I cannot believe I am back in Quito already after spending a month in Loja doing my ISP. I literally am in SHOCK. I seems like these past 3 1/2 months have gone by in a flash. I remember sitting in the Atlanta airport with Jenny saying how weird it was that we were leaving.
I am super sad to have left Loja. I didn´t realize how much of a home it felt to me until we landed in Quito (blah). Loja is so much prettier, so much cleaner, is actually safe, is small enough that you can walk places or take a $1 cab (instead of $5), and has men that respect women a tad bit more than normal Ecuadorian men do. In Quito, after we grabbed a taxi, the cabbee tried to jip us on the price. Then we went to breakfast and everything cost a lot more. Pretty much, I miss Loja.
It might also be because I loved the family I lived with in Loja. Well, the grandma Haydee definitely liked to make fun of my spanish and that pissed me off, but other than her, I loved the people. I don´t think I´ve informed you exactly who I lived with or where. I lived with Haydee, an 70-ish year old woman who just retired a few months ago from teaching Castallano (which apparently is VERY different than Spanish) in Catamayo. Her daughter, Verónica, lives below her with her husband, Julio, and their 2 1/2 year old son, Bryan. (Her daughter is the same Verónica that I worked with). Vero pretty much acted like an older sister to me and I´m going to miss her SOO much. In general, I spent a ton of time with Veronica´s family. She is a sibling of 6 in total. Her sister Paulina has two kids who came over a lot. Another sister has two sons, Juan (23 yrs. old) and Christian (10 yrs. old), who came over a lot too. I hung out with Juan and his friends quite a few times. Having friends definitely made the experience much more fun.
Everyone in the family keeps asking when I´m coming back and obviously I have NO IDEA whatsoever. Apparently festival occurs in february here and I´m supposed to come for that. For some reason, the people here in Ecuador think it´s really easy to just hop on a plane and come to Ecuador for a few days... I wish.
Anyways, I´m practically done with my ISP, but I still have to go through it again to make gramatical changes (my grammar SUCKS a lot) and to write my personal reflections. It´s currently 28 pages (without the personal reflections), but three or four of those pages are made up of photos I took during the project. I also have to figure out what I´m going to present to the group for 15-ish minutes (fyi I have NO IDEA what I´m going to do for this). We start presentations on Sunday afternoon, so I have until then (well I can push it til Monday or Tuesday morning if I really want, but I don´t so I need to finish it earlier). I´m definitely a little stressed out but mostly just have a ton of stuff running through my head.
Tonight about 11 of us from the group are meeting up to have thanksgiving dinner at Leonore´s house. I´m soo glad that we are doing this because it´s definitely weird not to be home today. Sadly, we are having chicken instead of turkey because we have no idea whatsoever where to find turkey haha. It should be interesting.
GREAT NEWS (since I know all of you care): we found a house in Denver for Stacey, Sagan, Becca and me to live in!!! YAY! It´s a five bedroom house (apparently the 5th room is for when mom visits haha) and looks nice with a definite feel of a college house. I´m SOOOO excited to decorate it. yay! It´s on Lafayette about 1/2 mile away (not as bad as GILLIAN´s house haha jk) which is a good exercise (and a GREAT EXCUSE for new hats, coats and boots, not that I would ever be so materialistic). I saw snow today on some of the mountains we flew by and it made me so excited to get back to denver to ski and to see my friends.
I hope Pat is having a great time in Hawaii and I hope Mom and Dad arrive safely and then have a great time as well. Thanks to uncle larry and fam for taking care of my precious Al (I saw the video... SO CUTE!). Miss you all soo much and can´t wait to see you! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
ISP Goodness....
Hey guys
long time no talk
i´m in Loja right now doing my ISP. Well actually I´m doing my ISP in Catamayo and commuting there everyday. It´s not that bad and DEFINITELY worth it. My host mom, Haydee, is nice, but I don´t spend that much time with her. Veronica is awesome and I love their entire family so much! Yay! Today is Loja´s independence day but everyone celebrated last night with a concert at Plaza San Sebastian. IT WAS JAM PACKED and AWESOME! It was so embarassing though because I went with Juan and María (Juan is Veronica´s cousin and María is his friend) and we met his friends there and they were like "don´t you know how to dance all these spanish dances like salsa marangue and blah blah blah" and the answer is NO i don´t. I only know how to dance to bad american music (which i LOVE) and I´m perfectly fine with staying that way. But, they wanted to try to teach me. Let´s just say I failed haha.
Anyways to try to fill you in on my ISP, here´s how it goes: The first week (well half week) was warm-up. I went around with Veronica and Olmedo to inform families about meetings, to meet some families and then Friday I went with them to the promotor´s meeting.
Last week, Monday and Tuesday I was sick as a DOG. I went to the family "finca" (that literally translates to farm, but it was definitely a country club with a beach-house type feel). On the way we stopped in Malacatas (I think that´s the name) to get lunch. I didn´t eat much because I had already been stuffed from breakfast, but I did eat FRITADO. EVIL EVIL EVIL FRITADA (fried pork). YUCK. At these kinds of restaurants you don´t really have a choice of what you eat because the menu is set and because I was with the family, I did what they did. Anyways, Sunday night I felt a little sick but not bad. Sunday night around midnight, I wanted to yank my stomach out with a wrench, LITERALLY. The only way I didn´t scream in pain was my lying on my side with my legs curled up. It was the worst thing ever. I was sick all night long and the next day had a horrible fever and felt as weak as ever. I was in bed all day and around 2pm I came out and Veronica´s sister, Paulina, was over. I guess Haydee sells PURE alcohol from her home (she has bins of it and then people bring empty bottles... i have no idea...) so she put alcohol, disgusting horrid smelling alcohol, all over my head in my hair. and then I wasn´t allowed to shower because apparently showering is bad for you when you are sick and have a fever. Haydee was worried about me so she called her nephew who´s a doctor, and he came to the rescue. Apparently I had a 102 degree fever (as he said, if I had waited any longer, I might have started convulsing. WHO SAYS THAT TO A PATIENT?? EVER HEARD OF BEDSIDE-MANNERS???) and my stomach sounded like a waterfall, so he gave me antibiotics to fix the stomach infection and some other medicine to cut the fever. Yesterday (Monday) i finally finished the antibiotics! As jack told me before I came, Ecuador is the only place you will get that sick and be throwing up and pooing at the same time lol from food poisoning.
Anyways I did a 180 degree turn from feeling HORRID to feeling pretty good on tuesday. The doc said I couldn´t go to my ISP so i stayed home and hung out with Haydee ALL DAY LONG. It was um a long day lol. Wednesday I went for the first time with a promotor. It was crazy! For example: I saw two boys of similar ages and both had paralysis but one had a family who cared and he could walk on his own and talk a little. The other boys family didn´t care at all. He couldn´t even sit up on his own and couldn´t talk at all. It was SO SAD. Thursday was the first day in awhile I went running and actually felt safe. In quito I was scared to run around my house because the guys would whistle and then in Catamayo the guys would chase me in their big construction trucks. here i go to a track at a high school near by. I have it all to myself, can listen to my ipod without being scared, and can sing as loud as I want (i have a feeling people might be able to hear me and probably laugh histerically but that´s okay). I´ve decided I need to get back in shape before I go back to the states or I´m going to get my but whipped by Tyler.
This weekend I just hung out at home and Sunday randomly got my hair cut. It wasn´t anything drastic and cost a whole $3 ( YESS!! SCOREE!!!) and it was definitely needed. Yesterday I went to Catamayo and spent the day with one of the promotors, Charlito. I had a two hour break for lunch (can i just say WASTE OF TIME lol) and spent most of it in the shade but the 20 minutes I stood in the sun waiting for Charlito as also spent BURNING MY SKIN. Therefore I have a nice tan line of my tank top and its gonna be there for a long time. Just think beautiful farmers tan yaya. Last night was awesome and I had a great time celebrating independence day here. It was a make-up for all the years I´ve been out of the country for the 4th of july (I think its been 3 or 4 times ahh). Anyways, I need to head home to start working on my actual ISP. Apparently this weekend I´m going to Haydee´s farm and we are going to sell tickets to people so they can watch cock fights. Why they are not illegal here, i do not know. I told her i´m not watching though. We´ll see how this goes. The bus ride is 5 hours and I´m praying to god that I don´t see any more donkeys being pushed off cliffs. MISS YOU ALL. And let me just add that "Low" by lo Rida is on ALL the time! (In case you don´t know what I´m talking about, I´ll jog your memory: "Shawty had them apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur" etc...)
T minus 16 days til mama and papa come!
long time no talk
i´m in Loja right now doing my ISP. Well actually I´m doing my ISP in Catamayo and commuting there everyday. It´s not that bad and DEFINITELY worth it. My host mom, Haydee, is nice, but I don´t spend that much time with her. Veronica is awesome and I love their entire family so much! Yay! Today is Loja´s independence day but everyone celebrated last night with a concert at Plaza San Sebastian. IT WAS JAM PACKED and AWESOME! It was so embarassing though because I went with Juan and María (Juan is Veronica´s cousin and María is his friend) and we met his friends there and they were like "don´t you know how to dance all these spanish dances like salsa marangue and blah blah blah" and the answer is NO i don´t. I only know how to dance to bad american music (which i LOVE) and I´m perfectly fine with staying that way. But, they wanted to try to teach me. Let´s just say I failed haha.
Anyways to try to fill you in on my ISP, here´s how it goes: The first week (well half week) was warm-up. I went around with Veronica and Olmedo to inform families about meetings, to meet some families and then Friday I went with them to the promotor´s meeting.
Last week, Monday and Tuesday I was sick as a DOG. I went to the family "finca" (that literally translates to farm, but it was definitely a country club with a beach-house type feel). On the way we stopped in Malacatas (I think that´s the name) to get lunch. I didn´t eat much because I had already been stuffed from breakfast, but I did eat FRITADO. EVIL EVIL EVIL FRITADA (fried pork). YUCK. At these kinds of restaurants you don´t really have a choice of what you eat because the menu is set and because I was with the family, I did what they did. Anyways, Sunday night I felt a little sick but not bad. Sunday night around midnight, I wanted to yank my stomach out with a wrench, LITERALLY. The only way I didn´t scream in pain was my lying on my side with my legs curled up. It was the worst thing ever. I was sick all night long and the next day had a horrible fever and felt as weak as ever. I was in bed all day and around 2pm I came out and Veronica´s sister, Paulina, was over. I guess Haydee sells PURE alcohol from her home (she has bins of it and then people bring empty bottles... i have no idea...) so she put alcohol, disgusting horrid smelling alcohol, all over my head in my hair. and then I wasn´t allowed to shower because apparently showering is bad for you when you are sick and have a fever. Haydee was worried about me so she called her nephew who´s a doctor, and he came to the rescue. Apparently I had a 102 degree fever (as he said, if I had waited any longer, I might have started convulsing. WHO SAYS THAT TO A PATIENT?? EVER HEARD OF BEDSIDE-MANNERS???) and my stomach sounded like a waterfall, so he gave me antibiotics to fix the stomach infection and some other medicine to cut the fever. Yesterday (Monday) i finally finished the antibiotics! As jack told me before I came, Ecuador is the only place you will get that sick and be throwing up and pooing at the same time lol from food poisoning.
Anyways I did a 180 degree turn from feeling HORRID to feeling pretty good on tuesday. The doc said I couldn´t go to my ISP so i stayed home and hung out with Haydee ALL DAY LONG. It was um a long day lol. Wednesday I went for the first time with a promotor. It was crazy! For example: I saw two boys of similar ages and both had paralysis but one had a family who cared and he could walk on his own and talk a little. The other boys family didn´t care at all. He couldn´t even sit up on his own and couldn´t talk at all. It was SO SAD. Thursday was the first day in awhile I went running and actually felt safe. In quito I was scared to run around my house because the guys would whistle and then in Catamayo the guys would chase me in their big construction trucks. here i go to a track at a high school near by. I have it all to myself, can listen to my ipod without being scared, and can sing as loud as I want (i have a feeling people might be able to hear me and probably laugh histerically but that´s okay). I´ve decided I need to get back in shape before I go back to the states or I´m going to get my but whipped by Tyler.
This weekend I just hung out at home and Sunday randomly got my hair cut. It wasn´t anything drastic and cost a whole $3 ( YESS!! SCOREE!!!) and it was definitely needed. Yesterday I went to Catamayo and spent the day with one of the promotors, Charlito. I had a two hour break for lunch (can i just say WASTE OF TIME lol) and spent most of it in the shade but the 20 minutes I stood in the sun waiting for Charlito as also spent BURNING MY SKIN. Therefore I have a nice tan line of my tank top and its gonna be there for a long time. Just think beautiful farmers tan yaya. Last night was awesome and I had a great time celebrating independence day here. It was a make-up for all the years I´ve been out of the country for the 4th of july (I think its been 3 or 4 times ahh). Anyways, I need to head home to start working on my actual ISP. Apparently this weekend I´m going to Haydee´s farm and we are going to sell tickets to people so they can watch cock fights. Why they are not illegal here, i do not know. I told her i´m not watching though. We´ll see how this goes. The bus ride is 5 hours and I´m praying to god that I don´t see any more donkeys being pushed off cliffs. MISS YOU ALL. And let me just add that "Low" by lo Rida is on ALL the time! (In case you don´t know what I´m talking about, I´ll jog your memory: "Shawty had them apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur" etc...)
T minus 16 days til mama and papa come!
Saturday, November 8, 2008
All you can do is laugh and say "It´s Ecuador" haha
If you ever come to Ecuador, you will realize that to any question you have, the answer will become "it´s ecuador", or so it has for me. When you wonder why the poor donkey was pushed off the edge of the cliff, it´s because it´s ecuador. When my host family is an hour late, it´s ecuador. and when I get an awesome leaf-shaped piece of bread for breakfast, "it´s Ecuador".
Since I last wrote on my blog, things have changed a LOT and I am so glad. I decided on Friday morning that I was not going to stay at hotel La Reina Del Cisne but instead asked Veronica and Olmedo if I could find a host family or hostel to stay at in Loja. Immediately Veronica said I could stay at with her mom. Friday we had a meeting with all the promotors (which lasted a whole hour and a half and let´s just say it was much more casual and relaxed than any meeting y´all have EVER been to). It started at 9am but we didn´t get there until 10am and then we actually started at 10:15am (what can I say, we were on ecuadorian time. Just a forewarning, I think I have become accustomed to it... oops). They decided on secret santas for christmas and decided a few dates for other things and then we left (and yes all of that took 2 hours haha). I drove back with Veronica and Olmedo and as we were driving back we pulled onto a dirt road about 15 minutes outside of the center of Loja. I FREAKED out once again and continuously thought "what have I gotten myself into?!?!" (once again I am thinking this haha) but it turned out we just stopped by a random statue of jesus and mary that was being built in someone´s backyard. The statue of Jesus was probably a good 25 feet tall and still didn´t have arms and the statue of mary was gray and white and she was pregnant and was about 20 feet tall. It was very odd to be in someone´s backyard next to a farmhouse. WHO KNOWS what that was all about. Anyways, that ended up NOT being where I am living. I am actually living in the upstairs part of Veronica´s house with her Mom and the empleada (the maid) and Veronica lives downstairs with her hubby and 2 1/2 yr old son, Brian. He is so cute! I love love LOVE my living situation now! The food is good and they don´t stuff me, there are people around so I´m not lonely (and they are NICE and Friendly! Imagine that!), the shower supposedly has hot water (I haven´t tried it yet) I have my own room with a comfortable bed, and I don´t have a curfew (I even got keys to the house!) !!! So as of now life is great.
Today Megan and Jake and I went to Vilcabamba. Jake is staying in a jail cell of a hotel (literally. Lonely Planet describes it saying "For beat-up digs that barely do the trick". That is so true. The walls are cracking, there are no outlets to charge phones or ipods, there´s a shared bathroom that is gross, it looks like a whorehouse and it´s dirty, but it´s $4 a night so what can you say) and his phone wasn´t charged so around 9:30am this morning Megan and I went to his hotel to wake him up. Then we went on a search to find the $1.50 per person taxi to Vilcabamba. It took awhile so we didn´t get there til noon. We were planning on going horseback riding or hiking but we are cheap and the trail rides cost $20. We wanted food before we went hiking and by the time we finished, it was pouring so we decided to walk around for awhile and are going to return next weekend to do something. Anyways, I´m back in Loja now and am going to head home to relax until tonight and I think we are going dancing woot woot. Tomorrow I´m going running with Veronica (I don´t know if she actually normally runs or not... i´m thinking not so we shall see how that goes) and then to check out more of Loja. I love this city btw! It´s clean, small enough that I can go places without being scared, and there are still things to do. YAY! I´m commuting an hour to Catamayo every day next week but I definitely think it´s worth it. I´m counting down the days til Galapagos and then til I go to Denver. MISS YOU ALL! Madz
Since I last wrote on my blog, things have changed a LOT and I am so glad. I decided on Friday morning that I was not going to stay at hotel La Reina Del Cisne but instead asked Veronica and Olmedo if I could find a host family or hostel to stay at in Loja. Immediately Veronica said I could stay at with her mom. Friday we had a meeting with all the promotors (which lasted a whole hour and a half and let´s just say it was much more casual and relaxed than any meeting y´all have EVER been to). It started at 9am but we didn´t get there until 10am and then we actually started at 10:15am (what can I say, we were on ecuadorian time. Just a forewarning, I think I have become accustomed to it... oops). They decided on secret santas for christmas and decided a few dates for other things and then we left (and yes all of that took 2 hours haha). I drove back with Veronica and Olmedo and as we were driving back we pulled onto a dirt road about 15 minutes outside of the center of Loja. I FREAKED out once again and continuously thought "what have I gotten myself into?!?!" (once again I am thinking this haha) but it turned out we just stopped by a random statue of jesus and mary that was being built in someone´s backyard. The statue of Jesus was probably a good 25 feet tall and still didn´t have arms and the statue of mary was gray and white and she was pregnant and was about 20 feet tall. It was very odd to be in someone´s backyard next to a farmhouse. WHO KNOWS what that was all about. Anyways, that ended up NOT being where I am living. I am actually living in the upstairs part of Veronica´s house with her Mom and the empleada (the maid) and Veronica lives downstairs with her hubby and 2 1/2 yr old son, Brian. He is so cute! I love love LOVE my living situation now! The food is good and they don´t stuff me, there are people around so I´m not lonely (and they are NICE and Friendly! Imagine that!), the shower supposedly has hot water (I haven´t tried it yet) I have my own room with a comfortable bed, and I don´t have a curfew (I even got keys to the house!) !!! So as of now life is great.
Today Megan and Jake and I went to Vilcabamba. Jake is staying in a jail cell of a hotel (literally. Lonely Planet describes it saying "For beat-up digs that barely do the trick". That is so true. The walls are cracking, there are no outlets to charge phones or ipods, there´s a shared bathroom that is gross, it looks like a whorehouse and it´s dirty, but it´s $4 a night so what can you say) and his phone wasn´t charged so around 9:30am this morning Megan and I went to his hotel to wake him up. Then we went on a search to find the $1.50 per person taxi to Vilcabamba. It took awhile so we didn´t get there til noon. We were planning on going horseback riding or hiking but we are cheap and the trail rides cost $20. We wanted food before we went hiking and by the time we finished, it was pouring so we decided to walk around for awhile and are going to return next weekend to do something. Anyways, I´m back in Loja now and am going to head home to relax until tonight and I think we are going dancing woot woot. Tomorrow I´m going running with Veronica (I don´t know if she actually normally runs or not... i´m thinking not so we shall see how that goes) and then to check out more of Loja. I love this city btw! It´s clean, small enough that I can go places without being scared, and there are still things to do. YAY! I´m commuting an hour to Catamayo every day next week but I definitely think it´s worth it. I´m counting down the days til Galapagos and then til I go to Denver. MISS YOU ALL! Madz
Thursday, November 6, 2008
YES WE DID!
I have to say, yesterday I was EXTREMELY proud to be an American. I don´t know what everyone´s political stances are, but I am VERY VERY happy that Obama won. I watched the elections with two friends in Loja and we were all nervous about how America would actually vote... (don´t tell but I definitely doubted the US a little bit). Anywho, hopefully some actually change will come from President Obama ... we will just have to see! (January 20 seems so far away)
I am currently in Loja, Ecuador, in the southern part of the country. We went to dinner on Monday night at a cute tapas restaurant that had different food from all around the world. It was delicious... it definitely took like three hours (I´ve decided any time you eat out in foreign countries it takes much much longer... they aren´t on the eat-and-go schedule like we are) but it was great! Monday morning we had bfast and caught a cab to the bus station. The trip to Loja was super duper long. It was supposed to take five hours but took more than six. AND (this is horrible) near the end of the ride we were on the edge of a mountain and megan was sitting in the window seat and she saw people push a donkey off the edge of a cliff! We don´t know why but think they did it on accident but I looked back and the people didn´t look like they cared that much so who knows. It was freakin weird though. We asked locals if that was normal and even they said it wasn´t. so strange!
We got to Loja around 4:20pm on Tuesday night and went to a random hostal called Hostal La Riviera. For $27 for a 3 person room, we thought it was perfectly fine. We went to mexican food (the only mexican restaurant in Loja) for dinner, and then to an internet café so i could try to register. That´s when i realized, there´s a thing called daylight savings and we are now TWO hours ahead of Colorado... so we left. The elections are like sports. seriously. you watch and listen to the commentators talk and debate, but in reality nobody except the players have any effect on what happens. That´s what it felt like Tuesday night at least. We watched as CNN (such a biased channel btw) as they predicted who would win and then told us who did win. but YAY for OBAMA. yay yay yay. That night was fabuloous cuz I also registered for classes and got exactly what I wanted! YAY!
Anyways now I am doing my ISP. Olmedo picked me up on Wednesday morning around 8:30am and we went to Catamayo. I am doing community rehabilitation with disabled people in a tiny town about 40 minutes (by CAR, and hour by bus) outside of Loja. Olmedo is a great advisor and Verónica, the woman who along with him, is really nice too. The families we go to seem very interesting as well. The problem is that once I am by myself (after work) there is NOTHING to do in Catamayo. I am staying in El Hotel La Reina del Cisne which is a decent hotel (especially for $8 a night) but I am alone and when I walk outside people stare at me because I am a foreigner and NO foreigners go to Catamayo, Ecuador. I went running but some strange man in a huge construction truck started driving next to me whistling and creepily smiling at me so I got really really angry and started sprinting and he just sped up. Pretty much, I hate machista guys (ie almost all guys in Ecuador) and i am now very afraid to go running because everyone whistles and stares and i hate that. So, I am now thinking about staying in a hostel or with a homestay in Loja and commuting because I can´t stand staying in Catamayo. I will inform you all of my decision (hopefully it will be a great one). Whatever I do, it won´t take place until Sunday evening because this weekend I´m staying in Loja and going hiking in Podocarpus National Park with Megan and maybe Jake and I´m SOOO excited! Apparently it´s a mix of jungle and mountainous terrain so it should be gorgeous and great to exercise. I miss you all so much ( I feel like a lonely, emotional freshman lol... I know it will pass with a good movie or book or a great joke hint hint haha) chao chao for now!
btw PRAY FOR SNOW!
I am currently in Loja, Ecuador, in the southern part of the country. We went to dinner on Monday night at a cute tapas restaurant that had different food from all around the world. It was delicious... it definitely took like three hours (I´ve decided any time you eat out in foreign countries it takes much much longer... they aren´t on the eat-and-go schedule like we are) but it was great! Monday morning we had bfast and caught a cab to the bus station. The trip to Loja was super duper long. It was supposed to take five hours but took more than six. AND (this is horrible) near the end of the ride we were on the edge of a mountain and megan was sitting in the window seat and she saw people push a donkey off the edge of a cliff! We don´t know why but think they did it on accident but I looked back and the people didn´t look like they cared that much so who knows. It was freakin weird though. We asked locals if that was normal and even they said it wasn´t. so strange!
We got to Loja around 4:20pm on Tuesday night and went to a random hostal called Hostal La Riviera. For $27 for a 3 person room, we thought it was perfectly fine. We went to mexican food (the only mexican restaurant in Loja) for dinner, and then to an internet café so i could try to register. That´s when i realized, there´s a thing called daylight savings and we are now TWO hours ahead of Colorado... so we left. The elections are like sports. seriously. you watch and listen to the commentators talk and debate, but in reality nobody except the players have any effect on what happens. That´s what it felt like Tuesday night at least. We watched as CNN (such a biased channel btw) as they predicted who would win and then told us who did win. but YAY for OBAMA. yay yay yay. That night was fabuloous cuz I also registered for classes and got exactly what I wanted! YAY!
Anyways now I am doing my ISP. Olmedo picked me up on Wednesday morning around 8:30am and we went to Catamayo. I am doing community rehabilitation with disabled people in a tiny town about 40 minutes (by CAR, and hour by bus) outside of Loja. Olmedo is a great advisor and Verónica, the woman who along with him, is really nice too. The families we go to seem very interesting as well. The problem is that once I am by myself (after work) there is NOTHING to do in Catamayo. I am staying in El Hotel La Reina del Cisne which is a decent hotel (especially for $8 a night) but I am alone and when I walk outside people stare at me because I am a foreigner and NO foreigners go to Catamayo, Ecuador. I went running but some strange man in a huge construction truck started driving next to me whistling and creepily smiling at me so I got really really angry and started sprinting and he just sped up. Pretty much, I hate machista guys (ie almost all guys in Ecuador) and i am now very afraid to go running because everyone whistles and stares and i hate that. So, I am now thinking about staying in a hostel or with a homestay in Loja and commuting because I can´t stand staying in Catamayo. I will inform you all of my decision (hopefully it will be a great one). Whatever I do, it won´t take place until Sunday evening because this weekend I´m staying in Loja and going hiking in Podocarpus National Park with Megan and maybe Jake and I´m SOOO excited! Apparently it´s a mix of jungle and mountainous terrain so it should be gorgeous and great to exercise. I miss you all so much ( I feel like a lonely, emotional freshman lol... I know it will pass with a good movie or book or a great joke hint hint haha) chao chao for now!
btw PRAY FOR SNOW!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Adios a Quito! Can you believe it, ISP is actually here!!!
When Faba and Leonore told us that once we left Sangolquì, everything would FLY by, I definitely did not believe them. THEY WERE 100% completely correct. The first month in Sangolquì was more of a relaxing, getting-to-know-ecuador month. We went to the jungle, had 10 days with our host families in Quito, went to the coast, had 10 more days with our host family and have now left to our perspective ISP locations.
This past week was crazy! Monday through Wednesday, we had our usual guest speakers in class, and had normal days. Then all of a sudden Thursday came, we had about two hours of class to go over final ISP touches, and the day was over. Let me just inform you a little of how unorganized the ISP project SEEMS:
The last two days on the coast we spent at Alandaluz, and ecoturism resort three hours south of Manta. Leo and Faba spent most of the time having interviews with us about what we wanted to study and where we wanted to do our ISP. Most people had no idea and I think only half of us left the coast with even a city in mind of where we would do our ISP. Anyways, we get back to Quito and Faba and Leo don`t really say anything to us about finding ISPs or advisors for our ISP. Apparently, the whole time they were making calls behind the scenes, finding advisors, organizations and places for us to live. But still, Thursday came around and some people didn´t know where they were doing their ISP. Sketchy, eh?
On Friday we had a 3 hour long open book final that consisted of two big essays. It was so weird because it did not even feel like we should have been having a final. I definitely learned a LOT in the culture and development seminar (I have many opinions about ecuador and people´s views of the USA that I definitely do NOT agree with), but it was not as intensive in terms of writing papers and taking tests as much as we were constantly living in the culture and having discussions (ie arguing a lot haha because everyone in my group loves to share their opinion... it´s much better than having a quiet group though) and being intensive in the sense of the experience as a whole. It´s difficult to explain. Anyways, the essays incorporated the whole month... i mean EVERYTHING we have learned, so it was sort of hard. Apparently past students have said they thought the final was fun, but I definitely don´t agree. As Jake said to Leo when she told us this, "are you sure there wasn´t some sort of communication problem, like saracasm or something" haha. I think there must have been.
Friday afternoon we went to a really cute hidden part of town called Guàpulo to a cafe called ChiQuito. It was SOOO cute! Reneé had explored this part of town and wanted to show us and I´m so glad she did! They had delicious sandwiches, and games to play (chess, pick-up-sticks, etc.) and great tea! We went into the cafè and it was overcast and we left and it was POURING. We took a bus to the Mariscal and found a place to rent costumes. They were EXPENSIVE for ecuador! I was an "Ecuadorian pirate" haha (I´ll explain). Marcello wanted to be a pirate and he found a great costume. Then Audry wanted to be a pirate to match and she found a pirate costume. Then Liz found a pirate costume. And I tried on a dress and apparently it was supposed to be a witches costume, but I wanted to be a pirate too, so I wore a pirate hat hahaha. It was great! That night we went to Audry´s because her host Mom set up a big costume party. Apparently, one of the cousins hosted it. There were probably 100 people total and they were all between 18 and 25 years old so it was really really fun! We danced a lot, took pics, and met a bunch of Ecuadorians. It seems in Ecuador girls don´t normally wear skirts or dress very risquè, but for this, let´s just say us Americans were very PRUDE and conservative haha. There were some amazing costumes though!
I went to be around 1:30 am because I was exhausted (I know, I´m lame, the party went until 4.. :( but I had an excuse becase I had to get up at 6:45am (or so i thought) to go to Mindo with my family. So I get up at 6:45 because my parents say they are going to pick me up at 7. I text them at 7:20 to ask when they will be there. Then I call at 7:30 and they say the won´t be there until EIGHT!!! AHHH! STUPID STUPID ECUADORIAN TIME! I could have gotten up at 7:50 EASILY... so annoyed. Anyways that´s okay. we drove for about 2 hours to ´cascadas verdes´and walked a very short was to some waterfalls. Lets just say my host mom wore platform sandals to go "hiking" so I knew we weren´t going very far at all. It was really fun though and I went swimming! We went up to where we parked and hung out with a lady who lived right there. She had a sugar cane juicing machine (old fashioned), so we helped her juice the sugarcane and got to have some. It was delicious!! It tasted a little like lemonade, but obviously different. The machine was sort of like a giant grinder that had a big log on top that you spun (it´s hard to explain, but I have pictures).
We left and went to Arashà (if you ever want to go to a semi-nice ecoturism resort near Mindo, GO THERE!!!). One of the dads who came with us knew the owner so we got in for free. We went swimming in the pool and went in the hot tub and it was fabulous! Then we had lunch and I had the most tasty salad ever! It was like a FULL PLATE of vegetables. You might think that is normal in the US but here, that is very very rare! I had to argue with my host mom to tell her I didn´t want to put dressing on the salad. She was so confused and kept telling me i HAD to put it on cuz that is what the dressing is meant for. Can I just say I´m excited for Mom to come here and go crazy seeing what people eat lol.
We made it back to Quito around 7:35pm and I rushed to call a cab and pick Audry up at her house because most of the group was meeting at Café Mosaico for a good-bye dinner. It was SOOO AMAZING! It had the best view ever of Quito!! We got there around 8:15pm and stayed until 11:30 pm. It was so nice to have closure with Quio and say goodbye to friends before we left. Audry and I shared a delicious Gyro and greek salad and everyone had delicious wine (don´t worry, I´m legal to drink it now. yay!) If you come to Quito, you HAVE to go to this restaurant. It´s more of a romantic date place, but I think you can definitely break the rules haha.
I got home around midnight and started freaking out becuase I wasn´t packed and thought I needed to bring a suitecase to Audry´s house to leave it there for the month. My host mom woke up and told me I could leave it at here house (even though they are moving??? I´m not sure what is going to happen when I actually need my stuff...)
I was up until 2am packing and listening to horrid karaoke that the neighbors were loudly saranating me with (there was for sure some alcohol included in their activities that night). Of course (thankfully), I can sleep through ANYTHING. I got a whole two hours of sleep and woke up at 4:15am to shower. My host dad was home for the weekend and offered to drive me to the bus station, so Tito, Olga and I got in the car around 5:00am. Freak-out time: The gate would not open and we could not get out and I thought I HAD to be there at 5:30 am. Olga went inside to look for a key so we could unlock the gate and open it manually, but after 20 minutes of looking, Tito decided that was not going to happen so he broke the lock haha. It was sort of funny. We finally made it to the bus stop around 5:45am and of course, we being americans who get places on-time, were the first ones on the bus.
We left around 6am and spent 10 1/2 hours!!! on the bus to Cuenca. It was LONNNNG. Luckily, we went with a private company so the bus was pretty nice and because it was on the PanAmerican highway, the roads weren´t too bad. The drive was very pretty and green, so that was nice, but it was fabulous to finally get to our hostel. We are staying in El Cafecito, and it´s SOO CUTE! We walked around a little last night and went back to the hostel for dinner. It was delicious, there were a ton of people around and the music was good. Let´s just say I LOVED it and I love Cuenca. It´s so cute and reminds me of Spain and has lots of cute cafés, shops and restaurants and pretty churches. I am staying here today and tomorrow Megan, Jake and I are headed to Loja to meet our advisors and start our ISP. We are also getting together to watch the election... so nervous. I think everyone in our group (except for one girl who I feel really bad for because I know she is voting for McCain but because everyone else is for Obama she just sits back and doesn´t say much) is voting for Obama. I think it´s funny because a lot of people are saying they arent going home if McCain wins.. we´ll see. I don´t know who you all are voting for, but GO OBAMA!!!
I can´t believe I´m actually starting my ISP in two days!!! I haven´t spoken with my advisor (Olmedo) because he has been in Bolivia, but his wife, Maritza, seems SOOO nice!! I´m very excited and I think I can live in a hostel which i´m even MORe excited for!! I will try to keep y´all more up-to-date (sorry I´ve been slacking). Hope all is well at home. The pics of fall are GORGEOUS and I miss y´all a lot. Chau Chau for now!
This past week was crazy! Monday through Wednesday, we had our usual guest speakers in class, and had normal days. Then all of a sudden Thursday came, we had about two hours of class to go over final ISP touches, and the day was over. Let me just inform you a little of how unorganized the ISP project SEEMS:
The last two days on the coast we spent at Alandaluz, and ecoturism resort three hours south of Manta. Leo and Faba spent most of the time having interviews with us about what we wanted to study and where we wanted to do our ISP. Most people had no idea and I think only half of us left the coast with even a city in mind of where we would do our ISP. Anyways, we get back to Quito and Faba and Leo don`t really say anything to us about finding ISPs or advisors for our ISP. Apparently, the whole time they were making calls behind the scenes, finding advisors, organizations and places for us to live. But still, Thursday came around and some people didn´t know where they were doing their ISP. Sketchy, eh?
On Friday we had a 3 hour long open book final that consisted of two big essays. It was so weird because it did not even feel like we should have been having a final. I definitely learned a LOT in the culture and development seminar (I have many opinions about ecuador and people´s views of the USA that I definitely do NOT agree with), but it was not as intensive in terms of writing papers and taking tests as much as we were constantly living in the culture and having discussions (ie arguing a lot haha because everyone in my group loves to share their opinion... it´s much better than having a quiet group though) and being intensive in the sense of the experience as a whole. It´s difficult to explain. Anyways, the essays incorporated the whole month... i mean EVERYTHING we have learned, so it was sort of hard. Apparently past students have said they thought the final was fun, but I definitely don´t agree. As Jake said to Leo when she told us this, "are you sure there wasn´t some sort of communication problem, like saracasm or something" haha. I think there must have been.
Friday afternoon we went to a really cute hidden part of town called Guàpulo to a cafe called ChiQuito. It was SOOO cute! Reneé had explored this part of town and wanted to show us and I´m so glad she did! They had delicious sandwiches, and games to play (chess, pick-up-sticks, etc.) and great tea! We went into the cafè and it was overcast and we left and it was POURING. We took a bus to the Mariscal and found a place to rent costumes. They were EXPENSIVE for ecuador! I was an "Ecuadorian pirate" haha (I´ll explain). Marcello wanted to be a pirate and he found a great costume. Then Audry wanted to be a pirate to match and she found a pirate costume. Then Liz found a pirate costume. And I tried on a dress and apparently it was supposed to be a witches costume, but I wanted to be a pirate too, so I wore a pirate hat hahaha. It was great! That night we went to Audry´s because her host Mom set up a big costume party. Apparently, one of the cousins hosted it. There were probably 100 people total and they were all between 18 and 25 years old so it was really really fun! We danced a lot, took pics, and met a bunch of Ecuadorians. It seems in Ecuador girls don´t normally wear skirts or dress very risquè, but for this, let´s just say us Americans were very PRUDE and conservative haha. There were some amazing costumes though!
I went to be around 1:30 am because I was exhausted (I know, I´m lame, the party went until 4.. :( but I had an excuse becase I had to get up at 6:45am (or so i thought) to go to Mindo with my family. So I get up at 6:45 because my parents say they are going to pick me up at 7. I text them at 7:20 to ask when they will be there. Then I call at 7:30 and they say the won´t be there until EIGHT!!! AHHH! STUPID STUPID ECUADORIAN TIME! I could have gotten up at 7:50 EASILY... so annoyed. Anyways that´s okay. we drove for about 2 hours to ´cascadas verdes´and walked a very short was to some waterfalls. Lets just say my host mom wore platform sandals to go "hiking" so I knew we weren´t going very far at all. It was really fun though and I went swimming! We went up to where we parked and hung out with a lady who lived right there. She had a sugar cane juicing machine (old fashioned), so we helped her juice the sugarcane and got to have some. It was delicious!! It tasted a little like lemonade, but obviously different. The machine was sort of like a giant grinder that had a big log on top that you spun (it´s hard to explain, but I have pictures).
We left and went to Arashà (if you ever want to go to a semi-nice ecoturism resort near Mindo, GO THERE!!!). One of the dads who came with us knew the owner so we got in for free. We went swimming in the pool and went in the hot tub and it was fabulous! Then we had lunch and I had the most tasty salad ever! It was like a FULL PLATE of vegetables. You might think that is normal in the US but here, that is very very rare! I had to argue with my host mom to tell her I didn´t want to put dressing on the salad. She was so confused and kept telling me i HAD to put it on cuz that is what the dressing is meant for. Can I just say I´m excited for Mom to come here and go crazy seeing what people eat lol.
We made it back to Quito around 7:35pm and I rushed to call a cab and pick Audry up at her house because most of the group was meeting at Café Mosaico for a good-bye dinner. It was SOOO AMAZING! It had the best view ever of Quito!! We got there around 8:15pm and stayed until 11:30 pm. It was so nice to have closure with Quio and say goodbye to friends before we left. Audry and I shared a delicious Gyro and greek salad and everyone had delicious wine (don´t worry, I´m legal to drink it now. yay!) If you come to Quito, you HAVE to go to this restaurant. It´s more of a romantic date place, but I think you can definitely break the rules haha.
I got home around midnight and started freaking out becuase I wasn´t packed and thought I needed to bring a suitecase to Audry´s house to leave it there for the month. My host mom woke up and told me I could leave it at here house (even though they are moving??? I´m not sure what is going to happen when I actually need my stuff...)
I was up until 2am packing and listening to horrid karaoke that the neighbors were loudly saranating me with (there was for sure some alcohol included in their activities that night). Of course (thankfully), I can sleep through ANYTHING. I got a whole two hours of sleep and woke up at 4:15am to shower. My host dad was home for the weekend and offered to drive me to the bus station, so Tito, Olga and I got in the car around 5:00am. Freak-out time: The gate would not open and we could not get out and I thought I HAD to be there at 5:30 am. Olga went inside to look for a key so we could unlock the gate and open it manually, but after 20 minutes of looking, Tito decided that was not going to happen so he broke the lock haha. It was sort of funny. We finally made it to the bus stop around 5:45am and of course, we being americans who get places on-time, were the first ones on the bus.
We left around 6am and spent 10 1/2 hours!!! on the bus to Cuenca. It was LONNNNG. Luckily, we went with a private company so the bus was pretty nice and because it was on the PanAmerican highway, the roads weren´t too bad. The drive was very pretty and green, so that was nice, but it was fabulous to finally get to our hostel. We are staying in El Cafecito, and it´s SOO CUTE! We walked around a little last night and went back to the hostel for dinner. It was delicious, there were a ton of people around and the music was good. Let´s just say I LOVED it and I love Cuenca. It´s so cute and reminds me of Spain and has lots of cute cafés, shops and restaurants and pretty churches. I am staying here today and tomorrow Megan, Jake and I are headed to Loja to meet our advisors and start our ISP. We are also getting together to watch the election... so nervous. I think everyone in our group (except for one girl who I feel really bad for because I know she is voting for McCain but because everyone else is for Obama she just sits back and doesn´t say much) is voting for Obama. I think it´s funny because a lot of people are saying they arent going home if McCain wins.. we´ll see. I don´t know who you all are voting for, but GO OBAMA!!!
I can´t believe I´m actually starting my ISP in two days!!! I haven´t spoken with my advisor (Olmedo) because he has been in Bolivia, but his wife, Maritza, seems SOOO nice!! I´m very excited and I think I can live in a hostel which i´m even MORe excited for!! I will try to keep y´all more up-to-date (sorry I´ve been slacking). Hope all is well at home. The pics of fall are GORGEOUS and I miss y´all a lot. Chau Chau for now!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Quito, the Coast, and ISP
Its been FOREVER since I have written and I apologize! Ive been all over Ecuador so I have a lot of stories.
Life with my new family has been a little dull, so Ive had to attept to spice it up by exploring Quito, though I definitely still dont feel like I know it very well. I have been doing some pilates (our teacher is the only woman Ive seen who wears cute workout clothes... seriously. they need some lulu lemon here for sure). October 8th was Audrys birthday so we had a delicious cake at school and learned the "Ecuadorian way" to cute cake. You make a circle in the middle (thats the part the birthday girl/boy gets) and then cut the rest in pieces. Then there are no points so the cake cant fall over. I still found it to be very difficult on my birthday. Anyways, that night her family have a really cute party for her. It was just Audrys fam, Eva, Liz, Marcello and me and we had dinner and cake and then talked for awhile. Thursday night we actually went out to celebrate and went to a really cool restaurant called "La Boca de Lobo" ie the mouth of the wolf. It was really funky and I definitely want to bring Mom and Dad there. We went out dancing afterwards and it was super fun but it definitely catered to gringos. They played the YMCA song haha. it was GREAT. The only problem to that night is for the first time since senior year of high school, I had a CURFEW. A CURFEW! Do you hear these words? I hope not because they are terrible. Olga first told me to be home at midnight (let me just remind you we didnt even have school on friday) and I pushed it back to one. (I know Im such a rebel haha). Anyways the dancing was still fun even though I had a curfew.
Saturday night of that weekend I wanted to go out but it seemed like nobody was so when Olga told me the "primos" were coming, I was down. Now lets just imagine what we think of when people say the "cousins" are coming. I think of people my age coming to hang out. NO! I WAS TRICKED. My 18 year old sister went out with her boyfriend and I stayed home with Olga and her friends/family to play 31, a card game and I had to put in money. It wasnt very MUCH money, but thats not the point at all! Ugh i was so angry. tricky lady. anyways, the Sunday before we left for the coast, we went to a soccer game (Ecuador vs. Chile-- it was for the eliminary round to go to south africa for the world cup) and that made up for it. It was a DAY LONG event but it was fun. We got there around noon and I bought a THREE DOLAR jersey. so cheap LOVE IT! We went into the stadium and hung around cheering and chanting with all the locals all afternoon long. Faba got us the tickets and I definitely think he purposely put us in the section with the rowdy fans. It was great! The game started at 4:50pm. It had rained the whole time we were waiting so we were all cold and wet, but it was still awesome! Ecuador won (i forget the score... woops) and afterwards I met up with my old host family. I miss them so much!
Monday was my birthday and my awesome directors brought cake for the group. It was delicious! We had class all day, went over ISP topics, and had a test... lovely birthday present NOT lol). Everyone said happy birthday to me yay and that afternoon, for the fourth time, I went to get my cense and ACTUALLY got it (thats the national ID card... its just like in the US going to get your license. A ROYAL PAIN IN THE BUTT) Anyways for my birthday, someone wanted to be nice to me and let me get it. That night, my family and I celebrated my sister and my birthday. She got a really cute rabbit from her boyfriend (Olga wasnt so keen on the idea but thats okay) and they gave me a cute bag! It was very useful for my trip to the coast too! We had pizza and cake and Eva came over too. Not the 21st birthday most people are used to but thats okay. Ive decided Im recelebrating when I get home. :)
We left for the coast Tuesday morning on a 10 am flight to Guayaquil. It was only 35 minutes which was MUCH better than taking a 10 hour bus ride. We went to lunch and to a museum and then to a talk on recycling that lasted almost 3 hours. I think we all learned the information from that talk in the third grade, but thats okay. We went to dinner in some neighborhood and then went back to the hotel to hang out. Little did we know that after the bus dropped us off for dinner, our directors headed to Leonores daugthers birthday dinner. They took an unmarked cab and were held up at gunpoint and the robbers stole $1000 (think about that value in American and multiply in by ten... thats the worth here because the economy is much lower). Anyways, we found out the next morning and Faba had a shiner and it was not a fun situation.
Wednesday afternoon we headed up the coast and were dropped off at our villages. Eva and I went to Cadeate. Our family was amazing and I think we had one of the wealthier families. Our 28 year old mom, Nancy, had her own perfumeria, and our 32 year old dad, Jugo, worked in a panaderia. Cadeate is known for bread so we (well Eva mostly) ate a LOT of bread. She didnt like a lot fo the food, so I was forced to eat some of it because leaving food on your plate while staying in a poor town isnt really acceptable. anyways we went running there, went to the beach a lot, talked to the town people and watched a lot of soccer. We had three younger sisters and they were so cute. It was a little weird though to see Nancy looking through my youngest sisters hair, FOR LICE. She acted like nothing was wrong. I told Eva and we both FREAKED OUT. I forgot to mention this: Thursday afternoon we went swimming and I was the only one in the water. I dove under a wave because I thought it was huge, but it definitely was NOT. I pretty much got in a fight with the sand. It was sad and a broke my face... or rather skinned my nose and forehead and my sisters and eva were afraid to look at me for a day. I think im better now though haha.
We left on Sunday afternoon and took a bus an hour and a half north to Alandaluz, and ecological resort that was on the beach and gorgeous! We hung out there while each one of use had ISP interviews trying to decide what we would do. I think I am headed south to Loja for the month to do community outreach with disabled people. I guess I would work with a therapist and go to peoples houses (they dont have transportation to get to a clinic so we go to them) to work with them. It should be interesting and hopefully help me decide about physical therapy or nursing. Well see.
Anywho, we made it back after a very carsick bus ride to Manta airport and then a bumpy flight back to Quito. I have the day off to write two essays and do whatever else I want. Its nice to be back in a city where I can eat as little as I want and have a real place to stay (without roosters and trucks blaring in my ears in the morning) but I definitely miss the coast. Hopefully I didnt forget to mention too many things. I now have SKYPE at my HOUSE YESSS!!! So people should skype me. its much much cheaper than calling. my sn is mecua13. miss you all!
maddie
Life with my new family has been a little dull, so Ive had to attept to spice it up by exploring Quito, though I definitely still dont feel like I know it very well. I have been doing some pilates (our teacher is the only woman Ive seen who wears cute workout clothes... seriously. they need some lulu lemon here for sure). October 8th was Audrys birthday so we had a delicious cake at school and learned the "Ecuadorian way" to cute cake. You make a circle in the middle (thats the part the birthday girl/boy gets) and then cut the rest in pieces. Then there are no points so the cake cant fall over. I still found it to be very difficult on my birthday. Anyways, that night her family have a really cute party for her. It was just Audrys fam, Eva, Liz, Marcello and me and we had dinner and cake and then talked for awhile. Thursday night we actually went out to celebrate and went to a really cool restaurant called "La Boca de Lobo" ie the mouth of the wolf. It was really funky and I definitely want to bring Mom and Dad there. We went out dancing afterwards and it was super fun but it definitely catered to gringos. They played the YMCA song haha. it was GREAT. The only problem to that night is for the first time since senior year of high school, I had a CURFEW. A CURFEW! Do you hear these words? I hope not because they are terrible. Olga first told me to be home at midnight (let me just remind you we didnt even have school on friday) and I pushed it back to one. (I know Im such a rebel haha). Anyways the dancing was still fun even though I had a curfew.
Saturday night of that weekend I wanted to go out but it seemed like nobody was so when Olga told me the "primos" were coming, I was down. Now lets just imagine what we think of when people say the "cousins" are coming. I think of people my age coming to hang out. NO! I WAS TRICKED. My 18 year old sister went out with her boyfriend and I stayed home with Olga and her friends/family to play 31, a card game and I had to put in money. It wasnt very MUCH money, but thats not the point at all! Ugh i was so angry. tricky lady. anyways, the Sunday before we left for the coast, we went to a soccer game (Ecuador vs. Chile-- it was for the eliminary round to go to south africa for the world cup) and that made up for it. It was a DAY LONG event but it was fun. We got there around noon and I bought a THREE DOLAR jersey. so cheap LOVE IT! We went into the stadium and hung around cheering and chanting with all the locals all afternoon long. Faba got us the tickets and I definitely think he purposely put us in the section with the rowdy fans. It was great! The game started at 4:50pm. It had rained the whole time we were waiting so we were all cold and wet, but it was still awesome! Ecuador won (i forget the score... woops) and afterwards I met up with my old host family. I miss them so much!
Monday was my birthday and my awesome directors brought cake for the group. It was delicious! We had class all day, went over ISP topics, and had a test... lovely birthday present NOT lol). Everyone said happy birthday to me yay and that afternoon, for the fourth time, I went to get my cense and ACTUALLY got it (thats the national ID card... its just like in the US going to get your license. A ROYAL PAIN IN THE BUTT) Anyways for my birthday, someone wanted to be nice to me and let me get it. That night, my family and I celebrated my sister and my birthday. She got a really cute rabbit from her boyfriend (Olga wasnt so keen on the idea but thats okay) and they gave me a cute bag! It was very useful for my trip to the coast too! We had pizza and cake and Eva came over too. Not the 21st birthday most people are used to but thats okay. Ive decided Im recelebrating when I get home. :)
We left for the coast Tuesday morning on a 10 am flight to Guayaquil. It was only 35 minutes which was MUCH better than taking a 10 hour bus ride. We went to lunch and to a museum and then to a talk on recycling that lasted almost 3 hours. I think we all learned the information from that talk in the third grade, but thats okay. We went to dinner in some neighborhood and then went back to the hotel to hang out. Little did we know that after the bus dropped us off for dinner, our directors headed to Leonores daugthers birthday dinner. They took an unmarked cab and were held up at gunpoint and the robbers stole $1000 (think about that value in American and multiply in by ten... thats the worth here because the economy is much lower). Anyways, we found out the next morning and Faba had a shiner and it was not a fun situation.
Wednesday afternoon we headed up the coast and were dropped off at our villages. Eva and I went to Cadeate. Our family was amazing and I think we had one of the wealthier families. Our 28 year old mom, Nancy, had her own perfumeria, and our 32 year old dad, Jugo, worked in a panaderia. Cadeate is known for bread so we (well Eva mostly) ate a LOT of bread. She didnt like a lot fo the food, so I was forced to eat some of it because leaving food on your plate while staying in a poor town isnt really acceptable. anyways we went running there, went to the beach a lot, talked to the town people and watched a lot of soccer. We had three younger sisters and they were so cute. It was a little weird though to see Nancy looking through my youngest sisters hair, FOR LICE. She acted like nothing was wrong. I told Eva and we both FREAKED OUT. I forgot to mention this: Thursday afternoon we went swimming and I was the only one in the water. I dove under a wave because I thought it was huge, but it definitely was NOT. I pretty much got in a fight with the sand. It was sad and a broke my face... or rather skinned my nose and forehead and my sisters and eva were afraid to look at me for a day. I think im better now though haha.
We left on Sunday afternoon and took a bus an hour and a half north to Alandaluz, and ecological resort that was on the beach and gorgeous! We hung out there while each one of use had ISP interviews trying to decide what we would do. I think I am headed south to Loja for the month to do community outreach with disabled people. I guess I would work with a therapist and go to peoples houses (they dont have transportation to get to a clinic so we go to them) to work with them. It should be interesting and hopefully help me decide about physical therapy or nursing. Well see.
Anywho, we made it back after a very carsick bus ride to Manta airport and then a bumpy flight back to Quito. I have the day off to write two essays and do whatever else I want. Its nice to be back in a city where I can eat as little as I want and have a real place to stay (without roosters and trucks blaring in my ears in the morning) but I definitely miss the coast. Hopefully I didnt forget to mention too many things. I now have SKYPE at my HOUSE YESSS!!! So people should skype me. its much much cheaper than calling. my sn is mecua13. miss you all!
maddie
Sunday, October 5, 2008
jungle fun
The jungle was AWESOME! I felt like I was in a movie the whole time because the scenery was so beautiful. Now if I could just do something about the humidity and the bugs, I think it would be PERFECT. Here´s the scoop on what we did:
We left Monday morning from the Alston at 9am. We stopped at some hot springs on our long drive. I think I could have stayed there ALL day. Literally. They are heated naturally by volcanoes and Faba said the origin is 125 degrees F. INTENSE. Don´t worry, the pools weren´t that hot. Apparently some girl a few years back stayed in the hot pool too long and because these hotsprings are at 10,000 feet or so, they cause low blood pressure and she fainted! We were actually smart and followed directions, ie went in the freezing cold pool every ten minutes or so... I cheated a bit. I only stuck my feet in, but that counts, doesn´t it? We had DELICIOUS pb&j sandwhiches for lunch with apples and oranges... yum yum! and then headed back on the road.
The first night at Aliñahui (one of the lodges we stayed in) was the rainiest. It DOWNPOURED. It was sort of cool to have the thunder and lightning because we just sat around and chatted while lying in hammocks. Not too hard of a life. Plus the rain got rid of the millions of bugs... at least for a little while.
Tuesday morning rolled around and after... GETTING TO SERVE OURSELVES (this is big news because normally we don´t get to and they give us mounds of rice)... we headed to Arajuno Jungle Lodge via motorized canoes to drop our stuff. Then we went to a small community called Santa Bárbara to spend time with the community. I guess we were supposed to teach the kids math, but we were given colored pencils and packets with pictures of numbers so we all told the kids to color. They loved it though haha. Then, lets just imagine 85 degrees F and probably 90% humidity shall we, now lets spend three hours painting in it. AHH. We painted the outside of the school and the school desks and although it was one of the sweatiest and most dehydrated moments of my life, it was well well worth it. They school looked GREAT (what can I say, apparently we are amazing painters) and the desks will be in shape for at least a few years. The community had recently been given sets of plates, cups, bowls, and silverware, and Tom, the owner of the Arajuno Jungle Lodge, had recently given them a class on sanitizing things and how to serve food to tourists. We had Talapia (I think that´s how you spell it... it´s a kind of fish) some cabbage salad and yuca and it was DELICIOUS. And becuase there were full ribcages of bones in the fish, it forced me to slow down (mom...don´t try giving me fish with that many bones at home. it won´t work haha). Afterwards, we went on a walk to see the community. We were supposed to play the kiddos in soccer (they probably would have kicked our behinds MAJORLY) but we were all too exhausted so we went back to the Arajuno Jungle Lodge (Arajuno is the name of the river) and went swimming. Best feeling ever!
Tom, the owner, has a pet monkey named Mona. She is only one and a half years old and she is AWESOME. She definitely reminds me of a two year old spoiled brat sometimse, but, she was still a monkey that we got to hold and play with. I´ll put up pics so you can see her. Tom´s place was really nice. He has four cabins and they seem like swiss family robinson. its great. Anyway we hung around his place for the afternoon and played scattagories at night. I can´t believe it, but i´d never played before!
Wednesday we had an incredible speaker come take us on a nature hike. He spoke about ahh the word is blanking my mind, subsistent farming?? but pretty much that we should learn to grow our own food and stop feeding the large national companies that hurt the world. It was a great talk and mom and dad, I think we need to plant more food. Or maybe at least buy local. Now I just sound like a ecuadorian-turned-hippy haha. But you should have heard his talk. It makes total sense.
Wednesday afternoon we were back at Aliñahui and went on a nature hike with another guy and then had an hour to spend solo in the jungle. Now, y´all know me and you probably think of me as a fairly outdoorsy person. Well, at least I think of myself as a fairly outdoorsy person. But, when I sat down in the jungle and there were bugs crawling all around me, I decided that sitting was just not going to work because the bugs, even with my 36% DEET bug repellent on, loved me. So (Mom, you´ll love this) I did YOGA. haha. It was great. A little difficult in non-stretchy jungle pants and big boots, but it worked.
Finally, on Friday we came back to the big city. I LOVED the Jungle. Audry is thinking about doing her ISP there and helping Tom start a medicinal garden, but I don´t think I could stand being that sweaty and sticky and buggy all the time (my hands stuck to my face from the humidity... yuck). I wish I could spend another month there because it´s AMAZING. If you get a chance, go to Tena, or just somewhere in the jungle.
I am now with my new family. The last night in the jungle I caught the stomach virus that 6 or 7 other people in the group had, but I am now better! My mom´s name is Olga, and my sister´s name is Carolina. She is 17 but is turning 18 on, get this, OCTOBER 13th!!! How random is it that we have the SAME birthday! I like her a lot. Last night, Olga, Carolina, her boyfriend Daniel, and Daniel´s mom and I went to see a comedian but the tickets were sold out so instead we went to the cine and saw Mr. Woodcock. Billy Bob Thornton was a great actor but the plot was just sad. Mom would have walked out, no doubt. So now I´m at my host family´s. I guess my dad, Tito, works in Guayaquil and rarely comes home. I dunno what´s up with that but I like having an all-girl house.
Lastly, Aunt Jane: THANKS for the facebook happy birthday! I LOVED IT! And my friends think it´s great that you have facebook haha.
I miss you all and hope all is well at home, even with the horrible financial stuff going on. Yuck. Ooh to end on good news, Faba has lots of connections and he´s getting the group tickets to the Ecuador vs. Chile soccer game on October 12th. It´s a huge huge game. NOT A BAD BIRTHDAY PRESENT, EH?? SO STOKED!
We left Monday morning from the Alston at 9am. We stopped at some hot springs on our long drive. I think I could have stayed there ALL day. Literally. They are heated naturally by volcanoes and Faba said the origin is 125 degrees F. INTENSE. Don´t worry, the pools weren´t that hot. Apparently some girl a few years back stayed in the hot pool too long and because these hotsprings are at 10,000 feet or so, they cause low blood pressure and she fainted! We were actually smart and followed directions, ie went in the freezing cold pool every ten minutes or so... I cheated a bit. I only stuck my feet in, but that counts, doesn´t it? We had DELICIOUS pb&j sandwhiches for lunch with apples and oranges... yum yum! and then headed back on the road.
The first night at Aliñahui (one of the lodges we stayed in) was the rainiest. It DOWNPOURED. It was sort of cool to have the thunder and lightning because we just sat around and chatted while lying in hammocks. Not too hard of a life. Plus the rain got rid of the millions of bugs... at least for a little while.
Tuesday morning rolled around and after... GETTING TO SERVE OURSELVES (this is big news because normally we don´t get to and they give us mounds of rice)... we headed to Arajuno Jungle Lodge via motorized canoes to drop our stuff. Then we went to a small community called Santa Bárbara to spend time with the community. I guess we were supposed to teach the kids math, but we were given colored pencils and packets with pictures of numbers so we all told the kids to color. They loved it though haha. Then, lets just imagine 85 degrees F and probably 90% humidity shall we, now lets spend three hours painting in it. AHH. We painted the outside of the school and the school desks and although it was one of the sweatiest and most dehydrated moments of my life, it was well well worth it. They school looked GREAT (what can I say, apparently we are amazing painters) and the desks will be in shape for at least a few years. The community had recently been given sets of plates, cups, bowls, and silverware, and Tom, the owner of the Arajuno Jungle Lodge, had recently given them a class on sanitizing things and how to serve food to tourists. We had Talapia (I think that´s how you spell it... it´s a kind of fish) some cabbage salad and yuca and it was DELICIOUS. And becuase there were full ribcages of bones in the fish, it forced me to slow down (mom...don´t try giving me fish with that many bones at home. it won´t work haha). Afterwards, we went on a walk to see the community. We were supposed to play the kiddos in soccer (they probably would have kicked our behinds MAJORLY) but we were all too exhausted so we went back to the Arajuno Jungle Lodge (Arajuno is the name of the river) and went swimming. Best feeling ever!
Tom, the owner, has a pet monkey named Mona. She is only one and a half years old and she is AWESOME. She definitely reminds me of a two year old spoiled brat sometimse, but, she was still a monkey that we got to hold and play with. I´ll put up pics so you can see her. Tom´s place was really nice. He has four cabins and they seem like swiss family robinson. its great. Anyway we hung around his place for the afternoon and played scattagories at night. I can´t believe it, but i´d never played before!
Wednesday we had an incredible speaker come take us on a nature hike. He spoke about ahh the word is blanking my mind, subsistent farming?? but pretty much that we should learn to grow our own food and stop feeding the large national companies that hurt the world. It was a great talk and mom and dad, I think we need to plant more food. Or maybe at least buy local. Now I just sound like a ecuadorian-turned-hippy haha. But you should have heard his talk. It makes total sense.
Wednesday afternoon we were back at Aliñahui and went on a nature hike with another guy and then had an hour to spend solo in the jungle. Now, y´all know me and you probably think of me as a fairly outdoorsy person. Well, at least I think of myself as a fairly outdoorsy person. But, when I sat down in the jungle and there were bugs crawling all around me, I decided that sitting was just not going to work because the bugs, even with my 36% DEET bug repellent on, loved me. So (Mom, you´ll love this) I did YOGA. haha. It was great. A little difficult in non-stretchy jungle pants and big boots, but it worked.
Finally, on Friday we came back to the big city. I LOVED the Jungle. Audry is thinking about doing her ISP there and helping Tom start a medicinal garden, but I don´t think I could stand being that sweaty and sticky and buggy all the time (my hands stuck to my face from the humidity... yuck). I wish I could spend another month there because it´s AMAZING. If you get a chance, go to Tena, or just somewhere in the jungle.
I am now with my new family. The last night in the jungle I caught the stomach virus that 6 or 7 other people in the group had, but I am now better! My mom´s name is Olga, and my sister´s name is Carolina. She is 17 but is turning 18 on, get this, OCTOBER 13th!!! How random is it that we have the SAME birthday! I like her a lot. Last night, Olga, Carolina, her boyfriend Daniel, and Daniel´s mom and I went to see a comedian but the tickets were sold out so instead we went to the cine and saw Mr. Woodcock. Billy Bob Thornton was a great actor but the plot was just sad. Mom would have walked out, no doubt. So now I´m at my host family´s. I guess my dad, Tito, works in Guayaquil and rarely comes home. I dunno what´s up with that but I like having an all-girl house.
Lastly, Aunt Jane: THANKS for the facebook happy birthday! I LOVED IT! And my friends think it´s great that you have facebook haha.
I miss you all and hope all is well at home, even with the horrible financial stuff going on. Yuck. Ooh to end on good news, Faba has lots of connections and he´s getting the group tickets to the Ecuador vs. Chile soccer game on October 12th. It´s a huge huge game. NOT A BAD BIRTHDAY PRESENT, EH?? SO STOKED!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
"I thought I´d seen it all"
We were informed at the beginning of our intensive Spanish month that the last Friday of classes, we would have to do a 20-minute Spanish presentation on a topic of our choice, but it had to be something we had covered in our Talleres class (therefore, something to do with Ecuadorian history or current affairs in Ecuador). My professora, Jacqueline, didn´t make it sound too intense and said we could start on Thursday, when we would be given an hour to work on it. So, Thursday rolls around, and we decide we want to do something with the life story of Rumiñahui BECAUSE Sarah Heimlich (an awesome but crazy girl in my class) has ´I´ll Make a Man Out of You´ from Mulan, on her computer, and we LOVE this song. So, Ashley, Hilary and I start writing the "story" of Rumiñahui, half CREATIVELY made-up, and half actual facts haha, and Sarah and Alec start writing the lyrics to the Spanish/Rumiñahui version of this song. It was fabulous, let´s just say that. Thursday afternoon, Alec, Sarah and Ashley finished up the lyrics to not only "I´ll Make a Man out of You", but also Spanish/Rumiñahui lyrics to the Little Mermaid´s "Part of Your World" and Aladin´s "A Whole New World". On Friday, after I had finished the "story", we practiced and made DANCES to our little skit as well. Let´s just say, we jumped around like horrible ballerinas, pretended like we were warriors, colored a face on a small rock to make the "stone face" and pretended to fight a lot of people, while wearing scarves on our heads to look like warrior band things (they really just looked rediculous). It was FABULOUS! As Faba said afterwards, "I thought I´d seen it all" and really, he has seen a LOT in his life, so we obviously made an impact :) haha. I had so much fun, and in reality, I learned so much about Rumiñahui, I can now easily explain the story, in Spanish or English, to any who wants to know. Just give me the a-okay, and i´ll tellyou the best darn story of Rumiñahui there is!
Anyways, Friday is NOT over yet! Friday afternoon, Mamita, Antony and I went on a search for jungle pants in Sangolquí and found some near the market. They were a whole $8 and they are EXTREMELY attractive. They are navy blue with white stripes and cargo pockets. Y´all should be jealous, that´s all I can say.
Mamita and I had taken naps and therefore left a little late, so by the time we got back to the house it was already 6:15 and we were supposed to be at the end-of-the-month fiesta at SEVEN. Don´t worry folks, we are on Ecuadorian time here. I put on my blue dress from Spain and my mom, dad, sister, and antony went to the fiesta. We had dinner and Lisa played three songs (one in Spanish, can you believe that!). She is an amazing artist, can I just say that. Then it was time to dance! I love to dance, but don´t love it when I am being judged. Let´s just say us folk in Gig Harbor don´t take a lot of dance lessons and therefore are not so great at dancing to Ecuadorian salsa and marengue music. Ie I AM NOT so great at Ecuadorian crazy funky dance. But, my sister tried to teach me (I am a failure, what can I say). Eventually, around 10pm, a lot of the family members had left and we decided to dance GRINGO style (ie. have very little rhythm, jump around like crazy people, and just have fun). I swear, my sister thought I was crazy. While we were Gringo-dancing, she stayed on the dance floor, but definitely did not partake in our bad-dancing-party. It was fun though, so I´m glad I exposed her haha. I went home with my family around 11:30pm (Antony had passed out on mamita´s shoulder around 9pm) and I went straight to bed. Lol, I´m such a party animal.
Saturday morning, the fam was semi-loud so I couldn´t sleep past 8 or so. I got up and hung out until about 12pm when I went to San Luis to meet Eva so we could search for thank-you presents. It is a lot more difficult than one would think. Eva wanted to print a picture of the family, so we went to a photo-developing place. You would be AMAZED at how many options there are on those digital photo things, especially how many frames there are! AHH! It took awhile and then we found out each photo would cost FIFTY CENTS ($0.50) unless she got 50 pictures and then the 50 prints would cost $10.00. Is that not rediculous! I have been educated: Shutterfly is definitely the way to go.
I went home for lunch and we had PIZZA HUT, which in Ecuador is seen as GODLY. It tastes pretty much the same as at home, which, when you have it once in awhile, does taste pretty delicious. But here it is GODLY. After that I took a cab into the boonies to Eva´s house. She lives in a MANSION. I live in a nice Ecuadorian house that I love. She lives in a nice American house, if you know what I mean. We made cookies and brownies for our families. It is much more difficult to cook at 9000 feet. The brownies were good, but they stuck to the pan, so they didn´t LOOK so good haha.
It is now Sunday morning. I woke up at 7:30am after going to bed at midnight. I don´t know why I can´t sleep in here... it´s very very strange. The sky is clear, blue and it looks deceptively warm out, but I know it most likely is not :( I am leaving at 3:30pm to go to Quito for the night and then to the JUNGLE until Friday!!! We have a lot planned, but the rivers are flooding so we might not be able to travel the rivers and might have to stay at the lodge. I hope they go down though! If we can travel, we will go by motorized canoes to a school to teach them math (I don´t know who thinks of these crazy ideas) and then to play soccer with them yay! I have a feeling we might get our butts kicked by elementary school kids. We also are going to have an art session with clay yay and are going to a building with a disco-ball in the middle (ie a discoteca i guess...)
It should be interesting who wins the fight with my luggage today. I have a feeling that I might lose. Wish me tons of luck though! Chao!
madz
Anyways, Friday is NOT over yet! Friday afternoon, Mamita, Antony and I went on a search for jungle pants in Sangolquí and found some near the market. They were a whole $8 and they are EXTREMELY attractive. They are navy blue with white stripes and cargo pockets. Y´all should be jealous, that´s all I can say.
Mamita and I had taken naps and therefore left a little late, so by the time we got back to the house it was already 6:15 and we were supposed to be at the end-of-the-month fiesta at SEVEN. Don´t worry folks, we are on Ecuadorian time here. I put on my blue dress from Spain and my mom, dad, sister, and antony went to the fiesta. We had dinner and Lisa played three songs (one in Spanish, can you believe that!). She is an amazing artist, can I just say that. Then it was time to dance! I love to dance, but don´t love it when I am being judged. Let´s just say us folk in Gig Harbor don´t take a lot of dance lessons and therefore are not so great at dancing to Ecuadorian salsa and marengue music. Ie I AM NOT so great at Ecuadorian crazy funky dance. But, my sister tried to teach me (I am a failure, what can I say). Eventually, around 10pm, a lot of the family members had left and we decided to dance GRINGO style (ie. have very little rhythm, jump around like crazy people, and just have fun). I swear, my sister thought I was crazy. While we were Gringo-dancing, she stayed on the dance floor, but definitely did not partake in our bad-dancing-party. It was fun though, so I´m glad I exposed her haha. I went home with my family around 11:30pm (Antony had passed out on mamita´s shoulder around 9pm) and I went straight to bed. Lol, I´m such a party animal.
Saturday morning, the fam was semi-loud so I couldn´t sleep past 8 or so. I got up and hung out until about 12pm when I went to San Luis to meet Eva so we could search for thank-you presents. It is a lot more difficult than one would think. Eva wanted to print a picture of the family, so we went to a photo-developing place. You would be AMAZED at how many options there are on those digital photo things, especially how many frames there are! AHH! It took awhile and then we found out each photo would cost FIFTY CENTS ($0.50) unless she got 50 pictures and then the 50 prints would cost $10.00. Is that not rediculous! I have been educated: Shutterfly is definitely the way to go.
I went home for lunch and we had PIZZA HUT, which in Ecuador is seen as GODLY. It tastes pretty much the same as at home, which, when you have it once in awhile, does taste pretty delicious. But here it is GODLY. After that I took a cab into the boonies to Eva´s house. She lives in a MANSION. I live in a nice Ecuadorian house that I love. She lives in a nice American house, if you know what I mean. We made cookies and brownies for our families. It is much more difficult to cook at 9000 feet. The brownies were good, but they stuck to the pan, so they didn´t LOOK so good haha.
It is now Sunday morning. I woke up at 7:30am after going to bed at midnight. I don´t know why I can´t sleep in here... it´s very very strange. The sky is clear, blue and it looks deceptively warm out, but I know it most likely is not :( I am leaving at 3:30pm to go to Quito for the night and then to the JUNGLE until Friday!!! We have a lot planned, but the rivers are flooding so we might not be able to travel the rivers and might have to stay at the lodge. I hope they go down though! If we can travel, we will go by motorized canoes to a school to teach them math (I don´t know who thinks of these crazy ideas) and then to play soccer with them yay! I have a feeling we might get our butts kicked by elementary school kids. We also are going to have an art session with clay yay and are going to a building with a disco-ball in the middle (ie a discoteca i guess...)
It should be interesting who wins the fight with my luggage today. I have a feeling that I might lose. Wish me tons of luck though! Chao!
madz
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Can´t Believe A Month Has Passed
I cannot believe I was in the Seatac Airport exactly one month and two days ago at 4:30 in the morning. It seems SO LONG AGO! And the even weirder thing is that I´m leaving Sangolquí on Sunday. I´m really sad to leave my fam (I actually am, no lie at all. This is a first for host families) but VERY excited to go to the oriente and to meet my new Quito host family!
The past week I have spent a LOT of time studying at San Luis, the mall nearby, at la café de la vaca. It has free wireless (ie my friends love it) and I can study and get actual coffee. We did learn though that the milk is a little iffy by itself... it was disgusting to be more precise. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons I went to the vaca. We have now learned that around 3:30pm every single friggin day, there is a DOWNPOUR (ie. a TROPICAL THUNDER STORM) so you better be prepared. Therefore, even if the sun is shining so brightly through the bathroom window that I can barely see, I now bring my rain jacket. I find it to be a very smart decision when the rain starts to drench my friends. Don´t worry, I only laugh inside.
I forgot to inform you all of last weekend, AFTER the fun camping incident. Saturday morning I got home and slept only until 11:30am. I decided I should get up because we were going to Adolfo´s for lunch. We went, but neither I nor my fam new many of the people there because it was mostly friends of Joy (Adolfo´s wife). I asked my parents if I could meet my friends at the movies and they were kind enough to drop me at San Luis (honestly, I think they wanted to leave too, but it was extremely kind of them to do so). Libby and Audrey and their host brother´s and I went to "busqueda..." something or other. It was about a 17 year old girl who goes to Paris to vacation with a friend and gets kidnapped to be sold as a prostitute. Lets just say I am MUCH more cautious after seeing that movie because it does relate to me a little bit (I am only 20 and I am traveling abroad with lots of creepy guys all around... scary haha). We went to coffee and then I came home and relaxed for the night. Sunday morning I played in a women´s basketball league with my sister and our team was HORRIBLE. Although we could have easily lost 40 to 4 (and you know how I am with my competitiveness), I held my cool and now realize it was a great workout. That afternoon I met up with Libby and Audrey again. I met them at Quito FEST. There was about a two hour line but we snuck to the front and that line took about 2 mintes (it was a secret all girls line, otherwise known as we are sneaky people and know how to cut haha). Friday at QuitoFest had been all HARD ROCK bands, so I passed. Then there was an EXTREME storm on Saturday and the power went out and there was a lot of thunder and lightning so the concert was cancelled. Sunday was reggae and r&b and I LOVED IT. the music was great, the people were fun but not too crazy, and I didn´t see the cruza roja helping anyone (that´s good!). I took some pics too. It was great because the performers actually looked like they were having the time of their life, and they were big time artists too.
Anyways, that´s my life for now! Hope y´all are having fun wherever in the world you might be. chao for now
madz
The past week I have spent a LOT of time studying at San Luis, the mall nearby, at la café de la vaca. It has free wireless (ie my friends love it) and I can study and get actual coffee. We did learn though that the milk is a little iffy by itself... it was disgusting to be more precise. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons I went to the vaca. We have now learned that around 3:30pm every single friggin day, there is a DOWNPOUR (ie. a TROPICAL THUNDER STORM) so you better be prepared. Therefore, even if the sun is shining so brightly through the bathroom window that I can barely see, I now bring my rain jacket. I find it to be a very smart decision when the rain starts to drench my friends. Don´t worry, I only laugh inside.
I forgot to inform you all of last weekend, AFTER the fun camping incident. Saturday morning I got home and slept only until 11:30am. I decided I should get up because we were going to Adolfo´s for lunch. We went, but neither I nor my fam new many of the people there because it was mostly friends of Joy (Adolfo´s wife). I asked my parents if I could meet my friends at the movies and they were kind enough to drop me at San Luis (honestly, I think they wanted to leave too, but it was extremely kind of them to do so). Libby and Audrey and their host brother´s and I went to "busqueda..." something or other. It was about a 17 year old girl who goes to Paris to vacation with a friend and gets kidnapped to be sold as a prostitute. Lets just say I am MUCH more cautious after seeing that movie because it does relate to me a little bit (I am only 20 and I am traveling abroad with lots of creepy guys all around... scary haha). We went to coffee and then I came home and relaxed for the night. Sunday morning I played in a women´s basketball league with my sister and our team was HORRIBLE. Although we could have easily lost 40 to 4 (and you know how I am with my competitiveness), I held my cool and now realize it was a great workout. That afternoon I met up with Libby and Audrey again. I met them at Quito FEST. There was about a two hour line but we snuck to the front and that line took about 2 mintes (it was a secret all girls line, otherwise known as we are sneaky people and know how to cut haha). Friday at QuitoFest had been all HARD ROCK bands, so I passed. Then there was an EXTREME storm on Saturday and the power went out and there was a lot of thunder and lightning so the concert was cancelled. Sunday was reggae and r&b and I LOVED IT. the music was great, the people were fun but not too crazy, and I didn´t see the cruza roja helping anyone (that´s good!). I took some pics too. It was great because the performers actually looked like they were having the time of their life, and they were big time artists too.
Anyways, that´s my life for now! Hope y´all are having fun wherever in the world you might be. chao for now
madz
Saturday, September 20, 2008
I DO know how to have fun
Main topic of this blog: Ecuadorian "camping"
So, last night was, to say the least, an adventure. It made me realize how much I appreciate growing up in the Great Northwest and knowing how to camp and backpack farther than 100 m from a house. Also, a new rule I made for life: once past the age of 13, you are not allowed to sleep in tents when there is a house within 100 m. I like my new rule.
So the story goes like this: On thursday night, my host brother, Galo, invited me to go camping with him, his girlfriend (who´s really nice and awesome by the way), and a bunch of their friends so of course I said yes. He said we would leave around 6, so I got home at 5 thinking I had plenty of time to take a quick nap and get ready. BUT, he wasn´t there. Mamita told me that he had left, and I should grab a jacket and we would go. So, while wearing JEANS, a T-SHIRT, and tennis shoes (the same outfit I wore to go to a museum in Quito earlier that day), I grabbed a jacket, raincoat and hat, and we left. When I texted Jenny telling her I was wearing jeans to go camping in someone´s backyard, she said "I´m sure it will be a once in a lifetime experience!" This is when I should have known something was fishy (who goes camping in jeans???) Although all of the friends were supposedly my age, they seemed younger... I´m not sure why. Maybe it´s a cultural thing? One of the guys looked like Josh Hartnett and I definitely didn´t mind that haha.
The first part of the night was really fun: We got to the house around 7 pm after stopping to get meat and food and hung out for awhile. I learned how to play the Ecuadorian card game ´cuarenta´(i.e. 40) and my partner and I won! YAY! The guys tried to start a fire with a bunch of coals and it took them almost an hour. It was quite hilarious. Once they got it started, they cooked the meat (there was SO MUCH MEAT. Whenever they bbq here, there is ALWAYS extra!) We finished dinner around 11:30pm and decided to go outside and set up the tent and start a fire.
Here comes the good part: It was FREEZING cold outside, I was exhausted from getting up early and walking around Quito all day (ie I was not in a very good mood... Mom and Dad know about this aspect of my life quite well haha) and we didn´t have sleeping pads or blankets. Liz made a fire and I was sitting in the tent, which was about 10 feet from the fire, becuase I didn´t want my pants to get wet (wet=cold and cold=mad maddie). But, that was not okay. And I kept getting asked if I was okay and if I wanted to sit closer, and why was I sitting so far away. So, after about 10 minutes of the questions, I gave in and moved closer. At 1:15am, I looked at my watch and decided if they hadn´t gone to bed by 2:15am I would go on my own. Soooo, 2:15 rolls around and I decided to get in the very uncomfortable cold tent. I found out my rain jacket insulates heat very well, so I kept it on, and used the airplane blanket that Liz´s sister let me borrow, to keep me warm. Around 3:15am, everyone came to bed and a gained a sleeping bag for the ground, and another blanket to put over me. THANK GOODNESS. I was so happy becuase I didn´t wake up once after I fell asleep until everyone else got up. Do you know why I didn´t wake up once? Because we got up at 6:30 freakin AM to take someone home because she had to be there at 7am. I have to say though, once I got home, my bed was like heaven. It was the most comfortable thing I have been in for a long time (I think my judgement was slurred a little bit from the lack of sleep).
I forgot to note that I texted pat around 3:30am telling him how cold and angry I was haha and then this morning he laughed at me and when I talked to Dad tonight (mom had relayed the story to him), he said that "I sure know how to have fun!" It´s true though. Jenny and Dad were right, it was a once in a lifetime experience, and I DO know how to have fun!
So, last night was, to say the least, an adventure. It made me realize how much I appreciate growing up in the Great Northwest and knowing how to camp and backpack farther than 100 m from a house. Also, a new rule I made for life: once past the age of 13, you are not allowed to sleep in tents when there is a house within 100 m. I like my new rule.
So the story goes like this: On thursday night, my host brother, Galo, invited me to go camping with him, his girlfriend (who´s really nice and awesome by the way), and a bunch of their friends so of course I said yes. He said we would leave around 6, so I got home at 5 thinking I had plenty of time to take a quick nap and get ready. BUT, he wasn´t there. Mamita told me that he had left, and I should grab a jacket and we would go. So, while wearing JEANS, a T-SHIRT, and tennis shoes (the same outfit I wore to go to a museum in Quito earlier that day), I grabbed a jacket, raincoat and hat, and we left. When I texted Jenny telling her I was wearing jeans to go camping in someone´s backyard, she said "I´m sure it will be a once in a lifetime experience!" This is when I should have known something was fishy (who goes camping in jeans???) Although all of the friends were supposedly my age, they seemed younger... I´m not sure why. Maybe it´s a cultural thing? One of the guys looked like Josh Hartnett and I definitely didn´t mind that haha.
The first part of the night was really fun: We got to the house around 7 pm after stopping to get meat and food and hung out for awhile. I learned how to play the Ecuadorian card game ´cuarenta´(i.e. 40) and my partner and I won! YAY! The guys tried to start a fire with a bunch of coals and it took them almost an hour. It was quite hilarious. Once they got it started, they cooked the meat (there was SO MUCH MEAT. Whenever they bbq here, there is ALWAYS extra!) We finished dinner around 11:30pm and decided to go outside and set up the tent and start a fire.
Here comes the good part: It was FREEZING cold outside, I was exhausted from getting up early and walking around Quito all day (ie I was not in a very good mood... Mom and Dad know about this aspect of my life quite well haha) and we didn´t have sleeping pads or blankets. Liz made a fire and I was sitting in the tent, which was about 10 feet from the fire, becuase I didn´t want my pants to get wet (wet=cold and cold=mad maddie). But, that was not okay. And I kept getting asked if I was okay and if I wanted to sit closer, and why was I sitting so far away. So, after about 10 minutes of the questions, I gave in and moved closer. At 1:15am, I looked at my watch and decided if they hadn´t gone to bed by 2:15am I would go on my own. Soooo, 2:15 rolls around and I decided to get in the very uncomfortable cold tent. I found out my rain jacket insulates heat very well, so I kept it on, and used the airplane blanket that Liz´s sister let me borrow, to keep me warm. Around 3:15am, everyone came to bed and a gained a sleeping bag for the ground, and another blanket to put over me. THANK GOODNESS. I was so happy becuase I didn´t wake up once after I fell asleep until everyone else got up. Do you know why I didn´t wake up once? Because we got up at 6:30 freakin AM to take someone home because she had to be there at 7am. I have to say though, once I got home, my bed was like heaven. It was the most comfortable thing I have been in for a long time (I think my judgement was slurred a little bit from the lack of sleep).
I forgot to note that I texted pat around 3:30am telling him how cold and angry I was haha and then this morning he laughed at me and when I talked to Dad tonight (mom had relayed the story to him), he said that "I sure know how to have fun!" It´s true though. Jenny and Dad were right, it was a once in a lifetime experience, and I DO know how to have fun!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
INTAG!
I got back from Intag on Tuesday afternoon and it was SO MUCH FUN! I actually learned a lot too, about the mining situation there, and cultural differences, class differences, and biodiversity. But that´s not the fun stuff.
We left Saturday morning about 8 am and after walking into Intag on a trail for about an hour, got to the huts and the house at about 3 pm. We stayed in cabins and the girls shared two and the guys stayed in one. The first afternoon we heard a talk from Carlos, the director of DECOIN, a non-profit organization in Ecuador which I think is focused on protecting INTAG (which is an area of land), the indigenous groups who live there, and the biodiversity in Ecuador in general. He told us all about the mining situation there.
Pretty much, a Canadian company, Ascendente, was trying to put a mine in Intag, but the people there did not want it becuase it would have been extremely harmful to the watershed there and to the environment in general. Carlos got extremely involved so people were threatening him. I guess he had an anonymous source who called him 2 minutes before 19 police arrive at his door who had plans to take him to jail and kill him. Luckily, becuase of the tip, he was able to run for a few months until everything was settled. It was so crazy to hear the story first hand because it sounds like something out of a movie, but it was real! Ascendente has now been pushed away from digging the mine, but it sounds like this fight will continue for a long long while.
After his lecture, we had our first dinner at Intag. OMG the food was so good. All home grown, and they grow their own coffee!!! (don´t worry mom, i got 4 lbs that will be ready right about when you guys get here!! it´s SO GOOD) the food was all natural and so delicious.
on sunday, we were split into groups and my group had an art lesson. although it sounds silly, it was really fun. we had to draw leaves, but we weren´t allowed to look at the paper, only at the leaf. we had to follow the outline of the leaf... then we moved to people. i drew my friend audrey and she turned out looking like a monster pretty much. it was a very attractive drawing. lets just say i have NO idea how i drew such a good picture of mom when i was only in SECOND grade. i think my artist skills have sky-dived lol.
Monday, my group went on a 4 hr hike through the cloud forest. We saw some AWESOME stuff: poisonous snakes, weird insects that looked like thorns on a rose bush, salamanders, butterflys, and lots of waterfalls. It was actually a pretty hard hike, but really fun. I have TONS of pictures and filled my memory card. I´ll try to post them soon.
In the afternoon, a women´s group came. They make purses and other crafty things out of a plant from the rain forest. The purses were gorgeous and there were a ton of other things too. Waterbottle holders, place mats, bags, wallets, hot pads for the table, etc... and they were so inexpensive. it was insane and really cool to hear their story because normally women aren´t allowed to work and make money but have to stay at home and do things for their family (don´t get me started on my opinion of this lifestyle).
On Tuesday, we left and went to Otavalo, an indigenous city where there is a huge market. There was so much amazing stuff, but the annoying artisans make me so mad when they try to take advantage of me and up the price because I´m a gringo! I´m planning on going back during evals and buying a GORGEOUS hammock for denver... it´s gonna be GREAT!
I´m about to head to a puppet show that Faba, my academic director, suggested we go to. It´s at a café at the mall and has a political theme. I don´t think I´ve been to a puppet show since like third grade and this one is in Spanish, so it should be interesting. haha.
anyways, hope all is well.
chao!
We left Saturday morning about 8 am and after walking into Intag on a trail for about an hour, got to the huts and the house at about 3 pm. We stayed in cabins and the girls shared two and the guys stayed in one. The first afternoon we heard a talk from Carlos, the director of DECOIN, a non-profit organization in Ecuador which I think is focused on protecting INTAG (which is an area of land), the indigenous groups who live there, and the biodiversity in Ecuador in general. He told us all about the mining situation there.
Pretty much, a Canadian company, Ascendente, was trying to put a mine in Intag, but the people there did not want it becuase it would have been extremely harmful to the watershed there and to the environment in general. Carlos got extremely involved so people were threatening him. I guess he had an anonymous source who called him 2 minutes before 19 police arrive at his door who had plans to take him to jail and kill him. Luckily, becuase of the tip, he was able to run for a few months until everything was settled. It was so crazy to hear the story first hand because it sounds like something out of a movie, but it was real! Ascendente has now been pushed away from digging the mine, but it sounds like this fight will continue for a long long while.
After his lecture, we had our first dinner at Intag. OMG the food was so good. All home grown, and they grow their own coffee!!! (don´t worry mom, i got 4 lbs that will be ready right about when you guys get here!! it´s SO GOOD) the food was all natural and so delicious.
on sunday, we were split into groups and my group had an art lesson. although it sounds silly, it was really fun. we had to draw leaves, but we weren´t allowed to look at the paper, only at the leaf. we had to follow the outline of the leaf... then we moved to people. i drew my friend audrey and she turned out looking like a monster pretty much. it was a very attractive drawing. lets just say i have NO idea how i drew such a good picture of mom when i was only in SECOND grade. i think my artist skills have sky-dived lol.
Monday, my group went on a 4 hr hike through the cloud forest. We saw some AWESOME stuff: poisonous snakes, weird insects that looked like thorns on a rose bush, salamanders, butterflys, and lots of waterfalls. It was actually a pretty hard hike, but really fun. I have TONS of pictures and filled my memory card. I´ll try to post them soon.
In the afternoon, a women´s group came. They make purses and other crafty things out of a plant from the rain forest. The purses were gorgeous and there were a ton of other things too. Waterbottle holders, place mats, bags, wallets, hot pads for the table, etc... and they were so inexpensive. it was insane and really cool to hear their story because normally women aren´t allowed to work and make money but have to stay at home and do things for their family (don´t get me started on my opinion of this lifestyle).
On Tuesday, we left and went to Otavalo, an indigenous city where there is a huge market. There was so much amazing stuff, but the annoying artisans make me so mad when they try to take advantage of me and up the price because I´m a gringo! I´m planning on going back during evals and buying a GORGEOUS hammock for denver... it´s gonna be GREAT!
I´m about to head to a puppet show that Faba, my academic director, suggested we go to. It´s at a café at the mall and has a political theme. I don´t think I´ve been to a puppet show since like third grade and this one is in Spanish, so it should be interesting. haha.
anyways, hope all is well.
chao!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Before I enter the Big Bad cloud forest
HAPPY 19th BIRTHDAY BRO BRO!!!
I hope you go out and have a super fabulous time tonight with all your new hopefully cool friends who I´m sure know how to have an AWESOME TIME. Right? And for all you who don´t know, Pat´s new basketball number is 22! YAY!
Okay, on to me. I´m heading to Intag, which is a private ecologocial reserve in the cloud forest near Otavalo. IT´s GONNA BE AWESOME! I´m so excited to get out of the city for awhile, but mostly to see such sweet animals. Apparently there are REDICULOUSLY gorgeous birds there and there is like a bird-mating place really close by that is really unique because it´s so accessible and we are lucky enough to be able to go there! So, if you haven´t noticed, i´m STOKED. We leave tomorrow morning at 8am and come back Tuesday night around 6 pm (or that´s the plan at least). There are 2 waterfalls we can go in (although they are freezing :( but thats okay), hikes we can go on by ourselves, and apparently Faba (one of our directors) is going to tell ghost stories. Although the ghost stories sound rediculous, i have faith that they will be great! He gave a lecture today on ecological biodiversity in ecuador and had pictures at the end that he took. He had one of an alligator EATING a pirana (the fish that is). IT WAS SO AMAZING. I guess pirana´s are almost 99% vegetarian but if you are bleeding you shouldn´t go in the rivers because groups of pirana´s swarm and attack you and can be very dangerous. Just so you know that is.
More things I´ve learned in/about Ecuador:
*When riding the bus, if you want to look more like an Ecuadorian, fall a lot and ram into the seats when you are getting on (it´s not hard to do because the drivers are REDICULOUS). It´s normal actually. EVERYONE DOES IT.
*Whining is normal also. From ages 1 to 99, whining is taught and listened to (don´t worry, I won´t bring this tactic back to the states. I hate it!)
*When I am successful at bargaining, it makes me so happy!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Hace dos semanas
Sorry it´s take so long for me to update my blog. School and family stuff keeps me very occupied, even though I definitely am NOT in the school mode yet. School goes from 8am every day until either 1pm or 4pm depending if we have FSS (field study session) or not. Pretty much we talk about all the cultural things that are ¨under the surface¨ in the cultural world. Yesterday we had FSS and it was so ironic because this weekend I was a tad bit homesick and then we had the session and the first thing our teacher talked about was how right now is when culture shock really starts to set it and people start getting homesick for the luxuries of the US, for friends and family, for the norms that we definitely aren´t getting here. Don´t get me wrong, I LOVE it here, but the Spanish thing is getting really hard and I feel like I´m plateauing a little bit in my ability to learn more Spanish. Patience is a virture though, right. haha.
Even though the whole SCHOOL thing is hard to get used to, I love my profesora and love the other four girls in my class. We laugh more in class than I have laughed in any other class. We probably aren´t the most focused class, (ie we talk about very off-subject topics such as food, girl-stuff, crazy ecuatorian men, why weird things happen in our houses, and odd spanish telenovelas) but its hilarious and I love it! Five hours is definitely hard of entirely Spanish, but thats okay. We are going to an indigenous market on Thursday called Saquisilí and apparently everything is REALLY inexpensive becuase it is not focused towards tourists and therefore the prices aren´t raised. I´m hoping to come back with a TON of jewelry, purses and maybe a hammock?? What do you think? Oh and we have to buy some sort of food there to make for the group for Friday because we are having lunch/taste-testing for awhile on Friday. YAY!
This weekend most people went to a bull fight in my town, Sangolqui, becuase there was a festival there. At first it sounded interesting, but I´m so glad I didn´t go. Apparently, three people and a horse died :( and the horse´s death was completely the fault of a drunk guy who rode the horse in front of the bull and the bull kicked the horse and killed it! The town builds a stadium for this annual event, but they rebuild the stadium each year and only take about three days to build it. It´s made of planks and rope and logs... and hundreds of people jump around on it... sounds super seguro to me haha. Anyways, I guess last year the stadium collapsed! So, after hearing about the deaths and the stadium falling, and then going to the festival for about five minutes and being super confused haha, I wanted to leave. It was definitely interesting to see, but a little was enough for me.
Instead of going there, on Friday night I went to the Mariscal (ie. Gringolandía becuase its where are the foreigners go) in Quito with about ten people from the group and their host siblings. We went to ´Tomato´for dinner becuase we still haven´t gotten completely used to the no-eating-dinner thing haha. Libby´s host brother (who definitely has a mullet btw... it´s the in thing) found the concept of dinner outright strange lol. It was really delicious!!! Then we went to a discoteca and although there were tons of gringos there too (I knew because the girls were wearing dresses... I´ve learned people don´t wear dresses here haha. It´s like sandals... its like stamping ¨gringo¨on your forehead haha. It was really really fun to go out with all my friends. They played a ton of Madonna for some reason (odd eh?) and some regatón and salsa and I don´t know the other kinds. I should learn though because EVERYONE asks you what kind of music you like and what kind of music you dance to... and I always just say ´everything´ haha.
On Saturday my fam and I went to Molinuco, an ecological reserve where there are a lot of hikes to waterfalls and views of volcanoes. I LOVED IT. There are pics on my slideshow (if i can get it to work... wish me luck!) It was gorgeous. The hike was pretty much straight up so my mamita and papa and sister only came halfway and then went back down to do a different hike. I went with my brother Galo and his girlfriend Elise (i definitely was calling her Liz for awhile... to her face. lol woops. good thing i figured it out!) We went in the water, took tons of pictures, and laughed at me a lot pretty because I almost ate it hard core.. at five or six different places. More importantly, I didn´t haha.
Sunday was family day and we drove to pick up Anthony and had lunch there. It was delish but OMG they gave me SO MUCH FOOD. This week is diet week haha. I´m so excited because today I realized that my good friend Alec (who´s a girl) lives REALLY CLOSE to me. AND she wants to go running with me and to this dance/aerobic class (I think it´s like Zumba) with me tonight. I´m going with my mamacita so it would be great to have anther person. so YAY!
This week is apparently the ¨longest¨week because after this there is a lot going on to keep us extremely busy. We are headed to Intag, a town in the Cloud Forest, on Saturday and are staying there until Tuesday. I´m SO STOKED FOR THIS. I´m going to take SO MANY PICTURES it will be insane. I think we have a few lectures while we are there, and of course talk about the diversity in culture and biodiversity as well, but I´m just excited to be out of the city and to go hiking! We´ll see how it goes. I´ve heard its really fun! We have to get big rubber boots and I def wanna get some super sweet bright yellow ones haha. Why not make it fun right? Then on Wednesday night... I´M GOING TO A SOCCER GAME!!!!!!!!!! YESSSS!!!! SOOO EXCITED! So pretty much my life is awesome for the next week!
To leave you be, here are some things I´ve learned in and about Ecuador:
*the people her eat, sleep and dream rice.. and i have a feeling i´m going to get sick of it FAST
*how to take cold showers and use cold water for washing my face
*mullets are very popular for Ecuadorian guys
*knowing how to dance is a MUST... especially if you are a guy
*skirts and dresses are a no-no
*abortions are illegal
*everyone loves to talk about the new Constitution (voting occurs Sept. 28th)
*if you like people´s food, you apparently like them...
*Ecuadorian guys are very blunt and don´t hold anything back
*Caution: If you tell someone that they *es buena/o* you are telling them they are sexy
*Americans are funny just by being present...doesn´t matter what we do, we could stand there, and we are funny.
*Ecuadorians listen to the funniest American music
*You are allowed and should saludo (ie as a girl give a kiss on the cheek) to everyone when you walk in the room, or else you are WEIRD.
okay chao for now
Monday, September 1, 2008
my new ecuadorian family
I LOVE my ecuadorian family and all I can say is they make up a million times for the families I have stayed with in the past. My Mama (her name is Mercedes Toro but I call her mama) is fabulous. She is super nice, completely understanding and treats me like a daughter. My papa, Galo Sr., is hilarious and always cracks jokes with me. Sometimes I don´t quite understand them (what can I say, I´m sorta slow sometimes haha) and I get really confused then mama tells he´s joking and I sometimes then sort of understand what is going on. He´s really super nice to me. He´s a civil engineer and contracts out to people. It´s nice here how they have almuerzo as a main meal because then everyone comes home for lunch and you get to see them. Anyways, I also have a sister, Estephie (short for Estephanie) who is 17. I love her so much and it´s great cuz she´s like the sister I never had. She is a senior in collegio and wants to be a lawyer (dad, you´ve got another one on your side... I don´t know if that´s a good or bad thing). She loves make-up and manicures and pedicures and LOVES basquet... ie I think she would be infatuated with Patrick if she met him. I haven´t had a chance to show her any pics of the fam or my friends yet, but I will soon. The internet was down yesterday and Saturday night, so I couldn´t get on. That´s why I haven´t written for awhile.
As a group we came to Los Chillos (which is the name for the valley we are in) and then I came to my host family´s house in Sangolqui. They have a three-story house in an urbanizacion (which is pretty much a neighborhood) and I have my own room on the top floor next to Stephie´s room and my padres room. I have a bathroom right across the hall which I share with Stephie. I also have a TV. I LOVE IT!
Friday night I went grocery shopping with my padres (this is a much bigger experience in Ecuador than in the states... at least in my opinion. There are more fruits here than one would EVER imagine. I´ve got to try a lot and almost all of them are RICA!!). We picked up Stephie at the chocle, which is a big huge statue of rainbow colored corn. She had taken the bus to Quito and was coming back. Then we picked up Galo Jr. at the San Luis mall. Galo Jr. is 20 and really nice but he´s never home (hmm who does that remind you of haha) because he is always with Liz, his girlfriend. She seems very nice though.
Saturday we went to both of the older brother´s houses. They are both married. The second oldest brother wasn´t there though because he works in the jungle and has a schedule of 20 days on, 10 days off. Mom and Dad, you would love this: We had to take the truck becuase their grandson is staying with them and we had to fit his bike in the back, so Stephie and me sat in the bed of the truck on pillows. It was totally safe (not) lol but it actually wasn´t too scary. We listened to every variety of ecuadorian music and it was really interesting. We then went to the other brother´s house (Adolpho). He is very friendly and told me if I ever want to come back I am welcome and also that he is coming to visit us in the US next year haha. I said okay and he´s welcome too.
Saturday night Stephie and I went out to a bar/restaurant with her friends. There were people EVERYWHERE and of course everyone was dancing. There was defintely at least a 20 degree change between inside and outside from all the people dancing and moving around. I danced too cuz nobody could see me in the pitch black so i figured i wouldn´t be made fun of too horribly. The music here is fabulous. Stephie said she would make me a CD so hopefully she will.
Yesterday Stephie and I went and got our nails done. it cost a whole THREE dollars. can you believe THAT??? And it only costs $5 for a pedicure. Im definitely going back. they do these crazy designs though so I might calm it down next time. I´ll take a pic of my nails in the current state and put it up. Right now they are half light pink half neon pink. it´s loco. Then Last night we went to la momia which is the mummy. It was in ENGLISH. i was slightly ashamed to say it, but i was SO GLAD. it was so nice to be able to understand it. I actually liked the movie too. the acting wasn´t so fabulous, but the action and scenery was great.
Anyways, I´m about to go to some aerobics/dance class at the community center. My friend Joanna from the program is going and wants me to come so i´m going too. I´ll let you know how it goes. Chao!
As a group we came to Los Chillos (which is the name for the valley we are in) and then I came to my host family´s house in Sangolqui. They have a three-story house in an urbanizacion (which is pretty much a neighborhood) and I have my own room on the top floor next to Stephie´s room and my padres room. I have a bathroom right across the hall which I share with Stephie. I also have a TV. I LOVE IT!
Friday night I went grocery shopping with my padres (this is a much bigger experience in Ecuador than in the states... at least in my opinion. There are more fruits here than one would EVER imagine. I´ve got to try a lot and almost all of them are RICA!!). We picked up Stephie at the chocle, which is a big huge statue of rainbow colored corn. She had taken the bus to Quito and was coming back. Then we picked up Galo Jr. at the San Luis mall. Galo Jr. is 20 and really nice but he´s never home (hmm who does that remind you of haha) because he is always with Liz, his girlfriend. She seems very nice though.
Saturday we went to both of the older brother´s houses. They are both married. The second oldest brother wasn´t there though because he works in the jungle and has a schedule of 20 days on, 10 days off. Mom and Dad, you would love this: We had to take the truck becuase their grandson is staying with them and we had to fit his bike in the back, so Stephie and me sat in the bed of the truck on pillows. It was totally safe (not) lol but it actually wasn´t too scary. We listened to every variety of ecuadorian music and it was really interesting. We then went to the other brother´s house (Adolpho). He is very friendly and told me if I ever want to come back I am welcome and also that he is coming to visit us in the US next year haha. I said okay and he´s welcome too.
Saturday night Stephie and I went out to a bar/restaurant with her friends. There were people EVERYWHERE and of course everyone was dancing. There was defintely at least a 20 degree change between inside and outside from all the people dancing and moving around. I danced too cuz nobody could see me in the pitch black so i figured i wouldn´t be made fun of too horribly. The music here is fabulous. Stephie said she would make me a CD so hopefully she will.
Yesterday Stephie and I went and got our nails done. it cost a whole THREE dollars. can you believe THAT??? And it only costs $5 for a pedicure. Im definitely going back. they do these crazy designs though so I might calm it down next time. I´ll take a pic of my nails in the current state and put it up. Right now they are half light pink half neon pink. it´s loco. Then Last night we went to la momia which is the mummy. It was in ENGLISH. i was slightly ashamed to say it, but i was SO GLAD. it was so nice to be able to understand it. I actually liked the movie too. the acting wasn´t so fabulous, but the action and scenery was great.
Anyways, I´m about to go to some aerobics/dance class at the community center. My friend Joanna from the program is going and wants me to come so i´m going too. I´ll let you know how it goes. Chao!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
san antonio and drop-off
I´ve spent the last four days in San Antonio, a small town about 40 minutes north of Quito, at Rancho Alegre, which is a hostal that my directors of SIT, Leonore and Faba, have been coming to for years. The place was really cool. We stayed in rooms of three people and although the beds were ROCK HARD, like literally rock hard, I slept very well. We left Monday morning and drove there and then had lots and lots of scary, fun, and boring orientation sessions. The scariest was the one on male/female stereotypes and how to stay safe walking around and at parties. Some of the stories we heard were INTENSE. I know the leaders are just trying to prepare us, but they made it seem like going out would be more scary and more dangerous than just staying at home. Geez. I guess they guys constantly hit on women and drunk men are allowed to do anything they want...this shall be interesting. I guess that´s how some people see it in the states too though. Anyways, after that orientation session the girls decided the three boys are going to be our american pimps so that we do not get harassed or anything haha. We also watched an Ecuadorian film on drugs and crime in Ecuador. I guess if you get caught with drugs here you are put in jail for like THREE weeks. It´s intense. So those orientation sessions were super fun.
I did like being outside of Quito during orientation. Although it didn´t really feel like we were in Ecuador, it was nice just to be with the group, who I LOVE by the way. Everyone gets along really well and nobody is forming cliques too badly.
Today we did a ¨drop-off¨where groups of three people were assigned a town they had to go to, check out the town, and then find their way back to the Hotel Alston (where we are staying in Quito), without the help of our directors. It wasn´t too bad, especially because my group got it really easy. We had to go to Calacali, which was 25 minutes away on a direct bus. Other people had to go to quito and then go back to their towns and then come back to Quito. My town was small, but much cleaner and prettier and less dangerous than San Antonio. I swear San Antonio felt like it was constantly under construction... very odd. I have to run because we are talking to a bunch of Ecuadorian people our age to ask them questions. I have a lot too!! chao!
I did like being outside of Quito during orientation. Although it didn´t really feel like we were in Ecuador, it was nice just to be with the group, who I LOVE by the way. Everyone gets along really well and nobody is forming cliques too badly.
Today we did a ¨drop-off¨where groups of three people were assigned a town they had to go to, check out the town, and then find their way back to the Hotel Alston (where we are staying in Quito), without the help of our directors. It wasn´t too bad, especially because my group got it really easy. We had to go to Calacali, which was 25 minutes away on a direct bus. Other people had to go to quito and then go back to their towns and then come back to Quito. My town was small, but much cleaner and prettier and less dangerous than San Antonio. I swear San Antonio felt like it was constantly under construction... very odd. I have to run because we are talking to a bunch of Ecuadorian people our age to ask them questions. I have a lot too!! chao!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
WE MADE IT
Jenny and I officially made it to Hotel Alston, the hotel we are stayed in last night and are staying in with our group tonight. HALLELUJIAH! It was definitely a long trip. I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and stood in a super long line to check my bags. Apparently, though, I didn´t have to stand in that line becuase I was already checked in, but the guy outside said I was supposed to. Anyways, I made it to the plane, had a great flight to Atlanta (during which I mostly slept). I talked to a 60 ish year old guy from Georgia who wanted very badly to talk politics because on the plane we had TV´s and CNN announced that Biden is going to the Obama´s VP. Anyways, this guy really wanted to talk politics, so I tried to work my way out of the situation. It was interesting. Once I got to Atlanta, Jenny was waiting for me at the gate (which was SO nice of her. It´s very nice to be met with a friendly face yay). We both bought a rediculously expensive Starbucks... our last for the next four months.. so sad! Then we walked around aimlessly for awhile through the duty free store and sat around until we boarded our flight. We waited on the plane for about two hours (during which I definitely slept again haha) until they fixed the door and then took off. We got through immigration and customs fairly fast, and caught a taxi to Hotel Alston. and then we passed out. and by the way, Quito is TWO HOURS ahead of Seattle time (it took us about 20 minutes to figure that out haha). Anywho, this morning we´ve been walking around a bit, checking out the streets around our hotel. We are definitely in America-land of Quito and there are funny sayings, names of restaurants (such as Hot Dogs and Hot Karoake) , and bad American music playing everywhere. Ít´s great!! so funny. anyways, we have to get back to the hotel to meet the group. Talk soon... love, ME
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Pre-Departure
I'm getting ready to go to Ecuador for 173 days (about 16 weeks), and although I still have a weak until my departure, the nerves and excitement are setting in. I've had some crazy, amazing and 'challenging' experiences during other travels to say the least, so I'm getting ready for anything and everything that can come about. I know studying abroad is supposed to be a challenge, so when I look back, I try to look positively upon the interesting home-stays... and its true, I now laugh at the crazy host-moms I had.
I keep saying I'm going to start packing, but most likely this Thursday night will come upon me, and then I'll be FORCED to pack, and I won't finish until late Friday night when Mom and Dad are yelling at me to get some sleep before my 6AM flight. ha ha. That's how it always seems to go at least... I'm such a procrastinator.
I'm going to try to keep a blog while I'm abroad. I know I will love it in the future if I have something to look back upon, and this way I can tell everyone at home all my stories. I probably won't update it too often (sorry, I'm just being honest..) but, I'll do my best to include "necessary information". Post back soon.
~Maddie
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