A Day at the Market

This past week was pretty uneventful in that I had class every day from atleast 8 to 1, and two days I had class from 8 to 4.  We ended the week with a much needed field trip.  Between the 6 hour days, snack times, and field trips, I feel like I am back in elementary school.  I'm not quite sure how I made it through all those years of school 5 days a week, 6 hours a day, and 8 am start times because its near impossible for me to get through it here.  For our field strip, we went as a class to explore the city of Sangolqui.  It's a city in Los Chillos Valley only a few kilometres from my house.  First, we hit up "El Mercado del Turismo," which was essentially a huge outdoor market with crazy fruits and vegetables.  There were stands set up all over the place, and mountains of yucca, bananas (both yellow and green), papayas, and pineapples were piled high up and down the length of the streets. Inside, there was enough meat to feed an army.  Chickens and cows and pigs were hanging in pieces everywhere.  It was enough to make any meatlover turn veg  (needless to say I didn't have much of an appetite when I found out we were having pork for lunch).  From there we stopped at a small vendor that was filled with all types of herbs from Ecuador.  Natural medicine is very popular here, often preferred over what we would think of as traditional medicine and doctors visits.  Instead of taking tylenol for a small ache or pain, people here drink tea made with certain herbs and spices. There were herbs for stomach aches, headaches, nervousness, split ends, better circulation, infertility, and broken hearts.  Some I had seen of before- oregano, rosemary, lavender, cinnamon, while others I had never even heard of.  After buying enough herbs to make quite a few pots of tea, we went to a small church in the center of town.  The large, well known church in Sangolqui, La Iglesia Matriz del Sangolqui was under construction, but we went into a smaller one right next door.  Our last stop of the day was to the "municipio" which is about the same as city hall.  Looking like true tourists, we walked out of there with all sorts of pictures, posters, and post cards of the famous parts of the city.  There are a bunch of pictures below of just about everything I saw (except for the meat section of the market).  There will be more pictures to come shortly- I'm heading to the cloud forest (a rainforest so high up you are literally in the clouds) for the weekend, and have my cameras packed up and ready to go.   

View of Los Chillos Valley from Ilalo- the mountain/volcano I hiked last weekend.

At the top!

My accomodations

Looks like snow, right?

family of snowmen

My school yard (which also has a daycare/preschool and some sort of a church)

My school building

The view from my classroom window

Los Chillos

During our field trip

el mercado del turismo in Sangolqui- tons of food and tons of people

Choclo, or fresh corn

Medicinal Herbs

All sorts of plants and spices that will cure everything from split ends to a broken heart

Sangolqui

Iglesia Matriz de Sangolqui

My spanish class after a successful day in Sangolqui

The Fast and the Furious

Every morning I catch a ride to school with with host brother and his aunt, and every morning I feel like I'm riding shotgun in the Fast and the Furious.  I have yet to see a posted speed limit.  Stop signs and red lights are optional- you can honk twice to let other cars know you're just going to blow right through. The painted crosswalks are merely decorations.  I'm pretty sure hitting pedestrians is worth bonus points.  I like to think of rotaries as circles of death.  On the way home from school I take the bus.  I wait at the bus stop, but the bus never really stops...its more of a slow down, jump, and hope to god you make it.

Every day here is an adventure.

And I Thought New England Weather was Crazy...

Today, I built a snow man on the equator.

Well, technically it wasn't snow, it was hail, and technically it wasn't the Equator, it was about 45 minutes away.  But still.

The normal afternoon shower turned into torrential downpours which turned into hail, and lots of it.  The hail pelted the roof, and covered the front lawn in a blanket of white.  When it lightened up a bit, I went outside with my host brother and his girlfriend and made (miniature) snowmen.  I never thought I would crave hot chocolate in Ecuador.

Before this crazy weather started, I had gone hiking with my host father.  Ilalo is a (dormant) volcano about 10 minutes down the road by foot with a hiking trail/pasture complete with grazing cows...  My host father climbs it every weekend, and can make it up the 3 km trail in 30 minutes.  It took me an hour.  The altitude effect is crazy!  From the top, which was marked by a giant cross covered in mirrors, I could see the entirety of Los Chillos Valley, and the other mountains that surrounded it, which made for a pretty awesome view.

 

To all of those who proposed, supported, and voted for the Leash Laws in Massachusetts...

As a pedestrian, as a runner, and as someone who is not particularly fond of big dogs, especially those that jump and chase and bark, I would like to officially thank you.  You all are truly underappreciated.  Here in Ecuador, there are dogs everywhere, but I have yet to see a collar, let alone a leash.  The majority of dogs here are either guard dogs that look especially scary and are usually leaning through fences waiting for that poor soul to wander too close, or stray dogs that look more like wolves roaming the streets.  The scenery here is beautiful- I can see the mountains from just about anywhere.  However, whenever I am walking or running, I don't enjoy it because I am too focused on avoiding the traffic (even from the sidewalk), the pollution that is filling my lungs, or the dog that I am sure at any moment is going to break loose any put my rabies shots to the test.


Dogs aside, one positive has been the lack of bugs.  Before today my view of Ecuador had been insect free.  Then I met my little cousin.  He is the typical 12 year old boy, and gave me a tour of Ecuador like none I had been on thus far.  We saw underneath all of the rocks in his yard, my yard, and I think an uncle's yard, because obviously that is where all of the cool bugs are hidden.  We also ate some questionable fruit growing in the yards- I didn't ask questions because I'd take a sick stomach over looking at/touching bugs any day of the year. 

Other than the "wildlife," everything down south is going really well.  My spanish is slowy but surely improving, and there is hope that by the end of this trip, I will have the spanish vocabulary and language skills to match those of my insect loving 12 year old cousin. 

Because Words Just Aren't Enough...

 My room in Hotel Alston in Quito, where I spent my first night.

Outside of Rancho Alegre, my hotel in San Antonio.

Inside of Rancho Alegre.

Part of the group in San Antonio for orientation.

The entire group at dinner in San Antonio.

Celebrating with the national beer of Ecuador.

In the streets of San Antonio.

"Mitad del Mundo" or the Center of the World.

Welcome to the Fam

This weekend I finally met my host family.  Waiting for them to pick me up was one of the most stressful/nervewracking experiences.  It all proved to be for nothing though, because this weekend was great.  In my family there are two parents (I have yet to meet the mom though because she is in Tokyo), and three brothers (one of which I won't get to meet because he is studying in England).  The oldest brother is a little bit older than me, and has an American girlfriend, which is nice because I think she understands better than anyone how I feel.  All of them have been really nice, welcoming, and patient with me and my horrible spanish.
I have spent most of my time this weekend with my oldest brother, his girlfriend, and their friends.  Friday I went to a bonfire. Saturday I went o Quito to the March of the Zombies- there was 300 people dressed up as zombies walking the streets of the capital.  It was weird-really weird, but a good time nonetheless.  Later on Saturday we went to an outdoor concert of sorts.  We walked down this huge, steep hill that led to an open area where there was a church.  A stage and vendors had been set up, and there was a band playing, and all kinds of food being sold.  There was a ton of people, and a ton of liquor.  I have quickly learned that fiestas and alcohol go hand in hand in Ecuador.  There were crazy fireworks set off from what almost looked like scaffolding that had been handmade and decorated.  It was like nothing I have ever experienced before, probably because in the US public intoxication is not allowed and laws against unsafe pyrotechnics exist.
I ended the weekend with a barbeque last night at my older brother's friends house.  I have really appreciated him taking me around this weekend to hang out.  It's overwhelming at times because its hard to understand a lot of what is going on, especially when everyone is using slang and talking at once, but I think I'll catch on eventually. 

After an eventful weekend, today started class- I have Spanish class from 8 to 1 Monday through Friday.  It's not nearly as bad as it sounds.  We have 2 "pausas" which are essentially snack times to break up the day.  There are four people including myself in my class.  We are in a room that is about the size of a closet in what I think is some sort of church.  Never before have I had as much incentive as I do now in a class- how well I am going to be able to communicate with everyone in this country depends on how much effort I put in.  If only there was this much incentive for all classes in college.


So everything so far as been "tranquilo" as the people  here like to say.  There has been no need for the snake bite kit, pocket knife, bug catcher, or small pharmacy that I brought.  My only complaint is that it's cold- not cold like middle-of-the-winter-in-Maine cold, but not as hot as one would think the equator would be.  I'm still working on getting pictures and video up, but they should be ready soon!

I Made It

My first glimpse of Ecuador was from the plane.  Quito is 10,000 ft about sea level, so I knew that I would be in the mountains, but I was still shocked to see out the window of the plane.  We came out of the clouds approaching the airport in Quito and were surrounded by huge mountains on all sides-it was amazing.

After leaving the airport, I got to the hotel and met with the group and the tour Directors, Fabian and Leonore.  There are 14 of us in the group and everyone is from the west coast except for myself and one New Yorker.  We didn't really get a chance to settle into the hotel because we only stayed for a night.  Monday morning we got up, had breakfast, and headed to a smaller town about 45 minutes away, San Antonio, for our orientation. Some highlights from the trip:
I got to play futbol in Ecuador.
I can add Ecuador to my list of foreign countries I have run in.
I straddled the northern and southern hemisphere.
I learned (sort of) how to salsa dance.
I learned the history of Ecuador in 45 minutes in our first lecture from a lady who made Font's history class look like the most organized production ever.
I ate 5 meals a day and fell in love with the food here.
I sang karoake and drank pilsener.
I learned just about everything is very cheap- ice cream for 30 cents, 25 cents for a bus, beer for $1.
I learned that for the most part Ecuadorians are very laid back, nice, patient people.  

The last day of orientation was yesterday and it culminated in us being split into groups of 3 and navigating around.  We were each given a city that we had to get to and get back from.  My group was sent to Nanegalito- it was a 2 hour bus ride away through the mountains and cloud forest.  It was one winding road surrounded by enormous mountains covered in forests.  I remember loving the bus rides through Europe and not wanting to fall asleep because I would miss the landscape and that was how it was again.  It was so beautiful and completely untouched.  When we got to the city, we realized it wasn't really a tourist town.  It was tiny, and we were the only gringos there.  We walked around, and found a lunch place where I kid you not, I had the worst meal of my entire life.  We struggled to eat a little of it because we didn't want to be rude and we were already causing enough of a scene in that little town.  The soup had some questionable looking meat in it and there was stuff floating in there that I never want to see in my food.  It was so bad it was almost funny. almost.  We left soon after and it took us almost 3 hours to find our way on the Ecuadorian public transportation system to get back to our original hotel in Quito. 

Last night, to celebrate our adventures and our last night together before going our separate ways with our host families, the group went out on the town.  We pre-gamed with a knock off of rubenoff (it was as bad as it sounds) and then went to downtown Quito to a club and had a great time.  We had to watch out for the corner with the transvestite prostitutes and beware of pick pockets and drug dealers, but we made it there and back alive. 

Today I meet my host family- there are 2 parents and 3 brothers and they live to the South in Los Chillos.  I'm excited but wicked nervous.  My spanish is the part I'm worried about most.  I feel like it has gotten so much better even after only a few days, but I don't know how well I'll be able to communicate my ideas and opinions and everything to them. 

That's about all for now.  I love it here- it's so different from home in so many ways, and no two places or cities seem to be alike. I have some great pictures and video that I'll try to post asap.

It's Game Time

I now have less than 48 hours left in the U.S.  I leave Sunday August 29 at the crack of dawn for Ecuador.  I'm meeting the 14 other American students, as well as my tour director at the airport terminal Sunday night, and from there my adventure will begin.  After a week of culture shock in Quito, I'll be heading outside of the city for my first home stay.  Each student stays with a different Ecuadorian family for about 4 weeks at a time.  The second home stay is in urban Quito, and in between, the group will be traveling to the coast and the rain forest.  I'll be taking classes for most of the semester, except the last few weeks when the focus is a research project.  I'm there for the full semester, so I won't be back until just before Christmas.


The main question I have been getting lately is, "Why Ecuador?"
This is usually followed by, "Why not Italy or Spain?"
Then, "Where is Ecuador again?"
And inevitably, I receive the look of "I hope you know what you're doing/you make it back alive."
To clear it up, I wanted to do South America.  I've been briefly to Europe, and loved every minute of it.  I can't wait to go back, however, the chances of me finding a travel companion to go to Europe with later on are pretty high, while the chances of someone coming with me to backpack through South America are slim to none.  This is an opportunity I probably won't have again, so I figure I better take advantage.


This travel blog is partly for my family and friends to follow my trip, see what I'm up to, and make sure I'm still alive.  It's also partly for me, so that I will have something to look back on and remember my experiences.  Pending internet service, I hope to update a few times a week with posts, pics, and video. 

See you in Ecuador