Ok, this is kind of weird. I´m on the blogger website, but everthing is in Spanish! Anyways, just a brief recap of the past week. It´s probably going to be rather disjointed, and I feel my Spanish is getting better at the expense of my English, so disculpame.
I think I left off where I arrived in Quito. I managed to find my way to the main bus station, Terminal de Terrestre and catch a bus to La Hacienda Picalqui, about an hour and a half away. On the way there, they were playing the Japan game on the TV on the bus (TVs in vehicles seem to be pretty ubiquitous here), but unfortunately they lost in the last few minutes. Fortunately, this was not a sign of my luck since I made it to the Hacienda in one piece. My first day, I met Stuart, the director of the volunteer program, and Ronin, my Irish-British roommate, who taught me such useful phrases as ¨Dios le page¨- may God pay you - and some Quechua words such as hangover, which I have since forgotten. Wednesday night, some of us headed into Quito to experience World Cup fever here in Ecuador. Having won its first game, the Ecuadorians have been in high spirits, and this game basically determined whether they would move on to the next round. Thursday morning, our plan was to find the biggest screen in town, which was supposed to be in this big park by the Mariscal Sucre (modern, new Quito). Much to our disappointment, the sceen was 4 big screen TVs put together so there was a big cross running through the middle of the view. We decided to watch it elsewhere, and we ended up in the Ecudaorian version of IHOP, with overpriced food, but at least we had a good view of the game. And of course, they won, so the entire town was in a god mood. I left that day to come back to the hacienda, and resume normal life.
Now normal life here has been quite interesting. Here are a random sampling of experiences I´ve had in my first week.
- The bus system here is amazing. There are so many buses, and you can basically go anywhere on them. They are also amazingly cheap. I took a probably 3-4 mile bus ride and it cost me a grand total of 14 cents. However, on the Pan-American highway, the main highway that runs the length of South America and is very hilly here, the bus drivers drive like they´re in a video game race. They pass each other on the most dangerous looking hills and turns, with hundred foot drops on one side, but somehow they make it.
- People have some strange names here. I expected the stereotypical Juan, Maria, etc. Not necessarily. I have my meals with two families. One family, the father is Frederman, mother Lucia. Not too bad. Then, the first three kids are a textbook of Russian history: Vladimir, Estallyn, Llenyn, followed by Ronny and Patricia. The other family is composed of Luis and Esperanza, whose kids are Brian, Erica, Magdali? (Maggy). Last night, I dined with the latter family, and it was an amazing experience. Maybe because my Spanish has improved, but I could actually semi-converse with the kids. After dinner, I taught the kids how to make origami cranes and ninja stars, and Erica made me one of those friendship bracelets. How awesome.
- Working on the farm has been pretty cool. Most of the stuff we eat is straight off the farm. Yesterday, I helped cut some alfalfa for the cuyes (guinea pigs). By some, it was probably at least a football fields worth, so it was quite a lot. And they do this all by hand. It was fine for one day, and actually, I only helped in the morning, but man, I don´t know if I could do this every day of my life. The previous few days, I basically helped weed the vegetable gardens. I think yesterday had to be my most interesting overall moment on the hacienda, however. Not because of the cutting of wild alfalfa but my early morning experience. Stuart, the director, arranged for me to help milk the cows in the morning since I had never milked a cow before. I was quite pumped since it seems so romantic in that rustic, farmy way. Anyways, I start milking the cow, and all´s well. I hear Johnny (yes, he´s Ecuadorian) behind me, and of course, his squirts of milk sound bigger than mine, but it´s ok, size isn´t everything. Then, my cow procedes to pee, and by pee, it was more like a bucket of piss was coming out of its rearend. It splashed everywhere, and I had to pick up the bucket so none would get in the bucket. A few minutes later, I go over to work the other side with my back to a cow that is not being milked. I hear ¨splat splat splat¨ and I feel something hit the back of my head. Lo and behold, the cow had taken a humongous dump, and it had splattered against my backside. I needed to do laundry anyways, but that just made the laundry even more urgent. I did my laundry after lunch, and I have since discovered that doing laundry by hand is an art form. When I did my laundry by hand, things did not get clean - they just got less dirty. So, sorry Gene, the pants I borrowed from you are still kind of dirty mas o menos.
- Right now I´m in Otavalo, a place famous for its wool market every Saturday. I´m on my way to the community where I´ll stay these next three weeks called El Paraiso. It´s supposed to be gorgeous - in the Intag River valley, lush semi-tropical environment. There, I´m supposed to teach the kids, and I´m excited and anxious at the same time. I know my Spanish has a long way to go, and this will be a great opportunnity to learn it, but it kind of makes me anxious at the same time. I´ve always believed that I could do anything pretty well if I spent enough time on it, so this will be my chance to prove it. Vamos a mirar. I need to hop on the bus soon, which is supposed to be a 3 hour ride, so I´m going to leave it at that. Wish me luck and pray for me, if you do that kind of thing. Ciao!
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Estoy aqui
And I almost didn´t make it. These keyboards are throwing me off, but then again, maybe it´s the thin air. But look, aren´t the apostrophes kind of weird looking? Anyways, back to my original point. Sunday evening, I start to get my documents together for Ecuador only to discover that my green card is missing. This green card is what I need to get back into the country, so it´s kind of important. After searching everywhere there was to search, I start looking for other options. Plan B - order a new green card. Yeah, this would work great except it takes a few months - year to get. Plan C - Not go to Ecuador. Ummm, no thanks. Plan D - get a stamp in my passport confirming I indeed have a green card. Yay! So that´s what I did. However, I still had to order a new one for them to place a stamp in my passport, so that cost too much money and took early part of two mornings to go down to the immigration office downtown.
I left this afternoon after making a few final phone calls - sorry if I didn´t get a chance to reach you. Today I happened to have the fortune of going through the super security line, so it took a little bit longer. I´m not sure if it was completely random that I was selected for the super security line. I think it could´ve been that my name on my passport and the name on my ticket (Yosuke vs. Yoski) were spelled differently, so they automatically thought I was a risk (OMG, he doesn´t even know how to spell his own name!) Or maybe they saw that I was going to Ecuador and thought I might be carrying illegal substances. Who knows. Anyways, got through that, boarded the plane, watched the newest Pink Panther movie starring Steve Martin (not bad, but I wouldn´t pay to see it). The girl next to me noticed my Lonely Planet book, and we started talking a bit. And then, the guy on the other side of the aisle also noticed my Lonely Planet book, and we also chatted for a bit. And then, the girl started talking to a guy in the aisle in front of us, and we were all chatting for a while before the plane touched down. Just from that small subsample, I´d say the type of people who go to Ecuador are pretty friendly and cool (of course I´m not being biased here).
Ok, sorry that was boring. Now I´ll tell you about Ecuador. My first impression of Ecuador from the sky was that it was a pretty normal looking city. The lights were arranged in grids to follow the streets, and the buildings looked pretty decent. This was no metropolis, but neither is it a third world country full of tin shacks. Got through customs ok and I instantly got several offers for a taxi ride, but Lonely Planet recommended to go out to the street to hail a cab and haggle down the price, so I somehow managed to do that. They wanted $5, and I wanted $4, so I figured I´d compromise at $4.50. I was pleasantly surprised that my limited Spanish worked. Driving through the city, I was actually quite impressed by its cleanliness. The size of the streets and buildings actually reminded me a lot of Japan. And the buildings weren´t that nice, but they weren´t too shabby either - very reminiscent of some of the older sections of towns in Japan. The cab comes to a stop, and there´s another taxi parked right in front of us with a couple people stepping out, so I figure, hey, they must be staying where I´m staying. A couple of people come out to open the gate for them while I´m paying my cabbie and getting my stuff out of the car, so I tell them ¨Wait please!¨in español of course. Haha, this is sweet. This keyboard has the ¨ñ¨ Anyways, they close the gate, and I figure, oh well, I´m sure they´re right inside, but when I peer through the hole, there´s no one there. I´m thinking crap, how do I get in here? I see no bells, no nothing to call. Then I look around, and it doesn´t even really look like a hostel. Did my cabbie drop me off in the middle of nowhere as some cruel joke? Maybe I should´ve paid him the $5 he wanted. I walk down the street. Dark alley that way. Walk back towards the original gate. Hmm, this is kinda shady. Right next door, I spot someone mopping the floor inside a restaurant, so I figure I´d ask to see if they knew where my place was. Yep, the hostel is right up stairs. Whew. So that´s where I am now. Safe. Ok, well that´s all for now, and I´m trying to save money, so I´m going to get off the internet. Until next time, hasta luego!
I left this afternoon after making a few final phone calls - sorry if I didn´t get a chance to reach you. Today I happened to have the fortune of going through the super security line, so it took a little bit longer. I´m not sure if it was completely random that I was selected for the super security line. I think it could´ve been that my name on my passport and the name on my ticket (Yosuke vs. Yoski) were spelled differently, so they automatically thought I was a risk (OMG, he doesn´t even know how to spell his own name!) Or maybe they saw that I was going to Ecuador and thought I might be carrying illegal substances. Who knows. Anyways, got through that, boarded the plane, watched the newest Pink Panther movie starring Steve Martin (not bad, but I wouldn´t pay to see it). The girl next to me noticed my Lonely Planet book, and we started talking a bit. And then, the guy on the other side of the aisle also noticed my Lonely Planet book, and we also chatted for a bit. And then, the girl started talking to a guy in the aisle in front of us, and we were all chatting for a while before the plane touched down. Just from that small subsample, I´d say the type of people who go to Ecuador are pretty friendly and cool (of course I´m not being biased here).
Ok, sorry that was boring. Now I´ll tell you about Ecuador. My first impression of Ecuador from the sky was that it was a pretty normal looking city. The lights were arranged in grids to follow the streets, and the buildings looked pretty decent. This was no metropolis, but neither is it a third world country full of tin shacks. Got through customs ok and I instantly got several offers for a taxi ride, but Lonely Planet recommended to go out to the street to hail a cab and haggle down the price, so I somehow managed to do that. They wanted $5, and I wanted $4, so I figured I´d compromise at $4.50. I was pleasantly surprised that my limited Spanish worked. Driving through the city, I was actually quite impressed by its cleanliness. The size of the streets and buildings actually reminded me a lot of Japan. And the buildings weren´t that nice, but they weren´t too shabby either - very reminiscent of some of the older sections of towns in Japan. The cab comes to a stop, and there´s another taxi parked right in front of us with a couple people stepping out, so I figure, hey, they must be staying where I´m staying. A couple of people come out to open the gate for them while I´m paying my cabbie and getting my stuff out of the car, so I tell them ¨Wait please!¨in español of course. Haha, this is sweet. This keyboard has the ¨ñ¨ Anyways, they close the gate, and I figure, oh well, I´m sure they´re right inside, but when I peer through the hole, there´s no one there. I´m thinking crap, how do I get in here? I see no bells, no nothing to call. Then I look around, and it doesn´t even really look like a hostel. Did my cabbie drop me off in the middle of nowhere as some cruel joke? Maybe I should´ve paid him the $5 he wanted. I walk down the street. Dark alley that way. Walk back towards the original gate. Hmm, this is kinda shady. Right next door, I spot someone mopping the floor inside a restaurant, so I figure I´d ask to see if they knew where my place was. Yep, the hostel is right up stairs. Whew. So that´s where I am now. Safe. Ok, well that´s all for now, and I´m trying to save money, so I´m going to get off the internet. Until next time, hasta luego!
Saturday, June 03, 2006
One Week
As I approach the beginning of the end, as I change all my mailing address (both permanent and temporary), as I start a new life, as I start a new journey, I thought it would be rather appropriate to start a new blog. I'm not sure if this is the one I will use strictly for my traveling (which I hope to do more of in the years to come) or as a regular blogging outlet, but one thing is for sure. It's new.
There's always a sense of refreshment, of rebirth, in something new. A renaissance as the French like to call it, French accent included. I've always liked the blogger format. It's simple, clean, straightforward. I wish my room were more like this.... that is, if I had a room. But maybe with my new beginnings, I can transform my new room into the minimalist style of this blog.
One week from tomorrow I leave for Ecuador. It feels like so much time, but I'm sure it'll pass by quickly as I make the necessary arrangements. Get health insurance, make photocopies of all the important documents, see and talk to friends for one last time before I disappear for a month. There's things I need to buy: toilet paper, gatorade mix, maybe some iodine tablets and that underwear that you can wear forever without washing because bacteria doesn't grow on it. Well, perhaps the last one is unnecessary, and may even lead to the downfall of my dating life, but then again, there wasn't much there to begin with, so that's really no big loss. There's a chance I won't be able to get internet access more than once a week so this blog may be all for naught if that's the case. I figure my mailbox will fill up with so much mail that it will take me at least half an hour just to get through it. So if you happen to send me an email in the next month or so, forgive me if it takes a few weeks to respond.
I still have no place to live in Augusta, but it looks like I'll be living with Sunya, so I'm basically banking on her to take care of everything. Sunya's mom is the lady who taught tennis to first my mom and then me. Peachtree City is, or was, a small community, and the tennis community was also pretty small, so our families have known each other and stayed in touch for a pretty long time. Apparently, our moms were talking a few weeks ago and discovered that we were both going to MCG, so figured we should live together. Not a bad deal since I know Sunya and her mom, and I know she's responsible. It's funny how things just sort of fall in place.
Why Granola? Well, it had to be something food related. You know me. It also fits my personality. Sometimes, I can be kinda nutty, other times, I can be plain boring like rolled oats, and on the rare occasion, I can be sweet, like raisins or (on) dates. I feel like my posts will also be an assortment of topics and styles, ranging from bullet point format to long dissertations on my current frustrations. Moments of sheer joy and contentment tempered by disillusion and questioning of the world around me and myself. And it's just simple to remember. If I had something really witty like Food for Thought or The Gastronomist's Guide to the Galaxy it would have been harder to remember, and maybe only half the people reading this would remember the name of the site. Well, since I'm the only person reading this anyways, and there couldn't be half of me, I guess everyone, i.e. me, could remember it pretty easily. But the biggest reason I chose Granola as the name for this site? It was still available.
There's always a sense of refreshment, of rebirth, in something new. A renaissance as the French like to call it, French accent included. I've always liked the blogger format. It's simple, clean, straightforward. I wish my room were more like this.... that is, if I had a room. But maybe with my new beginnings, I can transform my new room into the minimalist style of this blog.
One week from tomorrow I leave for Ecuador. It feels like so much time, but I'm sure it'll pass by quickly as I make the necessary arrangements. Get health insurance, make photocopies of all the important documents, see and talk to friends for one last time before I disappear for a month. There's things I need to buy: toilet paper, gatorade mix, maybe some iodine tablets and that underwear that you can wear forever without washing because bacteria doesn't grow on it. Well, perhaps the last one is unnecessary, and may even lead to the downfall of my dating life, but then again, there wasn't much there to begin with, so that's really no big loss. There's a chance I won't be able to get internet access more than once a week so this blog may be all for naught if that's the case. I figure my mailbox will fill up with so much mail that it will take me at least half an hour just to get through it. So if you happen to send me an email in the next month or so, forgive me if it takes a few weeks to respond.
I still have no place to live in Augusta, but it looks like I'll be living with Sunya, so I'm basically banking on her to take care of everything. Sunya's mom is the lady who taught tennis to first my mom and then me. Peachtree City is, or was, a small community, and the tennis community was also pretty small, so our families have known each other and stayed in touch for a pretty long time. Apparently, our moms were talking a few weeks ago and discovered that we were both going to MCG, so figured we should live together. Not a bad deal since I know Sunya and her mom, and I know she's responsible. It's funny how things just sort of fall in place.
Why Granola? Well, it had to be something food related. You know me. It also fits my personality. Sometimes, I can be kinda nutty, other times, I can be plain boring like rolled oats, and on the rare occasion, I can be sweet, like raisins or (on) dates. I feel like my posts will also be an assortment of topics and styles, ranging from bullet point format to long dissertations on my current frustrations. Moments of sheer joy and contentment tempered by disillusion and questioning of the world around me and myself. And it's just simple to remember. If I had something really witty like Food for Thought or The Gastronomist's Guide to the Galaxy it would have been harder to remember, and maybe only half the people reading this would remember the name of the site. Well, since I'm the only person reading this anyways, and there couldn't be half of me, I guess everyone, i.e. me, could remember it pretty easily. But the biggest reason I chose Granola as the name for this site? It was still available.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
