December

Thanksgiving was last week and it was definitely an interesting day. Went to school, took a test. That day was also the International Day Against Violence of Women so my Gender and Society class had a day to recognize it. My group made these big cardboard cutouts of different shapes of people, painted them black, wrote different facts about violence like "8 out of 10 women in Ecuador experiences some sort of domestic violence at some point in their lives" and had a little slogan. They looked really cool. Had about 20 that we put around the campus. Another group did a little play. Others handed out flyers and information. We all handed out little purple lassos to everyone to wear. It was really cool. Then I went to my host aunt's house. She's originally from New Mexico but married an Ecuadorian and tries to teach her kids English and celebrate traditions. So she made a traditional Thanksgiving feast. Turkey. Stuffing. Mashed Potatoes. Corn. Cranberry sauce. Fresh apple cider. Pecan pie. Pumpkin pie. So delicious. It was nice to be able to celebrate, but wasn't the same as being with my family, doing our traditions of watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade (which I watched a bit of online!), then the dog show, eating together, picking at the turkey as it's being cut, scoping the ads for the best deals for black friday, etc. I talked to everyone, though, which was definitely nice.

Then I went to my friend Vale's house for another Thanksgiving feast- this time it was less than traditional. We opened bottles of wine and cranberry sauce cans with knives, had homemade mac n cheese, sweet potato casserole, avocado and grapefruit salad, cranberry sauce, pan de yuca, cookies and cake. It was definitely abnormal and what college students would do, but it was also nice to be all together, even though we lost in the finals of the South American Cup in soccer that night.

Sunday was the census day so we all were legally forced to stay in our houses from 7am-5pm as high schoolers would come around and have you fill out a form. My census girls came at about 4. The questions were necessary but semi-interesting. How many lights does your house have? How old are you? Where were you born? What is your race? (70ish percent of Ecuadorians say they're white... lies. They're mestizo which is a mixture between Spanish and indigenous.) So that was interesting.

Tuesday night was quiz night. It's every week at a bar called Finn McCools. There are 5 categories with 10 questions each, all are super random. My friends go almost every week. I've gone 3 times now. But we actually won it this week! We get $50 at the bar to spend before Monday so we're going to spend that tonight. Should be fantastic. I didn't really contribute, but it was still fun.

It's getting to be crunch time for school. Next week I have a dramatization, 2 tests, presentation, 3 papers due, and much more. I'm trying to be productive but it's difficult when I just want to sleep and get over this cold I'm getting. I'll go buy some coke and cold medicine and hope for the best.