niños, comida, madre anfitriona, español, belleza, y CARNAVAL!

Hola! So it's been another week or so here in Quito, Ecuador -- time is moving fast! All of my classes still haven't started yet, which has been nice b/c it feels like I'm still on vacation! Next week, though, reality is going to hit. Some exciting news is that this week I started working at my community service site. I'm volunteering at an experimental school that has grades K-7, assisting an English teacher. On Monday and Wednesday mornings, I help out in multiple classes with different grade levels. The teacher especially needs my help with pronunciation of English words.  The little kindergardeners (they are so precious!) are learning the names for colors and rooms in a house, while the 5th graders are learning body parts, adjectives to describe the body, and possessive pronouns. Everyone at the school looks at me like I'm an alien, because I don't think they are used to having a "gringa" come into their school and help teach. All of the kids are really sweet, though. 

So as I have mentioned before, the food is SO GOOD here. I can't get over it! I literally have not had any food that I have not enjoyed. I am eating so much, and it is quite possible that I will gain some weight while I'm here. Even though the food is much healthier here (it is more natural and there are less artificial ingredients), I am eating a lot of different types of bread and dairy. I have a different type of bread for breakfast each morning, and they are all so delicious! So this means that I am going to join a gym soon. I definitely have to start working out here -- it's probably not the safest idea to rely on exercising outside, so joining a gym will probably be the best idea. There is one that isn't too far from my house, so I hope to join that soon enough.

My host mom is fabulous. We have a lot of great, random conversations, and she's so easy to talk to. She is very protective and very motherly, which reminds me of my real mom back in the U.S. =). She wants to know everything and what's going on, which is really sweet. She is so encouraging too. We'll be talking about something random at the dinner table and she'll randomly tell me how much she loves me or how she is so glad to have me here. She keeps on saying that I'm so adaptable and therefore I can have a good time wherever I am -- I hope that's true! She also always tells me how blessed I am to have such a unified, loving family. That is not very common here, and it's great that she is reminding me of how lucky I am to have such a loving and "put-together" family! :)

Something that I have realized lately is that I don't understand Spanish as well as I thought. I tend to understand almost everything when someone is talking to me and when I'm holding a conversation with someone. However, when other people are talking to one another, there are times when I can't understand them. I usually can't fully understand television shows and songs in Spanish, either. I can usually get the gist of what is being said, but I can't catch all of the details. I'm not getting down on myself, it's just humbling to realize that I really have so much more to learn. I would like to think that I can see progress in my speaking and listening skills, but I can't say that right now. I need to be patient and continue to work on honing my skills, but it's definitely a challenge. There are times when I just want to blurt out what I want to say in English, because it's so much easier!

Here are some pics of the last week:

A wonderfully delicious traditional Ecuadorian meal made by my host mother

wax re-enactment of a brutal murder scene at el museo cultural metropolitano

el centro histórico de Quito

SO beautiful!

we stopped our way to Papallacta to take some pictures of the awesome views!

I think I should send this pic to the Barnard website ;)

I'm very pleased with the quality of the pictures my camera takes!

the hot springs of Papallacta -- they were so warm & nice!

there were a bunch of different pools and hot showers too =)

I almost forgot to mention that this weekend is Carnaval, which is a time of celebration that happens every year before Lent. Even though it started as a pagan celebration (with the Huaranguas Indians), it has since merged with the Catholic celebration of Carnaval. A common feature of this time is the diablitos (little devils) who play with water: they throw or dump water on unsuspecting victims on the street. Sometimes they throw water balloons and eggs at people too. There are more traditional celebrations in provinces outside of Quito. This weekend, most of the students in my program are taking a 3-day trip to a province called Cotopaxi, which is outside of Quito, in the mountains. We will be experiencing a lot of different types of traditions and celebrations there, so I should definitely have some interesting stories and pictures for my next post. I experienced my first interaction with the culture of Carnaval experience today, while waiting for my bus to go home. As I was waiting on the side of a road, a bus (that was not mine) drove up towards me and the guy who collects the money on the bus sprayed me with some type of foam! I just stood there and laughed at myself, because everyone else was laughing at me anyways. Haha, I was definitely shocked! I'm sure I'll have some more stories about Carnaval to tell after this weekend.

Well those are all of the updates for now. Peace and love :)