The Tsunami

No, we didn't really have a tsunami, that is just the choice word my mom uses for recent happenings. haha Believe me, it was a tsunami but there were also some good things that happened. To begin with, last week was just a normal week of classes. I am having some troubles in my environmental studies class but somehow the girls and I manage to keep it interesting-just maybe not about the material we learn. Spanish is a boring class for me this term because it is a lot of spanish that I learned/reviewed last semester at Ambrose. Next semester might kick me in the butt because of the pace we move at but I feel that I should be alright...afterall, I did two years of Spanish in high school and we are at the beginner level now. My Ecuador Experience class is usually boring too, but on Tuesday we watched a movie called In the Time of the Butterflies. I liked that movie a lot and I suggest people to watch it. It is more of a romantic drama movie and it tells the real story of a family fighting for the liberation of the Dominican Republic. It has Salma Hayek as the main character and Marc Anthony as a temporary minor character. Anyways, we also had a speaker last Thursday who taught us about an ancient (Mayan or Incan, I can't remember) ritual called Shamatism that honors the sun gods. Basically, this ritual-which we all took part in-releases the bad energy you have in your body. It uses only liquid made using natural medicinal plants (no, marijuana is not one of them), an egg, and yourself. It was really cool because you were supposed to feel the good energy you have in your hands at one point and then you share it with someone else and I actually felt a warm, almost ticklish feeling in my hands while they placed their ball of energy into my hands (of course, we did this all without actually touching hands).
Friday we had dance class but before I walked there, my brother and I met up with another girl and went to this chocolate store. This lady has all types of chocolate and my mouth waters just walking into the store because it smells like fresh chocolate every time. After buying a few for myself and my brother, we stopped at an ice cream place to buy an ice cream cake for a girl's, Zoe's, birthday we were celebrating that night. So we eventually got to dance class and had an hour of intense dancing and our teacher invited us to dance with him in the streets during Carnival-which is a huge holiday celebrated here! Afterwards, we had the cake and went to a Mexican restaurant to eat. Then we went to an old cathedral and a few of us stayed to listen to the Cuenca orchestra playing inside and the rest left, but after a while we joined them once again. They had gone to another girl's house to wait until it was late
 enough to go dancing, so in the meantime they had bought a bottle of alcohol and were playing a card game (don't worry guys, I stayed completely sober the whole night). When it was late enough, we were going to go to a karaoke bar but instead saw another group from school at a different place so we joined them. It was dead when we walked in, but once again, leave it to our awesome gringa group to bring in a bunch of people and start the party! Long night in a single sentence, two girls ended up being really sick and we had to get them out of there. The girl who was in worse condition stayed at my house because my brother and I were both there and we agreed it would be better to have more than one person take care of her and since we live together, it just seemed a lot easier to have her stay with us. I ended up going to bed that night at about 4am and I had to get up at 5:45am. Somehow, I managed to accomplish that, get to the other girl's house so she could grab her stuff for the weekend, walk back to CEDEI, and still have time to sit around and wait.
It was a 3 hr. ride to Saraguro so most of us slept but it was too bumpy and curvy that I only fell half asleep. We arrived at our hostal and traveled off in a haytruck fixed with benches and a roof. We rode another 9km before we toured a museum and school in a little community outside Saraguro. We were told about the traditions they teach the students so they will survive through the generations and more about the living style of the older generation. We were going to go on a two hour hike up the side of the mountain, but it was too foggy and if someone slipped off this foot and a half wide path, they would fall down the mountain. So we went back to the hostal and most people took a nap before our trip later on. We went to a weaving workshop in Saraguro where an older man showed us how he weaves tableclothes, blankers, rugs, and scarfs made from a variety of materials-including alpaca. There was a woman who showed us some of the jewelry she had made out of tiny beads and we had the chance to buy something if we wanted, but we would
also have a chance to buy gifts the next day.  We left the workshop and ate our dinner of trout, yuka (almost like a potato), and salad with cheese in honey for dessert. First of all, this wasn't just a fish filet...it was a whole fish with the head and scales and bones! This was my first whole fish I've ever had and it was pretty good. I really liked the dessert of cheese and honey but I couldn't stand the texture of the cheese so I only ate the honey, which was very good. Afterwards, they played music for us-to which we danced to of course. I showed off my awesome line dancing skills to the group and taught them all one line dance. We left again for the hostal and we had a bonfire that night that consisted of talking mostly in Spanish, cookies, s'mores (Ecuador style), and almost catching on fire because someone added too much gasoline to the fire........what? It's ok, I'm still alive!
The next morning, we got up early again and were served breakfast. We then traveled to a village outside of Saraguro and took part in a full ceremonial Shamatism (the first one didn't count because he could only teach it, not perform it). Once again, we had to get the evil spirit out of us so we had to drink this really nasty liquid and also had something really strong poured on our hands that we had to sniff...this stuff burns your nose but yet you continue to sniff it until you no longer feel that burning. But they do say that it's good if you cough after smelling it because that releases your bad energy. We headed back to town for some serious shopping...if you know me, you know it is rare for me to say that I enjoyed the shopping but I really did! Almost everything in the market was handmade and was pretty cheap considering how much time and effort it would have taken. What I normally would have spent $200 or more on in the U.S., I only paid like $35 or $40 for! We had lunch at a different place for lunch, which is only made for special occasions like weddings.
 There was barley, bread, hard-boiled egg, corn, agi (a very common 'spicy' sauce here, but I know better dad), cheese, and chicken...oh let's not forget the first cuy (guinea pig) I've had! You mix it all together and eat it, and it was really good! I tried the cuy and it was very tough and tasteless, so I gave half to one of the leaders and ate the other half myself. We then had to come home to rest before classes today.
This week, there is nothing going on until Friday, so don't expect too much in the next entry haha. Tomorrow we go out for lunch because it is the Zoe's birthday but I'm not even sure where we are going. My mom invited me to go with her on Wednesday night to a therapy exercise class so I might go, depending on what homework I have to do that night-which probably won't be anything. So until next time, adios!