Well, we just got back from the Galapagos today and I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that we had an awesome trip: a five-day cruise through the southern islands that included a lot of boating, wildlife, and snorkeling. The bad news however is that I returned to find my suitcase and laptop stolen out of my room. (A couple of other NILIs lost stuff too, so we'll see what happens.) That was really frustrating at first, but I've been trying to stay positive about it. I lost a lot on my computer but at least I won't have a crippling addiction to it when I get home.
I can hardly believe I'm already flying back on Saturday! My flight leaves Quito super early that morning, and after another layover in Houston I'll get to Seattle that evening. (And I'll get back to the island on Sunday night.) I'm definitely ready to return and it will be really nice to have a 5-6 week winter break at home. I've loved spending this much time traveling, but at the same time I have increasingly missed my home, family, Lauren (my girlfriend), and all my other friends. Anyway, I'll wrap up this blog and write about our trip to Guayaquil and the Galapagos when I get back to the US. Hasta luego!
Showing posts with label Quito. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quito. Show all posts
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Random Awesomeness
This weekend turned out to be a relaxed weekend without any plans, and it’s our last free weekend of the semester (not counting mountaineering or group travel). I’m still recovering from a sinus infection so it was definitely good taking things easy. But we were able to do some cool stuff this week as well.
I have been thinking a lot about what I still want to do here in Ecuador, and while skimming through a guide book I found a phone number for a paragliding school. Jenna and Kelsey wanted to go too and we were told over the phone that two pilots would be availiable to fly us on Sunday morning. But we found out the spot in South Quito is hard to get to by city bus. One of the pilots lived close to us so we were told to meet up with him. Our instructions: take a taxi to a nearby cross street and some dude named Carlos would be waiting for us in a VW van. (Now, that doesn’t have sketch written all over it…) He turned out to be really cool though, and he was a good pilot: he’d been flying for fifteen years and is training for the world championships in Columbia.
Above: A Great Day for Paragliding...
The park is a grassy field on a large hill and a really popular place for paragliding. There are lots of people who go there to watch during the weekends, and we saw a lot of other paragliders, including the inexperenced. (One took off uncontrollably in the wind and another sent the crowd running away from his landing.) It was a bummer though because Carlos was the only tandem pilot that went. He had the girls to go first because they were lighter and each of their flights lasted about fifteen minutes. However, they didn’t have organized transportation to get back and they had to find their own ways. He and Jenna found a truck (after landing in a field of thorns), but after Kelsey’s flight they had to wait a long time for a city bus. I ended up waiting five hours at the park but by the time it was my turn, it was too cloudy and the wind had died. I was disappointed but I’m glad the others had a good time. I guess I saved $60, but that is super cheap compared to tandem flights anywhere else.
Another thing that I had wanted to do here was puenting. This is usually translated as ‘bungee jumping’, but it’s more of a type of bridge swing. (Instead of a giant stretchy cord, a cable is attached to the top of the other side of the bridge; creating a giant swing after the initial freefall.) Earlier in the semester I found the company that does puenting in Quito, but learned that they only set dates for groups of five or more. After waiting a long time, they contacted me this week with an invite to join a group on Tuesday night. Jenna was down and Josué and Thad wanted to come along too so we could all eat somewhere else for dinner. (We ended up going back to that amazing Mexican restaurant, for the third time.)
When our taxi brought us to the bridge, two guys were getting everything ready and it was a pretty good set up: two harnesses, lots of locking carabeaners, and good rope. They’ve been operating for eight years without an accident, so this fact alone made the $15 price tag more assuring. The bridge was about 120 feet high and in the middle of the city, so the traffic and city lights created an intense atmosphere. I was the first one to go and had a lot of adrenaline flowing. The only scary part is looking off the bridge leading up the jump, but I went backwards and afterward wished I’d gone forwards. My lower harness wasn’t exactly comfortable but overall it was a good experience. Unfortunately, it was too dark, rainy, and cloudy to get good pictures or video, but here is a YouTube video of what we did:
Wednesday we had a field trip to a museum of colonial archives, and there were a lot of paintings, sculptures, maps, and plant species. It wasn’t like a traditional museum, it was more like something you would see in a National Treasure movie and there was a lot of great hidden stuff. Afterward we went to eat lunch a traditional restaurant that had some interesting food choices. I put together the weirdest meal I’ve ever eaten: roasted guinea pig, intestine soup, a side of dried blood, and Sierrian chicha (a fermented corn drink). I shared the cuy (guinea pig) and got a nearly meatless sections of the head, back, and arms; which were really good but I didn’t like the skin. Also I like fried intestines, but the soup was funky. I only made it halfway through and was glad to finish someone’s pork fritada instead. The dried blood had the texture of sun-dried tomatoes with barely any flavor, but the chicha was good and a lot smoother than the homemade stuff I had back in August.
Left: Our NILI Group. Right: My Interesting Lunch.
That night we went to another Liga soccer game in the South American cup quarterfinals. This time it was against “Newell’s Old Boys” from Argentina (so random that their name is in English) and the stadium was a lot more crazy. The first match in Argentina was a 0-0 tie, so both team’s hopes of a championship were riding on this game. It was scoreless and intense throughout, but finally the Liga pulled through with an emotional goal in the 79th minute. This was a great game and now they advance to the semifinals, but I doubt we'll have time to go to anymore games.
This afternoon Josué, Thad, and I decided to head back to Colonial Quito once again. Our main goal was to check out the Casa de Alabado, a new Precolumbian art museum, and that turned out to be really cool. We also found an awesome handmade candy store, enjoyed batido smoothies (avocado, carrot, and mango), and got ripped off by a volunteer worker in the San Francisco cathedral. (He offered us a private tour for a small donation and after a lame five-minute walkthrough he asked us for five bucks.)
Sorry my blogs have been getting long. I’ve been getting in the habit of only writing every week. Anyway, this is our big climbing weekend so I’ll make sure to post when we get back. Here’s a rough itenerary of what’s going on: Saturday morning we’ll climb Volcán Rumiñahui (15,459’), Sunday we’ll hike up to Cotopaxi’s second refuge (15,748’), and Monday is our summit attempt (19,347’) starting at 1 am! This will be fun and I'll try to take some good pictures. Anyway, hasta luego!
I have been thinking a lot about what I still want to do here in Ecuador, and while skimming through a guide book I found a phone number for a paragliding school. Jenna and Kelsey wanted to go too and we were told over the phone that two pilots would be availiable to fly us on Sunday morning. But we found out the spot in South Quito is hard to get to by city bus. One of the pilots lived close to us so we were told to meet up with him. Our instructions: take a taxi to a nearby cross street and some dude named Carlos would be waiting for us in a VW van. (Now, that doesn’t have sketch written all over it…) He turned out to be really cool though, and he was a good pilot: he’d been flying for fifteen years and is training for the world championships in Columbia.
Above: A Great Day for Paragliding...
The park is a grassy field on a large hill and a really popular place for paragliding. There are lots of people who go there to watch during the weekends, and we saw a lot of other paragliders, including the inexperenced. (One took off uncontrollably in the wind and another sent the crowd running away from his landing.) It was a bummer though because Carlos was the only tandem pilot that went. He had the girls to go first because they were lighter and each of their flights lasted about fifteen minutes. However, they didn’t have organized transportation to get back and they had to find their own ways. He and Jenna found a truck (after landing in a field of thorns), but after Kelsey’s flight they had to wait a long time for a city bus. I ended up waiting five hours at the park but by the time it was my turn, it was too cloudy and the wind had died. I was disappointed but I’m glad the others had a good time. I guess I saved $60, but that is super cheap compared to tandem flights anywhere else.
Another thing that I had wanted to do here was puenting. This is usually translated as ‘bungee jumping’, but it’s more of a type of bridge swing. (Instead of a giant stretchy cord, a cable is attached to the top of the other side of the bridge; creating a giant swing after the initial freefall.) Earlier in the semester I found the company that does puenting in Quito, but learned that they only set dates for groups of five or more. After waiting a long time, they contacted me this week with an invite to join a group on Tuesday night. Jenna was down and Josué and Thad wanted to come along too so we could all eat somewhere else for dinner. (We ended up going back to that amazing Mexican restaurant, for the third time.)
When our taxi brought us to the bridge, two guys were getting everything ready and it was a pretty good set up: two harnesses, lots of locking carabeaners, and good rope. They’ve been operating for eight years without an accident, so this fact alone made the $15 price tag more assuring. The bridge was about 120 feet high and in the middle of the city, so the traffic and city lights created an intense atmosphere. I was the first one to go and had a lot of adrenaline flowing. The only scary part is looking off the bridge leading up the jump, but I went backwards and afterward wished I’d gone forwards. My lower harness wasn’t exactly comfortable but overall it was a good experience. Unfortunately, it was too dark, rainy, and cloudy to get good pictures or video, but here is a YouTube video of what we did:
Wednesday we had a field trip to a museum of colonial archives, and there were a lot of paintings, sculptures, maps, and plant species. It wasn’t like a traditional museum, it was more like something you would see in a National Treasure movie and there was a lot of great hidden stuff. Afterward we went to eat lunch a traditional restaurant that had some interesting food choices. I put together the weirdest meal I’ve ever eaten: roasted guinea pig, intestine soup, a side of dried blood, and Sierrian chicha (a fermented corn drink). I shared the cuy (guinea pig) and got a nearly meatless sections of the head, back, and arms; which were really good but I didn’t like the skin. Also I like fried intestines, but the soup was funky. I only made it halfway through and was glad to finish someone’s pork fritada instead. The dried blood had the texture of sun-dried tomatoes with barely any flavor, but the chicha was good and a lot smoother than the homemade stuff I had back in August.
Left: Our NILI Group. Right: My Interesting Lunch.
That night we went to another Liga soccer game in the South American cup quarterfinals. This time it was against “Newell’s Old Boys” from Argentina (so random that their name is in English) and the stadium was a lot more crazy. The first match in Argentina was a 0-0 tie, so both team’s hopes of a championship were riding on this game. It was scoreless and intense throughout, but finally the Liga pulled through with an emotional goal in the 79th minute. This was a great game and now they advance to the semifinals, but I doubt we'll have time to go to anymore games.
This afternoon Josué, Thad, and I decided to head back to Colonial Quito once again. Our main goal was to check out the Casa de Alabado, a new Precolumbian art museum, and that turned out to be really cool. We also found an awesome handmade candy store, enjoyed batido smoothies (avocado, carrot, and mango), and got ripped off by a volunteer worker in the San Francisco cathedral. (He offered us a private tour for a small donation and after a lame five-minute walkthrough he asked us for five bucks.)
Sorry my blogs have been getting long. I’ve been getting in the habit of only writing every week. Anyway, this is our big climbing weekend so I’ll make sure to post when we get back. Here’s a rough itenerary of what’s going on: Saturday morning we’ll climb Volcán Rumiñahui (15,459’), Sunday we’ll hike up to Cotopaxi’s second refuge (15,748’), and Monday is our summit attempt (19,347’) starting at 1 am! This will be fun and I'll try to take some good pictures. Anyway, hasta luego!
Monday, October 25, 2010
Nocturnal Quito and Nike We Run
This weekend I was sick and didn’t do a whole lot, but there were still a couple significant events that happened: Friday night we had another field trip into Colonial Quito and Saturday we had our Nike 10k race.
It was cool to visit the historic part of Quito again and it was a different experience at night. The old city has a lot of charm and the buildings date back to the 1600s. We started off with carriage rides through the plazas and historic streets. I sat up front next to the driver who had trouble getting the skiddish horse under control. He was interesting to talk to and kept swearing at the horse. There were a lot of people taking pictures when we rode by and I couldn’t figure out whether they were photographing the horses or the gringos. There aren’t many carriage rides here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were taking pictures of us.
For dinner we went to Café Mirador, a really nice restaurant in the heart of town. Before eating we climbed up to the roof to Vista Hermosa and saw a beautiful panorama of the city. I’m really starting to like Quito and it’s cool to live in a historical city like this. In the restaurant everything looked good on the menu, but I ordered a type of spicy steak. It’s good to have meat when I get the chance because Ecuadorian cuisine tends to be carb loaded. (Seriously, we’ve been served rice, noodles, and potatoes before.) When I asked for the steak to be medium I was warned by the NILI staff that meat is cooked really rare down here. I decided to go for three-quarters, but the steak still came back pink and bloody on the inside. This was suprising at first, but I didn’t really mind. I know throughly cooked meat is empasized in the US, but I think there might be more risk back home with our mass produced feedlot cattle. If the organs and scraps are safe to eat here, the cows are probably safer too. At least, I hope so. The steak was delicious though, and the texture reminded me a lot of sashimi (raw fish sushi).
Afterward we drove up to El Panecillo, a hill in South Quito with the famous virgin statue that overlooks the city. We hiked around the park and admired the 150-ft structure (same height as the copper part of the Statue of Liberty). Later I learned that it was based off of a smaller statue and made from 7,000 pieces of aluminum. It’s possible to go inside the statue, but it was closed by the time we got there. The Madonna is really iconic in Quito and it was cool to see it up close.
Saturday we had our 10k race and I still wasn’t feeling well so I rested all morning. I hadn’t really run in two weeks and I was a nervous with being sick, but it turned out to be an awesome experience. The race was part of the Nike We Run series, which took place in 16 cities around the world with about 142,000 runners. A few of us decided to run it last month after seeing ads and promotions all over the city. Since we signed up early, the cost was only $15 and we got a Nike Dri-Fit running shirt that was flourescent yellow.
Above: Before and after the race! (Photos from Jen's camera)
We knew we arrived in the right part of town when all we could see were people in these bright yellow shirts. There were runners all over the place, warming up and stretching so we joined them until everybody lined up at the start. Quito was set to have 6,000 runners and the area was packed. It’s funny because there were no public bathrooms by the starting line and in countries like Ecuador public urination isn’t looked down upon. (There were a ton of people using the walls and sides of vehicles in the dimly lit streets.) But other than the lack of bathrooms, the race was really well put together with a good route and hydration stations. Thad and I ran together and we didn’t see any other gringos. There were hundreds of people watching and cheering from the sidelines and we even got some cheers in English like “almost done” and “good job”.
Running is interesting at high altitude and I’ve grown to really like it. At higher elevation there is less atmospheric pressure and therefore less oxygen to breathe (up here it’s about 2/3 of sea level). The body has to increase a bunch of functions for the brain and muscles to get enough oxygen, and this makes endurance activities difficult. But ironically since the air is less dense, it is easier to run short distances. With sprints I feel really explosive, but long runs can be really draining, and this contradiction is still mindblowing for me. The race site was 9100-9200’ elevation, but by now we are pretty well acclimated. Our running pace tends to be slower this high, but we still broke an hour (59:13) which I was proud of for how I was feeling.
(Here's a historical note for people who like trivia: The idea of altitude preformance was discovered after the 1968 Mexico City Olympics (held at 7300’ elevation) when the endurance times were below average and all the short distance and jumping records were shattered).
Well that’s about it for the weekend. Sunday I went to church with a group and relaxed for the remainder of the day. I’m still feeling sick today, but I’m trying to rest up. I want to be healthy for this coming weekend, which is a five-day break. (Next Tuesday and Wednesday are national holidays, and Correa decided to designated this Monday off as well.) Thad and I want to do more hiking and we’re planning to head back to into the Andes. But this week is the last week of our third block, so I have to focus on school before I get my head in the mountains. Hasta luego!
It was cool to visit the historic part of Quito again and it was a different experience at night. The old city has a lot of charm and the buildings date back to the 1600s. We started off with carriage rides through the plazas and historic streets. I sat up front next to the driver who had trouble getting the skiddish horse under control. He was interesting to talk to and kept swearing at the horse. There were a lot of people taking pictures when we rode by and I couldn’t figure out whether they were photographing the horses or the gringos. There aren’t many carriage rides here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were taking pictures of us.
For dinner we went to Café Mirador, a really nice restaurant in the heart of town. Before eating we climbed up to the roof to Vista Hermosa and saw a beautiful panorama of the city. I’m really starting to like Quito and it’s cool to live in a historical city like this. In the restaurant everything looked good on the menu, but I ordered a type of spicy steak. It’s good to have meat when I get the chance because Ecuadorian cuisine tends to be carb loaded. (Seriously, we’ve been served rice, noodles, and potatoes before.) When I asked for the steak to be medium I was warned by the NILI staff that meat is cooked really rare down here. I decided to go for three-quarters, but the steak still came back pink and bloody on the inside. This was suprising at first, but I didn’t really mind. I know throughly cooked meat is empasized in the US, but I think there might be more risk back home with our mass produced feedlot cattle. If the organs and scraps are safe to eat here, the cows are probably safer too. At least, I hope so. The steak was delicious though, and the texture reminded me a lot of sashimi (raw fish sushi).
Afterward we drove up to El Panecillo, a hill in South Quito with the famous virgin statue that overlooks the city. We hiked around the park and admired the 150-ft structure (same height as the copper part of the Statue of Liberty). Later I learned that it was based off of a smaller statue and made from 7,000 pieces of aluminum. It’s possible to go inside the statue, but it was closed by the time we got there. The Madonna is really iconic in Quito and it was cool to see it up close.
Saturday we had our 10k race and I still wasn’t feeling well so I rested all morning. I hadn’t really run in two weeks and I was a nervous with being sick, but it turned out to be an awesome experience. The race was part of the Nike We Run series, which took place in 16 cities around the world with about 142,000 runners. A few of us decided to run it last month after seeing ads and promotions all over the city. Since we signed up early, the cost was only $15 and we got a Nike Dri-Fit running shirt that was flourescent yellow.
Above: Before and after the race! (Photos from Jen's camera)
We knew we arrived in the right part of town when all we could see were people in these bright yellow shirts. There were runners all over the place, warming up and stretching so we joined them until everybody lined up at the start. Quito was set to have 6,000 runners and the area was packed. It’s funny because there were no public bathrooms by the starting line and in countries like Ecuador public urination isn’t looked down upon. (There were a ton of people using the walls and sides of vehicles in the dimly lit streets.) But other than the lack of bathrooms, the race was really well put together with a good route and hydration stations. Thad and I ran together and we didn’t see any other gringos. There were hundreds of people watching and cheering from the sidelines and we even got some cheers in English like “almost done” and “good job”.
Running is interesting at high altitude and I’ve grown to really like it. At higher elevation there is less atmospheric pressure and therefore less oxygen to breathe (up here it’s about 2/3 of sea level). The body has to increase a bunch of functions for the brain and muscles to get enough oxygen, and this makes endurance activities difficult. But ironically since the air is less dense, it is easier to run short distances. With sprints I feel really explosive, but long runs can be really draining, and this contradiction is still mindblowing for me. The race site was 9100-9200’ elevation, but by now we are pretty well acclimated. Our running pace tends to be slower this high, but we still broke an hour (59:13) which I was proud of for how I was feeling.
(Here's a historical note for people who like trivia: The idea of altitude preformance was discovered after the 1968 Mexico City Olympics (held at 7300’ elevation) when the endurance times were below average and all the short distance and jumping records were shattered).
Well that’s about it for the weekend. Sunday I went to church with a group and relaxed for the remainder of the day. I’m still feeling sick today, but I’m trying to rest up. I want to be healthy for this coming weekend, which is a five-day break. (Next Tuesday and Wednesday are national holidays, and Correa decided to designated this Monday off as well.) Thad and I want to do more hiking and we’re planning to head back to into the Andes. But this week is the last week of our third block, so I have to focus on school before I get my head in the mountains. Hasta luego!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Miscellaneous Week
I’ve gotten in the habit of only blogging about the weekends because it feels like there’s not a whole lot of stuff happening during the week. It’s usually just the same old routine, but there’s usually cool and interesting stuff happening. I’ll try to put something together for this week.
One interesting experience that happened this week was getting a haircut on Tuesday. My hair has been getting longer so I decided to go for it in the spur of the moment while we were down in Carcelén. I was expecting the worst to happen, but the haircut actually turned out well. I was proud of myself for explaining what I wanted in Spanish, and as my parents know, this is something I don’t like doing in English. And the best part: it only cost $4! The haircut included a trim with a straightedge razor, which I admit was slightly nerve-racking.
My hairstylist, Fernando, was an interesting dude though. He lived in Spain for a while and got his hair license while he was visiting England. (He said he couldn’t speak English very well, and the only English word he used was an expletive when he nicked me with the straightedge.) He was really nice and we talked a lot, but I could tell he was gay with his hair and earring (a sign in Ecuador). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with this, but I had to think about the cultural implications afterward. I asked Josué what it meant when he conversed with me in the second person, and apparently this showed that he felt really comfortable around me. I then asked what it meant when I referred back with the same pronoun, and found out this was a way of showing that I felt really close to him as well. Great. The tú/usted pronoun difference (two different ways of saying "you") in Spanish is really important in distinguishing close relationships with professional interactions and discernment can help keep space between yourself and another person. I totally knew this beforehand but wasn’t thinking. Maybe I shouldn’t have told Fernando where I lived.
Another interesting event was a concert last night (Wednesday). It was a strings ensemble of baroque music that played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons among other pieces. Jenna (a NILI student) was offered a bunch of free tickets from the school she helps at so a large group of us decided to go. It was a really good event and I love capitalizing on whatever free opportunities come about. The music group was a travelling ensemble from Korea and we found it weird that they spoke to the crowd in English. I tried translating for Gustavo, but even us gringos had trouble understanding the non-native speech. Afterward a few of us were dying of hunger so we made a late-night food run downtown.
One activity we tend to do a lot is going to the nearby mall. It’s not too far away and we usually split a taxi since they are cheap in Quito. Today (Thursday) we decided to go shopping and I ended up buying a shirt. I love how South American sizes are more slender, and I found a t-shirt kiosk that only had size differences with the height. Score! The shirts were all $16, but some of the styles were half off. I paid with a $10 and ended up getting change back in nickels. We also stopped at Sweet & Coffee, a popular coffee shop that has good drinks and desserts. They have really good prices and their large frappachinos are only $2! I dumped off my nickels on the cashier and eagerly awaited my drink. However, it was strange today because Josué ordered a type of cappuccino and they gave my drink to him with his order. I ordered a new flavor (cacao) but it didn’t look the same and we thought it was meant to be mixed with his drink. We soon found out we were wrong and ended up sharing the drink (a dizzying concoction of cacao frappachino with a double cappuccino shot and two packets of cane sugar). Needless to say, I will probably be up late tonight.
This weekend I am really excited because the NILI guys (Josué, Thad, and me) are heading back to Mindo. It’s a touristy town in the cloud forest about 2 hours away with a lot of fun activities like hiking, biking, rafting, and zip lining. This is where we went to the butterfly exhibit and chocolate factory at the beginning of the trip and we’ve wanted to head back. We are actually staying at the hostel that is part of the chocolate factory so that will be awesome. It will be really good to get out of Quito now that the political situation is pretty much all straightened out.
Another thing that will be amazing: a few of us are going to a South American Cup game on Tuesday! The Copa Sudamerica is an annual soccer tournament for pro teams, and last year LDU Quito won it all. However, this year they lost their last game to San Felipe, the Chilean team that they are playing again on Tuesday. It was an interesting game (I reported on it for a news article in class), and while San Felipe is a younger team, they fought a lot harder. I imagine the motivation had a lot to do with the rescue of the Chilean miners on the same day. But Tuesday’s rematch will be an intense game, and Yoan warned me not to go unless I plan on jumping and screaming the whole time. Heck yes.
Anyway, our classes have been going great and we just started a new block this week. We are in the classroom three hours a day, but the good thing is each class only lasts for three weeks. The first two class blocks were Advanced Grammar I & II and now we are in Advanced Conversation. It is a good class so far and we talk about a lot about cultural topics and current events. I am learning that I need to become less of a procrastinator, as the workload gets bigger because it is harder to put off work that has to be done in Spanish. I especially realized this with a 4-5 page paper that I didn’t do until the day of on Tuesday. I really need to work on procrastination and I should probably start by getting to my homework tonight. Anyway, hasta luego!
One interesting experience that happened this week was getting a haircut on Tuesday. My hair has been getting longer so I decided to go for it in the spur of the moment while we were down in Carcelén. I was expecting the worst to happen, but the haircut actually turned out well. I was proud of myself for explaining what I wanted in Spanish, and as my parents know, this is something I don’t like doing in English. And the best part: it only cost $4! The haircut included a trim with a straightedge razor, which I admit was slightly nerve-racking.
My hairstylist, Fernando, was an interesting dude though. He lived in Spain for a while and got his hair license while he was visiting England. (He said he couldn’t speak English very well, and the only English word he used was an expletive when he nicked me with the straightedge.) He was really nice and we talked a lot, but I could tell he was gay with his hair and earring (a sign in Ecuador). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with this, but I had to think about the cultural implications afterward. I asked Josué what it meant when he conversed with me in the second person, and apparently this showed that he felt really comfortable around me. I then asked what it meant when I referred back with the same pronoun, and found out this was a way of showing that I felt really close to him as well. Great. The tú/usted pronoun difference (two different ways of saying "you") in Spanish is really important in distinguishing close relationships with professional interactions and discernment can help keep space between yourself and another person. I totally knew this beforehand but wasn’t thinking. Maybe I shouldn’t have told Fernando where I lived.
Another interesting event was a concert last night (Wednesday). It was a strings ensemble of baroque music that played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons among other pieces. Jenna (a NILI student) was offered a bunch of free tickets from the school she helps at so a large group of us decided to go. It was a really good event and I love capitalizing on whatever free opportunities come about. The music group was a travelling ensemble from Korea and we found it weird that they spoke to the crowd in English. I tried translating for Gustavo, but even us gringos had trouble understanding the non-native speech. Afterward a few of us were dying of hunger so we made a late-night food run downtown.
One activity we tend to do a lot is going to the nearby mall. It’s not too far away and we usually split a taxi since they are cheap in Quito. Today (Thursday) we decided to go shopping and I ended up buying a shirt. I love how South American sizes are more slender, and I found a t-shirt kiosk that only had size differences with the height. Score! The shirts were all $16, but some of the styles were half off. I paid with a $10 and ended up getting change back in nickels. We also stopped at Sweet & Coffee, a popular coffee shop that has good drinks and desserts. They have really good prices and their large frappachinos are only $2! I dumped off my nickels on the cashier and eagerly awaited my drink. However, it was strange today because Josué ordered a type of cappuccino and they gave my drink to him with his order. I ordered a new flavor (cacao) but it didn’t look the same and we thought it was meant to be mixed with his drink. We soon found out we were wrong and ended up sharing the drink (a dizzying concoction of cacao frappachino with a double cappuccino shot and two packets of cane sugar). Needless to say, I will probably be up late tonight.
This weekend I am really excited because the NILI guys (Josué, Thad, and me) are heading back to Mindo. It’s a touristy town in the cloud forest about 2 hours away with a lot of fun activities like hiking, biking, rafting, and zip lining. This is where we went to the butterfly exhibit and chocolate factory at the beginning of the trip and we’ve wanted to head back. We are actually staying at the hostel that is part of the chocolate factory so that will be awesome. It will be really good to get out of Quito now that the political situation is pretty much all straightened out.
Another thing that will be amazing: a few of us are going to a South American Cup game on Tuesday! The Copa Sudamerica is an annual soccer tournament for pro teams, and last year LDU Quito won it all. However, this year they lost their last game to San Felipe, the Chilean team that they are playing again on Tuesday. It was an interesting game (I reported on it for a news article in class), and while San Felipe is a younger team, they fought a lot harder. I imagine the motivation had a lot to do with the rescue of the Chilean miners on the same day. But Tuesday’s rematch will be an intense game, and Yoan warned me not to go unless I plan on jumping and screaming the whole time. Heck yes.
Anyway, our classes have been going great and we just started a new block this week. We are in the classroom three hours a day, but the good thing is each class only lasts for three weeks. The first two class blocks were Advanced Grammar I & II and now we are in Advanced Conversation. It is a good class so far and we talk about a lot about cultural topics and current events. I am learning that I need to become less of a procrastinator, as the workload gets bigger because it is harder to put off work that has to be done in Spanish. I especially realized this with a 4-5 page paper that I didn’t do until the day of on Tuesday. I really need to work on procrastination and I should probably start by getting to my homework tonight. Anyway, hasta luego!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Ecuadorian Homestay
My Ecuafamilia.
Things have gotten a lot better politically since I wrote last. I don’t know everything that’s happened, but the streets are back to normal and we’ve been able to leave campus. Also last week, president Correa and the Ecuadorian parliament modified the new law so the government could give the police and armed forces a salary increase. I still don't completely understand last week’s situation though.
Anyway, this weekend for a cultural activity we moved in with an Ecuadorian family to observe what a home setting is like. Friday night I met my Ecuadorian parents and carpooled to their house with Amy and Josué (two other NILIs) who were living with families close by. Nine of us shared a small four-door sedan, and while I was lucky enough to sit in the front, my only available space was occupied by a 5-year-old who sat on my lap. After we arrived I found out that I had three siblings: Eduardo, Luis, and Christina who were 26, 22, and 18 years old. It’s interesting in Latin cultural how close families are and it’s the norm for children to continue living with their parents, even after they are finished with school and working. The house was a small concrete structure, but it was comfortably made into a two-story home. I realized that they lived in the same area as Gustavo’s church, which is a rough part of town, and I heard some terrifying stories about this from Miguel, my Ecuadorian dad.
Instead of doors in the house there were hanging rugs, but this didn’t bother me at all. Also, I was warned to watch my head every time I went up the stairs, because there was barely any clearance. Oh yeah, another thing I was warned about was the size of the shower. The ceiling was my height and the spigot was about shoulder level. But that wasn’t the worst part. There are many ways to heat water and one of them happens to be with electricity, complete with wires and electrical circuits in the shower. With my height I could smell the electric current and hear buzzing, and without thinking I touched the spigot and was shocked. This combination made me really nervous, so I squatted the whole time to stay away from the electricity.
Saturday morning we went to a downtown market, which is a weekly family tradition. This was similar to the market we went to for our field trip and there was just about every kind of natural food imaginable. I asked a lot of questions about unfamiliar foods and saw a lot of interesting stuff. The meat section was filled with organs, heads, tongues, and hooves, but it’s cool how every part of the animal gets used up. It was also interesting to see my family purchase chicken. The poultry were all completely intact for the vendor to gut after each purchase, and the head, feet, and organs are all brought home as part of the deal. The head and feet are especially popular in chicken soup here.
For lunch we went over to the seafood section and bought a bunch of cangrejo, a type of small tropical crab. Crabs down here are cooked in a soup with vegetables, peanut butter, and verdes green bananas. (There are at least six different types of banana here). There were no tools to remove the meat so we used our teeth along with a big mallet on the table for the claws. It was weird to see the crabs served floating in a bowl of the brown liquid, but they were really tasty. Similarly my family thought it was weird that we just cook crab in salt water.
On Sunday mornings Miguel and a few others from his church have a really cool routine: they climb the nearby mountain to spend some quiet time and pray. I decided to tag along and it turned out to be a really neat experience. We left the house at four in the morning and after meeting up with others, we hiked for over an hour until we reached the top. We had an amazing view of the city and could see a lot of other mountains as well. From where I sat I was able to watch the sunrise next to Cayambe, Ecuador’s third-highest peak. (I didn’t have my altimeter with me, but I guessed our elevation to be between 10-11,000’.) On the way down, Miguel showed me a bunch of medicinal plants that are used to help the stomach, lungs, kidneys, liver, and a lot of ailments.
Left: Approaching the Summit. Right: View of Quito and Cotopaxi
Overall, I learned a lot about the culture: things such as you don’t take your shoes off or dress casually in an Ecuadorian home. Another thing that stood out: I was really hungry one night and I ate my dinner fast. I then apologized and said that I’m used to eating fast at home, but Miguel’s response was profound: “I used to eat fast too, until I realized how long it took for my wife to make the food.” That comment has stuck with me, and all together this weekend was really nice. I definitely want to see their family again before I leave the country.
Sorry for going so long in between blogs. This week has been somewhat uneventful following the attempted political coup. But things are starting to pick up again, which is nice. I’m excited to get back to more adventures over the weekends. Anyway, hasta luego!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Colonial Quito & Last Weekend
Things have gotten a lot busier here. We have a midterm exam and presentation tomorrow, and Friday morning we leave for a weeklong missions trip to Santo Domingo, about a three-hour trip west. I’m really excited for this because we get to do a lot of volunteer work (as opposed to class and homework) and activities with the kids. I doubt we’ll have internet there so I’ll make this post a little longer and add some more details about the weekend.
Today we had another weekly academic outing, which is awesome because we get to learn outside of the classroom. It was our introduction to colonial Quito, which is an awesome and beautiful part of the city. After arriving at the plaza and grabbing a delicious pastry, we had a tour of The Society of Jesus Church, a popular cathedral that took 160 years to build and is almost completely covered in gold leaf. Next we went to the City Museum where we learned a lot about Quito’s colonial history. Finally we went to lunch and I had shawarma wrap and some guanábana ice cream. Later we had some salchipapas at a small street corner restaurant that was about as hot as a sauna from all the frying grease. I absolutely how cheap food here can be. (Large Size = $1.40!)
Here are a couple pictures I took today, including a panorama of South Quito.
On Sunday I decided to hang out with Gustavo and I went with him up to the mountains to the church he works at. We had to take a bus up there, which I’ve found is one of the scariest systems of public transport. The bus drivers aren’t any better than the others and they hardly stop to let you on and off. It is really important to hold on too because they drive all over the place. Even though I’m used to riding on a ferry, I realized my balance isn’t as good as I thought. They will cram a ton of people on, like the subways in Tokyo. The only difference is South Americans value personal space a lot differently, and if you sit down you might end up with someone’s armpit in your face. At the top, the roads were dirt and cobblestone, littered with garbage, and there were close concrete buildings and stray dogs everywhere. I love places where I can be the only foreigner!
The church service was small, but really good, and afterward we walked over to the pastor’s house to eat lunch. On the way, we stopped at a small street corner grocery and bought some chorizo (sausage). Those tiny stores have everything, including chicken feet and other cuts of meat I don’t recognize. While Gustavo and the pastor cooked the sausage and rice, they showed me how to make juice from tomatillos, which taste like the combination of a tomato and a peach. Juice is really popular here and they make it with blended fruit, water, and (lots of) sugar. There are a lot of good drinks here, with tropical fruits and sweet teas.
Oh yeah, the concert on Saturday turned out to be awesome! There were probably about 10,000 people there and I wouldn’t be surprised if we were the only gringos. I love learning about new music and there were four different bands playing (I really liked Pescao Vivo, a Columbian alternative band). The concert was supposed to start at 5, but instead the first band didn’t open until 6. This is because of La Hora Ecuatoriana, Ecuadorian Time where everything begins casually late, anywhere from ten minutes to over an hour. From what I’ve heard this is pretty common in South America. Our first week welcoming party started about thirty minutes late (us Americans were all standing around waiting), and I’ve gone to play basketball but had to wait a while for someone to bring a ball. During orientation we were told that whenever we see a time, just to add an “ish” on the end of it. Coming from a punctual society I’m not used to it. Well I’m used to procrastination… I still have to study a lot for my exam tomorrow. Hasta Luego!
Left: Jenna, Josué, and the girl with the flashlight. Right: Pescao Vivo
Today we had another weekly academic outing, which is awesome because we get to learn outside of the classroom. It was our introduction to colonial Quito, which is an awesome and beautiful part of the city. After arriving at the plaza and grabbing a delicious pastry, we had a tour of The Society of Jesus Church, a popular cathedral that took 160 years to build and is almost completely covered in gold leaf. Next we went to the City Museum where we learned a lot about Quito’s colonial history. Finally we went to lunch and I had shawarma wrap and some guanábana ice cream. Later we had some salchipapas at a small street corner restaurant that was about as hot as a sauna from all the frying grease. I absolutely how cheap food here can be. (Large Size = $1.40!)
Here are a couple pictures I took today, including a panorama of South Quito.
On Sunday I decided to hang out with Gustavo and I went with him up to the mountains to the church he works at. We had to take a bus up there, which I’ve found is one of the scariest systems of public transport. The bus drivers aren’t any better than the others and they hardly stop to let you on and off. It is really important to hold on too because they drive all over the place. Even though I’m used to riding on a ferry, I realized my balance isn’t as good as I thought. They will cram a ton of people on, like the subways in Tokyo. The only difference is South Americans value personal space a lot differently, and if you sit down you might end up with someone’s armpit in your face. At the top, the roads were dirt and cobblestone, littered with garbage, and there were close concrete buildings and stray dogs everywhere. I love places where I can be the only foreigner!
The church service was small, but really good, and afterward we walked over to the pastor’s house to eat lunch. On the way, we stopped at a small street corner grocery and bought some chorizo (sausage). Those tiny stores have everything, including chicken feet and other cuts of meat I don’t recognize. While Gustavo and the pastor cooked the sausage and rice, they showed me how to make juice from tomatillos, which taste like the combination of a tomato and a peach. Juice is really popular here and they make it with blended fruit, water, and (lots of) sugar. There are a lot of good drinks here, with tropical fruits and sweet teas.
Oh yeah, the concert on Saturday turned out to be awesome! There were probably about 10,000 people there and I wouldn’t be surprised if we were the only gringos. I love learning about new music and there were four different bands playing (I really liked Pescao Vivo, a Columbian alternative band). The concert was supposed to start at 5, but instead the first band didn’t open until 6. This is because of La Hora Ecuatoriana, Ecuadorian Time where everything begins casually late, anywhere from ten minutes to over an hour. From what I’ve heard this is pretty common in South America. Our first week welcoming party started about thirty minutes late (us Americans were all standing around waiting), and I’ve gone to play basketball but had to wait a while for someone to bring a ball. During orientation we were told that whenever we see a time, just to add an “ish” on the end of it. Coming from a punctual society I’m not used to it. Well I’m used to procrastination… I still have to study a lot for my exam tomorrow. Hasta Luego!
Left: Jenna, Josué, and the girl with the flashlight. Right: Pescao Vivo
Saturday, August 28, 2010
El Mitad del Mundo y La Gran Carrera
Wow, this has been a really busy weekend so far! On Friday we didn’t have class and took a field trip to Mitad del Mundo, the famous park on the equator. (It’s funny because they discovered with GPS that the monument is in the wrong spot, but all of the tourists still go there instead of the real spot.) We also went to the nearby museum that is actually on the equator and were able to stand on it and see a lot of cool tricks because of the Coralis Effect. Water always spins counterclockwise to the equator and we saw how it drained differently on both sides. In the middle it just fell straight through, and it’s crazy how much of a difference six feet on either side makes. Other tricks were drastically reduced strength and balance while standing on the equator, and overall it was really cool to stand in two hemispheres at once!
Afterward we went out to lunch, and in my quest to try everything I tried an Ecuadorian plate lunch along with elote mayonesa. This may sound super gross, but it is corn-on-the-cob smothered in mayonnaise and a cheese garnish (the corn, mayo, and cheese are all different than the kinds we have at home). It’s super popular in Mexico and Central America, and it actually wasn’t too bad. The worst part was just thinking about what I was eating. Later that night some of us decided to go to a movie and we ended up seeing El Origen (Inception). We were relieved when we found out the movie was only released in subtitles, because it was hard enough to understand in English. Movies down here are either completely dubbed or have Spanish subtitles. It’s funny that we were probably the only people in the theater who could understand the movie without reading.
Today, we had a “transportation seminar” that started at 9 am and we expected it to be a long classroom lecture. Instead, we were handed envelopes that said ‘La Gran Carrera’ (roughly, the Amazing Race) and after being paired up with our roommates we were unexpectedly thrown into Quito on a trail of clues. It was a lot of fun, and we spent over four hours racing through the city by bus, taxi, paddleboat, and on foot (sprinting is super hard at 8,000-10,000’ altitude). We dashed across streets, through parks, and through markets and a mall, and I can’t imagine how ridiculous we looked. In the end our group came in third because the first two groups found a taxi before we did.
Tonight a few of us are going to a concert downtown. I don’t know any of the artists, but it sounds like a lot of fun. One of the guys in our group has heard of Alex Campos, a really famous Christian artist in Central and South America. There are a bunch of other famous bands playing as well and it’s supposedly a five-hour concert. Hasta Luego!
Afterward we went out to lunch, and in my quest to try everything I tried an Ecuadorian plate lunch along with elote mayonesa. This may sound super gross, but it is corn-on-the-cob smothered in mayonnaise and a cheese garnish (the corn, mayo, and cheese are all different than the kinds we have at home). It’s super popular in Mexico and Central America, and it actually wasn’t too bad. The worst part was just thinking about what I was eating. Later that night some of us decided to go to a movie and we ended up seeing El Origen (Inception). We were relieved when we found out the movie was only released in subtitles, because it was hard enough to understand in English. Movies down here are either completely dubbed or have Spanish subtitles. It’s funny that we were probably the only people in the theater who could understand the movie without reading.
Today, we had a “transportation seminar” that started at 9 am and we expected it to be a long classroom lecture. Instead, we were handed envelopes that said ‘La Gran Carrera’ (roughly, the Amazing Race) and after being paired up with our roommates we were unexpectedly thrown into Quito on a trail of clues. It was a lot of fun, and we spent over four hours racing through the city by bus, taxi, paddleboat, and on foot (sprinting is super hard at 8,000-10,000’ altitude). We dashed across streets, through parks, and through markets and a mall, and I can’t imagine how ridiculous we looked. In the end our group came in third because the first two groups found a taxi before we did.
Tonight a few of us are going to a concert downtown. I don’t know any of the artists, but it sounds like a lot of fun. One of the guys in our group has heard of Alex Campos, a really famous Christian artist in Central and South America. There are a bunch of other famous bands playing as well and it’s supposedly a five-hour concert. Hasta Luego!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The Kids, and Pictures
One thing I really like about the seminary is that there are families that live here, because the parents are going to school and have young children. That means there are a lot of kids who are fun to hang out with and they really like us gringos.
Daniel and Jeremy discovered my headlamp in my dorm yesterday and asked what it was. They were immediately mesmerized when I showed them how to turn it on and change colors, and they both wanted to wear it around. Jeremy put it on and went into the bathroom where it was dark, but he accidentally locked himself in, and Gustavo (my Columbian roommate) spent a few minutes trying to get him out. When the boys started running around outside, I asked if I could take some pictures of them and immediately they got even more excited. They wanted to use the camera themselves and when I gave it to them they started taking pictures of everything. Pretty soon their friends got in on it too and they were having a blast with both the camera and the headlamp. Almost a hundred pictures later, I realized that I’d found a good way to connect with the kids.
Speaking of pictures, I haven’t taken many yet because I’ve only been to places where my camera could be stolen. The seminary is in Carcelen, which is a rougher area in northern Quito and I don’t want to draw attention to myself as a tourist. I’ve seen so many cool things that I’ve wanted to photograph, but I’m going to wait until I get more comfortable with the area. But it looks like I won’t have to take too many pictures because the kids will do it for me.
Here is what the view looks like from the academic building. The three buildings below are the dorms (I live on the opposite side of the second) and the mountain in the background is Pululahua (about 11,000 ft). The soccer field behind the first building is where the Ecuadorian national team practices, so we can watch them sometimes. I'll try to get more pictures later. Hasta luego!
Daniel and Jeremy discovered my headlamp in my dorm yesterday and asked what it was. They were immediately mesmerized when I showed them how to turn it on and change colors, and they both wanted to wear it around. Jeremy put it on and went into the bathroom where it was dark, but he accidentally locked himself in, and Gustavo (my Columbian roommate) spent a few minutes trying to get him out. When the boys started running around outside, I asked if I could take some pictures of them and immediately they got even more excited. They wanted to use the camera themselves and when I gave it to them they started taking pictures of everything. Pretty soon their friends got in on it too and they were having a blast with both the camera and the headlamp. Almost a hundred pictures later, I realized that I’d found a good way to connect with the kids.
Speaking of pictures, I haven’t taken many yet because I’ve only been to places where my camera could be stolen. The seminary is in Carcelen, which is a rougher area in northern Quito and I don’t want to draw attention to myself as a tourist. I’ve seen so many cool things that I’ve wanted to photograph, but I’m going to wait until I get more comfortable with the area. But it looks like I won’t have to take too many pictures because the kids will do it for me.
Here is what the view looks like from the academic building. The three buildings below are the dorms (I live on the opposite side of the second) and the mountain in the background is Pululahua (about 11,000 ft). The soccer field behind the first building is where the Ecuadorian national team practices, so we can watch them sometimes. I'll try to get more pictures later. Hasta luego!
Monday, August 23, 2010
An Awesome Church Experience
Yesterday I had the coolest experience. Someone told me that if I went to church with Yoan (my Venezuelan roommate) in the afternoon, there wouldn’t be another gringo for miles. That sounded perfect. We drove with his friend Raul to a rough area on the other side of town, using progressively less traveled roads. Finally we turned on a dirt road and went down one of the steepest hills I’ve ever seen. (Afterward, we had to walk so Raul’s car could make it back up.) At the bottom there were shacks dotting the hill along with chickens and stray dogs running around. The actual church was just a dirt floor with lawn chairs and a structure made out of plywood. It’s an outreach for youth in the area that Yoan and Raul help with, and it’s a tough area with a lot of drug problems. But there was a strong sense of community there and it was eye opening for me.
Afterward the pastor invited us into his home, which was made out of cinderblocks and instead of doors there were rugs hanging. It was a lot of fun visiting with his family and seeing a way of life I hadn’t ever seen. During the visit his wife pulled out a big jug of murky liquid and offered me a glass. I realized it was chicha, a sweet homemade drink in Ecuador that is fermented from a woman’s spit. It had a weird sweet and sour flavor, but it actually wasn’t too bad. I decided that that this is the real South America I want to see, one that tourists rarely get to observe. (Afterward I was told that instead of spit the drink was fermented from a parasite that grows in corn. I really don’t know what’s worse.)
One thing I love here is that food can be found for so cheap. Yesterday there was a lunch fundraiser at a nearby church, and for two dollars I got a bowl of ceviche (a citrusy shrimp soup) and a big plate with rice, egg, lettuce, avocado, and cau cau (stew made from potato and cow stomach). It was really good, and they also served popcorn, juice, banana chips, and bowl of dessert flan. I realized that not everything is cheap though; at the mall there are many American shops that charge close to what they do back home. A new MacBook at the Apple Store still costs over a thousand dollars, but that doesn’t stop South Americans from jumping on the bandwagon. In the mall everything seemed westernized until we came across a guy performing traditional music on an Andean pipe flute. The western influence immediately came back when he played the theme from Titanic (which Yoan instantly recognized.)
Today was the first day of classes and the grammar class turned out to be really fun. We expected to be drilled with verb tenses, but instead the teacher began by teaching us all the local words and slang that come from Quechua, a common indigenous language. There are a lot of funny words like cushqui (money), ñaño (sibling), and ayayay (expression for pain). But things are going well and I don't have too much homework (yet). Hasta luego!
Afterward the pastor invited us into his home, which was made out of cinderblocks and instead of doors there were rugs hanging. It was a lot of fun visiting with his family and seeing a way of life I hadn’t ever seen. During the visit his wife pulled out a big jug of murky liquid and offered me a glass. I realized it was chicha, a sweet homemade drink in Ecuador that is fermented from a woman’s spit. It had a weird sweet and sour flavor, but it actually wasn’t too bad. I decided that that this is the real South America I want to see, one that tourists rarely get to observe. (Afterward I was told that instead of spit the drink was fermented from a parasite that grows in corn. I really don’t know what’s worse.)
One thing I love here is that food can be found for so cheap. Yesterday there was a lunch fundraiser at a nearby church, and for two dollars I got a bowl of ceviche (a citrusy shrimp soup) and a big plate with rice, egg, lettuce, avocado, and cau cau (stew made from potato and cow stomach). It was really good, and they also served popcorn, juice, banana chips, and bowl of dessert flan. I realized that not everything is cheap though; at the mall there are many American shops that charge close to what they do back home. A new MacBook at the Apple Store still costs over a thousand dollars, but that doesn’t stop South Americans from jumping on the bandwagon. In the mall everything seemed westernized until we came across a guy performing traditional music on an Andean pipe flute. The western influence immediately came back when he played the theme from Titanic (which Yoan instantly recognized.)
Today was the first day of classes and the grammar class turned out to be really fun. We expected to be drilled with verb tenses, but instead the teacher began by teaching us all the local words and slang that come from Quechua, a common indigenous language. There are a lot of funny words like cushqui (money), ñaño (sibling), and ayayay (expression for pain). But things are going well and I don't have too much homework (yet). Hasta luego!
Friday, August 20, 2010
First Impressions
Yesterday we arrived in Quito after a full day of travel. I met up with some of the other NILIs in Houston and our plane left late (funny that the first thing I saw at George Bush airport was a Fox News gift shop). We finally got to Ecuador at about 11:30 and got through customs and immigration after midnight.
First impression: Ecuadorians are horrible drivers. When I was leaving the airport I saw a woman manage a sixteen-point turnabout, all just to pull into a parking spot. She had to back the car out twice and restart, almost hitting our van and another pedestrian. The program director here told me that almost all Ecuadorians are first generation drivers and they never grew up riding with their parents. Riding to the campus I also learned that there are no posted speed limits (or at least ones that locals know about) and red lights after midnight are usually ignored. While cruising about 50 miles an hour through the city and changing lanes (without slowing down or signaling) I realized how much my dad (an ex-driver's ed instructor) would have flipped out. It’s probably less intense during the day, but that was my first impression.
We finally got to the campus super late and had a quick orientation. Don’t drink the water and don’t flush any toilet paper. Great. Then we realized that our roommates were already sleeping and we had to wake them up to get in the rooms. After waking two sleepy Latinos I realized that the beds were tiny, and the only one left was a rickety top bunk. The bed was moved to the ground and I tried to quickly unpack but I also realized that the bathroom has no fan and is partly open to the rest of the room. This will definitely be an interesting experience.
Today I was able to talk to my roommates more and they are really cool guys. Gustavo is from Columbia and rides a motorcycle, and Yoan is from Venezuela and used to play pro baseball there. Other than that we’ve just been having meetings and language assessments, and I even got a cell phone! The school schedule is awesome because it’s only one class at a time for 3-4 weeks. We also have field trips every week with no classes for the day, and there are a bunch of weekend and weeklong trips. The cafeteria food is really good too: it’s all Ecuadorian. Tonight there is a welcoming party, which will be fun because there are seven of us and the school is no more than forty people. Hasta luego!
First impression: Ecuadorians are horrible drivers. When I was leaving the airport I saw a woman manage a sixteen-point turnabout, all just to pull into a parking spot. She had to back the car out twice and restart, almost hitting our van and another pedestrian. The program director here told me that almost all Ecuadorians are first generation drivers and they never grew up riding with their parents. Riding to the campus I also learned that there are no posted speed limits (or at least ones that locals know about) and red lights after midnight are usually ignored. While cruising about 50 miles an hour through the city and changing lanes (without slowing down or signaling) I realized how much my dad (an ex-driver's ed instructor) would have flipped out. It’s probably less intense during the day, but that was my first impression.
We finally got to the campus super late and had a quick orientation. Don’t drink the water and don’t flush any toilet paper. Great. Then we realized that our roommates were already sleeping and we had to wake them up to get in the rooms. After waking two sleepy Latinos I realized that the beds were tiny, and the only one left was a rickety top bunk. The bed was moved to the ground and I tried to quickly unpack but I also realized that the bathroom has no fan and is partly open to the rest of the room. This will definitely be an interesting experience.
Today I was able to talk to my roommates more and they are really cool guys. Gustavo is from Columbia and rides a motorcycle, and Yoan is from Venezuela and used to play pro baseball there. Other than that we’ve just been having meetings and language assessments, and I even got a cell phone! The school schedule is awesome because it’s only one class at a time for 3-4 weeks. We also have field trips every week with no classes for the day, and there are a bunch of weekend and weeklong trips. The cafeteria food is really good too: it’s all Ecuadorian. Tonight there is a welcoming party, which will be fun because there are seven of us and the school is no more than forty people. Hasta luego!
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