Viva, la chiva! ...and other adventures in Quito

In my class last week, we learned the words to a Christmas song that had contractions in it too. The song I chose was none other than ¨All I Want for Christmas is You¨ by Mariah Carey. Come to find out I had to explain a lot of the things I would sometimes take for granted that everyone knows. For example, mistletoe, snow, making a list for Santa, ... They loved the song and wanted it played more than the girls at BC did during the entire month of December (cough, Lisa Schmidt, cough). I started to get a little sad that their version of Christmas was so different and that some of the fun traditions we have in the United States were lost in translation. Then I finally made a trip to El Jardin Centro de Comercio, aka a mall. While it wasn´t quite the same feel I was happy to see all the decorations for Christmas and was even lucky enough to see a gigantic tree lit up at night and a HippoSanta walking around saying hello to children and the occasional 22 year old American girl, who was instantly obsessed. We also put up the Christmas tree in the house last week with the help of the niños, Cesar and David. They were so enchanted by the lights, it took an hour after that to get them to bed. Overall, the differences here haven´t been too bad and I will spend the holidays with Andrew, possibly another friend from BC and close friends from this program on the Coast of Ecuador in a town outside of Montañita.

While Quito doesn´t celebrate the holidays the exactly same way, they do have one very cool tradition of celebrating their city with pride. Every major city in Latin America has a day or weekend that they celebrate their foundation, independence and culture. The people of Quito, on the other hand, spent the past week and a half celebrating just about everything. One afternoon, we were fortunate enough to encounter a free concert in El Plaza Teatro, and yet another free concert in Plaza Foch, after class one night. Another night, we came upon fireworks and a parade. Finally, though, our greatest experience within the Fiestas de Quito was our two hours in the chiva. A chiva is basically a glorified truck/trolley with people on the roof and in cargo and some seats that are benches inside. On top, there is a six person mariachi band, whistles and Viva Quito! flags, as well as canelazo (my new favorite spirited drink). The volunteers that are here with me in Quito were more than ready to embark on this adventure. We were joined by some of our Ecuadorian students and European friends, but for those two hours, we were all Ecuadorian and Quiteños at that. This chiva went around the city, including El Centro Historico and as we passed, everyone on the streets waved and cheered. It was a night to be remembered.

Today, I spent the day and I mean, the whole day, with my students in Parque Metropolitano. This park is HUGE! There was tons to do and was a great chance for my morning and night classes to make some new friends and partake in a friendly (ha, maybe not so friendly) game of soccer. We also did a little nature hike and ate lunch together. It was a very successful day, finished off by a visit to the Mariscal with a few of the twenty-somethings for shwarma and cerveza.