Mon 15th:
I arrived at the airport here in Quito at around 10 at night and didn't get out until around 11:30 because of immigration and customs took forever. Anyways I met my family and some other various rotary representatives as they greeted me in the airport. I got to my house and unpacked and my family showed me around the house and things like that. My mother (Maria) speaks English because she did a rotary exchange to the united states a while ago. So it's really helpful to have her so when I don't understand something she can translate for me so there's no confusion. My father (Marcelo) is one of the goofiest people I've ever met. He is always making jokes or talking in funny voices and having fun. He speaks a little bit of English but understands more. My brother (Juan Bernardo) is 17 so its nice to have someone close to my age the talk with. He is really nice and friendly and is like his father when it comes to the making jokes a lot and goofing around. His English is about the same as my Spanish so we can communicate and talk a lot. My sister (Maria Paz) is 13 so its perfect because I have always wanted a little sister. She doesn't speak that much English at all. So out relationship is more based on the little Spanish that i know and body language and actions.
Tuesday Aug 16th:
My family let me sleep in a little because we didn't get home until late Monday night. But when I got up I had a little bite to eat and then I re-packed a small bag for the beach. I had arrived just in time to go with them on their family vacation to the coast for a week so that was awesome. It's about a 7 hour drive to where we were going so on the way there we stopped at my mother's parent's house in Santo Domingo which is about half way. The drive there was amazing. As we were leaving Quito we drove past this big statue and my father explained that this was one of the equator markers so i got to be on the north and southern hemisphere at the same time which was pretty cool. They also explained to me that Ecuador has four very distinct regions. There's the Galapagos islands, the coastal region, the mountains, and then the amazon. Quito is located in the mountains at about 10,000ft so it's quite amazing to drive from there all the way to sea level in a matter of hours. But going through these mountains were incredible. Switch-backs for hours but the view of these pronounced mountains and hills was breath taking. It shifted from these steep tall tree-filled mountains so small farm-land covered hills which was even more beautiful. Not to mention all the different vegetation that's new to me. They had told me about the grandparent's farm and how it's a beautiful place, so i was expecting this nice small farm on the countryside. So when we got there, we drove down the long, rocky driveway and passed some shacks and old houses. Then passed where all the cows were being milked, and some horses feeding. And finally got to this small little house with a very small grass yard out in front, and i thought "so far its about what i expected." I then met the grandparents who were some of the friendliest and nicest people I've ever met. Then we had lunch and I had forgot how in most of central and south America lunch is their big meal. So the grandmother had prepared shrimp and fish ceviche (which turned out to be the best I've ever had) then i thought that was it was it was a good portion. But nope, then the fresh chicken right from the farm, then some rice and this stew to put over it, then some of these "mozzarella sticks" which were actually cheese wrapped in a corn tortilla and then deep fried. Needless to say I was stuffed. After they suggested we got for a nice walk on the farm and I was dying to see the Ecuadorian landscape so it worked out perfectly. there were a few roads that went all through the property that a truck could drive on and the different field branched off from these. Well we started walking and these fields are amazing and the trees and woods, just incredible. After a while I was wondering how much longer this path/road goes because we've been walking for a while. So i asked the grandfather how big the farm was and he tells me in a unit that i wasn't familiar with and not expecting a answer i asked how many acres that was and he took a second obviously doing some math in his head and he tells me about 5,000 acres. I was right about the nice on the countryside but wrong about the small. My mouth dropped in aw. 5,000 acres i kept thinking, holy shit. Once we came upon this stable he brought out a few horses and asked if i wanted to ride one. Of course i jumped right on cause me feet were hurting. I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon/evening riding and galloping through all the different fields on the enormous farm. There were cows, horses, mules, bulls, bananas, corn, bamboo, lots of other fruits that i didn't know what they were, but mostly just wide open fields with cows. It was nothing short of spectacular. That night we had a small dinner and then my grandfather, father, and brother all showed me how to play "cuarenta" which means 40. It's a very popular card game here in Ecuador. I really felt included when we were playing because it's a partner based game and they were also always talking with me and it really made me feel comfortable.
Wednesday Aug 17th- Friday Aug 19th:
We got to the beach Wednesday afternoon and got settled in to this small apartment that they rented for the week. We all wanted to move about cause he were sitting in the car for so long, so as soon as we were all unpacked we went to one of the beaches and ended up meeting a lot of my father's side of the family. Marcelo has 9 brothers and sisters, but only two of his brothers and their families met us. i learned they had all coordinated to come together as a big family vacation. So I got to meet my uncles and aunts and the cousins which really made me feel part of the family, it also helped they were all soo friendly and accepting of me. All one big goofy family. Out of all the cousins that i met i was the oldest for a change. It was actually a really cool feeling to have the younger ones asking me all these things and goofing with me. There were two older cousins that were Juan's, my brother, age. One of them loves to randomly break out in dance or beat-boxing so for those who know me, we got a long fantastic. We had a big family dinner that night.
Thursday and Friday were beach days with the whole family. We played a ton of soccer on the beach with random people we would ask to join. Swam a lot in the ocean, which was sooo warm because its the pacific and we're on the equator. I learned a lot about the family and about everything pretty much. Soooo much information each day, its crazy. I love the importance of family here in south America. I'm not saying its not important in America because it is, its just that where we have friends they have family. Every Sunday my family will get together with the entire rest of the family so I'm really looking forward to that. Again we had some great food for lunches and dinners. Out of everything though they LOVE their bananas here. You literally won't have a meal without bananas in it. But not like I'm used too. They're either deep fried, grilled, or dried out. They have banana chips that are the appetizer for everything but they're not sweet like the banana chips I'm used to, they're quite bland actually. They then have these banana strips that are grilled/sauteed that you eat with everything but mostly rice, and these are a little bit sweet but not much. And then they have these chunks or full bananas that they just drop in the hot oil and deep fry them. They're all quite good though. I have tried tons of exotic fruits already and haven't not liked a single one, its all so good.
Saturday Aug 20th:
Today we went to the beach again but with some other cousins from the other side( my moms side) of the family. The beach we went to this time was more a a beach town like people might think of. There were tons of vender's on the roads selling all the bracelets and trinkets. And cabanas everywhere and every 20 feet there's a restaurant all selling the best sea food ever. Again it was a great day at the beach. That night though was probably the funniest part of my stay so far. The circus was in town, Circo de Brazil, and we went as a family with the cousins. Its like the carnival back home where its nothing amazing or special but its just a fun thing to do as a family even though it wasn't that good. Well they had some typical circus things but the excitement came when the show girls came out. The ones with the huge feather head dresses and wearing almost nothing and high heels, yeah those. Well of course they pick me to dance with them because i stand out in the crowd. There are literally no words to describe what happened. So if they say a picture is worth thousand words, then a video is worth a whole lot more.
Basically it was the funniest, scariest, worst, best thing that could have happened. I didn't understand anything that he was saying to me so i was a little bit nervous to say the least. Rotary says they want the exchange students to step out of their comfort zone, well rotary here you go, i didn't just step out, i flew out.
Today was yet another beach day, but this time it was full of endless jokes about me and the night before, quite funny. Today was also our last day at the beach so the afternoon/night was a lot of cleaning and packing everything up for the early departure the next day. After we were all set we went out and just walked around the town and by the water which was really nice because i got to talk with my mother about a variety of things so it was some good bonding time. After we hung out for a while and watched a movie which was in Spanish of course but the movie is originally in English so the lips don't match the words so its hard for me to watch. They're all used to it though so it doesn't bother them. It was some good quality family time though, which is always a good thing.
Monday Aug 22nd:
Today was hard because it was 7 hours in the car. We got the pleasure of stopping half way at my grandparents house on the way there but not this time. We only stopped once for drinks so i was quite stiff. But got back had a nice lunch with the family and now here i am going over in my head the awesome first week i had here. It's going to be an unforgettable year.
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