New Year's Eve, Quito-Style

Welcome, everyone, to 2010! I like this year already. Hope it's treatin' you ok, too.

Before I get started with New Year's Eve in Quito, let me throw out an enthusiastic "Happy Day of Birth" to my favorite little brother, Josh. He will be...let's see...28 tomorrow! Wow, is he old! Happy Birthday, Porge. I love you and I hope it's your best year yet!

So, on to some pictures of my New Year's Eve. Though staying in the city wasn't my first choice for Christmas break, it did have its advantages. One example is getting to see New Year's Eve celebrated, Quito-style. Here are some pictures and memories of the night...

[editor's note: these pictures are courtesy of Leslie's friend, Rick Sams]

I spent the evening with friends at the Saavedras' house. We did a sleep-over party. Everyone else who stayed has little kids, so most of them were out long before the New Year arrived. We ate yumminess and talked the last of 2009 away. Then, a few minutes before midnight we went up on the Saavedras' building roof to watch the fireworks. It was pretty amazing...

According to photographer Rick, this is a "doctored" shot. This is several minutes of action caught in one shot via the miracle of a longer exposure time.

Pretty much everyone sets off their own fireworks, which is fun because there's stuff to see all around- 360 degrees of light explosions. However, that also means that any Joe-shmoe off the street can set off fireworks. :) Our neighbors set some off that hit other houses and caused us to fear, just a little bit, for our lives. :) I'm sure I've never been this close. It was that fun, sorta scary/very exciting feeling, standing on the roof, watching in amazement.

After watching fireworks for awhile, we left the roof and headed for the street to experience another Ecuadorian tradition: burning the old year. For about a week before the 31st, you can find effigies for sale on the streets. Some look like politicians or other well-known people, but many are just generic old men. Burning the "old year" symbolizes putting the past behind, and preparing to face the new year ahead. The picture above is us getting ready to burn our old year.

Due to the low oxygen content (at our altitude, we enjoy about 20% less oxygen in our air than at sea level), things don't burn as easily here. We experienced this up close and personal as we tried to burn our old year. As we watched and waited, we gringos also watched all the neighbors burning their own old years. Clearly, they knew something we didn't. :)

A third custom here is to walk around the block with a suitcase at midnight. This symbolizes that travel will be part of your new year. Since everyone in our group is living and working overseas, we decided there would probably be more than enough travel in our 2010 without doing a lap around the block. :)

Eventually our old year started burning well. We watched for awhile and then decided that it was time for the first night's sleep of the new year.

Happy 2010 Everyone! I hope this year treats you well!

New Year's Curtains

Today is December 28, 2009. I took down my Christmas tree and decorations this morning. This is always a little bit sad. I read recently that in England they used to celebrate Christmas for 12 days (hence the song). I think that's a good idea. There's so much build-up to Christmas, and then it's over. In case you were wondering what I thought about that.

[editor's note: as I type this, I'm listening to Pandora radio. Every so often they play an advertisement blip. The last one was for Faith Hill Parfum. Ok, seriously? Faith Hill is a country singer. Since when do country and French go together? I think not]

I'm half-way through my Christmas break today. It has been WONDERFUL so far. I've spent lots of time sleeping, reading, watching movies, and spending time with friends. Obviously, if I had the means I would have gone home in a heartbeat. Half a heartbeat, maybe. But barring that option, staying here and doing nothing has been a really great break. Maybe I needed the rest more than I realized.

Though I've been experimenting in the area of laziness, I have also been working on several household jobs that have been overlooked in the six months since I moved in. The biggest of those jobs has been the completion of the curtain in my living room.

Here are before and after pictures, so you can be awed with me:

My tacky-yet-functional previous curtain. (crowd boos and hisses)

The lovely "after" model. (cheering and clapping from the audience)

Do you feel inspired? Hope so. I'm off to read a book. I love holidays! Happy 2010 Everyone!

Christmas Carols and Language Confusion

It is the Sunday before Christmas, so this morning we sang Christmas carols in church. I LOVE Christmas. I love singing. Hence, I really love singing Christmas carols. I was thinking while I sang today...

Oh Come, All Ye Faithful

So this line caught my attention: "Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above". Guess who's a citizen of heaven above? Well, I know that all of us who're in relationship with Christ are, though we're not home yet. But I was thinking of people who're already there, like my cute funny mom whom I miss more than words can express. It made me happy to think about her in heaven, singing O Come, All Ye Faithful along with the congregation at EFC. And me.

Go Tell It On the Mountain

I hate this carol. A lot. It annoys me. Especially the big, nasty slide up the scale at the end of each verse. Ai-yah. Shudder.

And why is it that, no matter how few Christmas carols I get to sing on any given Sunday of Advent, this is always one of them? It's like a special sixth sense music planners have. "Hmm, I bet Leslie Foster will be here this week. Better throw in Go Tell It On the Mountain".

In other news...

After church I went to brunch with some friends. I was ordering an omelet which came with whole wheat toast. I knew that I don't like the toast at this place, so I asked if I could exchange the toast for something else. I'll re-create the scene for your amusement, below [approximate translation in brackets]:

Leslie: Podria cambiar la tostada?

[could I change the toast?]

Waiter: Por que quiere cambiarlo

[what do you want to change it for?; but I thought he meant, "why do you want to change it?" "Por que" can mean 'for what' or 'why']

Leslie: (confused look as I wonder what difference it makes to the waiter if I don't want toast) Por que no me gusta tostada!

[because I don't like toast]

A moment of confusion passes. We blink at each other. The waiter tries again

Waiter: Pero, por que quiere cambiarlo?

[but, what do you want to trade it for?]

A light begins to dawn in my brain.

Leslie: "Significa, que yo quiero en vez de tostado?"

[do you mean, what do I want instead of toast?]

My bilingual friend, Rachel, jumped in at this point and brought a bit more clarification to the situation. Happily, the waiter was a good sport and when it was all said and done, I got pita bread instead of toast. All's well that ends well, I guess. Maybe one day I'll speak Spanish. But then, what would I write to you about?

Editor's Note: I want to give a Birthday Shout-Out to my favorite 4-year old niece, Miss Devan Foster. Devan, I hope you have an awesome birthday. Can't express how much I wish I could be there to celebrate with you. Love, Aunt Leslie :)

Last night I discovered that I can get Pandora Radio here in Equador. Probably, this doesn't mean to you what it means to me.

Explanation:

I live in Ecuador. But I'm from the Heartland and I LOVE LOVE LOVE country music. I like lots of other types of music, but I love country, and I can't get it here. I don't have the freedom to buy a lot of cd's, and the radio here plays different latino music styles. I like latino music, but my soul longs for country music.

Pause to defend my love my love of country music, for you skeptics:

1. awesome harmonies

2. lyrics that tell stories about real life- things we can all relate to: family, love, faith, loss, fun

Pandora is an online music database. It's free, and you put in the songs or artists that you like, and they stream that type of music. It's the next best thing to having enough money to buy every cd that you want. Sadly, you can only do it if you're located in the US. I don't know why this matters to the kind Pandora people...I mean, it's free either way, so why do they care if I'm logging in from Wheaton or Ada or Quito? But they do.

And...the good news. So last night I was hanging out with my super-cool friends, the Saavedras. Dave picked out my computer for me in October and he asked me to bring it along so he could check it out. Beth and I snuggled Baby Eva (almost a month old and a cute, squishy baby if I ever saw one) and watched Little Women. While we watched, Dave loaded a program on my computer that shields my location when I'm online. So now, I can turn the shield on and get Pandora!!

Please pause here to think about the joy of once again having access to your favorite style of music, after an 18 month hiatus.

Right now I'm listening to Carrie Underwood. Early today I heard Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, and Trace Adkins.

It sounds like home.