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!