Lotsa stuff

It’s Sunday night, and I’m sitting on the couch in my new Ecuadorian home, watching a seven-year-old boy sing is little heart out, a knife-thrower who happens to be my grandma’s age and blind out of her right eye, and a man who does a fantastic Beyonce impersonation on Ecuador Tiene Talento—the Ecuadorian version of the America’s got Talent I watch on the couch on Sunday nights at home when I wrap up my weekend and get myself ready for the week. But this weekend was not just any weekend and this week is definitely going to be a bit different than normal. * Key dramatic music*

Josh on a swing

My weekend actually began last Thursday, when I got to spend the day with my seven-year-old cousin Josh. I spent the day combing the news for any new information about what’s going on in Ferguson and avoid the imminent need to finish packing by being entertained by Josh. We made pepper-coated salami and cheese sandwiches (Josh didn’t like the pepper), shared leftover pad thai (Josh like the pad thai),

ZEUS THROW

MIGHTY

became immersed in our respective electronics, made banana bread, had a blast on the swing in my backyard (fun fact: it is just as much fun to throw a swing like Zeus throwing lightning bolts as it is to swing on it), picked (and of course immediately ate) blackberries, and trekked through the overgrown forest back to his house.

It was a day of mixed emotions, but made super enjoyable by the company of a great seven-year-old. Thanks cousin.

Special take-home bag of banana bread

Hazel being a person basically

After a tasty dinner in my honor of bbq chicken pizza (it’s so good, I promise—it has bacon and onions on it) with the fam, a stressful couple hours of nighttime packing with my mom, and a great late-night, limoncello gelato-filled game of Rummy Cube with the padre, Thrusday came to an end and Friday came rolling on in without even asking if I wanted a little more time t. Friday morning I woke up and decided to keep sleeping because it was my last night in my bed for a while and Hazel was being the cutest cat in the world (because she is). I spent the day with my mom, running errands like responsible people, eating sushi, sitting in the sun, talking about Fergusen and how the world is falling apart but what’s new, me reading a Tim Wise speech outloud and feeling moved, and (of course) drinking coffee, all the while simultaneously trying to ignore and being completely unable to stop excitedly thinking about the fact that I could count down the hours until I left on an 11:59pm flight to Ecuador on my fingers. Despite all of our preparedness, I of course still ended up rushing to finish everything at the last minute and left the house in a hurried frenzy—but really, what other way can you leave when you’ll be gone for six months? The dark car ride was quiet and I tried to calm all the emotions happening, including some nausea that was sort of creeping in. But an hour or so later, after I’d hugged my parents goodbye and stood in line at security, all those emotions settled in my stomach and I felt calm. I was totally ready and not ready at all. And I was stoked about it. *Key some more dramatic music*

Selfie wit Rosemary because why not

The plane rides were all boring. I actually managed to sleep, which was quite a feat, but even while I was sleeping I was bored. In Miami I met up with most of the awesome women from school I’m traveling with and we ate some rocking airport Cuban food. That part was great. Then we were all bored again as we waited the next hours for our flight. 

As I flew into Ecuador, there was a magnificent sunset. We were above the clouds, looking down at a magnificent blanket of fluffiness, bright yellow sunlight along the horizon contrasting the striking blue sky. Then there were some gaps in the clouds, and we could see the deep green peaks of mountainous hills stretching through the creamy white layer. I don’t want too be to melodramatic here, but it was kind of magical. Then, as we lowered out of the clouds, I got to see the full expanse of these endless hills and the sudden appearance of city buildings stretching into the mountains. Then it got dark and all I could see were lights.

From the moment we landed, I could barely put together coherent sentences (the result of a mixture of exhausting and excitement). I could not think of anything to say to my friends, and so I just kept turning to them and quietly and excitedly exclaiming, “ahhhhh!” That’s all I could manage. Despite my attempts to take in every detail of the city during the dark car ride from the airport, I fell asleep because that’s what I do in cars. I opened my eyes I have no idea how long later and we were stopped on the side of a dark road, with a group of people congregated on the sidewalk. Are they our host families? I whispered to my friend next to me. I don’t know she half whispered half nervously laughed back. And of course they were our host families, and all of a sudden I was walking out of a quiet sleepy car into the fresh nighttime air with a group of excited families calling out the names of their respective new gringo babies. I was the last one to get out of the van and immediately knew who my host mother was (because she had a handy sign with my name on it). And somehow she immediately knew I was me. She looked across the heap of tired women climbing out of the van, saw me, and said to herself, “Es ella. Mira la carita.” (roughly translated to “It’s her; look at her face,” but is somehow so much more heart-warming and endearing in Spanish). She gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and I couldn’t stop smiling. At least I think I was smiling, but really had no idea what my face was doing because I had reached a weird part of exhaustion where even though I felt pretty great, one of my friends actually asked me if I was okay (so I have no idea what face my face was making).

ahhhhhhhh
(my room!)

I reached my new Ecuadorian home. It’s beautiful. I live with just my host mother (whose name is Marcia but who in my head I call ‘mamagramma’) and she is beautiful. We drank some tea, chatted a lot, I unpacked, I went to sleep. That was beautiful too. I woke up this morning to barking dogs.

Phew. I finally made it to today. Ok, I need to wrap up, because I’ve been writing this/watching Ecuador Tiene Talento and the Ecuadorian news for too long and now it’s midnight and I have to wake up at 6am for a full tomorrow. But today was relaxing. I ate a breakfast of Nescafe, an egg, papaya, and the best croissant like ever. I chatted more with my host mamagramma. We met up with one of my Kalamazoo buddies and her host family and went to a hoppin hot-spot of the city at the top of a hill where you can see the whole city—or at least a lot of it. There were carts of food, vendors selling souvenirs, stray dogs lounging about, crowds of people flying colorful kites, and La Virgen de Ecuador, a giant white statue of the Virgin Mary looking over the city. Oh and another fun fact: it was engineered/made stable/made possible by my host mamagramma’s husband. So that’s pretty cool.

Alright, I really need to sleep, but I’ll leave you with two things:

1. After dinner I had warm milk with sugar (which I haven’t had in years but it was delicious) and the best roll of bread like ever. And I got to chat more with my host mamagramma plus meet her two super cute puppies who are five years old. They are fluffy and white.

Look they're saying hi

 2. This is the view from the terrace in my new Ecuadorian home:

Please don’t expect all my posts to be this long because no one’s got time for that. Goodnight y’all. <3