1.5 Liters of Ice Cream & 4 Cups of Coffee in One Day Later…

[this one´s a long on, you have been warned...] :p

 

So, after having a slightly rough hump-day in which at my trabajo social I was told I had to buy a watermelon for next week, the rest of the weekend turned out pretty nicely.

            First I have to tell the story from Wednesday and I promise to tell it as unbaisedly as possibly and it will still sound ridiculous. Ok, I work with old people- we know this. There are other permanent nurses that work there as well. Everyday before lunch the patients get fruit of some sort as a snack. Other times we (the student volunteers) have had like an orange or something. The other nurses also eat the fruit sometimes as well, and this Wednesday we had watermelon and they ate some of that. So, Pete and I had some too (me, one piece and him two I think). When he was eating his second piece one of the nurses came by and told him/us that the fruit was for the patients. Later, the woman who we initially met with and who I think is one of if not the one in charge of ABEI- the home, came up and asked to speak with us. Two things: first, there was a flier in her office for us of some workshops we could attend put on by or in conjunction with ABEI, and second, she was told that we had eaten some of the watermelon.

Was this true?

Yes.

Who ate it?

I did (Kerry), I didn’t have any (Tristan), I ate some too (Pete).

Ok. Well it is for the patients, so (and this is a direct quote in command form) “you guys bring me a watermelon next Wednesday. Between the two of you (Pete & I), one watermelon.”

Ok (Me), No problem (Pete).

-For eating three fucking pieces of watermelon!!! Pete and I are supposed to buy a whole new watermelon for next time we come. Even better, more nurses came in later and ate some more, AND there was still some left over at lunch time when they took it away. Excuse me for not bleeping out any of my chosen word, but really??? That’s completely out of line. We are mother f’in volunteers!!! Of course, Pete and I are going to buy the watermelon and then I fully intend to tell Monica (the professor from ACLAS in charge of the trabajo social) the story at our next reunion on Wednesday night. And I will probably continue to be bitter towards all the nurses who as Pete out it, basically “tattled” on us. It doesn’t help that I already got vibes from them that they were judging us. Probably from the times they would sit together and watch us try to talk to the patients and whatnot and then whisper- I dunno, I think that might be it. [Can you tell this isn’t exactly being the most wonderful experience of my life?] Anyway, like I said, the weekend helped.

            Friday after going to our art workshop and after lunch Hilary and I went to watch the swim competition of some of our friends in the swimming class at USFQ. After, we all piled into the car of the Ecuadorian who we ate pizza with last week, and his parents dropped us off at our friend Megan’s house. We being, Andres (the pizza kid), Pete, Megan, Cassie, Gwen, Hilary, and I. Tristan came over later. We took a walking trip to the bank and Supermaxi where we bought ice cream and juice. One of the ice creams tasted like Biscotti! Awesome! Then we went back to Megan’s house and went up to the 9^th floor where we proceeded to take some pictures of the city at dusk and play in a random shopping cart that was on the roof. Took pictures of that too. Hilary and I finished one liter cartoon of ice cream there before the pizza we ordered arrived. We finally decided on a movie to watch, Pan’s Labyrinth, and paused it part way through to eat our pizza. The boys decided not to finish watching the movie, but the girls did… along with which Hilary and I (most I) finished almost another liter of ice cream (different kind). I know, that’s absolutely disgusting, but after deciding that I probably ate about a liter and a half of ice cream that night everyone was very impressed with me If only that was a useful talent. After the movie we called it a night and headed home.

            Saturday morning I got up and met Cassie for my second cup of coffee (the first being at my house) at about 9 o’clock, as we waited for Gwen to meet up with us. The three of us then hopped on the ecovia to the south where we planned to catch another bus to head to Papallacta- know for its natural hotsprings. Because we were just so determined to go somewhere outside Quito, we hadn’t done really much research (meaning any) so we stopped by to ask Marco’s parents for some beginning direction. Big Marco ended up finding us the right bus and just for fun paying the $2 for each of us for the way there. These people are getting a great Christmas/Thank you present before we leave. We had some time to kill and we needed a bathroom so we went to a coffee shop where I had my third cup of coffee, and used the bathroom. We finally left at 11:30 and were then on the bus for about 2 ½ hours. We arrived in one of the locations of the pools in Papallacta (that’s basically all there is there) and paid another $2 in total for a man to drive us up the hill to the pools. There we ate some slightly sketchy food, including some really chewy meat for which we were overcharged for, and then struggled buying ice cream bars afterwards because we could not understand the woman’s difference between saying “venticinco” and “noventa-cinco” (25 and 95) cents. Anyway, finally we went up to the hot springs, paid $7 to get in, and enjoyed a bit of the afternoon in the hot pools. It was a nice relaxing time. Hilary had come up earlier with her host brother and his wife and we had planned to meet up with her, but times did not coincide. In any case, the three of us had a good time. After, we walked down the hill from the pools, discovered we needed to walk all the way into town to catch the bus back to Quito, walked more, waited about 20 minutes for the bus (not at a stop, just on the road), then got on. But of course there were no seats so we stood. I had to laugh at how creative Gwen and I were getting to try and get comfortable. We were all tired at this point, and falling asleep standing up, but somehow still in very good spirits. Towards the end of the trip we started chatting with a guy who had also been standing in Spanglish who actually was from Italy. He wanted to speak in English though. We had a nice chat about why we were all here in Ecuador and such (I think he’s doing something with a job or research for his PhD or something…) We discovered that he was 28 but avoided telling our ages because it’s rude to ask a woman’s age in Italy. Gwen got his phone number in case we wanted to show him around Quito on Sunday because he was working in Guayaquil and didn’t know Quito at all. After being completely lost at the bus terminal in Quito and not knowing how to get to the Ecovia, we caved and paid $4 for a taxi to Quicentro where we went to eat cheesecake and I had my fourth cup of coffee for the day. Note: the cheesecake here is very different and more like milk with gelatin… a disappointment for sure if you’re expecting American/traditional cheesecake. Although, with a fourth cup of coffee and much tiredness it doesn’t bother you too terribly much. Finally got home, drank lots of water, but probably still not enough, and called it a night after a semi-adventurous but satisfying day outside of Quito. 

            Sunday, woke up and had a breakfast of cheese and bread (the cheese probably not such a good idea later) and left to go running- or what I now call training- at about 9:30, I ran one loop around Parque Carolina which I think measured at about 3.6 km, then met up with Hilary and Gwen to run some more, in total about another 3.6 km and a total of about a 50 min run with an extra maybe two minute pause after the first lap. Longest I have ever run, in my life. We also recruited Gwen to run the 12k with us in November. She didn’t want to but Cassie convinced her that they weren’t gonna run the whole way so Gwen agreed. It was a bit tougher of a run though, I think in part because it was later in the day and hotter, I hadn’t run Saturday, and was carting around all that ice cream and coffee in me still. But I felt good after the run (after the slight dizziness wore off). Then we headed back to my house to get our basketball and hopefully find a court to play on. When we got back to the park we did find a court, although crummy, and within 10 minutes of shooting around people showed up and asked to play a game and we had a game of 5 on 5 going. Still hot outside and exhausted from our run we managed to plug out about a 45 or so minute game to 30. Mine and Gwen’s team won. But overall it was funny to see that despite the fact that all of us haven’t played in a while, we were probably the better players out on the court. It was fun though. And even though you had to watch every other step to not step in a pothole, it was good to play again, and actual game of some sort. Thoroughly exhausted I came home and took a shower and took a bit of a nap. Two hours later woke up and ate lunch with my family, and met my host brother’s girlfriend for the first time, as well as tried wine cake for the first time. Interesting, but very good, and I didn’t feel so guilty after my hour and a half plus workout in the morning. After a little bit of a chat on Skype with the padres I watched Chocolat, felt longing for a man like Johnny Depp, :p scribbled out a poem, and called it a night.

            Monday started off with a run as well. A seven minute warm-up followed by another 50 some minute run of two more laps. If right now I am at slightly more than 7 km (probably about 7.5 counting the distance from and to my house from the park) right now and 50 minutes, this will take a bit more training in the next month to reach my goal of 12k’s (which I still think was unrealistic seeing as I was hoping to be able to run 10k’s by the time I returned to the US in December.) But it does make you feel better just in general to run that much. And I never feel as hungry after I workout, so I’m not loading up on as much bread and cheese. (Running is actually quite healthy for you!) Although the pollution is starting to catch up with my asthma- and I don’t have enough inhaler left for the entire time here. My cough is starting to come back a little. Even more, other people from our WU group have mentioned they’ve started to develop a cough after running and at night as well (not accompanied by other cold-like symptoms- sounds exactly like my sport induced asthma.) I still think that the pollution of this city is one of the most frustrating and difficult things to get used to, in fact I am still not accustomed to it and still just as irritated by it as when I first came, if not more. But after running and feeling like dying I managed a relaxing morning and then ate lunch- in a slightly tense air… [Side Note…]

            [It seems to me, and others as we have discussed it, that part of the culture here is to put a large emphasis on family. Sons and daughters alike live at home until marriage the majority of the time and even after come for lunch quite regularly to the homes of their parents. My host sister and her husband come to eat lunch at my host parents’ house for the most part every week day, and remain here at the house with their three kids until about 6:30 or 7:00 at night. In the mornings it is common to eat breakfast together as well (which sometimes causes problems for me when my host dad wants to talk longer than my morning schedule allows) but it is a quite large deal to be together for lunch. Today, I discovered it can be a slightly bigger deal than I had even originally thought.]

            [Back to the Story] From what I understood, because I was taking a pre-lunch nap when all this happened, my host sister called the house to say she and her husband would not be coming to eat lunch today (at least not until later). My host dad’s assistant (and goddaughter who is 19) answered the phone and talked to my host sister. For one, my host dad was upset that his daughter had not asked to speak to him and why Veronica, his assistant had not given him the phone and only relayed the message. So Vero left for a while I guess after having some harsh words exchanged in her direction, but did come back and talked to my host mom after lunch. Overall, I got the impression that my host dad was basically upset that my host sister was not coming for lunch and that he directly hadn’t been told this and why. He likes to be in control and informed (and right) in many issues. Because he was upset he did not like any of the food and did not eat much or much with us/me. My host mom ate a little something with me, but for the most part I was the only eating…and the house was very quiet except for my host mother telling my host dad that of course it was always someone else’s fault and that when he didn’t have anyone to put the blame on he was upset (more or less), and everyone also trying to figure out what was said to Vero, why she left, and if she was coming back. In any case, it was interesting and slightly uncomfortable but I escaped the house safely and went with Hilary to buy stamps and send another batch of postcards. Then we met up with Cassie and Kayla and went to buy more movies (although I did end up with a different movie in one box than was supposed to be there.) We’ll try to exchange that soon. Then we swapped Hilary out for Megan and had a coffee and sweets date… after an excruciating experience on the Ecovia. There is no way that I can explain what these trips are really like because I know that I would never have believed the severity of it if someone had told me about it before seeing it for myself. This is the incredible over-occupancy of the buses. People standing in the aisles cram together so closely that you can not turn or move much more than maybe an inch in either direction (absolutely no exaggeration). As the bus lurches you needn’t hold onto any railing because you will not move around at all, you can’t. Bodies are pressed right up against one another and you literally must push, with force, to make your way off the bus at the stop you want. People are pressed against the doors and at the next stop, still more try to, and do, pile one… which only makes it more crowded. In the maybe 18 square feet of space in front of the door there can be around 20+ people. Yes, I am entirely serious. So today was one of those rides. Very hot, humid, smelly, and overall just dirty, with 7 stops to go till our destination it was incredible how angry we all got just from the situation. So much so for me that I told the others I was getting off a stop early and going to walk. Once I stepped off it took lots within me not to let out a scream and I felt sticky from all my own and the sweat of others. Cassie managed to get out right before her claustrophobia erupted. (Note, Cassie does not suffer from claustrophobia…) But after washing my hands and eating my sweets I felt ten-fold better. Came home and did a little studying before Hilary came over and we watched another movie- this time America’s Sweethearts. As my sarcastic friend she could appreciate all the banter in this movie. Exhausted from all the day’s experiences and with my alarm set for 7 am to going running tomorrow before school, I called it a night, and called it a weekend.

Good Weekend (la mayoria)

So, for the most part, this was a very good and successful weekend which made me feel like I’m not completely in a routine of school, trabajo social, running, eating…. Because yes, sometimes it does in fact feel like that is all I’m doing here and those are all the things I could be doing in any country. But this weekend was pretty fun. I had to go to an open workshop for my art class on Friday in which there are normally models although this Friday there were none till later so I just worked on other things from class. In the afternoon I went to La Mariscal with Hilary and Cassie to check out the Converse store (disappointing actually), buy more movies, and shop around a little more at the artisans market when I got my eyebrow pierced- they have many of the same things as the Mercado in Otavalo, only slightly more expensive. I bought more scarves- I think I’m going to keep on for me this time. After, we went back to Cassie’s house to have a girls’ night. We made sure to go to the Supermaxi first to buy tuna, bread, lemonade, and ice cream. Yummy, I know. Megan came over and we vegged out and watched chick flicks. Amazingly, it was quite a good time. I haven’t had a night like that in quite a while.

The next day I got up early (8 o’clock)- I am becoming accustomed to waking up everyday at 8:00, not just the days I have class- and I went for a run. Then after breakfast I met up, again with Cassie and Hilary (they are my “activity buddies” because I haven’t once gotten tired of them yet) and we went to the Centro Historico to re-visit the Basilica, this time with cameras. Of course, my batteries were dead so it did me no good, but the other girls took plenty of pictures for me. We climbed the tower again, all 313 stairs and also discovered that there was another tower at the other end of the church that we could climb as well. Didn’t count those stairs, but all in all it was a good workout. We also went into the main part of the church which we hadn’t done the first time. We walked out on the roof about 2 or 3 flights up and I got to be a gargoyle. There will be pictures soon, and I must say, they came out pretty well. After our excursion we walked into the main part of the Centro (because the Basilica is a little north of the rest of the center) and we had a coffee and then a nice lunch of chicken, lentils, rice, and fried bananas. All of us struggled with the knives (they didn’t cut so well) and at one point we all threw food off our plates. Because we were close we walked over to visit with Marco’s parents a little bit. We chatted a little with Alicia, his mom, down in the shop for a while and then headed upstairs to say hello to Big Marco, his dad, in the house. Once we were upstairs it started pouring quite intensely so we ended up staying and chatting for about an hour. It was so pleasant. His family is just great. Also in the course of it all we were invited once again to come out to their house in the valley to swim. Hilary had to get home for a birthday party (her family is always having or going to parties), so Cassie and I went and had a “cafecita” to kill time before meeting up with Megan, Pete, and Andres, a kid from their swimming class, and his little brother, for pizza. (The nicest Pizza Hut I have ever been to in my life!) But it was fun, and of course, always nice to meet another Ecuadorian. Always convenient when they speak English too so they can help with misunderstandings of words or just whenever translation is necessary.

Sunday started off a little rough. Woke up again at 8:00 but ate breakfast before running this time. Turns out this was a bad idea, but not for what you would expect. My family was going to a bbq at my host sister’s house, which I was going to miss to go swimming, and I never know if I should feel guilty when I don’t do things with my family, although in my defense, I did not know about the bbq beforehand and I knew that I would enjoy the swimming more than the intense family time which always seems to last longer than is necessary and evolves into and argument of some sort. Anyway, before that, my host dad was going to Parque Metropolitano with my niece and nephew and the dog to walk around. He invited me to go as well and luckily I didn’t have to say no to that as well as he realized that I wanted to run and that was basically impossible with a 6 and 3 year old. So, I started to head off to go for my run in Parque Carolina which is nearby our house- where I normally run. Here is where the running after breakfast becomes a bad idea- solely because of timing. Apparently the dog could tell that she was going to get to go for a walk today and despite my caution, as I opened the gate to leave to go run, she ran out too. No big deal, unless it’s this dog. Number one, I think because she doesn’t get out very much at all she is overly excited to go anywhere (understandable). Number two, this is my host dad’s dog and hasn’t really been trained by anyone else- and by him, really only to jump up on your front (a terrible habit to teach a dog in my opinion). Which brings me to number three, she doesn’t listen for shit. Even to her name. So as she’s running off down the street I am calling her name and telling her to come and every once in a while she turns around to look at me, and then run more away from me. I went after her until I lost sight of her right before the park. She has taken off like this once before since I’ve lived here and returned on her own. I guess sometimes my host dad takes her to this park as well and so she knows the way there and back. My host mom told me that she probably went there and hopefully when I was running I’d see her and she’d come back with me. So, I started my run very irritated at this animal and feeling bad that now she wasn’t going to go with my host dad as he had wanted. Just to add another straw to the camel’s back, my mp3 player decided it would be a good idea to shut off after every song. So, on my adrenaline high I was running pretty well, seeing all of the people and other black dogs in the park and, like I usually do, at about 20 minutes in I hit my second wind, and about 23 minutes in I saw Betty, the dog. So, cutting my run short by about half and still feeling very fat from the pizza from the night before I once again chase after the dog except this time she is quite content to follow along with me. Not wanting to risk losing her again I decided to just go home, but not trusting her to be able to cross the busy street again and not having anything in the way of a leash, I took off one of my shoelaces and tied it around her collar and walked like that back to the house. An hour later and a 20 min run later I showered and finished writing my postcards I had bought the day before. Finally, Hilary and I met up, I bought more minutes for cell phone, and we bought some deserts (that turned out to be really good) to take with us to Marco’s parents. Cassie was late meeting us because her mom wanted to make her food before she left, 20 minutes before she was going to leave, and we are all for the most part terrible at saying no to anything our host families say or offer. So when Cassie arrived she was sufficiently frustrated as well (this is all from a gradual buildup of small things over time- believe it or not, living in a different culture is difficult sometimes), so we probably spent the whole Ecovia ride to the south fuming about our mornings and our frustrations. (I was fuming. Haven’t fumed in such a way for a while…) But we got to Marco’s parent’s house on time and we all pilled into a truck to go down to their house in the valley. On the way we stopped and bought food and had a lunch of way too much chicken, rice, papas fritas, and lemonade. Of course with good conversation too. Somewhere along the way we agreed to go the weekend of Nov 8 & 9 to watch Marco run in a 12k run, where we could take the train ride around Cotapaxi as well (for cheaper), visit another city close by and stay at Alicia’s sister’s house, and then come back together with Alicia at the end of the weekend. Also, this progressed into my running the 12k as well, and then all of us running it. Haha. We’ll see how that goes. Although Big Marco doesn’t know this, Little Marco is going to be back in Ecuador from about Oct 30- Nov 10 and so he to would probably be going with us, and what he doesn’t know yet, running the race with us too. After all of this was decided and the sun decided to disappear, we all went for a swim in the pool with quite ridiculously cold water. But we managed to get quite a few laughs out. Everyone was very impressed/disgusted with the intensity of the purple color of my hands and feet accompanied by the bright orange spots. I felt special After burning half our calories from lunch trying to keep ourselves warm we ate twice as many is the deserts we had brought. We rested for a short while more and then piled back into the truck and headed back to Salem. The three of us girls all commented on how we could go from being so frustrated, and more than likely quite miserable to be around, in the morning to so happy and pleasant and good humored after our afternoon. Although, it was a good transition and we were quite content with the progress of the day. Because we were still cold once we got back, we decided to grab another coffee before heading home. Also a good time, in which we reflected on the fact that we had had a really pretty darn good last three days and we all thanked each other for the proceeding days together and asserted that we were going to have more dates together this next weekend- possibly a trip to Mindo- which if we do go, I will write about more in another blog at the end of next weekend.

So, for the most part (although I do realize I allotted a large section to my one gradual disaster of a morning) this was a quite pleasing weekend which I am convinced will thrust me into a good and lucrative coming week. If nothing else, there will be more coffee dates.

Well-Needed Break

Well, I just returned from our trip to the beach and I feel refreshed and much more pleasant in general. We left Friday morning at 6:30 and about 6 ½ or 7 hours later we arrived at the beach in Atacames. Luckily it was our own private bus so it we could sleep without worrying about who might bother our stuff. We stayed at a four start hotel that had a pool even though we were immediately on the beach. We ate lunch, at the hotel and then went out to test the water. Pacific Ocean water on the equator is much warmer than Pacific Ocean water on either California or Australia’s coast. Who knew?! After, we walked into town which is basically just one street with little booths like in Otavalo and bars on the side of the street with the beach (the bars met right up with the beach) and some shops on the other side of the street. There was some short side streets as well with shops but the only one worth noting was a stand that sold “batidos”, basically smoothies or milkshakes, in very large cups. But they were fantastic. The coconut and watermelon and mora were the best in my opinion, although I loved all of them I tried (We bought a few batidos over the course of the weekend.) I also bought the first of my three dresses that night and wore it when we went out after dinner. After a dinner of more fish (we ate fish for lunch and dinner every day- but you couldn’t help feeling a little guilty if you didn’t considering we were on the beach), we went back into town to check out the bars and discotecas. I and a few others called it a light drinking night and sat at one bar and watched a show of breakdancers. They were of all ages, but did include two boys who looked about ten. Some of them were pretty impressive. MY favorite was a little guy with a semi-fro and probably the best washboard-abs I’ve ever seen in real life. Haha. It was a good night.

            We went back early enough that we had no problem waking up in the morning to go for a run on the beach. It was the first time I’d ever done it and it was quite fun. We ran on the wet part of the sand which made it easier and at the much lower altitude running for 30 minutes was a piece of cake. Although the humidity did make us sweat quite ridiculously. After breakfast we took a dip in the pool and then the ocean again and proceeded to go shopping more. I bought another dress and some earrings. That night we all wanted to go out and wear out new dresses but Kayla didn’t particularly like the one she had bought so we had a dress party which consisted of everyone trying on the dress, including Jonnie, and me deciding I’d buy it from her. Hence the purchasing of 3 dresses. But 3 for $30 isn’t too bad of a deal in my opinion. Luckily she was able to go into town before the shops closed again to get another dress. That night we went into town but ended up being party-poopers and coming back early. Hilary and I just watched a movie and called it a night.

            The next morning we didn’t run, but took another walk along the beach and a last swim in the ocean and pool before having lunch and heading back to Quito. Finally at about 9:00 we arrived back in Quito and being so exhausted from my relaxing trip I went to sleep about 9:30 and slept till 8:00 in the morning. Impressive.

            Hilary and I finally bought a basketball and went to play for a bit at Parque Carolina. Turns out 2 ½+ months of not really playing does have an effect on you :p but we had our moments. It is unfortunate to be back at this altitude again though. Hilary left to go home earlier than I wanted to so I stuck around and ended up playing a game to 20 points with a random kid who wanted to play. I beat him. But in the process I twisted my ankle, following suit with every other time I play, but now it’s a little sore. In any case, it was a good little workout. We’ll see how actual running works out tomorrow. That’s the unfortunate thing- that it takes so long to get into good shape but it is one of the easiest and fastest things in the world to get out of it. Here’s hoping my 2 days of not running don’t kill me too much. I haven’t run for 40 min in a while so maybe we’ll see how close we can get to that. I also have to drop my volleyball class tomorrow. I wasn’t able to do it online before we left and now that the deadline has passed I have to pay a $25 fine to drop it. Bullshit in my opinion. But if I don’t do it by the 19^th it goes up to $50 so I think I’ll get on that. I would keep it, but I’ve already missed enough classes that the grade has gone down. I still think it’s ridiculous you have to pay to drop a class, but I’ll just mark that down as one more thing to leave as feedback to the school when I leave. Still need to find a way to find the gym in Cumbaya… It is difficult because they don’t really make street maps of Cumbaya so I think I will have to ask someone, or just get on the bus someday when I don’t have class and see if I can find anything that looks like the right street. What an adventure!! In any case, first I need to get back in the mindset of school (my school of conversation and art, but still) :p But overall, the weekend was well needed and surprisingly I came back not feeling like I’d lost a bunch of Spanish ability- so that’s a good way to go into the next week.

Little Bit of National Spirit

So, the rest of the week finished up fairly decently with a little outing for dinner with some friends to a restaurant called Pim’s in the Palacio de Crystal. It is up on a little hill that overlooks the city and all the restaurants up on the hill are known for having a great view when the sun is just setting and all the city lights begin to come on. It really is quite cool. After dinner, because we could not get ahold of a taxi company, the five us us walked down the hill (strength in numbers) and when we got to the bottom split up into two groups. Hilary and I went to meet up with some other friends and then headed to the Mariscal (Grindolandia- as I’ve mentioned before). It was a very low-key night and everyone seemed tired, but I decided it was worth it in the end because with us were a couple Ecuadorian students from our school that are better friends with some other members of our group- but all the same, we got to practice a bit speaking in Spanish with them. They were very patient which helped a lot.

            The next day I went up to Parque Metropoliano with Fernando and our dog, Betty. Pete and I had run here once and even though we were just walking, it was still a workout. There are SO MANY hills!!! But the view of the valleys were pretty cool. I found USFQ. We returned and I took a quick shower, ate a quick lunch, and then met up with a coupe friends before walking a few blocks to the stadium to watch Ecuador play Bolivia in a qualifying match for the World Cup in 2010… for $15. Yup!!! MY first ever professional sports game and it was a soccer game in Latin America for 15 bucks! Not too bad if you ask me. The seats really weren’t too bad either. It was pretty awesome! We bought jerseys for $5 the day before with the tickets and got to be a part of the sea of the rest of the yellow jerseys. We also got to chant along a little bit with the crowd- “Si se puede”, “Hi-jo de puta”, “Vamos”… you know, the works :p Aside from the woman sitting next to me and the people in front of us smoking, it wasn’t really too bad an experience. It even decided not to rain for us. Hilary and I decided already to go to the next game in about a month, Chile versus someone… probably should find that out first. :p Needless to say, Saturday night was uneventful and I called it an early night. Sports festivities can be quite exhausting.

            Sunday was a family day as I spent most of it with my host family (including my host sister, her husband, and three kids) at the pool in the military “circulo” that Fernando has access to because he is an ex-military member. It is pretty sweet- fully equipped with tennis, volleyball, soccer, maybe basketball courts- not certain though, as well as a pool, gym, and restaurant or two. For me, the day was a tad long, but nonetheless it was a nice change. Surprisingly I wasn’t sore after the change from running to swimming, but that too is a good thing. That night I utilized the beauty of Skype once again and got to talk a little bit with a couple friends I hadn’t talked to in a while- one of which is my future roomie when I get back. (Yup, I have a place to live next semester… and a whole basement to share- with a dude, but whatever)

            Monday started early with a run at 9 am (yes, that’s early) and then a trip to the art store again to buy a technical drawing notebook so I could finish my art homework- only homework because I didn’t finish in class. It consisted of drawing many crossing squiggly lines and then using a cross-hatch method to shade in different spaces with different degrees of darkness using different pencils and graphite or carbon. I thought it was finny that I used to do that exact same exercise when I was little but with colors, for fun. We practiced shading from black to white using only pressure… My teacher said I did it very well After a long lunch with my family (all of them again) in which they discussed witch school and why the granddaughter/daughter should go to, I met us with a couple more friends. Because by this time is was about 3:30 in the afternoon we just decided to be lazy and bought either ice cream or bread and coffee and sat and chatted for a while. Mostly it was a catharsis session in which we sympathized with each other over the machismo attitude of the country and our struggles with the Spanish language. I think the ice cream helped.   Or at least, I will continue to tell myself that. Also looked for a gym near by USFQ because I think I will drop my volleyball class and try to go to a gym Tuesdays and Thursdays instead. This is only because the first day of volleyball was a little bit of a joke. There were a total of four of us who could even remotely control the ball and we passed and set back and forth to each other the whole time. I just feel like I could better spend my time, and I miss lifting weights anyway. We’ll see what I can find.

            So thus starts another week. This weekend we take our trip with ACLAS to the beach- it will be nice to get out again. Two weekends in Quito is just too much

Need to buy more postcards as well…

Highlight of Two Weeks- 45 min Doing Exercise :P

Well, I didn’t realize I hadn’t written in such a while. I will try to fill in the gaps while keeping this short (which means the same length as all the others and not longer). Entonces… after my quite awful first day of school, I had a very low-key weekend. The sickness only lasted about a day, even if it was a quite miserable day. Some of my friends went to the beach- which I heard later was a very poorly planned trip and I didn’t miss much of anything and made the right decision to stay behind. So I spent the 4 day weekend (because all my weekends are basically 4 days now, bummer I know), with mi familia. I visited the Centro Historico at night with my host dad which was much different from visiting in the daytime. There are, for one, much fewer people. I took pictures as well. It looks different at night as well. We walked down El Ronda which is apparently the oldest road in Quito. This is the same road that if you remember, I wrote about going to with my old host brother and his girlfriend. Ironically enough, my host dad took me to the same place to buy a carnelazo. I just couldn’t help but laugh a little inside at the irony. I was half-expecting to see my old host brother walk in, haha. (Thanks to something, he didn’t.) But we also watched some cultural dance and indigenous-ish music. I say “ish” because there was an electric guitar and bass as part of the group :p but the dancing was authentic, with costumes and all. It was fun. My host dad, who I guess I can start referring to by name- mi Papa Fernando- was very excited to explain to me all about the city and the centro and the churches. He is actually a very cute man and enjoys sharing lots with me about everything. He was also eager to take pictures of me for me.. but I only got two. We went for an ice cream after- also a favorite pastime for him- but the place was closed. They did give me an ice cream though, which turned out to be free because they did not have change for a $20 bill for a $1 ice cream. :] This culture is ridiculous, but great. The next day we went and ate at my host sister’s house with her and the three children- who are also in their own way very cute. My favorite was when the little boy, Andrés told his grandmother “cállate por favor”. I, my host mom, Ximena- his grandmother, and I think the maid all had to laugh. It was the funniest thing. I think I’m going to start using that one.          

My second first day of classes was yesterday and it went infinitely better than the real first one. My Spanish Conversation class still is without classroom, and we decided that we didn’t want to move the class to the afternoon so the class is going to remain in the office where we had it yesterday. Very cozy. There are about 10 students, and after one day I’ve decided that Pete and I know more Spanish than pretty much everyone else, save maybe a couple, in the class. I guess there are different levels of “intermediate”. In any case, I think it will be good. The teacher seems cool and my friend who was here last year said he knew some people who took the class and really liked her. Still didn’t have volleyball. The coach was there at least, but just said we wouldn’t have class till Thursday… We’ll see… He is a big black man who mumbles a lot so we’ll see how much I understand Anyway, I went running instead. There is a nice reservoir to run around… but you have to go down a bit of a hill to get there, which of course you have to come back up again… And it’s kinda steep. So that was killer. Don’t know if I’ll frequent that path again much. Art went well. We lost our classroom in that class as well. There was just another class there which was apparently supposed to be there too. But we found another room easily and spent the day testing out our materials and drawing lines (vertical, horizontal, and diagonal), circles, and squares. I never had any idea how difficult it was to draw a straight line… but surprisingly I did get better at it. So overall, the second first day went much better. We’ll see how tomorrow pans out. With this school I do feel like it is a day-by-day thing.

Started my trabajo social today as well at the old-folks’ home… place. Still not entirely sure how to describe it best. It was interesting. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I feel like this was something different. Many, the majority, of the patients there don’t/can’t speak, and those that do, you always feel like they’re only halfway there with you. But I think it could still be interesting to talk to them a bit, wonder what they’re thinking… I also spent about 20 min feeding half a banana to a woman, and then about another 40 min feeding her lunch. Definitely different work than I’ve ever done. The other people who work/volunteer are all nice though, and it’s interesting to watch them interact with the patients too. They also still give us an opportunity to practice Spanish. Like I said, it will be interesting. We are going to be going about 4 hours a week, 10am-2pm. Surprisingly the time went by fairly quickly today. Again, we’ll see.

The very thrilling part of my day though was that I somehow managed to run for 45 ½ minutes with minimal effort today at 9200 ft, about 15 min of which was in the rain. It was incredible! I’ve never run for that long in my life, and all of a sudden I’m doing it at 9000+ feet and feeling like I could still go more at the end of it. Next time I need to write an essay about “my greatest accomplishment” I am really considering writing about this. I really can’t express how excited and slightly confused I am right now, but you’ll have to try your best to understand the best you can. The only reason I even tried for that time is because a friend told me I couldn’t call him till I had run 40 min straight, so of course I had to try just because it was a challenge. Ha! Shows him!

Oh. One last bit of info, I now have cell phone. Not by choice though, I was still all about going 5 months without one, but my family wanted me to have one because it truly is much easier for communication. They had a phone they activated so I saved about $50 there not having to buy one- and… it’s got a camera! How exciting, haha. You need to buy minutes so I guess I will have to do that because with the activation I only got $3 worth. In any case, I’m still not planning on spending much money on my cell phone… Just emergencies… and a few other things

Classes start again tomorrow like I mentioned, and then the weekend again. Still no plans, but maybe I can find someplace close by to go and explore… I’ll do a little bit more research than was done with the beach trip and see who wants to tag along.

 

p.s. this blog was actually shorter than some of the previous ones

Hoy No Fue Mi Día

So, it’s expected that this one will be a little bit shorter of a blog, but then again I always think that so we’ll just see. Anyway, an update on my life so far…

            I started classes at USFQ today. Wow. I’m not really sure what to think, so I’ll just tell you and you can decide. First of all, the day didn’t start off great because as of last night I have finally gotten sick in Ecuador. I don’t know what it was exactly what I ate, but I was pretty much completely miserable last night (up and down a number of times) and this morning felt just about equally awful and very tired, even though I didn’t have to wake up till 8:00. But our maid gave me some hot water and oregano which amazingly does help calm your stomach. My friend Hilary and I were going to meet and take the bus together at 9 to make it to our 10 o’clock class on time, but apparently the bus works decided to go on a strike this morning (sort of). I guess they negotiated something for the moment because I think the buses were supposed to be up and running again right around 9. In any case, they were this afternoon. So, my family took me to school, but like lots of families, especially Ecuadorian ones, we were a little late…and traffic wasn’t the best. So, I got to USFQ right about 10 and then had to walk across campus and without too much trouble find my building and classroom, only to walk into the class room full of legitimately Ecuadorian students (my first class is supposed to be Intermediate Spanish Conversation… not too many Ecuadorians I wouldn’t think). Upon getting the syllabus I discovered no, I was sitting in a 200 level seminar course. Nice.

So I went to the Information desk to have them tell me that I needed to go to the Registrar if my class location had been changed. Then, conveniently, the person in the Registrar’s office told me I needed to go to room G302 to talk to them there. So I go up 2 stories (luckily in the same building) and discover that wow, there is no rm G302!!! Nope, there is 301 and 303 with a blank, locked door between them… but no 302. So I say basically “Fuck it. I’ll send the teacher an email later.” I went and found some friends from WU and used one of their phones to call Pete because he has that class with me. He said that the class was moved to the International Office temporarily because they don’t have a room for it yet and to go there on Tuesday. I met up with him and he showed me where it was and there was a sign on the doors saying class was canceled although really it wasn’t because the teacher just explained the basic goals of the course today. Pete kind of filled me in, although I had also read the syllabus online. In any case, I still sent the teacher an email this afternoon… It would be great, but I also feel like novel, if she got back to me.

Next, I had volleyball, which I also walked around a little bit trying to find the right place only to have (I think a basketball coach) tell me and a few other students that our professor wasn’t here and would be back Monday. Also lovely to know. So, I had nothing to do for about 3 hours so a few of us again just chilled together on the lawn… I think I took a short nap, I read a little, chatted a little. Didn’t eat anything because I still wasn’t feeling up to it.

            Finally, at 2:30 I had my art class, which was also a little difficult to find, but I managed to with not too much problem. There were only 7 of us in the class today, 3 international students from the US- one girl from UO who spoke very good Spanish… and also a blonde-haired, blue eyed guy named Jose Esperanza who spoke beautiful (probably native) Spanish too. I was a little bitter We waited about ten minutes for other students to show up, then we went over the basic fact that we are going to be learning basic drawing, and the materials we need. There were a couple missing from the list that I had to actually pay attention to make sure I wrote down the right word. Our teacher told us that he had studied/worked in the US, including in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe areas. I also learned today that we need to attend an hour a week of the open workshops on Fridays from 10:00am-4:00pm. So much for no class on Friday. Also, some of my other friends who are taking an art class said their teachers either said it wasn’t that important that they go every week or it wasn’t necessary to go the first few weeks because they’d have nothing to do… Also sweet. So after waiting 3 hours for my 20 min class I finally took the bus back to Quito. Exhausted, dehydrated, and basically just annoyed at this point I made a quick trip to ACLAS to use the computer & internet there where I did successfully download Skype onto one of their computers, although I’m not sure exactly how the call quality is because I didn’t have my headset to test it out. Hopefully tomorrow, sometime in the afternoon after our initial visit to the place we’re going to be volunteering.

There are about 5 of us doing our social work at an old-folk’s home not too far from ACLAS, and therefore my house. It’s called Therapy of Companionship, and we’ll be just talking, playing cards with, and occasionally helping with feeding of the people there. I am hoping to work on Wednesdays. So we’ll see how that initial visit goes.

Ummm, que más? Marco left back to the US finally today. We went out to dinner, and then drinks and dancing with him on Tuesday night. We had to dress up, although no one was quite as dressed up as he was in his pin-striped suit. But we did learn that it is very likely he will be coming back in about three weeks… He said his parents could use a bit of help right now so his plan is to take a leave of absence from WU, enroll at Chemeketa College (a community college also in Salem) and take online courses through there while he is here in Ecuador. Then, he would return to WU next semester with all of us. We all know it’s cuz he doesn’t want to leave us. But admittedly it would be really cool if he could pull that off. I guess we’ll wait and see. There are pictures from this night as well- I sent out the facebook address to a few people again, and if you did look at these pictures you will also have noticed that I pierced my eyebrow. It was a legit little place, very clean, and in total only cost $10 and about 5 min of my time. Didn’t hurt too bad at all. They do put this numbing stuff on the skin here where you are getting the piercing but for me all it really did was make my eye twitch. And then a little pinch on the way out with the needle and I was good to go. I had some sea salt left over from another piercing so I was ready with my salt-water cleanser right away. So far no problems and I love it and many have told me that it looks like I’ve had it my whole life. Except for my host mom who doesn’t like lip or mouth or tongue or eyebrow piercings, but loves belly-button piercings. Intersting.

No real plans for this weekend- at all. But we’ll first have to see how I feel and see if I’m even up to doing anything. I better find something productive to do or it will be a long four days till I have class again Maybe I’ll visit Marco’s parents (the best part is, I’m not joking.) :p

Oh, Lacy, Hilary, and Lacy’s 10 year old Ecuadorian niece who speaks both English and Spanish, and I went to see Batman on I think Sunday or Monday night. It was pretty good. Now I just have to see the one that came before this movie, Batman Begins We had to wait in line for a while and we were at the front so a couple of the boys who work at the theater were talking to us. Lacy thought that if we went and paid for a movie one more time then the next time we should be able to score some free tickets Yeah well, we’ll see. I’d probably be more excited if I could actually remember the last time before now I only paid $4.25 for a movie. :p I still feel like I’m getting a pretty good deal.

So, like I said, this one turned out to not be any shorter than the rest so I hope that you enjoyed spending just as much time reading it. I am just pleased that for all intents and purposes this day is basically over. And it’s days like this, sick, tired, irritated with the school system, and feeling stupid yet again because I wasn’t born fluent in Spanish, that I start to miss people… (Well actually I already missed them, but I guess now I can think about it a little more.) Probably because this is the first time since I’ve been in Ecuador I haven’t been busy. So I guess that’s a good enough excuse… In any case, I think I am going to take a nap/sleep till morning now. And I know tomorrow got to be at least a tad better.

Christmas Shopping in August

 

First off, YEA!!! I am officially done with my Spanish intensive classes at ACLAS! I think they finished up pretty well. My oral presentation on the responsibility of news stations to the public to broadcast accurate and clear news went well and I felt fairly decent about the written final exam. Did you know there are about 5 different types of subjunctive structures in Spanish??? Do you even know what subjunctive structure is in English…? Anyway… that finished up well and although my brain still can’t function fast enough to use all these tenses correctly in speech, I do feel a lot more knowledgeable about the Spanish language and a lot more comfortable in general speaking it. My real only fear now is that because we don’t have the classes at ACLAS anymore I am going to just plateau here with my abilities, but for that reason I’ve decided that I’m going to try to spend more time with the people who are interested in speaking Spanish continually these next 4 months. My friend Hilary and I are pretty good about it and try to speak to each other in Spanish as much as possible, and Pete and I speak in Spanish when we go running which for some reason I am convinced is more of a workout than running and speaking in English.

I looked up the syllabus and course description on my classes at USFQ as well and I’m actually pretty excited. There was no description for my Spanish Conversation class but I hope that that will be very helpful in continuing my Spanish learning… and I’ll probably meet more foreigners from all over because I doubt too many Ecuadorian students take that class I am also actually really excited about my art class. We do get to do figure drawing at the end of the class. And we do have a text, but it’s online and in English. I’m not taking basketball anymore because I didn’t want one class on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays and it looked like I was going to be the only one in the class. Hopefully I can just go into the gym when it’s free and shoot around. I am taking volleyball though still and I’m excited. It’s real volleyball and it sounds like the purpose is actually to learn the skills and play and not just to be a joke. We have our orientation on Monday for the whole school and then start classes on Thursday, WEE!!!

Anyway, as for this weekend… after our classes on Friday we took our group trip to Otavalo which is known for it’s indigenous arts fair. We arrived in the evening and checked into our hotel, ate, and then walked around the town a little bit but not much of anything else. The next morning a few of us got up early (5:45) to go see the people setting up for the market, then came back for breakfast then went back out to start the buying. It was pretty incredible actually. It was quite a hopping farmers market. Bartering is a huge part of the culture and it’s not rude in the least, it’s actually expected and part of the “game”. I hate doing it, but it really wasn’t too bad because it mostly consisted of you making an offer, them either accepting it of lowering their price a little, you sticking to your price and them either agreeing or sticking to theirs. Then if you start to walk away many times they will call you back and say ok. It’s quite comical actually- for me. These people really aren’t too proud to do any of it and it’s all just part of their business. So I didn’t have to work too hard and I got a pretty good collection of Christmas presents (and a few things for myself) for about $60. I was impressed with myself; although I might have to make another trip back later (it’s only a couple hours by bus). It was really incredible to see all the different work that was done… There was of course lots of alpaca wool blankets and ponchos and such (I got a really pretty yellow little blanket), lots of very pretty embroidered table cloth like pieces, and an endless supply of beautiful scarves of all sorts of different colors. I found so many that I liked but I ran out of people and places to by them for. They were impressive though and found myself wanting to buy all of them. Basically, this market was set up for people like my Mom, aunts Joanne and Kathleen, and my Grandmother. Grandma Pat would have been in heaven. I tried to take some pictures although they don’t do it all justice in the least. I also quite enjoyed all the elaborate wooden pips. It was a pretty fun experience.

At noon we took of and ate at Cuicocha (the lake when I had visited with my old host brother and his girlfriend). And then went to a town nearby that is known for all its leather products. A couple girls bought some pretty nice leather jackets for about $60 so… we’ll see how the rest of this trip progresses and I might have to make a trip back there too We stopped by the place I went before to get more biscochos before coming back to Quito. We finally got back about 7:30 but we were all sufficiently exhausted so it was no problem calling it an early night. My host family went to the beach this weekend so it was only my host brother and I last night and today, but it was good to have a relaxing time to do nothing.

This morning I slept into to the ridiculously late hour of 9:45 because this was the first day since I have been in Ecuador (including weekends) that I have not had to wake up early for something. Pretty crazy when you think about it. I went on a nice run today, took a shower and now am just relaxing before I have to get up SUPER early tomorrow to go to orientation at 8 am tomorrow morning. Bleh.

But overall, many purchases and less than $100 later I feel like this was a pretty productive weekend.

First Big Weekend Outside Quito

This weekend I took my first legitimate trip outside of Quito all by myself (with 19 other people) 15 of our group at ACLAS, our friend Marco (whom you all already know well from my pervious blogs), and 4 other students who are studying abroad at another university in Quito this semester all went to Baños this weekend. Baños is about a 4 hour bus ride south and a little East of Quito. (There is more to the name of the city that I can not recall at the moment but it is Baños de “someone”.)

-Just a little bit of extra information on why we had 4 other random kids with us before I continue… One of the boys, Adolfo (who is completely fluent in Spanish because his parents are from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic) is staying with the sister or my friend Pete’s host-father. So they are host cousins. If you followed that all I applaud you because I even confused myself the first time I said it. But yes, so Pete knows him, and through Pete Marco knows him and met the others. The go to a school called Keene State in NH. Anyway, they accompanied us to Baños this weekend and were a fun addition to the trip.-

We left right after classes on Friday and didn’t do too much exciting the first night in we were there. I and 4 others of our group went to an Italian restaurant for dinner that took forever but had good food. That night after we had all checked into our $12 a night hotel ($12 per person, but still a pretty good deal for the type of room we got) we went out to do a little clubbing. At this point, because some of our boys had bought a sufficient supply of Tampico orange juice and vodka for the bus-ride up, a few of our party were already un poquito buzzed but the rest of us went out and had a pretty decent time as well. In one bar we all received our first shot free- which was called a Bob Marley and consisted of three colors of alcohol stacked on top of each other (I will let you guess which three colors) and I’m assuming 151 rum (or an equivalent) on top because it was lit on fire. We took the shot with a straw. Not going to lie, the flaming bit at the end was a little hot After that Marco was more than kind enough to share his seemingly endless supply of Tampico and Vodka with all of us. Good man, that one. But we went to a discoteca in which we danced the night away. First experience dancing on a bar… Adolfo got some good pictures of that that are sure to appear on facebook… :/ But it was interesting. We also met 3 kids who go to USFQ so that was kind of cool to just know them beforehand. One had really good English and was quite a sweetheart- one of our group is thinking this could be her Latin lover. We shall see. Most of us called it an early night and went back at about 12:30 to get some sleep before enjoying the other aspects of Baños.

The next morning a large group of us (but not all) woke up and rented bikes to go on a bike ride to see the waterfalls that are a little outside of the city. We had a map that showed a 22 km ride but we are still not sure if we went the right way, or possibly a bit past where we were supposed to go. We saw some waterfalls from a distance but never got up close. It was still a good ride though- most of it was downhill or flat, but there were a few hills as well which were a sufficient workout, even thought Baños is at a bit lower elevation than Quito. There was a truck waiting for us at the end to take us back to the city- but we had to pay the driver $1.50 more than the $5 we paid to rent the bikes. Que lastima!! We had a little bit of time when we got back, enough to eat lunch, before we took off to go rafting. This lunch period was my first experience with chicken feet in soup. The soup was good, but the chicken feet were a little tough to handle. Kayla was going to try one but the sheer awkwardness of how they looked was just too much. It was eerie for sure. But after lunch we piled into a van/bus with 4 kids from France to head out on our rafting expedition. The French kids sang the whole way, and the whole way back and it was funny for a while, but then just got loud. On the ride back, our guides and drivers were fighting with them by continuing to turn up the volume on the radio. I laughed. But that’s because I was totally on the side of the guides. Anyway, there were 16 of us total who went rafting and we split up into 3 rafts. Pretty much, it was a ridiculously fun experience. The whole time I kept wondering why I had never done it before. We had some pretty nice waves and our guide was awesome. All of them were really- you could tell they loved their jobs. Part way through the trip we stopped at a random little place where we all got to do a little cliff jumping before we continued on. That was pretty cool too. After we finished up the rafting trip we went back a little ways to a restaurant where they served us dinner, also very good. Finally we returned back to Baños where the guides invited us to come out and party with them later. All that for $25 (although I decided to give them a $5 tip.) That night I completely crashed, although the others did go out and did end up eventually meeting up with some of the guides who proceeded to tell them that any time they wanted to come back rafting was free of charge. Sounds good right? Haha. Regardless of missing another eventful night, I felt great off my 10+ hours of sleep the next morning. We woke up and ate a huge breakfast, but very good because for $6 I didn’t need to eat lunch. Afterwards some of us went to check out the actual hot spring for which Baños is named for, but it was warm during the day, and the spring was ridiculously crowded. I didn’t feel like spending $2 to be uncomfortably and crowded just for the experience. We also decided that for $7 round trip on bus it was cheep enough to come back later. After, a couple girls went bungee jumping/swinging. I didn’t go watch because I stayed in with mi ñaño (Marco… this is the native Quichua word for brother. We spent the whole weekend calling each other by different forms of “brother” and “sister”. Sister is ñaña. Crazy concept huh?) Anyway, I watched part of the game with him and then Adolfo came by and asked if anyone wanted to go on a ride on the motorcycle/bike he rented. Our group signed wavers saying we couldn’t operate machinery here in Ecuador, but we never signed that we wouldn’t ride them, so I went with him. I think I could really get into motorcycles. They’re kind of fun. Anyway, we went along the same road we had ridden our bikes on, and a bit further and through some of the tunnels we couldn’t go through on bikes because they were long, dark, and wet. We also were able to go right up to another waterfall that I couldn’t before which was pretty cool. I took picture which will be posted on facebook soon. When we got back it was about time to catch the bus home. We took off at about 3:20 and managed to sleep a little bit on the bus. We finally got back to Quito probably about 8:00, más o menos. Finally got back to my house about 8:30, had me a bowl of cereal, a bowl of rice, and a glass of I think peach or apricot juice and called it a night. We managed to convince our two teachers to not give us homework so I had nothing to worry about coming off a vacation of a weekend. That was nice.

So overall, it was quite a nice little break from reality and school and I finally got to start feeling like I was on vacation here in Quito, because we all know that that was really the purpose of the trip… right? Anyway, last week of ACLAS and Spanish classes this week so we’ll see if I can survive all of this before… I start more school. Sweet.

Wow. Algunos Cambios…

So, I’ve had some very recent and drastic changes in my life. (Ok, only really one but still…) I changed my living situation today. Because of an unfortunate happening yesterday I no longer felt comfortable staying with my previous host family for another day. Thanks to Fernando’s (and Eugenia’s-via phone because she is not here at the moment) patience, wonderful support, and attentiveness I was able to get a new family this afternoon/evening.

            My new family (named Fiallo) lives still very close to the school (on the other side of the major street 6 de Diciembre) and actually pretty close to two other girls. Conveniently I can still walk to ACLAS in about 5 (maybe 7) min. My new family consists of my new mother Ximena, new father (who’s name I haven’t caught yet), and a brother who is older than I am but I am not sure by how much- working age, named Andres. They are the only ones who live in the house, but my family is a bit bigger than that. I also have an older sister, also named Ximena, who is married too…Alex..? maybe…? With maybe three children… a small baby who was very good the whole time they were here, a 3 year old son, and a little girl who must have been about 5 (I think she was their daughter too). It’s a very busy family and house, or at least it was this afternoon. A bit loud with crying children at times (not your perfect place Dad) but I think it will be alright. The kids are cute. And we have a dog! Named Betty (I think… that’s what it sounded like at least.) Ximena (the daughter) speaks English I know- she studied in Maryland, but I get the feeling that they all do a little bit. I know at least my host father lived in the US before. They speak very quickly, and all at once, but for the most part I understand. I took that as a personal accomplishment.

            They were also not ready for me, of course, but I got settled in pretty well, pretty quickly. That’s the nice thing about not having much stuff. Impressively, even without the stolen duffle bag (that was never replaced), I managed to fit all my stuff into the luggage I still had. Not quite, but the majority of it… I was impressed. I think I have as many shoes as I do clothes here. It was also easier because one pair of my stolen shoes hasn’t been replaced either so I had one less pair to worry about. But I’m all moved in now and it wasn’t much trouble.

            This house is bigger than the other- it is an actual house, not an apartment, and it’s nice. Looks a little more lived in because there are more things and stuff in it (including lots of toys, which the little boy, also named Andres, told me he had a lot of.) :p There is also a flatscreen tv (not sure if it’s plasma) but I was mildly impressed. Unfortunately, my one bit of bad news, there is no wireless. Duh-duh-dun….. Sad day, I know. So I will have to make my skype phone calls earlier during the day, and probably less frequent, and I won’t be able to facebook IM chat into the night. Alas, I think I will survive. I’m not sure if there is internet in the house or not, but I’ll find out soon I’m sure. I don’t think I’ll have any problem using the internet at ACLAS though.

            My new family has had many exchange students from ACLAS before but not for a few years because many things happened in the past few (the only thing I really caught was that the daughter got married.) But Eugenia called Ximena (la madre) and asked her to house me and she agreed. They were all very welcoming and accommodating too. I wish I knew more ways to say “thank you so much” in Spanish. I don’t think anyone understands how grateful I am for them taking me in. I will have to buy them something nice to show my appreciation (because yes, unfortunately, the books I brought from home are at the other house.) Also a beneficial fact, my family likes coffee very much (and not instant stuff) AND without sugar. They don’t use much sugar because it’s not as healthy. I like them. I will have to maybe think about taking some back (coffee, not sugar) to the US… we’ll see. Overall, I am just so happy to be here right now.

            I also learned today, amidst how unfortunate people can be, how great they can be as well. Pete was supporting me and there for me the whole day today with all the uncertainty, and every one of my other classmates I talked to offered me a place to stay at their homes for tonight if I didn’t have a home yet. Marco was very adamant and very excited and insisted I stay with he and his parents for the night… and then live there. He said his mother would love having a daughter in the house, and I could be his sister, and it would be great! He’s pretty much too cute. We decided that even if I didn’t stay with him (which is obviously what happened) when we both got back to school at WU we’d still call me his little sister… Good kid. Good people actually, all of them I am surrounded by. So even in a time of complete upheaval (ok, maybe not complete but still) I feel very blessed to have the people around me that I do. It’s the little things like that that work to restore my faith in the people in this world. And… NOW I HAVE A DOG!!! Estoy alegra ahora.

Independence Day Weekend…and Such

So, first off, in the last entry I said that August 10 was the independence of Quito, which is a complete lie. It’s the independence day for Ecuador when the first war for independence was fought…in Quito. Now that that’s settled I can continue.

Well, Friday night after I wrote the last entry, my friend Hilary and I went on a date (una cita) to the movies. That was a little adventure in itself. First, we took a taxi… to the wrong theater- the driver’s fault, not ours. So we walked a few blocks to find the right movie theater. That was surprisingly easy. But then once inside the shopping center we struggled to find the actually movie theater that was obscurely placed down some stairs at one end of the shopping center with no real signs that I could see. And of course we couldn’t ask anyone because it was kind of an accomplishment to be able to find it on our own. Although we did laugh at ourselves when we had to turn around and walk past a group of boys twice and imagined what they were thinking… probably the accurate “oh look at those two white chicks who are lost!” “Mira! Esas gringas están perdidos!” (Write that down, it’s an important line I’m sure you’ll need next time you visit a Spanish speaking country. Nonetheless, we found it and watch the movie The Ex (with Zach Braff) for $4.25… in English, but with Spanish subtitles. It was fun. I appreciate cheap movies.

The next day, Hilary, Cassie, Lacy, Stacy, and I went to the Centro Historico to partake in the many festivities of the weekend. We went into a few museums and a few churches, all were open and free with very quick tours just to give you a taste. We learned a little about the Sucre (Ecuador’s old money), Bolivar and Sucre themselves, and got to go down below into a catacomb of one of the churches. Also we hiked up a San Francisco type hill to get to the Basilica, and then proceeded to climb more stairs and ladders to get a view from the top, which was completely worth it for sure. Because there were so many people, I followed Fernando’s advice and didn’t bring my camera. We ate lunch at one of the plazas where Cassie and I discovered that in Ecuador “Nachos con Guacamole” is Doritos chips with guacamole. Very interesting… very disappointing. But hey, you learn something new everyday.

After, we met up with our friend Marco and went with him and his family to watch the light show in the Presidential Plaza and hear music and the national anthem. After, we were treated to pizza and of course Pilsner by his parents. Very generous people.

[Here I feel I need to clarify who Marco is. We met him at WU before we left last year. His parents are from Ecuador, he was born in theUS but moved back here when he was 5 or 8 or something, then joined the Marines, then moved back the US for school-WU. He is here in Quito visiting his parents till the end of this week, then he has to go back to school at WU. Anyway, his parents were very welcoming and his mom insisted that we come visit, stay, eat, or ask her if we ever needed anything- even once Marco is gone. I agreed. ]

Yesterday, we traveled into the valley East of Quito to have a BBQ at Marco’s parents’ other house as a bit of a going away party for him. The house was apparently Marco’s dad’s (also named Marco) dream home. It was pretty fantastic too. They go every Sunday after they close their shop at 2pm in Quito and we were invited to come back with them then too. Good people for sure! We could dwell on the fact that I ate 3 chicken legs and 2 pork chops for lunch yesterday, but I think we’d all prefer I didn’t.

So that was the weekend! Full, yet again.

Ok, now by request of the madre, I will attempt to give some description/insight into Quito. Although I cannot guarantee that I will come close to doing it justice.

The city basically runs north-south with the mountains and volcano Mt. Pachincha to the west and the valley (where Marco’s parents live and where Cumbaya is.) We all live in the Northern part of the city, and ACLAS in located here. Cumbaya is also in the North valley. The south of Quito is the poorer district, and the Centro Historico is in the South as well. It is a plan of mine to eventually take and put up pictures of the Historic district…sometime. But for now, it is just full of many churches and museums and little shops built into the walls as you walk down the streets. The streets here are also very narrow, which does not help with the chaotic and psychotic traffic. And no, this is not one of those things you can just say “it’s not bad, just different”, drivers here are insane, changing lanes constantly, turning from the wrong lanes, honking when they cut other people off, driving in the middle of the road, drifting into other cars, running red lights… fantastic stuff really. (I’m terrified.) Anyway, I digress. The city is evidently part of a third world country just because the buildings are older, more rundown, much like Mexico I think. Even in our part of town where it is richer, the neighborhoods still look like what we would consider slummy. The shopping centers on the other hand are like any other. Different shops and same shops. Same kinds of shops anyway. American brand clothing is more expensive here because it’s all sent from the US. But our teacher told us about another shopping center in the South of town that has all the same clothes, only cheaper because the people in that part of town cannot spend as much. We’re going to check it out sometime, then I can give more feedback. There are a lot of dogs in the streets as well, to accompany the many poor venders on the corners- mostly indigenous people, or the small children or old women who stand in the streets or in front of business doorways asking poor money with outstretched hands. It is definitely different from any place in the US, but surprisingly it is something you get used to very quickly. You also learn to just walk past people without a word too. It’s a little sad when you think about it, but that too is part of the culture as well.

Another kind of store here that is very popular is the SuperMaxi or MegaMaxi. It is like WalMart superstores in that they are all-inclusive, but more expensive. That is where many people do their food shopping though. Also, panaderias (bakeries) are pretty prevalent. There are also tons of little tiny corner stores all over. They told us that Ecuador was like the US about 50 years ago, and although I can not accurately make this comparison, it seems like in some respects it is accurate. In dress, it is much more conservative here, except for the times when women wear tight pants with calf high stiletto boots and tight shirts often showing midriff. Interesting extremes…

The buses are set up in different systems. There is one that runs north-south along only one street, and another that runs north-south on a street more west. There are also two systems that run all over they city in any direction, although I have not, and don’t plan/need to use either of these soon. There are other buses that go into the valley as well, which we will be using to get to USFQ. All the buses cost 25 cents a ride too. Not too bad. Taxis are a huge mode of transportation here as well and you can catch one very easily. During the day it is not too expensive, but at night they turn off the meters so you need to ask how much your ride to your destination will cost before you get in or you are likely to get ripped off. Not to say that they won’t still try after as well… but here, Taxi drivers are not supposed to be your best friend. It really is just as easy to use one of the trolleys if you have the time though. It can get quite ridiculously crowded sometimes in the trolleys, but you do save a bit of money. We really only take taxis if it is late at night.

I’m sure I will continue to learn more about the city as time goes on and I will be just as unable to accurately relate these things, but I will continue to try my best.

As for now, I have written basically a novel and I need either a nap or to start on some hw. I feel like we all know which will probably inevitably be executed first, but oh well. Siestas are probably still my favorite part of the Latin culture.

Ciao!!