Back to Indiana

If you subtract the "my baby in an evening gown" and add "my family and friends," then this song is pretty fitting!

So, this is the end. I finished my exams, said my goodbyes, and packed. It still hasn’t sunk in that this is all over, though. I always knew that I would go home on May 22^nd but it’s unfathomable to me that TODAY is May 22^nd. But it is; my plane takes off in about five hours. It’s time to go home (to one of the many homes I have). It's also time to go to sleep!

Thank you for reading my EcuaSaga. It really means a lot to me that you are interested in what I have been up to and I am extremely excited to see you all again. Knowing that I’ve got some “Hello’s” waiting for me makes all of these goodbyes a lot more bearable. So, chao for now and see you on the other side!

Signing off,

EcuaPam

Nearing the End

(If you would like some music to accompany the reading of this blog, the song below is appropriate).

Look at that city!

Amber and I in the Teleferico lift on the way up Pichincha

Samantha, Amber, and I atop Pichincha

Marcela and I at the Despedida dinner.

Gladys and the ladies.

Em and I. LOVE this girl.

The group rocking our new IES t-shirts.

My girls, Em and Amber.

“It won’t be long, ‘til I get on back home. Back home, back home. Back home where I belong.”

--US Army Airborne Cadence

Absolutely unbelievable. I have less than a week left in Ecuador and time feels as though it is slipping through my fingers. I finally got to ride the Teleferico to the top of Pichincha for a view of the city from above. I have photos but they really can’t capture how long the city is. I think you would need two panoramic photos put together to really get a sense of it. We had our Despedida dinner with the whole program and just a few days later one of my very best friends here, Amber, left for the States. It was surreal saying goodbye to her…this is really ending!

It all came crashing down when we were out to dinner at Vista Hermosa (Beautiful View), a rooftop restaurant that really does have a beautiful view of the city. All of my favorite girls were out to celebrate both Amber’s last night and birthday, looking classy in fancy dresses, having dinner with wine, admiring the city lit up all around us, complete with beautiful cathedrals and fireworks. Just when I thought the evening was perfect, a live string trio of guitars and a violin came out and started playing an instrumental version of “With or Without You” by U2. Looking at my girls and my city, I just started tearing up in the restaurant. And then I looked next to me and saw Em tearing up, too, and I nearly starting crying, right there in the restaurant. It's hard to explain; it was just such a powerful moment. I just met Em in January and now I can hardly imagine not having her in my daily life. She is seriously one of the best people I know. I think that was simultaneously my happiest and saddest moment in Quito. I will never, ever forget it. And that string trio must have felt really accomplished after that, having moved two Gringas to tears!

That night in the cab going home, Amber and I were chatting…The life that we are living now is not sustainable. We can’t live here forever and even if we tried, it wouldn’t be the same. This experience had to end and we can go home knowing that there was virtually no way it could have been better. And this experience, everything we’ve learned, and all the ways we’ve changed, will mean nothing if we don’t go back and put it to use. It’s time to move forward.

Each day we are someone new and different than the person we were yesterday. Each experience and person changes us. I’m not the person I was when I got here and although it has kind of turned into a joke here, complete with extreme hand gestures, “This is the best Pam that has ever existed!”

I’m feeling more and more content with leaving. I’m sad to leave these friends, this home, and this era of my life but I am really, really excited to see my family again and to get to CYO camp. If I didn’t have such amazing people and experiences waiting for me back home, I really don’t think I could leave this Saturday.

I’m spending this weekend, my last full EcuaWeekend, trying to get work done and hanging out with friends as much as possible. I have three exams and two projects until I am done. I’ll get at least one free day and then it’s a flight home. Luckily, Em is on my flight to Houston so I get some extra time with her. It just seems so unreal that it’s nearly over.

So here is one last edition of…

FACTOIDS!

• My new favorite G-rated curse word: “¡Miércoles!” It means Wednesday and is used in place of ¡Mierda! (You can Word Reference that if you’d like).
• The other day I was in our backyard and on the back porch I saw an enormous dead tarantula. I would rather find a dead tarantula than a live one, but it’s still disconcerting to know that there are tarantulas inhabiting the same living space as me.
• Here in Ecuador, we don’t say “Adios” for goodbye, only Chao or Hasta luego. Adios or “to God” means a permanent goodbye, goodbye for good.

This isn’t Adios, Ecuador. I think you will always be with me.

Quilotoa!

Indigenous market in Zumbahua

Felipe and I with Empanadas de Viento. Think of the best funnel cake or elephant ear that you have ever had. These are better...mostly because they cost 15 cents.

Gloria, Me, Emily, and Hannah.

Picnic! We were sitting on a ledge with our feet dangling over, enjoying the view.

We went kayaking and they gave me a broken half of a kayak paddle. It was virtually useless.

Gloria and I kayaking in the crater lake.

Max the Mule and I.

We were above cloud level.

That's rain. Much cooler if you saw it in person. We saw the cloud move in and start to rain. Really neat.

Quilotoa!

I hope this finds everyone doing well. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone very soon!

So this weekend I headed to Quilotoa with a group of friends for the last big trip of the semester. Quilotoa is a beautiful water-filled volcanic crater in Ecuador’s highlands. Neither words nor photos can describe its beauty. It was so huge and majestic, that it just can’t be captured by a photo. Truly awe-inspiring.

When we got there, we hiked down the caldera to the lake and had a picnic lunch admiring the view and the clouds. After lunch, a few of us went kayaking on the lake, which was really, really cool and definitely one of my favorite boating experiences. “SunFish-ing” with my family probably takes first place. Afterwards, we rode mules back up to the top. I named my mule Max (he ended up being a female named Marisol, but he’ll always be Max to me) and he was feisty. He nearly threw me off at one point, luckily on the side away from the plummeting mountainside, but it was still something of concern, I’d say.

That evening we caught the sunset and after dinner, some of us Midwesterners played Euchre and then went star-gazing. I thought the night sky in the Galapagos was brilliant but this one was even better. It was a dome of stars stretching forever in every direction and the longer we stayed out, the more stars seemed to appear. If it wasn’t so cold, I might have just slept outside. However, it was freezing, so freezing that I wore two jackets on top of my t-shirt and under armour, two pairs of thick hiking socks (thanks for the care package, parental units! MUCH appreciated!), a hat, and gloves to bed. The hostel wasn’t heated and after living in Quito for over four months, we weren’t accustomed to the “frigid” temperatures (it was probably in the low 40’s). My friend Gloria and I shared a bed and put all of the blankets from both of our beds onto one and were still cold for much of the night. We even put a rock that had been heated by the fireplace at the foot of the bed to keep out feet warm. It didn’t work very well but we eventually got to sleep regardless. We headed home in the morning, after being able to enjoy the view a bit longer.

I had a brilliant time this weekend. At first the trip strengthened my feelings of not being ready to leave, but by the end I was starting to realize the need to come to terms with the fact that I am going to leave in less than two weeks. I need to reflect and get closure on this experience so that I can leave Ecuador with a smile on my face, ready to move on to the next part of my life. This experience has changed me for the better and pretty soon I’m going to get to return to my life as a better me. That’s something to embrace, not dread.

However, I am still procrastinating “mis deberes” in order to write this blog entry. I’m at FLACSO, the local graduate university which has a real library, something PUCE lacks, in order to write a Biodiversity essay. I’m not sweating it too much because its only five pages but its funny how last semester, five pages in Spanish would have me seriously worried. Thank you, study abroad! Now for some…

FACTOIDS!

• Because Quilotoa Lake is in a volcanic crater, the sulfur levels are too high to support much life, except perhaps some algae and microscopic organisms, no fish.
• The locals who live near Quilotoa believe it is bottomless.
• Star-gazing in Quilotoa, I was so close to the equator and the sky was so clear that I able to see the Southern Cross and the Big Dipper from the exact same spot.

Okay, that’s it for now! I hope everyone is doing well and had a happy Mother’s Day.

Cotopaxi and the Chiva!

Cotopaxi!

Gabriela and I.

Ann, Gabriela, and I drinking hot cocoa in the primer refugio.

Those little specks at the bottom of the slope are cars and buses.

During our adventure trying to get to the base of the climb, we contemplated whether or not to use this bridge. We made the right choice to not use it...it just drops off the other side!

Pretty much my favorite photo of all time.

Bowling! Re-creating my technique of motioning for the ball curve to the center after I've already thrown it. Works every time.

Chiva! Can't leave Ecuador without a good ol' fashion PARTY BUS!

Canelazo! (Cider-ish yummy-ness)

(Some of) The Girls!

Tyler and I repping the military!

COTOPAXI and the CHIVA!

This weekend I went with Ann and Gabriela, one of Ann’s friends/students, to Cotopaxi, the second highest volcano (after Chimborazo) and the highest active volcano in Ecuador. I was really excited to go because it was one of the last few things on my “must do” list. We climbed to just past the first refuge, which is the goal of most recreational climbers. Summiting requires months of preparation, intense ice climbing equipment, and a guide. Not really what I had in mind.

I left at 6:30am to take a bus to Ann’s house in Los Chillos, a southern suburb, and we took Gabriela’s car to Cotopaxi. The drive was really fun because once you got into Cotopaxi National Park, the signs were almost impossible to comprehend. It was a slew of random arrows pointing down seemingly identical roads that were barely drivable. We got lost and I seriously thought we were going to careen off a mountainside to our deaths at one point but Gabriela had everything under control. We ended up taking a huge detour through the middle of the park but it was the kind of getting lost that vastly improves the overall quality of the trip. The view was spectacular. But it was exciting when we finally saw a car. Salvation!

We chased the car down and asked for directions and were to the mountain in no time. The same car that gave us directions also came to our rescue when we got stuck at the bottom of an especially steep stretch of road heading to the base of the climb. And his wife even gave us candy so that we didn’t get light-headed climbing. They were pretty much awesome.

So we climbed to the first refuge, which is a cute little mountain lodge where we got hot chocolate, which was nice because it was snowing when we reached the top. My first EcuaSnow! The trip was a blast. The whole time I just kept thinking about how I’m not ready to leave yet. It’s easy to lose perspective when writing essays, but when admiring Cotopaxi National Park, there is no way to forget how lucky I am to be here and how amazing this entire experience has been. I just can’t believe it’s going to be over in fifteen days. I’m excited about what comes next but this semester seriously flew by!

Last night, IES got us all a Chiva, an open-air party bus with music and kitschy décor, to celebrate all the birthdays that happened during the semester and it was a blast! We went through Mariscal y Centro Histórico. El Centro was especially beautiful because all the cathedrals are lit up at night. Dancing in a Chiva, sipping canelazo (cider-type drink that Quito is known for), and admiring the cathedrals, I couldn’t help but think: “I live here! This is my life!” I may just have two weeks left, but I will always be able to carry this experience with me.

Coming to Ecuador was one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made. I remember when the paperwork and scholarship applications were getting overwhelming and I had thoughts about just staying in Chicago. I love Chicago, Loyola, ROTC, my friends; why not stay? It would have been a lot easier to just stay put. I’m glad I didn’t let those thoughts overpower me.

Yesterday marked my being in Quito for exactly four months and tomorrow marks my having exactly two weeks remaining (I’m writing this after midnight. I’m pretending it’s still the 7th). It’s getting a lot harder to say no to hanging out with friends and buckling down to work. Whenever I have to make a choice between the two, I think “I only have two weeks left with these friends until we all go back to our niches all over the country.” And then the decision is made. Luckily, years of good study habits are balancing that out so my coursework doesn’t seem to be suffering. Everything will get done eventually, even the essay that I am procrastinating right now in order to write this blog. But now for a few…

FACTOIDS!

• Pichincha is a mountain range and the mountains nearest Quito are Ruco Pichincha and GuaGua Pichincha (Ruco is Quechua for “old man” and GuaGua for “infant”).
• After Ecuador’s financial crisis of 1998, Filanbanco, Ecuador’s biggest financial institution, collapsed amidst rumors of corruption. Because of the times, there was really no way to prove any wrong-doing, yet the company closed, taking the money of a vast portion of the population with it. Many people, who were already suffering from severe financial stress, lost everything. It was devastating and led to depression and suicides. Those at fault suffered no repercussions.
• If you wanted to become a citizen of The Republic of Ecuador and open a business here, all you would need to do is prove that you have $30,000 available to start the business. Once you do that, you can get an entrepreneurial visa. (Don’t worry. I’m not getting any ideas. But then again…).

Okay, that’s all for now! Tomorrow I’m tagging along on a field trip for a class I’m not in to Quilotoa. It’s very possible that Quilotoa will be my last adventure outside of Quito before heading home. I’m running out of weekends! And I seriously can’t believe that the Quilotoa trip is tomorrow. Looking at it in my calendar, it always seemed so far away and here it is! But... I think that’s it for now. I need to get some sleep! Until next time, Peace! I hope everyone is enjoying their May!

Siguiente parada....Naciones Unidas.

Hello, everyone!! I hope you are all doing well. It’s sort of unbelievable that I’ll be home in a little over THREE WEEKS! Time is flying….a little too quickly, I think. I’ve been spending my weekends in Quito studying and working as the semester winds down and the work load picks up. Luckily, I'm done with the behemoth workshop (12 page writeup and one hour presentation, both in Spanish) on homosexuality and discrimination that I had to develop and present. It went really well but there definitely seems to be a trend here to save the majority of assignments for the last month. I’ve been living in libraries and cafes with free WIFI. I think it might be a good thing though because it will make it easier for me to leave. I’ll probably be ready for a break by the time May 22^nd rolls around. And because I’m spending more time in the city, it’s starting to feel a lot more like home. Quito has definitely grown on me.

It’s just hard to imagine that in three weeks, I’ll be leaving Ecuador, possibly forever. It’s really sad. Ecuador, and the people I've met here, have changed my life and I can see that even before this experience is over! Being separated from the life I put together for myself has made it a lot easier to reflect on it. The beautiful thing is: this experience has been extremely reaffirming. It’s like seeing my life through a new set of eyes…and liking what I see! On the one hand I’m ecstatic to jump back into my life with this newfound clarity but on the other hand, I don’t want to risk losing this perspective that I’ve gained. I definitely have mixed feelings about leaving Ecuador.

Luckily, I still have time here. Unfortunately, I’ll be spending a lot of it on my laptop typing papers and planning projects. I have been, however, making a point to carry my camera around as I stay here in Quito so I have some photos of my home, host-family, and Quiteño adventures to share. Seeing as I spend most of my time here in the city, I know I am way overdue for a Quito- themed blog post. I may not be jumping off of bridges everyday but it’s definitely a wonderful life! Enjoy.

Chronicles of the Quito version of adventuring: girlfriends, dresses, and dancing!

After a few requests for photos of my host family...here they are! Marcela is on the right and Rebe is on the left. They are both fantastic and are really good at making me feel at home here.

Jose y Daniela. I seriously love these guys. They are a lot of fun and oftentimes I find myself laughing through entire dinners when they are over. No photos of Carola yet, she wasn't around when I took these.

Emily, Carley, and I in Plaza Foch for Jenny's birthday party. Tapas!

Taking a breather (AKA taking a photograph).

"Too cool" (to make peace signs in photos).

My room...with my new bed. My old bed was so concaved in the middle, it seriously felt like I was sleeping in a bowl. It was better than a lot of other sleeping arrangements I've had, but the new bed is definitely better than the bowl bed.

Formal dining room. I like this photo because Marcela painted all three of the paintings shown here. She's really, really good.

The Caspicara sculpture that Marcela smuggled out of Museo Banco Central in her sweater. See the Factoids section of the Fuya Fuya blog post.

Lock(s) on the back door. There's a sixth component at the bottom, near the floor. This house is serious about security.

Marcela has set this out every Saturday and Sunday that she has lived in this house, well over a decade. She picks the flowers from the garden out back.

PUCE's courtyard. There aren't any students in this photo because I was too embarrassed to take this on a week day.

PUCE, or at least the part I use. Psychology in Tower 1 on the right and Art in Tower 2 on the left.

Contrary to popular opinion, I do study here! Photographic proof. Ahem...Dad!

Ecovia. My stop, Naciones Unidas (hence the title). There are probably about 200 people crammed into that bus. We are packed so tightly sometimes that I could be holding on to nothing as the bus screeches to a halt and not even stumble.

View from my bedroom window. That is the famed Pichincha (behind the power lines).

Awkward table suspended from the ceiling. Cool restaurant though. We could draw in the menus but I can't draw, so I just left one of my favorite quotes.

Concert in Plaza Foch, Mariscal. Somewhere in that crowd of people is a man dressed, head to toe, in metallic gold.

Market in Plaza Foch.

At Amber's house making brownies and I got excited because we got to use the alternative "high altitude" recipe. Less vegetable oil. Excitement!

Please appreciate this photo. Yes, that is a lawn mower strapped to a bicycle.

And now for the next edition of....

FACTOIDS!

• Running in the park a few days ago, I came across one of the twelve women in Quito with blonde hair (actual blonde hair. Ecuadorians tend to think I'm blonde. False). Anyways, this Gringa had a pretty awesome fanny pack, complete with cup holders. In the first cup holder, a bottle of water. In the second, a bottle of vodka. Represent.
• I went to the vivarium a few weeks ago and saw a shockingly huge frog; it was about 9 inches tall. But there wasn’t much info about it provided, so I googled “giant frog” and about the only things that came up were “Devil frog,” “frog from Hell,” and a Wikipedia stub about a frog from Dungeons and Dragons.
• On my bed, I have SEVEN blankets, not including the sheets. I’m convinced that instead of putting the spare bedding in a linen closet, they just put it all on my bed. Not complaining. LOVE it.
• I need four different keys to get into the house. Marcela color-coded them for me.
• My Biodiversity professor, Hugo, used to be jogging buddies with Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador, back when Correa was an Econ professor at USFQ. Correa also used to teach Economics with my study program. Earlier in the semester, there was some confusion with an outdated syllabus. But we soon realized that, no, the EcuaPres is not making any regular appearances at IES.
• EcuaPolice are not investigators. When a car accident is reported, EVERYONE involved is taken to jail and stays there for up to three weeks until lawyers can sort everything out. Needless to say, accident victims rarely report incidents to the police.
• Recently I got a text message from an unknown sender that began "Eres uno de los elegidos..." (Translation: "You are one of the chosen.")
• In my Psychology of Sexuality class at PUCE, the professor was using a poorly translated English source, which included some words that had not been translated at all. As a result, I was asked to please explain, for the entire class, the significance of the English terms “petting” and “necking.” I'm really coming to love that class.

So that’s it for now. I've put this off long enough but I was motivated to get going since I have an adventure planned for tomorrow and I didn't want to get backed up. So you'll probably hear from me again soon. I am climbing (part of) Cotopaxi in the morning, or at least I hope I am. I have a cold so breathing might be an issue. Seeing as respiration is a pretty essential life process, I'm going to play it by ear. Until then, Peace!

PS I would just like to add that, moments after posting this, Marcela brought me hot tea to my room for my cough because she knows that I'm climbing a ridiculously cold (by Ecua standards) mountain tomorrow. She is pretty much wonderful.