Ambassador Emily, Family trip to Ambato, & a new Constitution

Last week my classmates and I went to talk to the director of a university about her views on education in Ecuador. When we were introducing ourselves, my professor followed me up, saying, “She’ll become the U.S. ambassador to Ecuador.” The director replied, “Good, well you’re prettier than the one that we have now.” It was pretty funny.

Speaking of my education classes, I am super lucky to be in the education track. Our profs are so intelligent and excellent teachers, making the 8am classes worth it even though all the other students don’t come in until 9. Sometimes I don’t feel so lucky but then we start class and I remember why I dragged my butt out of bed early.

We we also had an Ecuadorian food fest this week. We all had to prepare a dish at home with our host moms (let’s be real, Ecuadorian men do not cook 99% of the time). In the Baez residence, we made llapingachos. They’re basically mashed potato tortillas with chorizo, avocado, and a carrot-beet salad. All of the food we had was ridiculously delicious…I definitely need to learn to make more Ecuadorian food because some of it (minus hoof soup) is quite tasty. [<-washing dishes after the food fest with Sophie] 

This weekend I went with my family to Ambato to visit my host mom’s family. I was definitely nervous, but, in true Ecuadorian form, everyone was very warm and welcoming. I met an uncle, some cousins, my “grandpa”, and the most adorable little 4-month old gua gua Ariana Valentina (my “cousin’s” daughter)

. We definitely listened to The Beatles the entire ride down there, which was a bit weird, but it was funny to hear my host mom singing “Yellow Submarine.”

My host mom’s family, ½ my Ecuafambam, is really nice. We all just hung around chatting Friday night, playing with the baby who is way too cute. Saturday morning my host mom and I made lasagna and peanut butter cookie dough for lunch and went to the center to check out what Ambato’s about. We ate empanadas de morocho, which are way too delicious for their own good, and checked out the house of Juan Montalvo, an important writer in Ecuadorian history. It was a fun outing! We returned to the house to make lunch, which was a big affair with everyone crowded around the table.

Basically it was a relaxed family weekend. We chatted, we watched the end of this ridiculous telenovela called “Without boobs there is no paradise” (in Spanish, of course), ate, and laughed at Ariana, whose mouth was always gaping open. I really enjoyed it, even though it made me miss my family back home and it made me sad to think I can’t see the new babies that are coming in November until probably May!

Anyway, we returned to Quito on Sunday because my host family had to go vote for the new constitution (well, in their case, vote against it). It was interesting to see the process of voting here, especially considering that I just filled out my first absentee ballot for President! Yay civil duties.

The whole family with our voting materials...

In other important news, the new constitution passed. We’ll see how it actually pans out. As one professor said, “Vivimos la contradicción.” Vamos a ver. I also get to see another election, since they’re either re-electing Correa or replacing him in January. Oh Ecuador…

Oh, and an update on my Spanish: I can definitely say it’s improving. One of my cousins said, “You speak perfectly. You’re definitely the best of the students my aunt has hosted.” Which was a relief because I had just spent the night stumbling over my words. I also occasionally find myself saying things in English that would be the direct translation of how you say something in Spanish but make less sense in English, like “While we had hunger” or “I had so much thirst” when really I should have been saying “While we were hungry” and “I was so thirsty.” Whoops. I’ll take it as a good sign.