Update on the last week's adventures

Another week has gone by with the usual high points.  One day last week (I don't remember which one),  Esperanza & I made quimbolitos:

cleaning the leaves

making the leaves flat

Quimbolitos ready to be steamed

Quimbolitos ready to be eaten!

Thursday I went with Esperanza, her friend (& my friend too) Lia, and Lia's son Pancho to Gualaceo to have lunch & do a little shopping.  Lunch was in the big market, where we were served pork straight from its carcass.

Here's what my plate looked like:

Here's the view looking down from where we were eating:

Gualaceo is known for good quality, inexpensive shoes.  We went to many shoe stores.  Lia bought a pair of shoes, but neither Esperanza nor I found any that we wanted.

Thursday night was the 20th anniversary party celebration of CEDEI, the school where I teach.  It was a formal affair in an elegant reception/party hall.  Some dignitaries, including a U.S. consular from Guayaquil, a person involved in the foundation of CEDEI, & others.  Dinner was gourmet, starting with champagne & toasts.  Mine wine glass was never empty as they were very attentive in keeping the glasses full.  Then there were fireworks and little hot air balloons going off into the sky.  Quite the festive event.

Friday night was the last concert of the season (I didn't know there was a season) of the Cuenca Symphony Orchestra.  It was all Tchaikovsky, with a solo pianist, who was fantastic.  After the concert, Nancy, with whom I went to the concert, and I walked around Parque Calderon, the central park area of Centro Historico where the festivities were well underway for Corpus Christi, which began on Thursday.  Apparently there is a bigger celebration of Corpus Christi in Cuenca than anywhere else in Ecuador.  Fireworks, more little hot air balloons than I could count, these paper-wired castles that when lit, sort of explode with quite the fanfare, and mountains of everything sweet:  cookies, candies, sweets of all sorts sold by hundreds of vendors all over the area.

sweets

more sweets 

and more sweets!!

On Sunday I decided to swim again at the U. of Cuenca pool.  It's so therapeutic!!  My friend, Meredith arrived not longer after I did & invited me to have lunch at her apartment after swimming, which of course I did.  She's great.  It's wonderful having so much in common to talk about with her.  We chatted for hours.  Not long after I got home, Esperanza arrived & suggested that we go to Parque Calderon to see the fireworks.  So I went again, this time with Esperanza, her daughter who is home visiting, her sister, and niece & nephew.  Lots of fun and great to go back.  It looked like there was more candy & sweets than Friday night.  Esperanza's niece & nephew (in their mid-20s at least) want some English tutoring, so I will meet with them for an hour tomorrow morning.  I think it will be fun.

Last, but not least, I took photos of my the English beginner's children's class in front of their project.  They made a 'city' and practiced using there is, there are, there isn't, there aren't, and next to, on, under in working on this project.  They did a good job with the project and with their developing English skills.

my students posing behind their 'city'

a closer view of the city they made

more observations

I have now been in Ecuador exactly 9 months.  It really doesn't feel like I just arrived here.  Mostly it seems like it has been a while.  Three month remaining.  Approximately 1 1/2 months more of teaching, which means some time off & I have to figure out what I'm going to do during the free time ahead--I have some ideas, but nothing definite.

I continue to be drawn to the animal market every Thursday.  While there yesterday, I detoured away & just walked along the river.  When I heard "pardon" coming from behind, I didn't expect to see a man with a number of cows walking along the path, but that's who was there.  Obviously I got out of their way.

It's hard not to take hundreds of photos there.  Here are a few new ones from yesterday and last week.

the pigs are everywhere!

Yucca is sold at the market and if you need a fresh piece, there's a knife for cutting it.  

pineapples for sale from back of truck 

lambs eating grass near the animal market

One observation about the market is the fact that you have to be vigilant re where you put your feet.  The excrement from all of the animals is ubiquitous.  Also, even though most of the animals are on some sort of tether or leash, most are stronger than the people who are at the other end of the leash.  This means that in walking around, you have to be careful to avoid having an animal step on your foot and you also have to be careful, like always, in the traffic.  Last week a pig got sort of under a pick-up truck, while the truck was moving.  Fortunately, the driver heeded the yells of the people nearby and the pig was pulled from underneath the truck.

On another & completely different topic that amuses me is the pronunciation of some (sort of English?) words that are kind of, but not necessarily, adapted to Spanish pronunciation.  The words that crack me up the most are the Beatles, pronounced los Beat-lace, Google, pronounced Goog-lay, and the most recent one, Nike, pronounced as if it rhymes with Mike!  I understand los Beat-lace and Goog-lay because phonetically that makes sense for Spanish, but Nike (like Mike) should really be pronounced like Knee-kay to adapt the spelling to Spanish pronunciation.  Another one that took me a while to figure out is key, that's the spelling not the pronunciation.  It's pronounced kay.  I saw this word at a bakery, written on a shelf under a cake.  I didn't understand why a cake would be called a key until it was explained to me.  They're trying to pronounce it the way we say cake, but for some reason they've left off the k, so it comes out as kay!  Funny!

Tonight I went to another Cuenca Symphony Orchestra concert.  They're all very good.  Fun.  Free. Well attended and a lovely way to spend a Friday night.