American Culture in Loja

I was appreciating yesterday that I have managed to successfully move to a city without a McDonald's. I feel like this might be some sort of significant life landmark, since it'll probably never happen again. My victory is only slightly dampened by the fact that there is a KFC In Loja, which happens to be a chain adored by all Ecuadorians. Several cab drivers have told me it's their favorite restaurant. The uglier aspects of American culture that have infiltrated Ecuador include bad music (a la Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me" and Celine Dion) and MTV's Super Sweet 16, which my host brother LOVES to watch while we eat lunch. Almost enough to make me embarrassed to be a North American. But atleast there's no McDonald's.

Haiku on Mangoes

Mangoes Everyday
Delicious Flossy Goodness
Get Out Of My Teeth

Women Can't Work Construction

Last week, I played two truths and a lie wtih my students as a way of reviewing the past tense. So I wrote three sentences in the past tense up on the board about myself, and without fail my students never believed "Before I moved to Ecuador, I used to work building houses." Ahhhhh machismo. How I love squashing your stereotypes.

I'm in Love

With Ecuadorian politics. And I thought I was going to miss US politics while I was gone. There was recently a national election in order to choose asambleistas to rewrite the Ecuadorian constitution. It is mandatory to vote in this country. If you choose not to, you lose your civil rights: you can't get a passport, can't get married, etc. And 2 days before every election, they have what they call "la ley seca," "the dry law," prohibiting the sale and public consumption of alcohol. All political propaganda is also banned during those 48 hours. Why? Because people actually care about politics. They're involved, and people have apparently died from getting into political arguments before elections. The last time someone died because of US politics, Aaron Burr was still toting a pistol. Ok, slight exaggeration. But it's still really cool to see political graffiti all over the city and to see people taking a very active interest. If you wanna know more about the election, I really enjoyed this article. It kinda reminded me of the California state recall.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7020420.stm