Sbarro...a cultural experience

before I blog about my day...i forgot to add an important DISLIKE to my last post...

• I VERY MUCH DISLIKE the altitude here! i thought it wouldn't be a problem but little did i know that "Ecuador is home to some of the highest volcanoes and mountain peaks in the world. Quito, Ecuador's capital, is nestled in a long narrow valley between the lush hilly base of the Volcano Pichincha to the west and the precipitous canyon of the river Machángara to the east, and sits at 9,500 feet, (3,000m). Someone flying to Quito from New York City, for example, experiences an elevation change of nearly two miles in a little more than 6 hours." (http://www.ecuadorexplorer.com/) And let me tell you-especially after my first aerobic class-its a BIG problem....along with me being extremely out of shape on top of it lol but day by day little by little the collinas (hills) are getting a little easier and when i say hills think like the steep hills in san fransico-yea its not pretty

so those are my likes and dislikes however im sure i will add more as my time here progresses. As for now.....

After an amazing and yet exahausting weekend;Friday a group of people from my program went out to eat at-don't judge me-at Chili's where i dogged down some cajun alfredo pasta lol I had a weak moment ok??! lol, and then Saturday our program took us on a tour of churches and museums and monuments of Historic Quito The sights were breathtaking! and one day wasn't nearly enough so i cant wait to go back sometime, and then sunday is when salome and edwin's family comes over for a big lunch and then me an sophie went to go see avitar in quito in spanish-but the spanish version was sold out so we settled for spanish subtitles but since we had two hours to kill since we had to wait for the next movie we decided to go to the mall and meet up with aaron and rafa (2 of my good friends i met through sophie who are also studying here for a whole year) let me say I will not be shopping at that mall anytime soon-$$$$$$$$ and then I have another confession-and it is all aaron's fault btw-when deciding where we wanted to quick eat for dinner before the movie-we decided the food court would be fast-little did i know that it was all american food-and mind you I just had chili's!!!-but Aaron convinced me that Sbarro was a necessary cultural experience of Ecuador hahaha so needless to say I ate a big tasty cheese pizza lol But I do admit Leni's (our maid/cook) makes way better meals!!!! anyways thats what I've been doing

Last night I had my first meltdown (i made it a week lol) I was just frustrated with my classes and not knowing whats going on and missing home a little bit and overwhelmed with this whole adjusting to a completely different language, culture and schedule and life in general. but honestly i got to remember i cant learn an entire language in a week-i'd like to but i can't. : ) but thanks to everyone from back home-my awesome friends, supporting and loving family and of course my amazing boyfriend I realize I just need to take a breather, relax and enjoy it. I found a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson and it says:

"People are always getting ready to live but never living."

This is kinda like my predicament with this trip. I spent all semester planning, and preparing, and packing and panicking and priding myself over this grand trip-this trip of a life time. the trip my boyfriend put simply, "Something that only comes along once."

And now I am here......and quite frankly all that is running through my head is...now what??? lol

I'm not going to lie its overwhelming. I know, and I am not too proud to say that I hardly ever have my crap together. I'd lose my head sometimes if it wasn't connected lol so trying to settle in and get my life together IN SPANISH and in a foreign country isn't the easiest thing I have ever done to say the least. But you know what, I'm excited. After I catch up on my sleep (I blame the altitude again) and get situated and get used to my new schedule I think I'm never going to have a boring moment-and I'm sooo excited. Since I like lists...lol here are some lists which I mapped out with two of my great friends here-molly and sarah-for lunch at "Fusione"-I think the name was which was an ecuadorian cuizine (complete with what else other then chicken rice and some unknown vegtable that wasn't so good lol) (oh-and fruit juice of course)

To do:

1. get my censo (kina like an ecuadorian license)


2. get a dumb phone which I still dont have (thank god for wireless)


3. and finalize my class schedule (i've made a lot of changes bc they weren't what I had expected) I definitely need to get out of "vacation mode" and back into "school mode" which is kinda hard to do since I am in a beautiful exotic country where its sunny all the time. I wish i could take the study out of study abroad lol BUT..i can't lol so here are my classes (my new and improved schedule):

• Photography for communication (digital photography)


• Inro to Ecuadorian Culture


• International Organizations (my only class in ENGLISH!!!!)


• Aerobics : ) -love it!


• Tejido-which is WEAVING haha


• and the Events and Protocol -I'm hoping this class works out-I'll tell you more about it later if it does.

Things I want to accomplish while in Ecuador:

• Go mountain biking (hopefully with my dad who booked his plane ticket to come see meeee!!!!! he's coming April 1st for a week when we have spring break here!!!!!)


• Learn how to Salsa-or at least try


• Have a "convo" partner-a club at USFQ where a native spanish speaker is paired up with an exchange student and he/she would help me with spanish and I would help him/her with english


• I'm looking to somewhere in my free time do a little volunteering hours at a medical clinic here in Cumbaya


• make an american meal for my family (any suggestions???????)


• buy an ecuadorian cookbook and learn to cook an ecuadorian meal-or maybe I should just watch leni?


• play tennis


• get a topseller book in spanish-and read it


• Be more healthy-its definitely easier here (aka drink more water, better meals, run, etc)


• Keep up with my blog


• see Ecuador-the oriente (rainforest, the beach, the andes, and the GALAPAGOS ISLANDS!!!!)


• Do something that I'd be scared of doing


• make an ecuadorian friend(s)


• take pics


• oh...and LEARN SPANISH def my #1

But as I said before maybe I should stop planning and start doing : )

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

Mis Primeras Dias en Ecuador

Bueno....

I am pretty sure that more things have happened and I have gone through more changes in the past 72 hours than in my whole vida. : ) Sorry I haven't been doing a very good job keeping up with the blog but I have been so busy settling in with my new familia afitriona (host family), learning how to get around Quito, setting up my classes, and simply figuring out how to have a simple conversation! lol my head hurts sometimes-my "family" says its the altitude but i'm pretty sure it just hurts from thinking all the time to speak and understand spanish-and i mean ALL THE TIME i get tripped up saying the simplist things such as "I'm going to go to bed." and nothing is better than saying something to someone and they look at you like you have lobsters coming out of your ears : ) but it is only my first 3 days-and I have already picked up on a ton. That is the best thing I can probably say right now is that I now truly believe that at the end of this semester, when I return home in May, I will know Spanish. There is no way that I won't be able to-I am completely immersed in the language and the cultura ecuatoriana-and so far I have loved it!!!!

My experience didn't start off so hot right away-i actually was petrified when I got off the plane in Quito and went through customs, got my luggage-and then through the door were tons of people lined up holding up signs with names on them...I had no idea where to even look and I finally realized what I had gotten myself into (for awhile it kinda felt like i was just leavin for a vacation lol) but it hit me-like a ton of bricks
and then to make things better-the guy holding my sign was a guy the same age as me the sign was scribbled "lauren winters illinois" I had know idea who this guy was...and then as i stumbled over with my 3 bags of luggage I was quickly reminded of the ecuadorian culture of kissing (when you say hello or goodbye you ALWAYS give a kiss on the right cheek) and then the stranger proceeded to talk very fluent and fast spanish-and i was dumbstruck
all I could get out of his words was "your host family isn't here."
WHAT???!!?
and then after repeating himself mas despacio (slower) many times I understood that my family was just returning from a trip in the galapagos and that I was going to have to stay with another host family who was already hosting an exchange student just for the night. And he was Maria's son (maria is the director/coordinator of our program)....so I had a slight panic attack when I got in the car and there were huge mountains all around and he was speaking nothing but spanish to me and I quite frankly had no clue where I was headed....definitely NOT in kansas anymore

after about a 1/2 an hour drive-the roads here are like roller coasters-(the whole city is built on top of the mountains) i arrived in the suburb of cumbaya and was greeted by a very nice couple (probably in their 50s) They invited me in and I sat and talked to them with their current exchange student from the states-i dont know how i did it but i did a pretty good job of pulling spanish out of my a** : )

there is so much more to say i don't even know where to start but to sum up what happened with my host family is that for some rare and odd reason that I dont know- my family that I was assigned to live with didn't show up. It was Monday and they still coudn't reach them And instead of assigning me to another host family-I get to stay and live with Salome and Edwin and the other exchange student, Sophie! and I couldn't be more lucky! I get the best of both worlds because I get to live with a couple (who are unbelievably caring and nice) whose kids are all grown up and moved out of the house which allows me to get more practice speaking spanish with them. And also I still get to be in a house with kids (sometimes) because Salome and Edwin are grandparents and have the most adorable ninitos (grandchildren) even on top of that Sophie, my "sister," is studying abroad in ecuador for a whole year and has already been here for 5 months and her spanish is amazing!!! so she helps me out a lot with my spanish and showing me the ropes.....not to mention....

• i get to live in my own guest house-it is literally 2 feet away from the main house and is complete with 2 rooms, 2 beds, and a bathroom with a shower-its nice to have my own privacy at the end of the day


• their house is in a walking distance from USFQ (the university)


• they have puppy dogs : ) they are two golden retrievers and their names are Frodo and Martina lol


• and i am extremely spoiled because they have a maid that comes every weekday (my mom told me not to get used to it lol)

so needless to say I am very happy-and safe (I live in a gated community-and cumbaya is very safe compared to the city) I have a lot more to say about my experiences thus far but I have to got to bed because classes start tomorrow! : / my classes are

• introduction to ecuadorian culture


• intro. to international relations


• Photography


• cullinary techniques I (lol)


• crisis communication


• and aerobics hahahahaha

I am very excited becuase if these classes work out (meaning if I don't change anything) then I won't have classes on Friday! i would love to have a day off to catch up on my sleep because I am quickly realizing Ecuador has way way too many things to do and see and there isn't enough time in the day to do it.

One month...one week...one day...12 hours to go!

So its actually here...and as many of you probably aren't surprised...I've been meaning to write in this blog weeks ago-detailing all of my preperations for my 4 1/2 month trip to Ecuador. I don't really know how it got here so fast- it has been a whirlwind -I swear I thought I just said it was in two more weeks...now I'm going to get up in about roughly 4 more hours to get ready and leave for O'Hare: final destination: Quito, Ecuador.
I will be studying there at the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito and living with a host family. My host mom's name is Erika, and she is a single mom who lives with her brother and five year old son. I was told that "they are a very active family who like sports and traveling."
I have so much on my mind, but all I can really say is that I am exhausted......and excited and sad to leave everyone here..... nervous...and just plain scared out of my mind.
I have packed my two suitcases and carry-on up to the brim (no idea how it actually fit) and I actually have no idea what to expect...other than my Spanish is going to be horrible and am petrified I'll get stuck after "hola." And I can expect that there is absolutely no way I will be trying "cuyes" or in English-guinea pig (an Ecuadorian delicacy) : ) And I can expect that it will be a trip that comes around once in a lifetime.....