Feliz Navidad!

The last thing I should be doing on Christmas day is sitting in the internet cafe, but I thought I´d take a quick second to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! My Christmas has been filled with lots of church (7 masses in 4 days, to be exact).

Although we are all a little "massed" out, the services have been really special...on Saturday we handed out the bags of clothes that we compiled for each family after a mass in both Centers...Yesterday we went to a gringo mass (first time I´ve been to mass in english in 4 months - very strange), then immediately to a very traditional Ecua-mass out in one of the barrios - it was interesting to so closely observe the differences between the two services. The gringo mass was the typical sort of Christmas Eve mass that I have been going to in the U.S. for the past 23 years - beautiful chapel, nice carols, nativity story, pretty but tasteful decorations, everyone dressed to the nines in their new christmas outfits, etc. The Ecua-mass, on the other hand, was absolutely crazy! I wasn´t all that surprised since I´ve learned by now that Ecuadorians know how to celebrate holidays better than anyone else in the world. We walked in (the last ones to arrive, but a benefit of travelling with the priest - mass can´t start until you get there so you´re never actually late!) to extremely loud, exuberant singing and clapping. The church was decorated with tons of flowers, colorful banners, a live nativity scene, candles, and little baby Jesus´dressed up in gold, lace, and sequins by every family. The place was packed! And by place, I mean shed, more or less. Most people stood the entire time because there weren´t enough seats. It literally felt like a party in there. I could go on and on, but I have a feeling that no matter how hard I try to describe every detail, words just won´t do it justice! The final two masses today included the First Communion of our second graders. Three of my students are second graders so it was fun to see them all dressed up and so excited to take communion for the first time - I felt like a proud mama!

Although it´s been wonderful to spend Christmas in Ecuador this year, with these people who have become such an important and special part of my life, it does definitely feel different. First of all, the weather (which I won´t even describe for you because if you´ve been reading, you know what it´s like, and, well, I feel like I shouldn´t rub it in anymore!)...but mostly, it´s strange to not be with family and friends in Minnesota. I miss you all so much and you are in my thoughts and prayers. I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas!

Love,
Keely

I ended up staying here last weekend and enjoying 4 days of doing NOTHING...and that included blogging. oops. I have been busy, as usual, though preparing for the end of my first trimester!

Speaking of which, I cannot believe Christmas is one week away! The lack of snow and presence of warm weather in December has made it difficult to get into the Christmas spirit...but the last week has been full of Christmas decorating, cookie making (mom, you´d be proud), and singing carols by the fireplace, so it´s starting to feel a little more like Christmas time in Ecuador! We are teaching our english classes a few holiday songs and it might be the funniest thing I´ve ever heard..."way weeeeesh you a merrrrrrrrrrry chreeeeeeestmas!" They love it though, and we do too (mostly because it means less actual class planning to do...haha).

Six of us are taking salsa dancing lessons on saturday afternoons. It is so fun, and hilariously awkward at the same time. White girls (and boys) were just not made to move their hips! We´ve already learned a lot though in 2 lessons...so much so, that we thought we were good enough (after a few margaritas) to show off our moves at an actual club after our lesson on saturday night. haha. The best part was that our instructor ended up coming to the same club and probably felt like it was his duty to dance with us. That´s when I realized I wasn´t as good as I thought.

Well, I´m out. Thinking about you all a lot lately, and wishing we could be together for Christmas...

Much Love,
Keely

It´s December 4th...

and I´m wearing flip flops (my current most "favorite thing about life in Quito").

I have also recently come to appreciate the lack of organization, timeliness, preparation, and prompt communication in this city, and particularly, at the Centro del Muchacho Trabajador. Tomorrow is the Center´s 43rd birthday, and this week is Fiestas de Quito, so we´ve known since September 1st that we would not have school Wednesday (birthday party) and Thursday (national holiday for the founding of Quito). Naturally, we all thought it was slightly ridiculous that we have 2 days of school, 2 days off, then 1 day of school, then 2 days off, and were hoping that they would just cancel classes on Friday as well. Rumors have been circluating for the past week...school/no school/school/no school/school/nobody really knows what´s going on at all ever. Last night it was "confirmed" that we would indeed "for sure" be having classes on Friday. A mere 12 hours later, they announce that, oops, actually, we´ve come to our senses, and there won´t be classes on Friday! Woo hoo! Now, you can imagine the skepticism that came with this announcement (especially because it was relayed to us via the 2 most sarcastic, joke-sters in the house), but it has been CONFIRMED by the Madre herself - I have a 4 day weekend!!! (Tomorrow doesn´t really count since we´ll be up at 6am to cook breakfast for all 2,000 members, then organizing and helping (and eating, dancing, and playing) until 10 tomorrow night). Now the question is...what to do with all this free time? Hang out with the kids? Take a trip to the beach? Sleep? Stay home and get some work done? Go climb a mountain somewhere? The options are virtually endless - It´s like Christmas 3 weeks early! Seriously, you should see us, walking around like we just won the lottery or something (or as Stuart much more bluntly put it, "we all have those shitty I-just-got-laid grins on our faces" - sorry if that´s not blog-appropriate).

Anyway, it´s looking like I will have PLENTLY of time to fill you in on the details of the birthday party, fiestas, and free time in the coming days :). Until then, I hope you are all having shitty grin kind of days as well, and please go outside and make a snow angel for me! (As much as I love my flip flops, I do miss the snow a tiny bit).

Love Love Love Love Love,
Keely

What. A. Weekend.

I could not have asked for a more memorable Ecua-birthday! The celebration started on Friday night by celebrating one of my student's and her brother's birthday at their house - their mom works at the center and invited 7 of us to join them for the party. After a long week, none of us really felt like doing anything but going home, however, it ended up being a really fun night of eating delicious chicken curry and cake, dancing up a storm, and meeting lots of cool people.

Saturday morning, Emily and I went to the salon below our house (literally - it's part of the center, and run by students who have graduated) to get pedicures - $3 for an hour and a half of scrubbing, massaging, scraping, and polishing...I could get used to this! It was wonderful! Saturday night, we all headed out to Secret Garden, a restaurant set on a garden terrace overlooking the city. It could have been the breathtaking view, or maybe the fact that I was on the verge of turning a year older, or it very possibly could have just been the wine, but I was overcome with emotion for the majority of the evening. It was an odd feeling...to have such an intense longing to be at home, with my friends and family, celebrating the way I've always celebrated...but, at the same time, to feel an overwhelming sense of contentment and joy to be where I was...and to realize that this place now feels like home, and these people are my family.

We were walking to our favorite dance club in gringoland, when everyone suddenly stopped, started singing happy birthday, corked a bottle of champagne, and showered me with chocolates and cigars...I realized, after a few minutes, that it was midnight - officially the day of my birth! It was a pretty special moment - one that I won't soon forget! We proceeded to consume more than enough tequila (my liquor of choice) and dance the night away. Sunday included all of my favorite things - soccer, thanksgiving dinner, football, good company, naps, and lots of laughing.

And the birthday celebration didn't even end there! (As Aaron put it, "apparently you need to clear your schedule for 4 days to appropriately celebrate Keely's birthday."). The birthday tradition in the house is that you get to pick dinner and dessert on your birthday, and since thanksgiving dinner fell on my day, I got to pick dinner for Monday (although, I would have been completely content with considering thanksgiving my birthday meal as well). So, Monday night included fajitas, chocolate cake, and another round of singing and celebrating.

It was a pretty special birhtday indeed, but I owe most of that to my friends and family in Chaska who organized and attended the "Keely's not so in America birthday party." When everyone here found out that my birthday was being celebrated at home, despite my absense, they knew they had A LOT to live up to! Thanks again for all the b-day wishes, cards, and packages! Love you all.

Feliz Dia de Gracias!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mine was filled with trying to explain why exactly we eat turkey on this day in the U.S. and translating the cute stickers my mom sent me (still trying to figure out how to say "gobble gobble" in español...). I also found out why I have been feeling so crappy...well, pretty much since I arrived in Ecuador! Turns out I have parasites and a urinary infection (sorry if that´s too much information, but I know some of you wanted to know what was up as soon as I found out). Both are curable with medication, so hopefully I will be feeling as good as new by the end of next week.

It´s been a great week, but I am pretty excited for this weekend...I will save the details for after the fact, but plans include birthday dinner on a balcony restaurant overlooking the city, football and futbol, thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings, and lots of chill time.

That´s the quick update for now. Thank you so much to those who have already sent birthday cards and packages! Not only does your thoughtfulness and generosity mean the world to me, but you helped me win a bet too! Jeff bet me that I wouldn´t get more than 5 packages in the 10 days surrounding my birthday - I´ve already received 7, and it´s only been 4 days! He obviously has no clue what kind of amazing family and friends he´s dealing with here...

Please know that words cannot express how thankful I am for your many forms of support, prayers, thoughts, and generosity over these last 3 months. I would not be able to do this without you.

Love,
Keely

My favorite things....

...about life in Quito:

1. I just ate a huge bowl of encebollado (delicious fish/yuca soup) for $1.30.
2. waking up every morning to the view of the mountains out my bedroom window.
3. prefect weather - sunny and cool with no humidity.
4. you can buy wine in a box for $3 and it´s still considered classy (not to mention, delicious).
5. my laundry is done for me.
6. putting ahi (sort of a homemade hot sauce) on EVERYTHING.
7. drinking tea all day long, everyday.
8. sitting on our patio every night, drinking (before mentioned) wine, looking at the stars, chatting with my compañeros, and relaxing.
9. fresh-baked bread is delivered to our door every morning (from the bakery below our house).
10. NO BUGS. (seriously. my windows don´t even have screens).


And that´ll do for now. For those of you who know me well or have ever lived with me, I am a huge list-maker. I make lists constantly, for everything and anything. Thus, I´ve acquired several different lists of several different varieties since I´ve been here, and I´ve recently determined that it´s time to share some of them with the world...hence, the first installment of "my favorite things about life in Quito," with a promise of more to come later.

The last week has been tainted by this odd sort of dizziness/nauseousness/light-headedness/splitting headache/short of breath/you get the idea. I´ve been having dizzy spells and feeling faint off and on for a few weeks, but it would come and go so randomly that I didn´t think much of it...until I was experiencing the feeling last Monday, and it didn´t go away...until, well, I´m still feeling a little "off," to be quite honest. It got so bad by the middle of last week, that I ended up taking a day off (unheard of and nearly impossible to do around here), spent all of my free time in bed for a few days, and had blood tests done last Friday. The doctor I talked to thinks it may have something to do with suddenly having a different diet here than I do at home (ie. anemia, high cholesterol, or something like that), parasites, or just plain emotional and physical exhaustion with the added factor of...dun, dun, dun, ALTITUDE! I am starting to feel much better, but I should find out the test results by Tuesday, so we´ll see...

The hardest part about being sick is feeling like I am seriously letting down my students. One of the most important things we can give our students is a consistent, stable environment, so it´s frustrating when I can´t physically be there for them. Oddly enough, I miss them too when I don´t see them for a single day! (proven by the fact that I would dream about them every time I slept for those few days). Even when I was able to go to class, I did not have the energy or desire to put a whole lot of effort into planning and teaching, causing me to feel quilty and easily irritated by their antics...probably caused, in the first place, by my lack of planning! It´s a vicious cycle, I tell you! Haha, anyway, I am so lucky to have amazing fellow volunteers who take great care of me and cover my responsibilities without hesitation, and students who love and forgive so unconditionally.

Please think of me this week as you all eat your turkey and mashed potatoes! I will be educating the minds of young ecuadorian children, just like every other day of the week :). We do get to have our own little Thanksgiving on Sunday though(which also happens to be the 23rd birthday of yours truly), so you don´t have to feel too bad! I know that this is the beginning of a month or so that will be filled with lots of mixed emotions...as I miss my family and friends during the holidays, remember the traditions that are going on at home, but still get the pretty special opportunity to celebrate here, in a different way. Miss you all.

Love,
Keely

Baños, etc.

No, I´m not going to write about Ecuadorian bathrooms, for those of you who know Spanish (that´s what baño literally means), but just in case you are curious...they are generally disgusting, cost 10 cents to use and 20 cents if you want toilet paper, don´t usually include a toilet seat, and never have soap or mirrors.

Anyway, my trip to Baños (in this case, meaning baths) last weekend was excellent, even though I did not set foot on a bike - what I so looked forward to doing while I was there. Instead, we opted to spend Saturday white water rafting! I had never done it before so I couldn´t pass up the chance, and I´m so glad I didn´t! I was a little bit nervous (especially after the 20 minute SPANISH explanation of what to do if you fall out), but it turned out to be a very cool, trilling experience. We had a few close calls (I think everyone ALMOST fell out at one point or another), but luckily I was really good at the "inside!" command and flew into the middle of the raft before our guide even finished yelling the word every single time. For you experienced rafters out there, we mostly took on class 4 rapids...and for those who have no idea what that means, our guide told us at the end that he was "pretty impressed with our skils, since the majority of rafts flip at some point on that course." Good. Thank you for not telling me that beforehand.

Other than that, we spent our time in Baños eating really good food, taking in the nightlife, and riding chivas (open air bus type things that also have "seats" on an attached back platform and the roof), and enjoying the beautiful mountainous scenery. Although it was a really fun trip and I´m glad I went, it was surprisingly nice to be back in Quito on Sunday afternoon. For the first time, I got that feeling that I remember so distinctly after returning from one particular weekend trip in London as well...It´s good to be home.

I´ve been sitting here for 5 minutes trying to determine what to write about next and nothing is popping out in my memory as extrememly blog-worthy, so I´m going to spare you and leave it at that for now. Thanks for reading though. Miss you and love you all!