Food

Something that we've been talking about a lot since we've been here with each other and with other teachers is the quality of food here in Ecuador. Ryan and I eat 95% of our meals at home. This is drastically different from our food lives in los Estados Unidos. In the states we probably ate 75% of our meals outside of the home. First and foremost, here, we know what is in our food. We eat mostly vegetables (we're talking A LOT of vegetables). We probably go through at least 2 or 3 onions, between 4-10 tomatoes, handfulls of green beans, 1 leek, 3 peppers of some sort, 1 turnip (for me, Ryan does't like it), and at least a head of lettuce a week, for two people. We eat a lot of veggies. In addition to veggies, we eat a lot of chicken, we drink a lot of milk, and a TON of water. We have rice, beans or quinoa 2-3 times a week, and we rarely have pasta. More importantly though, we don't use a lot of butter, we use sunflower oil, and we have limited access to things like cream, sour cream, rich heavy cheeses, etc. Oh, and we eat a lot of eggs. I'm talking a dozen a week at least. Sometimes more.

All that to say, we know what we eat here. And not only do we know what we eat but we eat only locally grown things because imported food is too expensive. It's odd because Ryan and I have both noticed (along with some of the other teachers) that we don't crave food here. You know how sometimes, when we were at home at least, you'd crave a juicy, greasy hamburger or you'd crave junk food, or sweets. We just don't really crave food here. Which brings us to the main question we've been tossing around... What exactly is in the food in America that makes people crave it? And we're not just wondering about processed food, like McDonalds. We're talking about that kind of food, but we're also talking about just regular old food that you make for dinner. What is it that leads to cravings and obescity and addiction to food?

Thursday nights are date night for me and Ryan. This week we had a very romantic evening of vaccuming, doing laundry (on the scrub board), mopping and just general cleaning the house. When we were finished we walked down to Jay & Jay's, the convience shop on our street, and bought some cheese (mozzarella) and some chips (ruffles). Now this is the first time that we've bought just about anything specifically American and it's only the second time that we've bought potato chips. The first time we're actually potatos cut thin into chips and fried. We celebrated our cleaning accomplishment by eating almost the whole bag of Ruffles. Mind you the bags are much smaller here than they are in the USA, but still, it was a lot of chips. All that to say, I woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible stomach ache that continued till today. And the only thing that I can attribute it to is all of the hydrogenated oil and processed crap that is in the beloved Ruffles.

Since we've been here we've removed all hydrogenated oil from our diets, just about. And eating so much of it for the first time made me feel awful, tired and sluggish. I felt like that guy from Supersize Me. Anyways... it's just something we've been thinking about and talking about. There's something in the food in America. Whether it's there intentionally to keep sales up, or it's the chemicals that keeps food fresh during it's long commute from place of origin. Who knows... but it's not in the food in Ecuador and we've noticed the difference. We have more energy, we eat less, and we eat better.

MULUB,
Taylor

PS. Another thing Ecuador has gotten right is the cost of food. In the USA the poor are encouraged to eat McDonalds because it's cheap and easy and fresh produce and meat just cost to much to prepare (and that's without the cost of gas for the stove, electricity for the kitchen, etc). Here fresh produce is as cheap as it gets and as accessible as can be. People sell it in the streets. Whereas a Whopper is over $5 and McDonalds are few and far between. But that discussion for another day.

Puppies are the complete opposite of little kids

Up to this point, Chuki's favorite toys are: a red hand towel, the kitchen mat, a big bottle with a bunch or beans in it, a gatorade bottle with no beans in it and any thing with laces. None of these objects smell or taste like chicken or banana. He's like a kid in his room with an X-Box and a Plasma TV asking his parents where he put that rock he found the other day.

I think that these companies really need to rethink their design strategies if their products can't hold a dog's attention over garbage.

-Ryan

Better late than never

the new awesome blog background

-Taylor

"I got worms"

I haven't written anything for a while, so I thought I'd post something really disgusting. Taylor found worms in Chuki's poop. It was long and white. We took him to the vet and he gots some meds and he's fine now, and apparently it's common for puppies to get worms. It was real cheap at the vet too; meds, vitamins, consultation and bloodwork for 24 dollars.

This whole incident reminds me of and episode of the X-Files that I saw when I was young. There was this plane that came back from the Amazon with a half-man half-tapeworm hybrid stowed on-board. This creature sneaks off the plane and hides in a port-o-potty, and eats (or some kind of consumption) the first person to use it. This made me quite scared to use the toilet for a while thereafter, as you can imagine.

-Ryan

Life's a Little Busier with a Puppy

First and foremost, we're sorry for neglecting our blog the last week or so. We've been quite busy with this little puppy. Let me just tell you that having a puppy is so much fun. I mean somethings aren't fun (cleaning up poop, taking him out in the middle of the night, knowing he whines at home when you leave) but for the most part it's just fun. He constantly entertains us, particularly when it comes to stairs. He thinks he's a lot bigger than he actually is. Plus he's a great excuse to be out and about at least once, but usually more, every day.

Because he's so young, we've got to be really careful about taking him out of the garden at our house. But we venture out cautiously to a little park by our house that is fairly clean and free of a ton of dogs. Once Chukes has all of this shots then we'll go to the two BIG parks by our house where he can socialize with other puppies then just Praeta.

Which brings me to the next thing... we bought the puppy without asking our landlords and we're ready to face the consequences after the fact. We figured we'd have some time before they even realized the puppy existed because we NEVER see them. The problem with that plan is that when we opened the gate to come home for the first time with the puppy, their maid was standing right there and the secret was out.

Anyways, a couple of days later our landlords came over to "give us the receipt from rent." But really they wanted to tell us that they thought the dog was too big to live in the apartment and that someone (we weren't sure who) was afraid of big dogs. Needless to say Ryan and I were taken aback at their assertiveness (not usually a common trait of Ecuadorians). I was particularly taken aback when they were talking to Ryan about it at the door and when I walked by they said something to the effect of we need to speak to the boss of the house (talking about me). Gosh, I hate confrontation like that! Anyways... so we explained to them that we would train the puppy really well and that he wouldn't be in their way and if there was any damage that we'd pay... yada yada yada, all the typical stuff. Then I asked them what they would like us to do and they didn't really say anything and walked away (not in a huff, but just because I don't think they understood the question). So Ryan and I resolved to not worry about it and just work really hard to make sure that Chukes was a great, well trained, well exercised puppy that didn't cause them any harm. And if they wanted to talk about it again in 5 or 6 months when he's actually big then we would.

Anyways, two days ago the gramma (our landlord), her daughter, and her granddaughter came over to have a talk about the puppy. The granddaughter speaks excellent english. Turns out the family just had an English Bulldog (which is a big dog) that died in December and the daughter's family is really excited to have another dog at the house that Praeta can play with. So really its just the gramma that isn't keen on the idea. And from what I can understand of spanish and body language the daughter and the granddaughter basically told the gramma to get over it.

All that to say, the last couple of days have been great! We haven't felt like we needed to keep Chukes secluded. The way the house is set up is there's a small garden right outside of our house and then a bigger one in front of the big house and a long drive way to connect the two. Now we keep the door open and Chukes can run around our garden freely. We take him up to the big garden two or three times a day to play with Praeta (their dog) and usually the daughter and her husband, or her kids, come out to play with the dogs together. It's really been great bonding for the puppies and for Ryan and I with the younger family that we're living with.

So that's the story of Chuki and the landlords. We're hoping that it just keeps getting better and better between us and them and that eventually we all become friends (cheesy, I know... but true).

As far as life for us right now, if any of you have ever had a 6 week old puppy, you know they're pretty much time consuming. We're either playing or walking or training or cleaning pee/poop or napping or feeding or laughing at him. All in all, its a very good thing.

We did get out last night for a couple drinks with Maria Jose at this British pub by our house called Busters. I thought of Caders and I wanted to take a picture but I didn't have my camera! Then today we were going to go to Alice in Wonderland but it was sold out. So we (Ryan and I) went for a nice long walk and drinks and dessert at Tony Romas. Then tomorrow we're planning on going to this english speaking Church that the missionaries I met at Megamaxi told us about. We'll see how finding it goes! And then we're going to try to see Alice in Wonderland again.

Thats about it. If anyone has any tips on training a puppy, we're all ears! Or just general things we should know too...

MULUB,

taylor

Chuki

So the pupsters is here and he's been with us for a smidge over 24 hours and we're in love. His name is Chuki. Its pronounced like chew-key. He's teeny tiny and mostly brown. He's got a little white spot under his mouth and 2 of his feet have little white spots. But other than that he's all brown.

He's only 6 weeks old. In America you probably wouldn't be allowed to take a puppy home at 6 weeks but here in Ecuador, "No problem man." He's been weened so he's eating dry puppy food. We're working on going potty outside. So far there haven't been too many full fledged accidents. Usually, we catch him right before or at the very beginning and we move him outside.

The main thing is that he's used to sleeping with 8 other little puppies all in one teeny tiny dog house. So his great comfy bed is scary and lonely. Basically, he whined all night. I think/hope he'll do better tonight. We've been playing a lot in his room (the laundry room) so that he actually likes being in there. Every time we've come back into the house he's gone straight for his room (YAY!). During the day he really doesn't whine at all, which is nice.

But about what's really important... his cuteness! Gosh he's soo stinking cute. Everything he does is just darling. I'm serious. I can't explain it. You'll just have to come and see for yourself. Although I can tell you that Ryan and I get the most laughs out of him doing the stairs in our apartment or anywhere really. He's just so small that he has to really work to get up anything. Then going down is more like PLOP.

We went for a really long walk today to tire him out. We'll probably go for another one in a little while so that he's tired for tonight. The best part about taking him out of the house is that EVERYONE just gushes and he LOVES it! In fact, when he sees someone coming he just sits down and waits for them to come over to him. For some reason, if they don't he looks at them like "why don't you think I'm cute" or something like that. Anyways, he's great with strangers and strangers love him.

He just got up from a nap and wandered into the living room. He's curled up next to me about to fall asleep. =) Ahh puppy love!

puppy love

Check out additional pictures on facebook. =)

Baking Woes

So we're sitting here at home, 20 minutes late for Casey's going away party because I'm waiting on this stupid cake to finish baking. Smittenkitchen told me it should olny take about 20 minutes, as did a ton of her fans' comments, but no, not here in Ecuador.

I'm in a baking rut. Everything that I've made lately comes out too light, too airy. Light and airy is good, dont get me wrong, but not when you want oozey and gooey or rich and creamy or just regular cake. I don't get it.

Does anyone have any ideas why everything I bake isn't cooking properly? and how I can adjust so that it does?

MULUB,

Taylor

Transitional Plan

If you don't have a transitional plan you run lots of risks with Home Cooking for your dog. First of all the pup may not actually like home cooking so you have to ween him on. I've never actually heard of that happening, but I suppose it's a possibility. 

More importantly is the pup needs time to adapt to new foods. Believe me, Chuki has enough stomach issues as it is, I wouldn't want to add one to your pup! So go slow and be aware. You're looking for anything out of the ordinary. Keep your eyes open for vomiting, diarrhea, dullness of coat or glassy eyes. Warning this is kind of gross: You will probably see a change in his poop for the first couple of days, maybe even a week. It will probably be softer and not pellet like. What you don't want is pure liquid coming from his bottom end. Just be mindful of it.  

The Tale of the Missing Cheese

Right after pay day we were feeling pretty low and so on our weekly Wednesday night trip to the grocery store, I decided to splurge and buy some cheese. Real cheese that is. None of this Queso Fresco bologna. It was $7 for a teeny, tiny round. The round was divided into four quarters of four different cheeses. One quarter was a mild cheddar, one was a herbed cheese, one was a gouda, and the other one I can't remember.

Now you may wonder why I can't remember what it was seeing that I, clearly, love cheese and remember the others. Well... let me tell you.

We had just opened said quarter of cheese in the kitchen. We were going to snack on it while watching a movie (or probably more accurately Big Bang Theory on DVD). Said cheese was on the counter in the kitchen, on a cutting board. We each cut ourselves a piece and then I gave a tiny piece to Chuki and we went into the living room to proceed with the movie. When I came back to the kitchen for my second piece (I had every intention of eating the whole quarter that night) it was gone. GONE! What's $7 divided by 4? Because whatever that is, just went down the drain. Or to be more exact down Chuki's little mouth, into his very happy tummy.

Needless to say, I was more than astonished and very, very mad! That was the first time I'd ever known him to jump up on the counter. Oh what a bad, bad dog! But even Chuki will do whatever it takes for some decent cheese in this country.

Now whenever we get the 'good cheese' out I guard it. It goes at the VERY back of the counter with a towel over it and something very noisy in front of it, like a pan with a medal spoon in it. That way the alarm will sound if he even tries to get to MY CHEESE!

MULUB,

Taylor