Hometown Pride

Well, I have fallen in love. It's amazing how things can change so drastically over the course of a few days. I moped so much this past week. I think a lot of it had to do with the terrible gray skies, rain, and ash that plagued Ambato, but really I just couldn't shake the foul mood I was in. But today is a different story. It was like I woke up in a different city and I was walking on sunshine all day long. Yes, today will go down in history as the day I fell in love with Ambato. I know it won't always be easy, and that rough days still lay ahead in our future together, but I think I have found the inner beauty that I had been searching for these past 5 months, and I'm not going to let that go!

I should confess that this all started last night with my students. We decided to cancel class and to instead "practice our English sports terms" at a soccer game last night. I was so excited about my first professional soccer game experience, and it turned out to be more than I ever could have imagined. From the outside the stadium looked fairly similar to those you might find in the States- vendors, people proudly wearing their team's colors, and traffic like you wouldn't believe. The inside of the stadium, though, presented an entirely different picture- mishap and mayhem everywhere! Try to picture this: people cheering and waving flags, musical instruments screeching, everyone throwing millions of tiny pieces of paper on each other, fire-extinguisher gas traveling through the air, toilet paper thrown on the field, fireworks sent off into the sky, vendors selling boxed wine, a giant-sized team jersey big enough to cover an entire seating area traveling through the stands, and a band playing only Ambato-specific songs. What an experience!! So needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire evening. My students and I were all rooting for Mácara, the Ambato team, who was playing against Barcelona, Guayaquil's team. Though we tragically lost 0-1, I really can't imagine the night having been any more fun.

Mácara pride must have rubbed off a bit on the weather, though, because the sky this morning was the exact color of their sky blue team uniforms. All week long I asked people if they were worried that the festivals this weekend could be ruined with the awful weather we were experiencing, but honestly everyone I talked to had this resigned faith that the weather would turn. My friend Daniela told me that Ambato has never had bad weather during the festivals (knock on wood, right?), and my host mom and my Spanish teacher told me the same when I asked them. It looks like they were right, though, and that Ambato somehow has a sweet deal with Mother Nature during this time of the year.

So after my Spanish class at 7:30 this morning, I decided to stay downtown for awhile to check out the exhibitions and such for the festivals (today was the first official day more or less). I saw a group of children, definitely not from Ecuador, dressed in some type of traditional dress walking down the street, so I decided to follow them. When we got to Parque Montalvo, other similar groups were gathering, in the most beautiful costumes! There were groups from Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, and the children I had seen were from Poland! Then they all processed into a gorgeous governmental building, and naturally I followed. The mayor and other governmental officials, the folk groups, and me along with about 30 other observers were all crammed into a very pretty auditorium. The mayor officially welcomed the other groups to Ecuador and gave the most beautiful speech about world unity, international amnesty, and a celebration of our unique cultures. I have to admit that I even got a little choked up. Sitting there amongst so many cultures, in seemingly random Ambato, Ecuador, I received such a message of hope and love. It was also fun sort of feeling like an United States Ambassador there with all the other cultural representatives.

The best part of the entire experience, though, was making friends with the Cuban dancers! They were my favorite group because they dance with such vibrancy and every single dancer has a huge smile on his or her face the entire time. I couldn't stop smiling when I was watching them perform. One of their group managers mistook me for an event employee (don't know how that happened since I definitely don't fit in, especially because I was in my gym clothes), and I began talking with him about how much I enjoyed his dancers and their contagious smiles. Then a few minutes later he called me over and presented me to the entire group! I felt so honored. When they walked away they said they would see me soon again, and since I am going to their full show tonight, I hope that turns out to be true! So I guess Mother Theresa had it right when she said that "peace begins with a smile."

I also made some other friends at the event- a middle-aged Ecuadorian couple and two of their female friends. I sat next to them, and I guess because they were confused about why there was a lone gringa in the crowd, they began talking with me. When I mentioned that I was on my way to check out some more exhibits across the street, they excitedly said they would accompany me, and we became fast friends. I actually sort of felt like I was on one of those Elderhostel tours of traveling retirees...walking through museums with my senior citizen counterparts. But they could not have been more welcoming and accepting of me as one of their own. On our way through the park, we got trapped amidst the Colombian dancers. Juan (my elderly friend) and I got pulled into the circle and we danced with the Colombians in front of everyone! I could not stop laughing, but thankfully I don't think I made too much of a fool of myself. When we finally escaped, we got to see some really amazing exhibits including artwork, photography, flower arrangements, a sarcastic presentation on the future of Ecuador, and even a singer. We are all going to the folk presentation again tonight, so hopefully I will run into my new friends there again.

Ambato just has a different feel today. Everyone is on a natural high because of the festivals- maybe it's the sugar from all the fruit disseminating into the air, this is the Festival of Fruits and Flowers after all. Walking through town today I had a delicious ice cream cone, I ran into people in old-time dress who let me take a picture of them and gave me a free magazine, I got a cappuchino from a place I had heard about often (as you can see I'm not calorie-counting this weekend), and a stranger on the street gave me a balloon "because we're in the festivals!" And then to top it all off, if you can imagine things still getting better, I had such a fun private salsa lesson with our dance instructor Julio! I really felt like I was on Dancing with the Stars- I had my very own instructor and by the end of the class we had an entire dance worked out.

Now I'm off to the folk dancing presentation and I finally get to see Eden and Aubrey after their week at the beach. I'm hoping they too can get hooked on this festival high and that the rest of the weekend continues in this same light. Never before have I written a blog entry on the events of one day alone, but today seemed too good not to share. So thank you for letting me blab on about my happy moments of the day, and I hope your day was blessed with much happiness as well!

Until after the festivals...chao!