Our last full day in Ecuador is here! One J-term abroad almost finished. The past week has been good, bad, and yes, buggly. Let me explain:
After we finished our final exam last Thursday morning we began our community service project. We were originally told that we would be painting a school. When we arrived at the school, though, we were presented with a much more challenging task- building a fence. The school wanted a fence to enclose their garden area. It was our job to first take down the original barbed wire fence, measure and mark the provided wooden planks so that they were the correct height for the fence, dig a trench for the fence to go in, and then drill the wooden planks and connect them to resemble a fence.
Doesn't sound too bad, does it? In fact, it sounds like tons of fun, and it was, except for one minor detail: The soil was full of rocks (some the size of a human head) that had come down from the nearby mountains and were strongly embedded in the land that we were supposed to be excavating. So for parts of 3 days we were removing these big stinkers out of the land. Our group of 12 students and 2 adult males had 1 pick, 1 shovel, 2 hoes, and 2 hammers to complete our job. It tested our teamwork and patience getting the numerous rocks out of the way for our fence. But we did it. And it was awesome! What a sense of a accomplishment we all felt when we saw our beautiful, unpainted fence up on Monday afternoon.
I am convinced that I will return to the U.S. with bulging back and shoulder muscles from heaving that pick around, trying to break up the land around the rocks, and then trying to get to get the rocks out of the trench that was continually getting deeper. Anyways, after working each day I would return to my host family very dirty, very sweaty, and covered with nasty big bug bites. They are all over my legs (due to the fact that we were wearing shorts since it was pretty warm out) and somehow even on my torso. Some are the size of quarters and very, very pink. It´s been a week now that I've had some of them and they still aren't healing! I´m hoping when I return to the cold Iowa weather the itchiness will just get frozen away- probably not gonna happen, but a girl can hope.
This week we've spent a lot of time in a bus going from city to city, visiting the middle of the world, seeing some new musical demonstrations, and seeing some things we've seen multiple times already- like tapestry demonstrations. It hasn't been the best week of the month just because I´m ready to get home at this point and be done with the touristy activities, but J-term in general has been very, very cool. Much better than staying in Decorah, although I do look forward to getting back to all of my friends. The only thing I regret is having to leave our host families when I was finally starting to feel very much at home, just like another kid of the family, and I could actually understand most of what they were saying! I guess that means I´ll just have to travel again so that I can really test my fluency. So long from Ecuador!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Crazy Taxi
When I was in middle school I can remember playing the video game called Crazy Taxi on my friend´s playstation 2. In the game you are a taxi driver and you have to go around town picking up pedestrians and getting them to their destinations within a time limit. I vividly remember attempting to drive my taxi and ending up all over the road, on the sidewalks, getting way too close to my customers who were waving me down. I didn´t understand how in the world it could be so hard to drive a taxi!
Here in Cuenca I´ve seen taxis around the city that cause me to wonder if they didn´t learn to drive by playing that same videogame that I used to play! Taxis here are very common because many families do not have multiple vehicles and also because at night it isn´t super safe to be walking around the city. We were told that after 7 pm we should get a taxi instead of walking like we do the rest of the day. Taxis are pretty inexpensive- $1-2, but I still prefer not to take them if I don´t have to. Here´s why:
The second day we were in Cuenca, 2 girls from our Luther group were riding in a taxi in the middle of the afternoon to come to class, and managed to get lost. The taxi driver didn´t know where the correct building was and ended up driving them around the city for about an hour looking for the right place. It didn´t help that the girls didn´t know the address off the top of their heads- but it was only the second day so who can blame them. Eventually, though, they did make it safe and sound, but a little leary about using taxis in the future.
I also prefer to avoid taxis because of a personal experience that I had. One afternoon when the Luther group was going to visit a hospital, we all piled into taxis to get there. I was with 3 other girls and we were all thinking the same thing about this taxi driver- he´s crazy! Every time we started to slow down just a little bit he would honk at the car in front of him to go faster. (Honking is very popular here. I think I´ve distinguished 3 reasons people tend to honk. Honk 1 means watch out, I´m coming through this intersection whether the light´s red or not. Honk 2 mean HURRY UP, I haven´t got all day! Honk 3 means Hey look, there are some beautiful girls over there!) Anyways, he was weaving in and out of traffic like he was missing his child´s birth or something! We were holding onto each other for dear life as we managed to make our way to the hospital in one piece. When we got out we were all hoping to never get that taxi driver again.
But then again, I´ve had a super nice taxi driver who had lots of patience with us as we tried to tell him our home addresses, and he made sure all of the passengers entered their homes before he drove away. Taxi drivers are just normal people- they come in all shapes and sizes. I just hope that I get one who has more skill than I displayed while playing Crazy Taxi!
Here in Cuenca I´ve seen taxis around the city that cause me to wonder if they didn´t learn to drive by playing that same videogame that I used to play! Taxis here are very common because many families do not have multiple vehicles and also because at night it isn´t super safe to be walking around the city. We were told that after 7 pm we should get a taxi instead of walking like we do the rest of the day. Taxis are pretty inexpensive- $1-2, but I still prefer not to take them if I don´t have to. Here´s why:
The second day we were in Cuenca, 2 girls from our Luther group were riding in a taxi in the middle of the afternoon to come to class, and managed to get lost. The taxi driver didn´t know where the correct building was and ended up driving them around the city for about an hour looking for the right place. It didn´t help that the girls didn´t know the address off the top of their heads- but it was only the second day so who can blame them. Eventually, though, they did make it safe and sound, but a little leary about using taxis in the future.
I also prefer to avoid taxis because of a personal experience that I had. One afternoon when the Luther group was going to visit a hospital, we all piled into taxis to get there. I was with 3 other girls and we were all thinking the same thing about this taxi driver- he´s crazy! Every time we started to slow down just a little bit he would honk at the car in front of him to go faster. (Honking is very popular here. I think I´ve distinguished 3 reasons people tend to honk. Honk 1 means watch out, I´m coming through this intersection whether the light´s red or not. Honk 2 mean HURRY UP, I haven´t got all day! Honk 3 means Hey look, there are some beautiful girls over there!) Anyways, he was weaving in and out of traffic like he was missing his child´s birth or something! We were holding onto each other for dear life as we managed to make our way to the hospital in one piece. When we got out we were all hoping to never get that taxi driver again.
But then again, I´ve had a super nice taxi driver who had lots of patience with us as we tried to tell him our home addresses, and he made sure all of the passengers entered their homes before he drove away. Taxi drivers are just normal people- they come in all shapes and sizes. I just hope that I get one who has more skill than I displayed while playing Crazy Taxi!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Cat Calls with a Round of Applause
Buenas tardes! I´ve been here in Cuenca, Ecuador for over a week now and am finding myself very at home in this big city. There have been many new things that I´ve encountered that are very different than what goes on in Decorah. Let´s take meals for example. In Ecuador the times and the sizes of the meals are not what we would expect in the U.S. Breakfast can be any time in the earlier part of the morning and my family has been setting out wonderful bread (sweeter than regular sandwich bread) with jam and some fresh fruit like mango, melon, bananas, or strawberries. Then lunch is the biggest meal of the day and that´s around 1:45 or 2 at my house. Depending on what time I eat breakfast, I can get pretty hungry by lunch. For lunch we always eat white rice, some type of vegetable soup, some protein (like fish, chicken, or steak), and then freshly squeezed juice or lemonade. It all tastes very good since the food is fresh from the market. And finally, a lighter dinner is usually around 8pm and is not always eaten by my family. They always prepare something for me, like rice and an omelet, but I don´t always have company to eat with. So meals have been something to adjust to.
I've been taking advantage of the vast array of fresh fruits available. In the markets you can buy pretty much any fruit imaginable: strawberries, blackberries, cherries, bananas, watermelon, cantelope, etc. My mom also makes juice almost every day out of these fresh fruits and that´s a nice treat that I wouldn't get to enjoy in the U.S.
Another thing that I've been exposed to are the numerous cat calls and whistles that I get while walking or running around Cuenca. We were all warned before we arrive that cat calls are commonplace here, especially for those of us who clearly don´t look like we´re natives. We were advised not to react in any way to the people saying them and to just ignore them. Often when I´m out in the streets, vendors or people walking will say the word ´suca´, which means ´blonde´. I've also noticed that a lot of people honk when I´m around. I´m not sure if they´re honking at me or at the traffic, because it´s also very common for taxi drivers to honk at traffic to move faster, but either way it´s a bit startling when I´m not expecting it- just like it can be in the U.S.
This morning when I was running I received my first round of applause! I was just running along the same river that I've been going along since we arrived, and an older Ecuadorian gentleman was walking in the opposite direction. He stopped when he saw me, stood off to the side, and started clapping! I just kept running, but on the inside I was chuckling and smiling to myself- that´s surely something I don´t receive every day!
This week I am super excited for our first dance lessons and then our weekend trip to Cajas National Park. Should be lots of fun! Chao for now!
I've been taking advantage of the vast array of fresh fruits available. In the markets you can buy pretty much any fruit imaginable: strawberries, blackberries, cherries, bananas, watermelon, cantelope, etc. My mom also makes juice almost every day out of these fresh fruits and that´s a nice treat that I wouldn't get to enjoy in the U.S.
Another thing that I've been exposed to are the numerous cat calls and whistles that I get while walking or running around Cuenca. We were all warned before we arrive that cat calls are commonplace here, especially for those of us who clearly don´t look like we´re natives. We were advised not to react in any way to the people saying them and to just ignore them. Often when I´m out in the streets, vendors or people walking will say the word ´suca´, which means ´blonde´. I've also noticed that a lot of people honk when I´m around. I´m not sure if they´re honking at me or at the traffic, because it´s also very common for taxi drivers to honk at traffic to move faster, but either way it´s a bit startling when I´m not expecting it- just like it can be in the U.S.
This morning when I was running I received my first round of applause! I was just running along the same river that I've been going along since we arrived, and an older Ecuadorian gentleman was walking in the opposite direction. He stopped when he saw me, stood off to the side, and started clapping! I just kept running, but on the inside I was chuckling and smiling to myself- that´s surely something I don´t receive every day!
This week I am super excited for our first dance lessons and then our weekend trip to Cajas National Park. Should be lots of fun! Chao for now!
Friday, January 2, 2009
Smelly Socks and Foreign Talks
Hola! I´m here in Ecuador, the country of my choice for J-term. I´m with 11 other Luther students and Professor Thompson, a Spanish prof from Luther, and his wife and 2 children. We are here for the majority of January to experience the ways that doctors and patients interact and increase our knowledge of the Spanish language.
I´ve been in Ecuador for a week now. Our first flight left from Minneapolis at 6am on Dec. 26 (talk about early!) That night we stayed in Quito, Ecuador, the capital, and then over the weekend drove to Cuenca, one of the bigger cities, where we are staying for the next 2.5 weeks with host families, having class, and visiting the hospitals/clinics.
The weather is a refreshing change from the cold and snow currently in Iowa. Here it has been in the 60s or 70s each day, often with a bit of rain in the afternoon. The scenery is gorgeous with the Andes Mountains looming in the distance and tropical plants all over the place. When I can, I will post pictures for all to see.
This past Monday we met our host families. My family has 3 children: 2 girls ages 19 and 22, and one boy, 27, that all live at home. Near my house is a river that has a path around it that I´ve been making use of and running on it each morning before class. Unfortunately, I didn´t bring all that many outfits to run in, so I´ve been wearing the same outfit for the past 4 or 5 days now. And let me tell you that my socks can basically stand up on their own now. No joke. They are beginning to make my whole room smell awful. So I am very much looking forward to doing laundry on Monday, which is the day of the week that my host family does their laundry. Oh, the things I take for granted at home!
It has been fun speaking Spanish, although it´s not all that easy when the natives are speaking super fast and slurring things together. But I´m sure I´ll improve over the next couple of weeks. I find myself thinking in Spanish and sometimes accidently using words from both English and Spanish in the same sentence! Oops!
Hope all is well and I´ll keep you up to date as I have more adventures in Ecuador!
I´ve been in Ecuador for a week now. Our first flight left from Minneapolis at 6am on Dec. 26 (talk about early!) That night we stayed in Quito, Ecuador, the capital, and then over the weekend drove to Cuenca, one of the bigger cities, where we are staying for the next 2.5 weeks with host families, having class, and visiting the hospitals/clinics.
The weather is a refreshing change from the cold and snow currently in Iowa. Here it has been in the 60s or 70s each day, often with a bit of rain in the afternoon. The scenery is gorgeous with the Andes Mountains looming in the distance and tropical plants all over the place. When I can, I will post pictures for all to see.
This past Monday we met our host families. My family has 3 children: 2 girls ages 19 and 22, and one boy, 27, that all live at home. Near my house is a river that has a path around it that I´ve been making use of and running on it each morning before class. Unfortunately, I didn´t bring all that many outfits to run in, so I´ve been wearing the same outfit for the past 4 or 5 days now. And let me tell you that my socks can basically stand up on their own now. No joke. They are beginning to make my whole room smell awful. So I am very much looking forward to doing laundry on Monday, which is the day of the week that my host family does their laundry. Oh, the things I take for granted at home!
It has been fun speaking Spanish, although it´s not all that easy when the natives are speaking super fast and slurring things together. But I´m sure I´ll improve over the next couple of weeks. I find myself thinking in Spanish and sometimes accidently using words from both English and Spanish in the same sentence! Oops!
Hope all is well and I´ll keep you up to date as I have more adventures in Ecuador!
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