Un otro feriado mientras en Quito



This school week was bit cooler and a lot more cloudier and rainier. It was usually cloudy in the morning and rained in the afternoon and at night. By Friday for the unofficial national holiday of Ecuador, there was still some rain in the afternoon and evening, but it warmed up a little more getting to the mid 60's. However, the weather definitely did not put a damper on the festivities. What was this day, you ask? Well it was the first day of the World Cup Soccer Tournament in Germany and on this first day, Ecuador played Poland. I say this was a holiday because I think many people took the day off or had the day off of school or work in order to watch the 2pm game. (I think the next game is Thursday -- maybe I will get that day off from school!) Even though I dont really watch any soccer matches, especially none of Ecuador or Poland, I knew who I was going to root for and I knew I was probably going to be the only one to do so in the whole country of Ecuador. I got out my Polska shirt, borrowed a red shirt for my head, borrowed red and white pants, and painted my face with the letters POLSKA. I did this though in a much obscure fashion for fear of my life (I went with David to another house across town --- luckily their family let me in the door). In all actuality, really the only thing that would and definitely did happen to me were lots of jokes. I think I got laughed at the most when Poland made a goal and I ran around yelling (I only did this because the others did the same for Ecuador when they scored their first goal and did this because Ecuador was already winning) but the player got called offside incorrectly and the goal was taken away. Ecuador won, which I am happy for because now I can root for them (unless they play the US) but I still say Poland could have won easily because of that error and two other shots which hit the crossbar and sidebar respectively.

After the game, you would have thought Ecuador won the world championship in everything in the world. People were driving with full flags of Ecuador and beeping their horns to a certain tune all day long (literally). People were dancing and marching in the streets in the rain. Almost everyone had their Ecuadorian soccer apparel (which I am going to need to get). The TV showed hospitals with nurses and doctors celebrating and other places where people needed to go to work.

When we went downtown for a celebration gathering with friends, the streets were just full of people singing and drinking.

The next day after helping move things for a garage sale we are going to have (Mercedes seems a lot like some other family I know that saves a lot of things), David, Marifer, their friends, and I all went to a house in the country side about 20 minutes from Quito. It was kinda like going to the Sobies up North or to the Shack for relaxation. In the yard was a greenhouse in which snails were being raised for escargot and for a facial cream (the slime is used somehow to make the cream). They had just started it up 6 months ago, but it looked pretty good to me -- they already had 500,000 or more snails.

Throughout that night there much grilling on the huge outdoor grill, teaching me Ecuadorian games and me teaching the others some games that I knew, dancing, and general enjoyment. Unfortunately with some of the Ecuadorian games, you had to speak Spanish pretty well ... I think I came in last about every time. We all left the next day in the afternoon with very little sleep.

P.S. As I am writing this on Mon., the US has just lost against the Czech Republic 3-0 (The Czech Republic has a very good team) The US has never won in Europe in the tournament and things dont look good as they also have to play Italia (another very good team) and Ghana.

Oh and on another side note as I am finally finishing this on Wed, this morning while on the bus in the city, I saw a person riding a bike with a push lawnmower and trimmer attached. I dont know if I could do this anywhere let alone in this city.

Watching the soccer gameAfter the celebration, we relaxed for some snacks. If you look on the table, there apears to be a pumpkin. But actually, it´s a melon. They cut it open for me (see chunk on table) because I did not believe them (Many jokes have been made so sometimes now I just wont believe until there is proof)Inside the greenhouse are there standing wooden boxes housing the snails. The plates have food as well as on top of the wood slabs inside. It was dark when we went in so the pictures are not as good as could be.


Here is a close-up of 2 on my hand. Surprisingly, there were average size. I got to witness the giant snails. They were about 3/4 of a tennis ball in size.
In the greenhouse, they cultivate cabbage plants for the snail. If you look real close, you can see the younger snails on the plants (PS -- you can click on the picture to make it bigger). I guess now I know how my cabbage plants got like this.
Here is Flaka and David working to start the fire in the grill under protection of a pretty big outdoor roof. It was interesting what was used for fuel ... manufactured coal from wood. It really only looked like coal .. it was really light

Making dinnerA view of the house in the morning while everyone was getting their sleep they needeed except of course for me.
Another morning image... this was the house next door (it is apart of the yard). The person that lives here helps take care of things such as the animals and the snails. If you look in the garden, you can see the sheep.





A closer view of the house next door and a neat shot of a humming bird



































Lesson 3 -- How to say hello

(I am going to try to comment on this but probably wont get it all right or wont get all the facts) In Quito, besides saying some of the million different greetings (that somehow I need to understand when spoken to me) such as ¨¿Cómo estás?¨ or ¨¿Cómo te fue?¨, you need to know the physical interactions as well. If you dont know someone at all, a hand shake is good. However, if you do know someone or are meeting someone through someone else that you do know, it is a bit different. For men, men still shake men, but men kiss one cheek of women. For women, women kiss one cheek of both men and women. And this is the same for goodbye’s too. You should note, even though it is standard to do so in general, to always say goodbye to everyone when you are leaving or goodnight when you are going to bed.