San Fashionista

Wow, I could really get used to 3 day weekends—I’m definitely going to have to try and arrange that next year in Chapel Hill! I spent literally all day Friday getting documents and pictures together to obtain my CENSO card, which is basically a temporary ID for my time here. Friday night, my family took me to see downtown Quito by night which was incredible because everything was still lit up for the holidays. All of the really old government buildings were illuminated and its cheesy but everything looked like a post card. They close off one street, called La Ronda, to cars at night and all of the store fronts, restaurants, and bars open up and its basically one big street festival with live music and people everywhere. This used to be a really run down, dangerous part of town but in recent years it has been restored and now it’s one of the city’s centers for artisans, dining, etc. Each store front has a huge caldron of canelazo a drink kind of like hot cider, made from a variety of fruits, cinnamon and the alcohol from sugarcane. They also sell little snacks and sweets that Tania told me were traditional from back during her childhood.

Saturday I went with Ben and Will, 2 of the other UNC students here back to El Centro for some touristy stuff. We took the bus downtown then basically just wandered around for like 6 hours…I have no idea everywhere we went but we were just trying to take it all in. We visited 2 famous churches, La Compania, which is almost completely decorated in gold, and La Basilica, a huge stone church like Notre Dame. We climbed up this tiny, rickety metal ladder to the top of the tower, and from there the view of Quito and the surrounding valleys was incredible. Totally worth the nerve racking climb back down. After one of the $1.25 set-menu lunches in a tiny restaurant, we met up with a friend of one of Ben’s friends, a girl named from Priscilla who lives in Quito now but spent a lot of time in the US before college. She showed us around downtown more and it was interesting learn about the city from someone more familiar with its history. That night I went out with Maria Jose and Daniel for my first trip into La Mariscal, Quito’s nightlife epicenter—also called “gringo-landia” by people from Ecuador because of how many foreigners go there to hang out at night…it’s a really fun and crazy scene.

On Sunday we had breakfast and Daniel’s family’s house in a valley outside of Quito and then went to the “abuelito’s” house where they have a family cook-out every Sunday. You guys would not believe how much meat I ate…seriously. I tried it all, salchichas, like grilled hot dogs, some huge slab of who knows what meat, and grilled chicken. Oh, and they also made my try tripe because I told them I wanted to try everything, which some intestine of a cow…and it definitely wasn’t my favorite. Amidst the conversation one of the cousins told me that the nickname for the U. San Francisco is San Fashionista, which I found funny and totally true.… we were warned before coming that the students at USFQ dress up for class everyday and are really stylish, and I’d definitely noticed that! The language barrier got a little frustrating for the first time really at the cookout because they reminded me so much of my family that I wanted to be able to communicate like I do with you all. But I’m making progress so it will be a little better each time.

I’ve also started trying to run again after adjusting to the altitude for a week or so. There is a huge park by our house where tons of people are always running, walking, or playing soccer but it’s definitely going to take some getting used to. I’m grateful for the opportunity to get out and clear my mind, but 30 minutes of easy jogging literally feels like an hour of sprinting up-hill!