¡Qué rico!

this is the other phrase i hear roughly 5 hundred times daily. it means pretty much anything you want it to be. if you don't know what to say about something, just say 'qué rico!' and someone will agree with you. (i'm so fluent.) ok. so. i have my traveling issues back in order... after a cab ride home (it's faster) where the driver asked if i wanted him to show me around ibarra because i have a guapa face... and then proceeded to give me his cell phone number. he was probably 28 and looked 40. welcome to my life. anyways. updates galore...

1. last thursday/friday-ish: we (the three of us... me, novio y cristina) went on a 2.5 hour walk that was about 6 miles, but had some incredible views. ibarra and san antonio are literally surrounded by moutains, hills and volcanoes on all sides, so you really can't lose around here. on friday i went with cristina to the school where she works. she teaches technical drawing (think pre-architecture) in collegio, which is the same as our high school. she had to give 6 boys an exam to see if they knew enough to be granted acceptance into the school... apparently her school is a very good private school in ibarra. it was much nicer than i expected. the classrooms all open to outside, so it's kind of this big outdoor mall style high school with the mountains in the distance. qué chevere, no? (chevere is like cool/awesome/etc.) after that, we cleaned up the house and ran errands and other non-interesting things for the big fiesta that was happening on saturday. later that night, her son, andrés, and his girlfriend plus another friend and girlfriend showed up at the house (they live in quito) so they could spend the night before the birthday party. i have never in my life heard people talk faster than these people... i mean, i could not separate a single word from the whole mess of a paragraph. so basically i felt like the stupid gringa amidst the group of people that are my age and i should understand. it wasn't so much fun. but that's ok. it takes some struggle to learn i suppose.
2. saturday: the big fiesta day. all morning long we cleaned and prepared for this fiesta of around 40 people... as we prepared, i was getting increasingly nervous, because it is so awkward to not understand everything... especially when someone asks you a question and you answer it incorrectly because you changed around one word. so yeah. i ditched the house in the early afternoon and went to call a friend, because i hadn't talked to anyone in forever and seeing this big group of friends sitting around and laughing made me miss my friends and the comfort of being understood more than anything. so yeah. talked to her for awhile and ran into molly, the other town gringa, when she was yelling my name from across the town square. we are always the spectacle. i talked her into coming to save me from public humiliation and we walked back to mi casa and jumped in. of course, there was pilsener (the ONLY beer in this country) and liquor abound (welcome to the latin culture)... which made conversation come a little easier and made me less embarassed... bonus. but all in all, it was fun... and we got asked the same questions over and over.. so i could answer quickly and seem like i know what i wsa talking about. :) (i only made an ass of myself when i fell down the stairs due to a lack of traction in my sandals and slick marble stairs... in front of a circle of chairs containing roughly 30 25-year olds. awesome. no, it was not the pilsener.) the fiesta lasted until 2 am... which was quite enough for me... my head was full from so much spanish and i was ready for bed. but it was a success and i know cristina appreciates having someone help pick up trash... (that is one thing i can't stand about this culture... machismo... she does everything around here... and i feel bad.)
3. i got up early sunday morning and joined fannita and the rest of the family to head to the thermal springs somewhere that i can't pronounce, nor spell. cristy stayed at home because her sons were still in town... so it was just me and the fam, all 1 million of them. she has 7 other siblings... 5 of them were there. plus their families and the grandma. i rode in the car with abuelita, which was quite the experience. she was very nice... and at one time said she was very chuchaky (hung over) and i was like, WHAT?!?!... apparently chuchaky can mean super tired too. strange. we also paused to check out this resort-ish place that they might rent for a family gathering sometime later in the summer... in the middle of the tour, i turn around and abuelita is hugging this enormous eucalyptis tree, which her arms cannot completely embrace... while saying 'energia'... i wish i had my camera on me. priceless. absolutely priceless. anyways. we made it to the thermal springs and hung out and played in the water all day. post thermal springs, we went back to one of the brother's houses in ibarra and made these doughy things and played cards and chatted... and that is about it. went back to san antonio after that and had a really great conversation with cris about family and things like that... so yeah. good day.
4. monday: yesterday the hospital was pretty lame. nothing too exciting going on... i can't remember it all (i have it written down) but there was a 24 year old woman with tuberculosis who was getting treatment... i suppose TB is nothing too out of the ordinary, but it kind of hit home more than usual because i just read 'moutains beyond mountains'. i mean, TB is virtually eradicated in the united states and i think it is sad that we can't get proper treatment elsewhere. i don't know. just more frustrations. i talked to my secretaria for ahile about nothing in particular, but her daughter is in the hospital for gastritis or something like that... so we went up to visit her... then i headed home for almuerzo and we ran errands all afternoon. mainly looking for light fixtures. (sometimes it scares me because cristina is doing a lot of house remodeling and looking for light fixtures and things... and she wears striped shirts and the same shoes as my mom... it's kind of like my mom in ecuadorian form. crazy.) we finished out the day by teaching me this ecuadorian card game which is completely illogical... but then again, so is ecuador... if the shoe fits? we played until midnight with the 3 of us and her nephew (fannita's son). pretty wild and crazy night of card playing. haha. i also learned that cristina knows a lot more english than she has lead on, as she understood an entire slighly awkward conversation that marcelo and i had... and the entire time she acted like she didn't know what was going on. now she thinks it is hysterical that i can rant in english and she can understand me... i half think it is funny and half want to bash my face against a wall because i can think of half a million times when i just wanted to explain what i meant in english and thought any attempt was futile. grr...
5. today: woke up at 6:30 and went for a run with marcelo and the novio... made it back to the house and got ready for the hospital... didn't feel good, but went anyways and got hit with the wave of traveler's fun (my new term for it)... so yeah. came back and rested and had lunch and rested. and here i am. we are going to go play basketball later this afternoon... which will be fun. and those are the plans for the day.

nothing too overly exciting in the life of sarah, but i am enjoying the day to day activities and talking with people... and running into people all over town who know me. in the last week, i have run into a patient that remembered me from the hospital in the street and in the bus, a woman who brought a girl into the hospital from the orphanage that i visited, a man who works for a funeral home that knows me from the hospital, and the man who works the library. popular gringa, apparently. :) i don't know. i just like the daily musings and conversations... and i don't feel the urge to flee on the weekends to try to see as much of ecuador as possible. i am enjoying living the daily life and getting to know my family here.

i guess the one thing i would change would be: LESS carbohydrates, POR FAVOR... all they eat here is carbs. that's it. por ejemplo, today i have eaten: bread, papaya, corn, potatoes, chicken, and this drink made from the naranjilla fruit... does ANYONE SEE A TREND?!?!?!? :) but i am making dinner this week and i intend to throw some spice in there. (that is another thing... everything is so bland!) however i think that if the food is all i have to complain about, life is pretty good. (i guess i could do without the traveler's fun... but... i'm working on it...)

i hope all is well in the states and africa and everywhere else...
abrazos, sarah