Hola hola hola hola hola. I’m watching an old movie on the Turner Classics Movie channel. It’s in English and the girl says “you’re all cock-eyed, Johnny, you’re all cock-eyed” and the Spanish subtitles say “you’re wrong, Johnny, you’re wrong.” Now she’s singing in a nightclub in Montevideo. “Mother Nature was up to her old tricks” in English is “Mother Nature is guilty” in Spanish subtitles.
Today was interesting. It was a shower day, so I got up early, and then Amanda and I caught the bus at 7:30. We’ve been doing it later every day and always getting to school at the same time. Today I only had juice for breakfast – very good juice, I think guava – so I stopped at a panadería on the way and got a hot roll. They had donuts, too, I want one!!!!
Spanish class was pretty boring today but it was only two hours instead of four. For our Ecuadorian history workshop we did a kind of Jeopardy game with three sets of questions worth 50, 100, and 150 points. It was fun, but very strange because whenever neither team got it right, our teacher (who’s the director of the program, we’re lucky) (my group is 5 people, by the way) would ask us a question like “what color are my shoes?”, and “how many meters am I?”, “who can pronounce my name the best?” There was a lot of “what number am I thinking of?” too. Our team guessed his shoes were brown, and he gave it to us, but was like “but they are really more like wine.” We didn’t count up the points at the end.
After the workshop we did Ecuadorian games. Each of the five Spanish classes taught a game to the whole group. Our game was “el baile del tomate,” and it was basically just dancing in couples with a tomato between their foreheads, which is pretty awkward and hilarious. When the tomato drops, you lose. We also did the wheelbarrow thing and musical chairs, so it wasn’t totally Ecuadorian. We called it the effects of globalization. At the end of musical chairs there were two guys left and Elias, our workshop teacher who’s about 60 years old, was like, “do a sexy dance now!” and so they had to sexy dance around the last chair for a minute before the music stopped.
After class, a bunch of us went to the restaurant of one of our group’s host family. They serve food from Cuenca, the third biggest city. It was really good, so now I am going to Cuenca. I wanted to anyway, its supposed to be one of the prettiest colonial cities in South America. (The dog just started moaning again.) I had a cheese empanada, cream of spinach soup, and I shared fried plantains. When Amanda and I left it was pouring rain and we were very very lucky to find the right bus right away. We got soaked walked from the bus stop anyway though.
This afternoon I helped out getting reading for the party tomorrow (my host mom’s birthday) and played with Cami a lot. I washed chairs and helped set up the patio with my host parents and Sasa (his nickname, I think, a family friend). My host dad was making a fire in their new outdoor oven, and it was so funny, he just kept pouring on the lighter fluid. He tried putting a candle in and waiting for a log to catch. When it finally did keep a flame for a while he said “I’m such a boy scout” with the “boy scout” part in English. It’s been raining all day. I also peeled a lot of these grain things called chocho, I think, with my host grandma and helped take the hairs of the corn. I also chased Cami around the house a lot since we were playing who can get the bouncy ball. I showed Cami my family picture book, I haven’t shown anyone else yet since they haven’t asked me much about my family. Cami started showing me her photo book, starting with pictures of her mom in the hospital right after she had Cami, but then she had to go to bed.
Now I am going to bed, I’m getting all tired. It’s only 11:00 but all week I’ve been going to bed around 10:30. Everyone’s in their beds by 9:30 usually.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009: El Mercado de Sangolqui
Today we had another long day of classes, ending at 3:30. Afterwards a few of us decided to go to the market in Sangolqui, the biggest close town, just a few minutes down the street by bus. We asked a few people and found it – there are several streets all lined with stalls. Some of the vendors just carry their stuff around in bags and call out at shoppers. One guy even spoke to us in English, something like “good shoes, American, buy, babies.” (Actually, earlier today a guy on the bus to school said “excuse me, thank you” when he got off since he had to go by me. So far people have only tried their English on me when I’m with other SIT students though, and not many Ecuadorians know much besides basic elementary school English.)
Sangolqui also has a big church. It has a lot of gruesome Jesus statues and the walls and ceiling are blue. The candles people donate money to light (I can’t remember what the word is) are thin long ones that they just place on a metal tray. They only stand up since they are melted at the bottom. I haven’t seen that before; usually they are votive candles (is that what you call the little ones?) or there are candle holders.
Today was my first day taking the bus home by myself and it was fine. I talked to the guy next to me about what I was studying and things.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009: Un Buen Día
Today was really good, the whole day. I didn’t take a shower in the morning, which was nice since taking a shower is stressful, and breakfast was really good and I got to eat by myself, which is kind of a luxury since I can just relax and not speak Spanish. Breakfast was a bowl of milk, bananas and a wonderful honey-y cereal with one of the amazing juices that they mix with condensed milk. It wasn’t quite the one where they mix plantains with milk, I didn’t recognize it. The juices are very sweet but naturally, not with sugar. I met Amanda, and we took the bus together.
The bus was totally full so we had to stand right by the door and smush ourselves into the walls when someone had to get out. The door is always open (sometimes, if you’re a guy, the bus doesn’t really stop when you get off, it just slows down for a second and you jump), so it was pretty exciting trying not the fall out. We missed our stop since we were concentrating on not blocking the way or falling out of the open door, but we didn’t realize until I asked the old man beside me. We got off right away and backtracked to the mall, where we were supposed to get off, and then walked to classes through San Rafael, a cute little town with a mosaic statue/fountain of a boy drinking water. We were still on time, arriving just at 8:00.
Class was more serious than yesterday. We always start talking about something important and grammatical and then get way off subject and suddenly come back again. Today we were talking about prepositions and somehow got on the subject of teenage pregnancies and abortion and rape, I’m still not sure how. Our teacher is kind of shy and not machista AT ALL. Sometimes he does this little nervous laugh that I think it really funny. He has two daughters and he and his wife are lawyers living in Quito. Most of our class is just us talking amongst ourselves while he listens and laughs at us.
We have a thing about sarcasm because all of us use it all the time without thinking and Ecuadorians don’t understand it at all. Pier, in my class, is the worst (he blames it on being from New England, where it is the base of society) and he’s always trying to joke with his host mom. Like he had his bag on him and she asks him if he’s going out so he says, joking, “yes, I’m going out for the night, see you,” and she goes, “no. you can’t. don’t do it. It’s dangerous.” So he has to explain to her that he was joking and she seems to get it, but then a few minutes later she comes back and says, “Really, you’re not going out all night? Don’t.”
My host mom, who’s always crazy busy, forgot to pack me lunch since she had to go to Quito early this morning to do things for her mother, who’s losing her memory, so Anneke and I walked to a shop called “Kosas y Kositas” (which is cute since cosas means things and cositas, the diminutive, means little things) to buy a croissant, juice, and a bag of plantain chips. The bread here is really good and there are panaderías everywhere; you can sleep them wherever you go. When we were in Quito, Gina and I bought pan de yuca, which they heated up for us – it was sooo good. Yesterday I had a little bun with cheese in the center, which was also very good, but I think I should buy one and heat it up when I get home next time.
This afternoon we had to stay until 4:00 to have a lecture from Leonore, one of the academic directors. We were talking about gender relations, and at first it was interesting since she started with the historical background, like how the conquistadores came to the “New World” without their women, and how, unlike the English who brought their own poor women, the Spanish found it natural to be attracted to indigenous women since they were dark like the Moors, who had ruled Spain for so long. But after the interesting things there were kind of condescending things that I would rather figure out for myself than have to hear about all the generalizations, like in what ways latinos are usually machista and how Latinas react in shaping their own general identity. Afterwards I talked to Karina, the assistant who speaks mostly just Spanish but sometimes changes to English mid-sentence, and she thought it was weird, too, since she’s standing there as the only real Latina in the room hearing all these stereotypes about her.
Anyway, afterwards a bunch of us went to the humongous amazing mall to get ice cream since Gina’s been raving about their chocolate ice cream. The ice cream place is called, strangely, Crepes and Waffles, and they did have amazing ice cream. I’m not usually big on chocolate ice cream but theirs was the best ever. I hadn’t had chocolate in a week, so it was especially good. Afterwards Gina and I went to the internet café, and then we walked home instead of taking the bus. I bought a newspaper on the street but I can hardly understand any of it. I can get a lot of the Spanish but I still can’t understand it since most of it is continued political and economic stories that I don’t know the background for. My host mom said that we should be getting wireless soon so then I should be able to catch up with the newspaper website.
One of the dogs is howling, I’ve never heard a song like it, it’s very strange.
I got home around 6:00 and sat with my host mom and Cami for a while. Cami was playing with her bouncy ball so we would bounce it to each other and the dogs would try to get it. Then my host mom, Cami, Mimi and I played Jenga, which they pronounce /henga/, and I won the first game and made it fall the second time. Afterwards, Cami and I competed making jenga block towers. First it was how high and we stole blocks from each other and then it was how pretty. Then we made houses and drew things to put in them, like my house had a dog, cat, snake, girl, food, and flowers. Cami’s pet was a sea, and she made window curtains, which I was impressed by. Cami’s keeping all our drawings to play with later.
Then we had dinner, and after Cami and I practiced writing with our opposite hand and upside down. She was really surprised I don’t have two last names like everyone in Latin America so now my name is Laura Anne Kuster Walker since it goes first name, middle name, father’s last name, mother’s maiden name. We passed a piece of paper back and forth writing notes. It started off like “hola, ¿cómo estás?” and ended up with “which do you like better, dogs or cheese?” and “which do you like better, books written by cats or dogs?” Her last words were “No me gusta leer” – I don’t like to read. I also have several Strawberry Shortcake stickers now.
I started my homework, and my host mom helped me. I had to figure out what happened in Ecuadorian history or holidays on a list of dates. She dug out this third grade history book from 1954, it’s WONDERFUL. I love it. There are things like: “A veces sentimos frío. Hay ocasiones en que el calor nos sofoca. También podemos darnos cuenta de que algo está tibio o ardiendo. Pero solo el termómetro toma con exactitud la temperatura.” My bad translation of that would be, “Sometimes we feel cold. There are occasions when the heat suffocates us. Also we can realize when something is tepid or burning. But only the thermometer takes with exactness the temperature.” And there’s a picture of a thermometer. And then there are all the historical figures and all about independence. It has the old book smell, too, which is good since all the books I brought are relatively new.
I’m glad today was good since yesterday I didn’t really feel comfortable and I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. Like, lunch was silent with just the older sisters and a family friend I don’t know, and later Mimi was cutting things out of a magazine so I ask her what she’s doing and she goes “nothing” and then I ask her if its for school and she just says “yes.” So not much I could to there. But today was good so I’m happy.
The bus was totally full so we had to stand right by the door and smush ourselves into the walls when someone had to get out. The door is always open (sometimes, if you’re a guy, the bus doesn’t really stop when you get off, it just slows down for a second and you jump), so it was pretty exciting trying not the fall out. We missed our stop since we were concentrating on not blocking the way or falling out of the open door, but we didn’t realize until I asked the old man beside me. We got off right away and backtracked to the mall, where we were supposed to get off, and then walked to classes through San Rafael, a cute little town with a mosaic statue/fountain of a boy drinking water. We were still on time, arriving just at 8:00.
Class was more serious than yesterday. We always start talking about something important and grammatical and then get way off subject and suddenly come back again. Today we were talking about prepositions and somehow got on the subject of teenage pregnancies and abortion and rape, I’m still not sure how. Our teacher is kind of shy and not machista AT ALL. Sometimes he does this little nervous laugh that I think it really funny. He has two daughters and he and his wife are lawyers living in Quito. Most of our class is just us talking amongst ourselves while he listens and laughs at us.
We have a thing about sarcasm because all of us use it all the time without thinking and Ecuadorians don’t understand it at all. Pier, in my class, is the worst (he blames it on being from New England, where it is the base of society) and he’s always trying to joke with his host mom. Like he had his bag on him and she asks him if he’s going out so he says, joking, “yes, I’m going out for the night, see you,” and she goes, “no. you can’t. don’t do it. It’s dangerous.” So he has to explain to her that he was joking and she seems to get it, but then a few minutes later she comes back and says, “Really, you’re not going out all night? Don’t.”
My host mom, who’s always crazy busy, forgot to pack me lunch since she had to go to Quito early this morning to do things for her mother, who’s losing her memory, so Anneke and I walked to a shop called “Kosas y Kositas” (which is cute since cosas means things and cositas, the diminutive, means little things) to buy a croissant, juice, and a bag of plantain chips. The bread here is really good and there are panaderías everywhere; you can sleep them wherever you go. When we were in Quito, Gina and I bought pan de yuca, which they heated up for us – it was sooo good. Yesterday I had a little bun with cheese in the center, which was also very good, but I think I should buy one and heat it up when I get home next time.
This afternoon we had to stay until 4:00 to have a lecture from Leonore, one of the academic directors. We were talking about gender relations, and at first it was interesting since she started with the historical background, like how the conquistadores came to the “New World” without their women, and how, unlike the English who brought their own poor women, the Spanish found it natural to be attracted to indigenous women since they were dark like the Moors, who had ruled Spain for so long. But after the interesting things there were kind of condescending things that I would rather figure out for myself than have to hear about all the generalizations, like in what ways latinos are usually machista and how Latinas react in shaping their own general identity. Afterwards I talked to Karina, the assistant who speaks mostly just Spanish but sometimes changes to English mid-sentence, and she thought it was weird, too, since she’s standing there as the only real Latina in the room hearing all these stereotypes about her.
Anyway, afterwards a bunch of us went to the humongous amazing mall to get ice cream since Gina’s been raving about their chocolate ice cream. The ice cream place is called, strangely, Crepes and Waffles, and they did have amazing ice cream. I’m not usually big on chocolate ice cream but theirs was the best ever. I hadn’t had chocolate in a week, so it was especially good. Afterwards Gina and I went to the internet café, and then we walked home instead of taking the bus. I bought a newspaper on the street but I can hardly understand any of it. I can get a lot of the Spanish but I still can’t understand it since most of it is continued political and economic stories that I don’t know the background for. My host mom said that we should be getting wireless soon so then I should be able to catch up with the newspaper website.
One of the dogs is howling, I’ve never heard a song like it, it’s very strange.
I got home around 6:00 and sat with my host mom and Cami for a while. Cami was playing with her bouncy ball so we would bounce it to each other and the dogs would try to get it. Then my host mom, Cami, Mimi and I played Jenga, which they pronounce /henga/, and I won the first game and made it fall the second time. Afterwards, Cami and I competed making jenga block towers. First it was how high and we stole blocks from each other and then it was how pretty. Then we made houses and drew things to put in them, like my house had a dog, cat, snake, girl, food, and flowers. Cami’s pet was a sea, and she made window curtains, which I was impressed by. Cami’s keeping all our drawings to play with later.
Then we had dinner, and after Cami and I practiced writing with our opposite hand and upside down. She was really surprised I don’t have two last names like everyone in Latin America so now my name is Laura Anne Kuster Walker since it goes first name, middle name, father’s last name, mother’s maiden name. We passed a piece of paper back and forth writing notes. It started off like “hola, ¿cómo estás?” and ended up with “which do you like better, dogs or cheese?” and “which do you like better, books written by cats or dogs?” Her last words were “No me gusta leer” – I don’t like to read. I also have several Strawberry Shortcake stickers now.
I started my homework, and my host mom helped me. I had to figure out what happened in Ecuadorian history or holidays on a list of dates. She dug out this third grade history book from 1954, it’s WONDERFUL. I love it. There are things like: “A veces sentimos frío. Hay ocasiones en que el calor nos sofoca. También podemos darnos cuenta de que algo está tibio o ardiendo. Pero solo el termómetro toma con exactitud la temperatura.” My bad translation of that would be, “Sometimes we feel cold. There are occasions when the heat suffocates us. Also we can realize when something is tepid or burning. But only the thermometer takes with exactness the temperature.” And there’s a picture of a thermometer. And then there are all the historical figures and all about independence. It has the old book smell, too, which is good since all the books I brought are relatively new.
I’m glad today was good since yesterday I didn’t really feel comfortable and I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. Like, lunch was silent with just the older sisters and a family friend I don’t know, and later Mimi was cutting things out of a magazine so I ask her what she’s doing and she goes “nothing” and then I ask her if its for school and she just says “yes.” So not much I could to there. But today was good so I’m happy.
Monday, February 9, 2009: Starting Classes
Today was the first day of normal classes. By classes, I mean Spanish since that’s really what we have right now. A couple times a week or so we’ll have history/culture/politics/economy/development lectures in Spanish, but everyday we have five hours of Spanish lessons. I got up at 6:15 and got ready and met Amanda, who lives a couple houses away, to catch a bus. We went with her host brother, who helped us get off at the right stop and walk the rest of the way to the school.
Classes start at 8:00. We’ve split into Spanish levels and I am in the group that our professor calls either high intermediate or low advanced, whatever we prefer. I have by far the least Spanish experience in the group so I’m kind of surprised I’m there but I think its good, I’d rather be in as high a level as possible to go faster. In class I feel like I’m doing pretty well but I can still hardly say anything to my host family and can hardly ever understand them unless they slow down a little for me. Like, I can’t eavesdrop to find our more about them because I can’t understand if its not face-to-face. My family seems to talk faster than a lot of other people, but its probably just because they are close.
The two inside dogs hang out on my bed a lot. It’s good since I like them but sometimes they are kind of dirty. The white one hangs out with me all the time but right now the black schnauzer is with me, she doesn’t usually jump up on my bed.
Classes are over at 1:00 and so I hung out with Amanda and Gina for a few hours after class. Otherwise I would just be doing nothing here all day. Amanda and I walked over to Gina’s neighborhood about 15 minutes away, and we tried to find each other at the entrance but there are three entrances and we went to all three. Amanda’s house is huge and fancy – there’s a little balcony looking over the living room and they have fancy red patterned living room furniture. When you walk in there’s a huge sweeping staircase like movie mansions. Some of the things are a little tacky, but it’s a nice house. Gina’s house is on top of a hill in one of the gated neighborhoods. They have huge paintings everywhere. In the living room there are some nice ones of Old Quito.
Classes start at 8:00. We’ve split into Spanish levels and I am in the group that our professor calls either high intermediate or low advanced, whatever we prefer. I have by far the least Spanish experience in the group so I’m kind of surprised I’m there but I think its good, I’d rather be in as high a level as possible to go faster. In class I feel like I’m doing pretty well but I can still hardly say anything to my host family and can hardly ever understand them unless they slow down a little for me. Like, I can’t eavesdrop to find our more about them because I can’t understand if its not face-to-face. My family seems to talk faster than a lot of other people, but its probably just because they are close.
The two inside dogs hang out on my bed a lot. It’s good since I like them but sometimes they are kind of dirty. The white one hangs out with me all the time but right now the black schnauzer is with me, she doesn’t usually jump up on my bed.
Classes are over at 1:00 and so I hung out with Amanda and Gina for a few hours after class. Otherwise I would just be doing nothing here all day. Amanda and I walked over to Gina’s neighborhood about 15 minutes away, and we tried to find each other at the entrance but there are three entrances and we went to all three. Amanda’s house is huge and fancy – there’s a little balcony looking over the living room and they have fancy red patterned living room furniture. When you walk in there’s a huge sweeping staircase like movie mansions. Some of the things are a little tacky, but it’s a nice house. Gina’s house is on top of a hill in one of the gated neighborhoods. They have huge paintings everywhere. In the living room there are some nice ones of Old Quito.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009: El Primer Fin de Semana
I’m finishing up my first weekend of the trip, with my host family, without my group of Americans. Saturday I got up at 7:00 to get ready and went to a parade with my host dad and youngest sister, Camila; my middle host sister Mimi is a cheerleader for her private Catholic school. The parade was for the 100th anniversary of Saint Miguel, the Ecuadorian patron saint of education, so Catholic schools from all around the country came to be in the parade. There were different groups of indigenous dancers from the Oriente, la Sierra, and the coast, and they were all doing traditional dancers. The schools had baton twirler girls and cheerleaders and bands and then other students who marched along in their uniforms. Some of the littlest boys had sweaters and ties and suit jackets on, and it was really hot, they must have been smoking. I remembered to put sunscreen on, but I missed the part of my nose that my glasses rest on, so that part got a little burnt.
The rest of the day was pretty slow. I’m rereading The Godfather, so that was what I did for most of the day. I finished it last thing at night. I went on a little walk around my neighborhood. It’s all walled off in blocks. There are gates that lead into people’s driveways, which are usually shared, sometimes between relatives. One of the blocks is named after Saint Patrick and has a shamrock painted on the corner.
Today was a lot busier. Patricia (my host mother), Camila and I went with Patricia’s friend Luis to buy a tree for their garden. They are adding on a swept concrete patio space and an outdoor oven. First we drove into Quito and waited while Luis changed the car for a truck. Then we drove to Rayon, which is where everyone goes to get their plants – there are little nurseries everywhere called viveros. We got a little tree and different kinds of flowers at one called La Tierra Negra. Cami and I rode on the back of the truck with the flowers back to Los Chillos and then we drove back to Quito, Cami, Mimi and me riding on the back, to exchange it for the car.
Then we drove back to Los Chillos and immediately left again to go back to Quito to visit Patricia’s mother for lunch. Her mother lives in the northern part of Quito and from a window in her back wall you can see the famous angel statue and the entire historic center. Patricia’s brother and sister, her brother’s wife, and their kids came, too, and so it was a pretty full little apartment. Her mother’s really cute – she was wearing a flowery apron. Patricia’s sister asked me about all the vampires in Pennsylvania.
For lunch we had lots of courses: 1.) corn on the cob (different than in the U.S. – bigger kernels and less sweet); 2.) cow’s feet soup; 3.) thin slices of pork with two potatoes with sauce, served with mild guacamole; 4.) raspberry sorbet with cake. It was all good – Cami had just told me earlier today that cow’s feet soup was one of the most typical dishes in Ecuador, so I wanted to try it. It had a big cow’s foot in it, which was interesting, but it was tasty and not that different than normal beef broth soups. It had those white corn kernels that have been cooked for a really long time in it.
We stayed around there for a long time, until around 6:00. I talked to Patricia’s sister-in-law for most of the time, mostly about politics and school. She told me a lot about Correa, the President, and she (and a lot of other people it seems like) voted for him but think he’s not living up to his ideas since there was never enough money to support them, even before the crisis. His approval rating is always really high, around 60-70%, but she and her husband and this lady that talked to us the other day say it’s because of the ignorance of the people more than his effectiveness. They think he’ll definitely win the April elections since the poor believe he’s still going to help them and there are no other great options.
An example of how Correa’s not following through with his ideas is the environment, naturally a big deal in Ecuador since it prides itself on being really diverse for such a small country. Correa got a new constitution passed in September, the first to directly recognize the legal rights of the environment, but now there is a huge mining debate between Correa and supporters of his economic policy versus indigenous people and environmentalists. He wants to open this one area that’s really rich in resources up to mining but indigenous people and others who live around there know that it will mess up the water supply and nature, and then there’s also an uncontacted indigenous group right in the area that doesn’t want to be part of civilization if all they do is fight and hurt nature.
After Patricia’s mother’s house we went to the mall in Los Chillos, which is the major hang-out place in the valley. It’s huge, at least twice as big as Monroeville Mall and it has tons of stuff. It’s really clean and pretty too. I’ll try to take pictures later, I’m very impressed. It’s all white and there are plants and along the top are brass-looking busts of different kinds of farm animals. There’s a 10-theater cinema, a huge supermarket, and a big arcade games area. I called my parents for the first time from an international phone box in the internet café, and it was only 12 cents a minute.
From the mall we went to a fancy-looking (by my standards) hair salon and Samantha, the oldest sister, and my host dad got their hair cut. It took forever. I read some fashion magazines in Spanish, and I saw that Audrey Tatuo/Amelie is going to play Coco Chanel in a new movie??
Dinner in this house at least is more like a snack since lunch is definitely the big meal. Today we had grilled cheese and ham sandwiches, milk, and tea. I got pretty red riding in the truck for so long so Patricia gave me something to put on my face and she says it will make it not red really fast.
I have to get up at 6:30 tomorrow so I am going to bed at 10:30! Everyone else is in bed already, I really like going to sleep early.
The rest of the day was pretty slow. I’m rereading The Godfather, so that was what I did for most of the day. I finished it last thing at night. I went on a little walk around my neighborhood. It’s all walled off in blocks. There are gates that lead into people’s driveways, which are usually shared, sometimes between relatives. One of the blocks is named after Saint Patrick and has a shamrock painted on the corner.
Today was a lot busier. Patricia (my host mother), Camila and I went with Patricia’s friend Luis to buy a tree for their garden. They are adding on a swept concrete patio space and an outdoor oven. First we drove into Quito and waited while Luis changed the car for a truck. Then we drove to Rayon, which is where everyone goes to get their plants – there are little nurseries everywhere called viveros. We got a little tree and different kinds of flowers at one called La Tierra Negra. Cami and I rode on the back of the truck with the flowers back to Los Chillos and then we drove back to Quito, Cami, Mimi and me riding on the back, to exchange it for the car.
Then we drove back to Los Chillos and immediately left again to go back to Quito to visit Patricia’s mother for lunch. Her mother lives in the northern part of Quito and from a window in her back wall you can see the famous angel statue and the entire historic center. Patricia’s brother and sister, her brother’s wife, and their kids came, too, and so it was a pretty full little apartment. Her mother’s really cute – she was wearing a flowery apron. Patricia’s sister asked me about all the vampires in Pennsylvania.
For lunch we had lots of courses: 1.) corn on the cob (different than in the U.S. – bigger kernels and less sweet); 2.) cow’s feet soup; 3.) thin slices of pork with two potatoes with sauce, served with mild guacamole; 4.) raspberry sorbet with cake. It was all good – Cami had just told me earlier today that cow’s feet soup was one of the most typical dishes in Ecuador, so I wanted to try it. It had a big cow’s foot in it, which was interesting, but it was tasty and not that different than normal beef broth soups. It had those white corn kernels that have been cooked for a really long time in it.
We stayed around there for a long time, until around 6:00. I talked to Patricia’s sister-in-law for most of the time, mostly about politics and school. She told me a lot about Correa, the President, and she (and a lot of other people it seems like) voted for him but think he’s not living up to his ideas since there was never enough money to support them, even before the crisis. His approval rating is always really high, around 60-70%, but she and her husband and this lady that talked to us the other day say it’s because of the ignorance of the people more than his effectiveness. They think he’ll definitely win the April elections since the poor believe he’s still going to help them and there are no other great options.
An example of how Correa’s not following through with his ideas is the environment, naturally a big deal in Ecuador since it prides itself on being really diverse for such a small country. Correa got a new constitution passed in September, the first to directly recognize the legal rights of the environment, but now there is a huge mining debate between Correa and supporters of his economic policy versus indigenous people and environmentalists. He wants to open this one area that’s really rich in resources up to mining but indigenous people and others who live around there know that it will mess up the water supply and nature, and then there’s also an uncontacted indigenous group right in the area that doesn’t want to be part of civilization if all they do is fight and hurt nature.
After Patricia’s mother’s house we went to the mall in Los Chillos, which is the major hang-out place in the valley. It’s huge, at least twice as big as Monroeville Mall and it has tons of stuff. It’s really clean and pretty too. I’ll try to take pictures later, I’m very impressed. It’s all white and there are plants and along the top are brass-looking busts of different kinds of farm animals. There’s a 10-theater cinema, a huge supermarket, and a big arcade games area. I called my parents for the first time from an international phone box in the internet café, and it was only 12 cents a minute.
From the mall we went to a fancy-looking (by my standards) hair salon and Samantha, the oldest sister, and my host dad got their hair cut. It took forever. I read some fashion magazines in Spanish, and I saw that Audrey Tatuo/Amelie is going to play Coco Chanel in a new movie??
Dinner in this house at least is more like a snack since lunch is definitely the big meal. Today we had grilled cheese and ham sandwiches, milk, and tea. I got pretty red riding in the truck for so long so Patricia gave me something to put on my face and she says it will make it not red really fast.
I have to get up at 6:30 tomorrow so I am going to bed at 10:30! Everyone else is in bed already, I really like going to sleep early.
Friday, Feb. 6, 2009: Estamos en la Valle de Los Chillos
Here are some more pictures from before:
Our room at El Rancho Alegre 
The group, at least part of it
Karina, our program assistant, with Fauto Mino, who´s a famous Ecuadorian singerHola hola. Right now I am in my bed at my host family’s house in Los Chillos. (I’m going to put this on my jumpdrive and upload it later when I get to an Internet café.) My bedspread is decorated with happy bunnies and little carrots, and the bed itself is a white-framed twin bed with a Winnie the Pooh headrest. One of the pictures in my room is a put-together puzzle of the Lion King, with Simba’s silhouette at the bottom and a big cloudy sky with Mufasa’s head up there. The rest of the decorations are put-together puzzles with pictures of dogs.
The family has three dogs – two little ones and one big grey lab-like one. The two little ones have been hanging out with me on my bed. They are all really nice and not very barky so I don’t mind them at all.
This morning we walked around in Quito. Overall I thought it was interesting but probably pretty typical for a touristy center of a Latin American city, but two things stood out. One was an awesome church, Iglesia de Santa Teresita – it was huge and dark and the only light came from the nave. There were relatively gruesome Stations of the Cross along the sides, and the alter had a sparkly painting with rays of light. The other thing was an awesome indoor market. We came by it by accident (the church too) and it was so cool – when you walk in there are tons of people and little places to eat, mostly soup. I saw one soup in particular with lots of shrimp, it looked really good. Further on there were tons of vegetable and then fruit. There were loads of plants and medicinal herbs, too. I only recognized chamomile and that’s only because Meredith, one of the SIT group, made tea with the full plant the other day in San Antonio. The tea was bright yellow and really good, kind of with a lemony taste. I don’t remember ever having teabag chamomile tea so I can’t compare. People keep pointing things out that help with specific ailments, especially stomach problems and nausea. The market also had lots of beautiful fresh flowers and different kinds of meat (I saw a fried up pig head for instance and lots of unrecognizable parts) and woven baskets and terracotta pots and ceramic animal figurines. I’m excited to go back to things like that later and talk to the vendors more.
We took a bus to Los Chillos and got in around 4:00. My family was a little late, but I wasn’t the last one waiting. My host mom and youngest sister came for me. Their house is really nice, it’s big. The three daughters all have their own room, which is great because I was a little worried that I’d be taking one of their rooms, forcing them to pair up. My room’s a lot smaller than my room in Costa Rica, but my room in Costa Rica was pretty big. It’s very comfortable. I played basketball with the youngest daughter for a long time and later I talked to my host mother for a while about her family and politics and her godchild. The other two daughters have kind of left me alone. They’ve already had six host students just from SIT and some from other placement organizations too – SIT is part of an organization that organizes homestay placements, so I think the novelty is pretty much gone for them. I feel welcome though, so it’s okay. When I get more comfortable I’ll take pictures.
Okay, this is pretty long. My host mom said in a week the house will have wireless, which will make it easy to call home. We got our cell-phones last night! I got a phonecard. We only have to pay for calls we make, not for ones we receive.
The family has three dogs – two little ones and one big grey lab-like one. The two little ones have been hanging out with me on my bed. They are all really nice and not very barky so I don’t mind them at all.
This morning we walked around in Quito. Overall I thought it was interesting but probably pretty typical for a touristy center of a Latin American city, but two things stood out. One was an awesome church, Iglesia de Santa Teresita – it was huge and dark and the only light came from the nave. There were relatively gruesome Stations of the Cross along the sides, and the alter had a sparkly painting with rays of light. The other thing was an awesome indoor market. We came by it by accident (the church too) and it was so cool – when you walk in there are tons of people and little places to eat, mostly soup. I saw one soup in particular with lots of shrimp, it looked really good. Further on there were tons of vegetable and then fruit. There were loads of plants and medicinal herbs, too. I only recognized chamomile and that’s only because Meredith, one of the SIT group, made tea with the full plant the other day in San Antonio. The tea was bright yellow and really good, kind of with a lemony taste. I don’t remember ever having teabag chamomile tea so I can’t compare. People keep pointing things out that help with specific ailments, especially stomach problems and nausea. The market also had lots of beautiful fresh flowers and different kinds of meat (I saw a fried up pig head for instance and lots of unrecognizable parts) and woven baskets and terracotta pots and ceramic animal figurines. I’m excited to go back to things like that later and talk to the vendors more.
We took a bus to Los Chillos and got in around 4:00. My family was a little late, but I wasn’t the last one waiting. My host mom and youngest sister came for me. Their house is really nice, it’s big. The three daughters all have their own room, which is great because I was a little worried that I’d be taking one of their rooms, forcing them to pair up. My room’s a lot smaller than my room in Costa Rica, but my room in Costa Rica was pretty big. It’s very comfortable. I played basketball with the youngest daughter for a long time and later I talked to my host mother for a while about her family and politics and her godchild. The other two daughters have kind of left me alone. They’ve already had six host students just from SIT and some from other placement organizations too – SIT is part of an organization that organizes homestay placements, so I think the novelty is pretty much gone for them. I feel welcome though, so it’s okay. When I get more comfortable I’ll take pictures.
Okay, this is pretty long. My host mom said in a week the house will have wireless, which will make it easy to call home. We got our cell-phones last night! I got a phonecard. We only have to pay for calls we make, not for ones we receive.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
lots of time in a room
Milly and Gina
El Rancho Alegre
El Rancho Alegre, the awesome hammock chair
El Rancho Alegre - where our rooms were
Gina at the Hotel Alston, where we stayed in Quito
I am in another internet cafe and the computer I´m on is in front of a window that faces the Andes! Pretty much everywhere here faces the Andes since we are in the Andes, but I always think its pretty exciting. We´re so high that the clouds are just above us and I can see them going in front of the mountain. There aren´t many trees on them but sometimes there is a row just along the top of the range.
Today we had our Spanish placement test and it was pretty tough. Overall I´ve been confident in my Spanish since I got here since I think I´m basically average for the group - there are a few really fluent people and then some who aren´t very confident yet. Later this afternoon in about an hour I have a one-on-one interview in Spanish for my oral proficiency placement. I think that will be easier for me.
We eat all the time here. We have breakfast at 8:00 (eggs, fruit, cereal, croissant, fresh juice, herbal tea) then snack around 10:30 (fruit, little no-crust white bread sandwhichs, tea) and then lunch around 1:00 (rice and meat and different things plus fruit dessert) and then usually some kind of little snack around 4:00 and then dinner at 7:30 (soup, vegetables, meat, rice, beans... and dessert, usually ice cream, which is SOOO good). It´s all been very tasty.
Our group is all kind of in love with each other and we eat with different people every meal. My roommates are Gina and Milly, I like them both a lot. Five or six of the group has been to Costa Rica before on volunteer trips so I´ve been talking about that a lot.
We got our Los Chillos homestay placement!!! My family has both parents and three daughters. One is 17 and the other two are 13. The parents like to walk and they like nature. The daughters like music and swimming and I can´t remember what else. I´m in the town that has the most student placements - we´re spread out over a few little towns in the valley. I´m a little nervous but I´m sure it will be fine.
I´ll try and post pictures later, I haven´t taken very many yet since mostly we´re just been at the place we´re staying, which is very very nice. Its called El Rancho Alegre, the happy ranch.
Today we had our Spanish placement test and it was pretty tough. Overall I´ve been confident in my Spanish since I got here since I think I´m basically average for the group - there are a few really fluent people and then some who aren´t very confident yet. Later this afternoon in about an hour I have a one-on-one interview in Spanish for my oral proficiency placement. I think that will be easier for me.
We eat all the time here. We have breakfast at 8:00 (eggs, fruit, cereal, croissant, fresh juice, herbal tea) then snack around 10:30 (fruit, little no-crust white bread sandwhichs, tea) and then lunch around 1:00 (rice and meat and different things plus fruit dessert) and then usually some kind of little snack around 4:00 and then dinner at 7:30 (soup, vegetables, meat, rice, beans... and dessert, usually ice cream, which is SOOO good). It´s all been very tasty.
Our group is all kind of in love with each other and we eat with different people every meal. My roommates are Gina and Milly, I like them both a lot. Five or six of the group has been to Costa Rica before on volunteer trips so I´ve been talking about that a lot.
We got our Los Chillos homestay placement!!! My family has both parents and three daughters. One is 17 and the other two are 13. The parents like to walk and they like nature. The daughters like music and swimming and I can´t remember what else. I´m in the town that has the most student placements - we´re spread out over a few little towns in the valley. I´m a little nervous but I´m sure it will be fine.
I´ll try and post pictures later, I haven´t taken very many yet since mostly we´re just been at the place we´re staying, which is very very nice. Its called El Rancho Alegre, the happy ranch.
Monday, February 2, 2009
First Day - In San Antonio
I´m in an internet cafe and the keyboard is different, it´s hard to type. So yesterday we flew and got to the hotel around 11:00 totally wiped out with the flights and the altitude. I could notice the difference in my breathing right away - you can´t breath in quite as deeply and you get tired really quickly, like just going up and down stairs. The LANEcuador flight was REALLY nice, it was a very classy plane. You didn´t have to pay for everything like on American airlines and the seats were nice and it came with a warm blanket. I saw that we were supposed to get a snack and I expected pretzels or peanuts but instead after a couple hours in the air we get served teriaki chicken and fried rice with a good bun and a kind of tasty cheesecake with dulce de leche on top. I was sitting next to a professor from la Universidad de San Franscico with the medical school. He was friendly but we didn´t talk that much. I had a window seat and I got to see all the lights of Quito as we flew in. At the airport immigration and customs were so easy, I didn´t say a word for either. When we got through customs there were tons of Ecuadorians standing there waiting for friends or family to come in. There were a lot of kids and lots of balloons.
We took a bus to the Hotel Alston, which was pretty nice. It has very eclectic art, like unicorn sillouettes and English countryside watercolors and portraits of women and medieval tapestries. We had big queen beds to ourselves and slept three to a room. We had a little meeting to go over important things like not to put toilet paper in the toilet and then we packed three days worth of stuff for the orientation trip to Rancho Alegre.
We got up at 7:00 this morning and ate breakfast (covered by tuition - all food is going to be) at a cute little place called Esta Cafe. We had a bowl of fresh fruit with yogurt (that was served in a pitcher) and granola and sugar cane syrup. Then eggs and bacon and a really good fluffy pancake. I also got a hot chocolate that was very tasty. I got to send Mommy and Daddy a little email saying I´m alive but then we had to run off to catch a bus.
Now we´re in San Antonio, near Mitad del Mundo. It´s a quiet town, not very rural, about an half-hour from Quito. We´ve been going over basic orientation things and our itinerary (finally!) and we´ve had a snack, lunch and later cake since it was one girl´s birthday yesterday. Our big activity, our first ¨experiential learning,¨was getting assigned a three person group to go into the town and find a certain type of business and ask them some questions about what it was like and whatever we thought was interesting. My group went to bazares, which are like paper and knick-knack shops. There are a few really small family-owned ones. Everyone except one woman was really friendly.
So far I like everyone and we´re all friendly with each other and getting to know each other. It´s been pretty easy to get along so far and there´s no one in our group that I wouldn´t hang out with. We´re a bigger group than I expected - there are about 25 of us. I thought it would be closer to a dozen or so. Leonore and Fabian are our Academic Directors and they seem really organized yet laidback and flexible. So far most everything has been in English but they say in a couple days we´ll be in all-Spanish mode, which is good with me. I think I´ve done well with the Spanish so far.
That´s all for now. We´ve got salsa lessons tonight and we all want to go to bed early. You can tell by just looking at us that we´re all so tired.
We took a bus to the Hotel Alston, which was pretty nice. It has very eclectic art, like unicorn sillouettes and English countryside watercolors and portraits of women and medieval tapestries. We had big queen beds to ourselves and slept three to a room. We had a little meeting to go over important things like not to put toilet paper in the toilet and then we packed three days worth of stuff for the orientation trip to Rancho Alegre.
We got up at 7:00 this morning and ate breakfast (covered by tuition - all food is going to be) at a cute little place called Esta Cafe. We had a bowl of fresh fruit with yogurt (that was served in a pitcher) and granola and sugar cane syrup. Then eggs and bacon and a really good fluffy pancake. I also got a hot chocolate that was very tasty. I got to send Mommy and Daddy a little email saying I´m alive but then we had to run off to catch a bus.
Now we´re in San Antonio, near Mitad del Mundo. It´s a quiet town, not very rural, about an half-hour from Quito. We´ve been going over basic orientation things and our itinerary (finally!) and we´ve had a snack, lunch and later cake since it was one girl´s birthday yesterday. Our big activity, our first ¨experiential learning,¨was getting assigned a three person group to go into the town and find a certain type of business and ask them some questions about what it was like and whatever we thought was interesting. My group went to bazares, which are like paper and knick-knack shops. There are a few really small family-owned ones. Everyone except one woman was really friendly.
So far I like everyone and we´re all friendly with each other and getting to know each other. It´s been pretty easy to get along so far and there´s no one in our group that I wouldn´t hang out with. We´re a bigger group than I expected - there are about 25 of us. I thought it would be closer to a dozen or so. Leonore and Fabian are our Academic Directors and they seem really organized yet laidback and flexible. So far most everything has been in English but they say in a couple days we´ll be in all-Spanish mode, which is good with me. I think I´ve done well with the Spanish so far.
That´s all for now. We´ve got salsa lessons tonight and we all want to go to bed early. You can tell by just looking at us that we´re all so tired.
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