An Eventful Week

Hey everyone,

Sorry it’s been a little while—I’ve been roughing it for the last few days. It’s been an exciting few days, in good ways and bad.

On Thursday, my Spanish class (all 6 of us, Professor Tómas included) went to El Museo de Ciencias Naturales (Natural Science Museum) and a vivarium.  The trip there was pretty exciting for the following reason: an Ecuadorian woman tried to rob me on the bus. I had a really bad feeling about her as soon as she got on the bus, so I turned my purse away from her. However, as I was getting off the bus, I felt her push up against me, and I felt her hand looking for my front pocket. I thought nothing of it, however, because I knew I had nothing in my pockets.  However, when I got off the bus, I turned to tell my friends that she had just tried to rob me. I looked down and saw that the side of my bag was sliced open. My digital camera, my iPod shuffle, and my wallet were all accounted for, and I came to the conclusion that she didn’t escape with anything. I was obviously pretty mad though, and I couldn’t believe I didn’t trust my instincts enough to turn around and say something to her. But alas, I’ve learned my lesson.

The museum and vivarium were super cool though! The science museum was typical of what you’d imagine in the States, but a bit more low-tech. I loved learning about science in Spanish! After the first museum, we walked to the vivarium, where snakes, frogs, toads, and other various reptiles and amphibians are housed.  We learned about lots of different snakes, both poisonous and non-poisonous.  At the end of the tour, we were collected into a room with a bunch of little kids, and the guide spent the following 5 minutes trying to convince us that snakes weren’t all dangerous. I needed no convincing and gladly participated in touching the boa constrictor that the woman had wrapped around her.  Awesome field trip. 

A few of my classmates and I at the Museum of Natural Sciences: Lizzie, Me, Laura, Amanda, and Sam

We left early on Friday morning for our Conservation Biology/Terrestrial Ecology class fieldtrip to El Pahuma Orchid Reserve an hour northwest of Quito in the Andean cloud forest. On the way to El Pahuma, we stopped at La Mitad del Mundo, or the center of the earth (one of the infinite number of points on the equator at 0° latitude). We also stopped at a gas station, where I met some Ecuadorian high schoolers and their chaperones and chatted with them a bit. One of the boys convinced me to try an authentic Ecuadorian baked good. So, for a dollar, I picked up a bag of 10 delicious strawberry pastries. No regrets there.

At the center of the Earth 

The monument at the center of the Earth--fun fact: it's actually a few hundred meters off.

Anyway, a bit of background on our destination:

Ceiba Foundation for Tropical Conservation (the foundation I’m studying through) took El Pahuma on as a project about 15 years ago.  The land is owned by a local family, the Limas, but is under an easement, or a type of legal contract, with the Ceiba Foundation. Fifteen years ago, Joe and Cath, my professors and the founders of Ceiba, made an agreement with the Limas. If the family conserved the land and didn’t use it for wood or pastures, Ceiba would help them maintain it, and hopefully turn it into a small spot for tourists and/or students to learn about cloud forests and conservation.  To this day, the land has been maintained and conserved, and a couple buildings have been built to host visitors (from school children to university students to foreigners).

Since our professors started the project, our group reaped the benefits of their relationship. Upon arrival, we were fed an authentic Ecuadorian lunch of soup, fried trout, choclo (a type of corn-on-the-cob), rice, salad, and (maybe not so authentic) Tang orange drink.  We did a few activities in the botanical garden after lunch, and learned about a few plant families. Around mid-afternoon, we were split into two groups—the first group would be hiking up the mountain and staying in a cabin on the first day, and the two groups would switch on the afternoon of the second day. I had been feeling the onset of a cold on Friday morning, so by afternoon I was feeling a bit under the weather. Just a minor detail to add to the ones to follow.

I was in the group that stayed at the bottom of the mountain the first night.  Before dinner, our group, led by Joe, hiked up the mountain about a half hour to la cascada grande (or the bigger of the two waterfalls). It had rained a lot in the days previous, so the waterfall was gushing. A couple of my classmates lined up for a picture and a rock flew out of the waterfall and hit my friend Molly in the back of the head.  It was the start to a semi-dramatic weekend, to say the least.  We learned some more about plant families, and returned to the cabin for dinner. 

My weekend classroom.

My paraguas del pobre, or poor man's umbrella.

Waterfall!

After dinner, we had some time to rest a bit. Joe brought a guitar, so my classmate Jake and I chilled and passed the guitar back and forth.  As soon as it was dark, we went on a night hike to see if we could find some cool wildlife.  It was so cool to experience the cloud forest at night. As you can guess from its name, it’s nearly always foggy/cloudy in this part of the mountains.  Walking through the jungle with our headlamps illuminating the 10 yards in front of us was pretty magical.  We saw a few frogs, but other than that it was a pretty uneventful night hike.

The next morning, we got up to eat breakfast around 7:00. The family fed us fresh fruit, eggs, toast and marmalade, and coffee.  We had a little bit of time to rest, and then we had lecture at 9:00. Our lecture was on the porch of our humble cabin, overlooking the botanical garden. If you have to have class, it doesn’t get much better than that.  We then did an activity with pressing plants, and my friend April and I collected a nice flower to identify and press.  After pressing our beautiful orange Gesneriaceae (a plant family), we went to have lunch. This meal was my favorite of the whole weekend. We had choclo, avocado, fried pork, a sliced carrot/onion salad, tostados (toasted corn kernels—analogous to CornNuts if they were healthier), and more mellocos (those potato-like things from my last post). Suffice it to say we were more than fueled up for our afternoon hike up the mountain.

Our porch-style lecture hall.

Almuerzo--lunch!

Shot of the cloud forest.

The hike up the mountain was moderately strenuous. For an hour and a half (the locals can do it in 25 minutes), I trudged straight up the mountain in the rain on a semi-established path. Between asthma and altitude, I definitely had to stop for air a few times. However, since our professors had made it seem like a monster, I reached the “top” (it was actually only about half-way up) before I expected. Waiting for us was a small cabin and a shelter with a campfire underneath. There was obviously no running water (aside from the rain running down the mountain) or electricity. Two members of the Lima family were up there waiting for us (having just hosted the other 10 members of my class the night before) with hot tea and popcorn. With the help of some other family members, they had carried over a dozen plastic tubs of purified water, all of the cooking utensils, and all of our food up there. Talk about impressive.  We had mini-lecture about birds while we huddled around the campfire. We then had dinner of spaghetti and sauce with salad, and hot chocolate. I hate to say it, but even despite the fabulous Ecuadorian food, I really have missed my pasta.  It was quite the treat! The hot chocolate was also some of the best (and most natural) I’ve tasted, and definitely wasn’t Swiss Miss.  We also went for a night hike on Saturday night, but it was extremely muddy and rainy, and we didn’t find much.

A crummy picture of our campfire shelter

My classmates, pretending to be on a roller coaster,
with Adam in the back, Jake, Laura, and Lizzie
 in the middle, and April in front.

Enjoying s'mores around the campfire--the graham crackers are sweeter here. :)

Sunday morning I woke up super early because I was feeling extremely sick.  This was the start to what was to become my most dehydrated 48 hours ever.  At some point in the week or so before the trip, I must have eaten something (maybe the watermelon off the street?) with a parasite in it, and I (with the help of trusty Joe) decided I had amoebic dysentery.  Word to the wise: if you’re planning on contracting a parasite, don’t learn about them before you do it. Few thanks to Professor Bruce Christiansen, I was well-informed about the protists that had taken up residence in my gut.

I wasn’t going to miss out on the hike up the rest of the mountain, though.  After breakfast, which I had neglected eating, our class hiked to the top of the mountain to the Yumbo trail.  There is a bird called the Yumbo that calls back and forth across mountain peaks. A long time ago, people used to do the same between the Andean peaks that we were visiting. The Yumbo trail was named for these people that called back and forth like the birds. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the trail was worn down deep into the mud by the thousands of natives that carried heavy packs from the coast to the mountains for trading. The trail has since been used for smuggling, commerce, and evasion of the Spaniards.  It was really cool to walk the same trail.   After a quick packed lunch at the top of the mountain, it began pouring rain.  It must have been quite a sight to see us literally slipping and sliding down the mountain back to our cabin.  After packing up all of our things, we hiked another hour or so back to base camp at the bottom of the mountain and got ready to leave.  While we were waiting for everyone to pack up, we changed out of our sopping, muddy clothes, into dry ones, and sat on the porch playing guitar. As my friend Amanda joked, between the rain dripping off the porch roof, our beautiful surroundings, and the sound of a guitar, it was a pretty perfect setting if you were going to do any deep thinking.

Stopping to do some learning on the way to the top.

A view of the canopy from the forest floor.

April and I posing in front of what I like to call the "bunny ear" plant.

The worn down Yumbo trail.

After loading the bus, we had a quick snack and left. At this point, I was more than ready to be home.  I felt awful and I was wet and cold. I know it sounds wimpy, but I was definitely looking forward to my first shower in 3 days.  When I finally made it home, my warm shower wasn’t working (I later learned that the hot water heater had run out of gas). So I instead proceeded to tend to my dysentery, if you catch my drift.  I went to bed around 6:00 a.m., not before making sure I had thrown up the last of whatever might have been in my stomach.  Sorry for the overload of information, but these things are parts of my experience. :)

I woke up around 10:00 (Joe and Cath had given us the morning off, thank goodness), ate breakfast, threw it up, showered (hot water heater fixed!), did my Spanish homework, and went to Spanish class.  At that point, my stomach was feeling a little better, but I was starting to really feel my state of dehydration. I drank a bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade (for those of you who know me well, this is lots of liquid for me), and by 5:00 I felt much better.  As of now, I don’t think I’ll be needing the Flagyl that Joe told me he’d give me if I needed it to get rid of my amoeba friends. 

I thought that was the end of my medical ailments for the time being, but I was mistaken.  Since I had returned home from the forest, my foot that was injured last Tuesday or Wednesday playing soccer had become infected.  If it were up to me, I would have ignored it, more or less. But as I currently live under the care of an overprotective, loving Ecuadorian family, my host mother was horrified to see the infection that had developed.  She sat me down, and for an hour proceeded to scrub at my open sore with cotton and agua de manzanilla (an antibiotic tea), swearing that the scab that had developed was actually puss. As painful as it was, I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I would probably survive if she left it alone.  When the ”puss” wouldn’t come off, she insisted on taking me to la clínica, a clinic about 20 yards from my house where her daughter María José is a receptionist. We saw a nurse who clucked at my cut, scrubbed ferociously at my foot for 30 seconds, put a larger-than-necessary bandage on it, and sent me on my way. Cecilia seemed satisfied with this, and only needed to put antibiotic cream on it when we got home. 

My foot wound, pre-infection.

Needless to say, it’s been an overly dramatic week here. But, as usual, I just take everything in good stride, and chalk it up to “the experience.” If every weekend trip is as beautiful as last weekend’s, I think I’ll be in good shape. 

Here are a few things I learned:

-Some species from the family of plants called the Gesneriaceae are also jokingly called the “gay plants.”  This is because the male reproductive parts of the plants (called stamens) are fused together, held away from the female parts of the plant. Very clever, botanists of the past, very clever.

-The birds of the tropics are much prettier than birds of the temperate zone (e.g., the Midwest). I saw a blue mountain tanager up at the top of the mountain, and with my new binoculars (thanks Mom and Dad!) he was gorgeous.

-I love nature. I already kind of knew that one, but being out in the thick of it last weekend was fantastic.

-The manuscript of the book that is now The Power of One was originally used as a doorstop because the author, Bryce Courtenay thought it was no good. I’m in the middle of listening to the audiobook now, and it makes for a great commute.

Just one shoutout today, to Ms. Ann Kroncke. I have a lot of doubts that she is actually reading this, but I support her theories that nature is great and that it’s fun to learn about plants and animals. I suppose I already knew that, but in any case, Ms. Kroncke, you’d be thrilled by the tropics.

¡Hasta luego amigos!

My Continuing Attempts to Seem Ecuadorian

Hi friends,

Once again, not a whole lot has happened in the last few days, but I always manage to make a short story long. I have been neglecting my camera in the past couple days, so there's only one picture—sorry about that!

On Sunday afternoon, a few of my friends from the program met up at La Carolina Park and played soccer with a bunch of Ecuadorians.  They were pretty entertained by us, I think.  They play on a cement slab and call it indoor (pronounced “een-dohr”, like “indoor” soccer) for some reason, probably because it’s not on a real field.  We then caught a cab downtown to “Gringolandia,” or La Mariscal district to catch the Packers game.  We found an Irish-American pub that was going to be broadcasting the game, and ordered a good ol’ fashioned burger and a beer.  I won’t go into details about that game—y’all know what happened. Aside from the outcome, it was a good time.  Hilary and I caught a taxi home, and I went to bed shortly after.

On Monday, I woke up at 7:15, had breakfast, and went to school.  The day was pretty uneventful.  My snacks throughout the day consisted of: a chocolate-chip cookie (warm and delicious) and mora juice (blackberry juice), a nutella croissant, and a boring bagel with cream cheese. Even the smallest things seem extra delicious here. There is a panadería (bread shop) right around the corner from campus that sells lots of different kinds of bread and chocolate sculptures for fantastic prices. During lunch, I finished my Spanish composition (procrastination—some things never change), and walked around campus a bit.

That night, I came home and we had broccoli/potato/cheese soup with rice, fried pork, and ensalada (the stuff that’s a lot like pico de gallo).  The soup was a lot less creamy (and probably a load more healthy) than the stuff you’re probably imagining, but it was extra flavorful.

On Tuesday, I woke up at 7:15 and had a breakfast of papaya, bread with marmalade, and coffee. I don’t know if I’ve ever had papaya before, but it’s not bad! School was once again, moderately uneventful, save for  the thunderstorm and downpour mid-afternoon.  For lunch, a few classmates and I went again to the restaurant Del Horno. It has come to be known as “the two-fifty place,” because you get an insane amount of food for $2.50.  We had lemonade, a bowl of legume soup, a chicken wing, rice, ensalada, and passion fruit whipped dessert. While it is just a hole-in-the-wall kind of place, it’s delicious.  We played soccer with a bunch of other students at the turf field on campus, and then went to Spanish class. I won’t lie—learning verbs for the 5th time is insanely dull. Sorry teachers.

On the way home, I was stopped at a corner waiting for a light to change when some random guy came up to me and started talking to me in Spanish. He had a weird accent, and it sounded French, so on an impulsive whim I started speaking to him in French. (The switch was weirdly difficult at first, but got a lot easier after I switched mindsets.)  He was thrilled, and we walked a few blocks, talking small talk, and went our separate ways. Another goal accomplished—speaking French in Ecuador!

Tuesday night, I got home and there was no one in the 2nd flat where Cecilia, Rodrigo, and Cecilia’s mom live.  I was a little worried because my abuelita’s bed was empty, which only happens when she’s in the kitchen eating.  I went upstairs to see what was up, and I found Salomé and Lourdes’ sister (still don’t know her name—sad, I know) hanging out. My abuelita was up there. Thank goodness. I had some coffee and bread with them, and then helped Salomé with her math homework. Honestly, this was probably one of the hardest things I’ve done since I’ve been here. Don’t get me wrong, I love math. But, teaching it to an 11-year-old in a way that she’ll understand, in a language that she’ll understand, using the terminology that she’s used to, was surprisingly challenging.  It confirmed my belief that I picked the right field of study—most words in the sciences are nearly identical in Spanish and English.

Cecilia and Rodrigo got home around 8 p.m. or so. The reason they were so late is an interesting one!  Around 1 p.m., they had gone to the place where Santiago’s wedding reception is going to take place in June to do some measurements and do some general planning.  By the time they were done, it was past 4:30 p.m. Now here’s the interesting part.  In Quito, there is a very specific traffic rule meant to reduce the number of people on the road at one time. The law is known as pliqui-placa ("plee-kee-plah-kah"), but I'm not sure what that means or if/how it translates. For every vehicle, there is a day of the week and time of the day that that vehicle is not allowed to be on the road. If they are caught driving during their restricted time, the fine is tremendous.  So, for Cecilia and Rodrigo, they are not allowed to drive on Tuesdays before 9 a.m. or between 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (For other Quiteños, the day varies). This was a recent attempt by the government to keep traffic levels down, but in my opinion, traffic is (and always will be) insane. So, my host parents didn’t get home until after they were allowed to drive.

This morning, Wednesday, I woke up and had breakfast. Today I had papaya, crepes (weirdly thick—maybe a cross between a crepe and pancake) and marmalade, and coffee.  In my morning ecology class, we did a bunch of math and talked about population sizes and such. Interesting, like most biology, but still a little dry. Sorry Joe (one of my professors; the other is Catherine).  

We played soccer over lunch and I scraped a few layers of skin off of my leg/foot on the turf. Not fun. I was hesitant to wash the scrape off because all I could think about were the parasites and bacteria I was flooding my wound with (water quality is not great in Ecuador). But Cecilia took care of me when I got home and put some weird white penicillin cream on it. Too much info—sorry. After Spanish, I went home and had dinner with my host family. We had la sopa de mellocos (pronounced “may-oh-kohss”; a melloco is a small potato-looking tuber), with rice and carne con crema (literally “meat with cream”, but it was pretty much beef stroganoff). We also had rosquillas (pronounced "roh-skee-yah-ss"), or homemade donuts, along with some coffee. ¡Qué rico!

Rosquillas--donuts

I’ve saved my most excellent news for last! For the last month of our semester, we’re required to do an internship applying lots of the things we’ve learned over the course of the semester.  In the last day or so, I’ve been in contact with a woman who is a professor at UW-Madison that works with afterschool science education programs in Madison schools.  She is coming to Ecuador this summer to implement similar programs in the curriculum of a few grade schools on the coast. So, it looks like I’m going to be her intern! Some of the things I’ll likely be helping her with are: brainstorming, compiling, and refining relevant hands-on, fun science activities for K-8 students (using the template for the ones that already exist in Wisconsin), preparing materials for the teacher training workshop that will take place this coming summer, assessing current science teaching practices (by interviewing/observing), and getting to know the teachers that the program is going to be working with. This internship all but fell in my lap, and I couldn’t have invented one that is better suited for me!  Let’s keep our fingers crossed that everything goes as planned. Two things are against me: 1) I’m a Murphy, and therefore fall under Murphy’s Law, and 2) Things are pretty wishy-washy here in Ecuador. But, if all goes well, I’ll be hanging out on the coast for a month in late-April and early-May!

Anyway, that’s enough of that.  A shout-out to my Grammy today. She’s more than likely chillin’ in heaven right now, but my abuelita here is a great substitute. Aside from the fact that Grammy’s prettier and speaks English, they’re pretty much the same beautiful, caring, sometimes-a-bit-forgetful people, and I love them both. :)

This weekend, my class is headed to El Pahuma, a cloud forest about an hour and a half from Quito.  Cheers to learning about plants, birds, and animals in the real-life forest! We leave on Friday morning, so I’ll see you on the flip side of that trip. ¡Hasta luego!

From the Club to the Market

Hey everyone!

So, not a lot has happened in the last couple days, but I’m sure I’ll find a way to make this post a million miles long.

Friday was another (almost) normal day of school.  In the morning for biology we had a botany lab and learned about some random plant parts and how to classify plants. Not insanely boring, but I’m a lot more excited to be out in the field learning about these things. For lunch I had another one of those amazing crepes from the café on campus. This time a few friends joined me, sampling the savory “burrito” crepe and a few others. As before, they were masterpieces.

My "To-die-for crepe"

Will and Whitney and their crepes

Jake and his burrito crepe. He doesn't make that face all the time, I swear.

For Spanish we went on a fieldtrip to a museum on the top of the hill in Quito called El Museo Nacional.  We learned about the history of Ecuador, from the Pre-Incan/Incan era to colonial times. Unfortunately, the floor that showed the era of the Republic was closed. As you might know, Ecuador is not quite as developed as the states, and we learned a lot about vestiges of Pre-Incan times that are still around in very rural parts of Ecuador today. Although the museum was interesting, my favorite part was the end of it, when our class ran into a class of 30 or 35 Ecuadorian students from a local grade school who were around 10 or 11 years old. They were so excited to see us! They started off by timidly waving, and 5 minutes later we were in a full blown conversation. “How do you say “time” in English?” “Do you have a boyfriend?” “Where are you from?” “Look at her shoes!” (I was wearing my Vibram FiveFingers, and they were fascinated). Every once and a while a brave little person would take a whack at speaking English and say “How are you?” to which we would answer “I’m very well, how are you?” and they would run to the back of the group to hide before they had to answer. As we were walking away, one of the bravest little girls shouted “I love you!”, bringing in a chorus of “I love you’s” from the entire group. Incredibly adorable. (They didn't allow pictures in the museum.)

After the field trip, we went to one of the malls to a café called Cyrano. It’s a chain here, and you can buy ice cream and bread. We got some ice cream and a baguette ($0.95) and went to La Carolina park, which was very close by, to walk around.  We stumbled across one of many soccer games and asked if we could play. They were thrilled, and the 5 of us girls stepped in. I don’t know if they were impressed with us or simply amused, but a good time was had by all. However, being in the mountains really takes a chunk out of the oxygen available for breathing. With all of our huffing and puffing, we probably looked like a bunch of “The Biggest Loser” contestants after about 5 minutes. But, despite that, I have accomplished one of my goals of playing soccer with some strangers.

Coffee ice cream and whipped cream--some things never change.

Laura, Amanda, and Sam with their cones.

We were all sad when Amanda's whipped cream fell off.

My giant baguette.

Friday night a big group of us met up at a restaurant near La Carolina Park called Shawarma. We played cards and laughed about our Spanish mistakes over a few Pilseners.  After a couple hours, we caught a cab downtown to the district called La Mariscal. The locals call this “Gringolandia” because it is a hotspot for European and American visitors. We went to a club called Bungalow 6, where we danced to cheesy 90’s club music until 1:30 in the morning. (Seriously, I’m talking 50 Cent, Beyoncé, and Flo Rida).  In Ecuador, people tend to respect your space a bit more, and seem to be a lot less sloppy than in America, which was a welcomed difference.  It was such a fun night! Also—fun fact—the cab rides were a fraction of those in Madison. We got a 3 mile cab ride (and a nice chat with the driver) for 4 people for 3 bucks. The cab driver on the way home was kind of a jerk, but we got home alright.

On Saturday morning, our class met up for some extra credit at the Quito Botanical Gardens in the middle of La Carolina Park.  It was a scavenger hunt, and we had an hour to find all of the plants or features/types of plants on a list of 19 things. Aside from a chat with a birdwatcher and his wife from England, our search was pretty uneventful. (Another fun fact—people, especially those from England, who love birdwatching and get really excited about birds are called “twitchers” because they get so excited about a new bird species that they twitch. This guy was definitely a twitcher.) We ended up losing the scavenger hunt by a half point. Life goes on.

We then went with our class to a place called Crèpes and Waffles in the Quicentro mall. If I had previously thought that the crèpe café on campus was amazing, it is safe to say a new standard has been set.  I had a juice called el jugo alegría (literally, “juice of happiness”), which was a blended smoothie type mix of passion fruit, pineapple, and mango.  Needless to say, it was justifiably named.  I had a stroganoff crèpe, which was a crepe filled with beef strips, cheese, and stroganoff sauced, and topped with mushrooms and more sauce. Delectable.  For dessert, one of my classmates and I went halfsies on a  tiramisu and Tartufino de fresas (vanilla ice cream, coated in an almond-chocolate crust, surrounded by blended strawberry sauce). Not only were these desserts delicious, but I didn’t want to dig into them because they were such works of art. But I did—the ice cream was going to melt.

My stroganoff crepe with happiness juice

Tartufino de fresas

Tiramisu.

After leaving the restaurant, a few of us walked through the mall and got on a bus to go to El Mercado Artesanal de la Mariscal, or the Artisan Market in La Mariscal district. We at first stumbled on a really small market and decided that that couldn’t be it. We asked a police man for the Artisan Market, and he directed us to a corner 6 blocks in the direction we had just come from.  When we got there, we were like kids in a candy shop. Everything was so cheap and beautiful! This was my first bartering experience in Spanish. Another goal accomplished.  I got some colorful slipper booties and one of those cheesy I-studied-abroad-in-the-country-whose-flag-has-these-colors bracelets. After exploring for an hour or so, we decided to go home, swearing we would return later with more money.

Part of the Artisan Market

My new zapatitos!

My new bracelet.

Between the night before and a long day, I returned home around 5:30 p.m. exhausted. I stopped upstairs to say hi to my host family, and went to take a nap.  Around 7, I went upstairs to eat supper and have coffee. I had a buttery-flavored soup with dumplings in it (the name yet again escapes me), with rice, fried pork, and a cheesy zucchini mix. So flavorful! Seriously kids, if you don’t like zucchini, come to Ecuador—you’ll like it here.  Salomé came into the kitchen a bit later, and announced that she was so shameful and felt so bad. We asked her why, and she explained that she had just played spin-the-bottle with her friends, and her novio (boyfriend) was a part of the group. She had kissed another boy, and she felt awful.  I felt bad, but it was really cute. She quickly called one of her friends and made her promise not to tell her boyfriend. Later, I convinced her that it might be best to tell her boyfriend the truth, because then he just might forgive her.  Like I said before, some things traverse cultures.

After some Skyping, I went to bed. Although it was long, it was a fabulous day! Here are a couple things I learned:

-The bus that goes through the Quicentro-Mariscal part of town is called the Ecovía. It is twice as long as a normal bus, and is usually about as cramped as it gets, especially on the weekdays.  There is a joke in Quito that goes like this: How many people can fit on the Ecovía?  Always 15 more.  And it’s true—at each stop, 5 people get off and 10 get on, and the doors push them in as the bus is pulling away. It’s a good way to adjust to the Ecuadorian idea of personal space. 

-Ecuadorians don’t know how to give directions. I have yet to get lost, and I think that’s a good thing. If you ask a local where something is, they’ll wave their hand in some direction (perhaps even while nodding their head in a different direction), and say “Por allá”, or “over there.” They warned us about this in orientation, but I’ve definitely experienced it firsthand.

A shoutout to Brianna and Tracy today. Bri—you can buy a baguette for a dollar here. I think I’ve found where you should live the rest of your life. And Tracy—when we ran into those little kids at the museum I thought of you. They were adorable, and you’re a lucky girl if your future job has anything to do with hanging out with kids of that age, and especially if they also speak Spanish.

I think a few of us are going to find a bar downtown somewhere to watch the Packer game. Hasta pronto!

Settling In

Hello friends!

We’re starting to get into the swing of things here. We’ve started our classes and gotten to know campus a bit! Here are a few pictures of our beautiful campus:

The lagoon at the center of campus

The waterfall at the end of the lagoon

Sweet tree

On Monday night when I got back from orientation, I hung out with my host family a bit. It was, again, “cold” and rainy, so Cecilia, my host mom, made us a warm drink called canela (pronounced “kahn-eh-lah”). Canela means “cinnamon” in Spanish, so—you guessed it—it was a cinnamon drink. It really was just boiled water with cinnamon mixed in, with added liquor to taste. Not as good as the caneloza that I wrote about before, but still very good. I went downstairs to rest a bit, watched the movie “Horrible Bosses” (hilarious, in my opinion), did some Skyping, and went to bed.

On Tuesday morning, the first day of my biology class(es), I woke up around 6:45 (I know, right?!), ate breakfast, walked to the bus stop, and rode the bus to school. Here, I’ll give you an American’s perspective of the bus system in Quito. “Unbelievable” pretty much sums it up.  I walk 15 minutes to the bus stop. I could catch a bus closer to my house, but I prefer to walk—I’m getting to know the faces of people in the streets around the time I leave. I only have to take one bus from my bus stop to the university.  At the “bus stop”, called La estación Río Coca (“Río Coca Station”—a transfer point on Río Coca St.), there are always at least a half dozen buses, all going to the same place, to choose from.  There isn’t a schedule at all. Also, fun fact, the buses have names instead of numbers (for example, El Quinche or Tumbaco). When one of our orientation directors was telling us about the first time he used the bus system in Europe, he was shocked to discover that not only does the time “5:23” exist, but the bus comes at exactly that time. In Ecuador, it’s completely different.  The buses come and go whenever they get there, and there is never a wait for a bus at the station.  You just get to the station, and get on a bus. The trip from this station to Cumbayá (the valley where University of San Francisco de Quito is) is approximately 30 minutes.  There is a change of elevation of 2,000 feet from the top of the “hill” to the bottom. So, as you might imagine, the long winding hill is quite steep. The bus drivers don’t hesitate taking every turn at 50 miles an hour, and (because my eyes have recently been awakened to the world of physics), I often fear for my life. But that’s the fun of it right?

One of my many choices of green buses

Anyway, Tuesday morning, my classmates and I collected our copies of things to complete the visa registration process. Good thing I knew how to say “holes” (huecos [way-kohs], for those of you who are interested) in Spanish—it’s a very strange thing trying to act out a hole-punch. Again, gracias a Señor Henderson for that one. Starting at 9 a.m., we had biology class. The class is three hours long, from 9:00 a.m. to noon.  It is really two classes in one: Terrestrial Ecology (for the first half of the semester) and Conservation Biology (which overlies the entire semester).  The class is in English, taught by professors from UW-Madison. We learned about climate in the tropics, circulation of the atmosphere and oceans, and all that good stuff. After getting out at noon, we went to look around for a place to eat. A couple of my classmates and I settle on paninis from the school’s cafeteria. Obviously not Ecuadorian food, but great none the less. In the meantime, a few of my classmates went to check out the zip-line. One of them (ahhhemmmm, Laura) tried to ride the zip-line stomach down. Needless to say, this didn’t give her a lot of room between her and the water. Unfortunately, the video didn't load.

Aviv on the zip-line

The end of Laura's zip-lining experience

In the afternoon, we went to register our visas, but we were misinformed about the process and ended up leaving empty-handed. Alas, Ecuadorian bureaucracy. Hilary and I ended up walking back toward our houses together. I put on a few miles on my shoes after that trip.  When I got home, I had some soup called Quinoa, a vegetable-based broth with Quinoa grain (a grain that grows only at high altitudes, characterized by its squiggly appearance) and cooked potatoes, and “spaghetti” noodles (elbow macaroni), with cheese and ham. I have to admit--after taking Parasitology, those Quinoa grains looked a little too much like worms to completely enjoy the soup.  

My entire host family, with the exception of Lourdes and her sister (the two chicas indígenas that live with us), was on their way out the door for a very special event. Santiago, my host brother, was going to his girlfriend Adriana’s house to pedir la mano a sus padres (ask her parents for her hand in marriage).  In Ecuador, it is custom that the man asks the female first if she wants to marry him, and then he asks her parents for their blessing.  When I told them it was usually the other way around in the States, they said, “Well, what happens if the parents say yes, and the girl says no? How embarrassing.”  This event is super important for the entire family. Everyone, (parents, sister, niece, whoever in the family might be in town) dresses up (I’m talking suits and dresses) to go to the woman’s house.  They bring flowers, and both families formally dine together. Santiago was a bit nervous, of course, but everything went well. A great big Felicitaciones to Santiago and Adriana. While all this was going on, Lourdes and I had a cup of coffee and talked about soccer. She is a fan of “La Liga,” a professional soccer team from Quito. Apparently the games get pretty intense—can’t wait for one of those!

Yesterday, we had Biology in the morning and the first day of Spanish in the afternoon (2-5 p.m.).  I’m in a Spanish class with 5 other students from my program called “Conversación avanzada,” or Advanced Conversation. Since there are only 6 of us, it’s really fun! My professor, Tomás (who has one blue eye and one brown) probably gets a good laugh (or two or three) out of all of our Spanish errors.  For lunch, I went to another cafeteria on campus and had a crèpe. It was called un crèpe para morirse (literally, "a crèpe to die for").  I know it sounds boring, but this crèpe was a masterpiece. It had caramel on the bottom (it was supposed to be Nutella, but they were fresh out), strawberries, bananas, and cheesecake in the middle, folded up with chocolate syrup and chocolate flakes on top. I told the chef that he was an artist.  

When I got home, I ate some dinner. It was an egg-based soup, with a chicken flavored broth and the white of a hardboiled egg scattered throughout, with the hardboiled yolk plopped in the middle, whole. This soup (its name escapes me) was described as my host mom as a soup that even a guy who doesn’t know how to cook could make for his wife. It was tasty, although not my favorite. It was served with fried pork, rice, and roasted carrots and potatoes. As always, completely flavorful and delicious. I went to bed really early because I was exhausted.

This morning, I woke up, ate, and went to school. I went to biology, where we learned about some of the origins of flora (plants) and fauna (animals) in South America. If not for the break in between the 3 hours, I would have had even more daydreams than I did. I love biology a lot, but I can’t wait to get into the field and learn about this stuff. For lunch, a few of my classmates and I went to a restaurant down the street called “Del Horno” (literally, “from the oven”).  We had traditional Ecuadorian food—a pear-like thick juice, cauliflower cream soup (I loved it, but I don’t like cauliflower) with cilantro and tortilla strips, rice, pico de gallo, breaded fish, lime, and fried plantains. For desert, we had an incredibly sweet date with queso fresco (literally “fresh cheese”, a really simple white cheese served with a lot of things). This delicious meal was all for…wait for it…$2.50.  Delicious, cheap, ethnic food—can’t get much better than that.  It is, however, an interesting topic talking about money--I always feel a bit guilty commenting on the low price of something, because for many Ecuadorians, $2.50 is a fair amount of money. 

Juice and the main dish 

Date and queso fresco

For the whole 3 hours of Spanish we just talked in Spanish. This is, apparently, how it’s going to be every day. It’s amazing to have that much practice speaking Spanish, and we learn a lot too. For example, today we talked about many of the indigenous regions of Ecuador, some frutas (fruits), and many of the little obscurities of Ecuadorian Spanish. For example, in Ecuador, Spanish is much easier to understand than in Mexico, Spain, or much of Central America, because they speak so articulately. Gracias a Dios.

After Spanish we went to a little restaurant just off campus to have a drink. It was 2-for-1 happy hour, so we tried the famous Ecuadorian Pilsener that we’d been hearing so much about. It was well worth the dollar! It was so much fun hanging out with all of the people in my program. We definitely had a few laughs, most of which come from our Spanish skills (or lack thereof).  I got home around 7 and had dinner and coffee with Rodrigo, Cecilia, Lourdes, Santiago, Adriana, and Salomé.  Dinner tonight was a green Spinach soup (plain, but delicious) and lasagna. It was a white sauce-based lasagna with ground meat and vegetables. So tasty, and even delicious re-heated! I helped Salomé with her English homework (this has become a nightly tradition), and bode goodnight to everyone.

Hillary and Lizzie with a margarita

The famous Ecuadorian  Pilsener

Classmates on my program: Tyler, Will, Jake, Aviv, Hilary, and  Paul

White sauce lasagna

Spinach soup (looks gross, but isn't)

Here are a few things I’ve learned in the past couple days:

-A “camelid” is the scientific name for the taxonomic family of camels, llamas, alpacas and such. They originated in North America, and migrated to South America where they eventually survived and became extinct in North America.

-The Amazon river used to flow from east to west, even after the breakup of Pangea (a cool, well-respected scientific theory that all of the continents were at one point all one continent) when South America split from Africa. Then, 5 million years ago (very recent, geologically speaking), the Andes mountains began to rise due to the shifting of tectonic plates, and the Amazon pooled into a huge dammed up lake in the west of South America, and eventually switched directions and now flows from west to east. It is the longest river in the world. The slope of the river, from the west of South America to where it exits into the Atlantic Ocean in the east is incredibly small—the equivalent of the slope created from putting one end of a ruler on a single sheet of paper. You can imagine how slowly the water flows.

-There is an indigenous group of people in the Amazonian region of Ecuador called the Huao-rani. They are one of the last groups of people (~2,000 or so) that wants no contact with “civilized” South America.  They rarely send people out of the community, and are still trying to maintain existence in the Ecuador. They were formally a nomadic, hunter-gatherer society, but have now taken up permanent residence in the east and north of Ecuador.

It’s been really fun getting to know the university so far. Everyone is so friendly, and much more tolerant than we would be in the U.S. with non-English speakers.  So far, I’ve learned a lot about the culture, customs, and language of Ecuador, and of course biology. A shoutout to my Ma today. My host mom is a lot like you in many aspects. She’s the one who does it all—she’s got the family’s back, and she’d give you a run for your money in the cooking arena. Everyone calls her Mamá, so it’s a good thing you’re just Ma so we can tell you apart. 

¡Hasta pronto!

Family, Friends, and the First Day of School

¡Buenas tardes!

I believe I left you off on Friday night after my adventure at La Ronda.  I woke up pretty late (late in this house is around 9:30 a.m.) on Saturday after my late night out.  I had breakfast (fresh bread, marmalade, and coffee, as usual), and relaxed a bit.  While I was reading in my flat, I thought I heard music coming from upstairs so I went to check it out.

Turns out, it was actually coming from the street. There were a bunch of white tents set up, and chairs in rows (with people in them), and a small band playing. At first it looked like a church service. But, when people started dancing, I assumed otherwise—let’s be honest, even in Ecuador, they don’t dance during church.  I went upstairs to ask what was shakin’. Turns out it was a celebration called Pase de Niños. Normally, it takes place on Christmas Eve, and is a type of Christmas celebration, complete with parades, food, and, of course, children. There was no parade on Saturday, but quite a lot of celebrating. Salomé, my host “niece” (who, at 11, is more like a younger sister) went outside to cash in on the food stash.  There were fried potato tortillas, pork, a weird type of pointy corn-on-the-cob, queso fresco (literally, fresh cheese) and some other random things. This plate of food was put on the table to pick from to supplement the rest of our meal.  Cecilia had made a soup that was a creation of her own. I’m not sure what was in it, but it was an vegetable based broth, with something added to thicken it, and finely shredded meat (likely chicken or pork). The plated food we had for lunch (Ecuadorians usually have soup and some type of food on a plate for lunch) was rice, fried bananas (try it—fry some banana slices in a butter and sugar [optional] mixture—delicious), and tilapia with a cream and onion topping.  I have yet to run into anything that doesn't taste phenomenal.

Pase de Niños, from the stairwell window

The random mess of delicious food from the celebration

Cecilia's soup creation

Plated food: rice, tilapia, fried bananas

After lunch, I walked a mile and a half or so away from my house to meet one of my friends in the program, Hilary.  (The program is called Ceiba Tropical Conservation Semester, in case I mention it in the future).  She had just gotten in a couple days before, so we went to a café on Rio Amazonas Avenue, one of the major streets close to where I live. The street is lined with banks, restaurants, and shopping districts.  The café we went to was Juan Valdez café.  This part of town is a little bit more commercialized—within a block radius is Tony Roma’s, Pizza Hut, Burger King, McDonald’s, and two malls.  After catching up a bit, we decided we needed notebooks for class, so we went to a papelería (or “paper shop”).  Once again, to give you an idea of the prices, I spent $1.50 on three single-subject notebooks.  We went next door to a movie store, and I bought Harry Potter I and Horrible Bosses for $1.50 each. Not bad! I must say, although I feel like I'm keeping my head above water with my Spanish, it was nice to speak in English for a little while. It requires and exponentially smaller amount of thinking, and it was great to see a familiar face.

We then walked across the street toward El Parque Carolina, which is a huge park (about a fifth the size of Central Park) in the same area as the coffee shop and paper/movie stores.  At the entrance to the park, there are beautiful statues of hummingbirds, which are all painted differently. It reminded me of the butterflies you see around Platteville or the cows you see around Madison.  There were people everywhere—on the paths running, walking, and biking, on the basketball/volleyball courts, and most of all, playing soccer all over the place.  There must have been 50 games going on when we were walking around.  There was playground equipment everywhere, and a random painted plane for kids to climb on in the middle of the park.  We didn’t even walk down half the park before we turned around. 

Painted hummingbird

Another pair of hummingbirds

The painted playground-plane hybrid

Giant palm trees in the central strip of Naciones Unidas Avenue

Saturday night, I had coffee and bread with Cecilia, Rodrigo, Santiago, Lourdes and her sister (I can never remember her name—it’s a bit hard to pronounce), Salomé, and her mom María José.  Earlier in the dad, María José had been texting and ran into her glass door and cut her hand. We sat around a while making jokes about it, like “Hey, María José, this is what a door looks like open, and this is what it looks like closed.” Some things traverse cultures (and minute details of this experience make it that much more fun).  Later, Salomé and I went upstairs to her flat to make beaded bracelets and watch Phineas and Ferb in Spanish.  We also watched some Justin Bieber parodies (just as funny in Spanish), and some more music videos.  While many of the young Ecuadorians do listen to music typical to Ecuador, their favorites are usually Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, and Shakira. 

Yesterday, Sunday, was pretty uneventful.  Cecilia and I took a bus to the University of San Francisco de Quito in the Cumbayá valley, where I will be going to school for the next month or so.  It is a small, beautiful campus, with palm trees, colorful buildings, gorgeous architecture, and a lagoon (complete with a zip-line) in the middle of campus. Pictures to come! Since the purpose of the half-hour trip was to learn about the buses, we didn’t stay long.  Fun fact: each bus ride is only a quarter.  For lunch we had a soup called la sopa de chifles. This was a soup with a very thin, vegetable and oil type of broth, with bananas (that tasted more like potatoes) in it. Again, fantastic.  We  also had fried pork, rice, and papas fritas (this word is used to mean "french fries," but in this case, we were eating its literal translation--fried potatoes in oil). I could definitely get used to this food!

It was about 55°F Sunday evening, which is really cold for Quito.  As a treat, and a remedy for the cold weather, Cecilia made everyone a drink called ponche (pronounced “pohn-chay”). This is an Ecuadorian drink served warm, and made by blending together milk, vanilla, egg, and sugar, and sprinkled with cinnamon. It was fantastic!  I admit it was a little chilly out, but I didn’t bring a blanket to the table like the rest of the family.

Ponche, with cinnamon on top

Today was my first day of school.  It was really just orientation. For those of you who don’t know, I work for SOAR (Student Orientation and Registration) at UW-Madison.  It was interesting going through Quito’s version of International SOAR! We were briefed on topics like health, safety, a brief history of Ecuador, culture customs, and how Ecuadorians act in different situations. We also had a 30 minute speech and greeting by the president and founder of the university, Carlos (yes, we’re supposed to call him that), who had some interesting advice for us.  He told us to take advantage of the culture, the flora, and the fauna of Ecuador, and if nothing else, to “party.”  I don’t think we’d be getting that advice from David Ward.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned in the last couple of days:

-It is culturally accepted, and even endearing, to call someone with a darker complexion than yourself “negro” or “negra”—my host mom affectionately calls my host dad her “negrito.” As we learned in orientation (and as I am quickly discovering for myself), there is no concept of being “politically correct.” It’s an adjustment, but usually pretty refreshing. Ecuadorians have no problem asking you how much your shoes cost or how old your parents are (sorry Ma and Pa, I told ‘em).

-There are numerous herbal and traditional remedies for everyday ailments. When I told Cecilia that Andrew had cut his thumb peeling potatoes and it wouldn’t stop bleeding, she told me that I should have taken the thin layer from the inside of an egg shell and put it on the cut. Apparently it dries it up immediately. I guess we’ll know for next time.  Other examples include: rubbing mustard on a burn, potato juice or boiled lettuce in milk for an upset stomach, and bread soaked in milk on an open pussing sore.  Why drink Peptobismol when you have lettuce milk?

Anyway, I hope to have more pictures up soon. A couple shout-outs for the day, to Debbie, Meghan (mi hermana), and Robert Freidel (if you’re reading).  Debbie, every time someone uses the word cariñosa, I think of you. It means warm, loving, and affectionate—this describes the Ecuadorian people really accurately, and I think you’d fit in quite well (especially with that Spanish gift you have---A-ly-ss-a!).  To Meghan, I think no one would quite understand and appreciate the bluntness of Ecuadorians like you and I would. I think you’d like it lots. And to Bob—their jokes here are almost as bad as yours are back home.

Love,

Caitlin