FIRST VACATION!

After less than 2 weeks of being at CADE with the other student missionaries, we head to Quito for the weekend! First vacation with my new fellow teachers! It was quite an experience…like everything here! We stayed with a super genius family in Quito and went to the smallest church I’ve ever been too! I think it was about 3 families big. Unsurprisingly they made the white kids do special music. For those of you who know me, I don’t sing in front of people unless it’s in a group. That changed when I got here. There’s no option—you have to sing! It was fun though! The genius family we were staying with is also musical, and they had a piano! I hadn’t gotten to play a piano since I left the U.S. yet! It was amazing. I never thought I’d be so happy to play with 9 fingers! Turns out not to be quite as hard as it sounds. Good weekend. And good food! They don’t celebrate Halloween here, but they celebrate the Day of the Dead on Nov. 2. There’s this hot berry drink called ‘Colada Morada’ that they drink with ‘Guaguas de Pan’ to celebrate. The guaguas look like little gingerbread dolls but they taste like a loaf of bread. It is quite the scrumptious tradition! I may even dare to say better than the Halloween candy…though chocolate is pretty hard to top! And good chocolate is hard to come by here…not that I’ve looked or anything :)