Domingo Típico

I have officially been staying in Ecuador longer than any other country aside from the US. Pretty exciting stuff. Full disclosure, I should be studying for my first test of Quito that I have tomorrow, but instead I’m drinking this lemon/honey thing my host mom made me when I mentioned in passing that my throat hurt a little bit (she also made sure I was wearing a scarf today), and blogging. I wasn’t planning on writing about this at all until after telling multiple Ecuadorians about my weekend and having them say “¡Qué típico de las familias Ecuatorianas!” So I figured I might as well share with you all what an exaggeratedly classic Sunday looks like for an Ecuadorian family. But first, an apology.

 

I hereby apologize to all of those people that I was annoyed at for staring at me. Okay, I’m still not a huge fan of it – it makes me pretty uncomfortable. But I’ve seen a couple white people and one redhead on the buses the past couple days, and I didn’t realize right away, but I was for sure staring at them. I was curious what they were doing in Quito and why they were on the bus and – man – they’re pretty weird lookin’ those white people. If I’ve been here less than three weeks and am already unconsciously thinking that, I can only imagine how people who have lived in Quito or Latin America their whole lives would feel. So, sorry to you.

 

Now to Sunday.

Host Baby woke me up around 7 per usual on Sunday, but I was able to go back to sleep. Around 8:30, my host mom, came into my room and asked if I wanted to go running with X (host brother) and N (host sister). I hadn’t been told of any particular schedule for the day, so I thanked her, but said that I’d sleep a little more and then run on my own. She told me that we’d be going on a “paseo” at 10. As you’ll find out from my blog I’ll be posting in May, I had originally thought that “paseo” meant “walk” only to discover that it seemed to mean something more like adventure or trip. That meant I only had a little time to run and be ready. So after only five or ten minutes more of sitting in bed, I got up, went for a short run, and showered and was ready before 10.

 

That’s when my host mom came into my room to tell me she and Host Dad would be walking the dogs and asked if I was going out. I was super confused because I had thought I’d be going with them. So, of course, I unintentionally invited myself on their walk. X and N were still running, so we took Host Baby and the two dogs out for a walk. It was a lovely day and they showed me how the main road gets closed down for pedestrians and cyclists on Sundays. I even saw a man giving his dog a sort of hug-y/piggyback ride on a bike. They then showed me a great park a couple blocks down from the house for running and walking in etc. We returned home for breakfast and at breakfast, my host mom told me we’d be going out to lunch after breakfast for her brother-in-law’s birthday, which was the next day. I was already hungry when I was hurried into the car, since breakfast had been small and I was excited for the promise of Mexican food. However, we were to a store first. A “ferretería,” which sadly, does not mean a store that sells ferrets. It’s a hardware store. I followed my family around pretty aimlessly and they didn’t find what they needed so we went to what my host brother described as “the walmart of Ecuador.” It was cleaner than any Walmart I’ve been to, but to be fair I try to stay out of Walmarts. They found what they needed and I found out that my host brother is slowly moving out of the house into his own, which made me pretty sad. I realize he’s 32, but he’s great to have around.

 

At that point is was almost 1:30 and I was pretty darn hungry so when we got in the car again, I was grateful when we headed to the restaurant. We had planned to meet the family there at 1:45 apparently. The rest showed up at 2:30. I just love Ecuadorian time. I had consciously chosen not to bring my book because I didn’t want to be antisocial and I thought we’d just be getting lunch, but I regretted that decision for the entire hour that I sat and watched my host mom make faces at Host Baby while everyone else stood or sat in silence. Finally everyone arrived and – all eighteen of us – were seated. I’ll spare you the details of lunch, but we went around the table and everyone said something kind about the birthday boy, which is a tradition I think we should start in the US, and then we toasted him etc. The food was amazing and for dessert N and I split a crepe with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and strawberries. NOTE: I was asked if I wanted to split a dessert with my sister and said yes, of course, but told her to choose whatever she wanted and I’d split it. (To which her mom jumped in: but nothing with peanuts!!! Because I mentioned to them once that my tongue gets itchy when I eat peanuts so I prefer not to eat them and now I think they think I’ll die if I touch one. Anyway.) I went with the flow and it worked out completely. Good lesson for me. I was feeling pretty drained by the end of lunch because, for one, it was 4:30, and secondly, I couldn’t keep up with the fast paced Spanish of eighteen people. It was the worst of both worlds for an introvert – I was surrounded by too many people and couldn’t connect with any. The good news is that I’ve spent every Sunday so far with my host dad’s family and I have understood and been able to talk more and more each time.

 

Even though I felt completely done for the day, I thought that it would be okay, because I’d be home by five and could sit in my room alone and do all that homework that I hadn’t done yet.

 

"HA! Pysch!" says the Ecuadorian family tradition. When we got in the car again, I didn’t realize we were driving to Host Grandma’s house. It was the same eighteen people, but instead we talked and watched fútbol. And then we had tea and ate cake. I’d like to say that I laughed heartily with them and understood every word, but that wouldn’t be true. I fell asleep while watching fútbol twice and by the end I was panicking about the work I had and my completely screwed up schedule to the point that I was almost in tears. So, yes, I’m getting better at this whole “go with the flow” thing, but it’s not my strong point yet.

 

After seven and a half hours of family time, we finally left and I got to retreat into my room and panic there before getting my work done easily with time to FaceTime my family before getting to sleep.

 

And there you have it. Endless family time is the traditional Ecuadorian Sunday. It sounds fabulous to me – now that I know to plan for it.

A Veces, Los Profesores No Vienen en el Primer Día de Las Clases

My first week of classes finished today! I have Spanish every day of the week (Monday through Friday) from 9-12:30. I haven’t had a Friday class since high school and 3 hours every day (we get a half hour break for a “cafecito”) is intense. The diversity of my class is incredible. With only about fifteen students, we represent at least ten countries and span about twenty years. This is great because there’s no one common language so we have to speak Spanish, and it’s challenging because I’ve never heard Spanish with a French, Korean, Haitian etc. accent so I’m learning to learn Spanish in a couple different ways. Another big difference when compared to my usual college classes, is that most of the students are taking the class because their spouse or significant other is Ecuadorian or because they are missionaries living in Quito. I got a “cafecito” with one of the missionaries as forced class bonding (thanks to our professor) and it ended up being amazing to hear about his reasons, and the other reasons he knew of in our class, for coming to Quito and being in Spanish classes. I mostly really like the class; my professor is funny and gives useful advice and helpful homework. She corrects us constantly, which gets annoying when you're trying to get an idea out, but is, of course, very helpful. She has a little thing about Americans though – she told us the first day that the Americans would have a hard time integrating into the class and today when we were talking about recipes from our countries, she put off the US recipes for as long as possible. Then, when she did ask, she made a comment about how pizza and hamburgers weren’t really dishes. I proved her wrong with my delicious English Muffin recipe. Ha. (And thanks Dad). It is also apparently completely okay to assume racial stereotypes. Some of the “jokes” that have been made have sent my Pitzer brain reeling. My classmates are fun, if not a little cliquey, there’s a group that sits in the front of the room and talks to each other in Russian while the professor or students are talking, so naturally that’s driving me crazy. Yay learning to go with the flow!

My other class at La Católica is Sociology of Latin America (Sociología de Latinoamérica) to be referred to as Soc or the English name. This class starts at 7am. The trip to school takes a little over an hour when there's traffic and about an hour when there's not, so it's an early morning. Six of the eight the Pitzer students are taking this class, so we all met up a little before 7 on Tuesday, the first day, and entered the classroom. There were a couple Ecuadorian students, but no professor. As time went by more and more Ecuadorian students trickled in, but no professor. We waited for probably an hour before deciding to get some food in one of the cafeterias. Later we found out that, “sometimes professors just don’t come on the first day!” from the international student coordinator. This is also something my Amurican(!) brain couldn’t quite comprehend. When our professor didn’t come Thursday either they finally told us that the professor had had a family thing and would be back next week. Thank you, PUCE, I woke up at 5am on two separate occasions for something you could have told me days ago would not be happening.

Tuesday ended up being a rough day in general. I was feeling those promised culture shocks for sure. I wanted the English language and American food and for people to stop looking at my weird hair color, and also a hug from my mom. Things are just fine now, eating some ritz crackers and M&Ms also helped, not gonna lie. The biggest thing for me thus far is learning to balance everything they tell you in their safety talks with the actuality of what is happening. The bus has especially tough for me. For one, it’s hard to pick where to sit. Do I sit in the back so I can definitely make it off when it gets to my stop? Do I sit in the front so the bus driver can see whatever is happening near me? Do I sit by the window to protect my stuff and avoid having random guys’ crotches in my face? (Seriously: note to bus riders, you do NOT have to be that close). Do I sit in the aisle to allow for an easy exit if someone weird sits by me or decides to pull out a huge knife (actual story from safety talk)? Decisions decisions… 

My experiences on the buses, a couple of which I’ll share, haven’t made it any easier to decide where to sit. On Tuesday a guy decided to help me onto the incredibly crowded bus (totally fine) but then keep his arm around my waist for at least five minutes, which feels like an eternity when a strange man has you essentially in his possession despite you saying “gracias no mas” several times and because of how crowded the bus is you have nowhere to go (not totally fine). On Thursday an older, creepy, man (but not old enough to be harmless) tried to stick his head between Ami’s and mine and ask us where we were from and how we were. When we looked away and didn’t answer he grumbled before lighting up a cigarette (yes on the bus). Thankfully he got off a couple stops before we needed to. The streets can be weird too. On the street on Tuesday a guy tried to get me to help him in a practiced version of bad Spanish (the way a native English speaker would speak if they were pretending to not know English) and although I walked away pretending not to speak any Spanish, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Getting around on my own is definitely the thing that makes me most nervous.

All of that being said, great things have been happening too. I tried sheep intestines on Wednesday, and although that wasn’t great [at all!!!] it was fun to have my host family laughing at me for disliking one of the Ecuadorian favorites. I’ve had a lot of interesting talks with my host family this week during dinners, which has been great. Wednesday, on the bus, an 18-year-old studying at another university heard Ami, Caroline, and I speaking in English, so he asked for our help with his English homework. He’d been studying it for about two weeks. He really wanted us to just do his homework for him, but we had a good time chatting and trying to make him learn plurals vs. singulars himself. Caroline, Ami, and I all have different versions of this story, which is probably my favorite part about that happening. I will say that when I started helping him, Ami and Caroline made a joke about putting this story on my blog – little did they know I’d already been thinking about what I was going to say. Finally, on the way home today a stray dog chose me to be his buddy. I’ve walked to the bus stop and home a couple times on my own and it’s fine, but I prefer having company – wait quick thing. I really want to learn how to say, “I don’t speak English” in French because whenever I’m walking alone guys like to try to talk to me in English: “Hi friend, how you doing?” or “What’s up friend” *sneering and giggles ensue* etc. and although I know I should (and do) just ignore them, I dislike this quite a lot and I’d love to spit out something in French just to spite them. ANYWAY! On my way home, no one talked to me or got too close to me because this little dirt covered stray dog with his wagging tail was with me the whole way.

I'm also beginning to learn the more subtle differences in the Spanish language that you don't learn in class because your teacher just wants you to understand conjugations (which of course are highly important as well). I've gotten a handle on the difference between the verbs "to bring" vs "to take" and "to talk" vs "to say" etc. I also found out today that the reason give me funny looks when I ask them whether they go in a "coche" or the bus is because, while "coche" means car in Spain and other Spanish speaking countries, in Equator "coche" is a stroller for babies or a grocery cart. Thus, I've been asking a ton of people about driving their grocery cart... whoops! 

Here's to understanding more and more as the weeks go by. 

La Integración

It is crazy to me that I arrived in Ecuador only just over a week ago. It feels like so much more time has gone by.

The past four days have been awesome and intense. This blog is about Wednesday-Friday, I have another one about yesterday that I’m writing now called “El Día en La Selva” but due to reasons I can’t post it until May, so look forward to that.

Wednesday through Friday was full of orientation for PUCE, the Ecuadorian school we will be taking classes at. [note: I will either refer to it as PUCE or as La Católica]. They scared us sufficiently about the safety elements of living in Quito, but overall it was fun to meet the other students studying abroad. I tested well enough in Spanish to take at least one regular (non-Spanish specific) class at the university, so I was able to pick out a couple to visit next week. Despite the concentration in the classroom, a few great things happened during the week.

First, I told my first joke in Spanish. Host Mom and I were clinging to the poles made for people standing on the bus as it stopped and started with traffic. We kept lurching around, trying to keep our balance without knocking anyone else over as more and more people piled in. Because Host Mom always worriedly tells me to take it easy when I head out on runs, I decided to assuage her worries with a joke by telling her, in Spanish, that I wouldn’t have to do core exercises at home because I’d gain muscles from holding onto the bus everyday. Apparently it was successful because she laughed. She did correct my vocabulary about one thing, but later I heard her telling another mom about what I had said, so I’m feeling good about that one. I’d also like to mention here that the Pitzer crew has successfully taken the bus for the past couple trips without our moms.

The day after my successful joke was full of adventure. Caroline and I got lost looking for the building that had our passports and ended up walking a good hour and a half in the hot Quito sun. We had turned back at one point because we had gone too far. It turns out we had gone just short one block. When we finally saw arrived the building we were on the wrong side of the street. We could have walked another half a block to the nearest crosswalk, but we didn’t. After running across two lanes of traffic one way, a bus lane, getting stuck between the bus lane and the next two lanes, and sprinting across the last two lanes of traffic going the other way, we made it safely to the building. I never ever want to do that again. We got a little lost going back to La Católica, but made it in time to enjoy a delicious crepe (and for Caroline a yummy looking salad) from one of La Católica’s cafeterias.

The last part of our day consisted of dance lessons. I am bad at dancing. I like dancing a lot, but I probably shouldn’t be allowed to do so. Anyway, they put the short people, including myself because the group is mainly Americans, in the front of the room (I’m average to tall for Ecuadorians). The first dance we worked on was salsa and it was going pretty well for me for a while. Not that I was amazing or anything, but I had the steps down and I was starting to feel pretty good about myself. Then somehow, and I’ve tried to figure out how since and still can’t work out how, I tripped on my own pants. And this is one of the only pair of pants I own that aren’t too long for me. I took that as an extra sign that I really shouldn’t dance. All-in-all it was a really fun time.

On Friday, all of the foreign students were gathered together, put on a bus, and driven somewhere. Host family asked where they had taken us and I didn’t realize until then that I really had no idea. The day was fun – we did sack and wheelbarrow races, egg tosses, and other bonding activities. My team "Chulos Elefantes" lost, but had a blast the entire time. For lunch, we had all brought food from our host homes and ate them while talking on the courtyard grass under the shade of the trees. I realize this sounds peaceful and a little picturesque. It was, but I was way too distracted by the stories I was hearing to enjoy it in that way. Some of the foreign students have been here for a whole semester all ready and man I have honestly never heard such crazy stories in my life. It sounds like Ecuador likes to go hard. I’m not even sure what else to say about them because it they were so hilariously shocking and told with such a straight face.

The rest of the day was more relaxed and normal by my standards. Some people went into the pool and some others (myself included) played cards and laughed a lot.

When I got home I knew I needed to shower, so I did so without thinking too much about it. The water was it’s usual cold. I thought that maybe a little colder than usual, but it was also pouring as we walked home so I decided that it was probably just that I wanted it to be warmer. That night at dinner Host Mom and Host Brother asked me if my shower water was cold. I shrugged and said a little, but that is was fine. Host Brother then informed me that the gas for the hot water had been out and they didn’t know because I hadn’t said anything. Host Mom was laughing and told me to tell her next time. So I don’t actually need to take cold showers here.

School starts tomorrow, I am looking forward to the adventures that that will bring.

Cosas A Que Me Estoy Acostumbrando

Disclaimer: I don’t know if my title is correct grammar. Lilly?*

 

Regardless, after a day of touring options for the volunteer portion of our program yesterday and registering my visa today, the fact that I am going to be here for a long time is juuuust beginning to become a tangible reality to me. Because of this, though I hope to have many more funny stories to share, many things feel more serious to me.

 

Here are some things I’m getting used to as I adjust to Quito:

 

Food/meals: I’ve never been great at eating a lot in one sitting (unless it’s ice cream) so the Ecuadorian way of eating is a double whammy for me. Not only is it three meals a day (I’m one of those people that likes to eat a bunch of small “meals”/snacks), but breakfast and dinner are small to make room for a huge lunch. I like eating a lighter meal around 20:00, but I cannot seem to get myself to eat a full lunch. I’ve generally liked the food. It’s pretty plain here which is perfect for my super-tasting taste buds. Plus we drink tea or fresh juice with everything, which I am completely down with.

 

Climate/Altitude: Quito is about 9,350 feet (higher than A/U but lower than Leadville). I have gone on two highly successful (haha) runs since I arrived. After taking only three days off, I was itching to run again, and after 10 minutes each run, I was done. We’ll say I’m still adjusting. My host mom keeps reminding me how high the altitude is and how I need to take it easy. Weather wise, Quito is on the equator so there are barely seasons although technically it is the rainy season through May. This means that it is always a dry 70 degrees, which I absolutely love. However, just stepping outside in Quito makes me sweat like crazy. I have no idea why. It’s not straight up hot, but the sun is intense here. The combination of slightly chilly, but incredibly sunny apparently makes me sweat a ton. Even my feet, which is definitely odd. I’m hoping I adjust so that stops happening. Sorry for all that personal info…

 

Feeling lonely: I like being alone, so I’m not used to feeling lonely. It’s silly because I have access to internet whenever I’m home so I can keep in touch well with the world outside Quito, but I’m more alone than I’m used to.

 

The dress: DEAR PITZER, MAKE A BETTER PACKING LIST!!! To be fair, our packing list suggested we dress in layers, which I highly recommend, but it left out many crucial details. People in Quito always look nice! Not just clean, but put together. I feel constantly underdressed in my jeans, vnecks, sweatshirts, beat-up sneakers, and no make-up (the things that Pitzer recommended).

 

The toilet paper: it goes into a trash bin next to the toilet rather than in the toilet. I have to be careful to think about this. I have a more specific story on that, but I don’t know that it belongs on a public blog.

 

Noises: I am decidedly not a big city person. There are always dogs barking, cars, alarms, and who-knows-what-else sounding through the windows. We live near an airport though, so the sound of planes flying overhead is a comforting reminder of home.

 

Transportation: The main form of transportation here is bus. I will be using the bus to get from my house to my school to Pitzer to the place I’ll be volunteering at etc. Our host mothers are taking the bus trips with us for this week. Yesterday, for our first bus ride in Quito our host moms accompanied us. My host mother and I met up with the two other host families that live in my neighborhood and we headed towards the bus. We got to the stop shortly before our bus arrived and Lilly’s mom, Lilly, and Caroline boarded the bus, and I was up next, but as I stepped on, someone said something to me in Spanish and the bus began moving. To clarify: I had not actually fully gotten myself on the bus, so when it began moving I was completely surprised. I don’t know exactly what happened next, but I ended up stepping off the bus and turning towards my mom and Caroline’s mom just in time for her to exclaim “¡Mi hija!” as Caroline was taken away by the bus. Fortunately, we managed to get on another bus a few minutes later and we all made it safely to Pitzer. The ride home went much more smoothly. I’m still working out exactly which bus to take. So far what I’ve learned about buses in Quito: the bus does not care, you think it’s full? Haha let’s cram in 5 more!, and my oh my traffic truly is a mess.

 

In other news, I finally figured out my family! Specifically, I’ve figured out the ages of my siblings. My brother, Xavier is 32. My sister, Natalí (I may have spelled that wrong) is almost exactly my age. She was born on December 2^nd of the same year as me. When we discovered this she proudly exclaimed “¡Ah ha, estoy mayor!” (“I’m older!”). I felt that this was an appropriate reaction, as mine would be similar if I had grown up with a constant influx of foreigners and finally found myself to be older than one. And I bet you’re all curious about that baby, huh? Don’t you worry; he is my sister’s, not a stray.

 

I also believe I’ve decided where I am going to volunteer, but I’m going to hold off on that story until I’m sure just in case something changes. Spoiler alert: it involves children hugging me.

 

Orientation for school begins tomorrow! Wish me luck on the bus.

*Lilly has corrected my grammar and I have changed the title to reflect that

¡Mi Familia!

When I pictured meeting my host mother for the first time, I pictured the girls on my abroad lined up with our luggage surrounding us looking anxious until a smiling woman came up to us and said our names in a questioning tone… Needless to say it did not go like this. We walked into the lobby of our hotel to find seven moms eagerly awaiting all of us with hugs. My mother greeted me with the traditional Ecuadorian kiss on the right (always the right) cheek, which I am learning to stop involuntarily cringing away from, and then promptly corrected my grammar. I am not being sarcastic when I say that it was perfect. It was then a flurry of Spanish and telling us who is neighbors with who and who is cousins with who etc. It was awesome and slightly terrifying. I couldn’t stop grinning.

My mom and dad took me to my aunt’s house first where something was happening. I say something because I couldn’t quite follow the conversation. Meeting extended family was intimidating. I promptly forgot each one of their names and relations. Speaking of getting used to the cheek kissing, one of my uncles (or cousins?) went to kiss my right cheek and I, the one who hates contact, backed my face away slightly rather than turning towards him, so that my left cheek was still facing him. I froze there and he paused for a second before deciding to just kiss my left cheek. It was more awkward than I would have expected. Cheek side does make a difference, don’t try to stop it!

 I *almost* have my direct family figured out now. It includes a mom and dad, older brother and an ambiguously aged sister. I’ll keep you updated on that one. There is also a baby. I’m not sure where he fits in to it all.

Quick break: Things I wish my Spanish teachers had told me: “You are not good Spanish, practice more.” Here’s the thing, I have never gotten below an A- in any of the seven Spanish classes I have taken. Even if I’m being real here and mention that the first four classes don’t count because I lost it all in my two year hiatus, it is still absolutely absurd that I could get A’s in the more recent ones and then meet my host family, turn bright red, and speak in something that would embarrass the term “broken Spanish.” I’m pretty sure the five-month-old baby speaks more fluently than me and all I’ve heard him do is cry and burp.

I understand much of what they say, but if there’s a word I don’t know or if comes out fast, both the family and I have learned that I have an expressively go-to panicked face for my lack of understanding. My family is great though. They are patient with my lack of vocabulary and failure to create coherent sentences. They are also very friendly and easy-going.

The happiest surprise for me was that the family has two dogs! (Dobby, they pale in comparison to you, don’t worry). It is wonderful to have happy pets bounding around. It feels quite home-y. ¡Me gusta mi familia mucho!

Now off to bed. We have a busy week ahead of us.

El Primer Día

P1:

After leaving my house at 6pm on Thursday, I arrived in Quito yesterday around 3:30pm. (Oh shoot I need to get used to military time, I’ll try to use that from now on). ALSO: handy tip, don’t use the “okay” sign, use the thumbs up, but that’s another story. Anyway, Lilly and I landed at the Quito airport at 14:00, got through customs easily, and ventured out into the terminal expecting to see our Pitzer in Ecuador guide/professor/all-around-helpful-person, Sebastian, waiting for us with a sign with our names as he had told us he would during our orientation. He wasn’t there. After a few minutes of concern and debate and then a couple failed attempts at calling him, he appeared through the crowd. He greeted us warmly and then directed us towards a taxi. Now: brief interlude. At our Pitzer orientation we had been told Sebastian would take us directly from the airport to the hotel. Thus, when Sebastian put Lilly and I in a taxi and told us he had paid the driver already and given him directions and that he would see us the next day at 10, we were a little surprised. We knew his partner Viviana would be at the hotel, but beyond that we were on our own. Sebastian told us the ride would be about an hour so we decided we might as well sit back and enjoy the view.

Ecuador is beautiful. It is mountainous with rich green colors and interesting types of trees. There were puffy clouds to contrast the perfect blue of the sky. At one point, we made a turn and a view of a city on the tip of a mountain unfurled above us. I felt a bit like I’d imagine the people finding Atlantis would feel. It was breathtaking. The car began its ascent of the hill and I realized that this must be Quito. Once in the city the car maneuvered around traffic and people and motorcycles and then suddenly pulled over on the side of the street. The driver told us that our hotel was just up the street a little. Lilly and I looked at each other, confused and nervous. We couldn’t see the hotel name anywhere and couldn’t decide if this street was particularly sketchy. We looked for the street name Sebastian had mentioned, but the sign was angled away from us. A man from down the road came to grab our bags and we had no choice but to follow. After almost 20 hours of travel we were a bit frazzled. The man with our bags stopped outside of a nondescript building and bade us to go in. We paused, but then noticed the doormat read the name of the hotel and then walked in, feeling relieved. Viviana leapt up from her chair and welcomed us with hugs and kisses then helped us get our room squared away.

I’d like to say that because Lilly and I were the first here, we toured around the city and went on some grand adventure, but the truth is that we were both so tired that we stayed in the hotel and did nothing while still not letting each other sleep. I fell asleep promptly and happily at 9:30 - whoops! I mean 21:30. 

P2:

Today was filled with its own set of adventures. The group of us traveled around the historic part of Quito, seeing some ornate churches and the incredible view from la basilica (one of the views is below). We also enjoyed delicious food and beverages. However, the funniest part of the day happened before we left the hotel.

Lilly and I were told that breakfast was served between 7 and 9, so we woke up at 8 to get an 8:30 breakfast. We walked down to the café and I showed my breakfast voucher to the man that had helped with our bags the day before. Side note: everything is in Spanish. I realize that that’s a “duh” thing to say, but it makes everything more confusing. Writing my stories down in English makes me feel very silly, but rest assured it was much more convoluted in real life. Lilly and I were directed into the café to the cashier. We got menus and ordered something. I showed my voucher again but they waved it away. I thought that that was weird, but I assumed that they simply did not need it. As we walked towards a table in the back, we realized that there was a side room with a breakfast buffet. We didn’t want to be rude so we decided to wait to eat what we ordered and not worry about our obvious mistake. (Sorry Pitzer funds…) When our food arrived, we were not given any utensils. This was strange as our breakfast consisted of yogurt, fruit in a cup, bread with spreads on the side, and a hardboiled egg. We looked around for utensils, but didn’t see any. We discussed the possibilities and landed on the idea that perhaps Ecuadorians did not use utensils. We began eating all of our food with our hands and drinking our yogurt. I promise it isn’t as gross as it seems. To be honest, I’ve always been tactile with my food (my mom managed to mostly break me of that by middle school) and apparently so has Lilly so we were having a grand old time. We finished our meal and headed back to our room to wait until it was time to meet with Sebastian, Viviana, and the rest of our group. To kill the time we decided to read up on culture and customs in Ecuador. We found a couple web pages and under “etiquette” of the first one the first note was “Ecuadorians use utensils for everything, even fruit.” We looked at each other slightly horrified, realizing how barbaric and horribly foreign we must have seemed and how the looks we were getting were perhaps not because of my blonde hair and blue eyes. Whoops.

At least tomorrow when we join our host families, I won’t dig in to my first homemade meal in Ecuador with my fingers.

P.S. I just ran downstairs to see if I could get a new wifi password because my last one got lost somewhere in my luggage yesterday. After practicing before I left my room and during the elevator ride down, I asked the concierge IN SPANISH if I could have a new wifi password because I lost my old one. I was very proud of myself when 1. It came out correctly and 2. He responded in Spanish. As I walked giddily towards the elevator, the concierge stopped me and said in a positive tone, in Spanish, that I should practice my Spanish. Well, there goes sounding native.

Hasta Luego Amigos

Today is the day! My bags are packed (I'm ready to go, I'm standin' here outside your door...) [sorry, I can't say those words without thinking of Leaving on a Jet Plane], one bag weighing in at a perfect 49.8lbs. I leave Santa Barbara this evening and arrive in Quito tomorrow afternoon. I'm nervous, but I know it will be an incredible experience. For those of you who know me or read my blog about the car wash, you know that firsts are not my thing and that planning and scheduling are my favorite ways to operate. With going abroad, there will be many firsts and I can't plan any of it! (Hence my nerves). My The Breakfast Club calendar is packed away, but aside from birthdays of family and friends and the date I return home, it is empty.

Because I am just nervous with no real expectations or plans, I thought that my blog before I leave could be my goals. I’m generally good at holding myself accountable for my goals, but in this case I feel the need to publish them to the world – if anything just to remind myself.

Dear Jordan, here are your goals as you made them sitting in your bed in California:

1.     Speak Spanish! All the Spanish!!! You will mess up and that will be great!

2.     Say yes to… adventures (Sorry Feby, I can’t commit to saying yes to everything)

3.     Surprise yourself

4.     Act with grace, especially when you make all those mistakes you’ll make

5.     Live in each moment

I also wanted to say a brief thank you to all of you who have supported and are continuing to support me in my endeavors. I know that without a lot of you who are reading this, and many who aren't, my life wouldn’t be the same. On this next grand adventure, I can feel the love and support following me the whole way.

Talk to you all in Ecuador!

¡Voy a Ecuador!

Hello to all!

Welcome to my new blog. I have created it for two reasons.

The first being that as of a month ago, I am no longer a teenager, so my old blog entitled "Bloggings From a Teenaged Nothing" is no longer applicable. Also, I got some comments about the "nothing" portion. (See Grammy, it's Twenty *something* now - both punny and less self-deprecating).

The second, and more prevalent, reason is that I am leaving this Thursday for my semester-long abroad to Ecuador. I wanted a way for people (aka my parents and grandparents and maybe my brother if I bribe him) to follow my journey. My mom suggested I call it "A Broad Abroad," but I wasn't sure that would be most applicable to the rest of life should I continue blogging upon my return.

Look forward to bad puns, misspellings and bad grammar in not one, but two, languages, and hopefully some grand adventures and silly stories.

All best,
Jordan