So, voting for the new constitution happened today and the exit polls were announced at 5pm. According to them, the constitution passed by a pretty big margin. The official counts will be released later but I don't think it will change anything, we've got ourselves a new constitution. Now I just have to figure out how that affects me. A lot of people say that around here even if there are new political policies, in reality not much changes. We'll see how a new constitution affects the country. I'm wondering if we'll see Correa (the president) get kicked out of power, or if the adoption of the new constitution will go over relatively well with all the "No" votes. Ecuadorians have a habbit of straight-up kicking out presidents they don't like. Whatever happens I'll make sure to keep you all updated.
Tidbit: Apparently it's illegal here (and other countries) to make soda with high fructose corn syrup because of the harm it causes the human body. Instead soda is made with real sugar. It has a slightly different taste, but I like it. Also you can find quite a variety of bottle sizes here. Not only are there 1 liter and 2 liter, but I've also seen 1.5, 2.5, and maybe the weirdest: 1.35 liters.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tidbits!
Hey all! It's me again just giving a little update to the blog. I've been here about 40 days, and the mentality is starting to show. For example, just yesterday I was watching a TV show in which a woman drank water straight from the faucet. I wanted to reach into the screen and tell her not to do it until I realized that it was OK to drink the water where she was, as opposed to here where you really have to be careful. The city doesn't have any real tap-water sanitation program so if you drink straight from the tap, you can say good bye to your good health for a while, until they flush the amoebas and what not out of you.
Another example of me getting too comfortable here is that a few weeks ago I was in a grocery store and I made a comment in English about the guy in line in front of me. Most of the time I can get away with this because of that whole different language thing, but then I realized he was from the States. Oops. At least I didn't say anything too embarrassing, I had just been commenting on how much money he was paying. We said hi to each other and it wasn't that big of a deal, but it may just have saved me from a much more awkward situation in the future.
An interesting law came to pass last Monday: street sellers are no longer allowed to enter buses to sell things. If this happens, the driver of the bus is fined 20 bucks and two points are taken from his license. While this has reduced the number of sellers I've seen, they're not completely gone. They still come on the bus from time to time, in fact I just bought a bag of chips from one last night on my way home. The bus driver is too busy driving to kick off the vendors. Maybe after a few fines the drivers might crack down a bit more on who can come on their bus, but so far I've seen a general ignorance of this law, and who can blame them? It's not like their killing people or selling drugs, and for many of them it's just what they do to scrape together some cash to make their living.
Speaking of not paying attention to laws, in general road laws are pretty relaxed around here. I've never seen anyone pulled over for a speeding ticket or a busted tail light. In fact seat belts aren't even mandatory. My family doesn't really use them, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure that the seat belts work in our car. My father has been known to get away with running a red light several times without receiving anything worse than an “Aye papí! El semáforo!” (the traffic light!) from my host mom. But worry not for my road safety, I've only seen two car accidents during my whole time here, and one of those wasn't even in Quito and the other was during a rainy night. People are so used to how everyone else drives that although it would be considered bad driving in other places, it's normal driving here, and some strange sort of harmony has risen from the chaos.
In other news, this Sunday the whole country will vote on a new constitution. Really exciting stuff. The media is flooded with propaganda for the “Si” and the “No” vote. I'm sure many of you know the feeling back home. The interesting thing is that in Ecuador, voting is mandatory. Now at first, that seems like a really good idea, because nothing says “Democracy” more than every citizen putting in their ballot. But, unfortunately this mandatory voting thing may not actually be so hunky-dory. A large portion of the population is of low economic class and uneducated. This means that they're probably not paying close attention to politics and when voting day comes along, you'll find a large number of the citizens making uninformed decisions. Politics are also a lot more mean down here, and by that I mean there are politicians throughout Ecuador who say that if the vote ends up a certain way, they will leave office. Additionally, I heard that the president made an announcement that if the constitution passed, he would double the amount of money that natives receive, but if it doesn't pass, they'll get nothing. Yeah, in the States, we'd probably call that corruption or mass bribery or something along those lines. Personally, I think it would be interesting to see the constitution pass only because it would be unique to witness first-hand what it's like for a country to adopt a new constitution. On the other hand, it seems like many of the people who've actually read the thing are very much against it, so although it may be entertaining for me, it might not be in the country's best interest to adopt it. We'll see. I personally have not read the new constitution, but I do have a copy of it sitting on by bedside table in the case of a rare bout of insomnia. To put it in few words, from what I can tell, it's generally a pretty far-left-leaning document. I'll make sure to let you all know how this important vote turns out. Right now I wouldn't be surprised if it passed, because the government is putting a lot of effort into this campaign, and the whole mandatory vote thing that I talked about earlier. The whole country is taking this very seriously, to the extent that nobody is allowed to be intoxicated in public, it's going to be a dry weekend for the whole country so that people can make as much of a sober decision as possible. I think that's a cool idea. I'll be the bars feel differently (unless the president is subsidizing them temporarily to make up for the lost profit – it wouldn't be the first thing that's subsidized in this country).
On an unrelated note, today I definitely saw a guy riding down the street on a bicycle that had a lawn mower tied to the back. I don't mean he was dragging the mower behind him, it was like perched atop the bike rack that goes over the rear wheel. What makes this even better? This wasn't the first time I'd seen someone transporting a lawn mower by carrying it on their bicycle. Yessiree people do get creative down here.
One last thing: today I finished my first piece in my jewelery class, here's a pic!
Another example of me getting too comfortable here is that a few weeks ago I was in a grocery store and I made a comment in English about the guy in line in front of me. Most of the time I can get away with this because of that whole different language thing, but then I realized he was from the States. Oops. At least I didn't say anything too embarrassing, I had just been commenting on how much money he was paying. We said hi to each other and it wasn't that big of a deal, but it may just have saved me from a much more awkward situation in the future.
An interesting law came to pass last Monday: street sellers are no longer allowed to enter buses to sell things. If this happens, the driver of the bus is fined 20 bucks and two points are taken from his license. While this has reduced the number of sellers I've seen, they're not completely gone. They still come on the bus from time to time, in fact I just bought a bag of chips from one last night on my way home. The bus driver is too busy driving to kick off the vendors. Maybe after a few fines the drivers might crack down a bit more on who can come on their bus, but so far I've seen a general ignorance of this law, and who can blame them? It's not like their killing people or selling drugs, and for many of them it's just what they do to scrape together some cash to make their living.
Speaking of not paying attention to laws, in general road laws are pretty relaxed around here. I've never seen anyone pulled over for a speeding ticket or a busted tail light. In fact seat belts aren't even mandatory. My family doesn't really use them, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure that the seat belts work in our car. My father has been known to get away with running a red light several times without receiving anything worse than an “Aye papí! El semáforo!” (the traffic light!) from my host mom. But worry not for my road safety, I've only seen two car accidents during my whole time here, and one of those wasn't even in Quito and the other was during a rainy night. People are so used to how everyone else drives that although it would be considered bad driving in other places, it's normal driving here, and some strange sort of harmony has risen from the chaos.
In other news, this Sunday the whole country will vote on a new constitution. Really exciting stuff. The media is flooded with propaganda for the “Si” and the “No” vote. I'm sure many of you know the feeling back home. The interesting thing is that in Ecuador, voting is mandatory. Now at first, that seems like a really good idea, because nothing says “Democracy” more than every citizen putting in their ballot. But, unfortunately this mandatory voting thing may not actually be so hunky-dory. A large portion of the population is of low economic class and uneducated. This means that they're probably not paying close attention to politics and when voting day comes along, you'll find a large number of the citizens making uninformed decisions. Politics are also a lot more mean down here, and by that I mean there are politicians throughout Ecuador who say that if the vote ends up a certain way, they will leave office. Additionally, I heard that the president made an announcement that if the constitution passed, he would double the amount of money that natives receive, but if it doesn't pass, they'll get nothing. Yeah, in the States, we'd probably call that corruption or mass bribery or something along those lines. Personally, I think it would be interesting to see the constitution pass only because it would be unique to witness first-hand what it's like for a country to adopt a new constitution. On the other hand, it seems like many of the people who've actually read the thing are very much against it, so although it may be entertaining for me, it might not be in the country's best interest to adopt it. We'll see. I personally have not read the new constitution, but I do have a copy of it sitting on by bedside table in the case of a rare bout of insomnia. To put it in few words, from what I can tell, it's generally a pretty far-left-leaning document. I'll make sure to let you all know how this important vote turns out. Right now I wouldn't be surprised if it passed, because the government is putting a lot of effort into this campaign, and the whole mandatory vote thing that I talked about earlier. The whole country is taking this very seriously, to the extent that nobody is allowed to be intoxicated in public, it's going to be a dry weekend for the whole country so that people can make as much of a sober decision as possible. I think that's a cool idea. I'll be the bars feel differently (unless the president is subsidizing them temporarily to make up for the lost profit – it wouldn't be the first thing that's subsidized in this country).
On an unrelated note, today I definitely saw a guy riding down the street on a bicycle that had a lawn mower tied to the back. I don't mean he was dragging the mower behind him, it was like perched atop the bike rack that goes over the rear wheel. What makes this even better? This wasn't the first time I'd seen someone transporting a lawn mower by carrying it on their bicycle. Yessiree people do get creative down here.
One last thing: today I finished my first piece in my jewelery class, here's a pic!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
A weekend in Otavalo
SATURDAY - We all woke up bright and early and met down at Quicentro, a major mall in the area. 27 zombie-like K students greeted each other and piled onto the private bus. It was about a 2 hour drive from Quito to Otavalo. Along the way we stopped at a beautiful rest stop that had a fantastic view of a great mountain and a distant lake. There were also llamas and cows there. There were two native girls that we picked up at the rest stop and they sang for us in Quichua for the remaining 10 to 20 minutes of the trip. We also picked up our guide, Cesar along the way.
Once in the Otavalo area, the first place we stopped was a live animal market. There were turkeys, ducks, chickens being held upside-down by their legs, cats, dogs, guinea pigs, regular pigs, and cows. It was really interesting to be walking around this place knowing that most of these animals would be sold and killed for food. Some people took that fact better than others.
Next we went to a market that sold pants, shirts, knick-knacks, art, musical instruments, souvenirs, hats, and tons of other things. It was located in a central plaza in Otavalo and through many streets coming out of the plaza. Every seller had a tent with all of there things crammed in there on carts and tables. It wasn't uncommon to see many different tents throughout selling the same things. One of the most fun things about this place is that we're expected to barter with the sellers. We regrouped and showed off everything we'd gotten. A popular item were these really zany pants made out of light material. All had vertical stripes of varying fun colors.
Cesar then took us to a place that was run by his family. Part of the place was kind of like a museum, showing off different aspects of Quichuan life, like spinning alpaca wool, ancient pottery (we got to hold one that I believe was 2000 years old), musical instruments, a stone corn grinder, which is something that women have to master before getting married, and others. We also ate lunch at this place. The food was yummy, it was chicken, some other meat, some veggies, and some oregano tea. In the back was a garden full of beautiful flowers. I took a bunch of pictures there. There was also a hut with some guinea pig pens in it.
We hopped back on the bus and headed towards Parque Condor, a sanctuary for raptors. I was excited not only to see the Andean Condor, the official bird of Ecuador with a wingspan of about 10 feet, but also the Harpy Eagle, which is apparently capable of eating small children. There was an amphitheater on a bit of a cliff, and this is where we were given a demonstration of different birds. The trainers would kind of throw the bird off the cliff. It would disappear for a few seconds and then soar up in the air. One bird was really good at catching food that the trainer threw up in the air. After the demonstration, some smaller birds were brought out and we were allowed to hold them and get our pictures taken with them.
We departed from the park and drove only a little way before getting out and climbing up a hill. On top of the hill was a sacred tree that was over 200 years old. The hill had a breath-taking 360 view, and there was quite a bit of interesting history behind it, for example it was a burial ground for babies back in the day. Also people who got caught for doing something bad to the natives would be tied to the tree naked all night long. They would have cold water thrown on them throughout the night and also be beaten. There was a really cool mountain seen from the top of the hill and I took a few pictures of that. Unfortunately its name was in Quichua and I don't remember what it was.
Finally it was time to go to our hotel. The hotel wasn't a big building like you'd find in the States, but rather a compound of buildings in a very rustic setting. There were hammocks outside of many of the rooms. The hotel had its own restaurant, where we ate. We were entertained by some really good music typical of the area. Also several kids danced for us. We had several options for dinner, and I chose the trout. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it was served with the head and tail still attached!
By the end of dinner everyone was pretty exhausted, we'd had a pretty big day, but it wasn't over yet. We had an evening activity planned: a demonstration of spiritual cleansing by an authentic shaman. Now, when I first heard about this, what came to mind was us sitting around in a temple of sorts with a man dressed head-to-toe in very shaman-esque clothing. What it turned out to be was us sitting around in a guy's living room. His house wasn't particularly nice, the furniture was uncomfortable and there were flies all around. Our shaman was an older man with a button-down shirt with a design of an eagle combating a snake in a lightning storm. For the ceremony he wore a headdress that wasn't in the best of conditions.
The Ceremony: First the shaman passed around a bowl of strong alcohol for us all to have a sip (“medicine of the ancestors”, as he called it), then the volunteer (one of us) stripped down to their undergarments, and one of the first things the shaman did was spit, no, spray alcohol all over the volunteer's body. It was hard not to laugh. I don't know what we were expecting, but it wasn't this. We pulled ourselves together quickly and watched as the shaman shook two eggs all around the body of the volunteer, then rub burnt bundles of plants all over their body, breathe fire towards their body, and of course spit more alcohol over them. The ceremony had a very unique method of timing how long each phase should last: the time it took to smoke a cigarette. That's right, the shaman would start smoking a cigarette and then do his thing, like rubbing plants all over the person's body and he would only stop when his cigarette went out. Then he'd light up another and start on the next phase. Sometimes he'd blow smoke over the person's body as well. At the end, the person had to drink a concoction that may or may not have been a mixture of the strong alcohol and cologne. To top it off, the person whose spirit has been cleansed was not supposed to shower for three days. As far as I know, they all followed that rule (I think there might have been 6 in total).
It turns out that he usually doesn't do the ceremonies in his living room, but there's a smaller room where he does it for smaller groups. We got to look in and there were a lot of dead things hanging on the walls, including armadillos and animal skins. There was even a jaguar paw hanging on the wall.
Exhausted, stunned, and in some cases spiritually cleansed, we all climbed into the bus for the last time that day and headed back to the hotel, where we enjoyed our sleep very much.
SUDNAY - On Sunday, we woke up earlier than we wanted to (6:30) and went to breakfast at 7. I wore my new zany blue-striped pants that I'd gotten at the market the day before. We moved out of the hotel and went to a fruit market that had tons of people with their carts selling fruits of all types and colors. It was really cool. It wasn't only a fruit market, but a dead animal market (probably where some of those animals we saw the day before end up). There were several butcheries, and outside the doorway of one was a dog sitting patiently for some scraps. Some people had a bag full of dead, plucked chickens. They'd take them out one at a time, chop off the head and the legs at the knees and then put the body in a pile on their cart next to the rest of the dead, plucked, headless, legless chickens. We also saw several pig heads, some with skin and some without skin.
After another bus ride, we found ourselves at a place that looked like a really nice park, except I think people actually lived there. It had a good-sized waterfall and we all took pictures of each other in front of it. Then we climbed up a steep path that went up the side of the waterfall and over the top of it to the other side. We met a sweet black dog. It followed us around everywhere, even up the really steep path. I'm not sure how exactly it did it, but then again it does live there, so it's probably been everywhere.
The next stop was a place where musical instruments are made, a woman showed us how pan pipes are made and then she demonstrated different instruments. I got to try out an instrument that resembled a didgeridoo in front of everyone.
We ate lunch in a town called Cotocachi, a place that is known for its leather. After lunch we watched a parade and walked down a street that had tons of leather shops.
Our last stop before returning to Quito was a great big dormant volcano that had filled up with water and become a lake. We got on a boat and rode around the lake, which had two islands. We were able to see bubbles coming up from the water and in some places it smelled a bit like sulfur. The bubbles were volcanic, coming from way down deep in the Earth. After getting out of the boats, we took a little hike along the rim of the volcano, where we not only got a great view of the lake and islands, but also of the land around the volcano. We were able to see the great big mountain that we'd seen the day before from atop the sacred hill.
Even though my weekend was fantastic, when I got home I was so excited to see my room and my bed again. It had seemed like a long time since I'd been here even though it was two days.
As always, check out my picasa page for pics!
Once in the Otavalo area, the first place we stopped was a live animal market. There were turkeys, ducks, chickens being held upside-down by their legs, cats, dogs, guinea pigs, regular pigs, and cows. It was really interesting to be walking around this place knowing that most of these animals would be sold and killed for food. Some people took that fact better than others.
Next we went to a market that sold pants, shirts, knick-knacks, art, musical instruments, souvenirs, hats, and tons of other things. It was located in a central plaza in Otavalo and through many streets coming out of the plaza. Every seller had a tent with all of there things crammed in there on carts and tables. It wasn't uncommon to see many different tents throughout selling the same things. One of the most fun things about this place is that we're expected to barter with the sellers. We regrouped and showed off everything we'd gotten. A popular item were these really zany pants made out of light material. All had vertical stripes of varying fun colors.
Cesar then took us to a place that was run by his family. Part of the place was kind of like a museum, showing off different aspects of Quichuan life, like spinning alpaca wool, ancient pottery (we got to hold one that I believe was 2000 years old), musical instruments, a stone corn grinder, which is something that women have to master before getting married, and others. We also ate lunch at this place. The food was yummy, it was chicken, some other meat, some veggies, and some oregano tea. In the back was a garden full of beautiful flowers. I took a bunch of pictures there. There was also a hut with some guinea pig pens in it.
We hopped back on the bus and headed towards Parque Condor, a sanctuary for raptors. I was excited not only to see the Andean Condor, the official bird of Ecuador with a wingspan of about 10 feet, but also the Harpy Eagle, which is apparently capable of eating small children. There was an amphitheater on a bit of a cliff, and this is where we were given a demonstration of different birds. The trainers would kind of throw the bird off the cliff. It would disappear for a few seconds and then soar up in the air. One bird was really good at catching food that the trainer threw up in the air. After the demonstration, some smaller birds were brought out and we were allowed to hold them and get our pictures taken with them.
We departed from the park and drove only a little way before getting out and climbing up a hill. On top of the hill was a sacred tree that was over 200 years old. The hill had a breath-taking 360 view, and there was quite a bit of interesting history behind it, for example it was a burial ground for babies back in the day. Also people who got caught for doing something bad to the natives would be tied to the tree naked all night long. They would have cold water thrown on them throughout the night and also be beaten. There was a really cool mountain seen from the top of the hill and I took a few pictures of that. Unfortunately its name was in Quichua and I don't remember what it was.
Finally it was time to go to our hotel. The hotel wasn't a big building like you'd find in the States, but rather a compound of buildings in a very rustic setting. There were hammocks outside of many of the rooms. The hotel had its own restaurant, where we ate. We were entertained by some really good music typical of the area. Also several kids danced for us. We had several options for dinner, and I chose the trout. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it was served with the head and tail still attached!
By the end of dinner everyone was pretty exhausted, we'd had a pretty big day, but it wasn't over yet. We had an evening activity planned: a demonstration of spiritual cleansing by an authentic shaman. Now, when I first heard about this, what came to mind was us sitting around in a temple of sorts with a man dressed head-to-toe in very shaman-esque clothing. What it turned out to be was us sitting around in a guy's living room. His house wasn't particularly nice, the furniture was uncomfortable and there were flies all around. Our shaman was an older man with a button-down shirt with a design of an eagle combating a snake in a lightning storm. For the ceremony he wore a headdress that wasn't in the best of conditions.
The Ceremony: First the shaman passed around a bowl of strong alcohol for us all to have a sip (“medicine of the ancestors”, as he called it), then the volunteer (one of us) stripped down to their undergarments, and one of the first things the shaman did was spit, no, spray alcohol all over the volunteer's body. It was hard not to laugh. I don't know what we were expecting, but it wasn't this. We pulled ourselves together quickly and watched as the shaman shook two eggs all around the body of the volunteer, then rub burnt bundles of plants all over their body, breathe fire towards their body, and of course spit more alcohol over them. The ceremony had a very unique method of timing how long each phase should last: the time it took to smoke a cigarette. That's right, the shaman would start smoking a cigarette and then do his thing, like rubbing plants all over the person's body and he would only stop when his cigarette went out. Then he'd light up another and start on the next phase. Sometimes he'd blow smoke over the person's body as well. At the end, the person had to drink a concoction that may or may not have been a mixture of the strong alcohol and cologne. To top it off, the person whose spirit has been cleansed was not supposed to shower for three days. As far as I know, they all followed that rule (I think there might have been 6 in total).
It turns out that he usually doesn't do the ceremonies in his living room, but there's a smaller room where he does it for smaller groups. We got to look in and there were a lot of dead things hanging on the walls, including armadillos and animal skins. There was even a jaguar paw hanging on the wall.
Exhausted, stunned, and in some cases spiritually cleansed, we all climbed into the bus for the last time that day and headed back to the hotel, where we enjoyed our sleep very much.
SUDNAY - On Sunday, we woke up earlier than we wanted to (6:30) and went to breakfast at 7. I wore my new zany blue-striped pants that I'd gotten at the market the day before. We moved out of the hotel and went to a fruit market that had tons of people with their carts selling fruits of all types and colors. It was really cool. It wasn't only a fruit market, but a dead animal market (probably where some of those animals we saw the day before end up). There were several butcheries, and outside the doorway of one was a dog sitting patiently for some scraps. Some people had a bag full of dead, plucked chickens. They'd take them out one at a time, chop off the head and the legs at the knees and then put the body in a pile on their cart next to the rest of the dead, plucked, headless, legless chickens. We also saw several pig heads, some with skin and some without skin.
After another bus ride, we found ourselves at a place that looked like a really nice park, except I think people actually lived there. It had a good-sized waterfall and we all took pictures of each other in front of it. Then we climbed up a steep path that went up the side of the waterfall and over the top of it to the other side. We met a sweet black dog. It followed us around everywhere, even up the really steep path. I'm not sure how exactly it did it, but then again it does live there, so it's probably been everywhere.
The next stop was a place where musical instruments are made, a woman showed us how pan pipes are made and then she demonstrated different instruments. I got to try out an instrument that resembled a didgeridoo in front of everyone.
We ate lunch in a town called Cotocachi, a place that is known for its leather. After lunch we watched a parade and walked down a street that had tons of leather shops.
Our last stop before returning to Quito was a great big dormant volcano that had filled up with water and become a lake. We got on a boat and rode around the lake, which had two islands. We were able to see bubbles coming up from the water and in some places it smelled a bit like sulfur. The bubbles were volcanic, coming from way down deep in the Earth. After getting out of the boats, we took a little hike along the rim of the volcano, where we not only got a great view of the lake and islands, but also of the land around the volcano. We were able to see the great big mountain that we'd seen the day before from atop the sacred hill.
Even though my weekend was fantastic, when I got home I was so excited to see my room and my bed again. It had seemed like a long time since I'd been here even though it was two days.
As always, check out my picasa page for pics!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Bad dream, glad I woke up!
So last night I had this dream that went a little something like this: First I realize I'm in the US and I find it strange that I still have some things like my Ecuadorian cell phone with me, because I meant to leave that in Ecuador when I left. Secondly I start remembering things that I wanted to do while I was in Ecuador that I never got to accomplish. Then I start wondering why on Earth I thought I'd be able to have enough time to do these things. I soon came upon the answer: because I was supposed to be in Ecuador for a longer period of time. For some reason I had returned to the States after only a month in Ecuador! I started getting mad because I hadn't even gotten a chance to say good bye to my host family, and although it was nice to see everyone back home in the States, I felt really cheated because I was supposed to be in Ecuador for another five months! I got in contact with a woman in charge here and our conversation went a little something like this:
"Why are we here?!"
"What do you mean?"
"Why aren't we in Quito right now?!"
"Oh, the program got canceled and we brought you guys home early."
"WHAT! WHY?"
"Some students just weren't responsible enough to be there."
Oh, I was so mad. Why did they have to bring all of us back just because a few students couldn't stay? By the end of the dream I told myself that some day I'd return to Ecuador and do the things I wanted to do.
You have no idea how happy I was to wake up from that dream. I miss a lot of you back home, but there is NO way that I'm ready to leave.
---
This weekend we're going on a trip with the program to a place called Otavalo, a little town outside of Quito. Apparently it has a really cool market place and a park for birds of prey. I'll make sure to write a good blog entry and put up lots of pictures when I get back. We leave bright and early Saturday morning and get back Sunday evening.
Tidbit: Every morning for breakfast I get a good-sized bowl of yogurt, filled with pieces of fresh fruit (I've had apple, banana, kiwi and papaya, just to name a few) and with granola sprinkled on top. Also my host mother makes me delicious scrambled eggs, sometimes with scallions and sometimes with small strips of ham cooked right in there. I also get a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice, and if that doesn't fill me up, there's always fresh bread from a nearby bakery and cheese and homemade jam to put on top. It's so good, or as the Ecuadorians would say, ¡Que rico!
Take care everyone, and check back in early next week to find out what happens in Otavalo!
-Joey
"Why are we here?!"
"What do you mean?"
"Why aren't we in Quito right now?!"
"Oh, the program got canceled and we brought you guys home early."
"WHAT! WHY?"
"Some students just weren't responsible enough to be there."
Oh, I was so mad. Why did they have to bring all of us back just because a few students couldn't stay? By the end of the dream I told myself that some day I'd return to Ecuador and do the things I wanted to do.
You have no idea how happy I was to wake up from that dream. I miss a lot of you back home, but there is NO way that I'm ready to leave.
---
This weekend we're going on a trip with the program to a place called Otavalo, a little town outside of Quito. Apparently it has a really cool market place and a park for birds of prey. I'll make sure to write a good blog entry and put up lots of pictures when I get back. We leave bright and early Saturday morning and get back Sunday evening.
Tidbit: Every morning for breakfast I get a good-sized bowl of yogurt, filled with pieces of fresh fruit (I've had apple, banana, kiwi and papaya, just to name a few) and with granola sprinkled on top. Also my host mother makes me delicious scrambled eggs, sometimes with scallions and sometimes with small strips of ham cooked right in there. I also get a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice, and if that doesn't fill me up, there's always fresh bread from a nearby bakery and cheese and homemade jam to put on top. It's so good, or as the Ecuadorians would say, ¡Que rico!
Take care everyone, and check back in early next week to find out what happens in Otavalo!
-Joey
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Sí se puede, Ecuador!
Hola todos! Today was the big futbol, er, I mean soccer match between Ecuador and Bolivia, and I went with all of my friends. The game started at 4:10, but we had to get there around 2-ish to get seats. We were all wearing our bright yellow Ecuador jerseys and ready for a good time. Before the game I had also bought a hat and a flag, each for a dollar. At exciting moments I would jump up to my feet and wave the flag as hard as I could.We learned some popular chants from a nearby crowd of enthusiastic fans. Some of the transations were roughly: "You can do it!", "Stand up, Ecuador!", "Let's go Ecuadorians, it's your mission, we have to win!", and of course "ECUADOR! ECUADOR! ECUADOR!". These same spirited ecuadorians sitting near us were also really good at starting the wave, which we were able to make go around the whole stadium seve
ral consecutive times.Watching soccer is crazy, it's like life or death for the players, they will do whatever it takes to win. So when the ball was looking like it was heading towards our goal, instead of letting the goalie try to stop it, like might happen in a high school soccer match, one of our players came out of nowhere and did some super crazy kick to make sure the ball stayed way out of there. I think the ball ended up leaving the field in some weird direction, and so did the player, he was one of three who were injured enough in the first half to be carried off the field on a stretcher (the other two were Bolivians).
I'm sure you all are wondering who won. We did of course! The final score was 3 to 1, as predicted by Neil. Everyone was so happy as we poure
d out of that stadium. On my way home I bought two headbands (25 cents each) and another flag, this one much bigger, which was originally 5 bucks but I got it down to 3. Walking from the bus stop to my house, I trailed both flags behind me, as I proudly marched up the street, wearing my bright yellow jersey with red and blue on it.As always, there are pictures on my picasa page of the game. Check 'em out!
~Joey
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Pichincha
Hi all, it's been close to a week since my last post, but that doesn't mean nothing's been going on. Last Saturday I went with my friends up the mountain Pichincha, on a cable car called El TeleferiQo. Pichincha is roughly four and a half thousand meters above sea level and is an inactive volcano. When you get off the TeleferiQo, there's a safe space for you to walk around in with an unbelievable view. All of Quito and so much more is just sprawled out in front of you. From way up there, you not only look down on clouds, but airplanes as well. The air is noticibly thinner, and you can notice a difference in temperature as well. The boundaries of the safe zone on top of the mountain are pretty well labled. You have to be careful about how far you wander away from the safe zone. There are plenty of people on Pichincha who want your money, and they'll even go so far as to make their own hiking trails that lead right to them. Several Kalamazoo kids last year got robbed because they went too far. All of these stories made some of us cautious, and others of us flat out paranoid. Several unnamed members of our party were even too scared to get off the TeleferiQo for fear that we would be robbed right there at the top. As soon as we got to the top though, we saw that there was a very clear safe spot, and we all had fun walking around and taking pictures. To our surprise, one of the first people to wander outside of the safe zone limits was one of the ones who hadn't wanted to get off the TeleferiQo in the first place, but after we followed them, we saw that it was for good reason: there was yet another breath taking view just on the other side of a big sign warning us to go no further. We all had a fantastic (and safe) day atop Pichincha.
This week has been full of classes. Some more fun than others. Everyone's still getting settled into their classes, and changing schedules little by little to get just the right set of classes. This Friday's the last day to change, so I hope I've made the right decisions!
Tidbit: Home security is a very big deal here in Ecuador. Most houses have a wall between them and the street. These walls are topped with some form of robber-stopper. The three most popular types of robber-stoppers are (1) Metal Spikes (2) Electric Fence and (3) Shards of glass pointing straight up, cemented into the wall. I have yet to see a combination of all three, so just one method is sufficient apparently. Occaisionally you'll see barbed wire, but that's more for buisnesses. In addition to painful things on walls, many Ecuadorians also employ guards. Some guards protect whole neighborhoods that are gated, while other guards live in little houses on the sidewalk and protect a certain number of houses in the close vicinity. This is what my host family has. Apparently there has been talk recently of increasing (possibly even doubling) the amount of money it costs to have a guard. This is a big problem because many families won't be able to afford the increased cost of protection. I also heard a rumor that soon neighborhood guards might not be allowed to carry serious weapons. Where's the safety in that? Some Ecuadorians are worried that if this happens, the guards won't be able to sufficiently scare off bad guys.
At least I live in a relatively safe neighborhood. Not too much crime that I know of, just screaming cats and car alarms.
Allie asked if there was anything that I buy in the US that I can't find here, and the answer is yes: regular notebook paper. You walk into a school supply store and 80% of the notebooks will have graph paper. The remaining 20 have lined paper, but it's all funky and a lot more stylized than the lined paper I know and love. Apparently everyone writes on graph paper here, which I guess makes sense in a way. You also can't find "normal" loose-leaf lined paper to put in a binder. It's all either graph paper or the funky stuff. I personally use small loose-leaf graph paper in a small binder. It's working pretty well so far. Another note on paper: the "regular" size of paper here is not 8.5x11. My guess is more like 8x12, but then again it's probably in metric, so I don't know the exact dimensions. All I know is it's thinner and taller than what I'm used to in the States.
Take care everyone!
~Joey
P.S. It'd be nice if you could leave a comment so I could see who's keeping up with my blog. Thanks!
P.P.S. There are Pichincha pictures up on my Picasa page, check 'em out!
This week has been full of classes. Some more fun than others. Everyone's still getting settled into their classes, and changing schedules little by little to get just the right set of classes. This Friday's the last day to change, so I hope I've made the right decisions!
Tidbit: Home security is a very big deal here in Ecuador. Most houses have a wall between them and the street. These walls are topped with some form of robber-stopper. The three most popular types of robber-stoppers are (1) Metal Spikes (2) Electric Fence and (3) Shards of glass pointing straight up, cemented into the wall. I have yet to see a combination of all three, so just one method is sufficient apparently. Occaisionally you'll see barbed wire, but that's more for buisnesses. In addition to painful things on walls, many Ecuadorians also employ guards. Some guards protect whole neighborhoods that are gated, while other guards live in little houses on the sidewalk and protect a certain number of houses in the close vicinity. This is what my host family has. Apparently there has been talk recently of increasing (possibly even doubling) the amount of money it costs to have a guard. This is a big problem because many families won't be able to afford the increased cost of protection. I also heard a rumor that soon neighborhood guards might not be allowed to carry serious weapons. Where's the safety in that? Some Ecuadorians are worried that if this happens, the guards won't be able to sufficiently scare off bad guys.
At least I live in a relatively safe neighborhood. Not too much crime that I know of, just screaming cats and car alarms.
Allie asked if there was anything that I buy in the US that I can't find here, and the answer is yes: regular notebook paper. You walk into a school supply store and 80% of the notebooks will have graph paper. The remaining 20 have lined paper, but it's all funky and a lot more stylized than the lined paper I know and love. Apparently everyone writes on graph paper here, which I guess makes sense in a way. You also can't find "normal" loose-leaf lined paper to put in a binder. It's all either graph paper or the funky stuff. I personally use small loose-leaf graph paper in a small binder. It's working pretty well so far. Another note on paper: the "regular" size of paper here is not 8.5x11. My guess is more like 8x12, but then again it's probably in metric, so I don't know the exact dimensions. All I know is it's thinner and taller than what I'm used to in the States.
Take care everyone!
~Joey
P.S. It'd be nice if you could leave a comment so I could see who's keeping up with my blog. Thanks!
P.P.S. There are Pichincha pictures up on my Picasa page, check 'em out!
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