Dodging Bulls

My host family had family come into town on Friday....at least 6 or 7 people. It was fun, but it was the first time that I have been put on the spot and drilled with a million questions at once by a large group of people. It was a good experience because I felt like I was able to keep up with all the questions....¨How many people are in your family? What do your parents do? You only have one sister?What is Colorado like? Where is New York? Have you been to Alabama? What about Kentucky? (We eventually pulled out a US map, which made things a little easier for me to explain)
We threw a surprise birthday party for William, a PC volunteer in my group, at my host family´s house this weekend. He had no idea, and it was awesome! I know that it must be hard to be away from home on your birthday so Im glad we were able to pull the surprise off! (Obviously this picture is a re-enactment of the surprise, but it really was a success!)

My host family went out of town for the day on Saturday and left me a note saying the house and kitchen were mine for the night and to have tons of fun celebrating William´s birthday. I love my family! So, my friends and I made some delish empanadas for the party!

Party wouldn´t have been complete without a piñata!

When my host family returned from their day trip, they all joined in the festivites. My madre was so funny because she came in saying ¨Oh, I´m so thirsty. I really wish I had something to drink. Do you have any water?¨I thought it was a little strange...but I told her no and that all we had was some beer to drink. She said ¨Yay, that will do!¨I filled her cup half way with beer, and she told me not to be shy and to fill it to the rim....she is so funny
and is also a head shorter than me. (I feel like a giant here in Ecuador)

We attempted to make homemade chocolate chip cookies, but the Ecuadorian ovens are a little different here, and it took us twice the amount of time to cook the cookies. When they were finally done, they unfortunately stuck to the pan...we even put butter on the pan so they wouldnt stick but that didn´t really work out for us. We ended up having to make more of a chocolate chip mound of delicousness for the cake!

Feliz Cumpleanos Willy! We made signs and had fun decorations for the party. We also made William wear the awesome Barney birthday hat all evening and even later on at the bull fights!
(As if we don´t already stand out)

The bulls came to our town for more festivites this weekend! Anyone and everyone is allowed to jump into the ring to try to out run/dodge the bull to try and prove how ¨macho¨they really are. Although they taunt the bull a little to get it riled up to chase them, the men do not actually hurt or kill the bull like in a bull fight, which I was relieved to find out.

Amazing Darci and I huddling together for warmth at the bull extravaganza

Lovely Casey and I at the Plaza de Torros
This was a man dressed up as a woman and another guy who put on a hillarious act. They created some sort of see-saw contraption that allowed them to jump and dodge the bull as it came full force charging at them. I couldn´t believe how close the bull would come to jabbing the men in the booty.