Know Better, Learn Faster (dedicated to J. Draper)

I’m sorry it’s been so long. Too long, really, to do a detailed update about the past week and a half, SO:

The Good:

• My literature class. We are reading short stories by some of Latin America’s most famous authors AND I spoke three times in class this past week (Jackie knows how monumental this is).
• Volunteering. After a huge lunch (salmon, I almost cried I was so happy) at the BC director’s house, I started my mandatory volunteer hours last week at an orphanage run by nuns here in Quito. The kids are the absolute sweetest and I just helped them with their homework and played soccer with them forever and loved it.
• Exercise, or attempts at it. This morning I went for my second walk/jog around the Parque Carolina with Ryann and Leila. It’s more than difficult running here because the altitude makes for less oxygen, but it’s really nice to be up and active early. Or that’s what I tell myself when my alarm goes off at 6:30.
• Movie night this weekend. A bunch of us headed to Brianna’s casa this past weekend to make brownies (we were craving chocolate big time) and popcorn and watch a movie. It was so nice to relax and feel like we were in real college for a second.
• Futbol. I love it. Actually, one of the Ecuadorian girls asked me to be on her actual team at the university. I was shocked and appalled and am sure she’s going to regret it.
• Family gatherings. My dad’s side of the family came here for a 5-hour lunch on Sunday which I was more than nervous for, but I held my own even in the company of two other ‘Laurita’s’ which isn’t the easiest.
• Jackie might be visiting next month. This would be better than good, it would be amazing and I’m mainly putting it here so that it comes true.

The Bad:

• I left the cell phone I have here in a cab last Thursday and, despite the cab driver calling and saying he would return it for $15, never got it back.
• Traffic. It’s horrible here and crossing the street is always a struggle (sidenote for my just my father: remember that wintry level in Mario where you have to get past something that wants to blow your hat off and in order to do it you have to walk next to a huge waddling penguin and mimic its steps? I find a different “penguin” every time I attempt to cross.)
• Lack of pictures once again. So sorry, it’s just not the safest to bring my brand new, super cute and teal camera around with me always. Next time, though, you have my word.

The hysterical:

• Brianna and I decided to walk from the Parque Carolina to the Mariscal this weekend here in Quito. We aren’t sure how far this is but let me tell you it’s a lot of kilometers. We were slightly lost on the way and I stopped to ask two 5-year-olds selling ice cream. They told us to stay straight and walk forever. Turns out they were right.
• Surveys. Mateo and I got to school yesterday to find tables set up and people basically accosting us so that we would try all different types of drinks and answer questions about them. Chocolate milk, coffee, Gatorade, Red Bull, you name it. At 10am the beer line was rather impressive.
• Amanda, our director here in Ecuador, calls Jungen’s dress “sexi” in class.
• As I sung along to Michael Jackson in one of my cab rides this weekend the driver asked me what ‘Billie’ meant and was quick to jump to the conclusion that ‘Thriller’ is a name as well.

Round Here

Things have been pretty normal around here. I was waiting for something terribly exciting to happen so that I could astound and amaze you all, but the fact that I’m adjusting well and getting into a routine here is pretty exciting in itself…kind of.

Last week I had dinner with my former Ecuadorian mother and her family, as well as Ryann and Emily, which was really nice. It was great to see all the grandkids and talk about the last time I was here. My Spanish has come a long way since then, which they were very quick to note, not sure whether this should be a compliment to me now or a dig at me back then. Either way.

This weekend we went out to ‘Gringo-landia’ as the Ecuas call the hip place to go out, La Mariscal. It was a funny night filled with Cubans who claimed they were whatever age we were (braces + stilted dance movements = probably 16), standing on street corners trying our best not to look like we had no idea where we were going, and reggaeton.

Saturday I spent the day with my family. Laura, Mafe and I went to the park where they have paintings and crafts every weekend and looked around at those as we ate ice cream and enjoyed the sun. Later that night I went out to a jazz concert with Mafe and her friends which I loved. I was incredibly tired, too much so to fully appreciate how hilarious her friends are, but all the same I enjoyed myself.

Sunday I slept in and went movie shopping with Mateo (500 Days of Summer as well as Father of the Bride) and then had lunch out with the family. “Lunch out” consisted of a mall food court and a ton of options as to what to eat. I decided on a turkey sandwich, I guess I miss American cuisine more than I thought I would. Sunday night I watched a movie with my parents as well as ‘Quien quiere ser millonario’ with the rest of the family (I was wondering how, exactly, in a country as poor as this, a program could be giving away millions of dollars until I realized that this only happens once in a blue moon because the questions become near impossible around $1200).

So that brings me to today. Nothing new to report, honestly, but my adoring fans were clamoring for more. Not really, but Emily does have double the amount of entries I do. BC goes back into session tomorrow and to quell any oncoming homesickness…

Things Ecuador has over the US:

• 60-70 degree weather daily
• Kisses on the cheek at every greeting/goodbye
• Movies 3 for $5
• An empleada (I know this is terrible but it’s really nice not having to do laundry)
• Expressions like “age of the bull” to describe teenagers, and “agua fiesta” to reference party poopers
• My own room (see video below…sorry Jackie and Christie)

My dad wanted a "slow pan" of my room so, here you go pops.

¡Chao chao!

¿Puedo ir al Baños?

This weekend the group decided to organize the first trip on our own and we ended up choosing to go to Baños, a cute little town 4 hours from Quito by bus that has a great reputation with tourists. I visited there two summers ago and had a blast so I was a huge fan of this idea.

The main plaza and church

It was a rough 4 hour bus ride but we arrived to the hostel, unpacked a little and got ready for a night on the town. All plans for a nice sit-down dinner were off as we got there completely starving so we ended up finding a fast good place where we grabbed pizza and fries. Just soaking the Ecua culture right up.

The next morning we woke up to some serious rain and decided to explore around the town a bit. We saw the church, the main plazas and a couple of the parks around the totally walk-able town. A few of us attempted to climb up one of the bigger mountains following a path that leads to a cross on the top. We struggled with the mud and once we arrived about ¼ of the way up and found a mini-waterfall, we decided to turn around and head back down.

Christmas card in front of our cascada.

Once the rain passed we met back at the hostel for PB&J lunch and then split up again; 4 went to go ride ATVs (something I did when I was last here and could not stop raving about) while the rest of us decided to try horseback riding, something only 1 or 2 had any experience with. We did really well for ourselves though and made friends with our 16-year-old guide who found everything we did just hilarious. Examples of what we found him laughing hysterically at: Jungen’s horse runs against a wall and she has to thrust herself out of bushes, he decides to have us hike up a waterfall without any notice and we struggle up the knotted ropes provided (Emily) or fall on the way back down, landing in a puddle (me), Jungen’s horse gets a little too close to a parked car and ends up breaking a rearview mirror. Obviously he got a kick out of us. All said and done, though, we did climb a waterfall and we were all terrified but very proud of ourselves afterwards. When asked if most gringos attempt this, our guide said that very few do but that he took us up because we seemed valiant. How correct he was.

Chicas in front of the waterfall we would soon hop down from our horses to climb up

We got back to the town we met up with the ATV kids and all showered to get ready to go to dinner. Afterwards we decided to take a Chiva, the Ecuadorian form of an American party bus, minus closed-in windows, with various other gringos up to the top of a neighboring mountain. At the top we had been promised hot wine (turned out to be cinnamon-water) as well as terrific entertainment (fire jugglers and flag girls reminiscent of Emily and Annie junior year of high school). It was an experience though, so I consider it worth the trip and the $2.

After coming back down to the main town we headed out to the bars but most of us were so wiped from the horses that we couldn’t stay out very long as our eyes were closing and severe leg pain didn’t make us the greatest dance partners.

The next morning we ate breakfast, hung out for a while and bathing suited up to go the actual baths of Baños, various pools and thermal hot springs that we had heard about. Although they weren’t exactly as warm as we had hoped we had a nice time relaxing by both pools and catching some sun for the first time since getting here. It was a very nice end to our weekend and once getting back to the hostel and packing up we headed back to Quito on the same bus, a little more exhausted before, but we had certainly enjoyed ourselves.

Things I learned this weekend:

• When someone says they are putting sunscreen on their eyelids, don’t laugh at them…do the same.
• In Ecuador, always make sure that a horseback riding tour does not include a rope climb up a waterfall as 3-year-old Converse aren’t exactly conducive to this.
• Despite having to shower before entering, thermal baths may be yellow-brown in color, try not to think about this when you go in.
• Baño = Bathroom. Baños = A great time.

Jungen, Brianna and Ryann in our room.

¡Nos vemos!

Hey I'm doing alright

So I have yet to start this for fear of sounding absolutely ridiculous and because Emily told me that if I didn’t want to embarrass myself, I shouldn’t have told any of my friends I was keeping a blog. BUT it has been almost a full week and I have experienced a little of everything and can no longer keep this impending doom at bay.

I arrived here in Quito around 11:30 the night of January 1^st and right away fell in love with the family I’m staying with. Raul and Laura are my parents (to save us confusion I am now always referred to as “Laurita”), I have two older brothers that I have yet to get to know really, and a 25-year-old sister, Maria Fernanda, who goes by Mafe and who attends the same university that I do here (Universidad de San Francisco Quito = USFQ), which has been a life-saver.Anyways, when we got back to the house they showed me to my room and told me I could sleep for two days if necessary, and I almost took them up on it. I was so tired I could barely think in English, let alone speak and respond to questions in Spanish, so I was more than grateful.

My first real day here I got a feel for the neighborhood by taking a walk through a nearby park with Mafe and then going to get coffee with Laura, Mafe, and her boyfriend Andres at nightfall in a spot overlooking all of Quito.

Amanda treated us to "Espumilla," a traditional Ecuadorian dessert which roughly translates to "foam"

Since then there has been a lot of introductory things for the 11 of us here from BC. With Amanda, the director of our program, we’ve taken a tour of Colonial Quito, which is just as gorgeous as I remember it, as well as La Casa de Cultura, a museum filled with artifacts and art from pre-colonial Ecuador, and La Capilla del Hombre, another museum created and filled with art by the Ecuadorian painter/sculptor/jewelry-maker extraordinaire, Oswaldo Guyasamin.Spending time with the group is great but walking through museums listening to rapid-fire Spanish while trying your absolute best not to yawn is really hard when the days are so long and we haven’t exactly adjusted to the altitude yet.

Matt, Sarah, and Nghiem were really into it.

That being said, I was never happier nor more nervous to start classes yesterday. After catching the bus and arriving perfectly, one of the other BC kids, Matt, and I were on top of the world until we entered our classroom with complete confidence until the professor looked up from what we thought was him taking the initial attendance to ask us “Que paso?” We excused ourselves quickly and tried not to turn red as we realized that we had come 10 minutes too early and he was just finishing another class. Needless to say, the gringos definitely stand out.

Other than that the day went smoothly with my Gender and Society, Latin American Issues Poli-Sci class as well as the Literature class I’m taking. Today I had soccer for the first time which was far easier than expected. After locating the field and waiting around 10 minutes with the 6 or so other girls who are playing the coach showed up, told us that he didn’t have the list of students, and asked us to meet him there again on Tuesday. Easiest class thus far. My Anthropology class seems like it will be fine as well so I’m happy about all that.

Highlights of the week:

• Splitting an ice cream with Mafe while walking through La Carolina
• Lunch that lasted 3 hours with Amanda and the rest of the group at ‘The Cactus’ outside USFQ
• Watching the sunset over Quito as the lights came on all over the city
• Feeling winded after walking up any and every flight of stairs.
• Hearing about Emily’s Singapore Meltdown

Jungen, Amanda and Emily en La Capilla del Hombre

The ceiling's being restored, but La Iglesia de San Francisco is amazing

¡Hasta Pronto!