I figured out the bus!! I take the really long red one to school & to get back home. Public transportation is really interesting I think, and I prefer having my own car to drive around. In the mornings the bus is always really crowded and the school & everyone freak you out about getting robbed on the bus. It's a pretty interesting experience, since I stand out a little bit with my blonde hair, the whole ride I just feel like people are staring at me, which they are...I stare at them a little bit too. The people on the bus range in shape and size, and everytime I see someone who I think stands out and isn't Hispanic I have the urge to strike up a conversation with them, but then I get scared because I might be wrong and also speaking English in a crowded bus will definitely draw attention to me.
Oh and about the buses, I guess the same driver drives them usually, because some of them are tricked out a little. They have some random bumper stickers on them, which can be pretty in appropriate! I saw a decal today that was the Mastercard sign, but instead of saying Mastercard it said masterbate. That was one of the funnier ones that I've seen so far, but I'm sure there are plenty more that will surprise me.
So last night I finally went out! We had the fiesta de Bienvenidos por los estudiantes internacionales in this little pub in Marisol Sucre I think, but they had the national championship game on TV...I still can't believe that the quarterback from Oklahoma won the Heisman! At the party I got my first taste of Pilschner, which is the national beer of Ecuador, it was alright, a lot like Budweiser I guess if I had to compare it to something. Marisol Sucre, is basically the center of nightlife in Quito, it has bars, restaurants, and dance clubs. It was so crowded!!! They were cars and people all crammed into the streets, I loved it!! Haha, I can't wait to go out more and explore that area and just have a good time! Also, what I thought was really funny was that there was this posted on some wall that said in Spanish Ïf you think this is a bathroom, then you need a driver" or something along those lines. It was an interesting experience being out, but I hope that soon I can go out with my host family sisters, Marta Gisela and Cristina, because I really want to get out of my English speaking bubble and really improve my Spanish. Which according to my madre I conjugate verbs very well and do a good job speaking fo rthe most part, I just need to get more practice!
So when I left the bar last night I got a taxi home, and it was really foggy out because it had been raining earlier in the day. So the driver was taking me to my apartment, and when I got out I was so confused! I started walking the wrong way! It was creepy, because it was ll foggy out and there were garbage men picking up garbage in the middle of the night and I was just thinking, OMG not again! I couldn't believe that I was lost again! But then, after about a minute I just realized that I was walking in the wrong direction and then I just ahd to walk a block or so to my apartment. I was so glad that I didn't mess that one up, haha, those garbage men were creepy!
Since school back home is starting soon, I'll tell you abotu the classes that I'm going to be taking here. I'm taking Temas de America Latina, which is a political science/history class and probably is going to be pretty difficult and boring. I'm also taking Tropical Rainforest Ecology, which is my only class in English and will be a lot of work, but we get to go to the Amazon Rainforest for 10 days, so I'm over it being a little difficult! Then there's my clase de Plantas Medicinales, the professor seem pretty awesome, and we get to go to markets in towns around Quito to buy different plants that we can use as medicine.
...but the two classes that I'm most excited for are Sociedades Amazonas and Volcanologia. Sociedades Amazonas is a class that discusses the indigenous tribes that can be found in the Amazon, Andes and Ecuador. A highlight of this class is that we get to go visit indigenous tribes in the Andes, which sounds really interesting! It will be very different to see these people and how they live in comparison to here in Quito and back home in the States. The class I'm most excited for is Volcanologia, it's a class on volcanoes. And in case you didn't know, Ecuador has 10 or so volcanoes, and a lot of them are near/around Quito. Ecuador also is home to the most actively active volcano, Cotopaxi. Okay, so this class, we are going to learn some geology and about everything you need to know about volcanoes and dirt and then we are going to take field trips! We are going to a couple of touristy places, but we're also going to the beach for three days(I'm not sure why, maybe near the Galapogos Islands because they are volcanic islands, but yeah, the beach, I'm stoked!) But the most exciting of the salidas del campo is the one where we're going to go to Cotopaxi! Yes, we are going to go to the VOLCANO...the most feared volcano in Ecuador! It should be a lot of fun, plus I think there is a trip to some hotsprings somewhere in the mix which will be pretty awesome too!
So some of the other students from USFQ and I are going to Otavalo and La Mitad del Mundo tomorrow morning. Otavalo is this really big market that has a lot of very Ecuadorian things for sale. I remember seeing something about it on the Travel Channel, so it should be pretty sweet. La Mitad del Mundo is a park that is mas o menos right on the equator, it's where someone took some measurements and proved that the earth was not perfectly round, but that it bulges a little bit in the middle. And FYI: Ecuador means equator in Spanish, so here they refer to the equator as the mitad del mundo.
Oh and another janna-ism that has happened already on this trip. So my first day of school that i went myself & figured out the buses. But before i even left my house i was SOOOO confused!! It was like 730 in the am and everyone else was asleep, i had everything ready to go and went to the door to leave...and i couldnt open it!!! I kept pulling onthe door for like 5 minutes, totally confused! And so embarrassed, because i didnt want to wake up my madre, but i had to wake her up in order to get out! so she walks over to the door, turns the knob and pushes the door open! I felt so stupid in that moment!!!
So my plan for tonight was to just chill out and relax and get plenty of sleep for my trip in the morning to Otavalo. However, as I sat watching Jurassic Park in Spanish, I realized hopw much I wanted to get out of the house and just be outside and explore Quito and see what’s around. So I called my friend Laura, and we went to el Parque Carolina to go for a run. This park is hug and has so much stuff! Volleyball courts, soccer fields, a vivarium(where lizards and snakes live), a skate park, a bike path that goes around the park and a ton of other things that parks usually have. After a few minutes of running, we decided to just walk, talk and take in our surroundings. It was so great! We figured out where one of the malls was and just saw a lot of different things in Quito. In the park they have this mini stadium kinda thing, and they were having a volleyball tournament. It was so cool! I’m so glad that I went, because I’ve been wanting to go see everything but I was a little nervous about just going by myself, learning things about a new city can be very overwhelming, especially when you’re alone. I mean it’s hard for anyone, but can be especially difficult for someone like me who has always lived in a small town.
So after about an hour of just exploring and wandering around, I began my three block journey back home. As I was walking passed this house and almost screamed! This dog just suddenly started barking and caught me off guard, I got so scared! Haha, then I look and it’s this little 5 pound white furball barking at me! Anyways, when I made it back home I was just relaxing and watching some television, when Nury asked if I would like to go with her to someone’s house. I agreed, because I wanted to get out of the apartment and just listen and speak some Spanish. Well, we ended up going to Marta Gisela’s novio (boyfriend) Carlos’ parents for a dinner party. (They live in this really nice house, that I think is pretty big for Quito and it wasn’t too far from our apartment oh and there dog Tony, haha, which has red hair, speaks Spanish)
I’m so glad that I went! Right now, I’m so mentally drained from listening and attempting to speak Spanish for 3 ½ hours straight , but it was totally worth it! After playing 20 questions with the senor of the house, (he said I passed the Spanish test) J and introducing myself to the family, I got to just listen and throw in a few things here and there. In Ecuador when you greet someone, even if it’s your first time meeting you kiss them on the cheek, but not really, you just kiss the air and have your faces right next to each other. It was so funny, because as everyone was arriving they were saying hello and then they saw me and had this kind of confused look on there face, because they had no idea why there was this gringa sitting in the living room, but they went with it anyways. My favorite was probably Carlos’ nephew, this little kid just stood in front of me for a second and then was like okay, hola, como esta? It was the cutest thing ever!
As things were being prepared for dinner they were talking about lots of different things, international relations between Latin American countries, different factories, the government, the economy, etc. When they were talking about politics, they were so into it and it reminded me of some really intense arguments that we had in student senate last year.
Then for dinner, we had some really great common Ecuadorian food and then a lot of conversation. I now know how my grandma feels when we have 15 people at her house for dinner and there are 8 different conversations going and she doesn’t know what to say, or who to listen too…the only difference is that that’s in English and my experience was in Spanish! I was trying my best to absorb as much as I could and I had fun hearing what everyone had to say and all the different phrases and words they used, some that I understood, and some others that I didn’t. But, I do think that I understood a lot more than myself and everyone there thought I would. During dinner we talked about Vanilla Ice, what Carlos’ sister and husband should name there baby, and then they had this very intense argument about if Cuenca, a city in the south of Ecuador, about 8 hours from Quito was really a city or just a big town. Then we started talking about more music and a couple of the guests serenaded everyone else with their versions of various canciones (songs), it was really a great time! I’m so happy that I got to go! I’ve been here for 4 days now and I’m starting to feel better about the whole trip and I’m ready to go looking for my next adventure!!
