Quito, Ecuador
Ahhhh, good afternoon everyone. I just thought that I would try and catch everyone up with what's happening in my life (I'm sure y'all have been just desprately waiting to find out, but I have an hour to kill before salsa class, and I've run out of things to do to occupy my time, so what are you going to do). Last time I wrote, I believe that I was just starting classes. Well since then I've gone on numerous side trips to beaches and cloud forests, learned mucho espanol, and had a kick ass birthday party. I'm getting along with my family very well. My host mother is constantly fussing over me, making sure that I have enough to eat (like I'm on the verge of starving), I'm not allowed to make my own food, or wash my own laundry, we have a maid for that. It's taken a lot of getting used to, but When in Rome, as they say, and who am I to go against a country's culture.
Also every morning, I'm treated to a comedy of the highest standards. I'm convinced that my mother, Rosa (our maid) and Gabby (my sister) should go on tour. A typical morning consists of me waking up around 7:30 or so and coming out to breakfast around 8:00. Every morning I surprise my mother who's in the kitchen trying to make sure that my breakfast is ready and on the table before I get there, god forbid I walk in 5 minutes early. Every morning she boils milk for my coffee (here we are surrounded by the best coffee growing countries in the world, and we drink Nescafé, don´t ask me why, also for some reason they like to boil and mix the coffee in milk, instead of water). It's about this time that Rosa enters the kitchen and hilarity ensues. While my mom scurries about the kitchen, and Rosa attacks the mountain of dishes left over from the previous day, the milk boils over (it wouldn't be that funny, if it didn't happen every day), before I finish my breakfast some other disaster will take place (yesterdays episode was Rosa breaks the shelf that holds the dishes, the day before's episode was Mom tries to soften the nutella in the microwave, but forgets to take off the foil) After breakfast, around 8:30, Mom yells at Gabby that its time to go, and she scurries (she doesn't ever walk, only scurries) down to start the car, assuming that Gabby and I are right behind her, as I need to be at school at 9:00 and it's about 10 minutes away. This is the time that Gabby makes her first appearance, hair and clothes looking immaculate, she saunters in (she never walks, only saunters) and commences to eat breakfast and sip at her coffee, while mom honks the horn and rings the phone from the front gate buzzer. Invariably Rosa answers the phone, and says that yes Gabby is coming right down. Five minutes later, Mom makes her first reappearance back upstairs to rally the troops, and then charges back downstairs to the car assuming that we're right behind her. While Gabby stretches, gets up from the breakfast table and saunters back into her room, where she starts to dry her hair. The first couple of days that this happened, I waited for Gabby downstairs in the car with Mom, but I've since realized that the better viewpoint, is upstairs with Gabby. After a couple of more reappearances and charges, around 8:56, Gabby saunters back out of her room (usually in a completely different immaculate outfit, and a completely different immaculate hairstyle) and we finally saunter down (her sauntering is infectious) to the car. As we enter the car, the mother smiles and says "Hey Gabby, how did you sleep" (in Spanish, of course) and she takes off as if she has not a care in the world. This happens every morning. At first it worried me that I was getting to school ten minutes late, but I've since discovered what I call Ecuadorito time, which means class always starts at least fifteen minutes late, and if someone is even more late, it's not a big deal.
Whoops, this is getting long, so I had better cut it off here. I, of course, haven't come close to catching you up, but I will have to do that another time, as salsa class awaits, and I'm sure that y'all have lives of your own. So once again, I bid adieu, and I hope that this message finds you well. Moe
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Monday, October 13, 2003
Life in Quito and Other Adventures
Quito Ecuador
What´s up everyone? Ready for a new installation of Moe´s adventures in Ecuador? Well, lets see…where did we leave off last? I believe that I was leaving the Spanish-colonial town of Cuenca and was on the way to the beach. Since school let out in June, I had only two harried days to get ready for the boat, one extremely busy and crazy week off, and five days to get ready for Ecuador. Besides those very few days, I worked twelve hours a day or more on the boat. So when I made it to the beach town of Montanita, I decided that I had some well deserved r and r coming to me. It was five days of intense hammock swinging, trying of the local cervezas and laying on the beach. It was lovely.
Finally, however, it was time to head back to Quito to start school. I took the night bus back, which I'm told is dangerous, but at least the inherent danger is unseen. Back in Quito, I met my fellow students for the next year. There are only ten of us, two (myself included) from Evergreen State, seven from the UW, and one from Western Washington. The first night that they were in Quito, we all went out and did some bonding (drinking) and I could not be happier with everyone. So far everybody likes to have a good time, and there's been no drama whatsoever. The next day we met our families and had our first day of school. We go to school Monday through Thursday, about 4 to 6 hours a day. Three or four hours a day of class time in spent in intense spanish study, with the other time devoted to various projects and field trips, also in spanish. I figure that after all our time in school, communicating with our host families, and living day to day in Ecuador, I should be fluent in Spanish by next Tuesday. My family is really nice. My host padre is a high school gym teacher, my madre works in insurance, and I have an 18 year old sister who goes to college. We also have a maid who cleans my room and my bathroom for me, so I'm a little spoiled. The Mom is cute, she is constantly scurrying about, and it seems that her major preoccupation in life is that I have enough to eat (like I'm going to starve).
Back in school, during our first week, we took a four day field trip to visit some small commuities north of Quito, highlighted by visiting a couple of marketplaces and schools. During once such visit to a school, after our little cultural exchange, there was an impromptu soccer game, between us and several kids range eight to twelve. We were going easy on them, until we figured out that they were going easy on us and were kicking our butt. With ball control like Pele, and shots like Ronaldo, they proceeded to make us look like a bunch of silly gringos. It was okay, because it only took a couple of hip checks and hard slide tackles to take those grins off their faces. A good time was had by all. So now we're back in Quito delving into escuela. I'm still getting used to the whole breathing situation here, in Quito. Imagine fresh mountain air, filtered through thousands of diesel engines, and on top of that, at eight thousand feet the air is a lot thinner anyway. Just getting out of bed feels like a marathon, but I'm adjusting. Alrighty, I hope this message finds everybody happy, healthy, and terrific, I'll talk to you later. Moe
What´s up everyone? Ready for a new installation of Moe´s adventures in Ecuador? Well, lets see…where did we leave off last? I believe that I was leaving the Spanish-colonial town of Cuenca and was on the way to the beach. Since school let out in June, I had only two harried days to get ready for the boat, one extremely busy and crazy week off, and five days to get ready for Ecuador. Besides those very few days, I worked twelve hours a day or more on the boat. So when I made it to the beach town of Montanita, I decided that I had some well deserved r and r coming to me. It was five days of intense hammock swinging, trying of the local cervezas and laying on the beach. It was lovely.
Finally, however, it was time to head back to Quito to start school. I took the night bus back, which I'm told is dangerous, but at least the inherent danger is unseen. Back in Quito, I met my fellow students for the next year. There are only ten of us, two (myself included) from Evergreen State, seven from the UW, and one from Western Washington. The first night that they were in Quito, we all went out and did some bonding (drinking) and I could not be happier with everyone. So far everybody likes to have a good time, and there's been no drama whatsoever. The next day we met our families and had our first day of school. We go to school Monday through Thursday, about 4 to 6 hours a day. Three or four hours a day of class time in spent in intense spanish study, with the other time devoted to various projects and field trips, also in spanish. I figure that after all our time in school, communicating with our host families, and living day to day in Ecuador, I should be fluent in Spanish by next Tuesday. My family is really nice. My host padre is a high school gym teacher, my madre works in insurance, and I have an 18 year old sister who goes to college. We also have a maid who cleans my room and my bathroom for me, so I'm a little spoiled. The Mom is cute, she is constantly scurrying about, and it seems that her major preoccupation in life is that I have enough to eat (like I'm going to starve).
Back in school, during our first week, we took a four day field trip to visit some small commuities north of Quito, highlighted by visiting a couple of marketplaces and schools. During once such visit to a school, after our little cultural exchange, there was an impromptu soccer game, between us and several kids range eight to twelve. We were going easy on them, until we figured out that they were going easy on us and were kicking our butt. With ball control like Pele, and shots like Ronaldo, they proceeded to make us look like a bunch of silly gringos. It was okay, because it only took a couple of hip checks and hard slide tackles to take those grins off their faces. A good time was had by all. So now we're back in Quito delving into escuela. I'm still getting used to the whole breathing situation here, in Quito. Imagine fresh mountain air, filtered through thousands of diesel engines, and on top of that, at eight thousand feet the air is a lot thinner anyway. Just getting out of bed feels like a marathon, but I'm adjusting. Alrighty, I hope this message finds everybody happy, healthy, and terrific, I'll talk to you later. Moe
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