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