Quito- Old Town

On Sunday Taylor, Amber and I got to do some 'tourist' stuff and walk around Old Town- the originally part of Quito- and see the cool architecture and old cathedrals. We went to one old cathedral, La Basilica, and got to climb up its many bellfrys (well I went up a few but Taylor and Amber went up all of them) and got to see a birds-eye-view of Quito! The Old Town in located in the south of Quito and is very reminiscent of Europe with its coble stones and flower -potted balconies. It is very beautiful but can also be dangerous, especially at night. Thankfully God protected us as we toured around the hilly streets and even brought us to a cute little festival that had traditional food, music and dancing! We ate some of the yummy food-Ecuadorian versions of funnel cake and hush puppies- for only a $1.25 :) enjoy! ps sorry there are so many... hehe i couldn't decide- but hey at least i cut it down to these from the 180 I took...

I love old weathered doors...

La Basilica

It  has cool gargoyles after the local fauna here in Ecuador.

The mural on the main door.

Some of the stain glassed windows of La Basilica.

.

Another Ecuadorian detail: A warrior and a llama

lots and lots of stairs to the top of La Basilica!

this is scarier than it looks...

Tortugas!!!

shout out to the galapagos :)

Coblestone roads

cute old couple dancing to traditional music

yummy fried stuff

President's House

So...we should do this again sometime...

While we are here in Ecuador, Taylor and I are growing and learning in the gift of hospitality. We love to host our neighbors and have had a few women from our Zumba classes over for brunch or dinner. We want to show them love through our hospitality, and also show them a different view of Americans. Through my relationships with Ecuadorians here I hope to possibly break a few Western stereotypes. One stereotype that can be challenged is that Americans don't cook that much and have extra money to go out to eat with friends a lot. This might be true for some lifestyles, but I want to show them that we can cook :) haha or at least are learning how to cook. So far we have made scones and pizza with the women and the food has been successful. The conversation on the other hand has been... well interesting. Like I said we are growing in the gift of hospitality. Some of the women we have over carry on conversations with us easily, while some others just sit and answer our questions. Their answers are very simply and they do not elaborate. The funny thing is that the social cues we are accustomed to in the States do not really translate to Spanish. For example, when we say "This was fun! We should do it again sometime" they do not understand that we are politely saying, 'ok the party is done and you can go home now'. Some ladies understand it, but what happens more often than not is that the ladies who do not carry on conversations are the same ones who do not pick up the social cues. Many times, Taylor and I have found ourselves searching for new conversation topics for these times and I have had to stop myself from laughing out loud at how funny this scene looks. We are just sitting there, on the couch or at the table, with no more food on plates and our tea/coffee mugs are empty, and Taylor or I trying to start a new convo which last for maybe 3 minutes. It is quite funny afterwards but at the time it is really hard to know how to politely say 'leave' after 5 previous attempts. One proven method is to say how tired we are and that we will head to bed early :). So as we are learning about hospitality we are also learning new social cues! Hopefully we can pick up some new ones or less the ladies might adopt a new stereotyp- that we like to go to bed early every night!

Fruitarian

I love fruit. All fruit. I don't think there is one that I don't like. But in the states fresh fruit is so expensive it's going to be a luxury when I get back. That is why while I am here I will definitely take advantage of the fact that we get fresh fruit delivered to our door from the fruit truck!! $12 in the states can get you only about a few bananas, a handle full of apples and maybe some strawberries if they are on sale. This morning from the fruit truck we got- ready for this? :)

~ 4 cloves of garlic= .50 cents
~ 20 tomatoes= $2
~ 10 limes= .50 cents
~ 10 apples= $2
~ 20 bananas= $1
~ 30- 40 oranges= $2
~ 3 papayas= $1
~ 3 mangos= $1
~ 20 strawberries =$1
~ 30 tangerines/clementines= $1

I love Ecuador with its fresh fruit! :) Fruit salads here I come!

all for $12 :)

Jane Austen Meets Ecuador

It was a scene worthy for Ms. Bennett, Ms. Dashwood or even Ms. Woodhouse -the female characters from Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility and Emma:

A picturesque house with hymnals, lace tablecloths, china on the walls, teacups decorating the tables and bookshelves and the smell of fresh homemade soup and bread.

An inviting field in the backyard speckled with wild flowers and a lone tree casting its shadow waiting for company.

A picnic menu of mangos, papayas, apples, oranges and tree tomatoes and a side of a perfect blue sky.

...Ok enough of my cheesiness...

But last week the girls had a great day at Sandi's truly cozy house. It began with an old school photo shoot out back to get pictures for her new cooking blog. The theme was a classic, vintage look. It was fun to dress up and go outside for a quick/fake picnic. Then we starting our cooking lesson- Sandi is an AMAZING cook and is kind enough to bestow her gifts to us young girls. The majority of us haven't had to cook on our own since we ate at saga (Wheaton's nationally top ranked cafeteria). But now with the fact of cooking for the rest of our lives in front of us- we are more than excited to learn from Sandi! We made homemade sourdough breadsticks, chicken tortilla soup and homemade citrus marmalade (as just an extra thing to learn, it didn't go with our meal). The food was delicious and was shared as lunch for our women's bible study :)

Hopefully in the future we will have more cooking dates and picnics!

Nail crosses made from the original nails of the Nate Saint House

yummy :)

Part of the ingredients for the citrus marmalade- with all that peel it's really tart! But Amie likes it :)