"La Mitad Del Mundo"

     This past weekend has probably been one of the best in my entire 22 years of life. First my Friday began with the Andean culture class, which is the class I've been looking most forward to. My teacher seems super sweet earthy. I think this class will be a pleasure to go to each week, not to mention that it's with all the girls in my program. It's nice to be able to see everyone rather than just two people. ( Although I look forward to our political and life talks every morning Brooke and Katie)
      After class we all went exploring around our school in the Mariscal area. Mariscal is known by the locals as "Gringolandia" because it's where the tourists from all over the world gather. I guess it makes sense that my school is smack dab in the middle of it. It was nice to get to see the area in the day time because later on that night all of us gals ventured out looking to have a good time. Boy is that place different at night! By the time we get out of school (around 1pm) a lot of the shops are just opening for almuerzo. At night everything is alive and people swarm the streets.

    The night began with all of us meeting at La Plaza Foch. Half of the group went off the begin the night with some cervezas while the other half chilled and waited for everyone else to arrive. Once we were all together we traveled down the streets looking for discotecas-which are Ecuadorian night clubs. The first one we found was pretty lame, but hey it was free and we had a good time dancing anyway. *Note I highly doubt we'll ever have to pay to get into a discoteca here* The second one we went to was called Oceana. That place was awesome! For those of you know me, you know that I love dancing and never hesitate to be the first on the dance flood. Ecuadorian night clubs are awesome because here is a good mix of many types of dancing and music. Also Latin American men have absolutely no fear about dancing with you. Most of the night I danced with my girls, but at one point a guy named Andres came up and started dancing with me. I danced with him for a couple of minutes-salsa dancing-then after I knew he was interested I turned to him and said "Yo tengo un novio...pero you tengo MUCHOS Amigas!" Which translates to "I have a boyfriend...but I have a lot of friends that are girls!" He looked pleased and told me that he had a lot of guys friends there. So then I brought him over to where all my single girls were and then a mixture of the Ecuadorian boys and Ohio girls danced the night away. All in all I think everyone had a good time. 

The next morning my friend Stephanie, her Padre, and I all went on a minnie road trip to "El Mital Del Mundo" which is translated to "The middle or center of the world". Pretty awesome. I got to straddle the Equatorial line...well the wrong one. Apparently where the giant statue below is located is the wrong place, thanks to GPS we now know this. So there is the big fancy line and statue, which is not the actual line, and there is a little sign a few feet away where the actual line is. Unfortunately we didn't know this so we went to the fake line. Next time.

Then later on that day my friend Naomi called us and said that she and her family were going to a soccer game later that afternoon. Of course we said yes and hitched a ride to Naomi's house. From there we walked to the Estadio Olimpico Atahualpa which is only a couple of blocks away from Naomi's house. We spend the game test the local game food, drinking the local cervaza, and cheering for Ecuador.  Futbol games in South America don't even compare to that in the US. People go nuts! It's like being in Columbus on a OSU vs Michigan game day. People love it. Unfortunately Ecuador lost to Mexico 0-1, but we still had a blast. Apparently losing is not okay for Ecuadorian fans because at the end of the game the people were chanting for a new coach and throwing their plastic bottles at the players as they left the field. I was shocked at their actions because I throughout the game no one booed or showed mal-sportsmanship, but yet they threw bottles at their own players when they lost? That is a lot of pressure!

    Kind of a funny side note, our group got stopped twice at the stadium by people in the public media field. Once was for national television and the other was for a radio show. Apparently being a gringa gets you lots of attention.

Amo mi vida

Cami y Mi Padre

I am blessed to have been placed with such a wonderful family.  Before arriving in Quito I had heard that the people of South America are very welcoming and hospitality is one of the virtues they're known for. This could not be more true. The Murgueytio family is no exception. I have only been living in Quito for 6 days and yet they have completely taken me in as one of their own. Mi mama, Lupe, insists that I am her hija (daughter) and that she will treat me as such. Thus far she has kept true to her promise. She wakes up every morning at 6:30am to make me 2 eggs, bread with cheese or jam, and coffee. The first two days of school she and mi hermana (sister) helped me figure out the complicated bus systems of Ecuador. Before I go any further to how dedicated mi mama is about my well being, let me tell you about these Ecuadorian buses...

• It only costs 25cents to ride the bus
• Nearly every bus plays loud Latin American music
• There is no machine that takes your money, it's always a separate person than the driver
• The buses hardly ever actually stop completely--yes that means that you jump on and off the buses
• Street venders are permitted to come on the bus to sell things like gym, fruit, candy, shoe rubber, etc. if they give the driver/money collector a few bucks of their earnings from the bus riders
• The buses are super jerky, as in they stop abruptly and begin again very very quickly--it feels like an amusement park ride

Anyway, so for an older women, taking me to school on the bus is a big deal. So I go to school roughly from 8am-1pm--I'll go into further detail about my school in a future post--and then return home around 2pm ish for almuerzo. In Ecuador, and I'm pretty sure most of South America, lunch is the big deal meal. Mi Mama is an AMAZING cook. Everyday she makes a different kind of soup (I love soup for those of you who don't know), rice, beans, veggies, and some sort of meat. She always compliments the meal with a fresh squeezed juice from some exotic fruit. And yes, I actually mean exotic, not like starfruit or passion fruit. I'm talking things that we don't even have names for in the US. For example, mi familia made me try that yellow fruit in the picture on the right. It's called a taxo and is not that sweet of a fruit. It's pretty good, but I probably wouldn't be able to eat more than one at a time.

Andres

 So after almuerzo mi mama and I take naps--I know, I live a hard life here in Ecuador. Then around 5 or 6 we start to move around again. We eat a smaller more like snack meal. Normally we eat some bread with cheese and jelly and drink coffee. If there was a lot left over from almuerzo mi mama will sometimes heat it up and we'll eat that. But she normally will only do that for me. Score. Then we all hangout and around 8 everyone goes to their bedrooms to do bedroom things. This is normally when I do my homework.

Like I said, my life is good.

The other people in my family include this little guy to the left. He is my nephew named Andres. He's 1 year and 4 months and super adorable. He doesn't contain a shy bone in his body and will constantly want to hangout on your lap or in your arms. His older sister, Cami is pictured above with her abuelo--mi padre. Cami is so sweet. She is very patient with my broken Spanish and does her best to help me understand what is going on around me--which by the way, I've just gotten over never being able to fully understand what is happening. Mi padre knows English very well because he lived in New York for 3 years. Although I prefer that mi familia talk to me in Spanish, it is nice to get some English every once in awhile. Last night mi padre with mi hermana Paula showed my friends Maria and Stephanie and I around the old area of Quito. It was sweet to have our own personal tour guide and to see the city at night. Mi hermana Paula is the mother of Andres and Cami. I think he husband lives in Quito, but a different part. Or something like that <-- language barrier. She has been such a help getting around my neighborhood in Quito. The first day that I arrived she showed me the way to the mall Bosque and helped me buy a watch.

Here are the pictures of my house! Note that this is not my house in it's entirety, only the rooms that I spend a lot of time in. 

The Kitchen

The Living Room and Dinning Room

The hallway on the 2nd floor where I like to read and look out the window at the beautiful mountains

My Room!

The view out my window

 Well it's about that time where I go and drink coffee and eat bread con mi familia, but before I do, watch this video of mi madre from El Día de los Padres (Father's Day). 

Buenos noches!

What's life without a little epic here and there?

 

      My travels began with a Megabus. For those of you who have never experienced the Megabus, you are missing out. Generally the Megabuses have wifi and are doubledecker. They are the better, safer, and nicer version of the Greyhound. They were originally designed for college students to reach home in an affordable manner. Recently Megabus opened up a route connecting the Midwest to the East coast--score!

     Anyway...way back in the beginning of the fall I was thinking about taking some time off school before I graduate. You know, the whole "I'm burnt out on school, I need some time off" story that nearly all college students go thought at least once during their career as a student. Well Emily, being the good friend that she is, bribed me to stay in school for the last two terms and finish up strong. What was this bribe? An all girls climbing trip, any place of my choice, with all the gals that I spent my first summer at Miguel's with--conveniently enough they are also my best friends. All winter we worked through our various busy schedules to set a place and a date--Vermont/New England June 12th-16th. (It originally was supposed to last 2 weeks)

     At some point during that time I decided that I also wanted to study abroad in Ecuador. For my last term I only need Spanish classes to graduate. Unfortunately none of my Spanish classes from Cincinnati State transferred to OSU. So instead of taking them again in a classroom and not really learning the language I decided that going to a foreign country is the best way to go about these final classes.  Remember when I mentioned that we needed to find time for girls trip amongst all of our busy schedules? Well I was one of the more difficult. As soon as I made the final decision and worked it out financially I bought the plane tickets departing from New York on June 16th.

My final weeks in the Sates went as so:

May 31st-June 9th: 

• Move out of my house
• Study and take my Final Exams
• Pack for Girls trip AND Ecuador

June 9th-12th:

• Drive to the Red to say goodbye to Jordan
• Drive back to Columbus June 11th to say goodbye to my family
• Make sure I have everything ready for the early morning Megabus departure to Philly to meet up with Nikkie

June 12th-17th:

• Megabus from Columbus to Philly June 12th
• Drive with Nikkie from Philly to Vermont June 13th
• Hangout and rock climb with my girls at Smugglers Notch and Rumney June 14-16
• Drive the 6hrs very very early in the morning (2am) with Nikkie from Vermont to JFK, NY June 17th

Which brings me to my multiple flights through North, Central, and South America:
*notice the start and end times-->Depart USA 9:17am Arrive in Quito 12:20am the next day

      My program through OSU required that we arrive on June 17th between the hours of 7-9pm...or something like that. Well my ticket was much cheaper if I arrived at the hour of 12:20am. And by cheaper, I mean the price was cut in half. So I figured that I would just arrive SUPER early and get a taxi to a hotel or hostel. After I gave my program director my itinerary, with an explanation as to why I was flying out of New York, she contacted my school in Quito and arranged for my family to come pick me up. (very nice of her considering I disregarded the rules with arrival times) Unfortunately when I arrived at the busy city of Quito in the wee hour of the morning there was no one in sight to pick me up...dun dun dun

     I waited for about an hour with many a creepy taxi driver saying "Tu necessitas una taxi?" to which I replied, "No, yo tengo una familia." (Apparently all of my eloquent Spanish has decided to escape me since I arrived in Ecuador. I now only use about 5 verbs and all of which I only use in present tense) About 1:30am I grudgingly decide to trust one of the Taxi drivers who had been stalking me for the past 20minutes and told him I needed a hotel. I began to follow him and immediately began to get sketched out because he was walking off the property of the airport. I politely told him that I was going back to the airport and would not be needing his "taxi". At the airport I attempted to get an internet connection but had little luck. Mentally I decided that I would just remain in the lobby and wait for the other girls to arrive in 16hours--at least the lobby with other people is safe right? Unfortunately a few moments later myself and the other people waiting were getting kicked out by the night crew who needed to clean. crap. So I wandered with the rest of the people back into the land of creepy taxi men and decided to trust the most ordinary looking taxi. Lucky for me he knew a little English and took me to a reliable Hotel. The drive was about 2 minutes away from the airport and it cost me $5--the first time, of what I am sure will be many, I got ripped off in Ecuador.

 

The view from outside my Hotel balcony