The world's best hug

...and other nice, unexpected things.

It's not even seven AM here in the Ecuadorian Andes, but I'm up and ready to blog. This will get my day going. It's a great Monday, already. 

I've got some French press coffee steeping and lactose-free milk and cinnamon ready to hit and add for my attempt at a latte.

*Oh. Let's look at the above sentence for a moment. I just spelled "heat," "hit." I find a lot of my spelling errors are like that: just like my students' errors. When I see "hit" in my head I'm pronouncing it, "heat." Yikes. This just doesn't have any sense...(and that was intentional Spanglish). Also, is "for" correct? It's so funny to find the linguistics part of your brain taking over when the part that studied spelling in middle school is on vacations. Now, I vaguely remember that in American English, vacation is generally singular...but months of hearing "vacations"/vacaciones has me slightly confused.

...

...Okay, it's hours later. The day is basically over but I've got to get this post done.

And I'm glad I didn't finish this earlier, then I would not have been able to tell of the sweetest moment I've experienced recently: the world's best hug!

How cute are they?! When they all ran to give me a hug, I was in shock. They sang a song to welcome me, then charged forward, at the command of the women working there. It was ridiculously precious. So, anyway, moving on from the highlight of my day. Several friends of mine from CL work at this foundation and invited me for a visit. It's designed to teach families how to better care for their children: hygiene, food, schooling etc. It's associated with the parish there, and seems to be an absolutely wonderful program. They set up nurseries within some family homes, as well as a place for children to come during the day for pre-school, potty training, teeth brushing and all sorts of necessities. I'm hoping if there's ever an opportunity for me to volunteer, I'll be able to make the hour-long commute, via the metro then a bus, and lend a hand.

Let's see, what else is new. My guitar skills are improving and my fingers are so much more calloused. I love playing and singing. As far as theory, I'm fairly clueless, but I think I'll get the hang of it as I go. As a more intuitive than sensing person, I'd rather discover things through actually making use of them. So it goes with this here geetar. 

Thanksgiving here was great, and was a 2-for-1 deal! Both Thursday and Saturday nights, I got to eat turkey, mashed potatoes, and the whole normal spread. Delish. And both were multi-cultural: we had rice and curry from Sri Lanka and egg rolls from the Philippines. Six countries were represented in total at both of my meals: Sri Lanka, the Philippines, the US, Ecuador, Peru, and Italy. It was amazing to speak to people from all over the world, sharing what we're thankful for, and expressing a bit of our culture. I made mashed potatoes and gluten-free gravy. I was quite pleased how it all turned out, though my hands were so tired after peeling thousands of potatoes.

I never expected to have such Thanksgiving celebrations. It was really unique. I am continually astounded by my experiences here. Things are never as I expect them, and often not as I'd prefer them. But, they're always worthwhile. And always memorable.

Later that day, the power went out. Todo, we're not in the first-world anymore. It's funny when the power goes out inexplicably for hours, and I document it with my iPhone...Quite the dichotomy of circumstances. Living by candlelight is so lovely, though. Sometimes.

Sunday was a wonderful day: sushi (!!! (I actually ordered it to my house--and they showed up as planned! I was astonished and happy. A friend and I were dyyiiinnnggg for sushi) then later the Mariscal Sucre theatre, to see West Side Story, and also a double rainbow. Beauty, flavor, and good music. Perfection.







Now, it's really time for bed. I've got Josh Groban singing Christmas lullabies to me, and I plan to drift off to sleep soon...ah, the sweet, sweet sounds of home.

THREE WEEKS AND ONE DAY!