On Wednesday I made a pumpkin pie, with the intention of eating it Thursday, when it's perfectly aged and chilled, clearly the best way to eat pumpkin pie. I have a true, unbridled passion for pumpkin pie; on top of that, it goes with my favorite holiday (Thanksgiving), and it seems to fit pretty well with my birthday, too. So, I decided to make some for my host family so they could see a little bit of what the American Thanksgiving is all about. And to celebrate, of course. Fortunately, I consider myself a "resourceful" cook; that sounds better than "a cook who likes to make things up as she goes along." I'm like that at home, too, which meant I had plenty of experience winging it in the kitchen. I learned last week making ginger cookies that 1) Ecuador does not have molasses, and that 2) you can in fact make a molasses-like substance by dissolving DARK brown sugar in water, but it takes a lot more sugar and a lot less water than you'd believe possible. Also, Ecuador does not have canned pumpkin (kinda obvious, I suppose, considering they can grow any type of fresh produce imaginable here). Or pie pumpkins. Or any pumpkins, come to think of it. What they have is zapayo, another type of squash. So 'fresh squash pie' is a little more work than regular pumpkin pie (to cook and prepare the squash), but it is just as good. A little lighter flavor, and a little chunkier consistency, but it certainly worked. I feel like a bit of a heathen, being not just a fall baby but arguably a Thanksgiving baby, and not ever having made a pumpkin pie by myself; but I think this was an impressive and successful first time. My host family loved it! Me too - I had some for breakfast. And then some more with lunch. :)
On Thursday, my actual birthday, I went to the university in the morning (we haven't had my morning grammar class all week, since my teacher is out of town) to watch a movie with the intermediate class. It was well made artistically, but very hard to understand the dialogue. With Urban Regeneration, we went to the Parque Histórico, the zoo/history park I visited when I first got here. It was fun to go again, since it's a beautiful site. The guides were sometimes interesting, sometimes not... but we appreciated the effort! We got back on the late side, so I sat right down to eat cake with the family! Not sure why, but they felt it necessary to have another cake too, where they could put a candle for me to blow out... So we ended up eating pumpkin pie and what I think was some sort of chocolate lava cake. Both wonderful! Later in the evening, I met up with several of the students, most of the teachers, and a couple friends of the aforementioned celebrators, at a fancy sushi restaurant in the mall. It was pretty good, with everything from real (though expensive) sushi and other Japanese food, to beginner sushi, to strange fushion concoctions, such as a fried sushi roll topped with flaming sake. It was a fun place, and I think everyone enjoyed it. Afterwards, about half of us went to Las Peñas to find somewhere to dance! We got there right as all the bars were closing, however. Just in this neighborhood, apparently - we could still hear music from other areas for another couple hours, and the teachers we were with, native Guayaquileños, were surprised that places were closed so early. So we walked down a little further to La Paleta, a funky little artsy bar where I'd been once before with Juan Carlos. The music is too loud to have a good conversation, but we attempted anyway, shouting across the table at each other about music styles, the machismo culture, and who knows what else. It was all in all a pretty calm night, but lots of fun - just my style! And I am truly touched by the number and thoughtfulness of my well-wishers. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Birthday as well! :)
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| From left: Pascal (Diana's hubby), Luke, Amanda, Maria del Carmen, me, Rebekka, Fergus, and Diana |
Last week a group of us attempted to go see Harry Potter, since it was opening here as well. After an inexplicable level of misunderstanding regarding the taxi to get there, we finally arrived late to find all of the showings sold out. We got coffee instead, and turned in early. So tonight we decided to try again. Luke and I assumed - pretty ethnocentrically, I now realize - that it would be in English, with Spanish subtitles. It's a brand new movie that just came out in the U.S., and that's how it was when I went to see Grown Ups, so I figured this would be the same. Then the movie started, with an articulate, but definitely Spanish-speaking, narrator, and I thought, "Uh oh." Sure enough, the whole movie was in Spanish, with no subtitles in any language. But I understood almost all of it (pretty impressive, I thought! It was much more than I've understood from any other movie that I've watched here), and combined with having read the book, I followed along just fine. I may see it again in English, just to pick up anything I may have missed, but I feel like I've mostly seen it. What a sense of accomplishment!
Last bit of news, though by now it's a little outdated: a couple weeks ago, I FINALLY succeeded at the Artisan Market! It only took 4 tries. The first time, Luke and I went just to look around and see what it was all about. The second time, we went with the class, but my debit card didn't feel like withdrawing money, so I couldn't buy anything. The third time, I failed to figure out exactly how to get there via public transport, Maxime and I ended up in the wrong part of town, and I got robbed. So I didn't want to say anything to jinx it, but HA! I finally did it. So there.
I hope everything is going well back home. It's weird to picture you all, bundling up against the threat of snow, while we walk around in the sunshine, sweating profusely. But I'll get my comeuppance on the return. In less than a month, I too will be grumbling, buried waist-deep in that gross cold white stuff. That sounds so soon, but it also feels like a long stretch of time still to go. I guess we'll see...
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