¡hola! como le va?
i am back in action after a long weekend at the beach with cristina, isidro and paoli (her niece who is an english teacher). it was nice and relaxing... hotter than hell... but a nice break from the chilly weather in the andes. the beach itself was nice, but nothing to write home about... i am not entirely sure why they rave about how beautiful their beaches are. it only reminded me of panama city, florida and the spring break crowd. but who am i?
anyways. i spent the majority of my time lying around on the beach and at the pool, enjoying some running at sea level (THANK goodness), and reading. i have finished 8 books (i think) so far and am currently speeding through my 9th... and last... i am not quite sure what i am going to do about the plane ride back. but i will cross that bridge when i get to it next week. paoli and i also went out on friday and saturday nights to these shack things on the beach where they blast salsa music and serve drinks and juices until about 5 in the morning... i only lasted until my usual 2 AM... mostly because paoli ended up sleeping until like noon and i didn't want to waste the days away... and also because it is SO MUCH harder to go out when you are 1) a gringa and 2) when you are constantly straining to hear what people say so you can begin to attempt to understand them... to be completely honest, it's draining. and of course there are always numerous lessons on how to teach the little white girl to salsa... which is generally very embarassing and awkward. but i am improving. (the whole moving your legs, arms and hips in different directions at the same time is what gets me...) anyways. a lazy beach weekend... reminiscent of spring break florida style.
OH WAIT. here's the crazy part of the trip... lengthwise, in the united states, the drive to the beach should take MAYBE 3 hours. MAYBE. but here, it is a different story. the roads are so potholed that cristina was forced to weave around them... all. of. the. time. (which also made it impossible to sleep... even when we left at 5 AM.) like seriouly. ALL of the time. it is the biggest pain in the butt ever created and makes the trip take roughly 6 hours. in the heat of the equator... sans air conditioning. yes, the car HAS ac. it is american. but do we USE the ac? no. of course not. this is ecuador and ecuador does not do anything by the books. typical. so yeah. of us in a little car... sweating like crazy for 5 hours... oh right. and i had found out that i had parasites the day before... so that was fun too. my 9 day stint of miserable time in the bathroom was FINALLY diasgnosed as parasites, even when the tests were negative. so basically i got 3 different drugs, killed my parasitic amigos, and i'm fine now. awesome. :)
this week in the hospital is shaping up to be pretty interesting. i started an IV yesterday with the help of a nurse... the guy's veins were pretty bad and it took 3 times... but... i mean... it was my first time. lo siento? and i left the hospital early today because i am going back later tonight to learn how to suture. there is this crazy nurse that i love (and only understand roughly 50% of what she says) and she is set on teaching me things. so that is good. she told me to come back after 7 tonight, because i can learn how to suture a head shut. she said it doesn't matter how pretty the head sutures are because people are not going to see them. ¨good practice¨ is what she called it. haha. awesome. qué más? umm...
last night i had an interesting debate with isidro which kind of put me in a foul mood. we were talking about school and university and medical school and life and blahblahblah and basically it got to the point that he was like, ´man, i wish i had your life because i love to study.´ and i was like... umm... no. no, my friend, you do NOT want the life of a pre medical student at vanderbilt. i know i chose it and i am sticking with it, but trust me. it is hell. and it went on like that for awhile and i got frustrated because 1) it was like him telling me about how easy the studying life is and 2) i want so desperately to be able to pick the perfect words to explain my thoughts... but it is impossible. sure, i can communicate my point effectively... but. i want others to really feel me. to understand me. in time, i suppose.
after that conversation, crsitina was like... what's up... what's going on... i said nothing... blahblahblah... but we ended up talking about the impossibility of saying 'i want your life.' i mean, sure, you CAN say it. but it is not possible to really know that. hypothetically, you don't know my life. you cannot possibly understand what happens day to day and what i go through. and it is the same vice versa... how can i say, 'oh i want YOUR life.' it just does not make sense. and this paragraph is meaningless because i cannot explain myself.
but that is where i am.
and i am off to make tacos for lunch. yesssssss! NO RICE FOR ME! :) only 9 more days in ecuador. wouw. crazy how that works.
abrazos,
sarah
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
¡viva los cumpleñaros!
i have absolutely no idea if that is how you spell what i am trying to spell in spanish. but i am going to go with it. bottom line: my birthday yesterday was nothing short of the usual adventure. i went to the hospital... all was normal... and i came back home for lunch and my room was basically revamped. my blue bedspread was switched with this fancy white frilly thing... complete with pillows... and i had a big bunch of flowers and a card from cristina and isidiro. (apparently the white bedspread thing is some sort of birthday thing... so i went with it.) so that was fun. and we washed the car, because we are getting set to roadtrip out to the coast this weekend for some beach time and r&r. that turned into a water fight carnaval-style... also exciting. what else? oh right... got my hair cut. in ecuador. for $2. ha. kind of shorter than i anticipated... but... adventure, no? it actually looks fine... nothing drastic. just shorter than i bargained for. hmm... oh yes... we followed up hair cuts with leg waxing... why, you might be asking yourself? i don't know. but that's what people do here... so. i am just fitting in. :) it may or may not have been one of the most painful experiences of my life to date. but. other than that... a success.
the best part of the day, however, was when we went to blanca's casa (one of cristina's sisters) for a birthday party because her oldest brother has the same birthday as me. bottom line: abuelita and all EIGHT of her children (con familias) were there for dinner and dancing. and of course, dancing always means 'let's try to teach the gringa how to salsa'. awesome. awesome and awkward. but fun. and loud. and so distinctly latino. but i love their family and they all like to tell me how they are my aunts and uncles and cousins and how i can come back and be in the family whenever i want to. so funny.
and that's the birthday festivites in a nutshell. hope all is well... only 2 weeks and 1 day left here in ecuador! loco...
the best part of the day, however, was when we went to blanca's casa (one of cristina's sisters) for a birthday party because her oldest brother has the same birthday as me. bottom line: abuelita and all EIGHT of her children (con familias) were there for dinner and dancing. and of course, dancing always means 'let's try to teach the gringa how to salsa'. awesome. awesome and awkward. but fun. and loud. and so distinctly latino. but i love their family and they all like to tell me how they are my aunts and uncles and cousins and how i can come back and be in the family whenever i want to. so funny.
and that's the birthday festivites in a nutshell. hope all is well... only 2 weeks and 1 day left here in ecuador! loco...
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
no tengo tiempo!
sorry i am a bad blogger... life in ecuador is fast paced... but slow at the same time, which leaves me wondering exactly what i did with all of my time and where it went. anyways... it is good and bad to be so busy because looking back on my journal, i wrote every single day when i was in quito... and now... i find myself 5 days behind and a little OCD about the whole matter. needless to say, the blog has taken a backseat in mi vida ecuatoriana. the past week has been eventful and uneventful at the same time... i have been battling the most obnoxious case of traveler's sickness the entire time... and after two stool samples, i can still proudly announce that i do not have parasites. but. that leaves me wondering what the heck is going on. i think i have spent more time in the bathroom than in the hospital... fun. however, i think today is better... and i am taking it one hydrated day at a time. (not with the tap water.)
some highlights of the past week included my adventure to the discoteca (spelling?) with cristina's nieces, pauli and mariela... which was fun. of course, i was the sola gringa there... but i learned some salsa and didn't get much sleep. the next morning (sunday), pauli and i went with fannita and the family to this river in lita... which is on the border with esmeraldas. we parked the car and played in the river for about 5 hours... it seems to be a popular spot with the locals, and for good reason. it was so beautiful and the water was so clear... and it was just good to pick a big rock and relax in the beautiful weather. we got back and hung out with pauli's family (her mother is cristina's sister) which was fun as well. her mom wants to learn english... which is always my favorite. :)
hospital highlights... umm... i am writing prescriptions and test orders and instructions... and doing vitals and such... i can't remember all of the patients, but there was an 8 year old girl today who came in basically unconscious due to ingesting something poisonous... but they don't know what yet... that was the exciting case today. yesterday, there was a boy with measles or mumps (could not translate which one)... which is rare even for ecuador due to the vaccination. so yeah. the exciting and sometimes boring life of the emergecia department.
umm what else? spanish is still improving and i am able to better explain myself cada dia, which is nice. i went to a tienda for some bread yesterday and the woman ran back into her house and brought me this bottle of vitamins that had instructions in english and she needed me to translate... so that was fun. (plus she wanted calcium, but there wasn't enough in the multi vitamin... so i told her to go get pills with calcium and vitamin d... because they are dumb here and sell calcium with vitamin c... which just counteracts the action of calcium... strange.) and today dr. muñoz thrust this big scientific article in my face about experiments with treating acute diarrhea in children... in english... and said, 'translate this please.' umm... ok... i have been speaking spanish for 7 weeks now... hmm... but it worked. so that was nice too.
i guess these little things like translating for the random woman and dr. muñoz, teaching the family english, and having real conversations (beyond 'hi. how are you?') with cristina is what this is all about. i didn't expect to be a miracle worker or anything here, but i also didn't realize the power of small interactions. and i think i like the small things better. (plus, cristina can only say like 5 things in english, one of them being 'shut up donkey'... which makes the whole trip worth it... seriously... maybe the funniest thing ever... and she calls me sarita maria joesphina... also well worth the trip. don't be surprised if i come home with 10 other people in tow because i don't want to leave!)
gotta run... no money for the cafe! ah! ciao!
some highlights of the past week included my adventure to the discoteca (spelling?) with cristina's nieces, pauli and mariela... which was fun. of course, i was the sola gringa there... but i learned some salsa and didn't get much sleep. the next morning (sunday), pauli and i went with fannita and the family to this river in lita... which is on the border with esmeraldas. we parked the car and played in the river for about 5 hours... it seems to be a popular spot with the locals, and for good reason. it was so beautiful and the water was so clear... and it was just good to pick a big rock and relax in the beautiful weather. we got back and hung out with pauli's family (her mother is cristina's sister) which was fun as well. her mom wants to learn english... which is always my favorite. :)
hospital highlights... umm... i am writing prescriptions and test orders and instructions... and doing vitals and such... i can't remember all of the patients, but there was an 8 year old girl today who came in basically unconscious due to ingesting something poisonous... but they don't know what yet... that was the exciting case today. yesterday, there was a boy with measles or mumps (could not translate which one)... which is rare even for ecuador due to the vaccination. so yeah. the exciting and sometimes boring life of the emergecia department.
umm what else? spanish is still improving and i am able to better explain myself cada dia, which is nice. i went to a tienda for some bread yesterday and the woman ran back into her house and brought me this bottle of vitamins that had instructions in english and she needed me to translate... so that was fun. (plus she wanted calcium, but there wasn't enough in the multi vitamin... so i told her to go get pills with calcium and vitamin d... because they are dumb here and sell calcium with vitamin c... which just counteracts the action of calcium... strange.) and today dr. muñoz thrust this big scientific article in my face about experiments with treating acute diarrhea in children... in english... and said, 'translate this please.' umm... ok... i have been speaking spanish for 7 weeks now... hmm... but it worked. so that was nice too.
i guess these little things like translating for the random woman and dr. muñoz, teaching the family english, and having real conversations (beyond 'hi. how are you?') with cristina is what this is all about. i didn't expect to be a miracle worker or anything here, but i also didn't realize the power of small interactions. and i think i like the small things better. (plus, cristina can only say like 5 things in english, one of them being 'shut up donkey'... which makes the whole trip worth it... seriously... maybe the funniest thing ever... and she calls me sarita maria joesphina... also well worth the trip. don't be surprised if i come home with 10 other people in tow because i don't want to leave!)
gotta run... no money for the cafe! ah! ciao!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
¡Qué rico!
this is the other phrase i hear roughly 5 hundred times daily. it means pretty much anything you want it to be. if you don't know what to say about something, just say 'qué rico!' and someone will agree with you. (i'm so fluent.) ok. so. i have my traveling issues back in order... after a cab ride home (it's faster) where the driver asked if i wanted him to show me around ibarra because i have a guapa face... and then proceeded to give me his cell phone number. he was probably 28 and looked 40. welcome to my life. anyways. updates galore...
1. last thursday/friday-ish: we (the three of us... me, novio y cristina) went on a 2.5 hour walk that was about 6 miles, but had some incredible views. ibarra and san antonio are literally surrounded by moutains, hills and volcanoes on all sides, so you really can't lose around here. on friday i went with cristina to the school where she works. she teaches technical drawing (think pre-architecture) in collegio, which is the same as our high school. she had to give 6 boys an exam to see if they knew enough to be granted acceptance into the school... apparently her school is a very good private school in ibarra. it was much nicer than i expected. the classrooms all open to outside, so it's kind of this big outdoor mall style high school with the mountains in the distance. qué chevere, no? (chevere is like cool/awesome/etc.) after that, we cleaned up the house and ran errands and other non-interesting things for the big fiesta that was happening on saturday. later that night, her son, andrés, and his girlfriend plus another friend and girlfriend showed up at the house (they live in quito) so they could spend the night before the birthday party. i have never in my life heard people talk faster than these people... i mean, i could not separate a single word from the whole mess of a paragraph. so basically i felt like the stupid gringa amidst the group of people that are my age and i should understand. it wasn't so much fun. but that's ok. it takes some struggle to learn i suppose.
2. saturday: the big fiesta day. all morning long we cleaned and prepared for this fiesta of around 40 people... as we prepared, i was getting increasingly nervous, because it is so awkward to not understand everything... especially when someone asks you a question and you answer it incorrectly because you changed around one word. so yeah. i ditched the house in the early afternoon and went to call a friend, because i hadn't talked to anyone in forever and seeing this big group of friends sitting around and laughing made me miss my friends and the comfort of being understood more than anything. so yeah. talked to her for awhile and ran into molly, the other town gringa, when she was yelling my name from across the town square. we are always the spectacle. i talked her into coming to save me from public humiliation and we walked back to mi casa and jumped in. of course, there was pilsener (the ONLY beer in this country) and liquor abound (welcome to the latin culture)... which made conversation come a little easier and made me less embarassed... bonus. but all in all, it was fun... and we got asked the same questions over and over.. so i could answer quickly and seem like i know what i wsa talking about. :) (i only made an ass of myself when i fell down the stairs due to a lack of traction in my sandals and slick marble stairs... in front of a circle of chairs containing roughly 30 25-year olds. awesome. no, it was not the pilsener.) the fiesta lasted until 2 am... which was quite enough for me... my head was full from so much spanish and i was ready for bed. but it was a success and i know cristina appreciates having someone help pick up trash... (that is one thing i can't stand about this culture... machismo... she does everything around here... and i feel bad.)
3. i got up early sunday morning and joined fannita and the rest of the family to head to the thermal springs somewhere that i can't pronounce, nor spell. cristy stayed at home because her sons were still in town... so it was just me and the fam, all 1 million of them. she has 7 other siblings... 5 of them were there. plus their families and the grandma. i rode in the car with abuelita, which was quite the experience. she was very nice... and at one time said she was very chuchaky (hung over) and i was like, WHAT?!?!... apparently chuchaky can mean super tired too. strange. we also paused to check out this resort-ish place that they might rent for a family gathering sometime later in the summer... in the middle of the tour, i turn around and abuelita is hugging this enormous eucalyptis tree, which her arms cannot completely embrace... while saying 'energia'... i wish i had my camera on me. priceless. absolutely priceless. anyways. we made it to the thermal springs and hung out and played in the water all day. post thermal springs, we went back to one of the brother's houses in ibarra and made these doughy things and played cards and chatted... and that is about it. went back to san antonio after that and had a really great conversation with cris about family and things like that... so yeah. good day.
4. monday: yesterday the hospital was pretty lame. nothing too exciting going on... i can't remember it all (i have it written down) but there was a 24 year old woman with tuberculosis who was getting treatment... i suppose TB is nothing too out of the ordinary, but it kind of hit home more than usual because i just read 'moutains beyond mountains'. i mean, TB is virtually eradicated in the united states and i think it is sad that we can't get proper treatment elsewhere. i don't know. just more frustrations. i talked to my secretaria for ahile about nothing in particular, but her daughter is in the hospital for gastritis or something like that... so we went up to visit her... then i headed home for almuerzo and we ran errands all afternoon. mainly looking for light fixtures. (sometimes it scares me because cristina is doing a lot of house remodeling and looking for light fixtures and things... and she wears striped shirts and the same shoes as my mom... it's kind of like my mom in ecuadorian form. crazy.) we finished out the day by teaching me this ecuadorian card game which is completely illogical... but then again, so is ecuador... if the shoe fits? we played until midnight with the 3 of us and her nephew (fannita's son). pretty wild and crazy night of card playing. haha. i also learned that cristina knows a lot more english than she has lead on, as she understood an entire slighly awkward conversation that marcelo and i had... and the entire time she acted like she didn't know what was going on. now she thinks it is hysterical that i can rant in english and she can understand me... i half think it is funny and half want to bash my face against a wall because i can think of half a million times when i just wanted to explain what i meant in english and thought any attempt was futile. grr...
5. today: woke up at 6:30 and went for a run with marcelo and the novio... made it back to the house and got ready for the hospital... didn't feel good, but went anyways and got hit with the wave of traveler's fun (my new term for it)... so yeah. came back and rested and had lunch and rested. and here i am. we are going to go play basketball later this afternoon... which will be fun. and those are the plans for the day.
nothing too overly exciting in the life of sarah, but i am enjoying the day to day activities and talking with people... and running into people all over town who know me. in the last week, i have run into a patient that remembered me from the hospital in the street and in the bus, a woman who brought a girl into the hospital from the orphanage that i visited, a man who works for a funeral home that knows me from the hospital, and the man who works the library. popular gringa, apparently. :) i don't know. i just like the daily musings and conversations... and i don't feel the urge to flee on the weekends to try to see as much of ecuador as possible. i am enjoying living the daily life and getting to know my family here.
i guess the one thing i would change would be: LESS carbohydrates, POR FAVOR... all they eat here is carbs. that's it. por ejemplo, today i have eaten: bread, papaya, corn, potatoes, chicken, and this drink made from the naranjilla fruit... does ANYONE SEE A TREND?!?!?!? :) but i am making dinner this week and i intend to throw some spice in there. (that is another thing... everything is so bland!) however i think that if the food is all i have to complain about, life is pretty good. (i guess i could do without the traveler's fun... but... i'm working on it...)
i hope all is well in the states and africa and everywhere else...
abrazos, sarah
1. last thursday/friday-ish: we (the three of us... me, novio y cristina) went on a 2.5 hour walk that was about 6 miles, but had some incredible views. ibarra and san antonio are literally surrounded by moutains, hills and volcanoes on all sides, so you really can't lose around here. on friday i went with cristina to the school where she works. she teaches technical drawing (think pre-architecture) in collegio, which is the same as our high school. she had to give 6 boys an exam to see if they knew enough to be granted acceptance into the school... apparently her school is a very good private school in ibarra. it was much nicer than i expected. the classrooms all open to outside, so it's kind of this big outdoor mall style high school with the mountains in the distance. qué chevere, no? (chevere is like cool/awesome/etc.) after that, we cleaned up the house and ran errands and other non-interesting things for the big fiesta that was happening on saturday. later that night, her son, andrés, and his girlfriend plus another friend and girlfriend showed up at the house (they live in quito) so they could spend the night before the birthday party. i have never in my life heard people talk faster than these people... i mean, i could not separate a single word from the whole mess of a paragraph. so basically i felt like the stupid gringa amidst the group of people that are my age and i should understand. it wasn't so much fun. but that's ok. it takes some struggle to learn i suppose.
2. saturday: the big fiesta day. all morning long we cleaned and prepared for this fiesta of around 40 people... as we prepared, i was getting increasingly nervous, because it is so awkward to not understand everything... especially when someone asks you a question and you answer it incorrectly because you changed around one word. so yeah. i ditched the house in the early afternoon and went to call a friend, because i hadn't talked to anyone in forever and seeing this big group of friends sitting around and laughing made me miss my friends and the comfort of being understood more than anything. so yeah. talked to her for awhile and ran into molly, the other town gringa, when she was yelling my name from across the town square. we are always the spectacle. i talked her into coming to save me from public humiliation and we walked back to mi casa and jumped in. of course, there was pilsener (the ONLY beer in this country) and liquor abound (welcome to the latin culture)... which made conversation come a little easier and made me less embarassed... bonus. but all in all, it was fun... and we got asked the same questions over and over.. so i could answer quickly and seem like i know what i wsa talking about. :) (i only made an ass of myself when i fell down the stairs due to a lack of traction in my sandals and slick marble stairs... in front of a circle of chairs containing roughly 30 25-year olds. awesome. no, it was not the pilsener.) the fiesta lasted until 2 am... which was quite enough for me... my head was full from so much spanish and i was ready for bed. but it was a success and i know cristina appreciates having someone help pick up trash... (that is one thing i can't stand about this culture... machismo... she does everything around here... and i feel bad.)
3. i got up early sunday morning and joined fannita and the rest of the family to head to the thermal springs somewhere that i can't pronounce, nor spell. cristy stayed at home because her sons were still in town... so it was just me and the fam, all 1 million of them. she has 7 other siblings... 5 of them were there. plus their families and the grandma. i rode in the car with abuelita, which was quite the experience. she was very nice... and at one time said she was very chuchaky (hung over) and i was like, WHAT?!?!... apparently chuchaky can mean super tired too. strange. we also paused to check out this resort-ish place that they might rent for a family gathering sometime later in the summer... in the middle of the tour, i turn around and abuelita is hugging this enormous eucalyptis tree, which her arms cannot completely embrace... while saying 'energia'... i wish i had my camera on me. priceless. absolutely priceless. anyways. we made it to the thermal springs and hung out and played in the water all day. post thermal springs, we went back to one of the brother's houses in ibarra and made these doughy things and played cards and chatted... and that is about it. went back to san antonio after that and had a really great conversation with cris about family and things like that... so yeah. good day.
4. monday: yesterday the hospital was pretty lame. nothing too exciting going on... i can't remember it all (i have it written down) but there was a 24 year old woman with tuberculosis who was getting treatment... i suppose TB is nothing too out of the ordinary, but it kind of hit home more than usual because i just read 'moutains beyond mountains'. i mean, TB is virtually eradicated in the united states and i think it is sad that we can't get proper treatment elsewhere. i don't know. just more frustrations. i talked to my secretaria for ahile about nothing in particular, but her daughter is in the hospital for gastritis or something like that... so we went up to visit her... then i headed home for almuerzo and we ran errands all afternoon. mainly looking for light fixtures. (sometimes it scares me because cristina is doing a lot of house remodeling and looking for light fixtures and things... and she wears striped shirts and the same shoes as my mom... it's kind of like my mom in ecuadorian form. crazy.) we finished out the day by teaching me this ecuadorian card game which is completely illogical... but then again, so is ecuador... if the shoe fits? we played until midnight with the 3 of us and her nephew (fannita's son). pretty wild and crazy night of card playing. haha. i also learned that cristina knows a lot more english than she has lead on, as she understood an entire slighly awkward conversation that marcelo and i had... and the entire time she acted like she didn't know what was going on. now she thinks it is hysterical that i can rant in english and she can understand me... i half think it is funny and half want to bash my face against a wall because i can think of half a million times when i just wanted to explain what i meant in english and thought any attempt was futile. grr...
5. today: woke up at 6:30 and went for a run with marcelo and the novio... made it back to the house and got ready for the hospital... didn't feel good, but went anyways and got hit with the wave of traveler's fun (my new term for it)... so yeah. came back and rested and had lunch and rested. and here i am. we are going to go play basketball later this afternoon... which will be fun. and those are the plans for the day.
nothing too overly exciting in the life of sarah, but i am enjoying the day to day activities and talking with people... and running into people all over town who know me. in the last week, i have run into a patient that remembered me from the hospital in the street and in the bus, a woman who brought a girl into the hospital from the orphanage that i visited, a man who works for a funeral home that knows me from the hospital, and the man who works the library. popular gringa, apparently. :) i don't know. i just like the daily musings and conversations... and i don't feel the urge to flee on the weekends to try to see as much of ecuador as possible. i am enjoying living the daily life and getting to know my family here.
i guess the one thing i would change would be: LESS carbohydrates, POR FAVOR... all they eat here is carbs. that's it. por ejemplo, today i have eaten: bread, papaya, corn, potatoes, chicken, and this drink made from the naranjilla fruit... does ANYONE SEE A TREND?!?!?!? :) but i am making dinner this week and i intend to throw some spice in there. (that is another thing... everything is so bland!) however i think that if the food is all i have to complain about, life is pretty good. (i guess i could do without the traveler's fun... but... i'm working on it...)
i hope all is well in the states and africa and everywhere else...
abrazos, sarah
¡siga no más!
EVERYWHERE, and i do mean EVERYWHERE, you hear people yelling this... i have found that it means a variety of things, but i think my favorite is the translation 'keep following!' because, let's be honest, that has been my life for the past month and ten days. just. keep. following. if you don't know what you're doing, act like you do until you can form the correct sentence in order to ask someone. (a useful technique.) life here is crazy. not fraternity party crazy, or no sleep crazy, but eye-opening crazy. that nonstop internal dialogue crazy where your mind never rests because you are continually thinking about something. some days are hard, and everyday is frustrating (for one reason or another), but i really love it here. (in ibarra, quito... not so much...) i am learning a lot. a lot of spanish. but a lot about life too. a lot about life outside of los estados... and i might just like the culture and life outside of los estados better... but that has yet to be officially determined. i also have about a bajillion things to update on about life in ibarra and the fam here... but. i seem to be suffering from roughly the 4th round of traveler's... traveler's... umm... discomforts? with the food? you following me? so time seems to be limited... and now is one of those times. but i am alive and going... and i can't believe i only have 3 and half weeks left. and i promise to write about the weekend soon (including her son's 25th birthday extravaganza, the hot thermal pools with her other 7 siblings, their families, and the abuelita... who may or may not have hugged a tree while saying 'energy', and more.) later dudes. (the enter key is not working...) besos, sarah
Thursday, July 10, 2008
my life is definitely a telenovela.
buenas!
ok. so this is totally going to be a train of thought post (not like the others are not... but still) so try to stick with me. wouw (as they spell it here). the last two days have been absolute craziness in a very non-crazy way. if that makes any sense. life in ibarra is great. i really love it here. the town that i live in is small and quaint and people are so nice and ibarra is just the right size of city for me... less pollution, nicer people, calmer... and all of these things might seem insignifcant, but after living in quito for a month, it´s difficult to explain how important they are!
i don´t really know how to even go about updating on my life. so i´m gong back to the numerical technique. :) (i´m glad my friends have noted this strange tactic... but hey, you´d want your doctor to be slightly OCD, no?)
1. hospital life: i am working in san vincente de paúl hospital in ibarra. it is one of two hospitals in town, and trust me, this is the poor hospital. i have not quite figured out how health care works here, but from what i can tell, most of the care is free... as long as it isn´t something like plastic surgery. i am stationed in the ER (emergencia... impossible to say in español!), which is definitely different from the ER that i imagined. there are very few 'oh my god someone is dying!' cases... and there is a lot of consultation going on... so yeah. it´s definitely weird. but i basically bounce around from room to room and try to find the most gruesome cases with the doctors that i like the best. most of the doctors and nurses are super nice and help me when i need something to be charaded out... there is only one woman who i am not fond of as of now, and she wears the same outfit everyday, so let´s be serious... who should be making fun of whom? i am working on befriending other doctors by walking around and looking lost... which has worked thus far. i met a medical student who is going to teach me to suture after i watch the videos on new england journal online or something... he works the nightshift, so i might pull an all nighter and hope to see some cool things... i met the head of the hospital today and made a sufficient ass of myself when i asked what xyz word meant... it was his last name. awesome. but it´s funny because so many people want to speak some english to you and i like teaching them... and vice versa. i have gotten really good at asking what a word is by explaining it with other words... and i am talking completely in spanish pretty much all day long... so yeah. improvement! hmm... what else with the hospital? cool cases? i can´t think... but i wrote perscriptions yesterday... and... there are a lot of malnourished children and the pediatricians seem to completely rely on the growth/weight curves to determine this. they do a lot of perscribing for vitamins... oh! there was this boy who had come in a week ago with a bad chest cold and phelgm in his lungs (but it wasn´t pneumonia)... i saw the x rays... and his mom looked like she was no more than 17... but he wasn´t getting better because they couldn´t afford the $15 medication. so molly and i ran to get our wallets and caught them on the way out to give them the money to buy the drugs... i mean. 15 dollars. it is frustrating because i know you cannot do this with everyone... and it´s like, where do you draw the line? but at some point i think you just have to say, one person is one person and THAT is enough. so yeah. that was the story for yesterday.
2. hospital life today: molly and i stayed at san vincente until about 10 and then we caught a taxi over to the over hospital in town... which oh my goodness is like 15 bajillion times nicer than san vincente... but i don´t know why or how. hmm. more preguntas for people. we went there because we met a doctor at an orphanage (another story!) place and he said to come visit him and one of the pediatricians at our hospital has a husband who is an anesthesiologist at the other... and we wanted in on some surgeries! we met up with 3 other students that i knew from school in quito and sweet talked our way into the operating room where a woman who had her tubes cut had gotten remarried and wanted them resewn together... but anyways. we suited up (in the biggest scrubs known to man) and went in. surgery here is ridiculous. they only give you an epidural if the surgery is below your L1 in your spinal cord (think somewhere mid chest area)... in other words: YOU ARE AWAKE WHILE THEY ARE DOING SURGERY ON YOU. YOU CAN HEAR EVERYTHING. EVEN CAUDERIZING IRONS AND SAWS. sick. but yeah. we watched that, which was cool... it was super hot in the operating room and i felt like i was going to pass out, so i left for a minute but went back in and everything was ok. (the smell of cauderizing isn´t so sweet...) and that´s about it.
3. i ate at an ecuadorian buffet for lunch. enough said.
4. more today at the hospital: i went upstairs to talk to the doctor secretary this morning because nothing exciting was going on in the ER and we talked for about an hour and i think she is one of my new favorite people here. i met a bunch of younger doctors and we just sat around and talked... kind of grey´s anatomy style. haha. they call me sarita because they think that i look like i am 15. sweet. and she found out my birthday is in two weeks and put it on her calendar... fiesta! ha. but yeah. basically she is my favorite and i am teaching her english slang.
5. home life: my señora, cristina, is phenomenal. she seriously is so great. i can´t even explain, but i want to take her home with me. she has three boys who are all in their mid to late 20s and they live in quito. yesterday i met her novio (boyfriend) and we chatted for awhile and decided to go running... all three of us left the house and went to her sister´s across the street (fannita) and she decided to meet us there with her novio. (ps. these women are both in their 50s... just for a mental picture.) after 10 million errands, we made it to the park in ibarra in the mountains and starting walking, then the novio and i went running and talked and it was great. and so beautiful. after the jogging (and i do mean jogging) stint, cristina and i walked along and talked about family and friends and it was maybe the first real conversation i have had in spansh and it was great. i mean... sure i can speak, but it´s hard to explain and be understood... so yeah. i am making progress, for sure. on the way back home, we ran fifteen bajillion more errands (a new toilet! thank god... mine does NOT work...) and while she was inside, the novio and i talked about a lot of things and traded words back and forth and i asked him how long fannita had been with her novio... because lauren (the girl who stayed with her last summer) said that she had a boyfriend that her kids did not know about... and he said that was still true and that they had been together for TEN YEARS OR MORE. and then i asked about cristina and he said they had been together for three years and HER KIDS DON´T KNOW! i could not stop laughing... he was like, shh... it´s a secret. what?!?!?! so crazy. mi vida ecuatoriana es loca. but yeah. we got home, had dinner (juice and bread... really?!?!) and played cards. so yeah. good day. and i think this weekend we are having a joint birthday party with cristina´s son because he turns 24 or 25 3 days before me... so that is fun too. family festivities. (cristina and fannita have 5 OTHER siblings who ALL live in either ibarra or san antonio.. ay...)
6. i think that is abou it for now... back to the casa... to work on medical school things.. BAHHHHH. the LAST thing i want to be doing right now. so frustrating!
7. i hope los estados son buenos... and yeah... te espero mucho...
sarah
ok. so this is totally going to be a train of thought post (not like the others are not... but still) so try to stick with me. wouw (as they spell it here). the last two days have been absolute craziness in a very non-crazy way. if that makes any sense. life in ibarra is great. i really love it here. the town that i live in is small and quaint and people are so nice and ibarra is just the right size of city for me... less pollution, nicer people, calmer... and all of these things might seem insignifcant, but after living in quito for a month, it´s difficult to explain how important they are!
i don´t really know how to even go about updating on my life. so i´m gong back to the numerical technique. :) (i´m glad my friends have noted this strange tactic... but hey, you´d want your doctor to be slightly OCD, no?)
1. hospital life: i am working in san vincente de paúl hospital in ibarra. it is one of two hospitals in town, and trust me, this is the poor hospital. i have not quite figured out how health care works here, but from what i can tell, most of the care is free... as long as it isn´t something like plastic surgery. i am stationed in the ER (emergencia... impossible to say in español!), which is definitely different from the ER that i imagined. there are very few 'oh my god someone is dying!' cases... and there is a lot of consultation going on... so yeah. it´s definitely weird. but i basically bounce around from room to room and try to find the most gruesome cases with the doctors that i like the best. most of the doctors and nurses are super nice and help me when i need something to be charaded out... there is only one woman who i am not fond of as of now, and she wears the same outfit everyday, so let´s be serious... who should be making fun of whom? i am working on befriending other doctors by walking around and looking lost... which has worked thus far. i met a medical student who is going to teach me to suture after i watch the videos on new england journal online or something... he works the nightshift, so i might pull an all nighter and hope to see some cool things... i met the head of the hospital today and made a sufficient ass of myself when i asked what xyz word meant... it was his last name. awesome. but it´s funny because so many people want to speak some english to you and i like teaching them... and vice versa. i have gotten really good at asking what a word is by explaining it with other words... and i am talking completely in spanish pretty much all day long... so yeah. improvement! hmm... what else with the hospital? cool cases? i can´t think... but i wrote perscriptions yesterday... and... there are a lot of malnourished children and the pediatricians seem to completely rely on the growth/weight curves to determine this. they do a lot of perscribing for vitamins... oh! there was this boy who had come in a week ago with a bad chest cold and phelgm in his lungs (but it wasn´t pneumonia)... i saw the x rays... and his mom looked like she was no more than 17... but he wasn´t getting better because they couldn´t afford the $15 medication. so molly and i ran to get our wallets and caught them on the way out to give them the money to buy the drugs... i mean. 15 dollars. it is frustrating because i know you cannot do this with everyone... and it´s like, where do you draw the line? but at some point i think you just have to say, one person is one person and THAT is enough. so yeah. that was the story for yesterday.
2. hospital life today: molly and i stayed at san vincente until about 10 and then we caught a taxi over to the over hospital in town... which oh my goodness is like 15 bajillion times nicer than san vincente... but i don´t know why or how. hmm. more preguntas for people. we went there because we met a doctor at an orphanage (another story!) place and he said to come visit him and one of the pediatricians at our hospital has a husband who is an anesthesiologist at the other... and we wanted in on some surgeries! we met up with 3 other students that i knew from school in quito and sweet talked our way into the operating room where a woman who had her tubes cut had gotten remarried and wanted them resewn together... but anyways. we suited up (in the biggest scrubs known to man) and went in. surgery here is ridiculous. they only give you an epidural if the surgery is below your L1 in your spinal cord (think somewhere mid chest area)... in other words: YOU ARE AWAKE WHILE THEY ARE DOING SURGERY ON YOU. YOU CAN HEAR EVERYTHING. EVEN CAUDERIZING IRONS AND SAWS. sick. but yeah. we watched that, which was cool... it was super hot in the operating room and i felt like i was going to pass out, so i left for a minute but went back in and everything was ok. (the smell of cauderizing isn´t so sweet...) and that´s about it.
3. i ate at an ecuadorian buffet for lunch. enough said.
4. more today at the hospital: i went upstairs to talk to the doctor secretary this morning because nothing exciting was going on in the ER and we talked for about an hour and i think she is one of my new favorite people here. i met a bunch of younger doctors and we just sat around and talked... kind of grey´s anatomy style. haha. they call me sarita because they think that i look like i am 15. sweet. and she found out my birthday is in two weeks and put it on her calendar... fiesta! ha. but yeah. basically she is my favorite and i am teaching her english slang.
5. home life: my señora, cristina, is phenomenal. she seriously is so great. i can´t even explain, but i want to take her home with me. she has three boys who are all in their mid to late 20s and they live in quito. yesterday i met her novio (boyfriend) and we chatted for awhile and decided to go running... all three of us left the house and went to her sister´s across the street (fannita) and she decided to meet us there with her novio. (ps. these women are both in their 50s... just for a mental picture.) after 10 million errands, we made it to the park in ibarra in the mountains and starting walking, then the novio and i went running and talked and it was great. and so beautiful. after the jogging (and i do mean jogging) stint, cristina and i walked along and talked about family and friends and it was maybe the first real conversation i have had in spansh and it was great. i mean... sure i can speak, but it´s hard to explain and be understood... so yeah. i am making progress, for sure. on the way back home, we ran fifteen bajillion more errands (a new toilet! thank god... mine does NOT work...) and while she was inside, the novio and i talked about a lot of things and traded words back and forth and i asked him how long fannita had been with her novio... because lauren (the girl who stayed with her last summer) said that she had a boyfriend that her kids did not know about... and he said that was still true and that they had been together for TEN YEARS OR MORE. and then i asked about cristina and he said they had been together for three years and HER KIDS DON´T KNOW! i could not stop laughing... he was like, shh... it´s a secret. what?!?!?! so crazy. mi vida ecuatoriana es loca. but yeah. we got home, had dinner (juice and bread... really?!?!) and played cards. so yeah. good day. and i think this weekend we are having a joint birthday party with cristina´s son because he turns 24 or 25 3 days before me... so that is fun too. family festivities. (cristina and fannita have 5 OTHER siblings who ALL live in either ibarra or san antonio.. ay...)
6. i think that is abou it for now... back to the casa... to work on medical school things.. BAHHHHH. the LAST thing i want to be doing right now. so frustrating!
7. i hope los estados son buenos... and yeah... te espero mucho...
sarah
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
hospital day 1: no deaths = success
hola amigos.
so i don´t have tons of time because i am catching the bus back to san antonio de ibarra (where i live now)... but here is the latest and greatest:
last night i went over to fannita´s casa (cristina´s sister, the woman that lauren stayed with last summer) and her son and i went for a tour around the hills and farm area via 4-wheeler. yes, helmets etc. were involved so chill. we may or may not have almost run out of gas, but that was a completely different story. and no, he is NOT my latin american boyfriend. sick. i know 15 people would email me to ask me that. NO. after that... we had some tea (imagine that!) and talked for awhile and then went to bed... at 11... maybe the latest i have gone to bed since i have been in ecuador. (bonus points: my bed has springs. be jealous.)
this morning i arrived at the hospital at 7:50 am... because they said a las 8 and we all know if you arrive at 8, you are late. not in ecuador. apparently a las 8 means a las 8 y 20. but whatever. we got my paperwork together and they think i am a first-year medical student... and that i am no older than 17... and yeah. there is another girl who has been here for awhile so i followed her around for a little bit and then started to figure out things on my own. i am learning lots of new fun words... and no one believes that i have only been speaking spanish for 4 weeks. which is so good to hear. yesterday was my first COMPLETE day en espanol without anyone... seriously. it is exhausting because you have to think ALL OF THE TIME. hmm. then i saw like 15 patients today... mostly in pediatrics... and the best part of the day was that i was actually useful... ahem...
i was just sitting in the room with a checkup patient and dr. muñoz comes in and is like beckoning me out of the room... and i´m thinking, 'you cannot possibly mean me...' but he did. there was a 10 year old boy who had this massive plantar's wart that like exploded when he was playing futbol... and he is from the states, visiting some aunts in ecuador... and he does not speak much spanish. so. i had to translate. and i actually did it. wabam. then he had minor surgery to remove it and stiches and stuff and we had to hold him down... but it was all good. and his aunts were super grateful. so yeah. i feel accomplished and somewhat not a pain in the butt... so that is good.
in other hospital news: the first patient i saw had monkey bites... yes, monkey bites. i was like, 'que es uno mono?' thinking mononucleosis... pero no... mono = monkey. ah. si. only in ecuador. welcome to jungle, no? the other girl was like, 'WHERE DO YOU LIVE?!?!' in spanish, of course. haha. then there was the GIGANTIC woman, like seriously gigantic, even for the states standards, it looked like elephantitis to me... but who am i? anyways. molly (the other girl) and i just watched from outside the room (she had hypertension or something) and i basically felt like i was in a foreign grey's anatomy episode... because she ran into my room and was like, 'you have GOT to see this...' so awful. but so interesting.
qué mas? no pienso hay mas... pero... manaña... for sure. (my journal has turned into a spanish-english much concotion of a language...)
later dudes. besos.
so i don´t have tons of time because i am catching the bus back to san antonio de ibarra (where i live now)... but here is the latest and greatest:
last night i went over to fannita´s casa (cristina´s sister, the woman that lauren stayed with last summer) and her son and i went for a tour around the hills and farm area via 4-wheeler. yes, helmets etc. were involved so chill. we may or may not have almost run out of gas, but that was a completely different story. and no, he is NOT my latin american boyfriend. sick. i know 15 people would email me to ask me that. NO. after that... we had some tea (imagine that!) and talked for awhile and then went to bed... at 11... maybe the latest i have gone to bed since i have been in ecuador. (bonus points: my bed has springs. be jealous.)
this morning i arrived at the hospital at 7:50 am... because they said a las 8 and we all know if you arrive at 8, you are late. not in ecuador. apparently a las 8 means a las 8 y 20. but whatever. we got my paperwork together and they think i am a first-year medical student... and that i am no older than 17... and yeah. there is another girl who has been here for awhile so i followed her around for a little bit and then started to figure out things on my own. i am learning lots of new fun words... and no one believes that i have only been speaking spanish for 4 weeks. which is so good to hear. yesterday was my first COMPLETE day en espanol without anyone... seriously. it is exhausting because you have to think ALL OF THE TIME. hmm. then i saw like 15 patients today... mostly in pediatrics... and the best part of the day was that i was actually useful... ahem...
i was just sitting in the room with a checkup patient and dr. muñoz comes in and is like beckoning me out of the room... and i´m thinking, 'you cannot possibly mean me...' but he did. there was a 10 year old boy who had this massive plantar's wart that like exploded when he was playing futbol... and he is from the states, visiting some aunts in ecuador... and he does not speak much spanish. so. i had to translate. and i actually did it. wabam. then he had minor surgery to remove it and stiches and stuff and we had to hold him down... but it was all good. and his aunts were super grateful. so yeah. i feel accomplished and somewhat not a pain in the butt... so that is good.
in other hospital news: the first patient i saw had monkey bites... yes, monkey bites. i was like, 'que es uno mono?' thinking mononucleosis... pero no... mono = monkey. ah. si. only in ecuador. welcome to jungle, no? the other girl was like, 'WHERE DO YOU LIVE?!?!' in spanish, of course. haha. then there was the GIGANTIC woman, like seriously gigantic, even for the states standards, it looked like elephantitis to me... but who am i? anyways. molly (the other girl) and i just watched from outside the room (she had hypertension or something) and i basically felt like i was in a foreign grey's anatomy episode... because she ran into my room and was like, 'you have GOT to see this...' so awful. but so interesting.
qué mas? no pienso hay mas... pero... manaña... for sure. (my journal has turned into a spanish-english much concotion of a language...)
later dudes. besos.
last weekend´s novel...
Friends, Romans, Countrymen,
Hola. Que tal? Well let’s see. The last few days of my adventure have been exciting, peaceful and slightly nerve-wracking all at the same time. I can’t remember when I updated last (as I am typing this on my laptop without access to the internet right now…), but I believe it was before I left Quito for the weekend jaunt to Riobamba. The day before we left, Spenser and I went for a little run in the Parque de Carolinas… which was significantly less than a stellar performance. It is definitely an accumulation of out of shape-ness, sickness, and altitude… honestly, I think it is mostly altitude. We were both winded at ten minutes… but trucked on for a whopping fifteen. (Don’t laugh.) I am hoping that the lower altitude of Ibarra (only freaking 2225 m high… yeah that’s basically a mile and a half up) will be slightly more conducive to training as I try to jump back on the running horse. Anyways.
Thursday:
We headed to Riobamba on Thursday afternoon, after my LAST class and work. We went to the central bus station to catch a bus and met up with Luke, the friend that I met in the Panama aeropuerto who I have kept in touch with throughout the last month. He came up to Quito for Thursday to visit a friend… and we were going down to Riobamba to visit him and do some other site-seeing. Basically we switched paths for a day because Spenser and I wanted to ride the train down the Devil’s Nose (more on that in a minute) early on Friday morning. So anyways, we got the keys to Luke’s apartment and some seriously hand-drawn maps to find our way around the town. (So funny.) Then we headed off on the 4.5 hour bus ride. (Complete with an infinite number of vendors yelling, “mandarinamandarinamandarina… portaportaportaportaporta… heladoheladoheladohelado” as loudly as humanly possible in your ear, a potentially puking boy, and a singing boy con kazoo… bus rides are always an adventure.) Once we arrived in Riobamba (which I fondly call it “Rio”… mainly because it has no resemblance nor nostalgia como Rio de Janiero…) we headed to the tren station to buy tickets for the next day’s trip… after a broken conversation en espanol, we learned that the train can’t run from Rio to Alausi (where the Devil’s Nose part starts) due to landslides… so we bought bus tickets for the ripe hour of 6 AM to get to Alausi where we were planning on jumping the train to the Devil’s Nose. Next on the list, we hit the supermercado where we bought what any normal Ecuadorian would buy for dinner: pancakes, carrots, yogurt and jello. We were having some unusual cravings. Post dinner run, we made it to one of the missionary houses where the family was going to help us get into Luke’s apartment. They were super super nice and offered to cook us dinner and everything, but we already had our stuff so we passed and got the lesson in how to use the 8 (no joke) different keys to get into Luke’s apartment. We finally got the door opened… and we had no stove, oven, or really any basic cooking necessities… so. We trekked back over to the Culpe’s (the family) and Tracy made us pancakes for dinner while we played with their 4 girls (ages 13, 8, 4, and 6 months… quite the zoo). We only ate 7 pancakes each, a fried egg, strawberries and juice… not that we were hungry or anything. We chatted with them for awhile and then headed back to the apartment for bed.
Friday (my journal entry):
Another year and another 4th of July abroad. I rarely find myself stereotypically homesick, but there is always a twinge on the 4th. But even so, today was a good day… Spenser and I made the 4:45 AM wakeup call and somehow got a taxi and were at the train station at 5:20… and we were the only geniuses who thought getting there early was a good idea. Ha. Stupid gringas again. We had some good laughs over all of the crazy backpackers with their crazy gear – matching packs and 5-way zip pants complete with Swiss Army knife – really funny at 5:45 AM, I assure you. (Seriously… it was like Ecuador “Amazing Race” style.) Well, we pulled into Alausi at about 8 AM and played “The Amazing Race” to get tickets for the train. We literally got 2 of the last 5 tickets and made it to the train (thanks to my bano pit-stop) just in time. We were inside the car for the first half, but then we got to switch on the way back which was sweet! (And the French people were NOT nice at all!) We got the best seats and the view was truly spectacular. There are no pictures that can do it justice. I get so frustrated with the litter and pollution on most days, but there are times like these where I am simply in awe of the beauty of this country. I had to look up to the sky and just shake my head in amazement of how beautiful the world can be. When we pulled back into the station we decided to poke around Alausi for a little bit. We hiked up to the statue of Saint Piedro (Peter), which was gigantic and just a bit funny. The town was very quaint and nice – I’m hoping to have a little more of that in Ibarra, because Quito is quite the opposite! We caught the bus back to Riobamba at 10:30… it was without a doubt the worst ride yet. The aisles were packed the whole way with smelly Quitus (the Indians who believe showering in hot water will make you sick… no kidding… so it is no wonder they smell so badly), crying babies, breast-feeding mothers, spilled milk and just all-around awfulness. I was tired and dirty and I just felt gross. We finally made it back and got the hot water to work (although not the drain…). A shower has never felt so good. Afterwards, we explored Rio a bit, stopped at the supermercado, and hung out in the park until Luke got back. Then we went to watch one of his students in a play – “The West Side Story” in English. It was tal vez the funniest things ever. They were all in about 9th grade and it was just painfully awkward and hysterical at the same time. (And severely condensed! Gino only had 7 lines!) But the best part of the day was probably dinner… we ate with the Culpe’s and had spaghetti, REAL salad, bread and chocolate pie. SO wonderful.
Sidenote: There used to be a stretch of train tracks that ran from Quito to Guayaquil (the two largest cities in Ecuador… about 10 hours apart via bus). This was quite the feat because of the terrain of the Andes… and there is a small stretch south of Alausi (a tiny town) called La Nariz del Diablo that is basically a ridiculous bit for a train to traverse, even today. It does so by switching back and forth across cuts in the rock… going backwards and then forwards. The train no longer runs the full stretch due to landslides, but there is a touristy type deal that takes you over the Nariz del Diablo stretch… the exciting part being that you get to ride on the roof of the train… hence the adventure.
That was Friday in a nutshell…
Saturday:
A pretty lazy day. We laid around all morning at the Culpe’s post-American breakfast and played with the girls. Later that evening, we went to a 4th of July party (yes, on the 5th of July… so Ecuador) with all of the local American and Canadian families that are here doing missions work. We ate A LOT of burgers, chips, and desserts… followed by a few painful games of volleyball with a soccer ball while feeling like I was going to explode (we split matches 1-1, in case you care… I did…). The games were followed by the National Anthem and fireworks. The show was fun and singing the National Anthem was surprisingly patriotic. It felt good to look at our flag, under the stars, surrounded by the Andes and be proud of where I am from. Weird situation, but nice nonetheless. The stars were truly beautiful out in the middle of nowhere. The Big Dipper and the North Star were clear as day and the moon was as bright as ever. We headed back to the apartment shortly after that and crashed.
Sunday:
Spenser woke up at 2 AM puking… which was fun… so Luke and I explored a park in town before going to his church at 11. The park was nice, it had a sweet view of the city and the surrounding mountains and volcanoes… and church was nice too. I surprisingly understood a good chunk of it. My Spanish is improving, although I am far from fluent. We went back to check on Spenser afterwards, and there was little improvement… so we caught the next bus out of Rio and back to Quito. (There was only one puking incident on the bus… and thankfully a bag was involved…) Once we made it back to the apartmento, we choked down one last dinner and I packed up everything for Ibarra…
Monday:
I am currently laying on my bed in my new home in Ibarra… the journey was thankfully relatively uneventful. A had a taxi waiting for me at 7:30 AM at the apartment in Quito and we picked up three other people along the way. About halfway through the ride, the guy sitting next to me struck up a conversation and we talked about a lot of things. (En espanol, of course!) He is 24 and works for the United Nations in Quito and was headed to Ibarra for a two-day conference thing. He gave me some weekend travel ideas and I told him about Texas (where he will be going for a conference in a few months)… when we finally made it to San Antonio de Ibarra (where I am living) we exchanged email addresses… more Spanish practica! (Definitely NOT a Latin American boyfriend… please don’t get any ideas. He thought I was 18… typical.)
The house is less than breathtaking from the street… which is where I was dropped off… and the senora was not at home… so I ended up sitting on the sidewalk for a few minutes before the woman who owns the furniture store next door asked if I wanted to wait there. Cristina, my senora, showed up only 10 minutes later frantically asking if I had been there for long. She is the sister of the senora (Fanita) who my friend, Lauren, stayed with last summer. (They live right across the street. So funny.) She let me into the house and I dropped all of my stuff in my new room. The house is sweet. There are TWO hammocks (SCORE.) and a sweet rooftop sitting area with a great view of the mountains. My bed has springs and Cristina is fantastic. She is super nice, a bit spastic and understands my espanol. Basically we were made to be. I gave her the letter that Lauren wrote to Fanita and she was literally so excited about it… it was funny. After I unpacked my things (and successfully clogged the toilet… typical… my life is a sitcom…) we headed into Ibarra and she showed me how to get to the hospital. It is a small little thing and serves the underserved population in the province of Imbabura… should be intersante… I start tomorrow (Tuesday)… loco. We ate lunch at a little place and talked up the waiter and just had a good conversation… this transition has been (thus far, at least) about 15 bajillion times smoother than the transition to Quito. Probably because I am not a bumbling idiot who speaks no Spanish this time around… hmm. Anyways. I am not living with anyone else, which is good and bad… there is supposedly another girl at the hospital who perhaps I can befriend… and there are three other people in Ibarra that I met at the school in Quito… so. I might have some English speaking companeros if I can just figure out how to work the phone… But that is my story up to now. We are going for a walk around 5… and hopefully some ensalada de frutas that I have heard so much about… :) Ciao!
Hola. Que tal? Well let’s see. The last few days of my adventure have been exciting, peaceful and slightly nerve-wracking all at the same time. I can’t remember when I updated last (as I am typing this on my laptop without access to the internet right now…), but I believe it was before I left Quito for the weekend jaunt to Riobamba. The day before we left, Spenser and I went for a little run in the Parque de Carolinas… which was significantly less than a stellar performance. It is definitely an accumulation of out of shape-ness, sickness, and altitude… honestly, I think it is mostly altitude. We were both winded at ten minutes… but trucked on for a whopping fifteen. (Don’t laugh.) I am hoping that the lower altitude of Ibarra (only freaking 2225 m high… yeah that’s basically a mile and a half up) will be slightly more conducive to training as I try to jump back on the running horse. Anyways.
Thursday:
We headed to Riobamba on Thursday afternoon, after my LAST class and work. We went to the central bus station to catch a bus and met up with Luke, the friend that I met in the Panama aeropuerto who I have kept in touch with throughout the last month. He came up to Quito for Thursday to visit a friend… and we were going down to Riobamba to visit him and do some other site-seeing. Basically we switched paths for a day because Spenser and I wanted to ride the train down the Devil’s Nose (more on that in a minute) early on Friday morning. So anyways, we got the keys to Luke’s apartment and some seriously hand-drawn maps to find our way around the town. (So funny.) Then we headed off on the 4.5 hour bus ride. (Complete with an infinite number of vendors yelling, “mandarinamandarinamandarina… portaportaportaportaporta… heladoheladoheladohelado” as loudly as humanly possible in your ear, a potentially puking boy, and a singing boy con kazoo… bus rides are always an adventure.) Once we arrived in Riobamba (which I fondly call it “Rio”… mainly because it has no resemblance nor nostalgia como Rio de Janiero…) we headed to the tren station to buy tickets for the next day’s trip… after a broken conversation en espanol, we learned that the train can’t run from Rio to Alausi (where the Devil’s Nose part starts) due to landslides… so we bought bus tickets for the ripe hour of 6 AM to get to Alausi where we were planning on jumping the train to the Devil’s Nose. Next on the list, we hit the supermercado where we bought what any normal Ecuadorian would buy for dinner: pancakes, carrots, yogurt and jello. We were having some unusual cravings. Post dinner run, we made it to one of the missionary houses where the family was going to help us get into Luke’s apartment. They were super super nice and offered to cook us dinner and everything, but we already had our stuff so we passed and got the lesson in how to use the 8 (no joke) different keys to get into Luke’s apartment. We finally got the door opened… and we had no stove, oven, or really any basic cooking necessities… so. We trekked back over to the Culpe’s (the family) and Tracy made us pancakes for dinner while we played with their 4 girls (ages 13, 8, 4, and 6 months… quite the zoo). We only ate 7 pancakes each, a fried egg, strawberries and juice… not that we were hungry or anything. We chatted with them for awhile and then headed back to the apartment for bed.
Friday (my journal entry):
Another year and another 4th of July abroad. I rarely find myself stereotypically homesick, but there is always a twinge on the 4th. But even so, today was a good day… Spenser and I made the 4:45 AM wakeup call and somehow got a taxi and were at the train station at 5:20… and we were the only geniuses who thought getting there early was a good idea. Ha. Stupid gringas again. We had some good laughs over all of the crazy backpackers with their crazy gear – matching packs and 5-way zip pants complete with Swiss Army knife – really funny at 5:45 AM, I assure you. (Seriously… it was like Ecuador “Amazing Race” style.) Well, we pulled into Alausi at about 8 AM and played “The Amazing Race” to get tickets for the train. We literally got 2 of the last 5 tickets and made it to the train (thanks to my bano pit-stop) just in time. We were inside the car for the first half, but then we got to switch on the way back which was sweet! (And the French people were NOT nice at all!) We got the best seats and the view was truly spectacular. There are no pictures that can do it justice. I get so frustrated with the litter and pollution on most days, but there are times like these where I am simply in awe of the beauty of this country. I had to look up to the sky and just shake my head in amazement of how beautiful the world can be. When we pulled back into the station we decided to poke around Alausi for a little bit. We hiked up to the statue of Saint Piedro (Peter), which was gigantic and just a bit funny. The town was very quaint and nice – I’m hoping to have a little more of that in Ibarra, because Quito is quite the opposite! We caught the bus back to Riobamba at 10:30… it was without a doubt the worst ride yet. The aisles were packed the whole way with smelly Quitus (the Indians who believe showering in hot water will make you sick… no kidding… so it is no wonder they smell so badly), crying babies, breast-feeding mothers, spilled milk and just all-around awfulness. I was tired and dirty and I just felt gross. We finally made it back and got the hot water to work (although not the drain…). A shower has never felt so good. Afterwards, we explored Rio a bit, stopped at the supermercado, and hung out in the park until Luke got back. Then we went to watch one of his students in a play – “The West Side Story” in English. It was tal vez the funniest things ever. They were all in about 9th grade and it was just painfully awkward and hysterical at the same time. (And severely condensed! Gino only had 7 lines!) But the best part of the day was probably dinner… we ate with the Culpe’s and had spaghetti, REAL salad, bread and chocolate pie. SO wonderful.
Sidenote: There used to be a stretch of train tracks that ran from Quito to Guayaquil (the two largest cities in Ecuador… about 10 hours apart via bus). This was quite the feat because of the terrain of the Andes… and there is a small stretch south of Alausi (a tiny town) called La Nariz del Diablo that is basically a ridiculous bit for a train to traverse, even today. It does so by switching back and forth across cuts in the rock… going backwards and then forwards. The train no longer runs the full stretch due to landslides, but there is a touristy type deal that takes you over the Nariz del Diablo stretch… the exciting part being that you get to ride on the roof of the train… hence the adventure.
That was Friday in a nutshell…
Saturday:
A pretty lazy day. We laid around all morning at the Culpe’s post-American breakfast and played with the girls. Later that evening, we went to a 4th of July party (yes, on the 5th of July… so Ecuador) with all of the local American and Canadian families that are here doing missions work. We ate A LOT of burgers, chips, and desserts… followed by a few painful games of volleyball with a soccer ball while feeling like I was going to explode (we split matches 1-1, in case you care… I did…). The games were followed by the National Anthem and fireworks. The show was fun and singing the National Anthem was surprisingly patriotic. It felt good to look at our flag, under the stars, surrounded by the Andes and be proud of where I am from. Weird situation, but nice nonetheless. The stars were truly beautiful out in the middle of nowhere. The Big Dipper and the North Star were clear as day and the moon was as bright as ever. We headed back to the apartment shortly after that and crashed.
Sunday:
Spenser woke up at 2 AM puking… which was fun… so Luke and I explored a park in town before going to his church at 11. The park was nice, it had a sweet view of the city and the surrounding mountains and volcanoes… and church was nice too. I surprisingly understood a good chunk of it. My Spanish is improving, although I am far from fluent. We went back to check on Spenser afterwards, and there was little improvement… so we caught the next bus out of Rio and back to Quito. (There was only one puking incident on the bus… and thankfully a bag was involved…) Once we made it back to the apartmento, we choked down one last dinner and I packed up everything for Ibarra…
Monday:
I am currently laying on my bed in my new home in Ibarra… the journey was thankfully relatively uneventful. A had a taxi waiting for me at 7:30 AM at the apartment in Quito and we picked up three other people along the way. About halfway through the ride, the guy sitting next to me struck up a conversation and we talked about a lot of things. (En espanol, of course!) He is 24 and works for the United Nations in Quito and was headed to Ibarra for a two-day conference thing. He gave me some weekend travel ideas and I told him about Texas (where he will be going for a conference in a few months)… when we finally made it to San Antonio de Ibarra (where I am living) we exchanged email addresses… more Spanish practica! (Definitely NOT a Latin American boyfriend… please don’t get any ideas. He thought I was 18… typical.)
The house is less than breathtaking from the street… which is where I was dropped off… and the senora was not at home… so I ended up sitting on the sidewalk for a few minutes before the woman who owns the furniture store next door asked if I wanted to wait there. Cristina, my senora, showed up only 10 minutes later frantically asking if I had been there for long. She is the sister of the senora (Fanita) who my friend, Lauren, stayed with last summer. (They live right across the street. So funny.) She let me into the house and I dropped all of my stuff in my new room. The house is sweet. There are TWO hammocks (SCORE.) and a sweet rooftop sitting area with a great view of the mountains. My bed has springs and Cristina is fantastic. She is super nice, a bit spastic and understands my espanol. Basically we were made to be. I gave her the letter that Lauren wrote to Fanita and she was literally so excited about it… it was funny. After I unpacked my things (and successfully clogged the toilet… typical… my life is a sitcom…) we headed into Ibarra and she showed me how to get to the hospital. It is a small little thing and serves the underserved population in the province of Imbabura… should be intersante… I start tomorrow (Tuesday)… loco. We ate lunch at a little place and talked up the waiter and just had a good conversation… this transition has been (thus far, at least) about 15 bajillion times smoother than the transition to Quito. Probably because I am not a bumbling idiot who speaks no Spanish this time around… hmm. Anyways. I am not living with anyone else, which is good and bad… there is supposedly another girl at the hospital who perhaps I can befriend… and there are three other people in Ibarra that I met at the school in Quito… so. I might have some English speaking companeros if I can just figure out how to work the phone… But that is my story up to now. We are going for a walk around 5… and hopefully some ensalada de frutas that I have heard so much about… :) Ciao!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
it's july already?!
hmm. this was my most interesting realization for the day. i looked down at my watch and didn't believe the '07' that i saw. i guess this is good and bad. i was not entirely sure at the beginning of this adventure that i could make it through 9 weeks. '9 weeks' sounds so much more glamorous when you are talking on the phone to the director and then you leave to go to lecture. i guess '9 weeks' did not sink in until i realized how long 1 day can feel. but alas. here i am. 4 weeks into this... adventure. i think 'adventure' sounds slightly presumptuous for some reason, but this really has been an adventure.
an adventure in being alone.
an adventure in learning.
an adventure in not being able to explain myself.
an adventure in how to live on my own.
an adventure in discovery.
(an adventure in culinary areas...)
of course there are days and moments that i would give anything to be in the plane flying overhead and back home... but looking back over the past 4 weeks, i have learned a lot. of course i have learned a lot of español, but (as revoltingly tacky as this sounds) i have learned a lot about myself. maybe not learned a lot ABOUT myself, but i have learned that i can withstand more than i previously believed was possible. and that is strange to say as well, because i am not 'roughing it' here. sure the food blows and the shower pressure and water temperature leaves something to be desired... but still. i cannot put accurrate (sp?) words to the last 4 weeks to convey what has happened and how i feel.
i have made a sort of home for myself here... and it is scary because i am throwing that away AGAIN starting monday. i have to rebuild. i have to change. but isn't that kind of the story of life? learning to cope with change. learning to be ok with change. to accept it. to love it. to see that it has the potential to bring so many good things into life. i think that is what i have been trying to learn in the past four weeks. (along with spanish!)
who knows what i will learn in ibarra? hopefully a little medicine and a lot more spanish... but even more so, i am hoping to relearn my change lessons from the past month. if i can do ibarra with less lonliness and more determination that i can do it... i think this past month will have been an immense success. and a big stepping stone towards what i want to do with my life.
but, trust me. i miss things from home terribly...
1. food
2. hamburgers
3. not having to eat soup twice a day and tea three times a day
4. midtown
5. the apt and the civilians of the apt complex :)
6. centenial park
7. my team
8. understanding conversations on public transportation
9. hugs
10. the quote wall
11. walking down the street to the next apartment complex...
12. SEA LEVEL
13. an overwhelming lack of body odor
14. sleeping on an air mattress
15. being understood... on an infinite number of levels
ok. off to lunch with spenser... we are sneaking out (not really sneaking... but sneaking sounds cooler) for pizza. real. pizza. oh dios... how amazingly wonderful! there are just too many stories about ana maria to even begin right now... she is a character and not the best cook... sheesh. hope life en los estado unidos is fantastic. (and africa too! yeah carm!) lots of love and besos.
an adventure in being alone.
an adventure in learning.
an adventure in not being able to explain myself.
an adventure in how to live on my own.
an adventure in discovery.
(an adventure in culinary areas...)
of course there are days and moments that i would give anything to be in the plane flying overhead and back home... but looking back over the past 4 weeks, i have learned a lot. of course i have learned a lot of español, but (as revoltingly tacky as this sounds) i have learned a lot about myself. maybe not learned a lot ABOUT myself, but i have learned that i can withstand more than i previously believed was possible. and that is strange to say as well, because i am not 'roughing it' here. sure the food blows and the shower pressure and water temperature leaves something to be desired... but still. i cannot put accurrate (sp?) words to the last 4 weeks to convey what has happened and how i feel.
i have made a sort of home for myself here... and it is scary because i am throwing that away AGAIN starting monday. i have to rebuild. i have to change. but isn't that kind of the story of life? learning to cope with change. learning to be ok with change. to accept it. to love it. to see that it has the potential to bring so many good things into life. i think that is what i have been trying to learn in the past four weeks. (along with spanish!)
who knows what i will learn in ibarra? hopefully a little medicine and a lot more spanish... but even more so, i am hoping to relearn my change lessons from the past month. if i can do ibarra with less lonliness and more determination that i can do it... i think this past month will have been an immense success. and a big stepping stone towards what i want to do with my life.
but, trust me. i miss things from home terribly...
1. food
2. hamburgers
3. not having to eat soup twice a day and tea three times a day
4. midtown
5. the apt and the civilians of the apt complex :)
6. centenial park
7. my team
8. understanding conversations on public transportation
9. hugs
10. the quote wall
11. walking down the street to the next apartment complex...
12. SEA LEVEL
13. an overwhelming lack of body odor
14. sleeping on an air mattress
15. being understood... on an infinite number of levels
ok. off to lunch with spenser... we are sneaking out (not really sneaking... but sneaking sounds cooler) for pizza. real. pizza. oh dios... how amazingly wonderful! there are just too many stories about ana maria to even begin right now... she is a character and not the best cook... sheesh. hope life en los estado unidos is fantastic. (and africa too! yeah carm!) lots of love and besos.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
thoughts and nonsense from the ecuadorian peanut gallery.
'His eyes tried unsuccessfully to find some order in this blatant disregard for certainty.'
umm tell me about it. nothing sums up this ecaudor experience better than this little piece of the latest book that i just finished last night. (i am an english book reading machine. i'm onto 'the alchemist' now... which will be fast... and then i'm starting to dwindle on my collection. the vast majority of my luggage weight was books. oops.) anyways. nothing too exciting has happened in the last few days so i thought i would grace y'all (bad habit) with some thoughts from the depths of my confused mind. and of course, now all of my semi-intelligent thoughts have fallen out of my head and i can't think of what i have been thinking about for four weeks now. i don't know... i guess ecuador, as a country, kind of baffles me. it is disorganized and ridiculous and crazy and the government is corrupt and awful and i cannot understand 75% of what is said to me (ok, fine. i exaggerated. maybe 45%.) but for some reason it works. i mean, no it is not the most glorious place to live and it is certainly not the cleanest... but people are happy. their culture is slower paced and doesn't revolve around who is the best or the fastest or the richest or the most powerful or even what their rank is in the grand scheme of the world. i cannot imagine growing up in a place that does not shove how wonderful my country is down my throat every chance that they (whoever 'they' is) get. i don't know how i feel about all of that. this is not a big bashing of the united states... but it strikes me as strange that i have never truly questioned whether the way we do things, the way we run our lives, is the best. i feel like i have been robbed of a big spectrum of thoughts. i feel so uneducated about the rest of the world and so oblivious about life beyond the statue of liberty (which doesn't seem ver free at the moment). i mean... just one small and perhaps stupid example of our self-absorption is this: my professor asked me what i was (in terms of nationality), and i replied 'americana'... he said, in so many words, 'well... i am americano too.' wait. what?! no! i am american! oh wait... there ARE other americans. christopher columbus (who is NOT called christopher columbus here) did NOT land in north america. i mean. i guess i knew that, but have i ever really thought about it? no. hell. i didn't know where ecuador was on a map before this year. am i stupid? no. have i just not studied enough? no. (hell no.) so why in the world am i so oblivious? why am i surprised that people here don't know anything about the united states beyond the fact that we are rich, spoiled and greedy. that is what the world thinks of us. how embarassing is that? it is slightly embarassing to say that i am from the states and to have a load of stereotypes thrust on my shoulders. but can we blame them? of course i don't believe the awful things that they think about the states... but how can we sit and whine about how we are perceived when we fail to realize what is beyond our borders. i don't know. i am just rambling now.
i guess what struck up all of these thoughts was a conversation with a guy from sweden who had just finished studying in cuba for four months... while simultaneously finishing 'Mountains Beyond Mountains'... we were talking about health care systems. first of all, i find it strange that i know NOTHING about cuba. nothing. because of the embargo, they have basically been wiped off the map. ok fine. i get the communism thing. i do. but still. and secondly... cuba has quite possibly a much more effective health care system for the poor than the united states. they have more doctors per capita (right word?) than any other country in the world and they are not paid as stellar as they are in the states. wait, what?! cuba?! CUBA has a better functioning health care system than the freaking united states of america?!?!? this obviously could be debated... but THAT IS NOT THE POINT. THE POINT IS THAT I HAVE NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT IT. i don't consider myself close-minded... but i do find it ridiculous that for some reason i have been entrained to not question things like this. and i don't know why it is so shocking, but it kind of is. it is a big curve ball to realize that i live in a country that assumes everything it does is the best... and i have failed to question that. and quite frankly, i don't agree. call me liberal, if you must. but i think it is an interesting thing to think about.
disclaimer: this is less of a bash on the united states as a country and more of a bash on my personal failure to question what i have automatically assumed to be true. (some of which i now doubt.) and honestly, i think doubt is healthy. i think the united states would be better off if perhaps we looked at alternative options for running things... what an idea. to consider the fact that we might not be the best could give us the potential to rise even higher. if that makes any sense. who knows? welcome to my mind.
so many more random thoughts... on mcats and medical school and friendships and barriers and blah. but i need to get out of this smelly internet cafe and on with my life.
lesson number 1: live in the present. (i am still working on this.)
umm tell me about it. nothing sums up this ecaudor experience better than this little piece of the latest book that i just finished last night. (i am an english book reading machine. i'm onto 'the alchemist' now... which will be fast... and then i'm starting to dwindle on my collection. the vast majority of my luggage weight was books. oops.) anyways. nothing too exciting has happened in the last few days so i thought i would grace y'all (bad habit) with some thoughts from the depths of my confused mind. and of course, now all of my semi-intelligent thoughts have fallen out of my head and i can't think of what i have been thinking about for four weeks now. i don't know... i guess ecuador, as a country, kind of baffles me. it is disorganized and ridiculous and crazy and the government is corrupt and awful and i cannot understand 75% of what is said to me (ok, fine. i exaggerated. maybe 45%.) but for some reason it works. i mean, no it is not the most glorious place to live and it is certainly not the cleanest... but people are happy. their culture is slower paced and doesn't revolve around who is the best or the fastest or the richest or the most powerful or even what their rank is in the grand scheme of the world. i cannot imagine growing up in a place that does not shove how wonderful my country is down my throat every chance that they (whoever 'they' is) get. i don't know how i feel about all of that. this is not a big bashing of the united states... but it strikes me as strange that i have never truly questioned whether the way we do things, the way we run our lives, is the best. i feel like i have been robbed of a big spectrum of thoughts. i feel so uneducated about the rest of the world and so oblivious about life beyond the statue of liberty (which doesn't seem ver free at the moment). i mean... just one small and perhaps stupid example of our self-absorption is this: my professor asked me what i was (in terms of nationality), and i replied 'americana'... he said, in so many words, 'well... i am americano too.' wait. what?! no! i am american! oh wait... there ARE other americans. christopher columbus (who is NOT called christopher columbus here) did NOT land in north america. i mean. i guess i knew that, but have i ever really thought about it? no. hell. i didn't know where ecuador was on a map before this year. am i stupid? no. have i just not studied enough? no. (hell no.) so why in the world am i so oblivious? why am i surprised that people here don't know anything about the united states beyond the fact that we are rich, spoiled and greedy. that is what the world thinks of us. how embarassing is that? it is slightly embarassing to say that i am from the states and to have a load of stereotypes thrust on my shoulders. but can we blame them? of course i don't believe the awful things that they think about the states... but how can we sit and whine about how we are perceived when we fail to realize what is beyond our borders. i don't know. i am just rambling now.
i guess what struck up all of these thoughts was a conversation with a guy from sweden who had just finished studying in cuba for four months... while simultaneously finishing 'Mountains Beyond Mountains'... we were talking about health care systems. first of all, i find it strange that i know NOTHING about cuba. nothing. because of the embargo, they have basically been wiped off the map. ok fine. i get the communism thing. i do. but still. and secondly... cuba has quite possibly a much more effective health care system for the poor than the united states. they have more doctors per capita (right word?) than any other country in the world and they are not paid as stellar as they are in the states. wait, what?! cuba?! CUBA has a better functioning health care system than the freaking united states of america?!?!? this obviously could be debated... but THAT IS NOT THE POINT. THE POINT IS THAT I HAVE NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT IT. i don't consider myself close-minded... but i do find it ridiculous that for some reason i have been entrained to not question things like this. and i don't know why it is so shocking, but it kind of is. it is a big curve ball to realize that i live in a country that assumes everything it does is the best... and i have failed to question that. and quite frankly, i don't agree. call me liberal, if you must. but i think it is an interesting thing to think about.
disclaimer: this is less of a bash on the united states as a country and more of a bash on my personal failure to question what i have automatically assumed to be true. (some of which i now doubt.) and honestly, i think doubt is healthy. i think the united states would be better off if perhaps we looked at alternative options for running things... what an idea. to consider the fact that we might not be the best could give us the potential to rise even higher. if that makes any sense. who knows? welcome to my mind.
so many more random thoughts... on mcats and medical school and friendships and barriers and blah. but i need to get out of this smelly internet cafe and on with my life.
lesson number 1: live in the present. (i am still working on this.)
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