Día de los Difuntos

Guaguas de pan...en Piña, Frutilla, y Durazno

November 2nd, here in Quito it is Día de los Difuntos; in Mexico its more commonly called Dia de los Muertos, and for Catholics we know it as All Souls Day.  It is a feriado in Quito, and alot of places are closed for the day. Many people are just lounging around, out in the park, enjoying the day.  It is custom to eat Guaguas de Pan and drink Colada Morada (a hot drink made with blackberries and blueberries, other fruit and spices). I had a guagua de pan with frutilla filling this morning for breakfast.

I then worked from 0730-1500...I was supposed to be done with work at 1330, but the nurse who was coming to relieve us was over an hour late. Whoops! No pink slips filled out; this is just part of life in Quito. People are late, it happens, and we stayed until she got there. I had a great day at work too, I'm becoming comfortable with how things are done, and people are starting to know me too! I even made a couple jokes; which its surprisingly difficult to tell jokes in a different language. I work with the same people tomorrow and Thursday night, so those should go well too. It's amazing now that I have less anxiety about learning the unit how much more I can focus on the patients! I cannot emphasize enough how much more enjoyable work is now that I'm not so anxious. I celebrated with an algodón de azucar (cotton candy) that I bought from lady sitting outside the park. Mmmm...and tonight, I'm venturing out to get empanadas because I have some weird inexplicable craving for them...