This past week has had quite its share of activities, but they’ve had a much slower pace and have ended up with much more host family bonding: a welcome respite from my group’s fast-paced (but gorgeous and infinitely memorable) vacation in the Galapagos.

My week of homey Ecuadorian activities began with a trip to my host father’s work at a family-owned hacienda thirty minutes outside of the city. It was a beautiful trip into the mountains and I got to see Ecuadorian agriculture at work. It was quite interesting to hang out with about forty cows and watch them get milked (Did anyone else know that they LOVE getting milked? Maybe it’s just me… but it was surprising to see all the cows sprinting up towards the milk machine and locking their heads into its bars). No matter the oddity, I was able to take some pretty killer pictures with the cow named “Trump” and an up-close experience with my host father’s weekly work trip into the countryside.

My next adventure of the week included a daylong excursion to Chuquipata for a family reunion. I’ve been to MAYBE one family reunion in my life, and from what I remember, it was similar to a luncheon after Sunday morning church service. There were a lot of people, but it was a somewhat quiet atmosphere and it ended after the catered lunch and several greetings with people that I don’t remember ever meeting. This family reunion was a different experience entirely.

The day began with our arrival. Immediately, everyone at the country home stopped and came up to our car, shaking hands and kissing cheeks. I was a bit shocked by all this, and the tradition of greeting everyone at an event individually still messes me up sometimes. Nevertheless, I said hello to everyone and was led to a room full of desserts and appetizers. In this room, after picking up tidbits of conversation, I learned that the reunion was also a birthday party for one of my host father’s aunts. We preceded to eat appetizers and drink…different…beverages until lunch, where we ate a large meal consisting of soup with mote and collagen, chicken, rice, salad, beans, and several other containers of delicious food.

After lunch and for the rest of the day, we continued to eat, from snacking on appetizers and desserts to a coffee break and a pre-dinner meal before we left. We played volleyball, watched television, and talked about our lives. I had a pretty good day of Spanish practice, but I also attracted some of the English-speakers at the party. They enjoyed practicing their English with me, and a surprising amount of them had lived in the USA (mostly New York) for a considerable amount of time. While I remember, the pinata was a highlight of the day; I honestly can’t remember if my host father’s aunt broke the pinata, or one of the children did. Either way, age didn’t stop anyone from diving from the candy. I was able to make it out with a handful, but there were adults all over the place with handfuls and bags of candy.

Near the end of the evening, I think the culture started to really highlight itself. Someone busted out a karaoke machine and some beautiful songs were sang by a host of incredible singers. After this, I spoke to one of the older gentlemen there (in some pretty killer Spanish) about his life in the USA, what I do in the states, and what I’ve enjoyed most about Ecuador. As we were about to leave, a spectacular opened up and we had couples reenacting some Pimpinela videos off of the internet. They all got really involved, and it was an incredible atmosphere to be a part of. There was no shame. There were fake slaps, lots of exaggeration, and hilarious bits of forced singing.

All in all, I fell asleep that night completely exhausted from all the socialization and eating, but I fell asleep happy to have experienced such a neat cultural outing.