"Oh Hey, How was the Homework for You?"

I've been in class for three days now at Universidad de San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) and wow. It's kind of like high school--times 10. Everybody has a group of friends and they just hang out sitting on steps everywhere just talking all the time. I feel like such an outsider. After three days--I think I have made one Ecuadorian friend.

It's really hard to make friends here because it is a completely different system of meeting people--it has to just sort of happen.
--you cannot go up to people and introduce yourself
--you do not approach a group of people if you do not know them
--you wait for a moment when someone is by there self, in class and ask "oh hey, how was the homework for you?" and hope they keep the conversation going
--you introduce yourself at the end of the conversation and say "I'm Kelly by the way"
--but in the lunch line is not an appropriate of a time to casually talk to someone either as talking about food is not a way to create a friendship
--when people invite you out--YOU GO OUT and do whatever they are doing, otherwise it is an insult and you can kiss that blooming friendship goodbye
--you make one friend, they introduce you to their other friends, who introduce you to their other friends and so on
--small talk does not really exist outside of the first few sentences you exchange. If you have nothing in common then talking will be strained (or maybe it's just me as my Spanish is still struggling)
--when you are introduced to new people you kiss all of them on their right cheek, and also when you leave--also a cultural insult if you do not (and they may snub you from now on)
--when you say you are from the United States more than half the time (if they go to the University) they will start speaking to you in English and then it's awkward to try and switch the conversation back to Spanish.

I did not just make these rules up, other Ecuadorian's have told me. It is a different system of making friends for me and I wonder how to do it without good Spanish.

Non-existent Ecuadorian friends from USFQ aside, I found the first Harry Potter book in Spanish at my university's library! (haha after rereading that last sentence I now know why I have no new friends here...)

It's like searching for the Holy Grail

So I am on a mission--to learn Spanish! So I decided to read a book I've read before. What better than Harry Potter--I've read it almost 10 times in the past 10 years. So I go to buy the book. NOTHING. I went to EIGHT bookstores and they would have the books in English, or have a couple from the series in Spanish, but not the first one. I am shocked. It's basically the most popular children's series of all time--and Spanish is a pretty common language around the world. I think someone is sneaking ahead to all the stores and buying it before I get there.

On another note--class starts tomorrow! I get to sit through hours of lecturing each day in Spanish! I hope it goes well...

Canoa y Rio Muchacho

This past week I have been MIA because I was traveling! With my BCA group, we took a seven hour night bus to the beach--only our bus broke down and it took more like 11 hours to get there.

We went in Canoa--a small little (wannabe) surfing town where the locals walk around barefoot.


Unfortunately, the weather was not great, we had about an hour of sun, yet a few people still managed to get burned.




They sell coconut juice in real coconuts on the beach!


After an afternoon in Canoa we went to Rio Muchacho--an organic farm twenty minutes from the beach. The farm is vegetarian and has NO trash, and composts everything (which means we cannot use even our shampoo and conditioner because they are not environmentally friendly--and it would wash into the river)!

Here's one of the founders of the farm Daniel explaining composting at the environmental primary school in the valley.


They have over 150 crops that they use to cook with--here's some of them.


Dining area--hammocks!


The bowls that the food is served in are from local clay and the spoon and cup are made from coconuts. All the breakfasts are the same, and the other two meals rotate between a few options. Below is breakfast.


This is the front porch to my cabin.


A baby goat that was born the day before!


Me cooking coffee! First we took the seeds from the fruit, roasted them, ground them, and then made coffee!


On the day we went down the valley to see a Howler Monkey forest, we had to make our lunch. So we all picked banana leafs and looked like ants carrying them back to the kitchen as they were bigger than us.


After our hike/horse back ride, our unwrapped food--I don't know what was in there except for rice, a hard boiled egg, and onions--but it was so delicious!


Two thousand year old tree--Risa trying to climb it.


Mama Jovita's house! She lives on the land where the howler monkey forest and refuses sell it to turn a profit with crops. She is eighty something years old and still weaves. On another note I have no pictures of the monkeys. We climbed straight up a mountains (no joke) slipping and sliding in our boots in the mud. Then we spent much of the time looking at the hard to see monkeys while trying to avoid them as they tried to pee and poop on us. haha.


On the way back to the farm, those that hiked got to ride back. However, we crossed 22 streams and the truck got stuck a couple of times.


Me sitting on my mule waiting for the truck to be unstuck.


After Rio Muchacho, we had the option of staying at the beach. I decided to with some friends but it was sprinkling rain and was not beachy at all. We stayed at the Coco Loco Hostel and shared a room with some other travelers. The night scene was great, but we left the next morning because they weather was not going to be good that day either. We took the 630 bus back--which did not show up until 730--typical Ecuador, and seven hours later--back home!
(Thanks to Meghan, Kristen, and Yui for the pictures!)

Baños

After a busy week of finishing my pre-semester Spanish and Ecuadorian class, I had a three day weekend! A few friends and myself decided to hit up probably the most touristy city in Ecuador--Baños! It's a small, quaint city about three to four hours south of Quito via bus. Surrounded by mountains, including the volcano Tungurahua and hot springs, it is a town capable of extreme sports but also spa days. Oddly enough, we did not make it to the hot springs the town is known for because they were too busy.

We left Quito at 6 a.m. and made it to Baños around 10 a.m. after a long and twisty ride through the mountains. Like fools, we didn't book a hostel, just thinking we could get one when we arrived. However, it was ferrido--vacation this weekend and it was booked full. Luckily, a woman passing on the street heard us and said that she just happened to have six beds available as a group was just leaving. Score--a nice hostel room with a private bath.

A view of the town


The Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Agua Santa--a beautiful church in the middle of the town


Then we decided to go puenting--it's like bungee jumping, but no bungee. Instead, you have a harness attached to a rope that makes you swing like a pendulum under the bridge you are jumping from. I was 100 meters (about 300 feet) about a river and just JUMPED! It was crazy, just free fallin--literally.



Then we wanted to bike the Waterfall Tour down toward Puyo. It's about a 60 km ride, but you can do 20 km instead and hitch a ride back to Rio Verde. As we started our ride out on some bikes that were far from new and in good shape, it started to rain. Miserably, we kept peddling as bus after bus of tourists passed us of people who had decided that biking was maybe a bit too much. However, when the rain stopped, the views were beautiful! It was mostly downhill, so it was not too bad of a ride--about 2 1/2 hours.



Sorry fore the sideways waterfalls--didn't have time to fix it.



The next day, we rose at the crack of 11 a.m. (maybe our second day of sleeping in for the past exhausting month)and had a pretty terrible almuerzo--lunch before canyoning. Canyoning--repelling down waterfalls. I do not know what I was thinking, but it was a BLAST! We canyoned down four parts of a water fall in what we were told was the coldest week Baños had had all year (of course). Even though we had wetsuits on, the water was still freezing. I thought I had been cold before, but I was extremely cold for three hours. I fell at one point and I have a nasty battle wound on my arm now, and looking back, I could've died a few times, but it was fun.

Part of the waterfall we went down--this picture is TINY compared to what how big it really is.



We had some great meals, chilled in the Hostel Jacuzzi, and had a great relaxing weekend. Tomorrow--the final exam for my Spanish class! (Thanks to Liz D and Risa for the pictures!)

10th of Agosto

This past weekend I celebrated the 10th of August (even though it's not for a couple of days) with a parrilla (barbecue)! What is the 10th of August you may ask--it is kinda of like Ecuador's Fourth of July--when a group of Quiteños (people from Quito) decided to revolt in 1810 after hearing that Napoleon had taken over Spain--who had been ruling Ecuador. The movement didn't do much immediately, but sparked the ideas of the revolution until it was gained 12 years later in 1822.

To celebrate, my mami and I went with four other student families from my program to the countryside outside of Quito for the day. The place we went to was a grandparents property/farm and it was the prettiest, perfect garden I had ever seen. (Thanks to Kelsey for the pictures!)

Here we are grilling--in the white is my mami! As you can see we grilled in a wheelbarrow with an old grill on top--quite interesting.


We all had soooo much meat--I thought I was back in America. The picture does NOT do my plate of meat justice. There are piles of slabs of meat that aren't seen. I barely finished half of it.


Here is one of the "barns" as we might call it. Tall plants that house roosters, goats, ducks, chickens, guinea pigs, and rabbits.


Guinea Pigs (cuy) to fry and eat later!






Some pictures of the house and gardens surrounding it.




















They were building an adobe house on the land.




Here you can see a far away view of Quito, there are two small mountains where in front of--is my university, and behind, the city of Quito and where I live. The picture does not do the view justice.

Guniea Pig Time

So I forgot to mention--I tried cuy (guinea pig) this weekend! Kristen and I had a half a cuy and it was interesting. It didn't quite taste like chicken--I was told more like duck, but I have not had duck so you will have to take their word on it. The organs were also served for us to eat on a plate of toasted corn. I didn't quite have the courage to try those though.

Weekend in Otavalo

This past weekend, my program went to Otavalo to an indigenous market! The market took place in the streets and a plaza with booths of all colors everywhere. As I started walking around, I had a few things in mind I wanted to buy, but then it became a test of my self-control to not buy everything I saw. My rule of thumb--if I didn't love it, then I wasn't going to buy it.


The sad part about the market was how cheap it all the items were. I would go up to a vendor, expecting to pay $5 for a bracelet, and it would already only be $2. From there I am supposed to bargain and it made me feel cheap. Sometimes I only took off .50 or so, but it was pretty surprising how cheap the handmade items were. Here's a picture of the stuff I got--all for only $24! Not too much (compared to some in the group), a few bracelets, earrings, headbands, a scarf, and a sweet, colorful pullover that would probably go for about $80 at urban outfitters in the states.

Otavalo was the main attraction this weekend but I also went to the Mitad del Mundo--the middle or half of the world--the Equator! I had flashbacks to when I was a kid I thought you would burn up in flames if you went to the Equator. It was hot, and informative as our guide told us that Ecuador is the special country on the Equator because the mountains made it easy for the indigenous tribes to see the path of the sun as it moved everyday.

We also went to Cochasqui to see ancient pre-hispanic Pyramides. They were overgrown and mostly just mounds in the landscape. However, they are important because they were right next to the equator and was one of the closest places that the ancient cultures got to the sun--which they worshiped. It was said to be one of the most, if not the most important archeological sites in the Andes and in Ecuador. Unfortunately, I did not learn too much about the site because out guide was speaking in Spanish. Even though his accent was clear, my vocabulary is still limited. I spent most of my time gazing out to the mountains surrounding us.

All of a sudden at the pyramids, out guide starts whistling and a herd of llamas and alpacas came running over and we fed them salt. Here's a picture of me feeding them!


We also climbed the Cascadas de Peguche--a waterfall near Otavalo. It was an early morning hike the next day and there were two waterfalls. We were able to wade and swim in the smaller one.



We also went to a bird sanctuary, the lake Cuicocha, and a lookout of some pretty mountains--which is by the way WHAT I SEE EVERYDAY around me all the time! It really is killing me not having a camera to capture the beautiful scenes! Which brings me to say that all of the pictures are from my friend Montana's facebook page.