Thoughts on culture

Yesterday a bunch of us went to a street called "La Ronda" for one girl's birthday, where we drank a drink called canellazo, which is made from canella, a spice that comes from the trees, and hot water. Usually people drink it with alcohol, but I take it without alcohol because I think it's gross with the alcohol. The little restaurant was a small hole in the wall place on la ronda, which was literally a hole in the wall. Many of the shops and restaurants are side by side in the walls that line the streets. We sang "Feliz cumpleanos" to her, and upon realizing that it was our friend's birthday, the owner left and returned with two street singers with guitars. They sang her feliz cumpleanos, and then began playing music for everyone. Soon the ecuadorians got up and started dancing as Ecuadorians do. And then one of the Ecuadorian men went over and asked the birthday girl to dance. The people here are so nice and have so much fun. Today we returned to La Catolica where we registered for classes. After everything, we went to the university theater where the students put on a bit of a show for us. First, we saw some girls do some traditional ecuadorian dancing, and then we saw a group of students do a strange dance, which I think they saw was arabian, but my ecuapadre said was brasilian. But anyway, two men drummed great drums, while two other men played a strange instrument with strings that I have never seen before. Everyone else danced either one at a time, or two at a time, in a dance that seemed to be some hybrid gymnastics and dance in which the people acted as if they were fighting each other. All the while the other people would clap and chant. The culture here is pretty incredible. The are elements of both the Spanish culture that entered this land, and the indigenous culture that was already here, along with occasional reverberations of the Moorish culture that ruled Spain over five hundred years ago.

Eating together is also very important. My host family always tries to eat dinner together, and on sundays, the extended family comes over to eat. Many of my friends have host parents that ask them to return for lunch to eat with them. Another difference, the indigenous remain and thrive here, and their culture has either assimilated or lives distinctly from the rest of the culture, which is markedly different from the United States where the indigenous population has been so minimized that I have never personally encountered it. This post is probably pretty scattered but the tv is on and I'm kinda distracted. More to come...