You can´t swing a dead cat with out hitting a pharmacy in SA

Hey Everyone! Well another week has come and gone, and today believe it or not is our FIVE MONTH MARK!!!! You know, this week went by rather slow for me, if I must admit. It was a week full of ugly finals, and then nothing else…ha-ha. You see finals would start at seven in the morning, they´d get done between 8:00-8:30, and then I’d come home crash for a little bit and then study for the next ugly final that was coming up. The weather wasn´t all that great and dandy either…It rained basically all week, minus one day, I believe Wednesday. Thursday we had another power outage which made it so that I wasn´t able to go to institute, so I was very sad about that. However, let´s focus on some good news…so that I don´t seem like a total and complete scrooge… good point number one would have to be, finals are over until the end of the year! Yippee! And because this last semester I was kind of just learning the ropes and such, this next semester I am fully ready to accept all challenges, and do my best academically… you never know…I might actually learn something! Ha-ha.
Good point number two would have to be that I received a package from home! Well actually three…however two are still at the post office, and I hope to go get them Monday. But one package made it safely to the Xplorer office, and it was from my awesome family! Mom included pics from Christmas, the conference ensign, (finally) the February Ensign, News paper clippings from the Inauguration, and Louie threw in some pretty bead work for me. It was just the right thing to make me smile.
Things have kinda been tough for me lately…trying to find the silver lining to things has become tougher and tougher. Being thrust into a friendship group of 15 and 16 year olds has defiantly finally taken its toll…I love them to death, but I am kind of a little tired of being the older sister, I just need a friend, someone to be there for ME! And not me being the one there for everyone else….don´t get me wrong…I love the xplorer group, each one of them…it´s just time for a change. School offers little relief from this also because all the students in my class are preparing for college, finals, and their senior year. When I ask them what they are doing over the weekend, “studying” is the common answer, if not…”diskoteching”. I know I am only a little over a year older than my class mates, but I think that sometimes my beliefs, my life experiences, and my maturity level exceed everyone else´s so much that I feel like I am SO old compared to them. I don´t find the same dumb things funny that they do, I really could care less about who´s dating who, or who is doing what. My life has moved on from that point, and it´s really tough right now to find a happy medium.
I know you guys are probably wondering what happened to the girl who wrote the blog last week…and frankly I am wondering that too…but don´t worry I will find her again, I promise, right now I am just in a rut, and I need to figure a way to get out. If any of you have suggestions I will gladly accept them.
The picture I have included on this blog, is of Cotopaxi. I see this every morning on my way to school. It´s hard to catch a clear view of it, through the morning fog that settles over the valley in the mornings, but last Saturday you could see it so clearly and so beautifully. Of course I don’t have a camera, so I hope that some time before I leave I will get a clear view of it again. The views of Ecuador honestly without fail every time will take your breath away. I like to think of the buildings that stretch up on to the mountains as legos…that´s what they look like, little brightly painted building blocks.

A few months ago I wrote a blog entry about “quirks” of Ecuador…i´ve decided to add a few more, just to cheer this blog up a bit.
• You don´t flush your toilet paper, due to plumbing issues, it must be put in the trash can
• Milk comes in baggies, like big Capri suns (and it tastes like powdered milk, I never thought I would crave farm fresh milk, but it´s defiantly on my “to do list” with I get home.
• There´s is about the same size of variety of roses here as there is fruit, they even sell black roses. You can buy a dozen roses for about .50 to 1.00!
• The American Embassy´s security guards are Ecuadorian…(that confused me)
• You have to pay to receive your packages from the states
• The people here are very superstitious…they truly really do believe in ghosts!
• The church building doesn´t provide Hymn books, you must bring your own
• “para agua” is my favorite Spanish word right now, literally translated it means “for water” in English we call it an umbrella! (whoever invented the English language…was retarded…we need more words like “para agua”!
• Long term bus trips cost a dollar an hour, so to Guayaquil it´s seven dollars, to Otavalo, two.
• “Me Cachas” is a slang word meaning do you understand, but literally translated is like, do ya catch me?
• Yuca is a very common food here, kinda like a sweet potato it is served fried, mashed, in soup, in bread, and just plain…
• I could live on the fresh fruit here and be just fine
• But the fresh bread is also to die for
• When it rains in SA, it REALLY REALLY rains!
• The Spanish language is still just as beautiful to me…I love it!
• You have to go to a pharmacy to buy shampoo and conditioner!
• VIVA ECUADOR!

now just as a closing note, i thought i´d touch a little bit on my blog entry title. this is one of my favorite quotes here, and it´s so true...there are so many pharmacies. but i do have a funny story about this. maggie caught me saying it once and she just about died. well the other day she told me "okee dokee" and after words said, "oh my heck i just said okee dokee, i need to go die now." i replied with, "hey! i say okee dokee...!" she then said, in her very maggie way " oh great, that´s coming from the girl who swings dead cats...i really should go die now..." haha
i am cheered up alot now, it´s amazing how sometimes just venting out your feelings makes you feel better...i love you all! thank you for your love and support. and Congrats to Auntie Heidi!!! yeah!
love you all,
Hasta Luego
Em

Time is flying!

I am honestly always amazed at how fast time is flying. Although life has its ups and downs, the days still always will have twenty four hours in them, months will always come and go, and in the end you look back and you wonder where in the world did five months go? This week on the 31st I will celebrate five months here in Ecuador. For those of you who are calculating this along with me, I am here for a little over ten months, which means that being at the end of month five I am half way through! Today, January 25th, I am on day #147. On February 5th I believe I will be exactly half way, and July 15th will be here before we all know it. I won´t lie, there are so many days that I have been so ready to just throw in the towel, call it quits, pack my bags and come home. And I am sad to admit that sometimes it seemed like such a good idea although I never did come home, those days I did “give up” there are days, it´s true when it seems just so much easier to block everything out, quit trying, and just give into the misery. It´s day´s like that the Cynthia is the best remedy. For those of you that don´t have little sister´s I highly suggest adopting one, just so that you can read sweat emails like this. Here is an email I got from Cynthia one day…
i luv you sis i will love you till earth explodes!!!!!!!! i love you
soooo mcuh i would climb the hight of climing the
highest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love you i love you i looooooooooooove
you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! love is forever and i will love you till
earth explodes. i just wanted to let you now how much i love you
!!!!!!!!!!!!! hey you e-mailed bud and not me
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sooooooooo ill luv ya till
ya get home ..... love love love !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he he he he
heee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am a dork ! anyways today is a snowday with no
snow so we are calling it a ice day. i woke up this morning and bud
and mom were like it is a snow day and i looked out side and the snow
was all melted so i was like huh.and bud said it was an
"ice"day!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am soooooooo exited all of us needed a day
off! he he you had to go to school today and i didn't!!!

love,lou

and then of course there´s always the emails that remind me how lucky I am to be here…

i was thinking how cool you are having a
once in a lifetime chance!!!!!!!!!!! how many people get to go to
ecuador for a whole year/not many !!!!!!!!!!!!! and while you are
there you can learn sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how cool i am soooooooooooooo jealous if i
could be with you i wouldn't miss it for the world. how lucky are
you??? remember once in a lifetime
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
anyway i was just thinkin
love, lou bell

In the five months I have been gone my little brother and sister at home, have changed just about as much as I have. Cynthia is not a little girl anymore, she is a beautiful little lady. And Quinton grows up more and more each day. I can´t wait till the day when I can just hold them for a very long time.
This past little while, has kind of been a struggle for me. Last Friday, when I was robbed for the fifth time, I have to admit I kinda shut down. Coming home seemed very tempting, and living here just seemed too hard, I was being bombarded with awful tests I had to study for, and I was in the middle of deciding if I should switch universities when I get back to the states. And then the news that always stings, another friend gets engaged! All of this silly stupid stuff was really holding me back. That’s when I got louie´s email. And in her simple words she put things into perspective for me. Yes, I could be home right now, I could be going to school, and quite possibly be engaged, I could not be learning Spanish, and I could just be living life quite like I always knew it. But then I realized that being here really is the experience of a life time. And I only have it once, for ten short months. And it would kill me, if when I got back in July I felt like I had not accomplished all that I had been sent here to accomplish. Each day still is a struggle, but each day also brings its beautiful things, whether it’s a hug, or a good conversation with my host brother, or a yummy dinner at the O´s, I know that this is where I am supposed to be.
Kendell´s brother in law Sterling for quite a while has been trying to get in contact with an old missionary buddy. His trainer in Bolivia was from here in Quito. The search started about three months ago and finally on Thursday I had the opportunity to meet Diego. We met at the institute building and from there walked around the old city. Up to the huge catholic cathedral, The Basilica, and all around the old historical sights of Quito. It was awesome to have a new friend, who is a strong awesome member of the church, and also have a slow, informational tour of the city of Quito. When ever you´re touring with a native you always notice things that you don´t realize if you were touring with a group of gringo´s. You notice the way they tell their countries history, the parts that they are proud of and the parts they aren´t so proud of. You realize that the country, this country is who they are, and they are proud. Diego is an amazing guy, and we plan to meet up again. He was as I like to say, one of the angels that was sent to me at this time that I needed help.

As I mentioned before exams are these two weeks. So that´s been a little stressful. At first I was told that I wouldn´t have to take the exams, so I kind of blocked out whenever we were talking about material for the exams. Well that wasn´t true, and about three days before exams I realized I would be taking them. Now I know that grades really don´t count, but my pride does, and doing a poor job on the exams was not an option. So I’ve been studying and trying to do my best! This week I also made a huge decision. I applied for CSI. Now for those of you who really know me, it´s always been USU all the way, becoming a teacher etc. well whenever I said I wanted to become a teacher, I always felt like something was missing, like that really wasn´t what I would become. Well coming here, and getting away from everything normal I was able to analyze exactly what I would like to become. When the dream of going to USU turned out to be way way way out of my price range I started to contemplate other options. And CSI seemed to jump out at me, not to mention they have a nursing program. So now one more thing has changed, but I feel so at peace with it that I can´t help but know it is divine inspiration.
This Saturday I went to Otavalo again. I stole these three pictures from friends on facebook, because as we all know…I don´t have one. We went to the market, where I purchased some awesome things, and then we had the chance to go out to the lake, (remember how I said otavalo ran around a lake…) well we went out in a cute little boat…(hence the life jackets) we also ate fritada…and you will never believe it…I tried Guinea Pig! (aka Cuy)! I won´t go in to huge detail, but it honestly didn´t taste too bad, as long as you got past how they serve it to you…they just flop a whole, fried little Guinea Pig on your plate, teeth and all. I had to have Brian get the meat off for me, but it didn´t taste too bad. Don´t worry pictures have been taken, and soon I will share them.
Today was a beautiful Sunday. Although cold and very rainy it was nice and relaxing, I am coming down with a horrible cold, (credit given to my brother Heis who gave it to all of us) but other than that it was good. I love the spirit at church here, and I am continually reminded of how grateful I am for the world wide support and family that the church offers. I mean, here I am clear in Ecuador, and I feel just as much a part of my ward family, as I did in Idaho. Our new missionary couple is great…honestly remind me exactly of Grandma and Grandpa Barringer, they will be powerful influences here in the Quito Mission. The ottosen´s leave in a month…which I am sad about. But I am excited for my family to meet a part of my life here. It is very weird to think that I have a whole entire different life here, that no one will ever really be a part of with me. So it´s cool to know that my family can meet a part of me when they go to the Ottosen´s home coming.
Oh I was going to talk a little bit about deprivation. And how it can be the biggest lesson teacher. I literally did a happy dance in the mission office the other day as I started to read the conference issue of the ensign. I have patiently been awaiting for one from the states, but due to awful mailing issues I haven’t received mine yet, well I picked up one in the lobby of the mission office, and started dancing around with it. And I realized that if you truly want to appreciate something, go without it for a while.
Although life has it´s challenges, I know when this is all said and done, I will never regret my experience of coming here. Thank you to all of you who made it possible for me to be here, and also for continuing your support, and not giving up on me.
I love you all,
Love Emily

And then there was light....

On January 15th, at 5:00 pm, i was sitting in the Xplorer office making Bienvenida posters for the new girls coming in. Gabi and I were sitting there talking when all the lights shut off. The power going out in Ecuador really isn´t uncommon, so we just figured it would come back on. Well after it didn´t flicker right back on we thought something might be up. A quick phone call informed us that the power was out in all of Ecuador. Now having no power also means that there aren´t any street lights, or traffic lights, or building lights…just the lights from the cars. Traffic moved at a dangerously slow snails pace, and because of the lack of traffic lights huge intersections just turned into free for all four way stops. People just started walking home from work because getting stuck in traffic was a nightmare. Well as you know our three new girls were scheduled to land at 7:30 Thursday night. We set off from the office to go pick them up. About that time the power came back on and traffic started to move a little more smoothly. Well the second time the power went off, it was like someone had just flipped the big Quito light switch. All at once looking out over the city it was black. We arrived at the airport which luckily was powered by its own power plant. But due to the awful traffic two families couldn´t make it, to pick up Maggie and Maria.
It was awesome to welcome in three new shell shocked students. But I felt horrible that their first night in Ecuador the lights were off, and the city was insane. My brother Heis called me a billion times to make sure I was safe and ok, along with Kim, and my mom. I got home about 9:30 where our house was lit up by candles. By about 10:30-10:45, power started flickering on through out the city, and you could look out and see sections go on and off. But it took clear until Friday afternoon for the entire city to be back on. Rumor has it that the first time the power was cut it was a boycott against the government, but the second time a lightening bolt struck the main electrical source causing all of the country to be out of power. Only Cuenca had power. And so that is the story of how there wasn´t any light Quito.
The new girls are so sweet. Maggie is from Philly, Sylvia is from Wynonna Minnesota, and Maria is from Florida. Of course like with the other students I took on the roll of Mom. It´s fun to be there for them, to kinda be the person that I didn´t have. The old Xplorer kids are taking the new Xplorer kids out on Sunday to show them around. And Sylvie and Maria both live very close to me, so I am excited.
Now you´re probably wondering why I didn´t have any awesome new pictures…I got robbed…again. My fifth time in five months! You see I went to the parque Carolina (big park in the center of the city like Central park in NYC) I went with my systems class. There is like seven or eight of us girls in our class and we all had our cameras out taking pictures of trees for a class project. Well I took about five steps out of the center of the group, and I saw a man coming towards us. Just to be safe I quickly put my camera in my shirt pocket. Well he immediately of course targeted me, with my blonde hair and green eyes. He pinned me up against the tree and started fishing around for my camera. In the mean time Rosita tried to help me, but the rest of the class ran away. Well he got my camera, and then ran off but not before he dumped beer all over me.
For a girl who has been robbed five times I am a little shook up. Not to mention my camera is like my life. I am going to go get some low lights or something…to take away the glow of my blonde hair.
Exams are coming up, starting next Thursday, I am dreading them….but it also offers kindof a fun challenge. My math teacher wrote up my test in English! How sweet is that….anyway I better go study but I just wanted to fill everyone in on my insane crazy life…cuidate mucho!
Chau chau
emily

Lessons Learned....

Good Afternoon, morning, evening…well whenever it is that you are reading this….i sure wish the picture that I uploaded was bigger…I didn’t have any new pictures from any grand adventures to post yet…but I will soon, I promise. This week…well today, we have three new students coming in! I am super excited. It is fun to be the one here, that knows the ropes, the sights, and the language. I cant wait to help them find their way around Quito, and most of all to show them the city and the country that I have fallen in love with. I have been in touch with Maggie from Philly the past few weeks and its been fun to get her all excited for her adventure here in Ecuador. It was actually kind of neat, she is Jewish, and when she asked me what religion I was, I was a little nervous to answer in fear that before we even met she would judge me. Well I replied “Mormon” she then wrote back through face book chat, “oh my heck I officially love you! And I am officially coming!” I then laughed and I was like whys that…and she was like, “because I know I will be safe with you.”
The new girls come in tonight at 7:30, we are all going to pick them up. It will be awesome, also a new senior missionary couple is coming in this week! I am excited to welcome them to Ecuador also. The Curtis Family, from Sandy. (I am pretty sure) I cant believe that I am almost half way through. The new semester is starting…which means that I only have one left. Speaking of new semesters…blah. So when I first came here we were told that we would not need to take the semesters exams, or the end of the year exams. Well Tuesday Sofy from my program called and said that Dr. Haara, the director at our school asked that the exchange students take the exams. So now I am cramming a semesters worth of studying into a week period…I have a three hour test each day starting next Thursday, and into the next week. But the upside is that I have a week long vacation after the exams…so I guess I can look forward to something.
The weather is back to being cold and rainy, the other day there was snow in the mountains…(one day I really should take a picture of it, so that you guys believe me!) I had a really neat experience at church on Sunday. I go to the gospel principles class. It is simple doctrine, in simple Spanish, so I am usually able to not only understand, but share my insights. Well the lesson was on tithing, and our Sunday school teacher who actually showed up that day used an example of tithing with a large sum of money. Well I usually sit next to this Hermana that was recently baptized. After the lesson I could tell that something was bothering her, so I asked her what was wrong. She then pulled out her 2.00 tithing, and with tears in her eyes explained that she just couldn’t possibly pay her tithing when it was only two dollars. Well with all the Spanish I could muster I explained to her that it didn’t matter if your tithing was 2.00 or 200.00, the Lord recognizes your sacrifices and there are so many blessings he is waiting to give you if you pay your tithing. She then said, but when the bishop opens up the envelope only to find 2.00 he will be so ashamed with me. I shook my head and said, no, your tithing is your tithing, regardless of the amount as long as it is your 10% that is what matters. She then hugged me, and we walked to the bishops office to fill out her first tithing slip ever…together!
It’s always amazing to me, as I sit amongst my ward here the amount of new converts there are. Being from a place highly populated with LDS people we don’t see that very often among our wards. But as I watch them, its inspiring to me. These people are starting from the very beginning. For me, being a member of the church is like breathing. I have been taught and I have known it my entire life, and yet for them, its all brand new. Like being a new born baby. And I love watching the light go on in their head as they realize a new principle, or doctrine makes total and complete sense. I can see how missionaries get a high from teaching people…it is defiantly contagious. I truly can testify of the members finding and preparing, and the missionaries teaching and baptizing. It’s a wonderful method, and our ward members really do deliver. Not to mention our Elders are amazing….(but I probably shouldn’t talk about them too much, someone might get the wrong idea….haha.) speaking of that, January 25th is give a way a Book of Mormon day. I challenge you all, along with myself to do this, and to make a difference one Book of Mormon at a time.
Anyway…I better go cram for some major exams…but, I just wanted to share my cool story…and the next blog I promise to post new pics of our new students!!! Until then, I love you all! And thank you for your thoughts and prayers.
Love,
Emily

oTaVoLo...and Other Stuff...

Wow…Good morning everyone. I can´t believe over a week has gone by since my last blog post….I’ve got a few things to catch up on. The only question is where to start…hmm…ok so last Saturday, Gabi and I went with the Ottosens to Otavalo. Otavalo is about an hour and a half, two hours out side of the city of Quito. Driving there in our bus I felt like I had crossed the world and back. We crossed so much vegetation diversity, it was insane. We went from dry sierra, to green jungle, back to what I think resembles Idaho. (haha kinda…) The greenery results from growing crops such as corn, and roses, and all other sorts of vegetables. Since it was January I of course was amazed there was corn. Corn was growing in all stages, from short, to tall and everything in between.

Upon arrival at the terminal in the small city of otavalo. (otavalo is about the size of Provo, it has about seven wards and two stakes.) We headed into the center of town where there is a huge plaza. The Plaza is set up for the market, where the indigenous people bring their hand make crafts to sell. It was amazing. So many colors, and beautiful things. They sell for very cheep too, which kinda makes you sad because you know how hard they work. It´s fun to sit and watch them weave the hand made sweaters out of yarn, or twist the wires to make beautiful necklaces. I ended up buying a hand carved nativity scene, and some necklaces. However if you´d like to put a special word in I am returning to otavalo at the end of this month and i´d love to pick up something for you.
Otavalo sits at the base of a big volcano, which you can see from my pictures, and then at the base of the volcano is a lake. The city stretches out over the lake. The city has been renovated over the years to attract tourists, but you still get the feel of small town Ecuadorian life as you walk the cobble stone streets. The people all wear their traditional dress, with long beautiful black braids. I guess tradition is that the longer your braid the better a person is. For example if you sin, your braid gets chopped off, so you can tell the good boys versus the bad boys. It was fun to be there with the O´s, because the are well known. And we were often offered special prices because we were members of the church. After we shopped the market for a while, we grabbed a bite to eat and decided to head up to the Peguche water falls. It was about a fifteen minute hike up to see the falls. Elder O and I decided that with the mixture of the smells, and the scenery, and the feeling, we felt like we were back at home in the Unita Mountains. It was absolutely majestic. You could walk right up under the falls practically. It was breath taking. But then again I am kinda a sucker for out doorsy things.
My day in otavalo was the perfect way to end the Christmas break…I couldn´t believe the two weeks had already come and gone…and mostly I couldn´t believe that I had survived!
Well week one back to school came and went. I went into the new year with a whole bunch of goals to do better, etc.etc. I really tried to focus and be “smart”. (haha) I´ve just decided it is a dang good thing that my grades don´t count. Also as I mentioned in my last blog (or two blogs ago) I refuse to surrender my size five pants. So my mom and I made up some fitness goals, (my mom in the states…she´s kinda strict haha) anyway…so i´ve been trying to keep to those goals too. However I do kinda have a funny story about it. It´s been pouring rain all week this week, so I haven´t been able to exercise outside. So I decided to try the parking garage down stairs. Well on Tuesday I went down stairs, to run laps around the garage. I didn´t want to lug aroung my big set of keys so I just brought the house ones, but not the ones to get back into the apartment building. (I am sure you can see where this is headed) well I was just running away, and I didn´t realize that the door that I had left propped open for my benefit suddenly had gotten closed. Well I ran over to it to go up and get ready to go to institute and I realized that I was officially locked in the parking garage. It was about 4:45 in the afternoon, all those who normally return for lunch had gone back to work and my family doesn´t usually get home until about eight or nine at night. So I sat there wondering what to do…after about fifteen minutes I heard peoples voices coming from about the fourth floor. So then I just had to get up enough courage to yell up to them. So I sat for about another five minutes mustering up enough courage to yell for help. Well I started yelling “ayudame porfavor!” and no one answered…so then I just started yelling “porfavor!” after about five minutes of yelling someone finally answered back and I explained what happened. He came down and let me in, but I decided it was smart to always carry a cell phone, and ALL of my keys.
The rest of the week passed relatively slow with few exciting things to talk about. I did have the opportunity to go to this awesome restaurant owned by our stake YW´s president. Her husband used to be a merchant marine sailor so the restaurant is decorated as if you are on a boat. And all that is served is sea food. Now all of you basically know that I really didn´t like fish unless it was Grandpa Rex´s, well here…I love it. I got this delicious Cebiche Camerón dish. (shrimp). Also this week I finally got a new Ecuadorian ID so I am not illegal. And por fin my debit card came! So I am not broke either. Last night I made a peach pie, with out a receipe, and I had a BLINK marathon with my mom. (blink is my FaVoRiTe card game…) Today I get to baby sit Owen for Josh and Melanie so I am super pumped about that…I don´t think I have actually baby sat since I was like a junior.
I am alittle worried about my sweet Cynthia and my grandma. It´s hard to be so far away from those you love when they are hurting…I know I couldn´t do anything even if I was there…but it´d sure be reassuring if I could just give them a hug.
Well I hope you are all having a grand and exciting January! (oh p.s. I ate watermelon! In January! How coolio is that?!!!) I love you all…and stay posted for the next grand and exciting adventures of a blonde…lost in Ecuador…
Hasta luego,
Em

Shoot, I forgot to pack my yellow underwear!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! Holy cow it´s 2009! HaHa, so as most of you know I was down right terrified to celebrate New Years here…when ever we have parties at our house i´m usually ok, because I can sneak quietly into my room when no one´s looking, and find some peace and quiet all by myself. However the New Years celebration was at my grandparents house, so I was a little nervous and didn´t quiet know what to expect. My New Years Celebrations started when I headed to Xplorer to borrow money…I arrived right in time to help celebrate, and bring in an early New Year with them. We started by lighting our doll on fire, and watching it go up in flames, then we all had to run around it 9 times, with a suit case, wishing for happy travels….then you jump over it for good luck! Fire crackers were lit off, in the middle of the streets as we shouted FELIZ AÑO NUEVO! For weeks now, (even before Christmas) on the sides of the streets you have been able to buy the dolls, and then you buy little clown heads to put on los muñecos. So at about 8:30, we headed to my grandparents house…which is about an eight dollar taxi ride. (that’s how I measure everything now…how much it costs in a taxi.) every one was dressed up very nicely…however I decided to go in jeans because I was like…if i´m going to be forced to stay up all night…i´m going to be comfy about it..jaja. the taxi ride on the way to grandpa´s in and of it´s self was an adventure. The streets were lined with men dressed up as women. Tradition is that the old widow´s used to do this, to earn money once their husbands had passed away...now it´s just men...dressed up, and they look so aweosme...it was hard not to laugh. they string ropes across the street to stop the cars from passing, and then you have to pay before they´ll let you pass...one funny story, our taxi cab driver wasn´t paying attention and she (yes a she) totally smacked right into one of the dancers...it was hilarious! so we arrived at grandpa´s house, and immediately we were put to work to stuffing our doll, with shavings and news paper. (as you can see from the photos…those are my cousins….) we then went upstairs where I was put in charge of filling, and re filling, and serving the “drinks”.
Bringing in the New Year was the best. The old fashioned radio was turned on, and tuned to an old talk radio station. Heis said that for as long as he can remember they´ve brought in the New Year at Grandpa´s house, listening to this old guy. He went over a briefing of all the major things that have happened in 2008, and then with 50 seconds left we started counting down. (I struggled with that…) we all stood up, rice in our right hand, so that in the new year we´ll never be with out food, five cents in our right shoe, so that we´ll never be poor, and then…the yellow underwear…I didn´t have any so I had to do with out this, but supposedly everyone was wearing yellow underwear…they´re supposed to make you lucky, and to not jinx your love life in the year of 2009. We counted down and at exactly 12:00 everyone took a shot, (I of course had water…no worries) then we all went around the room hugging, everyone hugged everyone…and most started to cry. Oh and then we all had 12 grapes to eat…each representing a month in the year. With each grape you had to make a wish…the picture is of me and my cousin Israel, with our grapes…they´re huge here..i know! (and they have big nasty seeds)
We all then gathered out side to light our doll on fire, I tried to get a picture of the streets, just on our street there were probably 10 families all doing the same thing. Lighting the doll, (representing the old year, “año viejo”) dancing around it, and then of course jumping over it…as you can see from my picture! When we went back inside however…the power shut off…city wide block out through out all of Quito…so candles were lit, and we kept partying. I kinda liked the atmosphere once the candles were lit. fire works were going on all over the city and because all the street lights and every thing were out, you could really see them, and then everyone being together under candle light was kinda fun. All of my grandpa´s seven brother´s and sisters came…so in reality it was quite a large group. Instead of eating buffet style…because the power was out…us girls served people…I was the gravy girl. We at turkey, rice, potatoes, green salad, and postre de tres leches.
After everyone ate, we danced…the power came back on about two, while everyone was dancing…music and dancing is the life here in Ecuador…I think probably in any latin American countries…I guess that´s why it´s kinda weird there´s no fine arts classes, but anyway you put on music, and everyone starts dancing. Except it was kinda fun last night, grandpa put on his old record player, and we listened and danced to OLD music. About 4:00, I snuck into grandpa´s bedroom with the rest of the cousins, and we all (five of us) crammed into the bed. Where I slept until about eight…when Heis came in and woke me up and we started making our way home.
Heis didn´t drink last night…i´m not sure why…but I was sure grateful I wasn´t the only sober one. As I helped my mom out to the car she thought that my grandpa´s dog was Odee and tried to get him to come with us. Well grandpa´s dog is black and ode is white…?¿?¿?. everyone was pretty out of it…and so you guessed it…they´re all dead asleep today.
Overall…i´m very glad I survived…and I did have a great experience…don´t worry at two, I wished everyone an Idaho and Utah happy New Year also! My mom in the states suggested that I go into the NewYear celebration with an open mind, and pretend I was a reporter reporting what the Ecuadorians do for New Year…with that attitude…it really helped…and so my friends…I just want to wish you all a happy happy New YEAR! I love you all
Hasta Luego,
Emmy Ann