National Symphony and....EARTHQUAKE

Friday night was the night to get cultural. After dressing up (so what if everyone just wants to wear every article of clothing they brought with them to Ecuador?!?), we went to the Duke office at night to enjoy colada morada and guaguas de pan. Colada morada is an extremely thick, sweet drink with lots of fruit and sugar and is el color morado, the color purple. Traditionally, the indigenous people created a form of colada, but it was corn based, and used it to give thanks to all of their Gods. However, when the Spanish conquistadoras arrived, they changed the tradition just in time to give thanks to the Catholic God. The color was also changed to purple because the color purple signifies death in the Catholic religion. We also had guaguas de pan, which is bread in the shape of a little baby and filled with sweet jellies (guagua means baby in Quechua, the language that the indigenous people here still speak). Guaguas de pan were also indigenous traditions and were used as offerings to their dead. When a loved one died, they would stick a doll made out of dough in the ground to show the burial site. It also had another significance- to offer food to the dead person (the indigenous believed there was life after death and that the dead would need food for their future lives). Both guaguas de pan and colada morada are the traditional dishes that are served on Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which is November 2nd. On this day, families traditionally traveled to the cemeteries and pray and offer food to their deceased loved ones. However, the holiday is much more important to the indigenous people, while most Ecuadorians (but not all) use the holiday to vacation at the beaches.

Guaguas de pan!

Me, Kaitlyn, and Hannah with our guaguas

After eating the sweet treats, we all piled into a tiny van and drove to La Casa de la Música to see the National Symphonic Orchestra of Ecuador perform. The classical music they played (including Schindler's List and pieces by Mozart, Weber, and Verdi) was beautiful.

Saturday morning I tried out my new alarm...AN EARTHQUAKE!! Right before 9am my entire bed shook violently back and forth for a couple of seconds. I was too surprised to be scared so it was just really exciting! Later I found out that it was a 4.0 and another earthquake had also occurred that same day. After my exciting morning, I spent the rest of the day with my host mom and her extended family (my host dad's sister's extended family...so confusing) in Tumbaco, which is near Cumbaya. We spent the rest of the day talking, eating, and drinking (including lots of guaguas de pan and homeade colada morada). Following a long day of speaking and listening to Spanish, I went out to the Foch with some of my gringo friends. Most people were dressed up since it was the Saturday before Halloween and we found it to be really interesting how most Ecuadorians go the scary route instead of the slutty route (thank god). Since we didn't have scary costumes, my girlfriends and I tried to scare away creepy guys by using some choice dance moves and singing voices. Unfortunately, I think others mistook our horrible dance skills for bad gringo dancing and STILL asked us to dance. #gringoproblems