Naps between adventures

This weekend has been kind of like a giant nap between two exciting weekends. I’ve actually been meaning (and failing) to write for a week. Now it’s Sunday, I’ve had a splendidly lazy weekend, and I’m finally writing about my adventures from last weekend and getting ready for an exciting next weekend.

What I woke up to from my nap!

Last Saturday I woke up at 6:30am to meet my Kalamazoo group at a private bus at 7am. After all getting comfortable in the bus, we started to make our way to Otavalo, an indigenous city about two hours away from Quito. I took a glorious/uncomfortable nap in the bus and woke up as we drove into the city. We soon climbed out of the bus into the strong sun and started our search for the fruit market. We walked through the market, smelling fruit, dust, fish, listening to vendors calling out for you to buy one of their many types of bananas, potatoes, or melons. After leaving the fruit market we went to the infamous “Mercado artesanal” (the artisanal market). Otavalo is known for its high quality weaving and I walked through the market overwhelmed by the ponchos, sweaters, blankets, scarves, jewelry, socks, purses. We all left the market 90min later with our hands full of plastic bags. From the market we went to get a delicious lunch, learned more about the weaving process, watched a man build a fluta and learned about the different types of instruments common in Ecuador and the Andes, had the opportunity to experience and observe a healing ceremony, went to our hostel, ate dinner, and happily curled up in our beds to rest up for Sunday’s adventures.

 

Sunday we woke up bright and early again, ate a huge breakfast, soon left the hostel and headed to a beautiful viewpoint where we could look out over the hills, the lake, trees, homes, and mountains. From there we went to “El Parque Condor,” a park that rehabilitates and cares for many types of birds in Ecuador. At the park, we took fun photos, then spent too much time trying to take a picture of every bird we saw. My favorites were the "Tropical Screech-Owl," a small owl that looks like a grumpy wizard, and the “Andean Condor,” a practically man-sized bird with a wrinkly head. From there we ate a lunch that consisted of two pieces of bread with a slice of cheese in the middle, cookies, bread, and a hardboiled egg, and then visited Cascada Peguche (a beautiful waterfall) where we walked on trails and posed for group photos in front of the waterfall. In case you forgot, waterfalls spray a lot; they splash and send mist flying everywhere. I got really wet. It was beautiful. I bought a single hand-made feather earring. We went to lake Cuicocha, and rode in a somewhat jenky motorboat around the lake. Afterwards we had some free Canelazo, a traditional alcoholic cinnamon drink, minus the alcohol—so basically a cinnamon tea, and then we got back onto the bus for the long ride home. I took a nap again.

waterfall!

boat-ride! 

A Splendidly Normal Day

As of Tuesday I have been here exactly a month. I arrived in Ecuador August 16^th and Tuesday was September 16^th. So to celebrate I had a normal day. Because being here a month can make a day normal. I got to sleep in a little because class didn’t start until 10am. My second bus ride actually took like ten minutes when it usually takes thirty (and when Monday it took an hour) so that was nice. It meant I got to school like thirty minutes early and got to bop around, get coffee, drink coffee, chat with people, and still get to class a bit early. Weaving is super fun, but Tuesday in weaving was a disaster because we learned a new technique that I could not figure out. Like at all. Like I think I spent an hour of the 90min class staring at my yarn. I mean the girl next to me couldn’t get it either (it’s not just me, I promise), so we just sat there and started at our yarn together, and then at the end of class packed up and hoped for better next time (next time turned out a lot better, so I’m not a total weaving failure). Then I went to archeology where I had a quiz that I think went alright and then got completely lost in the lecture. Then I had lunch with two of the K students and practically fell asleep in my rice and chicken so I went home and relaxed and procrastinated on homework, took a little nap, ate dinner chatted with my host mamagramma, did my homework and went to sleep. It was a special day where nothing extremely special happened. And parts of it were kind of boring and parts of it were hilarious. And it was great. It was a normal day.   

The museum!

more muesum!

Saturday, however, was not such a normal today. I woke up early to meet the Kalamazoo gals and other USFQ international students at a bus at 7am. From there we drove three hours to Salasaca, an indigenous town south of Quito. We got to go to the museum of Salasaca where they have life sized models of different traditional scenes and activities. These models were made by people living in Salasaca using only traditional techniques and resources taken from their history.  They were very beautiful. From there we rode in the back of a pickup truck for about twenty minutes up a bumpy dirt road on the side of a mountain (I could literally look up into the mountainside on my right and down into a valley on the other). We had the honor of witnessing a sacred cleansing ceremony, then we were back in the truck. We learned how women take this white paste-type-stuff off cactus-looking plants that they later use for dye. When squeezed, the white paste turned purple. They use this dye for their ponchos. These ponchos take about six months to make and are priceless in these communities. We later had lunch. I ate guinea pig.

riding in the truck

Cuy! (aka guinea pig)

 It kind of tasted like chicken but with a ton of bones, so I spent most of my time tearing it apart with my hands. I was hungry. Guinea pig is a delicacy in Salasaca and only eaten a few times a year, so we were very lucky to all be able to try it. We then walked around outside and were able to learn more about the poncho-making process, religious dances, and a juice they ferment in a giant plant to make into alcohol. I tried some, but all I could taste was the metal spoon it was in. There is a lot of beauty and history in the community, but one of my favorite parts was the landscape. I couldn’t start staring at the mountains and hills and trees and clouds around us. On the drive home I fell asleep, but woke up to a rainbow. I tried and failed to take a picture of it.

rainbow! (sorta)

super cute little girl holding a cat

To end, I want to leave you with a story from Friday (going backwards here—woops). So Friday morning I woke up and was not looking forward to going to weightlifting because I wanted to keep sleeping, but I got up anyway because I knew I needed the exercise (oh yeah I’m in weightlifting! I kind of suck, but I’m learning and am getting the hang of it. I also have a bruise on my collar bone from the bar so basically I have a battle scar so I’m cool). So I was getting ready and realized it was cloudy and rainy outside. Gross. I left my house a little before 8am.  I got on my second bus at about 8:20. Seats on the bus can be hot commodities if you’re traveling during rush hour, and I got one of the last seats, so I felt accomplished. But then there was an old woman standing right next to where I was sitting because there were no more seats, and so I gave her my seat (which is good because it would have been more painful to sit during that entire ordeal of a bus ride and watch her stand). So like I said, it usually takes twenty to thirty minutes to get to USFQ once on the second bus. Well we got ten minutes into the bus ride ad moved probably about ten feet, and I knew I wasn’t going to make it to my 9am class. Usually the bus ride to USFQ is especially jolty and much of my energy is spent trying to stay standing while trying not to look like a complete foreigner who is trying to stay standing. This bus ride, however, was so slow that I did now have to hold onto anything. I could just calmly stand. For over 90 minutes. My knees kind of froze into place. And since it was raining, the bus was all condensation-y and super hot. My entire Kalamazoo group ended up texting each other about how we were all stuck in traffic. I bonded with the people around me on the bus. At one point, a woman with a toddler-aged little girl got off the bus while we were sitting on the highway, walked to the side of the road, held her daughter in outstretched arms, and let her poop into the plants. She then calmly jogged back onto the bus and while walking back on, everyone was smiling and kind of chuckling and she said, “Well that was easy.” The whole bus boded in this little girl’s ability to poop in this tiring morning commute. So I got to school at 10am, ended up not having to go to weightlifting after all (because I completely missed it), bought a delicious ham and egg bagel, and got ready to go to Spanish class. It then became a normal day. Now I have to get ready for tomorrow, which I’m hoping is a splendidly normal day.

landscape in Salasaca

more landscape in Salasaca

Normal days are splendid because I get to be near this and it's like normal.

 

Walking On Hills

On Friday I completed my first full official week of school at USFQ. It was an adventure. I changed my schedule around basically daily until the last day possible (Friday) but I think I’ve got it down. I’m taking an archeology class which I’ve become super excited about. I’ve realized that archeology is like a mixture of anthropology, history, and digging in the dirt except way more sophisticated and it’s awesome. I don’t know why it never hit me before. Archeology is super cool. I’m also in a weaving class which is great. The first class I was on it and thought I was a pro (except for the fact that I almost made a friend but didn’t have any of the right materials so had to borrow all of hers so now I’m afraid she thinks I’m dumb). The second class I went in certain of my abilities, spent an hour trying a new technique, realized I did it all wrong, and had to undo it. At the very end of class I finally asked the prof for help and she weaved basically as much as I had during the previous hour in about three minutes. I guess I’m not as natural of a weaver as I thought.

Doing homework on the terrace! It was windy.

Other fun things that happened this week: I was asked for directions on like my third day of school, so like a pro I took out my map of campus and gave some spot on fantastic directions; I sat in the sun because who doesn’t; drank black coffee with sugar (aka no milk) because I’m becoming hardcore; took the wrong bus again but this time it was dark and I had to try flagging down a taxi in the dark for like 30min (I looked like such an extranjera with my backpack and worried face); celebrated the birthdays of the beautiful Marcela and Megan (two women I am so grateful to know and share this adventure with—love you both! <3).

Birthday Marcy!

Birthday Megan!

Birthdays are fun

Last night we had a sleepover at my house. Megan and I went grocery shopping at the MegaMaxi which was like an entire adventure in itself. They aren’t kidding when they say Mega. It was huge 

and looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. Instead of an escalator or stairs, you rose to the grocery store section on a sloped conveyor belt. Once we were in the grocery store it was like a people-filled maze. We wandered around the isles with an oversized cart dodging other carts and weaving through crowds. At one point I almost died when an employee with a giant cart of boxes was booking it down the aisle but I kept my cool and calmly swerved to the side as if I did it every day and averted certain collision. We got home, the whole groups trickled in, when made a feast, ate some cookies, chatted and gossiped and told our life stories (the best part of sleepovers), and went to sleep only to wake up at 7am this morning to make out way to the Teleférico.

Sleepover muchies

trekking

The Teleférico is a ski-lift/tram type thing/gondola lift that goes up Pichincha Volcano. Fun fact: it is one of the highest aerial lifts in the world, rising from 10,226ft to 12,943ft in about eight minutes. My ears were popping and walking up hills at the top was super difficult, but it was super worth it. The views from the top were beautiful. We looked down at Quito, speckled buildings, the mountains, and could see the crescent shape of the city. The morning was beautiful: an almost unreal blue sky dotted with creamy-white clouds, a little bit of wind but not too much. 

Selfie with Marcy

we are excited
llama friend is not
(photocred Nadia Torres!)

We took pictures of us jumping and pictures of us trying to jump. We made a llama friend and took pictures with him (he wasn’t really into it). We took pictures of each other taking pictures. We stared at the city. We laughed. We drank coffee. We rode back down the volcano. Then we went on a really long walking trek to find food. We walked down a steep hill (like super steep) for like 20min. We finally got to the bottom and realized we still didn’t know where to go. We looked at the map, figured out which way was north, and got on a bus. We later got off the bus where we were supposed to and walked for another probably 40min and finally found a place to eat. It was an exhausting walk and it was a magnificent walk. We basically fell asleep at our table while waiting for food. The food was so delicious but we were so hungry that no one got a picture. I got home in the afternoon and took a two hour nap. I spent my evening eating dinner and talking with my host mom/mamagramma about the difficulties of life, how those difficulties make you stronger, about the strong winds, about the puppies running around on the roof, about traveling, about traveling to Portland together (fingers crossed!), about how there’s nothing on TV on Sundays, about our families. Then we drank warm milk with sugar. Now I’m watching Ecuador Tiene Talento. It is Sunday after all.

A List

So it was Sunday again and what do you know, I was watching Ecuador Tiene Talento again. I think it might become a weekly thing. I mean there’s not really any way around it.

As of two days ago I’ve been here a week. In other words, Saturday evening a week ago I was falling asleep in a van while trying to look out the window getting ready to be bombarded by beautiful families. And I think it’s been a pretty good week. It’s been busy and boring and invigorating all at the same time. It’s been a week of waking up at 6am to take two buses to University San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) for an 8:30am, four-hour intensive Spanish class followed by orientations, trips to the embassy, falling asleep in the grass, exploring the interconnected campus, and meandering around Cumbaya (the city surrounding USFQ). One thing I realized I was in dire need of as soon as I began needing to be places at a certain time is a watch. We’ve all gone on a watch hunt. Most are at least $30 and the size of practically my head. Others are really ugly and $70. Then others are really pretty and &124. The cheapest we’ve found were $16 children’s watches. So I might go home with a colorful rubber watch that has Avengers characters on it. That would probably be really cool.

This week has been kind of a blur, and I know I’ve done cool things, but I can’t really remember them—especially the details of them. So I decided to make a list of the things I can remember, cool or not. My mom likes lists.

A list of things I did this week:

TURTLE!
(ps. I borrowed this photo from one of my beautiful Kalamazoo buddies)
(aka photocred to the awesome Nadia Torres )

- Saw USFQ for the first time. Guess what? It has turtles. Like, Kalamazoo has squirrels jumping out of garbage cans and USFQ has turtles posing on stones in the middle of a lake.

(also borrowed this beauty of USFQ)
(again, photocred Nadia Torres) 

- Drank apple juice (which is usually gross) and it tasted almost pretty great because it was fresh and tasted like apple sauce.

- Basically used all my muscles to hold myself up while standing on the bus—the ride is a bit joltier than I’m used to and there are a lot of bends.

- Am basically becoming a professional at standing on the bus—but not really.

- Stared at the mountains. They are everywhere, surrounding us, as if protecting the city. Sometimes I forget they are there, then I see them and I have to just stop and stare for a second. 

I'm not sure how to take a picture that even begins
to show what these mountains actually are.
But I'll keep trying.

- Bought coffee at the USFQ cafeteria. We’re cool college kids.

- Did a ten-minute Spanish presentation about traditional Ecuadorian medicine for a five-day class that has a grade that counts toward nothing that I know of. But now I can answer some questions about traditional Ecuadorian medicine.

- Ate way too much lunch. But everyday eating way too much lunch becomes easier…

Food!

No more food because I ate it

 - Really had to pee but didn’t for like three hours because I was in an orientation and thought I'd miss something important (I didn't). Then I really really had to pee. 

- Drank warm milk with sugar.

- Fell asleep in the sun.

- Got on the wrong bus.

- Met my host-mother’s (mamagramma’s) bother! He helped me choose what to eat at the mall: I had arroz con camarones and it was delicious. (Fun fact: this mall is called “El Jardín” and there’s another one called “El Bosque” so that’s cool).

- Meandered around Cumbaya with my awesome group of Kalamazoo gals. We sat on giant people statues.

Also not my photo but I love it.
(photocred Kyra Walenga!)

- Woke up before the sun.

- Watched a sunrise.

- Watched telenovelas with my mamagramma. They have fantastically dramatic music.

- Walked home instead of taking the bus. It took an hour and was beautiful. I wish I had a photo.

Lotsa stuff

It’s Sunday night, and I’m sitting on the couch in my new Ecuadorian home, watching a seven-year-old boy sing is little heart out, a knife-thrower who happens to be my grandma’s age and blind out of her right eye, and a man who does a fantastic Beyonce impersonation on Ecuador Tiene Talento—the Ecuadorian version of the America’s got Talent I watch on the couch on Sunday nights at home when I wrap up my weekend and get myself ready for the week. But this weekend was not just any weekend and this week is definitely going to be a bit different than normal. * Key dramatic music*

Josh on a swing

My weekend actually began last Thursday, when I got to spend the day with my seven-year-old cousin Josh. I spent the day combing the news for any new information about what’s going on in Ferguson and avoid the imminent need to finish packing by being entertained by Josh. We made pepper-coated salami and cheese sandwiches (Josh didn’t like the pepper), shared leftover pad thai (Josh like the pad thai),

ZEUS THROW

MIGHTY

became immersed in our respective electronics, made banana bread, had a blast on the swing in my backyard (fun fact: it is just as much fun to throw a swing like Zeus throwing lightning bolts as it is to swing on it), picked (and of course immediately ate) blackberries, and trekked through the overgrown forest back to his house.

It was a day of mixed emotions, but made super enjoyable by the company of a great seven-year-old. Thanks cousin.

Special take-home bag of banana bread

Hazel being a person basically

After a tasty dinner in my honor of bbq chicken pizza (it’s so good, I promise—it has bacon and onions on it) with the fam, a stressful couple hours of nighttime packing with my mom, and a great late-night, limoncello gelato-filled game of Rummy Cube with the padre, Thrusday came to an end and Friday came rolling on in without even asking if I wanted a little more time t. Friday morning I woke up and decided to keep sleeping because it was my last night in my bed for a while and Hazel was being the cutest cat in the world (because she is). I spent the day with my mom, running errands like responsible people, eating sushi, sitting in the sun, talking about Fergusen and how the world is falling apart but what’s new, me reading a Tim Wise speech outloud and feeling moved, and (of course) drinking coffee, all the while simultaneously trying to ignore and being completely unable to stop excitedly thinking about the fact that I could count down the hours until I left on an 11:59pm flight to Ecuador on my fingers. Despite all of our preparedness, I of course still ended up rushing to finish everything at the last minute and left the house in a hurried frenzy—but really, what other way can you leave when you’ll be gone for six months? The dark car ride was quiet and I tried to calm all the emotions happening, including some nausea that was sort of creeping in. But an hour or so later, after I’d hugged my parents goodbye and stood in line at security, all those emotions settled in my stomach and I felt calm. I was totally ready and not ready at all. And I was stoked about it. *Key some more dramatic music*

Selfie wit Rosemary because why not

The plane rides were all boring. I actually managed to sleep, which was quite a feat, but even while I was sleeping I was bored. In Miami I met up with most of the awesome women from school I’m traveling with and we ate some rocking airport Cuban food. That part was great. Then we were all bored again as we waited the next hours for our flight. 

As I flew into Ecuador, there was a magnificent sunset. We were above the clouds, looking down at a magnificent blanket of fluffiness, bright yellow sunlight along the horizon contrasting the striking blue sky. Then there were some gaps in the clouds, and we could see the deep green peaks of mountainous hills stretching through the creamy white layer. I don’t want too be to melodramatic here, but it was kind of magical. Then, as we lowered out of the clouds, I got to see the full expanse of these endless hills and the sudden appearance of city buildings stretching into the mountains. Then it got dark and all I could see were lights.

From the moment we landed, I could barely put together coherent sentences (the result of a mixture of exhausting and excitement). I could not think of anything to say to my friends, and so I just kept turning to them and quietly and excitedly exclaiming, “ahhhhh!” That’s all I could manage. Despite my attempts to take in every detail of the city during the dark car ride from the airport, I fell asleep because that’s what I do in cars. I opened my eyes I have no idea how long later and we were stopped on the side of a dark road, with a group of people congregated on the sidewalk. Are they our host families? I whispered to my friend next to me. I don’t know she half whispered half nervously laughed back. And of course they were our host families, and all of a sudden I was walking out of a quiet sleepy car into the fresh nighttime air with a group of excited families calling out the names of their respective new gringo babies. I was the last one to get out of the van and immediately knew who my host mother was (because she had a handy sign with my name on it). And somehow she immediately knew I was me. She looked across the heap of tired women climbing out of the van, saw me, and said to herself, “Es ella. Mira la carita.” (roughly translated to “It’s her; look at her face,” but is somehow so much more heart-warming and endearing in Spanish). She gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and I couldn’t stop smiling. At least I think I was smiling, but really had no idea what my face was doing because I had reached a weird part of exhaustion where even though I felt pretty great, one of my friends actually asked me if I was okay (so I have no idea what face my face was making).

ahhhhhhhh
(my room!)

I reached my new Ecuadorian home. It’s beautiful. I live with just my host mother (whose name is Marcia but who in my head I call ‘mamagramma’) and she is beautiful. We drank some tea, chatted a lot, I unpacked, I went to sleep. That was beautiful too. I woke up this morning to barking dogs.

Phew. I finally made it to today. Ok, I need to wrap up, because I’ve been writing this/watching Ecuador Tiene Talento and the Ecuadorian news for too long and now it’s midnight and I have to wake up at 6am for a full tomorrow. But today was relaxing. I ate a breakfast of Nescafe, an egg, papaya, and the best croissant like ever. I chatted more with my host mamagramma. We met up with one of my Kalamazoo buddies and her host family and went to a hoppin hot-spot of the city at the top of a hill where you can see the whole city—or at least a lot of it. There were carts of food, vendors selling souvenirs, stray dogs lounging about, crowds of people flying colorful kites, and La Virgen de Ecuador, a giant white statue of the Virgin Mary looking over the city. Oh and another fun fact: it was engineered/made stable/made possible by my host mamagramma’s husband. So that’s pretty cool.

Alright, I really need to sleep, but I’ll leave you with two things:

1. After dinner I had warm milk with sugar (which I haven’t had in years but it was delicious) and the best roll of bread like ever. And I got to chat more with my host mamagramma plus meet her two super cute puppies who are five years old. They are fluffy and white.

Look they're saying hi

 2. This is the view from the terrace in my new Ecuadorian home:

Please don’t expect all my posts to be this long because no one’s got time for that. Goodnight y’all. <3