Good things happen

Friday night was so much fun, but it was also really sad because a lot of people were leaving. It's weird how attached I've gotten to them, and I really hope I get to see them again in Georgetown because I've done things like this before and then I forget all of the people I've met. This was a pretty intense bonding experience, though: We normally didn't speak Spanish with natives because we were scared of them and they generally thought that we can't speak Spanish, and we couldn't speak with other Americans because they only speak English, so we spent a lot of time talking together, and a lot of time in confined, isolated spaces like the jungle or a boat. Anyway, last night was the latest I got back because I tried to stretch out my time with them. I couple of kids just stayed up all night because they had an early morning flight. I will not be doing that. Anyway, yesterday morning Z made my panqueques. Pancakes. They tasted different, like she had added a lot of egg, but they were good. I called Andrew at 11 and we arranged to meet at the university so we could walk around in the suburb there and I could get money out of the ATM that I KNEW worked. Z told me how to get there. I took a 25cent bus (and saw a kid poop in the street on the way there) and then waited to catch the next bus at the station for like 30 minutes. Once on the bus we drove toward the university, and stopped close to it but not super close. I decided to wait, but then we just drove farther away from the university so I got out and walked. I was a little ticked off; I hate buses. After the security guard gave me a hard time I walked into the university and took out some money from the ATM. It worked! I was so happy, and I took out extra, because I heard there was a departure fee. It turns out that there isn't, so I'll probably end up spending it on extra souvenirs. Andrew met me and we found Abby, Margo, and Dan. We saw some puppies for sale in the street, an outdoor market, and we sat down for lunch at this really fancy looking place. I ate what probably was hot dogs in a curry sauce; I don't think they sat well with me later. Abby, Margo and I took a cab back to hotel Quito, where Abby is staying. We were going to swim, but it was cold, so Abby and I got coffee at the mall and searched desperately for the movie theatre that Andrew had found. We met Andrew, Dan, and Kevin there, and we watched Harry Potter. It was so cool. It was hard to judge from a true fan's perspective because I couldn't remember what had happened in the book, but I enjoyed it. The audience was a little annoying; I've come to despise Ecuadorian crowds. I think I may have found my calling: I think it would be pretty darn cool to write subtitles. Afterwards I wanted to go back and eat my dinner (and drop off my money!) but I didn't have time or money to take a cab to my house and back; we all went back to the hotel. I borrowed one of Abbey's bathing suits and we went in the hot tub and the pool, which was really fun. I ate a hamburger for $2.50, which was pretty good considering I'd have to pay equal or more for a cab home and back. We sat for a while and talked about going to the Mariscal, but I didn't feel good so I sat in the hotel room for a while, then went home. This morning I had my traditional PB&J, and I'm going to go get cuy (guinea pig) with Andrew later. Especially after yesterday (the weather was gorgeous), for the first time since Galapagos (or before) I'm kind of sad to leave. It's gotten to the point where I feel comfortable here.

I've seen more of Quito today...

...than I have in my entire time here. I woke up around nine and ate breakfast; Brenden called me at 9:30 and told me to meet them at the Olympic Stadium at 9:45. I did, said bye to Ben Talus, and went in a cab with the other Ben and Brenden to the Teleferiqo, or this cable car that goes up the mountain. We met Andrew there and debated going up because it was cloudy, but decided that we wouldn't get another chance. It was good until we got about halfway up, then it was really cloudy. At the top, you couldn't see anything but white. There were shops up there and we walked along a couple of paths, one of which led to a chapel. We were all dying from the altitude (4100 meters) so we didn't stay too long; we left after Andrew and Brenden ordered coca tea. We came down and got a van/taxi to take us to the historical district. The guys were starving, so we found a legit restaurant that wasn't closed for siesta in the Ronda. Andrew got goat and I ordered guatita, which is cow stomach (not great) with peanut sauce (yes great), potatoes, rice, tomato, and avocado. We left to meet Margot and James in the square, the boys bought peanuts, and it began to rain. We decided to go look at this huge church that we saw in the distance which turned out to be the Basilica. It was huge and super cool, and beautiful. I liked it because it wasn't a whore-church that catered to tourists and it wasn't a dead-church that had no parish life... I saw an advertisement for vacation bible school! I loved it. Brenden, Ben, and I took the bus back, which was an adventure because it was so crowded. I got off by the mall, bought a couple more minutes for my phone, tried three different ATMs in order to take out Z's money but it didn't work, thought about buying ice cream but then changed my mind. I walked back in the pouring rain and started looking for help; I need to pay Z that $100. I ate and arranged to share a cab with Brenden later, played some Solitaire (definitely getting to be a major vice) and skyped with Helen. Today was fun, and Andrew invited me for guinea pig with his family tomorrow. Plus we're going to see Harry Potter eventually. Two and a half more nights! (By the way, this is a picture of the Basilica.)

CARTAGENA

Okay, this blog is a bit of a fail. I'll catch up on Galapagos later because at least I have notes for that; I'll just tell you all about Cartagena. So I get back from Galapagos around 6 and I'm dead tired and I have a final project to do. I talk with Z who mentions for the first time that I'll probably have to pay her in order to stay here until the next Monday. Although she's known since forever that I'm planning on staying, she never mentions this to me until now. Great. I do my project, sleep in a little, do more of my project and pack and talk to Mom and play way too much Solitaire. Z and I talk (well, Z talks) over lunch and she asks me if anything bothered me while I was here. I said I was a little lonely and was about to mitigate it when she starts going on about how I knew she lives alone (I didn't) she could never ask me to do anything with her because I was studying (fairly true). She seemed kind of mad which was weird because it hadn't been too big a deal for me; she ended up talking about a lot of her other students and especially emphasized that the other girls put on makeup and nice clothes to go out and bring home boyfriends to meet her although she has had a couple of gay students. This struck me as a little weird until I was telling the kids about it later and Margo is positive that tomboys don't exists in Ecuador, therefore if you don't act stereotypically girly you are automatically weird. Wish I had thought of that earliler. Anyway, I did end up dressing up that nice because our farewell dinner was in the central/historical district. Really nice. We took a bus there, then I sat next to Felicia for the dinner. Appetizer, bread, soup, main dish, dessert. Really fancy. I had forgotten my camera so I made Felicia take pictures of my food :) I was thinking about going out but we had to be at the airport at 4AM to go to Colombia, so I just went home after a misunderstanding with a taxi driver who apparently couldn't speak Spanish. I HATE taxi drivers. Anyway, I got to the airport on time and all would have been fine and dandy except Andrew's flight wasn't with ours. We had known this before and Brenden's dad actually came to the airport to try to get Andrew on our flight. It didn't look like he was going to make it and we almost missed our plane, but we all got on. We had to switch flights in Bogotá, the capitol, and that was a nightmare, but we all got on the plane. It's really Abby's fault because she had forgotten her bag :) When we finally landed, we had to wait around for a van to take us to our hotel. It wasn't there at first, but it eventually showed up. As we were driving to the hotel the driver explained how Cartagena was pretty much the safest city in Colombia because it's a tourist city. We drive past the walled city (Cartagena is an old Carribbean port where the Spaniards dropped off their gold before taking it back to Spain, so pirates liked to ransack it. They built a wall around it and it's pretty well kept up; there's a bunch of old buildings with tourist shops inside.) Oh, and Gabriel García Márquez has a house inside the walls. He's only like my favorite author ever. I luckily had the presence of mind to change money at the airport, so they used me for tips and covered a couple of cabs for me later. The hotel was nice (right across from the beach)and I roomed with Abby, who was in the other program but I knew her from rooming with her at the beach. We all took naps because we were that tired. We had had lunch, too; all meals were included with our package. We explored a little and sat by the pool and there was a Juan Valdez right across the street (it's the Latin American equivalent of a Starbucks). We ate dinner and walked around a little more, enjoying the fact that it was warm and we were sweating.

We met for breakfast at 9 the next morning and decided to walk to the old city because our driver had said it's a pleasant 30-minute walk. It was SO HOT. I'm not sure if I've ever sweated so much in my entire life. Anyway, once we finally got there we sat in a shady plaza and looked at all the old European-style buildings. A couple of the guys bought paintings that turned out to be pretty big ripoffs. Pobrecitos. We walked around a lot and wandered into this church, which was really nice. The kids wanted to go up into the tower, but there were a lot of stairs so I stayed below. I was actually really lucky because Mass started the same time they went up and ended right before they came down. It was super interesting... my only complaint is that I accidentally gave a Sacagawea dollar instead of a peso piece. Whoops. They came back down and we split up for lunch; I went with the guys to a typical Colombian place. I didn't want anything because I didn't have any money and had eaten a big breakfast knowing this would happen, although at least two of the guys offered to pay for me. All of them are really sweet and big-brother-ish; Andrew has actually been calling me little sister for the past week or so. But anyway, they ordered fish (and rice, beans, salad, and juice), except it was a WHOLE fish. It looked a little wierd but Brenden gave me a piece to try and it was to die for. We met up with the girls just as it started to rain and ended up taking cabs back. I'm pretty sure we all ended up taking naps. I think I remember that we went swimming in the ocean, which was really warm, but it closed at 5:30. We migrated to the pool, which closed at 6, then waited for the sunset. I took a shower, we ate, and I was handed over to Margot who wanted to do my clothes, hair, and makeup. It turned out really well; she loaned me some skinny jeans and a nice top, straightened my hair, and went creazy with the eye makeup. We hung out by the pool but people were getting irritable, so we left for the old city. We did a lot of walking around, and it got pretty late. Andrew and Abby went back with me; they're the best. I tried to get my eye makeup off and went to sleep.

The next morning we had a plan, which was good. Bensito got us organized and six of us went to el Castillo de San Felipe, this huge fort. It took forever to walk there and cost 8000 pesos to get in (1750 pesos to the dollar) but it had nice views and creepy tunnels. We meant to go to the embassy so the School of Foreign Service kids could talk to the ambassadors, but they wouldn't let us in. We met back up in the old city and split up for lunch again. I went with Brenden and Bensito to this other typical Colombian place; soup, meat, beans, rice, salad, banana chips, juice, for 6000 pesos or less than $3.50. I ate there and it was fantastic. We met up with the other kids and the girls wanted to go back but the two boys and Andrew wanted to go shopping for linen suits, the typical Colombian dress. We spent two HOURS shopping; there boys are worse than women. We spent most of our time in one store, trying things on and negotiating price, decided, left to go find an ATM, walked into another store, tried stuff on, negotiated, decided, and FINALLY left. It would have been torturous, but it was SO freakin funny. My patience was rewarded because we went to see Gabriel Garcia Marquez's house. Even though he's still alive so it's a private residence so we couldn't go in AND he wasn't even there, it was still super cool. We talked to a security guard in the hotel across from the street and he told us a couple of stories. We took a cab back and I'm pretty sure this is when Abby bought me my first-ever frappuccino, which was good but then I couldn't nap. Maybe this was the day we went swimming. I can't remember exactly because the days were the same and a little different at the same time, plus I was tired all the time. Anyway, we had dinner and got ready... in between a lot of this Abby and I had a few nice talks in our room, making fun of the guys and talking about home and running. Needless to say, she's one of my best friends now. Charlie and Alana, the two grad students from the program, showed up to be with us for the rest of our time there. We went off to the old city again and a couple of the kids got food at the HardRock Cafe. We went to a cool little discoteca outside the gates and talked; I went back with Kevin, Ben, and James because I was tired and they were going anyway. Police officers stopped us on our way back, but I guess that's normal. They're pretty hard core. I went to sleep.

Wednesday was technically our last day; I think it was Brenden this time that had a plan. We walked to the Inquisition Museum, which was pretty interesting. I think we went for lunch right after in the same place, but I didn't eat anything because I was so tired and not hungry and running out of pesos. I snagged a couple of scapulars for the Grandmas and Brenden and Andrew Almost went shopping, but they thought better of it. We took a cab back and Brenden and I went to Juan Valdez to buy packages of coffee for our families. Credit card. I went to swim when we got back, and it was a lit of fun because I love waves so much. Brenden even found a sand dollar, and James said it was alive. We got ready for dinner; the guys had made reservations at a pizza/pasta place. I was a little upset about missing dinner and I wasn't going to eat because I had had snacks beforehand at the hotel, but two or three people offered to pay for me because they were splitting a pizza; they wouldn't have been able to finish it by themselves and Ben ended up paying for me. A guy from the street asked him for leftoevers, so Andrew gave him the rest of his pizza. We dropped Kevin, Ben, and James off at the hotel because they were tired and took a horse-drawn carriage to Cafe del Mar, which every gringo we had met raved about. It was really sweet, just a cafe with a lot of open air seating and a great view of the ocean. Unfortunately it started raining, but that was okay because I had the craziest Shirley Temple of my life; it had cherry, apple, pineapple AND kiwi fruit in it. We went outside the walls after a while to go to a discoteca to dance, then I went back to the hotel with Charlie, Alana, and Margot. Sleep. Yes.

The next morning we got up, ate what I swear were donuts, and left. Our flight to Bogotá was delayed, but we made every flight. Back in Ecuador I took a cab back with Brenden and Kevin, decided to stay in, settled $100 with Z for the next couple of days I'm here (even though she wanted to charge me for the days I was in Colombia) ate dinner and skyped Mom. The rest of the world is eagerly awaiting the 7th Harry Potter movie, but I think I might go up a mountain tomorrow. And see the movie for $4.50, yes.

Life itsn't Fair

Like I said, spotty internet connection in Galapagos. I really loved it there, and I really want to do it justice but that's looking a little rough right now because I should probably get ready for our FAREWELL DINNER in two hours (it's gonna be fancy)and then I have to go to bed because I have to be at the airport at 5 am tomorrow to leave for Colombia. Yes. I'm pretty excited, even though the pictures Mrs. Vogel posted on shutterfly of the 4th of July party made me pretty homesick.
Anyway, I'm not taking my computer to Colombia, I have no idea if I'll be able to access a computer, and I won't be back til Thursday night. Therefore, I will try to remember and write everything the old-fashioned way when I'm stuck in an airport for three hours in Bogotá. Not that I mind. And I didn't work on the blog beofre now because I was working on a final project, which I am rather proud of and will probably translate into English to show off.
Right now, I just feel like a giant waste of space. Colombia is a gift, and I'm going to have to pay to stay in Quito, too, and it's not like I'm making any money here. I guess they call this the "trip of a lifetime" for a reason :)

so I{m in the Galapagos...

So it turns out there is internet here. Spotty internet, slow internet with keyboards that don{t know how to make apostrophes, but I{m not complaining because I can email Mom and she can keep me updated on North Ridgeville gossip. Anyway, Thursday night the kids went out but I "worked" on my final project (aka played solitaire while waiting for Mom to get on Skype) and my internet died right as she called me. Bummer. I woke up probably a little after 5 because we had to be at the airport at 6, tried to be quiet, ran down to my taxi which was early, then sat in fear as the driver zoomed through Quito. He didn{t stop and wait at the red lights, but supposedly the normally don{t do that at night because people attack them of they do. Great. When I got to the airport, he asked for $5. I know that{s a bargain in the US, but this was pretty much the biggest ripoff ever; the only other time I had paid $5 was when I split it between like 4 other people, one of whom lived forever far away. I tried to argue but I was a little scared, gave him four and told him I didn{t have any more, fished around in my purse and brought out 62 cents. Whatever. I then grumpily waited in the airport for everyone else to come; I was 25 minutes early but the taxi should have been picking me UP at this time instead of dropping me off. Jerk. Everyone got there, we had to go through some special lines for Galapagos, we waited around a lot, then I got through the security line. I didn{t know this, but my brace is chock-full of metal and so of course it set off the alarm. This lady went over me quickly with a detector and shooed me away. Like I said, what terrorist in their right mind would target Ecuador? More waiting around; I talked to Felicia. I do hope that I have emphasized that she{s the best ever. Anyway, first we took a flight to Guayaquil where all of the bad things seem to happen. At least, the few times I have watched the news it{s been about something bad happening in Guayaquil. Afterwards, we flew to Galapagos. It was nice because the airplane was pretty chev, gave us food, AND there was a little TV with an episode of Glee. Ah, American television. We touched down in Balta, an almost uninhabited island with one of the three airports here. It was pretty flat and impressive; it looked Galapageño. We had to go through a customs-thing where they checked out passports (we all gave Felicia a hard time because she only had a copy when they told us to bring an original; they let her in anyway) and they checked our bags. We waited for a crowded bus that took us along some more flat brown country to a boat, which took us to another bus that drove us over hilly greenish land; it rained and we slept. This bus took us to another boat... although it was really a panga. They{re kind of like little floaty boats with motors. We got the lifejackets and the panga took us to Estrella del Mar, our REAL boat. Which was nice. There was an outside deck, dining room, and lounge on the first floor, 6 bedrooms below, 2 bedrooms and an open lounge up top along with the captain and an open lounge on the VERY top. Pretty cool. Our guide, Enrique (REALLY cute) gave us an orientation, told us things we should and shouldn{t do, ect. We then had lunch (fish, beet salad, fruit) and I did feel a little sick, but I had taken Dramamine. Next we went onshore...

Schedule for Galapagos

~6 AM flight from Quito to Baltra, boat tour aboard Estrella de Mar Friday-Sunday (including Saturday... my birthday!)

~ July 4
*Arrive in San Cristobal, checkin to Hotel Mar Azul
*12:30pm lunch at Kicker Rock
*1:30pm town tour, GAIAS (Galapagos Academic Institute for the Arts and Sciences; it's the program we go through at UFSQ) orientation, interpretation center
*Class with Diego
*7:00 dinner at: Rocas y Cactus

~July 5
*8:00am breakfast at GAIAS
*8:30am trip to highlands, lunch included
*4:00pm Class with Diego
*7:00 dinner at: Rocas y Cactus

~July 6
*8:00am breakfast at GAIAS
*9:00am Class at GAIAS
*12:30pm lunch at kicker Rock
*2:30pm depart for loberia
*7:00 dinner at: Rocas y Cactus

~July 7
*7:00am breakfast at GAIAS
*8:00pm depart for leon dormido
*5:00pm "Galapagos in 20 years" panel at GAIAS
*7:00 dinner at: Rocas y Cactus

~July 8
*8:00am breakfast at hotel
9:00am check in luggage
12:00ish flight departs

Yeah, no idea what we'll be doing on the boat tour. Lots of awimming?

LAST DAY

I didn't sleep well because I had a stomachache all night long, probably from the empanada. I'm sure it was safe because it was bought in a restaurant and all, but it was super greasy and Z is so healthy that I guess my system isn't used to the fat! It was a weird morning because I kind of realized that this was the LAST DAY, the last morning to slap the snooze button at 6:20. Z made me that weird cranberry oatmeal soup and hurried me out of the house again because my leg is still in the brace; I walk fine but it does make things like stairs, going to the bathroom, and putting on shoes awkward because I can't bend my knee. I just want to be able to dance by Colombia. I made it to the bus in time and kind of studied; I was tired. At school I alternated between studying, looking for AM, procrastinating, eating a croissant, emailing Mom, sunbathing, and talking with one of my buddies; she game me a CD of Ecuatorian songs... score! I took my Survey exam; it wasn't too big of a deal. I was the last one out, so I looked for AM again and settled down in the computer lab to work on my nature project. I tried to get the guys around me to come and eat like three different times, but we ended up waiting for Andrew to print a paper, then we went to the cafeteria. Last time, with big Ben and Andrew. Weird mystery soup with some kind of meat that Ben thought might be stomach, beet salad, fish, RICE, watermelon juice, and TRES LECHES. We're all sick of rice, but I could never get sick of tres leches. After lunch I hurried on over to the bakery to buy some chocolate for Mom after checking that it would keep for almost three weeks. I sat with some kids for a while and went on over to class to present my final project. It was interesting that one of the girls got pulled out for mysterious reasons; she told us later on the bus that she basically got yelled at for wearing too-short skirts; they told her that it was fine in the university but on the streets it would be like asking for rape. It was a little suspicious because other girls wear skirts just as short and sometimes shorter, plus it was our last day (wouldn't this advice have been more helpful a little earlier?) plus the person who told on her supposedly was a girl from the U who isn't a buddy. Entertaning, to say the least. The bus dropped us off and we went our separate ways; I would have been up for doing something but most kids were going back to their houses to take naps so they could go out later. Considering that we have to be at the airport at 6 AM and the amount of sleep I've been getting, no party for me tonight. I'll save it for Saturday (my birthday!! And Audrey's too.) So tonight I'm going to bed early, taking a 5:40 cab, and on to Galapagos. I'll publish my schedule, too. A couple of things I didn't know about Galapagos: it was about as many people as North Ridgeville (slightly under 30,000) and two airports. The animals aren't scared of anything, goats have kind of taken over the island, we won't be allowed to scuba dive, there are basically small towns, internet access is spotty but available. So maybe you'll hear from me. Oh, and I can take the brace off to swim, thank goodness.