Thanksgiving dinner was a great success!

Although yesterday was a bit stressful, our thanksgiving dinner came out great. And, per tradition, there was way too much food. Lauren, Brendan and I worked all day to make creamed corn, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cooked carrots, and sweet potatoes with marshmellows. Actually, the sweet potatoes are in fact camotes, a purple looking vegetable that turned the water dark green and then blue as we cooked them. It legit looked like a witch's pot. But they tasted like sweet potatoes! Even though they sell this vegetable in the markets, my host family had never tried it before and we shocked to hear that our version of this vegetable is orange. They were also surprised that we were not using the carrots, green beans and potatoes to make a salad with mayonaise. That we were eating all of these vegetable separately? and without mayo?? how strange. Actually, they were a little bit afraid of everything that we made, because it was different than what they were used to. But they like it! I made everyone go around the table and say what they were thankful for. It was really nice. It felt like home.. the only thing missing was my real family. :( But I was thinking of them and I know that they missed me at their thanksgiving dinner table.

The funniest part of the thanksgiving adventure was helping my friend Lauren make the most culturally unkosher dish I have ever tasted: jello salad. It involved melting marshmellows in sprite and then pouring in jello mix, walnuts, and pineapple. Then, the kicker, you add cream cheese mayonnaise, and whipped cream. EW. But Lauren insists that this is a family tradition and her grandfather's favorite so we had to make it. Actually, it turned out that everyone loved it. But when we first dipped into it, we discovered that somehow when we made it, we managed to leave a whisk in the jello salad. and since it's opaque, we couldn't see it until we uncovered it. It was hilarious.

I'm just happy that now my family can't make fun of me for not knowing how to cook. I do too! and more than just cereal with milk and scrambled eggs...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I hope you all have a happy and safe holiday! I also hope that you all have much to be thankful for. I know I do. xoxo

ESL just for laughs

The other day, my students were working in groups to write a story. One group called me over and pointed their paper asking if this is how to say the word "abrasar" in English. The word that should have been on the paper was hugged but I looked down and saw "embosomed." hahahah I have no idea what dictionary gave them the word embosomed, but I could not stop laughing. So I corrected them, and told them the word they should used is hugged. I continued to float around the room and when I came back to this same group, I looked at their paper and saw that the student had misheard me and wrote the word "hung." I then explained to them what the word hung means (by miming wrapping a rope around my neck) and showed them how to spell the word hug.

That night there was a huge party at on of the big discotheques in town. I went for a while with my host sister and ran into half my students from that class. I was amazed at how many of them showed up to class the next day. I overheard one student (who happened to have been in the aforementioned group)saying that he was chuchaqui (hung over) So I told him how to say that in English. He said, "hung? you mean like the word we learned yesterday?" as he mimed wrapping a rope around his neck. and I had to say, yes actually. But then it made me think about the connection between the two words. English is so complicated. HUNG means one thing, and HUNG OVER means a completely different thing and I guess they're sort of related in the sense that they both feel like death, but that's pretty abstract. I'm so glad I grew up speaking English, I would not want to learn it as a second language.

Accounting open house

I had to cancel my afternoon class today because the lights were out in that part of town when I there and my classroom has no windows. My students were ecstatic to say the least. This morning, there was hardly anyone in my morning class because they all had to set up for the accounting departments open at the university. Apparently a lot of my students and my host sister study accounting. I went to the open house after class was over and was amazed at how intricate each booth was. Each class had to set up a booth of something. I still don't really understand how it ties into accounting. One booth was displaying a gourmet chocolate company, one was talking about environmental issues and one was talking about cultural differences in the 4 regions of Ecuador (coast, mountains, Amazon, and Galapagos). I don't really see the connection, but it was fun to walk around and get free stuff and see 90% of my morning class students how had missed class that morning. Tonight, I'm going with my sister to her faculty's celebration. Apparently there's music and dancing and a bonfire! sounds like fun!

We're not the only ones cutting power

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/world/americas/11venez.html?ref=americas

Apparently Venezuela is also suffering from the lack of rain in this area. They've actually reduced our power outages to three hours every other day. Hopefully it will rain soon. stupid global warming.

It didn't rain on my parade

I have not been able to update this blog in while for a few reasons. It has not rained here for a while which is a problem for a country which runs on hydroelectric power. They have been cutting the electricity for 5 hours at a time in different parts of the city. I've heard that they've been cutting it for 8 hours at a time in other parts of the country. Some days, when we have electricity in my house, there is not electricity in andinatel, which then cuts the cable and the internet in the whole city!!! and when the electricity comes back on in that section, it goes off in our section. it's been incredibly frustrating. Stupid global warming. All you people in the developed world, stop polluting the earth so that it rains here so that I can have electricity! as romantic as dinner by candle light with my family can be, it's a bit scary because I can't really see what i'm eating... and with them it could be anything... haha no, they know now that i don't really like guinea pig.

last weekend, I went to la mama negra which is a parade in Latacunga. The parade commemorates a slave woman who gained her freedom and to celebrate, got drunk and gave liquor to everyone she saw on the street. Today, the town chooses one MAN to paint his face black and dress up as the mama negra. The parade lasted for hours with many men dressed as women pouring aguardiente into everyone's mouths. It was actually crazy. In the parade, there were also some people dressed as angels. They went around to all the "sinners" and cleansed their souls. They did this by dancing around the sinners waving herbs and something that looked antlers and finally, they sprayed/spit alcohol all over them to cleanse them of their sins. so of course my friend Kat and I had to experience this. We left Latacunga at about 3 pm, before people got too drunk and started passing out in the streets, which is what I was told would happen. In order to leave, we had to walk the path of the parade, in essence becoming our own parade of gringos. Everyone saw us and was like hey! gringos! lets see them dance, lets give them alcohol! We felt like spectacles, but it was entertaining for us too.

This past Thursday was Ambato's independence day. There was a parade here too, but it was much more tame and organized than the mama negra. It was a civic parade where all the high schools marched with their "bands" Actually, not one high school had a real marching band. The only school that had any wind instruments was the music conservatory. The rest had only drums and "lyras" or glockenspiels... but everyone at the parade gathered to support their high school. Two of my sisters marched, Michele played the lyra and Alexandra marched because she's a senior. I learned something very interesting during the parade. There were some people who marched in traditional indigenous clothing instead of the school uniform. Monica informed me that the schools cannot make the indigenous population wear a uniform. They are permitted to wear their traditional clothing of their particular group (which in a way is its own uniform) I found that really interesting. Anyway, I'm very happy that this parade is over because now Michele will stop practicing her lyra in the house, which was getting incredibly annoying.

This weekend will be spent relaxing with my family and correcting massive amounts of homework from my students. ciao!

Trucha!

This weekend I was supposed to go to Cuenca for their independence day festivities. But I came down with a fever on wednesday and was not better enough by friday to go. :( At first, I was not happy about staying home for a four day weekend, but it proved to be some nice family bonding time. My sister Alexandra was also sick so we hung out and watched movies in Spanish. Today, we took a family trip to Rio Negro (outside of Banos) to go fishing! We caught trout with bamboo fishing poles. Then my host dad built a fire and we cooked them right next to the river! It was delicious. I realized that I didn't have a picture of my family on my blog, so here it is! My parents are Marcia and Luis, and my sisters Monica, Alexandra, Michele and Maria.