This week has been all about saying goodbye. Classes finished up on Thursday night. I turned in my last exam with my eyes half open at ten thirty that night and swore to myself I would never take a class that went that late again. We had a closing ceremony on Thursday afternoon with the school. We had one last cultural seminar and watched a video with a ton of pictures from the whole trip. Surprisingly we managed to get through the whole thing tear free.
A lot of people got stuck in Guayaquil rush hour traffic (they have rush hour at lunch time too because everyone goes home) so we even got to witness one last crazy dance from our Korean dancing queen while we were waiting. Sangwoo treated us to an original routine to authentic Korean music. Shortly after this he also pulled out his famous umbrella prop and did a dance with one of our directors. It was all quite entertaining and in good fun.
Thursday night we had the entire group meet up for one last time to go dancing! It was a lot of fun. We ended up with a group of probably 35 or 40 people since we had all the internationals and ecuadorian friends. It was a great way to say goodbye! I dont think the bar had ever had that many people come in at once before! They didnt know what to do!
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night were all spent at small get togethers saying goodbye to who ever was leaving the next morning. Generally at least one to two people have been leaving everyday. There are still a few of us left in Guayaquil who are going to get together tonight for a little while and then most of them are headed off to Peru in the morning. I am starting to pack up my suitcases and organize my room today! And I have a few last minute errands to run.
After a lot of convincing, I finally assured Leonor that I would be fine if she left for Saturday and Sunday and went to see her family and grandkids for Easter. I gave her some stickers to bring to her granchildren which they loved! One of the big traditions here during Semana Santa is to cook a soup known as Fanesca. It is a dish specifically prepared during Easter and is supposed to represent the binding family unit and the story of the death of Christ. The soup generally has every ingredient imaginable in Ecuadorian food, including 12 different kinds of grain which are meant to represent the Apostles.
There is even one specific grain that is supposed to be really breally bitter if you dont cook it right which is supposed to represent Judas. On top of that there is also carrots, onions, potatoes, yuca, eggs, milk, hearts of palm, cheese, platains, maduro, avocado, a special kind of salted fish and more. Needless to say it takes quite a while to make, sometimes a few days. It is also part of the tradition to package up nine portions of the soup to give away to nine different neighbors. The soup is traditionally made on Good Friday.
My friend Danielle invited me over on Sunday afternoon to eat lunch with her family. They were having the traditional Easter lunch of Fanesca and they also bought some authentic humitas downtown. Humitas are a mixture of course maiz with cheese and egg and then they usually have a little extra cheese filling down the middle. The whole thing is wrapped in corn husks and cooked like a tamale. They are traditionally eaten as a snack in the Andes with a cup of strong black coffee. Anyway, the grandma was over and it was fun to watch everyone running around the house and cooking. We had a very nice lunch and the soup was really good! Afterward I played cards with Danielle, her host Mom, and the Grandma, which was also a lot of fun. They are very loud and vocal when they play cards around here!
One more week before I return to the States! I cant believe it!
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