Hey everyone! Clearly I´m making up for not updating for a week (yeah, Kristin, I´m talking to you) by updating twice in the span of two days. For a quick read, I´m bulleting. Since Saturday evening I have:
-Gone to a bar with live music called Bogarin. The music was really great, and so was the margarita I drank. I wan´t such a fan of the $4 cover, but that´s mostly just because I´ve become a cheap Gringa in this town where my amazing ham sandwich (not an oxymoron, I promise) that I ate for lunch today cost me $1.50. Anyway, the bar. We went as a total of 8 or 9 students, and sat and listened to a couple of Ecuadorian singers. There were two guys who sang together, and a bunch of Latinos/Latinas got up and started dancing and made we wish that I could dance, but of course I can´t because I´m a gringa. But that´s ok, I still want to take dance lessons. At only $4/hour for private lessons, why not?
-Got a fever and so had to go home at midnight. Mom and Dad, don´t worry, it was only 99.4 F and I think it was because I was dehydrated because the next morning I felt great.
-Went to Quito Antiguo, the "Old Town" for you English speakers (¿how are the Spanish lessons so far, Dad?). We went to one huge and awesome cathedral and two churches. And when my family asked me what they were called I had to go by description because I had no clue. It went a little like this:
Cecilia: ¿A que catedrales fuiste?
Me: Uhh... Uno era cubierto en oro. Y uno era enorme, y caminamos al parte mas alta del catedral. Y uno era muy antiguo y tenia un olor de cosas viejas.
Cecilia: Oh, to fuiste a (insert names of cathedrals here), pero todos los catedrales son muy viejos.
We never really figured out the name of the third church. But by "un olor de cosas viejas" I meant that it smelled like Grandma Werner´s basement. But older. But apparently that doesn´t translate well into Spanish.
-Went to an amazing panaderia with Becca and Nora called HONEY & Honey (but everyone here just calls it "honey honey" and drank some badly needed black tea and pretended to do reading. The waiter flirted with Becca like crazy and gave her a long stemmed rose when we left. We´ve got to go back there, if for no other reason than because it´s highly entertaining.
-Helped make a collage for my oldest brother´s two year old (my oldest brother is in his 30s and married and so doesn´t live at the house) and played with said adorable two year old. He´s SO CUTE and when he left with his parents, he cheek kissed me but wouldn´t cheek kiss his aunt. I´ve got a new best friend. That´s right, a two year old.
-This morning, a really awesome historian/journalist talked to us about "Ecuador Hoy". He is my new favorite professor.
-Looked at some internship possibilities. I REALLY want one in Tena, a town in the oriente, which isn´t what I expected, but it allows you to explore OB/GYN, Peds, Internal Medicine, and Surgery, all of which I am considering doing, without actually risking my life. Awesome.
¡Hasta luego!
Monday, January 29, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
I´m here, alive, and well!
Hola de Ecuador!
Finally I´ve gotten a chance to update. It´s been really hard to get on computers, because the computers at CIMAS are ridiculously busy all the time and it´s nearly impossible to get a turn. Anyway, I´m here and my family seems nice. So far it seems like my mom is talkative, smart, and very nice and my dad is a little quiet. He is a retired military man, and now he has a cow farm (finca de vacas) in the mountains where he spends about three days a week. My mom stays at home and cooks and cleans, and unlike many families we don´t have a maid. I feel a little awkward around my family around mealtime, because the families here don´t seem to eat together, which is a big change from home. And whenever I want food, my mom tells me to sit down and gives me SO MUCH FOOD. Either they eat a lot here, or they think Americans eat a lot and they give us a lot to eat. Pretty much every lunch and dinner there is soup, rice, some type of meat, sometimes salad, bread, juice of some type (this morning it was naranjilla, an orange-like fruit that we don´t have in the states), jelly, sometimes coffee (yes mom and dad, I am starting to drink coffee). Breakfasts are equally huge, with eggs, fruit, juice, coffee, and bread. The coffee they have here is very different, because here they heat up milk and add coffee crystals, so it is much less bitter and much weaker than in the US. Think a weak Cafe au Lait, and that´s what you get here. OK, more about my family: I also have a 26 year old sister, who is writing her thesis for her architecture masters or doctorate, I´m not sure which. And I have a nearly 22-year-old brother who is in college studying music, though I think he studies fiestas more than musica. So far my sister is my favorite; she always seems happy to see me and chats a lot, though she doesn´t go out or do very much other than work, study, and do things with their church (My family is evangelical, though they don´t try to convert me :) and I don´t think they drink at all because there hasn´t been any alcohol in the house).
The last two days we spent at an Ecoresort called Sapos y Ranas in the town of Bancos, which is bonitisimo. We hiked through the jungle and swam in a river, as well as in a swimming pool, and made bread and juice from sugar cane and lime and milked a cow. One thing I really liked about Bancos is there there are chickens wandering all over the place, though they are very colorful with brown and red feathers or black and white spots. I took a few photos of them. When we were milking the cows, a few of the brave chickens would come up to the cows and start trying to eat their food, and then the cows would moo at them and kind of shoo them away with their heads and the chickens would all scatter. It was pretty funny.
Today, we went to the mall to look around and so I could buy shampoo and a razor, which I forgot to pack, and now Becca and Nora Skelly and I are in an internet cafe. So everything is pretty cool. Tonight we´re going out somewhere to dance or something. Tomorrow we´re going to go to Quito Antiguo around the churches. They close off the roads on Sundays so people can ride bikes around the markets. I think I´ll try to attend some of the Catholic masses around here at the old churches so I can see them and see what mass is like here, and see if I can follow it en español!
I´ve got to go, I would love to get replies to my posts so I can keep up with what you guys are doing! Adios!
Finally I´ve gotten a chance to update. It´s been really hard to get on computers, because the computers at CIMAS are ridiculously busy all the time and it´s nearly impossible to get a turn. Anyway, I´m here and my family seems nice. So far it seems like my mom is talkative, smart, and very nice and my dad is a little quiet. He is a retired military man, and now he has a cow farm (finca de vacas) in the mountains where he spends about three days a week. My mom stays at home and cooks and cleans, and unlike many families we don´t have a maid. I feel a little awkward around my family around mealtime, because the families here don´t seem to eat together, which is a big change from home. And whenever I want food, my mom tells me to sit down and gives me SO MUCH FOOD. Either they eat a lot here, or they think Americans eat a lot and they give us a lot to eat. Pretty much every lunch and dinner there is soup, rice, some type of meat, sometimes salad, bread, juice of some type (this morning it was naranjilla, an orange-like fruit that we don´t have in the states), jelly, sometimes coffee (yes mom and dad, I am starting to drink coffee). Breakfasts are equally huge, with eggs, fruit, juice, coffee, and bread. The coffee they have here is very different, because here they heat up milk and add coffee crystals, so it is much less bitter and much weaker than in the US. Think a weak Cafe au Lait, and that´s what you get here. OK, more about my family: I also have a 26 year old sister, who is writing her thesis for her architecture masters or doctorate, I´m not sure which. And I have a nearly 22-year-old brother who is in college studying music, though I think he studies fiestas more than musica. So far my sister is my favorite; she always seems happy to see me and chats a lot, though she doesn´t go out or do very much other than work, study, and do things with their church (My family is evangelical, though they don´t try to convert me :) and I don´t think they drink at all because there hasn´t been any alcohol in the house).
The last two days we spent at an Ecoresort called Sapos y Ranas in the town of Bancos, which is bonitisimo. We hiked through the jungle and swam in a river, as well as in a swimming pool, and made bread and juice from sugar cane and lime and milked a cow. One thing I really liked about Bancos is there there are chickens wandering all over the place, though they are very colorful with brown and red feathers or black and white spots. I took a few photos of them. When we were milking the cows, a few of the brave chickens would come up to the cows and start trying to eat their food, and then the cows would moo at them and kind of shoo them away with their heads and the chickens would all scatter. It was pretty funny.
Today, we went to the mall to look around and so I could buy shampoo and a razor, which I forgot to pack, and now Becca and Nora Skelly and I are in an internet cafe. So everything is pretty cool. Tonight we´re going out somewhere to dance or something. Tomorrow we´re going to go to Quito Antiguo around the churches. They close off the roads on Sundays so people can ride bikes around the markets. I think I´ll try to attend some of the Catholic masses around here at the old churches so I can see them and see what mass is like here, and see if I can follow it en español!
I´ve got to go, I would love to get replies to my posts so I can keep up with what you guys are doing! Adios!
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
6 days and counting!
Wow! Ecuador is really sneaking up on me. It's starting to get overwhelming everything that needs to be finished before I leave (summer research applications, about 100 pages of pre-departure reading, finishing compiling clothes and things, all of my packing, paperwork, throwing my dad a birthday party, wedding dress shopping with my to-be sister-in-law, finding out who my host family is, buying a gift for my host family...). I'm sure it will all get done in time. It's just become this countdown, and it seems like it will be very relieving when I finally arrive and can say to myself "Okay, its time to have a new adventure."
I just got an e-mail from my good friend Maggie, who just arrived in India, and everything sounds so exciting! Her family, judging by photos, looks so nice and like she will fit in well. And Zach also seems to have the greatest Denmark family ever. I am really hoping that everyone in our program has a good family experience. Now if only we knew who our families will be...
I just got an e-mail from my good friend Maggie, who just arrived in India, and everything sounds so exciting! Her family, judging by photos, looks so nice and like she will fit in well. And Zach also seems to have the greatest Denmark family ever. I am really hoping that everyone in our program has a good family experience. Now if only we knew who our families will be...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)