El Fin de Semana

Friday
Earlier in the day, a friend in my class invited me to a party hosted by the University's Diversity Office.  Some of my friends have conversation partners through the office, and it seemed like a good opportunity to mingle and perhaps get a conversation partner for myself.  So after dinner, Lizzie, Eboni and I went off to Quito.  At first we were the only non-Ecuadorians in the Tantra lounge and we got a lot of stares.  Eboni smartly guessed that it was a gay bar.  The rainbow banners, the signs that read "don't hide" and the women making out certainly supported her hypothesis.  Later it was confirmed to be a Lesbian bar. Diversity means many things, I should know by now.  Non-PC joke of the weekend: "An Asian, a redhead, and a black girl walk into a lesbian Ecuadorean bar.  Who gets picked up first?"

Lizzie and Eboni's conversation partners and friends showed up soon after. We danced the whole night, a mixture of Salsa, Meringue (sp), and make-it-up as you go.  I was exhausted, at one point Lizzie was concerned that I had potentially been drugged (haha not funny?). When we wanted to leave, Eboni's host dad (who is also a taxi driver) came to pick us up and dropped us off at each of our houses.  Successful first night out!    

Saturday
When I got out of bed both of my knees cracked.  At breakfast, Rosa served some crackers instead of the usual bread. She told me that the baker had died so we didn't have bread.  I was still tired so I'm sure my facial expression of shock was entertaining.  Rosa was just kidding.  This morbid joke continued for the rest of the weekend (i.e., Juan Carlos: "Do you eat a lot of bread in the States?"  Me: "yeah, depends on the family though."  Juan Carlos: "We eat a lot of bread, unless the baker dies" (jajaja). Later in discussing musicans coming to Ecuador, Carlos: "Michael Jackson!" Me: "He passed away."  Carlos: "Elvis Prevsley!" Me: "Also..."  Carlos: "I know, dead like the baker!")

In the evening we attended the Elecciones de la Reina, it's essentially a pageant show with 8 girls 13 to 16. There were many child performers as well as La Vaca Loca.  La Vaca Loca is literally the Crazy Cow.  I had no idea what that meant at first, I was pondering mad cow disease when the first Vaca Loca appeared.  It was a hollow triangular structure that looks nothing like a cow except for the horns attached.  On the structure there was a range of things like fruit, kitchen ware, and cheap flags.  A swarm of small children attacked the two unfortunate adults carrying the cow. From a distance it looked like the crowd of children swallowed the cow and carriers too.  Then the kids ran back to their parents carrying whatever they could grab.  Crazy indeed.

Sunday
My legs were more sore than Saturday.  After breakfast, the family and I sat on the roof/terrace for a bit when an impromptu "walk" was suggested.  We took a taxi, and then a bus which dropped us off on the side of a highway. We ran across 4 lanes of traffic to buy food. Then we walked up to an area considered Lumbisi territory and enjoyed our picnic and the amazing view.  The rest of the time we walked back down to the house.  For most of it I felt like a failed mountain goat, carrying my camera and a Guaba didn't help either. I slipped a lot, just like I trip a lot on the flat side walks at U of I.  My host family thought I was going to fall, so eventually Carlos (host brother) gave me a walking stick.  Someone joked that it wasn't for me, but instead to protect the Guaba that I was carrying.  Very funny family.  More jokes followed- Rosa: "Can you continue?" Me: "Yes, I'm fine."  Rosa: "If not, you can stay here with the wolves. jajaja"          

We took several short cuts, which required extreme effort and concentration on my part.  Moment of struggle and hilarity: we had to climb horizontally through a barbed wire fence (like last weekend except without the electric current).  Right when I was in the middle of the fence, Carlos yelled something (joking again), at the same time I felt my right leg cramp up.  Then my left leg got caught on the bottom part of the fence.  I was laughing, half crawling and quite concerned about my camera.  At the same time Rosa was angrily yelling at Carlos for scaring me and struggling to detach my jeans from the fence. 

Overall a fun "walk," we were out of the house for 3 hours. I estimate that we walked (more like hiked downwards) for just over 2 hours.  Everything is fine except for my legs.  I'm really happy that my host family is joking around with me more, it makes me feel like part of the family.   They joke around with each other a lot.  For example, Josue and Carlos bicker about who is adopted.  The parents join in too, "Genesis looks like your sister, Carlos looks like you, and well Josue... he's adopted."  I enjoy laughing with the family. I bet we're not always laughing at the same things, what matters is that we're laughing together :)

La Comida

I eat a lot of rice.  Almost every meal has rice in it, sometimes even breakfast.  Lunch is the largest meal here.   During the week I might just get something small, like a bagel sandwich but it costs about the same if not more than a traditional lunch at a small restaurant. A traditional lunch consists of soup (usually with some sort of meat or potatoes), a plate of rice with meat and a vegetable/ salad.  Dinner with my host family includes a lot of starch.  It's possible to have pasta with rice and potatoes, corn and bread.  I'm not sure if this combination has happened yet, but we've gotten pretty close. We drink something called avena at my house. It's made from a type of wheat and sometimes mixed with a fruit juice (like apple).  It's sort of like a warm smoothie.  My host family uses a lot of sugar in all beverages, unless it's water.  Everyone stirs in at least 2 spoonfuls of sugar to their drinks. Speaking of drinks, there's a brand of tea in the family's collection called "Power Sex."  I'm not sure what that's about; I have opted not to try it. 

Besides the "Power Sex" tea, I've pretty much eaten everything that I've been served.  For dinner twice now I've had "meat" but I'm pretty sure one time it was liver and the second time it was the udder part of a cow.  I don't think too hard about things that I'm eating.  One thing that I couldn't eat was undercooked soft boiled eggs for breakfast.  The night I arrived, my host mom asked me if I drank coffee.  I told her that I do occasionally but only a little bit.  I soon realized that the Spanish word "cafe" which I thought meant coffee is also used to refer to breakfast.  I have since then asked her for a little bit more to eat in the mornings, and that mistake has been corrected :)  For breakfast I've eaten large bowls of fruit: apples, papaya, and banana.  The other day my host mom bought Guaba for me.  I don't know what this is in English.  However, it's shaped like a giant pea pod the size of my forearm.  Once split open it looks orange and white with fuzzy texture.  One more interesting little detail... it's common to put popcorn in certain types of soups.  The popcorn is served separately from the soup, so the first time this happened I started eating the popcorn by itself.

Guaba

Overall, I like the food a lot.  The avocados are delicious!  It's also neat to know that a lot of the food comes from our neighborhood.  The corn we eat is grown on the family plot and many of the ingredients are fresh out of the garden.  It's possible that the chicken we ate at night is one that I heard crowing in the morning.  

The Escape of the Chicken:
After English classes on Wednesday, Alexis and I saw a chicken escape a small boy (about 3 years old).  Alexis chased the chicken back to the child, then the boy smacked the chicken in the face and grabbed it by the feathers on its neck to bring it back home.  Funniest thing I saw that day.



Random updates:
English classes seem to be going well.  The first day we only had one 7 year old boy show up.  Our program coordinator, Maria, came to Lumbisi to check-in with us.  She saw that there was only 1 kid so she said she was going to go get more.  More indeed.  Maria drove around town and picked up kids and brought them to us.  There were about 10 more kids that came back with her.  More than half of them were related in some way.

I'm still working on making Ecuadorean friends.  I failed at getting a conversation partner yesterday, partially because I asked the wrong people.  A staff member gave me his coworker's phone number because he wants to practice speaking in English.  I probably will not call Juan, lo siento senor.   

Yesterday was the first time it rained (downpour) since I've been here.  My host family kept telling me that before I arrived it rained a lot in Lumbisi.  What can I say?  I bring sunshine with me wherever I go... But this morning the view from my window was pretty cool:

Machachi, Huasalata, Banos!

(typed this in notepad, I'm hoping the font will copy and paste with more ease to blogger.. we shall see!)  By the way, I uploaded photos from the weekend to the same facebook album, you can see them here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=597178&id=774675412&l=0973787482

Friday night before getting ready for my trip I ate dinner with my host family (typical), Genesis started crying (also typical).  She had been a little sick, so I account the random crying to delusional sickness.  Then I realized that she was saying she wanted to go to Banos with me.  My host mom kept telling her that she couldn't go, which was only more upsetting. Eventually her dad told her that we would see how she feels in the morning, and then we will ask if she can go to Banos with me.  I definitely felt loved.  Apparently, Saturday night she asked her parents if "La Joy" was coming back, and they had to tell her I wouldn't be back until Sunday.  Cute right?  Genesis was sick this weekend along with my host mom and brother. I think everyone is recovering nicely.  It was a good weekend to be gone, since Lumbisi's water was not working... (it's working again now! I take back my complaint on water pressure and temperature)

So the trip itself:
I left Lumbisi a little after 7a.m. on Saturday morning to meet everyone in Cumbaya.   We took a small bus to la Hacienda Pachamama (Pachamama means Mother Nature) in Machachi.  It's in the province of Cotopaxi near the Cotopaxi volcano (the one I can see from my window).  I was asleep for most of the bus ride.

The Hacienda was beautfiul, it is privately owned by a Vaquero (can't remember his name =/) and his family. He was wearing a pancho and a cowboy hat! There's a lot of Spanish influence mixed in with indigenous aspects.  We ate breakfast there: homemade taxo yogurt, strawberries, bananas, warm bread, ham, cheese and hot chocolate.  After we walked around the Hacienda, it's basically like a large farm.  We fed chickens and turkeys.  Highlight: El Vaquero was giving us a tour and he introduced us to Milagros the cow.  We all started to follow him into a different area, and he said we were missing Milagros.  Since I had talked to him during breakfast he knew my name so he asked me to get the cow.  Honestly, cows make me a little nervous.  They're very large animals.  So I turned to Milagros, and said "Come here!" in Spanish, also I faintly waved in my direction. She turned around and actually took a step.  By then everyone was laughing so I just kind of walked away...

After that, we did a little sack racing, tug-of-war and vaccinated some cows.  We also learned how to use a lasso.  The boys in our program actually got some of the cows.  Then we walked around the property.  This involved climbing under/over/jumping across barbed wire with electric currents.  Some people got shocked on accident, some people got shocked on purpose.  At one point I opted to army crawl under one of the fences (it actually didn't have an electric current because I failed at army crawling and touched the fence). 

We walked a lot, but the views were breathtaking.  If the sky was clear, I think we could have seen at least 3 volcanoes if not more.  Then we ate corn and then lunch.  We spent some time with horses.  I fed a goat.  And back onto the bus we went at 4pm, tired and muddy.

We drove about 2 hours to Huasalata an indigenous community. We spent the night there in the Hostel.  We had a large dinner, served with cuy!  I tried it, it was interesting, I'm not sure I can say I like it mostly because I couldn't get to a lot of the meat. I think I was eating wrong.  (tangent: I told my host family I tried cuy, they were so excited for me. Also when I told them some people have cuy as pets in the U.S. they laughed)  After dinner El Grupo Cultural Samay, musical group, came and played live music.  There were some Andean dances going on.  I danced with a 40 year old man then a little girl about 4 years old.  The 4 year old did not look happy about it.  After everyone had stopped dancing the same man wanted to dance again.  So off I went.  Dancing consisted of stomping around in beat to the music.  We were about 5 feet away from each other, no eye contact.  Slightly awkward! 

In the morning we had breakfast before going on a walk on a mountainous trail.  The whole thing made me want to exercise more on a regular basis, I was so tired afterwards.  We walked down to the river to cut grass to feed cows/donkeys.  Then we carried the grass back up the mountain.  I carried it for a very small distance before trading off with someone else.  I saw some people in the community carrying the grass, they looked like moving bushes. 

Back on the bus and off to Banos. We walked around, had some sugar cane (reminds me of Taiwan!) and water taffy.  We also visited a church made from volcanic rock.  Then we went to a the Waterfall of the Virgin.  It was pretty.  I was disappointed by the thermal pools, they looked like regular pools but super crowded.  We actually didn't go swimming.  I did drink half a sip of "holy water." 

Lunch. Zoo.  There were lots of monkeys and birds.  There was a parrot who would say "Hola" and then laugh.  Around 5:30 p.m. we got back on the bus to go home.  On the bus we saw Tungurahua, the active volcano that everyone is worried about in Banos.  It's very large.  If it erupted I would not be able to dodge the ash, as awesome as I am.  I got back to Lumbisi around 8:30 p.m. 

Font works!  Epic long post.

Banos y Mas

Banos Waterfall

 

The trip this weekend was fun! I'm a little sore from our adventures.  The internet is not wonderful, so I'm not posting a ton of pictures on here.  I will write in more detail later, right now I need to head back to Lumbisi.  Hopefully we're starting English lessons today!

Enferma

First, I apologize for the inconsistent font sizes, sometimes I copy and paste pre-written posts to save money and time at the internet cafe. What might be worse than the inconsistent fonts is my ability at editing HTML. 

Anyway, this past weekend I was a little sick.  As delicious as everything has been, my stomach is unhappy with the sudden change in food.  A doctor visited me on Saturday because I had a fever (the combination of stomach problems and fevers is bad news bears).  Anyway, the whole thing also made me kind of homesick.  Of course, I have been much better in the last few days.  I actually typed up a post while feverish to distract myself.  It´s the most angsty thing I have written since I was 12.  But please don't worry, lots of other people on my program have gotten sick (I guess that's not reassuring).  It's pretty common for students studying abroad to go through this, and it's not that serious.  

Besides being sick, there are a couple of other things that make me miss home.  Mostly really small things...

Like the bugs in my room.  Occasionally there will be a small critters attempting cohabitation with me.  I deal with it pretty much like a 12 year old.  I mostly take the route of avoidance, as well as use whatever I have at hand such as my shoes, napkin, bottle of lotion.
Example: Small spider on my wall, me with a shoe.  Done and done.
Example 2: Giant spider, the size of my thumb (yes I think my thumb is Giant). I let out a strangled distressed sound.  My host mom came running to see if I had choked on my antibiotics.  When she saw Giant spider, she yelled for my host dad, who then killed the spider with his hat.  All he said was, "How ugly!"

Another thing is the paper sizes here.  Instead of 8 and 1/2 by 11, the papers are just slightly longer than what we use in the States.  So, I have Ecuadorean paper and my 5 subject U.S. notebook and folders.  The papers stick out just enough to make me think I'm going to give myself a papercut everytime I get something from my backpack.  Solution: tear off the bottom of the pages.

Lastly, in the shower at my house the water pressure and temperature are negatively correlated.  In the mornings I try to find a good balance between the two.  I've gotten a lot better at it, but the first few days were quite interesting. 

Really, it's just the small things.  Of course being sick was not quite a "small" thing.  I'm still having a wonderful time, and I'm amazed that I've already been here for over 2 weeks.  Just wanted to let you all know that I still think about home occasionally in spite of the amazing things going on here :) 

Speaking of amazing things, our program is taking a trip to Machahi, Huasalata and Banos this weekend.  I will not be posting until next week most likely.  There is a travel alert from the U.S about Banos regarding active volcanoes.  But fear not, I am an ash dodging expert and I will be just fine. 

Abuelos y Clases Revisited

 A short post to follow up on the Abuelos and Clases:

Remember the giant stick that Abuela gave to Rosa when we were about to walk home at night?  Well I think I was incorrect in thinking the stick was for the dogs.  The stick was most likely for the snakes!  Ahhh snake!  This past weekend we went for a walk around Lumbisi and we ran into Abuela in the family plot of corn.  She gave Rosa another big stick before we walked through the corn.  I noticed Rosa beating the side bushes with the stick as we walked.  I had my suspicions so I asked her why she had the stick.  She told me it was to scare the snakes away.  But fear not, the snakes are harmless (so I was told).

3 Generations: Abuela, Rosa, and Genesis

Corn, very tall corn! (Yes, be jealous of my $2 hat)

Clases
I have spoken to an Ecuadorean student in my Political Science class!  On Monday, we were waiting outside of the classroom, and I asked her if she was in my class.  I tried to ask her about our readings because the syllabus is unclear.  Well she didn't understand me.  Because she's polite (I also think it's typical to say this here in Ecuador) instead of saying "What?"  She said "Forgive me?"  No, please forgive my terrible Spanish.  Anyway, after that she started talking to me in English.  When we got into the class she sat by herself in the first row and I sat in the second row with another international student.  I eventually asked Andrea to come sit with us.  Hopefully, I will stay in the same class and hopefully she'll continue to sit next to me.  Not that difficult after all :)

This is where I wait for my class to start

Clases

First day of classes was on the 10^th.  At orientation my first week here, we learned about the different perception on privacy.  We were told that usually personal space is much larger for people from the States.  Fact: I was sitting on a small 2 person bench waiting for my first class to start when a guy came up and sat down next to me.  For the next 20 minutes I sat there thinking if I should say something.  Neither of us were doing anything, literally we were both just sitting there.  He was so close I think our shoulders were touching. 

As for my actual classes, I am taking 5 classes with an equivalent of 3 credits each once they transfer back to U of I.  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I start at 9am with International Relations: Human Rights and World Politics.  I finish with Political Science: Themes of Latin America around noon.  They’re one hour classes so I have a 1 hour break between classes to get my internet fix at the computer labs.  I feel guilty for taking the International Relations course… because it is taught completely in English.  The subject matter is really interesting though.  Also, I’ve come to terms that hopefully because the class is in English I will have an easier time with class work.  The extra time I will spend volunteering and getting to know my host family.   Tuesdays and Thursdays I have 3 classes: Spanish for Foreigners: Intro to Ecuadorian Culture, Spanish for Foreigners: Intermediate Conversation, (Lunch Break!) Art History of Colonial Latin America. 

Every class except for International Relations is in Spanish.  The Spanish classes and Art History have a lot of students from the U.S.  I am plotting to make friends with at least one Ecuadorean.  It’s actually really challenging because A. Language/culture barrier, B. It’s easier to sit next to Americans, or C. I have people (who I like) in my program in my classes that I sit next to.   I know, I need to get out of my comfort zone, but it’s chaining me down at the moment. 

I mean what do I say to someone in my program?  “Oh, I know I’ve sat next to you every day in class, but I really want to be friends with that Ecuadorean who looks like they might be nice and put up with my broken Spanish.  Excuse me while I confront my social anxieties and attempt to immerse myself in Ecuadorean culture. Thanks, did you still want to eat lunch together?”

Yeah, I’ll think of something less awkward I promise. By the way, I have only had to buy readers (photocopies of articles) for my classes.  The most expensive one was only $19.15!  Woah.  Along that discussion, I tried to buy my “book” for international relations but they ran out. I paid for it in advance to pick it up on Monday.  I hope I don’t lose my receipt!

Una Mezla de Fotos

Giant Virgin Mary overlooking Quito. 

A dead bug on a freshly picked lime or lemon.

Josue, host brother, and Genesis, host sister.  Genesis attends this school.  I hope to volunteer there soon.

Pork Chop, rice, lentils, fried banana, apple pop, banan bread.  Lunch for under $5!

Abuelos

Tuesday night Rosa and I went for a walk to visit her parents.  They were so friendly!  Rosa kept telling her dad (abuleo) what to say to me, and to ask me questions.  He would then ask her a question about me (which I would understand) and then look at me and ask the same question.  When Abuela came in, she wanted to ask the same questions but the Abuelo would stop her and tell her the answers.  There were mosquitoes in the room (shouldn’t be the malaria kind, no worries) and Abuelo took out a fly swatter.  Rosa took it away from him and a mosquito massacre occurred.  At the time I thought it was really funny and I couldn’t stop laughing.  Mind you, no one else was laughing.  Rosa followed a mosquito into the other room and all I could see was her shadow, looming with a fly swatter.  

 

When we were leaving, Abuela gave me a sack with four avocadoes, yum!  Of course, I’m not sure I actually want to eat all of them.  They will all be ripe at the same time, I might have avocado overdose.  Instead of leaving the way we came (through the gate and walking down the road) Rosa decided to show me the soccer field located right next to the house.  This meant lowering a rickety wooden ladder with questionable structural integrity onto the grass next to the concrete wall separating the house from the soccer field.  It was already dark and kind of scary.  Rosa went first and I followed.  Before saying goodbye, Abuela handed Rosa a large stick.  I think I heard her say it was for the stray dogs. 

Well on our way back these dogs ran at us barking like crazy.  Rosa just kept saying “Be quiet” (to the dogs) and we continued walking at the same pace.   They followed us for a little bit, but then went home.  Rosa said that we almost got bit, she might have been half joking.  I kept thinking about the rabies shot and how painful everyone says it is.   

Quite an adventure to visit the grandparents.

Cuydado

We saw a man wearing a shirt with the words “Cuydado” and a picture of a Guinea Pig on it.  In Spanish cuy means Guinea Pig and cuidado means be careful.  For the sensitive animal loving type, you might want to skip down to the third paragraph.  Just warning you… Anyway, guinea pigs are occasionally roasted whole and eaten here.  This weekend my host mom showed me a cage with the family’s guinea pigs.  Yes, they’re there to be eaten later.  I will definitely try it if served.  I haven’t quite told my host family that in the United States people have guinea pigs as pets.  They are cute, but in Ecuador they need to be careful…

The chickens need to be careful too. Remember the loud rooster?  Well, Rosa came into my room on Saturday and announced that the rooster had been killed.  I was glad I suppose.  On Sunday the rooster did not crow and as we sat around the breakfast table, we talked about how they finally killed it.  But wait!  Rosa’s sister came up to our house and told us that her rooster was missing.  Josué said he didn’t kill it and everyone looked around the table, who done it??  Even now we don’t know what happened to the rooster. 

Enough animal stories, Saturday morning Rosa, the kids, and I walked around Lumbisi.  I saw sheep, dogs, pigs, cats, chickens, goats and cows.  We picked avocados and limes from trees, and picked fresh green onion.  I saw some boxes with bees, and we picked choclo, very similar to corn.  Afterward, we got coconut ice cream bars, delicious!  I lost 2 games of checkers to Carlos and then I won a game of crazy eights and lost a game of Rummy.  Fun times all around.  That night a couple of us went to Cumbaya to hangout.  

On Sunday we went to Quito for lunch and shopping at the markets.  Little did we know, the Lumbisi bus stops running at 1pm on Sundays.  We waited for a long time before we eventually took taxis, which only cost 2 dollars ($1 because there were 2 of us) for a 15 minute trip! 

Orientation for international students included a lot of “be careful” and use common sense, as well as a long list of things not to do.  It was almost enough to justify staying in your room all day while you’re not in class.  However, the Cuydado guinea pig shirt sheds light on how to be safe in Ecuador.  You do what you need to and try to follow the “rules”, but it’s still important to have a sense of humor about it.  That’s what I’ve felt like these past few days, especially when I am out at night.  Hope that made sense… Of course, I’m very very cautious regardless of what I’m doing, no worries!

I will write about my classes next time, ciao amigos.

Fotos!

I spent a long time trying to upload pictures directly to this blog, but I give up for now. Everyone should be able to see pictures in the link below.  Let me know if it doesn't work.  Also, I can see Cotopaxi from my window at home, look it up on Wikipedia! 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=597178&id=774675412&l=0973787482

Story of the day:
I was standing outside of my house when I heard my host mom say, "Leave it be" to Josue, my 15 year old host brother.  I turn around and he's holding this large flustered chicken in his hands.  He sets it down and everyone moved on. 

Well I thought it was funny :)

Estoy Aqui!

I arrived in Lumbisi, Ecuador two nights ago now!  It seems so unreal to be here finally, especially after that crazy delay in Miami.  I do not have internet at home, but my host family said that they will have it within the next week.  So.. I am sitting in an internet cafe about a block away from my house. I have realized how much I take internet forgranted in the States, also how dependent I am on it. 

Michael (my travel companion) and I were the last two students to arrive in our program.  I felt a little behind and slightly overwhelmed since the first day after I arrived we went into Quito.  It is beautiful and so different.  Things here remind me of a combination of Chicago and Taiwan. The smells, signs, and traffic definitely remind me more of Taiwan than Chicago.  We saw several churches and had a giant lunch when we were in Quito: pork chops, rice, lentils, and banana cake.  We returned to Cumbaya and purchased cellphones.  I am a little worried about my phone since it seemed to break today, but hopefully it will pull through for the semester.  (tangent: I just noticed that this keyboard is different, I do not know how to get the contraction apostrophe thing (yeah it has a name) which is why I am not typing in contractions for now) 

My host family is amazing and besides for the lack of internet I am pretty satisfied with living in Lumbisi.  The food has been great, lots of rice for sure.  There are these roosters that crow really loudly at the crack of dawn, my host aunt living next door has an especially loud rooster.  At dinner tonight, I thought I heard my five year old host sister, Genesis, say that her aunt was going to kill and eat the rooster so that it will not "sing" in the morning. I asked if she was going to do it this week and everyone started laughing.  I was laughing too, but I am not sure if we were all laughing at the same thing but that is alright with me. Then Genesis tipped backwards with her chair.  Her 15 year old brother desperately grabbed her pants which slowed the fall but she still went down, chair and all.  She was fine, laughing and crying at the same time. Okay, now that I am done rambling, I will give a better context for everyone...

Lumbisi is an indigenous community near Cumbaya and Cumbaya is a suburb of Quito.  Quito has the highest elevation of the three, followed by Cumbaya then Lumbisi.  It takes one 15 minute bus ride to get from Lumbisi to the University located in Cumbaya.  From Cumbaya it takes 2 bus rides (almost an hour) to get to Quito.  On average a bus ride costs 25 cents, yes 25 U.S. dollar cents.  There are 5,000 students who attend USFQ, I heard there are about 200 international students mostly from the U.S.  So I am definitely not lacking friends to speak English to.  There are several girls from the U.S. living in Lumbisi with me, a handful from U of I.  Many of our friends live in Cumbaya.  However, the majority of international U.S. students live in Quito. 

I apologize for the disorganized post.  I just wanted to get everything on here before the internet cafe closes.  I am doing well and enjoying the few days that I have been here.  It is definitely a different experience.  I have pictures but I do not know if the internet here is fast enough for me to post them.  I may have to wait for another day.  Goals to work on:  better conversational Spanish and figure out my directions.

Until next time! 

Tal Vez Manana

I really really wish I could say I was posting this from Ecuador.  Unfortunately I am typing this from the  "Mia Hotel" of the Miami Airport, with a king size bed and my carry on to keep me company  With some luck, I hope to be in Ecuador tomorrow night.

Details:
We left Flossmoor close to 7am, and reached O'Hare in record time. 
I said my goodbyes, went through security without getting awkward pat downs or going through the full body radiation machine monster  scanner thing and was at the gate well before the flight's scheduled departure at 10:50am.  I met up with a fellow student going on the same program... all in all feeling great.

Everyone was boarded and we were about to pull away when the captain made the announcement that some small thing needed to be replaced on the plane... in total departure was delayed for more than 3 hours.  I was sitting on the plane at O'hare longer than it was in flight to Miami.  When we landed we literally ran to the gate and missed our connecting flight by minutes.  This brings us to rescheduled flights, hotel and food vouchers. I called my host family for the first time and had a very broken conversation.  I'll say I hit a low point in my Spanish speaking career when I called my host dad "senora."

Overall, not a very good day.  Of course, there was a lot learned.  American Airlines will not hold your connecting flight, but they will put you up for a nice budget stay at wherever you're stuck. Fully charging your cellphone before a trip is a must.  Eating a good meal as well as regular exercise can improve chances of catching flights.  Seriously though, I know this is all part of the "Study Abroad Experience." I'm trying to take it in with good humor.  For now I will look up some Spanish vocab and practice for the next phone call to my host family.  I have to redeem myself somehow.  

Maybe tomorrow I will be in Quito :)

Adios!

Oh my... I meant to have another real post before heading out.  There is definitely no time for that right now.  I think it's officially hit me.  My flight is at 10:50am out of O'Hare.  I will get in to Quito around 10:30pm (eastern time) tonight.  Maybe I'll get in a post while waiting for flights.  But if not, the next time will be from Ecuador!  Yay!