Cat Calls with a Round of Applause

Buenas tardes! I´ve been here in Cuenca, Ecuador for over a week now and am finding myself very at home in this big city. There have been many new things that I´ve encountered that are very different than what goes on in Decorah. Let´s take meals for example. In Ecuador the times and the sizes of the meals are not what we would expect in the U.S. Breakfast can be any time in the earlier part of the morning and my family has been setting out wonderful bread (sweeter than regular sandwich bread) with jam and some fresh fruit like mango, melon, bananas, or strawberries. Then lunch is the biggest meal of the day and that´s around 1:45 or 2 at my house. Depending on what time I eat breakfast, I can get pretty hungry by lunch. For lunch we always eat white rice, some type of vegetable soup, some protein (like fish, chicken, or steak), and then freshly squeezed juice or lemonade. It all tastes very good since the food is fresh from the market. And finally, a lighter dinner is usually around 8pm and is not always eaten by my family. They always prepare something for me, like rice and an omelet, but I don´t always have company to eat with. So meals have been something to adjust to.

I've been taking advantage of the vast array of fresh fruits available. In the markets you can buy pretty much any fruit imaginable: strawberries, blackberries, cherries, bananas, watermelon, cantelope, etc. My mom also makes juice almost every day out of these fresh fruits and that´s a nice treat that I wouldn't get to enjoy in the U.S.

Another thing that I've been exposed to are the numerous cat calls and whistles that I get while walking or running around Cuenca. We were all warned before we arrive that cat calls are commonplace here, especially for those of us who clearly don´t look like we´re natives. We were advised not to react in any way to the people saying them and to just ignore them. Often when I´m out in the streets, vendors or people walking will say the word ´suca´, which means ´blonde´. I've also noticed that a lot of people honk when I´m around. I´m not sure if they´re honking at me or at the traffic, because it´s also very common for taxi drivers to honk at traffic to move faster, but either way it´s a bit startling when I´m not expecting it- just like it can be in the U.S.

This morning when I was running I received my first round of applause! I was just running along the same river that I've been going along since we arrived, and an older Ecuadorian gentleman was walking in the opposite direction. He stopped when he saw me, stood off to the side, and started clapping! I just kept running, but on the inside I was chuckling and smiling to myself- that´s surely something I don´t receive every day!

This week I am super excited for our first dance lessons and then our weekend trip to Cajas National Park. Should be lots of fun! Chao for now!