somewhere under the sky

my ecuadorian family

although there´s many other things i´d like to talk about, it is important that i express how much i love my family here (i love my family at home too, but in this context i will be talking about my ecuadorian one).
so i have a mom, dad, brother, and 2 sisters. all of us live at home. their house is pretty big. it´s like an upper-middle class house in the states. i have my own room and sort of share a bathroom with my brother.
my mom is a fantastic cook. i have loved every meal that i´ve eaten here. the key that i´ve discovered to latin american cooking, kidding, to my family´s cooking at least, is brown sugar. it´s more natural that refined sugar (obviously) and everything tastes absolutely delicious with it. every morning i have natural tea, bread, and fruit juice, i mean smoothie. for lunch the big meal, we have soup that´s always delicious, and then a plate with rice and some sort of vegetable accompaniment. and more delicious smoothie. yesterday i helped my mom make ice cream. before it becomes ice cream however, it´s something called espumilla, which means little foam. and that´s exactly what it tastes like-foamy creamy goodness it´s like eating heaven. (just like how drinking donkey´s chai is like drinking heaven.) for dinner it´s something similar to lunch sans soup. so point is, i love my mom´s cooking it´s delicious and natural and so good for me and i look forward to every meal. i forgot to mention the hot chocolate. mmmmmmm.
so, besides the food, i just love my family. the youngest sister is really funny (when i understand her.) i went out last weekend with my brother which was GREAT because i finally meet other real ecuadorians (the not meeting of such has been a source of frustration) and i met his girlfriend and another friend. my brother and the older sister both work, and my other sister is in school.
another reason i love them is because i feel comfortable asking them cultural questions and, as with the machismo, they can make me feel better by laughing about it. they´re a quiet family...and i´m beginning to feel very at home there. my family is the best part of this trip so far. by far.

posted by leah v @ 3:18 PM