22nd day

While waiting for the bus in Cumbayá in the morning before volunteering, I started talking with a college-aged girl at the bus stop. I was telling her how I should make more Ecuadorian friends because all my friends in Ecuador are from the states. She gave me her number and she told me that we should hang out with her and her friends. I would have thought that was really strange back in the states, but I guess since I’m in Ecuador I’m more interesting. I’m not that interesting to Ecuadorians who go to USFQ because there’s hundreds of us. I’m excited to possibly hang out with an Ecuadorian who doesn’t go to my school.

I’ve heard that people from Ecuador are very friendly, but that you have to say the first word, and that seemed to work at the bus stop. I’ve just got to be more outgoing at first, and then there’s no effort needed after that.

I volunteered with the physical therapist, which was more interesting this time because there actually were patients. I switched the days I volunteer to ones that are busier for that reason. Even with more patients, it’s still not the most exciting because the patients are all over 60 and the physical therapist does a lot of magnetic, hot compresses, ultrasound, and massage treatments, which bore me when I’m not doing it. Physical therapy looks boring when you’re watching a half naked old man lying down while a physical therapist moves a wand around on his back. I can’t wait until I have the knowledge to make the decisions and work with a population I chose to work with as well. I volunteered with college students with permanent physical disabilities last semester with a physical therapist who got me involved a lot, which was so much fun, but this is different. Maybe after awhile I’ll be able to help more and understand more though, so I shouldn’t judge it yet. It’s also an opportunity to learn Spanish, even if the physical therapy isn’t that exciting.

Most days when I get home I get to chat with mi mamá. I love talking with mi mamá here. She is so open and willing to talk about anything. She makes it easy to understand her and never is inpatient with me. Thus far she’s my favorite person in Ecuador. She works hard, but still has time to talk and laugh with me. Sometimes she helps mi papá install windows, which is what he does all day. Most days, though, she cooks, watches mi hermanito, cleans, and feeds and cleans the chonchos. I sometimes feel bad though because the time she spends with me is away from her kids. Mi hermana seems a little jealous of the time I spend talking with her.

3rd weekend

The trip to Quitumbre, where the class was meeting, was stressful, because we thought it would only take an hour to get to one bus that would take us to Quitumbre,. It instead took an hour and forty-five and two buses, and the bus full of students almost left without us. We sprinted with all of our gear, and we made it. I am so glad it wasn’t me going alone, because I’m sure I would’ve broken down at the point where we thought we were supposed to be, but really needed to hop on another bus.

The hike was the most physical exertion I’ve done in my life. I consider myself to be an active person, but I’ve never had to push myself that hard, and I’ve never hiked a mountain that large. When we were hiking down the mountain, I was afraid of slipping, and when we were hiking up I was afraid I would collapse. We didn’t walk on level ground for more than a minute. Add twenty pounds of gear, six hours of hiking, no real friends, and rain, and I felt miserable at certain points of the trip. Other times when we had a second to rest, I was able to see the beauty around me, and I felt incredible. We finally made it to camp in the dark and rain. Our “campsite” was really a family’s cow field, so there was wet cow poo everywhere. The tent my friend rented was broken, so we slept in an Ecuadorian guy’s tent instead. It was nice because we got to talk a little. The class is mostly extranjeros, not Ecuadorians, so I spoke English most of the trip. There were some kids from Germany, so there was some German too.
The next morning, still mojada (wet) from last night, I managed to step in human poo while looking for somewhere to pee. There weren’t bathrooms at the campsite, and I thought we would’ve been told to bring a small shovel for that sort of thing. It’s really unsanitary to have about thirty people sleep at a camp site and not have bathrooms or shovels, and I didn’t think to look out for human poo when every where I stepped was cow poo.

Not the best start to the morning, and the three hour hike to the bus was the worst yet, but also very satisfying. The bus ride back was entertaining and scary because while going down the one-way street down the mountain, most of the people on the bus were off their seats, dancing to loud salsa and reggeton. After that bus, I took two buses and a cab home. I spent more time riding buses than hiking, but it was worth it.

3rd week

Last week was consisted of me being every combination of sick. I had a lingering cold, a fever of 102.5, and then stomach issues. It was a terrible week, but I feel much better now.

Mi mamá was always telling me to go to the doctor even when I only had a runny nose. Well, I did accidentally. I was working with the physical therapist last week and I suddenly felt terrible. I told the physical therapist I probably had a fever and then she whisked me away to the doctor down the hall. I thought the doctor would take my temperature and give me aspirin, and then I would go home. However, they treated me like a real patient and took all my information and vitals down. I had to wait for the doctor for 15 minutes, while this middle-aged couple made out on one of the beds behind a curtain. I could clearly see them, while the doctors couldn’t. There was some touching going on, so that was uncomfortable in addition to having no idea why I was having a formal examination.

The doctor talked very quickly and I could not understand what she was saying. She was the first person that used a condescending tone with me because I was not fluent. It felt horrible. She told the nurse that I didn’t understand anything and that she needed to help me in a tone I didn’t like. The doctor said I needed tests, which I was not going to take because I needed to get to my class (at that time I felt well enough), and I only started feeling sick an hour ago. I left without taking the tests and took a cab to class. I had three classes that day, but only made it through one.

I went home and my family was eating lunch, and I told them all teary-eyed I wanted to eat in my room because I felt so sick, and then mi mamá started barraging me with questions about my illness. It was a bad time to be sick because my family had more family over to help construct the roof, so there were so many people in the house and it sounded like a machete was cutting concrete outside my window.

Somehow mi mamá convinced me to have a nurse come to the house that night. The service is included in the program, so I didn’t mind too much. I knew they couldn’t do much but tell me to get tests and give me pain meds, but at that time I didn’t care. Since mi casa doesn’t have an address, mi mamá waited at the park for the nurses, but the first set got in a car crash, and mi mamá ended up waiting two hours outside until more nurses came. I felt bad that the car crashed because of my fever and I, the nurses were okay. Eventually a new set arrived late at night. The nurse asked me if she should speak English or Spanish, and English seemed like the better choice because I could better explain my symptoms. Not so. The nurse asked me, when bathroom…pointing gestures…butt? I told her no. She reverted to Spanish and did all the usual stuff, and then they told me I needed some medicine. I was down with that, until the male nurse told me to flip over. I protested, telling them that I could just take something orally instead, but they kept telling me how much better the injection was. Needless to say, I had an injection in my behind.

The next few days were just as bad, only with different symptoms. I felt better on Friday, and went on a hiking trip on the weekend to Quilotoa, which is a mountain with a luguna en su cráter, which is like Cuicocha. A girl from my class rented the tent, sleeping bags, and sleeping pads for both of us, which made things really easy.

15th day

We went to an indigenous village to see how the Otavalo people make their fabric in the morning.  It was enlightening to hear directly from the source that the scarf I bought for $2.50 took two hours to make, which is roughly a dollar an hour if you take the purchase of the fabric into account.  It is so easy to buy things in the U.S imported from far off lands without thinking whose hands have slaved over what you bought.  Do you think about what kind of treatment they received?  How much money they get per hour?  Here though, we saw the people and the conditions in which they lived.  They do their work from home, so it’s better than factories that violate human rights, but they still live extremely simple lives.  In some ways the simple life is better in rural Ecuador than the U.S.’s materialism, but when a good education isn’t available, I don’t agree with it.  It’s sad to hear that Otavalo is much more prosperous than the other Andean towns, yet they still live in poverty. 

Later we saw how indigenous instruments are made, and a band, the best Andean band according to Maria, played a song for us.  We then went to the Laguna de Cuicocha, which was breathtaking.  It’s an active crater lake, and has two islands in the middle, and mountains surrounding it.  We hiked and took a boat ride around the islands.  It was a long, but fascinating day.  My weekend trip was the perfect blend of cultural learning and nature exploring.

14th day

I just lost over four pages of single spaced writing by accidentally clicking “don’t save” on Word.  I just keep Word open so I haven’t saved or posted any of my writing in five days.  The auto-recovery feature doesn’t account for stupidity.  I’ll try to write a condensed version and post pictures instead.

On our way to Otavalo we stopped at La Mitad del Mundo, where the absolute center of the world supposedly is, but I've heard there's more than one.  We also stopped at a look-out point (another tourist trap), which was stunning.  I've never seen real mountains before Ecuador!

Purses, clothing, jewelry, trinkets, paintings, food, and more were at the market in Otavalo.  The people who live in Otavalo are skilled weavers, and are known for their fabrics, so that was the majority of what they were selling.  The most fun part was chatting with the vendors and bargaining.  I helped out a clueless tourist with Spanish, and I was complemented me on my Spanish.  A bit of small talk and numbers, I can do.  Before coming, I didn’t want to bargain because the prices were so cheap already, and the indigenous people use the market as their source of income.  However, a girl who has lived here for a semester said that if they bargain down 40%, they’re still making a profit.  (She got a painting for $6 that was $12 just by repeating seis over and over).  I wasn’t too aggressive because I know the vendors are much more sly than I am and really I can’t ask for better prices, but I walked away twice from a scarf, and eventually got it for a price I wanted.  It was exciting walking in the market alone—it was a treasure hunt for beautiful fabrics, smells, and colors.

We stayed at a B&B on top of a small mountain that night, which was spotless, beautiful and charming.  It cost $60 a night for a double (ridiculous, no?)  There were large common areas and we ate dinner and breakfast there.  The walls were painted in various bright colors and the bunch of us stayed up late talking in the dining area.  We hiked to a cascada (waterfall), which was beautiful and an easy hike, but there were a lot of tourists, which marred the beauty a bit.

13th day

I knew this would happen. I can’t keep it up writing an entry every day, so I hope you’ll forgive me. Today’s Friday, the day of my one andinismo class where we just learned how to tie more knots again, which is more difficult than you’d think. The rest of the day so far I’ve spend online cherishing the Wi-fi that I can’t get anywhere else and talking to my friends.

I had my first volunteer experience yesterday. There was only one patient, and it wasn’t all that exciting for the 3 hours I was there. I hope the physical therapist gets more patients than one every three hours! She was helpful, though, trying to explain to me how to analyze x-rays and what physical therapy is like in Ecuador. The therapist said that physical therapy isn’t as good as the U.S. because Ecuador lacks the technology. She also commented on how the education isn’t that good either compared to the U.S. Talking to her made me appreciate being able to go to physical therapy school in the U.S.

The room that she works in has three beds, a broken stationary bike, a few weights, two balance balls, and an ultrasound, magnetic, and electric machine (don’t know the name of it). All of this is in a fairly small room, so I wonder how she has people walk in there to rehabilitate them. It felt a lot more rudimentary than any of the physical therapy rooms I’ve seen in the states. There wasn’t even a treadmill. However, this is a place that accepts patients, regardless of their ability to pay, which may mean that the facilities may not be as good as they could be. There are also other rooms for dentistry and primary care medicine.

I have to wear a uniform while I’m there, which makes me feel a bit professional. It’s funny how scrubs make me feel more professional. Afterwards, my Español Intermedio class was cancelled due to the fact that the professor was teaching too many classes. You’d think they’d get that straightened out by now? I’ll have a new professor next week. Also, another one of my classes moved to another room, again. I’m also thinking about changing my schedule again. I’m not happy taking a class in English…while in Ecuador.

Tomorrow I’m going to Otavalo, a huge indigenous market, this weekend. I’m excited!

11th day

It’s been an easy day today. One of my classes isn’t meeting this week so I only had my conversation class. I did my presentation and it seemed like everything went well. I also realized that we weren’t having a quiz on a list of 30 expressions. Instead, we were supposed to write sentences with the words. Ah, well. Somehow everyone in the class figured that out except me. I’m feeling a little better from this cold (which everyone calls “la gripe”, which literally means flu. It must be a general term for being sick here).

I haven’t yet talked to an Ecuadorian student for more than a few seconds here (who wasn’t giving a tour) which is annoying. Most of my classes are full of gringos so it’s really hard for me to make friends with other Ecuadorians. I’m not the most outgoing person when speaking English, and even less so when I’m speaking Spanish. I wish I had more confidence to try to use my Spanish and make friends, but it’s so difficult. I don’t want to be like the international students who go to U of I. Many stay in their comfortable bubble of other students from the same country, and I don’t want to be that way. I had lunch with Samantha again and she was talking about the Salsa club here. I should check it out. I want to learn how to Salsa because it seems like everyone here knows how and it would be a chance to meet some people. I also have some andinismo trips coming up as well.

Side note—I love the way people greet one another here. They give one kiss on the cheek to say hello. It’s way better than a handshake, and the kiss is common among friends, while the handshake isn’t. A handshake is only for meeting someone for the first time or for business relations in the U.S and for my generation, is considered fairly formal. The kiss, however, is shared amongst friends, co-workers, and family. It’s beautiful.

10th day

Today I got my censo and set up my trabajo voluntario. Maria took me and another girl to Quito, where I got my censo, which has my picture, my nationality, my activity here, and passport number. Looks like now I’m official. After visiting a place for young women with children that’s run by nuns because the other girl is going to do her work there, we went to the clinic where I’ll be working. I met the physical therapist and saw the small room where she works. I’ll be volunteering 8:30 to 11:30 or so Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’m not sure how I feel about 8:30 because I haven’t figured out when the buses all come, but we’ll see. The physical therapist had a girl from Illinois work with her before for the entire semester, so that’s good news. If I stick with it, I’ll end up with 90 hours of volunteer work with a physical therapist in Ecuador, which will look good on an application and improve my Spanish. Now I finally feel as if this studying abroad makes sense for my future studies and career.

9th day

This morning I had a gloriously warm shower. I kept telling myself to not get used to it, but somehow it was perfect. An omelet, freshly squeezed jugo (juice), and these wheat things that were kind of like homemade pretzels without the salt were waiting at the table after my shower. These tasted like they were healthy, which is a first here for bread, but it’s safe to say everything I eat at home is from scratch. Nothing is bought from supermarkets. I asked if there was pre-packaged food in Ecuador, and mi mamá said yes, but they’re only at the big supermarkets and it’s usually just the rich who buy them.

I went to school an hour early to go online. Not having internet access is a curse and a blessing. I hate not being able to look words up quickly, read the news from my computer at any time I like, email or chat with people. However, I don’t get distracted as easily and I can do things like write in word for my blog and study my vocab words without checking Facebook and Gmail every hour. I also look forward to going to school because I can talk to the northern hemisphere before class.

I set up my appointment to get my censo and apparently there was some confusion about visiting the clinic tomorrow. Hopefully everything goes smoothly. Today was the day I decided to drop my Temas de América Latina because I could not take notes or really understand anything. The class is a history-heavy class, and history is boring enough for me in English. I also switched my advanced grammar class to an intermediate one. My goal here is not really to challenge myself that much in class, but to just learn the language, volunteer, and explore the culture and geography. Studying abroad was only a means to those things for me. Before coming here, everyone told me that study abroad institutions are way easier than U of I, so I didn’t really care that my classes seemed difficult. However, USFQ is the exception. The classes are really tough for extranjeros who aren’t Spanish majors or haven’t lived in a Spanish-speaking country before. USFQ is the most expensive university in Ecuador, and rightly so. They can’t dumb-down their curriculum for study abroad students.

I already have a bit of homework. I have a presentation on any tema that I like, which will be on sex education in schools because I’ve written a paper in Spanish on it. Yet, I only have today and tomorrow to prepare to present a 20-minute talk on it, ask questions, and make a vocabulary list. I volunteered for it without realizing how much time that takes. Readings in my huge International Organizations Reader, which I accidentally stole from the bookstore, are due next week. The clerk looked as if he rang the book up, along with my art supplies, but when I went through the door to leave the bookstore, the alarm went off, and the guard grabbed my book and receipt. After consulting inside the store, he gave me back my book and receipt without a word. Later I checked, and the clerk never rang up my book. I’m not about to go back and try to explain this. I wouldn’t have minded paying for it because the books here are way cheaper than books in the states. Books cost about $200 a semester (if I don’t buy one or two, which usually happens) and here it’ll be maybe $40. Yet books here aren’t really books—they’re more like collections of photocopied chapters of books or essays. My Spanish book will be a real book, but they seem like they always are.

After my classes, I ate a wonderful almuerzo (lunch) with Samantha, another Illinois student, at El Pimentón, the first restaurant I ate at when I came to Ecuador. At practically any restaurant in Ecuador, if you ask for el almuerzo, you’ll get a lunch without being told what’s in it, but it usually includes jugo, sopa (soup), a main dish, and a pastel (dessert) all for $2.50. However, most everything has meat, but all I had to tell them was that I was a vegetarian, and everything was fine. Also the water on the tables wasn’t purified, which I didn’t understand. People here drink purified water, so I’m not sure why there was sickness-inducing water there, for decoration, maybe?

Tomorrow I’m getting all my stuff together. I’m going to figure out where I’m volunteering and get my official identification. I’m getting a cold, which my friend Samantha described the whole course of it because she has the same thing, so I’m not looking forward to the next few days. But after tomorrow, I won’t have too much to set up anymore!

8th day

I wake up at around 6:30 a.m. every day due to mi hermanito yelling, the construction going on above my head (mi familia is building a second floor), dogs fighting, or roosters crowing. This is unfortunate because my earliest class is at 9, only on Fridays. The other days I have class at 11:30 or 1:00. At U of I, I normally went to bed around 12:30am and got up at 8:30 am and now I’ve pushed everything two hours earlier, even though my classes are so late. I don’t even get to sleep in on weekends. Today was a free day because we were supposed to ride the teleferico, which gives you a beautiful view of the city, but because of apagones (power shortages), we are doing it later. So instead I made empanadas con mi mamá con queso y platanos. Then I explored Lumbisí with Kaye a little, but we ended up talking for an hour on this rusted swings at the estadio (stadium). The rest of the day I spent with mi familia and studying the new words I’m learning. I try to write down as many words I hear that I don’t understand. It’s not always convenient and I forget them before I have a chance to write them down, so I’m not that good at it.

7th day

Today I went to historic Quito to do some touristy things with my Illinois group (which by the way has Penn State and Luther students too). We visited 3 ornate iglesias (churches), the convent where the declaration of independence was signed, a museum, and then we ate at a restaurant. We saw a bunch of important buildings and statues too. The restaurant was outdoors and fancy, but it was disappointing because I was told that there was a vegetarian plate, which was really a plate of salad. I had mora (berry) juice, which I amazingly knew the definition because remembered the word “zaramora” (blackberry) because of the delicious blackberry yogurt Aunt Mary Ellen, Leslie, Uncle John, Megan, and I had in the fridge when we were in Mexico. So, I do remember words somehow, only if they’re delicious.

We took the Ecovia, then the green bus to Lumbisí, which takes quite a long time. I took my first nap in Lumbisí (it’s always loud here). Afterwards, I accidentally said a bad word at the dinner table (I don’t remember what I said), and then I asked them to tell me some more bad words. One of then was maricón (derogatory word for gay), which prompted a conversation about the rights of LGBTQ people in Ecuador. In Ecuador, it is not accepted, except in some barrios in the Mariscal, and when a man is seen dressed as a woman, people think he is a ladrón (robber) because sometimes men dress up as women here to take advantage of people. I was able to talk about rights in the United States, but I’m realizing how varied the U.S. is in these kinds of topics. Being gay in San Francisco and rural Kentucky are not the same. Living with a family here really prompts cultural exchange!

Afterwards we went to a community event in Lumbisí, which was like a beauty pageant and a dance afterwards. I went with my family and the other girls’ families. It was a lot of fun, and so much more chaotic than any community events I’ve been to. There were kids running everywhere, dogs roaming around, kids climbing basketball hoop structures, firecrackers going off, a fire crackling in the middle of the road, and loud music. The reina (queen) was chosen and all of it was very serious. After the reina was chosen, I danced with my family and friends, but of course some drunken older man tried to dance with me and told me how cute I was. Despite the odd stares, I’m beginning to really like Lumbisí. I love the how this community feels, how everyone here is related to someone in Lumbisí, and how friendly everyone is. Maria says that this is the authentic Ecuador. I’m not sure how I feel about that statement (because that means places like Cumbayá aren’t authentic—they make up Ecuador nonetheless), but I’m so glad I didn’t get placed in Cumbayá, a rich suburb of Quito. I would probably have had hot showers, a maid, and wireless internet, but it wouldn’t be like this. A girl was saying how one of the host moms said, “In Lumbisí they have houses, but they’re not really houses.” I don’t know if I could handle that kind of sentiment toward the poor in Ecuador. I also don’t think I’d like having a maid live in the house with me, but who is not able to eat with the family, which is common in rich homes.

Anyway, right now it’s almost midnight, and there is a quincenera party going on a few doors down, and I can hear the music perfectly. I hope I’ll be able to get to sleep soon.

6th day

Yesterday I had my Andinismo class. It meets in the Coliseo, which is basically a basketball court, ping-pong tables, and seating. It’s a little different than the facilities U of I has. The professor, who supposedly is funny, (the Ecuadorians laugh a lot, but I don’t get anything) talked about the history of mountaineering in different countries, the philosophy of climbing, safety, and then we learned how to tie different knots. Next is Temas de América Latina, which is un poco dificíl to understand. Also, 10% of our grade is participation, and there’s a lot of students in the class and the non-natives can speak fairly well and the Ecuadorians I can never understand, so it’s really intimidating. I wish I took my Spanish classes more seriously! I got A’s in every Spanish class I’ve taken, but I still cannot understand Spanish well or speak competently. I’m realizing how terrible the Spanish classes I’ve taken were. For two, I never went to class and got A’s. I feel like most international students are more advanced than I am, especially since I’m living next to Kay. She wants to be an ESL teacher and has lived in Spain and Guatemala, and she makes me feel so stupid when I can’t speak correctly, and she sounds near-fluent already.

After my classes I hung out with Charlotte, and we went to get our censo photos taken. The censo is identification for visitors. Don’t ask me why a visa isn’t enough… Next week we’re going to get our censos by giving them two photos and four dollars. We are supposed to carry a copy of our passport, visa, and censo all the time. I ate lunch at a restaurant at the university that makes crepes, after talking to Jeremy how he made crepes with his grandma. I was able to Skype with him for the first time in an abandoned computer lab. He could hear and see me, but I couldn’t hear him, so it was interesting responding by voice when he typed a question to me. Skype is awesome and free, but it isn’t the best for my emotions. Seeing someone on a computer feels so real, yet not being able to be with that person is a terrible feeling.

I went to the Supermaxi (Sounds like a feminine hygiene product, but it’s like a Jewel) in Cumbayá to buy a few things to replace my trial-size toiletries and then talked with Maria, the resident director, about volunteering. There’s a clinic in Cumbayá that has great physical therapy. On Tuesday I’ll visit and fill out an application. I’m so excited! I wish I could just not have school and instead work with physical therapists. School is kind of a bummer for me because none of it counts for anything. They’re all electives and will have enough credit to graduate without all these classes, but these classes will show up on my transcript and affect my GPA, which I worked so hard to keep high. I wouldn’t be so afraid of my classes if getting C’s was okay. Additionally, I’m not the best at making friends with Ecuadorians, and many of my classes are mostly gringos, so all this feels so pointless. Now that I have a family, some friends, and resources, I want to just focus on learning Spanish and physical therapy. Maybe I’ll like my classes once they actually start, we’ll see. The professors seem really awesome here.

Oh, I got a huge desk, a mirror, garbage can, and a hamper recently from my family. They also cleared a space for me to put my shampoo and stuff in the bathroom. I’ve never been so happy for those kinds of things!

5th Day

Today I talked to Jeremy for the first time here for a few minutes on the phone, which made me miss him even more, but the rest of the day was pretty kept my mind off home and the boyfriend. I’m learning to not be so impatient and be more like Ecuadorians here who don’t worry about time and don’t need to do everything they need to do in one day. I went to Quito with mi mamá to buy my book for mi clase de Español Avanzado and some rope to practice tying knots for Andinismo tomorrow. It was six dollars for four meters of rope, which was disappointing. How did I manage to find the most expensive climbing store in Quito? Maybe it became the most expensive store as soon as I walked in. It took forever to find my rope so I was happy just to have it. I found the bookstore right away; it was just off the La Paz bus stop, and my book cost about 17 dollars. Every other Spanish book I bought new cost almost 100 dollars back in the states.

Prices are so strange here. Places to sleep, handmade stuff, pirated DVDs, and food are extremely cheap, but everything else is expensive because everything is imported. Ecuador lacks real industry so everything they don’t make is expensive, which puzzles me because the U.S. imports a lot of cheap things. I’m guessing the U.S. has good trade agreements and can get things cheaply, while Ecuador can’t. Mi hermanito was towed along on our 3-hour journey and I realized how dangerous it is to have a 3-year-old in Quito. The cars here are so much more aggressive than the ones in Chicago and they do not slow down for you if you are crossing a clearly marked crosswalk. Legally, cars don’t have the right of way any more, but nobody cares. Only the kindest souls will stop for a pedestrian. It’s pretty polluted in Quito too, you can see and smell the smog a lot due to the thousands of cars and that the mountains surrounding contain the pollution. The buses are old, so they’re huge polluters, and the smoke that comes from them is so dark. In addition to being polluted, they don’t really have garbage cans so there is garbage everywhere in the parks. There are tiny trashcans hanging on poles at the intersections, but all of them are overflowing. The sales tax in Quito is 12% (I think) which is interesting...even with a large tax, the city can’t clean itself.

Mi pobre hermanito didn’t like riding forever on crowded buses and walking all over Quito, so he was throwing mini-tantrums the whole way and just acting like a normal three year old. Luckily his mom bought him helado (ice cream) and he quieted down quite a bit. I felt bad that mi mamá took me to Quito with her son because I kinda hinted that I needed help taking the buses from Lumbisí to Quito. The buses are actually really easy to use when it isn’t rush hour, but I’m glad she came with me so that I wasn’t aimlessly walking around the city by myself.

Afterwards I ate at the vegetarian restaurant next to my school, which I think is Chinese, but I’m not sure. A woman sat at the same table as me because there were no empty tables and we started talking. I found out she lives in Lumbisí, and I hope to see her around. She complemented me on my Spanish, which was nice to hear, although we didn’t talk about anything complicated. Later I went to mi clase de Dibujo Básico, which lasted for about 5 minutes. I seemed pretty chill and basic, which is what I was looking for. I need to buy some art supplies, which I tried to buy at the bookstore (the students here say “bookstore” which I find amusing) but you had to take a ticket, which I didn’t understand until waiting for 10 minutes, and then found out that it would take a very long time until I was able to buy my things. Maybe I’ll go tomorrow when I have more time, or I could venture out to another bookstore around campus. I took the bus home with a student who lives in Lumbisí, and we talked mostly in Spanish. Because we were talking about school, which is my vocabulary specialty, I was able to speak fluently. I even used the subjunctive correctly, and I was so happy that I had a good conversation with someone in Spanish. Most times I know I am making mistake after mistake, and possibly ruining what I want to convey. It’s my fifth day here and I can tell I’m making some progress. Most of my improvement has to do with confidence, though.

I changed my incomprehensible class to one in English. It’s a bit of a cop-out, but the class seems challenging nonetheless. The same professor who was so funny during his presentation for extranjeros (foreigners, without a bad connotation) teaches it, and it’s about international organizations. I’ve never taken an international relations class, and this one is 300-level. Actually all my classes are 300-level except my Andinismo and Arte class. It’s funny that I’m taking 300-level classes for the first time, and they’re in Spanish, and I’m taking six classes. I talked to one of the directors for my program today to look into volunteering with a physical therapist. I really hope it works out. I don’t think I’ll be able to help any, but it would be a great experience for me, so I guess I can’t really call it volunteering. In addition to working with a physical therapist, I hope to volunteer in Lumbisí a little bit so I can get involved more in the community here. Lumbisí has a lot of opportunities to volunteer, so I should take advantage of them. It looks like I’ll be very busy here.

4th day

Today I had my first day of classes. I felt like a freshman all over again, which wasn’t the best feeling. I don’t have internet at home and I didn’t have a schedule that said where my classes were supposed to be, so I had to find a computer to use before my classes, which started at 9, and I arrived at 8:55. First was Andinismo (mountaineering/rock climbing), which is going to be intense, but relaxed. Relaxed as in it’s not a real class with grades, but intense as in they start out easy, but it gets really difficult quickly. Unfortunately it’s full of gringos though. Good thing is class only meets on Fridays, but we are required to go on 3 or 4 weekend trips. Friday we’re learning how to tie ropes, but I went to a shop to get some rope, but they were out, so now I have to find another store somewhere in Quito to buy it. I also have to get a book in a bookstore in Quito, which is annoying because I have no idea how to navigate the city. I think navigating Chicago alone is difficult, but Quito is way scarier; I’ll try to recruit a friend to go with me.

After Andinismo is Temas de Latín America (Issues in Latin America), which seemed okay, then a half an hour break, when I ate pan con queso (bread with cheese) and a banana next to the pond with an Illinois friend. The bread here is flaky and delicious, but probably not the healthiest. Next is my Conversación Español Intermedio clase, which seems like a wonderful, relaxed class. There’s about six of us, and we learn a lot of vocabulary by learning it in context. If someone asks a question about a word, even a bad word, we will be quizzed on it. We will present articles we find in newspapers and be asked about it, but if we keep making a grammar mistake, we’ll be penalized. We didn’t have a classroom so we sat at a table by the lake in this beautiful, breezy, sunny weather. Next is my Español Advanzada clase, which seems pretty difficult, but we’re covering everything I have trouble with (subjunctive, idioms, homophones, etc), so I’ll learn muchísima. We have to write four essays about movies that we have to watch on our own time. One of them is Y Tu Mamá Tambíen, which is basically soft-core porn, but really good, so that should be fun. After that, is EEUU y Latín America relaciones, which I’m thinking is the class to drop. It sounds interesting, but the professor doesn’t speak clearly, so I understood about half of what he said, and I couldn’t keep myself awake. I realized how important it is to speak clearly so that non-natives can understand. It’s a pity that just because he doesn’t speak clearly, that I bet half the gringos will drop the class. This class was moved to another room after about 20 minutes, which is so typical here the first week. I don’t understand why classes are moved around so much here. U of I has its stuff down in this department. In my Spanish for gringos classes, I understand almost everything the teacher says, but the others it’s more like three-fourths (excluding my relations class). After going to a outdoor sport store twice with no success, trying to find where the heck my classes were, and getting moved around to other rooms all the time, the bus I was taking home broke down. ¡Es Ecuador! Tomorrow will be much easier because I only have a drawing class. However, I need to learn how to bus it around Quito and get my books and gear.

3rd Day

Tuesday I went on a scavenger hunt in Cumbayá with the group of Illinois students and some Ecuadorian students. Then we went to the botanical garden in Quito, which really surprised me. It was fairly large, quiet, and beautiful for being in the heart of bustling, dirty Quito. I love tropical plants and their cutesy names people give them (elefantates, balerinerios, etc.), which also made it easy for me to understand Spanish. Afterwards I was ready for a long nap, but instead we had to pass up a few buses that could not possibly squeeze two people onto the bus because they were so crowded. We eventually got on a bus that was overcrowded (think Lollapalooza night on the El X3) and then went to buy cell phones (damn you cell phones for not being SIM card compatible!) which cost $60 for the phone and $3 worth of minutes, which I’ll have to add more later. I’m going to miss using my indestructible Samsung beauty I’ve been using since high school for a ubiquitous grey Nokia.

The food has been very good here, and to my surprise my family has a huge box of avacados, which we have every dinner. Everything is so fresh, and the fruits are amazing. They haven’t cooked any meat yet, so I wonder if they ever will. They know I’m vegetarian, but I didn’t think the whole family would change their eating habits because of me. It’s nice though. They own pigs and used to raise cuy (guinea pigs) so they are definitely meat eaters, but they respect me quite nicely. Ecuador isn’t the most veggie-friendly place, but there’s a vegetarian restaurant I found that’s right next to my school! Mostly every other restaurant though seems to have few meatless main dishes and people have been so inquisitive and surprised by my vegetarianism. No one has been disrespectful though. Reactions aren’t too different from the states, but in my community most people eat what they get at the markets or they raise the animals themselves, so many of my reasons probably don’t make sense to them. One other girl in my Illinois program is vegetarian too.

Food=good, showers=terrible. I’ve had two showers since I arrived, and they have been miserable. They have been muy muy caliente and then muy muy frio. I don’t get how to work the darn shower, but I think it’s not my fault because I talked it over with mi mamá. She didn’t say anything about the water temperature changing so drastically, but maybe her showers are so short the water doesn’t have time to change. I took 5 minute showers, turning the water only on for rinsing though, so I don’t know what’s the problem. I guess I’ll never shave my legs, which doesn’t really matter because hardly anyone wears shorts here even though it reaches 70 degrees every day.

It’s 11pm, and I’m waking up at 7ish for my first day of classes, so time for me to go to bed! This post is way too long, but enjoy it, because I don’t think I’ll ever be able to write this much again. My Spanish is improving immensely here already, and I have to keep stopping myself from typing in Spanish. Hopefully my random Spanish words don’t annoy anybody (I guess if you read all this you must really like me anyway so I don’t care too much). My confidence in speaking Spanish is increasing, but there are times when I just give up on trying to understand something. It at times can be frustrating to sound unintelligent, but at times I feel so proud of myself that I’m using words I’ve only seen in Spanish books a few times. My family speaks a little English, but most of the time the English words they say (especially the dad) are harder to understand than Spanish. Mi hermano helps me out sometimes because he’s studying English in school. He can say a few sentences and translate words for me. It’s annoying how this 13 year old knows way more English than I did Spanish when I was at his age, and I supposedly went to good private schools.

I love you all and please don’t worry about me! I’m doing my best to be safe, and I’m learning so much it’s incredible. I have pangs of homesickness, but in between I’m having an awesome time.

To make things easier:
Mamá: host mom
Papá: host dad
Hermana: host sister
Hermano: host brother
Hermanito: host little brother (the 3 year old)

2nd Day

The next day I went to orientation at USFQ and took the bus with mi mamá, Kay and April, who is also another student living in Lumbisí. Orientation was informative, scary and entertaining, and I found out that 30% of the students who go to USFQ are international, and it appears that 90% are from the United States. Most international students seem to be liberal, adventurous, and fun, which is good news. Some seem super-rich, but I guess that’s expected. The Ecuadorian students who attend USFQ are supposed to be very wealthy and drive their cars to campus and don’t work, which is very unusual for Ecuador. One professor talked about the political history of Ecuador (the scandals in Ecuadorian politics are unbelievable) and had everyone laughing at Bush jokes and another professor (the director or something) told some good anecdotes about the cultural differences between Ecuadorians and people from the United States. We also were told about the crime here and precautions to take.

Oh, by the way, USFQ is looks like an expensive tropical resort. I will post pictures later, but it is the most beautiful campus I have ever seen. There’s a pagoda, a pond, beautiful trees, and well-maintained buildings (something that U of I should look into). It’s like bit of little paradise inside a chaotic country. I’m glad I’m living in a poorer area, which gives me a better picture of the country’s distribution of wealth. Late that night we went to Mulligan’s Pub (kinda lame if you ask me) in La Mariscal aka La Zona aka Gringolandia. It was an event organized by a group on campus who try to integrate the international students with the local students. It was expensive ($15 is expensive here) because the proceeds went to children with cancer, and the taxi ride was $20 in total (shared amongst 4), which is expensive for taking a taxi, but at night the prices are higher and it’s over a 25-30? minute ride. All you Chicago people must think I’m crazy for complaining. Mostly just other international students attended, which are like 80% girls for some reason. It was fun “dancing” to salsa and it’s funny how much attention I attract by just by being rubia. I had a guy come right up to me and ask me to dance amongst a giant group of girls, I get stares on the street from both guys and girls, and guys I don’t know say “hello friend” or “hello” to me on the street because they know I’m estadounidense (North American). I haven’t really walked alone so I haven’t had any catcalls, which is nice…I don’t really enjoy that kind of attention, but I’m prepared for it. It’s really strange because I’m so used to blending in while living in Champaign. There are thousands of other white girls with blonde hair and nice dispositions in Champaign, but here, I look like una estadounidense, which has drawn more attention from strangers in these past few days than in my entire life.

1st Day

Hola a todos! 

I am alive and well in Lumbsí, Ecuador.  It’s a small village with about 300 (edit: it's more like 3,000-4,000 people, depending on who you ask...there's definitely more than 300) people, and about a 20 minute bus ride to Cumbayá, where my school is.  So much has happened and I’ve learned so much in these few days that I cannot possibly accurately represent my experience in this blog.  I have never had a blog before and I would like to tell you whatever is on my mind, but that would be boring and might portray my experience a bit strangely.  It’s hard to cater to an audience that consists of close and distant family and friends, and a boyfriend, and I cannot possibly explain everything that’s unfamiliar to people from the United States.  Feel free to ask questions if things don’t make sense.  I don’t have any internet at home so these posts may be few and far between once classes start. 

I arrived around 12:30 am on Sunday.  Mi papá y hermano were waiting at the airport with a decorated sign with “Valery Kramer.”  Close enough.  Mi papá gave me un abrazo and we went out to their old pick up truck and I somehow managed to elbow the truck next to us and set off the alarm, which I tried to explain, but I don’t think they understood.  My hermano put my luggage in the truck bed and we made our way uphill to Lumbisí.  I was so exhausted, my papá didn’t speak clearly, the manual truck was loud, and the road was bumpy so it made it nearly impossible for us to communicate well.  It was one of the most uncomfortable 25 minutes of my life.  I was worried for my computer that was bouncing around in my backpack in the truck bed over the bumpy roads and sharp turns, worried that I am riding in a speeding truck without a seatbelt, and I was worried that I would ever be able to communicate.  We arrived finally and my mamá was up and gave me un abrazo and a glass of water, showed me my room and the bathroom, and then we all went to bed. 

I knew I was going to be living in a somewhat indigenous village, which brings to mind poverty and such, but I thought where I’d be living would be pretty nice because in Mexico I stayed in a wonderful house with a maid and gardener, which was very cheap.  So, I thought for the money that my school was paying them, I’d have a decently nice place even though it was in a small village. The house I’m staying at is not decrepit or anything, but I’ve never stayed anywhere like it.  That night, I saw a spider in the bathroom and the toilet paper had mold on it.  My room didn’t have a mirror, a garbage can or a hamper, just a bed, shelving, and a dresser.  There were holes in the shower walls and the two kids share a room without a door.  Six of us (mom, dad, brother (13), sister (11), brother (3) and me) are sharing a tiny bathroom with nowhere to put my stuff.  I lied awake for two hours thinking about how I was going to live such a different life here.  I was hit with some culture shock and a large dose of homesickness.

I awoke to the sounds of perros barking, roosters crowing, and mi hermanito who’s three open my door and close it several times in the morning since six in the morning.  There was a water shortage so we didn’t have any running water that day (I had to ask how to flush the toilet).  I unpacked and spent most of the day hanging out with the family and meeting the neighbors who are basically all relatives of my family.  I played basketball with my hermano and my friend Kay, a student from Illinois like me, who lives next door and some of her family was so much activity at the estadio, which has basketball courts, soccer fields, and playground equipment.  It was so chévere (cool) to see so many different people gather together and play.  It all looked so spontaneous; hardly anyone was wearing athletic clothes and the young and old, girls and boys, were playing together.  Even the dogs join in—the locals kept trying to kick the dogs off the court, but people kept tripping over them.