Blog Post #4: Free Day 5.7.17

My host family members include Mary, Jorge, and Gabriella. Mary is a housewife and Jorge is a retired engineer. He, for a few years in his youth, even worked in the military air force of Ecuador as an engineer. Gabriella is an architecture student of age 30 who lives at home. Mary and Jorge also have a son who is a lawyer and another daughter who works at a bank. Because I know quite a bit of Spanish, I communicate with Mary and Jorge frequently, especially over our meals together. Just tonight, Jorge asked me if I like Trump, then if I like Obama, and then I kept the conversation going by asking him if he liked Lenin, the to-be president, to which he replied that he likes Correa and thinks Lenin is a Communist.

Tonight, our host family has their children and their families visiting for the rest day that is Sunday. Many families in America follow this practice as well, but I find that it is a good representation of the value of collectivism here in Ecuador. Spending time with your extended family, and even having a daughter of yours that is far past the age of 18 (typically seen as the start of adulthood) living with you shows how incredibly much Ecuadorian’s have strong ties to their families. Similarities and differences between the U.S. and Ecuador as they apply to my host family include:

Similarities
1.       Sunday is used as a rest day where much of the time is spent staying inside.
2.       Most of the people in my host family practice religion.
3.       Both my house here in Ecuador and my house in the U.S. have two dogs that make everything interesting.  

Differences
1.       We don’t typically all eat together at meals. Usually, Carly and I eat while one or both of our parents stand around to talk to us. At home in the U.S., my family eats dinner together every single night.
2.       My family only has one bathroom at my house and I have my own room, but here with our host family in Ecuador, Carly and I share a room and even have our own bathroom.
3.       Much of the time my host family has an evening outing, resulting in typically a later dinner time.


Today, Carly and I slept in and had a big breakfast with our host family as we were told last night. We sat together, the four of us, for the first time eating. The food was very good and it was nice to actually eat together. Because Sunday is viewed as a day to relax here at our host family’s house, and because their children and their children’s families were visiting tonight, our parents encouraged Carly and me to go out and spend some time with friends. I went to the La Basílica del Voto Nacional with a couple of classmates while Carly went with a few others to a restaurant and to explore Quito. We both had a wonderful time with classmates and arrived home to spend the rest of the evening having dinner with our host dad and relaxing. 

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