Internship and Such

Finally feeling more comfortable in Quito with everything. I finally got my classes worked out, and dropped one that seemed so difficult and picked up a different class…. Ceramics! No, I’m not kidding. I am horrible at everything related to art, but it turns out I was able to pick a ‘fluff’ class, so I’m taking advantage of that.

I started my internship at a school, América Latina. It has about 300 students total, but each of the high school grades only has about 30 kids in each one. It is a private school that is pretty laid back. They call the teachers by their first name (not sure if that is normal for Ecuador or just this school), there are llamas wondering around, as well as, some noisy, large ducks that scared me the first day…. Did not see them, and all the sudden they went crazy.

My interview for this internship was on Monday and then my first day was yesterday. I mainly met the staff and hung out in the teacher’s lounge for the first 2 hours, all of them were really nice. There is actually a guy named Brandon who teaches 5th and 6th grade and is from southern Indiana, and loves IU and the Colts. Small world, right? After hanging out in the teacher’s lounge for a while, I went to the 8th grade geography class. Oh my goodness… these kids were so rambunctious. The class was taught in English. The teacher told me to introduce myself and explain where Ohio was (we were in a geography class after all!) and a little bit about myself. The odd thing was is that she wanted me to explain it in English, and for some reason, my words sounded so odd to me…. I suppose I’m getting into the swing of talking in Spanish more than I thought.

Overall, it was an awesome morning at the school, and I am super excited to work there. I will work there on Mondays and Wednesdays from 8am until noon.

I feel like I’m really living the city life every time I hop onto a bus or the Ecovia. I’m finally learning which buses go where. I also have now been to Megamaxi (their version of Target or Wal-Mart) and Supermaxi (a little bigger than Kroger). I scoped out the cookie section…. They have oreos and chip a’hoy, that’s about all they have that looked familiar, although it was a little bit different packaging.

Coca-Cola probably has 99% of the market share, and Pepsi 1%.
Maybelline mascara is $20.50. (I can’t get over that!)

I finally saw my bedroom at my house here…. I should be moving in the middle of next week, but who knows. I’m super excited to get fully unpacked and situated.

I’m headed to the Coast tonight, going to the beach for the weekend. Crazy, right? It’s a 7.5 hour bus ride; we are leaving at 10:30pm.

Poor?...Or is it Rich?

I keep coming back to this central theme of wealth, or lack there of, in Ecuador. This central theme was at the forefront of my thoughts as I rode on a bus from Quito to Baños. It was about a 3.5 hour bus ride, heading south. The immense amount of poverty is nothing like I have seen before. On this bus ride, it was shack after shack without plumbing or electricity (I can only assume). Most of the houses are built with cinder blocks (no paint or wood on the outside of them, just the cinder blocks) and many of them looked like they started a second floor, but never got around to finishing it, so no roof per say. It’s hard to put into words, but for the most part a lot of these homes looked like an all around mess. As I am passing through some small villages in Ecuador, I can’t help but take in the grand backdrop. The Sierra region, or the Andes Mountains, is breathtaking. The sheer magnitude of the mountains is incredible.

There are four different geographic regions...from West to East: the Galápagos Islands, the Coastal Region, the Sierra Region (or Andes...where I am now), and the Amazon Region. I have only seen one region and I still can’t believe that I have three completely different regions left to see. For being such a small country (approximately the size of Colorado), it is so incredibly rich and gorgeous in its geography. So, as I was sitting on the bus, I can’t help but think of Ecuador being this dichotomy of poor and rich. It is a very unique combination. I am falling in love with Ecuador. It is a stunning country that is becoming my home. (Don’t worry Mom… I won’t move here permanently!...I love the USA...more coming on that in a sec.)

Odds and Ends:
I always chat it up my taxi drivers...you definitely don’t get the usual “gringo” surcharge if you can speak a little Spanish and are friendly. So, anyway, when this driver asked me where I was from, instead of immediately replying with my usual “Los Estados Unidos” I asked him to guess. He said I looked like I was from “Switzerland.” That made me laugh.

I went to the US Embassy on Friday night for Happy Hour. My friend and I made friends with a few marines who are stationed here in Quito. It was pretty low key, but it was SA-WEET to see the Embassy. They call the whole thing ‘the compound.’ I felt so safe being there it was great. There are about 200 people that work in the embassy, and there were about 35 people (a mix of all ages) at this happy hour. It was so nice inside, including all the buildings, landscaping and the mega-fence that surrounded all of it. The US knows how to do it up right if you ask me. Heck yeah, USA! They said the embassy cost about $92 million to build, which apparently is relatively cheap compared to other US embassies around the world. We (the US) have embassies in approximately 260 countries. Not sure if I’ll be going back much. I really want to immerse myself in meeting Ecuadorians to speak Spanish with, but it was definitely awesome to see at least once!

I ate cuy (pronounced koo-ey) for the first time... AKA: guinea pig. It apparently is a delicacy here in Ecuador. It reminded me of the taste of rabbit, but the skin was so crunchy/tough that I only had a little bit of the skin. Overall I thought it was pretty tasty.

This past weekend, in Baños, we hiked up a mountain, ate cuy, ate sugarcane, saw some waterfalls, went biking for 4 hours, saw a volcano erupt (lava and all! --- most breathtaking experience yet) and hiked around some more. A superb adventure all in all!

A blurb from my journal (This was after riding the bus, where I was a head taller than most of the guys):
I feel like an alien here sometimes. Everyone looks at me like I just arrived from Pluto or something. Do I/we Americans really stand out that much? What’s the deal? Maybe this is what it feels like to be a minority.

Bottom line for this blog: Ecuador is the bomb-diggity.

Chao!
(I learned that ‘ciao’ is the Italian spelling. They spell it ‘chao’ in Ecuador.)

Buses

The buses are loco. There is no set schedule for the buses or set pickup or drop off spots. They have routes, but that´s about it. You just flag them down. People jump off as they are still moving. You pay 25 cents when you get off, regardless of how far you have gone. It is a big pickpocket seen, so you have to guard your stuff with your life. Another interesting note, is that people jump on and off selling all sorts of stuff: cookies, ice cream popsicles, fruit. The other day, these two afro'ecuadorians hopped on with a boombox with a J.Lo song (but without the words). Then the two of them started rapping (in spanish of course) about war, peace, and all the injustices in the world. They were really talented. I enjoyed it. I have a friend that was on a bus when it ran into a taxi. Again, the buses are loco.

Ciao!

Getting into the Groove

Well, I have been in Ecuador for 12 days. It seems like longer than that…. not in a bad way, I guess I just feel like I have done a lot in since I got here. Tomorrow I start classes, so I have been trying to appreciate not having any homework this past week. However, I’m ready to start classes and get into a routine. I haven’t had much time to myself since I’ve gotten here, so it will be nice to do my own thing to a certain extent.

Yesterday I went to Otavalo with everyone in my program. It is this little town about 1.5 hours away from Quito. They have an incredible market where you can find all sorts of jewelry, scarves, souvenirs, etc. We stopped on the way up there and had bizcochos and queso de hoja for breakfast. Very yummy! Then we were at the market for about 2 hours. Otavalo has one of the countries most successful indigenous groups. They still wear all of the traditional clothes and speak there own language, as well as, Spanish. At the market, it is all about bartering... it is expected, and you look naïve if you take the price they initially say. For example, the earrings were $2.50, but I got them for $1. That seems like it´s the norm.

After spending time in the market, we got on the bus and went to las Cascadas de Peguche. It is the waterfall in the picture with this post. It was simply gorgeous. It was so much fun walking around that area…. We also took a path to the top of the waterfall and got a gorgeous view of the mountains.

Ecuador is beautiful. I really hope I don’t get used to how awesome the mountains are. I love waking up every morning and seeing the mountains. It’s as if the city is in the valley, all nestled in, surrounded by the mountains, and most importantly the volcano named Pinchincha, which lies on the west side. This volcano is still active. The last time it caused a ruckus was in 1999. According to my travel book it “rumbled into serious action, coughing up an 11 mile high mushroom cloud and blanketing the city in ash.” (11 miles, yikes!)

Last night Hannah and I hung out with my brothers. There were about 9 of us hanging out at one guy’s house. People pretty much live with their parents until they get married--- this still baffles me, but anyway, this was such a beautiful house. It was outside of the city in a small pueblo, Conocoto. This house would be considered big, even by American standards.

Which brings me to the opposite: how much poverty I have seen. At almost every street corner in Quito, is a family “working” the intersection. The kids are usually juggling trying to get money, while the parents are selling fruit, corn, cookies, or something else. Also, yesterday when we were riding on the bus I couldn’t believe that people lived in some of the “houses” I saw. One shack (that is definitely the more appropriate word) had about 10 tires on top of the tin “roof,” I can only assume this was to help keep it from blowing off. It is so crazy, how completely blessed we are.

Observations…. Not to be taken as a stereotype of Ecuador, seeing as I’ve been here less than 2 weeks:

1. The economic/social classes of people seems more apparent here than in the US. It is almost as if there isn’t much of a middle class or something. I’m interested to observe this some more.
2. Making change for a $20 at a store seems like such a huge deal. What I don’t understand… is if most people are paying exact change, then why don’t they have change for a $20? (I’m glad I read ahead about this and brought a lot of $10s, $5s, and $1s)
3. The traffic is nuts and the drivers are super crazy. Glad I won’t be driving here! You have to be super careful crossing the street…. People won’t stop for you… you just better get out of the way fast.
4. The sky is almost always this brilliant, gorgeous blue. I could get used to this!

On an interesting side note, my grandfather, who I am living with is a doctor. I knew that he was a surgeon back in the day; however, he still goes into work everyday. He is 91 years old. I picked up this “album” that was casually sitting on a table in a little sitting area. It was FULL of newspaper articles about my grandfather and all of his accomplishments in the world of medicine over the past 50 years. There were probably over 80 articles, including him on the cover of 2 or so magazines. It was so neat to read about some of the stuff. The day after I was perusing the album, his cousin (about 85 years old) stopped by and my grandfather wasn’t there, so Hannah and I talked to him for a few minutes. He was telling us that our “grandfather” was the most well known surgeon in all of South America. I wasn’t totally shocked, or caught off guard because of reading some of those articles, but wow! Pretty neat stuff!!

Everyday I get more and more used to Ecuador, and I love it! I think days #3, 4 and 5, were the hardest so far, in respect to the altitude. I still get really tired around 4pm everyday, and I think it is from that. I am going to try and run this week, which should be very interesting.

That’s it for now!
Ciao!

***Hey Fam, Click on the below link to see pics I posted on facebook. This should be the public link.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2757362&id=6803468&l=595e49a254

Settling In :)

Well, well, well…. Finally getting settled in.

So it’s 8:40pm…. I just finished dinner: calabazo soup, then this little patty of potato and cheese with a fried egg on top, a little lettuce, and beets. It was really tasty minus the beets. We also had mora juice (a mix between cranberry and cherry- it was straight up homemade).

So, I have made it to Quito and have been here for exactly one week. It has been quite the week! My host family rocks! I have two brothers (20 and 22 years old). Alvaro, the 22 year old, likes to joke around a lot, which does not bode well for someone who does not know the language super great. He told me that his brother wants to be a priest, that his friend has a fake, plastic leg, and that the music we were listening to on his ipod was his band. All untrue! Needless to say, he’s hilarious. My host mom is sooo super cool…. or chevre as they would say here.

Right now I am living with my host grandparents, who also have a study abroad student, Hannah. She is one of the 3 other girls here that goes to IU. It’s been super fun experiencing everything with her and nice to have a partner in crime. When we ate some crazy mystery food the other night, it was nice to have someone to look at and make sure that I wasn’t crazy for not liking it. She’s super hilarious and awesome!!

Basically thus far, we have been going to a bagillion orientation meetings, regarding classes, safety in the city (they have drilled this into our heads and I won’t go into too many details in effort to not scare my parents!), information about Quito in general and a host of other things. I’m about orientation-ed out. Classes start on Monday, which will be a nice change of pace.

I thought I would just copy a little of what I wrote in my journal so far. Here goes:

“So, mi abuelita (my host grandma who I am living with for the time being) just asked me to do something simple and I’m pretty sure I shanked the whole thing. She wanted me to bring her the kettle of boiled water that was on the stove upstairs to their bedroom in a few minutes, but instead I poured it into a cup and brought it up and she tried explaining it again… so I brought up the water in this big glass jar/pitcher, which again was the wrong thing she wanted. At that point she gave up. Hilarious.

…..

I had some seriously different food today. With lunch I had “tomate de un arbol” (tomato from a tree) juice. Then with dinner we had apple juice, but it was more like a smoothie. Kind of funky, but okay.”

A few things that are different (literally everything is different here, but here are a few):

1. We have soup before every meal.
2. We also normally have some type of crazy juice, smoothie type drink with our meals.
3. The two popular beers are Pilsner and Club. I prefer Club.
4. Eggs and milk are not refrigerated.
5. We have to turn on the water heater 20 minutes before we want to take a shower.

Hasta luego,
Em

Photos on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2757362&id=6803468&l=595e49a254

First Thoughts in Ecuador

I just wanted to be able to put up a few pictures and videos of my first week here in Ecuador, but of course I'm having some difficulties. Hopefully will be able to post more pics soon!

I can't believe I've already been here one week!!!