Wednesday, July 25, 2007
blog
i apologize for this being the worst blog ever. below are some more pics and copy and pasted. my apologies that i have no time for this, and for not taking more pictures. its really hard to enjoy all the experiences and take lots of pictures, plus tehn u are just viewed as another camera-happy gringo. i´ll get some photos from others tho.
Midservice- Bahía and Canoa
so we had midservice, where everyone gets togehter for 2 days and talks about experiences and sahres good lesson ideas. it was on the beach at a place called canoa.
again, the coast is a completely different contry. i really prefer the sierra. went out last night inbahía, and since alexis and i have no clue anything about the town, wejust told the cabbie to drive towards downtown (there are four girls, 3world teach, that we were staying with in bahía, and apparently there hasbeen all thgis drama and cat fights the past week or so, so we had toescape the tension) (i couldnt imagine who thought it owuld be good toplace 3 girls together). on the way to downtown we saw this big gatheringof people at what looked like a resturant so we decided to get off there.it turned out to be this big bingo thing. like 50 poeple playing outsideof this person´s house. we wanted to get in, but it was very seriousbingo, so we decided against it. like litereally, no one was saying aword, just with their head down at their card, and the guy was rapidfiring numbers. they werent messing around. like one block up, outide otfa mini mart there was a grup of 20 people playing bingo. maybe wednesdaynight is bingo night in bahía. we saw some people eating in therestaurant, so we stopped in. it was more just like a few wood tables anda kitchen, and then the people´s house. anyway, there was no menu at the "restaurant". however, we got 4 cheese empanadas, a fried plantain, and 4cups of coke all for $1. i feel like u just kind of ask for wraht u want,and then they charge u a dollar, becuas ei dont know how 9 items become adollar. it was really good tho. unfortuantely, bahía was pretty tapped outwedneday. we went to anothe resturant and they had one beer left, and thenthe restauarant across the street had no beers left, so we headed back. itwas kind of cool to see another small town, with everyone playing bingotogether, etc. cities and small towns both have their advantages. ibarrais great, becuase it is really stimulating, being a city, tehre is tons todo, lots of activities, events, but its also nice going to the small townsto pick up more local flavor, less metropolitan.
in canoa now..
woke up at 545a to t ake an eraly morning swim (6:15-8:00).it was really cool becuase the air was cold but the water was REAllywarm. from 8pm-1pm we had programming where we just did reflection likethings bullshit . had some good pasta with shrimp ( the shrimp here isreally small, and much tastier, and less fluffy. my main knock on shrimphas laways bveen a lack of taste, but here it does. could help that itscaught fresh daily) for lunch, and then hitthe beach at 2. (riding the waves!) i´m so proud of myself that i feel100% comfortable out there in teh ocean. its a big big accomplishment..around 4:18pm i believe i went for arun. ran for an hour down and back up teh beach barefoot . it was a nicerun (the sand is really cpm`pact from the tides) (and beautiful and touse the ecua word tranquilo) however, i thinkim´going to be very sore tommorow becuase i never run barefoot, much more,for 63 minutes.
again, the coast is a completely different contry. i really prefer the sierra. went out last night inbahía, and since alexis and i have no clue anything about the town, wejust told the cabbie to drive towards downtown (there are four girls, 3world teach, that we were staying with in bahía, and apparently there hasbeen all thgis drama and cat fights the past week or so, so we had toescape the tension) (i couldnt imagine who thought it owuld be good toplace 3 girls together). on the way to downtown we saw this big gatheringof people at what looked like a resturant so we decided to get off there.it turned out to be this big bingo thing. like 50 poeple playing outsideof this person´s house. we wanted to get in, but it was very seriousbingo, so we decided against it. like litereally, no one was saying aword, just with their head down at their card, and the guy was rapidfiring numbers. they werent messing around. like one block up, outide otfa mini mart there was a grup of 20 people playing bingo. maybe wednesdaynight is bingo night in bahía. we saw some people eating in therestaurant, so we stopped in. it was more just like a few wood tables anda kitchen, and then the people´s house. anyway, there was no menu at the "restaurant". however, we got 4 cheese empanadas, a fried plantain, and 4cups of coke all for $1. i feel like u just kind of ask for wraht u want,and then they charge u a dollar, becuas ei dont know how 9 items become adollar. it was really good tho. unfortuantely, bahía was pretty tapped outwedneday. we went to anothe resturant and they had one beer left, and thenthe restauarant across the street had no beers left, so we headed back. itwas kind of cool to see another small town, with everyone playing bingotogether, etc. cities and small towns both have their advantages. ibarrais great, becuase it is really stimulating, being a city, tehre is tons todo, lots of activities, events, but its also nice going to the small townsto pick up more local flavor, less metropolitan.
in canoa now..
woke up at 545a to t ake an eraly morning swim (6:15-8:00).it was really cool becuase the air was cold but the water was REAllywarm. from 8pm-1pm we had programming where we just did reflection likethings bullshit . had some good pasta with shrimp ( the shrimp here isreally small, and much tastier, and less fluffy. my main knock on shrimphas laways bveen a lack of taste, but here it does. could help that itscaught fresh daily) for lunch, and then hitthe beach at 2. (riding the waves!) i´m so proud of myself that i feel100% comfortable out there in teh ocean. its a big big accomplishment..around 4:18pm i believe i went for arun. ran for an hour down and back up teh beach barefoot . it was a nicerun (the sand is really cpm`pact from the tides) (and beautiful and touse the ecua word tranquilo) however, i thinkim´going to be very sore tommorow becuase i never run barefoot, much more,for 63 minutes.
Mira
sunday my host mom, uncle, cousin, and sister we all went to mira, whichis a pueblito of 5000 people about 45 minutes north of ibarra. its wheremy host mom grew up. we went to her childhood house to meet hergrandparents (i had previously met the grandma) and then we went to out tothe grandpa´s field to pick fruit. the field was beautiful, i´m goign toreturn and take photos. like u can look up and just see tpons of the andes,and the field is just on this mountainside. they kept on referring to itbefore we were going as "la tierra", (quieres ir a mi tierra), which is acool way of referring to it. but anyway, we went and got tons of avocados(the way u do this is climb up high in the tree, and shake a main branchwildly and all the avocados fall down), got a lot of limes and lemons(alhtough lemon trees are prickly, but not too bad), then we pickedoranges, taxo, naranjilla, ubijilla, guabaco (the latter four are randomtropical citrusy fruits that are good). we picked three huge sacs full.then we went back to the grandparents place for coffee and bread. then my host cousin (she´s 18 or 19) and sister went walking around mira. got tosee the sights becuase my host siter grew up here untill the family movedto ibarra when she was 10. it was a really cool small town, and verysmall, in the fact that on almost every block we passed by one of their cousin´s house.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Puerto Lopez
This weekend, a bunch of us World Teachers decided to meet up on the coast, in Puerto Lopez. We wanted to see Isla de Plata, which is known as the ¨poor man´s Galapagos island¨becuase there are some of the birds that you see in the Galapagos, and in general its really beautiful and great. I don´t have time now to put all my pictures up (it takes forever to load these up, but I will tonight hopefully).
So, right after the bbq, Alexis and I went into Quito to catch the bus to Puerto Lopez. The only unfortunate thing about Puerto Lopez is that it is a 11 hour ride from Quito (and Ibarra is a 2.5 hour ride from Quito!). However, since we were taking the nigh bus from Quito 8pm-7am, it wasn´t that bad as I slept a good portion of it.
In Quito, we met up with Billy Lyman (a friend of friends from Highland Park) who was doing a law internship in Quito and was going to come to the coast with us. So, we got on the bus. The bus was the opposite of all of Ecuador, as they were bus nazis. They wouldn´t let us bring our bags on, telling us we had to put them under becuase they were too big, and they wouln´t let us bring our food on becuase they said it smelled. In Ecuador, it´s always laissez-faire and when people aren´t you can whine your way out of it. (Everyone whines here to get everything).
We arrived in Puerto Lopez at 7am. Puerto Lopez is a two-faced town. One side is Puerto Lopez the eco-tourism village, and the other is Puerto Lopez the fishing village. First thing I did when I got there was go for a run along the beach. Besides being really beautiful, it was also very interesting becuase on one part of the beach is where the fish come in.
What happens is all the fishing boats are about 150m off shore with the catch. Therefore, you have to row your catch in on a row boat. The system is that the dads are on the boats, and the rowboats are operated by their 15 year old sons. On the beach everyone drives the trucks in, gets the fish and drives out. Also, there is like this big tent where the women have a fish fry and sell the cooked fish right there for breakfast. It really is quite an event that a good deal of the town comes to. It is really interesting how basically, everyone in the town is involved somehow with the catch or tourism.
In the morning Alexis, Billy, and I, since we were the first to arrive, arranged a tour for Saturday which includes a guided hike of Isla de Plata, whale watching, and snorkeling. After that, we went to Playa Frailes. This beach is part of the national park, and is amazing. First, there were like 10 other people there in this entire beach. And it was white sand, blue water, in this crescent with these two cliffs portruding out on each side, making the beach its own bay. It was my first tropical beach, and I loved it. The water was like a bathtub, and the waves were big enough to have fun, but not big enough to make this not very strong swimmer nervous.
From the beach, there was a trail that went to the top of one of the cliffs and down into a few other smaller but non swimmable beaches which we took.
After, we got back and met Rachel, Annie, Anna, and Julianna who had just gotten in from Bahia de Caraquez on the Puerto Lopez beach. We chilled with them for a while and went out for drinks and dinner.
Saturday
Today was a fun filled day. It started with the boat ride out to the Isla. On the way out, we did some whale watching. It was crazy. Like every 2 minutes there would be like 3 whales completely jumping out of the water and doing flips. Apparently they mate in Ecuador, so the males are very very busy showing off. We were literally like 40 meters from these whales (which probably isn´t the most ecologically sound thing) but made for amazing whale watching.
I´m going to stop here becuase I have class, but I´ll continue tonight with the rest of the weekend and pictures.
So, right after the bbq, Alexis and I went into Quito to catch the bus to Puerto Lopez. The only unfortunate thing about Puerto Lopez is that it is a 11 hour ride from Quito (and Ibarra is a 2.5 hour ride from Quito!). However, since we were taking the nigh bus from Quito 8pm-7am, it wasn´t that bad as I slept a good portion of it.
In Quito, we met up with Billy Lyman (a friend of friends from Highland Park) who was doing a law internship in Quito and was going to come to the coast with us. So, we got on the bus. The bus was the opposite of all of Ecuador, as they were bus nazis. They wouldn´t let us bring our bags on, telling us we had to put them under becuase they were too big, and they wouln´t let us bring our food on becuase they said it smelled. In Ecuador, it´s always laissez-faire and when people aren´t you can whine your way out of it. (Everyone whines here to get everything).
We arrived in Puerto Lopez at 7am. Puerto Lopez is a two-faced town. One side is Puerto Lopez the eco-tourism village, and the other is Puerto Lopez the fishing village. First thing I did when I got there was go for a run along the beach. Besides being really beautiful, it was also very interesting becuase on one part of the beach is where the fish come in.
What happens is all the fishing boats are about 150m off shore with the catch. Therefore, you have to row your catch in on a row boat. The system is that the dads are on the boats, and the rowboats are operated by their 15 year old sons. On the beach everyone drives the trucks in, gets the fish and drives out. Also, there is like this big tent where the women have a fish fry and sell the cooked fish right there for breakfast. It really is quite an event that a good deal of the town comes to. It is really interesting how basically, everyone in the town is involved somehow with the catch or tourism.
In the morning Alexis, Billy, and I, since we were the first to arrive, arranged a tour for Saturday which includes a guided hike of Isla de Plata, whale watching, and snorkeling. After that, we went to Playa Frailes. This beach is part of the national park, and is amazing. First, there were like 10 other people there in this entire beach. And it was white sand, blue water, in this crescent with these two cliffs portruding out on each side, making the beach its own bay. It was my first tropical beach, and I loved it. The water was like a bathtub, and the waves were big enough to have fun, but not big enough to make this not very strong swimmer nervous.
From the beach, there was a trail that went to the top of one of the cliffs and down into a few other smaller but non swimmable beaches which we took.
After, we got back and met Rachel, Annie, Anna, and Julianna who had just gotten in from Bahia de Caraquez on the Puerto Lopez beach. We chilled with them for a while and went out for drinks and dinner.
Saturday
Today was a fun filled day. It started with the boat ride out to the Isla. On the way out, we did some whale watching. It was crazy. Like every 2 minutes there would be like 3 whales completely jumping out of the water and doing flips. Apparently they mate in Ecuador, so the males are very very busy showing off. We were literally like 40 meters from these whales (which probably isn´t the most ecologically sound thing) but made for amazing whale watching.
I´m going to stop here becuase I have class, but I´ll continue tonight with the rest of the weekend and pictures.
4th of July BBQ
Again, these are backwards in time. Please scroll down and work your way up. Next time, I´ll upload the photos in opposite manner.
Hands Free Watermelon Eating
3 legged race.
Young machismo. The kid is Fausto from my morning class, and the girl on the right is Gabriella from my afternoon the class. The other two kids are in Alexis´class.
So, to celebrate the 4th of July (all 4 english teachers here are american), my school decided to have a bbq by some waterfalls in Otavalo (the town next to Ibarra).
Here is one of the waterfalls. I went under this one. It was really fun and refreshing, although really cold. I couldn´t breathe while under it.
View from my room. That small forested hill is where I run everyday, La Parque Guayabillas. It is a hill, but the top is more like a plateau. So there is a good 1.5 mile dirt loop up there where I do all of my running. The 5 minute climb sucks tho to get to the top, however, at the top, its the perfect place to run.
All the rooms in CECAMI are these kind of yurt-like structures.
Here are some pictures of my school, CECAMI.
Hands Free Watermelon Eating 3 legged race. Young machismo. The kid is Fausto from my morning class, and the girl on the right is Gabriella from my afternoon the class. The other two kids are in Alexis´class.So, to celebrate the 4th of July (all 4 english teachers here are american), my school decided to have a bbq by some waterfalls in Otavalo (the town next to Ibarra).
Over 100 students came to the picnic. It was a blast. We grilled hamburgers and chicken, while playing ¨traditional american games¨such as watermelon eating without your hands, egg toss, and three legged race. The kids really got into it. It was also a really nice opportunity to get to know the kids more outside of the classroom, and see how the kids interact here with eachother. It was very similiar to when I went out with the Scouts. Its always always mixed groups of guys and girls, even when they are 11-12. It´s hilarious seeing the guys always trying to be very chivalrous and macho for all the girls when they are 14 yeras old. Also, it was great to see how much the kids enjoyed the burgers. It´s such a novelty for them.
Here is one of the waterfalls. I went under this one. It was really fun and refreshing, although really cold. I couldn´t breathe while under it.
View from my room. That small forested hill is where I run everyday, La Parque Guayabillas. It is a hill, but the top is more like a plateau. So there is a good 1.5 mile dirt loop up there where I do all of my running. The 5 minute climb sucks tho to get to the top, however, at the top, its the perfect place to run.
All the rooms in CECAMI are these kind of yurt-like structures.
Here are some pictures of my school, CECAMI. Here is my room. It is a really nice, well-equipped and clean facility.
Quito
Here are some Quito pictures. They are kind of in reverse order, so you might want to scroll to the bottom first.
I thought this picked up on the flavor of Quito well. Every single space has been convereted into a place to sell something or do some kind of business, even into the side of churches.
I thought this picked up on the flavor of Quito well. Every single space has been convereted into a place to sell something or do some kind of business, even into the side of churches.
In the background there is Volcán Cotopaxi,
Ecuador´s second highest peak. Not so much in the picture, but in life its awe inspiring. Its the most perfectly shaped symetrical mountain. Google image it to see what I mean.
I balanced an egg on a nail on the equator. It is easy to do it here because the force from the rotation of the earth cancels out.
Requisite equator picture. Other people have pictures of me at the equator and other places. When I get them from other people, I´ll put them up.
View of Quito´s Plaza Grande. This is where all of the government functions are (the national cathedral, the presidential palace, etc).
The presidential palace, where the president works and lives. We were able to go inside a little bit.
Church in Quito. The gargoyles were different animals from the Galápagos. Thought that it was quirky. Here it´s the turtles.
General View of Old City Quito.
Here is the Panecillo in Quito. It´s a big virgin mary. Later in the day we went up to the top. Every city in Ecuador in the highlands has a big statue of some religious figure overlooking the city. In Ibarra its San Miguel.
Ecuador´s second highest peak. Not so much in the picture, but in life its awe inspiring. Its the most perfectly shaped symetrical mountain. Google image it to see what I mean. I balanced an egg on a nail on the equator. It is easy to do it here because the force from the rotation of the earth cancels out. Requisite equator picture. Other people have pictures of me at the equator and other places. When I get them from other people, I´ll put them up.
View of Quito´s Plaza Grande. This is where all of the government functions are (the national cathedral, the presidential palace, etc).
The presidential palace, where the president works and lives. We were able to go inside a little bit.
Church in Quito. The gargoyles were different animals from the Galápagos. Thought that it was quirky. Here it´s the turtles.
General View of Old City Quito.
Here is the Panecillo in Quito. It´s a big virgin mary. Later in the day we went up to the top. Every city in Ecuador in the highlands has a big statue of some religious figure overlooking the city. In Ibarra its San Miguel.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Weekend
TO GET NEW ENTRIES, CONTINUE TO CLICK ON THE ¨2007¨to the upper right hand corner. (There should be 6 in julio). Am trying to correct the problem but it is hard when the website is in spanish.
Had a very busy weekend. Friday morning I finished A Seperate Peace, which I liked a lot. That afternoon, Alexis and I planned out what we want to do each week for the rest of the summer curriculum wise.
Saturday--- So anyway, earlier the week my host brother asked me to go camping with him and his boy scout friends. It sounded cool, so I agreed. Well, I was in for a whole lot of suprises. First of all, here, its just called Scouts, meaning its a co-ed group. Second, he is like the boss of a troop, so it was me, him, and 3 of his friends his age, and 25 12-18 y-o boys and girls. It was actually really fun to get to talk to some younger kids. Another thing, I´ve been noticing is while gender roles are much rigid here, boys and girls are always really mixed while growing up, where I feel that in the US they are often more in seperated groups. Anyway, well the big surprise is that it wasn´t camping at all, but instead, a night hike. So that means, we hiked up a mountain and back down. We left at 7pm, and got back at 7am. It as really cool, becuase it was a full moon and a crisp night. It was really horrible, because you are walking at 4am in the morning, trying not to kill yourself and keep your eyes open. So it was really cool and horrible mixed up into one (especially since I couldnt mentally prepare for it, or in orhter words, take a monster siesta before). However, I was glad I did it.
Unfortunately, the bulk of this post was supposed to be pictuere from the hike, but the comp here isnt reading my camera, so please hold on a day.
Also, another little thing that I have noticed is how much I fucking love any American import. Always speaking spanish and trying to udnerstand it, is fun and good, but also really tiriging. So i´ve been finding myself enjoying really shitty american imports, purely because I can understand them. For example, in the car, on the radio came on a terrible Maroon 5 song, and I was rocking out. I find myself cracking up at Notting Hill, the Hugh Grant Julia Roberts romatic comedy, purely beucase i could understand everything so easily. You really take advantage of how easy ur native language is for you. I guess if anything, being in a foreign country might make me a lover of reading after all.
That is all. I´m thinking about going to Isla de Plata next weekend (the poor mans galapagos, it has eveyrthing except for the tortoises). Also, i have detail lesson planned thru tuesday already, so this is going to be a stress free sunday night, yhes.
Had a very busy weekend. Friday morning I finished A Seperate Peace, which I liked a lot. That afternoon, Alexis and I planned out what we want to do each week for the rest of the summer curriculum wise.
Saturday--- So anyway, earlier the week my host brother asked me to go camping with him and his boy scout friends. It sounded cool, so I agreed. Well, I was in for a whole lot of suprises. First of all, here, its just called Scouts, meaning its a co-ed group. Second, he is like the boss of a troop, so it was me, him, and 3 of his friends his age, and 25 12-18 y-o boys and girls. It was actually really fun to get to talk to some younger kids. Another thing, I´ve been noticing is while gender roles are much rigid here, boys and girls are always really mixed while growing up, where I feel that in the US they are often more in seperated groups. Anyway, well the big surprise is that it wasn´t camping at all, but instead, a night hike. So that means, we hiked up a mountain and back down. We left at 7pm, and got back at 7am. It as really cool, becuase it was a full moon and a crisp night. It was really horrible, because you are walking at 4am in the morning, trying not to kill yourself and keep your eyes open. So it was really cool and horrible mixed up into one (especially since I couldnt mentally prepare for it, or in orhter words, take a monster siesta before). However, I was glad I did it.
Unfortunately, the bulk of this post was supposed to be pictuere from the hike, but the comp here isnt reading my camera, so please hold on a day.
Also, another little thing that I have noticed is how much I fucking love any American import. Always speaking spanish and trying to udnerstand it, is fun and good, but also really tiriging. So i´ve been finding myself enjoying really shitty american imports, purely because I can understand them. For example, in the car, on the radio came on a terrible Maroon 5 song, and I was rocking out. I find myself cracking up at Notting Hill, the Hugh Grant Julia Roberts romatic comedy, purely beucase i could understand everything so easily. You really take advantage of how easy ur native language is for you. I guess if anything, being in a foreign country might make me a lover of reading after all.
That is all. I´m thinking about going to Isla de Plata next weekend (the poor mans galapagos, it has eveyrthing except for the tortoises). Also, i have detail lesson planned thru tuesday already, so this is going to be a stress free sunday night, yhes.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Long Entry
Hey everyone. I hope that this finds you well.
First off, to everyone that I said that I´d get back in touch, I´m sorry that I haven´t. I wanted to start this blog a long time ago, but this is literally the first time that I´ve had to catch my breath. I´ll give you a short recap, and from now, I´ll be able to update every few days, or every time something interesting happens. Also, I apologize for lacking pictures, they are coming, I promise.
So, for the first 10 days that I´ve been here, I was in Quito doing orientation type things. Quito was fun, but I´m glad that I have left. It is super chaotic and crazy, which is really fun and exciting, however it is very loud and INCREDIBLY polluted. I´m glad to be in Ibarra now, a town of 80k to 100k, which, to use the ecua word, much more ¨tranquilo¨.
Orientation was really busy, but for the most part really fun. We were given a few treats. First, we had a tour of old colonial Quito which was really beautiful. I go to go inside the presidential palace and many churchs, including one which every square inch was goldplated. We also went to the Guayasamin Museum. Guayasamin is Ecuador´s most famous painter. He focused on painting the suffering of Latin America and else where. I really liked his work, and the museum was on top of a hill, so it had an amazing view of Quito. Also, went to the Mitad del Mundo, or equator. It is a huge tourist trap, but a very fun huge tourist trap.
After the 10 days, I headed on the bus to Ibarra where I´m going to spend the next 7 8 9? weeks. I´m going to be teaching at a city funded institute called CECAMI, which focuses on job training etc., of which English is very important. Currently, there are two year long World Teach volunteers, Ally and Marni. There is another summer volunteer with me, Alexis, too. CECAMI is a very good placement in the essence that it is really well equipped. I have my own room, a library, CD, DCD, TV, computer, printer, etc. The office is horribly disorganized, but hey, that is the Ecua way.
I teach 2 maybe 3 classes. Today, was the first day. I teach Basic II, which means that the students have had some exposure, so that know a random smattering of words, and can do present tense well. Past and Future they know the words, but have trouble putting it all together. I teach a morning (mostly 12-16 year olds) and an afternoon (most 15-25 year olds). I might be teaching a night class. Only two people signed up, and none of them showed up today. (There is always a huge discrepancy between who signs up and who shows up, becuase being city funded, the tuition is very very low). If i dont have a night class, I´´ll probably switch off with Alexis every so often with her night class, becuase she has a morning, afternoon, and night.
Anyway, teaching went really well, better than any possible way I could have imagined it. Of course it is the first day only, but the kids were really well behaved, I´ve never been in a classroom where they were so well behaved. Also, the kids are very motivated, probably becuase English is the most useful thing. I had them fill out some basic info, and I´d say abouit 70% of them wrote under ¨why do you wnat to learn english¨, they said ¨becuase I want to move to the united states¨ So, hopefully that will keep them very motivated. While it´s the first day, I´m pretty optimistic that the dreaded ¨classroom management¨ won´t be too hard.
So Ibarra, Ibarra is a really beautiful city. Very colonial, and well preserved. It is an a valley surrounded by lush, terraced moutnains, and to the south, Volcan Imbabura, which is a very inspirational sight. I live about 15 minutes walking south of Ibarra Centro, and about 20 minutes walking west of CECAMI.
My host family has been great. I live with a mom (Ligia, 53) a sister (Grace 23), and maid (Maria 35), and a brother (Erik, 21) and a puppy, Camilla. The father moved to the US a year ago, and works at a resort in Oneonta, NY. The mom is unemployed, but is studying accounting at the local university here. She likes to put on this really tough, strict veneer, but she is a softee. Grace is really sweet. She is finishing her thesis about eco tourism, and volunteers a lot the church-community center. Maria is the maid and really nice. I have to admit, I´m very spoiled. I wake up to fresh juice of some exotic fruit, amazing omlettes, and fresh otu of the oven bread and cream cheese. I finsih my run to a huge lunch (the main meal here) to soup, chicken, rice with tomatoes and avocados, and this toasted dried corn. The food is unbelievable. Erik is a roadie for a band and lives in Quito, so I´m not going to see him that much, but he as around this weekend.
So my host family has been taking me around a lot.
Friday
Friday night I went to my host cousins graduation affair at an hosteria (kind of like a hotel and a ranch). The food was good. Very sullen affair for a graduation party. Everyone just kind of sat there and whispered to their neighboor. Afterwards, I went to a bar with my host brother. My host brother played guitar there, so I hung out with his friends. I´´m not good enough to kind of just listen to informal conversations yet, but when I¨m talked to (a little slower), I can usually provide a good answer quickly. I´m learning all the phrases and quichwa (the indigneous language) words (about 15% of the nouns used here are quichwa like niño-guagua, lago-cocha, mappa-coscqui). It was fun just to kind of pick up the atomosphere. Also, a trend started that night that has not stopped, in the fact that a)everyone gets drunk here all the time, and b)I dont have to pay for any drinks nor order them. Like anytime my glass would get empty, the waiter, without me asking, would bring another and refuse payment. This has happened like everywhere I go. Althought I assume it will stop once people know me.
Saturday
This week is Inti Raymi, or the Festival of San Juan. Inti Raymi is the most important holiday in the indiginous culture. It is timed with the solstice, and worhips their god, the sun. When the Spanish came, upon fear of death, they changed the name to Festival of San Juan, but still celebrate like they would celebrate Inti Raymi.
The next part is copied from an email, and I dont have the time or desire to edit for spelling :
ok, sofestial of san juan, everyone gets drunk (off of some warm drink made withalchol frmo sugar cane that you buy from big vats on the street) anddanbces on the street around a predetermined block, but their dancing iskindof like taking tons of baby steps and lifitng ur knees, hard to describe.and there are three houses with courtyards which everyone goes into, andthen dances in circles. ion the courtyards ur form a circle putting yourhands on the hips of the person infront of u (tehre is no such thing as personal space, and everyboyd is very physically affectionate, which i like), around the musicians. and start circling the musicians doingthis baby step dance thing and then every once in a hilwe, someoneshouts ¨vuelta vuelta vuelta¨and the circles change directions. all ofthis is while a couple poepe dressed in masks whip ur knees lightly withrope. and then eveyrone drinks the hot drink, and does the dance-marchthing in the streets to the next of thethree courtyards. and repeat repeat from about 6pm to 6am for a wholeweek. although the whole town comes out only for fri and saturdya night,wnhile the hardcrore idigineous do it for the whole week.
suinday, i went to church. it was like a new age gospel evangelic churchin the states. it was only catholic in name. all the songs were iwth aband and tbe asptor stood upwitha guitar leading the congreatgion, and there was a screen with aprojector projecting the words with i amges of jesus. meanwhile, eveyrsings and dances with prechoreogeraphed arm movements to the songs. thisis interpsed throughout the service. a dance roup of jovenes from perucame and did some peruvian dances. sopme kids did a rap. the wholle thingwas fun, except for the fact that it lasted 3 hours!!!. demasiado. way toolong.monday, i orally interviewed students to plac ethem into classes. andprepared. after, io went out to dinner with twh two other yearnlong wtvolunteers and an ex-pat that lives here. it was good, and nice to speakenglihs. it is so exhausting speaking spanish all the time. but learnedsome more ropes. like eveyrwhere is 25cents a minute to teh US, except forthis hotel is 12c a minute, and good places to run, etc, stuff like that.
So anyway, that is everything in a nutshell. Let me know how all of your summers are going. I promise to put up pictures, and update regularly (and more indepth) from now on.
Hasta luego.
First off, to everyone that I said that I´d get back in touch, I´m sorry that I haven´t. I wanted to start this blog a long time ago, but this is literally the first time that I´ve had to catch my breath. I´ll give you a short recap, and from now, I´ll be able to update every few days, or every time something interesting happens. Also, I apologize for lacking pictures, they are coming, I promise.
So, for the first 10 days that I´ve been here, I was in Quito doing orientation type things. Quito was fun, but I´m glad that I have left. It is super chaotic and crazy, which is really fun and exciting, however it is very loud and INCREDIBLY polluted. I´m glad to be in Ibarra now, a town of 80k to 100k, which, to use the ecua word, much more ¨tranquilo¨.
Orientation was really busy, but for the most part really fun. We were given a few treats. First, we had a tour of old colonial Quito which was really beautiful. I go to go inside the presidential palace and many churchs, including one which every square inch was goldplated. We also went to the Guayasamin Museum. Guayasamin is Ecuador´s most famous painter. He focused on painting the suffering of Latin America and else where. I really liked his work, and the museum was on top of a hill, so it had an amazing view of Quito. Also, went to the Mitad del Mundo, or equator. It is a huge tourist trap, but a very fun huge tourist trap.
After the 10 days, I headed on the bus to Ibarra where I´m going to spend the next 7 8 9? weeks. I´m going to be teaching at a city funded institute called CECAMI, which focuses on job training etc., of which English is very important. Currently, there are two year long World Teach volunteers, Ally and Marni. There is another summer volunteer with me, Alexis, too. CECAMI is a very good placement in the essence that it is really well equipped. I have my own room, a library, CD, DCD, TV, computer, printer, etc. The office is horribly disorganized, but hey, that is the Ecua way.
I teach 2 maybe 3 classes. Today, was the first day. I teach Basic II, which means that the students have had some exposure, so that know a random smattering of words, and can do present tense well. Past and Future they know the words, but have trouble putting it all together. I teach a morning (mostly 12-16 year olds) and an afternoon (most 15-25 year olds). I might be teaching a night class. Only two people signed up, and none of them showed up today. (There is always a huge discrepancy between who signs up and who shows up, becuase being city funded, the tuition is very very low). If i dont have a night class, I´´ll probably switch off with Alexis every so often with her night class, becuase she has a morning, afternoon, and night.
Anyway, teaching went really well, better than any possible way I could have imagined it. Of course it is the first day only, but the kids were really well behaved, I´ve never been in a classroom where they were so well behaved. Also, the kids are very motivated, probably becuase English is the most useful thing. I had them fill out some basic info, and I´d say abouit 70% of them wrote under ¨why do you wnat to learn english¨, they said ¨becuase I want to move to the united states¨ So, hopefully that will keep them very motivated. While it´s the first day, I´m pretty optimistic that the dreaded ¨classroom management¨ won´t be too hard.
So Ibarra, Ibarra is a really beautiful city. Very colonial, and well preserved. It is an a valley surrounded by lush, terraced moutnains, and to the south, Volcan Imbabura, which is a very inspirational sight. I live about 15 minutes walking south of Ibarra Centro, and about 20 minutes walking west of CECAMI.
My host family has been great. I live with a mom (Ligia, 53) a sister (Grace 23), and maid (Maria 35), and a brother (Erik, 21) and a puppy, Camilla. The father moved to the US a year ago, and works at a resort in Oneonta, NY. The mom is unemployed, but is studying accounting at the local university here. She likes to put on this really tough, strict veneer, but she is a softee. Grace is really sweet. She is finishing her thesis about eco tourism, and volunteers a lot the church-community center. Maria is the maid and really nice. I have to admit, I´m very spoiled. I wake up to fresh juice of some exotic fruit, amazing omlettes, and fresh otu of the oven bread and cream cheese. I finsih my run to a huge lunch (the main meal here) to soup, chicken, rice with tomatoes and avocados, and this toasted dried corn. The food is unbelievable. Erik is a roadie for a band and lives in Quito, so I´m not going to see him that much, but he as around this weekend.
So my host family has been taking me around a lot.
Friday
Friday night I went to my host cousins graduation affair at an hosteria (kind of like a hotel and a ranch). The food was good. Very sullen affair for a graduation party. Everyone just kind of sat there and whispered to their neighboor. Afterwards, I went to a bar with my host brother. My host brother played guitar there, so I hung out with his friends. I´´m not good enough to kind of just listen to informal conversations yet, but when I¨m talked to (a little slower), I can usually provide a good answer quickly. I´m learning all the phrases and quichwa (the indigneous language) words (about 15% of the nouns used here are quichwa like niño-guagua, lago-cocha, mappa-coscqui). It was fun just to kind of pick up the atomosphere. Also, a trend started that night that has not stopped, in the fact that a)everyone gets drunk here all the time, and b)I dont have to pay for any drinks nor order them. Like anytime my glass would get empty, the waiter, without me asking, would bring another and refuse payment. This has happened like everywhere I go. Althought I assume it will stop once people know me.
Saturday
This week is Inti Raymi, or the Festival of San Juan. Inti Raymi is the most important holiday in the indiginous culture. It is timed with the solstice, and worhips their god, the sun. When the Spanish came, upon fear of death, they changed the name to Festival of San Juan, but still celebrate like they would celebrate Inti Raymi.
The next part is copied from an email, and I dont have the time or desire to edit for spelling :
ok, sofestial of san juan, everyone gets drunk (off of some warm drink made withalchol frmo sugar cane that you buy from big vats on the street) anddanbces on the street around a predetermined block, but their dancing iskindof like taking tons of baby steps and lifitng ur knees, hard to describe.and there are three houses with courtyards which everyone goes into, andthen dances in circles. ion the courtyards ur form a circle putting yourhands on the hips of the person infront of u (tehre is no such thing as personal space, and everyboyd is very physically affectionate, which i like), around the musicians. and start circling the musicians doingthis baby step dance thing and then every once in a hilwe, someoneshouts ¨vuelta vuelta vuelta¨and the circles change directions. all ofthis is while a couple poepe dressed in masks whip ur knees lightly withrope. and then eveyrone drinks the hot drink, and does the dance-marchthing in the streets to the next of thethree courtyards. and repeat repeat from about 6pm to 6am for a wholeweek. although the whole town comes out only for fri and saturdya night,wnhile the hardcrore idigineous do it for the whole week.
suinday, i went to church. it was like a new age gospel evangelic churchin the states. it was only catholic in name. all the songs were iwth aband and tbe asptor stood upwitha guitar leading the congreatgion, and there was a screen with aprojector projecting the words with i amges of jesus. meanwhile, eveyrsings and dances with prechoreogeraphed arm movements to the songs. thisis interpsed throughout the service. a dance roup of jovenes from perucame and did some peruvian dances. sopme kids did a rap. the wholle thingwas fun, except for the fact that it lasted 3 hours!!!. demasiado. way toolong.monday, i orally interviewed students to plac ethem into classes. andprepared. after, io went out to dinner with twh two other yearnlong wtvolunteers and an ex-pat that lives here. it was good, and nice to speakenglihs. it is so exhausting speaking spanish all the time. but learnedsome more ropes. like eveyrwhere is 25cents a minute to teh US, except forthis hotel is 12c a minute, and good places to run, etc, stuff like that.
So anyway, that is everything in a nutshell. Let me know how all of your summers are going. I promise to put up pictures, and update regularly (and more indepth) from now on.
Hasta luego.
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