Cómo se dice "to complain"?

Quejarse. That is the verb, "to complain."

But see the thing is...here, they really don't complain. This was something I noticed after being here for about a week and a half. Maybe it's just my host family, but even the other individuals I've interacted with from Ecuador just don't really seem to want to complain. Maybe it's part of the culture. Maybe they have a feeling of felicidad (happiness) just because they're alive and relatively healthy. Maybe they have just been taught that complaining is a waste of time. I really don't know...

But the thing I do know is that I like how mostly kind words, words of happiness, peace, excitement, contentment, etc. are spoken in my house.

All food is rico (yummy) and all days are lindo (beautiful).

Taking afternoon naps is also commended as doing one of the awesomest things you can do. Por ejemplo (for example), this afternoon I woke up from a nap and came out of my room. My sister was in her room and she asked, "descansaste bien?" (did you rest well?). I said yep, definitely, and laughed a little bit at myself. To this she said (repeated here in my broken version of Spanish), "a descansar en la tarde es el mejor cosa, es rico, no?" "To nap in the afternoon is the best, isn't it?"

I hope that this is one of the things I can learn from the culture of Ecuador, because I think America would be a much happier place if everyone complained just a little bit less.

-EM

A Week in the Life

Hola mundo!

I know I haven't written anything in like a week, bad Emily, but really it just consisted of school, just like every normal week at MSU.

A normal day consists of: I wake up, get ready, cross the terrifying street, hop on a bus, go to class, hang out outside/do homework, go home, do homework, hang out with my host family, watch some TV online, and go to bed by 11:00.

Not necessarily normal, but not quite exciting enough to blog about daily. But now I have a whole week and weekend's worth of observations and conversations and events that I need to write about. Aye.

Exciting school thing of the week! I actually raised my hand and asked a question in class. Yes, I rehearsed it in my head before raising my hand, and it wasn't a complicated question, but I still asked a question in class. Not something you'd think I'd congratulate myself on, but being in a non-Spanish-studying class that all speaks Spanish and is taught in Spanish means that asking a question for the first time is cause for a little celebration. :)

Non-exciting school thing of the week. One of my classes apparently has pop quizzes. I'm not really loving on this. First quiz wasn't so bad, I understood what she was asking and had read the material BUT I mixed some things up in my head and probably only got half right. Second quiz was bad. I didn't understand exactly what she was asking for all the parts of the quiz. I also thought we were supposed to read the second chapter before coming to class, so I had spent a good two hours the night before reading the second chapter. Apparently not. Apparently we were supposed to read the third chapter. Hence, I did not do so well and am not excited about future pop quizzes.

Alright so yesterday. Yesterday was Friday. I went to my 2 morning classes, chatted with Rebecca for awhile (I love just chatting one-on-one with Rebecca because it's calm so we can talk in Spanish and not feel like we're not able to get our whole point across and we help each other learn at the same time), then went and got some ice cream at my favorite ice cream place near campus, Kicos. As I was sitting there, enjoying my delicious $1 mango ice cream, who happens to walk by? Two guys in full camo military get-up with huuuuuge guns. Waltzing around like they own the place. Why? I have absolutely no idea. I was actually talking to someone about that today. The police here don't seem like they're here to protect you, same thing with these scary camo guys, they seem like they're there to shoot somebody if they do something wrong. Or like something is going wrong, someone's in the mafia, or running a secret drug operation, and they're there to catch it. I've been here like two weeks and I can't count the number of times I thought I was in a place where there was a secret drug operation going on.

So yesterday I took the bus home, right? And a guy hopped on selling DVDs (as has happened before). He hands out DVDs (usually really new ones, like some that are still in theatres) in plasticy covers and then comes back and picks them back up if you don't want to buy them. Usually I just ignore the guy and don't even take them when he hands them out, but I wanted to check out which ones he had. I ended up getting 3 of them for $2 (even though they're supposed to be $1 each). The Tourist, Gulliver's Travels, and Never Let Me Go. I've heard they're usually in English with Spanish subtitles and I'm hoping they work in my computer! (Because I've heard somewhere they don't. This seems incredibly sketchy and illegal, right? Well I mean it probably is, but here they really don't care. Like there are actual stores that sell these kinds of copies of DVDs. Interesante, no?

All of the children who go to school here have to wear uniforms so you'll be getting on the bus or walking around town and there will be tons of kids of all ages in uniforms, but something I noticed yesterday was that most of their uniforms don't seem to be weather appropriate. Like yesterday it had to be 70 degrees and most of the children I saw were wearing uniform gray sweatpants and sweatshirts. But they don't seem to find it out of the ordinary or uncomfortable.

In the afternoon I was supposed to meet up with some of the girls at a market near Plaza Foch. I got there and started walking South, because I was relatively sure I had seen a map and that was where the market was. I was wandering around for awhile, saw no market, and was realizing how sketchy I felt wandering  around somewhere by myself and having no idea where I was. I ended up at this intersection where there was a mall and a CoffeeTree and some statues so I felt more comfortable there. Then I got a call that my friends had gotten robbed on the bus and so I should probably come back to Plaza Foch seeing as they didn't really want to go to the market anymore anyways. I went back and they explained to me what had happened. We were given all sorts of instructions on how to not get robbed, but even though they were following all of those instructions it still happened. They were on an incredibly crowded bus and even though they were holding their purses close to their bodies, a 20-something old girl and her 50-something old mom/older woman friend slit open their bags and stole their wallets and one girl's camera. They all felt incredibly violated and upset, because replacing ATM cards and Censos and change was going to be difficult. But we were all also very impressed with the skill of these robbers. How they did all of that on a crowded bus without hurting anyone and without ANYONE noticing was kind of incredible. Another thing that was interesting is that it was two women. Christina commented that that was probably the things that shocked her the most, was that it wasn't two able-bodied young sketchy men like you would expect, but it was an overweight older woman and a woman our own age. This was all very interesting to me, obviously, but I have yet to critically unpack the ideas this implicates. We needed a little American time so after this we went to Emory's host family's apartment and ate pizza and watched a movie. :)

Today we went to Centro Historical (the Old Town area of Quito) to wander around and sort of explore.

A photographic tour of our journeys will be updated shortly. :)

-EM

P.S. Photographic Tour

Las calles

Mas

Ecuadorian White House, but the president has elected to not actually live there.

Plaza Grande

Bonito

Chevere

Plaza San Fransisco

Basilica

Mindo es Lindo.

Lindo means beautiful in Spanish. If it also meant ridiculous, adventurous, dramatic, terrifying, extremely terrifying, janky, unreal, and crazy, then the phrase "Mindo es Lindo"would accurately describe this weekend. This weekend was en serio (seriously) one of the most adventurous and ridiculous weekends of my life.

Mindo is a very small touristy town in Ecuador about a 2-hour bus ride through the mountains from Quito. We left on Friday around 4:00 luckily making it to the correct bus station and correct bus in time for our bus's departure. We were thirteen MSU/USFQ students who had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The bus ride was...frightful to say the least. Our bus wound through the Andes mountains and through the ventanas (windows) we could see the absolutely beautiful paisajes (landscapes) around us. We passed an orchard reserve and tiny farming houses and it was incredibly gorgeous. We could also see the extreme likelihood of our deaths if our bus driver made a tiny little mistake. The road didn't exactly have barriers to keep us from toppling over the edge of the mountain and into the abyss. I was a little nerve-wracked. But we made it to Mindo! Success. The owner of the hostel we had reservations at (thanks to Allison!) met us at the bus station and walked us over to our hostel. Ah to describe our hostel experience in one word: Chévere (really cool in Spanish, a colloquial word of Ecuador). Casa de Cecilia. We had a whole house to ourselves, with lots of rooms and bathrooms, outfitted with linens and towels and mosquito nets. We ate a $2.50 breakfast that she made us while looking out at the river and the hummingbirds that always fluttered around. For all of our activities we just paid her and she called taxis for us and/or told us where to go. For only $6/night! Words cannot describe the great experience we had there. There was a reggae bar down the road that was also super cool, with rocks suspended from the ceiling and tables made of what seemed like trees. The bar was actually a three-story, open air, bar/restaurant/house where the owner's family lived. The first night we walked into "town" (really just one street with restaurants and stores on it) and found a restaurant to eat at. The owner was this adorable old man and the food he served us was delicious. We would soon learn that what we ordered at this restaurant was basically what all the restaurants had in Mindo, Pilsener (a very popular Ecuadorian brand of beer), Coke, Rice, this tomato and onion "ensalada," papas fritas (french fries) and some variety of fried sea food (fins & head included of course :/). While it is annoying to have to go out to eat for every meal when we go on excursions, it is amazing how much cheaper food is here compared to the United States, and it especially helps that there is a service tax that includes tip, so you don't have to worry about that and it's often included in the price of your food. For example, over the whole weekend (2 breakfasts,  2 lunches, 2 dinners) I spent a total of about $23 on food, something nearly impossible to do in the United States. Whenever we would go out to dinner or go out to bars (where liquor and beer is also much cheaper than in the U.S.), without fail someone would say, "I really don't want to go back..." :) We went out for a while Friday night, but we were all exhausted and wanted to have energy for the next day, so we went to bed at around midnight.

Hostal

River behind our Hostal

Then we get to Saturday. The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast by the river and started our day in a flurry of bug spray and sun screen. Our plan was to go "tubing." Now there are different kinds of tubing, and as usually happens to us, we all expect a specific experience (and our ideas of what our activities will be like differ) and usually none of us are right. Now there's the kind of tubing done behind a boat (this one we weren't thinking of, because we knew we'd be going down a river), the kind of floating down a calm river tubing (affectionately called "floating down the river with beer"), and apparently there's the kind of tubing where you need 2 guides, you're in 6 tubes all attached to each other, and you need helmets and life jackets because there are a RIDICULOUS amount of rocks in the river that you're attempting to tube down. Yep, that was the kind of tubing that we did. On our way to tubing we were in a taxi (a.k.a. a pickup truck with room for 3 in the cab and the rest of us standing up in the bed of the truck) and I kept seeing a river to our right. It had a lot of rocks in it so I kept saying, "guys is that the river we're going down?" And everyone kept responding, "well, probably, but we're probably not going down that part because there are too many rocks." Oh how we were wrong. We got out of our taxi, put on our lifejackets and helmets and were introduced to our guides. Given quick instructions in Spanish about how to maneuver the tubes if we were to get stuck on rocks, we were ready. We split up in two groups, got into the icy water, and we were off. What exhilarating and crazy fun. "Cuidados" were heard loud and clear and Mateo's girlish screaming was quite humorous. The chill of the cold water was no longer our greatest concern. $6 can buy you quite a bit of fun in Mindo.

Tubing

El Grupo

We went back to our hostel and changed clothes, immediately ready for our next adventure, ziplining. $10 buys you a ziplining tour of the cloud forest with 2 trained guides over 12 different cables. Needless to say I was terrified. My fear of heights was not the greatest thing for zooming on cables hundreds of feet above the ground. But it was an experience I am so glad I did not miss out on. The first and last trips were the worst, the first because I was terrified and I didn't know exactly what it would be like, and the last because it was the highest, probably 1000 feet off the ground. There were fancy tricks you could do with the guides (Mariposa y Superhombre), but I elected to not do those. Simply ziplining was enough of a challenge for me already. :) While you were "zipping" you could see everything around you and it was absolutely incredible. We talked about how in the United States you couldn't do something like that. A) because there is nothing as cool as the cloud forest in the U.S. B) Because it would need to be incredibly regulated, and C) Because it would probably cost about $200 to do 2 cables instead of $10 for 12 cables.

Tengo miedo de alturas

Cuidado

Éxito

Mindo Ropes & Canopy

What a crazy day. On the way back to our hostel (in the back of a pickup truck of course) we were talking about how we had never done so many ridiculous things in one day.

That next morning we took a taxi to this thing called terabita which goes to the waterfalls. It is this little cart that goes along this cable and brings you to this other mountain so you can hike around and go to the waterfalls and swim in them and such. This was also terrifying, you'll understand when you see pictures. I kept saying, "this is the craziest, most dangerous, jankiest thing I have ever done in my life." But we made it. Little did we know that we had to hike on paths in the mountains that were covered in incredibly slippery mud to get to the waterfalls, but it was a great experience. Beautiful waterfalls, some janky stairs, even sketchier bridges, etc. It was incredible and also extremely tiring. We went back on the Terabita, got back to our hostel, ate some lunch, and then everyone slept on the bus back to Quito.

Terabita

Sketchy Bridge

Una Cascada

What a weekend full of craziness and fun, I'm glad to be back in Quito because this weekend was culture shock for me with so much adventurousness. This afternoon I'm ready for a nap for sure!

-EM

Normality

It's strange to me when I think about how much everything feels normal. Nine days ago I had no idea what this place looked like or smelled like. How I would be getting around exactly, where my classes would be, what my host family was like, what the food would be like, etc. I would tell people that I was almost more excited for living in my house next year than for my study abroad semester because I could imagine what that would be like and I couldn't imagine what this semester was going to be like.

But this feels like normality.

Waking up and having it be sunny outside.

Walking around a campus that is a tenth the size of MSU and seeing all the MSU international students just about every day.

There being people on the buses in the tarde (afternoon) that try to sell me bootleg DVDs.

People getting angry when I hand them a ten dollar bill for anything.

The bookstore only accepting Diner's Club cards and cash, no Mastercard, no Visa.

It taking five minutes just to cross to the other side of the street because of the traffic.

Understanding (at best) 75% of what people say to me.

Only being able to communicate with my best friends and family online. Before arriving we were all told to prepare to not have internet in our homes or apartments, because wireless internet is not as common here as it is in the United States. I was very pleased to find out that we do have internet, and now I can almost not imagine not having internet. Silly, I know.

When I'm at home, just watching TV or doing homework or blogging or taking naps in my free time instead of hanging out with people. I love hanging out with the people here, but when we hang out it's not just chilling or watching TV or whatnot like when I'm at MSU, it's actually going out and doing something, taking a taxi or bus and going out and doing something.

Learning new words and phrases and things every day, all day. It's tiring, but worth it.

Sounding stupid most of the time.

Seeing mountains and valleys and palm trees every day.





I can almost not imagine life being any other way.

Escuela y Mi Horario Final

Hola todos!

Yesterday was my first day of Ecua-School! Aye. It was overwhelming at the same time that it was exciting. Imagine walking into a place where you are one of the only people who looks like you (so everyone knows you obviously don't belong) and everyone already knows everybody else and you look ridiculous because you don't know where you're going or what you're doing. Yep, that was my first day. USFQ is way smaller than MSU and it doesn't have any residential living (dorms) so it feels similar to high school in a way. Everybody hangs out all over campus the whole day instead of going home because going home means taking a bus (or multiple buses) home to where they live with their parents. This is another aspect of USFQ that makes it feel like high school, although that is simply the custom in Ecuador, to live in the home of your parents until you get married. The MSU students have basically set up camp near the lagoon in the middle of campus. Whenever we don't have to be in class and are on campus we all hang out there. We make lunch plans or weekend plans and talk about our classes. The idea of making Ecuadorian friends is harrowing. First of all, I don't speak Spanish well enough to keep up with their chatter. Second, they all have their own friends and basically know everyone so it's not like everyone is wandering around thinking, oh hey, maybe they're cool and would be friends with me. Thirdly, I'm only going to be there for 5 months. If I were an Ecuadorian, I wouldn't want to be friends with the exchange students from America who are going to use up all their time and then leave again. I don't know, maybe that's just my messed up way of looking at it, but that's kind of how I see it. I would like to friends with them, get firsthand views of their culture and the differences between America and Ecuador, but right now it is just a little too intimidating. I love my host family though and have a great time asking them questions and talking to them about these things so that is a very good thing and a very good way for me to get a picture of Ecuadorian culture. Matt's host family is also great and his sisters hang out with us some times so that's another look into Ecuadorian culture. I have really enjoyed meeting the other international students at the university. Almost all of them are American, but they're from all over. They're interesting to meet because we all are similar in a way for choosing to study abroad at USFQ and live in Ecuador and take specific classes. Que chévere. (chévere=super cool).

After returning home from school at around 1:30 I went with Isabel to do censo stuff. I say "censo stuff" because I don't really understand it. The university gave us very specific instructions about how to register our visa and then get our censo (Ecuadorian ID card) and all this other nonsense. You needed specific papers and folders and receipts and on and on and on. Ugh. Anyways, we got there (janky building), got a number, and waited. And waited. And waited. There is just one guy who does the specific thing we were there for and of course there were lots of people waiting for this one thing.

This brings up an interesting part of the culture of Ecuador.

You wait.

A lot.

I had to deposit $10 to this specific governmental checking account at this specific bank. I was probably in line for an hour. Mind you I got up to the front and the lady told me I had to fill out a receipt thing and had to wait in line again, but still. An hour. At the bank. Banking is like a "thing" here, just like waiting. I would say most Ecuadorians probably spend about 2 hours a month at the bank. I have been with Isabel waiting at banks for probably half an hour already, and I've only been here a week. Why this is? I have no idea. ANYWAYS, back to waiting. You wait in line at the bank, you wait in line at the bookstore, you wait for the bus to pick you up, you wait to be able to safely cross the street to GET to the bus stop (for at least 5 minutes if you're a scaredy-cat like me), you wait at restaurants, you wait at the Registering your Visa office, etc. etc. etc. The Ecuadorians must have a superior amount of patience (paciencia) for all the waiting they have to do.

Another thing that's connected to this is the concept of time in Ecuador, which we were taught about both at orientation and in one of my classes today. While you actually have to be on time to things like classes and appointments and such, most Ecuadorians operate under a "there's always tomorrow" mentality. My professor said that this is because of the indigenous background of Ecuadorians (most are mestizas or of "mixed" descent). There is not really a reasoning behind it, but they see time as circular whereas Americans see time as linear. We always need to be doing something and if someone is late to meet you somewhere, it is considered rude and unfriendly. In Ecuador you might have plans to meet up with someone at 6 and they might not show up until 8:00. To Ecuadorians, 6 is around 6:00 or anytime thereafter and they expect you to operate under the same "ish" mentality.

Anyways, later that afternoon I took the bus to La Mariscal (Gringolandia, with tons of bars and other things that gringos love) for happy hour with some MSU amigos. Very fun times had by all. :)

Today was another day of school. My first class I don't have until next week because the professor is on vacation or something, so I didn't have class until 10:00! Perfect. I loved it. The class is specifically for international students and is about the culture of Ecuador. Super interesting. After this class I hung out with some people in the sun by the lagoon (pictures to come soon because seriously, you need to see this. there is a pirate ship in this pond in the middle of campus. it's legit.) then we went and got lunch at a place near campus. Delish. My politics class later in the afternoon I was not a fan of, so I decided to drop that one. I only can take 4 or 5 classes and I was enrolled in 6 so dropping one was my plan all along. I had difficulty understanding the professor and I think it would be difficult because I probably am not familiar with the vocabulary he is going to using anyways. After that class Rebecca and I went to the bookstore. I found 2 of the course guides I needed and a book I need, but you could only pay in cash or with the Diner's Club card. The book was only $10 and the coursepacks only $5.50ish each, but with the $20 I had I could only buy the book and one of the coursepacks. I guess I'll just have to go back tomorrow! The textbooks are supposed to be much cheaper here than we're used to in the U.S. but still, paying for textbooks with cash is a strange concept to me.

I returned home and now I'm blogging.

Obviously.

I should probably do this every day so that I don't bore you with the ridiculous amounts of things I have to say. :) Anyways, here is my final schedule.

My Final Schedule

This is the final schedule I decided on!

History 211 (Ecuadorian History) and History 234 (Contemporary History...so I'll finally know which war is which) are taught by the same teacher. He seems very nice and interesting and I can understand him almost all of the time so that's good. Also the courses are set up the exact same, quizzes on the same days, reports on readings with the exact same format, they're even in the same building one right after the other! About two thirds of my HIS 211 class is international students which is nice. It's nice to not always be different.

Psychology 203 (SIC 203) is Psychology of Development. The teacher talks extremely fast, but if I concentrate very hard I can understand her most of the time. We have to do a blog in this class which should be fun! Also, some of our readings are in English. Hopefully these are the ones she tests us on the most. :)

EPE 307 is Advanced Spanish for "Foreigners." I haven't been to this class yet because our professor is on vacation or something, but that class starts next Thursday. I really like my other EPE class so hopefully this one is really good too!

EPE 302 is a class about Ecuadorian Culture for International Students. I love it. The professor speaks slower and more precisely than my other professors because she knows she's speaking to only international students. Everyone in the class is in pretty much the same boat so that's fun and a positive, I don't feel like such an outsider in this class as I do in my others. I think it will be a class where we really get to know each other and I'm so excited about the material! I'm thinking this will probably be my favorite class.

I would rather not have classes on Friday afternoons because of the trips we are going to take to different parts of Ecuador, but oh well. We're hopefully taking an awesome trip to Mindo this weekend! I'll give you the deets if we figure it out in time for this weekend. :)

-EM

¡Hasta luego!

The Last Days of Pre-School Freedom

So much happens here everyday (at least for now) that it's sometimes hard to keep the days apart. Yesterday was Saturday. The plan was to go to Quicentro (a mall), find Becky, and explore. This sort of happened. And here is where the story begins. So there's this bus stop (parada) by my apartment. Red buses come by it and go to the bus station and at the bus station there is another red bus called Escovia that goes down the street 6 de diciembre which has a stop right by Quicentro. I was supposed to wait for the red bus, then take Escovia to Quicentro. I waited and waited. A blue bus came by that was probably going to the bus station but I wasn't sure so I didn't get on. I waited and waited. No bus. So I made an executive decision to walk to the bus station. I'd seen it the other day when we went to get groceries and it was the middle of the day so I felt safe enough to walk by myself next to the busy street. I was almost to the bus station (probably a half mile away) when I saw a red bus! It looked like it was heading the direction I was going so I asked the driver if he was going to Quicentro, he said yes, and I hopped on. No. The bus was not going to Quicentro. It was going to Cumbaya. An entirely different city. I was just laughing and laughing at myself the whole way there when I realized that I was definitely not on the correct bus. Luckily I knew how to get back and so I hopped on a bus and came back. Ha ha. That bus brought me to the bus station and I figured out the correct bus to take and I even got off at the right stop. I walked to what I thought was Quicentro and called Becky. No. It was not Quicentro. I then followed her directions and wandered around until I found Quicentro. I felt quite accomplished when I actually found it. Ha ha. Becky had to do something with her host family but Rebecca called and so she came and hung out with me! We wandered around Quicentro and we went to Parque La Carolina. Very cool way to just explore and soak up all the culture.

One thing I noticed in Quicentro was that most of the mannequins and models in photos are blonde and white. A lot of the guys are white as well, but some actually look Ecuadorian. Almost none of the women do. Very interesting. Almost the same as in the United States where women are constantly told they should be something there is no way they can be.

Today I didn't really have any plans seeing as tomorrow we start classes. Eek. Isabel asked me if I wanted to go to Quicentro with her after lunch, seeing as I didn't have plans of course I said yes! So we went back to Quicentro (ha ha) and walked around for awhile trying to find a gift for Javier. Javier is Joaquin's father and Isabel and him definitely went out on a date last night, but I can't really tell if they're in a relationship or if they're friends or what. Anyways, he ended up joining us to try the shoes on or something so I got to meet him. Very very nice guy. Then we all went in his car to the historical district of Quito. It was super cool, I'm excited to go again and walk around. He shared some of the history and other interesting tidbits about Quito with me. There are tons of churches in Old Town Quito because the Spanish conquered Ecuador and they were super religious so they built tons of churches. One of the churches my host mom (an architect) worked on the remodeling for. Very cool. Then we went out for dinner, Schawarma (sp?) which is Arabic. I would never have trusted the place on my own. There were like 4 guys outside, 5 tables with chairs inside, and a TV. Javier just ordered three schawarmas from the guys standing outside and we picked out drinks from the drinks cooler and then we waited. They brought the food in from outside, not even from the kitchen which was I think attached to the restauranty part. Strange but cool. The food was SO delicious. Great great great meal and great afternoon.

Photos!

-EM

I'm going to have a very hard time coming up with interesting names for all of these...

Hi hi hi! Hola hola hola!

As I sit at the dining room table looking out at some gorgeous mountains covered by a little bit of clouds I can't help but think how unique this place is. There are palm trees lining the streets and there are mountains absolutely everywhere you look. The list of things we were taught to watch out for and be cautious of included both volcanoes and robbers. In Ecuador it is possible, as we were told at orientation yesterday, to wake up in the Amazon, eat lunch at the foot of a mountain, and then go have dinner on the beach. What a place.

Yesterday was orientation day so my family brought me to campus at about 7:45. Yes this was very early, but it's much easier to wake up early when it is not cold and dark outside so I didn't really have much trouble with that! We all got nametags and went in sat in this sort of lecture room, University of North Carolina and Michigan State were definitely the two schools with the biggest USFQ population, which was kind of cool. We were taught about the history of Ecuador, the services available to us, health, safety, security, etc. We were also introduced to some staff and got a campus tour. The campus is gorgeous. The tour was a little bit confusing, but that wasn't such a big deal seeing as it took us around 5 minutes to do the whole thing. :) What a contrast to MSU. During our little coffee break I met a girl who was from Mississippi who had also studied at USFQ this past summer, so she was able to tell me a little bit of what it was like and she talked to one of the campus tour guides about the places she'd visited before and the places he thought she should visit. Quite entertaining. After orientation the Michigan State students (I don't know why we get special treatment, but we kind of do...ha ha) had pizza with Maricarmen, our resident director. Maricarmen is a cheery, lovely woman who is sort of like a mother bird who has enfolded us all in her wings. After pizza, Christina, Tracy, Beth, and I went to get our phones. Well...Beth took us to get our phones because she had already gotten hers. I feel like the guy at Movistar (the popular phone company here) had probably had a lot of gringos come in recently because he knew exactly what we were after, cheap phones without real plans. Ha ha. So now I have my phone! Which is really nice because I feel a lot safer leaving the house with a way to call my host family or people I'm meeting up with.

It was Joe's birthday yesterday so the plan was that we were all going to go out later, but my host family really wanted me to go to a birthday dinner for my mom's sister. Of course I wanted to go to that too, but it was still sort of difficult because I was trying to explain that I would love to be able to do both while trying not to insult them or make them unhappy. I think I did a good job because it seemed totally fine with them that I do both. Yay! First kind of conflict dealt with. :) So later that night I went with my host family to my host mom's sister's house in another part of Quito. We hung out, watched some TV (because we were there way earlier than everyone else was supposed to get there), had some tea, etc. I was thinking it a bit odd when at 7:30 there was no food being made for a dinner that was supposed to start at 8:00. I mean I know Ecuadorian time is different and 8:00 means anytime after 8 but still. That was when the cooks arrived. Two guys came to make the birthday dinner food. At first I was taken aback, but I'm thinking that's how the wealthy do it in Ecuador. We didn't eat until 9:45. No wait, I didn't eat until 9:45, everyone else started at around 10 but the food was ready and so my family said I could eat so that I could leave and go out with people. Ha ha. In Ecuador it is custom to greet everyone with a kiss on the cheek. Even if you don't know them at all, if you meet them you kiss them on the cheek, so when Isabel and I came downstairs to eat after putting Joaquin to bed and there was a circle of 20 Ecuadorians sitting and chatting and celebrating, I went around and kissed them all on the cheek. I felt silly, but it was also very cool.

After eating Isabel called a taxi for me. At this point it was raining so most of the taxi cooperatives didn't have open taxis, but we foudn one and then she waited with me and told the taxi driver where to go. I was headed for Mariscal, or Plaza Foch, which is a totally tourist place where all the gringos go to party. Ha ha. I got there and waited a few minutes for my friends who were meeting me there after going out to eat for Joe's birthday. We were with Matt's host sisters and they took us to Bungalow 6, which I found it later is apparently the most gringo-tastic bar. Ha ha. It was SO much fun. Almost all the people from our group were there and I don't know it was just awesome. Much better than the clubs I had gone to in the states. We danced and hung out for a while then went outside with the purpose of calling a taxi then going back inside, but we just ended up hanging out outside with this guy who is an exchange student at MSU who is from Quito who we had met last semester. We chatted up him and his friends for awhile (it was no longer raining). There were like 4 police officers on the corner we were standing on which was kind of weird but they didn't really do anything for the whole half hour we were out there. I didn't notice how odd it was for awhile, but then I got kind of wary. Hmm... Anyways, one of the guys we were with flagged down a taxi for me and Rebecca and then we headed home! All in all a greatly fantastic night.

Today the plan is to meet up with Becky and go exploring. It looks to be a gorgeous day outside right now so let's hope it doesn't rain later!!! Although it probably will. :)

-EM

Cosas Interesantes

Today has been another good day. I woke up kind of late (due to the fact that tomorrow I have to be at school at 7:45 for orientation check-in) and had some breakfast, played with Joaquin, then went to el centro comercial jardín (one of the malls here) with Isabel. The mall was surprisingly similar to the malls in the states, with many of the same stores. We came back, ate a delicious lunch, followed up with the Michigan Cherry coffee I got them, and are now relaxing and watching TV. Tonight will be another chill night because I have orientation tomorrow!

One noticeable difference I am seeing everywhere is how many security guards they have here. Security guards at ATMS in the mall, security guards outside car dealerships, security guards outside of apartment buildings, etc. If you want a job, buff up, come to Ecuador and be a security guard. :)

I love talking about the most random stuff and being able to make conversation. Today I told them about Grand Rapids and we talked about the Great Lakes and the U of M vs. MSU rivalry.

The president of Ecuador lives VERY close to our apartment. He doesn't want to live in the presidential palace so he has a motorcade take him to and from his house every day. We saw the motorcade yesterday!

An interesting thing that Isabel told me about yesterday is how at certain times during the day you can only drive on the roads if your license ends in specific numbers and it changes depending on what day it is. This is so that the roads aren't too congested because there are so many people in Quito. An interesting idea, no?

Also I like the Coca-Cola commercials here a lot. Much better than the ones in America. Ha ha.

The weather is how I expected it to be! Sunny in the morning, rainy and/or cloudy in the afternoon. :)

Photos!

-EM

Estoy aquí!

I am here!

Traveling yesterday was kind of a drag. In the past I've really kind of dreaded flying in airplanes, and the same was true of yesterday, BUT after our first take-off in Chicago I was feeling totally comfortable with it. I don't know why the change in heart, but still traveling just makes you feel yucky. You're in such a small space on the airplane and you have to step over people to do anything and the temperature is never right and the food is never great, so I'm glad that part of the journey is over. But God gave me safe travels and that was a great blessing. I was much more of a mess of emotions than I thought I was going to be, another reason why I'm glad yesterday is over.

Our landing into Quito was pretty much what I expected it to be, and it was awesome. (When I say "our" and "we" I'm talking about the other MSU students who were on the flight with me: Carly, Matt, Vicki, and Rebecca) There were a lot of clouds and such as we were losing altitutde, but you could still start to see some lights and such. There was also some lightning (relámpagos) that lit up the clouds and the mountains to the East. It was SO cool. I don't think I could possibly describe how awesome it was. THEN we burst through the last bits of cloud and Quito in its glory was before us. Huge. So many lights and cars and it was so hilly. Glorious. I'm glad we landed at night so we could see that. Then we deboarded (probably half our flight was American international students going to USFQ, or so it seemed), waited in line at customs (which was kind of nerve-wracking but ended up totally fine), got our luggage, sent it through one more security scanner thing, then wow. There were these electronic doors that opened onto probably 200 people holding signs with names on them or just waiting for people to come through. It was a bit overwhelming but very cool. There was someone holding a USFQ sign and since I didn't see my name I just went over and stood by her, she asked me about my host family and then went and found Isabel out of the crowd. Crazy.

Mi familia antrifonia (my host family) es fantástica. Isabel (my host sister) picked me up from the airport so that Marcia (my host mom) could be at home with Joaquin (Isabel's 7-month old son who is adorable y siempre feliz). She was super nice right off the bat and the way she speaks Spanish to me is perfect because it's slower and clearer than I think she speaks to everyone else. She said that my Spanish was good and was impressed that I can understand most of what she says. She drove me home (everyone was right, the way people drive here/the way the streets are is much different than in the U.S.) and then I got a tour of our gorgeous apartment and my room and bathroom. It is all perfect; I will upload pictures of it soon. And we have wireless internet (inalámbrico) here! This makes communicating that much easier. I was quite tired so I went to bed and slept until around 11:00 this morning.

Today I took a shower (I must've done something wrong though because I could not figure out how to get the water very hot), had breakfast, unpacked a little, and then we went out and did some errand-running. I wasn't feeling too well at breakfast, I think I'm having a little bit of mal de altura (high altitude sickness). It is unavoidable when flying into a place that is much higher than the one you left so I am just trying to stay very hydrated. This is easy because they boil their water to drink! So I don't even have to buy water bottles or anything. Although I was at the store today and a bottle of water was like 37 cents so that wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world. I was feeling much better by the time we ran our errands. Quito is beautiful, and not only in the way that cities are beautiful, it is beautiful in the way that the combination of cities and nature are beautiful. The window in our living/dining room looks out over the road to Cumbayá (the city where USFQ is) as well as looking out at a park full of trees (arboles) and other buildings and such. It is GORGEOUS. Isabel, Marcia, Joaquin, and I went driving around today to make some copies and we parked underneath this giant palm tree (palmera, a word Isabel taught me). We chatted about so much stuff, especially the differences in stuff between the United States and Ecuador. I would ask about something and she would say, oh is it not the same in the United States (all in Spanish of course) and then that would get us jumping around from one topic to another. Very educational already. :) We also went to el supermercado Santa Maria (the grocery store). When we parked we were facing these giant green-covered montañas (mountains). You just don't get that in Michigan. Ha ha. The supermarket was great. I was definitely getting, "you don't belong here" looks, which was fine. I bought some of the toiletry stuff I needed, and instead of buying the imported American brands (which they had but are more expensive) I simply bought some of the more local brands. I don't know how local they are, but I don't recognize them. :) As I was looking at the shampoo I noticed that there was one shampoo they had that had placenta in it. Placenta is the same in Spanish and in English, and the label had a woman holding a baby on it. I was amused and intrigued.

The city is so colorful and so big and I love noticing all the differences.

Also, the degrees here are in Celcius. And I know the whole times by 9, divide by 5, add 32 thing, but I'm much too lazy to do that so I've decided to just figure out what it feels like when it's so and so degrees Celcius. Today it was nice and warm outside and cooler in our apartamento (apartment). AND NO SNOW. :)

When we got back from the grocery store we ate lunch. We had this delicious meal, un "plato tipico" (typical dish), of pasta with this chicken and sauce stuff over it. With lemonade that tasted very fresh and an apple. I was not sure what to do about the apple because I didn't really know how it was washed, so I just took a middle route and cut it apart and didn't eat the skins. Then we watched some TV (I could understand almost none of it, but I was also very tired so that might have been why) and then I took a nap. I slept until like 7:00 which was later than I had planned on, and was a little disoriented (as always) when I awoke. I may have turned down their offer of dinner, not sure, and I really hope I didn't because now I'm hungry. Ha ha. Oh well, you live and learn.

This place is full of rich surprises.

-EM

P.S. I LOVE YOU ALL. And sorry that was like SO long. No one is going to want to read it all, but it's okay, you can just skim if you so desire. :)

P.P.S. I was getting real terrified on the flight over about speaking Spanish and such, and I know it will be much harder when it's with the people of Ecuador who don't know I'm not very good at Spanish (yet ;)) than with my host family who is very understanding when I don't understand something or know how to say something, but speaking with them has made me less nervous about the whole Spanish part of everything.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

So I leave tomorrow.

Words cannot really accurately describe how I am feeling.

This is ridiculous in an awesome and nerve-wracking way.

My next post will be from Ecuador. No big deal or anything. ;)

-EM