House Arrest

Tomorrow is the census.  Just like in the US they do it every ten years.  Unlike the US, there is one day that they attempt to count everyone and you must stay in your house all day.  It is against the law for me to leave my house tomorrow from 7AM to 5PM. 

Sigh.  I guess I'll be on skype if anyone wants to call :)

Security

I'm currently in Latacunga now, I was in Cuenca for the last week, after returning back from Chicago.  I brought back with me about 140lbs of luggage, 50lbs in each checked bag and about 40lbs in my carry on (which broke during the flight, but that's another story).  So what usually happens when I return to Ecuador is that Dad drops me off at the terminal with my two checked bags, then he parks while I check in and he meets me in the terminal and brings me my carry on.  We then say goodbye as I go through security.

First Class

This week is full of travel.  But fortunately most of it will be an upgrade from what I'm used to.

First, a summary of this week's travel:

My First Potential Coup

A state of emergency has been declared in Ecuador.  The military is now in charge and are backing the president.  The airports and major roads are closed.  This is all due to the fact that the police are on strike apparently due to the reduction of their retirement benefits.

However, in Latacunga nothing is happening.  I'm so safe that I'm practically cloistered.

I've been working 16 hour days this past week since we are issuing drawings tomorrow.  So I basically leave the office for lunch and dinner is ordered in.  And our apartment here is half a block away. 

The internet was shut down nationwide earlier today for a few hours.  Which was good for me because I was able to get more work done :)

If anything interesting happens, I'll try to write about it.  But for now, back to work.

Still on Hiatus

I've been meaning to post more stories, but have been working almost non-stop since I started my job at the end of June.  When you are living in a small town eight hours from your home where you don't really know anyone, it's easy to just eat, sleep, drink, and work.  And wait for the shower (which happens when you have seven people living the in same apartment building who all need to be at work at 8AM).  In Latacunga, 10, 12, even 14 hour days were typical just because there wasn't anything else to do there.  But this week I will be working from Cuenca in a office that is open from 8:30AM to 1PM and 2:30PM to 6PM so I intend to start posting again.

Latacunga

I know that my regular readers may have been wondering why I haven't written.  Ha ha ha.  I know that's not true, I'm just writing again because my mom suggested that I do.

Believe it or not, I've actually been working this past month.  I have a few weeks left in my two month contract as a sanitary engineer, designing the master plan for the sewer network in Latacunga, Ecuador.  I have a weekly eight hour commute each way between Cuenca and Latacunga, and work 10 to 12 hour days, which is why I haven't had much time to blog.

But I have a moment now and will show you Latacunga.  This is the view from my office window.

Well, it's a well zoomed view, the real view looks more like this...

Anyway, the big snow covered mountain is Cotopaxi, the highest point in Ecuador.  And it's also an inactive volcano.  Throughout town there are signs that tell you where to go in the event of an eruption.  Practical, but not very comforting.

Inti Raymi

Here in Ecuador (as well as other parts of the former Incan Empire), the celebration of the summer solstice is a big deal.  Last year we went to a festival in Ingapirca, some Cañari/Incan ruins a few hours north of Cuenca.  This year we went to Chobshi, another town about an hour away from Cuenca that is known for a cave where a prehistoric culture lived and a ruined pre-Incan castle.

Last year we walked around the ruins and watched local groups perform traditional dances.  The weather was beautiful.  This year was a bit different.  We ended up getting our auras cleansed by some hippies in a castle in the rain.

World Cup Commentary

I've spent almost the entire past week watching football.  I mean soccer.  I think I saw (at least most of) 15 of the 23 games so far.  Here are a few things I learned:

The Hora

No, that's not bad Spanglish. It's a Jewish dance.

And I think that we effectively tripled or quadrupled the population of Jews in Cuenca for our wedding.

The dance is easy. You join hands and go around in a circle, doing a grapevine. Sometimes you change directions. Occasionally you expand or contract the circle. That's about it.

I do have a nice video of the dancing, but it just won't seem to upload :(  I hope photos will do.

Cocktail Hour

In Judaism there is a specific part of the wedding that is called the Yichud, i.e., seclusion, after the ceremony in which the bride and groom have some time alone together.  I believe that back in the day it was the time to, um, consummate the marriage.  But now it seems to be used as snack time.

So, after the ceremony Carlos and I had a few minutes to ourselves.  I really mean a few minutes because we were sitting in his parents suite sipping champagne and nibbling on some meats and cheeses when some young nephews barged in through the back door.  I yelled at them to get out.  It wasn't actually a yell, but more like a very strong suggestion to go away and leave us alone.