First week in Quito

Hey everyone,

I've been gone only a week but I feel like so much has happened so far.  Here's a description of my experiences in Quito from this past week.  I took way more photos than what appear here, so I'll send those out soon.

Day Uno- 1/5/09:

So far, Quito seems like one of the coolest cities I’ve ever visited, in terms of its appearance (I can’t really make a judgment about the city as a whole yet).  It reminds me of Granada, Nicaragua, times ten.  The mountains that surround the city are lushly green and usually there is some surreal cloud cover, making it seem like the densely-grouped houses and buildings were stuffed in the valley, out of place.  I really enjoy the bus ride to and from the university (USFQ) because a), the cliff-filled scenery of green vegetation mixed with the orange and brown architecture is amazing when the bus descends into Cumbaya, and 2), the bus ride is under 15 minutes (while others on my program need to ride 3 buses lasting over an hour).  My goal is to learn the Ecuadorian art of getting off the bus while it is still moving.  Perhaps when I reach that goal, it will offset my physical non-Ecuadorian appearance of blonde hair and blue eyes, and I will be accepted as one of the locals.

Tomorrow we have our Ceiba orientation, but it’s not until 1pm so I don’t feel bad about staying up late to write this, although I may pass out from exhaustion at any minute.  The day before I left for Ecuador, I stayed up until almost 4am (probably because I didn’t start packing until after midnight…but I was busy doing other important things earlier that day/night such as saying goodbye to friends, ice skating, watching part of a movie, looking at some of my high school writing samples as I was trying to clean under my bed, playing with Emily and Clancy on the ice-covered street, and uploading pictures on Facebook) and woke up at 5 to run (very dificil on the ice).  My plane arrived in Quito about an hour later than expected, at 11:30pm, but after going through customs and driving home, I didn’t get to bed until about 2:30am.  However, I wasn’t able to fall asleep for at least another hour probably because of the altitude- if I didn’t inhale mucho, I felt like I was suffocating.  I woke up at 7 to go to our first orientation meeting at USFQ with all the other international students (about 150), and the campus is amazing and seems like an oasis.  Although it in no way represents the normal Ecuadorian population or style of living (it is NOT a synecdoche…one of my new favorite words), I am very excited to be a student there.  We had a tour of the campus (my white, dread-locked guide is named Mook), and I don’t remember where anything is but at least the campus is small enough that I probably won’t get lost for longer than a minute.

I’ve slowly been meeting my family members, one by one, over the past 24 hours and I really like them.  My host sister and brother (Carla, 28, and Esteban, 25) picked my up from the airport last night and took me home.  They apologized for the “freezing weather,” which was probably no less than 65 degrees F, and were shocked when I told them how nice it felt.  Carla is a psychologist who has studied in the US and lived in Mexico (and may have studied there, too), and Esteban works in ecotourism, which he said is kind of a freelance job since they call him when he’s needed.  He also likes soccer a lot, and there are many medals hanging in my room from soccer tournaments…but they may be those of my other host brother, Nicolas.  It was kind of unnerving when Esteban drove me to school this morning and expected me to get back on my own on the bus, but his directions were easy and I only missed the correct bus stop by a few blocks.  I met my host mom (Consuelo) this morning and she is also really nice.  I feel like I’m able to understand Spanish here a lot easier than I was able to in Spain and Nicaragua, but I realized that it’s probably because they speak slower and don’t drop the s’s on the ends of words.  My speaking still lacks any type of competence, though.  I’ve given up hope on trying to roll my r’s, so I’m trying to focus on verb tenses and masculine/feminine articles instead.  After I returned from USFQ, I met my host dad (Cesar, but I’ve heard my mom and Carla call him Chino) who is a mechanical engineering professor (I think at USFQ, but I’m not sure). 

*side note- I always used to think that if I spent a lot of time writing about what’s going on during my trip, it would signify that I’m homesick...but I'm actually writing because I like it so much already and I fear that I might forget tiny details that fascinate me now, but that I’ll take for granted later.  However, we were warned about being on this initial “traveler’s high,” so I’ll probably be bawling from homesickness in a day or two.

            I have another host brother, Nicolas, who is 22 and closest to my age, but he is spending time in Bolivia (I think) with his girlfriend for another week.  My entire host family was vacationing in Peru and Bolivia during the holidays, and Carla showed me pictures (about 1500 of them…seriously).  In Peru, they went to Cuzco and Machu Picchu and now I NEED to go there later in May, after the exchange program officially ends.  Transportation and finding a guide seem like they will be very hectic and expensive, though.  The pictures from Bolivia were also very cool- the family went to an area (I don’t remember the name) that was covered naturally in salt.  It looked like they were standing on an ocean of flat, solid whiteness that in some places looked like clouds, and in others looked like desert.  They stayed in a hotel that was made from salt, including all the furniture- only the seat cushions and blankets weren’t made of salt.  After viewing the photos, Sebastian (Carla’s boyfriend) offered to play ping-pong with me sometime soon since they have a table in the attic.  Should’ve brought my paddle.

            Wow I’m tired.

 

Dia Two- 1/6/09:

            Since the Ceiba orientation didn’t start until 1 this afternoon, I was able to sleep in, which was fortunate because I’m still adjusting to the altitude.  Sleep deprivation caused by the altitude is quantized!  Two consecutive hours of sleep was the maximum amount of time I was able to remain sleeping, and I didn’t fail to wake up at 2am, 4am, 6am, 8am, and 10am…each awakening being almost exactly two hours apart, give or take a few minutes.  After my last awakening, I ate a breakfast consisting of Corn Flakes and a banana (one of my worst fears before coming to Ecuador was that I wouldn’t be able to eat cereal for an entire semester. I almost cried with relief when I saw the box of cereal waiting for me on the kitchen table.  Cereal and bananas probably made up at least 50% of my U.S. diet), and then Esteban took me on a walking tour of the neighborhood.  There’s a lot of construction going on near the cliffs that face Cumbaya, and one of the construction workers let Esteban and I into an almost-completed apartment building with a good view of the valley and Cumbaya.  I found out that the rent will cost $300…less than what I paid last semester…so I’m probably going to live there when they finish construction.

Our orientation at the Universidad that day ended up being cancelled since about half of the students from our program never showed up, probably because everything having to do with USFQ has been slightly unclear and disorganized so far.  So we were dismissed early, and a bunch of us decided to go to a park in Quito called El Metropolitano.  The park seemed more like a trail through a forest that wouldn’t stop ascending, so after about 30 minutes of climbing we were exhausted and went home.  But at least I got to see a cow, a donkey, a horse, and a grasshopper.  Speaking of animals, I forgot to mention that my host family owns two dogs, Wait (no idea if that’s how it’s spelled…it sounds like a Spanish equivalent of Wyatt) and Mati (short for Matilda).  They greeted me and kept me company for a while when I was locked out of the house today (my key didn’t work).

            In the US, I was always excited about going to bed because I knew I’d be able to feast on Honey Bunches of Oats when I woke up, but now I’m more excited about waking up because of both the cereal AND the juice.  All the juice that I’m served is always freshly-squeezed, pulpy, and deliciously sweet.  I’m salivating right now just thinking about it.  My favorite so far is naranjilla, which looks kind of like an orange but it’s not citrus.  Ahora necesito dormir.

 

1/7/09

            The juice here is amazing.  Fresh-squeezed strawberry juice?  Seriously?  I’ve also had jugo de naranjilla and arbol de tomate- both are sweetly flavorful and thick.  The process of obtaining a censo here seems like it’s going to be worse than the process of obtaining a visa in the US.  I made copies of about 528392 documents today (actually, only 8), so hopefully there won’t be any problems when I begin the registration process tomorrow.  Classes began today and everyone in my program takes the same courses.  For this first month we all take conservation biology and Spanish.  So far, both seem ok, but I’m not sure I’ll survive the 3-hour long lectures for each class.

            Esteban took me on a car tour of some parts of Quito after dinner (we ate dorado, a type of fish- my mom told me it’s like the Southern Hemisphere’s equivalent of salmon [Quito is about a half hour drive south of the equator]), and then we went to his friend’s house.  

            I thought this semester was going to be easier in terms of workload, but at least for this first month, we have a ton of reading to do, from like 5 different texts, and other articles will be assigned throughout the month.  I need to learn how to read fast.

 

1/8/09

            Happy birthday Jeff!  If you were here, I’d let you take me out to spend a brotherly night on the town, since I still have no idea where anything is, but you probably do.  I’m writing early tonight (7:30) because I’m going to La Mariscal (a district full of bars/discotecas…it’s also known as Gringolandia) tonight with the other exchange students, and I’m not sure when or if I’ll make it back.  La Mariscal, along with the downtown area and pretty much every other barrio in Quito, is supposedly dangerous and everyone is supposed to take extreme caution.  But if every place in Quito is dangerous, what’s the point of trying to stay safe?

*bus update: today I was able to step off the bus while it was still moving!  It was going only about 2 mph, though.  The turtle will always win the race…?

All the students went to the Direccion de Extranjeria today to register our visas and get a stamp on our passport, which won’t be ready to pick up until Monday.  When the passports are ready, we have to then take them to another location to obtain a censo, which acts as an Ecuadorian ID.   But before doing that, I need to get 2 wallet-sized photos of myself.  Maybe I can just draw a picture of myself, since I’m not sure where to have photos taken.  The most exciting thing that happened to me this morning was that a bird pooped on my hand.

*side note- I always try to be conscious of how many times the word “I” appears in my sentences, in order to not sound self-centered, but it’s hard to eliminate that pronoun.  If I were completely fluent in Spanish (subjuntivo!), I would definitely be writing in Spanish because the Yo pronoun is usually optional.  So, sorry if I appear to talk about myself too much, but just keep in mind that if I were smarter and more fluent in Spanish, I could avoid that problem.

            Strawberry juice is like the ambrosia of the Ecuadorians- I just had some for dinner a few minutes ago and it tastes like a thick smoothie…but better.  Back to my day- we only had Spanish class today because our morning was free to go begin the censo process.  The Spanish class has the potential to be extremely boring because the majority of the time, we just work out of a workbook.  However, we also do some more interactive activities, like recite a short play or draw a picture using only certain shapes.  Gotta go catch a taxi.  Adios.

 

            Ok I’m back.  Gringolandia is the place to be.  Earlier today, the other students from this program had planned to meet at Coffee Tree, a restaurant/bar in La Mariscal, between 9:00 and 9:30pm, so I told my host mom that people were meeting around 9, so she called a taxi at 8:20 so that I could be picked up at 8:30 and therefore arrive punctually.  However, my host mom’s conception of time was an anomaly in Ecuador and I guess everyone else’s host families had them dropped off way past 9:30.  So, promptly at 8:55, I was dropped off in one of the most dangerous places in Quito and I couldn’t find anyone from my program, so I walked around a little to try to get an idea of La Mariscal’s milieu (I synonymed “environment”; I didn’t know what milieu meant before).   After walking around a few blocks, I just decided to wait at Coffee Tree for anyone to show up.  I was getting so worried that I started coming up with excuses to tell my host family for coming home early, such as “I ate food from a street vendor, and now I feel sick,” or “the taxi driver that picked me up from the house realized that he didn’t know where La Mariscal was, and just drove me back home instead,” or “after the taxi driver dropped me off at Coffee Tree, I was held up at gunpoint, but I used my charm and running skills to escape the situation.”  But finally, at 9:30, I recognized John, a student from my program, and within the next half hour, 8 more people showed up.  I vowed never to be early or on time to anything ever again.

            I just realized it’s an hour later than I thought it was, since I was looking at my computer clock, which I never adjusted.  That makes me mad.  Every minute of sleep counts- at least I got a half-hour nap after the visa/censo viaje.  I’ve been a lot more tired than normal here so far, even though I’ve been getting a lot more sleep than normal.  Maybe it’s because my running pattern has been skewed (thanks to pneumonia for hindering that aspect of my life).  The neighborhood I live in isn’t very conducive to running, since the main running park (el Parque Carolina) is pretty far away, so I’m kind of fearing that I won’t find a good, socially acceptable place to run that doesn’t involve solely a long, steep hill, like el Parque Metropolitano (which is pretty close to my house).  OK I’m going to bed now.  In conclusion, happy birthday to Jeff.

 

1/9/09 (actually it’s the 10^th right now, but I’ll keep it as the 9^th for simplicity)

            La Mariscal, round 2!  Almost everyone from the program went out tonight, but it wasn’t as fun as last night, maybe because our group was so big (I don’t do well in crowds).  We definitely let our Gringo presence be shown by joining about 8 tables together at the bars we went to, but eventually our group split up and it became easier to maneuver through the gente-infested streets.  For the past two nights, I have successfully avoided having to attempt any type of dancing, so I’ve been pretty proud of myself (although there was an awkward moment a few nights ago when a friend of my mom tried to teach me how to salsa).  The thing I dislike about going to Mariscal is the taxi prices.  I probably live the farthest away from La Mariscal, and none of the other students live by me, so I have to ride alone and therefore pay higher prices for the taxi rides.  However, I had a nice chat with my driver on the way home tonight so I didn’t mind the higher price.  And who am I to complain about paying a few dollars extra to use the transportation services?  Seeing parents with their 5-year-old children trying to sell gum and cigarettes in the most dangerous area of Quito at midnight made me want to gag.  It’s sickening to think that I went out with my American friends tonight to spend money on transportation and beverages, but I didn’t give a penny to the people who need money the most.  My host parents told me not to give out money, but I still feel bad nonetheless.

            On a happier note, Ian’s Pizza must have ties with Ecuador, since a pizza place across the street from USFQ serves the biggest slices of pizza ever for a very reasonable price ($1).  Although the pizza has no sauce, I almost prefer it to Ian’s since the dough is so tasty…and more importantly since it’s cheap.  I have yet to try eating lunch at USFQ’s cafeteria, but the pizza across the street is so good that I may never eat anywhere else for lunch.  However, the pizza may have been the reason I felt sick later that afternoon.

            During our conservation biology class this morning, Joe (the professor) told us that our Spanish classes weren’t actually required on this program, although it would be a good idea to take it because the material we learn will come in handy during our internships at the end of the semester.  There are about 5 of us, though, who have taken enough Spanish classes already to make the class here be solely review.  So, I think it would be a lot more beneficial to drop the class and instead volunteer somewhere in the city, or work on an independent project, or just do something more useful with my time.  I’d really like to volunteer at a hospital (preferably a children’s hospital, since they speak slower and don’t have big vocabularies, and I could make a fool of myself and not be too embarrassed) or a veterinary clinic or a zoo.  Apparently, however, volunteers in Ecuador are increasingly being required to pay a fee, and the time spent training volunteers may be so much that the opportunity wouldn’t be worth it.  After all, we’re only going to be in Quito for three more weeks, and then the travelling begins.  So on Monday, I’m going to talk to a volunteer coordinator from USFQ to see if anything would be doable.  Otherwise, a more advanced Spanish class is being arranged, and I would take that instead of volunteering (I’d really prefer not to be in a class, since I don’t need the credits, and it would be more valuable to learn the language by speaking it to Ecuadorians in an Ecuadorian environment than to learn the language in a classroom, and it would be extremely cool if the volunteer work could incorporate something health-related).

            Goodnight!

 

1/10/09

            Things I learned today:  one in every ten plants in the world is from the orchid family.  Quito’s airport runway is the shortest in the world.  Dense fog has caused two plane crashes into buildings in the same neighborhood in the city within the last decade or so.  My host family is really good at knowing what I’m trying to say, and they’re usually able to finish sentences for me if I hesitate (which I do a lot).  The 10^th of August is Ecuador’s independence day, while the 6^th of December is Quito’s independence day.  Quito is over 40km long, and growing.

We went to the Quito Botanical Gardens today, in Parque Carolina.  I’ve never taken an interest in plants before, but after listening to Catherine and Joe (the program directors/professors/leaders/coolest people ever) talk about the plants at the botanical gardens, I’m beginning to feel more passionate about them.  Their diversity and adaptations to survive in almost all environments on Earth amaze me.  My new favorite tree is the monkey tree.

After the garden tour, we went to Crepes and Waffles, an awesome restaurant near the park.   I’d like to go there sometime soon and order every single dessert crepe (which 

probably be under $10)- I had the banana nutella crepe today and experienced the most pleasurable orgasm in my mouth ever.  Later in the afternoon my parents and Carla took me to downtown Quito so I could see the churches, plazas, and historic streets.  A huge statue of the “Virgin of Quito” was built on a hill overlooking the downtown area, and it reminded me of the Jesus statue in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro?).  I finally bought a map while I was there, so now I think I’ll be able to plan out some running routes.

Later in the evening, I met a few more of Consuelo’s relatives—

*I forgot to mention something really important: Catherine looks EXACTLY like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.  I wonder if she could pull my eye out.

            --including her sister (Anita?) who is extremely animated and likes to throw in English phrases whenever she exclaims something (like “Happy New Year!” or “It’s my birthday!”…which is on January 31^st, and apparently I’m her 81^st guest and she’s excited to salsa with me.  I didn’t tell her that I’m going to a cloud forest that weekend).  We then went to Consuelo’s brother’s new condo, where I probably made a terrible first impression since I declined his offer of wine, denied having his 7-year-old son’s gameboy game in my possession but then watching it fall off my lap when I stood up, accidentally spit up some water when I coughed and drank at the same time, and leaving without saying a proper goodbye (I thought I was going to come back after riding with Carla to drop off Esteban at a bus stop, but I ended up going home instead).  I’m going to get over 7 hours of sleep tonight!

 

1/11/09

I visited La Mitad del Mundo today with Eric, Melissa, and Teal- it’s about half an hour north of Quito, where the Equator passes through the country.  The equator was labeled with a large line and an impressive monument by a French explorer from the 1700s, but he was 240m off.  Hundreds of years ago, before the Incas invaded present-day Ecuador, the indigenous people had labeled the actual equator, since their astronomy and mathematical skills were so advanced.  It really bothered all of us that the actual equatorial line wasn’t marked (or if it was, we couldn’t find it), but we enjoyed taking picture of ourselves on the fake equator line anyways.  Apparently, the indigenous people (I forgot their name) had built structures on the nearby Catequilla Mountain that marked the exact equator, and other formations represented the sun’s position during the solstices, and tons of artwork and architecture incorporate symbols derived from this astronomical discovery.  But these symbols were used in many different cultures, including Aztec, Inca, Maya, and Egyptian (I think), so distant cultures must have discovered the same phenomenon as the indigenous people of Ecuador.  All of the indigenous religious temples in what is now Quito were built in such a way that they can be connected with a line that passes through the formation on Catequilla.  When the Spaniards conquered the Incas (who had conquered the indigenous people), all the temples were razed and Catholic churches were built over them…so unbeknownst to the Spaniards, some indigenous influence still existed.  During the solstices, light enters through the church windows at certain times and fully illuminates important pieces of artwork, such as Jesus’s head and the Virgin Mary.  There was a ton of really interesting information on that topic. 

Our guide then took us to the top of a nearby volcano (Pululahua), which was equally as amazing.  In the cloud-filled caldera (is that the correct word?) was a spread out farming village of 25 families, and that number is decreasing as people try to move to Spain to find work (I’m not sure why the majority of them decide to go to Spain…it seems a bit inconvenient).  We descended the crater a tiny bit, but our guide said it would take about an hour to go all the way down (and then about 2 hours to come back up, since the path was so steep and rocky).  Muy chevere.  After returning (and getting lost near the Centro Historico), I met the final member of my family, Nicolas, who just got back from Bolivia.  Apparently he did a 4-day-long bike ride down a mountain, starting at an elevation of around 13000 feet.  Maybe I’ll ask him for some triathlon tips. 

I’m going to run tomorrow!  Need to sleep.