Update

Sorry I haven't been writing lately but there hasn't been much to report. These past few weeks I've been pretty sick so I've just been laying low--going to work, sleeping a lot, staying at home.

I was walking home tonight, though, and I randomly looked up. And the sky was just filled with millions of brilliant stars. I couldn't get over how gorgeous it was. And there, right above my head, watching me walk home, was the familiar Orion constellation. The night was so clear that you could even see the three, generally indiscernible stars of his knife thing hanging from his belt. It made me happy. I also probably looked like a total idiot because I was weaving drunkenly down the road with my head glued to the sky. But whatever.

And now for some stories, the things that happened in between me being sick and me being sick again =)

First off, we went to our first soccer game! La Liga, the best team in Ecuador, totally smashed the team from Guayaquil, 5-0. We went to the game with a guy who had actually played on La Liga before he had to quit to go to university so that was really cool. Everyone here in Ecuador gets SO into these games, chanting, screaming, jumping around--it was fantastic. The players actually even got into a fight on the field (hello red card), and there was even a line of police separating the fans of the rival teams. They get so competitive here, and this is only the university level. So much excitement! But my god, the heat was unbearable. Screaming straight down at us and turning us into a row of burnt lobsters in 10 minutes. So we all looked like little old ladies with shawls thrown over our heads in an attempt to block that crazy sun. I have to go to more soccer games here, though. They're so fantastic.

And then I had a little adventure on the bus on the way home from Quito one day. I got on my usual bus, La Morita, like I always do to get home, but right at the corner where the bus should turn left to get to my house, it turned right instead. And I'm thinking, "Well, ok. Maybe this is a normal thing for a Monday afternoon at 4:30pm. Right?" So I stayed on the bus and watched a little old woman with a heavy bundle of who knows what hobble off at a stop further down the wrong way of the road, looking calm-as-can-be like this was a normal bus route. After minutes of long, winding, dusty Tumbaco roads, the bus finally stopped, and I found myself at a legit, rural farm in some tiny corner of Tumbaco. I was starting to freak out a little bit at this point, but there was one other guy on the bus who looked to be in the same position as I was so I held tight. I didn't really have a choice, to be honest, since I had absolutely no clue where we were. Ten minutes later, another La Morita bus came to this same tiny Tumbaco farm, picked us up, and dropped me off at my house. But on the way back, we passed yet another La Morita bus on the way to that same farm, so now I'm just completely befuddled as to how the bus system works. Special one-day offer: Monday afternoons at 4:30pm--to the farm!

On the other hand, I had a great time the other day being a mall rat with a friend of mine at the Tumbaco centro commercial. I've discovered that in the food court at the end of the mall, one entire wall is completely made of windows and hosts an excellent view. I now go there to sketch sometimes (something I didn't think I'd be doing at all during my time here in Ecuador. But I couldn't help it: one day, I just HAD to go out and buy some pastels and sketch something. Never felt that urge before.) So after I finished sipping my mango juice and making some sketches of that gorgeous view, my friend and I discovered a music store in the mall. As in musical instruments, not CDs. He knows guitar, and I know some piano so we just started rocking out (not together--we're not that good haha). It was so nice to touch a piano again, though. I've missed that.

I also went to the birthday party of my host siblings' 80-something-year-old grandfather. I literally walked in the front door of my house after coming from Quito, and my host brother nearly pushed me back out the door saying, "It's my abuelito's birthday. Wanna come?" Of course, how could I say no? So I left with him with only 5 cents in my pocket, forgetting that I had to pay for the bus. We ended up on the bus, emptied our pockets, and between the two of us, only had 35 cents. It was so pitiful. I had to ask this nice lady to give me some money.

But the party was great fun. I met a whole horde of people in some way relating to one another and ate a great meal at the table with the old folks. (I was a special guest so I actually got a seat at the table! How exciting!) By the end of the evening, I was chatting with an 8-year-old cousin who amused herself for quite awhile by asking me the English word for every single thing she could possibly see in the room: How do you say "candle" in English? Beard? Glass? Wine? My favorite was, "How do you say gringo in English? Hilarious because not only is the word "gringo" a bit impolite generally, but of course, there is no real English translation. So funny.

As for "normal," everyday occurrences, the teaching has been going well. We're getting ready for exams in a couple weeks so I have to decide what I want the kids to know by then. I made a fruit salad with the oldest kids to reinforce the names of the fruits (which was fun and yummy) and now we're moving onto vegetables. And we're still trudging along with the names of the family and things in the neighborhood with the other kids. It's so exciting when I see that the kids are actually learning things. The oldest kids especially are really good at their fruits now, and it makes me smile every time when one of the kids can remember the English word for something I've taught them. We had a bit of difficulty in Primero de Basica, though, in learning the difference between "tree" and "street." We took a walk in the neighborhood around the school to point out the doors, windows, houses, etc, and when I asked them the words for "tree" and "street," I noticed that the kids pronounced them as exactly the same word. It sounded something like "estree." It was very interesting for me just to realize that the pronunciation is actually very difficult for the kids. I didn't even think about that before. So now we're working on those two words which I want them to differentiate before the exam.

And as always, there's some new lunchtime experience to report. For example, I shelled shrimp for the first time the other day. (They eat lots of shrimp here which I didn't like before I came here. Now, my favorite lunch is a dish sorta like fried rice with shrimp but with Ecuadorian spices. Sooo yummy.) And everyday at lunch now, my host mother makes me eat straight ginger to "cure me of my cough." It is nasty as all get out, straight ginger. I'm never going to be able to eat ginger again.

And then this last weekend, I had a nice, quiet weekend at home. My host brother and I made a cake and watched movies one night, and on Sunday, my whole family went to the pool! Getting there was so sketchy though; we took a bus to Cumbaya, a town in between Tumbaco and Quito, and then we all walked down this random alley and climbed into a small, 12-seater bus that we somehow knew would go to this pool. So strange. But very common--it's the only way to get to the pool! The pool was actually more like a spa of sorts, with multiple saunas and hots tubs as well as the pool. We ended up spending 5 hours there--so great just to relax all day with my host family!

Then, this Monday, March 8, we celebrated International Women's Day at the school, which actually is pretty big here. My host mom bought a huge pizza (!!!) and flowers for all of the teachers, and the kids all made cute cards for their moms. And then my host brother came home from school carrying a rose for each of us women in the family. Soo cute.

As for upcoming travel plans, everyone here gets a week off for Easter, La Semana Santa (Holy Week), so I think we're planning another trip to the beach! Can't wait!