The Holidays

I bring this post to you today at the request of none other than my parents.

Christmas

Christmas Eve is when everyone celebrates the holidays here, so on December 24th I left the house at 9:20 p.m. to go to mass with my host mother. She told me that we would be going to my aunt Rosa's house afterward, and earlier had mentioned that I should wear something nice. So I put on a red skirt, white top and ridiculously, red, high heels and left to go to church (That's how they do it in Latin America). The church we went to was in our ciudadela, so it was really close, but it did not stop us from driving there. We got out, and I was surprised to see that we had arrived late. I was even more taken aback by the fact my mother was conscious of it. She neglected to tell me this, and a result, we ended up standing outside the church as I tried to peer in to see the mass.  Heels can only do so much for me, mainly hurt my feet. 

After painfully standing through mass (physically and mentally), we left to pick up my grandmother, and proceeded to my Aunt Lily's house. We arrived around 11 p.m. and everyone was already eating. We sat around and the family began singing Christmas carols. I did not know anything of the words to the song. True, some of the songs were completely different, but others were actually translated from English to Spanish, for example, Noche de Paz is Silent Night. It was different. They all seemed to love to sing, especially in German, because some people in my family here can speak it.  We opened gifts afterwards, where I received bracelets that are made out of turtle shells from my aunt, and another bracelet from my cousin, which supposedly brings good luck. 

 The family crowded around the coach after singing Christmas carols. All from my mother's side. 

 My cousin was gifted a Justin Beiber blanket for sleeping in her room for a whole month. I frankly thought she was too young to be sleeping with a boy. Well, I guess it's a girl...

 Cousins opening gifts

On the actual day of Christmas, my parents allowed me to go buy a new outfit for New Years. I discovered that my family didn't do any gift giving, but they decided me to give an outfit, so I could take part of the tradition of wearing new clothes for New Years. We went and ate lunch at a friend's house, which lasted quite awhile. Apparently it was proper to wear Christmas colors, which I did. 

 This is a bad picture, but the girl that is sitting down was Miss Ecuador two years ago. That means I have met two of the Miss Ecuadors. The current Miss Ecuador was at my schools Baile de Gala (school dance). 

 Lots of red going on on Christmas day

So we obviously ate, and then my family got drunk off of wine and whiskey that was on the table. They refused to call the party off until all was drunk. It wasn't. We returned home only to prepare for a Christmas dinner at my house with my host father's brother Agustín and his wife and daughter. His wife, being one of the richest women in Ecuador, was coming to our house, so naturally, my host mother was in a panic and whipped out the fine china. I was amazed, I have never seen such pretty plates, hey even had gold in them. Christmas was different overall, and it seems we were on the move all the time and not always together. The most strange part was not being with my family for Christmas for the first time in my life. I could tell the family enjoyed their reunions, but I really couldn't relish in them as much as they could. Everything was cheerful, but I must say, I got homesick.  

New Years

The next chapter I will like to tell, is about New Years. I will actually begin a few days before when my host parents took me out to see the Año Viejos or Old Years (sounds way better in Spanish). These were dolls that represented the old year, and at midnight on New Years Eve, everyone burns these dolls to represent the end of the old year. Traditionally, the dolls would be old men or women, but as one will find, Año Viejos can be pretty much anything. 

There were Año Viejos bigger than houses. I really liked the Jurassic Park ones. 

Street View. 

Some were kind of symbolic. 

Some weren't. This is from the movie Real Steel. 

 This is a Thunder Cat? Anyone know what that is?

 The Pink Panther, you can't get much better than that. 

Marvin the Martian 

Smurfs or "Pitufos" 

I have found it enjoyable that the Smurfs are called something different in every language. Examples:

Les Schtroumpfs in France
Die Schlümpfe in Germany 
Os Smurfes in Brazil 
Smølferne in Denmark 
Smurffit in Finland 
Smurfies in South Africa 
Os Estrumpfes in Portugal 
Törpök in Hungary 
Sirinler in Turkey 

If that isn't fun, I don't know what is. I give points to the Spanish and the Germans for the best names. 

After making a city tour of all the major Año Viejos, we ventured to the crowded street of el 6 de Marzo. It is  a street downtown, where several blocks are covered with vendors selling these Año Viejos. The overpopulated streets made it hard for those who had purchased the Año Viejos to walk. They were already really heavy, people thus, carried them over there heads through the crowd. 

 Pretty Much Anything

Rafael Correa (the president of Ecuador) was a pretty popular Año Viejo to burn. 

 This is another version of Rafael Correa, when he was wearing his gas mask during the attempted coup in 2010.

 They can burn Pokemon. My host father said that no matter what, all would be burned by New Years. Well, "Gotta burn them all"

 They can burn Pixar characters. I honestly really wanted the alien from toy story. Out of my 5 dollar price range :( 

 The classic Marilyn Monroe was even available to burn. 

 Spongebob and Mr. Krabs  probably didn't look  too happy when they were thrown in the flames. 

I don't know what these are, but I was drawn towards them.

 This is me with my newly bought Mr. Potato Head, Año Viejo. Notice the man in the background with the sign that says "Foto $.50", behind that piece of carboard was a really amazing Año Viejo that was that rat from Ratatouille. You could tell it was professionally done. It ticked me off that he covered it up before I took the picture. There were others as well who charged for photo taking, but I managed to sneak in a photo for the others. 

 From the Simpsons and unfortunately another one that costed money to take a picture.

Note: Random strangers in the photo, so I didn't pay

 Yogi Bear

 Mario. Need I say more?

So, the day before New Years Eve, I was fortunate to go to Salinas. My host parents allowed me to go, because it is a new experience. I traveled via taxi to Signe's house, who was now living there. I had expected that I would be riding alone in this taxi, but was accompanied by two strangers. I was worried, because the taxi came 1:30 hours late. Leave it to the Latin Americans to come one time...
 After quite a bit of time in the taxi (another 1:30 hours), I arrived in Salinas.
I excitedly greeted Signe, and we immediately began conversing like nothing had changed. It was as if we were back in Ceibos Norte hanging out again. We were excited about the following night, because of the festivities. Salinas is a popular destination to go during New Years, because of the burning of the Año Viejos on the beach and all the fireworks that are set off during the celebration.
I spent New Years Eve on the beach basking in the sun and swimming in the ocean. Yes, family, be jealous. We went a beach that was in the Air Base, which I assumed we went to, because it was less crowded. My question is how we got access. All I saw was Signe's host father flash a card at a gaurd, and he was allowed entrance. Cool.While we were driving to the beach, we thought we saw an exchange student riding in the back of the truck by the name of Ryan Pennington, an American from Connecticut, who was on exchange in Quito. I called out "Ryan", and sure enough, he turned his head, but he was already driving away from the beach. We did find out later that it was him. At the beach we ran into our friend, José Daniel, who was surfing. Running into people became quite common.
When we got back to the house, we prepared for our night out. Signe's host mother told us that we had to return latest by 4:00 am. I could deal with that. Signe lives really close to el Malecón, the beach where all the action happens on New Years. We got there to see the street closed off, because of the mass of people. It was a sight to see. Signe had been messaging Ryan to see if we could meet up with him, and after a significant amount of phone tag, we met up with him and another exchange student from Michigan, named Gwen.

 Signe and I taking photos before going out.

 Me pulling off a silly face, while Signe does "the Latina". 

 The Crowded Streets of Salinas

 We wanted to go eat before midnight, but we discovered that there was no place to eat. Everything was full. We sat in this pizza place for awhile that could not serve us. We left the restaurant and I realized that I felt much lighter. I soon found out that it was due to the fact that I forgot Mr. Potato Head behind. Oops. When we came back, he was waiting right where we placed him :D

 We did eventually get to eat, but it was just typical coastal food a street away from the buzzing crowds. It wasn't that great, but we were hungry. We quickly ran back to el Malecón after eating, and Signe, who was keeping track of time, told us we had four minutes. We got there, and everyone was already counting down from ten. We were confused, but the "Happy New Year" came quicker than we thought.

Lots of people and f ire. 

Note: But not ON fire.

 More fire, more people and fireworks.

 Thanks Nikon, for capturing such an awesome firework photo :P

 Ryan braved the exploding fire to throw our Mr. Potato Head into the flames. I didn't realize until he threw it in, that the Año Viejo was filled with all sorts of explosives and firework-like things. Ryan had to quickly run away from the sparking fire. That would explain the weight. I thought I would feel bad about the fact that I was throwing a beloved Pixar character into the fire, but I quickly got over it as my pyromaniac side took over. 

The smoke that appears after throwing in an Año Viejo. And Signe's face.

Gwen, Signe, and Ryan 

Fires were lit all across the beach and fireworks were going off everywhere. You had to be careful where you walked, because everyone was setting off the fireworks. All I could think of was, "This is so illegal in the United States". Nevertheless, New Years Eve in Salinas put the 4th of July to shame. It is mainly due to the fact that everyone had access to professional fireworks, and the just wouldn't stop. All night long, into the wee hours of the morning, fireworks exploded. 

Other Cool Happenings

I met with fellow American, Ohioan and most importantly, Granvillian, Katie Persons! She was in Quito doing an exchange with her University, and while heading on her way for New Years celebrations in Montañita, had stopped in Guayaquil for a few days. So, we met in FrutaBar, a Reggae/Rastafarian/Surfing styled restaurant (basically Montañita styled), where you can get sandwiches and smoothies. My host mother was surprised when I told her I was going to a restaurant and told her FrutaBar. She didn't think it was restaurant material, but Katie and her college friends loved it. Who doesn't love good smoothies and amazing sandwiches? 

Oh, also my new thing to do in my free time is watch the tv show "How I Met Your Mother", good stuff. This is what I do now when I especially want to see something in English. Anyway, exams are this week... and the next. INCLUDING SATURDAYS! That, is blasphemy! I should be getting to sleep, because I have two tomorrow: geography and the ever so difficult English language. Nighty, Night ;)

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