Alright its Holiday time here in Ecuador! Everyone is celebrating and we're teaching our last classes with our students of 2010. Crazy how time flies, really. We're extra celebration-y because here in Quito we have Fiestas de Quito, which my students lovingly translate 'Quito Parties.' What happens for the Quito Parties, you might ask... Well, I will tell you, to the best of my ability.
First of all this is the holiday that we celebrate the foundation of the city of Quito by the Spaniards on December 6, 1534. Why they honor and revere this day so much, when it destroyed so much of their indigenous culture and livelihood, I'm not sure, but they do and so we do.
The holiday has morphed into a celebration of Quiteno pride. Which translates into, quarenta tournaments (the traditional card game), futbol tournaments, lots of canelazo, traditional food, and visits to your favorite places in the city. For us, we've been eating at this market that just sprung up for this week. It has all of the most famous and most traditional dishes of Quito and the surrounding area. We've eaten there the last two days, and despite some digestion problems, the food it DELICIOUS! We've also been taking our cooking classes with Jhon, which have been all traditional food. We've learned how to make canelazo (which we've already finished), seco de pollo, aji, menestras, y ceviche de camarones. Very delicious and we can't wait to make it for all of you back at home! Bogdan Christmas... watch out!
This weekend we have a lot of fun and traditional things planned. We're going to go to the bull fights. Now I'm on the fence about the bull fights because they kill the bulls. I know its terrible and torture, but I feel like its also so embedded in the culture that I ought to try it once and then make my own decision. We're also going to some concerts this weekend, specifically Calle 13. Check them out! But all of our students have told us that there are traditional concerts in all of the squares and in the parks all over the place. So we'll probably stumble upon a bunch more. We're going to go to Old Town and visit our favorite churches and plazas. We might even go up the the virgin or to the Telefirico (two things we haven't done yet). Plus on Friday we're having a quarenta tournament with the other inllingua teachers (rumors of free beer and pizza sealed the deal). Plus we plan on continuing eating traditional food everyday and trying all of the traditional treats. We might even have a party and show off our newly acquired Ecau-cooking skills. I'm sure there will also be some dancing thrown in the mix too!
Stay tuned for specifics on tastes, sights and sounds. Plus photos!
MULUB,
Taylor
PS. See you in 6 days =) AHHHH
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