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.
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