Family Fiesta

2 de Marzo 2010

So up until tonight I thought I had a normal family. I mean really anything compared to my family is normal (anyone who’s had a family dinner at my house knows that). But finally tonight I was able to see that they are a little more like my family than I realized.

The big event- my aunt and uncle (host aunt and unc) moved to Utah 8 years ago and had not seen anyone in our family for 8 years! So they finally decided to return to Quito and are staying with us for a month.

So what do you do when someone’s been gone that long…FIESTA! Claro! So let me back up ..the crazyness actually began this morning… everyone was kind of rushing around but it didn’t bother me… I tried to finish my homework while I ate the papaya my madre cut up for me, along with some banana blended milk and a cheese bread roll… pretty standard and delicious…

Taylor, mi madre, y yo got in the car as normal so I thought we were about to leave when my aunt got in the car with her two dogs, than my grandpa with his dog, madness already, but then my mom starts honking the horn “Esteben!” my brother… so then he piles in with our dog… dogs are jumping, everyone’s talking, esteben’s late for an interview, we’re late for school and everyone else is late for an appointment and the dog salon? Because clearly when having out of town guest it is very important to have ALL the dogs looking good… meanwhile we go through a red light get stuck in the middle of an intersection, pretty much all of Quito is honking at us… but somehow everyone gets where they’re suppose to be going…

Anyways after a pretty tranquil day at school, I went for a run in La Carolina, with my friend Erin, after not running for so long we both we’re out of breath pretty fast… anyways I got home and everyone was all ready getting ready, downstairs in my aunt and uncles house balloons and people filled the rooms… I went upstairs, quickly showered (because my mom told me too) and changed into something nice…

Then three cars worth of people headed to airport, only to meet a bunch more relatives at the airport… Signs, confetti, balloons oh and leyes.. for some reason taylor and I had to put leyes around our aunt and uncle when they arrived… after anxiously awaiting and practicing their arrival for about 40 minutes (we were quite the spectacle of people in airport) the tios arrived!

Everyone was so emotional, I almost started crying when my host dead burst into silent tears while hugging his brother… we took some family photos that insisted that I be in as well, and finally we headed back to the house… little did I know this was only the beginning of the craziness.

One of my aunts is a professional singer, so as soon as the tios walked in the door the music began to blare (they had somehow obtained HUGE speakers and microphones) and my aunt began to sing beautiful traditional songs, that somehow everyone knew, after a few songs of singing and clapping, one of my aunts grabbed a napkin and started doing some sort of traditional veil dance, we took a singing/dancing break and made about 50 toast, and of course they pass the microphone to me make a toast… talk about pressure… finally it was time to eat, luckily I got seated at the kids table and was able to converse with my literally insane wild little cousins…after fruit kabobs, dinner and dessert, the singing began again…

This time it was more karaoke style… still traditional Ecuadorian songs… which clearly I know none of… so they pass the microphone and everyone is singing.. finally they realize that Taylor and I haven’t been singing, so they decide we MUST sing the one Ecuadorian song we know, entitled mi nina bonita, I literally only know 2 frases but that was enough we HAD to sing… after much singing the tradional dance began again and last well past midnight (THIS IS SCHOOL NIGHT) ok I know midnight is not that late but I’m use to going to bed around 10:30 on school nights so its going to rough tomorrow…

We’re having another family fiesta on Saturday! Can’t wait!

Buenos Noches!