I wanted to do a parallel post when I had 23 days left before going home, but I realized that in 2 days I will be traveling in Cuenca,Ecuador, with questionable internet access and time to complete a post. So I will do it now. Upon re-reading my first post, I never went back to change my host dad's name to Juan Carlos. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but Freddy is my host uncle, thus Juan Carlos' brother. There was an awkward encounter in which my assistant program director went to Freddy's house and talked to his wife, thinking that she was Rosa. The poor woman was very confused, and scared... she definitely didn't sign up to have an international student stay with her for 4 months.
Anyway, things are going well here. Signing up for my classes next semester has been my biggest problem. Also, it feels like it's rained everyday this month. I just gave a 10 minute presentation completely in Spanish on social classes in18th century Quito for my Art History class. It was well-received, and for that I am happy. Tomorrow is the last day of class before our Semana Santa break, which is like a Spring Break/East Break. It's much needed. I'm going to travel starting tomorrow night and then hope to return on the 30th or the 1st to prepare for my last week of class. It's not a very well-space break. But as a heads up, posting will be highly unlikely while I'm traveling. So when I get back I will have 2 weeks before I leave to go home! It's entirely exciting and sad at the same time. When I wrote the post marking 23 days before Ecuador, I could not imagine what it would be like to spend a semester here. Now, 26 days before going home, I cannot imagine not being in Ecuador... or I can imagine it, but it seems so unreal. Ecuador has become my reality. It's difficult to explain. Basically, time has flown so quickly. I know when I get home everything in Ecuador will feel so far away and removed. I'm already mentally preparing for some serious reverse culture shock.
Tomorrow I am going to help prepare and eat Fanesca, a typical dish eaten in Ecuador during Semana Santa. It is a soup with 12 grains or more and take hours to prepare. Rosa is nice enough to prepare the soup a day early for me to try it because I will be traveling. In Cuenca, the soup is supposed to be very common.. so I'm excited to try the different kinds. It's supposed to be super filling. The 12 grains represent the 12 apostles, and it's cooked without red meat.
A short story about Carlos' first cooking experience:
One morning, Carlos was home for breakfast when I was awake because he didn't have class that day. He cooked his own rice and meat (both turned out slightly burnt) but he was super super excited because it was his first time cooking. While I ate my food, I could hear him narrating (out loud, to himself) his conquest of cooking. "Today, a little boy... will cook his own meal!" He described it as if he was fighting an epic battle, with complete sound effects and all. I looked over at Rosa, and she just shrugged and said he likes to converse with himself. It was very cute, I took a picture of the plate that he made:
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