Supermarkets, Sports, Food, and Arnold
Forgive me as I dont really have a clear idea what the topic of this entry is about, but maybe I will figure it out along the way. Join on in for the ride!
Anyway I started off this past weekend by taking my students to Supermaxi for a scavenger hunt. For those of you not Equa, Supermaxi is your insert name here grocery store. Thus as you travel from west to east through the United States, Supermaxi is your Safeway-Raley´s-Albertson´s-Cub Foods-Country Market- equivalent. (Seems to me I have forgotten the name of the grocery store in New Hampshire. My how time flies). However, as Supermarkets names change as you go across the great US of A, Ecuador has one and only one supermarket. Supermaxi. We´re talking the mother of all monopolies.
Anyway the point of the exercise was for the students to find American made products, and then tell me something about the product by reading the various English writing. For example, one question had the students find a box of Duncan Hines Wild Maine Blueberry Muffins. From there they had to tell me what ingredients were required for the recipe in addition to the mix, and finally they had to summarize the directions for preparation by checking out the back of the box. Two main thoughts stick out from our trip to Supermaxi. The first is that there are a ton of American products sold in Ecuador, but not really the ones you might think. Whereas you might think that something delicious or intelligent might make the transition from US to Ecuador, the fact of the matter is that Supermaxi is filled with Oreo cookies, Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines, and sugared cereals. Post decided that OreoOs would be a valuable addition to Ecuadorian culture, but left out Rasin Bran. I mean you would think that Rasin Bran above all else should be a staple. The second thought seems to have escaped my mind at this point, but it has been replaced by a much more profound nugget of life advice that you can take to the bank. Do not enter a grocery store, or for that matter try to write a blog about a grocery store when you are hungry. Doesn´t work at all.
My weekend was peppered with awesome activities. First was my return to my buddies in the basement facility with a ¨Gimnasio¨sign that hangs outside above the door. I made it a point to slap high fives with all of my old friends like Lou Ferrigno (the dude who played the Hulk back in the day), the dude that played opposite Hulk Hogan in ¨No Holds Barred,¨and of course the Governator. In case you are wondering yes they are all still incredibly huge and incredibly willing to give you that extra boost that you might not get in a different gym that is not collaged with photos of behemoths. If TNT ever gets around to showing the movie ¨Around the World in 80 Days¨, tune in for one of the most absurd Arnold roles of all time. The short of it is that he plays a Turkish sultan who has an affinity for statues. Yes Arnold has an Egyptian queen type black curly fro wig. Yes has a statue of him in his castle that portrays Arnold in ¨The Thinker¨pose. Yes said statue is adorned with a plaque that says, ¨From your buddy Rodin.¨ Yes he takes a hot tub with Jackie Chan, who by the way is wearing one of those early 20th century one-piece horizontal black and white stripe swimsuits that you always see people (read: women) in during those old news reels that played before movies back in the day.
Next on the docket for the weekend was a trip to the birthday party of Ally´s host brother and his girlfriend. In what turned out to be a really interesting day, that opened with a 6.5 rictor scale hangover, Ally and I accompanied about forty or so Ecuadorians up to a Hacienda north of Ibarra. The highlight of my day was my first foray into two ulra Ecuadorian experiences: Voli and Yuaralocro. ¨Voli (pronounced bolee)¨is Ecuador´s version of volleyball. It features three people on a side, a ten foot net, a soccer ball, and the most lenient touch rules of all time. The first player, called the ¨flyer¨is responsible for doing all the running. He plays in the back and dives for every ball. Clearly this was to be my job, as my ¨teammates¨didn´t really feel the need to run when they had a Gringo who had never played to do it for them. The second player ¨the setter¨probably does as much work as Paris Hilton on vacation. His only job is to the set the ball once the flyer tracks it down and hits it perfectly to him. The last player, ¨the placer¨finishes off the bump, set, spike trio, not with a spike (since the last time an Ecuadorian hand reached heights of ten feet was when the whole gravity phenomenom was just getting it´s feet wet), but instead with a savy soft shot aimed at one of the court´s four corners. The highlights of the game for me were swollen and literally black and blue bruised arms from trying to bump a soccer ball for two hours. After the first hour and a half, my arms felt like I was trying to knock over a solid metal rose bush with my forearms. The second highlight was a lot of pats on the back for being a solid first time player. I guess it´s time to start banging my forearms against a wall in preparation for my next game. Got to build up my pain threshold.
Yuaralocro is a true Ecuadorian specialty. ¨Yuara¨means ¨blood¨in Quichua (the indigenous language) and ¨locro¨means soup. Once I found that out I was pleased that my powers of deduction proved to be perfect, as yuaralocro is in a potato based soup broth in which is placed delicious blood sausage. The bloodier the better. You can imagine that my first reaction to the menu announcement was one of slight disapointment, especially when my hangover was screaming bloody murder for a Billy Bob. However, once lunch was served my mood seriously improved. Once I sat down my mind immediately harkened back to the famous Fajita meals served between Baker and Lion in SF. For those of you unfamiliar, for Fajita meals you get a tortilla on a plate, and in front of you are bowls filled with delightful goodies, with which you can make a delicious creation to your liking. Now, in Ecuador, on my plate was a bowl of potato soup, and in front of me were avocadoes, onions, ahi (ecuadorian delicious salsa), mote (ecuadorian corn), salt, pepper, cheese, and, of course, heaps of blood sausage. I quickly stocked my bowl with all the familiar faces, eyed the juicy bloody ground beef looking bowl, and then dug my spoon in. Why not right? You only are in Ecuador once. You will be happy to know that I even went back for a seconds.
I finished off my weekend with a trip to Quito to check out an Ecuadorian soccer game, a movie (at a theater!!), and some Chinese food. I also chatted with one of my closest friends in Ecuador about his profession, which hopefully with be a new entry in the next couple of days.
Anyway I started off this past weekend by taking my students to Supermaxi for a scavenger hunt. For those of you not Equa, Supermaxi is your insert name here grocery store. Thus as you travel from west to east through the United States, Supermaxi is your Safeway-Raley´s-Albertson´s-Cub Foods-Country Market- equivalent. (Seems to me I have forgotten the name of the grocery store in New Hampshire. My how time flies). However, as Supermarkets names change as you go across the great US of A, Ecuador has one and only one supermarket. Supermaxi. We´re talking the mother of all monopolies.
Anyway the point of the exercise was for the students to find American made products, and then tell me something about the product by reading the various English writing. For example, one question had the students find a box of Duncan Hines Wild Maine Blueberry Muffins. From there they had to tell me what ingredients were required for the recipe in addition to the mix, and finally they had to summarize the directions for preparation by checking out the back of the box. Two main thoughts stick out from our trip to Supermaxi. The first is that there are a ton of American products sold in Ecuador, but not really the ones you might think. Whereas you might think that something delicious or intelligent might make the transition from US to Ecuador, the fact of the matter is that Supermaxi is filled with Oreo cookies, Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines, and sugared cereals. Post decided that OreoOs would be a valuable addition to Ecuadorian culture, but left out Rasin Bran. I mean you would think that Rasin Bran above all else should be a staple. The second thought seems to have escaped my mind at this point, but it has been replaced by a much more profound nugget of life advice that you can take to the bank. Do not enter a grocery store, or for that matter try to write a blog about a grocery store when you are hungry. Doesn´t work at all.
My weekend was peppered with awesome activities. First was my return to my buddies in the basement facility with a ¨Gimnasio¨sign that hangs outside above the door. I made it a point to slap high fives with all of my old friends like Lou Ferrigno (the dude who played the Hulk back in the day), the dude that played opposite Hulk Hogan in ¨No Holds Barred,¨and of course the Governator. In case you are wondering yes they are all still incredibly huge and incredibly willing to give you that extra boost that you might not get in a different gym that is not collaged with photos of behemoths. If TNT ever gets around to showing the movie ¨Around the World in 80 Days¨, tune in for one of the most absurd Arnold roles of all time. The short of it is that he plays a Turkish sultan who has an affinity for statues. Yes Arnold has an Egyptian queen type black curly fro wig. Yes has a statue of him in his castle that portrays Arnold in ¨The Thinker¨pose. Yes said statue is adorned with a plaque that says, ¨From your buddy Rodin.¨ Yes he takes a hot tub with Jackie Chan, who by the way is wearing one of those early 20th century one-piece horizontal black and white stripe swimsuits that you always see people (read: women) in during those old news reels that played before movies back in the day.
Next on the docket for the weekend was a trip to the birthday party of Ally´s host brother and his girlfriend. In what turned out to be a really interesting day, that opened with a 6.5 rictor scale hangover, Ally and I accompanied about forty or so Ecuadorians up to a Hacienda north of Ibarra. The highlight of my day was my first foray into two ulra Ecuadorian experiences: Voli and Yuaralocro. ¨Voli (pronounced bolee)¨is Ecuador´s version of volleyball. It features three people on a side, a ten foot net, a soccer ball, and the most lenient touch rules of all time. The first player, called the ¨flyer¨is responsible for doing all the running. He plays in the back and dives for every ball. Clearly this was to be my job, as my ¨teammates¨didn´t really feel the need to run when they had a Gringo who had never played to do it for them. The second player ¨the setter¨probably does as much work as Paris Hilton on vacation. His only job is to the set the ball once the flyer tracks it down and hits it perfectly to him. The last player, ¨the placer¨finishes off the bump, set, spike trio, not with a spike (since the last time an Ecuadorian hand reached heights of ten feet was when the whole gravity phenomenom was just getting it´s feet wet), but instead with a savy soft shot aimed at one of the court´s four corners. The highlights of the game for me were swollen and literally black and blue bruised arms from trying to bump a soccer ball for two hours. After the first hour and a half, my arms felt like I was trying to knock over a solid metal rose bush with my forearms. The second highlight was a lot of pats on the back for being a solid first time player. I guess it´s time to start banging my forearms against a wall in preparation for my next game. Got to build up my pain threshold.
Yuaralocro is a true Ecuadorian specialty. ¨Yuara¨means ¨blood¨in Quichua (the indigenous language) and ¨locro¨means soup. Once I found that out I was pleased that my powers of deduction proved to be perfect, as yuaralocro is in a potato based soup broth in which is placed delicious blood sausage. The bloodier the better. You can imagine that my first reaction to the menu announcement was one of slight disapointment, especially when my hangover was screaming bloody murder for a Billy Bob. However, once lunch was served my mood seriously improved. Once I sat down my mind immediately harkened back to the famous Fajita meals served between Baker and Lion in SF. For those of you unfamiliar, for Fajita meals you get a tortilla on a plate, and in front of you are bowls filled with delightful goodies, with which you can make a delicious creation to your liking. Now, in Ecuador, on my plate was a bowl of potato soup, and in front of me were avocadoes, onions, ahi (ecuadorian delicious salsa), mote (ecuadorian corn), salt, pepper, cheese, and, of course, heaps of blood sausage. I quickly stocked my bowl with all the familiar faces, eyed the juicy bloody ground beef looking bowl, and then dug my spoon in. Why not right? You only are in Ecuador once. You will be happy to know that I even went back for a seconds.
I finished off my weekend with a trip to Quito to check out an Ecuadorian soccer game, a movie (at a theater!!), and some Chinese food. I also chatted with one of my closest friends in Ecuador about his profession, which hopefully with be a new entry in the next couple of days.
posted by ecuadortraveler at 10:12 AM
3 Comments:
What a fun weekend! Next time you play volleyball a la Ecuador, you should show them how to play Pepper a la Kane, B and C. This way you can teach them how to bump-set-spike without worrying about a net, and I'm sure they'd get a kick out of the name ("pimiento," no?)
Claro. Pimiento. I will make sure to set up the court on a six inch square piece of lawn at a hotel in the middle of nowhere USA.
Actually funny you should ask mom. When I said blood sausage, I was using the translation that I saw in Lonely Planet. When I asked my host mom she explained that I had it wrong. The actual translation of the blood sausage in Yauralocro is more like ¨blood soaked intestines.¨ You learn something everyday.
I play Voli all the time but nobody notices any bruises on my arms.
rasheed wallace
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