Happy New Years!

I realize this post is a little late, but celebrating New Years in Quito will do that to you. This was my first New Years away from home, but everyone had a great time. The traditions here are so much different, and it was great to experience all the new things that New Years here had to offer. The party usually starts off around 6pm New Years Eve, and it's filled with everyone telling stories from the past year. Of the interesting customs here is to make paper stuffed, life sized dummies that are displayed around the city, and then set on fire at midnight creating small fires around the city. The idea is that it represents all the bad from the previous year, and setting them on fire destroys that, and prepares the new year ahead. We played music through the night, and danced, danced, danced! Just after midnight, everyone sits down for a huge home cooked meal. This year I cooked, and I made chicken parm, mashed potatoes, grilled green beans with tomatoes, rice and corn, and brandy apples. Everyone enjoyed the gringo style food, and some never even had chicken parm before...imagine..lol. Finally, most of us went to bed around 3:00 am, and when we woke up the next day, there were still people singing and dancing around all the small fires burning in the streets of Quito...what a NEW YEAR!!