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)
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