somewhere under the sky

trying to immerse myself

this weekend i did all things latin. i went out with my brother fri night with a bunch of friends and relations of his girlfriends and we danced, and i need to learn the difference between merengue and salsa. i was the only gringo in this bar and it felt awesome. sunday i went to church. palm sunday here is much different than at home-i stood the whole mass with an elaborate creation of weaved palms in my hand, which i sometimes used to play with the baby that was next to me. the cathedral was packed, i don´t mean all the seats were taken, i mean all the floor was taken. then i went to a futbol game with my brother and sister-cuenca vs. barcelona, which is a club from quito. we won and i adored the latin american passion for futbol. after futbol, lunch in the countryside. we went to cajas national park to a tiny restaurant and i had a delicious delicous meal. and tried zhumir, the national drink. my brother just gave it to me and said try it and i said ok and took a sip and had a similar reaction to when i tried ouzo in greece, which was a painful swallowing and a bitter face. it´s not bad though-my mom´s friend was saying that it cleans you out so it´s good for something. so salsa dancing, church, futbol, and zhumir, that´s what ecuador is. i´m just kidding, there´s a lot more to it.
it´s raining as usual. it rains everyday here. kind of a downer but we do the best we can. i still love my family...i´m still a little frustrated that i´m forced to spend so much time with americans but yes, mom, patience i know, i´m trying.
ah yes the other thing i wanted to mention was how bad i am at keeping in touch. i´m thinking it´s because i find it impossible to live two lives at once and down here, i´ve got a whole other life with all these other people in it that it´s hard to maintain physical contact with my other life. but i think about people a lot, and i miss people and i want you to know that, if i haven´t talked to you, i´m getting to it and i love you.

posted by leah v @ 3:09 PM