Birthday Party, Life in Quito

Sooo.. to continue were I left off on my last post, the party was great!  The house we went to was located about 20 minutes outside the city, in a lower part of the valley somewhat close to Cumbayá (where I attend class).  The view when we got out of the car was absolutely spectactular, and I wish I would have brought my camera.  It was basically exactly what you would expect of the Andean highlands: Huge, lush, rolling mountains.  The area we went to basically housed everyone on Gina´s side of the family besides Gina.  That is to say, all of her siblings, as well as her mother, built their houses right next to each other.  There is also a plot of unused land that is reserved for Gina, should she decide she wants to move closer to the family.  The houses were all extremely nice, and the architecture was somewhat similar to that of southwestern American houses.  The particular house we were at had a courtyard, where we spent nearly the who party, as well as stained glass windows.

The whole extended family was also incredibly nice, and very welcoming.  It was a little intimidating, since everyone was speaking really fast Spanish and I didn't understand nearly 75% of what was being said at first. However, when they addressed me, they were extremely patient with my Spanish and spoke slowly.  Also, at least two adults and all the college aged kids knew English, so if I got really stuck, they could help me out.  The person I probably talked to most in Spanish was Gina´s brother-in-law Andrés, especially after I told him that my Grandpa and Grandma have a vineyard.  He was really really into wine, and that was probably what at least half of our conversation was about the rest of the night.  He also had a son named Andrés (it is typical to name the first-born after the father here) who is about my age and offered to show me a little more of the Quito nightlife, which I would love to take him up on if I end up having enough free weekends.

The only thing that put a slight damper on the evening was that my host father kept refering to me as his "hijo de compromiso", which, literally translated, means "son out of obligation."  Now, I would have found this funny had we actually had a previous relationship, but basically the only thing has ever said to me directly is "hola."  This is mainly because he is never home, but still, it just didn´t really feel appropraite.  However, after initially being offended, it has now become a funny story that I can tell to other people in my program.  And honestly, it was too fun of an evening for me to care.

Besides that, not much new has happened.  I think everyone in my program is finally adjusting to the rythem of life here and feeling more comfortable with their routine.  We have been playing soccer during our lunch period, which has been really fun and a great way to burn off the extra energy that comes with having 3 hour blocks of class. Also, it just feels good to be playing soccer again, especially considering that these are probably my first semi-competitive soccer games since high school.  We are being assigned a huge amount of reading in my Conservation Biology class, and I always have Spanish homework, so basically the rigor of this program is the same as it would be if we were still at UW.  I also have to choose an internship relatively soon, and am eyeing several internships that would involve radiotracking Andean bears.  Barring that, I would probably do something either with howler monkeys or marine animals. 

Finally, this we weekend we are going hiking this weekend at an orchid reserve called Pahuma, which was the first piece of land that CEIBA,  the orginization that I am here with, aquired.  For this trip, we will be hiking for an hour or two up the side of a mountain (I´m not sure which), staying in a cabin for friday night, and then, as I understand it at least, going to the summit Saturday and coming down and back to Quito on Sunday.   In anticipation of this weekend, I went out and bought rain boots at Kywi, which is essentially the equivalent of Fleet Farm in Ecuador.  It was a pretty cool store.  Probably the only way it was differnet from Fleet Farm was its large stock of machetes, located right next to the boots, which I found kind of facinating.  Just not something you see everyday!

So yeah thats basically all I can think of for the moment! Again, sorry about the lack of pics, getting my computer registered for wifi on compus has been a real pain in the butt because the office where I need to do it is only open when I am in class, and even when I go during those hours, no one is there.  Classic Ecuador.  Hope all is well with everyone reading!