An Ecuadorean Spring Break with Joy: Guest Post by Andrew Rehn

Joy has asked me (Andrew) to do a guest post and I am happy to provide one. My week in Ecuador felt like it went by quick, but we did a lot and I had a ton of fun.  I tried to be succinct for this post, but I felt like I was missing things, so this post is a long one. I apologize for that.  For pictures to accompany and give context to this wall of text, see this link: https://picasaweb.google.com/andrew.rehn/Mar282011?authkey=Gv1sRgCKOhwKXJw8HOcg&feat=directlink

Monday
On Monday, Joy just settled me in to Ecuador.  She showed me around Lumbisi (the village where her host family lives) and USFQ (the college she is attending there).  Lumbisi is an incredible little community.  The description in Joy's Mom's post is better than anything I could write, but I will give it a shot.  Joy's family lives on the second story of a house that they own in Lumbisi. The first floor is rented out to another family.  Chickens and two puppies live in the yard outside the house (Joy finds the chickens to be hilarious.  A chicken strolling around doing its thing will start Joy giggling).  Joy's host family lives down the road (literally downhill) from the park, which is the commercial center of Lumbisi. Most of the homes around the park have converted their first floor into small stores or internet cafes.  The stores there support the needs of the community, but aren’t big enough to attract people from outside Lumbisi.  I suspect the people of Lumbisi prefer it that way. The park is also where we caught the buses to get to school.  The bus took us from Lumbisi to school in Cumbaya for just 20 cents each.

USFQ is a beautiful school.  I wish I had taken more pictures.  It reminds me of Florida or the resort I went to in Mexico: lots of palm trees, a lake with a pirate ship, and a fountain-wall that would work occasionally (hopefully Joy can load a picture of that sometime). The different buildings of the school all connect in strange ways, giving it a maze-like feeling that all schools worth their salt have.  I still can’t quite figure out how everything was connected in my head.  I attended some of Joy’s classes, but didn’t understand a thing (I was usually reading a book anyway).  When not in Joy’s classes with her, I was at one of the computer labs using the internet or using Joy’s computer.  The entire school has wireless internet access.  We ate lunch at this really cool restaurant that has a different set meal each day.  Lunch was just $2.50 for soup, the entrée, a drink and desert!

That night, I gave Joy’s host family the gifts I had brought for them.  For the parents, I brought a bottle of 312 and some Frango mints.  The parents were really excited about the 312 bottle which shows the Chicago skyline.  Later they asked Joy and me what 312 stood for and we told them it was the area code of Chicago.  For the boys (ages 15 and 12) I brought Uno cards and Pass the Pigs.  We played a few games of Pass the Pigs they were extremely entertaining. When Carlos pigged out, he would cry out and fall on to the couch dramatically, and Josue wouldn’t stop rolling until he pigged out. For the little girl Genesis, I brought two mechanical hamsters called Zhu Zhus.  She seemed to enjoy playing with them a lot.  However, the make a lot of noise so I hope they don’t start to annoy her parents too much.

Tuesday
On Tuesday, I went with Joy to school again.  That night, Joy and I played Bananagrams with the members of her study abroad program.  We had a lot of fun.  For those of you who haven’t played it, Bananagrams is like scrabble except you have your own board and race to use all your tiles. It is a lot of fun and I suggest any Scrabble-lover to try it.  We played Spanish Bananagrams first. It was difficult for them to play and impossible for me to play (knowing only a handful of Spanish words).  We switched to English Bananagrams and things got really competitive. 

Wednesday
On Wednesday, Joy and I went to Quito to see the Basilica. You can see some of the picture of the Basilica on the picasa link.  I would like to say that we climbed to the top, but I was not able to make it that far.  For some reason, my fear of heights got the best of me that day.  We climbed almost to the top of the clock tower, but I couldn’t do the other end of the basilica where the climb was on the outside of the building. On the way down, we stopped at a café in the basilica to have a milkshake (it was more like chocolate milk) and talk for a while. We came back home to Lumbisi for dinner and then went back out to Quito that evening with the rest of her program to go salsa dancing. It may not shock you that I do not know how to salsa dance and am certainly not a natural.  However, Joy was forgiving and we had a good time.  After a bit of salsa, some of us went to another bar that was trying to be an Irish pub. We had a few drinks and talked.  I enjoyed myself thoroughly.  It was late when we got back, but one of the puppies woke up Juan Carlos and he met us at the door to say good night.

Thursday
On Thursday, Joy took off classes so that we could spend more time in Quito.  We rode a cable car to the top of Pichincha Volcano.  The cable car took us up to 4100m above sea level (from Quito which is 3000m).  By the time we got to the top, both Joy and I had a little altitude sickness.  Nonetheless, the view was marvelous.  On the ride back down, we could see the basilica from our cable car.  We got back down to the bottom of the mountain just before it started pouring rain.  To escape the rain, we took a taxi to the market in Quito with some friends we met on the ride down from the mountain.  Joy and I got lunch at a restaurant where we had cheesy potatoes with an egg on top, a delicious but strange dish (it’s called llapingachos!). Afterward, we stopped by a market to buy Ecuapants (the blue pants I am wearing in the zip lining pictures).  Later, Joy’s host family told us the Ecuapants are very popular thing for tourists to buy, but Ecuadorians don’t wear them. Indeed, didn’t see a single Ecuadorian wearing them, but I saw a few tourists wearing them on the plane ride home.

Friday
On Friday, Joy and I went to Mindo with some friends from her program.  Mindo is a small resort town in a cloud forest in Ecuador.  We got in around 6pm and by the time we settled in to our Hostel it was around 7pm.  The hostel was fantastic. It had an open to the elements feel to it while still being comfortable.  The people who ran the hostel were extremely helpful.  They even completely changed the locks on the door when we thought someone had broken into our room (nothing was stolen)!  We got dinner at a delicious local place with an open grill.  We ate rice, beans and chicken.  I also had a plate of corn, cheese and mayo.  It sounds like a strange combination but it was surprisingly good. That night we went to a club with some of the locals (we were the only gringos there).  It was a lot of fun, but our night was cut short when some of the locals started fighting each other (we think they were fighting over a dance with a girl).  We got out of there ASAP.  None of us were hurt or even directly threatened.  However, we decided to call it a night.

Saturday
On Saturday, we got breakfast at the hostel and then took a taxi (back of a pick-up truck to be exact) to Mindo Canopy Adventures, a zip lining company.  I think we went down 11 different zip lines.  The zip lines went over ravines in the forest and we were well over 100 feet in the air at some points.  On one line, I was able to go with a guide and do the mariposa (butterfly in Spanish).  Basically, the guide held my feet in the air and I went down the zip line upside down.  It was a lot of fun, but really scary. I couldn’t bring myself to bring both hands off of the harness.  After zip lining, we went back to the hostel to change into our swimsuits and then went tubing down a river (even though it was raining a bit).  It was really really cold at first, but once we got used to the water it was a lot of fun.  At one point we went under a bit and I thought the tubes were going to flip.  We were tubing down the river for about twenty minutes.  Afterward, we dried off at the hostel and got a late lunch at a pizza place in town (delicious Hawaiian pizza).  Then we took the bus back to Quito then home. All together, the trip cost about $40 each.  Try going zip lining, tubing and staying the night somewhere in the States for that price.

Sunday
On Sunday, Joy and I decided to take it easy.  After a long week, a day of rest seemed appropriate. We watched a movie (The Town) and went to a soccer game that her host dad was playing in. He is a member of the Lumbisi intramural league. That night, I said my goodbyes and thank you (muchas gracias) to the family, and left for home.

La Joy
Given all that, my favorite part of the trip was being able to see Joy.  The people were fantastic, the food was delicious, and the places we traveled were spectacular, but being able to see Joy again was like a long awaited breath of fresh air. While it had only been three months since I had seen her, I had forgotten so many wonderful things about Joy.  I forgot how incredible her smile and laugh are. I forgot how much I love talking with her about little things and life's big philosophical questions. I forgot how she always looks good, no matter if she is at the breakfast table after she just woke up or going out for a night of dancing in Quito. This trip made me remember all these things.  I can’t wait to see her again, but I hope she enjoys her remaining time in Ecuador.  She is doing quite well for herself in classes and with her friends.  More importantly, I can tell that her host family really loves her.  In just a few months she has become part of their family and developed a bond with them that will last a lifetime.  Before I left, they made me promise that I would look after Joy when she got back to the states. That’s a promise I intend to keep.

[I have such a wonderful boyfriend, who was willing to travel all the way to Ecuador to see me and write a post.  It was great having Andrew here for his Spring Break.  I couldn't help myself, the italicized comments are my additions.  Hope you all have enjoyed the guest posts as much as I've enjoyed my guests!]