I am a MAN

Yes, that is true...I´ve been doing some manly things down here in Ecuador recently...lets delve into my newest batch of stories shall we?

So a couple weeks ago, my host mother turned I-have-no-idea-how-old-its-just-as-rude-to-ask-here-as-it-is-in-the-US-which-I-found-out-in-a-very-awkward-way, and I decided to do something special to celebrate: cook dinner, especially since my host father told me that we were going to get a grill. So I told the family that I would grill out. Which was nice, considering I had the thought of cooking a flank steak for the 6 of us and using Uncle Frank´s recepie which I have already done a couple times back home.

It´s amazing how quickly plans change here, and how unneccesary it is to let everyone in on the changes until a couple minutes before... Needless to say, the small dinner party turned into me cooking over 20 pounds of 6 different types of meat, with 4 different marinades, for over 25 people. I was the gringo grillmaster....and it turned out pretty damn well... I´ve also decided that Italian dressing is the most underrated marinade for chicken....absolutely amazing. Then the younger generation stayed up until 7 again....the family Serrano Lazo knows how to throw parties...

Then this past weekend I went with Arlene and her class on another field trip. We went to Ambato first, where we went on a tour of a quinta of Juan Leon Mera....A quinta is another word for a house of some kind with a garden, and Juan Leon Mera was an Ecuadorian....who wrote a song...Clearly, I was still a little tired from our 9 hour night bus ride....We then ate chicken, and slept a little, and then met up with the WT volunteers there for some pizza and went back to the hotel and watched movies. The next day we left for Baños, which is named for it´s natural baths...to which we did not go. Instead, we took a Chiva, which is spanish for large truck which flies around hairpin turns while the drivers are drinking beer, on a waterfall tour, where we saw beautiful landscapes and about 7 waterfalls that were very impressive. On this tour we also stopped at a place where two bridges crossed a large gourge some 20 meters below. If someone knows how much that is in American, please tell me, because I haven´t done the math yet...It was here that I was strapped in, climbed up on the railing, and dove into the void to complete one of the goals I had in life: go bungee jumping... It was awesome.... And I´m definitely going to do it again.

After the first Chiva ride and a little rest, we took a second Chiva ride at night up to the top of a volcano, which was ridiculous. Here we could see the whole city of Baños, we drank canelazo, and there is absolutely no way that´s spelled correctly, and saw people swinging flaming balls around their heads and bodies in some creepy ritualistic display.

The next day we went to Riobamba, where we walked around a little bit, ate some chicken, and then stayed in the Hotel all day because people were tired. I also bought some movies.

Finally, we went to Chimborrazo, one of the tallest volcanoes in Ecuador and I finally got to see snow! It´s the end of November here and I am sweating here right now, at 1230 at night, in shorts and a tshirt in my living room, so seeing and playing with snow was a nice change. Then we took a long long bus ride back to Machala, a half hour into which my body decided to attempt to reject the 50th piece of chicken I had eaten on the trip. Fortunately, I am more powerful than my body suggests, and I was able to wait until we stopped at a rest stop to disperse of the foul poultry.

Wow, I just realized it´s Thanksgiving now, so for all of you who read this today, happy thanksgiving and here´s to the cowboys losing to the seahawks. I also told my host family that I´d cook a turkey for them, and my plans were to get a whole one, cook it with gravy and stuffing and all that jazz... So of course, now I´ve got 6 filets of turkey breast and some spices...tomorrow should be interesting...

Per your request Dad

To begin....thank goodness that crazy woman alaska didnt come one heart attack away from being our next president...

Now that I´ve alienated all my republican friends...

Life here in Machala continues to be good. My family is still awesome, I´m still employed, and I just got back from my first Ecuadorian wedding, which was a blast. But let me start a few weeks back, because there are some things I wanted to write before I forget them.

People have been asking me if I´ve gone out here in Machala yet...and while I have (halloween I went to a discotec with my students.....), I´ve only been out a few times, because my weekends here have been incredibly busy, and I´ve already travelled a decent amount. Even the weekends during which I am here have been busy. For example, last month was Lizette´s birthday (that´s my eldest host sister if you haven´t memorized my Ecuadorian family tree yet). So we had a party here at the house. Apart from being really well organized, this party was also a lot of fun. It started out a little awkward, because there were two groups, Lizette´s work friends (very professional), and then family friends from high school and stuff like that (not so professional), but once the beer and mint liquor began to flow, it got pretty loose in a hurry. We danced for a quick minute....a very long quick minute....and then one of the guys pulled out his guitar, and we spent literally over an hour and a half listening and/or singing to Ecuadorian songs. After three or four songs, the guy would start to play an American song and look over at me...as if to say, yeah buddy, I know about your culture.... After a while people started to chant for me to start singing, but the problem was that as I listen to music first and words second, I didn´t know most of the words to the songs he was playing. Finally...at about 4 in the morning, I sang Radiohead´s "Creep" to a crowd of about 25 people...which was interesting to say the least... A few of us then stayed up talking and tomando-ing until the sun rose...

This party also turned me on to what are the best hot dogs I´ve ever had in my life...I´m not kidding, they are absolutely amazing down here...and definitely rival mexidogs from Cookout...which, for anyone who knows me, is a HUGE thing for me to say. The hot dogs here are served with ketchup, mustard, mayo, potato chips crumbled on top, and the best thing in the world, onion sauce, which is sweet and delectable. Really...they´re amazing.

Other weekends I´ve been to Guayaquil, as I´ve related, Jambeli (the beach island only a 20 minute boat ride away...if anyone comes to visit we are staying at least a night there, it´s awesome), Cuenca (for their independence day parties, where we went to a parade, saw Correa in person, and also had an almost 2 hour long discussion over sexism and racism (with other volunteers, not with Correa), a hydro-electric plant and my second of the three petrified forests in the world (on a field trip with Arlene), as well as this wedding in Zaruma, two hours away and a candidate for the Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad...

Zaruma is a pretty sweet city. It´s an old mining town, my family told me multiple times how it was my people who came down to their country and took their riches from them. We actually got to go to the mine and tour it, going way down underground. Since my family is so short, they took much pleasure out of me smacking my head into the rock ceiling multiple times....it´s a really good thing I had my hard hat on...

The wedding itself was awesome. I was a little apprehensive, considering they dance at weddings, but this was the first time in a long long long time that I´ve had fun dancing, and I´ve finally begun to learn how to move without looking like I´m made of plastic. Good thing, because they played Rihanna´s "Please don´t stop the music", the only gringo song they played, and everyone pushed me onto the dance floor because it was "my music". So, for the Lazo extended family and the friends of their newly wed cousin, their image of Americans dancing to hip hop/rap is of a white kid with ties to Norway who is gangly, tall, and until 2 hours before that moment, rigidly inflexible when it comes to the hip region. The food was absolutely amazing tho! And I had long conversations with extended family and apparently made an excellent impression...unlike German, who refused to dance even tho 7 guys including a little cousin and our host father asked her....there comes a point, and I know this because I´ve reached this point....where you stop worrying abotu being uncomfortable, suck it up, and do soemthing because it´s respectful of your hosts and reflects well on them...needless to say things have not improved with her...

Oh, and also, I´ve changed my opinion on whiskey somewhat....before it was my least favorite trago, now, after a night of only being able to drink Johnny Walker mixed with ice and water, it´s actually grown on me a little bit. I´m sure you´re thrilled to hear that mom....

Finally, when the new couple went around and took pictures with every table, it turned out so that I occupied the honorable position of standing right next to the groom, as if we had been friends since elementary school...they should get a laugh at that when they look at the pictures...

I´m literally falling asleep in my chair, so I´m going to go to bed, but I´ll be putting up new pictures soon and finally writing an entry on my classes, so stay tuned!