Tuesday, December 31st, 2013and Wednesday, January 1st, 2014: Riobamba to Cuenca
Yesterday 31 December we had our wake up call in Riobamba at 7:30 am and then ate breakfast once we were ready. After breakfast, we departed for Cuenca, which was a 6-hour bus ride through the Andes Mountains. The drive scenery was very interesting to look at since we were driving above the clouds most of the time. I was impressed how the bus driver could drive impressively through the clouds. We stopped to grab lunch at a gas station on the way. We arrived at CEDEI at 2:00 pm. Our host families were waiting for us once we arrived. I was nervous at first because I did not know what my host family would be like. However, I was happy I have a roommate from my class her name is Emily. Our host mom and host brother were waiting for Emily and I. When we left CEDEI, we took a taxi to our host house that is 10 blocks from CEDEI or about a 15-minute walk. Our house is very big it consists of five bedrooms and two bathrooms. I get to have my own room in the house. One thing I am still nervous about is no one in the family speaks English besides the 17-year-old grand son who is almost fluent in English. I am not that good at Spanish so it is hard for me to converse with the family. The first thing I did after chatting and meeting the family I unpacked in my room and the son took Emily and I for a long walk around the city with their dog. On the walk, we looked for a “dummy” to buy to burn at midnight. That is when the son told us about the traditions they celebrate at midnight and what the dummy means. We were unable to find a dummy to buy so we went home to make one. You take old clothes, stich them together and shove news paper into the dummy. You make a head with nylons and newspaper, put a mask, and wig on the dummy. The point of the dummy is to burn away all the bad things that happened in that year to bring good luck into the New Year. Then we made a sandwich and then took a nap from 7:45 pm to 10:30 pm since we were tired from such a busy day. Once we woke up, there was more friends and family at the house. That is when we took a walk around the city to look at people’s dummies and watch them burn. It was 11:30 pm once it got back so we went outside to burn our dummy at midnight to celebrate. Then we went inside to eat dinner that was ham, potato salad, rice, and peach desert. Another tradition we followed was eating 12 grapes, once for each month, to bring you good luck throughout the year. Once dinner was over, we were very tired so we went to sleep. The next day (Wednesday) we woke up at 10:30 and ate breakfast of bread and orange juice. Then we hung around the house and chatted with each other. I noticed my host family had a calendar and did not have one for the year of 2014 so I gave them one of my host gifts that were a Twin Cities calendar I had brought for them. It was lunchtime at that point so we ate ham, rice, and potato salad. After lunch Emily and I decided to walk around the city to look for wifi and get a snack since our host, family does not have wifi in their home. However, we were unable to find wifi. Therefore, we grabbed a snack at this excellent restaurant called Coffeetree. I had papas fritas and Pislener, which is their local beer. After we continued to walk around the city where we saw a classmate of ours and two of our professors. We were exhausted from walking so we made our way home. It us 6:20 pm right now and we are waiting to eat dinner at 7:00 pm. I am not sure what we will have but I am sure it will be great! After dinner, I plan to shower and then head to sleep since we begin our first day of school tomorrow at 8:30 am. So far, it has been a wonderful trip that I will never forget; if it was not for studying abroad, I may not have been able to travel to this amazing country of Ecuador!
