La Vida Gringa

I'll have to start with an apology to my faithful (or not so faithful) readers for my delinquency. I've really fallen off on the blogging front, and I'll have to honestly say that there isn't probably an improvement on the way so I guess you'll just have to bear with me.

I've been living La Vida Gringa all over Ecuador lately. Lisa, one of my oldest friends, came to visit a week ago and we made it our business to see as much of Ecuador as possible, which unfortunately involved twenty hours on buses in six days. Our first stop was Canoa. Lisa was the planner of the trip and I was more or less just along for translation so I didn't really know what to expect in Canoa but it blew me away. Picture an almost empty white sand beach flanked on either side by cliffs. Throw in gorgeous surfers wandering the unpaved sand streets and a hostel with great ambiance and you've got Canoa.

After a night bus to and from Canoa we relaxed in Quito for a mere day before heading to Baños (of course) so that Lisa could fulfill her adventuresome spirit with a bit of ziplining. And then we headed back to Quito so Lisa could catch a plane home. A bit of a whirlwind trip to say the least.

Since Lisa has left I've been trying to get back into the swing of things. It's a bit more difficult than it sounds since at this point I only have three more weeks of normal life to get back into the swing of. I'm preparing finals for my English students and arranging final visits to refugees and trying to plan my travels for July all at the same time. And of course starting to prepare in earnest for Wash U in August. As a result I find that my head is never really 100% anywhere which can be exhausting.

Some highlights though... last night I went with some of my housemates to Traditional Folkloric Ballet that happens every Friday in the centro historico. I've been meaning to go for months and it was definitely worth the time. For about an hour indigenous Ecuadorians dance and play music, all for free. Keep an eye out for videos on facebook. At the advice of my guidebook, today I went to find the Guapúlo neighborhood. After some wrong turns and backtracking, I stumbled across it. I immediately felt as if I was no longer in Quito but rather in some small Andean town. The neighborhood is built on a steep hill behind a main street but feels a million miles away. Steep cobblestone streets run through the neighborhood, all more or less leading to or away from la Iglesia de Guapúlo, which dominates the neighborhood. Although I was fairly certain that I might die walking back up the hill, it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

And so continues la vida gringa, for about three more weeks until I take off on a month of traveling. Just for reference, if you're DC folk you can expect a visit from met between July 29 and August 9, and if you're Kansas folk you can expect me between August 9 and 16... and if you're Wash U folk you can expect to meet a very exhausted me on August 16, just barely in time for orientation.

Para Dad y Joyce

I have decided to do a special blog chronicling the visit of Dad and Joyce so they won't forget all the fun times we had. They are old, after all, and memory is the first thing to go :)

They arrived on a Monday evening (to an extremely clean house, I might add) with only enough hours left in the day to settle in for the night at my lovely Quito home. After a much-needed sleep-in, we began exploring Quito in La Mariscal, lovingly referred to as Gringolandia. We visited a market where we did our part to stimulate the Ecuadorian economy. I then introduced them to shawarma, an Indian favorite readily available on every street corner here for lunch and they also had their first Pilsener, Ecuador's national beer. After returning to the house for a bit of rest, we set out again and walked through Parque Ejido and then arrived at Parque Alameda. We discovered a structure that we could climb up which offered a beautiful view of the city. We continued on to the Centro Historico and strolled through the oldest area of Quito. Since we were already close, we took a taxi from the Centro Historico to the Panecillo, which definitely offers the best view of the city. This was also the first time Joyce and Dad really got to hear my Spanish because our taxi driver was a talker (ugh). In the evening we bought a bit of pizza for the house and Dad and Joyce had a chance to get know my housemates a bit better.

On Wednesday, we started the day with a visit to Hazel McCallion, where I teach English. Dad and Joyce met with our director and met each of the classes that I teach. Since the students were preparing for the Mother's Day program, we also had the opportunity to see the kids practicing their dance routines for the program. We then had dinner with one of my colleagues, Trish Morck. At her suggestion, we spent the afternoon visiting La Capilla del Hombre (The Chapel of the Man), which is a museum dedicated to the work of Guayasamín, arguably the most successful and famous Ecuadorian painter ever. His work is very distinctive and one can easily find recreations of it for sale all over Ecuador. We also had our first "almuerzo" on Wednesday. In Ecuador the cheapest way to eat out is to buy an "almuerzo." Restaurants here that offer almuerzos will prepare one menu of food for lunch and rather than picking from a menu, you can just go in and order and almuerzo and eat whatever they have prepared for that day. Prices range from about $1.25 to $2. I didn't tell Dad and Joyce that before they got the bill, so they were definitely pleasantly surprised. For dinner that evening we ate with la familia Moya-Ureña, the MMN family that lives here and that I work with.

On Thursday, we finally got out of the city and on our way to Baños. We survived the insanity that is Terminal Terrestre and arrived in Baños without trouble, and of course ate my favorite Italian food for lunch. After getting a room at La Chimenea (the best hostel in Baños in my opinion) we went to visit la familia Reinoso, who would be serving as our tour guides for our time in Baños, although we didn't know it at the time. After visiting with the family for a while, we returned to the town and rented dune buggies to tool around town while we waited for Elizabeth to finish work. We then had a bit of dinner and took a Chiva up to La Cruz (The Cross) to enjoy canelazos and a beautiful view of Baños with the Reinosos. Joyce also finally had a chance to order food off a cart with my blessing, choclo and kabobs.

The next morning after hitting snooze at least 4 times, I dragged Joyce and Dad out of bed to visit la piscinas. Baños is located at the base of the Tungurahua volcano and therefore is able to boast a host of hot springs. They look surprisingly like a public pool, but the water is steaming hot and they also offer showers created by piping water in from the waterfall directly beside the pool. In my experience that shower was freezing but a great way to end a bit of time in the hot spring. After a well deserved nap, we ate some breakfast and met the Reinosos for another day of fun. Our first stop, the Canopy. We arrived at a gorgeous (and deep) canyon which we proceeded to cross in a tiny little terabita and which then Dad, Joyce, Ricky, and Nayeli (who is about 7) proceeded to zipline across. Having tempted fate once with the zipline, I chose to pass this time around. We then went to the zoo where I discovered that in Ecuador, fences are somewhat of a suggestion rather than anything else as Ricky jumped fences without fear to get a better look at the animals. The only thing more terrifying than the zipline is eating cuy (guinea pig), which Dad and Joyce proceeded to do for lunch. Call me crazy, but I prefer food without teeth and hands. After lunch we walked up to a waterfall maybe half a mile behind the Reinosos house. For the first time I was able to get close enough to a waterfall to play in the stream and enjoy myself. Until we had to leave, which involved climbing over a wall. I could climb it fine.. it was getting down that was the problem. As I tried different ways to come down with terror in my eyes, Ricky kept reminding me "tranquila, tranquila (calm down, calm down)" and finally I made it down with a considerable amount of help from Ricky. Everyone else seemed to manage it without too much trouble... coordination is not my thing. In the evening, we returned to the Reinosos for one of the most delicious dinners I've had in Ecuador, prepared with mucho cariño by Sara. In the evening we enjoyed some delicious canelazos and called it a night.

For our last day in Baños we had breakfast at the Reinosos and then were taken on a tour of the country around Baños by Sara and Nayeli. Joyce was able to meet a fellow beekeeper and see the hives that he kept. We also played in a river that Sara's family has come to for picnics and such for years. It was lovely. After a bit of lunch we returned back to Baños to catch our bus home. Throughout our time in Baños it was a complicated dance to try to get the opportunity to pay for something and buy gifts for the family without them feeling that they should get us something else. The generosity of the Reinosos has been unmatched by anyone else I've ever met, in Ecuador or anywhere.

We returned back to Quito to find my house full of people and Tobi making potato soup. A great return, to be sure. The next morning, we went to the Mennonite Church and Dad and Joyce got to have many conversations in Spanglish. In the afternoon we went with the director of my school on a drive around Ecuador on a search for rose plantations, which wasn't too successful. We then had dinner in the Centro Historico and had a chance to see the Basilica lit up at night. The next day, we went with the director of my school again to Cotocachi to visit a lake in a volcanic crater. We had to buy six tickets to take the boat around the lake, and since there were only four of us we invited two girls to go with us who had said they couldn't afford to go. After we got back, one of their boyfriends who happened to be a musician gave us an impromptu concert of indigenous Andean music.

The next morning we decided to sleep in a bit as we were all pretty tired, and then we went to the Teleferiqo, the cable car which climbs the Pichincha mountain and offers a fabulous view and a serious lack of oxygen. After a bit of lunch, we went back to the market to finish up shopping for souvenirs to bring back to the states. In the evening, my friends Belén and Tomás came by the house with humitas and quimbolos, traditional Ecuadorian food. They had come by the previous night as well and were so disgusted with my failure to expose Dad and Joyce to traditional Ecuadorian food that they took matters into their own hands.

For our last day, we tried to find a wax museum that I had heard about but ended up in El Museo del Banco Central, which turned out to be exactly what Dad was interested in seeing. It had a wide variety of artifacts from different indigenous groups, colonial art and modern art. It was awesome. I later read in my guidebook that this was the one museum you shouldn't miss in Quito. Chalk one up to dumb luck. We enjoyed more traditional Ecuadorian food for lunch, encebollado and ceviche. We also enjoyed an Ecuadorian tradition of being glued to the tv when Liga or Barcelona is playing, in this case Barcelona. For our last dinner, we ate a cafe near my house where the owner specially prepared lasagne for us. This cafe also happened to boast the best canelazos I've had outside of Baños. And a lone waitress who made Dad feel confident in his Spanish, which was a great way to end our time.

In the morning I went with Dad and Joyce to the airport to help them check in, only to find out I couldn't get in to any point where I could be of assistance. I came back home to find that Dad had pulled a trick I taught him with the Reinosos and had sneakily left me money on my desk after I had gone downstairs. So there is a very complete account of La Visita de Dad y Joyce so now they can always remember the time they spent in Ecuador!

Demasiado Depedida-ing

In Latin culture saying goodbye is very important and saying goodbye has its own word, despedir, and a going-away party is referred to as a despedida. I love this part of Latin culture, but lately there have been far too many despedidas for my taste. I'll rewind a little bit though and give you an update on what's been going on.

About two weeks ago my dad and my aunt arrived in Ecuador and I spent their visit serving as a tour guide and translator. We did all of the typical tourist things in Quito but the highlight of the trip was visiting Baños. When we were about half an hour away I called the Reinosos. I had been expecting that we might go to dinner with them or coffee, but we ended up with the family serving as our constant tour guides for the entire time we were there. We hiked to waterfalls, drove dune buggies around the town, drank canelazos and a million other things. It was an amazing trip. My dad and aunt fell in love with the family immediately and once again Baños was full of cariño.

Yesterday I saw my dad and aunt off at the airport and today my dear friend Emma and her boyfriend Angus left for the United States as well. With so many people leaving I know that my life here is going to be a little different again. It's great to be here for a longer amount of time than most people, but saying goodbye is really hard. My other extranjero friends are here for as long as I am so I won't have any more despedidas until my own so that's a bit of a relief.

Today was our Dia de la Madre program at the school and to my dismay I forgot my camera. As many times as I've seen kids perform in different programs, I never get tired of it. I hadn't seen the kids for almost two weeks so I received a lot of hugs.

Now it's back to normal life as I'm working tomorrow and Sunday and then the whole week until Friday. I've almost forgotten what normal life is like here. I have less than two months of 'normal' life here and then a month of traveling, then a month of crazy wandering around the states before grad school. I have a feeling it's going to fly...

Con mucho cariño

This last week in Quito was enough to make me feel like packing it in and going home. It was Semana Santa so I didn't have to teach English. Theoretically, this should have meant that I didn't have to get up early. However, another teacher wanted to meet in the morning in Mariscal (approximately an hour from my house by bus) to listen to music on my ipod for the Mother's Day program. So I drug myself from my bed and arrived in Mariscal by 9 am only to call her and find out that she couldn't come. Since I had to visit a family close to Mariscal in the afternoon I decided to try to make the best of it and spend the morning in Mariscal. It was a loooong morning trying to find things to entertain myself and lacking money. The next morning I realized that someone stole my ipod while I was on the bus going home. The ipod that I wouldn't have had if I wasn't going to meet the other teacher. The other teacher that didn't show up.

I've been preparing to move to a different house with my friends for several weeks. I talked with my host family about it three weeks ago and after much ado, I finally got permission to leave. However, I had a fear that I was not in the clear which turned out to be justified. In the evening on Monday my host mother asked me why I had my suitcases out in the living room. I of course responded that they were out because I was leaving in two days. She then proceeded to try to ask me to pay for the month of May as well. I didn't know what to say, so I called the person who arranged my housing. After several unsuccessful tries I called a friend to ask if he knew why I couldn't get in touch with Daniel (who arranged the housing). Turns out he was in Peru. I ended up getting the number for his assistant (who doesn't speak English) and explaining the situation and she was able to smooth things over and I got out of the house without having to pay for May.

On Wednesday I was able to make my move to the house without too much trouble. However, my suitcase broke so now I have to figure out how to get back home without my suitcase...

So, suffice it to say it was a week that left me feeling frustrated and as I would say, "so over Ecuador." Luckily, my work week was short and I spend Thursday relaxing and then watching the Liga (an Ecuador soccer team) game with some Ecuadorian friends which definitely improved my spirits.

For the weekend I went back to my favorite place in Ecuador, Baños. As soon as we made it through the unbelievable traffic and got in at the station my whole mood changed. I met Emma and her boyfriend, Angus, who were already there and I of course went to eat delicious pasta as soon as I arrived. As the day wore on, more and more of our friends arrived. My friends from Quito, our roommate Anh, our friends Tobi and Byron... In the evening after a lovely dinner we went to our favorite place for Canelazos and the weekend really began.

There's something about Baños that just makes me happy. I don't know if it's the unbelievable beauty of the town, which is nestled in between stunning mountains full of rivers and waterfalls with a view of a volcano on clear days. Or maybe it's the people in Baños. We spent time again with the Reynosa family, riding in the back of pick up trucks and drinking cervezitas with a view of the river.

As we prepared to leave Baños we spent our last few hours with the Reynosas eating lunch. During lunch Sara and Elizabeth disappeared for 30 minutes or so and before we left we found out why. They went to buy parting gifts for us, which they gave to us with mucho cariño. Cariño is a Spanish word that most closely translates to affection, although I don't think that captures the whole meaning of the word. I found it really hard to leave again, and I think if I didn't already have my bus ticket in my hand I might have just stayed. Even though I've already been to Baños twice and I feel like I should see other places in Ecuador, I already know that I'll be back.

7... or 8?

Every time I meet someone new among the starter questions (where are you from, where do you live, what are you doing in Ecuador...) is always "how long will you be in Ecuador?" I always answer with when I arrived and how many months I have left. Lately, I've been telling people that I have 5 months left and they look at me a little strange. At first I thought that it was a language barrier issue (I'm very accustomed to these) but then I realized it was a math issue. I'm also accustomed to these issues. In my head I was thinking that I had 5 months left... but I've been here for 3 months and 3 plus 5 is 8. I'm only here for 7 months. When I first arrived 7 months seemed like such a long time, but now as I find myself saying "4 more months," it sounds very, very short. The other question everyone asks is "When are you coming back to Ecuador?" And that one I just can't answer quite yet.

Ecuador, like the rest of Latin America, is in a more or less perpetual state of futbol fever but in the past week the temperature has been rising. Ecuador started its World Cup qualifying matches on Sunday against Brasil. The second match was yesterday against Paraguay. If you happen to forget it's a game day, you'll quickly be reminded when you see one of every two people sporting an Ecuador jersey. I was a futbol delinquent for the Brasil game but I went out to La Mariscal (AKA Gringolandia) to watch the game with some friends. In contrast to its name, Gringolandia was filled with Quiteños pouring into bars and restaurants to watch the game. Unfortunately, my friend was late (Ecua time)and we couldn't find a seat anywhere with a television. We ended up "watching" the game with a crowd gathered outside a restaurant with bigscreen TVs and outside seating. Asi es la vida. Given that I've only ever lived in one other city and no one cares about our sports teams in DC, it was a new experience to watch a game with people who were interested in the outcome.

I'm moving to a new house next Wednesday. My main group of friends here found a house big enough for all of us and we've decided to make a go of it on our own instead of with our respective host families. There are things I like about my family here, but I've never really formed much of a bond with them and I find myself bored and lonely for most of the nights that I'm at the house. Although a house of extranjeros isn't exactly the typical Ecuador experience, I think that being close to my support network is a good idea.

Things I Love... Things I Miss..

Things I Love About Ecuador:

-warm bread from a panaderia
-kisses on the cheek instead of handshakes
-25 cents for buses
-dancing salsa
-my friends
-mountains
-beaches
-Baños
-riding in the back of pick-up trucks
-avocados that are always in season
-cheap flowers
-canelazos
-tiendas
-$2 manicures

Things I Miss:
-reasonably priced bath and beauty products
-my friends and fam
-front porch sitting
-reliably hot showers
-north american time
-reliable internet
-good cheeseburgers
-if you're reading this, I probably miss YOU!

Track Suits and High Heels?

When I leave my house in Quito I'm generally prepared to be the worst dressed person on every bus, street or restaurant I go into. If I'm wearing flip flops, I'm also prepared to receive innumerable somewhat disgusted stares at my feet. It's not that my feet are in terrible shape, it's just that Quiteños can't understand why on earth I would wear flip flops rather than donning some stiletto heels to go teach English to 2nd graders. Or buy groceries. Or do anything outside of the house. I'll admit that I jumped on the high heel train late in life and I'm not as good as managing heels as some people, but unlike in Washington where those women who wear heels to work make the sensible step of wearing tennis shoes to work and then changing into the heels in their purse, women here just rock the heels all the time. On the bus, walking, everything. I can't imagine the pain. And let me just say, these are not sensible heels.

A Quiteño woman generally accompanies her heels with a well thought-out (and tight) outfit, every hair in place, and meticulously applied make-up. If I didn't stick out in a crowd because of my "white as a ghost" skin an light hair, I would stick out because of my tennis shoes and t-shirt.

But this style of dress finds a sharp contrast with the uniforms of high school students, which about half the time are track suits. In the afternoons in Quito you would undoubtedly encounter groups walking around the city in matching track suits from their collegio (high school). The girls still have every hair in place and meticulously applied make-up, but coupled with a track suit and tennis shoes it gives a bit of a different impression.

Where in the United States this track suit uniform would be great preparation for the college years filled with sweatpants and t-shirts, when people hit college here the track suits go out the door and people proudly walk to class in designer jeans and, of course, high heels. Having been a volunteer for more or less three years, I simply can't keep up. Not to mention the weight limits on baggage limited me to about three outfits that are even close to meeting Quito standards. But at least I'm comfortable!

The last thing that strikes me about Quito fashion is that fanny packs can be routinely spotted in the city. Yep, fanny packs. So go ahead and stick that in your back pocket.

¿Hay tiburones?

I have a fascination slash intense fear of sharks. I read somewhere once that surfing is the most dangerous thing you can do in the ocean because you look like a seal and sharks will try to eat you. They usually stop once they realize you're a person rather than a seal, but I'd rather not be eaten at all than half-eaten and then leftovers. Luckily, the only time I've been surfing was in Oregon and there aren't sharks there, as I was assured many times in order to coax me into the water. This weekend I went with some friends to Atacames in the northern coast of Ecuador and my first question, of course, was "¿Hay tiburones?" I was assured that there were no sharks at that beach, but you definitely wouldn't have caught me on a surfboard. Or very far out in the water at all, actually. Instead I chose to soak up the rays on the beach (with SPF 55). I went with two friends who are recent arrivals from Germany and I don't know whether to chalk it up to my Quito base tan or my super strong sunscreen, but I actually wasn't the most sunburned of my friends.

In Ecuador the culture of people living in the coast, or Costeños, and people living in Quito, Quiteños, is drastically different. When we arrived in Atacames after a night on the bus it felt like we were in a different country. It's much hotter on the coast and people walk around in as little clothing as possible, often sans shirts and shoes. Some of the streets are paved and some aren't and every restaurant, hotel and store is fighting a losing battle with sand. Or in some cases they have given up the battle. Atacames has one main street along the beach and it is populated by one thatch-roofed bar after another. It's almost impossible to tell them apart since they all share the same decor and menu, more or less. The restaurants are all on the other side of the street and also seem to share the same menu and more or less the same decor as well.

After our brief stay in Atacames we endured a 7 or 8 hour busride back to Quito. At our one stop my friend Toby was about 5 seconds away from being left behind as he waited for our sanduches mixtos. After arriving home at 11:30 I fell into bed and dragged myself out what felt like moments later at 6:30 in the morning to get ready for school. My saving grace was a free afternoon today which allowed me a heavenly nap and a chance to do my laundry. I'm pretty sure I brought home about half the sand on the beach with me and I'm a little worried about what it will do to my washing machine. Vamos a ver.

After my stay on the beach I'm pretty sure that I'm more of a Quiteña than a Costeña. I like the beach for a little while, but I prefer the cooler air of the mountains and the expectation of wearing shirts on the street. But if I'm being honest with myself I'm still much more of an East Coaster than anything else. My years in DC have left me somewhat ambitious and more than a little bit of a workaholic. Ecuador still has 4.5 months to mellow me out though, so I guess we'll see what happens.

Unwanted Attentions

Here in Ecuador I've grown used to the unwanted attentions of men in various situations... the catcall on the street, the none too subtle staring at my chest, you know, typical Latin America. However, as I was walking through the park with my friend Emma this weekend we noticed a big, purple dinosaur. That's right, Barney. I'm always amazed how it is usually the very worst of American culture that finds it's way over here. We went to the park after I sat in an internet cafe listening to what seemed to be an entire T.Pain album, in case you need another example. So as we walked past Barney, he lovingly put his hand on my shoulder and said "Hola" as smoothly as you can while wearing a huge dinosaur costume.

I was told this weekend that my life is perfect, and while I can't agree with that entirely, it does seem to be going pretty well. I spent a lovely Saturday out in the city (getting burned of course) with friends followed by an even lovelier night of playing card games in Spanish and dancing. I'm not sure why, but BS seems to be much more enjoyable in Spanish. "Mentira!"

My weekend was topped off with a delicious potluck meal at "La Casa Amarillo," where several of my friends live. It's an interesting bunch with people from four different countries. As we ate dinner three different languages emerged at the table and couldn't help but appreciate what an interesting combination of cultures I was experiencing. Until Jenny, the "host mother" of la casa amarillo returned home at which point all languages except Spanish were verboden. It was night that involved laughing until my stomach hurt, which for me is always a sure sign that life is good.

Asi Es La Vida

Life is slowly returning back to normal after returning from the paradise that is Baños. The weekend of my return was marked by my first petty theft. I was warned multiple times that chances were I would be pickpocketed or have something walk off, but thus far I had been lucky. I left my leather jacket on a chair while I went to go dancing and indeed, it did walk off. I surprised myself by reacting with a shrug and simply saying "Asi es la vida!" (That's life, more or less) Maybe I left a little bit of my uptight DC self in Baños with the tons of Karrioka I rinsed out of my hair and clothes.

Life as of late has involved some difficult situations and a lot of frustration. I won't go into too much detail, but those of you who know me know that I like to be in control and lately there have been a lot of things in my life that I'm just unable to control for myriad different reasons. My new-found Ecuadorian cool hasn't gotten deep enough to keep me calm for all of these things, but I'm getting by alright. My honeymoon period in Ecuador is somewhat over and I'm having to worry about a lot of different things back home from taxes to grad school security deposits. These worries coupled with a notoriously unreliable internet connection sometimes find me in a very frustrated state!

All that said, I'm still enjoying Ecuador a great deal. Whenever I get really frustrated, I take a cup of coffee up to the roof and enjoy my mountain view and it helps put things in perspective. Yesterday I was kidnapped after church by two different families eager to welcome me into their homes for almuerzo and cafecito. I finally got home at 8 pm, after being told that I would soon be tricked into eating cuy (guinea pig). All in all, not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

Carnaval 3: Learning to Fly

I wasn't sure if my first day in Baños could top my first night, but I got to fly so I think it's safe to say that it did. We took a little bus ride up to a canyon with a river at the bottom and proceeded to tempt fate by riding a small basket-like contraption across it. And then I decided to give fate another chance by riding a zipline across the canyon. Ricardo called it 'flying' and I have to admit that it really did feel like flying. At first there is a big drop in the line and I honestly did think I would die, but then it evens out a little and it's just amazing. I got to come close to death twice in 20 minutes for a mere $6. Gotta love that!

That afternoon Baños treated us to the Carnaval parade, complete with about 30 groups of dancing children. Watching children as young as 6 and 7 outdance you definitely makes a girl feel like a gringa.

Day 3 of our weekend was my real introduction to karrioka. Karrioka is a big part of Carnaval, especially for gringas. It's a similar idea to silly string, but it's a foamy kind of colored soap or something of that nature. The basic idea is to spray everyone as much as possible, especially gringas. So on day 3 we went to Rio Verde to play Carnaval, in my favorite form of transportation, the back of a truck. However, to get to Rio Verde you actually have to go through several tunnels which is a bit scarier in the back of at truck than I would have imagined. We called this part of the trip 'El Terror.' El Terror was heightened by the fact that water drips down through the tunnels which makes me really question their structural integrity...

So at Rio Verde we enjoyed a lovely walk in the natural beauty by the river, punctuated by karrioka attacks. This is called 'playing carnaval.' I wasn't quite prepared. I gave a nice little spray of karrioka to Ricardo and all of the sudden I had karrioka all over my face and in my hair. I then realized playing carnaval is not quite as innocent as it sounds. We visited the Cascada Diablo which is absolutely amazing. So amazing in fact that on the trail to the Cascada (waterfall) there is a sign that says if you don't believe in God, you're about to.

That evening we continued playing carnaval all throughout Baños. It turns out that karrioka attacks are by no means limited to people that you know personally. And that gringas seem to be the favorite target of most people. Oh well, Es Carnaval! And at the parade I was dubbed (ok, maybe I dubbed myself) La Reina de Fiestas, and after all, Carnaval is one big fiesta!

I was constantly amazed at how much people take in stride during Carnaval. Every time I karrioked someone in the face I was waiting for the anger, but people laugh and smile or karrioka me back and that's the end of it. I tried to imagine something like Carnaval happening in New York or DC and had to admit that there would be a daily Carnaval death toll due to the karrioka rage that would surely emerge.

After a beautiful weekend of karrioka, dancing, music and just general good times I have to say that it was hard to leave Baños. In our last night there we spent a few hours with the family dancing and having fashion shows and I couldn't help but feel like I am gonna need to get back to Baños soon. So... anyone up for a trip to Baños next weekend?

Carnaval 2: Toco La Pared

After our arrival in Baños, Mary Beth and I went to an Italian restaurant because we were drawn by the smell. After eating amazing pasta there, I kind of insisted that we eat there for the next two nights as well. Mmm... pasta. I had been craving pasta in Quito but I haven't discovered it here yet.

After dinner we met up with Bianca and Emma who had just arrived from Quito and we went out to the house to get settled in. We were staying with a family that Mary Beth knows from when she previously lived in Ecuador. This family was absolutely amazing. I can hardly imagine how they could have been better hosts to us. There are three kids, Elizabeth who is 24, Ricardo (AKA Pretty Ricky) who is 16 and Niely who is probably about 8 or 9. I really can't say enough good things about them.

After we dropped our stuff off and talked for a little bit we hopped in the back of Elizabeth's boyfriend's truck and headed off to start Carnaval. I haven't ridden in the back of a truck since I was in Guatemala and I kind of forgot how awesome it is. Luckily, we did it a lot this weekend so I got my fill. After Emma ate a fantastic Doner Kebab, we went to a little place to get canelazos. A canelazo is a hot drink made with Aguardiente, also known as firewater. Think... moonshine. As creatures of habit, we also ended up at this place every other night.

With a few canalezos in our systems we headed out to start dancing. We danced the night away until I eventually hit the wall at around 3 am. Trying to utilize my Spanish, I went outside and said, "Emma, yo toco la parel." Emma, understandably confused looked at me strangely and just said, "what?" I repeated myself, with more force. Again, she looked at me with a puzzled expression. Until finally I said, "Emma, I hit the wall." It seems that this expression does not translate.

We met a lot of new people our first night in Baños, one of whom was a super-hippie from North Carolina named Mateo. He had an interesting style of dancing which we imitated all weekend. As we were walking along the street after the bar closed and kicked us out Emma pointed out a puddle of water to Mateo. He then proceeded to lick from the puddle, much to our horror.

And that was how we started Carnaval.

Carnaval 1: The Departure

I have a sneaking suspicion that my other extranjero friends are becoming a little more Ecuadorian every day. After approximately 3409384 emails about our trip to Baños, we hadn´t figured out much except what time we should buy tickets for. But then, in classic Ecuadorian fashion, Emma's boss told her that she had to go to a meeting which started an hour before we had to leave. So we were in a bit of a pickle. With a little help from our friends and some juggling of the schedule, we worked out a plan.

So, on Friday I left that house around 12:45 or so, 2 hours and 15 minutes before we had to catch our bus. I was supposed to meet Mary Beth at Trole parada so I hauled myself to the bus stop and endured a ride that felt very long as people jostled my backpack.

I got to the parada and got off and then got a call from Emma asking me to walk to her office from the parada, which is about 4 blocks more or less. So I did, but when I got to the corner where we were supposed to meet I realized I didn't have any saldo (money, minutes) on my phone so I couldn't call her. I then found somewhere to buy saldo for my phone and finally was able to call Emma. She and Mary Beth met me on the corner where they told me that actually, we were going to walk to Emma's house and leave from there.

Finally, we arrived at Emma's and Mary Beth packed a bag. Emma's host brother called us a cab and I waited around for our departure. While Mary Beth was getting ready everyone else at the house left for lunch. The cab arrived and we pulled the door shut and headed to the gate. To find that we couldn't open the gate without the house keys. Which we left in the house. Which was locked. So the cab left us and we called Emma to try to figure out what to do. While she was trying to call someone to come back and let us out we explored our options. I made a few attempts and climbing over the wall but just couldn't pull it off. Finally, we looked in the families car for keys and discovered a garage door opener for the gate. As Mary Beth pushed the button of our salvation and the gate opened I ran out, to see our other friend Bianca less than a block away coming to let us out. Of course.

We ran down the street to hail a cab and amazingly found one within 5 minutes. And promptly got stuck in traffic. We arrived at the bus station at about 3 on the dot. We ran through the bus station, narrowly avoiding knocking down children and old people. We couldn't find anyone at the office where we bought the tickets so we just went out in the station to try to find the right bus. After asking several people we finally found what we believed was the right one and waited there. And then a woman came to find us and told us that our bus had left, but we could get on the 4 pm bus. However, she then decided we could get on another company's bus and not have to get new tickets. We got on at about 3:10, but the bus didn't leave for at least another 20 or 30 minutes.

As we were waiting on the bus one of the bus employees walked to the back of the bus with the backpacks of some gringos and told them that they had to keep the backpacks with them on the bus. The gringo was none too happy and kept yelling, "Mas despacio, mas despacio." Followed by "Hay es bullshit!" I'm not sure whether he was trying to get the guy to talk slower (despacio) or whether he was trying to say there was plenty of space underneath the bus (espacio). I do know he was not happy. Eventually they just put the bags in the aisle and called it good. And finally, we were on our way.

Luckily, this level of miscommunication and complication wasn't too indicative of the rest of the trip. Gracias a Dios. Stay tuned for Carnaval 2: Toco la pared.

The Adventures of a Ecuadorian Social Life

Living with a host family has been interesting from the beginning, but the recent development of a social life has made things even more interesting. My host family gets me up every morning at 7 am for breakfast, which had been do-able after SAE events because I usually get home around 11. But after my first night out with Ecuadorians, it was more of a challenge.

I'll start by trying to explain how Ecuadorians drink together. Towards the end of the night, we went to a bar and ordered 4 grande beers. You might think that we would then each drink a beer at our own pace. You would be wrong. We have four cups, and someone fills each cup, then we toast to something (Kansas, Happy Hour, Salud, whatever) and drink our cup. Then repeat. Until the beers are gone. Not a great way to drink if you're trying to slow down at the end of the night.

So the next morning at 7, about 5 hours after I get home, I get the knock on the door for breakfast. As the dutiful host daughter, I drag myself out of bed and go try to eat breakfast. After one bite it's clear to me that I just can't do it. So I go back to bed. My host family wasn't in the room when I left, so about 2 minutes later I hear my host mother come into my apartment and into my apartment. I know I can't form words in Spanish at this point so I just pretend to sleep and let her look at me in what I'm sure is massive confusion. "Is she dead? Is she sick?... What happened?" She leaves after a few minutes and I resume my preferred morning activity: sleeping.

At around 11:30, I'm still in bed and my host mother comes back into my apartment and bedroom (without knocking, I might add) and says "¿Que pasando???" I reply in Spanish that I'm just tired and I wasn't hungry for breakfast. She then asks if I'm sick and I have to reply that I'm just tired. At this point I find myself wondering if her kids ever went out to have a few drinks and wanted to sleep in the morning. Apparently not... She then proceeds to pull the covers over me and tuck me in so I can go back to sleep. It's all I can do to keep from bursting out laughing.

The crowning glory of this event is when I come to eat dinner and find my uneaten breakfast on the table waiting for me. Along with my dinner. I drink the juice but choose to pass on the bread and 12 hour old instant coffee. Needless to say, my host mother is shocked by my incredibly odd behavior. And that sentiment, my friends, goes both ways.

Bits and Pieces

The rain is continuing here in Quito, unfortunately. Today is our 5th straight day. I'm somewhat at peace with it, though, because when I woke up this morning the sun was shining and throughout at the day as I went all over the city for my different work responsibilities I avoided getting rained on. I even graded papers on the roof this morning in an attempt to even out a very bad farmer's tan I picked up last weekend at Mitad del Mundo (no luck quite yet). I almost like the sound of the rain as I enjoy a peaceful night in, but that's only if it isn't raining tomorrow when I have to walk to work.

Some of you are preparing to celebrate (or are already celebrating: Kaleb Borg) Mardi Gras back home. Here in South America I'm getting ready to celebrate too, although here it's called Carnival. I'm going to be going to Baños with some of the friends I met at South American Explorers. It's a pretty big deal here. I'll have Monday and Tuesday off work so it will be quite the long weekend. I'm so looking forward to getting out of the city and visiting a new place in Ecuador. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures.

Now that I've settled in time really does seem to be going pretty fast. I was talking with the director at the school today and next week I won't be teaching because of Carnival, and the following week I have my first visitor (yay!!!) so I won't be teaching then, asi que, the next time I'll teach will be the second week in March. MARCH! I can hardly believe that I'm already planning things out for March.

I haven't learned any sweet dance moves yet, but stay tuned on that front. I'm making every effort to pick some up soon. And then when I come back to DC we can hit up Cafe Citron and blow people away... not like we haven't been able to do that for years :)

When It Rains, It Pours

The title of this post is both literal and figurative. It's literal because we're in our third or fourth straight day of rain and gray skies. This is bad news for a girl who has a really bad farmer's tan. I desperately need a free day that involves sun so I can try to even my arms out and be able to wear tank tops again.

It's also figurative because after a long drought in my social life, I have been overly busy for the past several days. Last Wednesday I had Bingo night with the South American Explorers (SAE) (I know, Bingo, but hey, I don't have a lot going on), then on Thursday I had my "dancing" night, followed by a Chivoteca with SAE, and for my Dia de Amor y Amistad I went out with some friends to perhaps the trendiest bar in Ecuador. I feel like I definitely soaked up some trendiness while there. Stay tuned for Lisa Loeb glasses.

The Chivoteca needs more explanation. It was basically a long truck with a roof and a DJ booth set up. We drove around the city for about 2 hours dancing. At first it was somewhat awkward, but after a while it was just a good time. I wish I would have taken pictures. It reminded a little bit of when we used to have a ride in the grain truck down D street in Hillsboro with TFY. Good times.

It's nice to have finally managed a social life, but now the challenge is to balance my social life with my work. It's something that is harder to do here than in other places since I work from my kitchen and definitely don't operate within a 9-5 framework. But I am more than ready to take on this challenge after many a night of wondering just when I would find people to hang out with.

¿Quieres bailar?

Well, I knew it was inevitable but last night I finally came face to face with a dancing situation. There's another teacher around my age at the school I teach at and last night I went out with her and her friends. As she told me before we left: "There's no such thing as maybe when it comes to dancing." So despite my protests, I was dragged out onto the dance floor a few times. I won't pretend that I'm good. At all. But all I heard all night was: "Pero es que facil!" (But it's so easy!) Although I made a fool of myself last night, I had some volunteers when I said I just need someone to teach me. So who knows, by the time I get back to the states I could be a dancing fool.

After last week when I worked seven days in a row, I decided I needed to tone my schedule down a little bit. I'm trying to visit every refugee family once every two weeks, and I'm going to try to supplement my time with teaching more hours at the school. I have a feeling that will be easier said than done though, so we'll have to see.

The other highlight of my week is that I met another International Social Worker and we had a complete geek-out. International Social Work is a tiny, tiny concentration and I never meet other people interested in it (except at an International Social Work conference once), so I was absolutely thrilled. I see many more geek-outs ahead of us.

It's hard to believe I'm already a month and a half into my time here. On the one hand it goes so fast and on the other hand it feels like I've been here much longer. I'm starting to get the feeling that it's going to be really hard to leave at the end of July. But I'm trying to take some advice from a few of my friends and live in the moment instead of worrying about things so far in the future.

Getting My Tourist On

I'm happy to report that this weekend I can say that I lived life to the fullest and I am exhausted and sunburned to prove it! Since I more or less jumped right into work when I arrived I haven't had time to take in many of the tourist sites, but this weekend with the help of some natives I explored Quito and the surrounding areas.

On Saturday my friend Christian took me to the TeleferiQo. The TeleferiQo is a terrifying little car which runs on a cable up the Pichincha mountain to the West of Quito. It looks kind of like a ski lift, but it's a closed rather than open. It starts at around 9,000 feet and drops you off at about 13,000. As I rode the tiny death trap up to the top (with camera-toting Asian tourist I might add), I was able to pause the video in my head of what would happen if the car fell off the cable long enough to enjoy the spectacular view. Once on top of Pichincha there are a few short trails which we braved, of course taking many breaks since there is no oxygen that I could find to breathe up there. All in all, spectacular. And I managed to catch at least 50% of what Christian said during the day, which is an accomplishment because he talks faster than about anyone I know. And I learned a new word: chévere. It means cool, or so I've been told. You can see the pictures from this adventure here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004929&l=69d71&id=74100090

Today I ventured to Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the world which is actually located a little ways away from the actual equator. Shoddy conquering and colonizing if I've ever seen it. Solano and Nancy invited me to visit Mitad del Mundo and a few other places around it. Solano is the director at Hazel McCallion where I teach English and Nancy is his wife and also a teacher at the school. We started out the day at El Pucara de Rumicucho, which is an Incan ruin. As I mentioned in one of my other posts, Ecuador doesn't have the huge ruins that you can find in other Latin American countries because it is already so close to the sun that peoples who worshipped the sun knew they didn't have to build as high to get the same effect. Although the ruins weren't spectacular in and of themselves, the view was again fantastic and we had a great guide who was able to tell us all kinds of details about the ruins, which I promptly forgot. And there was a crazy silver spider. I mean, it was crazy. Check out the pics.

Next we went to an enormous volcanic crater with (you guessed it) an amazing view. Really spectacular people. And we finished it off at Mitad del Mundo where I had a very traditional lunch of a cheeseburger and Diet Coke. You can take the girl out of America... Anyway, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I would like to say that Solano and Nancy brought the yellow hat for me because of the sun, I may not have great fashion sense but that particular mistake wasn't mine. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004932&l=0aa5f&id=74100090

As I've experienced the hospitality of the Ecuadorians (and Colombians) here, it makes me think of the contrast in what I experience here as an American and what a Latin American immigrant experiences in the US. Here people continuously show me hospitality and kindness, while in the US Latin American immigrants face discrimination and hate. This is a happy post, so I won't get too into that but I have just been very aware lately of my American privilege. But go look at pictures and either be jealous that you're not here or excited for when you get to come visit me!

Feeling Pretty Small

I don't have much reading material in English at my disposal here, so I'm borrowing a book from Trish. It's about a boy from Central America making the journey to the States. I have already read a similar book, and having been in Immigrant Rights circles back in DC, prior to beginning the book I didn't imagine that I'd gain a lot of new insight. But I was wrong.

The stories of human rights abuses at the hands of La Migra, police, bandits and many others along the way didn't really phase me. After hearing similar stories from so many people from different situations, I've learned to put up somewhat of a barrier for those and I don't let them in too far (my small step to try to avoid secondary trauma). What really got me were the stories of the kindness of people in Mexico. In one town a woman has opened her home to care for migrants who have been mutilated by the train, most with lost limbs. She didn't get a grant to start a nice center like one would do in the States. Rather, she begs for the money to provide medical care, food, and prosthesis to the migrants who otherwise would have little or no care. I can only imagine how many hours a week this woman dedicates to caring for the people in her care and struggling to find the money to keep providing it.

As the book goes on it details the journey of the train through the Veracruz region of Mexico. As the train winds through the small towns, people come out not to attack or ridicule the migrants as has been the case in the Southern regions of Mexico, but to give what little food and water they have to the people on the train, who in many cases have not had anything to eat or drink in days. These people hear the train in the distance and make mad dashes to their homes to gather up food, water, and clothing and then continue the dash to run alongside the train and hand off their gifts. According to the World Bank, a little over 40% of Mexico lives on less than $2 a day, and it is likely that in these rural areas by train tracks it is significantly less.

Ever since moving to Washington in 2006, I have been faced with an outstretched hand on every corner. Some are individuals, others have their clipboard and their cause. The vast majority of times, I make sure to awknowledge the person, but keep my wallet in my purse. The issue of donating money on the street is one that I've never been able to come to a comfortable conclusion about. I've always thought carrying food to give is pretty reasonable, but can never remember to do it. I had let myself put the issue on the shelf to be addressed another day, but hearing stories of people who not only give what they have, but go out of their way, running to catch up with a moving train, has made me feel ridiculously small.

In my time here I've come face to face with children begging for money or trying to sell things on the buses. Yesterday, I was sitting at Juan Valdez drinking a cup of (overpriced) coffee and a little girl came up to me to try to sell me something. I told her no and she moved along to another table where a young woman gave her what was left of a piece of cake. I watched as the little girl moved a few paces away and devoured the cake and wondered what else she had eaten that day. Or that week.

I feel like this is the kind of post that should end with something conclusive, but once again I don't have an answer. I think one of my problems is having too much passion. If you get me started on any number of issues, I can go on and on about the injustice of it. The problem with this is that the more issues I come to understand and feel passionate about, the more overwhelmed I feel. So, the question is, where to draw the line? And the answer is something I don't really have but I do know that when faced with the stories of the kindness of people in Mexico, I think I haven't reached the line quite yet and I need to step my game up.

La Piscina Peligrosa

In my apartment, I have a living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and La Piscina Peligrosa (The Dangerous Pool). La Piscina Peligrosa is what we call the second bedroom in my apartment which is for Martin to play in. In the room there is a small kiddie pool (with no water of course) where Martin keeps all of his toy sea animals. He has tiburones (sharks), ballenas (whales), pez (fish), un pulpo (an octupus), and a rubby ducky.

Really, the sharks (and maybe the octupus) are the only dangerous animals, but when I ask Martin which animals are peligrosos, he tells me definitively that they are all peligrosos. When I get home from work or from wherever I am, if Martin is home I can count on hearing his little feet run across the hall and then seeing him run into my apartment. About half of the time, he will then run to his room and look and me and say "la piscina peligrosa?" Then we go and play in la piscina, which generally consists of me asking about which animals are peligrosos and pretending to be scared of all the animals. The things that will entertain a 3 year old...

This morning I had a serious run-in with my shower. When I first turned it on, I couldn't get the water heater to turn on with it so I killed some time checking email, then went back to it. When I went back it turned on and the heater turned on as well, so I started my shower. Immediately after I put shampoo in my hair and was sufficiently lathered, the water turned off entirely. I waited for a little bit and messed with the faucet to no avail. I then got out and tried in vain to rinse my hair, first in the bathroom sink and then the kitchen sink. I waited for a while, unsure of what to do. Finally, I put some clothes on to go ask my host family if they knew what had happened. As soon as Miossotis came over to look at it, the water turned back on. Of course.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm having a rock-out shower as soon as I get back in the states.

¿Que más?

Life here in Ecuador is becoming more and more normal for me. Every now and then I still have a moment where it hits me that I'm living very far from home, in just about every sense of the word. But my cell phone has numbers in it these days (although they're mostly for work), there are pictures up in my apartment, and I have my palm pilot out trying to figure out how to fit everything into my schedule. I think that last thing is the one that makes it really seem like it's real life. I know I've settled in when I'm struggling to pencil things in (and you don't need to tell me how unhealthy that probably is.)

So now I'm going to try to give you a glimpse into my everyday life. ¿Que más? is a phrase that is pretty much the equivalent of "what's up?" here. It literally means "what more?" which I find a little odd, but certainly not more strange than what's up or what's the word. I still eat breakfast every day around 7 am at my host family's apartment, but since I have to work at the school at 8 am most mornings, I'm getting used to getting up at 6:30 or 7. For breakfast every morning I have a little sandwich, a hard boiled egg, juice and coffee. The coffee is instant and as much as it pains me, I do choke it down.

Lunch is on my own and I usually do the Amelia classic of a sandwich and Diet Coke. Good stuff man, good stuff. For dinner I also eat with my host family and the usual fare is rice, some form of meat, and soup or avocados or something. You may have heard that people eat guinea pig here, which is true. I haven't encountered any yet (as far as I know).

I've had some rough times settling in, but I think that I'm finally really starting to find my footing. There are certain things that I really love about being here. Everyone that I work with or meet at church always seems genuniely happy to see me or meet me. And some people are even a bit protective of the little gringa from Kansas. When I think about the people here I invariably think of a great deal of energy and even more smiles.

This week I'm trying to finalize my work schedule now that I've had a chance to visit almost all of the refugee families. It looks like I'll be working relatively full days Monday through Thursday, have Friday off, have something at least 2 Saturdays a month, and then church (where I'll teach Sunday School) each Sunday of the month except for one. So, in short, I will be very busy! I'm excited about it though. I love the work that I'm doing and the kids here and I want do as much as I can in 7 months. I think the challenge will be keeping my Friday free because it will involve saying no, which is not always an easy thing for me.

Tomorrow is my day off for this week and I'm looking forward to it. With luck there won't be rain and I can go to a park to relax and hopefully take some pictures!

And the Saga Reaches a Conclusion

Today I took on Immigration for the fifth and final time. I went back to the first immigration office and got my passport back. Apparently it took them three days to put another stamp in it. Ecuador time? Next, I went back to the other immigration office to get my censo. That office was closed, for a reason that I never could figure out. So they sent me to another office. I went there and finally, a week after my first attempt, was able to get my immigration matters taken care of. I ended up going to three different offices a total of seven times. The exact same number of months that I'll be here.

Besides the immigration craziness, the week is starting off well. My two english classes at the school today went really well. I taught the kids the song "The Ants Go Marching" to help them remember numbers. Tomorrow is my most difficult class, so we'll see how that goes...
I also went on my first solo visit to a refugee family and that went well, too. I got there with no trouble (which is a feat, especially since I was using buses that I'm not familiar with). We're working on learning english because this particular family is going to be resettled to Canada very soon. Lots and lots of teaching english.

However, today was extremely exhausting. With all of the running around the I did I ended up taking 7 different buses, and walking a fair amount too. I was a little too in love with my coffee maker last night and I drank coffee at 7 or 8 and as a result couldn't sleep. So right now I'm trying to decide whether 7 pm is too early to go to bed...

Learning Patience, Whether I Like It Or Not

I'm spending a pleasant Saturday morning enjoying my coffee and making valiant attempts to watch Lost on Youtube. Although Lost is available on ABC.com, only viewers within the US are able to watch it. Luckily, it is also bootlegged on Youtube. However, my internet connection has made watching the one hour episode of Lost an exercise in extreme patience. I started trying to watch it last night around 7, and I'm only about half-way through now.

Watching Lost is one of many things here that is forcing me to be much more patient. Immigration woes have also really forced me to suck it up and wait. I may have mentioned that I thought that Thursday would be my last day with immigration, but I was wrong. I have to go back on Monday, although I REALLY think that will be my last day.

Everything from constant bus errors which cost me hours spent wandering around trying to get home to seemingly unending miscommunications with my host family have me gritting my teeth in an attempt to grin and bear it, because really, there isn't anything else you can do. For those of you who know me well, you know that patience is something that I've never been able to claim as a virtue. So, I'm trying to take this in stride and recognize that since I've never been very good at cultivating patience an extreme situation like this may be just what I need.

Being here has also been instrumental in my realizing how much support I have from my friends and family back home. This week the church I grew up in made a very generous donation to help cover my costs while I'm working in Ecuador. Between the donations from my church in Hillsboro and the donations from my church in DC, I have found myself completely covered for my entire 7 months. Since I will be going to grad school directly upon my return, being financially stable is really important to me. And beyond financial support, I have been really touched by the number of comments on my blog and emails that I've received from people back home. The adjustment here has definitely been challenging and it's really helpful for me to know that people back home know what's going on with me and are thinking about me. So thanks for everything everyone!

Photos

I added more photos, and apparently this link will let you view them:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004855&l=75f48&id=74100090

Let me know if it works or doesn't work!

The Epic Battle of January 21

As you may gather from the title, today has been an epic battle. Things started out well when I found a $20 bill on my way to work. That's pretty much the biggest bill one could reasonably expect to find on the street. I've never been someone who finds money on the street, so it was pretty awesome.

I "counseled students" this morning at Hazel McCallion, which went alright. Although when I was leaving they wanted me to stay longer but I had other responsibilities. I've been warned several times that people will try to get you to work and work and work because they think that since you're young and idealistic you have unlimited reserves of energy.

Anyway, after I finished as school I had a visit with a refugee family which was really good. They are in the process of being resettled to Canada so I was helping one of the girls practice English and we made a date to continue next week. I really like having a more concrete way to help, which is not the case in a lot of families.

So the morning was pretty good, but in the afternoon Quito started getting the best of me. Earlier this week, I had gone to try to handle my immigration issues, only to go to the office and be directed to another office. I went to the other office this afternoon to register my visa. I got there, got a number and waited in a stuffy room with lots of other people and bad Spanish tv for about an hour. When it was my turn, I went up and was told in under two minutes that I didn't have the right things to register my visa. So then I went to get the copies of my passport, the special folder, the envelope, the cashier's check, etc. I got all of that, then returned to find that the office was closed. Their hours are 8 am to 1 pm. How very convenient for me.

So then I returned back home (taking two buses of course). When I got home, I looked up the requirements for the Censo, which I have to go back to the first office to get after I register my visa. For the Censo I need a copy of my rental agreement, ID from the person I'm renting from, more copies of my passport, and 3 passport pictures. So I had to go talk with my family and get all the documents to make copies of, and then I went with my host brother to a mall to get my passport photos. All in all, it was an exhausting bit of legwork for a day. All for 7 months. And I already did all the legwork in the US to get my visa in the first place!

Anyway, so you can imagine that I was feeling pretty beat by this point and I was ready to give this day up as a loss. However, at the mall I found something that is going to change my life. I bought....

A COFFEE MAKER!

That's right folks, a good old fashioned coffee maker. Now instead of scouring the city for a good cup of coffee, I can make one in my own kitchen. It's a beautiful day. I am rejuvenated as I write this by a great cup of organic Ecuadorian mountain coffee. I'm not sure whether I won this battle or whether Quito pulled it out by a hair. All I know is that life always seems much better with a cup of coffee in your hand.

And for a technical bit, I wanted to give folks my mailing address in case you feel the desire to write a letter:

Amelia Brandt
Gonzalo Zaldumbide N49-170 y Cesar Frank Urbanizacion
Segundo Piso
Dammer 2
Quito, Ecuador

I'm not sure about that actually, but that's what the family gave me when I asked for the mailing address. As far as packages go, they have to go through customs so I have to go a ways to pick them up and it's about a half day process, so if there's something you'd like to send it would probably be best to send it to someone who is coming down and they can bring it. I have a visitor in the beginning of March, so give me a holler if you want to send something.

The True Confessions of a Sun Worshiper

When I first arrived in Quito, someone told me that the reason Quito doesn't have any Mayan ruins is because Mayan people knew that being on the Equator and being in the mountains, they didn't have to put a lot of effort into getting closer to the sun. While they did build structures, they weren't the tall structures that you'll find in other Central and South American countries and generally didn't stand the test of time.

I've been warned time and time again about the strength of the sun here in Quito, but I hadn't really thought about it too much. Most days I wear pants and long sleeves, for at least part of the day. The mornings are fairly cool and the weather is very unpredictable so it's always good to have a jacket. However, I have noticed that in two weeks my face is several shades darker. Today, I decided to try to get a bit of a tan. I never did very well with laying out back in the states because I always got bored and went back inside. I don't think that will be a problem here... I only spent about half an hour in the sun and I'm burned on my chest and neck. Additionally, I wore a necklace to church this morning and in the time it took me to walk to and from church (with a grocery store detour), I got a round tanline on my chest from the necklace. Nice, I know. And a sidenote for Mom, I am wearing sunscreen on my face every day and as I mentioned, the rest of my skin isn't exposed often, so don't freak out. And I wear sunglasses.

Aside from the sun situation, there is another serious affliction that I have developed. I have a new addiction: pan de chocolate. I discovered it on Thursday at the Panaderia by my house and I have been thinking about it ever since. I've managed to avoid getting it every day, but I think of it probably at least once an hour. It looks like a cinnamon roll, but it's super soft and has some other flavorings, although I'm not sure what they are. I can taste coconut in it, but besides that I'm just really not sure. All I know is that I love it. And it costs 25 cents. And it's less than a block from my house. It's gonna be a hard seven months.

The Things a Girl (specifically THIS girl) Will Do For a Pizza

Today, I had a craving for American pizza. And actually, all the major chains are here in Quito. Sadly, I still don't really have much of a friend base so I didn't really want to go out to eat. However, I am a big fan of the delivery. Especially when you can order online and avoid having to talk to anyone on the phone. Unfortunately, you can't order online in Ecuador. So I resigned myself to calling it in. Unfortunately, there is some trick to calling a landline from a cellular phone that I hadn't yet figured out. I tried what seemed like every combination of ways to dial the number to no avail. Meanwhile, I was google searching to see if I could find the trick. The other glitch was that my internet kept going off and on while I was involved in this exercise. Finally, a found the trick and called Papa John's. And then it turned out that you can't order a pizza unless you have a landline number to give them, and I only had my cell phone.

At this point, I decided to walk around the neighborhood and see what I could find to eat. The thing that makes this tricky is that it's really not safe to be walking after dark in Quito so I had to find something to eat and get it back to my house within about half an hour before it got dark. As I was walking, I saw a restaurant called "Colombia Pizza." Thinking that this restaurant probably had pizza, I went in and asked for pizza only to find that they don't serve pizza, only hamburgers and hotdogs. So I gave up my search for pizza, ordered a cheeseburger and called it a night. And to top off the whole thing, my call to the Papa John's used up all the minutes I had on my cell phone (calling a landline is much more expensive than calling another cell phone.) At least now I know!

In other news, I went to Riobamba this weekend with Cesar and Paty to visit Don and Jan Rheinheimer. They are a couple, also with MMN, that is trying to start a Mennonite Church in Riobamba. It was a really interesting experience. It was my first time outside of Quito. The drive was pretty interesting. There are a lot of little towns along the way that are pretty depressing, but also some really gorgeous scenery (I forgot my camera, sorry!). It was also really interesting to hear about the challenges that they're having with their work and put my own challenges in perspective.

Next week I'll start teaching English at Hazel McCallion school and start visiting the refugee families with Trish. I think it will be a pretty busy week, but will probably set the standard for how busy my weeks will generally be. I definitely won't have a 9-5 job, but rather I'll kind of have a hodge-podge of different responsibilities that happen on different days at different times. I've never really had a job like that so I don't know whether I'll like it or not. I guess we'll find out!

Muchas cositas

First things first: I'm famous! http://www.mennonitemission.net/Personnel/Current/Workers/International/workers.asp?RID=172873

So, where to begin? I guess I'll start with the family. I'm still not sure on everyone's names, but I'm starting to fall into a routine. Unfortunately, the routine involves getting up at 7 am every morning to go have breakfast. Oddly enough, most of the time when I'm eating meals "with the family," I'm the only one at the table. It's kind of an odd set-up, and not quite what I expected. But back to the important things, 7 am. Those of you who know me well know that I don't even talk in English before about 9 am, so you can imagine how little conversation I can come up with in Spanish at 7 am. My typical routine is to get up, eat breakfast, and then go back to sleep until I need to get up to get ready for work. Also, we did finally work out the financial issues. It's not quite what the agreement was, but I'm just happy to have it done with. When I told Cesar (MMN missionary) that, he said, "Ah, Amelia, you're such a good Mennonite! Making sacrifices for the greater good!"

This week is my introduction to my work here. There was a time when I was somewhat worried that I wouldn't really have enough to fill up my time, but now I'm feeling exactly the opposite. I'm going to be teaching English to four different classes at the Hazel McCallion School, and having an hour of "counseling." It's odd, people here hear that I have a Psychology minor and all the sudden I'm supposed to support everyone psychologically! I'm not sure that the concept of a minor translates... Anyway, I may increase to two hours for each class, but I have to come up with my own curriculum so I really need to see how things go before I try that. Also, I found out that I'm teaching my own class, not co-teaching like I had thought. So that throws a bit of a wrench in my plans.

For another 20 hours a week I'll be visiting the refugee children to see how they're doing and identify what their needs are. There are 6 or 7 families and some live VERY far south in Quito so I don't know how much I'll be able to visit everyone, but I'll do my best! I visited my first family yesterday with Cesar and Paty. It was good, but also frustrating because I get lost when people are talking all at once in Spanish. Sometimes I don't feel like my Spanish is improving at all!

I'm also going to be teaching Sunday School at the Mennonite Church every Sunday except one, and will be helping with the Peace Education program the last Saturday of every month. And if I have time, I'd like to start a tutoring program for all the children in the church one or two Saturdays a month. But, I need to see what kind of time I have to see if that's even a possibility. Right now it seems like I'll be very busy. But I am managing to keep one weekend a month to myself so I can have the opportunity to travel a little.

Whew, so that's where things are at! I take on more buses every day, some with more success than others. Visiting families is going to require me to increase my bus knowledge by a great degree. Let's hope I survive it... Also, I added pictures on Facebook, so hit me up there. I thought about adding them here too, but it's just too much work to upload everything twice!

Stay tuned...

Performing (ish)

Because I fear that people may only read the beginning of posts, I'm going to put my request here. I need you to all think of simple songs in English (ex: Old McDonald, Itsy Bitsy Spider, etc) that I can use to teach English. Also, if you can think of games that might be fun, that would be neat too. My one idea is Simon Says. Email them to me at brandt.amelia@gmail.com. Thanks, you guys are the very, very best :)

This Monday marked my official start of work. I went to the Hazel McCallion School where I'll be teaching English and had a tour and met the kids and other teachers. If I understand things correctly (which is always a stretch of the imagination), I'll be co-teaching with another teacher named Belen (who also happens to be 24). I'll be teaching grades 2, 3, and 4 and the word on the street is that I'll be putting in around 10 hours a week there. I have a feeling that the school could end up taking up more of my time, but we'll see.

I fell in love with the school as soon as I started going around and meeting different students. I forgot how much I love working with kids. If I had any doubts about working with these kids, they were absolutely dashed when the kids all kissed me on the cheek when they left the class. That's typical in Ecuador for saying hello and goodbye, but it's unbelievably adorable when 6 and 7 year olds do it.

After some lunch with Cesar and Paty I decided to go look for the South American Explorers clubhouse. I heard about it from someone at my language school. It's a little place for travelers and ex-pats to get together and hang out, I guess. They have different events and they plan trips once or twice a month. It seemed like a pretty cool deal, but there's a $50 membership fee. I decided I would think about it. As some of you know, I'm worried about not having any friends here, which was why I considered it in the first place. However, I met two Americans around my age at church, and Belen is exactly my age, so assuming that I work my charm I could very possibly have THREE friends. Wow, where WILL I find the time to hang out with everyone? Anyway, I decided I would wait until the end of the month to see if I want to become a South American Explorer.

I took on the Ecovia bus to go down to the South American Explorers clubhouse and I definitely did great on the way there. I'll spare you the details, but on the way back the Ecovia won by a landslide. Stupid buses. In other news, I took the advice of an Ecuadorian about my showering situation and I found that if I reduce the pressure, I can get a semi-warm shower. It's a discovery that will make my life infinitely happier.

The Shower Dance

As promised, I am delivering a funny story. As some of you may know, I really enjoy showering. I enjoy it so much, that when I was in college I created something I like to call the "Rock-Out Shower." A Rock-Out Shower is when you turn up your favorite music really loud and rock-out in the shower. It's hard to get a rock-out shower because sometimes you don't have a stereo, or sometimes all you can get is bad radio. But when you can have a rock-out shower, it's great. Rock-out showers are best when you're not in a hurry.

Anyway, that said, I would like to inform you all that I have not had anything that even remotely resembles a rock-out shower here in Ecuador. After my experiences here I view the shower with a certain combination of disdain and trepidation. This will inevitably affect my personal hygiene. Luckily, you are all far enough away that you won't be affected.

So when I was staying with Cesar and Patricia (MMN fam), I first stepped in the shower after giving it a few minutes to warm up. I was surprised to find that the water was fine and I proceeded to do the whole shower routine. After shampooing and conditioning, I was ready to wash my face when lo and behold, the warm water was suddenly gone. I proceeded to step out of the stream of water and wash my face, sparingly using handfuls of water now and again to rinse. I followed the same pattern for the body wash portion of the shower. However, at the end of the shower, the hot water resumes (usually at a scalding temperature) long enough for me to rinse the conditioner out of my hair.

When I moved in with my host family, I had high hopes for the shower. They were dashed this morning when after waiting 10 minutes for the water to get warm, I realized it just was not gonna happen. I proceeded to shower while standing outside of the stream of water and stepping in only to rinse. Please be advised that I will be taking a rock-out shower extremely shortly after arriving back in the US. Additionally, there is a coffee situation here. It all seems to come out of these crazy little Nescafe machines. I would do about anything for a cup of fresh-brewed coffee from an actual coffee-maker. That's also on the list for when I return.

In other, less hilarious, news, I went to the Mennonite Church for the first time today. It was all in Spanish (of course), but I actually understood probably about 75%. The format reminds me of House Church in some ways. I feel like I'm starting to get into the Mennonite community here, which is a nice feeling. This evening Patricia had a birthday fiesta at her house which I also went to. I felt a little out of place because I had to concentrate so hard on translating everything, but it was really neat to see the community coming together for a celebration. There was a lot of singing, but I didn't really know the words so I mostly just listened. Tomorrow I'm going with Cesar and Patricia to... well, I don't really quite know. Vamos a ver! (We'll see)

Storming

In social work we study several different models of group development. One of these models is forming, norming, storming, performing. I think that this model can somewhat be applied to my time in Ecuador. I arrived (forming), developed habits and made connections (norming), and then moved to my new house (storming). And hopefully in a few weeks I'll be performing.

I'm not sure why moving today was such a storm, but I have some guesses. I've been feeling kind of down for the last few days, a combination of homesickness and stress over the language and anxiety about moving to the new place. And today it all kind of came together in a bit of a meltdown for me. I'll spare you the details, but it mostly has to do with money and misunderstandings regarding my living situation. I ended up crying, which was unbelievably embarrassing. I think it was good though, because I've felt like I needed to cry for a few days now, but it just didn't really happen. So now it's happened, and hopefully I can move on and start my performing now that I've had my little breakdown.

On the bright side, I had lunch with the family today and then talked to them for over an hour (in Spanish) and it was really good. I don't know everyone's names, but there is the matriarch, Abuelita and her three kids. Miossotis is her daughter and she has a son (probably 3 or 4, but I'm terrible at judging ages) named Martin. He's my favorite part of living here. Then there are Abuelita's two sons, only one of whom I've met. And there's Abuelita's husband. Or so I think. So I only know two people's names and I'm not sure of how to gracefully figure out everyone else's name....

After lunch they took me around the neighborhood and we found the Mennonite Church (where I'll be working), the supermarket, a mall, etc. I really like the family and it's really good for me to be living with a family that doesn't speak English because then I have to practice my Spanish (all the time!). I have enough contacts that do speak English that it shouldn't be a problem to get my English fix now and again. I just need to figure out all of the financial stuff and make sure that it works for me and then I should be good to go.

I'm within walking distance of the church and a supermarket, so that's really convenient. It's odd to think that this is where I'm going to be living for the next seven months. Well, I guess more like 6 and a half now since it's already the 10th. Anyway, sorry to have another serious post. Stay tuned for my next hilarious post, which will be entitled "The Shower Dance."

More changes

Tomorrow is my last day of Spanish classes and will be my last night living with Cesar and Paty, the MMN family. I'll be moving in with the host family that I'll be living with for the rest of my time in Ecuador on Saturday morning. I met them last week and I know they're really nice, but it will still take some time to adjust to a new living situation with new people. It will be especially hard because only one of the people in the family speaks English, so I'm going to really have to use my Spanish. I know that's good because I'll need the practice, but it still is a little nerve-wracking.

The other thing that makes me a little worried is that I'm going to have to come out of my learning environment at the Spanish school and have to really use my Spanish to do my work, to communicate, to do everything. I don't really feel like I have learned enough, but I also don't really have the money to keep going to class, and in actuality I'll probably never feel entirely ready to quit classes and just jump in.

Anyway, I don't really have any funny anecdotes today, I'm just trying to brace myself to pull myself out of my new-found comfort zone and adjust to something different.

Absolutamente.... no

Alright, I know there are pictures below and you're probably itching to skip the reading and scroll down to the pictures. Lazy people. It's ok, today is going to be short.

Today was basically the same thing as yesterday, except that this time I did manage a decisive victory over El Bosque. Yeah baby. So I've spent the last two days and will spend the next three in basically the same way. I leave the house a little bit before 8, fight with the buses and start Spanish class around 8:30. I then spend 8:30 to 10:30 in a little room learning Spanish. I get a half hour break for pandulce and coffee, then I continue learning Spanish from 11 to 1:30. It's a long day. I sit in my little room with my maestro, Santiago. He thinks he's funny, but I don't because it's usually at my expense. As we sit in our little room, he makes me go over preterit and imperfect and irregular verbs and blah blah blah. And every time I get something wrong he says "absolutamente" then he pauses, and says "no". So the first time he did it, I thought that I was absolutely correct. Turns out I was absolutely wrong. I've grown to dread the word "absolutamente." Other times, when I'm almost right, he's say "posible.." then the pause... then "pero, no." So maybe, but no. I spend all 5 hours of my daily Spanish marathon trying to avoid these Spanish language landmines. Usually not with very much success... However, the good news is that I seem to be funny in Spanish too. The question is, whether people are laughing at me or with me...

In other news, Cesar and Patricia and their kids returned from Colombia last night. I've been staying in their house since I arrived, but they haven't been here. They've been very, very welcoming and I already really like them. It's also so nice to have other people in the house instead of being here alone with the dog. Although, I do love the dog. Her name is Nice, and it's pretty accurate.

Anyway, without further ado I'll give you some pictures. Although I have to apologize because they really aren't that great. I'll try to do better later... I fought with the formatting for a while but I gave up, so sorry that they're spread out like that. They're both pictures of the view from a park near where I'm staying right now.

Amelia v. El Bosque: Tie Score (2-2)

Now that I've left the house, my next major challenge was buses. As some of you may know, I have extensive experience with bad bus situations. Some of you were part of these situations, and you know who you are. That said, I'm a little skittish of buses sometimes. However, my options were limited.

I woke up at 6 am so I could leave the house at 7 am to get to my Spanish classes all the way across town at 8 am. I actually left the house early (a miracle for me) and went to the bus stop with plenty of time. I had to catch the bus on Avenida de America, and getting there was no problem. However, on this particular street there are two bus stations. One is a raised platform in the median and one is a typical street bus stop. (Side note: in Ecuador bus stops are called "paradas") I went to the one in the median, without really thinking, and then decided that I should go to the other one. I went to the other parada and while I was standing there I tried to figure out how I could possibly know which parada was the right one. I started calling Trish, an Episcopal volunteer I'll be working with who has been helping me with these type of questions, but before the call went through I saw the bus I needed, El Bosque. At this point I'm giving El Bosque one point for my parada slip-up, which meant I had to pay the fare twice (but the fare is 25 cents, so...)

This was when I really started working my game. El Bosque is one hell of a bus. I thought the S buses in DC could be a little crazy, jerking around and being crowded and such, but riding the El Bosque makes you feel as if a dog has picked you up in its jaws and is shaking you around with all his might in an attempt to stun you. Luckily, after a few stops I was able to get a seat. And then I proceeded to get off very near to where I was supposed to. For this, I give myself a point. I may even deserve two, but I'll keep it fair and just give one.

I was supposed to take the Ecovia down Seis de Diciembre to get to the school, but I had studied the map and knew that it was walk-able. And the Ecovias that passed me looked crowded enough to inspire me to take a walk. I was also really early. So I skipped the Evovia and walked to the school with no problems. I even had time to stop at a Paneria and get some coffee and bread. MMmmmmmm.

I then proceeded to have five grueling hours of Spanish class. I'm taking five hours a day, one on one for this entire week. I am absolutely exhausted now after speaking and attempting to understand Spanish for so long, but I know that it's really essential to improve my Spanish before I start work. But after five hours, my teacher gave me HOMEWORK. Ay dios mio!

Feeling quite confident, I walked the Ecovia route again and caught El Bosque as soon as I arrived at the parada. Point 2 for me. Hollllller. However, as I was riding El Bosque, I started to feel as if I had gone past my house. And then the feeling persisted as we climbed up in the hills of the north part of the city. I knew at this point that I was way past where I should have gotten off, and I realized that apparently the return route doesn't go past the same parada where I had gotten on in the morning. After having a minor freak-out in my head, I decided that the best course of action would be to get off El Bosque and wait for another one going back the other way. However, when I decided to do this I'm about 90% sure that I was about half a mile from the end of the line. Fortune favors the bold, not people who sit on the bus for 20 minutes after they know they should have gotten off. Another point for El Bosque.

The place where I got off was up on a unbelievable steep road in a completely residential area. I had some anxiety since I had basically no idea where I was going, but it was about 3 in the afternoon so I wasn't too worried. I managed to ask someone if El Bosque would pass by and if it would got to America y Brasil (my parada) and I got some confirmation. Ohhh yeah. So I waited for 20 minutes or so, got back on El Bosque going back the other way and lo and behold, it stopped at my parada. And I breathed a sigh of relief and hopped off the bus, feeling considerably less confident.

So that is the story of Amelia v. El Bosque. Tomorrow I'm quite confident that I can take on El Bosque and pull out a decisive victory. However, it may have been my overinflated confidence that led to the tie game today, so I'm gonna try to play it cool.

Falling in Love with Quito

Well folks, I finally did it. I left the house! I kind of had to since I had to go to orientation with Brethren Colleges Abroad (BCA), and the guy from BCA picked me up... so it really wasn't that much of a step for me per se... but I'm still giving myself mad props for it.

Orientation with BCA has been awesome. I got a lot of the really important information about living with families and "stomach ailments," but more importantly I got to get out to see the city. Yesterday we went to El Panecillo, which is this enormous hill in the middle of town. You can walk around the hill and see every part of the city from there and it's absolutely unbelievable. I can't get over how big the city is. Unreal. I highly reccommend doing a little google search for El Panecillo, or view from El Panecillo. I unfortunately didn't have my cameras so I can't make it easy for you and post pictures. There's also a gigantic statue of the virgin Mary at El Panecillo and since it's around Christmas there is an equally gigantic nativity scene set up. I didn't get to see it lit up, but from what the lights looked like in the daylight I can fairly confidently say that there is a fair amoutn of bling involved in this nativity scene.

The sad part of the orientation is that it has really made me realize how alone I am in my experience here. I know that I'll have support systems with the church and with the people I work with, but there isn't anyone else who will be going through the same experience that I am. I hadn't really thought of that before I left, but I'll be discovering things on my own rather than sharing those experiences with fellow students or VSers or whoever.

In other news, I've taken TWO (count em, two) taxis all by my lonesome and I have survived. I was worried, because I have had situations before in which a taxi driver didn't know exactly where they were going. In those situations I knew the city well enough to direct them, but in this case I would have been absolutely SOL. And to make things worse, I don't have a cell phone yet so I really wouldn't have known what to do if something went wrong. But, the important thing is that I did it. And I survived. And I'm going to get a cell phone this afternoon.

The other very important thing that is going to happen this afternoon is that I'm going to meet the family that I will likely be living with for the next seven months. I have a lot of trepidation about living with a family. I've been on my own for a while now and I'm not used to having to let someone know where I'm going or when I'll be home, so it will be a bit of an adjustment. I sometimes wish that I was going to be renting an apartment or something of that nature while I'm here, but I think that staying with a family will probably be one of the richest things about the experience. That is, if I can get my Spanish up to par enough to be able to carry on a conversation. However, I'll have you know that today we had a presentation in Spanish and I caught about 70-75%. Slowly (very, very slowly), but surely!