Cuenca Weekends

This week started out well with an election celebration on Tuesday night at one of the local Gringo bars, Inca Bar. About 20 Americans (and Irish Mark) gathered at the bar to watch the election update and counts, and had celebratory jello shots passed around when they announced that Obama was projected to win. We ended up staying awake until 2:30am watching Romney and Obama’s speeches, but it was well worth it. Good day to be an American. Thursday evening all of us were greeted with a surprise, when something at the power plant in Cuenca exploded and left half of the city without electricity. Because it starts getting dark around 5pm here, my 4:30pm and 6pm classes were canceled, allowing me to go home early and relax on a night that I really wasn’t interested in teaching. Friday morning I got up early for another trip to the beautiful Cajas National Park. It was a sunny day, and we did a different, more strenuous hike this time. Cajas is gorgeous, and it was nice to get away from the sounds of the city even if just for a couple of hours. After returning from Cajas I showered quickly, threw on some clothes, and hustled to school to teach my 6pm class. Luckily, we’re still in the first unit in my 101 class and the lessons go by very quickly because the material is so basic. I was able to cover that day’s material and the previous day’s material, meaning I didn’t need to make up the missed class. Score! After class we headed home, ate a quick dinner, and left again to see the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. This was my first time at an Ecuadorian movie theater, and it was a great experience. My friends were excited that they could put crushed up potato chips on their popcorn (a thing here), and I was just excited the movie was in English and not poorly dubbed Spanish. Although I tried to keep up with the Spanish subtitles, it was just nice seeing an American movie in English on the big screen. The next morning we got up early again for our Saturday classes, which we are counting down the days of: only 4 more Saturday classes left (including the one Saturday where we just have to sit and administer the final). Because the 300-level classes at CEDEI are writing courses as well, Kels, Emily and I thought it would be fun (and helpful) to do a sort of writing workshop for our 300-level students, rotating them between our three classrooms and teaching them each a different element of writing (run-on sentences, punctuation, and linker/transition words). It worked out perfectly for Mark as well, because he had a rugby game that day in Guayaquil and could not find anyone to cover his Saturday class (not a very popular thing here, Saturday classes). He was able to teach most of the first half of class, and then ditch his students with us in time to catch the bus with his team to Guayaquil. After class we were all exhausted, and came home for a quick lunch and nap. After my nap Isabel and decided to try something new by going to a Bible study through our church. It ended up being just us and three other ladies, and we had a great study, focusing on 2 Timothy 3. After the Bible study we had coffee, chatted, and took some group pictures. I arrived at home from the Bible study to find Kat and Kelsey watching Singing in the Rain. Let the lazy Saturday night begin… We watched Singing in the Rain, a little bit of the The Voice, Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy, and then the Duck football game (which ended at 2:30am our time). Late night, but it was worth it. The next morning we slept in, waking up just in time to look at the clock and realize we had an hour to get out of the house for a soccer game. We were going to watch the Cuenca soccer team play, and while I don’t know very much about soccer and am no soccer enthusiast, it seemed only right to watch the Cuenca team at least once. Kels, Emily and I piled into a taxi, getting out at the stadium to meet up with Clara, Adam, Josh, and Lynsey. We decided on a whim to buy some Cuenca team jerseys: $5 each. Entrance tickets: $6. Weird paper hats to protect us from the sun: 50 cents. And of course, cultural experience: priceless. The stadium that Cuenca plays in is unfortunately not very nice, while the team is unfortunately not very good. It was a fun experience nonetheless, complete with some random guy taking pictures of us because we are gringos. After the game we chowed down on some food, and had yet another lazy Sunday with the only productive activity being a visit to the mercado. Successful weekend in Cuenca, I would say.            

Cuenca Days

This past weekend Cuenca celebrated its Independence Day, fittingly named “Cuenca Days”. Basically, it was the best weekend to be in Cuenca. The week started off well by our lighter load and lack of an intensive class. Wednesday evening Kels and I went to Eucalyptus again in hopes of dessert and Ladies Night. Well, it wasn’t Ladies Night, but we still had wine, chocolate cake and French fries, an excellent food combination. Everyone we were with, though, questioned our food combination choices, and chalked it up to being a weird Oregon girl thing. Thursday night, instead of going out, we chose to have a relaxing movie night. We watched both “Taken 2” and “Ruby Sparks”. Friday morning we got up, ready to enjoy Cuenca Days. It was a beautiful sunny day, and there were artesian booths set up all over the city with blankets, jewelry, handicrafts, and artwork. We wandered along the Ferria booths for a good couple of hours, taking in the crowds and beautiful goods. There were also street musicians scattered along the way, playing mostly salsa music with excellent dancers out front. Again, Ecuadorians know how to move. After wandering for a while we stopped at Inca for lunch, waiting an unfortunate two hours, but still enjoying our tacos when we finally got them. After lunch, Kels and I decided to join our friend Mike on a trip to the cemetery; Friday was “El Día de los Defuntos”, the Ecuadorian version of Day of the Dead. The cemetery was a good 40-minute trek away, but it was well worth the walk. We got a colada morada along the way to warm ourselves, which is a hot punch-like drink made with fruits, flour, and an unnatural purple coloring I don’t want to know the origin of. The colada morada was served with a bread called “guaguas”, oddly shaped in the form of a wrapped up baby. The cemetery was full of people, and beautifully decorated. It was interesting taking in all of the beautiful flowers and decorations, and also noticing those that were there mourning a recent lose. Although it seemed many families visited out of obligation, it was beautiful to see the ones that were there to say hello to their missed loved one. After coming home from the cemetery, Kels and I put on our dancing shoes and headed out for the night. The streets were filled with people, and it was fun seeing so much energy and comradery.

Saturday morning Kels and I got up late, and got ourselves ready to head out to see Mark’s rugby game. Our roommate, Mark, had joined the local rugby team, and we were not going to miss his debut. We almost did though… After asking what bus to take and eventually waiting for and jumping on said bus, we realized we were heading in the wrong direction. Back to square one. We tried desperately to flag down a taxi to take us, but all the taxis were full because of the festivities in town. Eventually, we found an empty taxi, and were thankful to be on our way to the rugby game, only a little late. I personally had never seen rugby before, and it was interesting to see the combination of futbol and football in the sport; definitely a tough sport. After the game, Kels and I came home and lounged around until our beloved Ducks were on. I had not managed to watch a single Duck game in Guatemala, and it has been wonderful seeing so many games here, especially since our Ducks are kicking butt. After the game ended at 10pm we didn’t feel like going out again, but stopped by San Sebastian park for a quick second to listen to the band playing in the square. Sunday morning I got up for church, and had a pretty laid back and productive Sunday of grocery shopping, finishing my book, and doing some last minute Ferria shopping. All in all, great weekend to be in Cuenca. This week intensive classes start again, meaning my wonderful free evenings and coming home before dark are over. But I like being busy, so bring it on! I’m excited to meet my new batch of 101 English students.