after Wednesday comes THURSDAY

Okay... last night I was so happy because my internet was working, and I spent a good hour checking email, facebook, and constructing a perfect blog entry. While I was writing said entry, my internet crashed without my noticing and deleted the ENTIRE post when I tried to submit it. Por eso, here´s a little about yesterday. I´m pretty sure the morning was normal; Z showed me how to made batida. This time she used toxi, another alien looking fruit. I did the whole bus thing and got to the university, no class until 10:30 so I did a presentation for that class and a resumen on one of the university´s devil computers. Some kids got coffe. I wasn´t going to have any but Andrew was given one by mistake that he didn´t want, so I drank it. My class was pretty good; the teacher liked a lot of what I said. I tell you this because school (or at this point, Spanish lit) is kind of integral to my ego :) Afterwards I was starving, as, usual, but Andrew wanted to work on our presentation for the next class, so we did. On the bright side I met his buddy Ricardo or Rodrigo, don´t remember. I´m getting good at this whole besito thing. I went to eat by myself (nutella crepes, at last!!! as well as iced tea that I discreetly spilled everywhere) to work a little more, because everyone else was meeting with their buddies (I meet mine today) but Dan sat next to me, so Maddy and their buddy Stefi did too. It made me feel rather popular (is it just me, or do a lot of Gtown students have this issue?) BUT Germán needed my student ID to take out a map from the library. I went with him, then to culture class (presentation again good). Normal bus ride back up the cliff. Like normal, walk home, say hola to the guard, say hi to Z. And read Spanish lit! I had for dinner another mystery soup, meat with sesame seeds, potato pancakes with cheese, avocado, and real lemonade. Like I said, I wasted an hour on this blog and went to sleep at 10... so scandalous!! I meant to tell you that there´s this car outside my window and its alarm goes off ALL THE TIME. It´s not even a normal annoying alarm; it changes tones every five seconds! Anyway, normal morning. PB&J and batida de STRAWBERRY, which is great because I´m missing strawberry season in Ohio :( I walked to the bus (which was late) by myself for the first time. And it was misting. The sky, I mean. And now I know what people mean when they say that the fog was so thick, they could´ve cut it with a knife. I had academic writing... we talked a lot again, read a story about a boy who closes his eyes, relives his day except everything turns out nice, then gets run over by a truck. She had me do a memory writing exercise from childhood; I ended up writing how I used to spend time with my cousin Darlene. Grandma would watch us and call Doug ´buster´if he bothered us (he was seven, which seemed unimaginably old) and we´d play with doll houses, or Kelly, Barbie´s daughter, that had her own bath tub. We didn´t play in the sandbox because the cat used it as a litter box, and I remembered one day when Darlene´s red haired cousin came and they showed my a circle of sunflowers tied up as a hideout. Except I can´t remember if it was a dream of not. Ana Maria really liked it, and my diario entries on money and food. I had a little time afterward to email Mom (drama at home, drama here, potential souveniers) and read for my next class. We studied the wierdest story ever (Las babas del diablo, if you want to know, which is an Italian movie called Blow up) and she let us out a little early, as usual. I have lunch with my buddy Jael in 12 minutes. I´m going to an indigenous market this weekend.
Puntes claves: I was completely buzzed off of that one coffee yesterday. My Appalachian (not Appalashian) friend says that there, you can insult someone in the grossest manner imaginable and it´s fine as long as you add ´bless her heart´at the end. Here, they take it to the next level. Apparently you can call someone skinny, fat, giraffe, dwarf, or Chinese (even if he is Korean) without causing a fuss (it´s normal). Not that I´m going to try. The campus here has a little lake with a pirate ship. I have a salsa class today at 2. I see little orange flowers on my way to USFQ every day that are really cool (or muy chévere). This keyboard is GREAT for typing in Spanish. I have not yet run, gone out, gotten sick, or gotten sunburned.

WEDnesday

Things are blurring together already. Darn that Spanish lit. Anyway,I'm pretty sure I blogged yesterday BEFORE my first nature and culture class, to which I owe the opportunity of going to Galapagos and the jungle (Tiputini). It was pretty cool, although we have four short papers, two presentations, a final project, and a lot of reading in four weeks. Yay. Germán teaches it and he's pretty cool, especially since he's from Argentina and DOESN'T speak with an Italian accent (they normally do, I swear). Bus ride back and down with the homework, of which there was a lot. Most of it was Spanish poetry, though, which I liked, and Zeheivy made me... some sort of soup, although I've been eating so much soup that I can't remember what it was, and pasta with a chicken leg. And juice of tomate de árbol, which wasn't that good. I was actually cold during the night because it rained, and I was actually fairly chilly during various parts of the day despite long sleeves and pants. I ate batida de naranjilla again and pb&j, although Zeheivy is trying to wrest out of my some more breakfast favorites because she likes variety. We went a different way to the bus stop as it was misting, and I finished up some "poetry." The bus ride was really cool because the clouds were so low on the mountains; the clouds were so thick I couldn't see anything. Academic Writing is oficially my favorite class. We talked for the first good few minutes about Ecuador, looked at a poem about a princess, talked about Black Swan, and did some vanguardista writing exercises: she said a word and I had to write down what came to mind, etc. The fastest 90 minutes of my life. Plus I handed in a composition. My next class was an hour later; by the time I got there I was really hungry. We did our last day of poetry. It made me a little sad because I like poetry AND poetry usually is much shorter than essays and short stories... Instead of eating at the cafeteria Alana, Margo and I ate at Wok, a chinese-y place that accepts university food cards. Not quite as good as American Chinese food. Ha. I wandered around a little and found Andrew in the library to organize our presentation on an article called Expedición al Ecuador (he's a major too, and so is Kevin). Kevin came over to save us with an indigenous-looking guy named Inti, Melanie and a buddy named Rafael joined us to sit outside a cafe. We must be pretty popular because Margo came along and one of Rafael's friends David came too, and we had some interesting conversation. The bus ride made me tired (big surprise) and I went right home. Zeheivy is my savior because she comes in to talk to me once in a while and gives my brain a break. Macaroni and chicken soup for dinner, along with a rice/egg/chicken plate I couldn't finish and mango(or was it quava?)-lemon juice. We watched the Ecuador v. Canada soccer game while we ate, and I do believe Ecuador won :) Short story, cultural reading, and two presentations tomorrow :( I'm still not done, but what the heck? The upcoming days should be pretty fun: salsa classes on Friday, indigenous market for the weekend.
Fun facts: There's a pig decoration in my room. Blackberry is called "mora." I'm pretty much dying for chocolate; luckily a restaurant opens tomorrow that sells nutella crepes. I'm beginning to think that this travellers diarrhea thing is face (knock on wood) or I just inherited my dad's iron stomach... or Zeheivy is just REALLY careful with my food. I don't miss English as much because I have to read articles in English for Nature and Culture and they make my head hurt. Rafael is studying film and has to take a class on sensualidad. He translated it as "attraction," but use your imagination. I heard a song from the Tangled soundtrack today... in Spanish. I'm getting used to these besito things (did I tell you that Ecuadorians ALWAYS greet eachother with a kiss on the cheek?) I haven't run yet.

yesterday and the last day of may

Last night I was doing homework (big surprise) so let´s see if I can remember stuff. Again, I´m in the computer lap typing on a Spanish keyboard, so have mercy. Incidentally, Spanish keyboards are great for typing Spanish composiciones. OK, well, yesterday I got up at 6 to catch the bus at 7, I was super early but we almost left a girl there because she was late! We picked everyone up and drove down to the university... I swear, the road is so vertical that I´m sure it would be illegal in the US. It´s actually a pretty awesome feat of architecture... I´m just glad I´m not driving. Ana Maria, my academic writing professor, and I met in the library and did things like go over the syllabus and analyze a poem. I have to do a research project as my final, and I think I´m going to do it on knitting in indigenous groups. Nerdy? Next I had Survey of Spanish American Lit, and we spent the first half hour of class looking for the classroom... the original classroom didn´t exist and the second one we tried was occupied. We finally did get together with the professor (only 4 in the class) and we read some José Martí. A little boring, but probably because I was so hungry (potato soup, cucumber and zucchini salad, rice, a type of stew, and TRES LECHES as well as mystery juice.) It turns out that I didn´t have class that afternoon so I did important things like check email and facebook, wandered around, and sat next to the lake and pirate ship with Melanie while watching Loba, the university dog, and discovering that the bushes we were sitting next to had limes and avocados on them. Pretty cool. We took the bus back and I got back to the apartment and did homework! Yay! A lot of reading Spanish lit and something titled ´what is culture´in English. Zeheivy made me soup, with banana chips and a type of chicken sandwich except instead of bread there was rice... Enrique came over, too. It´s nice when he´s around because the house feels more full. The two of them discuss like a married couple and it´s really cute. I also had agua de jamaica. Not really sure what it is, but the best way I can describe it is that it looks like KoolAid and tastes kind of like autumn, like the smell of leaves. Pretty weird. I study more and go to bed at 9! I haven´t kept hours like this since, well, never. I woke up at 6 again, which is harder than it sounds because I still dream in English (as far as I can remember) and I have to get back into Spanish mode to talk to Zeheivy. She made me some kind of cereal with oatmeal, apples, ans what I thought were grapes but are really cranberries in it. It was good; I also drank hot chocolate and half a pb&j. Incidentally, the PB had NO sugar in it. I checked. But it´s still peanut butter. She walked with me again to the bus stop and everyone was on time. I didn´t have class so I worked in the library and wrote my description compo on Quito, there was more classroom trouble with Survey, and I was starving again for lunch (quinoa soup, rice and fish, salad, melon juice, and mystery might be lemon cake). And now I´m in the computer lab blogging! Really things haven´t been too exciting because we´re not going anywhere until the weekend, but for a geek like me Spanish lit is pretty exciting. I haven´t gone running yet, but both Charlie and Melanie run so I´ll be in good shape if-when I get in shape... going up the stairs is like running a track workout.
More fun facts: Did I tell you the cheese here is white and squeaky? And that there´s dog poop on the sidewalks? The guards at the apartment recognize me; big surprise. The sun can burn you through the clouds. I live next to the National Conservatory of Music and a ballet school. Zeheivy loved the Cavs sweatshirt I gave her and asked how I know that she is an athlete. It´s good because people here are cold all the time, although I swear it never dips below 60, maybe 55 in the early morning. There are clouds in the mountains in the morning. There are a lot of other US students here, but they all always speak English. Slackers. I do miss speaking English, but I´m getting over it now that my grammar is going to the dogs in favor of Spanish. Everyone knows right away that I´m not from here; people stare at me in the street and always speak to me in English (if they don´t know any) supposing I don´t know a word of Spanish. The is my new biggest pet peeve. Oh, and you can´t throw toilet paper in the toilet here. It goes in the trash can.

May 29, evening

I FINALLY HAVE INTERNET but it is slower than those Galápagos tortoises. Therefore, facebook, email, and especially blogging is still kind of limited. I ws so tried last night that I legitimately fell asleep at 9:30. Probably because of walking around the city. I woke up and got dressed for Mass; Zeheivy said that most people go pretty casually but I wore the skirt I brought for this specific purpose just in case. Big mistake; I stuck out like a llama in a herd of sheep. Anyway, I ate a cheese omelette with bread and drinkable yogurt for breakfast. By the way, the cheese here is white and squeaky (no joke) but fresh. The Mass was a little depressing, mostly because I couldn’t understand anything (I learned later that the priest is Italian and therefore has an accent; it made me feel a little better.) Plus I was tired. I’ve been pretty lucky with the whole altitude sickness thing, but they’re not kidding when they say you experience fatigue. I could fall asleep pretty much anytime, anywhere. We stopped at a fruitería after mass and got some avocados; then I sat and knitted while Zeheivy cooked. This was the worst; I was still tired and a little lonely from being in an apartment with only one person and Zeheivy was playing English music. I just kind of sat and knitted, which was nice (I managed to stuff some sock knitting in my carry-on. Real life-saver.)ANYWAY after this Juan Francisco, Zeheivy’s son, came over with his kids: Camila 14, Juan Emilio 8, Ariana 7. They were so fun! We watched a dubbed Drake and Josh, they talked to me a lot, and we watched a little of the royal wedding. Ariana kept asking me what my favorite this or that was, and Camila complimented my Spanish. Apparently the last girl that stayed here didn’t know any Spanish and cried all the time. It made me feel really lucky. We ate potato soup with avocado, fish, rice, lentils, fried plantain, and we drank blackberry juice (no joke). There was ice cream for dessert! Camila showed me the Wifi channel that doesn’t need a password, and we kids played cards. Afterwards Juan Francisco drove us to the Parque Metropolitano, and we messed around a little. Again, SO MUCH FUN! The park is basically a forest, but there were park-like toys like monkey bars and such; I climbed those and they were impressed. I’m excited to hang out with them again; they’re muy chévere, or cool. Needless to say I went straight to the computer after coming home, but like I said it’s slow. I’m glad I get to start classes tomorrow, and I do confess that I miss speaking English.Fun random facts: My sheets are yellow and the opposite side of my blanket has ducks on it. Zeheivy doesn’t seem to use her living room. I ate a fruit today that looked like an alien. No joke. You get sick of people staring at you, but you quickly realize it’s your fault for doing stupid things like wearing a skirt. Most university students here commute. Or go to a different country to study. Kids aren’t as hard to understand as I thought.

May 28, 2011 evening

This morning I woke up to eat the same breakfast as yesterday (except the batilla was made of bananas, not naranjillas) and Zeheivy walked with me to catch an 8:30 tour bus. First we drove to this dead volcano that has people living in it. It was pretty cool because it used to be a Jesuit hacienda and the big house is still there, but it’s in ruins and the land has been parceled out to the people. Next we went to the Museo de Sitio Intiñan “Camino del Sol,” or the real equator. It had some pretty cool stuff, like original indigenous houses, shrunken heads and how to make them (as a war trophy or as a way to honor the dead), guinea pigs that they eat you know, a preserved penis fish (google it; I dare you), and the equator, of course, with all sorts of little experiments to prove that it really is the equator. It was pretty much my favorite part of the day. Everyone fell asleep once we got back to the bus! The guides took us to a lookout point where we could see most of the city. It would have been normal, except one of the guys fell over and had what looked like a seizure. It was pretty scary, but luckily it didn’t last very long. We were well taken care of (two guides, professor, grad student Ana María, and Eugenia) so professor took him back to his house to rest; the rest of us went down into the city and we all started drinking more water. We walked along the streets; there was a lot of people, things, noise, etc. But I was pretty hungry and therefore crabby, as well as a little tired. We made it to this tourist-looking restaurant called American Corner (ha) and we ate: potato soup with avocado in it, pineapple juice to die for, “salad,” chicken with mushrooms, rice, AND this wonderful thing called tres leches cake which was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. I was pretty set after that and followed willingly to listen to some stuff about the palace, the plaza, and the Jesuit Church that looked like it was practically dripping with gold, although they were so conservative that really it was just small amounts of gold paint that did the trick. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, which was probably a good thing considering how I would’ve gotten carried away. We walked down a street with a lot of bars but they had a lot of kids’ games out because it was daytime. We walked through their Independence Plaza (it’s worth mentioning that their Independence day or Día de Patria was May 24, although they celebrated it yesterday, Friday) and back to the bus. We got back to the stop early so we waited around and I found out that I am THE ONLY PERSON in my Academic Writing class. Woooooah. Still not sure if I’m nervous, excited, or both. And I thought that 5-person Arabic was tight! On the very bright side, I can pretty much dictate whenever I want to have class, not that I have many other options. My other classes are Survey of Spanish American Lit and Nature and Culture; both count toward my major and the N&C is getting me into the jungle (Tiputini) and Galápagos.Anyway, Zeheivy and Enrique picked me up in the car Enrique inherited from his son because Zeheivy doesn’t drive, and we went to the mall to get my phone. Profesora said that it should only cost about $45 with a $5 card, but the cheapest phone was $70, so we left. The mall was pretty cool and reminded me of Great Northern because it has multiple floors. Enrique has a sweet tooth so he bought all three of us ice cream, which made me pretty happy. I chose chocolate and strawberry because I wasn’t adventurous enough to try something that turned out to be blackberry. We looked for an Ethernet cord, decided to try for the Wifi password, and went to a Supermaxi (aka Ecuadorian Wal-Mart) to buy the phone, which ended up costing $60. I guess it’s worth my potential safety, right? I messed around with it at home (it has an FM radio…) and ate soup because I was still full from lunch and ice cream. I’m a little tired. I would potentially go to sleep right now, but I don’t want to wake up at quarter to six again ☹I would like to mention that I saw a BILLION JILLION runners today in the park we passed, so I’m pretty excited. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get up to running (today I got really tired from walking downhill and completely winded going uphill) but it’s nice to see runners around; I think there’s even a marathon in June. Don’t worry, Mom, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that I’ll be running that (incidentally, that’s not an Ecuadorian saying, it’s Grace’s. An Ecuadorian saying that pertains to crossing the street is “better to lose one minute of your life than to lose your life in one minute.” Drivers here don’t know that we lowly pedestrians have the right-of-way.)

May 27, 2011 evening

Given my limited Internet access, one of my bus buddies gave me the idea to type and save everything on a flash drive; blog it later. So let’s see if I can do this. But first, a note about my luggage. It probably would have been okay, except I kept remembering things that were kind of important, like soap. And pajamas. Incidentally, medical scrubs make great pajama pants. Anyway, after getting off the plane and standing through customs for forever, I met my administrator and she directed me right to my hostmom. “Esta es su mama y esto es su papa.” Wait a minute… papa??? I supposedly only had my hostmom Zeheivy, but I wasn’t about to ask questions. They took me right away, the dad bravely dragging my suitcase, and we got in a car where I heard… a song in English (you are amazing). I made some nice small talk in Spanish and Zeheivy even complimented my speaking. The traffic was terrible and the drivers were crazy. I used to condemn that, thinking that oh, all drivers in Phoenix are crazy or oh, all drivers in DC are terrible… but I think just city driving in general, wherever you are, is a mess. Although it was not quite seven it was already dark, so everything we passed automatically looked sketchy. But their apartment building is GORGEOUS! Its floors are nicely tiled, it had a pool, a kids’ park, a parking garage, and a gym, and the lights turn on by motion detectors. Their apartment itself was also beautifully decorated and everything. I knew that I’d get my own room, but I also have my own bathroom! They left me to unpack (which took much less time than I thought) and Zeveivy made me grilled cheese (white cheese, wheat bread) and poured me some drinkable yogur, Spanish for yogurt. You know, like those Danimals drinkables things?? They were really sweet, my shower was almost too hot, and Señor even took a look at my computer. Yeah, I can’t figure out this wireless thing; I need a security code and I’m not about to ask right now. It was really loud at night because we’re in the middle of the city. Dogs, car and car alarms, and sometimes people made a lot of noise, but it didn’t matter because I was that tired. I woke up at 6:30 to catch a bus. Zeheivy (I’m not allowed to call her Señora, and it’s pronounced SAY-vee) made me batilla, which is like a smoothie drink, out of naranjillas, these little things that are the shape and size of clementines, but their skin is smooth.I also had bread with PEANUT BUTTER and jelly. Granted it wasn’t quite American peanut butter, but at this point, I don’t care. She also explained to me Enrique, mi papá. He’s her pareja, which doesn’t really mean boyfriend; I guess I would say partner. Both their spouses died years ago and so they spend a lot of time together, although he doesn’t live here. She spoke so plainly and beautifully that it didn’t seems weird, although I’ve never been to familiar with the concept of older people “dating.” It actually turned out to be a good thing because I hadn’t brought a gift for Enrique!We walked to the bus stop. Everything did look rather sketchy to me in the daylight, like the litter, some graffiti, and dog poop on the sidewalk, but I’m pretty sure it’s normal by city standards; I can’t judge because I’m used to almost-rural suburbia and the rich preppy Georgetown neighborhood. I wore my hair down because I decided to look nice after not caring for so long because of exams and being by myself at home, but I think that was kind of a mistake, just because Zeheivy and I passed a group of oh-so-mature boys on our way to the stop and one of them made kissy noises. I swear it’s the hair… although I did meet a USFQ (Universidad San Francisco de Quito, where I study) student today, completely Ecuadorian, with hair blonder than mine. The bus was late, but I didn’t care because I met a couple of other program students and I SAW RUNNERS. Not A runner, but multiple! In packs!! AND I met a program student from Hofstra who would run with me. Anyway, bus to the university by way of nearly-vertical roads down to the valley. We listened to the U’s president speak and some other guy gave us like 10,000 years of extremely compressed Ecuadorian history. Some guy talked about the GAIAS program that we’re in, too, but at that point I was really feeling the altitude-fatigue thing so I just sat there and absorbed what I could. Oh, and it was all in English. On a more exciting note, some REAL USFQ students came in; they’re our buddies for the stay. We went to the cafeteria to ear with them (soup with meat and possibly cilantro, salad with lettuce and something else, rice, beans, a salty meat, fruit mousse for dessert no joke, and iced tea). I sat with a couple of the buddies and got to know them a little bit. It was really cool because their attitude was so relaxed; the speakers were mostly the same way. Heck, the president of the U fired a professor who is now the president, and they thought it was hilarious. They felt kind of like Georgetown in the way that they were serious about real (life) studying and real change, but they had an attitude that made me believe that prestige doesn’t exist. Plus I felt awesome because the Spanish is coming so easily; I was worried about not having spoken it in a while. It’s so natural that it’s kind of scary, in a good way. Anyway, they gave us a campus tour, I probably got sunburned, and some other gringo talked about health and safety in the most blunt manner you can imagine (to help you imagine, here’s a hint: he is also a theater teacher….) My professor talked a little more and began the mandatory Spanish rule. I was worried that the other kids wouldn’t care and would speak English anyway, but now I’m not. Profesora is really strict and these guys want to learn Spanish too, plus we all help each other out. We took the bus back and Zeheivy was waiting for me. I told her about my day and she gave me a complete tour of the apartment. She left me to read the info booklet I had gotten and we looked over pictures of my family, my runners, and my chicks on six. She made my dinner (quinoa soup, fish, and vegetables) and I watched TV with her after I showered; it was some kind of weird game show.This is a lot of stuff and I’m not sure how interesting it is, especially considering the limited effort I’m putting into in given that I’m rushing so I can sleep so I can wake up early again. I suppose the beauty of the blog is that you can tell me if you don’t care what I’m eating or if you really DO want to know that the health and safety guy told us that 90% of students get travellers’ diarrhea…