February 5, 2013. Well. Someone turned on the rain. Ecuador has 2 seasons- dry and rainy. The rainy season goes from around November to around April but there’s one thing you can always count on: you cannot count on the weather being predictable. So it’s been beautiful since I’ve been here. Not too hot, not too cold, light breeze. Jeans and a t-shirt every day. Until Sunday. I was having myself a nice little siesta and a light sound started on the tin roof. Sometimes pajaritos land on the roof and flop around a bit (one time a little bird started pecking at my window trying to get in) but this sound lasted much longer. Then got stronger. And it hasn’t stopped since. Waterworks. I actually said the words “it hasn’t even really rained yet.” On Sunday. Out loud. Jynxed the $hit out of myself.
I had my first presentation today. This was our first assignment that will be graded. I think I rocked it. I spent a lot of hours on the floor, drawing posters and practicing my speech. (Well, I was on a pillow and an area rug, because I found out that the reason it’s rude to be barefoot indoors stems from the fact that you can get parasites from the ground.) Oh! And I also tested into the intermediate-high range for Spanish last week, which is super chevere because that means I’ve already reached the level I need to swear-in as a volunteer in April. However, I still have a long way to go and I’ve been studying my big booty off.
I had liver for dinner tonight and we’re having cow intestines tomorrow. My host mom decided that I should try these things now so that if I don’t like them, I can let my new host family know right away. Liver is actually really good! Of course, it comes with un chimborazo de arroz (Chimborazo is a large volcano here, so when you get a large amount of food, the popular phrase is “a chimborazo of rice”). And the hot chocolate here is to die for! I walked in the rain a little bit on Monday after school so my host mom made me tea when I got home, then we had soup for dinner (with whole bone-in chicken in it), and hot chocolate with cookies for dessert. I think that my host mom must spend 23 hours a day taking care of me. She’s so nice, it’s ridiculous. I try to always do the dishes and offer to help cook but she usually doesn’t let me. We race to the sink after dinner and my host dad says “oh, van a pelear ahorita?” (oh, are you guys going to fight now?) And every night, we argue (nicely) about who gets to do the dishes.
Yesterday morning I tried jugo de tomate de arbol again (the juice from before that helps you lose weight that I did not like) only this time she made it batido de tomate de arbol, which means she mixed the fruit with milk instead of water, and it was actually really good! I can feel the pounds melting off ;) But today I got my 2nd favorite- batido de mora (blackberry juice mixed with milk!), my first favorite is batido de guayaba, which is an Ecuadorian fruit that tastes like super sweet strawberries. Tomorrow my host mom said she’s going to make batido de pina with coco, so basically a fresh pina colada! I can’t get over this fruit heaven I’ve found myself in.
Night night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite (they’re pretty big in Ecuador).
<3 Chels
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