Super Bowl, Strangers, Stephen King & Spiders

Super Bowl:
So as I mentioned in my last post, my new friend Aimee was so gracious as to invite me over to her and her husband’s house for BBQ-ing and Super Bowl watching today.  They have this great place in Quito right by the valley bus station so it was easy for me to get to.  I got to meet their sweet 3-month old golden retriever along with 4 of their friends.  It was really nice to hang out in a BBQ setting…sort of reminded me of being at home, except for the bi-lingual conversation swirling about me.  Which leads me to…

Strangers:
I love meeting people.  While some might think it’s strange to just agree to go hang out with a group of strangers for 6 hours, I find it quite enjoyable.  Everyone was super chill and very welcoming.  I especially like hanging out with a group of friends who have known each other for years so the stories just keep coming, with each person trying to out-do the last one.  I think they all might have been a little older than me (30ish?) but the dynamic between all of us was good.  And oddly enough all of them were bi-lingual (I haven’t come across that too often) so we had a great Spanglish convo.

Stephen King:
Aimee’s husband (Juan Carlos) somehow brought up Stephen King and I was all “ah I love Stephen King – aren’t we so lucky he became a writer and not a serial killer?  because let’s be honest.  those were his only two options with a mind like that.”  And then I went on gushing about his old stories under the pen name Richard Bachman and Juan Carlos was like “The Long Walk??” and I said “YES. I love that story.”  And thus a bond of Stephen King was made and he lent me “Under the Dome” which is a monster of a book that I fully intend on devouring as fast as possible.  Sorry Ben-Hur.  I’ll finish you after.

Spiders:
There are too many here.  I’m serious.  I used to scream every time I saw one, but now they just annoy me.  Get out of here spiders.  This is my room / bathroom / kitchen / living room.  And every day they seem to be getting BIGGER (see photo for evidence).  Don’t they say you eat 8 spiders every year in your sleep?  Ecuador has without a doubt tripled that stat for me.  Gross.

I swear it was bigger in person. The hand doesn't give the perspective we had desired. Tio Miguel later tried to keep the spider as a pet, but it died.

The Joy of the Unexpected

San Martin in the pouring rain

My favorite thing about Ecuador is that everything is so unexpected.  Coming from a life that is normally pretty well planned out … I’m starting to really embrace the spontaneity and unexpected twists that come from every day living.

Take Wednesday for example.  I showed up at the bread store ready to rock and roll on some spreadsheets when Diana informed me someone didn’t show up and they were short a person.  Would I be willing to help out in the kitchen?  You bet!!  Before I even had my apron tied around my waist, I was so tickled with my good fortune.  It’s not every day you get to be a short order cook at a bakery in Ecuador.  I started with chopping strawberries (which Hilda later schooled me on, telling me I was cutting way too much of the usable fruit off with the green part) and later graduated to ice cream making and bread bagging.  The whole time I chatted with Jesus, Diana and the other employees.  Tried to translate the awesome 90s mix Diana was rocking on the stereo (“Hmm, significa: ‘Señor Jones y yo …’  es una cancion de dos hombres y sus mujeres.  Mas o menos…”).

It was a fun day.  While I ate lunch with them (yum tacos!) I chatted for nearly an hour with Patricio, the son-in-law / soon to be owner, and it was so fun.  Comparing different countries.  Him asking me if there are bread stores in the States (me: not like this!!), and me asking him his views on Ecuador.  Another successful day at the panificadora.

And then today.  I met up with a woman I didn’t know to go visit a neighborhood in the far south of Quito that I had never heard of.  Back story is as such:  I wanted to volunteer some time to an organization called The Quito Project that is affiliated with U of M.  I quickly found out they have no volunteers here except during the summer and they need some help with gathering research before they arrive.  I offered to research food in Ecudaor.  Turns out this woman I met today is married to an Ecuadorian and an MSW grad from U of M and she essentially did the same thing I did and offered to do fieldwork as well.  So we both needed to make our first trip to San Martin, we were put in touch – and voila!  We met up this morning.

The trip down was silly (but fun).  We really didn’t know where we were going, but we figured between the two of us we knew enough Spanish to manage.  We made it the majority of the way without much of a hitch (although it was LONG and SLOW) and then somehow we got lost in this big bus station in the South.  We circled that place for like 30 minutes trying to find someone who knew where San Martin was.  After much confusion we found a Trole that would take us to a bus to get to San Martin.  Success!  We then wondered around the town (despite that it was pouring outside) inquiring about food in the town and where we might find the presidente of the barrio.   We learned a fair amount during our time there.

After we ate lunch, took some photos and chatted with the policia, we headed back home. This time we took these interesting “busetas” that are basically just community vans that will take you all the way back up to Cumbaya (which is one town over from mine) for $0.50.  After using more of our stellar Spanish skills we figured out how to take a bus that would take us to these busetas.  We lucked out and found one right away that was leaving, so we piled in with a dozen other people and off we went!

Lunching in San Martin

I guess I just love that when I woke up this morning I had no idea who Aimee was, where San Martin was, or what exactly I would do when I got there.  But it all just sort of…happened.  Aimee is totally cool and invited me over to a Super Bowl party at her house tomorrow (fun!) and now we both know how to get to San Martin.

I’m planning other adventures for my upcoming weekends since they are slowly dwindling to fewer and fewer.  Gonna go chill in Tena next weekend (since Devesh and Gina can’t visit anymore – tear.)  Then might figure out how to get up toward the big Otavalan market on my own and maybe visit a person or two that I don’t actually know.  We’ll see – no need to plan if out too much. : )

A Post Hardly Related to Ecuador

I know most of my posts have been about what I´ve been up to in Ecuador and cultural observations and yada yada, but today I am going to update you on two things that could have happened anywhere.

First.  An anecdote:
Saturday morning I had just gotten out of the shower when I realized I didn´t have my towel.  There were other towels in the bathroom but I wanted MY towel, so I decided to grab one of the community towels for modesty sake and then quickly run to my room to get my towel.  Upon picking up my nice fresh clean towel, I pivoted and BOOM.  FELL. SO.  HARD.  I´m talking…head and spine smashed against the brick wall and foot slamming into the bed and the concrete floor.  I laid there for a few minutes thinking 2 things: 1) am I dead?  2) this would be funny if it didn´t hurt so bad.  The rest of the weekend involved me limping about with my foot twice it´s size and me declaring that I had a concussion.  Fortunately, I seem to be recovered now.

Second.  Books.
For whatever reason, I have gotten a TON of reading done here in Ecuador.  I give credit to getting out of work at 12:30 almost every day and not watching television (since Spanish television is too…loud for me).  In four months I´ve polished off 9 books, all of which have been great.  I wanted to make record of this list since I´ve loved every book.

1. The Alchemist – by Paulo Coelho (to be honest, I´ve already read this twice, but I couldn´t resist a third)
2. Into the Wild – by Jon Krakauer (ok, so I´ve read this one too – but come on, everyone needs a little Chris McCandless here and there).
3. The Pelican Brief – by John Grisham (uh, why did no one tell me Grisham novels were awesome?  I´ve been teasing them for years not knowing what I´d been missing!!)
4. The Client – by John Grisham (…and a Grisham addiction is born)
5. Runaway Jury – by John Grisham (read this in like…a day.)
6. Exodus – by Leon Uris (ah.  incredible book.  all about how Israel became a country, but written in historical fiction style.  they should seriously write history books like this.)
7. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – by Betty Smith (delightful.  highly recommended by aunt patti.  also began my infatuation with aunt patti´s collection of “Reader´s Digest Picks”)
8. Rebecca – Daphne de Maurier (hello bizarro, yet totally awesome book.  also a Reader´s Digest pick.)
9. The Good Earth – by Pearl S. Buck (how did I not know this book existed?  also read this one in less than a week and also a Reader´s Digest pick.)

I´ve now set my sights on Ben-Hur.  It´s thick and may take awhile, but I have a long weekend coming up in a week  and it seems just perfect for my bus ride to the jungle.  And I swear I´ve been reading Spanish and watching Spanish movies and being a good Spanish student.  I just … can´t do that all day and thus I read nine books in 4 months.

All the Free Bread My Heart Desires

Excel spreadsheets, bumpin’ techno, and lots of Spanish.  That’s how I would characterize my second week at the bread store.

The bread store is turning out to be quite a fun little extra job – breaking up my week of teaching and putting my “business” hat back on.  For those behind, I started volunteering my Wednesdays working at one of the local bread stores owned by a family friend (I’d say THE bread store in Tumbaco since they are hugely popular and very tasty).  FINCA wasn’t working out so I decided to dedicate my Wednesdays to working directly with a small business.

Last week I began setting up an inventory management system, but in order to do that I had to count one by one thousands of plastic cartons.  Currently they have no system for managing their inventory and no concept of what they have in stock.  They have no idea if their employees are stealing from them or where exactly all their products are going.  Enter me!  I started with the small stock room last week and got a good deal done in 6 hours.  However, there is a scary large GARAGE (yes a garage) full of products that needs to be tackled next.  Should be a good challenge tho.

Today I had expected to start making a dent in the Doomsday Garage, but instead Diana (mi jefe) asked me to help with some spreadsheets (ooo it’s like i’m back in Corporate!).  At first I was a little freaked out because she came at me rapid fire in Spanish and with excel workbooks, but after shaking the sleep out of my ears I followed what she wanted me to get done.  I won’t bore you with the details – but essentially I helped make their worksheets that they use for costing out the entire product line much more effective and manageable.  And I giggled when I found out that V Lookup was Buscar V in Spanish (that is like…a bi-lingual, excel joke, so fear not if you find nothing funny about it).   Took most of the day and need to wrap some things up with it next week.

And then of course, I was heartily fed.  It was a good day except for the not so subtle matchmaking Hilda, the owner, has been trying to make happen between me and her son (uh, hello.  yo tengo un novio.  and he’s lovely and visiting me in 2 months.)  I was also sent home with my weekly ration of free bread, which I also love.

Here’s a quick video so you can see the outside of the Panificadora.  Sorry about the part where I’m awkwardly mumbling to the man who caught me filming.  He was walking toward me and I got nervous like I had violated some crime (can I not film the outside of bread stores??) so I turned it off fairly quickly.

Blogging on LaVidaIdealist

People keep asking me about the other blog (LaVidaIdealist.org) I’m contributing to…so here is the link!  This will take you to my most recent post and at the bottom are my previous posts.  A post from me goes up once a week, but the post from the other bloggers around Latin / South America are really great too, so you should read those as well

Did I Mention Ecuador is Lovely?

On the way to Papallacta for some soaking in the hot springs

A Pretty Good Week

This week has gone really well for me , although my spirits are dampened as I read the latest each day from Haiti.  I’m wondering if this is going to spur a big movement of volunteerism down there much as Katrina did in New Orleans?  I imagine there are a lot of logistical problems to accommodating large numbers of volunteers, but hopefully infrastructure (of some sort) can be put into place quickly so people can help.  Anyway….thoughts and prayers continue to be with the people of Haiti.  For those of you looking to donate, it appears it’s really easy to text “HAITI” to “90999″ and $10 is donated to Red Cross and then just added to your phone bill.

In terms of why this was a good week 3 great things happened: 1) I received an interview from NYU 2) I received acceptance at Michigan (!!!) and 3) I was able to extend my visa finally.  That’s a lot of good things!

I’m super pumped about the Michigan admission, although I’ll patiently wait to hear from all my schools before making a final decision.  Fortunately that day is coming soon!  I’m glad to be wrapping up this long, and arduous process of applying to school.

As for my visa….after visiting the office 6 times, I finally walked away with my passport stamped.

Visa success at last!

It’s good until about April 12th.  Woohoo!  Today was actually sort of fun waiting because I chatted with this nice Cuban man (who thought I was Brazilian).  He told me about Cuba and why there are so many Cubans in Ecuador (apparently they can enter without a visa, just like Americans can) and more about the situation there.  And then we played this game where we guessed what country everyone in the room was from.  Ha.  You know…just passing the time.

Ah, and now it’s the weekend.  I think I shall start reading another John Grisham book (I can’t believe it took me moving to Ecuador to discover John Grisham’s enthralling books!), study some Spanish and get some much needed school prep done.  And then of course…whatever else may pop up.

The Visa Follies

Hope mine looks like this one day...

Well.  As many of you know I have been trying to re-new my tourist visa for about a week now.  What a pain!  But I’m pretty sure everything is in the bag now – just a matter of picking it up on Friday.  I thought it would be worthwhile to record what it took to renew a visa so that perhaps someone will stumble upon this post and be saved about half the headache I endured.

Day 1:
Showed up at the Ministerios de Relaciones Exteriores after school with Aunt Patti around 2pm.  Closed.  Apparently they are only open from 9am to noon (what a sweet gig.  I wish that was my job.)

Day 2:
Got there at about 11a with what I thought were all my papers.  Again came with Aunt Patti so she could help me out in case it was too confusing.  The lady sent us away with a list of papers I was missing and with a bank slip requesting a $30 deposit to begin “processing” the application.  Ok fine.  I guess this is normal.

Day 3:
Venture into Quito on my own because Aunt Patti can’t miss anymore school (we decided the kids could live without English for a few days).  I arrived promptly at nine, spirits high since I know I have all my papers – ah yes.  It’s closed.  Because when you are only open 3 hours a day, you clearly need to take Wednesday off to decompress.  Aargh.

Day 4:
Went into Quito again on my own (did I mention that it takes me like an hour and half to get to this office every day?  Because…it does).  Went and got a bread and coffee at my new favorite bakery in Quito … went and got in line.  Hooray – #2!  When it was my turn at the window I tried to be very smiley and polite.  The lady hardly glanced at my papers, stamped a bunch of things, asked for proof of my $30 deposit and then told me to wait.  Hmm….seemed…successful?  When they re-called me up they handed me back one of my app forms, a receipt of my $30 and told me to come back Monday.  Sigh.  Ok.

Day 5 (today):
When I showed up today at 8:45 there was already a huge line.  I had gotten there early but had spent a good 20 minutes trying to find an ATM that would work (without success) since I knew I needed to pay the visa fee, so I was bummed not to be #2 today.  I grabbed my number, sat down and gave pitiful smiles to the people I’d seen the last 4 times I’ve been there.  When it was my turn I was given a bank deposit slip again, sent away to pay the $200 (ew yes.  $200.) and on a hunt for a functioning ATM.  I finally found one, went and stood in line at the bank to make the deposit and returned to the office with my receipt.  After I presented them with my receipt they essentially patted me on the head and told me to sit down again.  Oooook.  Eventually I was called back up, given another “confirmation of payment” and told to return Friday to pick up my passport with the new visa.  Good grief.

SO.  Here is what I learned:

• The visa office is only open from 9a to 12p, Monday thru Friday with the exception of Wednesday.  That’s a 12 hour window to make your visa happen.
• You need the following documents to re-new a 90 day tourist visa:
  • Two original copies of the application, found here.
  • A copy of your passport
  • A copy of a credit card (to prove “solvency”)
  • Two passport photos
  • A letter written in Spanish stating why you want to re-new your visa (Note: This letter is supposed to be real flowery and flattering. So I had things written in there like “I hope the new year brings all your wishes and desires.” Silly.)
  • And then of course bring your passport since they’ll be keeping it throughout this process
• At a minimum it will take you 3 trips to the office. One day to submit all your papers and give them $30. One day to pay the additional $200. And one day to pick up your completed visa. So plan accordingly!

One thing to note is I think you are technically supposed to have your return ticket to show them as well.  However, since I plan on moving on to Peru from here via bus I just explained that in my love letter to them.  Didn’t seem to ruffle any feathers.

Hope that helps someone out there.  I know I had looked for someone to post how to do this whole process and couldn’t find anything.  Would have saved me a couple of days!

Happy New Year!

Vacation has flown by thanks to the many adventures Aunt Patti took me on over the past week and half.  Can’t believe it’s already near the end of break (boo!) but I’m happy I got to do so many things.

Last Wednesday we (Miguel, Tia y yo) went to Tena to spend Christmas with Marisa.  I have to say….the drive to Tena is not for the faint of heart.  I guess there is a “new road” that is less scary, but it was closed so we had to take the “old road” past Papallacta to get there.  Words can’t describe how terrifying this road is.  It is narrow.  It is some 10,000 feet up.  It has a dizzying drop off.  Multiple buses have fallen off killing dozens of people (Thanks Aunt Patti for reminding me of that every time we travel that road).  There is barely room for two cars.  In a word: scary.  This particular journey had Miguel driving and Aunt Patti screaming “Espere Miguel!  Vale!  No no, espere!  Miguel cuidado!!”  Ha.  But we made it safely.

This is definitely the first Christmas I have spent in sandals and I might need to figure out how to make this a trend.  The majority of our trip to Tena involved eating, visiting friends of Miguel & Patti’s and sweating to death in the jungle heat.  It was nice.

The lovely ladies of Ecuador: Isabel, Aunt Patti and Diane

We came back Saturday and Sunday for church and then Monday Aunt Patti and I were off again!  This time we joined up with Aunt Patti’s friend Diane (and my new honorary aunt) and drove all the way to Atacames on the coast!

Aunt Patti and "Aunt" Diane on the beach at Atacames

We hadn’t initially planned to go that far, but they called a friend, found out she was in Atacames and she insisted we come too!  I love road trips and this one did not disappoint.  Diane fearlessly passed slow cars that stood between us and the beach.  The Supremes greatest hits, Nelly Furtado en espanol and the Titanic soundtrack each got a rotation with our accompanying crooning.  We stayed in this great condo on the beach.  It was lovely.  The ocean was SO warm.  We jumped in the waves, laid on the sand, ate tons of delicious food that Isabel (the friend) and her daughters made, read a lot and generally enjoyed all the beach has to offer.  I was grateful to be taken along for this delightful getaway.

Aunt Patti and I on the balcony

On the way back Diane decided we weren’t ready to go home (I have some serious lessons on spontaneity that I need to take from Diane), so we stopped at this amazing rainforest resort called Arasha.  It was so pretty, filled with grass thatched huts, tropical plants, exotic birds and good food.  We just went to check it out, but I definitely want to try to go back for an extended stay because there is a ton of fun stuff to do like birdwatching, chocolate making, rafting, etc.  Dear Breanna & Lindsey – check out the site to see if you’d like to go in March!

Posing by the waterfall pool at Arasha

Eventually we made our way back to Tumbaco in time for NYE celebrations.  NYE here consists of the guys dressing up as women and pretending to be the “widows” of the old year.  At midnight they burn all these sawdust stuffed dolls that represent that represent the old year.  The hours leading up to midnight involve the “widows” stopping traffic and asking for money – which people oblige to!  Marisa brought her youth group from Tena and we did a competition between guys and girls.  Girls won bringing in nearly $50 in change!  It was fun and interesting to see New Year’s in another country.

And here we are!  I’m quickly approaching the end of my 3 month tourist visa which means I need to haul it over to the embassy and get my extension ASAP.  That will be a project for next week.  This month also holds decisions from a few of the schools I applied to which will be a relief to find out about.

I’m looking forward to the new year – lots of exciting things to come!

Programa de Navidad

This weekend we had the Christmas programs for the kids.  Half of the kids performed on Friday night and half on Saturday night.  Overall the performances were really cute and the kids looked sweet all dressed up.  Below is a composite of some of the videos from Friday night (I forgot my camera Saturday night, woops).

Some things you will see:

• The classes that are performing in order are Nursery (2-3 year olds), two classes of Primero de Basica (5 year olds) and Tercero (Aunt Patti’s class).
• There is a song about “Mi Burrido” that I love for some reason.  You will hear it during the part that Miss Alex is jumping around in a donkey outfit (I thought she was a reindeer for some reason).
• Yes.  That is Aunt Patti playing the accordion.
• Ok, I didn’t follow what Aunt Patti’s 3rd class was doing at first, but I guess they were acting out a song about looking for Christmas.  And…a bird sings the song?  Haha, I don’t really know.  The only line I caught was “Quien eres tu, Navidad?”  which is…”Who are you, Christmas?”  So don’t feel bad if you don’t understand what’s going on.
• And then at the end is Aunt Patti giving the ornaments and gifts to the kids in the their classroom.

Enjoy!