I am happy to report that I took my first malaria pill on Monday and I have not experienced any side effects so far. I´m taking Lariam and a lot of people had been telling me that I would have nightmares and hallucinations, but I haven´t had any problems. I was a little worried too because I was going into Quito that night, but nothing happened. So things are looking good for my trip into the Oriente on Sunday. Time is flying by. I only have three more days with my family here in Los Chillos. Then Oriente, Quito, coast, Quito again, and Riobamba.
Not much else is going on. We taught at a school for one of our spanish classes yesterday. It was a lot of fun. My partner and I had first graders for culture and we tried to teach them about American holidays and have them compare our practices with their's, but it didn´t work out too well. They weren't very talkative and were instead focused on coloring the pictures we gave them. They were a bit more active during the next class, which was art, and I only helped out, but we had fun making marshmellow towers and drawing animals. Then I watched the fourth graders playing dodgeball, which they all loved. And the second class I was teaching was fourth grade geography. We gave them all maps and contries and did some comparisons with distances from Ecuador. We tried to have them read facts out loud about each country, but the kids wouldn't quiet down for that activity. They all didn't want to see us go and overall it was a great experience. It's fun to work with kids.
Also, the classes all played a fun card game, Cuarenta, today. It's a team game and you basically have to go around and make pairs with cards in the middle. It's kind of hard to explain, but fun so I look forward to playing it more while I'm here. My partner and I won two games and then almost had the third with thirty-eight points, but we couldn't get a caida, when you make a pair with the card thrown directly before your turn, which you need to win the game and the other team came from way behind and won. Oh well. Maybe we'll start another tournament.
Well, the week will end with Quichua tomorrow evening, a party for all of the host families, us, our spanish teachers, and directors on Friday, and a crab feast with my family on Saturday. I doubt I'll get another chance to write until after the Oriente, but we'll see. Chao.
It's not just a trip anymore. I am hoping to revamp this blog to include a lot of different things mainly centered around my life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala, but also including other random things I find myself reflecting upon. The contents of this blog reflect my opinions and not those of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps program. Enjoy!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Quito
I finally got into and out of Quito on my own today. I rode the bus to the Marin, a big bus depot, and then found another bus that headed a little further into Old Town. Then I just walked to the Basilica and went to Quichua lessons. After class, I walked back by the Basilica (it´s so cool that I get to see this at least once a week now) and went to the second Marin. However, I took the buses going the wrong way, but I figured this out after two stops and turned myself around. I finally got to the first Marin, the one I needed, and found my bus back into Los Chillos for only $0.30. For me this was a big accomplishment.
This past weekend I went to el Parque Itchimbia and el Panecillo but I forgot my camera so hopefully I´ll get to return to both when I have my camera. I don´t know if I have written about this already, but my family never tells me where we´re going, just that we are going for a vuelta. It´s either ¨Vamos¨or ¨Ven, Chris¨and then we´re off to who knows where. This weekend we went to the park for a nice panoramic view of the city. Then we went to the Panecillo since I expressed an interest in going. I climbed up the Virgen statue and got some more great views of Quito. The we at at Cafe Mirador with more views of the city from the roof. I love the city. And since I´m finding it a lot easier to use the buses and I kind of know my way around, I am really looking forward to living there next month. And, I feel safer going places by myself, but only during the day. We´ll see how everything works out.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Punk and Jazz don't mix
To start off this post, I just want to write about some random thoughts on things I’ve noticed over the past month and things I may have forgotten to mention in the blog:
Mama porque soy fea
There’s this weird tv show on one of the Ecuadorian channels. It’s not really like a telenovela because it’s just on once a week on Sunday night. It’s about a bunch of spinsters living together but the catch is that the spinsters are actually men dressed as women. It’s also a period show and it takes place probably during the 1800s or early 1900s. I haven’t actually seen it but I see ads for it all of the time. Maybe I’ll watch it one of these days. It just looks so weird.
Maid
My family has a maid. That’s pretty common here I guess. She cleans the house, cooks the lunches, and does the laundry. I talk to her every day and she seems to like me. We talk about all kinds of stuff like religion, politics, the economy, things that she says I need to do while I’m in Ecuador. I feel bad because she’s doing my laundry and making food for me, but I guess she just feels lucky to have a job. She comes here from Quito every weekday morning and leaves later in the day. I don’t know exactly how things are on weeknights, but I have been told not to take the bus alone at night and she does this every night to reach her home. She has two daughters, one my age and one who is eighteen and she keeps telling me how she wants them to get an education and leave the country so that they can have better futures. She also hopes to leave the country and move to America or Spain some day to make a better life for herself. On the weekends when she doesn’t come, we usually eat out because my host mom doesn’t really like to cook.
Toilet paper and toilets
Here, it is unusual to find a toilet in which you can flush the toilet paper. Most septic systems would backup if you did this. I have gotten pretty used to this by now. I haven’t really had a problem with accidently flushing toilet paper and clogging a toilet, but I still feel tempted once in a while. It was so weird using the latrines at Intag and putting the toilet paper down the hole. It’s definitely going to be different going home and flushing the paper.
Brushing teeth
I miss brushing my teeth with tap water. I just miss drinking tap water period. I get these bursts of extreme thirst that sometimes are hard to quench because I don’t have access to unlimited water. I have enough water to meet my needs though and I drink a lot when I have access to clean water. However, I don’t brush my teeth at all with tap water. I don’t even rinse it off, just to be safe. Therefore, my toothbrush is full of toothpaste gunk. I’ll have to clean it off sometime. Drinking tap water and using it to brush my teeth is one thing I miss doing and look forward to upon returning to the U.S.
Self-medication
Everyone here is really into self-medication. My host mother takes a ton of pills and one morning, when her stomach was bothering her, she took a potato, squeezed the juice out of it while it was still raw, and drank it. I don’t think this sounds too appetizing. Also, oregano tea is a big one for feeling a bit under the weather. Also, it’s so easy to get any medication you need here. You don’t really need a prescription for things. I could go and buy more malaria medication if I really wanted to.
Tv-English programs
It still sometimes weirds me out when I see Simpsons or Spongebob in Spanish on tv. A lot of the television shows on Ecuadorian channels are from America and are just dubbed in Spanish. There is Futurama, Sex in the City, Dragonball-z, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Smallville, and lots of movies. I just watched Johnny English and there have been tons of ads for Juwana Man. Also, just starting now is Kull, the Conqueror (or Kull, el Conquistador). The same goes for movie theaters. Most of the movies are from the states and just have Spanish subtitles.
Coca cola zero
A lot of people here drink coca-cola zero. I had some at a family gathering. However, apparently the beverage here has an ingredient in it that is not permitted in the US. I’m not sure exactly what the reasons for this are, but I find this a little sketchy. Nevertheless, I haven’t had any bad affects from this.
Elections
There are elections coming up on 30 of September here in Ecuador. The president decided to throw out the old constitution and write a new one so there are elections for a constituent assembly. Apparently 3000 people are running for 140 seats. Everyone in the nation has to vote by law. I’m not sure what the penalties are for not voting, but the common practice of those who don’t want to vote is to write a bad word across the ballot. Also, the whole process of counting votes sounds so complicated. You can vote for a ton of candidates if you want, but they’ll only get a fraction of a vote depending on how many you choose. If you only vote for one person, they get a whole vote. There are so many ads for the elections. There are also tons of people handing out propaganda on the street. They even offer some to me for some reason though I can’t vote in the elections. Maybe I’m starting to look like an Ecuadorian?
Eggs and milk
Eggs and milk are not refrigerated here. At first I thought it would make me sick, but so far so good. The milk apparently has this super pasteurizing process that kills all of the bacteria and makes it safe to keep unrefrigerated for a month. I haven’t had any plain milk-I usually drink it in a milkshake with bananas or with Ensure (not sure why my family buys this, but ok). Also, the egg issue-most people here, I think, like to eat eggs “duro” which I guess means virtually uncooked. They go in the pan for less than a minute and then they’re ready to eat. I was worried about salmonella, but so far I’ve been fine. I try to get my host mom to cook mine a little longer, but they’re still a little on the raw side.
Back to my life:
After getting back to Los Chillos, we just had class on Thursday as usual. Then on Friday, all of the classes had their own trips into Quito. My group had a few problems. First, one of my classmates was ill. Then, another one didn’t remember where to meet that morning to catch the bus to Quito (only $0.40 for a 20 minute or so ride) so we were late meeting up with our professor at the Universidad Catolica. We got into Quito and saw the line of people outside of the US embassy building (one of the uglier buildings I’ve seen) waiting to get visas. Apparently they start lining up at 6:00 even though lining up early doesn’t give them a better chance of getting a visa. Then we were walking when another person from the group tripped over a concrete structure just sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, so we spent 20 minutes in a pharmacy getting stuff the clean it off with. We were supposed to go to the Basilica, but that involved a lot of climbing narrow staircases into the towers and that would have been difficult with a scraped knee, so we decided to go to the Museo del Banco Central. The museum was pretty nice. However, about 45 minutes into the first part of the tour, the pre-Colombian period part, I started to feel really light-headed and hot and I asked my teacher to find a seat where I could just sit, and we were on our way out when I couldn’t see or hear anything and I guess I just passed out, but a few other people were supporting me as well so I didn‘t fall or anything. We made it to the seats in the lobby and I woke up and someone gave me some gum and water. Later I ate an apple and talked to the guy sitting next to me. I felt much better after half an hour or so, but I was still a little shaky so I spent the remainder of the hour and a half in the lobby watching tourists and workers. I think I just didn’t eat enough breakfast because I didn’t eat as much as usual, but it was so weird. After everyone was done with the tour, we went to get lunch at Café Amazonas and I had the menu, which was a beef steak, some soup with barley, rice, chocolate ice cream, jugo de naranjilla, and some water all for $4.50. That was the end of walking around with the group.
I went off with Amanda to the centro historico to walk around and wait for my Quichua lesson. I waited in line to get into the presidential palace but I didn’t have too much time so I headed off for my lesson shortly before it was our turn to go in. I talked with one of the academic directors about my ISP project and I wanted to take Quichua and he agreed that it would possibly help me with my final project if I knew how to speak some Quichua. So, I had my first hour of Quichua in a man’s house near the Basilica, so I got to see the Basilica after all, but I hope to go back for a real tour. Quichua was very interesting and very overwhelming. It’s so different than Spanish and I’m learning rudimentary things again, like I am ____ and My name is _____. I enjoyed it though and I’m so happy I have this opportunity. Another cool thing is that my teacher is also the teacher of the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, and apparently the president wants to meet other Quichua students, especially those of us from the U.S. The teacher asked if we wanted to meet him next Saturday, which would be really cool because that’s election day, but that’s also the last day with our homestay families so we really can’t do it. But he said another weekend would be fine and we can talk to each other in Quichua. Also while we were in the lesson, someone called the teacher and we asked him in Quichua if it was the president (because I can kind of ask that) but he responded that no, it was just the minister of something. After the lesson, I hung out with some of my companeros for a while in the centro historico and then in the Mariscal. We walked around and went to a bar and a Mongolian Barbeque. I was surprised that I didn’t see too many gringos in the bars, but I guess it was kind of early. It was probably around 7:00 and we were just killing some time. After that, we headed to this club that Siena recommended, El Pobre Diablo, to watch a band perform. We got there about an hour and a half early, but it was nice to just hang out. We split a bottle of wine between a big group and just talked and had some potatoes with cheese sauce. Then the band, Musica a la Carta, performed. It was actually a mixture of two bands, one jazz and one punk. It was interesting. The cool thing about this performance was that people from the audience got to choose which songs the band would play and while they were playing the songs, the audience member could take out players, speed things up, change the style, and do other things. However, it just wasn’t my thing. I was hoping for more jazz than punk so there was a little too much screaming into the microphone for me. I left around 11:30 with some people but it took forever to get out of there because they waited until people were leaving to make us pay the cover charge and the bill for our food. We finally got out and four of us got a taxi back to the valley. Originally the driver told us it would be $12 but he raised it to $15 when he found out that he had to make multiple stops. It wasn’t the most pleasant taxi ride because he went the wrong way and got a little angry with us for not telling him where to go, but I got home safely by 12:30. I went to bed because I was really tired.
Then on Saturday, I slept in a little bit. I spent most of the morning working on my personal and national history paper due on Monday. I went out for lunch with my host mother and grandmother. We ate at Cebiche de Ruminahui and I had some grilled fish with a plaintain, rice, tostadas, cucumber salad and lemonade. It was pretty good. Then we drove my host grandmother back to Quito to her house and dropped her off and drove back to the valley. I worked on my paper some more and updated stuff on face book and on my blog. Then I just felt like organizing my stuff a little more and took everything out of my bags to figure out what I had and start getting stuff together for the rainforest next week.
As of today, I’ve been in Ecuador for a month. I can’t really believe it’s been that long. Time really has flown quite a lot here. Also, I only have five more Spanish classes, one of which is teaching at a school and another of which is taking the final exam. Then, only one day after that with my family and then back to Quito for the night, and then off to the Oriente. This means that tomorrow I have to start taking my malaria medication, which should be interesting. Apparently I have the medication that makes you have hallucinations and nightmares. We’ll see how that goes. As long as it keeps me from getting malaria. The hallucinations might be fun hen I'm trying to teach first-graders about culture and fourth-graders about geography the next day. Well, that’s it for now. I probably won’t update again until I’m back from the rainforest, although I may try to use the internet one last time right before I leave. We’ll see how things work out. Chao.
Mama porque soy fea
There’s this weird tv show on one of the Ecuadorian channels. It’s not really like a telenovela because it’s just on once a week on Sunday night. It’s about a bunch of spinsters living together but the catch is that the spinsters are actually men dressed as women. It’s also a period show and it takes place probably during the 1800s or early 1900s. I haven’t actually seen it but I see ads for it all of the time. Maybe I’ll watch it one of these days. It just looks so weird.
Maid
My family has a maid. That’s pretty common here I guess. She cleans the house, cooks the lunches, and does the laundry. I talk to her every day and she seems to like me. We talk about all kinds of stuff like religion, politics, the economy, things that she says I need to do while I’m in Ecuador. I feel bad because she’s doing my laundry and making food for me, but I guess she just feels lucky to have a job. She comes here from Quito every weekday morning and leaves later in the day. I don’t know exactly how things are on weeknights, but I have been told not to take the bus alone at night and she does this every night to reach her home. She has two daughters, one my age and one who is eighteen and she keeps telling me how she wants them to get an education and leave the country so that they can have better futures. She also hopes to leave the country and move to America or Spain some day to make a better life for herself. On the weekends when she doesn’t come, we usually eat out because my host mom doesn’t really like to cook.
Toilet paper and toilets
Here, it is unusual to find a toilet in which you can flush the toilet paper. Most septic systems would backup if you did this. I have gotten pretty used to this by now. I haven’t really had a problem with accidently flushing toilet paper and clogging a toilet, but I still feel tempted once in a while. It was so weird using the latrines at Intag and putting the toilet paper down the hole. It’s definitely going to be different going home and flushing the paper.
Brushing teeth
I miss brushing my teeth with tap water. I just miss drinking tap water period. I get these bursts of extreme thirst that sometimes are hard to quench because I don’t have access to unlimited water. I have enough water to meet my needs though and I drink a lot when I have access to clean water. However, I don’t brush my teeth at all with tap water. I don’t even rinse it off, just to be safe. Therefore, my toothbrush is full of toothpaste gunk. I’ll have to clean it off sometime. Drinking tap water and using it to brush my teeth is one thing I miss doing and look forward to upon returning to the U.S.
Self-medication
Everyone here is really into self-medication. My host mother takes a ton of pills and one morning, when her stomach was bothering her, she took a potato, squeezed the juice out of it while it was still raw, and drank it. I don’t think this sounds too appetizing. Also, oregano tea is a big one for feeling a bit under the weather. Also, it’s so easy to get any medication you need here. You don’t really need a prescription for things. I could go and buy more malaria medication if I really wanted to.
Tv-English programs
It still sometimes weirds me out when I see Simpsons or Spongebob in Spanish on tv. A lot of the television shows on Ecuadorian channels are from America and are just dubbed in Spanish. There is Futurama, Sex in the City, Dragonball-z, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Smallville, and lots of movies. I just watched Johnny English and there have been tons of ads for Juwana Man. Also, just starting now is Kull, the Conqueror (or Kull, el Conquistador). The same goes for movie theaters. Most of the movies are from the states and just have Spanish subtitles.
Coca cola zero
A lot of people here drink coca-cola zero. I had some at a family gathering. However, apparently the beverage here has an ingredient in it that is not permitted in the US. I’m not sure exactly what the reasons for this are, but I find this a little sketchy. Nevertheless, I haven’t had any bad affects from this.
Elections
There are elections coming up on 30 of September here in Ecuador. The president decided to throw out the old constitution and write a new one so there are elections for a constituent assembly. Apparently 3000 people are running for 140 seats. Everyone in the nation has to vote by law. I’m not sure what the penalties are for not voting, but the common practice of those who don’t want to vote is to write a bad word across the ballot. Also, the whole process of counting votes sounds so complicated. You can vote for a ton of candidates if you want, but they’ll only get a fraction of a vote depending on how many you choose. If you only vote for one person, they get a whole vote. There are so many ads for the elections. There are also tons of people handing out propaganda on the street. They even offer some to me for some reason though I can’t vote in the elections. Maybe I’m starting to look like an Ecuadorian?
Eggs and milk
Eggs and milk are not refrigerated here. At first I thought it would make me sick, but so far so good. The milk apparently has this super pasteurizing process that kills all of the bacteria and makes it safe to keep unrefrigerated for a month. I haven’t had any plain milk-I usually drink it in a milkshake with bananas or with Ensure (not sure why my family buys this, but ok). Also, the egg issue-most people here, I think, like to eat eggs “duro” which I guess means virtually uncooked. They go in the pan for less than a minute and then they’re ready to eat. I was worried about salmonella, but so far I’ve been fine. I try to get my host mom to cook mine a little longer, but they’re still a little on the raw side.
Back to my life:
After getting back to Los Chillos, we just had class on Thursday as usual. Then on Friday, all of the classes had their own trips into Quito. My group had a few problems. First, one of my classmates was ill. Then, another one didn’t remember where to meet that morning to catch the bus to Quito (only $0.40 for a 20 minute or so ride) so we were late meeting up with our professor at the Universidad Catolica. We got into Quito and saw the line of people outside of the US embassy building (one of the uglier buildings I’ve seen) waiting to get visas. Apparently they start lining up at 6:00 even though lining up early doesn’t give them a better chance of getting a visa. Then we were walking when another person from the group tripped over a concrete structure just sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, so we spent 20 minutes in a pharmacy getting stuff the clean it off with. We were supposed to go to the Basilica, but that involved a lot of climbing narrow staircases into the towers and that would have been difficult with a scraped knee, so we decided to go to the Museo del Banco Central. The museum was pretty nice. However, about 45 minutes into the first part of the tour, the pre-Colombian period part, I started to feel really light-headed and hot and I asked my teacher to find a seat where I could just sit, and we were on our way out when I couldn’t see or hear anything and I guess I just passed out, but a few other people were supporting me as well so I didn‘t fall or anything. We made it to the seats in the lobby and I woke up and someone gave me some gum and water. Later I ate an apple and talked to the guy sitting next to me. I felt much better after half an hour or so, but I was still a little shaky so I spent the remainder of the hour and a half in the lobby watching tourists and workers. I think I just didn’t eat enough breakfast because I didn’t eat as much as usual, but it was so weird. After everyone was done with the tour, we went to get lunch at Café Amazonas and I had the menu, which was a beef steak, some soup with barley, rice, chocolate ice cream, jugo de naranjilla, and some water all for $4.50. That was the end of walking around with the group.
I went off with Amanda to the centro historico to walk around and wait for my Quichua lesson. I waited in line to get into the presidential palace but I didn’t have too much time so I headed off for my lesson shortly before it was our turn to go in. I talked with one of the academic directors about my ISP project and I wanted to take Quichua and he agreed that it would possibly help me with my final project if I knew how to speak some Quichua. So, I had my first hour of Quichua in a man’s house near the Basilica, so I got to see the Basilica after all, but I hope to go back for a real tour. Quichua was very interesting and very overwhelming. It’s so different than Spanish and I’m learning rudimentary things again, like I am ____ and My name is _____. I enjoyed it though and I’m so happy I have this opportunity. Another cool thing is that my teacher is also the teacher of the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, and apparently the president wants to meet other Quichua students, especially those of us from the U.S. The teacher asked if we wanted to meet him next Saturday, which would be really cool because that’s election day, but that’s also the last day with our homestay families so we really can’t do it. But he said another weekend would be fine and we can talk to each other in Quichua. Also while we were in the lesson, someone called the teacher and we asked him in Quichua if it was the president (because I can kind of ask that) but he responded that no, it was just the minister of something. After the lesson, I hung out with some of my companeros for a while in the centro historico and then in the Mariscal. We walked around and went to a bar and a Mongolian Barbeque. I was surprised that I didn’t see too many gringos in the bars, but I guess it was kind of early. It was probably around 7:00 and we were just killing some time. After that, we headed to this club that Siena recommended, El Pobre Diablo, to watch a band perform. We got there about an hour and a half early, but it was nice to just hang out. We split a bottle of wine between a big group and just talked and had some potatoes with cheese sauce. Then the band, Musica a la Carta, performed. It was actually a mixture of two bands, one jazz and one punk. It was interesting. The cool thing about this performance was that people from the audience got to choose which songs the band would play and while they were playing the songs, the audience member could take out players, speed things up, change the style, and do other things. However, it just wasn’t my thing. I was hoping for more jazz than punk so there was a little too much screaming into the microphone for me. I left around 11:30 with some people but it took forever to get out of there because they waited until people were leaving to make us pay the cover charge and the bill for our food. We finally got out and four of us got a taxi back to the valley. Originally the driver told us it would be $12 but he raised it to $15 when he found out that he had to make multiple stops. It wasn’t the most pleasant taxi ride because he went the wrong way and got a little angry with us for not telling him where to go, but I got home safely by 12:30. I went to bed because I was really tired.
Then on Saturday, I slept in a little bit. I spent most of the morning working on my personal and national history paper due on Monday. I went out for lunch with my host mother and grandmother. We ate at Cebiche de Ruminahui and I had some grilled fish with a plaintain, rice, tostadas, cucumber salad and lemonade. It was pretty good. Then we drove my host grandmother back to Quito to her house and dropped her off and drove back to the valley. I worked on my paper some more and updated stuff on face book and on my blog. Then I just felt like organizing my stuff a little more and took everything out of my bags to figure out what I had and start getting stuff together for the rainforest next week.
As of today, I’ve been in Ecuador for a month. I can’t really believe it’s been that long. Time really has flown quite a lot here. Also, I only have five more Spanish classes, one of which is teaching at a school and another of which is taking the final exam. Then, only one day after that with my family and then back to Quito for the night, and then off to the Oriente. This means that tomorrow I have to start taking my malaria medication, which should be interesting. Apparently I have the medication that makes you have hallucinations and nightmares. We’ll see how that goes. As long as it keeps me from getting malaria. The hallucinations might be fun hen I'm trying to teach first-graders about culture and fourth-graders about geography the next day. Well, that’s it for now. I probably won’t update again until I’m back from the rainforest, although I may try to use the internet one last time right before I leave. We’ll see how things work out. Chao.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Long update
One of the many waterfalls at Intag
Walking through the forest
I haven't updated for a while, due to lack of free time or internet that works well. So hopefully this will work out.
Picking up from the Monday out, Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty normal, except that I finally talked to my parents on Tuesday night for the first time since I've been in the country. It just takes several tries to get through to my cellphone, probably because the lines here are always busy. The phone connection is kind of funny because there is a delay, which made conversation kind of challenging, but it was still really nice to talk to everyone.
Wednesday night, I didn't feel too hot, so I stayed home from school the next day because they were going to the market and I didn't think it would be great to go. I never actually was sick, I just felt really sick. Some bacteria finally penetrated my defenses. I watched a bunch of telenovelas that day, including 'Amor Real' which is one that I watched this past summer. It's different being sick here. I told my host mom that I wasn't feeling well and that I didn't want to go to class, so she called one of my groupmates and told him that I was tired and wanted to rest. He called me back to see what was going on so I told him that I was actually kind of sick. Then, for lunch, I didn't want to eat more than a bit of rice and some chicken, but everyone thought that the reason I didn't want to eat was because I was in love because I guess here the only reason for not eating is being in love. Also, the maid thinks that the reason I'm sick was because I didn't eat her cooking the day before, which might be it, but she claimed that if I didn't eat her cooking, I would be even more sick. Thursday night, I was feeling better so I went to the market in Sangolqui with my host family and they bought a huge amount of fruits and vegetables for under $40. They seriously had two large sacks and a large box full of everything from babaco to apples to mote to bananas. So I got my market experience in that day after all.
On Friday, the classes had a big food thing going on, but I still wasn't feeling great so I didn't eat too much. Later I had a pretty good discussion with the maid about religion and ethnicity. She was surprised to hear where my great-grandparents came from. Then we started talking about religion and she told me she was Jehovah's Witness, which surprised me because of the huge hold the Catholic Church has here. It was hard to describe to here what Lutheran meant, let alone Protestantism. Later that night I went out with some girls from the group to see a movie in English to kind of unwind. We saw Preguntandole el viento, or 'Asking the dust', a movie from a year ago starring Selma Hayek and Colin Farrell. It was ok, kind of depressing. It really reminded me of Moulin Rouge only without singing and dancing and actually being good. The funny thing was listening to the movie in English and then reading the Spanish subtitles because some of the translations were quite humorous.
On Saturday, we hopped on a bus and headed off to the bosque nublado (cloud forest) in Intag, north of where we've been. The trip took about 5 and a half hours, an hour and a half of which was on a bumpy, gravel road in the mountains and a half hour of which was hiking to the reserve, Intag Cloud Forest Reserve, where we were staying. The scenery from the bus was incredible, so many nice views of mountains. The road went right on the side of some mountains, so the drop off was kind of exciting/scary, but I really enjoyed the ride. We got to the reserve and ate lunch right away, which was incredible. We had vegetable lasagna, cookies, salad (the lettuce is okay to eat here because it's organically grown right on the farm), and lemonade. Later I explored a bit with some people and we hiked into the forest to one of the waterfalls and later up a hill to another waterfall where I slid down a natural water slide. It was pretty nice to play around in some water. We also saw some birds known in english as cocks of the rock, which are these very loud bright red birds that people come to Intag from all over the world to watch. Later on, the owner Carlos talked to us about his farm and his organization, DECOIN, which opposes mining in the area, especially in Junin, a town closes to where we were. He has an incredible story, including many death threats and one recent close call where people for the mining company came to the farm to kill Carlos, although he had left fifteen minutes or so before and was hiding out in the forest for a while afterwards. The organization and the community have been able to hold off the mining process so far, but who knows how long until other companies come in to exploit the copper reserves. There's a good video about this issue that we watched: http://www.ekostv.com/node/227. Carlos was just an incredible guy to talk to. Later that night, we had some more great food and then played cards.
The next day, we had some great pancakes with vanilla syrup for breakfast with some fresh coffee grown on the farm. Then, my group had a nice four hour nature hike with Roberto, a local who knows a ton about the cloud forest. It was a really nice hike, but before we knew it we were hiking up a mountain/hill. I'm still not sure whether what we hiked was a mountain, but it felt like it. To make matters worse, we were all wearing botas de caucho (rubber boots) because the trail was muddy in places and we had to cross some streams. We found some nice waterfalls and caves, as well as some nice views from the top of the mountain. Along the way we saw some huge beetles, strange spiders, butterflies, larvae, and some birds. We got back in time for another great lunch of salad, rice, lentils, and more. Then MaryEllen, an American who is now an Ecuadorian who knows her history of the country and is the editor of a local newspaper, lectured us on the history of Ecuador. Later that night, we just hung out while Faba told stories.
The next day was my group's turn for painting and drawing which was a nice relaxing activity. We drew leaves, flowers, and people without looking down at the paper and then we used watercolors to fill in the drawings a bit. Carlos's wife, Sandy, who used to live in the U.S., led the session and she was really nice. That night, we had really good quinoa burgers for dinner and some of the guys in our group organized a sweat lodge. I didn't do the sweat lodge but I stood by the fire and then watched the video about the copper industry and some taped footage of encounters between villagers and mining personnel. It would be great to do my Independent Study Project on this issue, but I think I'm already pretty set on doing traditional medicine and the public health system. Faba already things he has a good connection with a hospital in Riobamba where I can volunteer while doing my project. I'm glad things are working out while in that area. Most people don't know what they want to do yet and I'm already on my way to finding a place to go.
General reactions from the cloud forest: Everything is damp and once something is exposed to the air, it will not dry out until you leave. Even my bedsheets felt damp and my towel never dried. Our cabins, the place where we ate, and the pavillion didn't have electricity so we used a lot of candles to light the way, which was nice, especially eating by candlelight every night since the sun is down by 7:00. There were tons of dogs hanging around the farm. There was a really cute puppy that the family had just bought, but he liked to bite everything. I didn't really pet them too much because I was worried they all had fleas or some other type of disease, but I enjoyed seeing them. Also, we use latrines rather than real bathrooms, which is kind of cool because it really does help with the sustainable lifestyle of the farm. I had heard so often about sustainable living and finally getting to see it in action and working successfully was great. It's amazing what Carlos and his family are doing with their farm and their reserve. Also, the bugs there bit quite a lot and now, even several days after returning from the cloud forest, I have over twenty freakishly-large bugbites all over my lower legs and a few on my arms. It's a good thing the altitude is too high for the mosquitoes that carry malaria because I would probably have malaria by now if they did live there. And lastly, the food was great. It was so healthy and yet so tasty, and we didn't have any meat the whole time. Also, the lemon tea was amazing. I miss all the good, healthy food. Also, there were hammocks all over the place and they were so nice to relax in. I worked on trying to get a little further in 'Northanger Abbey' in them, but they made me want to nap. I'll have to buy one like them to take home. Overall, it was a great, beautiful, relaxing place to go and I'm so glad we spent a few days there. It would be nice to go back sometime.
We left the cloud forest on Tuesday morning, expecting to get back to Los Chillos around 6:00 with a two hour stop in Otavalo to shop at the world-famous market there, but things took a different turn. There was a paro (strike of sorts) and local people were blocking the autopista with different materials to prevent people from getting through so we couldn't take that route home. The people were asking for an irrigation system that the government had promised them but the president was out of Quito until next Wednesday so we weren't sure how the problem would be resolved. Anyway, our two hour stay in Otavalo ended up lasting until the following morning, but I really liked the city and it was fun hanging out with the group for one more day. My time in Otavalo was well-spent. I bought a lot of stuff to take home. They have so many beautiful things like hammocks, sweaters, jewelry, tablecloths, and so much more. I hope to go back and buy more, but I don't know how I'm going to be able to carry it all with me for the rest of my time in Ecuador. I also explored and found the city hall and a really pretty brick church. Later on, a big group ate pizza at this nice and cheap restaurant and we had some cake and wine on the roof of the hotel, which had a really nice view of the city.
The next day, the strike was still on and there was no gas due to the road block, but we still had some gas and our leaders knew of an alternate route. Again, we took a cobblestone, bumpy one-lane road through the mountains for quite a while, getting slightly lose along the way, but the road was gorgeous. There were really nice views of mountains and even of Cotopaxi and Cotocachi volcanoes. We got home in about five hours and all was well. The strike ended the next day when the government promised to pay for a new irrigation system, so it's really cool that the people got what they wanted.
So this is updated until Wednesday morning and I'll try to get the rest of it updated sometime in the next week. I've been online forever today so I feel like I should give it a break now. Chao.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
How cool is it that we are stranded in Otavalo because there is a strike and people have shut down the roads. The only really not so great part is that they have also shut down the water supply. The strike is going on because the state has not delivered on its promise for an irrigation system. It´s great how democracy works here: people actually try to change things for themselves.
Well, I just spent a lovely weekend in Intag at the cloud forest there. It was quite fantastic. We hiked, swam, listened to lectures, played games, ate amazing food, and overall had a great time. I will update more later when I get to a faster computer. Until then, we will probably spend the night here, which should be fun. We also get to skip classes tomorrow because we won´t be getting home until tomorrow morning. Chao.
Well, I just spent a lovely weekend in Intag at the cloud forest there. It was quite fantastic. We hiked, swam, listened to lectures, played games, ate amazing food, and overall had a great time. I will update more later when I get to a faster computer. Until then, we will probably spend the night here, which should be fun. We also get to skip classes tomorrow because we won´t be getting home until tomorrow morning. Chao.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Monday night out
Elections are coming up: People campaigning in the Plaza Grande
Looking up at the Basilica
Cool view of part of the ceiling in the Palacio de los Arzobispos
Known as "Calle de las Siete Cruces" because of the seven churches with seven distinct crosses on this street
One of the many cathedrals
View from Plaza de San Francisco
Another view from the Plaza
The actual Catedral de San Francisco
All of the birds hanging out on the church
Then, last night was pretty interesting. First of all, in school yesterday, everyone was talking about how they went to the bull fights in Sangolqui this past weekend. This happens once a year during this festival, which is going on right now. I didn't go, though my mom tried to go but the police stopped us becuase it was too crowded, so we went into Quito instead. My sister told me she was going last night and, since I didn't have that much homework, I decided to go with her. Her boyfriend was driving us around and he had two friends with him. So we all piled in his car and drove around Sangolqui for an hour and a half. There were just so many people there. It was only five, but it gets darker here earlier, so by the time we left, it was getting dark. Then, we drove to this parking lot and just kind of hung out there for a few hours. I guess people my age here just like to socialize where they can. It was kind of fun. One of the friends tried to teach me salsa, but I'm not that great at dancing. I also met a racecar driver of some sort who was really funny. I was home by nine, so I just finished my homework and went to bed early because I was really tired. The whole language barrier was definately present the whole time. I couldn't really understand most of what was being said. And, some people were trying to talk in English with me, but it was so broken that I had some trouble understanding them. But overall, it was a fun night.
Well, I'm having some trouble with the computer so I'll try to completely update later. Chao.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Tiempo libre
I finally have some free time and the internet is working well (although it won't let me upload any pictures). So, now I can sit and think about everything that has happened in the past two weeks.
I have finished a week of classes, which consists of five hours of spanish a day. About two hours or so is grammar, half an hour for break, and then another hour and a half or so of tallers, about culture and history. Classes have been okay. I tested into upper intermediate, mainly because my conversation level isn't very high. I did great on the grammar though. This means that classes are going kind of slowly. We aren't really doing that much conversation so I already feel like I know everything we're going over grammar-wise. The culture classes have also been kind of slow. We kind of just do busy work, like reading a sheet on a person and then summarizing it for the rest of the class. I talked to the director about it, which was kind of frustrating because she told me that if I moved up, there would be seven people in the class which would be too much. The frustrating part was that she had just let someone else move up a level the day before. The good thing is that the class (minus the teachers) talked about how things were going and we all feel that the pace is kind of slow and that we need more conversation. We wrote this on our evaluations so things might change next week.
Class was kind of fun on Friday. We had an hour of games that people play in Ecuador. My group did a race with an egg on a spoon in your mouth. Another group did this thing with London Bridge mixed with tug-of-war. Yet another group had a four and three leg race. Another game was dancing with a tomato in between forheads. It was pretty fun and more bonding for the group.
Taking the bus to and from school has been pretty easy. I walk about fifteen minutes to reach my bus stop at the Triangulo in San Rafael, which is a nice walk every day. Then only $.20 will get me home. It's always pretty cloudly on my walk home, but a few days ago I got a really clear view of Cotopaxi, which is spectacular. The way I saw it, it was a giant snow peak coming up from the clouds. Usually clouds cover the entire mountain, but it's still cool to know that there is a volcano there, right under the clouds somewhat close to where I'm living. I just hope it doesn't blow because apparently, it would cover the whole valley.
I've also found out that t.v. programs kind of start on "Ecuador Time," which means that they don't quite start when they're scheduled, but normally a little after. Ecuador time means that when you're invited to a party, you show up about half an hour to an hour after the time you're told. I have yet to experience this as classes don't go by Ecaudor time; they start at 8:00 sharp, and I usually get there at 7:30 because my host mother drops me off on the way to work.
We did have a dinner party here for friend of my host family who are moving to the U.S. to be near their two children who had already moved there. They were really friendly. The dad knew English, and although I thought it was pretty good and could understand him, he kept insisting that I call his english "real hamburger" which I really don't understand, but I think it's supposed to mean that it was really bad. We ate some strange but pretty good food: a "pear" that was actually pear skin around potato and ham, a piece of what I thought was bread but was actually meat with vegetables and hard-boiled egg inside of it, chicken and bacon on toothpicks, and a flan that didn't really have any sugar in it.
I bought a cell phone. It tooks two failed attempts (they only sell phones a few hours a day) and today, the phone almost didn't work, but the woman assured me (I think) in spanish that it would work. It cost about $55 and I have to pay more for minutes, but it was one of the cheapest ones. We'll see if it works.
I'm so glad I'm not a vegetarian any more, not because I like meat (I still don't really like it) but because here, "vegetarian" just means that one doesn't eat beef and/or pork. I was served "vegetarian" vegetable soup on Friday that was definately chicken broth with big hunks of chicken in it. I'm also learning that it's just so hard to communicate in spanish at times. It takes so much concentration to hear what people are saying, especially if they are not talking loudly. This becomes more challenging as I'm trying to watch t.v. and keep up a conversation at the sametime. Things get pretty interesting. Well, it's getting late and I think I have an early morning tomorrow: off to visit the historic center with my host mom. It should be good. Until next time, Chao!
I have finished a week of classes, which consists of five hours of spanish a day. About two hours or so is grammar, half an hour for break, and then another hour and a half or so of tallers, about culture and history. Classes have been okay. I tested into upper intermediate, mainly because my conversation level isn't very high. I did great on the grammar though. This means that classes are going kind of slowly. We aren't really doing that much conversation so I already feel like I know everything we're going over grammar-wise. The culture classes have also been kind of slow. We kind of just do busy work, like reading a sheet on a person and then summarizing it for the rest of the class. I talked to the director about it, which was kind of frustrating because she told me that if I moved up, there would be seven people in the class which would be too much. The frustrating part was that she had just let someone else move up a level the day before. The good thing is that the class (minus the teachers) talked about how things were going and we all feel that the pace is kind of slow and that we need more conversation. We wrote this on our evaluations so things might change next week.
Class was kind of fun on Friday. We had an hour of games that people play in Ecuador. My group did a race with an egg on a spoon in your mouth. Another group did this thing with London Bridge mixed with tug-of-war. Yet another group had a four and three leg race. Another game was dancing with a tomato in between forheads. It was pretty fun and more bonding for the group.
Taking the bus to and from school has been pretty easy. I walk about fifteen minutes to reach my bus stop at the Triangulo in San Rafael, which is a nice walk every day. Then only $.20 will get me home. It's always pretty cloudly on my walk home, but a few days ago I got a really clear view of Cotopaxi, which is spectacular. The way I saw it, it was a giant snow peak coming up from the clouds. Usually clouds cover the entire mountain, but it's still cool to know that there is a volcano there, right under the clouds somewhat close to where I'm living. I just hope it doesn't blow because apparently, it would cover the whole valley.
I've also found out that t.v. programs kind of start on "Ecuador Time," which means that they don't quite start when they're scheduled, but normally a little after. Ecuador time means that when you're invited to a party, you show up about half an hour to an hour after the time you're told. I have yet to experience this as classes don't go by Ecaudor time; they start at 8:00 sharp, and I usually get there at 7:30 because my host mother drops me off on the way to work.
We did have a dinner party here for friend of my host family who are moving to the U.S. to be near their two children who had already moved there. They were really friendly. The dad knew English, and although I thought it was pretty good and could understand him, he kept insisting that I call his english "real hamburger" which I really don't understand, but I think it's supposed to mean that it was really bad. We ate some strange but pretty good food: a "pear" that was actually pear skin around potato and ham, a piece of what I thought was bread but was actually meat with vegetables and hard-boiled egg inside of it, chicken and bacon on toothpicks, and a flan that didn't really have any sugar in it.
I bought a cell phone. It tooks two failed attempts (they only sell phones a few hours a day) and today, the phone almost didn't work, but the woman assured me (I think) in spanish that it would work. It cost about $55 and I have to pay more for minutes, but it was one of the cheapest ones. We'll see if it works.
I'm so glad I'm not a vegetarian any more, not because I like meat (I still don't really like it) but because here, "vegetarian" just means that one doesn't eat beef and/or pork. I was served "vegetarian" vegetable soup on Friday that was definately chicken broth with big hunks of chicken in it. I'm also learning that it's just so hard to communicate in spanish at times. It takes so much concentration to hear what people are saying, especially if they are not talking loudly. This becomes more challenging as I'm trying to watch t.v. and keep up a conversation at the sametime. Things get pretty interesting. Well, it's getting late and I think I have an early morning tomorrow: off to visit the historic center with my host mom. It should be good. Until next time, Chao!
Friday, September 7, 2007
Jugo de pina and other things I love
I had the most amazing pineapple juice for lunch today. I can´t believe how good all of the juices are. And just the fresh fruit. And the rice. All of the food so far has been fantastic. I worry that every meal is going to make me sick, but amazingly, my stomach has been good to me. Hopefully this will continue.
I also have been watching loads of telenovelas. My host mother watches ¨Cobras y lagartos, a novela from Brazil, that seems pretty good. I have also seen a bit of Madre Luna and Dame chocolate. There are also some that I was watching at home from Mexico that I can continue to watch here. I know they´re really cheesy, but I love them. It´s a good way to learn conversational spanish too.
I still love the mountains and the site of Cotopaxi outside of my house everyday. It´s usually really cloudy, but yesterday and this morning I had a great view of it. I just hope it doesn´t erupt while I´m here. That wouldn´t be too fun.
I need to write more when I can organize my thoughts. Every time the computer works well, I try to do a million things at once. I´m pretty tired because I´m not used to getting up early to go to class yet. Hopefully some sleep this weekend will help. I don´t know what I´m up to, but I think I´ll be going into Quito and maybe to a market in town. As long as I get some sleep, I´ll be just fine. I´ll try to update more tomorrow with some pictures, if the computer decides to work again. Chao (which is the spanish way to spell it; I´ve always spelled it Ciao which is the italian way)
I also have been watching loads of telenovelas. My host mother watches ¨Cobras y lagartos, a novela from Brazil, that seems pretty good. I have also seen a bit of Madre Luna and Dame chocolate. There are also some that I was watching at home from Mexico that I can continue to watch here. I know they´re really cheesy, but I love them. It´s a good way to learn conversational spanish too.
I still love the mountains and the site of Cotopaxi outside of my house everyday. It´s usually really cloudy, but yesterday and this morning I had a great view of it. I just hope it doesn´t erupt while I´m here. That wouldn´t be too fun.
I need to write more when I can organize my thoughts. Every time the computer works well, I try to do a million things at once. I´m pretty tired because I´m not used to getting up early to go to class yet. Hopefully some sleep this weekend will help. I don´t know what I´m up to, but I think I´ll be going into Quito and maybe to a market in town. As long as I get some sleep, I´ll be just fine. I´ll try to update more tomorrow with some pictures, if the computer decides to work again. Chao (which is the spanish way to spell it; I´ve always spelled it Ciao which is the italian way)
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
En Valle de los Chillos
Los Andes
On the equator
Group on the equator
View of San Antonio de Pichincha (city in the middle of the world)
Independence Heroes Monument in the Plaza Grande in Quito's Old Town
Presidential Palace-Rafael Correa does business here
Ecuadorian Flag on top of the presidential palace
View from the plaza inside of the cathedral on the Plaza Grande
El Panecillo y la Virgen
Avocado tree in my backyard
View of Cotopaxi from my urbanizacion
Well, it's been a little over a week, but it still feels like I've been here for a while. I've gotten used to the ways of life, to an extent, and all is well. Here's a recap:
I adjusted pretty well to the altitude. After spending one night in Quito though, during which I slept very well and quite a lot, the group went to a hostel, Rancho Alegre, in San Antonio de Pichincha, which is known for being the city in the middle of the world. For tourists' sake, it's supposed to be on the equator, although it's off by about 8 seconds. But, I know I've crossed the real equator quite a few times because driving around the countryside takes you to more towns that are "on the equator" but really aren't, but the roads cross the equator quite a few times. The town we were in was pretty small and didn't really have much going for it, but people were nice. I was part of a smaller group that had to walk into a ferreteria (hardware store) and just talk to whoever was there about their business and so forth. The guy we were talking to was pretty friendly. We learned more about the city and what was going on. Apparently, the earthquake in Peru really frightened people into buying more tools and stuff to prepare for an earthquake here.
Orientation took about four days. The group seems to be getting along really well. The academic directors are also pretty nice. We talked about health (with great pictures of worms that people have grown in their digestive track-I can't wait to see mine!), safety, classes, and all of that kind of stuff. We had a very intensive introduction to salsa class that just reinforced my belief that I cannot dance. It was fun though and I hope to learn more, as well as Cambuche (sp?) and others. I learned how to play billiards correctly and also how to play mafia, which is fun with lots of people. We also watched an Ecuadorian movie, La Titan del Ring, which was pretty much the same as Nacho Libre, only in Spanish and slightly more depressing. I also walked right up to one of the mountains, just because I wanted to reach the Andes. The foothills probably start in the towns, but it was cool to just wander to the outskirts of San Antonio and start climbing a mountain. Also, one morning, I woke up at 4:00 to see the lunar eclipse and Mars, which was the closest it would have been to Earth for another 250 years, but I just missed it, by minutes, and could only see clouds.
I went to La Mitad del Mundo (the equator) with a pretty large group of people. It was pretty nice. The museum was definitely worth the $3.00 we paid. We even got a tour which really taught us a lot about the indigenous cultures here. However, it isn't the real equator, but just a wrong guess some Frenchman (I think) made many years before GPS came along to point to the real equator. Our last night at Rancho Alegre, we heard some Andean folk music, which was pretty neat. I bought a c.d. so if anyone wants to hear some, let me know. The next day, I went to a town, Calacali, for a project. Three others and I had to take a bus on our own to the town, walk around and talk to people there, and then find our way back to our hotel in Quito, all on our own. It was actually a pretty good time. We wandered around the fairly small town for several hours. It's known for being the home of the original monument of La Mitad del Mundo, but it also isn't on the equator but is very close. We talked to a guy for an hour and a half about his life, the town, and animals. He was really nice. His wife actually found us wandering around in the outskirts of town and invited us into their home. She left us with her husband who apparently just wanted to talk to us about how he used to be a guide in the jungle, be a farmer in the fields, own a hostel, and now own a salon. He also taught us all these words for different animals that I really don't remember. He had a daughter living with him and she had three kids and they were all really cute. They were fascinated by us and hung around, though when we tried talking to one girl, she kept saying "No entiendo" because our spanish must have been different than what she was used to. I can't help but notice the sensation that I cause pretty much wherever I go. I think it's going to take a while to get used to. Overall it was an interesting visit. Among other attributes, the town also has roosters tied up to trees in one of its public squares and people were cutting up a very recently alive pig right on the sidewalk where we were headed; we took a detour.
Back in Quito, I walked around the Mariscal (touristy part) where I ate a croissant with Nutella. Then I ventured into the colonial section with a group. Taking the bus is really easy and it only costs about a quarter to go to wherever you want, one way. The buses are kind of sketchy though-some are really dirty while others have televisions; none really follow driving rules. Old Town was swarming with people. We made it to a plaza and saw a monument and the presidential palace. We took a tour of a cathedral off the Plaza Grande which was nice, and also included a guided tour, and only cost $1.00. It was quite an extensive tour: we saw a tomb of an important figure (whose name I forgot, oops), some catacombs from above, a library, altars, clothing, lots of paintings, and much more. The tour took so long that we soon had to go back to the hotel for a group meeting. I want to explore some more when I'm back in Quito. A few observations from just walking around Quito (as well as San Antonio) is that there are stray dogs everywhere. Most of them are pretty mangy and likely have fleas, but I want to save them all. That won't happen, but I see them literally everywhere, even in my gated community. Also, lots of litter and closed stores. I guess the economy here isn't quite as good as it used to be-perhaps because of dollarization.
Right now, I am in los Chillos, a valley surrounded by the Andes. It's really nice and quiet where I am, but the place where the language school is is kind of noisy and polluted. I'm living in Sangolqui, the main city in Valle de los Chillos. It has a huge mall and a Mega-Maxi (superstore like Wal-Mart). I've travelled around here a lot and I have gone into Quito a few times with my host family, which is really a great family. I am living with a mom and a sister, and there's a dad who stops by all the time though the parents are "divorced" (don't really know what that means). I have been hanging out with my host sister and her boyfriend a lot. We played soccer, during which I scored three goals on Xavier who previously believed that women could not play soccer (I don't know where these skills are coming from) and we met these three kids who live in a huge house but are really poor. Their parents only work in the house and the kids kind of just hang out in the neighborhood during the day. They had two puppies, which they were treating pretty badly. I don't really know yet what to make of the situation. The next day was my host sister's 21st birthday, which was kind of awkward becuase I met more people: her dad, grandma, and cousin. But we didn't do much because she just had her wisdom teeth out and is allergic to most pain relievers so she was in a lot of pain. On Monday night, we drove into Quito to watch Disturbia, which was interesting. The boyfriend, Xavier, drives very, very fast and slightly carelessly, which was a little scary but kind of exciting. At least I was wearing my seatbelt, which a lot of people around here don't do. I also went with my family to visit extended family members (grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws) on Sunday and eat a big meal with them. It was pretty nice. We also watch a lot of the t.v., mostly from the smaller t.v. in the master bedroom while the whole family sits on the bed. It's fun watching t.v. in spanish because it's a challenge to figure out what's going on. I especially love telenovelas and look forwardto watching lots. There are a lot of American shows and movies on, though they are dubbed or have subtitles in Spanish. I watched Mary Poppins, Bruce Almighty, and a show about conspiracies about 9-11. Sometimes I'll hear music in english and feel right at home. We have also gone to San Luis, this huge mall. It has some stores that I recognize but lots that I don't. Everything is pretty much the same though. Clothing is pretty expensive, especially since many people in this nation live in poverty.
The house I'm living in is quite nice; it might even be bigger than my house at home. There is a bottom floor with a maid's quarters (yes, there is a maid, but she doesn't live here) and an entertainment room with a HUGE t.v., a bar, a game table, and a bathroom. Going up the stairs from there is the kitchen and dining room. There is also a room with a jacuzzi and another shower, but it only opens up from the backyard. I don't really understand this, but it's pretty nice. Up some more stairs is the study, a sitting room, another sitting room, and another bathroom. Then the next floor has my room and my sister's room as well as a full bathroom and a balcony. Then more stairs lead to the master bedroom with a large closet and full bathroom and another balcony. The tv in the master bedroom is as big as my tv at home. Then up more stairs to another balcony. All this in a very protected house with wired fence on top of an already large fence, as well as two garage doors and front fence that is locked at all times. There are fences around everyone's homes here and people really take their security really seriously, even though we are already in a gated community with guards and another fence. Some people even just put broken glass and rusty nails on top of their fences to keep intruders at bay. There is also a garden in the backyard, as well as lots of bird cages. My host mother likes to garden and she has aguacate (avacado) trees, lemon trees, and mandarin orange trees, as well as another fruit tree that I can't remember. Also, there are some really pretty tropical flowers. She told me it rains a lot here, but so far no rain. There are also some vegetables growing, like lettuce, carrots, and radishes (I think). The birds she has a tropical birds like parrots, cockatos, and others. They make quite a racket in the morning. My room faces the backyard as well as the forest and the soccer field outside the walls of the house. I feel locked in most of the time, mainly because I don't know how to open the doors, but I'm fine as long as I get out of the house once in a while.
The food has been pretty good. I've been eating some slightly questionable things (including a soup that is made with cow hooves, which is apparently somewhat common here), but so far all has been good. The tamales we ate as our first meal were fantastic. I love the soups and desserts. Here's an incomplete list of food and drink I have experienced: tomate de agua drink, lots of tea, tomato-cheese soup, spinach soup, lots of chicken prepared in various ways, lots of rice, lots of eggs (every morning), yucca bread and yucca french fries, yogurt in a cup, and many other culinary delights. They feed us a lot here. At Rancho Alegre, it was thre meals and two snacks. Lunch is huge-soup, then main part with rice, potatoes, and some kind of meat, and then dessert. I expected to lose weight while here, but that won't be likely if things continue going the way they are now. The first day with my family I didn't eat much just because I wasn't hungry. Most people don't eat dinner here unless it's for a dinner party. This means that people eat a snack much later in the day after a late (2:00-3:00) lunch. This is supposedly better for the digestion, especially at a high altitude. My mother told me that it was hurting her (not in a mean way, more of in a caring way) that I wasn't eating so I took a banana. The whole accepting and refusing food thing is going to be interesting.
Well, I'll probably get back on soon to write more and to fill in the gaps. I can't really remember everything because I've done so much, so I'll look back over stuff and update later. Ciao!
I adjusted pretty well to the altitude. After spending one night in Quito though, during which I slept very well and quite a lot, the group went to a hostel, Rancho Alegre, in San Antonio de Pichincha, which is known for being the city in the middle of the world. For tourists' sake, it's supposed to be on the equator, although it's off by about 8 seconds. But, I know I've crossed the real equator quite a few times because driving around the countryside takes you to more towns that are "on the equator" but really aren't, but the roads cross the equator quite a few times. The town we were in was pretty small and didn't really have much going for it, but people were nice. I was part of a smaller group that had to walk into a ferreteria (hardware store) and just talk to whoever was there about their business and so forth. The guy we were talking to was pretty friendly. We learned more about the city and what was going on. Apparently, the earthquake in Peru really frightened people into buying more tools and stuff to prepare for an earthquake here.
Orientation took about four days. The group seems to be getting along really well. The academic directors are also pretty nice. We talked about health (with great pictures of worms that people have grown in their digestive track-I can't wait to see mine!), safety, classes, and all of that kind of stuff. We had a very intensive introduction to salsa class that just reinforced my belief that I cannot dance. It was fun though and I hope to learn more, as well as Cambuche (sp?) and others. I learned how to play billiards correctly and also how to play mafia, which is fun with lots of people. We also watched an Ecuadorian movie, La Titan del Ring, which was pretty much the same as Nacho Libre, only in Spanish and slightly more depressing. I also walked right up to one of the mountains, just because I wanted to reach the Andes. The foothills probably start in the towns, but it was cool to just wander to the outskirts of San Antonio and start climbing a mountain. Also, one morning, I woke up at 4:00 to see the lunar eclipse and Mars, which was the closest it would have been to Earth for another 250 years, but I just missed it, by minutes, and could only see clouds.
I went to La Mitad del Mundo (the equator) with a pretty large group of people. It was pretty nice. The museum was definitely worth the $3.00 we paid. We even got a tour which really taught us a lot about the indigenous cultures here. However, it isn't the real equator, but just a wrong guess some Frenchman (I think) made many years before GPS came along to point to the real equator. Our last night at Rancho Alegre, we heard some Andean folk music, which was pretty neat. I bought a c.d. so if anyone wants to hear some, let me know. The next day, I went to a town, Calacali, for a project. Three others and I had to take a bus on our own to the town, walk around and talk to people there, and then find our way back to our hotel in Quito, all on our own. It was actually a pretty good time. We wandered around the fairly small town for several hours. It's known for being the home of the original monument of La Mitad del Mundo, but it also isn't on the equator but is very close. We talked to a guy for an hour and a half about his life, the town, and animals. He was really nice. His wife actually found us wandering around in the outskirts of town and invited us into their home. She left us with her husband who apparently just wanted to talk to us about how he used to be a guide in the jungle, be a farmer in the fields, own a hostel, and now own a salon. He also taught us all these words for different animals that I really don't remember. He had a daughter living with him and she had three kids and they were all really cute. They were fascinated by us and hung around, though when we tried talking to one girl, she kept saying "No entiendo" because our spanish must have been different than what she was used to. I can't help but notice the sensation that I cause pretty much wherever I go. I think it's going to take a while to get used to. Overall it was an interesting visit. Among other attributes, the town also has roosters tied up to trees in one of its public squares and people were cutting up a very recently alive pig right on the sidewalk where we were headed; we took a detour.
Back in Quito, I walked around the Mariscal (touristy part) where I ate a croissant with Nutella. Then I ventured into the colonial section with a group. Taking the bus is really easy and it only costs about a quarter to go to wherever you want, one way. The buses are kind of sketchy though-some are really dirty while others have televisions; none really follow driving rules. Old Town was swarming with people. We made it to a plaza and saw a monument and the presidential palace. We took a tour of a cathedral off the Plaza Grande which was nice, and also included a guided tour, and only cost $1.00. It was quite an extensive tour: we saw a tomb of an important figure (whose name I forgot, oops), some catacombs from above, a library, altars, clothing, lots of paintings, and much more. The tour took so long that we soon had to go back to the hotel for a group meeting. I want to explore some more when I'm back in Quito. A few observations from just walking around Quito (as well as San Antonio) is that there are stray dogs everywhere. Most of them are pretty mangy and likely have fleas, but I want to save them all. That won't happen, but I see them literally everywhere, even in my gated community. Also, lots of litter and closed stores. I guess the economy here isn't quite as good as it used to be-perhaps because of dollarization.
Right now, I am in los Chillos, a valley surrounded by the Andes. It's really nice and quiet where I am, but the place where the language school is is kind of noisy and polluted. I'm living in Sangolqui, the main city in Valle de los Chillos. It has a huge mall and a Mega-Maxi (superstore like Wal-Mart). I've travelled around here a lot and I have gone into Quito a few times with my host family, which is really a great family. I am living with a mom and a sister, and there's a dad who stops by all the time though the parents are "divorced" (don't really know what that means). I have been hanging out with my host sister and her boyfriend a lot. We played soccer, during which I scored three goals on Xavier who previously believed that women could not play soccer (I don't know where these skills are coming from) and we met these three kids who live in a huge house but are really poor. Their parents only work in the house and the kids kind of just hang out in the neighborhood during the day. They had two puppies, which they were treating pretty badly. I don't really know yet what to make of the situation. The next day was my host sister's 21st birthday, which was kind of awkward becuase I met more people: her dad, grandma, and cousin. But we didn't do much because she just had her wisdom teeth out and is allergic to most pain relievers so she was in a lot of pain. On Monday night, we drove into Quito to watch Disturbia, which was interesting. The boyfriend, Xavier, drives very, very fast and slightly carelessly, which was a little scary but kind of exciting. At least I was wearing my seatbelt, which a lot of people around here don't do. I also went with my family to visit extended family members (grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws) on Sunday and eat a big meal with them. It was pretty nice. We also watch a lot of the t.v., mostly from the smaller t.v. in the master bedroom while the whole family sits on the bed. It's fun watching t.v. in spanish because it's a challenge to figure out what's going on. I especially love telenovelas and look forwardto watching lots. There are a lot of American shows and movies on, though they are dubbed or have subtitles in Spanish. I watched Mary Poppins, Bruce Almighty, and a show about conspiracies about 9-11. Sometimes I'll hear music in english and feel right at home. We have also gone to San Luis, this huge mall. It has some stores that I recognize but lots that I don't. Everything is pretty much the same though. Clothing is pretty expensive, especially since many people in this nation live in poverty.
The house I'm living in is quite nice; it might even be bigger than my house at home. There is a bottom floor with a maid's quarters (yes, there is a maid, but she doesn't live here) and an entertainment room with a HUGE t.v., a bar, a game table, and a bathroom. Going up the stairs from there is the kitchen and dining room. There is also a room with a jacuzzi and another shower, but it only opens up from the backyard. I don't really understand this, but it's pretty nice. Up some more stairs is the study, a sitting room, another sitting room, and another bathroom. Then the next floor has my room and my sister's room as well as a full bathroom and a balcony. Then more stairs lead to the master bedroom with a large closet and full bathroom and another balcony. The tv in the master bedroom is as big as my tv at home. Then up more stairs to another balcony. All this in a very protected house with wired fence on top of an already large fence, as well as two garage doors and front fence that is locked at all times. There are fences around everyone's homes here and people really take their security really seriously, even though we are already in a gated community with guards and another fence. Some people even just put broken glass and rusty nails on top of their fences to keep intruders at bay. There is also a garden in the backyard, as well as lots of bird cages. My host mother likes to garden and she has aguacate (avacado) trees, lemon trees, and mandarin orange trees, as well as another fruit tree that I can't remember. Also, there are some really pretty tropical flowers. She told me it rains a lot here, but so far no rain. There are also some vegetables growing, like lettuce, carrots, and radishes (I think). The birds she has a tropical birds like parrots, cockatos, and others. They make quite a racket in the morning. My room faces the backyard as well as the forest and the soccer field outside the walls of the house. I feel locked in most of the time, mainly because I don't know how to open the doors, but I'm fine as long as I get out of the house once in a while.
The food has been pretty good. I've been eating some slightly questionable things (including a soup that is made with cow hooves, which is apparently somewhat common here), but so far all has been good. The tamales we ate as our first meal were fantastic. I love the soups and desserts. Here's an incomplete list of food and drink I have experienced: tomate de agua drink, lots of tea, tomato-cheese soup, spinach soup, lots of chicken prepared in various ways, lots of rice, lots of eggs (every morning), yucca bread and yucca french fries, yogurt in a cup, and many other culinary delights. They feed us a lot here. At Rancho Alegre, it was thre meals and two snacks. Lunch is huge-soup, then main part with rice, potatoes, and some kind of meat, and then dessert. I expected to lose weight while here, but that won't be likely if things continue going the way they are now. The first day with my family I didn't eat much just because I wasn't hungry. Most people don't eat dinner here unless it's for a dinner party. This means that people eat a snack much later in the day after a late (2:00-3:00) lunch. This is supposedly better for the digestion, especially at a high altitude. My mother told me that it was hurting her (not in a mean way, more of in a caring way) that I wasn't eating so I took a banana. The whole accepting and refusing food thing is going to be interesting.
Well, I'll probably get back on soon to write more and to fill in the gaps. I can't really remember everything because I've done so much, so I'll look back over stuff and update later. Ciao!
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