Fui al Mitad del Mundo!

Good news?! Ecuador is getting better every day! These last few days have been exciting and quite fun...a bit lacking in Spanish but entertaining none the less.  Thursday at school we had 'activity day' where we took an hour making ceviche and sharing it with others and then we spent an hour doing a Zumba class (taught by one of the students!). For the ceviche, all the students were divided into three groups.  Each group made a different type of ceviche: 1-cevi(chocho) which is made with Lima bean type things, very popular here, 2- cevi(pollo) which was my group and we used chicken, and 3- cevi(camarones) which had shrimp.  Being completely unbiased, our groups tasted the best! ;). What I found interesting was that we used orange juice/soda and ketchup in our ceviche.  This may be normal but it seemed strange to me. Overall it was a fun activity! 

Friday afternoon several students and I went to 'old town' for some giant empanadas.  And when I say giant, I mean GiGaNtIc!!!  I would say they were the size of 7 hands.  Now, they were just  sugar empanadas with a bit of ricotta type cheese in them, but they were tasty...and HUGE!  We also tried some of the local liquor which is a cinnamon based hot liquor.  We had a blackberry flavor which was quite delicious! (No worries everyone, portions were small-no one was actin a fool) hehe. We continued to just walk around the area which was a bit touristy but nice.  We settled in a little cafe for coffee and then called it a night.  It was very quaint and refreshing! 

Saturday I was a super tourist as I walked on the equator line!!! Tis was really quite cool.  I was thinking while taking my many Mitad del Mundo (middle of the world) poses how amazing it was that I was there.  Had you asked me 10, 5, or even 1 year ago if I ever thought I would go to the equator, I would have given you a crazy face...but there I was! I am so thankful for the opportunities I've had in my short (almost) 27 years of life!  Anyway, we went to a museum while we were there which had several experiments that 'proved' we were on the real line.  I'm still not sure if they were real or rigged but either way, they were cool.  I was able to balance a raw egg on the head of a nail, I watched water swirl in opposite directions in the two different hemispheres, and was unable to balance due to the forces pulling me from both the north and the south.  (Pictures/video will be posted upon my return to the states). It was quite the fun filled day! And to top it off, me a few others went out dancing that night! I had a blast and fell a little more in love with this city!  

Today I was able to relax at home for a bit before venturing out to a mercado of artisan goodies! I didn't buy anything but got a lot of good ideas for gifts!  Yeah!  Today is also my Ecuadorian mothers birthday so the other girls in the house and I planned a little party.  We had balloons, cake, and flowers for her after dinner! I think she really enjoyed it!  

Anyway- that's the latest with me.  I'm heading into week 2 of classes.  I didn't switch teachers bc frankly I feel bad and the school automatically switches after 2 weeks so I figure ill be patient.  I did make some recommendations to my teacher though, so hopefully she'll take them to heart and change my class a bit!  Here's to hoping! 

I'll keep you posted on the days to come. Miss you all!