Sunday, December 25, 2011

Una Navidad Feliz

Merry Christmas everyone!


Last night I finally felt like Christmas was here. Ecuadorian Christmas celebrations are different from US celebrations, but there really is something to the Christmas spirit throughout the world.

We spent Christmas Eve (and EARLY Christmas morning) with my host-mom's youngest brother and his kids (Maria Amilia, 4 and Juan Fernando, 10ish). We sat around talking and, at least for the younger adults, keeping the kids busy. Juanfer (Juan Fernando's nickname) has quite the arsenal of nerf guns, so we ran around shooting each other for a while. Cocking Amilia's gun for her just resulted in getting shot, but she would cry if you didn't, so I spent a lot of time running from her after cocking her gun.

A little while before midnight, we sat in a semi-circle around the nativity scene and listened to the final Novena. The Novena is something that just about every Ecuadorian family does. The nine days before Christmas they read parts of the Christmas story, sing, and recite prayers. We finished the Novena just before midnight, and once it was officially Christmas, Juanfer and Amilia attacked the pile of presents under the tree. Once everything was open, we adults ate dinner while the kids played with their new toys. Amilia soon discovered that I (and my jacknife) was very good at getting through the packaging on toys and putting them all together, so I spent most of the rest of the night undoing twisties, ripping open bags, and snapping pieces of plastic together. By the time we left, it was nearly 2:30 and we didn't get home until 3:00.

It may have been a different kind of Christmas, but it was definitely Christmas, and that's all I needed.

So a very merry Christmas to you all, and a happy New Year too. I'll see you next year!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Approaching Christmas


Ok, it’s been nearly a month since I last wrote down anything about my experiences here. That time certainly hasn’t been void of writing, but it has all been school related.

The semester finally ended for me on Wednesday. I took my last exam and rushed home to pack up and head out for Otavalo again, this time with Adrianna and Maggie instead of the entire Kalamazoo group. I didn’t realize how much I had gotten used to trimesters until I had to sit through 16 weeks of class (trimesters are 10 weeks). We struggled through to week ten only to find that we were just past the half-way point and had a long way to go. AAAHHHHHH!!!

But I like doing this in order, and there’s more to December than finals and end of the school year trips to tell you about.

The beginning of December is a giant party in Quito. It really starts at the end of November (around the 28th) and continues until the 6th of December. The whole stretch of time is called “Fiestas de Quito” (Quito Parties), and the last two days most people don’t even have to work.

One of the fiesta days I spent wandering around the big downtown park with a small group of people. We watched a bit of the parade that started at 9 am and ended at 2 pm, though definitely not all of it. Quito area seems to have a lot of marching bands. A lot of our wandering just involved exploring the park, chatting, looking at the large display of painted hummingbird sculptures, and avoiding long anthropology papers, though we definitely sampled some delicious street food along the way. We also

On the 5th, a good sized group of us all paid a visit to the Plaza de Toros to see what bull fighting is all about. Quito recently banned the killing of animals for sport, so the Matador no longer kills the bull, but everything else is the same. There’s an almost ritualistic form to the proceedings of the show (I call it a show because there is really no better word for it). Everyone is dressed in practically colonial clothing (not the audience, but all of the officials of the show) and they do things in a specific order for the entire thing. It was a strange experience to watch. At first, I found the brutality of it horrifying, but after a while I think my brain just decided to numb the part that felt bad about hurting the bull and it was at least interesting to watch, if not anything I would call “fun.” The best part of the whole show was when one of the bulls decided he didn’t want to go back into the pens under the stands. (Since they can no longer kill them, they have to shoo them out of the plaza after the matador sticks them with a final pokey javelin thing.) He ran around the plaza for a good 15 minutes, avoiding the wranglers and completely ignoring the other bulls they let out to try and lure him back in, except for charging them a couple times. He was definitely the favorite bull of all the Kalamazoo people.

Watching the bull fights was an interesting experience that I am glad to have seen, though I don’t think I’d ever really want to watch it again. It’s just too cruel, and I don’t like it that my brain is capable of adapting within the moment to overlook that.

There were some non-bull related things that were fun about the fights. The food outside the plaza was tasty, and watching the people in the plaza was at times interesting and at other times kind of hilarious. At the end of every bull’s fight, the matadors would walk the circle of the plaza, catching hats, scarves, and sometimes even jackets, kissing them, and throwing them back into the stands. If the audience approved of the Matador, they would wave handkerchiefs and hats at the end of the fight. One thing that’s common throughout the Fiestas de Quito, but particularly so in the bullfights, is a call and response where one person says: “Que vive Quito!” and everyone responds: “Que vive!” The best translation of that is “Long live Quito!” and “Long may it live!” One of the variations of this call and response that I heard a lot of in the stadium is “Que chupe Quito!” (“Que chupe!”) which basically means “Let Quito drink/get drunk!”

Since the Fiestas de Quito, I’ve been more or less absorbed in school work and living in Quito. It’s starting to feel very normal to me now. I’m no longer stunned EVERY time I see a mountain anymore. I don’t even flinch when I have to pause a conversation for the plane flying over the bus terminal. I recognize the entire ride home from school. I’ve gotten to a point where I can pause and appreciate life, instead of just appreciating what is different about it. It’s nice.

The end of the school year brought mountains of stress, but also some fun end-of-the-year stuff. The capoeira group of which my class is a part had a big dinner and party for the end of the year, everyone invited. I went and had a fantastic time, talking to people, eating delicious food, and dancing until 2, when the people I had ridden with decided it was time to go home and to bed.

I still don’t feel like my classes are really over. Partly because I left for Otavalo so quickly after my last exam (Geology. Hey, at least it’s over). According to the online grades, I did fine in all of my classes, which is a relief. I wasn’t sure, since many of my classes didn’t give me back ANY graded assignments. But the semester is DONE and I’m sure I’ll realize it eventually.

Otavalo was, once again, quite fun. Though this time it was much more relaxed than when we were in the Kzoo group. We arrived, walked around and generally chilled out after a long couple of weeks studying. The next morning we got up and made our mandatory trip to the market. I think I finally got most of my Christmas shopping done, though no one will be seeing their presents until February at the earliest. We wanted to do some hiking while in the area, but we didn’t really plan well enough to actually climb Imbabura, the local mountain. Instead, we hiked up to “La Cascada de Peguche,” the waterfall we visited in the big group. The only difference was that this time we walked through the entire town before hiking the short stone-paved trail to the waterfall. We even hiked up to the top of the fall, and I ventured into the small dark tunnel through the rock to see another part of the stream. Seeing the other side wouldn’t have been all that exciting, except that you couldn’t see it from the opening. The water flow was a lot stronger this time, and, after climbing back down to the base of the fall, only Adrianna and I braved the closer of the two bridges. We got blasted with enough waterfall mist to make us distinctly wet for the next half hour or so, while we hiked back.

Since we missed lunch, we ate a VERY large dinner of Ecuadorian Chinese food in a Chifa (Chinese restaurant). It wasn’t quite Chinese food as I’ve had it before, but it wasn’t bad, and there was a LOT of it. We rounded off the night by going to a pie shop for desert.

Our return trip to Quito provided us with a guitar-playing singer to serenade us for a while. He was actually a very GOOD singer and sang a couple of sad Christmas songs, a bolero (ballad), and something he thought for sure we should know. I guess the Ecuadorians knew it, but none of us Americans had heard it before.

And now it is Christmas Eve. I think this is the least Christmas-y I have ever felt at this time of the year. I just can’t seem to get into the Christmas spirit. It has to do with a lack of cold weather, a lack of snow, and a lack of family. I walk around the streets and hear Spanish Christmas songs, only recognizing them for what they are when I stop and listen to the lyrics. Otherwise it just sounds like the songs they play every day. There are a few songs I know from Spanish classes over the years, and some are translated English carols or songs (and there’s always “Feliz Navidad”) but for the most part none of the music feels very Christmas-y. It’s also strange to see Christmas lights on trees that still have leaves and palm trees all over the place. I’ll be glad when I can get back to Michigan and see some snow. I miss the cold.

Even if I don’t feel like it’s Christmas, Christmas is still happening around me. My host mom has spent the whole day wandering around, wrapping presents, and cooking, while wearing a white, red, and green apron. I heard an ad on the radio with some typical Christmas songs that I’ve come to recognize since the season started here. While we were in Otavalo, we saw a parade of children dressed as angels and shepherds walk by. Everywhere there are signs of people celebrating. Little shops, all with the same Christmas decorations, have sprung up around Quito. Even in places where there shouldn’t have been space. On every street corner near a shopping center, there are little stands in which one can buy wrapping paper, ribbon, and gift bags. All in individual package sizes.

This year, I’ll be dreaming of a white Christmas with the assurance that one is not coming my way. None-the-less, it should be fun to spend it with my host-family, and at least some bit of Christmas spirit I’m sure will come my way.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that wherever you are, you enjoy it thoroughly. 

P.S. I'll be travelling through the first week of January, so don't expect much communication from me until then.


P.P.S. Otavalo pictures here!