Being a Gringo in Ecuador

HOLA! Que tal? Que mas? (Whats up?! lol) -just a few of the greetings I picked up on during my FIRST WEEK here. : ) The first week flew by and I'm soooo tired. And there is so much I want to do and learn and see and I only have less than a half a year. But my dad summed up everything that I want/need to do while I'm here when he comented on one of my posts. He said that I should:


""1. Learn lots.


2. Appreciate the oppurtunity to experience a different culture.


3. Be careful (your mom would like it if I included this one)


4. Give yourself a enough time to get used to all the changes and differences in cultures.


5. Keep up with your blog/journal - years later you will appreciate how much you recoreded!


6. Remember how fast time flew for your trip to begin - well it will probably go just as fast down there; thus, "Carpe Diem"!""





I couldn't have said it any better myself. (sorry I've been doing bad with # 5) And as for #2 and #4 -experiencing and adapting to another culture.....it's something you can't even put into words-its something everyone has to experience for themselves. I can say it is exhilirating and exhausting, easy and frustrating, logical and confusing, sane and yet absolutely loco (crazy) all at the same time.


During my first week I have started my classes, taken taxis and buses, have given dozens of besos (kisses), and have learned probably hundreds of new words (the problem is remembering all of them)…..and I’m beat lol Over the past few days at USFQ and being with my new family and going out with my friends, I sometimes honestly feel that I am on another planet instead of just another country. And I have quickly realized that I am not just learning a language but a whole other way of life-customs, traditions, etc. Here are some of the things that I, being a gringo (Spanish word for foreigner/white person) already LOVE about being in Ecuador-and some of the things that are going to take getting used to.

• I LOVE el horario ecuatoriano-Ecuadorian time! There literally is no time here-you have to search far and wide for a clock and other than classes, everything starts late. When someone says 5:30 they mean 6:30 or 7. I have a hard time understanding why people even set times. Time is just stretched out so much more here-for example my sister Sophie, me and a couple of our friends were going to go out to dinner at a very chic restaurant in Quito called La Boca Del Lobo (which I’ll tell you about later). We said we would meet at the University at 7pm-we didn’t meet up until 8pm. And taking the buses (you have to take 2) to Quito takes around 40 minutes. So we didn’t get to the restaurant until around 9pm. And it was another half hour or more before the rest of our party joined us-and we didn’t leave until around 10:30. And that is how it always is-someone can show up 2 hours late and simply shrug and say lthat it is the "horario ecuatoriano."
  



• I LOVE the jugo (juice here) Every morning I have homemade freshly squeezed fruit juice. And there are dozens of fruits here that I never even knew existed like taxos and a fruit tomatos. My absolute favorite is fresh squeezed strawberry juice and lemonade.
  



• I LOVE (for the most part) the food here. It is muy riquisimo! (very rich/good) I actually thought I was going to starve over here and live off the fruit snacks I packed lol-but this is not the case. The meals are a little repetitive but good nonetheless. Every meal (other than breakfast) includes soup first (I love locro-the potato soup) and then a plate with some type of meat, rice and a vegetable. And I can’t get enough of Ahi-a chili sauce that is served with every meal. It makes everything spicy!
  



• I LOVE the fact that everyone gives besos! : ) Saying hello and goodbye here are HUGE. It is necessary to say hello and goodbye to EVERY person separately. And each hello and goodbye comes with a quick peck on the right cheek.



• Over all I LOVE that everyone here is just more affectionate. The grandkids are called "mi amor" or "precioso." Everyone is always touching somehow (not in a bad way lol) I cant explain it very well but that is just how it is. It is not weird or rare at all to see Edwin kiss Salome quick kiss idk sorry i cant put it better into words


• I LOVE my host family They are caring and welcoming, accomodating, helpful, kind, friendly etc. Salome is so motherly-she always makes sure I have had breakfast (even though most times I'd rather just sleep in), she always tells me to put on more sunblock, and always brings me snacks and tells me to eat (I told her that she must want me fat!) Edwin is so the same way. Telling me I need to be careful or put more sunblock on etc. He also is very smart and usually knows what word I am trying to say (trying being the key word) because he is pretty good at English (I think he is better than he lets on) Sophie-my "sister" is amazing! : ) She is from a very small small town in vermont and goes to a private liberal arts school with all girls-and she is studying here for a whole year!!!!! and then afterwards she is traveling throughout South America for a month! I told her she has guts!!! She also is always offering to help me-with Spanish, how to get around, introducing me to people etc. I don't know what I'd do without her. And then there is Leni-our maid who is here every weekday. She is also very kind-but quiet (she might just realzie how much I stink at Spanish lol) She is an AMAZING cook too. And one day when I wasn't feeling well Salome had her make me a homemade remidie of lemons and cinnomon juice for colds. And then don't forget my loves!-Frodo and Martina! lol


• I LOVE the USFQ university. It is more like an island oasis than a college campus. It is ridiculous!!!! the pictures at http://www.usfq.com/ do NOT do it justice.


• I LOVE the scenery in Ecuador! No picture I'll ever take (don't worry I'm working on uploading them) will do it justice. I look out my window and see mountains. And not just one-Quito is surrounded by them! Houses are actually built on the mountains too-so when it is dark-it is like the whole mountain is lit up with lights.


• I LOVE the weather!!!! Goodbye snow-hello sunblock, t-shirts and jeans!! (Sorry I don't mean to rub it in) but seriously it is in the high 60's year-round and there has been absoultely no rainy days either!


• I LOVE that I just bought 3 movies for $4 dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (one was a gift from sophie because they are usual $2 dollars each) but TWO DOLLARS EACH??!?! for whatever movie you can imagine (and yes they are in english) I bought: Marley and me (which was actually Marley and "YO"), A Lot Like Love, AND...........NEW MOON!!!!!!!(which if you didn't know is still in theaters!!!!!!) (Dina you should be jealous lol)


• I LOVE for the most part that everything is cheap here (with the exception of fancy restaurants and american imports) But a bottle of water is 30 cents and a taxi ride (you have to negotiate a price) is usually $1 or $2 dollars.

Now for some of the things that are not so much.......

• I VERY MUCH DISLIKE the buses here. Unfortunately you have to take two to get from Cumbaya to Quito and back. They are old and dingy buses filled to the max with people-and then they don't even keep the doors open long enough for everyone to get on and off. Sometimes the buses don't even come to a complete stop and it's more like a run to get on or off of it.
• I VERY MUCH DISLIKE the stray dogs in the street. They make me sad : (
• I VERY MUCH DISLIKE that I can't wear sweatpants to class-I feel like I'm in Laguna beach there.
• I VERY MUCH DISLIKE being the foreigner. I feel like I might as well have green hair and an extra eye. And my favorite is attendance in my classes-there were a few where I was the only gringa. They teacher would call, "Daniella Gonsalez, Patricia Gomez, Jose Himenz etc...and then lauren winters......" awesome lol
• I VERY MUCH DISLIKED my first day of classes. My first class was supposed to be a cooking class. Fun right?? WRONG It was like the show Top Chef meets the worst class of Spanish you had ever had. I walked in late and infront of everyone the teacher starts asking me questions in spanish and I had no clue what he was saying. And then he spent the whole class lecutring on all the different knives we needs to buy, along with the whisk, thermometer, pinchers, and chef's uniform.....no gracias. I can't even cook good in English let alone in Spanish. It was wayyy to intense for me. They wanted me to be able to kill a crab/lobster at some point in the semester--when I have managed to burn a hot pocket before lol I don't think so : ) And then all my other classes went according as so: everyone around me is diligently taking notes and I am sitting beside myself wondering if the teacher is really speaking Spanish or possibly Italian....or maybe Zulu..idk what he was talking about. (but don't worry-I got out of those classes-thang god- and have switched (all but one))
• I VERY MUCH DISLIKE not knowing Spanish lol I know I will but right now I am in a rut I feel like I have used all my words in my word bank to say in a conversation. And what's worse for me is not knowing how to speak-but not being able to understand-especially when it is important for example-directions how to find your class or going over a syllabus.
• Another misshap that happened on the same day of my first classes (NOT OK) was that I was already frustrated with all my classes and being lost etc. And a friend and I went to eat at a Crepe Bar at the University-and the food looked amazing-but the menu was in spanish-so I went with my safest choice-"POLLO CHAMPILLONES" Champion Chicken right??? I didn't know what that meant-maybe a hearty meal? and little did I know that Champillones means MUSHROOMS in Spanish. gross I figured it out once the cook poured the mushrooms sauce all over my lunch. NOT OK and then that same day for dinner when a group of us went out to eat in Quito to celebrate our first day of classes-I ordered a beef dish that looked really delicious-until it got served to me raw. NOT OK lol
• I REALLY DISLIKE that everyone can dance here really really good and I only know the white person two step lol Everything is salsa or marengue. I plan on taking salsa lessons tho so we'll see how that goes...
• and lastly I REALLY DISLIKE missing everyone back home : ( I miss you guys.

xoxoxo