First weekend with my family!

Hi all,

I wanted to do a quick update about my weekend before I get swamped with homework and preparations for our excursion to the Oriente (we leave a week from today).

On Saturday after eating lunch I went with Rodrigo, Emilia, and a random woman who spent the weekend at our house (I'm going to call her Dona M., because I was never introduced to her and only heard her name spoken very quickly and in a Spanish accent, so I'm not sure exactly what it was) to Rodrigo's mother's house to visit with his family. There were a ton of people there, so it was a little overwhelming at first. I ended up sitting next to Rodrigo's mother and Dona M., who were talking up a storm in Spanish. Rodrigo's mother would occasionally ask me questions (which usually had to be repeated a few times before I understood them), but for the most part I was watching either Law and Order or Charmed, both dubbed in Spanish, on the TV.

We left around 5:15, and then Rodrigo drove me to my friend Estelle's house because a bunch of us were going to a soccer game and we were going to take a taxi there together. The game was between La Liga (the Quito team that my family supports) and Deportivo Quito, another team from Quito. We were there with almost everyone from the program, and it was a lot of fun watching the game and seeing how energetic the fans were. We even got to see a fight break out, but we weren't close to it and there were a lot of policemen there (so don't worry, Mom). After the game I took a taxi home with two of my friends, ate dinner, and then watched Up (the Russian version dubbed in Spanish) with my mom and sister.

On Sunday morning we had a big family breakfast, and then Rodrigo, Emilia, Dona M., and I went to Parque La Carolina, a big park in Quito. Emilia was rollerskating, Dona M. was walking, Rodrigo was running, and I was riding a bike (which I only agreed to because I thought everyone was going to be biking). The bike was a terrible decision, because the seat was sooo uncomfortable. I also had to maintain an awkwardly slow speed to not pass Rodrigo, and it was hard to navigate between all the people walking/running/biking on the path. It was a lot of fun though, and it felt nice to get at least a little exercise. When we were done with that we picked Carmita up from work (every 2 weeks she works at the airport as the person who directs the planes on the runways, I think) and then dropped her and Dona M. off and went to get flowers and a birthday cake for Carmita (it was her birthday).

When we got home we set the dining room table with the good china for Carmita's birthday lunch. Bertha had made all of her favorite foods, and it was cool to be included in the small family celebration (although it made me miss my home and my mom). After lunch I helped Emilia with her English homework, and then did some reading in preparation for the paper I have to write tonight. We had "dinner" around 7:30, which consisted of popcorn, Jell-o, hot chocolate, and Carmita's birthday cake. Because the whole family was together in one place, I decided that this would be a good time to give them my homestay gifts (which also tied in nicely with Carmita's birthday). The things I had brought for them were a calendar of pictures of Maine, a book of Boston postcards, chocolate covered cranberries, a frisbee, and two squishy Red Sox balls for the little girls, and they loved them! It turns out Carmita collects postcards, so those were definitely a great gift, and they all liked looking at the pictures of Maine. It was really fun, and definitely a relief because I've had the gifts under my desk for a week waiting for a good time to give them!

It was definitely a good first weekend with my family, but for now I have to get back into homework mode and start my paper!

Hasta luego,
Caroline