Saturday, December 10, 2011

El Museo de la Ciudad y La Iglesia de la Compañia de Jesus

All of my friends went to the jungle this weekend. I was just getting over a cold so I couldn't join. I'm very very sad! Instead, today I took myself to Quito Colonial (old Quito). I visited El Museo de la Ciudad. It use to be a hospital and now it is a museum about the indigenous people of Quito past to future. They also had plaques about the old hospital. It only cost me 3 dollars to go in. It was a bit more than normal because I'm not Ecuadorian.



Painting of the 7 sins being punished in the inferno.





How would you like to sleep on this bed?



The view of La Virgen de Panacilla from El Museo









Afterward, I went to La Iglesia de la Compañia de Jesus . Sadly I was not able to take pictures inside the church. However it was built by the Jesuits. The whole inside of the church is gold plated. The whole place shined and it was amazingly gorgeous!














Con amor,
Katy

“The worst thing about being a tourist is having other tourists recognize you as a tourist.” – Russell Baker
We had a great Christmas party! We ate lots of great food including turkey and chicken. We exchanged Secret Santa presents (in Ecuador they call it secret friends)and then we had delicious Ecuadorian style Eggnog called Rompope. It was delicious! It has huevo, vainilla, canela, almendra molida, leche, azúcar y licor (eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, almonds, milk, sugar, and liquor.



Tere (my teacher) and I


The student teachers... Meghan, Maggie, Peter, Kyle and myself




Thursday, December 8, 2011

A short week of school and Christmas parties

Well I am working on getting over my cold! Yesterday I got sent home early from school. Today my teacher told me to lay on the floor and take a nap and tomorrow I plan on actually surviving the day! Haha It was a hard three day school week :)

On the positive side, I really got in the Christmas mood today. Tomorrow is our school Christmas party with the teachers. I made fudge and a delicious cream cheese dip.










Also, my students are featured on the FCAQ website doing their Thanksgiving craft that I taught! I'm in the photos too but they aren't so pretty :)Look under the Thanksgiving link.

http://www.fcaq.k12.ec/espanol/noticias/noticias.htm

I miss you all!
With love!
Katy

Monday, December 5, 2011

Getting nostalgic for Christmas!

I had the day off today due to Quito days. I got to sleep in and then Maggie and I watched movies. I decided to bake ginger banana bread. It feels more like Christmas with all of the baking I've been doing. I listened to Christmas music but the lack of snow makes it difficult!

Tomorrow we will hopefully be going out to celebrate the founding of Quito. However, Maggie and I are both sick so we will see what happens. Hope everyone is enjoying the snow back home!


Ginger Banana Bread
Adding ginger to this recipe for banana bread gives it a real kick. You can add more or less ginger according to your taste. I also like to add orange or lemon zest to this recipe to give it even more flavor!

PREP TIME: 20 Min
COOK TIME: 1 Hr
READY IN: 1 Hr 20 Min
SERVINGS: 12

INGREDIENTS

* 2 1/4 cups of plain flour
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 1/2 cup melted butter
* 2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup plain yogurt
* 3 ripe mashed bananas
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon allspice
* 1-2 tablespoons of freshly grated ginger

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour a small loaf pan.

2. Mix the butter and brown sugar together and add the yogurt and mashed up bananas.

3. Sieve the flour into a separate mixing bowl and add baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice and grated ginger.

4. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.

5. Bake in the oven at 350F for about 1 hour and test by putting a toothpick in the middle to check if it is cooked all the way through. The toothpick should come out clean.

6. Allow to cool in the loaf pan for 10-15 minutes then place on a cooling rack to cook fully.


I'll tell you how it turns out :)

At Christmas, all roads lead home. ~Marjorie Holmes


Con amor,
Katy