Thursday, December 20, 2007

A few weeks later

I'm slowly adjusting back to life in the US, reclaiming my clothes and c.d.s that have wandered out of my room over the past four months and listening to as much Latin Pop music as possible (which Amy and Laurie aren't too happy with). I went to the mall for the first time yesterday and really was disappointed by the general lack of warmth (and rudeness) with which my fellow Christmas shoppers greated me. My comments about the materialism and commercialism of this culture were apparently too frequent for my family, but that is one huge difference between here and Ecuador, at least for most of the people I was spending time with in Ecuador and the Americans I have been observing here. I especially like the Burger King commercial where they pretend to take the Whopper away and people react with shock and disbelief. My comment is that at least they have food to eat and it probably shouldn't be a whopper anyway. I will admit that I had my first McDonald's cheeseburger a few days ago and it was delicious, but I wouldn't be heartbroken if it was discontinued and I'm thankful that it filled my belly for quite a while.

I went down to Kenyon with Jennie last weekend. It was nice to return but I'm really glad that I will still be gone next semester. I still really like Kenyon and I'm (usually) glad that I chose to attend this college, but the student body becomes more and more, I don't really know how to say it, cold maybe every year. Plus it was finals week so the campus was dead and Jennie and I felt like we were intruding pretty much wherever we went. It was nice to see Riley again and the three of us will be abroad next semester (Jennie in Ghana, Riley in Russia and myself in Uganda) so it was good-bye for a while. Plus it snowed so campus was beautiful, although it stranded us there for an extra day.

My plans for Uganda are still on but there is an ebola outbreak that has killed at least 30 people since August, most of them health workers who didn't know what they were facing because it is a new strain. I still really want to go but I'm a little worried about this. Kampala, the city where I would be spending a lot of time, is under high alert for the disease. I'm not sure if SIT would cancel the program there due to health concerns but I'll keep this updated with whatever news I hear. Meanwhile, I will continue to read my books and hope that I will be able to study there beginning in a little over a month.

And now, as Shakira begins singing, I will sign off. I think I'm supposed to write our Christmas card this year and it will be late (as usual) but I should probably work on that tonight. Chao chao!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Homesick for Ecuador

So on Saturday, I spent the morning packing up. Surprisingly, everything fit well into my bags and I even had a little room to buy a little more, but I didn't. I walked around the Mariscal a bit and then went to the Centro Historico to eat lunch with some friends. However Akiko and I didn't meet up with Amanda and Cara until after we had eaten. Then back to the Mariscal for more hanging out. Then we headed off to the airport early and said some final goodbyes to the ADs who really were amazing and incredible throughout the entire trip. It's really because of them and because the group was so great that the entire trip was awesome. I feel so fortunate to have met them all and gotten to hang out with them for the past four months. So, the flight had to go from Quito to Guayaquil because a flight from Spain had run off of one of the runways a few weeks ago and they still haven't opened all of the runways and don't fuel up the planes in Quito, so we had another hour in Guayaquil until we headed off to Miami, where we got in around 12:15 a.m. Passport control took a little while because the lines were long but customs was really quick-we just had to give our customs declarations sheets to the agents and that was it. The seven of us who had taken the group flight back got to the hotel around 2 and slept for a bit. Amanda and I had flights out of Miami at 8:00 so we headed off to check in at 6:00. Security lines were a little long but we got through pretty quickly. Then off to my gate. The plane from Miami to Chicago was a little late to takeoff so we got to Chicago a little late. However, we were also made to sit in the remote parking lot for close to an hour because the plane taking off from our gate had to be de-iced. So we got in a little late and my two-hour layover turned into a 30-minute layover so I had to rush to get to my other flight, but I had ten minutes before boarding. The flight from Chicago to Cleveland was on time as well but we also had to be de-iced before taking off so we were a little late getting into Cleveland. Once there, I met my mom by luggage pick-up and we found that one of my check-ins was missing. This is the second time that American has lost my luggage from a flight from Miami, and I've only flown on them a few times. However, I got my luggage last night at 10:30 so all ended up ok. So we took the luggage I did have and drove back home but we stopped first at Laurie's Christmas band concert which was nice. Then home at last.

It's really strange being back in the US. I have been thinking and speaking in Spanish sometimes without realizing it. I still throw out the toilet paper instead of flushing it. I drank my first glass of tap water at the hotel in Miami and it was really good. I have had two salads since I got back. People are much better drivers here. I went to the library and got a ton of books out to read (most of them about Uganda-I'm sending in my VISA application tomorrow). It's really great to be back but I miss Ecuador. I miss seeing mountains every day. It's really cold here (for me, 50 degrees was cold last week) and I miss the nice temperate weather. I'm sure I'll return someday and when I do, I already have a list of things to do and people to visit. So I arrived home safely and all in all it's good to be back. Oh, and here's a link to an article that I wrote for my school paper: http://media.www.kenyoncollegian.com/media/storage/paper821/news/2007/12/06/Features/Notes.From.Abroad-3137440.shtml

Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. I can't believe Christmas is coming up so soon. It really feels to me like it's time for summer vacation or something like that, but not Christmas.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Last night (morning) in Ecuador

So the end has finally come. I'm chilling out in Hotel Alston for one last night. We went to a desfile last night on Amazonas which was quite cool although we couldn't find a nice place to watch it from. Then today I mainly bought some last gifts and packed. I think everything is fitting in my bags, though they're pretty stuffed. Then we went to Guapulo, this really nice section of Quito that I wish I had explored during the day. We went to this cafe/bar and most of the group was there, drinking canelazo (not my favorite, but a nice hot drink) and talking. It was good to hang out with the group again. I feel really fortunate to be part of a really great group and I know I'm going to miss everyone when I'm back in the US. It's just so weird to me that tomorrow, I'm meeting at the airport at 3:30 and seven of us are flying back. And a little over 30 hours or so I will see my family again. It hasn't really hit me yet, but I'm sure it will soon. I don't really know what else to write so chao chao.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Crazy Times in Quito

It's fiestas for the founding of Quito this week and tonight's the craziest night. To add to this, Liga, Quito's football (soccer) team is the champion of the country so things are even more wild. I'm sitting only a block from my hotel and one of the party busses passes every few minutes or so with lots of people on board. Things are going to be loud tonight. I plan to finish watching a movie, Cinema Paradiso, and then just hanging out in the hotel becuase I'm still exhausted from everything that's been going on in the past month.

Riobamba continuned to be interesting, working in the hospital and hanging out with my family. I think I like the family in Riobamba the best out of all of them. For my birthday they took me to Volcán Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador. We drove up to the first refuge and were going to hike to the second but the altitude was getting to me-it was about 5500 m above sea level. But I did get to play in snow with my host neice for my birthday which was great. I can't wait to get home and see snow. They took me out for lunch later and that night, they surprised me with a really good ice cream cake. It was a pretty good birthday.

Tungurahua really started erupting the last week of my time there and I learned a few days ago that the majority of the ash goes to Riobamba. It was cool seeing it smoking but not so cool breathing in more ash.

The last day with my family was another day with an interesting meal. They made me something special that everyone kept telling me how rico it was. It turns out that it was this soup made out of broth and the blood of what I later learned was a sheep with three different parts of sheep intestines in it and optional blood on the side. It was not that great-the intestines are really chewy, they don't have a great taste, and they smell pretty gross, but I managed to eat it all once again. It didn't make me ill so all was fine.

I successfully finished my project. I have a 33-page paper about Andean medicine and the public health system in Ecuador which is an accomplishment, not to mention that it's all in spanish and I used almost all primary sources like observation and interviews. I turned it in and did my presentation right away so that I could finish with everything as soon as possible. Now all I have left is my ACTFL test tomorrow to see how much I have improved with my spanish. We are back in Quito for the last four days and I can't believe the program has come to an end. I have enjoyed all of my time here and the group has been really great. I know I'm going to miss everyone when I leave and I hope we have a reunion sometime soon. I also know that I'm going to miss this country, the mountains especially. It has been nice seeing them everyday. Well, it's getting really dark out and the people continue to be crazy so I should probably get back to the hotel. More reactions on the trip in general later.