This little city.

Without all the homework (and with a state of denial about my final paper...) I have had some time to get to know Otavalo and to hang out with my lovely host family!

I think being alone here (aka without any people from my program... or anyone who speaks English for that matter) has been really good for me. When I'm with other people I know, or can get to know easily, I tend to just go along with whatever they're doing and I don't really stop to think about exactly I want to get out of the experience. In Otavalo I have been able to do more of that, and I have been a lot happier here! I only wish I was here longer so that I could develop the friendships I'm making and really invest in Jambi Huasi. 

So, I'll show you a bit of what I have been up to outside of work hours! First is a nice night spent at the cultural center for a concert, and out to my cousin's restaurant for pizza afterwards.

Surconciente, a band from Venezuela, had a free concert in Kinti Wasi!

Janay and Kat came down from Cotacachi for the concert, and my sister came with me as well!

My cousin's daughter, Rafaela! Such a cutie.

My cousin and his friend performing at his restaurant.

I've been spending some nice quality time with my host family (as well as some loooong days of joining them on their errands...) including preparing for and going to my sister's thesis defense/graduation!

Fashion show where my mom and sister made me try on ALL of my sister's dresses (this is only a few). Anyone who has ever lived with me knows that I try to minimize the clothing-changes I do in a day because I hate it. Believe it or not, I had to do this two nights in a row! Bonding, right?

My bro bought some hair wax at the salon so I'm giving him a middle part :P

We got our nails done! $3 manicures!

Aaaand here's mine!

Here's Karly with the book she made as part of her senior thesis! It's a guide to how fathers can spend more time with their kids, because her thesis is about the lack of quality time shared between the dads in our city and their children.

She passed! And graduated :)

Mirror pic in the mall after the graduation. Other than the blurry dude walking in the background, this is my Otavalo host family!

Other than my host family, I have spent some time with a few host cousins and my sister's good friend. We have gone to the discoteck for dancing a couple of times, driven/walked around the city, tried micheladas (Karly's fav... it's beer with lemon, salt, pepper and hotsauce in it. Actually not bad!), and gone to the pool. Oh, and there's kids for me to hang out with, which is always fun! 

Mateo and I "doing homework." I told him I'd help with his English homework, which consisted of practicing the pronunciation of the song "Don't You Worry Child." Needless to say, this turned into a dance party.

Emily! When school gets out and she comes to the office, that basically means I can't do work anymore ;)

Last but not least, I have been exploring during some of my time alone. It's nice that city is small enough where I can safely just start walking around to see what I find, and still easily find my way back. Of course now that I said that, I'll probably get lost. Oh well.

I found a cafe with this big bowl of vegetables on the menu and I was SO HAPPY! I have been eating rice and beans and potatoes for 2 1/2 months now and had been absolutely craving something like this!

Cool like statue things near my neighborhood! There was a whole "band" of these.

Dinosaur Road.

These dogs did NOT want me walking near their house. At one point there were six of them, all mad at me.

Roof dog lyfe.