Busy, busy, busy!

Peguche

Otavalo

I resisted the urge to pilfer this from Mindalae for Susie.

Indigenous goods before and after the introduction of synthetic materials.

THE POST

(haha)

Considering it has been awhile since I last posted on here, I’m just going to tell you about the highlights of my week…and some cool stuff I’ve stumbled upon. I made my class schedule but not without some difficulties. I’m taking psychology at the local Catholic University and it looks challenging. It is, most likely, going to be the hardest class I’ve ever taken. But before this there was another “hardest class I’ve ever taken” and I survived that. ¡Puedo hacerlo! My art professor kept us 23 minutes after class ended talking about fruits. One really good thing about my schedule is that I don’t have class on Friday and my only class on Monday is at 6pm so I can do some traveling on the weekends. And none of my classes have more than eight people. Other than that, though, my schedule stinks. Early morning and late evening classes.

Jose, my host brother, and Daniela, his girlfriend, were in town. They crack me up. I finally gave everyone the gifts I brought. They loved them. The popcorn I brought (Orville Redenbacher because he’s from Indiana) was popped for our lunch to top the lentil soup. Ecuadorians prefer eating popcorn to bread with soup.

I visited a couple of museums. Itchimbía was pretty lame: it was full of dead animals, most displayed out of drawers. Mindalae, on the other hand, was very cool. It focused on the various indigenous groups in Ecuador.

Saturday we went all went to Otavalo which is a huge outdoor indigenous market. I bought an alpaca fur sweater with llamas on it. Best sweater ever. Afterward we went to a waterfall called Peguche and played in the water. It was really fun and the view was beautiful. It reminded me of why I came to Ecuador in the first place. I didn’t come here for the sprawling city; I already had that.

The night we came back from Otavalo, my eyes started hurting really badly. All I could do when I got home was take out my contacts and go lie on my bed in the dark. I couldn’t even use my computer because the screen was too bright. I stayed in my bat cave from 8:00 that night until the next morning and that day I wore enormous sunglasses and a baseball cap around everywhere, including the movie theater. My friends said I looked super sketchy. When my EcuaMami got home she gave me some eye drops and my eyes were all better within a few days.

Okay, so here are just a few random observations of mine (and a story):

Rebecca or Rebe, the maid, vacuums, does the laundry, makes fresh juice, cooks the majority of the food, and makes all the beds every single day. She starches my pajama pants. At mealtimes she sits at a separate table from the rest of the family and eats quickly so that once she serves everyone and then herself she will be ready to clear the plates and serve the next course once the first person finishes. Our program told us that we are neither allowed to become better friends with our “empleada” than any member of the family nor question their working conditions. The first is bad manners and the second could jeopardize Rebe’s job.

The police here are said to be corrupt. I don’t know much about that but I have seen them patrolling the mall, QuiCentro, with rifles. One professor said the rifles technically aren’t allowed to be loaded and that they are just for show but that she doesn’t want to be around when the theory is tested.

The following story actually happened to my Spanish professor: Evelyn was walking around a very crowded place and aware of the danger of thieves, she slung her purse over her shoulder and around to her front with her arms wrapped around it. Just when she thought no one would be able to wrestle her bag away from her, someone threw a baby at her. Yes. Someone threw her a baby. Instinctively, Evelyn let go of her bag to catch the baby and someone behind her took a knife, slashed the strap to her purse, and ran away with her bag. When my professor called out to the police, the woman who threw the baby started shouting that Evelyn was trying to kidnap her baby. Evelyn just handed the baby back and left.

FACTOIDS!

· Eggs are not stored in the refrigerator, but rather a little cupboard which sits on the counter.

· 1/3 of Ecuador’s roses are exported to the US for Valentine’s Day, alone.

· A dozen (if you know where to go, two dozen) roses purchased off the street costs $1.

· Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way.

· My favorite piece of graffiti: “Mi mamá también es virgen pero yo no me llamo Jesús.” (Translation: My mom’s a virgin too, but my name’s not Jesus.)

· My favorite juice box flavor (boxed juice, not fresh): “oatmeal drink with cinnamon milk flavor.” Refrigeration not required.

· My new favorite food: fried, cheese-filled banana smoosh.

· Buses do not stop to let men off. Women can request that a bus stop but men must leap out and start running. Supposedly it’s the “machismo” mentality that it’s feminine to have a bus stop to let you off. I wonder what they think of western men try to jump out but usually fall to the ground, all scraped up…

Okay, so I think it’s finally time to post this. It’s a little outdated since I went out of town for the weekend before editing it and choosing photos. I’ll write about my weekend trip to Mindo soon.

Excitement in Ecuador!

Hey, everyone! I’ve been pretty busy the past few days, but with fun things so it’s okay. So, I think Quito feels so much bigger than Chicago because I can SEE everything. Chicago is pretty flat and since I can’t see it all at once from the ground, it's not overwhelming. But I can see all of Quito, all the time. It seems like it never ends.

And Quito has a really high population density. I looked it up: Quito has the 75^th densest population in the world, with 3,150 people per square km. That’s denser than any city in the US (Los Angeles ranks 90^th with 2,750 people per square km). Mumbai, India won by a lot: 29,650 per square km. I would never, ever want to live there.

Regardless of this city being much larger than I was expecting, I’m having a great time. Friday we went to Old Town and visited some cathedrals. The one where we spent the most time, Basílica de la Merced (Mercy), was beautiful and we were allowed to go up on the roof. It seemed pretty dangerous… there were no handrails or anything, just a few steps here and there to help us. They would never have allowed a tour like than in the US. Our tour guide let us climb on top of domes and four levels of rickety wooden ladders in the bell tower. It was really pretty though, but the batteries in my camera were dead so I don’t have any photos. Afterward, we went to two other churches and then IES took us out to eat at this fancy- schmancy restaurant overlooking the city for our Welcome dinner.

Saturday after classes (yes, we had class on Saturday) I went to el Mercado Artesanal, or an outdoor market with some really neat Indigenous goods (Lady Gaga was playing) and that night the whole group went out to La Mariscal party district or “Gringolandia” for a friend’s birthday. It was fun; we went dancing. But it definitely got a little sketchy as the night went on, so we left and went somewhere a bit quieter.

Sunday, we went to la Mitad del Mundo, which has a cool monument on the equator and a little town square where there are concerts and “bailes tradicionales” every Sunday. The bus trip only cost 40 cents for a hour long ride. Que ganga! We had lunch there and I tried “Chocolate Quiteño” which is hot chocolate with melted cheese at the bottom of the mug. It wasn’t bad, per say, but I don’t think cheese and chocolate were destined for each other.

Today was our first day of orientation for la Universidad Católica. I thought I was going to have to take a placement exam so I studied last night when I came home from Mitad del Mundo. It turns out that the “practice” exam was actually round one of a series of possible opportunities to pass the exam. Most of us did well enough to not have to take it again. And we had class on Saturday just to prepare for it! But anyway, while they were administering the exam, we got to roam the city (for four hours!). We had a lot of time to kill so my group had some juice and chilled out in Plaza Foch.

On to the good stuff: FACTOIDS!

· Donald Trump came to Quito and decided that the concrete buildings on the mountainsides were boring so he gave everyone colored paint to paint their houses. Except he didn’t do a very good job of distributing the different colors; each neighborhood shared a color. And now, there are splotches of pink, green, and yellow houses on Quito’s mountainsides.

· “Cuy” is a specialty here, often found roasting over an open fire. “Cuy” is Guinea pig.

· Make two fists. Then put them together. And now imagine a giant pincer coming out of them. That is the size of many different varieties of beetles which can be found in the Amazon. Thank you “insectarium,” for freaking me out.

Okay, Chao! Off to la Ronda for some carnelazo.

It was 67° in Quito today.

Hello! So it’s the end of my first day in Ecuador and it was definitely a success. How I feel now is completely different from how I felt when I first went to Spain. I think it has a lot to do with my having prepared, agonized, and dreamed about going to Spain for three years before it happened. For Ecuador, I didn’t even take it seriously until about a month before I flew out. Of course, that had a lot to do with me not knowing whether I could actually go or not but it’s sort of counterintuitive that the more I prepare, the more nervous I get (In this situation, I don’t think it would be the same in a test-taking scenario). Of course when I went to Spain it was my first time doing something like this and at least now I’m more prepared, in that respect.

Anyway, to update you on what’s happening now: I live with Marcela (Mami) and Carolina (Carola, for short). Marcela has two other children, Jose is a civil engineer and lives on the coast (I haven’t met him yet, but he visits about twice a month) and Marisabel lives in France with her husband and they were visiting but left just this morning. She is fluent in English and was really helpful last night when I was getting the big briefing on how the house is run. From past experience, I know that it’s essential to completely understand the house’s basic rules from the get-go. Everyone is really kind and I feel very welcome. I’m trying really hard to ask questions and to ask Marcela to repeat something if I don’t understand. I think that was one of my biggest problems from when I was in Spain. I would smile and nod a lot because I was embarrassed to not understand. I’ve pretty much decided that I’m going to be shameless and it seems to be working to my benefit (so far).

I understand a lot more than I can articulate myself. At orientation today I understood almost everything (when I wasn’t spacing out. Unlike with English lectures, I have to devote my entire attention to the speaker to catch what they are saying. I think I took it for granted being able to just sit back and take in English) but at dinner tonight with Marcela, Carolina, and her boyfriend I understood almost nothing. At one point they all stopped talking and looked at me. Clearly someone had asked me a question but I completely missed it. I sat there like a deer in headlights and said ¿que? They laughed.

Anyway, this house is beautiful. They don’t make houses like this in the States. It is big and has about five or six staggered levels. It is older and has high ceilings and it is very spacious. It is filled with art, much of it painted my Marcela. She is very good. My bedroom is big, has a desk, huge closet, and its own bathroom. Each bedroom has its own bathroom. And I have a big window that looks over Quito and Pichincha, a huge Volcano that borders the eastern side of the city. They (we?) have a maid named Rebecca and she is lovely. She will be my motivation to keep this room looking nice.

So today at orientation I met all the other students. There are 21 Area Studies students and there are six in the other IES program here in Quito, a friend of mine from high school is one of those six. Everyone is really nice and I think I’m doing pretty well on names so far. We went to lunch at a restaurant to try some authentic Ecuadorian food. It was delicious but there was a lot of chicken involved. I couldn’t bring myself to eat it quite yet. I just ate around it. Also, we had some really good juice, called tomato juice but it’s made from “tomate de arból.” It’s an Ecuadorian tomato, very different from what we think of but very delicious.

Orientation went well. The IES Abroad Center is modern and the staff is really nice. They joke a lot. The only mishap I had was in the bathroom: next to the toilet is a sign that says not to flush paper. I had a moment of confusion. Are they talking about toilet paper? Still not sure, but the toilet seems to have flushed just fine.

Okay, I think that’s about it. Except for some FACTOIDS!

· Buses here have their own lane that goes down the middle of the street and blocks out other vehicles with a curb. I vote its good idea. Wink, wink American cities.

· There are alarms attached to the bedroom doors in this house and many others in case ladrones come into your house at night. So if you wanted to get a glass of water at night, you would have to scream down three staggered levels to Marcela to let you out. She recommends keeping a bottle of water in your room.

· Ecuador’s electric infrastructure is powered by dam and since water levels are low, they are cutting back on electricity. The result is that the entire country is divided into sectors and each sector gets a two-hour time block in which their electricity is shut off each day. The time-block for each sector changes daily and is published in the newspaper. Ecuadorians have gotten really good at resetting their alarm clocks. They say the problem should be fixed by February.

· The people of Quito have endearingly nick-named the part of town where foreigners like to hang out as “Gringolandia.”

· My Skype username is: pamela.m.holtz if you’d like to chat!

Okay…I promise to take some photos tomorrow. Looks like we’ll be visiting “El Centro Histórico” or Quito’s historic downtown. Should be nice.

¡Hasta mañana!

Day One

Okay, I made it to Ecuador alive! My family is wonderful and the city is beautiful. I am currently in the middle of an eight-hour and completely Spanish orientation. We´re just taking a little break. I´ll write more later when I get back home and can use my own computer (IES has Spanish keyboards and they are tripping me up) plus I have to get back to things. Just a quick update to let everyone know I made it...

¡Hasta luego!

Quito minus 2

Hello all!

This is the blog I’ll be keeping for my semester abroad in Ecuador. I’m leaving for Quito the day after tomorrow, January 6^th, and I will be there until May 22^nd. I plan on taking plenty of pictures to post on here to show you what I’ve been up to and I’ll be setting up a webcam in the near future. Plus, there is always Facebook and email, so everyone please keep me updated on what’s going on back home!

So far, I know that I’ll be living with a host family and taking a full academic load in Spanish. I won’t know exactly what classes I’ll be taking until I get there. The orientation lasts the first few days and classes begin soon after. That’s all so far, but I’ll update this again once I get to Quito!