to be continued...

Yesterday I wandered around like a loser, for once not having anything to do but my Spanish composition that I didn´t want to do. On the bright side, I took Audrey and Proshanti to the bakery and I got yogurt-bread... I´m pretty sure it´s made WITH yogurt because it sure didn´t have any yogurt in it. I went to Survey class. Ahh, me... and freaked out over the midterm we had today. I ate lunch with Priscilla, a buddy who´s also Russian or something crazy like that, at Wok the chinese place. She´s a total Spanglish speaker. At 2 we had a Nature meeting where they explained the jungle to us. He (Daniel, guy in charge) spoke about conservation and biodiversity and stuff which made me continue to think about taking some bio classes. He then got into the nitty gritty things, like: pirhanas aren´t dangerous and you´re going to swim with them, the tarantulas won´t bother you and neither will the giant toads bigger than your foot; there are giant ants half the size of your pointer finger and don´t let them bite you because it´ll feel like you got run over by a horse for a couple of hours. You´re going to be wet and hot and follow all the safety regulations and there are no fashion police. You might get to see a jaguar and oh did I mention that there are a lot of bugs? I have no problem whatsoever with bugs (just ask my roommate) but it looked like a couple of the other kids might. I was worried that I´d be all wimpy and stuff, but not I´m really not. The only thing is that there´s this one apparatus in which you pretty much go up into the canopy of the forest, which is pretty high up. Good thing I practiced going up on the roof with Dad, right? So that took up all our class time and I went back on the bus. Z wasn´t home when I got home, which was weird for her, but I buckled down to my composition... more or less (Z called me; she was still out with Enrique after having heard his son´s doctorate defense in mechanical engineering or something crazy)... I ate dinner (mushroom soup, chicken leg, rice patties, something that looked like deep-fried broccoli) and skpyed Mom, which made me SO happy. Although I´m pretty sure she´s not supposed to, Z went over the evaluation of me WITH me and kept telling me how nice I am (I know, I know...)and I eventually went to bed after packing everything for the beach in Beth´s magic backpack. I dreamed of Georgetown and woke up a little later than normal because our buses left at 7:20 this morning instead of 7; don´t know why. We were late, of course, because traffic was terrible, and I went on over to the library for class with Ana María. We went over my paper for Survey and she really flattered me; she said that she corrects my papers like she would for a native speaker. My problem is with paragraphs... I have to unlearn a few things from AP English. So afterward I went to the lab, frantically corrected my paper while a mom and prospective student made small talk with me, and printed... Then we had a surprise meeting with Veronica, the professor. Basically what happened was that a girl´s camera was stolen last night... it turned into a big drama mostly because stories got mixed up and the kids were probably drunk, which is a big no-no. So afterward we had to rush to our Survey exam which didn´t kill me. I took some money out of the ATM for the beach (hotel, university bus, and such) and ate a kind of gross chicken caesar salad... maybe I should stick with the rice! Margoh and Lola took me to a fro-yo place, then I panicked and decided that I needed to blog before, I don´t know, going to sleep with the tarantulas. Ah, just kidding. Well, kind of :)

PS (playa... surprise!!!)

As it turns out, Atacamiz is NOT as close to the Colombian border or as dangerous as previously thought. Therefore, vamos a la playa (beach, haha) this weekend. We come back Sunday night and then Monday morning I go to the JUNGLE... therefore, if I don't have internet Sunday night, I won't be posting for a while. But don't worry; I'll have stories. Tarantulas giant toads jaguars pihranas. And fuzzy monkeys!

two days (not) running...

Why am I not up to date on this thing? I´ll tell you why otherwise life would be completely useless. Last night I was a hardworking college student and I stayed up until 10:00 (PM) (SO CRAZY) working on my first-ever Spanish paper paper, not some kind of wimpy 2-page composicion or resumen that takes me like 2 hours. No. This baby is almost four pages long and it´s pretty much an AP English 5-paragraph essay on civilization and barbarism. Yes. I know.
So in real life, yesterday I woke up, ate my PB&J and batida de naranjilla, and went off to class! In Academic Writing we pretty much talked the whole time, I got some of Ana María´s life story, we talked about immigration, perceptions, spilling coffee, and the life. I learned what the world looks like upside down (google "El Sur es nuestro norte" or the life to get what I mean. She also corrected my diario and said that my sentences tend to be grammatically constructed too perfectly. I guess it´s a good problem to have, right? It makes me even more excited for linguistics next semester, although at this point I´m arbitrarily pondering a biology major. After I relaxed a little and went to Survey class, which is always a test of survival...I like it, but sometimes it´s a little temperamental. I ate lunch after (mystery soup, bean salad, rice, possibly corned beef, and a mystery dessert that had something to do with chocolate mousse, strawberries, and cake and coconut. And juice.) Right after I went to my professor´s office hours to talk over my thesis; she seemed to like it. I went to the library to study until we all had to go to Professor Salles office... apparently we inadvertently chose one of the most dangerous cities to go to this weekend for the beach, by the Colombian border and everything. So maybe no playa for me this weekend... after I went to the library again, but it was kind of funny because Andrew and Margot wouldn´t sit with my because I concentrate too much; they settled with making occasional faces at me from across the room. I did get a lot done, which was what I wanted. The bus ride home was fine, although the bus driver was confused and I had to tell him what to do (my favorite thing). I went home and Juan Francisco was there, but after saying hi I holed myself up in my room pretty much the whole night to work on this paper, taking solitaire breaks every paragraph. Dinner was SO good; Z made this thing called a pastel, which means cake but it really isn´t. It´s more like a sandwich of tuna except with pasta instead of bread. Mmm. And lemonade (and quinoa soup, of course). I had to ask her what it meant to her that Ecuador´s constitution is ¨pluricultural and multiethnical" and she kind of got a little flustered... she even called Juan Francisco (he´s a lawyer) and eventually came up with the answer I expected (there´s a lot of cultures and a lot of ethnicities) and gave me a few examples. And I went to sleep. And woke up. Saturday I have to start taking Malarone, a malarial medicine, and I´m interested to see what side effects I get (supposedly strange dreams is one of them). I asked for hot chocolate for the caffeine boost, and she made me oat-and-cranberry cereal. We talked for a long time about cranberries and coffee, and I was almost late. I saw one of our buses on the street and I thought it was confused; it stopped to talk to me and it WAS confused, but it wasn´t my bus so I didn´t really care. I wasn´t late. THIS bus driver got confused, too because he mixed up where the bus stop was. What would anyone do without me? :) I filled up my water bottle once I got here (very important) and headed off to the library to finish a diario. I´m starting to make friends with the guard there! You have to get your bag checked on your way out (in case your trying to smuggle out some old encyclopedias or something) and I always say hi to him, and today he asked me if I speak any Spanish. ¡Por supuesto!! Then I ran over to the lab, checked over my paper, and here I am.
Fun facts: I ALWAYS remember fun facts at the most inopportune moments and forget them by the time I write. OH! Yes, remember when I went to Otavalo and stayed in a hotel? I was really tired by the time I went to take a shower, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that "C" meant "caliente or hot" not "cold." I´m still a little sick of rice and I haven´t run. There are sculptures of chocolate around the university because they have a gastronomy school. Almost all of the yogurt is drinkable. They don´t normally have cranberries here. Dad and Will are in Canada. I have pictures (of Ecuador, not Canada).

Vamos a la playa

Oye. Thanks to my wonderful skype time with Helen, I’m writing this dangerously late at night… 9 PM, holy cow!!! I woke up to incessant beeping like so many other people in the western world and Z made me my banana batida and I had my peanut butter and jelly. I went out to the bus stop, thinking I might not be early for once. Milan was actually already there, hitting it up at a street food stand with some Ecuadorians, eating empanadas and drinking coffee. We were duly warned against the evils street of can wreak upon one’s stomach, so I can’t help but wonder how Milan is feeling right now ☺. He had a test today and used me as a study guide/dictionary/this-means-this-in-this-conjugation thing, but it’s not like I mind. Upon arrival at the U, I went pretty much straight to the library and explored a little bit. It’s a little nicer than Lau. I sat and did three diaries for two different classes, one on what I think about death, one on family, and one on culture/nature experiences. Fun fun fun… once I escaped, I met with a bunch of kids outside and Maddy begged me to take her to the bakery, so I did, and I bought what the girl said was a “suspire” but might have been merengue. I left and nearly ran to Survey, not that I needed to because our professor is almost always late. We talked García Márquez; I presented. Afterwards I went with my classmates to Wok, the campus’s chinese-style restaurant (chicken, orange-y sauce, rice, NesTea). Margoh had to leave to work on a project, so Andrew and I did the life-story thing… he knows Victor Ho from their cross country days. We met Rafael on our way out, but I had to go and submit a resumen so we didn’t really talk. I copied and pasted my blog to you guys and read the one my chicks on six have going… you girls are HILARIOUS; I tried to keep from laughing because I was in a public lab, but I ended up just making weird noises with my nose. Thanks, guys ;) Next I headed on down to the dungeon where we ironically have our nature class, and we talked about Indígena self-identification and the rejection of mestizaje. It was kind of nice because I got to complain how I HATE checking that I’m Caucasian on race forms because I am NOT from Caucasia. If I can’t specify that my ancestors immigrated from Europe, I may as well just say that I’m white. We had a nice bus ride back and a windy walk back to the apartment… where I read more Spanish literature! I was actually feeling pretty homesick so I struggled with my incooperative internet to try and get skype, but I ended up playing Solitaire instead. Dinner (chicken rice soup, chicken, rice, and garbanzo beans, plus juice made from naranjillas, wheat, and vanilla I think), shower… while I’m on the topic of hygiene and since I’m guessing that only females bother reading this anyway, I’m going to take this opportunity to announce that menstruation is REALLY awkward in Ecuador. They say tampons are nearly impossible to get, so I had to bring this huge box with me. You’re not supposed to throw toilet paper in the toilet because it messes up the system, you throw it in the trash. Now imagine what we have to do with tampons. On the bright side, I discovered a huge stash of tampons under my sink. YES!!! Anyway, ahem… I put down some thoughts for my survey essay AND managed to boss around the internet. Facebook, yay, email… then HELEN GOT ON SKYPE. Made my day. And finished my day… Time for bed. Let’s see if I can remember any fun facts…
Haven’t run yet… Maddy asked me to today, but homework rules on the weekdays and we pretty much only have one hour of daylight after getting off the bus. There were a bunch of noisy kids outside my window this afternoon. I’m going to the beach this weekend with a group of kids. I was going to go, then I wasn’t going to go, then Z encouraged me to go, so I’m going. I remember fun facts throughout the day, and then forget them by the time it’s time to blog.

The rest of it

I left off having me go to bed. I did forget to mention that after the lake on Saturday we went to this street where pretty much all they sold was leather products. Not terribly exciting, but still cool. Next we got a wakeup call at 7:30 and went to breakfast at 8 (hot chocolate (WIN), bread, fruit including banana, strawberries, maybe mango and pineapple OR eggs but I got fruit, and pineapple juice). I packed up and went downstairs to wait/study with some other kids at a table. I forgot to mention that last night we saw this guy who was supposedly a raggeton star named Fuego. A bunch of the girls went and got pictures with him, but as it turned out it wasn’t really Fuego but a friend/band member, so we renamed him Fuego Falso. Well, as it turns out, we were sitting at a table in a common area outside of some general rooms when Fuego Falso sticks his head out the door and asks (in English), “Hey, could one of you guys by any change bring me a towel? We don’t have any and I can’t find my pants.” Somehow or another we kept out wits and Jacob went to the front desk. It’s a story we told over and over. Once we got out of there we went to another village that just started a business cooperative. The first thing I noticed when I entered the fairly poor-looking house-looking business place was a HUGE satellite, which I assumed was for TV. It wasn’t! Ana María told me that she asked someone about it, and he said that as soon as the cooperative had made enough money they bought internet access in order to help the business grow, but they bought it for the whole village. Anyway, this cooperative works with totora, a kind of reed that you can make into boats (idea stolen from some Bolivians), mats, furniture, and miniature llamas. They did a couple of demonstrations and let us take a try at weaving. If you’re that interested, I’ve got a business card that says their twitter : @totorasisa. No web site yet. Next we got on the bus and it started going up and down all of these unpaved backroads. I have to say, that bus driver is my hero because I think even Dad might have been a little wary to drive a normal car down those roads, let alone a huge tour bus. We arrived at Parque Cóndor, a kind of bird zoo that is a lot like Back to the Wild (www.backtothewild.com) in Castalia. Basically they rescue huge birds of prey, return them to the wild if they can, and keep them for education if they can’t. It was pretty cool figuratively, hot and sunny, and they had this really awesome demonstration where the birds got almost a little too friendly with us. There were two bald eagles and two Andean condors, the bird of Ecuador. Freaking huge, google it. My girls will like this one: there’s this one hawk or eagle, and instead of a male having multiple females like normal, the female has multiple males!! I took a picture. I also took a couple of pictures of flowers for Beth’s next art project. After that we went to Cabañas al Lago, this touristy spot for lunch (possibly yucca chips, steak, salad, French fries, something like flan). Needless to say, it was on a lake and some of the kids rented wetsuits/jetskis/speedboats etc. I explored a little bit and found a lamb and Saint Bernard, and an extreme tire swing. It was an interesting place because the whole lake/hotel/restaurant thing was very much rich/money oriented, but on our way out I say a woman and girl hoeing some land (by hand) right on the other side of the street! During the whole trip, I loved looking out the window (when I wasn’t sleeping) to try and figure out what people’s lives are like. There were a lot of cows and pigs everywhere, some chickens and stuff. Rural places were really rural: beautiful but obviously without any comforts I’m used to. I did see a lot of corn, but most of it was all dried out… which really pained my North Ridgevillian heart knowing that out corn is probably almost ankle-high by now (that is, if the rains didn’t make sowing impossible). Enrique and Z drove me back to the house to unpack, eat dinner (soup, fish, potatos, tomatoes) and go to bed. That was the weekend and this is this morning. Sleep until rudely awakened by alarm. Batida of strawberries for breakfast with PB&J, read on the bus. I had Academic Writing this morning, and we talked a lot about Otavalo. We also did some paragraph structuring and a punctuation exercise, which I loved. Nerd. Afterward she showed me the secret bakery in the University. Oh. My. Lord. I’ve complained before how Z was too healthy, but now all my problems are solved. So much bread… so much chocolate (it’s a chocolate store too, you know). I got a croissant with nutella and read, then went to Survey where we talked about this Mexican story where this guy is convinced his and his sister-in-law killed his brother but it really had to do with the institution of the Church, blah blah. Lunch: Mushroom soup, salad, rice (big surprise), pork chops, chocolate mousse, “orange” juice. “Orange” not because it was fake but because it was different from normal orange juice. I finished up, printed a compo, and spent some quality time in the library with Gabriel García Márquez (famous Columbian author whose story called Big Mama’s Funeral I’m presenting tomorrow, Mom, not my new Ecuadoran boyfriend) and an article on how Indígenas reject mestizaje. Then I blogged to you. Then I sat on a bus next to Charlie, whose eyes Z admired. I told him so, and I became his “daughter.” Which led to Charlie asking Germán how to say “I do” in a Spanish marriage ceremony (it’s “acepto” in case you ever need to know). Fun. Walk in the rain back home with Maddy and Jacob while telling stories about the weekend. At home I buckled down, ate some dinner (corn soup, fish, rice, and green beans) and finished some homework and played some solitaire and blogged a little but knowing I should start my Survey paper. I also was ALMOST sucked in by pictures of the State track meet, but unfortunately my internet was crabby so the pictures didn’t load  And now back to me telling you almost the same thing every day (until Friday) excepting the random facts, most of which I’m sure I repeat.
Random Facts: I’m starting to get sick of rice. I have a really weird tan line because I was wearing a t-shirt and put sunscreen on my neck, but not far down enough so it looks like a necklace tanline except the opposite. We’re making plans to go to the beach next weekend. The car alarms are still annoying. “Nalgas” means “buttocks” (Thanks, García Márquez). I was wondering today if Dad is still wearing that stupid moustache… but now I remember he’s in Canada with Will. Dress in normal clothes when going to the Mariscal otherwise they might take you as a, um, loose woman (NOT learned by experience, but by observation). I’m starting to figure this language thing out. I speak and think in both English and Spanish, I feel without language, I dream in images, and I narrate in English. The weirdest thing ever, though, is that my memory is getting mixed up. Whenever I remember old conversations, I can’t remember if they took place in English or in Spanish. I’m not just talking about conversations here, but things like random chats with the running club… it’s like my brain has dubbed some of my memories. Weird. I was actually cold this morning.

The weekend in 30 minutes or less

The bus leaves at 4:00 and I´m going to try and fail to recapitulate the entire weekend and today all at once. So Friday I met with my buddy, muy chévere, and we even went out to one of the plazas on campus because some guys were throwing guavas down from a tree. It´s another alien looking fruit. Almost right after we had salsa class. Yes, dance. The instructor thought we were too stiff and had us do hip exercises to loosen up. I felt a little too ballety. We did partner dancing, too, which was endlessly entertaining because some guys seemed afraid to touch me, some pushed me around, some didn´t know that breathing space is kind of necessary to dance, some had no rhythm at all, and some were actually fun. Like I said, SO entertaining, and we still have another class to go! On the bus Lola and I set up a time to meet and run in el Parque Carolina, so I got dressed and practically ran to our bus stop. I waited like 25 minutes for her, but she never showed... probably because she´s in intermediate and has a hard time with Spanish, plus she´s kind of shy and talks really quiet and really fast. I got all packed for the weekend and Z helped me call a cab (after giving me this cute little safety lecture) so I could go to La Mariscal with Maddy. I completely fail at calling cabs... although it cost only $4! We walked around a little bit and sat in a restaurant that had sand as floor. We were about to leave when we found some other kids from the program, and we all went to Mongo´s, which I loved because it´s a reference to Genghis Khan. It was cool because there was live music and a lot of dancing. One of the workers (who looked younger than me... all of the guys look young here)asked one of our girls to dance, and kept at it for like an hour or longer. We found one of our buddies, Priscilla, and she showed a us a ´real´salsa place, although it was boring because there was only old people :( A couple of us decided to leave because we had to be at the bus at 7:30; I´m glad I left with the group I did because one girl lives practically in the middle of nowhere and we dropped her off first. Brenden Eng was really chivalrous and I had the driver drop off Maddy and me first even though he lived closer... now I know why they teach you how to give directions in Spanish II. I woke up and had the best shower ever (I reeked of smoke; their smoking laws, if they exists, are nothing compared to Ohio´s) and got to the bus on time. The guide was really nice, but I kind of just wanted to sleep! We stopped at a gas station and I bought yuca rolls (normal bread except yellow and salty) and more drinkable yogurt! He took us to this store where this lady makes some kind of traditional figurines... I wasn´t too impressed (probably because I was still a little sleepy... you know how I am) but I did get some postcards. I should probably get a lot. More. Next we went to a mirador (lookout thingy) with some people in traditional dress, a boy with a llama, and a little store. They also showed us how they make the famous Panama hats which are really Ecuadorian, not panamanian, and they´re foldable!! Some indigenous girls came on the bus to sing and sell scarves. The bus went next to Otavalo. Oh, my LORD! Google it, PLEASE! It´s this huge indigenous market that has everything but cheerios!! Normal people do go to the fruit and animal markets (the latter of which I heard was disgusting, although I didn´t get to see it :( ) but the main attraction is the tourist market with all maneer of (´handmade´) indigenous stuff. To see what I mean, google it. I wandered around a little bit, thinking we had more time then we did, and bought some stuff, spending all the money I had brought with me. I´d give you a nice lowdown of what I got, but I´d kind of like it to be a surprise for my family. After that we drove off again to this Hacienda, which felt really European... although we were greeted by an indigenous band! I´ll have to go steal some video from the other students so you can see; I was stuck in the back (speaking of audiovisual stuff, I have pictures but not the time to find the best way to post them here...) They fed us a huge meal (potato soup, hominy, pork, potato pancakes, peanuts, and sherbet for dessert), but I was really more excited about looking around the grounds a little bit, all of which were beautiful... flowers, ponds, trees and such. Very relaxing. It´s a hotel; I could´ve stayed there a while. PLUS they had a photo of Freida Kahlo (Mexican painter with a unibrow). After that was my favorite: we went to lake Cuicocha, which is basically this lake inside a volcano, plus islands. There´s no fish (sorry Dad) as a result of the volcano, but there are really cute nonmallard ducks and these cool looking birds. In addition to just being beautiful to look at (plus it wasnt a city) we got to go on this boat out on to the lake all together. Super cool (literally it was cold) and I have pictures. Back to Otavalo to stay in a hotel... and we ate dinner (more soup, rice, really good chicken, and vegetables with fruit for dessert) and relaxed in our rooms; I stayed with Melanie and Margoh, and I´m really cool with both of them. We left at 9:30 for a karaoke bar, but it was kind of boring because it was pretty much just a pregame and the songs weren´t that great. It did make me really appreciate that I don´t drink, though, because I was out of money from Otavalo (not including some change and $5 I had hidden in my sock to keep myself from spending anything). Everyone else went to a discoteca and I wanted to go, too, because I wanted to dance, but I´d gotten back kind of late the night before and you know what happens when I get too tired, so I just went to bed. TO BE CONTINUED...