¡hola!
literally just got back from the weekend adventure in ovatalo and peguche. otavalo is this tiny little town that revolves around the market pretty much everyday. a group of 13 (HUGE awkward gringo group!) travled there saturday morning, after an exciting outing in gringolandia on friday night, and hit up the market. spenser, kristina and i decided to stay there overnight... so we split off from the tourist group early and staked out our hostel. it was a great little place... 10 bucks per night, including breakfast, with some hammocks and a sweet view. (the hammocks obviously sold me. duh.) oh. and the bed was about 5 bajillion times more comfortable than the plywood piece of trash i sleep on in quito. good.ness. bottom line: it was nice.
we hit up the market for awhile and i was definitely overwhelmed with vendors calling me 'amiga' and all of that nonsense to get me to buy things. but nothing cures a feeling of overwhelming-ness (totally not a word...) like a piece of pie. and what do you know? there just happened to be a pie place on the corner! so out of place in ecuador (basically if it looks like good food, it is probably out of place). the three of us indulged in pie for lunch (hey... it's better than street vendor food!) and forged our way back through the market.
after the market adventure we purused the lonely planet guide to see what to do... but otavalo is so small and the options are definitely limiting... so. we CLEARLY chose to go hike to the magic tree. yes, the magic tree. it supposedly has healing powers and fun things like that. and let's be honest, i could use some healing powers at this point in my journey. anyways. we started heading in the direction we thought was correct... and as per usual, we ended up in the incorrect place but saw some cool things on the way. we took a small cobblestoned road way up a hill and saw the way the locals live... it was neat and kind of shocking at the same time. i just can't believe the way some people live... and they were tilling the fields by hand at 6 pm on a saturday. it just never ceases to shock me. we finally made it to this ridge and just sat down and looked out over the town... i like being up high... it makes me feel much calmer as the hustle and bustle of the cities stresses me out... especially since i can't understand 98.73857% of what is said to me. but anyways. good views. good talks. and hopefully good pictures. we headed back down before dark and nearly got chewed to bits by some dogs (no worries. we escaped unscathed.)... and stumbled upon a festival for inti raymi, the sun god (now known as saint paul... i think?) there were some sweet costumes, cool dances and no gringos, so it was fun to kind of see real life there minus the tourists. i enjoyed watching it. after that, we headed back to the hostel and crashed in the hammocks for awhile. (seriously... nothing is better than a book, an iPod, a hammock and a view of a volcano from a roof. promise.)
the next day (today)... we were up and moving at 7:30... grabbed breakfast and hit the market for an hour or so. i got some cool things for people, which is always fun... and we (kind of) successfully bartered just a little bit. then we caught a bus to peguche, literally a small speck of a town in the middle of nowhere. we went threre to see this waterfall (una cascada)... which was free (bonus points!)... and really beautiful. then we hiked a bit and sat on a big tree spanning a small river downstream of the waterfall. it was pretty sweet. i'm liking the off the beaten path stuff the best so far. (american tourists are seriously the most annoying species alive. trust me.) we headed back into town, sampling empanadas, some strawberry cream thing, and helado (ice cream) along the way.
now we are back in quito... after a successful bus ride. complete with live rooster and lots of bizarre smells. (a bus ride here just would not be complete without bizarre smells.) and spenser and i are plotting how to successfully bag our dinner tonight and make peanut butter and banana sandwiches with fresh nanners from otavalo. (we also stocked up on bags at the market for special occasions such as this.)
bottom line: a good weekend trip. ecuador is really beautiful... even amidst the craziness. and although i have to ask myself 'where the hell am i?!' roughly 10-plus times everyday... i am slowly adjusting to life in south america. (slowly. and i would still kill someone for a big burger and REAL milk right now.) later skaters.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
que es mi vida?!?!
i forgot to mention that i'm fairly certain i was served a one-day old piece of kentucky fried chicken that was literally just sitting in the refrigerator (just sitting. you heard me: no paper towel, no nada...) last night and was reheated for my lunchtime pleasure today.
spenser mentioned that she saw this little morsel while putting away the jam this morning. this, of course, was after learning we have consumed canned meat. on more than one occasion.
but this is ALSO after picking up our recent technique of plastic bagging our food when ana maria is in the kitchem and not watching... and then taking it out when we leave. i feel like such a rebel without a cause. well. perhaps not so stellar food is the cause... but trust me, you would do the same thing.
spenser mentioned that she saw this little morsel while putting away the jam this morning. this, of course, was after learning we have consumed canned meat. on more than one occasion.
but this is ALSO after picking up our recent technique of plastic bagging our food when ana maria is in the kitchem and not watching... and then taking it out when we leave. i feel like such a rebel without a cause. well. perhaps not so stellar food is the cause... but trust me, you would do the same thing.
long time, no update...
dear friends and family (if anyone actually reads this),
sorry i am a miserable excuse for a blogger... the past week has been up and down crazy and ridiculous and i have not found time to sit down for longer than 2.2 seconds to write about my life: ecuadorian style. and honestly, now that i am here, i don't even know where to begin...
basically after june 15th life around here picked up some speed. here's the list:
1. i got an apartment-mate. her name is spenser, she's going to be a senior in high school, she's from california, and we get along great. (AND she has a cat named scout... now please, tell me this wasn't meant to be!?!)
2. ecuador tied argentina in argentina (futbol obviously) in the last 30 seconds of the game... they were winning... which would have been a first in history. anyways. we watched the game at a bar. it was fun. and rowdy.
3. we bought tickets to see the ecuador versus columbia game in quito the following wednesday (the 18th)... we got there super early to get seats... and of course, i forgot my ticket at home. i got a cab back and everything worked out... oh, and one of my friends got pick-pocketed. quite the adventure. the game was ridiculous. it started pouring down rain (typical quito) an hour an a half before the game... so we were soaked... and cold... and it was just a recipe for disaster. some of us left at halftime because we were numb and that is stupid. (it was a 0-0 tie anyways. lame.)
4. my good friend, andy (from school), got into quito wednesday night at like 11 pm. i was waiting for him at the aeropuerto until 12:30 before i literally started panicking... like think gringa breakdown in the airport... awesome sight. let me tell you. but some nice guys in the tourism business helped me out and found out the customs line was 2 hours long... so it all worked out. andy got here. i cried. and we got back to the apartment at 2 am. solid.
5. i started spanish classes in the morning (instead of the afternoon) with this miserable woman named patricia who just drills grammar the whole 4 hours. so. fun. oh well. 4 more days.
6. i got the flu promptly following andy's arrival (that thursday) and was incapacitated for a good chunk of time. (this is all after we climbed to the top of the basilica and i was fairly certain there were no safety regulations on the ladders. typical ecuador.)
7. we left saturday morning for baños, this super outdoorsy town and the place i was most excited to visit... i almost fainted in the trolley station due to a lack of food... (from the flu)... but that was remedied... but i felt like crap all day, so i just lounged in the hostel and moped and pouted.
8. the next morning i woke up and needed to get back to quito to see a doctor pronto... so we caught a bus back and met up with the program director and went to the gynocologist... yes, you heard correctly. and no, i don't want to talk about it. (it was just a yeast infection... sorry for the too much information, but i think it is too ridiculous not to mention that i had to go to the stupid gyno in stupid ecudor. like seriously?! what is my life?! i need someone to follow me around with a camera because i'm fairly certain it would make a phenomenal sitcom.)
9. all is well. and i get another fever sunday night. but we're all good.
10. andy and i explored quito and all that jazz... and we took a day trip to mindo on wednesday. we decided to go the anti-tourist route and walk to the waterfall hike ourselves. of course we find this sweet looking trail, complete with river traversing awesomeness... we take it... and find it is not the most fun of hikes... but we finally make it to the waterfall (which you can drive almost the entire way to)... and we did the jumping deal and swimming in the water and all of that jazz. it was really beautiful... i promise pictures will come one day. sorry... but yeah. we made it back to quito for the night.
11. thursday we went up to the top of this hill in town called panecillo (little break loaf... yeah... leave it to the ecudorians...) and got some sweet views and pictures... then we checked my mcat scores (stupid pre-med ruins lives. i'm fairly certain of this. way to ruin an evening.) and went out to dinner with spenser to this nice place with GREAT food, for basically the first time in nearly a month! salmon never tasted so freaking good! :)
12. andy had to leave this morning in a cab at 4 am... so i went with him to the aeropuerto again... and he forgot his passport... so we went to the airport twice... said bye twice... and i might have cried twice. (this place throws the emotions way off. let me tell you.)
13. i went to class and to the museum with my professora. and here i am. internet cafe-ing it up.
those are the details of my life for the past week... tomorrow we are heading to otovalo to check out a sweet market and i have not decided if i am going to spend the night there or not... TBD. i leave next week to start volunteering in ibarra at the hospital (EEK)... so yeah. pretty exciting life around here. (although not so much now that spenser is in class and andy is gone. but i am making do.)
i guess on a more serious note, ecuador has forced me to do a lot of thinking. i mean, until last week i was by myself most of the day and i suppose you can't help but let your mind wander. it is difficult to be here in this big city when all you want is to be in some remote place doing good work. it is easy to forget that being here, studying my spanish, and learning to survive from day to day on my is part of the battle... part of the battle to getting to the point that i want to be. (wow. my english skills have gone downhill. forgive me.) it is hard to be separated from everyone who knows me best... especially when i went from literally living with my best friends... and having others right down the street. maybe separation is the wrong word... i can do the separation. i think it is hard to be in a foreign place where you understand the basics but no one knows you... or really even cares to know you. i miss sitting with people who knew what i was thinking without asking... and knew my sense of humor and knew when i needed a hug. but. i think that change, the kind that ultimately leads to becoming a better person, must happen during times of struggle. i mean, it only makes sense that way, or else change would be easy and none of us would fear it. (and i KNOW several people who fear change. i, of course, am not one of those... ha.) having andy here was such a nice change of pace. it was exciting to share this experience with someone i can talk it out with. someone i can bounce ideas off of. someone who does not make me feel crazy for not being 100% stoked for being here 100% of the time. i am not going to lie: this shit is hard. and i didn't realize the magnitude or importance of this struggle. sorry for rambling. i have not talked to many people today. one thing i have realized is that to hurt is human. and i get that. and i can hurt. i can get through hurt. what is difficult is to get through hurt when you are alone. ok, so i'm not literally ALONE... but. separated from everyone who does not need 15 backdrop stories to understand why i feel the way that i do.
anyways. enough circular roundabout semi-philosophic but not really BS for one day.
if you're reading this and worrying about me, don't. it's just something i have to get through in order to prove to myself that i can do this. and that i am more than a 2 digit mcat score and a 3 digit gpa. (which is hard to accept on most days.) sure there are tears. generally a fair amount of them. but i'm doing exactly what i wanted to do this summer and i don't think i would be happy anywhere else. this is my challenge. my opportunity. my time to find myself when i can't run and hide. i am 33% of the way in. and i refuse to fall down and waste away my next 6 weeks here. (unless i have to go the gynocologist again, which in that case... i quit.) life is good. ecuador is good. struggle is good. and i am going to be great. (send emails... i like to read them!)
besos,
sarah
sorry i am a miserable excuse for a blogger... the past week has been up and down crazy and ridiculous and i have not found time to sit down for longer than 2.2 seconds to write about my life: ecuadorian style. and honestly, now that i am here, i don't even know where to begin...
basically after june 15th life around here picked up some speed. here's the list:
1. i got an apartment-mate. her name is spenser, she's going to be a senior in high school, she's from california, and we get along great. (AND she has a cat named scout... now please, tell me this wasn't meant to be!?!)
2. ecuador tied argentina in argentina (futbol obviously) in the last 30 seconds of the game... they were winning... which would have been a first in history. anyways. we watched the game at a bar. it was fun. and rowdy.
3. we bought tickets to see the ecuador versus columbia game in quito the following wednesday (the 18th)... we got there super early to get seats... and of course, i forgot my ticket at home. i got a cab back and everything worked out... oh, and one of my friends got pick-pocketed. quite the adventure. the game was ridiculous. it started pouring down rain (typical quito) an hour an a half before the game... so we were soaked... and cold... and it was just a recipe for disaster. some of us left at halftime because we were numb and that is stupid. (it was a 0-0 tie anyways. lame.)
4. my good friend, andy (from school), got into quito wednesday night at like 11 pm. i was waiting for him at the aeropuerto until 12:30 before i literally started panicking... like think gringa breakdown in the airport... awesome sight. let me tell you. but some nice guys in the tourism business helped me out and found out the customs line was 2 hours long... so it all worked out. andy got here. i cried. and we got back to the apartment at 2 am. solid.
5. i started spanish classes in the morning (instead of the afternoon) with this miserable woman named patricia who just drills grammar the whole 4 hours. so. fun. oh well. 4 more days.
6. i got the flu promptly following andy's arrival (that thursday) and was incapacitated for a good chunk of time. (this is all after we climbed to the top of the basilica and i was fairly certain there were no safety regulations on the ladders. typical ecuador.)
7. we left saturday morning for baños, this super outdoorsy town and the place i was most excited to visit... i almost fainted in the trolley station due to a lack of food... (from the flu)... but that was remedied... but i felt like crap all day, so i just lounged in the hostel and moped and pouted.
8. the next morning i woke up and needed to get back to quito to see a doctor pronto... so we caught a bus back and met up with the program director and went to the gynocologist... yes, you heard correctly. and no, i don't want to talk about it. (it was just a yeast infection... sorry for the too much information, but i think it is too ridiculous not to mention that i had to go to the stupid gyno in stupid ecudor. like seriously?! what is my life?! i need someone to follow me around with a camera because i'm fairly certain it would make a phenomenal sitcom.)
9. all is well. and i get another fever sunday night. but we're all good.
10. andy and i explored quito and all that jazz... and we took a day trip to mindo on wednesday. we decided to go the anti-tourist route and walk to the waterfall hike ourselves. of course we find this sweet looking trail, complete with river traversing awesomeness... we take it... and find it is not the most fun of hikes... but we finally make it to the waterfall (which you can drive almost the entire way to)... and we did the jumping deal and swimming in the water and all of that jazz. it was really beautiful... i promise pictures will come one day. sorry... but yeah. we made it back to quito for the night.
11. thursday we went up to the top of this hill in town called panecillo (little break loaf... yeah... leave it to the ecudorians...) and got some sweet views and pictures... then we checked my mcat scores (stupid pre-med ruins lives. i'm fairly certain of this. way to ruin an evening.) and went out to dinner with spenser to this nice place with GREAT food, for basically the first time in nearly a month! salmon never tasted so freaking good! :)
12. andy had to leave this morning in a cab at 4 am... so i went with him to the aeropuerto again... and he forgot his passport... so we went to the airport twice... said bye twice... and i might have cried twice. (this place throws the emotions way off. let me tell you.)
13. i went to class and to the museum with my professora. and here i am. internet cafe-ing it up.
those are the details of my life for the past week... tomorrow we are heading to otovalo to check out a sweet market and i have not decided if i am going to spend the night there or not... TBD. i leave next week to start volunteering in ibarra at the hospital (EEK)... so yeah. pretty exciting life around here. (although not so much now that spenser is in class and andy is gone. but i am making do.)
i guess on a more serious note, ecuador has forced me to do a lot of thinking. i mean, until last week i was by myself most of the day and i suppose you can't help but let your mind wander. it is difficult to be here in this big city when all you want is to be in some remote place doing good work. it is easy to forget that being here, studying my spanish, and learning to survive from day to day on my is part of the battle... part of the battle to getting to the point that i want to be. (wow. my english skills have gone downhill. forgive me.) it is hard to be separated from everyone who knows me best... especially when i went from literally living with my best friends... and having others right down the street. maybe separation is the wrong word... i can do the separation. i think it is hard to be in a foreign place where you understand the basics but no one knows you... or really even cares to know you. i miss sitting with people who knew what i was thinking without asking... and knew my sense of humor and knew when i needed a hug. but. i think that change, the kind that ultimately leads to becoming a better person, must happen during times of struggle. i mean, it only makes sense that way, or else change would be easy and none of us would fear it. (and i KNOW several people who fear change. i, of course, am not one of those... ha.) having andy here was such a nice change of pace. it was exciting to share this experience with someone i can talk it out with. someone i can bounce ideas off of. someone who does not make me feel crazy for not being 100% stoked for being here 100% of the time. i am not going to lie: this shit is hard. and i didn't realize the magnitude or importance of this struggle. sorry for rambling. i have not talked to many people today. one thing i have realized is that to hurt is human. and i get that. and i can hurt. i can get through hurt. what is difficult is to get through hurt when you are alone. ok, so i'm not literally ALONE... but. separated from everyone who does not need 15 backdrop stories to understand why i feel the way that i do.
anyways. enough circular roundabout semi-philosophic but not really BS for one day.
if you're reading this and worrying about me, don't. it's just something i have to get through in order to prove to myself that i can do this. and that i am more than a 2 digit mcat score and a 3 digit gpa. (which is hard to accept on most days.) sure there are tears. generally a fair amount of them. but i'm doing exactly what i wanted to do this summer and i don't think i would be happy anywhere else. this is my challenge. my opportunity. my time to find myself when i can't run and hide. i am 33% of the way in. and i refuse to fall down and waste away my next 6 weeks here. (unless i have to go the gynocologist again, which in that case... i quit.) life is good. ecuador is good. struggle is good. and i am going to be great. (send emails... i like to read them!)
besos,
sarah
Sunday, June 15, 2008
so unorganized.
my posts have turned into random facts and adventures in list form... because i don´t have time to figure everything out ahead of time...
1. my señora told me last night i need to get my mustache waxed. (thanks, ana maria.)
2. i went to this huge volcano crater lake thing yesterday name Quiloatoa (which was like 4 hours outside of Quito) and we hiked all the way down and all the way up... i am SO sore this morning. it took an hour to hike straight up... in sand... wow. but it was so beautiful. i´ll post some pictures if i can ever get super fast internet.
3. the bus got stopped in the middle of one of many small towns on the way to the lake... it was because there was this festival for corpus christi going on... in the middle of the only road. so we hopped out and took some really amazing pictures of the local highlanders... so cool. i feel so artsy. haha.
4. on friday, i took the Teleferico thing, which is like a big gondola ski lift, up to the top of the volcano right beside quito. it is only a mere 4500 meters high. breathing was interesting. then we hiked for two more hours to try to summit this other high point, but we didn´t make it because we had class at 2. bah. maybe next week?
5. i will have a roommate at 11 this morning...
6. my friend, andy, is coming to visit for a week, which is phenomenal.
7. i am late to meet people to go to the equator.
8. i can speak better broken spanish and even conjugate verbs now.
9. i slept fo 10.5 hours last night.
10. we played el futbol... boys against girls last friday... boys won. bah.
11. i bought a raincoat. (the highlight of the week, no doubt.)
12. i am going to post some pictures soon. promise.
13. thank you for all of the emails and the cards... MUCH appreciated.
14. and i think that is it for now. off to the equator! (which is how EQUAdor got its name... who knew?! i didn´t... oops.)
more later. lots of good stories. no near death experiences (added bonus).
besos.
1. my señora told me last night i need to get my mustache waxed. (thanks, ana maria.)
2. i went to this huge volcano crater lake thing yesterday name Quiloatoa (which was like 4 hours outside of Quito) and we hiked all the way down and all the way up... i am SO sore this morning. it took an hour to hike straight up... in sand... wow. but it was so beautiful. i´ll post some pictures if i can ever get super fast internet.
3. the bus got stopped in the middle of one of many small towns on the way to the lake... it was because there was this festival for corpus christi going on... in the middle of the only road. so we hopped out and took some really amazing pictures of the local highlanders... so cool. i feel so artsy. haha.
4. on friday, i took the Teleferico thing, which is like a big gondola ski lift, up to the top of the volcano right beside quito. it is only a mere 4500 meters high. breathing was interesting. then we hiked for two more hours to try to summit this other high point, but we didn´t make it because we had class at 2. bah. maybe next week?
5. i will have a roommate at 11 this morning...
6. my friend, andy, is coming to visit for a week, which is phenomenal.
7. i am late to meet people to go to the equator.
8. i can speak better broken spanish and even conjugate verbs now.
9. i slept fo 10.5 hours last night.
10. we played el futbol... boys against girls last friday... boys won. bah.
11. i bought a raincoat. (the highlight of the week, no doubt.)
12. i am going to post some pictures soon. promise.
13. thank you for all of the emails and the cards... MUCH appreciated.
14. and i think that is it for now. off to the equator! (which is how EQUAdor got its name... who knew?! i didn´t... oops.)
more later. lots of good stories. no near death experiences (added bonus).
besos.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
random bits and pieces...
1. i finally found the big park in the city and decided to take a little run today. it turned out to be much smaller than i intended... mostly due to the fact that i thought i was going to die. i definitely underestimated the novel concept that quito is nearly 2 miles up. ok... so... denver is the mile high city... and i struggled to breathe there over spring break... and now i am in the two mile high city and oxygen is hard to come by. needless to say, it turned into 3 separate 5 minute jaunts because i literally could have passed out. (my HR was like 170 after FIVE minutes... i mean... i am not in fantastic shape... but goodness.)
2. i went into the 'old town' last night to see it all lit up... it really was gorgeous. slightly sketchy though. a girl named grace and i got on the trole... barely. it was more crowded than anything i have ever seen. grace got on... and half of me got on... and then the doors closed. so yeah. that was fun trying to pull myself into the train amongst all ecudorianos. hmm. but. we succeeded. and made it to the old town of ('el centro'). we planned on having dinner out... and we could not find anything for the life of us... we ended up eating the 'special meat' (meaning the nightly special of chicken, rice, and beans... go figure.) for $1.25... throw in a fanta in a glass bottle for 30 cents and call it a meal. haha. sick. but we survived that too. and i took some pictures... and we caught a cab back home and barely explained where we live... but we made it! and it was only 9 pm when we got home. no problemo.}
3. i learned to use the shower correctly and now have access to hot water. (although the water pressure is definitely less than stellar... which is fun.)
4. another girl will be living with me starting on sunday... i don't know who she is, nor if she speaks english...
5. salsa lessons are today. ugh.
6. my address is:
sarah scott
patricia fernandez
p.o. box 17-03-1423
quito, ecuador
if anyone cares.
and that is about it for me. but i have been reading 'mountains beyond mountains' which i think is fabulous... and there are a few bits i think are really good...
'it is the curse of humanity that it learns to tolerate even the most horrible situations by habituation.'
'medical education does not exist to provide students with a way of making a living, but to ensure the health of the community.'
'the physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and the social problems should largely by solved by them.'
'never underestimate the ability of a small group of committed individuals to change the world... indeed, they are the only ones who ever have.'
and that is that.
2. i went into the 'old town' last night to see it all lit up... it really was gorgeous. slightly sketchy though. a girl named grace and i got on the trole... barely. it was more crowded than anything i have ever seen. grace got on... and half of me got on... and then the doors closed. so yeah. that was fun trying to pull myself into the train amongst all ecudorianos. hmm. but. we succeeded. and made it to the old town of ('el centro'). we planned on having dinner out... and we could not find anything for the life of us... we ended up eating the 'special meat' (meaning the nightly special of chicken, rice, and beans... go figure.) for $1.25... throw in a fanta in a glass bottle for 30 cents and call it a meal. haha. sick. but we survived that too. and i took some pictures... and we caught a cab back home and barely explained where we live... but we made it! and it was only 9 pm when we got home. no problemo.}
3. i learned to use the shower correctly and now have access to hot water. (although the water pressure is definitely less than stellar... which is fun.)
4. another girl will be living with me starting on sunday... i don't know who she is, nor if she speaks english...
5. salsa lessons are today. ugh.
6. my address is:
sarah scott
patricia fernandez
p.o. box 17-03-1423
quito, ecuador
if anyone cares.
and that is about it for me. but i have been reading 'mountains beyond mountains' which i think is fabulous... and there are a few bits i think are really good...
'it is the curse of humanity that it learns to tolerate even the most horrible situations by habituation.'
'medical education does not exist to provide students with a way of making a living, but to ensure the health of the community.'
'the physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and the social problems should largely by solved by them.'
'never underestimate the ability of a small group of committed individuals to change the world... indeed, they are the only ones who ever have.'
and that is that.
Monday, June 9, 2008
if everyone had a hammock, we´d all be a lot happier.
things that i have learned/accomplished in the past 5 days:
l. being roughly 30 minutes from the equator DOES NOT mean blue skies, sunshine, and warmth...
2. the ´dry season´ means it rains for only 3 hours every afternoon
3. i have had more cups of tea than the previous 21 years combined
4. i have zip lined through the andean cloud forest... hundreds of feet in the air... with guides who don´t speak english...
5. i have shared a bottle of rum with some locals
6. i stayed in a 5 dollar hostel
7. sitting in a hammock overlooking the cloud forest in the middle of a rain storm while reading and writing in my journal just might be my favorite thing ever.
so that is the basics. here´s the dirty details...
i had my first lesson in español last friday. my teacher´s name es paúl. he´s basically a big (or small... i´m taller than him) 30-ish year-old dork who gets paid to teach stupid people like myself spanish. ha. he´s actually very nice, and he understands my awful accent and the gaping holes in my sentences quite well. thankfully he understands my sarcasm as well... as that has been quite difficult to get across in spanish. (old habits die hard, apparently.) we spent 3 hours going over basic phrases and trying to kick my habit of accidentally speaking french when i don´t know the word in spanish. then, we walked around the city for an hour and talked about the shops and stuff like that. all in all, pretty successful. so i´m learning. i can understand a lot... but can speak and write a little. it´s geting better everyday though. so i´m hopeful. after class, i went home and had dinner and studied a bit (like i said, old habits die hard... i had to explain to paúl that i hadn´t seen any movies because all i do is study... that was awkward.). then my señoras son and granddaughter came over... i´m not sure what the point was. but. he seemed nice enough. kind of arrogant, to be honest. he wouldn´t slow down his talking so i could understand him when he would ask me a question. basically he made me feel like an ass... but then again, i´m not dependent on my mother to bring me my dinner when i´m clearly in my late 30s or early 40s. so i think i win that game. his daughter seemed to be about 15 and she spoke very good english... i was impressed... and VERY thankful. sometimes i want to scream that i´m not stupid even though i can´t understand anything... it´s like, ´I PROMISE I´M NOT AN IDIOT IN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS!´ oh well. such is the joy of immersion, no?
i got up at the ripe hour of 6 am on saturday morning to meet one of the people in charge of the program at the KFC on the corner (yes, the KFC... you heard me... it´s called ´chicky park´... no sé...). he took the group of us (there are 6 people studying at the school right now... who knew?!) to the bus station to catch the bus to mindo. we made it on the bus and drove for about 2 hours to this really small town outside of quito. it is super beautiful... and in the andean cloud forest. i figured out why they call it the frickin´ cloud forest later that day... but anyways. it was muy bonita. the 6 of us were a rather rag tag team: a 34 year-old hippie-esque woman from california, a 20 year-old girl from canada, another 20 year-old girl from penn state, a 20 year-old girl from u of michigan, a 20 year-old boy from sweden... who just finished 4 months of studying in cuba of all places, and myself. bottom line: 5 girls, 1 boy. and a whole lot of random. but fun. anyways. we walked around and bartered for a good hostel for awhile and settled on one for 5 dollars a night. not bad, eh? then we set out to explore and found the canopy tours. we ziplined through the forest for about 2 hours with our ecuadorian guides (don´t worry. i´m high ropes trained from camp... the harnesses were safe... promise!) and got caught in the afternoon downpour on the 30 minute walk back to the hostel. it seems to rain every afternoon and it covers the forest and the mountains in clouds... hence... cloud forest. these ecuadorians are geniuses. anyways. i made camp on the porch and sat in the hammock and read while the rain passed. the six of us talked for a long time and then decided to grab dinner. after dinner, we ran into some girls from ecuador who were visiting mindo for the weekend. we talked to them for awhile and bought a bottle of rum and a 3 liter of coke... and sat in the center of town and talked for a few hours. it was nice to talk to locals... it finally felt like we weren´t the stupid american tourists. so yeah. went to bed. got up. breakfast. more hammock time for me... and then we headed back to quito.
so here i am. in quito. searching for a park that supposedly has a 3 kilometer loop... we´ll see about that. hope all is well in the states! later!
l. being roughly 30 minutes from the equator DOES NOT mean blue skies, sunshine, and warmth...
2. the ´dry season´ means it rains for only 3 hours every afternoon
3. i have had more cups of tea than the previous 21 years combined
4. i have zip lined through the andean cloud forest... hundreds of feet in the air... with guides who don´t speak english...
5. i have shared a bottle of rum with some locals
6. i stayed in a 5 dollar hostel
7. sitting in a hammock overlooking the cloud forest in the middle of a rain storm while reading and writing in my journal just might be my favorite thing ever.
so that is the basics. here´s the dirty details...
i had my first lesson in español last friday. my teacher´s name es paúl. he´s basically a big (or small... i´m taller than him) 30-ish year-old dork who gets paid to teach stupid people like myself spanish. ha. he´s actually very nice, and he understands my awful accent and the gaping holes in my sentences quite well. thankfully he understands my sarcasm as well... as that has been quite difficult to get across in spanish. (old habits die hard, apparently.) we spent 3 hours going over basic phrases and trying to kick my habit of accidentally speaking french when i don´t know the word in spanish. then, we walked around the city for an hour and talked about the shops and stuff like that. all in all, pretty successful. so i´m learning. i can understand a lot... but can speak and write a little. it´s geting better everyday though. so i´m hopeful. after class, i went home and had dinner and studied a bit (like i said, old habits die hard... i had to explain to paúl that i hadn´t seen any movies because all i do is study... that was awkward.). then my señoras son and granddaughter came over... i´m not sure what the point was. but. he seemed nice enough. kind of arrogant, to be honest. he wouldn´t slow down his talking so i could understand him when he would ask me a question. basically he made me feel like an ass... but then again, i´m not dependent on my mother to bring me my dinner when i´m clearly in my late 30s or early 40s. so i think i win that game. his daughter seemed to be about 15 and she spoke very good english... i was impressed... and VERY thankful. sometimes i want to scream that i´m not stupid even though i can´t understand anything... it´s like, ´I PROMISE I´M NOT AN IDIOT IN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS!´ oh well. such is the joy of immersion, no?
i got up at the ripe hour of 6 am on saturday morning to meet one of the people in charge of the program at the KFC on the corner (yes, the KFC... you heard me... it´s called ´chicky park´... no sé...). he took the group of us (there are 6 people studying at the school right now... who knew?!) to the bus station to catch the bus to mindo. we made it on the bus and drove for about 2 hours to this really small town outside of quito. it is super beautiful... and in the andean cloud forest. i figured out why they call it the frickin´ cloud forest later that day... but anyways. it was muy bonita. the 6 of us were a rather rag tag team: a 34 year-old hippie-esque woman from california, a 20 year-old girl from canada, another 20 year-old girl from penn state, a 20 year-old girl from u of michigan, a 20 year-old boy from sweden... who just finished 4 months of studying in cuba of all places, and myself. bottom line: 5 girls, 1 boy. and a whole lot of random. but fun. anyways. we walked around and bartered for a good hostel for awhile and settled on one for 5 dollars a night. not bad, eh? then we set out to explore and found the canopy tours. we ziplined through the forest for about 2 hours with our ecuadorian guides (don´t worry. i´m high ropes trained from camp... the harnesses were safe... promise!) and got caught in the afternoon downpour on the 30 minute walk back to the hostel. it seems to rain every afternoon and it covers the forest and the mountains in clouds... hence... cloud forest. these ecuadorians are geniuses. anyways. i made camp on the porch and sat in the hammock and read while the rain passed. the six of us talked for a long time and then decided to grab dinner. after dinner, we ran into some girls from ecuador who were visiting mindo for the weekend. we talked to them for awhile and bought a bottle of rum and a 3 liter of coke... and sat in the center of town and talked for a few hours. it was nice to talk to locals... it finally felt like we weren´t the stupid american tourists. so yeah. went to bed. got up. breakfast. more hammock time for me... and then we headed back to quito.
so here i am. in quito. searching for a park that supposedly has a 3 kilometer loop... we´ll see about that. hope all is well in the states! later!
Friday, June 6, 2008
QUITO! (KEET-oh)
hola! i made it to quito alive and well. it was quite the journey. i made it on the plane in panamá... but i thought i might have missed it because i didn´t realize that the eastern to central time change occurred... so i was basically operating an hour ahead of the rest of the panamá world. oops. my bad. anyways. i got on the plane... and i sat next to this ecuadorian couple that was probably in their late 20s... ok. now let´s talk about PDA in the latin world... THEY HAVE NO RULES. i´m talking kissing, stroking, blahblahblah THE whole way. i thought i would vomit. ah, but alas, don´t worry because the woman sitting in the row behind me and across the aisle decided to vomit for me. not only did she vomit, but she also passed out. they brought out the AED (automatic heart defibrilator thing... basically to restart a heart) and i was like, ¨really?!?!?! PDA and a death on the same plane?! are you freaking kidding me?!¨ well. i was the idiot who had brought out the MSAR (medical school admissions requirements book with info about all the med schools) to do some work on where i want to apply... so they are shouting for UN MEDICO! UN MEDICO! and the PDA couple next to me looks at me... and i´m like, ¨no no no no no... soy una estudiante... NO SOY UN MEDICO!¨ i mean. i was a certified life guard two years ago... but good god i am NOT going to be responsible for restarting this woman´s heart. thank goodness they found a real medico. and i just put my headphones back in and wondered ¨what is my life?¨
ok. so then we landed. which was a miracle in itself. made it through customs and met this really great guy named luke who is doing mission work in the moutain region in ecuador about 4 hours south of quito. he was great to talk to... and really calmed me down (not that i was freaking out... just slightly high-strung. typical...). i think i might take a weekend jaunt to the mountains and visit where he is working because it would be nice to have someone who knows what he is talking about around. but that is not for a few weeks. ANYWAYS. my luggage made it to. quite the relief. and i got picked up by a driver who spoke some english and i sounded like a three year old trying to speak. it was fun. he kept telling me, ¨muy bien chica.¨ haha. that´s the most compliments i´ve gotten since i got my papers back in my HOD class! it was great.
made it to my host mom´s apartment in quito. her name is ana maria monge. she is about 60 and is very sweet. i think she has a kid (or two...?). they are out of the house and her husband died... but i´m not sure when. she doesn´t speak a lick of english, so our conversations have been quite exciting. but i actually understand a lot. a lot more than i thought i would. i just can´t respond very well... but i´m trying and i think she appreciates that. so that´s good. i haven´t gotten to take a shower yet... because i don´t know how often they shower here. and i´m trying to act like i can fit in (FAT chance). so yeah. i´m not sure what i had for dinner... it wasn´t super stellar... but i choked it down and smiled. i have a feeling i will be losing some weight on this excursion. haha. and i have to be back at 12:30 for lunch and then escuela starts at 2. and lasts until 6. wow. so much for getting settled?
that´s about it for now. off to explore gringo land for a bit... i´m going to try to post some pictures of my room for you... and yeah. and i´ll post my address when i know it. slash understand it... ha.
besos,
sarah
ps. scroll to the very bottom to see pictures... i don´t know how to change that yet... as all of the buttons are in spanish... hmm...
ok. so then we landed. which was a miracle in itself. made it through customs and met this really great guy named luke who is doing mission work in the moutain region in ecuador about 4 hours south of quito. he was great to talk to... and really calmed me down (not that i was freaking out... just slightly high-strung. typical...). i think i might take a weekend jaunt to the mountains and visit where he is working because it would be nice to have someone who knows what he is talking about around. but that is not for a few weeks. ANYWAYS. my luggage made it to. quite the relief. and i got picked up by a driver who spoke some english and i sounded like a three year old trying to speak. it was fun. he kept telling me, ¨muy bien chica.¨ haha. that´s the most compliments i´ve gotten since i got my papers back in my HOD class! it was great.
made it to my host mom´s apartment in quito. her name is ana maria monge. she is about 60 and is very sweet. i think she has a kid (or two...?). they are out of the house and her husband died... but i´m not sure when. she doesn´t speak a lick of english, so our conversations have been quite exciting. but i actually understand a lot. a lot more than i thought i would. i just can´t respond very well... but i´m trying and i think she appreciates that. so that´s good. i haven´t gotten to take a shower yet... because i don´t know how often they shower here. and i´m trying to act like i can fit in (FAT chance). so yeah. i´m not sure what i had for dinner... it wasn´t super stellar... but i choked it down and smiled. i have a feeling i will be losing some weight on this excursion. haha. and i have to be back at 12:30 for lunch and then escuela starts at 2. and lasts until 6. wow. so much for getting settled?
that´s about it for now. off to explore gringo land for a bit... i´m going to try to post some pictures of my room for you... and yeah. and i´ll post my address when i know it. slash understand it... ha.
besos,
sarah
ps. scroll to the very bottom to see pictures... i don´t know how to change that yet... as all of the buttons are in spanish... hmm...
Thursday, June 5, 2008
chilling in central america...
made it to panama. one more flight to go.
everyone speaks spanish about 15 bajillion times too fast for me to even separate a single word...
it is spanish spanish spanish all around me and it's a little overwhelming... not that i wasn't expecting this, but you can only do so much preparation.
i stick out like a poorly dressed thumb. latin american women are content to dress up like models when they travel. i clearly missed the memo on this. obviously short dressed and enormous chunk heels is the standard for comfort in small crammed super-personal airplane travel. i don't know why everyone failed to let me in on this important tip. so much for blending in. (as if my "KEETO" pronunciation didn't tip them off immediately... the guy at the check-in in DC corrected my pronunciation. off to a good start. crap, i can't even say "hola" with a well-imitated accent. i am so screwed.)
ok. almost there.
everyone speaks spanish about 15 bajillion times too fast for me to even separate a single word...
it is spanish spanish spanish all around me and it's a little overwhelming... not that i wasn't expecting this, but you can only do so much preparation.
i stick out like a poorly dressed thumb. latin american women are content to dress up like models when they travel. i clearly missed the memo on this. obviously short dressed and enormous chunk heels is the standard for comfort in small crammed super-personal airplane travel. i don't know why everyone failed to let me in on this important tip. so much for blending in. (as if my "KEETO" pronunciation didn't tip them off immediately... the guy at the check-in in DC corrected my pronunciation. off to a good start. crap, i can't even say "hola" with a well-imitated accent. i am so screwed.)
ok. almost there.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
no food, no luggage... no problem...
ok. so today has been perhaps one of the worst travel days ever created... i flew into washington dc today and i am leaving for quito tomorrow (all of these extravagant plans were due to the fact it was about $300 cheaper...). anyways. here's the basics:
1. i had to pay $25 extra for my SECOND bag. (fine. 9 weeks. i need two bags.)
2. the plane out of indianapolis was delayed. (ok great, i can do delays. no problem.)
3. waited for my baggage at dulles for over an hour... finally sucked it up and went to customer service to find that they didn't have my bags. (they decided to RE-FREAKING-ROUTE them to chicago and just happened to forget to mention this to me.)
4. my bags won't be in DC until 9 pm... i have to pick them up at 4:30 tomorrow morning before my flight to ecuador. awe.some.
5. figured out ground transportation to bethesda (where i'm staying with mel)... and got caught in massive traffic and a tornado warning.
6. currently waiting my dinner to be delivered. (i ordered it about an hour ago...)
but.
i made it to dc. my bags are (fingers crossed) going to make it before i leave tomorrow morning. i have a place to sleep. and (hopefully) i will have some food to eat. so i guess it could be worse. i'm going to take what i can get at this point.
all that is left on the list is to make it through my layover in panama alive to get on the plane to quito. (remember... no spanish... it could be interesting.)
later dudes.
1. i had to pay $25 extra for my SECOND bag. (fine. 9 weeks. i need two bags.)
2. the plane out of indianapolis was delayed. (ok great, i can do delays. no problem.)
3. waited for my baggage at dulles for over an hour... finally sucked it up and went to customer service to find that they didn't have my bags. (they decided to RE-FREAKING-ROUTE them to chicago and just happened to forget to mention this to me.)
4. my bags won't be in DC until 9 pm... i have to pick them up at 4:30 tomorrow morning before my flight to ecuador. awe.some.
5. figured out ground transportation to bethesda (where i'm staying with mel)... and got caught in massive traffic and a tornado warning.
6. currently waiting my dinner to be delivered. (i ordered it about an hour ago...)
but.
i made it to dc. my bags are (fingers crossed) going to make it before i leave tomorrow morning. i have a place to sleep. and (hopefully) i will have some food to eat. so i guess it could be worse. i'm going to take what i can get at this point.
all that is left on the list is to make it through my layover in panama alive to get on the plane to quito. (remember... no spanish... it could be interesting.)
later dudes.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
spanish? pshhh. who needs spanish?
so here's my first attempt at starting a blog... and to be completely honest, it feels a little narcissistic to think that anyone would actually care to read about my adventures in ecuador this summer. but... then i decided that everyone could use an additional procrastination technique in life... so why not?
anyways. right now i'm still in good old indiana, so no exciting adventures to report as of yet. (unless you consider driving through tennessee, kentucky and indiana an "adventure" which i suppose on most days it could be labeled as such...) some of you know a little bit about my random decision to travel to ecuador this summer... but for those who do not, here's the short version:
1. i applied to a lot of research internships at a lot of formidable medical schools.
2. i decided (in a mid-cell biology lecture, post-spring break service trip, "oh my god what am i doing with my life?!?!" breakdown) that sitting in a research lab in front of a computer lab all summer is just not my cup of tea. i need people. action. excitement. hands-on stuff. (call it a personality flaw if you must.)
3. found this program through my friend, lauren...
4. applied.
5. booked the tickets.
6. and realized that i don't speak spanish.
ok. so maybe the sequence of events was slightly different than those listed, but you get the point. the bottom line is that i finally felt pulled to do something specific with my life. i'm excited and passionate about service... and international health... and all things roughing it. which is why i'm doing this. (i think my parents think i'm crazy, but sometimes i think they are crazy too. so i guess we can call it even.)
i'll be staying in quito, the captial of ecuador, for four weeks. i am living in a homestay with a family and taking an intensive immersion spanish course for about 5 hours a day... and discovering life in quito on the side. in the first week of july, i'm travelling to ibarra, where i'll be staying in another homestay and volunteering at a hospital in town for the next five weeks. i'll hopefully be doing basic triage work... seeing some pretty sweet stuff... and loving it. (my goal: be able to suture, i.e. do stiches, by the time i come back.) there are some other random americans scattered throughout ecuador this summer (some from vanderbilt), and i'm hoping to meet up with them on the weekends to do some traveling and exploring. all in all, i'm stoked.
sarah's goals for the summer:
1. learn to suture
2. finish the AMCAS (med school application) so she can sweet talk her way in...
3. look up MCAT results online to find that i passed with flying colors (fingers crossed)
4. learn to speak spanish
5. in the event that #5 does not work out... learn how to order food in spanish
6. take some sweet pictures
7. survive massive culture shock
8. run consistently (no one in ecuador exercises...)
9. figure out if international medicine is my passion
10. climb a frickin' sweet tree in the rain forest
i am leaving this thursday (June 5th) from DC at the ripe hour of 6:45 am... until then. making lists. last minute shopping. and the dreaded packing. hope your summers are going well. keep in touch. emails are ALWAYS appreciated.
besos,
sarah elizabeth
anyways. right now i'm still in good old indiana, so no exciting adventures to report as of yet. (unless you consider driving through tennessee, kentucky and indiana an "adventure" which i suppose on most days it could be labeled as such...) some of you know a little bit about my random decision to travel to ecuador this summer... but for those who do not, here's the short version:
1. i applied to a lot of research internships at a lot of formidable medical schools.
2. i decided (in a mid-cell biology lecture, post-spring break service trip, "oh my god what am i doing with my life?!?!" breakdown) that sitting in a research lab in front of a computer lab all summer is just not my cup of tea. i need people. action. excitement. hands-on stuff. (call it a personality flaw if you must.)
3. found this program through my friend, lauren...
4. applied.
5. booked the tickets.
6. and realized that i don't speak spanish.
ok. so maybe the sequence of events was slightly different than those listed, but you get the point. the bottom line is that i finally felt pulled to do something specific with my life. i'm excited and passionate about service... and international health... and all things roughing it. which is why i'm doing this. (i think my parents think i'm crazy, but sometimes i think they are crazy too. so i guess we can call it even.)
i'll be staying in quito, the captial of ecuador, for four weeks. i am living in a homestay with a family and taking an intensive immersion spanish course for about 5 hours a day... and discovering life in quito on the side. in the first week of july, i'm travelling to ibarra, where i'll be staying in another homestay and volunteering at a hospital in town for the next five weeks. i'll hopefully be doing basic triage work... seeing some pretty sweet stuff... and loving it. (my goal: be able to suture, i.e. do stiches, by the time i come back.) there are some other random americans scattered throughout ecuador this summer (some from vanderbilt), and i'm hoping to meet up with them on the weekends to do some traveling and exploring. all in all, i'm stoked.
sarah's goals for the summer:
1. learn to suture
2. finish the AMCAS (med school application) so she can sweet talk her way in...
3. look up MCAT results online to find that i passed with flying colors (fingers crossed)
4. learn to speak spanish
5. in the event that #5 does not work out... learn how to order food in spanish
6. take some sweet pictures
7. survive massive culture shock
8. run consistently (no one in ecuador exercises...)
9. figure out if international medicine is my passion
10. climb a frickin' sweet tree in the rain forest
i am leaving this thursday (June 5th) from DC at the ripe hour of 6:45 am... until then. making lists. last minute shopping. and the dreaded packing. hope your summers are going well. keep in touch. emails are ALWAYS appreciated.
besos,
sarah elizabeth
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