white buffalo: something sacred and rare; also a talented roots/American country musician
Wider than the high dessert highway it stood atop, there it was, a giant ashy white buffalo not even 50 feet from the hood of my car. I don't remember stopping, I don't even remember getting to where I was, but I was not moving, engine barely rumbling, impeded by this mammoth creature's fortitude. Like an all too obvious symbol of my very own self doubt, it both terrified and calmed me. Determined, I put my car in reverse and backed up slightly. Turning the steering wheel slightly to the right, I felt the rubber of the tires scrape across the road, pushing a small amount of loose gravel aside. Shifting to drive, I let the car roll forward, to the right, out of the buffalo's path. But to my frustration, the buffalo took two steps right and directly in my way. I tried the same process to the left, but the buffalo took two steps to the left, blocking any effort to move beyond. After what seemed mythical and majestic eternity, the world's longest staring competition had just been won by the only white buffalo left in northern America. I had no choice, reluctantly, I backed up one last time, swung my car around and drove off in the opposite directed, headed back to where I had just come from. As the yellow dashes and toothpick trees rushed past me, the buffalo grew smaller and smaller in my rear view mirror. Confidence is not something that always propels you forward, into the future, but sometimes forces you to revisit the past. Do return, to do again.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
8/26/15
9/18/12
wend
wend: to direct one's course; travel, proceed
Mike, his dog Lennon, and I went hiking on one of the ridge to river paths Sunday morning. It was breathtaking. We wended up the golden hills. Never gets old, having such gorgeous nature just minutes outside the city. We went to Addies for breakfast afterward. And as delicious as my corned beef hash was, I would have rather stayed up in the foothills for the rest of the day. I wish I had taken my phone or camera just so I could capture the view. I stole this one from another blog...
Beautiful! You can see the entire city <3 Next time, maybe we'll bike it.
Mike, his dog Lennon, and I went hiking on one of the ridge to river paths Sunday morning. It was breathtaking. We wended up the golden hills. Never gets old, having such gorgeous nature just minutes outside the city. We went to Addies for breakfast afterward. And as delicious as my corned beef hash was, I would have rather stayed up in the foothills for the rest of the day. I wish I had taken my phone or camera just so I could capture the view. I stole this one from another blog...
Beautiful! You can see the entire city <3 Next time, maybe we'll bike it.
1/18/12
5/31/11
Saint Didacus
Saint Didacus of Alcalá, (Latin: Sanctus Didacus Complutensis), Saint Diego: the patron saint and namesake of San Diego, CA; he was a lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor who died at Alcala de Henares, Spain, November 12, 1463.
It started with a chicken pot pie and a side of col slaw, then there was a fish taco with green chili sauce, a strawberry milkshake and fries at In-and-Out, a fish sandwich on the pier, a home-made spam sandwich and a large green salad with from-scratch Italian dressing, and of course, we fed the ducks at the lake and I ate ripe tomatoes and zesty green beans from the vine too. I'd like to say the eating (and the tummy aches from over-stuffing myself) ended eventually while I was visiting my grandparents in San Diego, but it never did. Here now, weeks later, I think I am still full. Honesty. As my step-dad said, "we won't have to eat for a year at the very least."
I could write gobs and gobs about San Diego and all that I hold in my heart about the place I proudly call my birth home. It's a city that fills me up, in every sense of the word. And this visit produced no different a feeling than it always does. Here are a couple of antidotes you might enjoy.
The sun was setting, all the windows open, letting the whisk of warm air float in on a glow of orange. My grandma, a petite woman about 5' 2" with a perky step, flipped on the kitchen light and flushed the orange away with a florescent clear. She asked her enduring question, "can I get you anything to eat." I sunk down into a padded bar chair and shook my head no...at first. Then, on a whim, "Wait! actually, would YOU like ME to fix YOU something?" She hesitated. Then asked what I was planning to fix. I told her about my sister's invention. "It's to die for!" (note that my grandmother and I act like two teenage girls in the fifties when we get together, it's a hoot). The invention consists of vanilla ice cream (which my step-dad kept weeping on and on about how you can't just eat it plain) + milk (just a little bit) + and Ovaltine. Insistently, my grandmother declined. "Uck," made with a funny face, "Ovaltine and ice cream, no thanks." Shocked, I asked her why she didn't like Ovaltine. Her story: her mom "made" (oh dear god!) her and her siblings drink it all the time when they were little and she didn't care for it. okay, so then my step-dad and I gave her a hard time. "So, you're saying you haven;t had it since you were 7 or eight years old. How do you remember what it tastes like?" "It's JUST chocolate milk, who doesn't like chocolate milk?" "MADE you drink chocolate milk?! Oh you poor thing." She was a good sport and took our ribbing...but still didn't eat my concoction, even though I swore I saw her eye it.
Okay okay, so then we went to the lake one afternoon to ooggle all the fancy RV's and feed the ducks. We bought some corn feed and plopped down on a shady gazebo step. I started tossing feed. My first toss was a paltry handful, then I added a little more, gradually building the amount of yellow meal in my hand until, my grandpa said so matter-of-fact-ly, "Just throw the whole lot! They're not proud." I giggled. That's right. If there is one creature on earth that doesn't mind scrambling around like crazy folk to squabble and peck-to-the-death for food, it would indeed be residential pond ducks.
It was late at night and the sky was a solid shade of deep ocean blue. No stars. Just dim city lights glowing in the far off distance. This made the entire block pitch-black except for a yellow orb of light emanating from our open garage door. Inside are walls lined with wood working tools and garden-planting seeds, a single overhead light hung above a smooth slab of polished-cold pavement. The cars had been parked in the driveway earlier and the tennis ball on it's tattered string that my grandparents use to gauge their park job swung like a decapitated head. Flickers of bugs flying past the light, seizing in the warm night's air, made everything seem like a disco. Heaven, actually. I put on my skates, laced them tight, and crossed over circle after circle, feeling the self-generated wind whip past. An old boyfriend's pair of basketball short and a tank top, listening to the faint cry of modest mouse dribble from the radio, skating skating, skating. Oh, it was glorious. p.s. I visited Sin City Skates and bought new top stops!
okay, I must confess, I've been sitting here trying to find the words to describe it, but I can't. I fail. So my advice to you is...by a plan ticket to southern California and wake up at 5 or 6am in the morning just to watch the sun rise, turn the sky into a sorbet of a million flavors, hear the hidden birds tirp and see the people slowly emerge from their sleepy homes. Mornings in California are one of my favorite experiences.
p.p.s. hey look! it's a mini car motor, it works and everything!
hey look again! I wish my middle name were "hot wheels." we also visited this nursery/classic car museum combo!
and then there's always the zoo.
If it weren't for the unbearable traffic and high cost of living, I'd return to live.
It started with a chicken pot pie and a side of col slaw, then there was a fish taco with green chili sauce, a strawberry milkshake and fries at In-and-Out, a fish sandwich on the pier, a home-made spam sandwich and a large green salad with from-scratch Italian dressing, and of course, we fed the ducks at the lake and I ate ripe tomatoes and zesty green beans from the vine too. I'd like to say the eating (and the tummy aches from over-stuffing myself) ended eventually while I was visiting my grandparents in San Diego, but it never did. Here now, weeks later, I think I am still full. Honesty. As my step-dad said, "we won't have to eat for a year at the very least."
I could write gobs and gobs about San Diego and all that I hold in my heart about the place I proudly call my birth home. It's a city that fills me up, in every sense of the word. And this visit produced no different a feeling than it always does. Here are a couple of antidotes you might enjoy.
The sun was setting, all the windows open, letting the whisk of warm air float in on a glow of orange. My grandma, a petite woman about 5' 2" with a perky step, flipped on the kitchen light and flushed the orange away with a florescent clear. She asked her enduring question, "can I get you anything to eat." I sunk down into a padded bar chair and shook my head no...at first. Then, on a whim, "Wait! actually, would YOU like ME to fix YOU something?" She hesitated. Then asked what I was planning to fix. I told her about my sister's invention. "It's to die for!" (note that my grandmother and I act like two teenage girls in the fifties when we get together, it's a hoot). The invention consists of vanilla ice cream (which my step-dad kept weeping on and on about how you can't just eat it plain) + milk (just a little bit) + and Ovaltine. Insistently, my grandmother declined. "Uck," made with a funny face, "Ovaltine and ice cream, no thanks." Shocked, I asked her why she didn't like Ovaltine. Her story: her mom "made" (oh dear god!) her and her siblings drink it all the time when they were little and she didn't care for it. okay, so then my step-dad and I gave her a hard time. "So, you're saying you haven;t had it since you were 7 or eight years old. How do you remember what it tastes like?" "It's JUST chocolate milk, who doesn't like chocolate milk?" "MADE you drink chocolate milk?! Oh you poor thing." She was a good sport and took our ribbing...but still didn't eat my concoction, even though I swore I saw her eye it.
Okay okay, so then we went to the lake one afternoon to ooggle all the fancy RV's and feed the ducks. We bought some corn feed and plopped down on a shady gazebo step. I started tossing feed. My first toss was a paltry handful, then I added a little more, gradually building the amount of yellow meal in my hand until, my grandpa said so matter-of-fact-ly, "Just throw the whole lot! They're not proud." I giggled. That's right. If there is one creature on earth that doesn't mind scrambling around like crazy folk to squabble and peck-to-the-death for food, it would indeed be residential pond ducks.
It was late at night and the sky was a solid shade of deep ocean blue. No stars. Just dim city lights glowing in the far off distance. This made the entire block pitch-black except for a yellow orb of light emanating from our open garage door. Inside are walls lined with wood working tools and garden-planting seeds, a single overhead light hung above a smooth slab of polished-cold pavement. The cars had been parked in the driveway earlier and the tennis ball on it's tattered string that my grandparents use to gauge their park job swung like a decapitated head. Flickers of bugs flying past the light, seizing in the warm night's air, made everything seem like a disco. Heaven, actually. I put on my skates, laced them tight, and crossed over circle after circle, feeling the self-generated wind whip past. An old boyfriend's pair of basketball short and a tank top, listening to the faint cry of modest mouse dribble from the radio, skating skating, skating. Oh, it was glorious. p.s. I visited Sin City Skates and bought new top stops!
okay, I must confess, I've been sitting here trying to find the words to describe it, but I can't. I fail. So my advice to you is...by a plan ticket to southern California and wake up at 5 or 6am in the morning just to watch the sun rise, turn the sky into a sorbet of a million flavors, hear the hidden birds tirp and see the people slowly emerge from their sleepy homes. Mornings in California are one of my favorite experiences.
p.p.s. hey look! it's a mini car motor, it works and everything!
hey look again! I wish my middle name were "hot wheels." we also visited this nursery/classic car museum combo!
and then there's always the zoo.
If it weren't for the unbearable traffic and high cost of living, I'd return to live.
4/23/11
plenary
plenary: complete in every respect; absolute; unqualified, fully attended or constituted by all entitled to be present (as in a session during an academic conference)
oh academia. How bizarre you are.
Gathered in a stale hotel-conference room with distractingly-busy carpet, sit two-few water glasses atop a panel-table focused in front of twenty odd scholars, professors, and students. Bored. They look bored. The people, not the glasses. I ask the panel moderator for another water glass, and he forgot. So, I looked over my notes and fiddle with my earring. Nervous. Mild, but still nervous. Quietly, the audience listens while Xander presents his paper on narrative criticism in the video game Final Fantasy. Then it's my turn. I take in a gulp of air and begin. Why anyone wants to hear me ramble on about depictions of gender in country-western music and how the soldier is used as a terministic screen in understanding/naturalizing hegemonic masculinity is beyond me. But surprisingly, they clap and ask questions. I'm glad Xander was there to further bolster our discussion. We read and edited each others' papers.
So what exactly am I talking about? Well, my friends, in early April I attended the Northwest Communication Association's Annual Conference in coeur d'alene, Id. My rhetorical crit paper was accepted earlier this year and I traveled with a few other LC students and our professor Belinda Stillion-Sutherland to present my paper. We had an awesome mini-van, comfy hotel beds, and plenty of good food (surprisingly northern Idaho has delicious Greek cuisine and egg burgers @ Hudson's Hamburgers). I thanked my professor before, but I simply want to express once more my gratitude for her encouragement. I wish LC had more professor such as her. As bizarre as academia is, attending this conference was a growing experience that I am glad to have under my belt.
pictures from our drive:
tri cities
the lake
dust storm
oh academia. How bizarre you are.
Gathered in a stale hotel-conference room with distractingly-busy carpet, sit two-few water glasses atop a panel-table focused in front of twenty odd scholars, professors, and students. Bored. They look bored. The people, not the glasses. I ask the panel moderator for another water glass, and he forgot. So, I looked over my notes and fiddle with my earring. Nervous. Mild, but still nervous. Quietly, the audience listens while Xander presents his paper on narrative criticism in the video game Final Fantasy. Then it's my turn. I take in a gulp of air and begin. Why anyone wants to hear me ramble on about depictions of gender in country-western music and how the soldier is used as a terministic screen in understanding/naturalizing hegemonic masculinity is beyond me. But surprisingly, they clap and ask questions. I'm glad Xander was there to further bolster our discussion. We read and edited each others' papers.
So what exactly am I talking about? Well, my friends, in early April I attended the Northwest Communication Association's Annual Conference in coeur d'alene, Id. My rhetorical crit paper was accepted earlier this year and I traveled with a few other LC students and our professor Belinda Stillion-Sutherland to present my paper. We had an awesome mini-van, comfy hotel beds, and plenty of good food (surprisingly northern Idaho has delicious Greek cuisine and egg burgers @ Hudson's Hamburgers). I thanked my professor before, but I simply want to express once more my gratitude for her encouragement. I wish LC had more professor such as her. As bizarre as academia is, attending this conference was a growing experience that I am glad to have under my belt.
pictures from our drive:
tri cities
the lake
dust storm5/28/10
retrospective
retrospective: of or relating to retrospection, based on memory
I finally got all my film developed from Ecuador and in doing so was able to further digest my experience. At the time, Ecuador seemed mad with mayhem and yet simultaneously serene. To me, Ecuador was the smell of baking bread from city street panaderias and burning trash from the countryside, the taste of mote pite and cooked bananas, the touch of polyester and gritty dish soap, the sound of car alarms, chickens, and the whistling jingle of Tele Amazonas, the sight of purple lightening right above your head and crowed park plazas filled with Chola women wearing brightly colored skirts, old men in hats, tiny little nuns shuffling about, and even smaller children eating cones of ice cream. I recognize now that I am indeed wholeheartedly thankful for the invaluable experiences and skills I acquired while abroad. But as amazing as the experience was, I've since then realized that I should have listened to my mother. She knew then and I know now that it probably wasn't the right time for me to go abroad, nor the right place. I had an amazing experience, but could have gotten more out of it if I had waited. and by that I mean, you have to be in a certain mindset for this kind of experience and if I had it to over again I would have waited until I was in that mindset. I mentioned this to my mom the other day and all she did was smile and say, "I could have told you this. As we drove to the airport the only thing you had to say in a groggy tone was that you didn't really want to leave." For the first time I experience real homesickness and above everything returned with a renewed respect for the U S of A and a feverish determination to be more aware and considerate of my surroundings. Keep these words in mind as you look through my pictures... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039940&id=1026587862&l=0d5f8eb523
update 8/3/2010: I think I have since made amends with my host family (us having a falling out and all)...I shared the above pictures with them and got a pleasant e-mail in return. I also realized that I've learned the hard way that you have to be careful what you blog about...for better of for worse.
4/11/10
chau
chau: the most common way to say goodbye in Ecuador
Friday night I flew from Cuenca to Quito. Made friends with an Army Dr., he was nice, helped me find my gate. And when I got to Quito I made a deal with my taxi driver to come pick me back up in the early morning to catch my next flight. that was a smart move on my part. look at me being a savvy world traveler and all! I spent the night at the Hilton, it was ritzy! I took a bubble bath and did yoga. and stole a pillow. they were too comfy not to. shhh don't tell.
I got to the airport at 3am. most of the time was spent going through customs. during this time I noticed that all the customs ladies had the same hair style. I wonder if their zig zag part bun was mandatory.
on the flight to Houston I found a funny contradiction in the airplane bathroom...a no smoking sign above an astray?! I also did a crossword and it's funny that the only words I knew were "NRA" and "Pacman" and "Eer." good for me. seriously though, crosswords are hard. hey did you know that thinking burns calories. no joke.
finally, when I got into AMERICA! I had to restrain myself from kissing the ground. it was arduous, but I did it. I almost kissed the customs agent too, but that was only because his southern accent was Ah-dorable. and guys, everyone one here is speaking English! whoaw! so much English. this is going to be difficult to get used to. also, I realized that I am no longer average sized, I am so small compared to other Americans. so so tiny am I. also also also, I can flush toilet paper in the US of A!
update: after my parents took me to black angus, I ate way too much and am now sick :|
Friday night I flew from Cuenca to Quito. Made friends with an Army Dr., he was nice, helped me find my gate. And when I got to Quito I made a deal with my taxi driver to come pick me back up in the early morning to catch my next flight. that was a smart move on my part. look at me being a savvy world traveler and all! I spent the night at the Hilton, it was ritzy! I took a bubble bath and did yoga. and stole a pillow. they were too comfy not to. shhh don't tell.
I got to the airport at 3am. most of the time was spent going through customs. during this time I noticed that all the customs ladies had the same hair style. I wonder if their zig zag part bun was mandatory.
on the flight to Houston I found a funny contradiction in the airplane bathroom...a no smoking sign above an astray?! I also did a crossword and it's funny that the only words I knew were "NRA" and "Pacman" and "Eer." good for me. seriously though, crosswords are hard. hey did you know that thinking burns calories. no joke.
finally, when I got into AMERICA! I had to restrain myself from kissing the ground. it was arduous, but I did it. I almost kissed the customs agent too, but that was only because his southern accent was Ah-dorable. and guys, everyone one here is speaking English! whoaw! so much English. this is going to be difficult to get used to. also, I realized that I am no longer average sized, I am so small compared to other Americans. so so tiny am I. also also also, I can flush toilet paper in the US of A!
update: after my parents took me to black angus, I ate way too much and am now sick :|
semana catorce
I wanted to finish off with a few Ecuadorian words and expressions that i enjoy, they're listed below
sigue no mas: meaning "please continue", Cuencanos love to use the expression "no mas" as a very polite way of expressing something which is confusing because "no mas" in Spanish translates to "no more"...and I will do just that, continue to rant until I leave this silly country
feliz cumpleaños: "happy birthday" in Spanish
Chuchaqui: "hungover" in native Quichwa language
día ochenta y cuatro: 4/4/2010 just one thing...feliz cumple ("happy b-day") Trent!
I've always wanted to jump out of a giant cake and shimmy around for someone's b-day, that'd be fun
día ochenta y cinco: Monday I cooked an American "thank you" dinner for my host family. Multiple times Nancy our maid came in to check on me (I still think she believes I don't know how to cook, oh and side note here I posted earlier that she was 16 but recently learned that she is actually 18 and also I have come to enjoy Nancy's enlightening presence, her laughter sure cuts the tension between my host brother and me, she's a very sweet girl). I digress, my host mom also commented that being in the kitchen suits me well, so I will take that as a complement...I think? I cooked corn chowder, brown sugar carrots, garlic mashed potatoes (better that Uncle Lyle's even), tomato salad with honey mustard dressing, and for dessert cake mix cobbler with peach and pecan filling. after eating my host mom asked if the mashed potatoes were a Mexican recipe...ha! and my host dad asked me to marry him...double ha! anyway together Nancy and I ate way too much cobbler especially since we both knew how much butter was put in there...oh soooo much butter.
día ochenta y seis: fuck homework. I hate it. especially in large quantities. but nevertheless, I will push on and keep my nose to the grind stone. I also have gripe :( my throat is sore and I have a runny nose. wasn't I just sick two weeks ago too?
día ochenta y ocho: I finished all of my school work and therefore treated myself to a pair of cheap jelly shoes and pan con queso (the most delicious bread I've ever had, I think its savoriness has something to do with that fact that it was a victory purchase..."here monique eat this bread, you deserve it!") then I went to buy dad a postcard at Libre Mundi but they didn’t have any. I was sad. but, two business guy from Etapa said they had packages of them at their office (sketchy?...no not really) and so I made friends with Andres and Bernardo, they tried to teach me French and gave me a free postcards and a calendar too.
ahhh, men in suits, aren't they adorable? well maybe not that kind of suit but anyhow, Bernardo and Andres wore suits ;)
día ochenta y nueve: isn't it amazing how packing when you want to go home takes less than 20 min whereas it took me the entirety of a week before coming to Ecuador to pack...most because I procrastinated.
sigue no mas: meaning "please continue", Cuencanos love to use the expression "no mas" as a very polite way of expressing something which is confusing because "no mas" in Spanish translates to "no more"...and I will do just that, continue to rant until I leave this silly country
feliz cumpleaños: "happy birthday" in Spanish
Chuchaqui: "hungover" in native Quichwa language
día ochenta y cuatro: 4/4/2010 just one thing...feliz cumple ("happy b-day") Trent!
I've always wanted to jump out of a giant cake and shimmy around for someone's b-day, that'd be fun
día ochenta y cinco: Monday I cooked an American "thank you" dinner for my host family. Multiple times Nancy our maid came in to check on me (I still think she believes I don't know how to cook, oh and side note here I posted earlier that she was 16 but recently learned that she is actually 18 and also I have come to enjoy Nancy's enlightening presence, her laughter sure cuts the tension between my host brother and me, she's a very sweet girl). I digress, my host mom also commented that being in the kitchen suits me well, so I will take that as a complement...I think? I cooked corn chowder, brown sugar carrots, garlic mashed potatoes (better that Uncle Lyle's even), tomato salad with honey mustard dressing, and for dessert cake mix cobbler with peach and pecan filling. after eating my host mom asked if the mashed potatoes were a Mexican recipe...ha! and my host dad asked me to marry him...double ha! anyway together Nancy and I ate way too much cobbler especially since we both knew how much butter was put in there...oh soooo much butter.
día ochenta y seis: fuck homework. I hate it. especially in large quantities. but nevertheless, I will push on and keep my nose to the grind stone. I also have gripe :( my throat is sore and I have a runny nose. wasn't I just sick two weeks ago too?
día ochenta y ocho: I finished all of my school work and therefore treated myself to a pair of cheap jelly shoes and pan con queso (the most delicious bread I've ever had, I think its savoriness has something to do with that fact that it was a victory purchase..."here monique eat this bread, you deserve it!") then I went to buy dad a postcard at Libre Mundi but they didn’t have any. I was sad. but, two business guy from Etapa said they had packages of them at their office (sketchy?...no not really) and so I made friends with Andres and Bernardo, they tried to teach me French and gave me a free postcards and a calendar too.
ahhh, men in suits, aren't they adorable? well maybe not that kind of suit but anyhow, Bernardo and Andres wore suits ;)
día ochenta y nueve: isn't it amazing how packing when you want to go home takes less than 20 min whereas it took me the entirety of a week before coming to Ecuador to pack...most because I procrastinated.
semana trece
gringa: what they call Americans, it's considered an insult...but ha! after almost three months I have shed this label and reached a new level of integration, hooray!
día setenta y ocho: 3/28/2010 Sunday my host family was gone so I cooked spaghetti (and just now taught myself finally how to spell spaghetti). it was glorious. and it made me miss home, where I can cook without our maid Nancy staring at me in shock with a look of "are you sure you can cook?"
día setenta y nueve: Monday I felt like a true Cuencano! I crossed the street without stopping or getting hit by a car. I also got asked for directions x 2. First by a lady and her small kid and second by a family trying to get to Banco Central. Seriously though, I'm not that tan am I? I also commented on a gal’s purse on the way home and we chit-chatted it up in Spanish. fuck what's happened? I'm becoming Ecuadorian.
too bad I didn't have a valiant cross guard like in elementary school...and one as cool as Marilyn Manson. you know, I bet kids love Marilyn Manson. he seems lovable, right?
día ochenta: accomplishment! I finally ran without my lungs feeling like they were on fire. and when I got back from my run I had a positive bonding conversation with host sister, Josefina. She called me "loca" (crazy) for running with gripe (oh yeah I still have a cold by the way, it sucks) and then commented on how I she was "casi muerte" (almost dead) from her workout.
día ochenta y uno: Miscommunication is the theme of Wednesday! I thought I had explain clearly about the date of a dinner that I wanted to cook my host family. but oh no sir-y. turns out my host family will be going to their second home during that date for holy week. but that's alright, right? oh no! my host mom also thought that I was going to go with them for holy week too. come on. I have way WAY way too much homework to go to their second home...because we all know I'd just end up swimming in the pool the entire time and not getting my homework done. but on the sunny side of things I got to learn how the alarm system works. the damn thing is terribly fast. so far I've tripped a good four times trying to scramble up the stairs to shut it off and still the beeps just get progressively faster and faster and inevitably I have to answer the call from the alarm company and tell them the password and that everything is buenisimo.
I've also made an observation in the last week or so...normally, I’m a confrontational person and like to deal with things as directly and quickly as possible. but it’s not just not worth it here. maybe it's cultural, but to try and constructively work through an issue is seemingly impossible here. take for example, lately my host brother has been taking showers in the morning when he usually doesn't and making me late for class. normally I would just approach him to try and resolve things but if I were to do so, all I would get other than a pain in my side and a tummy ache, would be guff about how my host brother doesn't really care and that I should accommodate for him. ahh, it's really just not a worthy fight to worry about.
día ochenta y dos: today I got a good cat call from a construction worker. he said, “pssst pssst, hey over here” in English and then waved. it was adorable.
it's Holy Week (Semana Santa) people and so Ecuadorians will be eating plenty of Fanesca and parading around in purple robes to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus...
above is Fanesca, a sort of "everything stew" served on holy Thursday, it's kinda gross to be honest
here are some Cucuruchos walking in a procession to recreate the cross-carrying of Jesus...they look oddly like the KKK but if the KKK had a lot of gay pride and really liked the color purple
día ochenta y tres: Damn Catholics! everything and I mean everything is closed today due to Holy Week. I searched the entire city high and low, combed that sucker over with a fine tooth, and finally found THE one cabina (internet café) open. I did some online research aka fucked around on facebook for an hour and a half and then had a great conversation with the guy who owns the place. we talked about holy week and how crazy Cuencanos get during Easter. He told me that some years they actually crucify a guy during the cross-carrying procession. and that some people won't bathe on Good Friday because they believe that if they touch water they'll turn into a fish. on an unrelated note, I got to cook for myself again!!!! At first, I burnt some popcorn (what can I say? I've never used a pressure cooker before) but then made up for it by cooking some delicious tuna salad. I then topped off a wonderful evening by watching Julie and Julia in Spanish. it was a fucking adorable movie. I smiled the entire time.
this was me
día ochenta y cuatro: essentially, I did the same on Saturday that I did Friday, except the movie was Bolt and add in walking to the Super Maxi (which was really packed for Easter Weekend) and not being able to find my running shoes (eventually I found them though, they were on the roof...don't ask...but if you did I would explain that I forgot I had put them out their to dry them out because the rainy season in upon us here in Ecuador). my host mom was surprised that I was still alive after a weekend alone.
día setenta y ocho: 3/28/2010 Sunday my host family was gone so I cooked spaghetti (and just now taught myself finally how to spell spaghetti). it was glorious. and it made me miss home, where I can cook without our maid Nancy staring at me in shock with a look of "are you sure you can cook?"
día setenta y nueve: Monday I felt like a true Cuencano! I crossed the street without stopping or getting hit by a car. I also got asked for directions x 2. First by a lady and her small kid and second by a family trying to get to Banco Central. Seriously though, I'm not that tan am I? I also commented on a gal’s purse on the way home and we chit-chatted it up in Spanish. fuck what's happened? I'm becoming Ecuadorian.
too bad I didn't have a valiant cross guard like in elementary school...and one as cool as Marilyn Manson. you know, I bet kids love Marilyn Manson. he seems lovable, right?
día ochenta: accomplishment! I finally ran without my lungs feeling like they were on fire. and when I got back from my run I had a positive bonding conversation with host sister, Josefina. She called me "loca" (crazy) for running with gripe (oh yeah I still have a cold by the way, it sucks) and then commented on how I she was "casi muerte" (almost dead) from her workout.
día ochenta y uno: Miscommunication is the theme of Wednesday! I thought I had explain clearly about the date of a dinner that I wanted to cook my host family. but oh no sir-y. turns out my host family will be going to their second home during that date for holy week. but that's alright, right? oh no! my host mom also thought that I was going to go with them for holy week too. come on. I have way WAY way too much homework to go to their second home...because we all know I'd just end up swimming in the pool the entire time and not getting my homework done. but on the sunny side of things I got to learn how the alarm system works. the damn thing is terribly fast. so far I've tripped a good four times trying to scramble up the stairs to shut it off and still the beeps just get progressively faster and faster and inevitably I have to answer the call from the alarm company and tell them the password and that everything is buenisimo.
I've also made an observation in the last week or so...normally, I’m a confrontational person and like to deal with things as directly and quickly as possible. but it’s not just not worth it here. maybe it's cultural, but to try and constructively work through an issue is seemingly impossible here. take for example, lately my host brother has been taking showers in the morning when he usually doesn't and making me late for class. normally I would just approach him to try and resolve things but if I were to do so, all I would get other than a pain in my side and a tummy ache, would be guff about how my host brother doesn't really care and that I should accommodate for him. ahh, it's really just not a worthy fight to worry about.
día ochenta y dos: today I got a good cat call from a construction worker. he said, “pssst pssst, hey over here” in English and then waved. it was adorable.
it's Holy Week (Semana Santa) people and so Ecuadorians will be eating plenty of Fanesca and parading around in purple robes to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus...
above is Fanesca, a sort of "everything stew" served on holy Thursday, it's kinda gross to be honest
here are some Cucuruchos walking in a procession to recreate the cross-carrying of Jesus...they look oddly like the KKK but if the KKK had a lot of gay pride and really liked the color purple
día ochenta y tres: Damn Catholics! everything and I mean everything is closed today due to Holy Week. I searched the entire city high and low, combed that sucker over with a fine tooth, and finally found THE one cabina (internet café) open. I did some online research aka fucked around on facebook for an hour and a half and then had a great conversation with the guy who owns the place. we talked about holy week and how crazy Cuencanos get during Easter. He told me that some years they actually crucify a guy during the cross-carrying procession. and that some people won't bathe on Good Friday because they believe that if they touch water they'll turn into a fish. on an unrelated note, I got to cook for myself again!!!! At first, I burnt some popcorn (what can I say? I've never used a pressure cooker before) but then made up for it by cooking some delicious tuna salad. I then topped off a wonderful evening by watching Julie and Julia in Spanish. it was a fucking adorable movie. I smiled the entire time.
this was me
día ochenta y cuatro: essentially, I did the same on Saturday that I did Friday, except the movie was Bolt and add in walking to the Super Maxi (which was really packed for Easter Weekend) and not being able to find my running shoes (eventually I found them though, they were on the roof...don't ask...but if you did I would explain that I forgot I had put them out their to dry them out because the rainy season in upon us here in Ecuador). my host mom was surprised that I was still alive after a weekend alone.
3/29/10
semana doce
"¡Sí, se puede!": the national motto of Ecuador
This is also a very fitting personal motto for yours truly right about now. You see, I have reached the point in my abroad journey where returning to the U S of A, although only two weeks away, seems nearly impossible. So thus, I have adopted this phrase, “Yes I can! Yes, I can make it through the next two weeks and yes, I can return home in one piece and yes, I can maintain some shred of sanity in doing so. ¡Sí, me puedo!”
día setenta y uno: 03/21/2010 I spent Sunday with Mayra’s family. She has three delightful daughters all about my same age and a splendid husband and a corky extended family. I woke up to eat breakfast with them. I had a bowl of Fruit Loops and milk. It tasted like American reminiscence with a lingering after taste of home. During breakfast, Mayrita, Mayra’s eldest daughter, decided to make strawberry and maraquilla (a fruit unique to Ecuador and an acquired taste in my opinion) juice. So, she got out the blender and blended away. When the juice was ready, she poured a glass and tried a sip as she sat down at the table. When we asked her how it was she said, “faltan fresas…y faltan maraquilla” (“it’s missing strawberries…and maraquilla.”) We all tried a taste and our reactions were quite comical, but my favorite reaction had to be Mayra’s. When Mayra took a sip her lips pursed a little but she still insisted, “No, está perfectamente bien” (“nah, it’s just fine”). I commented on how that was the typical “mom” thing to say and the other girls laughed. Oh boy was that a riot!
After breakfast, we got dressed and ready for church, which was nice, getting ready with a bunch of girls that
is. Because…for a change, I wasn’t the last one out of the house still trying to put my mascara on without a mirror. Speaking of church, it’s a bit different in Mayra’s family. They attend mass in the morning instead of the evening. They go to, what I would consider to be, Cuenca’s most beautiful church. Also, Mayra’s entire family attends together, instead of just two people one week and one person the next like in my host family. Mass was very inclusive, I felt relaxed and welcomed even as an atheist. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I converted to Catholicism or started believing in “god” or anything. Instead, I’m saying that I didn’t feel as tense as I usually do in organized religious settings. Probably because I took that time to unwind and reflect on the fact that not all of Cuenca is the tiny boxed in experience that I have navigated these past three months. I realized that there’s more to it than what I have seen thus far.
After church, we went grocery shopping and bought ice cream for lunch!!! Lunch was silly, I got a kick out of listening to Mayra’s family tease her youngest daughter for texting all throughout the meal and only stopping to eat the ice cream we bought (which was flavored vanilla and mora or “blackberry” in English, the best kind of ice cream I have encountered in Ecuador so far). Para descansar (“to rest”) after lunch, I sat on the couch and gazed out the window with the drone of Latin MTV buzzing in the background. From that window, I could see the entire city, the occasional humming bird whizzed by and flowers danced in the breeze and rays of sun drizzled over the steeples of churches and the tops of buildings. No joke. It sounds corny, but really, it was such a remarkable view and such a glorious moment…one of those rare instances where you think to yourself “everything is going to be ok.”
día setenta y dos: Monday I walked home in the pouring rain with Leah, my griping buddy. Together we clenched our hoods around our faces and could feel our shoes filling up with water. I even had to shout my complaints in order to be heard over the strong beat of rain and the annoying ruckus of traffic. There was a touch of lightening above us, purple lightening. Come on come on come on baby now twists and shout, just shout it all out! Oh, also Hannah’s mom is visiting from the States and brought me some of my favorite lotion, that purple Johnson’s melt away stress kind. It made my day, my week even!
día setenta y tres: Tuesday was a “day of service” for our abroad program. We all volunteered to paint the exterior of an elementary school. It was fun, a good way to spend time skipping class. We also got fed brownies in payment for our handy work. In the afternoon, I got my ecology midterm back, and let’s just say I’m not a biology major for a reason. I didn’t do as well as I had hoped and now have a bit of a tummy ache worrying about it. So, in order to alleviate my tummy ache…
Libertarians! no just keep reading...
día setenta y cuatro: I took a taxi to the Super Maxi on Wednesday and bought some yogurt and Planter’s mixed nuts (oh how I love nuts! “that’s what she said”…sorry, I couldn’t resist that joke and if you don’t know what I am talking about you should stop whatever it is your doing, which would most likely be reading this blog post, and go and watch the Office immediately)! I also bought a new shirt, it’s purple and has a screen-silked feather on it. It’s amazing how sometimes buying just one new thing will melt away all of your other consumerist desires. In other words, I no longer “need” that remote controlled lawn gnome, however amazingly ostentatious it is. I'm joking. At lunch today I had difficulty trying to explain to my host family what a “libertarian” is when they asked me about my thoughts on the new Obama health care law…oh man let’s not get me started on this, I’m too worn out from trying to explain it in English let alone Spanish!
día setenta y cinco: Thursday Sophia, Ally, Leah, and I tried the new pizza place, “Pizza House.” It still fascinates me how many businesses have English names in this country that speaks Spanish. How odd. Oh and the pizza was pretty darn good, it tasted pizza-y and well you really can’t go wrong with pizza-y (unless you’re Pizza Hut, but that’s another story for another time…mainly dealing with bitterness over a Book It! button and a small golden star sticker). Before I left to go get pizza, my host mom commented on how the Pizza House was my “refuge,” referring back teasingly to the night that I got mugged and had to use their phone to call Mayra to come pick me up because no one else was home and I was locked out…ha ha funny (I’m not actually laughing here).
día setenta y seis: Friday was a little boring, I filled out 10 job applications online and in-between cracked my knuckles. I also have gripe or a cold as it’s called in English : ( I didn’t go home all day and stayed at school working, which probably made my gripe worse. But on the sunny side of life I got to eat lunch at a restaurant. I had an inexpensive and delicious veggie burger with a side of fruit, something that’s quite hard to find in this country. In a country where you see whole pigs roasting on the side of the streets, it's understandable that “vegetarian” wouldn't be a common option. When I finally did get home, I just went straight to bed and got much needed sleep!
día setenta y siete: It’s Saturday now and I’m still sick. Apparently though, chicken broth soup is considered a remedy for a cold here too. Who knew?! I learned this today at lunch as I ate, can you guess what?, chicken broth soup! It helped a lot and for that I thank my host mom. Speaking of my host mom, at first she thought that I just have allergies because according to her “I’m sneezing a lot”. I tried telling that my body aches and that I have a fever and that for sure this is a cold…but who ever listens to kids younger than 30 here? Nobody, that would be nobody.
At 8:30pm tonight the most unusual thing happened. My host dad made us turn off all the lights in the house, I’m not really sure why. And besides, it’s too dark to get up and try and find him in order to ask him why we are all sitting semi quietly in the dark at 8:30pm on a Saturday night. Shrug. (update: I learned that we turned the lights off for international Earth Hour!)
I live off these things when I have a cold and really they work like a charm, promise
All I have left to say is Yes, yes I can make it through the next two weeks!
This is also a very fitting personal motto for yours truly right about now. You see, I have reached the point in my abroad journey where returning to the U S of A, although only two weeks away, seems nearly impossible. So thus, I have adopted this phrase, “Yes I can! Yes, I can make it through the next two weeks and yes, I can return home in one piece and yes, I can maintain some shred of sanity in doing so. ¡Sí, me puedo!”
día setenta y uno: 03/21/2010 I spent Sunday with Mayra’s family. She has three delightful daughters all about my same age and a splendid husband and a corky extended family. I woke up to eat breakfast with them. I had a bowl of Fruit Loops and milk. It tasted like American reminiscence with a lingering after taste of home. During breakfast, Mayrita, Mayra’s eldest daughter, decided to make strawberry and maraquilla (a fruit unique to Ecuador and an acquired taste in my opinion) juice. So, she got out the blender and blended away. When the juice was ready, she poured a glass and tried a sip as she sat down at the table. When we asked her how it was she said, “faltan fresas…y faltan maraquilla” (“it’s missing strawberries…and maraquilla.”) We all tried a taste and our reactions were quite comical, but my favorite reaction had to be Mayra’s. When Mayra took a sip her lips pursed a little but she still insisted, “No, está perfectamente bien” (“nah, it’s just fine”). I commented on how that was the typical “mom” thing to say and the other girls laughed. Oh boy was that a riot!
After breakfast, we got dressed and ready for church, which was nice, getting ready with a bunch of girls that
is. Because…for a change, I wasn’t the last one out of the house still trying to put my mascara on without a mirror. Speaking of church, it’s a bit different in Mayra’s family. They attend mass in the morning instead of the evening. They go to, what I would consider to be, Cuenca’s most beautiful church. Also, Mayra’s entire family attends together, instead of just two people one week and one person the next like in my host family. Mass was very inclusive, I felt relaxed and welcomed even as an atheist. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I converted to Catholicism or started believing in “god” or anything. Instead, I’m saying that I didn’t feel as tense as I usually do in organized religious settings. Probably because I took that time to unwind and reflect on the fact that not all of Cuenca is the tiny boxed in experience that I have navigated these past three months. I realized that there’s more to it than what I have seen thus far.
After church, we went grocery shopping and bought ice cream for lunch!!! Lunch was silly, I got a kick out of listening to Mayra’s family tease her youngest daughter for texting all throughout the meal and only stopping to eat the ice cream we bought (which was flavored vanilla and mora or “blackberry” in English, the best kind of ice cream I have encountered in Ecuador so far). Para descansar (“to rest”) after lunch, I sat on the couch and gazed out the window with the drone of Latin MTV buzzing in the background. From that window, I could see the entire city, the occasional humming bird whizzed by and flowers danced in the breeze and rays of sun drizzled over the steeples of churches and the tops of buildings. No joke. It sounds corny, but really, it was such a remarkable view and such a glorious moment…one of those rare instances where you think to yourself “everything is going to be ok.”
día setenta y dos: Monday I walked home in the pouring rain with Leah, my griping buddy. Together we clenched our hoods around our faces and could feel our shoes filling up with water. I even had to shout my complaints in order to be heard over the strong beat of rain and the annoying ruckus of traffic. There was a touch of lightening above us, purple lightening. Come on come on come on baby now twists and shout, just shout it all out! Oh, also Hannah’s mom is visiting from the States and brought me some of my favorite lotion, that purple Johnson’s melt away stress kind. It made my day, my week even!
día setenta y tres: Tuesday was a “day of service” for our abroad program. We all volunteered to paint the exterior of an elementary school. It was fun, a good way to spend time skipping class. We also got fed brownies in payment for our handy work. In the afternoon, I got my ecology midterm back, and let’s just say I’m not a biology major for a reason. I didn’t do as well as I had hoped and now have a bit of a tummy ache worrying about it. So, in order to alleviate my tummy ache…
Libertarians! no just keep reading...
día setenta y cuatro: I took a taxi to the Super Maxi on Wednesday and bought some yogurt and Planter’s mixed nuts (oh how I love nuts! “that’s what she said”…sorry, I couldn’t resist that joke and if you don’t know what I am talking about you should stop whatever it is your doing, which would most likely be reading this blog post, and go and watch the Office immediately)! I also bought a new shirt, it’s purple and has a screen-silked feather on it. It’s amazing how sometimes buying just one new thing will melt away all of your other consumerist desires. In other words, I no longer “need” that remote controlled lawn gnome, however amazingly ostentatious it is. I'm joking. At lunch today I had difficulty trying to explain to my host family what a “libertarian” is when they asked me about my thoughts on the new Obama health care law…oh man let’s not get me started on this, I’m too worn out from trying to explain it in English let alone Spanish!
día setenta y cinco: Thursday Sophia, Ally, Leah, and I tried the new pizza place, “Pizza House.” It still fascinates me how many businesses have English names in this country that speaks Spanish. How odd. Oh and the pizza was pretty darn good, it tasted pizza-y and well you really can’t go wrong with pizza-y (unless you’re Pizza Hut, but that’s another story for another time…mainly dealing with bitterness over a Book It! button and a small golden star sticker). Before I left to go get pizza, my host mom commented on how the Pizza House was my “refuge,” referring back teasingly to the night that I got mugged and had to use their phone to call Mayra to come pick me up because no one else was home and I was locked out…ha ha funny (I’m not actually laughing here).
día setenta y seis: Friday was a little boring, I filled out 10 job applications online and in-between cracked my knuckles. I also have gripe or a cold as it’s called in English : ( I didn’t go home all day and stayed at school working, which probably made my gripe worse. But on the sunny side of life I got to eat lunch at a restaurant. I had an inexpensive and delicious veggie burger with a side of fruit, something that’s quite hard to find in this country. In a country where you see whole pigs roasting on the side of the streets, it's understandable that “vegetarian” wouldn't be a common option. When I finally did get home, I just went straight to bed and got much needed sleep!
día setenta y siete: It’s Saturday now and I’m still sick. Apparently though, chicken broth soup is considered a remedy for a cold here too. Who knew?! I learned this today at lunch as I ate, can you guess what?, chicken broth soup! It helped a lot and for that I thank my host mom. Speaking of my host mom, at first she thought that I just have allergies because according to her “I’m sneezing a lot”. I tried telling that my body aches and that I have a fever and that for sure this is a cold…but who ever listens to kids younger than 30 here? Nobody, that would be nobody.
At 8:30pm tonight the most unusual thing happened. My host dad made us turn off all the lights in the house, I’m not really sure why. And besides, it’s too dark to get up and try and find him in order to ask him why we are all sitting semi quietly in the dark at 8:30pm on a Saturday night. Shrug. (update: I learned that we turned the lights off for international Earth Hour!)
I live off these things when I have a cold and really they work like a charm, promise
All I have left to say is Yes, yes I can make it through the next two weeks!
semana once
“¿Qué más?”: An expression said when there's is a lull in the conversation and no else has anything more to say
Is it that we have nothing more to say or is it that we don’t want to speak what’s on our mind? I wonder this often. If we could hear what everyone was thinking would the world always be filled with continual raucous banter or would it be silent at times? Would we have to yell above the din just in order to hear our own thoughts or would we occasionally utter “¿Qué más?” “What more?” to break the deafening quiet.
My free week started a lot like this. I asked myself “¿Qué más?” and ended up with too much to say and, in turn, just sat silently.
día sesenta y dos: 03/12/2010 Last Friday afternoon our ecology class took a field trip to the coast to see the mangrove forests (which are a lot similar to the Florida Everglades but with more humidity, much more mud crabs, and much much more mosquito bites)…literally there was a swarm of nearly 100 mosquitoes around me during our hike and after only about 20 minutes I had a good 30 bites, it was miserable.
After our ecology field trip a group of gals and I hitchhiked a bus to Guyaquil. This is how traveling is done here in Ecuador: 1- you stand on the side of the highway and look for a big bus headed to your destination and 2- you flag it down once you see it, then 3- you keep your bags with you because you don’t want them to get taken from the baggage compartment below when the bus stops in the midst of traffic, and then 4- you load the bus and you pay the ticket guy $2-$8 depending upon the quality of the bus, and finally 5- you sit back and enjoy the ride…or at least enjoy it the best you are able to. I say this because most bus rides in Ecuador are super windy due to all of the windows being stuck in the open position and you can’t close them no matter how strong you are. I don’t care if your name is Arnold Shrawtzinager, you still won’t be able to close that damn window. Another reason why I say this is because most bus rides are super crowded as well as windy. Why? you might ask. Well, mainly because in Ecuador there is no such thing as a “seat limit,” if you can squeeze yourself through those doors and not have a leg sticking out into traffic, then you’ve got yourself a ride to wherever you are going. Lastly, and either the most annoying or most amusing reason, is the buckets of street vendors that come on to the buses at various stops and try to sell you products like DVD’s, juice in a bag, snack crackers, water bottles, sunglasses, cell phone minutes, and the list goes on. Seriously, the kind of products sold by these vendors isn’t limited in any way shape or form. Anything goes for these people! If they can pitch it in the aisle of a bus, they will. Moreover, I’m pretty sure none of these vendors have a business license of any kind. After Guyaquil we took two other buses and finally made it to our destination, Montañita, around 10pm. Note that it took 5 hours to travel about 90 miles! This is typical and exemplary of the transit system in Ecuador. We then found a hostel right on the beach for $12 a night called Las Palmeras, checked in, unpacked our bags, and headed out to fill our bellies with pizza and Sprite. From the low coast of lodging and dinner, I’m starting to get the idea that it’s pretty cheap to travel in South America. I’m looking forward to every meal being less than $5.
día sesenta y tres: Ok doke. The first day of my costal adventures was spent waking up at 6:50 am to yoga, a quiet sunrise, and the rhythmic sound of ocean waves. Shortly after I woke up, Andrea and I went for a run along the beach. Along the way I thought about how the seashells and small pebbles looked like buttons on a pillow, pinning the sand down tight to the beach. 5 minutes into our run and we picked up a dog friend along the way! He just wanted to run in the pack. Andrea cracked me, she was a bit afraid of the dog and so would run a few strides and then look back at our friend and move a little further away and then repeat the whole process. It was a dance that the two of them shared during the entire 45 minutes of running. Our dog friend was a sandy brown color with black paws and pointed ears. I decided to name him Pépe. He was super friendly. And the run was super fantastic! So…SUPER! (oh note here that it won’t be until my adventure is over that I will realize every time you go for a run, you are guaranteed to pick up a dog friend, nevertheless I named them all).
Breakfast was only $1.50 for a big plate of scrambled eggs and toast and the world’s sweetest honey tea. I’m going to have to buy some of this tea and bring it back and share it with everyone just to prove that it is indeed the world’s sweetest tea. No joke. After breakfast, we explored the town. Montañita is a very typical beach town with bars and beaches and stores and surfboards and tourists. I’m not sure if I like it or not yet. Feeling lazy, I went and laid on the beach until it started to drizzle. After which, I joined the girls for dinner and shared a “Crazy Omelet Sandwich” (who knew you could put an entire omelet into a sandwich) and a banana and chocolate milkshake with Andrea (she got Banana and I got Chocolate and we mixed the two, clever of us, this is probably why we are both college juniors at a prestigious private university, really though they accepted us solely on the basis that we could creatively mix two different flavors of milkshake together).
I love this game!
and look how cool this bone version is!
día sesenta y cuatro: This morning I got up early again and ran on the beach. I love being the one who doesn’t drink and thus doesn’t ever have a hangover the next day and thus can always afford to wake up at 6:50 am in the morning to feel the ocean breeze flap my pjs in the wind, to squish the damp sand between my toes, and to relish the fact that I have the entirety of the beach all to myself. During breakfast, as I was enjoying my piping hot banana muffin and participating in a game of Jenga, I saw a tiny foot with tiny toes and a tiny pink leg poke into the air at the booth behind my own. I quickly tapped the other gals on the shoulder and got them to look in that direction. Next thing I know, we had made friends with Rita, a blonde-haired blue-eyed uninhibited 4-year-old little girl. She only spoke Spanish and told us that she was sick with gripe (a cold) and that she was also a monkey among many other things. We invited her to sit with us and she decided to build zoo houses with our Jenga blocks. Eventually after a good 50 minutes her mom came over and told Rita it was time to go and that she ought to say goodbye and not forget her milkshake she left on the other table. So, we said goodbye and latter lamented the fact that our entertainment had left the building. The rest of the day I spent reading in a hammock near the beach. I got half way done with my book, //Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance//. It’s a vocabulary-building, question-inspiring read that also makes me wanna buy a motorcycle and tour across the United States of America while pondering philosophy along the way. At night I sat on the beach with the other gals and we built sand castles and watched the stars.
día sesenta y cinco: Guess what? Running again this morning! This time I got up in time to run far enough to see a large group of locals fishing. It was quite the sight, the epitome of teamwork and community really. Everybody was lending a hand, working cohesively to drag the giant fishing net in from the ocean. A line of truck and motorcycle owners with wooden creates ready to be filled with fresh fish and sent to be sold in town cushioned the net pullers. Together they were a unified net fishing machine.
At breakfast I asked our waiter for a single banana (yes a SINGLE banana, because I love bananas, especially here in Ecuador, they’re so savory, and there are so many different types). After I made my request for a single banana, our waiter gave me the most perplexed look, he asked me again if I was certain I wanted a single banana, as in the kind you peal and that is yellow, and I said yes, and well good golly miss molly he brought me that single banana! Made my day…well that and the abundance of swimming in the ocean that took place today. Ally taught me a handy little trick, she told me when a wave is coming my way that is too giant to jump, just hold my breath and go under it. So I tried it and it works! How handy, oh so very handy! You would think that after living in San Diego for a good part of my life I would know this information, but I don’t or didn’t rather. I’m glad to have learned a new trick. It’s made swimming in the ocean tons more amusing and no longer am I scared that a wave will eat me alive and spit me out into the sea and I will be lost forever and eventually die because I have ingested too much salt water or been eaten by a shark. So crisis averted! Another thing that I learned today is that motion stays with me. Meaning that I will feel the repetitive crash of waves against my body or the swing of a hammock long after I have cased to swim or to rock in a hammock. It’s really strange. Similar to that sensation of when you spin round and round and round and you still feel dizzy, as if the world is still twirling, long after the spinning has stopped.
Dinner was just how I like it, cheap and delicious! I got three empanadas from a street cart for only a $1. Empanadas are hot-pocket-like fried bread things with delicious fillings such as chicken, cheese, “crazy” filling (I’m not really sure what’s in that one but it was scrumptious, just like the mystery sauce that came with it), or pizza filling even. After that we got creamcicles and sat on the curb outside of a small tienda (similar to a convenient store in the States) and watched the nightlife stroll past. I have to mention here my love for tiendas, not only do they sell cheap ice cream bars, but they also have friendly owners that will go out of their way in order to reach the mini bottle 2-in-1 head and shoulders shampoo for you when you forget yours at home. For this reason, I have an immense amount of appreciation for tiendas.
Maybe it was because of the sugary ice cream or maybe because our room was too muggy or maybe because there was a bug trapped in my mosquito net that kept biting me, but for whatever reason I couldn’t sleep tonight. So, I got up and went and sat on our door stoop and enjoyed the cool night air, as I was waited for my insomnia to elude me. As I sat there, a small crab came crawling along the cement to keep me company. I decided that he couldn’t sleep either. So we sat there together and thought about how silly it must be to walk sideways. I mean really though, why don’t we walk sideways? It would stir life up a little! We could either have a better view of the oncoming traffic as we crossed the street or we would just bump into things a lot more often. Either, way it would be fun. These were my thoughts at 2 am in the morning, sleepless in a random town somewhere on the coast of Ecuador.
empanadas
día sesenta y seis: It’s day five of my costal adventure and the girls and I have moved on to Puerto Lopez, a small fishing village more north of where we last were. A pungent fishy smell and looming sea gulls are ubiquitous here in Puerto Lopez. The gulls hover around the port every second, waiting to rob some poor fisher of his day’s catch. Despite the gulls and the smell, I like it here. It’s a lot more quiet and laid back than Montañita.
Before we made the trek to Puerto Lopez I had a heaven sent crepe filled with tomato and cheese and basil for breakfast! And I apologizes because I mostly blog about food these days. Really though when you’re a part of the Frank family (for me by marriage) what else are you supposed to think about while on vacation? Or ever for that matter? The bus ride to Puerto Lopez was “sticky” and I was glad once we got off and were able to quickly find a hostel (El Sol Inn, it reminded me of a tree house and had a hotel puppy named Flor) and sit and eat French fries and drink batidos (a milkshake type drink made with milk, fruit, and sugar, the best flavor of which is papaya) in the ocean wind. We spent the night planning for our weekend of camping and sitting in front of the fan at our hostel.
fish seen at Isla de La Plata, just kidding
día sesenta y siete: We are poor men (or at least poor college students) and so it was very fitting that we spent our first day of camping on the “Poor Man’s Galapagos” (formally know as “Isla de La Plata”). In order to go to the real Galapagos Islands it costs upwards of $1000. But if you want a similar experience you can pay a measly $35 and go to Isla de La Plata. The only difference is that Isla de La Plata is a continental island and the Galapagos are volcanic islands. Other than that, they are virtually the same. Early in the morning we loaded a medium sized fishing boat and skimmed across the Pacific for an hour or so until we reached the island. Our guide then led us on a 2 and a half hour hike. We walked through thickets of brilliant yellow flowers and climbed down arid slopes where the mud had hardened over and cracked like chapped lips. We saw Bobbies, not the kind you find on voluptuous women, but the birds rather, blue footed and red footed, and condors, and lizards, and crabs. After the hike we ate brown-bagged lunches and prepared to go snorkeling! Once in the water, with our goggles and moth pieces plastered to our faces, it hit me…this was fucking amazing. In other words, I was having a very peaceful day walking about, exploring nature, taking in all the tranquil sights. The water was as warm as a tepid bath and sooooo salty and buoyant that I didn’t even have to hold my breath in order to float. While snorkeling we saw turtles and ells and Dori fish and JELLY FISH (Leah even got stung by a few, but don’t worry, she’s still alive, and no one had to pee on her). For dinner we cleaned up and walked back into town to eat at the Whale Café, a local place owned by American retirees. The food there was delicious, reminded me of home a little. I had a B.A.T. (a bacon-avocado-and-tomato instead on a B.L.T, get in? clever right!?) and I also had a brownie for desert. Tonight at dinner I realized that I love traveling in groups mainly because I get to try what everyone else is eating!
día sesenta y ocho: Thursday morning I woke up and stood in front of the oscillating fan for a long while, stepping to the left and then to the right in order to keep the breeze directly on my face. Andrea woke up shortly after and we stood there making our voices sound like robots by talking into the fan. It was childish, as most entertaining things are. Eventually, we went on our run. When we got back we repacked and waited for Juan to arrive. When Juanito finally got into town, we went shopping for camping food and supplies and then headed out. We made a “deal” with one of the moto-taxi drivers (moto-taxis are a cross between a motorcycle and a rickshaw and are the main source of transportation on the coast of Ecuador). We paid him $20 bucks, and he agreed to haul all of our stuff around to various campsites over the course of the next three days. It worked out pretty well, seeing that each site was spread out from the others. So there we were four people (Ally, Andrea, me, Juan), a boat load of camping crap, and a moto-taxi driver who was wearing a pink and black t-shirt that said “Senior Women 2006” in English, slowly sputtering along the gravel road towards Agua Blanca. We had to stop twice because the motorcycle overheated, but eventually we made it to our campsite and set up our tent, made a fire, cooked some food, and peed in the woods (I really had to go! So bad even that I forgot the roll of toilet paper we had stolen from the hostel).
This had to have been the silliest camping experience I have ever had. First, we had a merry time trying to explain in Spanish to Juan (who speaks fluent Spanish and 65% fluent English) how delicious Sloppy Joes are and that he should eat one because they are the most delicious when cooked over a campfire. Next, we discovered that the tent we borrowed has really good insulation. We found this fact out when Ally and I unzipped the tent door and a waft of 100-degree-heat came rolling out, similar to when you open the oven door to check on something baking. It was an inferno in there. If someone were to ask me if I knew what sleeping in hell felt like, I can now tell them “indeed YES I do!” Then Andrea got attacked by ants when she tried to go pee, but she’s tough and survived…after this I decided that I was just going to hold it for the next two days. Finally, when some form of sleep hit me, I heard horses galloping closer and closer to our tent. A little frightened, I clenched Ally’s leg and proposed that we were all going to be trampled on by the headless horseman!!! This probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do because Andrea held Juan’s hand in sleepless fear the rest of the night. Poor girl. As silly as our first night of camping was, I can’t help but reaffirm “man how I love camping!” You just can’t get this kind of entertainment anywhere else folks.
día sesenta y nueve: The next morning we woke up and hiked to the Sulfur Baths in order to wash away our ridiculous night of camping in Agua Blanca. For the most part the baths were very calming and healing but they also smelt a little like rotting eggs. Pew!
The last part of this adventure was spent on Los Frailes, undoubtedly Ecuador’s most gorgeous beach! Our moto-taxi chauffer drove us and all of our crap out to the beach. We got there and virtually no one else was around. So, we set up a little beach hut and spent the day looking for turtle egg nests, playing Hearts, swimming, sleeping, eating p b & j and banana sandwiches, and not knowing this at the time, but getting extremely sunburned. I think when the day was done I was the most red I have ever been in my life. And now I have a bunch of funny tan lines. Whoopty doo! But it’s nothing a little aloe won’t heal and besides it was entirely worth it.
Los Frailes
Once we returned to town (thanks again to our moto-taxi man) we decided to get one last batido (banana flavored this time) before we headed out. The girl that served us our batiods must have been about 16 and was hilariously candid. She kept asking in a very inquisitive and assertive manner if Andrea and Juan were novios (“dating” in English) and no matter what they told her she would say “sure!” with a raised eyebrow and then giggle. She even asked if I had a boyfriend, I said that yes indeed I was dating someone back in the U S, but despite my answer she continued to try and set me up with her cousin. According to her he is tall and dark and handsome and everything I would ever want, and mostly importantly, available. Tempting? maybe. (especially since T's been crapy about keeping up). We left her a big tip and the nickname “La Rena de Los Batidos” (meaning the Queen of the Milkshakes). Oh this reminds me, earlier we had left our camping supplies with the Dueña (owner) of our hostel. She was this adorable old lady. She wasn’t very excited about the cooking pot and food we left as much as she was outwardly thrilled with the big yellow bucket we left. I mean literally, she nearly cried when she thanked me for the bucket. Never mind the other stuff, that bucket was damn invaluable to her! Finally, I parted from the group and caught a bus back to Guyaquil and then one back to Cuenca.
I was ready. At this point I just needed to return home, to sleep in my own bed. Little did I know though…
día setenta: That when I got home around 10pm at night no one would be there and I would be locked out without keys or a cell phone (my host family still hadn't replaced me keys). Grrrrrr! So I went to a small tienda that rents videos and the kid playing video games and manning the counter let me use his phone. I called my host mom and she told me that they were in Yunguia for the weekend, but if I waited outside the house for 15 mintues my host brother, Santiago, would come by to let me in. So…I waited there and I waited there and I waited there and an hour went past and still no sign of Pepe. By then I was thinking that it was getting late and the situation I was in was getting more and more unsafe with every minute that passed. I thought about hoping the fence, but then came up with a better plan. I decided to get out of the middle of the dark street, walk to the new pizza place near my house that stays open late, and use their phone. So I picked up my bags and started to walk down the block, when I looked back and saw two guys in baseball caps jogging towards me. In that moment I thought to myself, “oh fuck, I’m going to get mugged! Here we go.” And sure enough they approached me and the first guy pulled out a knife and the second guy demanded that I give him my cell phone. I was so frustrated with the situation that I thought again to myself, “wait no, you know what? LIKE HELL am I going to get mugged.” So I screamed “NO!” as loud and shrilly as I possibly could and started to run away super fast. Thankfully the two guys booked it in the opposite direction. Mugging averted! I didn’t get stabbed, I still had all my belongings, and I made it to pizza place safe and sound. Grant it though, when I got there I was out of breath and could barely get enough air in order to ask to use their phone. Once I caught my breath I called my professor Mayra, she said not to move and that she would come to pick me up. The owners of the pizza place stayed open a little past closing time to wait with me until Mayra and her husband came. I was relieved to see Mayra and to know that everything was fine. Thank you pizza place owners and Mayra! I spent the night on Mayra’s comfy couch and could only think about how lucky I had been. ¡Por suerte!
Is it that we have nothing more to say or is it that we don’t want to speak what’s on our mind? I wonder this often. If we could hear what everyone was thinking would the world always be filled with continual raucous banter or would it be silent at times? Would we have to yell above the din just in order to hear our own thoughts or would we occasionally utter “¿Qué más?” “What more?” to break the deafening quiet.
My free week started a lot like this. I asked myself “¿Qué más?” and ended up with too much to say and, in turn, just sat silently.
día sesenta y dos: 03/12/2010 Last Friday afternoon our ecology class took a field trip to the coast to see the mangrove forests (which are a lot similar to the Florida Everglades but with more humidity, much more mud crabs, and much much more mosquito bites)…literally there was a swarm of nearly 100 mosquitoes around me during our hike and after only about 20 minutes I had a good 30 bites, it was miserable.
After our ecology field trip a group of gals and I hitchhiked a bus to Guyaquil. This is how traveling is done here in Ecuador: 1- you stand on the side of the highway and look for a big bus headed to your destination and 2- you flag it down once you see it, then 3- you keep your bags with you because you don’t want them to get taken from the baggage compartment below when the bus stops in the midst of traffic, and then 4- you load the bus and you pay the ticket guy $2-$8 depending upon the quality of the bus, and finally 5- you sit back and enjoy the ride…or at least enjoy it the best you are able to. I say this because most bus rides in Ecuador are super windy due to all of the windows being stuck in the open position and you can’t close them no matter how strong you are. I don’t care if your name is Arnold Shrawtzinager, you still won’t be able to close that damn window. Another reason why I say this is because most bus rides are super crowded as well as windy. Why? you might ask. Well, mainly because in Ecuador there is no such thing as a “seat limit,” if you can squeeze yourself through those doors and not have a leg sticking out into traffic, then you’ve got yourself a ride to wherever you are going. Lastly, and either the most annoying or most amusing reason, is the buckets of street vendors that come on to the buses at various stops and try to sell you products like DVD’s, juice in a bag, snack crackers, water bottles, sunglasses, cell phone minutes, and the list goes on. Seriously, the kind of products sold by these vendors isn’t limited in any way shape or form. Anything goes for these people! If they can pitch it in the aisle of a bus, they will. Moreover, I’m pretty sure none of these vendors have a business license of any kind. After Guyaquil we took two other buses and finally made it to our destination, Montañita, around 10pm. Note that it took 5 hours to travel about 90 miles! This is typical and exemplary of the transit system in Ecuador. We then found a hostel right on the beach for $12 a night called Las Palmeras, checked in, unpacked our bags, and headed out to fill our bellies with pizza and Sprite. From the low coast of lodging and dinner, I’m starting to get the idea that it’s pretty cheap to travel in South America. I’m looking forward to every meal being less than $5.
día sesenta y tres: Ok doke. The first day of my costal adventures was spent waking up at 6:50 am to yoga, a quiet sunrise, and the rhythmic sound of ocean waves. Shortly after I woke up, Andrea and I went for a run along the beach. Along the way I thought about how the seashells and small pebbles looked like buttons on a pillow, pinning the sand down tight to the beach. 5 minutes into our run and we picked up a dog friend along the way! He just wanted to run in the pack. Andrea cracked me, she was a bit afraid of the dog and so would run a few strides and then look back at our friend and move a little further away and then repeat the whole process. It was a dance that the two of them shared during the entire 45 minutes of running. Our dog friend was a sandy brown color with black paws and pointed ears. I decided to name him Pépe. He was super friendly. And the run was super fantastic! So…SUPER! (oh note here that it won’t be until my adventure is over that I will realize every time you go for a run, you are guaranteed to pick up a dog friend, nevertheless I named them all).
Breakfast was only $1.50 for a big plate of scrambled eggs and toast and the world’s sweetest honey tea. I’m going to have to buy some of this tea and bring it back and share it with everyone just to prove that it is indeed the world’s sweetest tea. No joke. After breakfast, we explored the town. Montañita is a very typical beach town with bars and beaches and stores and surfboards and tourists. I’m not sure if I like it or not yet. Feeling lazy, I went and laid on the beach until it started to drizzle. After which, I joined the girls for dinner and shared a “Crazy Omelet Sandwich” (who knew you could put an entire omelet into a sandwich) and a banana and chocolate milkshake with Andrea (she got Banana and I got Chocolate and we mixed the two, clever of us, this is probably why we are both college juniors at a prestigious private university, really though they accepted us solely on the basis that we could creatively mix two different flavors of milkshake together).
I love this game!
and look how cool this bone version is!
día sesenta y cuatro: This morning I got up early again and ran on the beach. I love being the one who doesn’t drink and thus doesn’t ever have a hangover the next day and thus can always afford to wake up at 6:50 am in the morning to feel the ocean breeze flap my pjs in the wind, to squish the damp sand between my toes, and to relish the fact that I have the entirety of the beach all to myself. During breakfast, as I was enjoying my piping hot banana muffin and participating in a game of Jenga, I saw a tiny foot with tiny toes and a tiny pink leg poke into the air at the booth behind my own. I quickly tapped the other gals on the shoulder and got them to look in that direction. Next thing I know, we had made friends with Rita, a blonde-haired blue-eyed uninhibited 4-year-old little girl. She only spoke Spanish and told us that she was sick with gripe (a cold) and that she was also a monkey among many other things. We invited her to sit with us and she decided to build zoo houses with our Jenga blocks. Eventually after a good 50 minutes her mom came over and told Rita it was time to go and that she ought to say goodbye and not forget her milkshake she left on the other table. So, we said goodbye and latter lamented the fact that our entertainment had left the building. The rest of the day I spent reading in a hammock near the beach. I got half way done with my book, //Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance//. It’s a vocabulary-building, question-inspiring read that also makes me wanna buy a motorcycle and tour across the United States of America while pondering philosophy along the way. At night I sat on the beach with the other gals and we built sand castles and watched the stars.
día sesenta y cinco: Guess what? Running again this morning! This time I got up in time to run far enough to see a large group of locals fishing. It was quite the sight, the epitome of teamwork and community really. Everybody was lending a hand, working cohesively to drag the giant fishing net in from the ocean. A line of truck and motorcycle owners with wooden creates ready to be filled with fresh fish and sent to be sold in town cushioned the net pullers. Together they were a unified net fishing machine.
At breakfast I asked our waiter for a single banana (yes a SINGLE banana, because I love bananas, especially here in Ecuador, they’re so savory, and there are so many different types). After I made my request for a single banana, our waiter gave me the most perplexed look, he asked me again if I was certain I wanted a single banana, as in the kind you peal and that is yellow, and I said yes, and well good golly miss molly he brought me that single banana! Made my day…well that and the abundance of swimming in the ocean that took place today. Ally taught me a handy little trick, she told me when a wave is coming my way that is too giant to jump, just hold my breath and go under it. So I tried it and it works! How handy, oh so very handy! You would think that after living in San Diego for a good part of my life I would know this information, but I don’t or didn’t rather. I’m glad to have learned a new trick. It’s made swimming in the ocean tons more amusing and no longer am I scared that a wave will eat me alive and spit me out into the sea and I will be lost forever and eventually die because I have ingested too much salt water or been eaten by a shark. So crisis averted! Another thing that I learned today is that motion stays with me. Meaning that I will feel the repetitive crash of waves against my body or the swing of a hammock long after I have cased to swim or to rock in a hammock. It’s really strange. Similar to that sensation of when you spin round and round and round and you still feel dizzy, as if the world is still twirling, long after the spinning has stopped.
Dinner was just how I like it, cheap and delicious! I got three empanadas from a street cart for only a $1. Empanadas are hot-pocket-like fried bread things with delicious fillings such as chicken, cheese, “crazy” filling (I’m not really sure what’s in that one but it was scrumptious, just like the mystery sauce that came with it), or pizza filling even. After that we got creamcicles and sat on the curb outside of a small tienda (similar to a convenient store in the States) and watched the nightlife stroll past. I have to mention here my love for tiendas, not only do they sell cheap ice cream bars, but they also have friendly owners that will go out of their way in order to reach the mini bottle 2-in-1 head and shoulders shampoo for you when you forget yours at home. For this reason, I have an immense amount of appreciation for tiendas.
Maybe it was because of the sugary ice cream or maybe because our room was too muggy or maybe because there was a bug trapped in my mosquito net that kept biting me, but for whatever reason I couldn’t sleep tonight. So, I got up and went and sat on our door stoop and enjoyed the cool night air, as I was waited for my insomnia to elude me. As I sat there, a small crab came crawling along the cement to keep me company. I decided that he couldn’t sleep either. So we sat there together and thought about how silly it must be to walk sideways. I mean really though, why don’t we walk sideways? It would stir life up a little! We could either have a better view of the oncoming traffic as we crossed the street or we would just bump into things a lot more often. Either, way it would be fun. These were my thoughts at 2 am in the morning, sleepless in a random town somewhere on the coast of Ecuador.
empanadas
día sesenta y seis: It’s day five of my costal adventure and the girls and I have moved on to Puerto Lopez, a small fishing village more north of where we last were. A pungent fishy smell and looming sea gulls are ubiquitous here in Puerto Lopez. The gulls hover around the port every second, waiting to rob some poor fisher of his day’s catch. Despite the gulls and the smell, I like it here. It’s a lot more quiet and laid back than Montañita.
Before we made the trek to Puerto Lopez I had a heaven sent crepe filled with tomato and cheese and basil for breakfast! And I apologizes because I mostly blog about food these days. Really though when you’re a part of the Frank family (for me by marriage) what else are you supposed to think about while on vacation? Or ever for that matter? The bus ride to Puerto Lopez was “sticky” and I was glad once we got off and were able to quickly find a hostel (El Sol Inn, it reminded me of a tree house and had a hotel puppy named Flor) and sit and eat French fries and drink batidos (a milkshake type drink made with milk, fruit, and sugar, the best flavor of which is papaya) in the ocean wind. We spent the night planning for our weekend of camping and sitting in front of the fan at our hostel.
fish seen at Isla de La Plata, just kidding
día sesenta y siete: We are poor men (or at least poor college students) and so it was very fitting that we spent our first day of camping on the “Poor Man’s Galapagos” (formally know as “Isla de La Plata”). In order to go to the real Galapagos Islands it costs upwards of $1000. But if you want a similar experience you can pay a measly $35 and go to Isla de La Plata. The only difference is that Isla de La Plata is a continental island and the Galapagos are volcanic islands. Other than that, they are virtually the same. Early in the morning we loaded a medium sized fishing boat and skimmed across the Pacific for an hour or so until we reached the island. Our guide then led us on a 2 and a half hour hike. We walked through thickets of brilliant yellow flowers and climbed down arid slopes where the mud had hardened over and cracked like chapped lips. We saw Bobbies, not the kind you find on voluptuous women, but the birds rather, blue footed and red footed, and condors, and lizards, and crabs. After the hike we ate brown-bagged lunches and prepared to go snorkeling! Once in the water, with our goggles and moth pieces plastered to our faces, it hit me…this was fucking amazing. In other words, I was having a very peaceful day walking about, exploring nature, taking in all the tranquil sights. The water was as warm as a tepid bath and sooooo salty and buoyant that I didn’t even have to hold my breath in order to float. While snorkeling we saw turtles and ells and Dori fish and JELLY FISH (Leah even got stung by a few, but don’t worry, she’s still alive, and no one had to pee on her). For dinner we cleaned up and walked back into town to eat at the Whale Café, a local place owned by American retirees. The food there was delicious, reminded me of home a little. I had a B.A.T. (a bacon-avocado-and-tomato instead on a B.L.T, get in? clever right!?) and I also had a brownie for desert. Tonight at dinner I realized that I love traveling in groups mainly because I get to try what everyone else is eating!
día sesenta y ocho: Thursday morning I woke up and stood in front of the oscillating fan for a long while, stepping to the left and then to the right in order to keep the breeze directly on my face. Andrea woke up shortly after and we stood there making our voices sound like robots by talking into the fan. It was childish, as most entertaining things are. Eventually, we went on our run. When we got back we repacked and waited for Juan to arrive. When Juanito finally got into town, we went shopping for camping food and supplies and then headed out. We made a “deal” with one of the moto-taxi drivers (moto-taxis are a cross between a motorcycle and a rickshaw and are the main source of transportation on the coast of Ecuador). We paid him $20 bucks, and he agreed to haul all of our stuff around to various campsites over the course of the next three days. It worked out pretty well, seeing that each site was spread out from the others. So there we were four people (Ally, Andrea, me, Juan), a boat load of camping crap, and a moto-taxi driver who was wearing a pink and black t-shirt that said “Senior Women 2006” in English, slowly sputtering along the gravel road towards Agua Blanca. We had to stop twice because the motorcycle overheated, but eventually we made it to our campsite and set up our tent, made a fire, cooked some food, and peed in the woods (I really had to go! So bad even that I forgot the roll of toilet paper we had stolen from the hostel).
This had to have been the silliest camping experience I have ever had. First, we had a merry time trying to explain in Spanish to Juan (who speaks fluent Spanish and 65% fluent English) how delicious Sloppy Joes are and that he should eat one because they are the most delicious when cooked over a campfire. Next, we discovered that the tent we borrowed has really good insulation. We found this fact out when Ally and I unzipped the tent door and a waft of 100-degree-heat came rolling out, similar to when you open the oven door to check on something baking. It was an inferno in there. If someone were to ask me if I knew what sleeping in hell felt like, I can now tell them “indeed YES I do!” Then Andrea got attacked by ants when she tried to go pee, but she’s tough and survived…after this I decided that I was just going to hold it for the next two days. Finally, when some form of sleep hit me, I heard horses galloping closer and closer to our tent. A little frightened, I clenched Ally’s leg and proposed that we were all going to be trampled on by the headless horseman!!! This probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do because Andrea held Juan’s hand in sleepless fear the rest of the night. Poor girl. As silly as our first night of camping was, I can’t help but reaffirm “man how I love camping!” You just can’t get this kind of entertainment anywhere else folks.
día sesenta y nueve: The next morning we woke up and hiked to the Sulfur Baths in order to wash away our ridiculous night of camping in Agua Blanca. For the most part the baths were very calming and healing but they also smelt a little like rotting eggs. Pew!
The last part of this adventure was spent on Los Frailes, undoubtedly Ecuador’s most gorgeous beach! Our moto-taxi chauffer drove us and all of our crap out to the beach. We got there and virtually no one else was around. So, we set up a little beach hut and spent the day looking for turtle egg nests, playing Hearts, swimming, sleeping, eating p b & j and banana sandwiches, and not knowing this at the time, but getting extremely sunburned. I think when the day was done I was the most red I have ever been in my life. And now I have a bunch of funny tan lines. Whoopty doo! But it’s nothing a little aloe won’t heal and besides it was entirely worth it.
Los Frailes
Once we returned to town (thanks again to our moto-taxi man) we decided to get one last batido (banana flavored this time) before we headed out. The girl that served us our batiods must have been about 16 and was hilariously candid. She kept asking in a very inquisitive and assertive manner if Andrea and Juan were novios (“dating” in English) and no matter what they told her she would say “sure!” with a raised eyebrow and then giggle. She even asked if I had a boyfriend, I said that yes indeed I was dating someone back in the U S, but despite my answer she continued to try and set me up with her cousin. According to her he is tall and dark and handsome and everything I would ever want, and mostly importantly, available. Tempting? maybe. (especially since T's been crapy about keeping up). We left her a big tip and the nickname “La Rena de Los Batidos” (meaning the Queen of the Milkshakes). Oh this reminds me, earlier we had left our camping supplies with the Dueña (owner) of our hostel. She was this adorable old lady. She wasn’t very excited about the cooking pot and food we left as much as she was outwardly thrilled with the big yellow bucket we left. I mean literally, she nearly cried when she thanked me for the bucket. Never mind the other stuff, that bucket was damn invaluable to her! Finally, I parted from the group and caught a bus back to Guyaquil and then one back to Cuenca.
I was ready. At this point I just needed to return home, to sleep in my own bed. Little did I know though…
día setenta: That when I got home around 10pm at night no one would be there and I would be locked out without keys or a cell phone (my host family still hadn't replaced me keys). Grrrrrr! So I went to a small tienda that rents videos and the kid playing video games and manning the counter let me use his phone. I called my host mom and she told me that they were in Yunguia for the weekend, but if I waited outside the house for 15 mintues my host brother, Santiago, would come by to let me in. So…I waited there and I waited there and I waited there and an hour went past and still no sign of Pepe. By then I was thinking that it was getting late and the situation I was in was getting more and more unsafe with every minute that passed. I thought about hoping the fence, but then came up with a better plan. I decided to get out of the middle of the dark street, walk to the new pizza place near my house that stays open late, and use their phone. So I picked up my bags and started to walk down the block, when I looked back and saw two guys in baseball caps jogging towards me. In that moment I thought to myself, “oh fuck, I’m going to get mugged! Here we go.” And sure enough they approached me and the first guy pulled out a knife and the second guy demanded that I give him my cell phone. I was so frustrated with the situation that I thought again to myself, “wait no, you know what? LIKE HELL am I going to get mugged.” So I screamed “NO!” as loud and shrilly as I possibly could and started to run away super fast. Thankfully the two guys booked it in the opposite direction. Mugging averted! I didn’t get stabbed, I still had all my belongings, and I made it to pizza place safe and sound. Grant it though, when I got there I was out of breath and could barely get enough air in order to ask to use their phone. Once I caught my breath I called my professor Mayra, she said not to move and that she would come to pick me up. The owners of the pizza place stayed open a little past closing time to wait with me until Mayra and her husband came. I was relieved to see Mayra and to know that everything was fine. Thank you pizza place owners and Mayra! I spent the night on Mayra’s comfy couch and could only think about how lucky I had been. ¡Por suerte!
3/8/10
semana diez
¡Que extraño!: “how unusual!” in Spanish
In the span of a single hour I saw both a Truck-taxi and a Fox motor cross shirt with Jesus on it. I have seen the most peculiar things in this country. Moreover, I have stopped asking questions and just started accepting that I might see a man roaming the streets trying to sell desk lamps on one block and a parade of kids dressed as the Virgin Marry and Batman riding horses (a traditional celebration called “Pase de Niños”) on the next.
día cincuenta y ocho: 03/03/2010 Monday was “Día de las Mujeres,” a national Ecuadorian holiday that celebrates women. It seems like a silly holiday, kind of like Flag Day or Mother's Day in the States. But, when I got home from class, my host dad gave me a big hug and warm words of appreciation, he also bought my host mom a pretty flower arrangement with a card that said, “Happy Women’s Day to the woman/love of my life." Ahhhh, how sweet. They seem to have a touch more sentiment for the women in their lives her in Ecuador. Oh, this reminds me, come to think of it, I have never once seen my host parents be affectionate toward each other, you know like kiss and smooch and all that gushy stuff. It’s weird because I still get this sense of deep love and care between them despite no PDA
feliz dia de mujeres- this is me and my host mom. yes, I'm wearing a funny dress. just read week 9
día cincuenta y nueve: Anyhow, Tuesday came and I went running in the rain. It was refreshing. Also reminded me of how much I miss running in the states, where I can have my headphones in and it can be late at night and I don’t have to be as preoccupied with the thought of security or of running into a cow (no joke, in the parks here people bring their cattle from the countryside and just let them free to eat the grass and drink the river water, it’s quite startling when you’re running along and all of a sudden bump into a cow, one time I even scared one and it fell into the river a little, poor thing. I may have already told y'all about this).
día sesenta: On Wednesday no one was home for dinner, so I made Mac n Cheese!!! (really Trent, it’s not that gross). And when I went upstairs to pee, the bathroom door was locked! I had to climb through the window from the terrace on the stairs. It was very sketchy. Later I learned from my host mom that they were having plumbing problems in the house. I figured as much and for this reason I didn’t use that bathroom, just got my toothbrush and stuff. I really needed to pee too. Side note, you cannot flush toilet paper in the country of Ecuador. Regular plumbing here cannot handle it.
día sesenta y uno: Thursday I bought nail polish and painted my nails fire-engine red! The nail polish was only $1 a buck 25, unheard of in the States. I bought it at this tiny hair salon on my way home from school. For dinner we had a scrumptious “torta de arroz," it’s a fried patty of rice and cheese and egg. After dinner I was listening to Nick’s most recent playlist that he has sent me, when my host mom’s autistic niece wandered into my room. She’s 5 years old and hardly reacts to anything, but as soon as she heard a punk cover of Regina Spektor’s “Ghost of Corporate Future” she lit up with a brilliant smile and started making all kinds of noises. I decided to try a little test, I switched the music over to another genre and Dora’s niece went silent. I switched it back to punk, Millencolin and the Ramones this time, and again she went berserk. It was amazing to see. All I could think was, “Behold, the power of punk rock!!!”
Ok so the last bizarre thing I saw this week was found along my walk to school. I was running a little late, so I had my head down and my concentration on my stride, trying to walk as fast as I could without tripping over something. But then a semi-crumpled semi-scribbled-on picture of a dad laughing while holding his toddler daughter caught my eye (see Arbitrary post). This random picture reminded me of some of my own pictures, angrily thrown away and forgotten about memories. It made me stop and think...inevitably, I was late for class.
In the span of a single hour I saw both a Truck-taxi and a Fox motor cross shirt with Jesus on it. I have seen the most peculiar things in this country. Moreover, I have stopped asking questions and just started accepting that I might see a man roaming the streets trying to sell desk lamps on one block and a parade of kids dressed as the Virgin Marry and Batman riding horses (a traditional celebration called “Pase de Niños”) on the next.
día cincuenta y ocho: 03/03/2010 Monday was “Día de las Mujeres,” a national Ecuadorian holiday that celebrates women. It seems like a silly holiday, kind of like Flag Day or Mother's Day in the States. But, when I got home from class, my host dad gave me a big hug and warm words of appreciation, he also bought my host mom a pretty flower arrangement with a card that said, “Happy Women’s Day to the woman/love of my life." Ahhhh, how sweet. They seem to have a touch more sentiment for the women in their lives her in Ecuador. Oh, this reminds me, come to think of it, I have never once seen my host parents be affectionate toward each other, you know like kiss and smooch and all that gushy stuff. It’s weird because I still get this sense of deep love and care between them despite no PDA
feliz dia de mujeres- this is me and my host mom. yes, I'm wearing a funny dress. just read week 9
día cincuenta y nueve: Anyhow, Tuesday came and I went running in the rain. It was refreshing. Also reminded me of how much I miss running in the states, where I can have my headphones in and it can be late at night and I don’t have to be as preoccupied with the thought of security or of running into a cow (no joke, in the parks here people bring their cattle from the countryside and just let them free to eat the grass and drink the river water, it’s quite startling when you’re running along and all of a sudden bump into a cow, one time I even scared one and it fell into the river a little, poor thing. I may have already told y'all about this).
día sesenta: On Wednesday no one was home for dinner, so I made Mac n Cheese!!! (really Trent, it’s not that gross). And when I went upstairs to pee, the bathroom door was locked! I had to climb through the window from the terrace on the stairs. It was very sketchy. Later I learned from my host mom that they were having plumbing problems in the house. I figured as much and for this reason I didn’t use that bathroom, just got my toothbrush and stuff. I really needed to pee too. Side note, you cannot flush toilet paper in the country of Ecuador. Regular plumbing here cannot handle it.
día sesenta y uno: Thursday I bought nail polish and painted my nails fire-engine red! The nail polish was only $1 a buck 25, unheard of in the States. I bought it at this tiny hair salon on my way home from school. For dinner we had a scrumptious “torta de arroz," it’s a fried patty of rice and cheese and egg. After dinner I was listening to Nick’s most recent playlist that he has sent me, when my host mom’s autistic niece wandered into my room. She’s 5 years old and hardly reacts to anything, but as soon as she heard a punk cover of Regina Spektor’s “Ghost of Corporate Future” she lit up with a brilliant smile and started making all kinds of noises. I decided to try a little test, I switched the music over to another genre and Dora’s niece went silent. I switched it back to punk, Millencolin and the Ramones this time, and again she went berserk. It was amazing to see. All I could think was, “Behold, the power of punk rock!!!”
Ok so the last bizarre thing I saw this week was found along my walk to school. I was running a little late, so I had my head down and my concentration on my stride, trying to walk as fast as I could without tripping over something. But then a semi-crumpled semi-scribbled-on picture of a dad laughing while holding his toddler daughter caught my eye (see Arbitrary post). This random picture reminded me of some of my own pictures, angrily thrown away and forgotten about memories. It made me stop and think...inevitably, I was late for class.
arbitrary
arbitrary: determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle
this is a random picture I found and picked up arbitrarily on the streets of Cuenca, Ecuador during my walk to school. It was severely crumpled. There were pen marks and tears all over. Obviously someone's trash, someone's angry trash. I say this because I own(ed) many pictures such as this one. They're the pictures you simply can't look at without feeling a deep sense of melancholy and regret. You're sad and mad because you were so small, you couldn't remember if there were ever any good times, even if you tried, even if the picture shows it. You're sad and mad because you know that in this picture, just a moment after, something terrible had happened. It's the picture you get angry at. You think that they're the ones that lie. Never, the situation, the memory, the moment, the subjects. It's the picture. So we scribble, and tear, and crumple, and burn, thinking that the pain will disappear, and we wonder and brood over why when it doesn't.
this is a random picture I found and picked up arbitrarily on the streets of Cuenca, Ecuador during my walk to school. It was severely crumpled. There were pen marks and tears all over. Obviously someone's trash, someone's angry trash. I say this because I own(ed) many pictures such as this one. They're the pictures you simply can't look at without feeling a deep sense of melancholy and regret. You're sad and mad because you were so small, you couldn't remember if there were ever any good times, even if you tried, even if the picture shows it. You're sad and mad because you know that in this picture, just a moment after, something terrible had happened. It's the picture you get angry at. You think that they're the ones that lie. Never, the situation, the memory, the moment, the subjects. It's the picture. So we scribble, and tear, and crumple, and burn, thinking that the pain will disappear, and we wonder and brood over why when it doesn't.
semana nueve
"Columpiarse": to swing in Spanish
When I was a little girl I used to think I could swing my problems away. In other words, I thought that if only I could swing high enough I would swing right out of the atmosphere and all my worries would stay behind on earth and I would just float peacefully in space forevermore. At recess I would dash to the swing set and quickly sit down, grasping tightly the cold metal chains, my right hand slightly above the level of my left. I would kick my shoes off and dangle my frilly-socked feet a food above the ground, thinking for a while about all the worries a six year old should never have to think about. When I was ready, I would tilt my head back, push off the ground, and begin to swing. The higher and higher I got, the more and more worries shleffed off into the wind, and the closer and closer I got to leaving them all behind. Eventually though, the recess bell would always ring and I would have to return to reality.
Recently, I rediscovered this meditative power that swinging holds for me. When I decided to take a walk one afternoon, I came across this modest little park with a slide and a swing set next to the river near my host family’s home. With nothing better to do, I kicked off my shoes, sat down, and started to swing. The repetitive swooshing motion and continuous hum of rusted metal lulled me into a trance of serenity. All my worries of school and language and family and Ecuador and home and depression and money and love and life just seemed to have blown from my conscious with each dip and rise. I was almost about to swing off into space and float there forevermore when all of a sudden it started to rain. I slowed down to a stop, picked up my shoes, and walked away back into reality to get out of the rain…
día cincuenta y ocho: 03/01/2010 It’s Monday and I must say that tonight was absolutely absurd. We had a meeting at school about a party we are planning for all the host families on Saturday. All the moms congregated and it was intense. Their cacophony of chitchat and waft of noxious perfume filled the small and stuffy meeting room. We sat for an hour and planed everything. All I know is that we are going to be competing in some sort of variety of field games and that we are now standing in a costume shop at 9:50pm renting princess dresses and crowns. No joke, mine is red with small rosettes on the back panel of the skirt and my crown has sparkly red glitter all over it. I seriously look like a Disney Princess, it’s funny and absurd. Never in a million years would I have ever thought that tonight’s experience would be included as part of studying abroad in Ecuador. Oh! Also during the party planning meeting, I thought that my host mom had a tattoo of a flower on her ankle. I even asked her about it. Boy, oh boy! did she find that hysterical. She just laughed and revealed that it was a design on her tights. How was I supposed to know that when she was wearing skinned colored tights and when it’s dang common to get a tattoo back home?…here though, not so acceptable. I felt so stupid. I get asked about my tattoos with wide eyed curiosity all the time here. Absurd, absolutely absurd!
día cincuenta y nueve: I flipped a good amount of machismo men off today, it felt empowering. Really though, I’m sick and tired of being hollered at or hissed at or having my cleavage stared at by old men. I even got pissed when I got a double take from a cute clean-cut guy. Leah told me just to take it as a complement, but I’m fed up! Once I got to school, my Spanish class had a group interview with this almost dead Catholic priest (Mónsenor was what they called him). That’s mean to call him “almost dead,' but it’s true, he’s nearly 110. And besides, the interview wasn’t very helpful. Our professor had to repeat everything we asked him so he could understand and then acted as if it were easy for us to understand his jittery Spanish just out of respect. I’m not really in a good mood, can you tell? Hey but here’s something I can be positive about: Ecuadorians really like putting things in scrambled eggs and are pretty darn good at it, I would even call them experts. I quite enjoy it when they add chicken begonia or mote (a type of corn added to make a dish called mote pite) or oregano. Speaking of mote pite, we had some during lunch today. My host family’s cousins were here visiting from Daytona Beach. It was nice not being the only one who doesn’t eat red meat for a change (one of the cousins was Jewish and thus ate kosher). Oh and today, we switched it up in Salsa class and learned the Meringue for a change. It’s an outward-in sort of dance and, I’m not going to lie, I like dancing it a smidge better than the Salsa. Shhh! don’t tell the Salsa, it might get jealous.
día sesenta: On my walk to school Wednesday morning, (by the way I just noticed that most of my stories start this way) I stopped at a corner to wait for the traffic to zip by. Ahead of me, a young mom and her kindergarten-aged son waited, patiently holding hands. The little boy had a giant Ninja Turtles, etc. backpack on; all I could see was his head, his backpack, and his feet. Man, how I miss the days where my backpack was bigger than my body! Life seemed so endless and gigantic, like my backpack. nothing was ephemeral or small then. Later on, I tried to call T on Skype. We ended up having the most disjointed and ramshackle conversation. First, our speech stalled and there was a lag in reception. So I had to say something and then wait a min and then Trent had to say something and wait a minute and it was ridiculous. So then, I tried calling him on Skype at an internet cafe but after only 7 minutes the call was dropped. :( Tragic. Better luck next time I guess. Otherwise, it won’t be until I get home that I can have a functional conversation with him...or will it? Oh bother!
día sesenta y uno: Thursday seemed like a good enough day to buy more rolls of film. So I did, and in doing so, I realized that I have shot about 36 so far. Oh my. That’s going to be a pretty penny to get developed. On another completely unrelated note…FUN FACT that I learned ecology class: we eat dead wasps in every Fig Newton! I never knew this, but fig trees are a keystone species in the jungle and wasps hold a vital symbiotic relationship with them, in which they help pollinate the fig flowers and then the male wasp dies inside the fruit. So, bugs, yummy! Also, it’s official, I should have unsubscribed to Nuemos email list, among other venues, because all I do now is read their emails and see all the wonderful concerts I could be going to if I were home. Sad. My host sister, Laureana came to visit from Quito. At dinner she joked, “this family is like a hospital” when everyone was talking about their Dr.’s and the dietitian and diabetes and how many calories are in an egg. However, I was the only one that laughed besides Laurena, it was awkward. Woke up again at 2 am. It was raining like fuck. The rainy season is upon us folks! I mean really though, Ecuador only has two seasons, “hot and dry” and “hot and wet” and when it’s wet, it’s wet. Seems to rain a small sea’s worth of water every day.
día sesenta y dos: This week has been a good week for cars! I saw a red Camero, a Dodge Rambler, and just today on my way to school I saw a camouflaged Slug Bug! In lieu of ecology class, we took a field trip to Cajas National Park and hiked around a glacier lake in the paramó. Cajas is one of my favorite places in Ecuador, it’s cold and crisp and foggy and yet so regal and pristine and tranquil. Hannah fell into quick mud up to her knees along our hike and we had to help pull her out. It was comical, reminded me of Scooby Doo and how that Shaggy is always getting stuck in the quick sand. Speaking of Shaggy and people who appreciate a good sandwich, my host mom made me a delicious sub sandwich and packed some potato chips for my lunch. Delicious! Makes me miss egg salad subs at Marconi’s back home. After wee got back from Cajas a few of us girls went to this vegetarian restaurant downtown. I got the Gran Taza de Fruta a giant fancy cup filled with yogurt/fruit/ice cream/and coconut. It was my reward for eating healthy and essentially making it through the week.
Cajas National Park
día sesenta y tres: Today we had un Día de Campo (or a Field Day as it’s called in the States). This is the party thingy that we were planning on Monday. All the students, their host families, and our professors got together at Alex’s host families country home for food, fun, and games. It was as equally as absurd as the planning had been. Each Spanish class was a team and we dressed up in our costumes and paraded around with our team banners we had made. There were the little devils and the medicos and of course our team, the Reinas (or “Queens” in English). Our sign was the jaw of a shark with our name and a crown in black and pink and white. We added in the shark because Sophia wanted to make certain that we looked fierce too. Absurd! How many times can I say absurd in one week? The rest of the day was spent playing games like musical chairs or three-legged-race and eating lots of potluck-esc food. How silly!
When I was a little girl I used to think I could swing my problems away. In other words, I thought that if only I could swing high enough I would swing right out of the atmosphere and all my worries would stay behind on earth and I would just float peacefully in space forevermore. At recess I would dash to the swing set and quickly sit down, grasping tightly the cold metal chains, my right hand slightly above the level of my left. I would kick my shoes off and dangle my frilly-socked feet a food above the ground, thinking for a while about all the worries a six year old should never have to think about. When I was ready, I would tilt my head back, push off the ground, and begin to swing. The higher and higher I got, the more and more worries shleffed off into the wind, and the closer and closer I got to leaving them all behind. Eventually though, the recess bell would always ring and I would have to return to reality.
Recently, I rediscovered this meditative power that swinging holds for me. When I decided to take a walk one afternoon, I came across this modest little park with a slide and a swing set next to the river near my host family’s home. With nothing better to do, I kicked off my shoes, sat down, and started to swing. The repetitive swooshing motion and continuous hum of rusted metal lulled me into a trance of serenity. All my worries of school and language and family and Ecuador and home and depression and money and love and life just seemed to have blown from my conscious with each dip and rise. I was almost about to swing off into space and float there forevermore when all of a sudden it started to rain. I slowed down to a stop, picked up my shoes, and walked away back into reality to get out of the rain…
día cincuenta y ocho: 03/01/2010 It’s Monday and I must say that tonight was absolutely absurd. We had a meeting at school about a party we are planning for all the host families on Saturday. All the moms congregated and it was intense. Their cacophony of chitchat and waft of noxious perfume filled the small and stuffy meeting room. We sat for an hour and planed everything. All I know is that we are going to be competing in some sort of variety of field games and that we are now standing in a costume shop at 9:50pm renting princess dresses and crowns. No joke, mine is red with small rosettes on the back panel of the skirt and my crown has sparkly red glitter all over it. I seriously look like a Disney Princess, it’s funny and absurd. Never in a million years would I have ever thought that tonight’s experience would be included as part of studying abroad in Ecuador. Oh! Also during the party planning meeting, I thought that my host mom had a tattoo of a flower on her ankle. I even asked her about it. Boy, oh boy! did she find that hysterical. She just laughed and revealed that it was a design on her tights. How was I supposed to know that when she was wearing skinned colored tights and when it’s dang common to get a tattoo back home?…here though, not so acceptable. I felt so stupid. I get asked about my tattoos with wide eyed curiosity all the time here. Absurd, absolutely absurd!
día cincuenta y nueve: I flipped a good amount of machismo men off today, it felt empowering. Really though, I’m sick and tired of being hollered at or hissed at or having my cleavage stared at by old men. I even got pissed when I got a double take from a cute clean-cut guy. Leah told me just to take it as a complement, but I’m fed up! Once I got to school, my Spanish class had a group interview with this almost dead Catholic priest (Mónsenor was what they called him). That’s mean to call him “almost dead,' but it’s true, he’s nearly 110. And besides, the interview wasn’t very helpful. Our professor had to repeat everything we asked him so he could understand and then acted as if it were easy for us to understand his jittery Spanish just out of respect. I’m not really in a good mood, can you tell? Hey but here’s something I can be positive about: Ecuadorians really like putting things in scrambled eggs and are pretty darn good at it, I would even call them experts. I quite enjoy it when they add chicken begonia or mote (a type of corn added to make a dish called mote pite) or oregano. Speaking of mote pite, we had some during lunch today. My host family’s cousins were here visiting from Daytona Beach. It was nice not being the only one who doesn’t eat red meat for a change (one of the cousins was Jewish and thus ate kosher). Oh and today, we switched it up in Salsa class and learned the Meringue for a change. It’s an outward-in sort of dance and, I’m not going to lie, I like dancing it a smidge better than the Salsa. Shhh! don’t tell the Salsa, it might get jealous.
día sesenta y uno: Thursday seemed like a good enough day to buy more rolls of film. So I did, and in doing so, I realized that I have shot about 36 so far. Oh my. That’s going to be a pretty penny to get developed. On another completely unrelated note…FUN FACT that I learned ecology class: we eat dead wasps in every Fig Newton! I never knew this, but fig trees are a keystone species in the jungle and wasps hold a vital symbiotic relationship with them, in which they help pollinate the fig flowers and then the male wasp dies inside the fruit. So, bugs, yummy! Also, it’s official, I should have unsubscribed to Nuemos email list, among other venues, because all I do now is read their emails and see all the wonderful concerts I could be going to if I were home. Sad. My host sister, Laureana came to visit from Quito. At dinner she joked, “this family is like a hospital” when everyone was talking about their Dr.’s and the dietitian and diabetes and how many calories are in an egg. However, I was the only one that laughed besides Laurena, it was awkward. Woke up again at 2 am. It was raining like fuck. The rainy season is upon us folks! I mean really though, Ecuador only has two seasons, “hot and dry” and “hot and wet” and when it’s wet, it’s wet. Seems to rain a small sea’s worth of water every day.
Cajas National Park
día sesenta y tres: Today we had un Día de Campo (or a Field Day as it’s called in the States). This is the party thingy that we were planning on Monday. All the students, their host families, and our professors got together at Alex’s host families country home for food, fun, and games. It was as equally as absurd as the planning had been. Each Spanish class was a team and we dressed up in our costumes and paraded around with our team banners we had made. There were the little devils and the medicos and of course our team, the Reinas (or “Queens” in English). Our sign was the jaw of a shark with our name and a crown in black and pink and white. We added in the shark because Sophia wanted to make certain that we looked fierce too. Absurd! How many times can I say absurd in one week? The rest of the day was spent playing games like musical chairs or three-legged-race and eating lots of potluck-esc food. How silly!
semana ocho
chismoso: hay mucho de esta palabra sobre mi familia; in English "gossip"
So I returned from the jungle with a gargantuan amount of gossip about my host family after chit chatting with our program director and other students. but after an insistent and foul declaration of the facts from my host brother, I will not post them here. if you would like to hear my take on things just shoot me a comment or an email. I say this because in blogging about the gossip I heard and trying to frame it anthropologically, I ended up pissing people off. sad that you have to be weary of what you blog, in the states I'm rather unabashed about what I write...in Cuenca aappearances mean a lot more to people so you have to be careful.
día cuarenta y nueve: 2/21/2010 I had a falling out with my host brother today and, in doing so, reconfirmed that I get really flustered in the face of a conflict (who doesn't, so I'm not kicking myself too much for this). Here's what happened: I went to send an email to Trent and the internet was not working. I tried rebooting and still no luck. Therefore, I went down stairs to check the computer in the office next to the kitchen and shook the mouse to see if it said my laptop was connected. It showed that I was indeed connected, but still I couldn't get it too function...so I sent a quick text via the internet to let Trent know I wouldn't be able to chat with him tonight. Thinking nothing of it, I shut the light off and went up stairs to finish my homework. Well, little did I know I had just committed a terrible sin! For when Santi came home he yelled at me for touching "his computer." 1: I didn't know it was "his" computer, I thought it was shared by all and that he just spent the majority of the time on it. and 2: I didn't know I wasn't allowed to touch it. I had left my notebook in the office and when I went to get it, I could tell he was pissed off, so I panicked and evaded telling him that I used to computer at first but then apologized and tried to explain what happened. It hard to speak spanish when you're flustered. I even wrote him an apology note explaining everything but we still are not talking to each other, probably for the rest of my time here. but besides Santi, the rest of my family is wonderful. it's ironic how the one person in all of Ecuador that I don't get along with is perhaps the most Americanized-male I have encountered while abroad.
día cincuenta: As if yesterday weren't enough to deal with, today was a bad day too. Usually my bad days are slippery slopes, where small silly worries turn into deep brooding frustrations and I inevitably end up with a tummy ache.
But now it's 4:22 am in the morning and this bad day has been long washed away by the rain. so no need to worry right?! right!
día cincuenta y uno: I came home from school today and caught my host dad listening to “How can I live without you” a country song by Trisha Yearwood. LOVE IT! I love Trisha Yearwood. it was precious. Then, instead of doing my homework, I watched the sports channel. During about the third soccer game I noticed that the announcers are very zealous...and seem to have super stamina in their lungs that allows them to shout "GO000000000000000000000000000ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOAL!" for so long that once they've stopped another goal has been scored. I ate some mote pite (scrambled eggs with corn) for dinner. I think I feel asleep pretty early because I woke up at about 3:30am and my light was still on. I do this often. life is tiring these days.
this is what the futbol announcers look like while yelling, the guy to the left that is:
día cincuenta y dos: For anthropology, we took a field trip to a Migrant Chapel where illegal immigrants, in preparation for their treturous journey, come to get blessed. did you know that 30% of Ecuador's population is living illegally in other countries!
día cincuenta y tres: Today, I had a quirky conversation with a street vendor. Normally I ignore them, but this one was nice. He asked me if I liked to paint my nails (mainly because he was selling nail polish) but then commented that Americans are so beautiful...wait, come to think of it a lot of Ecuadorians have this misconception. maybe it has something to do with idealized Western beauty standards or maybe it's just a "grass is greener on the other side" sort of thing. Whatever it is, one thing is certain, I sure do get stared at a lot in this country. Some days, I even feel like a celebrity, which trust me shouldn't be as coveted as it is. Today at school we had MORE b-day cake. So much birthday cake! People's parents must have been busy about 21 years ago around the month of July. Nearly everyone is having birthdays this month. The cake was a good flavor though, mora (blackberry). then Leah and I came home and watched some Dancing with the Stars online and joined a few others for pizza.
día cincuenta y cuatro: so I went on a run today. There is a gorgeous park that loops around a river near my house and it is the perfect run early in the morning. The only problem being that you can run into a cow if you are not careful. True story. People will let there livestock free in the middle of the metropolitan park and one time I was running along and bumped right into the butt of a cow. I think I scared the poor thing. It took off running. I didn't even know cows could run!
día cincuenta y seis: It's official- life is boring without the internet :( but not really instead of killing time on Facebook or looking up wiki articles, I walked to the park and swung on the swings and also went on another run (two in one day actually, is that allow?). Then I watched Farris B's day off. I sware to god I was Cameron in a past life, or maybe in this life even. And you'll be proud of me for this, I got all my homework done and it's not even Sunday. then I made about five new playlists and played a fuck load of Hearts on my computer. yup.
So I returned from the jungle with a gargantuan amount of gossip about my host family after chit chatting with our program director and other students. but after an insistent and foul declaration of the facts from my host brother, I will not post them here. if you would like to hear my take on things just shoot me a comment or an email. I say this because in blogging about the gossip I heard and trying to frame it anthropologically, I ended up pissing people off. sad that you have to be weary of what you blog, in the states I'm rather unabashed about what I write...in Cuenca aappearances mean a lot more to people so you have to be careful.
 |
| this is probably my favorite Norman Rockwell |
día cincuenta: As if yesterday weren't enough to deal with, today was a bad day too. Usually my bad days are slippery slopes, where small silly worries turn into deep brooding frustrations and I inevitably end up with a tummy ache.
But now it's 4:22 am in the morning and this bad day has been long washed away by the rain. so no need to worry right?! right!
día cincuenta y uno: I came home from school today and caught my host dad listening to “How can I live without you” a country song by Trisha Yearwood. LOVE IT! I love Trisha Yearwood. it was precious. Then, instead of doing my homework, I watched the sports channel. During about the third soccer game I noticed that the announcers are very zealous...and seem to have super stamina in their lungs that allows them to shout "GO000000000000000000000000000ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOAL!" for so long that once they've stopped another goal has been scored. I ate some mote pite (scrambled eggs with corn) for dinner. I think I feel asleep pretty early because I woke up at about 3:30am and my light was still on. I do this often. life is tiring these days.
this is what the futbol announcers look like while yelling, the guy to the left that is:
día cincuenta y dos: For anthropology, we took a field trip to a Migrant Chapel where illegal immigrants, in preparation for their treturous journey, come to get blessed. did you know that 30% of Ecuador's population is living illegally in other countries!
día cincuenta y tres: Today, I had a quirky conversation with a street vendor. Normally I ignore them, but this one was nice. He asked me if I liked to paint my nails (mainly because he was selling nail polish) but then commented that Americans are so beautiful...wait, come to think of it a lot of Ecuadorians have this misconception. maybe it has something to do with idealized Western beauty standards or maybe it's just a "grass is greener on the other side" sort of thing. Whatever it is, one thing is certain, I sure do get stared at a lot in this country. Some days, I even feel like a celebrity, which trust me shouldn't be as coveted as it is. Today at school we had MORE b-day cake. So much birthday cake! People's parents must have been busy about 21 years ago around the month of July. Nearly everyone is having birthdays this month. The cake was a good flavor though, mora (blackberry). then Leah and I came home and watched some Dancing with the Stars online and joined a few others for pizza.
día cincuenta y cuatro: so I went on a run today. There is a gorgeous park that loops around a river near my house and it is the perfect run early in the morning. The only problem being that you can run into a cow if you are not careful. True story. People will let there livestock free in the middle of the metropolitan park and one time I was running along and bumped right into the butt of a cow. I think I scared the poor thing. It took off running. I didn't even know cows could run!
día cincuenta y seis: It's official- life is boring without the internet :( but not really instead of killing time on Facebook or looking up wiki articles, I walked to the park and swung on the swings and also went on another run (two in one day actually, is that allow?). Then I watched Farris B's day off. I sware to god I was Cameron in a past life, or maybe in this life even. And you'll be proud of me for this, I got all my homework done and it's not even Sunday. then I made about five new playlists and played a fuck load of Hearts on my computer. yup.
2/12/10
semano seis
parece una tontería, pero...: una expresion; in English "it seems trivial, but..."
día trenita y siete: 02/8/2010 once a week or so the Outdoor Adventure Club leads hike or a bike ride or the like. So, I signed up, paid my $10, and was ready for a level 2 hike. Ha! Level two my ass, more like a level 5 (I think there are only 3 levels but you get my point). The hike was up a peak called San Palo near the town of San Fernando. It was pretty much a vertical climb (or more fittingly “an up hill battle”) the entire time.
i love how this is the only picture that comes up when I search "san pablo hike ecuador" but don't worry, I was wearing clothes.
During the first third of the hike, we climbed trough steep pastures of lush green grass. Near the end of this part, our elevation was astonishingly high and the view was breathtaking. Surprisingly, there were a number of cows just chillin’ where I never thought I’d ever see a cow (i.e. on a cliff or in a nook where I couldn’t climb to even if I tried). I decided that they must have been super cows that fly or something equally as amazing.
The second third of the hike we climbed up jagged rocks covered in bromeliads and thick slippery moss. Here is where I was very thankful that I have decent upper body strength, without it I would have died of exhaustion.
The last third of the hike was by far the most spectacular. We climbed through cloud forest, where a soupy layer of cloud and a small drizzle made only the step in front of me visible. Literally, we were walking in a cloud, it was unbelievable!
We stopped just below the summit (which you had to shimmy up the side of a very steep rock using a very sketchy looking rope) to eat our brown bagged lunches. I had my sunglasses on, even though the sun was only a hazy mustard yellow dot (kind of like when you boil an egg and the gray film still coats the yoke). I snacked on some cracked and sipped on Gatorade.
The decent was a rocky one (seriously, there were a ton of rocks). It was grueling trying to maintain your balance and make your way down a vertical slope. Needless to say, my toes hurt once we reached the bottom and loaded the bus for home (I also had to pee pretty badly, but you don’t really need to know that).
During the drive home, we played “Smelly Finger, Stinky Pinky,” an entertaining rhyming game that Andrea taught us (now I have a feeling that this game will indefinitely follow us through out the rest of our stay here in Ecuador, oh dear!, I mean it’s fun and all but after the 30th time it can get annoying). I also made a new friends while hiking. I became most acquainted with this “friend” when we got out of the bus and started walking towards home. I looked down at my sleeve and saw the most repugnant spider (it probably wasn’t that bad, but still it’s a SPIDER! and spiders are disgusting and crawly and have 8 eyes, and anything with 8 eyes should be considered repugnant). As much as it wanted to be my friend, I passed (out).
It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized how difficult of a hike this really was (I think my thighs were sore for a goof four more days). Also, half of my face was sun burned. This happened because of two reasons, I forgot to wear sunscreen and my bangs cover up the one side of my face that wasn’t burned. Moral of the story: always wear sunscreen and probably cut your bangs if you want a nice even sunburn.
día trenita y ocho: The only exciting (at least I found it to be exciting) thing I did today was go grocery shopping. After class, Leah, Sophia, and I went to the Super Maxi! I bought expensive nuts (they were just Planter’s Mixed Nuts, nothing special, but here is Ecuador they’re $2 more than in the States) and some crunchy white chocolate (Galak, it comes in a variety pack with other mini chocolates) and three small packets of tissues that smell like grape (no joke)! Also, on our way to the Super Maxi, we strolled though this park that has a giant bronze statue of a man jogging in short-shorts and a baseball cap. The things people decide to set in stone can be oh so very absurd. I took a picture with my cell phone but unfortunately I can’t upload it until I return to the U.S. of A. and trust me, when you see this statue you’ll be a little confused too and may think that they are memorializing men from the 1970’s who get wedgies while they jog because their shorts are too short.
día trenita y ocho: I like my mornings here in Ecuador. Here, I usually wake up to the smell of morning toast and to the 6:50am blue just before the sun comes out, when all is quite except for a few bird chirps and maybe the occasional car zooming past…HOWEVER…I like my mornings most when I wake up to the voice of Sandro, a charming Latin American lounge singer. He keeps me company during long nights…no not really. I wish though. he’s quite the hunk, like a Latin American Elvis! Just take a look at this man…
The truth is that some mornings my host mom plays his music and other Latin lounge hits (I think it’s a compilation CD…that I definitely need to copy it for myself). My favorite song of his is, “Dame el Fuego de tu Amor.” It’s real catchy!
día cuarenta: I woke up super late today. I think it had something to do with not being able to sleep at 3 am in the morning and then taking two Benadryl…but you can never be sure of these things. Anyway, I had to take a taxicab to school and was still late. Shucks. Oh and did you know that the school secretary will call your home if you are more than 20 mins late to make sure you are not sick or even worse dead?! Well she does. Cab drivers are jovial and friendly here. Some are overly chatty, but I’m down with that, helps me practice the Spanish skills. And others are really keen and willing to please. For example, one night when we were returning from the movie Death Proof, I mentioned to one of the gals that all I wanted to do was drive fast in a car, and next thing I knew we are going a good 25 mph over the speed limit. It was fun, but dangerous, so kids don’t try that at home, and thank you Mr. Taxi Driver Man.
SO because I was late and feeling groggy, I decided to make myself a cup of hot coco before I headed to class (I mean I was already late so “whatever,” right?). At school, they have a little kitchen adjacent to the courtyard and they welcome you to linger and sip you cup of whatnot and snack on your whichever. Today though, I may have put in three too many scoops of powder, the rest of the day I was wound up on sugar and felt guilty because I dishonored the “Tome uno, por favor” (“Take only one, please”) sign. Anyhow, isn’t it nice that our school provides free coffee, tea, coco, and snakes! Seems like a small gesture, but nevertheless it has made my day on occasion…or at least made me hyper.
día cuarenta: Had an anthropology test today, and in the words of Jenifer Shildmeyer, “killed it!” (meaning I think I did well). Due to our test, we got out a little early and I was able to explore downtown for a bit (and by explore I mean I got lost, oops). But hey, you see a lot of extraordinary things when you get lost. For example, I saw a woman scolding a house cat who had just knocked over a bat of bread flour (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the cat though, because the other employee had a mischievous look on her face). I also saw this Yamaha motorcycle seat cover (some might say it was “real cool,” that is if they are into Asian women holding snakes/rabbits and wearing thongs). Lastly, I stumbled into an electronics store by accident, which was lucky for me because I had been in desperate need of a SKYPE headset. So what did I do?...I bought a skype headset (and for really cheap, only $8 and it works even!, I know this because I called the ‘rents and Jen and Nick and Trent and Santa Claus…well maybe not that last one). The cashier who helped me with my purchase had the most difficult time trying to pronounce (and then spell) my name, for a good 15 mins I was “Mon-eee-cue.” But after I explained to her that my name is French and is pronounced similar to Monica in Spanish, they had no trouble at all and even complimented me on it’s beauty…funny because 15 mins before she would have said “oh poor child, what were your parents thinking when the named you?” Eventually, I stopped and asked for directions and found my way again.
día caurenta y uno: There it was like a gem gleaming in a patch of rough rocks, like a golden piece of literature among the dull and disheveled fiction…a Chuck Palahniuk book! //Haunted// in Spanish to be exact! I absolutely had to buy it, so I did. I’m really excited to read it now, if you can’t tell. I also poked around one of the markets today and found a pair of “clear with glitter all over” (Leah’s and also my favorite color) jelly sandals for only $5. They were actually $6 but I bartered off a $1. I may go back and buy a purple pair too. Look at me just throwing cash all over the place, living the life, buying jelly sandals!
Tonight we had a birthday dinner for Andrea at this restaurant called Maiz. It’s “fancy” for Ecuadorian standards. They even brought me my “salsa de tomate” (“ketchup”) in a fancy little dish with a dainty little spoon. Oh and the water wasn’t just ordinary water, oh no it was not, it was sparkly mineral water…“ooooh, aahhh” say all the people with an impressed look in their eye. I ordered the trout with a tamale and salad…I would have ordered desert but instead, I walked Leah home because she wasn’t feel well (see, there are some things, although rare, that take precedence over desert). Before Leah and I said goodnight, Alex showed us his new hat that he bought to take to the Amazon, it’s a leather baseball cap which zippers off into a visor, real classy!
día cuarenta y cinco: bright and early I left for the Amazon! Sure hope I packed enough. I don’t know how this was possible, but by some miracle I managed to pack everything for a week in one backpack, so gold star for me!
now let's just see if I can survive the Jungle...but hey if Robin Williams can in Jimaunji, i can too, right? but minus the beard, I don't think I can grow that big of a beard...
that is one unruly beard!
día trenita y siete: 02/8/2010 once a week or so the Outdoor Adventure Club leads hike or a bike ride or the like. So, I signed up, paid my $10, and was ready for a level 2 hike. Ha! Level two my ass, more like a level 5 (I think there are only 3 levels but you get my point). The hike was up a peak called San Palo near the town of San Fernando. It was pretty much a vertical climb (or more fittingly “an up hill battle”) the entire time.
i love how this is the only picture that comes up when I search "san pablo hike ecuador" but don't worry, I was wearing clothes.
During the first third of the hike, we climbed trough steep pastures of lush green grass. Near the end of this part, our elevation was astonishingly high and the view was breathtaking. Surprisingly, there were a number of cows just chillin’ where I never thought I’d ever see a cow (i.e. on a cliff or in a nook where I couldn’t climb to even if I tried). I decided that they must have been super cows that fly or something equally as amazing.
The second third of the hike we climbed up jagged rocks covered in bromeliads and thick slippery moss. Here is where I was very thankful that I have decent upper body strength, without it I would have died of exhaustion.
The last third of the hike was by far the most spectacular. We climbed through cloud forest, where a soupy layer of cloud and a small drizzle made only the step in front of me visible. Literally, we were walking in a cloud, it was unbelievable!
We stopped just below the summit (which you had to shimmy up the side of a very steep rock using a very sketchy looking rope) to eat our brown bagged lunches. I had my sunglasses on, even though the sun was only a hazy mustard yellow dot (kind of like when you boil an egg and the gray film still coats the yoke). I snacked on some cracked and sipped on Gatorade.
The decent was a rocky one (seriously, there were a ton of rocks). It was grueling trying to maintain your balance and make your way down a vertical slope. Needless to say, my toes hurt once we reached the bottom and loaded the bus for home (I also had to pee pretty badly, but you don’t really need to know that).
During the drive home, we played “Smelly Finger, Stinky Pinky,” an entertaining rhyming game that Andrea taught us (now I have a feeling that this game will indefinitely follow us through out the rest of our stay here in Ecuador, oh dear!, I mean it’s fun and all but after the 30th time it can get annoying). I also made a new friends while hiking. I became most acquainted with this “friend” when we got out of the bus and started walking towards home. I looked down at my sleeve and saw the most repugnant spider (it probably wasn’t that bad, but still it’s a SPIDER! and spiders are disgusting and crawly and have 8 eyes, and anything with 8 eyes should be considered repugnant). As much as it wanted to be my friend, I passed (out).
It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized how difficult of a hike this really was (I think my thighs were sore for a goof four more days). Also, half of my face was sun burned. This happened because of two reasons, I forgot to wear sunscreen and my bangs cover up the one side of my face that wasn’t burned. Moral of the story: always wear sunscreen and probably cut your bangs if you want a nice even sunburn.
día trenita y ocho: I like my mornings here in Ecuador. Here, I usually wake up to the smell of morning toast and to the 6:50am blue just before the sun comes out, when all is quite except for a few bird chirps and maybe the occasional car zooming past…HOWEVER…I like my mornings most when I wake up to the voice of Sandro, a charming Latin American lounge singer. He keeps me company during long nights…no not really. I wish though. he’s quite the hunk, like a Latin American Elvis! Just take a look at this man…
The truth is that some mornings my host mom plays his music and other Latin lounge hits (I think it’s a compilation CD…that I definitely need to copy it for myself). My favorite song of his is, “Dame el Fuego de tu Amor.” It’s real catchy!
día cuarenta: I woke up super late today. I think it had something to do with not being able to sleep at 3 am in the morning and then taking two Benadryl…but you can never be sure of these things. Anyway, I had to take a taxicab to school and was still late. Shucks. Oh and did you know that the school secretary will call your home if you are more than 20 mins late to make sure you are not sick or even worse dead?! Well she does. Cab drivers are jovial and friendly here. Some are overly chatty, but I’m down with that, helps me practice the Spanish skills. And others are really keen and willing to please. For example, one night when we were returning from the movie Death Proof, I mentioned to one of the gals that all I wanted to do was drive fast in a car, and next thing I knew we are going a good 25 mph over the speed limit. It was fun, but dangerous, so kids don’t try that at home, and thank you Mr. Taxi Driver Man.
SO because I was late and feeling groggy, I decided to make myself a cup of hot coco before I headed to class (I mean I was already late so “whatever,” right?). At school, they have a little kitchen adjacent to the courtyard and they welcome you to linger and sip you cup of whatnot and snack on your whichever. Today though, I may have put in three too many scoops of powder, the rest of the day I was wound up on sugar and felt guilty because I dishonored the “Tome uno, por favor” (“Take only one, please”) sign. Anyhow, isn’t it nice that our school provides free coffee, tea, coco, and snakes! Seems like a small gesture, but nevertheless it has made my day on occasion…or at least made me hyper.
día caurenta y uno: There it was like a gem gleaming in a patch of rough rocks, like a golden piece of literature among the dull and disheveled fiction…a Chuck Palahniuk book! //Haunted// in Spanish to be exact! I absolutely had to buy it, so I did. I’m really excited to read it now, if you can’t tell. I also poked around one of the markets today and found a pair of “clear with glitter all over” (Leah’s and also my favorite color) jelly sandals for only $5. They were actually $6 but I bartered off a $1. I may go back and buy a purple pair too. Look at me just throwing cash all over the place, living the life, buying jelly sandals!
día cuarenta y cinco: bright and early I left for the Amazon! Sure hope I packed enough. I don’t know how this was possible, but by some miracle I managed to pack everything for a week in one backpack, so gold star for me!
now let's just see if I can survive the Jungle...but hey if Robin Williams can in Jimaunji, i can too, right? but minus the beard, I don't think I can grow that big of a beard...
that is one unruly beard!
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