Domingo Típico

I have officially been staying in Ecuador longer than any other country aside from the US. Pretty exciting stuff. Full disclosure, I should be studying for my first test of Quito that I have tomorrow, but instead I’m drinking this lemon/honey thing my host mom made me when I mentioned in passing that my throat hurt a little bit (she also made sure I was wearing a scarf today), and blogging. I wasn’t planning on writing about this at all until after telling multiple Ecuadorians about my weekend and having them say “¡Qué típico de las familias Ecuatorianas!” So I figured I might as well share with you all what an exaggeratedly classic Sunday looks like for an Ecuadorian family. But first, an apology.

 

I hereby apologize to all of those people that I was annoyed at for staring at me. Okay, I’m still not a huge fan of it – it makes me pretty uncomfortable. But I’ve seen a couple white people and one redhead on the buses the past couple days, and I didn’t realize right away, but I was for sure staring at them. I was curious what they were doing in Quito and why they were on the bus and – man – they’re pretty weird lookin’ those white people. If I’ve been here less than three weeks and am already unconsciously thinking that, I can only imagine how people who have lived in Quito or Latin America their whole lives would feel. So, sorry to you.

 

Now to Sunday.

Host Baby woke me up around 7 per usual on Sunday, but I was able to go back to sleep. Around 8:30, my host mom, came into my room and asked if I wanted to go running with X (host brother) and N (host sister). I hadn’t been told of any particular schedule for the day, so I thanked her, but said that I’d sleep a little more and then run on my own. She told me that we’d be going on a “paseo” at 10. As you’ll find out from my blog I’ll be posting in May, I had originally thought that “paseo” meant “walk” only to discover that it seemed to mean something more like adventure or trip. That meant I only had a little time to run and be ready. So after only five or ten minutes more of sitting in bed, I got up, went for a short run, and showered and was ready before 10.

 

That’s when my host mom came into my room to tell me she and Host Dad would be walking the dogs and asked if I was going out. I was super confused because I had thought I’d be going with them. So, of course, I unintentionally invited myself on their walk. X and N were still running, so we took Host Baby and the two dogs out for a walk. It was a lovely day and they showed me how the main road gets closed down for pedestrians and cyclists on Sundays. I even saw a man giving his dog a sort of hug-y/piggyback ride on a bike. They then showed me a great park a couple blocks down from the house for running and walking in etc. We returned home for breakfast and at breakfast, my host mom told me we’d be going out to lunch after breakfast for her brother-in-law’s birthday, which was the next day. I was already hungry when I was hurried into the car, since breakfast had been small and I was excited for the promise of Mexican food. However, we were to a store first. A “ferretería,” which sadly, does not mean a store that sells ferrets. It’s a hardware store. I followed my family around pretty aimlessly and they didn’t find what they needed so we went to what my host brother described as “the walmart of Ecuador.” It was cleaner than any Walmart I’ve been to, but to be fair I try to stay out of Walmarts. They found what they needed and I found out that my host brother is slowly moving out of the house into his own, which made me pretty sad. I realize he’s 32, but he’s great to have around.

 

At that point is was almost 1:30 and I was pretty darn hungry so when we got in the car again, I was grateful when we headed to the restaurant. We had planned to meet the family there at 1:45 apparently. The rest showed up at 2:30. I just love Ecuadorian time. I had consciously chosen not to bring my book because I didn’t want to be antisocial and I thought we’d just be getting lunch, but I regretted that decision for the entire hour that I sat and watched my host mom make faces at Host Baby while everyone else stood or sat in silence. Finally everyone arrived and – all eighteen of us – were seated. I’ll spare you the details of lunch, but we went around the table and everyone said something kind about the birthday boy, which is a tradition I think we should start in the US, and then we toasted him etc. The food was amazing and for dessert N and I split a crepe with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and strawberries. NOTE: I was asked if I wanted to split a dessert with my sister and said yes, of course, but told her to choose whatever she wanted and I’d split it. (To which her mom jumped in: but nothing with peanuts!!! Because I mentioned to them once that my tongue gets itchy when I eat peanuts so I prefer not to eat them and now I think they think I’ll die if I touch one. Anyway.) I went with the flow and it worked out completely. Good lesson for me. I was feeling pretty drained by the end of lunch because, for one, it was 4:30, and secondly, I couldn’t keep up with the fast paced Spanish of eighteen people. It was the worst of both worlds for an introvert – I was surrounded by too many people and couldn’t connect with any. The good news is that I’ve spent every Sunday so far with my host dad’s family and I have understood and been able to talk more and more each time.

 

Even though I felt completely done for the day, I thought that it would be okay, because I’d be home by five and could sit in my room alone and do all that homework that I hadn’t done yet.

 

"HA! Pysch!" says the Ecuadorian family tradition. When we got in the car again, I didn’t realize we were driving to Host Grandma’s house. It was the same eighteen people, but instead we talked and watched fútbol. And then we had tea and ate cake. I’d like to say that I laughed heartily with them and understood every word, but that wouldn’t be true. I fell asleep while watching fútbol twice and by the end I was panicking about the work I had and my completely screwed up schedule to the point that I was almost in tears. So, yes, I’m getting better at this whole “go with the flow” thing, but it’s not my strong point yet.

 

After seven and a half hours of family time, we finally left and I got to retreat into my room and panic there before getting my work done easily with time to FaceTime my family before getting to sleep.

 

And there you have it. Endless family time is the traditional Ecuadorian Sunday. It sounds fabulous to me – now that I know to plan for it.