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!

New Year, New Country

Well, I'm finally here. After months of planning and worrying there's a part of me that doesn't know what to do now that I'm actually in Quito.

So, the trip. I left at 2 am on December 31st. Most people wouldn't choose to travel on New Year's Eve, but I personally don't have much use for New Year's, so I was fine with it. I spent the hours before my departure watching various terrible New Year's Eve specials and laying around. Maybe I'm just getting older, but it seems like music is getting worse and worse. Although I have to admit, I'm probably just bitter because the Jonas Brothers serve as a constant reminder that I used to have a shrine dedicated to Hanson.

Due to the time of my departure, I had basically no option but to take a Supershuttle to the airport. The Supershuttle inevitably adds one to two hours to your trip. If you're not familiar, the Supershuttle provides door to airport service for a reasonable cost, the catch being that you have to ride with several other people and therefore drive all over the city picking them up before you can actually go to the airport.

When I finally did get to the airport, there wasn't a line for any airline. Except for mine. I waited in line for what seemed like forever. I had some fears about my baggage being overweight, but I put it up on the scale and it read 30.00, and since the limit was 50 pounds I was ready to declare a New Year's Day miracle. That was before the woman at the ticket counter informed me that was kilograms, and my bag was actually 68 pounds. So I spent at least 15 minutes at the ticket counter rearranging all of my luggage. Beautiful.

I got my first experience with Ecuadoran culture at the gate where I spent at least and hour and a half talking with an Ecuadoran man who struck up a conversation with me on the escalator as we were walking toward the gate. He was 41 and had two kids, so I guess he was just friendly. Who knows.

All I can really say about Copa Airlines is that I think the seats must be smaller than US airlines because I was dying. Maybe it was just because I was sitting there for 5 hours. Can't be sure. However, they served meals on both of my flights! That really was a New Year's miracle. Especially since the airport in Panama is full of duty-free stores but I couldn't find any restaurants to save my life.

After struggling my way through customs and immigration I finally met Trish, the Episcopal volunteer in Quito who was picking me up. It was such a relief to see my name on that little sign. I'm staying at Cesar and Patricia's house for right now. They are the MMN volunteers that work in Quito. They're on vacation right now and will be back on Sunday, so I'm on my own for the time being.

I've been a little bit scared to leave the house so I've been mostly watching tv. I have convinced myself that it's practicing my Spanish (I know, I know... pathetic). Tomorrow I'm going to the orientation with the study abroad program here. I'm not technically studying abroad, but they've arranged my housing and thought some of the orientation would be useful. At least it will get me out of the house!

I'm thinking of it this way right now, I just need to get my sea legs. But in this case, it's Ecuador legs. Once I get out there I know that I'll be fine, it's just making myself get out and make a fool of myself for a while with my terrible Spanish.