About Me
- Name: Well
- Location: Washington, DC, United States
I'm not good at journaling. But I do like my Mac. And I often have random bits of ideas float through my head that I wish I could pin down in a portable format. Hence, this blog: a place for outward commentary, and digital logging of things I might want to remember later.
Links
Archives
Monday, March 07, 2005
Miss you again already I
Today was the end of a great great week! Even when they got here Monday I still couldn't quite believe they were here and it was so exciting to have people visiting from home!
Monday Raq picked Alex and Amanda up at the airport in the afternoon after a long trip, so they were napping at my house when I got home from school. So surreal to see them here! After they woke up and got settled (Alex got my room and Esh and I shared the sofa bed), we chatted about the latest Quito/Goshen happenings, and we all had a big welcome dinner with them and my host family. In the evening we took a walk around the city and they enjoyed the slightly-warmer-than-Goshen weather.
Tuesday I headed to school early, they slept in and then met Rachel for lunch in Cumbayá (the valley USFQ is in). Raq gave them a tour of the university, then they joined her for her salsa class and did pretty well from what I heard! It was a review day, so they got to practice all the steps and hip movements the class had learned up till then. After a torturously long day of classes (who wants to have literary discussions when much more interesting people are nearby??) I was more than ready to be done with school for the day and meet up with the 3 of them for ice cream. Tragedy of tragedies... the ice cream place was out of mango!! I was momentarily forlorn, but they got to try exotic fruit flavors anyway. And Amanda was hooked on helados for the whole week, so she must have enjoyed it anyway. After hanging out for a bit at my house Tues. afternoon, Vane and Pablo came by to pick us up. They took us to the artisan market, then drove us through the Centro Histórico which is all lit up at night, then we went to Café Mosaíco for dessert and the view. Everyone here tends to eat big lunches and then very little for dinner, so we kind of forgot to feed Alex and Amanda, oops! They were starving so we went to a Pizzeria and ate a late supper. Then it was back home to get ready for an early start the next morning.
Wednesday I hauled Amanda and Alex out of bed at around 7.30am, and Vane's mom and sister Rebeca and Jimena came to pick us up. We took a day trip to Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World, e.g. the Equator) checked out the museum there and enjoyed the sun. We also visited the artisan shops where they bought a few gifts. Amanda also could not resist the temptation presented by a basket of tiny wrapped packages, marked ¨Surprises, $.10¨. How could you not be dying to know what's inside? Having come with mostly large bills, which are basically like not having money in most places in Ecuador because no one will give you that much change, I pitched in a dime to satisfy her curiosity. Her prize was a necklace, a little blue glass heart on a black string, which she was delighted with. She even splurged on $1 pair of a blue dangly earrings to match! Next Rebeca and Jimena took us to eat lunch, and I got the impression that they kinda liked the food. Amanda had a humita(tamale), a quimbolito(sweet tamale), 2 empanadas, and 2 milkshakes. Then we drove back to Quito, picked up Jimena's son Juan Diego from kindergarten, and went out for ice cream. We were all stuffed by the time we got back to my house! Good stuff... We then took a quick nap until Rachel got done with her classes (I only had one, so I skipped:) ). We spent the afternoon walking around the city and visited el Palacio de Cristal, where there is a gorgeous view. Well, at just about every corner there is a pretty view in Quito, so we kept stopping for photo-ops. Then we took another trip to the artisan market now that Amanda had brought more money with her, before heading to the Andean Ballet. The ballet was a collection of about 12 dances from different areas or populations of Ecuador, and other than one random moment where a guy in a gorilla suit started running through one of the dances (it was part of the act, tho a fairly incomprehensible one), it was pretty cool. After the show it was off to an Indian restaurant, where we stuffed ourselves again full of delicious food! Our waiter was a New Yorker with Indian relatives (his cousin owned the place), who doesn't really like Indian food. We did though! By the time we got home we had just enough energy to chat for awhile before heading to bed.
Thursday I let the visitors sleep in a little, till 8.30am, and Rebeca came to pick them up at 9.30. Rachel and I had class all morning, so Rebeca took them on a tour of a lot of the museums and historical churches in the Centro Histórico, then showed them around her house in Valle de los Chillos. She made them some typical Ecuadorian foods, home-cooked this time, and they were once again very well-fed. (Amanda swore she gained 5lbs just during the time she was here.) Rachel and Kathleen and I went to see Finding Neverland (starring Rachel's love, Johnny Depp) while they were still out and about, and Rachel actually cried during a movie! I thought it was good too, sentimental but not overly sweet. After they had a nap, Alex and Amanda met us at Raquel's host parents' house for dinner. More food! It was delicious, and they got to keep practicing their Spanish (Rebeca doesn't speak much English so they took my electronic translator and were on their own for the day!). I was planning to take them out to a club after dinner, but Raq had to get up super early for class, and everyone else we were planning to go out with ended up calling to say they couldn't for one reason or another. It was already 11pm when we got back from Rachel's, which definitely isn't too late to go out here, but they were tired so I let them off the hook.
Monday Raq picked Alex and Amanda up at the airport in the afternoon after a long trip, so they were napping at my house when I got home from school. So surreal to see them here! After they woke up and got settled (Alex got my room and Esh and I shared the sofa bed), we chatted about the latest Quito/Goshen happenings, and we all had a big welcome dinner with them and my host family. In the evening we took a walk around the city and they enjoyed the slightly-warmer-than-Goshen weather.
Tuesday I headed to school early, they slept in and then met Rachel for lunch in Cumbayá (the valley USFQ is in). Raq gave them a tour of the university, then they joined her for her salsa class and did pretty well from what I heard! It was a review day, so they got to practice all the steps and hip movements the class had learned up till then. After a torturously long day of classes (who wants to have literary discussions when much more interesting people are nearby??) I was more than ready to be done with school for the day and meet up with the 3 of them for ice cream. Tragedy of tragedies... the ice cream place was out of mango!! I was momentarily forlorn, but they got to try exotic fruit flavors anyway. And Amanda was hooked on helados for the whole week, so she must have enjoyed it anyway. After hanging out for a bit at my house Tues. afternoon, Vane and Pablo came by to pick us up. They took us to the artisan market, then drove us through the Centro Histórico which is all lit up at night, then we went to Café Mosaíco for dessert and the view. Everyone here tends to eat big lunches and then very little for dinner, so we kind of forgot to feed Alex and Amanda, oops! They were starving so we went to a Pizzeria and ate a late supper. Then it was back home to get ready for an early start the next morning.
Wednesday I hauled Amanda and Alex out of bed at around 7.30am, and Vane's mom and sister Rebeca and Jimena came to pick us up. We took a day trip to Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World, e.g. the Equator) checked out the museum there and enjoyed the sun. We also visited the artisan shops where they bought a few gifts. Amanda also could not resist the temptation presented by a basket of tiny wrapped packages, marked ¨Surprises, $.10¨. How could you not be dying to know what's inside? Having come with mostly large bills, which are basically like not having money in most places in Ecuador because no one will give you that much change, I pitched in a dime to satisfy her curiosity. Her prize was a necklace, a little blue glass heart on a black string, which she was delighted with. She even splurged on $1 pair of a blue dangly earrings to match! Next Rebeca and Jimena took us to eat lunch, and I got the impression that they kinda liked the food. Amanda had a humita(tamale), a quimbolito(sweet tamale), 2 empanadas, and 2 milkshakes. Then we drove back to Quito, picked up Jimena's son Juan Diego from kindergarten, and went out for ice cream. We were all stuffed by the time we got back to my house! Good stuff... We then took a quick nap until Rachel got done with her classes (I only had one, so I skipped:) ). We spent the afternoon walking around the city and visited el Palacio de Cristal, where there is a gorgeous view. Well, at just about every corner there is a pretty view in Quito, so we kept stopping for photo-ops. Then we took another trip to the artisan market now that Amanda had brought more money with her, before heading to the Andean Ballet. The ballet was a collection of about 12 dances from different areas or populations of Ecuador, and other than one random moment where a guy in a gorilla suit started running through one of the dances (it was part of the act, tho a fairly incomprehensible one), it was pretty cool. After the show it was off to an Indian restaurant, where we stuffed ourselves again full of delicious food! Our waiter was a New Yorker with Indian relatives (his cousin owned the place), who doesn't really like Indian food. We did though! By the time we got home we had just enough energy to chat for awhile before heading to bed.
Thursday I let the visitors sleep in a little, till 8.30am, and Rebeca came to pick them up at 9.30. Rachel and I had class all morning, so Rebeca took them on a tour of a lot of the museums and historical churches in the Centro Histórico, then showed them around her house in Valle de los Chillos. She made them some typical Ecuadorian foods, home-cooked this time, and they were once again very well-fed. (Amanda swore she gained 5lbs just during the time she was here.) Rachel and Kathleen and I went to see Finding Neverland (starring Rachel's love, Johnny Depp) while they were still out and about, and Rachel actually cried during a movie! I thought it was good too, sentimental but not overly sweet. After they had a nap, Alex and Amanda met us at Raquel's host parents' house for dinner. More food! It was delicious, and they got to keep practicing their Spanish (Rebeca doesn't speak much English so they took my electronic translator and were on their own for the day!). I was planning to take them out to a club after dinner, but Raq had to get up super early for class, and everyone else we were planning to go out with ended up calling to say they couldn't for one reason or another. It was already 11pm when we got back from Rachel's, which definitely isn't too late to go out here, but they were tired so I let them off the hook.
Posted by: Well / 4:21 PM 
