When I started this semester, I honestly did not think I was going to make it....let alone stay for the second semester....but somehow I did it and am looking forward to my second semester. This is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I thought sure it will be hard at first, but I most definitely did not know how hard it would be and how long it would take me to fully adjust to being here. The first two months were horrible, the only time I was happy was on the weekends that I traveled and I always dreaded having to come back to Quito. After the first couple of months, I started feeling the weight of homesicknesses lift off of me a little bit and I was starting to feel okay living in Quito. There still are days when I absolutely hate Quito and the constant traffic I hear out of my window, but I am also learning to appreciate the things living in a city has to offer, such as public transportation to pretty much anywhere, theaters, malls, restaurants and tons of other things to do with my friends. I live right next to a mall that I frequently visit and I live right across from a big park, La Carolina. I am so glad that there is something green outside my window because I think I would go crazy just looking at buildings.
A couple of weeks ago when everyone who was here for a semester was leaving, was a little bit hard because I was thinking "yeah it would be nice to go home" and a lot of the friends I made here were going home, but thats okay. I am so glad I have friends here who are here for the year, without them I would not have made it.
I decided that it is good that I am here for another semester because if I was going home right now I would think this whole experience was a waste of time because I spent about half the semester really depressed and didn't want to do anything. I am now looking forward to doing more volunteering next semester, to taking salsa lessons, to working harder in my classes, to doing more with the human rights club, to getting to know my host family better, to traveling more, and for my mom coming to visit me in January! I am looking forward to making the best of this next semester because I know it will go by faster than I think. I just want to say thankyou to those of you who have heard me complain A LOT this semester, it has been really nice having friends to count on :)
I have a miscellaneaous Ecuador photo album that I have added some more pics to, so here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024346&l=23731&id=65202295
Peace,
Nadia
Sunday, December 28, 2008
The Jungle
Well...I think I am starting to realize that I am really bad at keeping a blog....I don't actually think I like keeping blogs because I don't really know who I am writing to and that is really hard for me. I mean I know I am writing to friends and family...but it's kind of hard I guess, I really prefer writing to one person I guess. I am still going to keep the blog, but that is why I don't update very often.
Ok, anyway I said a while back I was going to talk about my trip to the jungle, so here it goes. I went to the jungle during Halloween weekend with five friends (Jen, Ali, and Alia from Linfield, Angela from OSU and Spencer from Southern Oregon). We went to Cuyabeno and stayed in a place called Jamu Lodge. We had this arranged through a tour guide/salsa teacher who was one of our tour guides for our city tour at the beginning of the year. We left on a night bus on a Thursday night..it was about an 8hr bus ride to a place called Lago Agrio, where we were supposed to find our tour guide, named Hector. So, we arrive around 7am in Lago Agrio, well actually the bus stopped in Lago Agrio on the street and people started getting off the bus and we all kind of turn to each other and go "Are we here? Where are we?" and finally we ask someone near us and he says yeah this is Lago Agrio. So, according to the directions we were given, we were supposed to get off in Lago Agrio and then walk a few blocks to a hotel where we were meeting our guide, Hector. We asked this guy next to us if he knew where this hotel was and he said, yeah I am going there also, so we followed him (Rodrigo) and another guy who was with him (Marco). We thought they were on the tour also, well at least that was my impression at first. We got to the hotel (we never would have found it without Rodrigo and Marco) and there was no one there, so we went next door to a restaurant to eat breakfast. While we were sitting there, Rodrigo got up and left, and we were just talking with Marco and he said that Rodrigo was our tour guide and we were like "well our paper says our tour guides name is Hector", I started getting a little antsy because we had been sitting there for almost 2 hours and we hadn't found Hector. Rodrigo came back and said that the van was ready and we told him about Hector and he told us that Hector was the driver, but wasnt working. He did have a shirt that said Jamu Lodge on it (where we were going), so we went with him. I have to say I was still a little suspicious, but they were really nice and seemed like they knew what they were doing. After a 2 hr drive we arrived in another place, where we were eating lunch and then taking a canoe to the lodge. Alia and I had put down that we were vegetarians and so during lunch there were two vegeterian meals for us and that was when I finally really trusted that we were with the right people. A joke of the trip became asking where Hector was because we never found him. We then had a 2 hr canoe ride that was really beautiful and then we arrived at the lodge. We happened to be the only people staying at the lodge and it was really nice.
The next few days were full of canoe rides where we saw monkeys, dolphins, lots of birds, crocodiles (at night), and lots of insects. Our canoe driver was a man named Edmundo and we would always hear Rodrigo say "Vamos Edmundo (Lets go Edmundo)", but at first we didnt realize he was saying "Edmundo" and we heard "El mundo" and we all thought this was some kind of saying that meant everyone, lets go, but then we figured out that it was Edmundo, so poor Edmundo got a nickname of El Mundo.
We also went to a nearby village where we learned out to make yuca bread and we also went to a Shaman (not sure how to spell it) and listened to him talk about his profession. We ate really good food at the lodge and during our afternoon break time they would give us lots of really good popcorn and we would lounge around in hammocks and attempt to do the homework we brought with us. We went on a couple of hikes where we saw really interesting plants and our guide, Rodrigo, would explain the importance of everything. He showed us a lemon ant tree, that naturally had lemon ants all over it and had us try them. I watched Jen try one and was like "oh yeah I can do that too" and then when it was my turn, I got one ant on my finger and was like "no, no i cant do this" and Jen was very supportive and told me it would be okay :) She told me to just smash it on my tongue, but not to lick my hand because i had DEET all over it. I then lost the ant and then Rodrigo told me to give him my hand and he would give me another, I gave him my hand and he gave me, not just one ant, but about 15-20. I stared at my hand with ants in it and actually literally started to jump around because I didn't want to eat, but I finally convinced myself to eat them and licked my hand of ants. At first I only could taste the DEET, but then I could taste a little bit of lemon, but then I mainly just tasted dirt because there was a lot of dirt in the ant pile.
Ok, well I think those are all the highlights of the trip. We made it back to Quito, with a few stops on the way, meaning the bus got stopped for checkpoints because we were close to the Colombian border, so that was a new experience also. We also had a hiliarious bus driver assistant guy who kept us entertained everytime we had a stop....he was SO funny I can't even explain it. We made it back to Quito Monday night and then I had class early the next day. :)
Well, I think that sums up the Jungle trip, I took lots of pictures and have three albums up for it, so here are the links:
Jungle Part I: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025918&l=8c3b6&id=65202295
Jungle Part II: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026183&l=0cebe&id=65202295
Jungle Part III: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026185&l=c90a0&id=65202295
Hope you all are well! (not sure if anyone is actually reading my blog anymore because I never update it, but if you are hope you are well and email me sometime! :)
Peace,
Nadia
Ok, anyway I said a while back I was going to talk about my trip to the jungle, so here it goes. I went to the jungle during Halloween weekend with five friends (Jen, Ali, and Alia from Linfield, Angela from OSU and Spencer from Southern Oregon). We went to Cuyabeno and stayed in a place called Jamu Lodge. We had this arranged through a tour guide/salsa teacher who was one of our tour guides for our city tour at the beginning of the year. We left on a night bus on a Thursday night..it was about an 8hr bus ride to a place called Lago Agrio, where we were supposed to find our tour guide, named Hector. So, we arrive around 7am in Lago Agrio, well actually the bus stopped in Lago Agrio on the street and people started getting off the bus and we all kind of turn to each other and go "Are we here? Where are we?" and finally we ask someone near us and he says yeah this is Lago Agrio. So, according to the directions we were given, we were supposed to get off in Lago Agrio and then walk a few blocks to a hotel where we were meeting our guide, Hector. We asked this guy next to us if he knew where this hotel was and he said, yeah I am going there also, so we followed him (Rodrigo) and another guy who was with him (Marco). We thought they were on the tour also, well at least that was my impression at first. We got to the hotel (we never would have found it without Rodrigo and Marco) and there was no one there, so we went next door to a restaurant to eat breakfast. While we were sitting there, Rodrigo got up and left, and we were just talking with Marco and he said that Rodrigo was our tour guide and we were like "well our paper says our tour guides name is Hector", I started getting a little antsy because we had been sitting there for almost 2 hours and we hadn't found Hector. Rodrigo came back and said that the van was ready and we told him about Hector and he told us that Hector was the driver, but wasnt working. He did have a shirt that said Jamu Lodge on it (where we were going), so we went with him. I have to say I was still a little suspicious, but they were really nice and seemed like they knew what they were doing. After a 2 hr drive we arrived in another place, where we were eating lunch and then taking a canoe to the lodge. Alia and I had put down that we were vegetarians and so during lunch there were two vegeterian meals for us and that was when I finally really trusted that we were with the right people. A joke of the trip became asking where Hector was because we never found him. We then had a 2 hr canoe ride that was really beautiful and then we arrived at the lodge. We happened to be the only people staying at the lodge and it was really nice.
The next few days were full of canoe rides where we saw monkeys, dolphins, lots of birds, crocodiles (at night), and lots of insects. Our canoe driver was a man named Edmundo and we would always hear Rodrigo say "Vamos Edmundo (Lets go Edmundo)", but at first we didnt realize he was saying "Edmundo" and we heard "El mundo" and we all thought this was some kind of saying that meant everyone, lets go, but then we figured out that it was Edmundo, so poor Edmundo got a nickname of El Mundo.
We also went to a nearby village where we learned out to make yuca bread and we also went to a Shaman (not sure how to spell it) and listened to him talk about his profession. We ate really good food at the lodge and during our afternoon break time they would give us lots of really good popcorn and we would lounge around in hammocks and attempt to do the homework we brought with us. We went on a couple of hikes where we saw really interesting plants and our guide, Rodrigo, would explain the importance of everything. He showed us a lemon ant tree, that naturally had lemon ants all over it and had us try them. I watched Jen try one and was like "oh yeah I can do that too" and then when it was my turn, I got one ant on my finger and was like "no, no i cant do this" and Jen was very supportive and told me it would be okay :) She told me to just smash it on my tongue, but not to lick my hand because i had DEET all over it. I then lost the ant and then Rodrigo told me to give him my hand and he would give me another, I gave him my hand and he gave me, not just one ant, but about 15-20. I stared at my hand with ants in it and actually literally started to jump around because I didn't want to eat, but I finally convinced myself to eat them and licked my hand of ants. At first I only could taste the DEET, but then I could taste a little bit of lemon, but then I mainly just tasted dirt because there was a lot of dirt in the ant pile.
Ok, well I think those are all the highlights of the trip. We made it back to Quito, with a few stops on the way, meaning the bus got stopped for checkpoints because we were close to the Colombian border, so that was a new experience also. We also had a hiliarious bus driver assistant guy who kept us entertained everytime we had a stop....he was SO funny I can't even explain it. We made it back to Quito Monday night and then I had class early the next day. :)
Well, I think that sums up the Jungle trip, I took lots of pictures and have three albums up for it, so here are the links:
Jungle Part I: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025918&l=8c3b6&id=65202295
Jungle Part II: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026183&l=0cebe&id=65202295
Jungle Part III: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026185&l=c90a0&id=65202295
Hope you all are well! (not sure if anyone is actually reading my blog anymore because I never update it, but if you are hope you are well and email me sometime! :)
Peace,
Nadia
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
USFQ
Hey everyone,
Sorry I am not very good at keeping up my blog, I will try to get better as the year progresses :) Well, two weekends ago we had a long weekend and so I went with 5 other wonderful people to the Jungle for 4 days. However, I am not going to talk about that trip right now. First of all, I just want to talk about where I spend most of my time: the university. The university is turning 20 years old this year, so it's just a fetus (as my friend Ali would say). It is a very beautiful campus, with a laguna on campus that I sit by for many hours chatting with various people. I have very mixed feelings about the university. I am not a huge fan of the majority of the students who attend this university (there are good people there, it's just that the majority of them are really rich and think they are better than people of lesser status, and are really hard to make friends with), but I do like to spend time at the university (when i don't have class). One friend that I do have at the university is Jamie, I met her through a Linfield student (Lily) who was here last semester. Jamie is SUPER nice. At first glance you would think she is a gringa (her mom is American), but she was born and raised in Ecuador, and she is fluent in english and spanish, but prefers english. So, many times our conversations start out in spanish and then switch to english.
As most of you know, I LOVE my clubs at Linfield and that is what I devote a lot of my time to. So, when I came here and found out that clubs and campus life in general was almost non-existent, that was kind of hard. I found out about a human rights club on campus and joined, but the club wasn't doing anything and I found that really disappointing. I kept trying to stay in contact with the President of the club so we could do something and finally one day I got an email from her and she was talking about how she heard about a Hunger Banquet, but didn't know what it was. I told her that I had helped plan Hunger Banquets at Linfield and so we met to talk about organzing a Hunger Banquet and now we are getting ready to put on the first ever Hunger Banquet at USFQ! I am SO excited for it! :) The President of the club is a girl named Carolina and she is really nice and not the typical USFQ student, which is why I really like hanging out with her and she is always inviting me to do different things with her whenever I see her. Yesterday, I was leaving the university and ran into her and she convinced me to go to a theater class performance in a supermarket called "Megamaxi". Someone from the university offered us a ride to Quito in the back of a truck, so we hopped in the back and had a pretty windy, but fun ride back to Quito. I really had no idea what I was going to, but it turned out to be that the 15-20 students in the class were given different roles to act out while they were in the supermarket. There were two guys who were supposed to be a gay couple, so they were walking around the supermarket holding hands, and in a predominately catholic country, this is not acceptable and very odd to see, so they got there fair share of looks and comments. There was also a girl who was "pregnant" and had her husband with her and they got into an argument (remember they are all acting, so as I was walking around the store with Carolina pointing out all the actors to me, I was trying not to laugh hysterically at how funny these situations were) and the wife said something like "well at least I can get pregnant" and then the husband says, as the gay couple walks by, "well at least I can appeal them" and Carolina and I were about to start laughing so we turned a corner and ran into some other student actors. There was a girl with a cart full of dog food/toys and she started to run down the aisle with her cart yelling something that I didnt understand. There was another married couple that was arguing and the husband went up and asked another women for her phone number...that marriage isn't too promising :) The funniest thing though occured near the end. One student was pretending to be a famous Argentine singer and one of the other student actors made this "discovery" and started telling everyone. Soon enough, ALL the student actors were asking this guy for his autograph and were taking pictures with him. Two security guards came over to see what was going on and started telling people to back away, so some of the students who were just observing walked over and asked what was going on, one of the actors started complaining about how they weren't allowed to take photos and so everyone started pleaing with the security guards, who eventually left. Meanwhile, everyone in the store is looking over trying to figure out what is going on, including all the employees, then word starts getting around that there is a famous argentine singer here who wrote the song "Sin Banderas" and people who are in line to pay start leaving the line to go ask this guy (remember student actor!) for his autograph and take pictures with him! It was SOOOO funny, I couldn't believe how much people believed it. When the student left, the guards started saying bye to him and wishing him well. After that, the "pregnant" lady started feeling some abdominal pain and one of the student actors went running to get some help and came back with a glass of water and with a real employee of the store with a rolling chair for her to sit in, but the pregnant lady had walked away, so the employee went searching for her with the chair. Crazy right? It was SO funny and I am so glad I let her convince me to go.
Anyway, that was a bit off topic...but yay another friend! haha :)
So, I spend a lot of time at the university, classes of course, but then on mondays, wednesdays and fridays i also go and hang out around la laguna with various friends. Generally I just sit with Ali and Eli for about 5 hrs outside and during that time a ton of different people just stop by and talk with us for a while, I call it the Dillin of the USFQ....a bit different :)
Homework in classes is really starting to build up right now and has been keeping me really busy, and will be busy until the semester ends, so I probably wont be doing anymore traveling this semester. Well, I am actually really tired right now and meant to go to sleep an hour ago...I am not even sure if I said what I wanted to say in this blog. I will do a blog sometime soon for my trip to el Oriente that was AMAZING.
I have pictures up for a futbol game that I went to a couple of weeks ago and also for my beach trip a few weeks ago that you can check out! :)
Mompiche (beach)- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025689&l=95b5e&id=65202295
Futbol game- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025692&l=0a37e&id=65202295
Peace!
-Nadia
Sorry I am not very good at keeping up my blog, I will try to get better as the year progresses :) Well, two weekends ago we had a long weekend and so I went with 5 other wonderful people to the Jungle for 4 days. However, I am not going to talk about that trip right now. First of all, I just want to talk about where I spend most of my time: the university. The university is turning 20 years old this year, so it's just a fetus (as my friend Ali would say). It is a very beautiful campus, with a laguna on campus that I sit by for many hours chatting with various people. I have very mixed feelings about the university. I am not a huge fan of the majority of the students who attend this university (there are good people there, it's just that the majority of them are really rich and think they are better than people of lesser status, and are really hard to make friends with), but I do like to spend time at the university (when i don't have class). One friend that I do have at the university is Jamie, I met her through a Linfield student (Lily) who was here last semester. Jamie is SUPER nice. At first glance you would think she is a gringa (her mom is American), but she was born and raised in Ecuador, and she is fluent in english and spanish, but prefers english. So, many times our conversations start out in spanish and then switch to english.
As most of you know, I LOVE my clubs at Linfield and that is what I devote a lot of my time to. So, when I came here and found out that clubs and campus life in general was almost non-existent, that was kind of hard. I found out about a human rights club on campus and joined, but the club wasn't doing anything and I found that really disappointing. I kept trying to stay in contact with the President of the club so we could do something and finally one day I got an email from her and she was talking about how she heard about a Hunger Banquet, but didn't know what it was. I told her that I had helped plan Hunger Banquets at Linfield and so we met to talk about organzing a Hunger Banquet and now we are getting ready to put on the first ever Hunger Banquet at USFQ! I am SO excited for it! :) The President of the club is a girl named Carolina and she is really nice and not the typical USFQ student, which is why I really like hanging out with her and she is always inviting me to do different things with her whenever I see her. Yesterday, I was leaving the university and ran into her and she convinced me to go to a theater class performance in a supermarket called "Megamaxi". Someone from the university offered us a ride to Quito in the back of a truck, so we hopped in the back and had a pretty windy, but fun ride back to Quito. I really had no idea what I was going to, but it turned out to be that the 15-20 students in the class were given different roles to act out while they were in the supermarket. There were two guys who were supposed to be a gay couple, so they were walking around the supermarket holding hands, and in a predominately catholic country, this is not acceptable and very odd to see, so they got there fair share of looks and comments. There was also a girl who was "pregnant" and had her husband with her and they got into an argument (remember they are all acting, so as I was walking around the store with Carolina pointing out all the actors to me, I was trying not to laugh hysterically at how funny these situations were) and the wife said something like "well at least I can get pregnant" and then the husband says, as the gay couple walks by, "well at least I can appeal them" and Carolina and I were about to start laughing so we turned a corner and ran into some other student actors. There was a girl with a cart full of dog food/toys and she started to run down the aisle with her cart yelling something that I didnt understand. There was another married couple that was arguing and the husband went up and asked another women for her phone number...that marriage isn't too promising :) The funniest thing though occured near the end. One student was pretending to be a famous Argentine singer and one of the other student actors made this "discovery" and started telling everyone. Soon enough, ALL the student actors were asking this guy for his autograph and were taking pictures with him. Two security guards came over to see what was going on and started telling people to back away, so some of the students who were just observing walked over and asked what was going on, one of the actors started complaining about how they weren't allowed to take photos and so everyone started pleaing with the security guards, who eventually left. Meanwhile, everyone in the store is looking over trying to figure out what is going on, including all the employees, then word starts getting around that there is a famous argentine singer here who wrote the song "Sin Banderas" and people who are in line to pay start leaving the line to go ask this guy (remember student actor!) for his autograph and take pictures with him! It was SOOOO funny, I couldn't believe how much people believed it. When the student left, the guards started saying bye to him and wishing him well. After that, the "pregnant" lady started feeling some abdominal pain and one of the student actors went running to get some help and came back with a glass of water and with a real employee of the store with a rolling chair for her to sit in, but the pregnant lady had walked away, so the employee went searching for her with the chair. Crazy right? It was SO funny and I am so glad I let her convince me to go.
Anyway, that was a bit off topic...but yay another friend! haha :)
So, I spend a lot of time at the university, classes of course, but then on mondays, wednesdays and fridays i also go and hang out around la laguna with various friends. Generally I just sit with Ali and Eli for about 5 hrs outside and during that time a ton of different people just stop by and talk with us for a while, I call it the Dillin of the USFQ....a bit different :)
Homework in classes is really starting to build up right now and has been keeping me really busy, and will be busy until the semester ends, so I probably wont be doing anymore traveling this semester. Well, I am actually really tired right now and meant to go to sleep an hour ago...I am not even sure if I said what I wanted to say in this blog. I will do a blog sometime soon for my trip to el Oriente that was AMAZING.
I have pictures up for a futbol game that I went to a couple of weeks ago and also for my beach trip a few weeks ago that you can check out! :)
Mompiche (beach)- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025689&l=95b5e&id=65202295
Futbol game- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025692&l=0a37e&id=65202295
Peace!
-Nadia
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Una Aventura
Hey everyone,
So I realized a few days ago that it has almost been a month since I updated my blog, so I thought it was about time to do that! The main reason why I haven't written has been because I had not really gone anywhere or done anything interesting and so I felt like I had nothing to say except how homesick I was and that didn't really seem like something worth sharing. But I decided that it is something worth sharing with my family and friends and so I should write about it for a bit. No one EVER told me that studying abroad would be so hard, I knew that I would feel homesick, but I never thought it would be so painful and would last so long. Before coming here, I never even gave adjusting to living here a second thought, I just thought that yeah it might be hard for a couple of weeks, but it will be fine. What I was really worried about was how I was going to adjust to going back to Linfield after being gone for a year, I was really worried about that and thought "wow, what if I have no friends when i go back because i was gone so long and I dont fit in my clubs anymore." This worried me a lot, but now that I am here for the year with 4 other amazing girls (Ali, Eli, Jen, and Katelyn) and we are getting to know each other super well because we see each other at our worst and best while adjusting to living in a big city and going to a university where it is so hard to make friends (Katelyn actually came up to me today and we were talking about hanging out with some ecuadorians we have met this weekend and she basically tackled me with excitement and said "Nadia! We have friends!" and then Max came up to us and asks how we are doing and Katelyn says "Good! I feel warm and fuzzy inside" and he looked a bit confused and I turned to him and said "She has friends now" and that was enough explanation). The fact that I am here with friends who I get along with very well helps so much because we talk together a lot and travel together and the cool thing is we talk in Spanish the majority of the time. We do have days where we switch to english a lot, usually because one of us is having a really hard day and it can be really hard to express yourself in a foreign language sometimes. I have talked to Ali Simpson a lot (from Linfield) because I think we have both been going through the same adjustment process, a long and hard adjustment. We have had our share of crying time together and even though that sounds really depressing (and it is), it has really helped me to know that I am not the only one having a hard adjustment and Ali and I have told ourselves we will get through this together and that it will get better! (and I would say it is at the moment). Anyway, I am really looking forward to when I get to the point where I like being here, and I think it will come in time. Just this week I think stopped hating it here and now I am just content with where I am, I still dont like living in Quito and the University is not my favorite place, but traveling on the weekends with friends is always amazing and I have had some really good times. I just felt like sharing the fact that study abroad is not easy (well i think it is for some people) and I cant believe that no one ever said anything about how hard it is and I am hoping that it is because by the end you are having such a great time that you forget how hard it was at first or you think that it was worth the hard adjustment. Anyway, I will change the topic now from how homesick Nadia is :)
Ok, so something fun! This past weekend the Linfield group went on a trip together and even though I usually travel with the Linfield group, it does not include Max and Alia, but this trip did! We went to Mompiche which is a very small, non-touristy beach. I am pretty sure we were the only foreigners there that weekend. We had Friday off (I always have friday off so it didnt matter for me) because it was the independence day of Guayaquil (every city has their own independence day) and while most everyone was going to Guayaquil to party, the Linfielders headed off to a secluded beach. ;) We took a night bus to Atacames (about 6 or 7 hrs) and the bus ride was super disgusting because it was hot and humid and everyone had their windows shut...oh it was gross and my seat was kind of broken so it was more like a teeter-totter that I was balancing on and falling off of during the bus ride. I sat next to Ali on the bus and we talked for about the first hour and once the bus stopped really suddenly and I slid right off the chair and on to the ground and Ali and I started laughing SO hard (it was also WAY past our bedtime), I couldnt get off the ground for a good 10 minutes because we were laughing so hard. That was the most I had laughed since coming to Ecuador and my stomach hurt from all the laughing, but it was so nice! So at least my broken seat gave us some entertainment! Although after 6 hrs of balancing on a seat all night and therefore getting no sleep, I was not entertained anymore. When we got to Atacames we had to take another bus for about 2 hrs to get to Mompiche, but we opted to pay to take a taxi because we were all really gross and tired. The weather at the beach was not that great, cloudy and rainy, but the water was still warm so that was really nice! We basically slept, swam, sat, played cards, talked and ate (a lot!). We left early sunday morning to take a bus to Atacames to catch a bus to Quito. We spent a few hours in Atacames before our bus left and there were SO many people on the beach, it was insane! I am so glad that we were not at a beach like Atacames. The bus ride from Atacames to Quito was SOOOOO much better than the other bus ride. There was air conditioning which was really nice (well there was up until the last 2 hrs) and I had a working seat! There are so many other details I could give, but I feel like they might only be interesting and funny to the people who were there...and my blog is already going to be SUPER long....so I will leave the trip at that.
When I got back to my house on Sunday night, I walked in and said hi to my host mom, who was crying on the phone. This wasn't something unusual for me to see because I will see her crying randomly throughout a day and she never tells me whats wrong and says that she will tell me later when we have more one on one time. So, I after she got off the phone she came to my room and asked me how my weekend was, I said it was good, but how are you doing? and she said "not very good" and started to cry again, so I asked her what happened and we went to sit down on the couch. She told me that my host dad, Telmo, is really sick. Apparently he has a tumor in his lungs and they don't know if it is malignant or not, but the procedure to find out is really dangerous and complicated for him because of a heart attack he had 7 years ago. When I first got here he developed what we thought was a cold, but apparently they went to the doctor and found out it was a tumor in his lungs, but she wanted to wait to tell me i guess. Anyway, that sunday morning my host brother, Patricio, and Telmo left for Boston because that is where there are some really good doctors who can perform the procedure for Telmo. I really hope that everything is going to be okay. Right now Martha is doing well, but I know she wishes she was in Boston with Telmo right now and I just hope it all turns out okay.
Ok, so a funny story that just happened two days ago. On Tuesday I had a midterm in my sociology class and I finished 30 minutes before the end of class so I was really excited at the fact that I was going to get home earlier than usual. I happily left the university and hopped on a green bus to go to Quito. Usually I am with other people when I take the bus, so I think this was my first or second time leaving Cumbaya by myself and usually I read the sign to make sure it says "A Quito" o "A la Rio Coca", but this time I didn't and once I sat on the bus, I thought to myself "I didn't hear the guy say "A Quito" and I didn't read the sign, maybe i should ask to make sure...." but then I thought "No, pretty much every green bus goes to Quito, how likely is is that I would get on the one bus that doesn't go to Quito." Yeah I think you can guess where I am going with this story. So I was sitting on the bus debating whether or not i should ask the girl sitting next to me if this bus goes to the Rio Coca station and then I kept convincing myself that we were headed in the right direction so it should be fine. After 10 minutes or so, we stopped and there were a couple old ladies getting of the bus and then i noticed a sign that said "Al sur de Quito" or "to the south of Quito" and I was thinking "Crap, I don't think I want to go to el sur" so I asked the girl sitting next to me "Does this bus go to la Rio Coca?" and she looked at me with a really confused expression on her face and said "No..." and then I asked her "Well, do you know where I can catch a bus that will take me there?" and she said "No...." and I was thinking "Oh great, I have no idea where I am" so I hopped out of my seat and went to talk to the bus driver and since we were still stopped he told me that I could get off the bus and catch a bus across the street. So I got off the bus with the two old ladies and I asked one of them if she was also going to la Rio Coca and she said yes and apparently so was the other old lady. So, I thought well I'll just follow them. We crossed the busy highway (oh my gosh way dangerous!) and then the two old ladies started to run....so I followed them, me running behind these two old ladies in heels...I wish I could have had a picture because it must have looked hilarious. We stopped running and waited for a while for a bus and then one of the old ladies says "I don't think this is the right spot" so she begins to run more and then we run to another busy highway and cross it and then are running along a fence trying to find a hole in it to get to the other side. The old lady I was running behind stopped running and so i did also, but the old lady who was in front just kept booking it down the highway. She finally found a hole in the fence and crossed to the other side, then the old lady I was with started running again, so we ran and went to the other side of the fence and crossed another highway. This is where we finally caught a bus that was going to Quito and when we got on the bus one of the old ladies turns to me and says "ayy, una aventura!!!!" Yes it was an adventure! I sat on the bus and thought "wow, so much for thinking i was getting home early", I got home later than I usually do leaving at my normal time, but it was really entertaining to think about. I am so glad I was with those two old ladies because there is no way I would have ever found that highway on my own. Life here certainly is una aventura.
So in my last post I said that I received an email saying I had two conversation partners, and I emailed them but they never emailed me back. But, one day I was sitting with Katelyn and her conversation partner and about 6 of his friends and I was talking with two of them for a while and they actually speak quite a bit of english and one of the guys lives not too far from me so sometimes he is on the bus with me in the mornings and we talk in english and spanish. One day I was waiting outside of a psychology class and a guy walked my, named Marco, who I had also met that day and basically said he needed a conversation partner to practice his english and I said I would help him out, so I have actually been meeting with him (he is in his first semester of english, so he knows very little and we talk in spanish almost all the time and he will ask me questions about how to say something in english). It is nice meeting with him, but I am finding that sometimes it is hard to find time to meet. I am meeting with him tomorrow though.
I don't really think I have anything else to say at the moment (sorry this is going to be so long!). Things are definitely a lot better now and I have been having a good time. I love hearing from you guys so please send me emails whenever to update me on your lives. Here are some links to pictures:
Mindo: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024347&l=90284&id=65202295
Otavalo: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024573&l=d09d5&id=65202295
Miscellaneous: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024346&l=23731&id=65202295
Peace,
Nadia
So I realized a few days ago that it has almost been a month since I updated my blog, so I thought it was about time to do that! The main reason why I haven't written has been because I had not really gone anywhere or done anything interesting and so I felt like I had nothing to say except how homesick I was and that didn't really seem like something worth sharing. But I decided that it is something worth sharing with my family and friends and so I should write about it for a bit. No one EVER told me that studying abroad would be so hard, I knew that I would feel homesick, but I never thought it would be so painful and would last so long. Before coming here, I never even gave adjusting to living here a second thought, I just thought that yeah it might be hard for a couple of weeks, but it will be fine. What I was really worried about was how I was going to adjust to going back to Linfield after being gone for a year, I was really worried about that and thought "wow, what if I have no friends when i go back because i was gone so long and I dont fit in my clubs anymore." This worried me a lot, but now that I am here for the year with 4 other amazing girls (Ali, Eli, Jen, and Katelyn) and we are getting to know each other super well because we see each other at our worst and best while adjusting to living in a big city and going to a university where it is so hard to make friends (Katelyn actually came up to me today and we were talking about hanging out with some ecuadorians we have met this weekend and she basically tackled me with excitement and said "Nadia! We have friends!" and then Max came up to us and asks how we are doing and Katelyn says "Good! I feel warm and fuzzy inside" and he looked a bit confused and I turned to him and said "She has friends now" and that was enough explanation). The fact that I am here with friends who I get along with very well helps so much because we talk together a lot and travel together and the cool thing is we talk in Spanish the majority of the time. We do have days where we switch to english a lot, usually because one of us is having a really hard day and it can be really hard to express yourself in a foreign language sometimes. I have talked to Ali Simpson a lot (from Linfield) because I think we have both been going through the same adjustment process, a long and hard adjustment. We have had our share of crying time together and even though that sounds really depressing (and it is), it has really helped me to know that I am not the only one having a hard adjustment and Ali and I have told ourselves we will get through this together and that it will get better! (and I would say it is at the moment). Anyway, I am really looking forward to when I get to the point where I like being here, and I think it will come in time. Just this week I think stopped hating it here and now I am just content with where I am, I still dont like living in Quito and the University is not my favorite place, but traveling on the weekends with friends is always amazing and I have had some really good times. I just felt like sharing the fact that study abroad is not easy (well i think it is for some people) and I cant believe that no one ever said anything about how hard it is and I am hoping that it is because by the end you are having such a great time that you forget how hard it was at first or you think that it was worth the hard adjustment. Anyway, I will change the topic now from how homesick Nadia is :)
Ok, so something fun! This past weekend the Linfield group went on a trip together and even though I usually travel with the Linfield group, it does not include Max and Alia, but this trip did! We went to Mompiche which is a very small, non-touristy beach. I am pretty sure we were the only foreigners there that weekend. We had Friday off (I always have friday off so it didnt matter for me) because it was the independence day of Guayaquil (every city has their own independence day) and while most everyone was going to Guayaquil to party, the Linfielders headed off to a secluded beach. ;) We took a night bus to Atacames (about 6 or 7 hrs) and the bus ride was super disgusting because it was hot and humid and everyone had their windows shut...oh it was gross and my seat was kind of broken so it was more like a teeter-totter that I was balancing on and falling off of during the bus ride. I sat next to Ali on the bus and we talked for about the first hour and once the bus stopped really suddenly and I slid right off the chair and on to the ground and Ali and I started laughing SO hard (it was also WAY past our bedtime), I couldnt get off the ground for a good 10 minutes because we were laughing so hard. That was the most I had laughed since coming to Ecuador and my stomach hurt from all the laughing, but it was so nice! So at least my broken seat gave us some entertainment! Although after 6 hrs of balancing on a seat all night and therefore getting no sleep, I was not entertained anymore. When we got to Atacames we had to take another bus for about 2 hrs to get to Mompiche, but we opted to pay to take a taxi because we were all really gross and tired. The weather at the beach was not that great, cloudy and rainy, but the water was still warm so that was really nice! We basically slept, swam, sat, played cards, talked and ate (a lot!). We left early sunday morning to take a bus to Atacames to catch a bus to Quito. We spent a few hours in Atacames before our bus left and there were SO many people on the beach, it was insane! I am so glad that we were not at a beach like Atacames. The bus ride from Atacames to Quito was SOOOOO much better than the other bus ride. There was air conditioning which was really nice (well there was up until the last 2 hrs) and I had a working seat! There are so many other details I could give, but I feel like they might only be interesting and funny to the people who were there...and my blog is already going to be SUPER long....so I will leave the trip at that.
When I got back to my house on Sunday night, I walked in and said hi to my host mom, who was crying on the phone. This wasn't something unusual for me to see because I will see her crying randomly throughout a day and she never tells me whats wrong and says that she will tell me later when we have more one on one time. So, I after she got off the phone she came to my room and asked me how my weekend was, I said it was good, but how are you doing? and she said "not very good" and started to cry again, so I asked her what happened and we went to sit down on the couch. She told me that my host dad, Telmo, is really sick. Apparently he has a tumor in his lungs and they don't know if it is malignant or not, but the procedure to find out is really dangerous and complicated for him because of a heart attack he had 7 years ago. When I first got here he developed what we thought was a cold, but apparently they went to the doctor and found out it was a tumor in his lungs, but she wanted to wait to tell me i guess. Anyway, that sunday morning my host brother, Patricio, and Telmo left for Boston because that is where there are some really good doctors who can perform the procedure for Telmo. I really hope that everything is going to be okay. Right now Martha is doing well, but I know she wishes she was in Boston with Telmo right now and I just hope it all turns out okay.
Ok, so a funny story that just happened two days ago. On Tuesday I had a midterm in my sociology class and I finished 30 minutes before the end of class so I was really excited at the fact that I was going to get home earlier than usual. I happily left the university and hopped on a green bus to go to Quito. Usually I am with other people when I take the bus, so I think this was my first or second time leaving Cumbaya by myself and usually I read the sign to make sure it says "A Quito" o "A la Rio Coca", but this time I didn't and once I sat on the bus, I thought to myself "I didn't hear the guy say "A Quito" and I didn't read the sign, maybe i should ask to make sure...." but then I thought "No, pretty much every green bus goes to Quito, how likely is is that I would get on the one bus that doesn't go to Quito." Yeah I think you can guess where I am going with this story. So I was sitting on the bus debating whether or not i should ask the girl sitting next to me if this bus goes to the Rio Coca station and then I kept convincing myself that we were headed in the right direction so it should be fine. After 10 minutes or so, we stopped and there were a couple old ladies getting of the bus and then i noticed a sign that said "Al sur de Quito" or "to the south of Quito" and I was thinking "Crap, I don't think I want to go to el sur" so I asked the girl sitting next to me "Does this bus go to la Rio Coca?" and she looked at me with a really confused expression on her face and said "No..." and then I asked her "Well, do you know where I can catch a bus that will take me there?" and she said "No...." and I was thinking "Oh great, I have no idea where I am" so I hopped out of my seat and went to talk to the bus driver and since we were still stopped he told me that I could get off the bus and catch a bus across the street. So I got off the bus with the two old ladies and I asked one of them if she was also going to la Rio Coca and she said yes and apparently so was the other old lady. So, I thought well I'll just follow them. We crossed the busy highway (oh my gosh way dangerous!) and then the two old ladies started to run....so I followed them, me running behind these two old ladies in heels...I wish I could have had a picture because it must have looked hilarious. We stopped running and waited for a while for a bus and then one of the old ladies says "I don't think this is the right spot" so she begins to run more and then we run to another busy highway and cross it and then are running along a fence trying to find a hole in it to get to the other side. The old lady I was running behind stopped running and so i did also, but the old lady who was in front just kept booking it down the highway. She finally found a hole in the fence and crossed to the other side, then the old lady I was with started running again, so we ran and went to the other side of the fence and crossed another highway. This is where we finally caught a bus that was going to Quito and when we got on the bus one of the old ladies turns to me and says "ayy, una aventura!!!!" Yes it was an adventure! I sat on the bus and thought "wow, so much for thinking i was getting home early", I got home later than I usually do leaving at my normal time, but it was really entertaining to think about. I am so glad I was with those two old ladies because there is no way I would have ever found that highway on my own. Life here certainly is una aventura.
So in my last post I said that I received an email saying I had two conversation partners, and I emailed them but they never emailed me back. But, one day I was sitting with Katelyn and her conversation partner and about 6 of his friends and I was talking with two of them for a while and they actually speak quite a bit of english and one of the guys lives not too far from me so sometimes he is on the bus with me in the mornings and we talk in english and spanish. One day I was waiting outside of a psychology class and a guy walked my, named Marco, who I had also met that day and basically said he needed a conversation partner to practice his english and I said I would help him out, so I have actually been meeting with him (he is in his first semester of english, so he knows very little and we talk in spanish almost all the time and he will ask me questions about how to say something in english). It is nice meeting with him, but I am finding that sometimes it is hard to find time to meet. I am meeting with him tomorrow though.
I don't really think I have anything else to say at the moment (sorry this is going to be so long!). Things are definitely a lot better now and I have been having a good time. I love hearing from you guys so please send me emails whenever to update me on your lives. Here are some links to pictures:
Mindo: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024347&l=90284&id=65202295
Otavalo: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024573&l=d09d5&id=65202295
Miscellaneous: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024346&l=23731&id=65202295
Peace,
Nadia
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Mindo and Otavalo
Hey all,
So, last weekend I went to a small town called Mindo with 4 of the Linfield students and one girl from Oregon State University. Getting to Mindo was an adventure because none of us knew how to get to the bus stop. We left for Mindo in three different groups: Ali and Eli left on Friday and I am still not sure how they got there because they had a hard time explaining it, but they got there and found a hostel (another story). On Saturday morning Jen and Angela (the girl from OSU) left and took a taxi to a bus station, but found out that they had just missed the last bus (and the next one wasn't coming for about 4 or 5 hrs), so they took another bus from some corner that took them close to Mindo and then hopped in a truck to go the rest of the way...I think that's the story. Katelyn and I left later in the afternoon because we spent the morning volunteering at a Children's hospital for kids with Cancer (we basically we dressed up as clowns, sang and danced for the kids and it was SO much fun and we met some really cool volunteers who do this all the time). After we finished at the hospital I called Jen to get directions to Mindo, and it was confusing, because she wasn't even quite sure where they went to get the bus...so Katelyn and I decided to wait for the 4pm bus that left from a bus station that we didn't know how to get to, but we were lucky and her host mom's friend offered to drive us to the bus station. We got to the bus station, which was huge and started walking around trying to find a sign that said "Mindo", we walked by many signs and as we were passing one, a man said "Mindo?" and we said "yes, how's you know" and he said "well you have your backpacks and you are obviously tourists" which I guess means you are going to Mindo? So, we bought our tickets and 2 hrs later we arrived in Mindo.
We basically ate, talked, and went to sleep early. The next morning we ate a delicious breakfast in the hostel we were staying at and then took a chiva to a place to go zip-lining. There were 13 different lines and it was so much fun and the scenery was so beautiful. Afterwards, we were tired and sweaty and we began to walk back into town and a family in a truck drove by us and asked us if we wanted a ride, so we hopped in the back where their two kids were sitting and enjoyed the drive back into town. After we ate lunch we went to the bus station and caught a bus back to Quito. It was a fun trip and I hope to go back to Mindo because there was a lot we didn't get to do. Mindo is a popular destination to go bird-watching and to see many butterflies, but we basicaly only had time for zip-lining.
To see pictures of this trip go to: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024347&l=90284&id=65202295
During the week, on Tuesday Katelyn and I went to a College Fair in Quito because a representative from Linfield was here and we went to help him out. It was a lot of fun talking to prospective Linfield students from Latin America and I really hope that some of them apply and get accepted!
On wednesday I went with other Oregon students to listen to a band play. One of the guys in the band is one of our OUS program directors, Franco, and so he invited us to go listen to one of his five bands play and the program paid for our entrance fees. It was really nice to just sit and listen to music.
Today (saturday) the Oregon program had a trip to Otavalo, I think it has the second largest market in Latin America. It was SO big, there were so many colors everywhere and it was really cool to see and experience. By the end of the day my bargaining skills had dramatically improved...we did a lot of bargaining. I will hopefully put up pictures of this trip soon. We also went to see the waterfall, Peguche, that is in Otavalo and on our way back we stopped at a coffee shop where the real (not where the touristy monument is) Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World, aka the Equator) is and we were able to balance an egg on the equator! It was really cool!
Wow, this is probably going to be a really long post, but another cool thing: I signed up to get a conversation partner to practice my spanish with at the university and I got an email on Friday informing me that I had two conversation partners, I am hoping to meet them on Wednesday and I am really excited! (It can be kind of hard to make friends here)
Anyway, I think that is all I have to say for now :)
Peace,
Nadia
So, last weekend I went to a small town called Mindo with 4 of the Linfield students and one girl from Oregon State University. Getting to Mindo was an adventure because none of us knew how to get to the bus stop. We left for Mindo in three different groups: Ali and Eli left on Friday and I am still not sure how they got there because they had a hard time explaining it, but they got there and found a hostel (another story). On Saturday morning Jen and Angela (the girl from OSU) left and took a taxi to a bus station, but found out that they had just missed the last bus (and the next one wasn't coming for about 4 or 5 hrs), so they took another bus from some corner that took them close to Mindo and then hopped in a truck to go the rest of the way...I think that's the story. Katelyn and I left later in the afternoon because we spent the morning volunteering at a Children's hospital for kids with Cancer (we basically we dressed up as clowns, sang and danced for the kids and it was SO much fun and we met some really cool volunteers who do this all the time). After we finished at the hospital I called Jen to get directions to Mindo, and it was confusing, because she wasn't even quite sure where they went to get the bus...so Katelyn and I decided to wait for the 4pm bus that left from a bus station that we didn't know how to get to, but we were lucky and her host mom's friend offered to drive us to the bus station. We got to the bus station, which was huge and started walking around trying to find a sign that said "Mindo", we walked by many signs and as we were passing one, a man said "Mindo?" and we said "yes, how's you know" and he said "well you have your backpacks and you are obviously tourists" which I guess means you are going to Mindo? So, we bought our tickets and 2 hrs later we arrived in Mindo.
We basically ate, talked, and went to sleep early. The next morning we ate a delicious breakfast in the hostel we were staying at and then took a chiva to a place to go zip-lining. There were 13 different lines and it was so much fun and the scenery was so beautiful. Afterwards, we were tired and sweaty and we began to walk back into town and a family in a truck drove by us and asked us if we wanted a ride, so we hopped in the back where their two kids were sitting and enjoyed the drive back into town. After we ate lunch we went to the bus station and caught a bus back to Quito. It was a fun trip and I hope to go back to Mindo because there was a lot we didn't get to do. Mindo is a popular destination to go bird-watching and to see many butterflies, but we basicaly only had time for zip-lining.
To see pictures of this trip go to: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024347&l=90284&id=65202295
During the week, on Tuesday Katelyn and I went to a College Fair in Quito because a representative from Linfield was here and we went to help him out. It was a lot of fun talking to prospective Linfield students from Latin America and I really hope that some of them apply and get accepted!
On wednesday I went with other Oregon students to listen to a band play. One of the guys in the band is one of our OUS program directors, Franco, and so he invited us to go listen to one of his five bands play and the program paid for our entrance fees. It was really nice to just sit and listen to music.
Today (saturday) the Oregon program had a trip to Otavalo, I think it has the second largest market in Latin America. It was SO big, there were so many colors everywhere and it was really cool to see and experience. By the end of the day my bargaining skills had dramatically improved...we did a lot of bargaining. I will hopefully put up pictures of this trip soon. We also went to see the waterfall, Peguche, that is in Otavalo and on our way back we stopped at a coffee shop where the real (not where the touristy monument is) Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World, aka the Equator) is and we were able to balance an egg on the equator! It was really cool!
Wow, this is probably going to be a really long post, but another cool thing: I signed up to get a conversation partner to practice my spanish with at the university and I got an email on Friday informing me that I had two conversation partners, I am hoping to meet them on Wednesday and I am really excited! (It can be kind of hard to make friends here)
Anyway, I think that is all I have to say for now :)
Peace,
Nadia
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Link to pictures
Hey all,
This is going to be really short, I just wanted to let you know that I have put some pictures on facebook and I think you can still see them if you don't have facebook, by going to this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024147&l=4a485&id=65202295
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024131&l=e1a92&id=65202295
There are two different albums. Please let me know if the links don't work.
I'll write more later.
This is going to be really short, I just wanted to let you know that I have put some pictures on facebook and I think you can still see them if you don't have facebook, by going to this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024147&l=4a485&id=65202295
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024131&l=e1a92&id=65202295
There are two different albums. Please let me know if the links don't work.
I'll write more later.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Baños
So, last Sunday the Oregon students went on a tour of the city. We visited a few catholic churches, which were absolutely amazing! The amount of gold in the churches is unbelievable. We also climbed to the very top of a church, the Basilica, and we had an amazing view of the city. This past week was long and busy. I finally have a set schedule now, I am taking the International Relations class, Grammar, Conversation, and Social Problems of Ecuador. I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays now, which is really nice because it will give me time to work on my research project and travel more.
Speaking of traveling, this weekend I went to a small town called Baños with four other Linfield students (Katelyn, Jen, Ali, and Elizabeth). We left on Friday afternoon and had a four hour bus ride to Baños. The scenery was amazing on the bus ride and I was so happy to just see land and trees everywhere (I really needed to get away from the city for a bit). When Katelyn and I got off the bus in Baños we were immediately bombarded by a guy who we later found out was named Daniele. He started to tell us about the Hostel he works for and asked us where we were staying, we tried to tell him that we already had a place, but he was very persistent. We finally gave in and asked him more about it, he told us it had hot water, our own bathroom, and was $6 per person, per night. When Jen, Ali, and Elizabeth got off the bus we decided to go take a look at it. It was a pretty nice place and we decided to stay there. After we settled in and ate dinner we went on a night tour of the volcano Tungurahua that was organized by the hostal. We went in Chivas (for those who don’t know what a Chiva is, it kind of looks like a double decker bus, but without a top, Chiva’s are generally known as party buses, however our Chiva was just used for transportation). The guides told the 5 of us to get into the back of the Chiva along with another American guy (so basically all of the Americans were in the back). When we were out of the city we were allowed to climb on the top of the Chiva, but as most of you know I am absolutely blind in the dark, so I climbed up and had no idea where I was stepping, there were two guys at the top who helped me up, but it was a little scary. On top of the Chiva I was sitting next to Katelyn and every once in a while I would feel something hit my head, I told Katelyn and a few minutes later she felt something hit her head. She turned to Elizabeth and said “Elizabeth, there are bats hitting our heads”, Elizabeth said “No, it’s not bats, it’s just the trees.” I felt much better when I found out what exactly was hitting my head, and I am glad it wasn’t bats. When we arrived at the volcano, it was pretty foggy so it was hard to really see anything, plus I can’t see in the dark anyway. We watched some guys do a comedy act and juggle with fire, so it was entertaining. Also, Katelyn was chosen to be in the center of a fire-juggling act between two of the guys. Shortly after that we got back into the Chiva and headed back to the hostal. The next day we went to the hot springs for a while and then drove 4-wheelers around to see the Watefalls. We had a guide with us (about 13 years old) and we stopped at a bridge that you could go bungee jumping off if you wanted. Jen was the brave one in the group who decided to go bungee jumping. I couldn’t believe it, but she jumped off the bridge (well she was actually kind of pushed off because she was a little hesitant to dive off). Driving the 4-wheelers was a lot of fun and kind of exhausting. We got back just as it was getting dark, we were a bit dirty after that, so we all showered and then went out to eat. Katelyn, Ali, Elizabeth and I went to a discoteca, but Ali and I left after about 15 minutes and Katelyn and Elizabeth stayed longer. Ali and I returned to Jen, who had already fallen asleep, we woke her up and played cards for a bit and then went to sleep. We left Baños this afternoon after a nice, quiet morning and now I am back in Quito getting ready to start another week.
For those of you who want to know my address here in Ecuador it is:
Nadia Abraibesh
C/O OSSHE
P.O. Box 17-12-280
Quito-Ecuador
If you send me something, please don’t claim any value on it because I will have to pay a lot of money to actually receive it. Also, if it is a package, try to put it in a manila type envelope and keep it under 2 kilos (everything over 2 kilos is automatically searched and most likely won’t make it to me). One other thing, if you have to say what is in it, it is good to say “used/old clothes” or “Bible supplies”, apparently no one wants your old clothes and people don’t dare touch someone’s Bible supplies.
Also, if anyone ever needs to get a hold of me by phone, my cell number is 087262860 (but you have to put the country code in front…I think it is 011?)
I hope everyone is doing well!
Peace.
Speaking of traveling, this weekend I went to a small town called Baños with four other Linfield students (Katelyn, Jen, Ali, and Elizabeth). We left on Friday afternoon and had a four hour bus ride to Baños. The scenery was amazing on the bus ride and I was so happy to just see land and trees everywhere (I really needed to get away from the city for a bit). When Katelyn and I got off the bus in Baños we were immediately bombarded by a guy who we later found out was named Daniele. He started to tell us about the Hostel he works for and asked us where we were staying, we tried to tell him that we already had a place, but he was very persistent. We finally gave in and asked him more about it, he told us it had hot water, our own bathroom, and was $6 per person, per night. When Jen, Ali, and Elizabeth got off the bus we decided to go take a look at it. It was a pretty nice place and we decided to stay there. After we settled in and ate dinner we went on a night tour of the volcano Tungurahua that was organized by the hostal. We went in Chivas (for those who don’t know what a Chiva is, it kind of looks like a double decker bus, but without a top, Chiva’s are generally known as party buses, however our Chiva was just used for transportation). The guides told the 5 of us to get into the back of the Chiva along with another American guy (so basically all of the Americans were in the back). When we were out of the city we were allowed to climb on the top of the Chiva, but as most of you know I am absolutely blind in the dark, so I climbed up and had no idea where I was stepping, there were two guys at the top who helped me up, but it was a little scary. On top of the Chiva I was sitting next to Katelyn and every once in a while I would feel something hit my head, I told Katelyn and a few minutes later she felt something hit her head. She turned to Elizabeth and said “Elizabeth, there are bats hitting our heads”, Elizabeth said “No, it’s not bats, it’s just the trees.” I felt much better when I found out what exactly was hitting my head, and I am glad it wasn’t bats. When we arrived at the volcano, it was pretty foggy so it was hard to really see anything, plus I can’t see in the dark anyway. We watched some guys do a comedy act and juggle with fire, so it was entertaining. Also, Katelyn was chosen to be in the center of a fire-juggling act between two of the guys. Shortly after that we got back into the Chiva and headed back to the hostal. The next day we went to the hot springs for a while and then drove 4-wheelers around to see the Watefalls. We had a guide with us (about 13 years old) and we stopped at a bridge that you could go bungee jumping off if you wanted. Jen was the brave one in the group who decided to go bungee jumping. I couldn’t believe it, but she jumped off the bridge (well she was actually kind of pushed off because she was a little hesitant to dive off). Driving the 4-wheelers was a lot of fun and kind of exhausting. We got back just as it was getting dark, we were a bit dirty after that, so we all showered and then went out to eat. Katelyn, Ali, Elizabeth and I went to a discoteca, but Ali and I left after about 15 minutes and Katelyn and Elizabeth stayed longer. Ali and I returned to Jen, who had already fallen asleep, we woke her up and played cards for a bit and then went to sleep. We left Baños this afternoon after a nice, quiet morning and now I am back in Quito getting ready to start another week.
For those of you who want to know my address here in Ecuador it is:
Nadia Abraibesh
C/O OSSHE
P.O. Box 17-12-280
Quito-Ecuador
If you send me something, please don’t claim any value on it because I will have to pay a lot of money to actually receive it. Also, if it is a package, try to put it in a manila type envelope and keep it under 2 kilos (everything over 2 kilos is automatically searched and most likely won’t make it to me). One other thing, if you have to say what is in it, it is good to say “used/old clothes” or “Bible supplies”, apparently no one wants your old clothes and people don’t dare touch someone’s Bible supplies.
Also, if anyone ever needs to get a hold of me by phone, my cell number is 087262860 (but you have to put the country code in front…I think it is 011?)
I hope everyone is doing well!
Peace.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
First days at USFQ
Wednesday was the first day of classes. The maid, Gloria, took me to the University to show me how to use the bus system. We left at 7am even though I didn’t have class until noon, but that was fine with me because I got to explore for a bit and use the internet there. My class at noon ended up being canceled, it is a community service class that is a requirement for all USFQ students to take. I have now dropped the class because I found out that it is really only for USFQ students. My next class was Ecuadorian Politics and it sounds interesting, but the Professor is not the most interesting person to listen to for 90 minutes. I am thinking of dropping that class for a class called Introduction to International Relations, but I am not sure yet.
I take two buses to get to school and two buses from school (it takes about 45minutes each way). I went back from school by myself on Wednesday and took the wrong second bus, but it wasn’t a big deal because I was on the street I live off of, so I just had to walk 4 or 5 blocks. There really seems to be no set bus route or schedule, which is a little weird to get adjusted to. Thursday was going to be my first time going to the university on the bus by myself, but when I walked out of my building the security guard asked me if I was taking the bus, I said yes and he told me that the buses weren’t running. I asked him why and he said that they are on strike because they want to raise the amount you pay to ride the bus from 25cents to 35cents. He said that they would start running again at 9am, but since I had class at 8:30am that wasn’t going to work for me. So, I had to take a taxi to where I catch a green bus (these take us to the university and were running).
When I got to school my 8:30am class was andinismo (the hiking class), I found out that it is more like a mountain climbing class where we belay one another up mountains and I started thinking that I may not like this class. The professor was really nice and he told us that one of the mountains we were climbing just became an active volcano and you can see the lava around it. He said he was hoping it would erupt while we were there because that would be “cheverisimo” or “really cool”. After the class ended I went to the computer lab and dropped the class. My other classes on Thursday went well, I had Grammar, Conversation, and Social Problems of Ecuador. I don’t have classes on Friday, but I went to the University anyway because there really isn’t much for me to do in my apartment. Katelyn and her host sister, Dani, were in Cumbaya (where the university is) and so I met up with them and Dani showed us around the town. Last night, Katelyn and Jen came over to my apartment and we watched “The Bee Movie” because it was pretty much the only movie we have here (it was that or a Princess movie). It was nice to have them over.
I am still trying to adjust to living here, but I think it is going to take me a while before I feel comfortable. I hope everyone is doing well and please email me with updates on how you all are doing! I miss you all!
I take two buses to get to school and two buses from school (it takes about 45minutes each way). I went back from school by myself on Wednesday and took the wrong second bus, but it wasn’t a big deal because I was on the street I live off of, so I just had to walk 4 or 5 blocks. There really seems to be no set bus route or schedule, which is a little weird to get adjusted to. Thursday was going to be my first time going to the university on the bus by myself, but when I walked out of my building the security guard asked me if I was taking the bus, I said yes and he told me that the buses weren’t running. I asked him why and he said that they are on strike because they want to raise the amount you pay to ride the bus from 25cents to 35cents. He said that they would start running again at 9am, but since I had class at 8:30am that wasn’t going to work for me. So, I had to take a taxi to where I catch a green bus (these take us to the university and were running).
When I got to school my 8:30am class was andinismo (the hiking class), I found out that it is more like a mountain climbing class where we belay one another up mountains and I started thinking that I may not like this class. The professor was really nice and he told us that one of the mountains we were climbing just became an active volcano and you can see the lava around it. He said he was hoping it would erupt while we were there because that would be “cheverisimo” or “really cool”. After the class ended I went to the computer lab and dropped the class. My other classes on Thursday went well, I had Grammar, Conversation, and Social Problems of Ecuador. I don’t have classes on Friday, but I went to the University anyway because there really isn’t much for me to do in my apartment. Katelyn and her host sister, Dani, were in Cumbaya (where the university is) and so I met up with them and Dani showed us around the town. Last night, Katelyn and Jen came over to my apartment and we watched “The Bee Movie” because it was pretty much the only movie we have here (it was that or a Princess movie). It was nice to have them over.
I am still trying to adjust to living here, but I think it is going to take me a while before I feel comfortable. I hope everyone is doing well and please email me with updates on how you all are doing! I miss you all!
Monday, August 25, 2008
I arrived! :)
The adventure started out in the Portland Airport when we found out that there was a trade embargo on Ecuador, so you couldn’t check bags that weighed more than 50 lbs and most of us had bags that were over 50lbs. So those who didn’t have bags over 50lbs were honored with the possessions of others on the trip J Thanks Jen, Elizabeth, and Rachel for actually packing light for the trip! It was a little a hard saying goodbye to my parents at the airport because I was starting to realize that it was going to be a while.
The flight from PDX to Houston was good and I sat next to Jen and Katelyn. On the flight from Houston to Quito I was sitting next to a guy who was going on the Galapagos program, so we talked for a while. I think that I am going to fit in well in Ecuador because when one of the flight attendants was coming around asking if we wanted anything more to drink, he asked me in Spanish and then asked the guy next to me in English. While we were in the Quito airport, I went to get a bag trolly for Katelyn and I to use and the guy who you rented them from automatically started to talk to me in Spanish and as I was walking away a guy who looked gringo walked up and the renter guy started to talk to him in English. This happened a couple other times as I was going through customs.
When I got out of customs, my host parents were waiting for me with a sign with my name on it. They gave me hugs and kisses and we took my bags to the car. My host mom talked a lot and asked me lots of questions. She said that my Spanish was really good which made me feel good, but not so sure if it’s actually true. My host mom, Martha, is a painter, so her artwork is all over the house. She also has bright red hair, which was the first thing I noticed when I saw her in the airport. My host dad, Telmo, is a retired general from the Ecuadorian army and speaks at least 4 languages that I know of (Spanish, English, Japanese, and Chinese). Martha and Telmo have lived all over the world, some of the places that I can remember are Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, New York, and Washington D.C. They both speak English, but don’t use it with me which is good. Once in a while if Martha wants to make sure I understand something really important she will repeat it in English. They have had 25+ exchange students stay with them and have an album with pictures of all of them, I showed them pictures of friends and family (a lot of you were probably in them!) and they showed me all of their daughters and sons from the U.S.A. Martha remembers everything about them and was just about in tears thinking of all of them. She hasn’t mentioned having a single bad experience hosting students and it seems like she stays in touch with almost all of them, so she must be a pretty good host mom. They both seem really nice and have definitely totally opened up their home to me. I have a nice sized bedroom with my own bathroom. After walking off the plane, I could definitely feel the altitude change and it was a little harder to breathe. I think I am adjusting to it now and haven’t gotten sick yet which is good. Martha and Telmo have had lots of experience with host students so they know what I should and shouldn’t eat.
There was a short orientation today for the Oregon group and the larger one will be on Tuesday. I am looking forward to learning more and being around more people (being in a house with two older adults can be very quiet and is a huge change from living in dorms the past two years with roommates). Anyway, it is getting late and I will post this tomorrow when I can go to an internet café to get internet. (Oh, so another big change for those of you who know me. I am a compulsive email checker and am basically always checking my email, so now that I don’t have internet access in the house, it will take me longer to reply to emails).
Ok, hasta luego.
Paz,
Nadia
The flight from PDX to Houston was good and I sat next to Jen and Katelyn. On the flight from Houston to Quito I was sitting next to a guy who was going on the Galapagos program, so we talked for a while. I think that I am going to fit in well in Ecuador because when one of the flight attendants was coming around asking if we wanted anything more to drink, he asked me in Spanish and then asked the guy next to me in English. While we were in the Quito airport, I went to get a bag trolly for Katelyn and I to use and the guy who you rented them from automatically started to talk to me in Spanish and as I was walking away a guy who looked gringo walked up and the renter guy started to talk to him in English. This happened a couple other times as I was going through customs.
When I got out of customs, my host parents were waiting for me with a sign with my name on it. They gave me hugs and kisses and we took my bags to the car. My host mom talked a lot and asked me lots of questions. She said that my Spanish was really good which made me feel good, but not so sure if it’s actually true. My host mom, Martha, is a painter, so her artwork is all over the house. She also has bright red hair, which was the first thing I noticed when I saw her in the airport. My host dad, Telmo, is a retired general from the Ecuadorian army and speaks at least 4 languages that I know of (Spanish, English, Japanese, and Chinese). Martha and Telmo have lived all over the world, some of the places that I can remember are Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, New York, and Washington D.C. They both speak English, but don’t use it with me which is good. Once in a while if Martha wants to make sure I understand something really important she will repeat it in English. They have had 25+ exchange students stay with them and have an album with pictures of all of them, I showed them pictures of friends and family (a lot of you were probably in them!) and they showed me all of their daughters and sons from the U.S.A. Martha remembers everything about them and was just about in tears thinking of all of them. She hasn’t mentioned having a single bad experience hosting students and it seems like she stays in touch with almost all of them, so she must be a pretty good host mom. They both seem really nice and have definitely totally opened up their home to me. I have a nice sized bedroom with my own bathroom. After walking off the plane, I could definitely feel the altitude change and it was a little harder to breathe. I think I am adjusting to it now and haven’t gotten sick yet which is good. Martha and Telmo have had lots of experience with host students so they know what I should and shouldn’t eat.
There was a short orientation today for the Oregon group and the larger one will be on Tuesday. I am looking forward to learning more and being around more people (being in a house with two older adults can be very quiet and is a huge change from living in dorms the past two years with roommates). Anyway, it is getting late and I will post this tomorrow when I can go to an internet café to get internet. (Oh, so another big change for those of you who know me. I am a compulsive email checker and am basically always checking my email, so now that I don’t have internet access in the house, it will take me longer to reply to emails).
Ok, hasta luego.
Paz,
Nadia
Monday, August 18, 2008
Leaving for Ecuador :)
Hello all,
I have never kept a blog before, so I am not sure how good I will be at keeping it up, but I will try my best :) After much thought, discussion, and consideration I decided that a blog would be better for me than a mass email because I don't want to bombard anyone with emails and I figure if you are interested in hearing about my time in Ecuador it will be easy enough to visit my blog. :)
Well, I am at Linfield right now, sitting next to Becca in Greens #14 (aka my home for the next few days:) and then I will be going home to finish packing and finally leaving for the airport on Saturday morning. I am getting more excited and more nervous as the week goes by, but looking forward to finally arriving in Quito, Ecuador. :) I will be living with a host family and I know that my host mom is a painter and my host dad is a retired General from the Ecuadorian army. They have two sons who are married and live closeby. That is about all I know at the moment :) While I was in Libya this summer I registered for classes and am currently registered to take: Grammar, Advanced Conversation, Social Problems of Ecuador, Ecuadorian Politics, and a Yoga class (that I may drop for a hiking class). I was trying to take a lighter load this semester because I will also be doing a Psychology research study during my first semester.
I don't really have anything else to say at the moment, but check back sometime in the next couple of weeks and I should have another post :)
Peace,
Nadia
I have never kept a blog before, so I am not sure how good I will be at keeping it up, but I will try my best :) After much thought, discussion, and consideration I decided that a blog would be better for me than a mass email because I don't want to bombard anyone with emails and I figure if you are interested in hearing about my time in Ecuador it will be easy enough to visit my blog. :)
Well, I am at Linfield right now, sitting next to Becca in Greens #14 (aka my home for the next few days:) and then I will be going home to finish packing and finally leaving for the airport on Saturday morning. I am getting more excited and more nervous as the week goes by, but looking forward to finally arriving in Quito, Ecuador. :) I will be living with a host family and I know that my host mom is a painter and my host dad is a retired General from the Ecuadorian army. They have two sons who are married and live closeby. That is about all I know at the moment :) While I was in Libya this summer I registered for classes and am currently registered to take: Grammar, Advanced Conversation, Social Problems of Ecuador, Ecuadorian Politics, and a Yoga class (that I may drop for a hiking class). I was trying to take a lighter load this semester because I will also be doing a Psychology research study during my first semester.
I don't really have anything else to say at the moment, but check back sometime in the next couple of weeks and I should have another post :)
Peace,
Nadia
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