YinYang Holidays
Greetings everyone. I have been killing myself busy in the past couple of weeks, and thus have not been keeping up with my updates like I might want, but turns out I have to find a job for next year, plan activities for my students, and stay afloat in this crazy far off lan, which believe it or not takes up some serious time. Plus nobody in Ecuador has any clue what an application for a job entails. In fact when I told my host brother that I had to write essays to get a job he simply replied, ¨Man you gringos sure like to write essays.¨
Anyway, last week featured the double whammy holiday, where two holidays are separted by less than two weeks. The effect is overwhelming, but even more so when the holidays feature almost complete opposite celebratory moods. I´ll explain in another of my ¨I feel too exhausted to weave something coherent so I will just do the bullet point highlights¨ entries.
The first holiday is Valentine´s Day, or in Ecuador ¨Day of Friendship and Love.¨This is actually a tremendous holiday in South America. The highlights:
-This holiday is not nearly as sad as it is in the states. Everyone is border line giddy. Since Friendship takes more priority in Ecuador, people who do not have dates do not seem nearly as depressed. I don´t think I saw anybody cradling their copies of English Patient headed for their room with a box of tissues. I think this would actually be a welcome addition ot the US celebration. I am going to write Hallmark and have them change their V-Day propaganda from Cupid, Hearts, and Floofy Love you crapola to feature images of the some of the great relationships of all time: Cagney and Bogey, Thelma and Louise, Butch Cass and The Sundance Kid, Harry and Sally, and of course the people who legitmized the non homosexual man hug: Mav and Iceman. Why not celebrate every meaningful relationship in your life rather than just one made about two days prior in an awkward telephone call.
-That being said, the only time I have ever seen a restaurant packed in Ecuador is on Valentine´s Day. Due to the Catholic undertones of Ecuador´s social interactions, kids do not reveal any aspect of their love to their parents. It´s pretty creepy. I have several friends who have dated people for three years or more and their parents still think they are hang out to do homework together (my friends are all over 30).
-Ally and I organized a fun filled V-Day party at our school. We chose all the staple lawn games of the states: Egg Toss, the game where you spin around a bat and run around, chocolate coin hunt, and that weird gift exchange game where you can steal from people. Great times had by all, especially at the egg toss. If you are ever in a bad mood grab twenty friends and have an egg toss. Always provides at least three excellent laughs.
-The roses mean different things in Ecaudor, which I thought was cool. Red roses are for love, white roses are for hope, yellow roses are for good luck, and green roses are for happiness. In addition the flowers were EVERYWHERE. It was awesome. Everywhere you looked fresh flowers were being exchanged between people of all ages. Flowers of all colors. Absolutely phenom.
-My students bought me a basketball and a cactus for my gifts. I also went to a gathering with my morning students and ate one of the best hamburgers of my whole life. Three kinds of shredded meat, three kinds of cheese, avocado, delicious toasted bread, three sauces, diced french fries laced in the meat: I mean the hamburger to end all hamburgers in Ecuador. Go figure.
¨Thanks Yin. That was a terrific holiday. I had a blast. Now introduce me to your friend Yang. Oh right Yang is a complete jerk. ¨Yang, called Carnaval in Ecuador, is the holiday from the black lagoon. Basically everybody in Ecuador doesn´t work from Saturday to Tuesday night so that they can throw water balloons, eggs, flower, and food coloring at each other. Not even kidding. The highlights:
-The first day was awesome. Yippee let´s throw water balloons at everyone and get everybody and their mother completley dirty and drunk. Day 2 featured annoyed chuckles. Day 3 featured cold stares and bitterness. Day 4 murderous thoughts. I cannot believe that people think this is a fun activity for four days.
-NO ONE is spared. If you are in a formal tuxedo somebody is going to throw crap on you. From rooftops, sewage pipes, moving trucks, run by fruitings. There is absoltely no Escape.
-Being Goliath among Davids in a country where David has the courage of the lion from the Wizard of Oz is awesome. I thwarted about 70% of the attempts to bombard me with the Carnaval special (water, eggs, food coloring that smells like burned rubber called achiote) just by taking off my shirt, dawning some sun glasses, and doing my best Dirty Hairy ¨do you feel lucky punk¨evil stare.
-On the other hand being a woman, especially an attractive white woman, in a country of Machismo BS is miserable. For the entire four days all Ecuadorian feel that they have the right to make woman feel terrible. It´s absolutely miserable behavior. Even if women say, please dont I am not in the mood, they just get it worse. Some economist should do a study of Gringo living in South American country violent crimes during Carnaval. I have never been so pissed off in my life.
-Thank god for national pastimes. Since everyone in Ecuador grew up only knowing how to play sports with their feet, nobody really knows how to throw a water balloon. However, I grew up playing baseball and football, honing my pitching arm daily chucking nerf balls with my sisters. I wish I could have snapped a couple pictures of the look on Ecuadorian faces when they chucked a water balloon that meakly landed at my feet while I returned the favor with a Pedro Martinez fastball that promptly exploded all over their face. Payback can be a bitch.
-I went to a cock fight. Mildly anti-climactic from what I had heard prior to seeing one in person. Somebody told me that in the middle of the fight the trainers with try to resusitate their fighters putting the chicken heads in their mouths and hyperventilating furiously. However, in person the chickens basically just flap around and kick each other. After about five minutes they kind of get bored and then just walk around until the trainers kick them. Could have been a mediocre venue, but I just didn´t see the fun. When in Rome.
-We traveled to Vilcabamba, which is an 18 hour bus ride one way from Ibarra. I hate bus rides, but we had to travel to Ecuador´s own fountain of youth. Apparently people in Vilcabamba live to be 80 minimum, and one or two people are reputed to be over 125 years old. They say it´s the water. I say that it´s because nobody in the town does anything. However, that didn´t stop me from promptly chugging Vilcagua the entire time I was down there, but I guess we won´t see the results until I live past the century mark.
-We randomly met some other graduates from The D that live and work in Ecuador. How cool is that?
That about does it. Thanks for reading.
-Kanedog
Anyway, last week featured the double whammy holiday, where two holidays are separted by less than two weeks. The effect is overwhelming, but even more so when the holidays feature almost complete opposite celebratory moods. I´ll explain in another of my ¨I feel too exhausted to weave something coherent so I will just do the bullet point highlights¨ entries.
The first holiday is Valentine´s Day, or in Ecuador ¨Day of Friendship and Love.¨This is actually a tremendous holiday in South America. The highlights:
-This holiday is not nearly as sad as it is in the states. Everyone is border line giddy. Since Friendship takes more priority in Ecuador, people who do not have dates do not seem nearly as depressed. I don´t think I saw anybody cradling their copies of English Patient headed for their room with a box of tissues. I think this would actually be a welcome addition ot the US celebration. I am going to write Hallmark and have them change their V-Day propaganda from Cupid, Hearts, and Floofy Love you crapola to feature images of the some of the great relationships of all time: Cagney and Bogey, Thelma and Louise, Butch Cass and The Sundance Kid, Harry and Sally, and of course the people who legitmized the non homosexual man hug: Mav and Iceman. Why not celebrate every meaningful relationship in your life rather than just one made about two days prior in an awkward telephone call.
-That being said, the only time I have ever seen a restaurant packed in Ecuador is on Valentine´s Day. Due to the Catholic undertones of Ecuador´s social interactions, kids do not reveal any aspect of their love to their parents. It´s pretty creepy. I have several friends who have dated people for three years or more and their parents still think they are hang out to do homework together (my friends are all over 30).
-Ally and I organized a fun filled V-Day party at our school. We chose all the staple lawn games of the states: Egg Toss, the game where you spin around a bat and run around, chocolate coin hunt, and that weird gift exchange game where you can steal from people. Great times had by all, especially at the egg toss. If you are ever in a bad mood grab twenty friends and have an egg toss. Always provides at least three excellent laughs.
-The roses mean different things in Ecaudor, which I thought was cool. Red roses are for love, white roses are for hope, yellow roses are for good luck, and green roses are for happiness. In addition the flowers were EVERYWHERE. It was awesome. Everywhere you looked fresh flowers were being exchanged between people of all ages. Flowers of all colors. Absolutely phenom.
-My students bought me a basketball and a cactus for my gifts. I also went to a gathering with my morning students and ate one of the best hamburgers of my whole life. Three kinds of shredded meat, three kinds of cheese, avocado, delicious toasted bread, three sauces, diced french fries laced in the meat: I mean the hamburger to end all hamburgers in Ecuador. Go figure.
¨Thanks Yin. That was a terrific holiday. I had a blast. Now introduce me to your friend Yang. Oh right Yang is a complete jerk. ¨Yang, called Carnaval in Ecuador, is the holiday from the black lagoon. Basically everybody in Ecuador doesn´t work from Saturday to Tuesday night so that they can throw water balloons, eggs, flower, and food coloring at each other. Not even kidding. The highlights:
-The first day was awesome. Yippee let´s throw water balloons at everyone and get everybody and their mother completley dirty and drunk. Day 2 featured annoyed chuckles. Day 3 featured cold stares and bitterness. Day 4 murderous thoughts. I cannot believe that people think this is a fun activity for four days.
-NO ONE is spared. If you are in a formal tuxedo somebody is going to throw crap on you. From rooftops, sewage pipes, moving trucks, run by fruitings. There is absoltely no Escape.
-Being Goliath among Davids in a country where David has the courage of the lion from the Wizard of Oz is awesome. I thwarted about 70% of the attempts to bombard me with the Carnaval special (water, eggs, food coloring that smells like burned rubber called achiote) just by taking off my shirt, dawning some sun glasses, and doing my best Dirty Hairy ¨do you feel lucky punk¨evil stare.
-On the other hand being a woman, especially an attractive white woman, in a country of Machismo BS is miserable. For the entire four days all Ecuadorian feel that they have the right to make woman feel terrible. It´s absolutely miserable behavior. Even if women say, please dont I am not in the mood, they just get it worse. Some economist should do a study of Gringo living in South American country violent crimes during Carnaval. I have never been so pissed off in my life.
-Thank god for national pastimes. Since everyone in Ecuador grew up only knowing how to play sports with their feet, nobody really knows how to throw a water balloon. However, I grew up playing baseball and football, honing my pitching arm daily chucking nerf balls with my sisters. I wish I could have snapped a couple pictures of the look on Ecuadorian faces when they chucked a water balloon that meakly landed at my feet while I returned the favor with a Pedro Martinez fastball that promptly exploded all over their face. Payback can be a bitch.
-I went to a cock fight. Mildly anti-climactic from what I had heard prior to seeing one in person. Somebody told me that in the middle of the fight the trainers with try to resusitate their fighters putting the chicken heads in their mouths and hyperventilating furiously. However, in person the chickens basically just flap around and kick each other. After about five minutes they kind of get bored and then just walk around until the trainers kick them. Could have been a mediocre venue, but I just didn´t see the fun. When in Rome.
-We traveled to Vilcabamba, which is an 18 hour bus ride one way from Ibarra. I hate bus rides, but we had to travel to Ecuador´s own fountain of youth. Apparently people in Vilcabamba live to be 80 minimum, and one or two people are reputed to be over 125 years old. They say it´s the water. I say that it´s because nobody in the town does anything. However, that didn´t stop me from promptly chugging Vilcagua the entire time I was down there, but I guess we won´t see the results until I live past the century mark.
-We randomly met some other graduates from The D that live and work in Ecuador. How cool is that?
That about does it. Thanks for reading.
-Kanedog
posted by ecuadortraveler at 7:27 AM
1 Comments:
"Thanks Yin. That was a terrific holiday. I had a blast. Now introduce me to your friend Yang. Oh right Yang is a complete jerk."
You're hilarious.
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