I have now been in Quito for more than five weeks, which I find pretty exciting. In that time I feel I have done a lot, and learned a lot. Last weekend I went to Baños with most of the group from WU for a couple days. It was beautiful there, and we had a lot of fun. Baños is a small tourist town about 3.5 hours out of Quito, that is tucked away in the mountains. We got there on Friday night and then on Saturday we did tourist things. We took a 22km bike ride to see waterfalls, which were beautiful, and the ride included riding behind and under some of the small ones. Some people in our group went white water rafting in the afternoon. I opted not to, but that meant then, that I got to go over to the natural hot springs, which were also amazing. I left early the next morning to go back to Quito and do homework, where we also celebrated my Ecuadorian sister's birthday.
This week, I finished my intensive Spanish class at ACLAS, which meant final exams, two papers, and two presentations. I'm happy it's done! On Friday afternoon, our entire group went to a town named Otavalo for the night. On our way there, we stopped in Calderón, which is famous for wood carvings. Otavalo is a town that on the weekends, has a huge open air market. There are tons of venders and everything is cheap, but you have to barter for it. We were in the market from 8 am until 12 pm, where we all spent a lot of money, but also got a lot of amazing stuff, and finished our Christmas shopping. After the market, we went to Cuicocha for lunch. Cuicocha is beautiful. It is also in the mountains, as most things are here. What makes Cuicocha special is that there is a big crater at the top, and there is a lagoon in the crater. After Cuicocha, we went to Cotacochi, which is a town famous for the things they make out of leather. Leather is not something that really intrigues me, but they did have a lot of beautiful things there. Then we headed back to Quito, making one last stop in Cayambe. Cayambe is a tiny town, that is only on the map because they make fabulous biscocho (which is like biscotti) and cheese.
Although my experience in Quito has been mostly positive, I did also have my first really negative experience this week. I was in the mall, Quicentro, with a friend one day, getting lunch in a cafe there. While I was at the counter, a guy came up to my friend and pointed out that she had something smeared on her backpack and jacket,a nd offered to help her clean up. He took her to the employee bathroom, which led me to believe he was an employee, and she left her backpack on the floor and asked me to watch it. I was standing by her backpack when the guy came back and told me that my friend wanted her bag, and picked it up. I started to tell him that I could take it to her if she needed it, but then somebody else tapped me on the shoulder, which instinctively made me turn around. When I turned back the guy and the backpack were gone, for good. It turns out this is a pretty common scam, including putting something on somebody's jacket so you can help them clean up, and having another person there to distract anybody that might be getting in the way. It was a very frustrating and upsetting experience, but it definitely taught everyone in our group to be more careful with their things, and be aware of their surroundings.
As we are now done with our classes at ACLAS, we go to the Universidad de San Francisco tomorrow for orientation, and then start classes on Wednesday. We will also soon be starting our social service job soon. I will be working in a with cancer patients in a childrens hospital for low income families, which I'm sure will be hard, but also an enriching experience. All in all, I am looking forward to what will be coming my way in the next four months.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
First Full Week
Well, today marks the end of my first full week in Quito. It went pretty well. I am enjoying my classes at ACLAS (Andean Center for Latin American Studies) so far, and I am figuring out how to get around Quito a little bit. Also, I am starting to understand more of what my family is saying, so that makes me very very happy.
This week, I learned to use the bus. Depending on what time of day you use the bus, it´s not so bad. There are times though that it can only be described as an experience. There is another Willamette student living across the street, Kayla, so luckily we learned to use the bus together, and her host mom, Maria Eugenia, showed us how to do it on the first day. In the morning, it is rush hour time. We leave our houses at about 7:45, walk down a big hill, so we get to the bus ¨stop¨ at about 8. There are some actual bus stops but you can pretty much wave down any bus, and just hop on as it drives by. When we get on the bus in the morning, there are usually 100+ people on it already. This makes it very difficult to move. I have found the best way to move through the crowd is to grab the overhead bars and just pull myself through non-existent spaces, because there really is no other option. There is even a man who has the job of standing at the open bus door to make sure nobody falls out. In the afternoon though, it´s not so bad.
At ACLAS, where all of us Willamette students are studying this month taking Spanish classes, we have also started taking dance classes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. We are learning to Salsa right now, and later on, we will learn to Merengue. We will try at least. There are 17 of us, and we are all taking the class. The problem is that there are 13 girls and only 4 boys, so it makes partnering up a little bit difficult. We are working around that issue though, and it has been a lot of fun.
On Friday, a few of us went to a part of Quito called Mariscal, or Gringolandia. Kayla, Stephanie and I went earlier than most people to take some time to walk around, and eat dinner there before the night life starts up. We enjoyed are time, although we did end up getting kind of bored between the time that we finished eating, and things really start happening for the night. Gringolandia, true to it´s name has tons of gringos, and once it gets dark, the streets are completely full of people. We did meet up with other people from our group eventually, but by that time Stephanie and I had decided that as it was our first night out, we didn´t want to make it too late, and we both headed home at about 11, which is really when things are just getting started. It was a fun night though.
Today, I went to a country-ish part of Quito with my family and Kayla to see my brother Jaime´s house. He has a house, that is not completed yet, that has horses, and an amazing view of the mountains. My family, by the way, is something like this:
Papa Fausto, Mama Beatriz (who I won´t meet until Wednesday, as she has been in Argentina with my sister), my brother Fausto, his wife, Deseña, their baby, Mariapaz, Deseña´s mother, abuelita Carmen, my brother Jaime, my sister Maria Isabel (who is in Argentina right now) and today I met two more people, my niece Maria Elena, and my nephew Juan Jose. They are all very nice people, and I am looking forward to getting to know them better of the next few months. My niece and nephew are five year old twins, and they are adorable, so I can´t wait for them to come back again. Right now though, I have to study for a quiz that I have tomorrow. Chao!
This week, I learned to use the bus. Depending on what time of day you use the bus, it´s not so bad. There are times though that it can only be described as an experience. There is another Willamette student living across the street, Kayla, so luckily we learned to use the bus together, and her host mom, Maria Eugenia, showed us how to do it on the first day. In the morning, it is rush hour time. We leave our houses at about 7:45, walk down a big hill, so we get to the bus ¨stop¨ at about 8. There are some actual bus stops but you can pretty much wave down any bus, and just hop on as it drives by. When we get on the bus in the morning, there are usually 100+ people on it already. This makes it very difficult to move. I have found the best way to move through the crowd is to grab the overhead bars and just pull myself through non-existent spaces, because there really is no other option. There is even a man who has the job of standing at the open bus door to make sure nobody falls out. In the afternoon though, it´s not so bad.
At ACLAS, where all of us Willamette students are studying this month taking Spanish classes, we have also started taking dance classes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. We are learning to Salsa right now, and later on, we will learn to Merengue. We will try at least. There are 17 of us, and we are all taking the class. The problem is that there are 13 girls and only 4 boys, so it makes partnering up a little bit difficult. We are working around that issue though, and it has been a lot of fun.
On Friday, a few of us went to a part of Quito called Mariscal, or Gringolandia. Kayla, Stephanie and I went earlier than most people to take some time to walk around, and eat dinner there before the night life starts up. We enjoyed are time, although we did end up getting kind of bored between the time that we finished eating, and things really start happening for the night. Gringolandia, true to it´s name has tons of gringos, and once it gets dark, the streets are completely full of people. We did meet up with other people from our group eventually, but by that time Stephanie and I had decided that as it was our first night out, we didn´t want to make it too late, and we both headed home at about 11, which is really when things are just getting started. It was a fun night though.
Today, I went to a country-ish part of Quito with my family and Kayla to see my brother Jaime´s house. He has a house, that is not completed yet, that has horses, and an amazing view of the mountains. My family, by the way, is something like this:
Papa Fausto, Mama Beatriz (who I won´t meet until Wednesday, as she has been in Argentina with my sister), my brother Fausto, his wife, Deseña, their baby, Mariapaz, Deseña´s mother, abuelita Carmen, my brother Jaime, my sister Maria Isabel (who is in Argentina right now) and today I met two more people, my niece Maria Elena, and my nephew Juan Jose. They are all very nice people, and I am looking forward to getting to know them better of the next few months. My niece and nephew are five year old twins, and they are adorable, so I can´t wait for them to come back again. Right now though, I have to study for a quiz that I have tomorrow. Chao!
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