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