Things we are doing
- Having fresh juice every morning (I've been following Raquel's 'recipe' and made us fresh tomate de arbor juice and pineapple juice (which turned out a little more sour than hers).
- Boiling the tap water before drinking it. Raquel told us that even though the government says it's okay to drink, she thinks it could cause some....bathroom troubles if you drink it. (All I needed to hear...)
- Eating helado de paila. Not to be confused with ice cream because there is no cream (or milk) in it. Helado de paila is just fresh fruit and egg whites that are frozen (but sooooo delicious)
- Finding a Packers bar in Quito. That's right, Finn McCool's is listed on PackersEverywhere as a legit spot to catch our Green Bay boys on Sundays this fall. We've already been for a visit and guess what else they serve....Baby Guiness shots. I swear they are right there on the menu ($2.50) and I have a picture to prove it, but some of the names of the other shots made me hesitate to post the image online...
- Eating bananas and plantains. A. Lot. I had plantains two ways at lunch; savory, fried plantains and a sweet roasted plantain. We're also eating these amazing banana chips! They're salty, not sweet (we think because they harvest the bananas before they're ripe to make the chips)
- Trying our darndest to learn Spanish...some of us *cough* *cough* Javier *cough* *cough* are doing juuuuust fine chatting it up with locals (and have been greeted with shock when we say we're from the US because...I quote....'you don't sound gringo') Others of us are diligently working on our Rosetta Stone lessons...(and missing Lily Mae while we do them)
- Flushing toilet paper down the pot. That's right...the plumbing can't take it (at least they say, and we're not willing to take the chance), so we're discarding our used TP in a little trash can next to the commode. (Now you've all been warned and can prepare yourself for this tradition when you come to visit...)
- Pulling our phones out on the buses/metro. (Apparently this is the easiest place to be robbed of such a device so NO ONE has their phone out on public transportation...not even locals)
- Buying peanut butter (a tiiiiiny jar is like $6 here)
- Drinking American beer. For the most part, it's more expensive (Except for Bud Heavies that are randomly the same price as Ecuadorian beers...Jeff Marklin, Quito must be your heaven!) A six pack of Corona was $13 at the grocery store and a 16 ounce can of Guinness draft was $14 at the bar!
- Wearing shorts. It seems that they are just not worn in Quito. A veteran teacher at school said you'll find them a lot more on the coast, but truthfully we haven't missed them. Quito weather seems perfect for pants and short sleeves with a sweater at night!
- Finding a permanent apartment :/ But that's certainly not for lack of trying. Even these apartments with gorgeous views have something we don't love (like not having an oven...apparently ovens are hard to come by in Quito...)
- Paying much for fruits and veggies. Some items at the grocery store seem comparable to US prices (particularly meat and cheese), but fruits and veggies are super cheap. Two grapefruits = $0.42, huge lime = $0.12, 5 avocados = $1.80, a pineapple = $1.80.
We're doing and don't-ing lots of other fun stuff, but I thought this would give you a little snapshot of our day to day. Tomorrow marks the start of our first full week of work at school, so we'll publish some Colegio Menor news soon :)
pilsner light still cracks me up
ReplyDeletesend baby guinness pic, stat!
ReplyDelete