New Apartment!

9-22 Mitad del mundo

I went to the Mitad del mundo with some language corps girls Theresa, Colleen, Clair, Laura and our Irish friends that we have met here, Meadhbh (prounounced Mave) and Fillum. The bus trip was only about 45 minutes but when we got there, Clair, Laura and I felt a little weird. Maybe it was the equatorial forces working their magic on us. So we skipped the Mitad del mundo monument because it apparently cost like $7 and is only the monument (which isn’t even on the equator). The monument was originally thought to be on the equator but about 10 years ago when GPS came out, it was discovered that the mitad del mundo really wasn’t at the mitad.

We opted for the really cheesy museum which actually was on the mitad. At this place we did all these “science experiments” where we balanced eggs on nails (I failed at this) made water spin clock wise and counter clockwise depending on what hemisphere you were on, and we lifted people with our fingers because we were on the equator and apparently you loose tons of weight here. I have to admit the egg thing was pretty cool and I’ll have to go back and actually balance it. But the other stuff was completely fake and our tour guide made it sound like real science, so I was not really thrilled about being tricked.

What was cool though was that we were at the mitad on the 22 (a day before the equinox). We couldn’t actually go on the 23^rd because we had classes, but it was still fun.

Afterwards we were supposed to go to Quitofest – which is this big music festival, but none of us ended up going because the sun took so much out of us.

9-24

On Wednesday I taught my first two hour class. It was on fairy tales. The students listened to a scene from Shrek then we practiced writing. One of my activities was a chain story meaning everyone writes two lines of a story then switches their paper and we keep going around in a circle for like 10 minutes writing 2 lines of a story at a time. They came up with some really funny stuff. One of the girls in my class is a big Tim Burton fan so she mostly came up with really creepy stuff but it was a very successful activity. My lesson went pretty well and now I’m not really as nervous teaching 2 hour classes.

9-25

Was our last day of practice teaching and our students threw us a party. I thought they were just going to say thank you or whatever but they ended up buying us pizza and giving us these really cool bags. We had a dance party on the terrace of the experiment and the Teachers taught them how to dance to rap music. I was really entertained because they tried to teach us salsa ( I still haven’t quite got the moves for that yet) and then we tried to show them how to bob to rap music and they had a hard time for them. I think it was just too easy for them to put one hand up in the air and bend their knees.

What was really cool was that since classes were over I was finally able to speak to them in Spanish and I think my Spanish is getting tons better. But we were also talking and I said that I had been taking some Kichua classes (the indigenous language here) and they thought that was funny that I spoke it and they didn’t since they lived here.

9-26 last day of TESOL and graduation, trip, debate

Friday was our last day of TESOL. We did really do much except that we had a graduation ceremony and a fulfilled a lifetime dream of tripping while receiving my diploma. It was very satisfying.

After that we watched the presidential debate in the mariscol (the tourist sector of Quito where all the gringos hang out). But since the election was on Sunday the lay seca (dry law) was in full affect and almost all of the bars were closed – meaning la mariscol was empty. Empty except for the restaurant we went to- Uncle Ho’s. It was one of the only places showing the debate and was full with other people from the States, it was soooooooo crowded. I really couldn’t see the TV but I got the gist of it. The food took forever but it was well worth the wait. I’ll probably go back there for the next debate.

9-27

Saturday I moved out of my host family’s apartment. I really liked them but since I’ve lived on my own at college it was kind of hard to get used to living with another family especially since they were super protective and didn’t even want me to ride the bus by myself. But they were super sweet and very welcoming; I will miss having my lunches packed for me every day.

So my apartment is awesome. I live with Laura and Claire. Phillip, Lisa and Colleen live directly under us and Andrea and her fiancé live above us. The other people that live in the building are from language corp as well. They are really excited to have us move in and they’ve been giving us all sorts of tips about where to go shopping and what not. My room is really cool because it’s painted blue and may actually be the same color as my room in the states. I have a huge window that takes up one whole wall. It’s not the best view of the city but I have lots of light and nothing is blocking my view of the sky. But the best part of my apartment is that we each have our own bathrooms in our rooms. Mine is huge! I really like it and I think its just going to make living here so much fun. I’ll include pictures once I clean my room and I’m no longer embarrassed by the mess.

Of course now that I’m living on my own and I get cook for myself. I am pretty excited about that because I’ve been craving a salad for weeks. So to stock up, Claire and I went to this market that sells fruits and vegetables. It’s really cool and kind of reminds me of the market in Spain that I went to except the one here doesn’t sell freshly murdered chickens. But basically at this market I bought a dozen tomatoes, lettuce, bananas, a pineapple, cucumbers, eggplant, broccoli and grapes for under $5 and its all super fresh.

To get other stuff we had to go to a real grocery store but that was just across the street. I’m still trying to figure out how to buy milk. I bought some the other day in a box. I think it tastes like coffee cream, but Claire says it tastes like 1%. I’ll have to take her word for it seeing as how I usually drink

skim anything with fat tastes like coffee cream to me anyways.

We also went shopping at mega maxi so that we could get clothes hangers and pillows. Mega maxi is probably the biggest store I’ve ever seen. It’s inside a mall but there are more stores inside it. It is absolutely crazy. You can find anything you can imagine in here but it is insanely expensive. By expensive I mean that everything is probably the same price (except electronics which I’m sure are twice as much) as in the States. Since I’ll be living on $600 a month I think I’ll have to avoid this store.

9-28

Sunday I was so exhausted so I stayed in my pj’s and watched movies all day. I didn’t even want to cook so Phil and Claire went out and bought a pizza for all of us. We had a chill time doing nothing.

9-29

Today I have nothing to do. Laura, Phil and Theresa left for the beach yesterday. It’s a 12 hour bus ride so I figured I would skip this trip until I found some Dramamine. Lisa and Theresa are starting their first day of work at the high school. And Claire and I are enjoying doing nothing. We’re going to go for a walk later to explore our neighborhood. Other than that, I guess I’m just working on getting settled in.

I'm fine, I promise.

September 17, 2008

Greetings from Ecuador,

I have to preface this e-mail by saying I AM FINE! No matter what you read below please not that I am alive and will recover from any and all injuries.

Ok now that that’s over, I have a broken bone in my jaw! It’s really small and in fact two doctors didn’t think it was a broken bone. They thought it was an ear infection. I think I broke it while playing ultimate at camp, but there is no way to know for sure. Anyways I went to an ear specialist and he basically gave me some great drugs that make my ear not hurt but knock me out for about three hours. I have to take this medicine twice a day with food, so it’s been making classes kind of difficult. Speaking of classes, the TESOL course is heating up. I’ve had so much to do that I really haven’t had time to write an e-mail lately.

Last Sunday I wrote and e-mail saying that I was going to Papallacta with my classmates. It was awesome. First of all I thought we would take a bus but we didn’t. Instead we took a 15 passenger car. I think the trip was about two hours from Quito. We got there right as it was getting dark so it was a kind of “romantic” setting. I mean as romantic as you can get with 8 of your friends and about 20 strangers. It was still pretty cool. The hot springs were really relaxing and we all had fun jumping into the freezing river and then jumping into the hot pool. We didn’t really spend much time there because naturally hot water is only so entertaining.

The last week of TESOL was pretty intense and while I learned a lot, I’m glad it’s over. I taught my third class on Friday (9-12) and it went fairly well. I’m getting better at teaching but there’s still room for improvement. I really like teaching. I’ve found that it’s the one thing where I am totally focused on what I am doing. I really can’t think of any other activity in the world where I am so focused that I only concentrate on the task at hand. Usually whenever I’m doing anything else I have something else going on in my head. For example when observing the other teachers in my class I usually think about my own class plans or the apartment I’ll be moving into on the 27^th. I like the fact that while teaching I don’t have to think about anything else. It’s kind of refreshing.

We had a big paper due Saturday and while I was able to finish on the Thursday the rest of my classmates had procrastinated and worked on it Friday night. So I went home expecting to do nothing but read. I was wrong. Carlos (my host father) took me to the centro historico to see the churches. At night they are lit up and they look really pretty. Centro historico is a pretty happening place. The main plaza there was a giant party – kind of like the one in Guapulo, but much much tamer. Also there were all these really cool old streets and restaurants. I’ll probably go back with my friends, maybe this weekend since we aren’t going anywhere.

Saturday we traveled to Mindo – the cloud forest. It is one of the 12 most biodiverse regions in the world. Apparently biologists come from all over the world to study the wild life here. But biology is not the only thing Mindo has to offer. The first thing we did in Mindo was go tubing. Let me tell you about this tubing adventure we went on. The rio was nothing like we expected. We were imagining this relaxing rio that we just sort of floated down. On the truck ride to the rio we saw that it had tons of rocks in it and parts weren’t really that deep. Whatever, we were going with the flow. So we get to the place where we start the trip and the tour guides fix us up with life jackets (seemed normal enough) and helmets. Helmets? ok. We just thought they were being careful. So these tubes that we were going to ride on… they were really 6 or 7 huge inner tubes roped together (very high tech). Then we found out that the guides were riding with us. Umm ok… strange but whatever. As we were “floating” down the river we kind of realized that this tubing was really not tubing at all, in fact it was white water rafting in tubes. Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast, but this was a little rougher than I expected.

After tubing we went to the “canopy” which basically was Ecuadorian for zip line, also another awesome activity that was described as something totally different. I thought “canopy” meant just hanging out at the top of a mountain looking at trees or something, not jumping off trees on a line over a huge valley. My other girls in my group took pictures, so when they put those up on the internet I’ll be sure to include a link.

At sunset we went to a frog concert at this reservation and hostel. What a combination. The “frog concert” was cool because I for one thing frogs are the coolest animals ever (I was only obsessed with them this whole summer) and we got to see glow in the dark micro bacteria.

After that I was beat, plus I had to take my jaw medication so I went to bed. The other people in my group apparently played cards in another room of the hostel and got yelled at by the owner for being up at 10:15. My friends are such rebels.

Sunday morning some of us got up early and climbed this mountain to a waterfall. It was actually the same river we went “tubing” in. The hike was awesome because there were lots of views of the mountain below, and we had a guide that told us all about the plant an animal life on the mountain (life couldn’t get any better for a former Camp Fitch nature director!)

But wait, there’s more. We jumped off the waterfall! First I jumped off the small one, probably a little higher than 3 meters. The other cliff to jump off of was at least 50 feet (we know this because Theresa jumps off of 40 feet waterfalls back in her home town and she said this one was way higher). So Phillip and Theresa went first, and they jumped with no problems. But then Lisa, Colleen and I were at the top of the tall one looking at each other trying to figure out who was going to jump. Finally I decided I had had enough of just standing there so I just jumped. Bad life choice! Instead of pencil diving, I butt smacked. I’m pretty sure it was the most painful thing of my life – worse than breaking my toe. The other girls heard me crying out and pain and backed out of the jump. I’m fine now, but at the time I was pretty sure I was never going to be able to sit again.

That was Mindo. Today (9-17) I taught another class on the phrasal verbs used in the context of dating ( turn on, turn off, ask out, go out, call up, call back, turn down… things like that). I had underestimated the difficulty in the meaning of these words. The class, which usually gets everything really easily, had a hard time understanding the specific meaning of these words in the context of dating. I’m pretty sure they enjoyed the class, but I was a little disappointed that I had to spend all of my time trying to help them learn the definitions. Oh well, not all of my classes can be masterpieces.

This weekend we have no big plans yet. I think everyone just wants to stay in Quito for a while. Next weekend will be busy because we’ll be moving into our apartments then I think going to the beach. But I think on Sunday (9-21) Colleen and I are going to take a bus to Mitad del Mundo, the equator, because it will be close to the equinox. I’ll have to report back later.

So to anyone who is reading this I would love to hear how things are going. Feel free to e-mail me anytime. I probably won’t be able to respond right away, but starting on the 27^th I’ll have internet in my apartment!

I hope everything is going well back in the states and I can’t wait to hear from you all!

-Ayla

Otovalo

September 7, 2008

The TESOL course has been pretty intense so I haven’t had much time to write. I guess I’ll have to catch up now.

Saturday August 30,

Claire, Laura, Phillip and I rode a bus to Otovalo. Otovalo is this really cool town 2 hours north of Quito. On Saturday there is this big market where everyone in the town sells their handmade Ecuadorian goods. I bought a scarf, a necklace and an alpaca blanket (all for under $30!). We spent the morning at the market and ended up running into these two girls that we had met earlier at the South American Explorers club in Quito. The six of us ended up eating at this restaurant where we had some type of corn, some kind of mashed potato cake and beef that we all decided was disgusting. Other than the meet the food was pretty good (even though I hate potatoes I have to admit these ones were good).

After that Claire, Laura, Phillip and I went hiking in the woods to this awesome water fall. The hike itself was not really that difficult, but I had a hard time because I was still not used to exercise and the high altitude. But the waterfall was awesome. The Laura and I decided that we wanted to touch the waterfall so we took our shoes off and rolled up our pants to get close, but the water was so cold that it hurt to put my feet in, so we didn’t really get that close to the actually waterfall.

The trip was an overnight one so we stayed at a hostel called La Luna. This place is awesome! First off its way the heck away from the town so it was super quite, except for the rooster that crowed all night. Second the actual hostel was really cool. The decorations were awesome; there were hammocks out on the porch overlooking the mountain side. The view was awesome and the food was great. We ended up napping in the hammocks until we got cold and went inside by the fire. After dinner we were all kind of tired so we watched a movie and then went to bed.

The next morning we had the most delicious breakfast ever and then we just sort of sat around while Phillip played the guitar he bought at the market.

Basically Otovalo was awesome, the trip cost me under $50 including all the food, transportation and market purchases. If anyone reading this ever makes a trip to Ecuador- Otovalo and La Luna are a must!

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, September 1-3

I was so sick- I had a ear infection before I arrived in Quito and the medicine the doctor gave me did not work so when my antibiotics ran out on Monday I was in pretty bad shape. Luckily there is a good doctor (who speaks fluent English) right up the street from where I have my TESOL classes. He hooked me up with some stronger antibiotics and I started to feel better by Wednesday night.

Thursday, September 4

So I taught my first English class on Thursday. It was quite an experience. My class is the advanced class. Some of the students are actually English teachers at elementary schools, some have lived in the U.S. for a few years and the others have mostly just taken a few classes here and there. It’s quite a mix of levels, so it’s really hard to find topics that are suitable for such a large span. I taught directions – like north, south, and turn right and all that jazz. The class was ok. I actually ran a little fast and had to make up an extra activity right on the spot but it turned out ok.

After class was over, Phillip, Laura, Colleen and I went to La Bogedita de Cuba which is a salsa dance club. I was a little nervous to begin with seeing as how my dance moves consist of jumping up and down and basically looking like a fool. However when I got there I was even more nervous because EVERYONE IN QUITO IS AN AMAZING DANCER! Phillip had invited his host brother along with his host brother’s friend (Maricio and Luis). Luckily for me they taught me how to dance- well enough so that I didn’t feel like and idiot anymore. The music at the club was awesome! The lead singer of the band was this crazy old lady who had a head set and just ran around the dance for the whole time. I don’t know how she did it because it was probably 100 degrees in the club. When we went outside to get air we could see steam pouring out of the club onto the street. I had so much fun but we got home late (I think 2:00) so my classes on Friday were a little rough but I don’t regret it one bit.

Friday, September 5

After a long day of Tesol classes we went to the Mariscol to sign our lease for our apartments. The apartment I’m going to live is has three bedrooms each with their own private bathroom, a full kitchen, a dinning room, a t.v. room and a half bathroom. All of the utilities are included along with all of the furnishings (including a t.v. and kitchen utensils). And the price for this lavish abode? Only $170 a month! The best part is that it is only 7 blocks away from the place I’ll be working and right in the middle the Mariscol which is where all the night life is. Oh did I mention that all the other LanguageCorp students (past and present) live in this building too? I move in on September 26^th and I can’t wait!

Saturday, September 6

Jenny, our LanguageCorp advocate told us there was this really great party at the church of Guapulo which is a section of Quito that is really far to the east and way down the mountain. To get there you basically have to walk 1 mile down this really steep and twisted road. I don’t know how but cars can just barely make it down the road. The way she was describing the party I was thinking it was kind of like the Serbian festival at St. Sava’s or the festival at the Egyptian Coptic church, lots of people, food and dancing. I met Phillip and Laura at the Hotel Quito which was still in the main part of Quito but at the very top the road. We took a taxi down the road because we weren’t sure were we were going but the road was closed further down the hill so the taxi couldn’t take us the whole way. But we were still pretty close. When we got out of the car we could here the music and I’m petty sure at this point we were still about ¼ of a mile away. As we were getting closer we could see glimpses of the party and every step closer we could see more and more of the party. By the time we were at the bottom of the hill we realized that this was probably the biggest party we’d ever been too. There could have easily been 2,000 people.

The music that we had heard was this really great band that was playing traditional Ecuadorian and Colombian music. This party was not like any church festival I’d been to before. It was a giant dance party! There were people dancing everywhere, and tons of people in costumes that I’m pretty sure were traditional to this fiesta. We met up with some of the other students from the LanguageCorp program and some other random Americans that we’ve met during our stay here.

Just after that some people started bringing out these huge things (I have no idea how to describe them and at the time I had no idea what the heck was going on) from the church. Turns out they were all parts to a giant tower that they made in the middle of the dance floor. People started to dance in a giant circle around it and finally the music stopped and a guy on the stage started telling a story. As he was talking this giant paper maché bull emerged from the crowd and started running around (it kind of made me think about the giant paper maché whale that I wanted all summer and how everybody told me I was crazy for wanting such a thing).

Once the bull started running it was lit on fire and started spraying sparks into the crowd (this was on purpose). We didn’t know what was going on so we all freaked out thinking this was probably not a good idea. But nobody else seemed to be worried that this could be a potential fire hazard. When the bull was done the giant tower was lit, which also had tons of fireworks and sprayed sparks into the crowd that was dancing underneath it. Some of the brave members of the group danced underneath the tower. I, fearing for my life, hid behind a tree with the not so brave people.

After the fireworks show was over we started dancing in front of the band with all the people in costumes. After about and hours worth of dancing there was another show with a giant tower, bull and fire – very similar to the one before. All in all think there were about 5 shows while we were there. And I’m guessing there were tons more because the party went on way after we left. Jenny told us it usually ends when the sun comes up. We left at 2.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Today my host mom’s brothers and sisters are coming over so she’s cooking like crazy. I tried to make my pancakes today but since I have no actually cooking skills they kind of sucked. This afternoon I’m going to a placed called Papayachta (I actually have no idea how its spelled but that’s what it sounds like) with the Languagecorp students and Jenny. Its supposedly this really cold place with hot springs. It sounds like a lot of fun but I’ll have to report about it later.

Overall Ecuador is a blast. I am so glad that I am here and that I get to live here for a whole year! But I do miss all of you and I hope everyone is doing well.

-Ayla

I rode the bus by myself!

August 26, 2008

I rode the bus alone today and survived. It was pretty exciting. I was kind of scared that I would get lost in Quito, but I didn’t. Today I also went to the mall, I didn’t buy anything because I didn’t need anything but it was exciting to see something other than my host family’s house and the school.

Today in class we were briefed on culture shock and all the feelings were going to have here. It was kind of reassuring to know that everyone is going through the same kind of thing I am. Don’t get me wrong, this place is awesome, but there have been times that I’ve felt overwhelmed. Hopefully it won’t happen that often.

first day of classes

August 25,

I had my first class today at the language center. The Spanish classes were lots of fun. We basically just talked about Ecuador the whole time- I’m not sure if I exactly learned much but practice can’t hurt. After lunch we had our orientation into Ecuador. There was nothing to exciting today except that our teacher Justin told us that on average 1/3 language corps students are married to an Ecuadorian within 2 years!!!! What a crazy statistic. That’s about it.

-Ayla

August 24 round 2

August 24, 2008 round II

Today was a lot of fun. I slept in, we had breakfast then I showered and studied more Spanish. Then Ligia’s (my host mom) brother came over. He was pretty funny. He spoke really quickly so I didn’t understand him most of the time. I kept saying “no se” because I had no idea what he was saying and he joked with me and said I was saying “Jose” and then he went on about how Jose is my boyfriend and he’s the man of my dreams. It was pretty funny. So finally he asked about my real boyfriend and he couldn’t say “Matt” so he renamed him “Map”. Ligia’s brother ( I don’t know his name) took me to use the internet, so if you got my earlier e-mail then you can thank him.

I also met the other kids in the program today. We had dinner at Mama Clorlinda (I think that’s the- I really don’t know). Anyways it’s an authentic Ecuadorian restaurant, the food was ok. I really haven’t been hungry since I got here; I think it’s a side effect of the altitude sickness. But the other kids in the program seem nice. There is one girl who is here with her fiancé and she’s not living with a host family. I personally think she’s crazy to live in a foreign country without a host family to start things off, but she speaks fluent Spanish so I don’t think she’s that worried.

Besides the fact that today was awesome, I have really exciting news. I had my first Spanish conversation today where I forgot that I was speaking Spanish and the words just kind of flowed. It was probably the most exciting thing that’s happened since I got here. After it was over I was pretty jazzed and my host sister, Maria Fernanda even said that I spoke well. So hopefully I can keep up the momentum, after all the point of coming here as opposed to a country in Asia was to learn Spanish.

As for Monday; I start Spanish classes at 8:30 and go until 12:30 then I have lunch for a half hour and then from 1 until 4, I have “living in Ecuador” classes. It sounds likes its going to be lots of fun.

Adios,

-Ayla

I made it!

August 24, 2008

Greetings from Ecuador! I arrived late Thursday night because my plane was delayed, but I made it. Nothing really happened on Thursday other than my host family picked me up, we had dinner and I went to sleep.

Friday every one had to work, which was a good thing because I had altitude sickness (a headache, tiredness, and shortness of breathe). I still have it a little but I’m starting to adjust. But all I did on Friday was sleep and unpack my stuff.

Saturday we went to a going away/ birthday party. Carlos (the father) has 7 brothers and sisters and one of them is a monja, nun and she is moving to Guayaquil which is 8 hours away. I talked to her a bit, she was an English teacher at a Catholic school and apparently she won a Fulbright grant in the 70’s so she spent 2 years in Chicago. She was really excited to meet me so that she can practice her English because she thinks she needs to practice more but her English is pretty great.

As for the birthday party part, it was Blanca’s birthday ( I don’t know how she’s related but she is) so they celebrated that at the same time since the whole family was there. The food was great! We had pig and it was honestly the best food I’ve ever had. This pig would have made an vegetarian change his/her eating habits to at least include this pork recipe.

After we at the whole family made speeches about how they love their “tia” and how they will miss her when she moves. Then Carlos played the guitar for about 4 hours while everyone chatted amongst themselves. I met two women who spoke really great English, they both studied in America and now they are part of a business which exports flowers to the U.S. I think exporting flowers to the US is one of the biggest businesses in Ecuador, but I could be wrong. I also met a man from Canada who came here in 1998. He married and Ecuadorian woman and now lives here. He said that it took him two years to lean Spanish (but I don’t think he had any formal instruction before he got here). I didn’t really get a chance to talk to him long.

So after four hours of socializing we had dinner which was the same thing and still very delicious. And after that we danced and the family made me dance too. Then one thing led to another and they asked me to teach them some “American moves”, I completely drew a blank because I haven’t danced “real American moves” in at least three months. So I thought about camp dancing and taught them the “Stacey Henry” and the “Sturge”. They laughed when I taught them the sturge and said that only drunk people dance like that! Good thing they didn’t see the “Ayla”.

After that Carlos played the guitar again and we kept talking. I was exhausted by this point so I just kind of sat there like a loser but I didn’t care. The party lasted 8 hours! We got home at like 9:00 and I went to bed right away. Now it’s Sunday morning and nobody in the house is up yet. I have no idea what’s in store for today except that I have dinner with the other members of the program.

I miss you guys and I hope everything in America is going well.

-Ayla