Food is Funny in Foreign Country

Mango Mania

I don't normally like Mango, but today my mom came into my room and told me that she had a mango for me. When she said mango I thought she meant like mango pieces or something. Well she said Mango and she meant Mango. (I don't know why I am capitalizing Mango....as if it was a name....hello, here is my best friend Mango. He's a mango.)

It was a lot bigger than I have ever imagined a mango....not that I spend much time imagining mangoes. Anyway, my host mom cut the mango into three pieces. And then handed me a plate with the three pieces and a knife. Being the Gringo that I am, I haven't had too much experience with Mangoes. So I sat there for like two whole minutes just starting at the mango and the knife...i truly didn't know how to eat it. It wasn't like the mango was cut into conveniently bite-sized pieces or anything. I didn't even know if I was supposed to eat the skin. I'm sure I could have just asked my host mom, but  I was American and I didn't. Emily ate Mango on Friday (although hers did come in bite-sized pieces) and I remembered that the pieces she had didn't have skin. So I decided to just cut little pieces out of the skin. So I did that for the two outside pieces, but I really had no idea what to do with the middle. It's a fruit right? So I knew that there had to be a seed or something somewhere, and since I hadn't run into that yet I figured the seed must be in the middle. Then when i stuck my knife in the middle part it hit something solid. So I just left it. My host mom laughed a little when she saw I completely left the middle part, but didn't say anything. I probably could have eaten the fruit until I got to the seed. But I didn't. It was an interesting experience. And guess what? I might actually like mango. I liked this one anyway. Food is funny in  foreign country. 

Kangaroos and Crabs

I don't have a host dad technically. But my host mom's ex-husband and my host sibling's father, comes over a lot. So he's like my host dad. Anyway, today he came into my room and asked me if I liked to eat "Cangrejo". I stared at him for a sec to make sure he was serious, because the only thing I could think of that Cangrejo could possibly mean was Kangaroo. Of course, I had heard that Ecuadorians ate guinea pigs (cuy) but I had never heard anything about Kangaroos. I wasn't even sure there were Kangaroos in Ecuador. Well, while all this was going through my mind he was still waiting for my response. I must have made a pretty disgusted expression, because he looked at me with concern and asked if I didn't like it. I told him I had never tried it. He seemed relieved and left the room to help make this cangrejo for lunch. I sat in bed worrying that I was going to have to eat Kangaroo for lunch. I didn't know how I was going to survive, I mean I just started eating red meat in August, so I still have to get over the fact that I am eating a pig or a cow.....but a Kangaroo? 

By this time I am sure anyone who speaks spanish is laughing hysterically at me. Because guess what? Cangrejo is not a Kangaroo. Its a crab. (To some people that might not be much better, but to a girl whose father grew up in Connecticut, seafood is not a strange thing.) So don't worry, I won't be eating a Kangaroo for lunch, just a crab. When I figured that out I was quite relieved, let me tell you. But guess what? I wasn't too far off with the whole Kangaroo thing. A Kangaroo is a "Canguro" and a Crab is "Cangrejo". See they are similar!  Food sure is funny in a foreign country. 

Laughing at myself, 

Zoe

Here are some pictures from thanksgiving. I forgot to post them before.

Thanksgiving

So, for all you non-americans, this thursday was thanksgiving! I was really worried about celebrating thanksgiving in a foreign country....and let me say right up front that it was not the best thanksgiving I have ever had, but it was not as bad as that one thanksgiving where my entire family got the stomach flu and we were throwing up the whole time. So yeah, not as bad as that, but not perfect either. 

Part of the thanksgiving dinner that Sofi had planned was a dessert contest. She wanted everyone to bring a dessert that was typical of their family. Well, I pretty much spent this weekend emailing my grandparents and my mom to see how many red cake recipes I could collect. Then, I spent Wednesday trying to figure out how in the world i was going to make the recipe that I had decided on, and then I spent all of Thursday making a completely different red cake recipe than the original one I had planned. Yeah, I was sort of busy. I am posting a picture of the red cake, but I just want to state for the record, that although it doesn't look as good as it normally does, it tastes like red cake, so i must have done something right. 

Gabi and I wrote a play for thanksgiving, to explain to our host parents what thanksgiving was. So Gabi and I went to Xplorer at around 3:30pm to practice the play and help set up for dinner. (The rest of the exchange kids were supposed to come too, but Brian was really the only one who showed up on time, the rest sort of straggled in on Ecuadorian time.) We helped Sofi blow up balloons and we went to the store to get things to help her make Pumpkin Pie too. We didn't actually practice the play until 6 or so and dinner was at 7....and well, the only way I can say this nicely, is that the rest of the Xplorer kids, besides a few exceptions, weren't too supportive of the play. But it was ok, because Gabi and I still got our moment of glory because Sofi convinced us to sing a song. We only really knew one song, and thankfully Emily brought the cd. So we sang For Good from Wicked. It went really well. And honestly, the play wasn't that bad either. Not everything worked out the way I had planned, but the essence was still there, and I guess thats the most important thing.

Dinner was good. It wasn't an American thanksgiving dinner though, so I was a little disappointed. It tasted good though, as long as you didn't think of it as thanksgiving dinner. Dessert was good though. I mean, there were like hundreds. (Well, more like one for every student, so like 7, but still.) Everyone did really well making their desserts. Emily won the dessert contest with her....wait for it......"Better Than Sex Cake". Yes. That is what she made. We all laughed when we heard the name. I wouldn't know if it was better than sex, but it was pretty good. 

I didn't end up going to school on Friday, I was supposed to, but I took a mental health day, because the dinner went way past my bedtime lol. I went to Xplorer later on Friday and we ate pumpkin pie (it hadn't been finished in time for dinner the night before). Then Emily, Gabi and I went to the movie theater and saw Mama Mia. It was good. We had also bought a bunch of movies to watch, so Gabi and Emily slept over and we watched Hairspray and then the next morning we stayed in bed all day and watched movies, including, Pride and Prejudice, The Notebook, and Made of Honor. It was the perfect definition of a do-nothing Saturday. 

I have no plans for today, except for homework. I am a little behind on homework, so I have decided to take a day to catch up. I know, exciting. There was only an early service at church today because its thanksgiving weekend, so I didn't wake up in time to go, and there is no youth group today either. 

Hope everyone had awesome thanksgivings.

Paz, 

Zoe

The Tale of Two Weeks

I haven't written in like 2 weeks I think. And no, my internet hasn't actually been dead that long. I'm terribly sorry that I haven't written in forever, and you probably won't be getting all the details you wish for because its been so long. I think I will just share a couple of interesting things/anecdotes from the past two weeks. 

The Tale of the Mismatching Shoes

So most of you know that Emily lived at my house for about two weeks. Well, 2 weeks ago, she left. Except some of her things stayed. She pretty much has a shelf in my closet for her stuff. Most of that stuff were things that she didn't actually need, however, she did leave something rather important. One of her gym shoes for school. And guess what? She took one of mine! Before you wonder how this happened, i should probably explain something. First of all, our shoes look pretty much exactly the same. They are the "Benalcazar clown shoes" as I like to call them. They are navy blue and super ugly, with a red and blue beanalcazar seal on them. So its not like she left a pink shoe and took a green one. However, the funny part is that my shoe is about 2 sizes bigger than hers. We only have to wear those shoes twice a week, and the day she left was one of them. So both of our shoes were just lying around the room in random spots and she just grabbed two and put them into her suitcase. She found out that thursday when she had to wear them again, and my shoe was like huge on her. I didn't have school that day, so we didn't get to trade back. In fact, we weren't both at school together on either a tuesday or thursday until this tuesday. And although this wouldn't have been much of a problem for Emily, who was wearing a shoe that was too big for her, it was sort of a problem for me, I was wearing a shoe 2 sizes too small. 

The Tale of Friends and American High School Plays

I go to an English-speaking church here, called EFC. And my first week there I met Kelly. Kelly is a 20-something volunteer with a program called youth world. She helps out with an after-school program for kids on the streets. Kelly also helped in the youth group, and she invited me my first time, and I have gone ever since. Well, Kelly went back home to California on Monday. It was hard to let her go, because she has been such a great friend to me, and who knows when I will ever see her again. But the Saturday before she left, the Alliance Academy (the American High School affiliated with my church) did their school play, and Kelly invited me to go see it with her. We met her at the Plaza de las Americas, and then walked to the school. (While Gabi [who ended up coming along too] and I were waiting for her we ate a piece of cake called California, we joked with Kelly that she wouldn't be able to make it home since we ate her state, but I heard from her this week that we must have left some crumbs.) The play was really good. I don't know where I have gotten this impression...but I don't think too highly of high school plays. I mean, maybe I have a biased impression because everyone has told me that OPRF's drama department is at more of a college level, not a high school one. And I am sure everyone is tainted from High School Musical. But anyway, this play was really good. It was mostly improv. (Which means that it wasn't really scripted and the actors made it up as it went along.) It was a retelling of fairy tales. And they were hilarious. It was really fun to watch, and most of the time I couldn't stop laughing. So YAY for the Alliance Academy play!

Ok, so I know that when I started this post I had planned more little stories, but I can't seem to remember what I was going to write, so I guess that the next post will be about thanksgiving. I will try to do that this afternoon. 

Peace, 

Zoe

Dead Internet

So this is just a quick post to say I'm sorry to everyone I unexpectedly cut off on yesterday. 

My internet died. Don't ask me how, it just did. 

So sorry Mom and Dad, for leaving ichat, sorry to all the people I was talking to on facebook, or supposed to talk to on facebook, sorry to all the people I owed emails, I wrote them, they just wouldn't send. 

I didn't do too much of anything yesterday. I watched mindless tv, wrote some emails that wouldn't send, ate food, listened to music, and read a lot. Pretty much being a vegetable.

 I am definitely going to have to start rereading books.

I talked to Emily for a little while yesterday, and she seems pretty happy with her new family. Adjusting to a new part of town might take a little work, so I am sure she would welcome all your thoughts and prayers. 

Hasta Luego, 

Zoe

No School!!!!

So I had school on Monday, unfortunately. But I think they are making up for it with the fact that there are like tons of meetings for teachers this week so we haven't had very many classes. On Monday it felt like I had "demasiado" classes, but today I only had 45min of English, 45min of Chemistry, and then for geography we watched an hour and a half long movie called "La Misma Luna" or what it was called in the U.S. "Under the Same Moon".  When I saw that movie in the U.S. they had conveniently placed English subtitles on all the parts where they spoke Spanish, which was like most of the movie, here however, the subtitles were not present. I understood most of the movie, but some of the jokes and things I didn't quite get. But I really liked the movie. Maybe not quite as much as the first time I saw it, but it was still really sweet. 

La Misma Luna is basically a hollywood-esque story about a 9-year-old mexican boy illegally crossing the border to look for his mom in Los Angeles. I say Hollywood-esque because the hardships that this little boy goes through are not nearly what a real illegal immigrant would have to face. Plus, he is only 9 years old, yet somehow he is able to find a job in Tuscon by himself, well with the help of his not so friendly companion, make it from the Mexican border all the way to Los Angeles, to the exact street where his mother calls him every Sunday morning. Did I mention that this was all in less than a week? Ok, so I guess the movie is sweet, but its just not very realistic. Although, I guess I wouldn't really know since I was born a U.S. citizen and haven't ever had to enter the country illegally, but still.

So other than that my day hasn't been to exciting. Emily got a new family yesterday and is moving out later this afternoon. I am sad to see her go, it was nice to have company all the time, but I know that she needs her own house to go home to, she can't just be a visitor in mine forever. 

I don't have school tomorrow or thursday, which is cool. I do have school Friday though, which means I will definitely have to do my drawing homework. Midterm progress reports (or the Ecuadorian equivalent) come out this week, and I can tell you that I probably only am passing English and maybe one or two other classes. I will probably do better then next few months, but the first month it was just really hard to get used to everything and keep up with school work. 

There might be another post tomorrow about my exciting, do nothing day tomorrow, but who knows, i might actually have something to do. 

Hasta Luego, 

Zoe

Dia De Los Deportes

So today I had to go to school. :( It wasn't actual classes though, which was good, and school started an hour and a half later than usual (but the bus came only an hour later than usual), so I didn't have to wake up until 6:30am. 

Today was Dia de los Deportes, basically the opening ceremonies for the sports season at our school. We have been preparing for it all week, and each course got matching jerseys. Mostly the day consisted of a parade. 

(Ok, so now it is Monday Nov. 10, this turned out to be a two day post.)

Some people got to dress up in costumes and be the class mascot, one girl got to be our beauty queen (not really sure what that was for) and we stood in like this huge line for like forever and then we walked past the parents who were sitting on the bleachers. Then we watched the rest of the other students walk by the bleachers, a lot of them did funny dances and things for the parents. Then we watched a lighted torch run by us and on to the roof to light this other torch thing on the roof. I told you it was like the Olympics. 

We ate some authentic food that the sextos cursos were selling and then Emily and I went.....yes you guessed it, to the mall. We ate ice cream and Emily bought some shoes....we ran into Adam and he followed us around, occasionally groaning about girl shopping, and then we went in search of a cheep dvd store. We didn't find any of the ones we knew about open, and after browsing yet another shoe store (Emily's idea) and then looking at this music store run by Europeans we decided to go home. 

When Emily and I got home we just slept. The whole rest of the day. And I even skipped church on Sunday to sleep some more.... apparently being in the sun all day made us really tired. And guess what? I am once again sunburned....I swear I put on sunscreen though. 

Since I slept most of the weekend,  I wonder why I am so tired today as well? Like it is only 6pm here and I am ready to fall asleep. 

So maybe I should take a nap or something. 

Chao, 

Zoe

P.S. Here is a brief description of the pics up there, in order. The first one is Adam as the mascot for his class, dancing in a tigger costume.  The second one is our class's beauty queen, or "madrina" which actually translates as fairy godmother or something like that, all my friend Cristina said was that it was like the blue lady in Cinderella that said bippity boppity boo. The third one is sort of a general picture of before the parade, there were random other school's marching bands there too, idk why. The last one is of me and Cristina getting ready for the parade in our classroom. 

The Lost Weekend Post

Ok, so I know I promised this post yesterday, but I never got around to writing it, so here it is:

I went to school like normal on Wednesday,

 but when I got home I was feeling really sick so I asked my host mom if I could stay home the next day. She said yes. So I went to bed early, but woke up about a billion times in the night, because guess what? Not only did I feel sick, but I was sick. (I won't go into any more details than that. Trust me. It was bad.) So I stayed home all of Thursday and Friday. Friday I missed the Dia de los Defuntos party at my school, which was sad because I didnt get to try the traditional Colada Morada, however I did have a guagua de pan. (Yes we eat bread babies here.) 

Emily showed up at my house Friday evening, complete with what looked like her entire life trying to fit into two suitcases. (It was more like 3 suitcases if you count all the extra bags she was carrying.) In case that description doesn't automatically tell you, I will tell you in plain and clear language: Emily moved out of her house. Emily's family hadn't really gotten along with her very well from the beginning, but on Thursday something happened that was the last straw, and so while Xplorer is working on finding her a new family, Emily is living with me.

On Saturday we layed in bed and did nothing until about lunchtime and then we ate fast and ran out of the house so that we could go see High School Musical 3. Yes, we saw it. In English with subtitles. It was AMAZING!!! I am pretty sure I am obsessed, anyone who has been talking to me on IM for the past few days can tell you that all I have been listening to are high school musical songs (from 1, 2 and 3). 

Sunday I went to church like normal. Afterward I went to lunch with a family I know from my church. I ended up having so much fun at their house that I just stayed until it was time to go to youth group. Emily spent the day at her church with the missionaries, but she met me at my church to go to youth group with me. It was really fun. 

Monday we didn't have school because of the holiday, so guess what we did? We layed in bed until lunchtime and then went to go see HSM 3! Anyone surprised? I told you I was obsessed didn't I? This time Emily and I went with Gabi and a couple of our friends from youth group. After the movie we went to the mall and got hot chocolate and then went to Family Home Evening at the home of one of the missionary couples from Emily's church. We got home pretty late and Emily and I were complaining that we didn't want to go to school the next day. (Notice that I hadn't gone to school since last Wednesday.) Emily wasn't sure what uniform we were supposed to wear for Tuesday so she called her friend to ask and found out that we didn't have school on Tuesday either. Yep, I know. I love this country. 

Emily and I stayed up all night talking. So we slept in pretty late on Tuesday. And then guess what we did? (If you guessed High School Musical, sorry you guessed wrong.) Gabi came over and we headed to Xplorer because I needed to pick up a package and Emily went to Spanish class. But it would have been funny if we went to go see High School Musical again, wouldn't it? We then stayed up late checking polls on my laptop. We could have watched it on CNN but we didn't really want to stay up all night, and we were worried that if we watched in on TV we might not ever be able to turn it off until we knew who won. I think I was the only one truly excited this morning when I checked who won. Gabi and Emily aren't necessarily McCain supporters, they are just not as politically active as I am. 

Today I actually went to school. I know, you're surprised. And guess what? I am going to go to school tomorrow too! All week even. In fact its the opening ceremonies for the sports teams at our school on Saturday and I am required to attend, so I am even going to go to school on Saturday. But I think we get Monday off because we have to go on Saturday. :-)  

Can I Have this Dance?

Hasta Luego, 

Zoe