The Country comes to the City

So I have been walking to work every day this cycle which has helped me get in shape, avoid the bus, and get to know the city a little better.

Like every city, Quito has it's own distinct culture, with lively things and unpleasant things. I quite enjoy walking through the streets and people-watching (except when people walk incredibly slowly and don't let me pass! That's part of my culture clashing with theirs.). In general, Quito is everything that you would expect a modern city to be. It has plazas and parks, government and giant businesses, hordes of business people dressed in their finest, street vendors and countless other things.

But the other day when I was walking to work, I passes under the over pass in one of the busiest parts of the city, and what should I see but a gaggle of geese! This particular gaggle was accompanied by a man herding them gently with a stick and carrying several cages of ducks and chicks! I was so startled that I actually stopped in my tracks to register the whole scene. Where was he going? Where did he get the geese? Is there a market for live geese in Quito? Alas, all of the questions remain unanswered, but I was struck by the sensation that I had just walked through a little piece of rural life on the dirty sidewalk of a busy Quito street. But then, that occasional bump with the rural is part of the unique metropolitan culture that Quito calls its own.

#OnlyinQuito

Visitors exploring Quito

So while Mom and Dad were here, I had to start teaching a new cycle. That meant that every afternoon, I sent them off into the great yonder to fend for themselves in Quito. I'm not gunna lie, I was a little worried they would get robbed or sick or something, especially the first day. Of course, when I told Becky that before they came she assured me that they had traveled before, they were resourceful, and they are very positive people so in the event that something did happen, they would be fine. Luckily, they were perfectly fine, as Becky had said they would be, and I was able to relax after their first successful solo outing. They will have to tell you everything they saw, but the highlights were a bus tour around old town, a trip to the Casa de La Cultura, and spending a lot of time at Parque La Carolina, more time than I had previously thought possible.

Another highlight was, of course, meeting Andres' family. Andres and I got some practice with our translation skills. Jeez, that is harder than it looks! Mom trotted out her Spanish and had conversations with Magdalena and Fransisco, and Dad was game as ever. Fransisco took us to the Panecillo, a giant hill in the middle of the city with a giant statue of the Virgin on top.

Cami is the best model

She's giant!

P.S. For those of your who are a little less computer-inclined, you can click on the photos to see a bigger version.

Living in the Andes

This morning is the clearest we've had in months. I woke up, opened the curtains, and was startled to find myself looking at Cayambe, Cotopaxi, and Antizana.

Antizana

Cotopaxi with the Basilica in front

Cayambe, the mountain near the town where Andres' parents grew up

They make em pretty tall around here. That's Cayambe 18,996; Cotopaxi 19,347; and Antizana 18,815

Back to Quito!

I made it back to Quito, safe and sound. Stupid American Airlines made us sit on the tarmac for 2 hours before we left cause the water system was leaking or something. So that was frustrating, but it just made me extra relieved to finally get here. Mom took me to SFO at 4 in the morning which was very nice of her. Then I listened to my new David Sedaris audio book until we boarded. I managed to sleep some on the first flight which was nice and unexpected :). Then I hung out in Miami and got myself my last Starbucks coffee for a while and perused magazines without buying anything. Then I hung out on the plane for 2 hours before takeoff but I nearly finished the paperback I brought with me (Kitty Goes to Washington, a fun, supernatural mystery of sorts that takes place in Washington D.C.), and I was so happy I brought it! This flight did teach me that I have to brush up on my Sudoku skills though. I used to be able to solve any of them given a good amount of time but I nearly couldn't get through a medium level!

Now I'm hanging out at home and unpacking. I already put up one of my calendars :). I'm having a few issues with finding places for all my stuff! Opps. But I have a mountain of toiletries and a growing stack of books so I'm going to have to find some creative solutions.

Also I think I'm going to try to do some of my teaching prep so I can hang out with Andres when he gets back from work. He has to work tomorrow because it turns out vacation days aren't really vacation days at his job. Everyone got three days off over the holidays and now they have to go in 3 Saturdays to make up for them! Imagine. But his thesis is slowly making its way through the academic bureaucracy so hopefully he'll be able to defend it soon and perhaps get a job he enjoys a little more.

I will try to be better about posting on my blog these next months! I sort of fell off the posting wagon last time.

Love
Mona

Centro Historico

Yesterday Andres and I went to the Centro Historico because the was putting on concerts in the various different plazas. We set out walking from the house but it turned out to be a much longer walk than we anticipated, so we caught a bus about half-way there so that we wouldn't arrive totally beat. When we got there, we walked around for a while and I took some photos of the buildings, because I realized that I've been remiss in taking photos of the city.

We saw this really fancy hotel on the corner of one of the plazas, and we walked in to take a look. After about 2 minutes, one of the door guards came over to inform us that they didn't allow visitors and could we please leave, but at least we got a glimpse of how the other half (more like 1%) lives. Then we went and got a coffee at this charming little restaurant that's been around for 150 years or something because I was yawning like a fool.

Then we went and listened to come high school bands playing in one of the plazas. It was really neat because the city had set up these big fancy stages with good sounds and everything for the high schoolers to show their talents. Some of them were really good too, including this one girl who had a great voice and was singing Ecuadorian songs.

And then it started raining so we went home. We had a really nice time though, and we were exhausted that evening

Happy afternoon!

Visiting the Mariscal

The Mariscal is the downtown party district of Quito and the best place to go dancing. Andres and I like to walk around there and people watch/eat ice cream. Today we went out to lunch at "Crepes y Waffles" and then had a beer in the main plaza. Here's a little snippet of us amusing ourselves. Clearly I should be a TV personality because I am so dynamic on camera...

Cooking in Quito

Tonight Andres and I continued on our saga of cooking adventures. Neither one of us cooks very much (him less than me if you can believe it) so pretty much every time we turn on the stove it's a gamble. Tonight we tried to make chicken burritos, which doesn't sound very hard, but you'd be surprised. Cooking in a strange kitchen is a difficult task in its self, but add to that that it's a foreign country with unexpected ingredients and you have me cooking in an Ecuadorian kitchen. The chicken was in big frozen chunks with bones etc, so we defrosted it in the microwave and attempted to cook it on the stovetop. After cooking for a while we took it off to see if it was done (it wasn't) and to cut some of the bones out. What we ended up with was a tiny pile of chicken meat and a huge pile of bones. So on to round two. This worked out better because by the we had lots of teeny tiny pieces of mostly cooked chicken (we'd also cooked up some less boney chicken at this point) and proceeded to double-cook all of our chicken. We ended up with a great many dishes due to all the chicken fandangos, but thankfully we also managed to make some very tasty burritos, huzzah!

I like to think we are getting better at cooking, but seeing as we cook the same three things every time, its hard to say. I will keep you updated on further cooking fandangos which will surely prove to be silly, frustrating, and hopefully at least some times delicious.

Returning to Quito!

My visa is here, my ticket is purchased, my bags are all packed (not really, you know me) and I am off in 3 days! I will be moving to Quito on Sunday to live with Andrés and teach English for a year! I'm terribly excited and a little bit nervous (at this point I'm just hoping I don't get stuck in El Salvador on the way there). I have vowed to keep up my blog while I am away, mostly because it's fun and partly to avoid being killed by my mother for not keeping in touch.

So anyhoo I will be posting! And I will try to include pictures. chau chau and nos vemos pronto

The Rain and the Devil

So according to Ecuadorian legend, when it's sunny and raining at the same time, like it was this afternoon, it's when the Devil is marrying a female devil. So what I'm trying to tell you is there's been a wedding.

On Driving Here...

It is crazy! I have obviously not been driving, but whenever I am in a taxi or the car with my family, we all fear for our lives. Quito is really hilly and all the cars are manuals so everyone slides back about a foot or two at all the lights. Taxis force their way into itty bitty spaces and go around cars to jump in line at lights, especially at turns. No one stays in their lane, people are all over the place trying to edge their way up the line, and there are pedestrians and salespeople in the road all the time! It's a mad house! Last night I learned some good new swear words from my otherwise somewhat proper host mom. All I can say is, it's possible I will never complain about Minnesota drivers again.

Lost in Quito

So for the most part I have a good sense of direction once I get oriented. I was lucky enough to have almost a week to settle into Quito before the program started, so I got to know a lot of locations in my friend Anna's life. This has served me pretty well so far, and I have been expanding my knowledge of the city and how to get around it every day.
Today my compañeras and I took a new bus to a newish location and it all went swimmingly. This was not the case on the way home. Whitney and I took the same bus back, but it being 6 o'clock, there were a thousand people crammed onto one tiny bus, and it was raining so all of the windows were completely fogged up. We couldn't see the street names to save our lives. Eventually, we said enough was enough and figured we were sort of close to our houses (we live in the same neighborhood), and forced our way off the bus (easier said than done). Unfortunately, once we managed to squirm off the bus with our belongings, we didn't recognize any of the streets. Poo. So we started walking, hoping we would recognize something soon. As we were walking (and not recognizing anything) it was beginning to get dark, and one of the main rules is not to walk at night. Sooo we started trying to hail a taxi, to no avail, then tried calling taxis, the numbers of which we were apparently dialing wrong, all the while having forgotten our maps at home. Finally we saw a taxi on the corner with no one in it, successfully talked down the outrageous price of 3 dollars to a more reasonable 2 dollars, and were on our way home.

Things are fine now, and I have something to write about for my homework assignment "una experiencia en las calles." Also, I am safe and dry in my house well before the streets got too iffy and have survived getting lost in Quito.

Un Poquito de Quito

I'm in Quito! This is my blog to let ya'll know how I'm doing and what I'm up to in Quito. Right now I am avoiding my homework (yeah I'm as surprised as you are that there is homework abroad) and decided that it was high time to start my blog. This post will be all over the place, but no me importa.


Today I went to a market with some new friends from the program as part of "Immersion Experience 2" and I saw a thousand fruits that I didn't recognize. My host sister (who is fabulous) has been teaching me some fruit names, like tomate del arbol and naranjilla, but most of them I forget the second we move on to a new topic. After the market we went to this cute coffee shop that Anna recommended to me. The Cuban manager is very sweet and remembered me from the last couple times I'd been and we joked about how I always order americanos.

Speaking Spanish isn't nearly as scary as it was before. I still make tons of mistakes, of course, but I'm not terrified of speaking. The first night I was with my family, I was super excited, but also so stressed about my Spanish. Now I can keeping talking through my mistakes, which allows me to get way more said.

It's late now, so toodle pip