This will be short since I have lots of homework...
Today I went to service learning, and had a good time. No one was too difficult and I felt helpful. After, I was able to go home for lunch since we didn't have normal classes; instead we went to a museum. to get there, Dan and I were going to meet the rest of the class at the Estadio Trolley stop since we live closer to the Trolley line than school. After a very complicated trip involving three fares instead of one and a varity of phone calls since our teachers decided to take the other trolley-type bus line (the Ecovia) instead of the Trolley, Dan and I got to the correct meeting location. We both reached for our phones to call the other group; he was successful, but I was not. Someone took my phone out of my front jeans pocket without me noticing at all on the third leg of the Trolley trip. That was a bummer. I'm not going to buy a new one because it's not worth the $70+ it would cost to get a cheap bar phone here, although if someone in my family happens to have an old phone, I'll see if I can use it for the next few weeks. We'll see. I'm glad it wasn't my normal US phone though; if I had lost that I'd be very disappointed. As far as phone theft goes, though, I was really lucky. Edan had her phone stolen when she was walking down the street near school after a soccer game talking on the phone; someone hit her head, grabbed her phone and ran off. Beto (Dan's Ecuadorian host brother) had his phone stolen at gunpoint when he walked out of his gate in front of his house. All of these happened during the day. Oh Ecuador...
The museum was interesting; it was a history of Quito from the early indigenous people to the 1900s ish. The tourguide spoke in Spanish, but we were able to follow pretty much everything, which was nice. After, some of us got ice cream in the Old Town, and then I met up with Tyler, my friend from cons who's spending the year in Esmeraldas but is in Quito for the week. We had a successful conversation in Spanish and then switched to English since he never uses it haha. We had greek/arabic ish food, which was delicious and a very nice way to finish off the day (other than all the homework that I have.)
Overall today, I took two buses and 6 Trolleys, for a total of $2, which is less than one adult peak fare in Seattle haha. I also still have a really weird upper chest/throat pain which is no longer heartburn; it hurts when I eat large bites, take big drinks, or breathe deeply. If it still hurts tomorrow I'm going to go to a doctor. I still think I've been the healthiest out of my whole group though!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Futbol, Food, and Family
After a not-so-sufficient 4.5 hours of sleep (during which I spoke a little bit of Spanish to my host family in a dream!), I woke up to go to the futbol game. I met four other girls from my class and we walked over to the stadium, which is nice and close to to our school, which is generally the designated meeting place for group activities, even though it's closed on weekends. Outside the stadium there were what seemed like hundreds of people selling jerseys. I bought a white Barcelona jersey for $6, and after we went in the stadium, Edan bought one for $5. It turns out the the audience at futbol games is probably 90% male. We were a group of 5 white girls, so we sort of attracted some attention. A couple guys actually came up to us, asked to take a picture with us, and then ran off to get good seats. I can't blame them though, since we take pictures of/with people here all the time.
We sat in the Barcelona section. It turns out that they're from Guayaquil, not Spain, although they have almost the same jerseys. Yellow is their main color, so we were pretty much in a sea of yellow jerseys and flags.
There are all sorts of vendors selling beverages, food, gum, cigarettes, noisemakers, hats, and random things like bubble blowers for kids that pretty much consist of a cup, straw, and sponge so you don't spill soap on yourself. These vendors walk through the aisles throughout the entire game, passing everyone many times.
First we watched Nacional versus Universidad Catolica, which is one of the local univeristy teams, whereas Nacional is a pro team (I think. My knowledge of teams here is pretty limited). U Catolica won which was exciting. The second game was the important one: Independente del Valle played Barcelona, and they tied 1-1. We didn't really care that much who won, but everyone around us was super into the game. There are a bunch of songs for Barcelona (and a vendor selling a $1 CD and page of lyrics).
Near the end of this game, fans were not so happy with the ref, so they threw tons of water bottles and probably other trash as well toward him.
Four hours of soccer was a little much for me, and sitting on a concrete bench was definitely a little much for my back, but the game was a super interesting experience.
Random side-note: they use 'super' here as an intensifier, so, for example, if food is particularly delicious (rich), they say it's superrico!
After the game I walked for a while until I got to an area where there were actually empty taxis, which took a while. I went to the Pajonal, the restaurant owned by one of my host mom's brothers. The food was fabulous as always, but I also enjoyed seeing the family again, since Richard's party was a bit of a bonding experience. My host mom's sister (I think that's who she is anyway) has two ACLAS students that are staying with her; they are a couple from England who have done a ton of traveling and are here for three weeks to take 5 hours of Spanish classes ever day. I wish them the best of luck haha. Since my Spanish level is higher than theirs, I was able to follow their conversation with the family no problem. A couple of the relatives got out their laptops and hooked one up to a projector and we started watching music videos of Italian opera and then Mariachi orchestras and then Louise Armstrong and then the Beatles, etc. My host parents asked if I wanted to stay or leave at about 5:30, and I said I was enjoying being there so I stayed with another one of my host mom's brother (I think she has 8 siblings, and 3 half-siblings) and his wife, along with the English couple and 4 or 5 other family members. We were there until 9:30 pm haha. It was enjoyable although I probably would have left at 5:30 if I'd known what staying there entailed.
We took a taxi home, and it was so nice to have real Spanish speakers to converse with the taxi driver and to explain that we live on a one-way street so you have to circle around the block. It was also interesting to be in a taxi with people who aren't so concerned about how much the taxi-ride costs. I always ask how much it will cost before I even get in, but they didn't even ask until we got home, and they didn't bargain at all.
Since I went to the Amazon, where there could be malaria, I've been taking doxycycline, which you take every day for a month after. You're supposed to take it with dinner but I normally take it in the evening since I keep it by my toothbrush so I don't forget. I have had zero problems with it even though there's an extensive list of side effects. This time, however, I took it immediately before going to bed, several hours after eating and without any water since my bottle was empty and I don't drink the tap water. This was the biggest mistake I've made here; I woke up with terrible heartburn, which I've had all day, despite eating a number of Tums (here, they pronounce it like toooms haha). I am not a fan.
I've also been bizarrly sore on my upper calfs from walking on Saturday. I've never been sore here before and I don't know how to stretch that muscle haha.
This morning I ran to school for my service learning meeting with Monica, one of my teachers. I don't know why I have these meetings because I don't have any problems or need any help, but for those reasons the meetings go quickly. I went back home and socialized some with the family who was over, and then Carla, my aunt, dropped me off at the trolley stop. (The trolley is a bus in which people are literally packed like sardines.) I asked her what her opinion of Americans was since we were going to talk about it in class, and she said she really admired the promptness and the fact that if we start something, we finish it. She also commented that the incredible American influence here is sort of a bummer, but it's more the fault of Ecuadorians than of Americans. When I talked to another aunt today, she said she's been to Disneyworld 6 times, and a great-uncle said his grown daughter has been two or three times with her young kids. Disneyworld/Miami are the places to go for vacation for Ecuadorians.
10 days of class left and only 4 short weeks until I head home!
Love Alex
We sat in the Barcelona section. It turns out that they're from Guayaquil, not Spain, although they have almost the same jerseys. Yellow is their main color, so we were pretty much in a sea of yellow jerseys and flags.
There are all sorts of vendors selling beverages, food, gum, cigarettes, noisemakers, hats, and random things like bubble blowers for kids that pretty much consist of a cup, straw, and sponge so you don't spill soap on yourself. These vendors walk through the aisles throughout the entire game, passing everyone many times.
First we watched Nacional versus Universidad Catolica, which is one of the local univeristy teams, whereas Nacional is a pro team (I think. My knowledge of teams here is pretty limited). U Catolica won which was exciting. The second game was the important one: Independente del Valle played Barcelona, and they tied 1-1. We didn't really care that much who won, but everyone around us was super into the game. There are a bunch of songs for Barcelona (and a vendor selling a $1 CD and page of lyrics).
Near the end of this game, fans were not so happy with the ref, so they threw tons of water bottles and probably other trash as well toward him.
Four hours of soccer was a little much for me, and sitting on a concrete bench was definitely a little much for my back, but the game was a super interesting experience.
Random side-note: they use 'super' here as an intensifier, so, for example, if food is particularly delicious (rich), they say it's superrico!
After the game I walked for a while until I got to an area where there were actually empty taxis, which took a while. I went to the Pajonal, the restaurant owned by one of my host mom's brothers. The food was fabulous as always, but I also enjoyed seeing the family again, since Richard's party was a bit of a bonding experience. My host mom's sister (I think that's who she is anyway) has two ACLAS students that are staying with her; they are a couple from England who have done a ton of traveling and are here for three weeks to take 5 hours of Spanish classes ever day. I wish them the best of luck haha. Since my Spanish level is higher than theirs, I was able to follow their conversation with the family no problem. A couple of the relatives got out their laptops and hooked one up to a projector and we started watching music videos of Italian opera and then Mariachi orchestras and then Louise Armstrong and then the Beatles, etc. My host parents asked if I wanted to stay or leave at about 5:30, and I said I was enjoying being there so I stayed with another one of my host mom's brother (I think she has 8 siblings, and 3 half-siblings) and his wife, along with the English couple and 4 or 5 other family members. We were there until 9:30 pm haha. It was enjoyable although I probably would have left at 5:30 if I'd known what staying there entailed.
We took a taxi home, and it was so nice to have real Spanish speakers to converse with the taxi driver and to explain that we live on a one-way street so you have to circle around the block. It was also interesting to be in a taxi with people who aren't so concerned about how much the taxi-ride costs. I always ask how much it will cost before I even get in, but they didn't even ask until we got home, and they didn't bargain at all.
Since I went to the Amazon, where there could be malaria, I've been taking doxycycline, which you take every day for a month after. You're supposed to take it with dinner but I normally take it in the evening since I keep it by my toothbrush so I don't forget. I have had zero problems with it even though there's an extensive list of side effects. This time, however, I took it immediately before going to bed, several hours after eating and without any water since my bottle was empty and I don't drink the tap water. This was the biggest mistake I've made here; I woke up with terrible heartburn, which I've had all day, despite eating a number of Tums (here, they pronounce it like toooms haha). I am not a fan.
I've also been bizarrly sore on my upper calfs from walking on Saturday. I've never been sore here before and I don't know how to stretch that muscle haha.
This morning I ran to school for my service learning meeting with Monica, one of my teachers. I don't know why I have these meetings because I don't have any problems or need any help, but for those reasons the meetings go quickly. I went back home and socialized some with the family who was over, and then Carla, my aunt, dropped me off at the trolley stop. (The trolley is a bus in which people are literally packed like sardines.) I asked her what her opinion of Americans was since we were going to talk about it in class, and she said she really admired the promptness and the fact that if we start something, we finish it. She also commented that the incredible American influence here is sort of a bummer, but it's more the fault of Ecuadorians than of Americans. When I talked to another aunt today, she said she's been to Disneyworld 6 times, and a great-uncle said his grown daughter has been two or three times with her young kids. Disneyworld/Miami are the places to go for vacation for Ecuadorians.
10 days of class left and only 4 short weeks until I head home!
Love Alex
Sunday, February 21, 2010
parks and partying
On Saturday, I had breakfast with some of the guests that were here, which was nice. It was sort of strange to have breakfast be cooked for me, since I normally eat way before Carmen,our maid, comes, but not this time. I also made my own breakfast and thus had lots of good food (humitas, yucca/eggs, and papaya/granola). I ate a large breakfast so I could go adventuring without being hungry.
On this adventure, Ali, Shaunte, Edan and I decided to go to the Parque Metropolitano, which runs parallel to the east edge of Quito on top of the hill/small mountain that creates said edge. We figured it would be easy to get in, since it's huge and there are clearly trees right there. After climbing a nice steep hill, we reached a street which bordered the park but had no entrances. We followed this street and several other streets for about 20 minutes until we found a little street with a guardhouse. We walked up an even bigger and steeper hill (apparently most people drive to the park, and I see why) and at the top of the hill there was a soccer field and a random little town called Miraflores, I think. We watched the soccer game for a while (it was 6 people versus 10, and none of them were terribly good). None of us has ever received so many whistles in our life, courtesy of the two teams that were waiting on the sidelines to play next. We left. Shaunte flipped them off, and I was pretty darn tempted, but I would hate to exacerbate the problem haha. This town is a square, that's probably an eighth of a mile on each side. We walked down the street and found a little tienda (store), based out of someone's house like they normally are in towns such as these, that had fresh-squeezed orange juice, made with an extremely nice juicer. We continued on into more park-like territory. By park I don't mean swingsets, I mean many square kilometers of trees. We followed some paths which became increasingly smaller, and then we ended up at this cool viewpoint looking out over the city that's on the other side of the hill/mountain. We followed more paths, avoided being run over by mountain bikers (how they managed some parts of that path, I have no idea), and visited several more viewpoints. We also found a field full of llamas and a water treatment center. It's sort of a strange park.
On our way out, we passed a pavillion with a photography show and a field with inflatable bouncy toys advertizing for a new Nestle product. There were also some real playground toys, including a zipline in which you (or at least us, as adult-sized people) come extremely close to being sliced by a guidewire at the end of the zipline. It was quite entertaining haha.
We went to the Stadium near our school to buy tickets for a futbol (remember that's soccer here in Ecuador and the rest of the world). For $8, we got tickets to see the Sunday game, which ended up being a ticket for two games! more on that later...
We ate lunch at Mr. Bagel (I brought a sandwich. It was not as good as a bagel, but it was free). Then we got ice cream (which was more like sorbet) at a nearby cafe, which was very enjoyable.
Then we walked over to the parque Carolina (which is the huge park in between my house and my school). I walk next to it every day and I've run through it and played Ultimate in it, and I still hadn't visited any of what we went to this time. We found the paddleboating lake (I'm excited to do that!), watch some bikers and skateboards narrowly avoid dying in a skatepark, and discovered the location of the botanical garden. It costs $3.50 (that's a lot for a museum here) so we didn't go, but I want to before I leave. We were EXHAUSTED from walking so much, so we laid in the grass for a while and then headed home.
Saturday was my host parents' son's birthday. His name is Richard, and he is the Ecuadorian Labor Minister, so he's kind of a big deal. Everyone got semi-dressed up and I enjoyed having all the females in the house on the second floor landing getting ready by the big mirror.
We drove out to what they called "quinta". I was unfamiliar with this word (the dictionary translates it to ranch, I just found out). This turns out to mean mostly outside, which nobody told me so I was wearing a knee-length skirt, but I had my north face fleece so I was mostly warm enough.
There was a large house and deck, small cabin, patio, pool, and a field. There was also a big tent covering the patio, pool, and live band. There were about 100 people there, many of which were family so my parents, aunts and uncles knew them all, but I definitely did not. I don't know if it's a Quiteno thing or a my-family-thing, but I'm never introduced to people. Sometimes I'm presented, so they all know my name and who I am, but when I go around and give everyone a kiss (that's the standard greeting/goodbye here), they just say Hola, but not "nice to meet you" or "my name is ___". Hence, I know a lot of faces and not a lot of names or family relationships.
After greeting most of the people who were at the party when we got there, I hung out with a group of relatives who I like. I would say "chatted" with this group, because that's what they did, but I really contributed nothing to the conversation because I couldn't hear anything. I probably would have had a hard time hearing in English, and since I normally just listed to their conversations even if I can understand, I certainly didn't follow what they talked about this time. They made sure I always had a drink and then every time my grandpa would cheers me (I don't know the appropriate verb there, but you know what I mean), my uncles told me to say "bueno abuelito" (OK, grandpa) and kiss my fingers like I had just eaten something delicious (also not a good description but I think you know what I mean). They got an absolute kick out of this all night. I don't know why it was so funny; that's on my list of things to ask my teachers tomorrow at school haha.
Aside from the unlimited drinks, there were some little yummy appetizers and then delicious hamburgers and wings for dinner (which, I might add, was probably at 11 pm).
All of the drinks and appetizers were served by men in catering uniforms, and all the food was prepared by empleadas. There were a lot, maybe 8. They didn't wear anything special. My family is really white; there are a couple people that actually look fully Caucasian, a few others that look vaguely Asian, actually, and the majority of the others have very light skin. This contrasted strongly with the empleadas, who all appear more indigenous (shorter, darker skin, and different facial features). I actually felt somewhat out of place at the party; it was fancier than I'm accustomed to, and many of the people got more dressed up than I would at home.
There were also a lot of kids at the party, but all of the families with young kids (3 and under ish) brought their nannies with them, so there were at least 3 or 4 empleadas who just took care of their charge(s) all evening. Families are extremely important here but it surprises me how much parents rely on their nannies for young kids. different culture...
Everyone dances here (it's South America), and since most other people were actually taking advantage of the ultimate free drinks, people were having lots of fun. Ecuadorian are knowledgeable partiers, I think. Several of my grandpas/great uncles, or something along those lines (since I was never formally introduced and don't know who they are...) also got a kick out of dancing with me. Fortunately they were all excellent leads so I didn't struggle too much. My host mom then decided that I'd had enough dancing with them and she transferred me to the care of her daughters. When the band played, they mostly did American songs, which everyone at the party knew. They also played some Spanish songs, which everyone knew and sang along to (except me, since my Spanish song repertoire is pretty limited).
We (everyone living in my house), had come in two cars. I was in the first car to go back home, and we left at 2 am. The second car (with both my 60+ year old host parents) left at 3 or 3:30 haha). I went to bed at 3, and got up at 7:30 to go to the soccer game. Thus, I'm exhausted and going to bed, so I'll write about my Sunday adventures tomorrow!
Love Alex
On this adventure, Ali, Shaunte, Edan and I decided to go to the Parque Metropolitano, which runs parallel to the east edge of Quito on top of the hill/small mountain that creates said edge. We figured it would be easy to get in, since it's huge and there are clearly trees right there. After climbing a nice steep hill, we reached a street which bordered the park but had no entrances. We followed this street and several other streets for about 20 minutes until we found a little street with a guardhouse. We walked up an even bigger and steeper hill (apparently most people drive to the park, and I see why) and at the top of the hill there was a soccer field and a random little town called Miraflores, I think. We watched the soccer game for a while (it was 6 people versus 10, and none of them were terribly good). None of us has ever received so many whistles in our life, courtesy of the two teams that were waiting on the sidelines to play next. We left. Shaunte flipped them off, and I was pretty darn tempted, but I would hate to exacerbate the problem haha. This town is a square, that's probably an eighth of a mile on each side. We walked down the street and found a little tienda (store), based out of someone's house like they normally are in towns such as these, that had fresh-squeezed orange juice, made with an extremely nice juicer. We continued on into more park-like territory. By park I don't mean swingsets, I mean many square kilometers of trees. We followed some paths which became increasingly smaller, and then we ended up at this cool viewpoint looking out over the city that's on the other side of the hill/mountain. We followed more paths, avoided being run over by mountain bikers (how they managed some parts of that path, I have no idea), and visited several more viewpoints. We also found a field full of llamas and a water treatment center. It's sort of a strange park.
On our way out, we passed a pavillion with a photography show and a field with inflatable bouncy toys advertizing for a new Nestle product. There were also some real playground toys, including a zipline in which you (or at least us, as adult-sized people) come extremely close to being sliced by a guidewire at the end of the zipline. It was quite entertaining haha.
We went to the Stadium near our school to buy tickets for a futbol (remember that's soccer here in Ecuador and the rest of the world). For $8, we got tickets to see the Sunday game, which ended up being a ticket for two games! more on that later...
We ate lunch at Mr. Bagel (I brought a sandwich. It was not as good as a bagel, but it was free). Then we got ice cream (which was more like sorbet) at a nearby cafe, which was very enjoyable.
Then we walked over to the parque Carolina (which is the huge park in between my house and my school). I walk next to it every day and I've run through it and played Ultimate in it, and I still hadn't visited any of what we went to this time. We found the paddleboating lake (I'm excited to do that!), watch some bikers and skateboards narrowly avoid dying in a skatepark, and discovered the location of the botanical garden. It costs $3.50 (that's a lot for a museum here) so we didn't go, but I want to before I leave. We were EXHAUSTED from walking so much, so we laid in the grass for a while and then headed home.
Saturday was my host parents' son's birthday. His name is Richard, and he is the Ecuadorian Labor Minister, so he's kind of a big deal. Everyone got semi-dressed up and I enjoyed having all the females in the house on the second floor landing getting ready by the big mirror.
We drove out to what they called "quinta". I was unfamiliar with this word (the dictionary translates it to ranch, I just found out). This turns out to mean mostly outside, which nobody told me so I was wearing a knee-length skirt, but I had my north face fleece so I was mostly warm enough.
There was a large house and deck, small cabin, patio, pool, and a field. There was also a big tent covering the patio, pool, and live band. There were about 100 people there, many of which were family so my parents, aunts and uncles knew them all, but I definitely did not. I don't know if it's a Quiteno thing or a my-family-thing, but I'm never introduced to people. Sometimes I'm presented, so they all know my name and who I am, but when I go around and give everyone a kiss (that's the standard greeting/goodbye here), they just say Hola, but not "nice to meet you" or "my name is ___". Hence, I know a lot of faces and not a lot of names or family relationships.
After greeting most of the people who were at the party when we got there, I hung out with a group of relatives who I like. I would say "chatted" with this group, because that's what they did, but I really contributed nothing to the conversation because I couldn't hear anything. I probably would have had a hard time hearing in English, and since I normally just listed to their conversations even if I can understand, I certainly didn't follow what they talked about this time. They made sure I always had a drink and then every time my grandpa would cheers me (I don't know the appropriate verb there, but you know what I mean), my uncles told me to say "bueno abuelito" (OK, grandpa) and kiss my fingers like I had just eaten something delicious (also not a good description but I think you know what I mean). They got an absolute kick out of this all night. I don't know why it was so funny; that's on my list of things to ask my teachers tomorrow at school haha.
Aside from the unlimited drinks, there were some little yummy appetizers and then delicious hamburgers and wings for dinner (which, I might add, was probably at 11 pm).
All of the drinks and appetizers were served by men in catering uniforms, and all the food was prepared by empleadas. There were a lot, maybe 8. They didn't wear anything special. My family is really white; there are a couple people that actually look fully Caucasian, a few others that look vaguely Asian, actually, and the majority of the others have very light skin. This contrasted strongly with the empleadas, who all appear more indigenous (shorter, darker skin, and different facial features). I actually felt somewhat out of place at the party; it was fancier than I'm accustomed to, and many of the people got more dressed up than I would at home.
There were also a lot of kids at the party, but all of the families with young kids (3 and under ish) brought their nannies with them, so there were at least 3 or 4 empleadas who just took care of their charge(s) all evening. Families are extremely important here but it surprises me how much parents rely on their nannies for young kids. different culture...
Everyone dances here (it's South America), and since most other people were actually taking advantage of the ultimate free drinks, people were having lots of fun. Ecuadorian are knowledgeable partiers, I think. Several of my grandpas/great uncles, or something along those lines (since I was never formally introduced and don't know who they are...) also got a kick out of dancing with me. Fortunately they were all excellent leads so I didn't struggle too much. My host mom then decided that I'd had enough dancing with them and she transferred me to the care of her daughters. When the band played, they mostly did American songs, which everyone at the party knew. They also played some Spanish songs, which everyone knew and sang along to (except me, since my Spanish song repertoire is pretty limited).
We (everyone living in my house), had come in two cars. I was in the first car to go back home, and we left at 2 am. The second car (with both my 60+ year old host parents) left at 3 or 3:30 haha). I went to bed at 3, and got up at 7:30 to go to the soccer game. Thus, I'm exhausted and going to bed, so I'll write about my Sunday adventures tomorrow!
Love Alex
Friday, February 19, 2010
a full house
This week has been pretty uneventful; I've had some service learning, which was normal, although I hadn't been in a while so the kids were very excited to see me. We also most notably did another project which involved cutting out preprinted rectangles in a photo and then reassembling them and gluing them down. Using scissors is extremely hard for a lot of the kids, and several of the kids who normally are good at doing their work without any help would ask me every thirty seconds if they were doing it correctly, which of course they were. Then others wouldn't ask but they would do something totally wrong, such as cutting out the people's heads instead of cutting on the nice printed lines.
In school we've continued reading Maria by Jorge Isaacs. It's very classic latinoamerican literature but it's very old and has far too much arbitrary description that has nothing to do with the plot. My host mom said she read it in 6th grade, but it still takes me forever to read it and then write a summary.
For the same class we also watched a movie, Amar Te Duele, which is basically Romeo and Juliet where she is part of Mexican upper class and he is part of, you guessed it, Mexican lower class. It was, of course, not a happy ending, but I liked this movie infintely more than the last one we watched. It was challenging to understand the conversation (no subtitles this time...) but the general plot would have been clear even if you didn't know Spanish, and the movie showed the emotions of all the characters nicely.
In my other class, we've been talking about a variety of topics every day, but the most interesting has been Cuba and the cold war. It's sort of a random class, but I've never studied the cold war since the only good history class I've ever had stopped after about World War 1. I'm enjoying reading Wikipedia and then sharing with the class what I read haha. Our teacher also told us to forget our homework and go out and experience Ecuador/Quito. Two weeks ago when we said we didn't have any weekend plans she was genuinely concerned and chastised us for not doing more things.
Today for lunch, there was bean soup, rice and shrimp with carrots. I not a fan of beans, shrimp, or carrots, but I ate everything and it was still much better than Galapagos food. It's nice to be home.
Tomorrow (Saturday) is the birthday of my host parent's son Richard, who is the Ecuadorian Labor Minister. This is sort of a big deal, so my host mom's brother, his wife, their two daughers, their husbands, and four kids flew in from Cuenca (another Ecuadorian city) last night. That is 10 people, plus me and my host parents, and today their empleada (maid) arrived. She mainly takes care of the kids, I think. I assume that she got here a day later because she took the bus instead of flying, but I don't know for sure. Since they're leaving on Sunday she'll have been here less than 2 days, but I guess it's nice to have a babysitter even for that length of time. It's fun to have so many people around the house. Miraculously all of them fit here and have beds since there are three normally empty bedrooms, a couple extra mattresses lying around and a borrowed inflatable mattress. There are only two showers but it doesn't seem to have been a problem. We also had a variety of family members drop in this evening to visit. I enjoyed listening to their conversations, although I never contribute because it always takes me a while to catch on to the new subject, since it changes so quickly. They talked about going to the Liga vs Barcelona soccer game on Sunday and I told my friends so I really hope that works out, since Barcelona is one of the two best teams in the world and Liga is the best in Ecuador and I think in South America.
Love Alex
In school we've continued reading Maria by Jorge Isaacs. It's very classic latinoamerican literature but it's very old and has far too much arbitrary description that has nothing to do with the plot. My host mom said she read it in 6th grade, but it still takes me forever to read it and then write a summary.
For the same class we also watched a movie, Amar Te Duele, which is basically Romeo and Juliet where she is part of Mexican upper class and he is part of, you guessed it, Mexican lower class. It was, of course, not a happy ending, but I liked this movie infintely more than the last one we watched. It was challenging to understand the conversation (no subtitles this time...) but the general plot would have been clear even if you didn't know Spanish, and the movie showed the emotions of all the characters nicely.
In my other class, we've been talking about a variety of topics every day, but the most interesting has been Cuba and the cold war. It's sort of a random class, but I've never studied the cold war since the only good history class I've ever had stopped after about World War 1. I'm enjoying reading Wikipedia and then sharing with the class what I read haha. Our teacher also told us to forget our homework and go out and experience Ecuador/Quito. Two weeks ago when we said we didn't have any weekend plans she was genuinely concerned and chastised us for not doing more things.
Today for lunch, there was bean soup, rice and shrimp with carrots. I not a fan of beans, shrimp, or carrots, but I ate everything and it was still much better than Galapagos food. It's nice to be home.
Tomorrow (Saturday) is the birthday of my host parent's son Richard, who is the Ecuadorian Labor Minister. This is sort of a big deal, so my host mom's brother, his wife, their two daughers, their husbands, and four kids flew in from Cuenca (another Ecuadorian city) last night. That is 10 people, plus me and my host parents, and today their empleada (maid) arrived. She mainly takes care of the kids, I think. I assume that she got here a day later because she took the bus instead of flying, but I don't know for sure. Since they're leaving on Sunday she'll have been here less than 2 days, but I guess it's nice to have a babysitter even for that length of time. It's fun to have so many people around the house. Miraculously all of them fit here and have beds since there are three normally empty bedrooms, a couple extra mattresses lying around and a borrowed inflatable mattress. There are only two showers but it doesn't seem to have been a problem. We also had a variety of family members drop in this evening to visit. I enjoyed listening to their conversations, although I never contribute because it always takes me a while to catch on to the new subject, since it changes so quickly. They talked about going to the Liga vs Barcelona soccer game on Sunday and I told my friends so I really hope that works out, since Barcelona is one of the two best teams in the world and Liga is the best in Ecuador and I think in South America.
Love Alex
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
returning to my lovely quito home
We packed up all our stuff, had runny scrambled eggs for breakfast (no fruit today) and walked into town to buy souvenier t-shirts.We said goodbye to our families. Linda's family has a house in Salinas, a beach near Guayaquil so when Ali and I do our coast tour we're going to stay with them. Jofrey offered to show us all the cool things in Guayaquil so that will be great. We boarded to the bus to head to the airport, which was actually very full of people, surprisingly. We had a (overpriced) lunch, saw the celebrity dancer/model couple and one of the singers from the night before and went through security. This was the most lax security I have every seen in my life. The guy unzipped the top of my backpack, glanced down for three seconds, and zipped it again. They didn't even run it through the x-ray machine. I can't blame him for not unpacking it, since it was absolutely stuffed and it would impossible to see what was in the bottom without taking everything out, but I was still surprised.
On the plane I was one row ahead of the exit row, but there was nobody behind me so I moved and had leg room and an extra seat :) We had a pretty good lunch of a turkey chicken sandwitch with a couple vegetables and the yummy mousse-ish desert that I had at my host-uncle's restaurant last week. Ali didn't like hers so I had that one and when Natalee woke up she didn't want hers either so I have on in the fridge downstairs for dessert later!
In Quito we said goodbye to the nice couple from Ambato, and they told us to call them when we come visit, so that will be fun. I took a bus home (yay for spending 25 cents!) and enjoyed my nice hot, clean shower.
A bunch of my host family was over last night so we all relaxed in my host parents bedroom (that's the normal place to relax here) and enjoyed watching the three little kids (ages 6, 2.5 and 1.5)run around. Their aunt said they looked like the three stooges. I remember the first few time the family was all together; I didn't understand anything. Now I don't understand everything, but I definitely catch a lot more :) I was also actually part of the conversation since I told them about my weekend, which was nice. We watched half of the movie The Majestic (dubbed in Spanish, of course) and I understood most of that too, except when my aunt or mom would talk on the phone (which happened alot haha).
I'm pretty sure that was everything exciting from my long weekend!
Love Alex
On the plane I was one row ahead of the exit row, but there was nobody behind me so I moved and had leg room and an extra seat :) We had a pretty good lunch of a turkey chicken sandwitch with a couple vegetables and the yummy mousse-ish desert that I had at my host-uncle's restaurant last week. Ali didn't like hers so I had that one and when Natalee woke up she didn't want hers either so I have on in the fridge downstairs for dessert later!
In Quito we said goodbye to the nice couple from Ambato, and they told us to call them when we come visit, so that will be fun. I took a bus home (yay for spending 25 cents!) and enjoyed my nice hot, clean shower.
A bunch of my host family was over last night so we all relaxed in my host parents bedroom (that's the normal place to relax here) and enjoyed watching the three little kids (ages 6, 2.5 and 1.5)run around. Their aunt said they looked like the three stooges. I remember the first few time the family was all together; I didn't understand anything. Now I don't understand everything, but I definitely catch a lot more :) I was also actually part of the conversation since I told them about my weekend, which was nice. We watched half of the movie The Majestic (dubbed in Spanish, of course) and I understood most of that too, except when my aunt or mom would talk on the phone (which happened alot haha).
I'm pretty sure that was everything exciting from my long weekend!
Love Alex
carnival festivities
Day Four
-We saw cave/tunnel like things and big turtles in the wild
-We went to a gorgeous beach along with every other person in the Galapagos for Carnival, which is a holiday
-We played in the ocean and sprayed each other with foam for Carnival
-We spent the evening with our adopted Guayaquil families in the town for Carnival, taking lots and lots of pictures and generally enjoying the atmosphere
Breakfast today was fruit, two small rolls, and a ball of green banana. I liked the banana since my host family eats them all the time. Thus, I had the majority of four green bananas haha.
We took the bus to see Los Tuneles (The Tunnels). According to my guide book, "these underground tunnels were formed by the solidifying of the outside layer of a molten-lava flow. When the lava flow ceased, the molten lava inside the flow kept going, emptying out of the solidified skin and thus leaving tunnels" (thank you Lonely Planet). I'm sort of done seeing caves and tunnels, but they were mildly interesting. We then continued on a path and saw four huge turtles in the wild. Tony, our guide, said that they eat the vegetation and cactus (apparently they have hard mouths) because cacti have lots of water in them. At one point I stopped in the grass to photograph the turtles and my left ankle got attacked my tiny ants. Apparently bug spray isn't effective for them. They kept biting me but didn't leave any lasting bites. I only got three bug bits over all, on the back of my right ankle, so I guess I missed that spot one day. Not bad overall, though I would have preferred a few more bites over all the beetles that inhabited our hotel. They didn't hurt you at all, but they were gross. Natalee killed ten the last night we were there haha.
Anyway, we ended our trek at the ranch of this guy who sounded like an American, but he said he was born on the Islands after his parents came there from the US and had never been to the states. He gave us free coffee but charged us a dollar for a package of crackers. You may have noticed we bought a lot of crackers here. Ritz > hotel food.
We went back to the hotel for lunch and then walked to the entrance to Tortuga Bay beach. They actually searched our bags and they we walked probably 45 minutes down a brick path to get to a gorgeous beach. There was actually some blue sky, which was wonderful. The beach was packed since Monday and Tuesday were Carnival (the spanish equivalent to Mardi Gras, more or less). Basically the whole world goes to the beach and sprays each other with foam or silly string.
The beach had two sides; the side on the open ocean, with pretty big waves, and the side in a bay with zero waves. We all went to the calm side and played in the water for a while. A little 5 year old girl kept swimming around us because she didn't seem to have any other kids to play with. Linda said that she was the daughter of a famous actress, who was sitting on the beach right next to our stuff. I guess we did pick a rather exotic location to spend the holiday. Later, we went to the other side of the beach with the kids and we saw some man who they said was the ex-boyfriend of the actress. We had a ton of fun playing in the ocean and covering each other with foam. After a while we walked over to the huge crowd of people in front of a stage, where the "Mr. Tortuga Bay" contest was happening. There were three finalists, one of which was from our hotel, so we cheered for him, but he got second. The first place winner got $100 dollars. They they had the "Miss Tortuga Bay" contest. Shaunte and I are both tall and white. They called us up. We did not go. Natalee eventually got pushed up on stage by our adopted brother Tito, and she won which was super exciting. Our adopted parents had been fetched by one of the kids, so they came and helped us cheer and brought the cameras. Every person on the beach wanted a photograph with her, which was entertaining. Overall this was definitely one of the best days I've had so far in Ecuador.
We eventually made it back to the hotel, because it seemed like every person on the beach decided to leave at the same time we did, so we all had to squeeze on the narrow path. We were hot from the long walk so we went swimming in the pool with our family. It was fun to get to be with a family, since on all the other trips we've taken in Ecuador, it's been a bunch of college students. That, of course, is also lots of fun.
After dinner everyone in the hotel came out to the patio, had free baby cocktails, and danced. I danced with my 11 year old brother until his dad brought over a stool and told he pretty much had to stand on it to spin me around haha. Then we decided to go out and get ice cream, so we all walked down the street, got delicious ice cream, and continued down to the town center/wharf, which was absolutely packed with people since it was Carnival. Linda's husband has an incredibly nice camera and he uses it all the time, which is awesome because I got most of his pictures, and they're all excellent. We probably took about 200 pictures (it felt like prom, but twenty times worse haha). Our family, by this time, included us four, our two Guayaquil families, a really sweet couple from Ambato, and the runner-up Mr. Tortuga Bay and his wife, and other random people that would join us and leave. We attracted a lot of attention, but it was lots of fun. We saw the two people that were hosting the Tortuga Bay contest again; apparently she's a model and he's a dancer. We saw someone else famous too. That was fun. We also saw more seals, which I personally found more exciting. We eventually went over to the stage and watched some singers perform. They started at about 11 pm. This was not an early night. Natalee had to sit in from wearing her sash with a variety of other people wearing sashes, but Shaunte Ali and I were bored so we wandered around some and were generally successfully at avoided drunk creepers and sprays of water (that's another thing people do for carnival; they dump/spay water on you randomly all the time).
Basically we had a great day with our families, wildlife and Carnival :)
-We saw cave/tunnel like things and big turtles in the wild
-We went to a gorgeous beach along with every other person in the Galapagos for Carnival, which is a holiday
-We played in the ocean and sprayed each other with foam for Carnival
-We spent the evening with our adopted Guayaquil families in the town for Carnival, taking lots and lots of pictures and generally enjoying the atmosphere
Breakfast today was fruit, two small rolls, and a ball of green banana. I liked the banana since my host family eats them all the time. Thus, I had the majority of four green bananas haha.
We took the bus to see Los Tuneles (The Tunnels). According to my guide book, "these underground tunnels were formed by the solidifying of the outside layer of a molten-lava flow. When the lava flow ceased, the molten lava inside the flow kept going, emptying out of the solidified skin and thus leaving tunnels" (thank you Lonely Planet). I'm sort of done seeing caves and tunnels, but they were mildly interesting. We then continued on a path and saw four huge turtles in the wild. Tony, our guide, said that they eat the vegetation and cactus (apparently they have hard mouths) because cacti have lots of water in them. At one point I stopped in the grass to photograph the turtles and my left ankle got attacked my tiny ants. Apparently bug spray isn't effective for them. They kept biting me but didn't leave any lasting bites. I only got three bug bits over all, on the back of my right ankle, so I guess I missed that spot one day. Not bad overall, though I would have preferred a few more bites over all the beetles that inhabited our hotel. They didn't hurt you at all, but they were gross. Natalee killed ten the last night we were there haha.
Anyway, we ended our trek at the ranch of this guy who sounded like an American, but he said he was born on the Islands after his parents came there from the US and had never been to the states. He gave us free coffee but charged us a dollar for a package of crackers. You may have noticed we bought a lot of crackers here. Ritz > hotel food.
We went back to the hotel for lunch and then walked to the entrance to Tortuga Bay beach. They actually searched our bags and they we walked probably 45 minutes down a brick path to get to a gorgeous beach. There was actually some blue sky, which was wonderful. The beach was packed since Monday and Tuesday were Carnival (the spanish equivalent to Mardi Gras, more or less). Basically the whole world goes to the beach and sprays each other with foam or silly string.
The beach had two sides; the side on the open ocean, with pretty big waves, and the side in a bay with zero waves. We all went to the calm side and played in the water for a while. A little 5 year old girl kept swimming around us because she didn't seem to have any other kids to play with. Linda said that she was the daughter of a famous actress, who was sitting on the beach right next to our stuff. I guess we did pick a rather exotic location to spend the holiday. Later, we went to the other side of the beach with the kids and we saw some man who they said was the ex-boyfriend of the actress. We had a ton of fun playing in the ocean and covering each other with foam. After a while we walked over to the huge crowd of people in front of a stage, where the "Mr. Tortuga Bay" contest was happening. There were three finalists, one of which was from our hotel, so we cheered for him, but he got second. The first place winner got $100 dollars. They they had the "Miss Tortuga Bay" contest. Shaunte and I are both tall and white. They called us up. We did not go. Natalee eventually got pushed up on stage by our adopted brother Tito, and she won which was super exciting. Our adopted parents had been fetched by one of the kids, so they came and helped us cheer and brought the cameras. Every person on the beach wanted a photograph with her, which was entertaining. Overall this was definitely one of the best days I've had so far in Ecuador.
We eventually made it back to the hotel, because it seemed like every person on the beach decided to leave at the same time we did, so we all had to squeeze on the narrow path. We were hot from the long walk so we went swimming in the pool with our family. It was fun to get to be with a family, since on all the other trips we've taken in Ecuador, it's been a bunch of college students. That, of course, is also lots of fun.
After dinner everyone in the hotel came out to the patio, had free baby cocktails, and danced. I danced with my 11 year old brother until his dad brought over a stool and told he pretty much had to stand on it to spin me around haha. Then we decided to go out and get ice cream, so we all walked down the street, got delicious ice cream, and continued down to the town center/wharf, which was absolutely packed with people since it was Carnival. Linda's husband has an incredibly nice camera and he uses it all the time, which is awesome because I got most of his pictures, and they're all excellent. We probably took about 200 pictures (it felt like prom, but twenty times worse haha). Our family, by this time, included us four, our two Guayaquil families, a really sweet couple from Ambato, and the runner-up Mr. Tortuga Bay and his wife, and other random people that would join us and leave. We attracted a lot of attention, but it was lots of fun. We saw the two people that were hosting the Tortuga Bay contest again; apparently she's a model and he's a dancer. We saw someone else famous too. That was fun. We also saw more seals, which I personally found more exciting. We eventually went over to the stage and watched some singers perform. They started at about 11 pm. This was not an early night. Natalee had to sit in from wearing her sash with a variety of other people wearing sashes, but Shaunte Ali and I were bored so we wandered around some and were generally successfully at avoided drunk creepers and sprays of water (that's another thing people do for carnival; they dump/spay water on you randomly all the time).
Basically we had a great day with our families, wildlife and Carnival :)
making friends with families and fish
i write this blog for family and anyone else interested. if you're like tara and don't want to read something really long, you're in luck; i'm going to post short highlights at the beginning so you don't have to read the whole thing!
Day Three
-The main breakfast course was half a hot dog
-We saw two hugeee sinkholes, called "The Twins"
-We went boating to an island to see seals and blue-footed boobies
-We made friends with two really cool Ecuadorian families in our group
-We went snorkeling and saw lots of cool fish, and I swam in the middle of a school of fish
after an impressively terrible breakfast, which consisted of too-sweet juice, a small slice of watermelon, two small rolls and half a hot dog (I have NO idea what they were thinking...), we drove to see "Los Gemelos" (The Twins), which are two huge sinkholes, one on either side of the road. We then continued to the north end of the island, where we boarded our boat and went to an island about an hour away. It was more like a giant rock with limited vegetation, but it had lots of birds, two American scientists living under a tarp studying the birds, lots of seals, crabs and a few blue-footed boobies. Still no sun, but it was pretty. We had lunch on the boat (surprisingly decent, all things considered; it even included salad!) and then we went swimming and snorkeling on a new beach. We apparently were supposed to bring our own snorkel gear but on of the families had extra goggles so they shared. I haven't swum with goggles in years, and it was SO COOL! In the water there was 20 feet ish of sand, and then there were rocks and lots of fish. There was a really cool flat fish that was either covered in sand or had the exact coloring of the sand, and it blended in perfectly with the bottom unless it was swimming, and even then it was hard to make out. We saw lots of black fish that were about 2.5 inches long, and one fish that was more like 4 inches swimming in the shallow part, so it was easy to follow. I also swam in a school of probably 100 little fish that seemed to have telepathic powers and would all turn at the exact same time. They were literally surrounding me so I could see them in every direction. We saw two worm-like bottom-dwellers, which were maybe 10 inches long, fat, and didn't really move but were cool. My favorite fish, which I glimpsed once, had a pink tail, blue head, and yellow strip.
On the beach there was also a tree with four or five huge birds and a nest with a baby. I didn't get too close because I didn't want to be attacked and have my eyes gouged out by their huge beaks, but I enjoyed watching from a distance.
Our group consisted of two Ecuadorian families from Guayaquil, one family from Virginia, and us four girls. The two Ecuadorian families were friends, and they pretty much adopted us for trip. In total there were 5 boys between the ages of 11 and 17, and they were all lots and lots of fun. One mom, Linda, reprimanded us for speaking English at lunch. She told us that we had to speak Spanish and her kids would speak English, so we could all practice. All the kids in Ecuador learn English in school if they go to a private school, and they might learn some or a lot in a public school. The oldest two kids were 15 and 17 and knew a lot more English than we know Spanish, although we do know a lot. It was really satisfying to be able to hang out and be friends with these Spanish-speaking families.
On our way home, the other three girls went with one of the families to watch a bull fight, but I didn't feel the need to watch animal cruelty so I headed back to the hotel, had the shower all to myself, and read some of the only English book in the hotel, which was a terrible romancey novel. I gave up on it after 100 pages.
The tap water on the island is not drinkable; I filled up my bottle as soon as we got there, steri-penned it, drank one sip and poured out the rest; it's essentially filtered salt water. They import all their drinking water and showers are an improvement over swimming in ocean water, but it's nice to be back in Quito with clean-feeling (if not completely drinkable) water.
The wi-fi at the hotel stopped working, but the hotel across the street had a really strong signal, so I popped into their lobby, asked for the password (a super sneaky 9876543210) and successfully obtained internet.
Day Three
-The main breakfast course was half a hot dog
-We saw two hugeee sinkholes, called "The Twins"
-We went boating to an island to see seals and blue-footed boobies
-We made friends with two really cool Ecuadorian families in our group
-We went snorkeling and saw lots of cool fish, and I swam in the middle of a school of fish
after an impressively terrible breakfast, which consisted of too-sweet juice, a small slice of watermelon, two small rolls and half a hot dog (I have NO idea what they were thinking...), we drove to see "Los Gemelos" (The Twins), which are two huge sinkholes, one on either side of the road. We then continued to the north end of the island, where we boarded our boat and went to an island about an hour away. It was more like a giant rock with limited vegetation, but it had lots of birds, two American scientists living under a tarp studying the birds, lots of seals, crabs and a few blue-footed boobies. Still no sun, but it was pretty. We had lunch on the boat (surprisingly decent, all things considered; it even included salad!) and then we went swimming and snorkeling on a new beach. We apparently were supposed to bring our own snorkel gear but on of the families had extra goggles so they shared. I haven't swum with goggles in years, and it was SO COOL! In the water there was 20 feet ish of sand, and then there were rocks and lots of fish. There was a really cool flat fish that was either covered in sand or had the exact coloring of the sand, and it blended in perfectly with the bottom unless it was swimming, and even then it was hard to make out. We saw lots of black fish that were about 2.5 inches long, and one fish that was more like 4 inches swimming in the shallow part, so it was easy to follow. I also swam in a school of probably 100 little fish that seemed to have telepathic powers and would all turn at the exact same time. They were literally surrounding me so I could see them in every direction. We saw two worm-like bottom-dwellers, which were maybe 10 inches long, fat, and didn't really move but were cool. My favorite fish, which I glimpsed once, had a pink tail, blue head, and yellow strip.
On the beach there was also a tree with four or five huge birds and a nest with a baby. I didn't get too close because I didn't want to be attacked and have my eyes gouged out by their huge beaks, but I enjoyed watching from a distance.
Our group consisted of two Ecuadorian families from Guayaquil, one family from Virginia, and us four girls. The two Ecuadorian families were friends, and they pretty much adopted us for trip. In total there were 5 boys between the ages of 11 and 17, and they were all lots and lots of fun. One mom, Linda, reprimanded us for speaking English at lunch. She told us that we had to speak Spanish and her kids would speak English, so we could all practice. All the kids in Ecuador learn English in school if they go to a private school, and they might learn some or a lot in a public school. The oldest two kids were 15 and 17 and knew a lot more English than we know Spanish, although we do know a lot. It was really satisfying to be able to hang out and be friends with these Spanish-speaking families.
On our way home, the other three girls went with one of the families to watch a bull fight, but I didn't feel the need to watch animal cruelty so I headed back to the hotel, had the shower all to myself, and read some of the only English book in the hotel, which was a terrible romancey novel. I gave up on it after 100 pages.
The tap water on the island is not drinkable; I filled up my bottle as soon as we got there, steri-penned it, drank one sip and poured out the rest; it's essentially filtered salt water. They import all their drinking water and showers are an improvement over swimming in ocean water, but it's nice to be back in Quito with clean-feeling (if not completely drinkable) water.
The wi-fi at the hotel stopped working, but the hotel across the street had a really strong signal, so I popped into their lobby, asked for the password (a super sneaky 9876543210) and successfully obtained internet.
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