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
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