4 things

1. 1.Water Balloons- They celebrate carnival here the second week in February and everyone takes a long weekend and goes to the beach or the mountains and there are parades and concerts and stuff. That's cool, but what is not cool is in the weeks, usually the whole month, leading up to carnival people on the streets throw water balloons at you. Kids and teenagers throw water balloons from cars or from apartment windows or wherever on the street all the time. I hadn't seen much of it because I've mostly been in the neighborhood or parts of town where there aren't a lot of kids, but yesterday I went for a run and all the families were out in the parks and I got 3 water balloons thrown at me. It's kinda funny if you're just running because it's no big deal, but I guess they do it in downtown to people walking to work or to lunch. It would be awful to be in work clothes, on the way to a meeting, and get soaked. I need to watch out because it's getting close to carnival and I guess there'll be more water.

2. Cows and Chickens- The division of city and country don't exist in the same sense here. Nor are there neighborhood codes like there are at home. Therefore, there are sheep that wander right by our house and cows and chickens that live right down the hill on the walking path by the river. I think it's really funny when I round the corner and expect to see runners or walkers and instead I see cows. They just hang out on the path or on the grass next to it, grazing. It's not like we're in a rural area. There is not a lot of room for them to graze, but they're there, often with chickens and no one seems to mind. Yesterday while running I encountered way more cows than runners on the path. I'll take a picture one day.

3. Bugs- Oh my gosh. The bugs here are huge! There are regular bugs, but there are also ungodly large bugs. The other night we were in the back yard making french fries in the fireplace and the dog started barking and we went to see what it was and it was a tarantula. Not a little one, but a very large tarantula. They told me it was fine, normal, not to worry and laughed and said it was smaller than the one the week before. Yeah, no big deal just a spider almost the size of my fist. Now I'm afraid to walk in the grass at night and they think it's funny. Also when we were at their friends' house in the mountains we were in the pool at night and bugs kept flying into the water because there was a light under the water and they were attracked to it. At first they were regular flying bugs, some kinda big but not too bad and then there were huge ones falling into the pool. I took a picture of one. The biggest beatles I've ever seen.

3. Cooking- The food here is really delicious. Ofelia, my host mom, is a wonderful cook and everyday we have homemade soups, rice dishes and usually desserts. Yesterday she taught Caroline, the American girl, to make empañadas and is going to teach me soon. She's also going to teach us to make tamales. The tamales are different here than the Mexican ones I'm used to because they use a different type of masa and they wrap it in a huge green leaf instead of a corn husk. Caroline and Jason, the American couple, have been cooking a few things and I have been baking a little. We usually laugh at our food because it tastes virtually the same as we're used to, but it usually looks different. We've been able to find the ingredients we need but they're not quite the same, but we're figuring it out. They loved my chocolate chip cookies, and Stephanie, the college student, got the recipe. It was hard to find chocolate chips in the store, and when I asked for them they took me to the Chips Ahoy. On the right track, but not quite right. It turned out that there were no chocolate chips and I ended up with those round things you melt for fondue, they worked. My cake was so-so, but it tasted good. I'll just have to experiment with the different brands of ingredients and stuff.

Here are some pictures of the house and stuff: 1. The view from the mountain house about an hour from here, 2. The view from my window, 3. The backyard, with an eating area and fireplace, 4. Our delicious dinner of empañadas, 5. Giant Bug

Way Cool

Today was my first day of doing "things", other than sitting in hammocks and relaxing that is. I was supposed to meet with the director of the charity yesterday, but that got moved to next week, so I had another day of vacation until today when I went with a friend of the family to help her with translations at a magazine. I wasn't planning on doing this, but it's a really cool opportunity. I don't get the impression they have a huge need for translation, but they do need some articles translated. The whole magazine used to be in English and Spanish and now they changed it to just Spanish with a few pieces in both languages. Today I helped them by translating an e-mail and making a phone call to a restaurant in New York. Some of the people speak English, but the phone is really hard, especially if the connection is bad. They were trying to get an interview with Anthony Bourdain from the Travel Channel show No Reservations. I thought it was exciting because I love that show. Anyway, it was fun and you can check out the magazine @ http://www.bgmagazine.com.ec/home.html.

Videos

Hola Amigos!

Hola amigos! I wanted to let you all know that I'm doing just great here and give you a little view of what's going on. I took some video on my iPod so you can see my house and the park where we've been running (I was gonna put it up right now but I can't, I'll keep trying). Unfortunately today in the park I missed the aerobics classes that they have. I wanted to take a video because they're hilarious. The park is great though, and the city in general, save some parts, is really safe and clean. It's really interesting because it looks kind of dirty by our standards, but it's a matter of the buildings being older and of different materials, because if you look at the streets, parks and rivers, they are really clean. It's beautiful here too. The weather is practically perfect all the time, about 65, partially cloudy. It's really green and I have geraniums outside my window in the middle of January. The city is very historic. There are lots of cathedrals and old buildings. I've taken a tour and my family has taken me around a lot, so I'm getting to know it but there's still tons to see. I can't wait to visit some of the museums, in particular that has Incan ruins right behind it.
The family I'm staying with is wonderful. They have made me feel right at home and we get along really well. The house is full right now because they normally host students and right now they have me, a girl who's in college here, an American couple who's studying Spanish, the two kids and the parents. There's 8 of us total! It's great though, because there's always people around, we all eat together and talk. It's nice for me to have the American couple here because sometimes I need a break from speaking Spanish and English is sooo much easier. My Spanish is fine and getting better by the day but sometimes my brain gets tired.
Today I'm going to a meeting at the charity where I'm going to be volunteering three days a week. It's a place for disadvantaged students to come afterschool and learn, do crafts, play and essentially just have a safe place to be. In addition to that I'm going to have Spanish lessons and help with some translations at a magazine. I'm starting all that in the next couple days, should be good.
Up till now I've basically been on vacation. Can't complain about that at all. Last week I went out with Hernán, who is my "exchange brother", and his friends and then on the weekend all of us went to a family friend's country house. It was up in the mountains (which actually turned out to be down in elevation from here, but nevertheless in the mountains) and it was beautiful. We spent Saturday and Sunday lounging by the pool. They said they go up there often, so I'm looking forward to doing it again.
I'll keep you updated and put up some more photos soon!