That moment when...

You watch your sister wash the dog with the same brand of shampoo that you use. You thought herbal essence was for humans, but now you are debating whether you are right or not.

Your mom refuses to let your brother put sugar in his tea at dinner because she insists that sugar is a type of energy and it ferments in you stomach. so you can't eat it at night.

A shuttle driver wants your business so badly that he offers to take you wherever you want for one dollar. Upon your refusal, he even offers to take you to the United States. I'd say that's a deal!

It is 9:19am on a Sunday morning and your host family needs to leave for church in 11 minutes in order to arrive on time. But your mom chooses this moment to dye her hair, before making breakfast for the family, of course. Let's just say that the fam-bam didn't leave until about 30mins after church started. Good thing that services here go for hours!!!

It rains just about every day from around 4 to 5. But when you look outside and see its sunny, you get excited and don't bring an umbrella. Of course it rains when you are at the farthest point from your destination so you get the wettest possible.

Your host bro-in-law asks you to edit his thesis, so you feel super smart because its his thesis- the most important paper of his career! And then you realize that you are just a native English speaker, that's all.

Your socks don' match and your host mom gets all worried thinking she's lost two of them. But they were close enough in color that they matched in my world. Now that was a hard one to explain in Spanish. (preface: i NEVER match my socks in the states, but to come to Ecuador i bought all new socks so that they would match, and threw in the only few of my old ones that matched. However, apparently one of the old "matches" was not actually a real pair... but who was i to notice? i usually put polka dots with stripes!)

Your history professor brings in historical documents from the 1800s to class like its no big deal and he passes them around for everyone to look at. They should probably have been in a museum, not in my hands.

Your host mom asks you if you would rather have a plate of cheese or a plate of eggs for breakfast. She insists that cheese is more "sano," or healthy, than eggs, and decides she should eat less eggs to lose weight.

Your family is making fun of you because you love to run and do so on a regular basis. Then your sister (recently married ~3months) says, Me? I don't exercise. At which point your host mom replies, but you have love. Its a type of exercise.

Weekends are for Adventuring

I've realized I've been the worst picture-poster of all my weekend adventures on my blog. Minus the chocolate making, I haven't really posted pics of my weekends here. So here is a snapshot of what i've been doing... For those of you who also facebook stalk me, the first half of the pics you've probably already seen, but there's some new ones at the end :)

A beautiful cathedral in the historical center of Quito- one of many here in Ecuador

Believe it or not, you are looking at a mausoleum. Not sure why, but they thought it'd be a good idea to put the caskets right above the freeway...

A view of the city from Panasilla

A traditional dessert: figs and cheese with a syrup sauce. I usually despise figs, but I didn't know the word for fig when i was ordering so I kind of accidentally got it. But I I loved it!

The inside of one of the cathedrals. Gorgeous is an understatement. Everything is ornate, gold-plated, artistic- incredible heritage here!!!

Looking down one of the streets...

one of the soccer fields at my school! my heart skipped a beat when i saw it!

And then skipped another beat when i saw the field next to it... hahaha 

We learned how to make fabric from sheep's wool

Here's the guy spinning the wool

And then weaving it into a scarf!

We also visited the house of a musician who makes all his own instruments. If you look closely you'll spot the armadillo guitar/ukulele type instrument. 

Me trying out the old telephone, makin some long distance calls :)

Here the owner is using bamboo to make the traditional flute- it was incredible to watch!

We went and swam under some waterfalls.... so fun! One of the girls lost her footing and washed a good 20 yards down the river toward the next cascade before grabbing a rock. 

A gorgeous volcanic lake that we hiked part-way around

Sittin by the lake as the fog drifts in...

Straddling the hemispheres at the Equator! There's a tourist trap monument like 100 yards away that all the gringos go to, but when google-earth came out, the realized they built it in the wrong spot. We, however, went to the REAL equator!!! :)

The things you do when you're at the equator... 

I got to meet Hedwig.

  Not a big deal or anything, really. Just the most famous owl ever. 

 Me attempting to feed the llamas. Unsuccessfully, sadly. The just didn't like the salt i had i guess. There's no way it had anything to do with me...

This is where we met all the llamas, at the pyramids here in Ecuador. Apparently Ecuador has more ruins than peru (famous for Machu Picchu), but they built with bricks made of earth and then covered them with brush and earth when the Spanish invaded so that they wouldn't be sacked. Sadly, this makes them not as easy to restore, so they don't get that much attention. Still really incredible though! We took a tour of the sight (in Spanish of course, so don't trust much of what I say about them) and got to see where the 16 pyramids are!

Here is the top of one of the pyramids that has been excavated. The natives had scratched sundials and ways of tracking the stars into the floors on the top of the pyramids that they used for rituals. 

Sorry that the lighting was really bad, but i just wanted to show you that they use Halls as mints after meals if you eat out. A lot of the candy here has menthol in it (definitely a shocker by the way the first time i picked up what i thought was going to be a dinner mint), but here they took it to the next level by simply serving Halls.

Yesterday we went to ride the teleferico up the mountain Pichincha that our city backs up to. To give you a little perspective, Denver is the mile high city. Here, we've got the two mile high city! A few friends and I spent our Saturday morning/afternoon on top of the mountain. First, it took a while to get there because getting directions anywhere is a bit tricky. Within five minutes we got a variety of answers about how to get to the teleferico: 

1. you can't actually get there from here

2. Take the bus inside this station

3. There's a shuttle that will take you there, but you have to call it

4. (when asking about where the shuttle is...) Oh, it doesn't exist

5. go down this street and take a right. The bus goes by there, every half hour or so, don't worry!

Needless to say, we called a taxi. Definitely a good move. 

Ashley, me, Hannah, and Katie on our ascent up the mountain!

Looking down at the city... and realizing that i live in a HUGE city!!!

A view from the top!

A purdy view...

And finally the sign that made me feel so safe about the whole experience. 

Well, that's it for now! After examining this snip it of my few weeks here, you're probably wondering if I actually study while i'm here. Very good question! But I'd rather not answer that because my parents regularly check my blog... hahaha :)

Breakfast of Champions

I do believe my subtle hints have been working. Today, I ate a breakfast of champions. Its not that breakfast has been scarce here- oh no! There is always been a plethora of food to consume. But usually it has been a very interesting combination of food. For example: fruit, yogurt, granola and grilled cheese; or tamale-like food (Without the meat) and grilled cheese; or delicious fresh juice and grilled cheese; or a tortilla-like bread with onions and cheese inside; or fried plantain with cheese and whole milk hot chocolate. (You might have noticed a pattern... apparently grilled cheese is a staple here) And don't get me wrong! Cheese is great! Grilled cheese is great! But not every day. And for breakfast, not so much my favorite food. I just have a bit of trouble consuming grilled cheese in the morning and then trying to function with energy.
Today, my Mami served me up some freshly squeezed mora (similar to raspberry) juice, some scrambled eggs with Ecuadorean-version-of-salsa, and toasted bread. Oh, I could eat that every day and be satisfied!!! :))))

Today I learned...

On the bus ride home, I brainstormed a lot of the stuff that I learned today. I usually have to brainstorm because my Mami always asks me, in the usual greeting, Como estas? Que tal? Como fue el dia? Que vas a hacer? Que paso? (essetially all the greetings i have ever learned in spanish, all in the same breath of course). But while I was thinking, I came up with a few humorous things that I learned today that you might enjoy:

1) never shower when Mami's washing the dishes from breakfast. Caliente becomes a bit more like frio...

2) when washing clothes, make sure you have at least two outfits left before you ask to wash your clothes because....

3) when washing clothes remember that you must dry them afterwards. And if you don't have a dryer, this means you have to hang up the clothes. And if you don't have a laundry room like the Henlsey household, this also means you have to hang up the clothes outside. Which means you should choose a sunny day to wash your clothes. But you also must remember that it is the middle of winter. And it may or may not be the case that every day at 4 or 5 it rains for an hour. So when you ask if your clothes have dried when you get home from school at like 6, the answer is probably no- they're wet. They might be dry in the morning. 

4) try and eat all the food that is served to you, or else your family may develop some false precepts. For example, my family thinks that i don't like bread. But this is entirely incorrect!!! I am a bread lover!!! But for some reason, for the first time in my life, I have met my match in regards to eating. (Btw- you are talking to the girl who on a semi-regular basis eats dinner at her own house, then marches over to the Rierson's house and eat dinner with them a few hours later.) But here, when for breakfast Mami makes me a big bowl of papaya, mango, banana, oats, granola, and yogurt, then gives me a plate of eggs, and a glass of whole milk hot chocolate, and then tries to feed me bread, I just have to say no. There is no possible way. I just can't do it. 

So I learned quite a bit today before the clock struck 6pm.  

But then my life changed drastically.

I LEARNED HOW TO MAKE CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!! :) 

Let me show you a snapshot, literally, of how my life has been transformed:

There's me with the cocoa beans that have been roasted in a pan and are now peeled because the shell just cracks off.

 Here's the ancient machine that grinds the beans into cocoa, more like the consistency of slightly moist coffee grounds than the dry cocoa stuff you buy in the store. The machine most of the time works off a motor, but often needs a little man power. You feed in the beans one by one (we really need to up the voltage or something so it goes faster, but honestly, i'm not complaining)

 Mixing it together...

 Forming the cocoa into small balls. I wish i had a picture of my hands after doing this. They were sooooo black, and smelt sooooo good. I was tempted not to wash them because i wouldn't mind the smell the rest of my life :)

Add a bit of sugar and mix it together and we had our very own chocolate. If you add a bit of milk, it'll look a bit more like chocolate, but let me tell you... SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOD!!! All natural: grown on their farm, made in the kitchen! And the best part? Now I have homemade hot chocolate for just about every meal. Yes, my life is complete. :)

filmSCORE!!!!

I just made one of the biggest scores of my life. While doing the laundry I came across my host brother's collection of Spanish-dubbed movies. Selections include: Ratatouille, Ahora son 13 (oceans 13), los cuatro fantasticos, el misterio del principe harry potter, algo pasa en las vegas, sherlock holmes, x-men origenes, fantasticos cuatro 2, toy story 3, spiderman 3, superagente 86, la leyenda del zorro, y avatar among many others. Lets just say that my nights got a tad bit more exciting. :)

Time is relative

In Ecuador, time is relative. And I knew that when I came here...part of the Hispanic culture thing. Ahora doesn't mean now. Classes are approximately the during the time they say they are at. Buses don't have schedules. They come and go as they please. But then my Mami took it to a new level when she went to visit her cousin that was getting surgery. She came back less than 30mins later I was very confused, because she had gone out on foot without a car. Apparently the surgery isn't til Monday. Well, at least she bought me chocolate on the way home. :)

Fashion do´s

In clase today (when i probably should have been carefully listening to make sure i didn´t write something down like "Ecuador used unicorns as food during the depression of 1843"), i couldn´t help but notice that my professor was dressed in a suit and CONVERSE SHOES. I really do wish I had a camera on me, but something tells me he will do it again... and i will be prepared. :)

Why did God create multiple kinds of utensils?

I feel so accomplished. I ate salad with a spoon today. My host family doesn't believe in using other utensils. Thank goodness they chose the spoon though, because we have soup every night with dinner.

Chocolate

Many studies have been conducted about the health-content of chocolate, and in a few cases, chocolate has been "found" to be beneficial to your health. Personally, I have clung to these few studies, knowing full-well that they probably don't amount to any significant gain in my justification of constant chocolate consumption.

However, today, while Mami was informing me of the healthy nature of breakfast, I got this break-down:

-grilled cheese: healthy! (not sure why yet, but that's okay)

-fruit with oatmeal: healthy! Has vitamins, calcium, fiber.

-eggs: just healthy (nothing was said about the protein)

-milk: has calcium (still lacking in perception of protein...)

-CHOCOLATE (which was in my milk :P): ENERGY FOR THE DAY!!!! 

Oh, I whole-heartedly agree! I don't need any scientific evidence to back that up. :)

Only in Ecuador...

I think this might have to be a weekly or bi-weekly entry, because some things that occur here are a just a little bit odd/funny! For example, only in Ecuador...

1) Someone would think that stick-shift buses are a good idea. Huge, two-part buses? In a city with hills and curves like the mountains? At insane speeds? With drivers that i'm pretty sure never took a driving test? The answer to all of these is YES!

2) Buses take curves so fast that you usually end up on two of the wheels for a second or two during the course of a turn

3) A stray dog hops on the bus at one stop, then hops off a few stops later. (and no, I am not the only one who has witnessed such a spectacle. Someone told me a similar story and I couldn't believe it, but sure enough, it happened to me today!)

4) People have a word that could mean "here", or it could mean "there," or it could mean anything in between. Then when giving directions, they use the word, assuming you know, without a doubt, exactly where they are talking about.

5) Do people use the word "ahora" (commonly translated as "now") to mean anywhere from now to 5 hours from now.

6) Your host mom thinks that the sandwich you ate for lunch was what made you throw up. And not because the meat was bad, or because the lettuce/tomatoes were bad. No, it was definitely the bread. But not because it was moldy/rotten. Nope! Because the yeast in the bread fermented in your stomach and made you throw up. :P


I'm sure there will be more to come... but this is all i have for now!!!

First week... Done!!!

So much to tell, and its only been a week since I left the USA! I’m going to apologize in advance for grammar and spelling and such- my brain is working overtime with two languages and I find myself typing in Spanglish and having trouble remembering/spelling the English words I need. Well, to fill you in on the last week…

I left my house at an early 5:15 on January 5^th, made it through customs. I have no idea why they even let me in their country, but I made it to Hostal la Carolina around midnight with most of the group. It was a long day. But fortunately I wasn’t the one whose trip took 2 days because their pilot wimped out and turned around because of fog- twice! However, to the pilot’s credit, the buildings are quite tall here and there isn’t much room to land so after we did touch down and endure bumps as we broke rapidly, everyone clapped, which apparently is normal…

 But enough about the travel! You’re probably wondering what in the world I’ve been doing since then, and a little bit about where I am staying. Well… we (20 students from various liberal arts colleges) stayed at the hostel until Sunday night. During the day we went non-stop around the city trying to get our bearings. Those of you who drive around with me may know that I am one of the most directionally challenged people you may ever meet. I can navigate with a map, surely, but without I am hopeless. And now, for the next 5 months, I live smack dab in the middle of a huge city (the best comparison would be like New York City- everything high rise). I am, however, proud to say that I took my first bus ride solo (without a map, I’ll have you know). No, I did not get lost. I got to exactly where I wanted to go. J

I am staying with a host family here in Quito. I have a Mami, Papi, and a brother. I actually have no idea what Mami does during the day, but Papi has his own tourism business with a couple buses (so I don’t get to meet him until tomorrow because he is gone at the moment). My brother is 19 and attends med school. In case you were wondering or getting worried, yes, he has a girlfriend :P.  They have this quaint little place on the second of three stories of an apartment. They’re an evangelical Christian family (very rare because Ecuador is somewhere above 90% catholic I think), and are soooooooo great! I spent about an hour yesterday talking to Mami about how great God is, and this morning when I was leaving Mami said hey do you want to open your Bible? Turn to Philippians 4:13. So we read it together in my handy dandy side by side English/Spanish Bible (thanks Mike and Brit :). Oh, and when I’m here on the weekends (or during the week nights for that matter because they have like 4 services or something) I can go to church with them. They have a service for young people (hopefully I can meet some cool college age students), and on Sunday nights they play indoor soccer. Oh and did I mention they have a finca (a farm) on the Coast with a river in front of it where they grow coffee beans, cocoa, and more stuff I can’t remember? They also have cows and a few other animals, and want me to come with them to it whenever I have a free weekend so they can teach me how to make coffee, cheese and chocolate. Yes, they make their own chocolate. Perfect family? I think yes. J  Could only have been chosen by God!

So that’s my family in a nutshell. School… I start school tomorrow, so right now I’m in denial. All my classes are in Spanish, so that will make things very interesting. (Or possibly boring if it goes in one ear and out the other without comprehension, so we’ll see! I take two buses to school (which amounts to about a 45 minute commute, so I’m missing the two minute walk to class at Westmont already!). Universidad de San Francisco Quito is the most expensive school in all of Ecuador, so only the private school kids from the upper class go for the most part. There are 180 foreigners in a student body of about 4500. I have gringa (here it’s a term of endearment for foreigners, not like in Mexico) stamped across my forehead (blond hair + blue eyes = sooooo far from the norm), so no matter how I try or dress, I just stick out. But that’s okay, I’m embracing it. It’s actually kind of nice because everyone assumes you don’t know anything so they don’t blame you for doing things wrong.  

Well, I think that’s about all I have to say for now (though probably more likely it’s all you want to read right now). I’m sure I’ll be back soonish to talk about school and adventures and whatever else happens in my life!

Adios!!!! Te echo de menos!!! Goodbye!!!! I miss you!!!

Hola!

Well I figured I should attempt a first blog, just to see what would happen. So if you are reading this, it worked. Apparently I'm not completely technologically challenged. Well, thanks for participating in my trial run... future posts will be for real- I promise! :) And for testing picture posts... here's a picture of the my school (USFQ) off google images:

Rough life, eh?