Countdown

My days here are running shorter. Some days I CAN'T WAIT to go home, other days I am so sad how I will miss my family here. Tuesday was my host mom's birthday. Maria had the amazing idea to go buy a cake. We went to this place to get pizza. Some shopping center/movie theater. I can't remember what it is called. The pizza was delicious. Sole was there (of course, it was her day) as was her sister Ana, her husband Ramiro, their kids Belen and Paul, Sole's parents, and her nephew Santiago, cousin to Belen and Paul. From what Sole had told me that morning, I had thought it would just be Maria and I and my host grandparents. So it was a nice surprise to see everyone, especially since I probably won't get to see many of them before I leave. Thank goodness for facebook and the internet machine, yes?


Speaking of internet, it has recently shown its value as an excellent classroom tool. My classes are slowing down, becoming slightly less busy. My professor of writing, JuanCarlos Davila, has used google search many times to show pictures of towns, food, markets, clothes, the like. This week we had a lesson slightly less relevant. He typed in ''peces feos'' or ''ugly fish.'' There is a backstory there, I will admit. Bagre is a type of fish, apparently not a pleasant one to behold. It has another equally flattering meaning, a rude name for a certain type of person that the Ecuadorians rarely use. Anyway he decided to look for a picture with google. Not sure if we saw one or just other random swimmers. Go on, look that up yourself, I dare you! (It really isn't that bad).  


Today Google was used in a more professionally academic manner by Profe. JuanCarlos. Tomorrow the group, minus a few students who must return to the states early or travel to other South American countries soon (they will be missed!), are travelling to the Amazon region. To be specific, we will be staying near Rio Napo near the quaint Quechua village, Ahuano, as described by the brochure made by our, I must say, CLASSY hotel. Our trip will last somewhere near 42 hours, or two days. But after finding out in class today (thanks, google) what they eat around there, I am sure two days will be more than enough. Common meals include courses of: snakes, frogs, hummingbirds, and more. Hey, at least they have rice. It is has become a frequent occurance, on our group  trips, for people to share, split, and trade plates or just unwanted portions with one another. My friend Sarah jokingly calls it something like ''the UTE-HSU trading card game,'' and she may be on to something. I can trade my meat with someone if need be.


Anyway Ecuador, also Quito, still manage to suprise me. I sure have learned a lot. I found streets in Centro Historico named Alaska and Canada which, incidentally, are quite close. I have also found out that anywhere from five to fifteen people can cram onto an already overfull trole bus with way less hesitation and difficulty than I can manage in similar situations. Some people already on board are frustrated with this, others are excellent at ignoring it. For myself, I find it extremely amusing. 


I have returned, already, from the Amazon. I had hoped to finish this entry before leaving, but time escaped from me. Apologies. As it happens, I needn't have worried about the food. All our meals for all the guests at the upscale La Casa del Suizo (and indeed there were many guests along with our group of 27) were served buffet style. I enjoyed delicious chicken, potoatoes, pork, rice, and vegetables for the different meals. Breakfast included pancakes, but I declined those in favor of bread rolls and fresh fruit. The deserts were delicious, I have never had such chocolate cake, and the poolside bar served everything from piña coladas sin alcohol to hot chocolate to nice cold sodas in glass bottles. I could enjoy my  beverages while watching a trio of fruit bats circle the pool at night in search of insects. Sarah managed to get decent pictures of them. Still, they were a shock to see, especially while I was swimming.


The rest of the trip was amazing. My room, which Sarah and I shared, was as close to the river as possible and far from our other group members. Every terrace, in every room (as advertized) was equipped with a hammock, the hotel offered many viewing places of the river and surrounding jungle, multilingual (English, Spanish, Quechua) staff, and most importantly no internet. This I liked, it was indeed a break from all things techologic (that is now a word!). 


Unfortunately, wildlife spotting was a little bit of a letdown. I saw butterflies and a few birds, including an owl. I was hoping for frogs. Still our guide was entertaining, with his climbing trees and vines, braiding plants into crowns, convincing a sort of pidgeon bird thing to follow us down the trail, and his pretty darn decent accuracy at nailing a wooden monkey target in the heard with a...twig? stick? projectile out of a blow dart. My trial at such a weapon (I thank my Daddy for his advice, ''if you try using that thing, DON'T INHALE'') was not nearly as exceptional. Naturally, Pablo, our guide, made everything look easy. That would be his job in any case, and he had been doing so for a while. But that blow dart...blower? It was taller than I was. No joke.

We visited Ahuano and an island with the name Anaconda. Both were very nice places, though extremely hot. I bought things in both areas. Two different Quechua women showed us traditional habits, one formed a cup out of river clay using all natural materials, another made a drink out of yuca, which was supposed to be alcoholic, but I am not sure the sample we tried was. I didn't mind the taste (it looked like...hmm...I don't know how to describe it) but I wouldn't want a large serving. Local girls gave us flowers folded out of leaves. I got a symbol painted on my forhead out of the pulp from an odd red fruit. The inside was red, the outside was round, bright green, and covered in fuzz so it looked like a radioactive sea urchin, but less sharp. My symbol was sol in Spanish, or ''inti'' in Quechua. I liked it. 


All too soon the trip ended and I had to go home. Unfortunately I think  my immunity to windy roads and reading in cars is fading. I felt pretty bad on the bus ride home, not something I had experienced before. I had the two seats to myself, I laid down on both of them and napped. Waking up in the outskirts of Quito I felt a bit better, and my brief walk to my building helped me mend all the way. Gotta take a page from my family's book, maybe stop reading in cars. Hopefully though, it was just this once. 


Got through the weekend sunburn and bug bite free. Thank you, 70 and 100 % (respectively) very much. Tomorrow I return to class, I get to find out how I did on my first ever, entirely Spanish, ten page college paper. I do think Prof. JuanCarlos will have written just as much as I did. And right now I have to take out the braids my friend Bailey so kindly put in for me yesterday before they complely fall apart on their own. My hair is growing slowly...


Until next time,


Juls

Almost Done

My trip is almost over, only two more weeks. Things all went by so fast. Part of me is super excited, cannot wait to get home, while I also want to stay and see more of the country. So, I am focusing on the now, getting my  work done for school and enjoying all I can.

Unfortunately, these past couple days I have been sick. Nothing major as it's just a cold, but my voice is far from normal, I am using an abundance of tissues, and I find myself very tired after doing little. After two doctor visits, two trips to the farmacy, five days of taking pills with seven more to come, I should hopefully be feeling better. I missed only one day of school and one day of work...hopefully that is all I miss. Gotta go to bed early tonight and rest up. 

Last week the group went to Cuenca. It was a good trip even though I spent most of my time there resting in the hotel. The bus ride was very long. We stopped to spend the night in Riobamba. I liked visiting there. One of the men who worked at the ecuator with Charles Marie de la Condamine was named Pedro Vicente Maldonado, an Ecuadorian. Turns out he was from Riobamba. There was a large statue of him in the town square, or plaza central. His statue was pink, courtesy of the decorative lights around the square. The church nearby was green. 'Twas an odd yet pleasing effect. 

The next day, this would have been Thursday, we continued on to Cuenca. There were some stops alond the way as there were the day before, for scenic vistas and bathroom breaks also. I was excited when we got to Cuenca! Right by our hotel there was a shop for horse people! Saddles, boots, hats, everything. It was really cool.

In Cuenca I saw really old, BIG churches. Huge churches. They had speakers up so the people in the back could hear what was going on. In the old times, did people scream, or just not get to hear anything? But the windows...wow. They are SO pretty. I also saw two parks that were very nice. Really the city was very clean, much less trash than in Quito. The amount of graffiti was the same. Actually there were many hamburgers painted around, also pigs. So I missed the original conversation, but later durind dinner Travis and Brandon were talking about how those two images had corresponding followers, like gangs. I chose hamburgers with Brandon. 

I also ate ice cream, saw many delicious looking food shops, visited two different churches, and I also felt well enough to go to the museum. There were many paintings but mostly old, old, old pottery and the like. Amazing how long that stuff lasts, how well it was made. Photos on facebook...

But the rest of the time I was stuck in the hotel. Thankfully I was well enough to go at all, I much preferred going to staying in Quito. On the way back to Quito we stopped at another church, I don't remember the name, but it is the oldest one in Ecuador. The inside was surprisingly modern, however. There was a guy...man, I wish I could remember the names of things. But he was making small sculptures out of the seeds of some plant. They were white and very hard, kind of like an old coconut. I don't know how to describe it. The seeds are called something like tauhua (togWA, more or less). Anyway that was pretty cool.

We only got to spend two nights in Cuenca, the other two (one at the beginning, one at the end) nights we stayed in Riobamba. The last night in Riobamba we got to go shopping. I didn't buy anything, but I looked a lot. One girl whose parents were shopkeepers let me pet her kitten. She told me his name was Como, that he was abandoned and alone when she found him but now he has a home with her and her family, and they like to play with him even though he scratches. That was the jist of it anyway, her Spanish was a little too fast for me to get all of it. She was nice.

Sorry about the lapse in posting, things got a little rushed. I will post more before the program ends, for sure. Now, though, I have school things to do...sigh...then sleep. Sleep is good for the sick. But I am surviving! Everyone have a great week, ¿si?

Juls