Back Again

After hours of delays, I'm finally back in Chicago with my family. I've spent most of the day chilling with my brother, since I'm exhausted. So what do we do? Watch Harry Potter previews in Spanish (from Spain) and make fun of the accent :)

Slept Through an Earthquake

Carlos and I are in Guayaquil. We just put Mom on the plane home. This morning, as I woke up, Carlos asked, "Did you feel the tremor?" "No, you were probably dreaming," was my response.

Moments later, Mom asked, "Did you feel the earthquake last night?"

I didn't think I was that deep of a sleeper...

Still No Internet

And it looks like we won't be getting any in our apartment for a while. Apparently there is not enough capacity in our neighborhood for us :(

Corpus Christi

If you like sweets, come to Cuenca. Now.

This past week the city has been celebrating Corpus Christi. For those of you who are not familiar with that holiday (like me), Corpus Christi literally means the body of Christ. Apparently there is a golden piece of bread that is somewhere in town that is revered and is said to represent Jesus, based on the story of how he said that the bread was his body. Something like that.

But I haven't seen any bread. Just rows and rows of sweets. Lining the main square are dozens of tables that are filled with every sort of pastry, cake, cookie and candy that one can imagine. I don't really like sweets, I find them, well, too sweet. Also, as much as I like street food, so do the bees. They like sweets and I am not fond of eating food that had just been home to a dozen bees.

On Tuesday night Carlos and I wandered through the main square where he bought some sweets and I had one alfajor (a sandwich of vanilla cookies with dulce de leche in the center and rimmed with coconut). But after that we had some meat on a stick (no bees).

However, the highlight of the evening is the castillos. There are two or three each night. These are bamboo towers that have been decorated with tissue paper and fireworks. I know, tissue paper and fireworks do not sound like a very wise combination, but it works. The castillos are beautiful and smokey and loud. They are usually three of four different levels. The fireworks are set so they start at the bottom and work their way up to the top, where the most spectacular ones are. Also, at the same time other fireworks are being set off and tissue paper hot air balloons.

Makes for a beautiful night (except if it rains).

Note: I have no idea what is up with the fonts...will try fix soon.

More Night Visitors

I was all cozy in bed last night, and Carlos was already asleep, when I decided that I needed to use the toilet. When I returned to bed, I slipped off a sandal and put my foot on the floor for balance. But I didn't touch the floor, just a cold slimy mass. I jumped in to bed and peeked over the side to see another slug! I woke up Carlos to complain. He was not very happy to be woken up, so mumbled that we should just salt it.

So I did.

The next morning we had a squishy mass of preserved slug on the floor, which Carlos graciously removed for me.

Does anyone know how to discourage these visitors?

Night Visitors

The other night we had a little visitor in our home...


If you didn't quite get a good look, here is a close up...


Yep, we had a big fat slug in the house. Plus two more in the front yard. Carlos swept them all into the street.

They should keep in mind, the next time they think about visiting, that we now have our welcome mat doused with salt.

Before and After

We've been in the apartment for about a week. We have made some progress in a few rooms, but sadly, we still do not have a dining room table. However, we do have a lovely living room...

Before

After

Before
After

I think we need a rug, but we haven't gotten that far yet...

The Replacements

About two days after we moved out, Papi found replacements...

Roughing It

The shower in our apartment sucks. It's electric, and supposedly made for the sierra, i.e., cooler climates. For the water to be hot, there is absolutely no pressure. But when there is enough pressure to actually rinse your body, the water is cold. We have already spoken to the owner about replacing it, which we plan to do this weekend.

We Have Our Refrigerator

At about 3:45PM on Tuesday afternoon the delivery guys came to replace our refrigerator. They were supposed to be there at 3PM. Actually, they were supposed to be there at 5PM on Monday, then between 9AM and 9:30AM that morning.

Carlos was in meetings most of Tuesday morning, but every hour or so he would text me asking if the fridge had arrived yet. No. Not yet. Still not here. Nada.

Around 1PM Carlos went to the store to complain. He told the manager that yesterday they had told him that the fridge would be delivered between 9AM and 9:30AM that day and that I had been waiting all morning and no one had arrived. So the manager called the delivery guys (on a radio or walkie talkie) and apparently the conversation went something like this...

“You were supposed to deliver a fridge to this address this morning.”
“Oh, you never told us about that delivery.”
“Yes, I did.”
“No, you didn't, it's not here on the schedule.”
“I did. And I have the client here with me.”
“Well, you still didn't tell us.”
“That doesn't matter, can you deliver the fridge this afternoon?”
“Sure, we'll be there around 3PM.”

OK, so this is a secondhand conversation that has been translated from Spanish, but that's the gist of it. The delivery guys arrived at 3:45PM and replaced the fridge within 10 minutes. The second they left I wiped down the fridge, inside and out, and sent Carlos a message to buy me butter (for the past week I've wanted to bake a cake – we have all the ingredients except for butter because there was nowhere to store it).

He wasn't able to bring the butter. He stopped at home after his afternoon meeting, but then had to go back to work for an hour before his evening meetings. However, he had stopped at the municipality to ask about the internet. My next task is to wait for the internet inspection.

They will be by between 8AM and 8PM on Thursday.