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.