Comida (Food)

Food!

As promised, we are pleased to share with you the delicious food we enjoyed each day this past week. A typically almuerzo (lunch-the largest meal of the day) includes:
- a soup with mote (more on mote later)
- a main course (usually includes rice, meat dish, and a salad)
- a postre (dessert)

MONDAY: We enjoyed a soup (I forgot to take a picture), but shown on the right is our main course:
stewed pork and papas (potatoes) over rice, with a slightly hot sauce w/onions (the orange color you see) and a salad of aguacate (avocado).

TUESDAY: We consumed a pasta and chicken soup, then had fried yuca patties over rice, with a side salad of squash, radishes, green peppers, onions. The meal was completed after a saucer of homemade mango ice cream (I was so excited about the mango ice cream that I forgot to take a picture before i ate it...)




















WEDNESDAY: We had a vegetable/rice soup, followed by rice and egg/cheese/potato cakes on rice with a beautiful green salad of tomatoes, greens, yuca, peppers. No picture of the postre: jello!












About the first picture: MOTE. It is a type of corn (maiz) that is known in the US as hominy. Here, they soak it and put it in ALL soups, so we have it every day.








THURSDAY: We had a filling chickpea soup (the white items in the soup is the mote). For the main course, Mark loved the stewed sausage and pork with zanahorias (carrots) over rice. I loved the fried plantains (I had been looking forward to plantains and mangos since we planned our trip!) Postre: A mango! (not shown)



















FRIDAY (today): We had a vegetable/rice soup, followed by seasoned rice, papas with green beans, and a cebolla (onion), tomato, tuna fish dish. Yummy! Postre: Flan (not shown).















Our housing arrangements include breakfast and lunch, but not dinner, so we have had adventurous trips to the markets, and have cooked many creative concoctions ourselves. Our favorite addition to these dishes is this little red pepper with black seeds that adds the perfect amount of spice!

Familia

As you saw from our last post, we are staying with a family in Cuenca. The family is very large, and the mother/grandmother welcomed us immediately into her home.



We call her ´´Ma-ma´´ and she considers us her 7th and 8th children. Yes, she is mother of 6, with the youngest being 33:


It seems a natural progression that Mark and I be her 7th and 8th children. We greatly appreciate the warm welcome into this temporary home.

In the Ecuadorian family, the weekends are usually spent with family, and this last Sunday was no different for us. We went to ´´El Campo´´ (the country) where the family has a small house.



Five of Ma-ma´s six children were there, some with their spouses, children, and ´´adopted´´ international students like us. Ma-ma´s oldest daughter´s husband took to liking Mark and talked to him for 2 hours about how he built this precious home with his own hands and planted all kinds of trees and plants in the land surrounding the house. The house itself has one small bathroom and two bedrooms, and a large table in the kitchen, perfect for gathering around for the large meal of the day: almuerzo or la comida (lunch).

It also has a patio/front porch with cushioned chairs and benches to gather and have a siesta.
At el campo, we had a large lunch and the food was delicious, as always: mote (hominy) is common to eat by itself or in a soup. We had pork and beef roasted outside, a salad, rice, and potatoes. (Next week, I´ll be blogging about our typically lunches, and will include a picture from each day!) We also celebrated Ma-ma´s sister-in-law´s 80th birthday. You can see the video of us singing ´´Feliz Cumpleanos´´ to her in the video.

After lunch, we then chatted, rested, and read. Towards evening, we helped to clear off some of the old logs from the land and burnt the rest of the pieces. Mark had a blast. Men and fire...not sure I´ll come to understand it completely, but it was fun to watch the guys interact.

Una Cuidad Hermosa

Cuenca es una ciudad hermosa. (Cuenca is a beautiful city.)

 

After school, almuezo (lunch-the main meal of the day), and una siesta (nap, which is common during the afternoon), we walked along the river and took pictures.  

As you can see: puffy white and gray clouds hover over rolling green mountains that surround the entire city.  And Cuenca is a city.  The streets are cobblestone mostly and cars bounce down the street at about 25-30 mph (so not fast).  The sidewalks hold about one person, maybe two in certain places, and the streets are lined with stores (clothing, electronic, sports, shops similar to tiny 7-elevens, cell phone stores, furniture stores, etc.).  The stores are small by U.S. standards, as most hold no more than 5 people at a time, and with 5, it would be crowded.

 

One of our favorite places is the parque en el Centro where we study, read, and do homework.  Our favorite ice cream shop (se llama ``Nice Cream´´) is right on the corner, so easy access to increase our blood sugar during the afternoon lull.

 

 

We spend most of our time these first few weeks either at school,

or at our home.  Here are pictures of those, for now.  Our room (one of six rooms in the house!) is the one on the second floor with the curtains open.

 

Addendum to Miami

I meant to mention this in our Miami post, but forgot.

In Miami, it seemed that 80% of people spoke Spanish. I knew that Miami had a lot of Spanish-speakers; however, knowing there are a lot of Spanish-speakers in Miami and actually being surrounded by them are two different things. Of course, I loved it, because I love the language and was able to practice :)

Example:
While sitting at breakfast in the Miami hotel on Sunday morning, I overheard a gentleman (non-Spanish-speaker) sit down and converse with a waiter. It went as follows:

Gentleman: What do you have for lunch?

Waiter: [written as it was pronounced with a strong Spanish accent] We have a lunch boofeh, lasagna, and the vehetal es es-parra-goose.

Gentleman: As-parra-goose?

Waiter: Si, es-parra-goose.

Gentleman: As-parra-goose?

Waiter: Si, es-parra-goose.

Gentlemen: Oh! Sprouts?

Waiter: No, es-parra-goose.

Lindsay: [interjecting] Asparagus.

Gentlemen: Oh, asparagus. Thank you!

Waiter: Si, es-parra-goose.

Lindsay: [to herself] I love Español.

Aprendemos Español

Aprendemos Español. = We learn Spanish.

Today was our first day of language school. Over our 4-hour lesson, my professora and I (Lindsay) covered almost every topic under the sun. It was a relief to be able to discuss a variety of topics in Español...or at least understand 80-90% of what my professora was saying. The Spanish here is crisp and clear and I simply enjoy listening to folks share history, opinions, stories, etc. Through these lessons, what I hope to improve most is my ability to respond with similar fluidity. Currently, I stud stud studder when called to speak. To build vocabulary, I am reading novels and short stories. Today, I began reading Eva Luna by Isabel Allende.

Mark is on an upward learning curve too. Already, we are communicating with one another in Español! He is working on verb conjugations and building his Spanish vocabulary.

Our teachers are sisters and both have a lot of energy and enthusiasm for teaching. We are looking forward to tomorrow!