner which was the same thing and still very delicious. And after that we danced and the family made me dance too. Then one thing led to another and they asked me to teach them some “American moves”, I completely drew a blank because I haven’t danced “real American moves” in at least three months. So I thought about camp dancing and taught them the “Stacey Henry” and the “Sturge”. They laughed when I taught them the sturge and said that only drunk people dance like that! Good thing they didn’t see the “Ayla”.

After that Carlos played the guitar again and we kept talking. I was exhausted by this point so I just kind of sat there like a loser but I didn’t care. The party lasted 8 hours! We got home at like 9:00 and I went to bed right away. Now it’s Sunday morning and nobody in the house is up yet. I have no idea what’s in store for today except that I have dinner with the other members of the program.

I miss you guys and I hope everything in America is going well.

-Ayla