So after a few weeks of constant travel between classes a few of us decided it was time to settle down for a couple weeks and get to know Quito, especially since we have another long week of travel coming up with Carnaval at the end of this week. Our first adventure in Quito was very American of us, we decided to bake cookies and watch a movie before we had to buckle down to write our essays. We went on an excursion to Supermaxi (I know kinda funny name, they have Megamaxis too) in search of cookie dough, cuz really that is the best part and we wanted to make them quickly. We didn't find that but were able to find a betty crocker mix (with over 300 chips in the bag it said) Score! When I talked to my mom about making the cookies she said that was fine and we should use the microwave-oven thing on the counter since it would be faster. Well the first batch came out great after about 10 minutes or so but the following ones each took about 30 minutes or more, and since we could only find a pan big enough to make 4 cookies at a time you can probably guess that we ate more cookie dough than we ended up getting cookies haha.

The rest of that weekend consisted primarily of working on our essay which with the topic we chose took a lot more research and time than expected and ended up being more than five pages over what it was supposed to be oops. Hopefully though we do as well on it as we did the previous one. I have been really fortunate in the group work here the two girls that I have been working with are great and we work really well together, the only issue is we are all major perfectionists making the editing process go a little long sometimes, but the end product is worth it. So far I have been extremely impressed with the CIMAS program. They all are so supportive and willing to help us with whatever may come up and the classes and lectures are all really good with very prestigious people being brought in to speak to us. It is really a much higher level than I expected especially after the quality of classes on my last study abroad. I also am very appreciative that all the classes are in Spanish. Although at first it was very difficult to make it through the day with so much Spanish because my brain was just so tired after a few hours, it now has become much easier and I can even multitask like I do in classes in English at times if the professor is speaking clear enough. My comprehension of the language has increased drastically and I really believe that a lot of it is due to the classes being taught in Spanish.

Since we decided to stick around Quito we ended up hitting up La Mariscal or Gringolandia (Gringo Land HAHA). We were celebrating one of the girls in our program 20th birthday and ended up at a few different places including a place that had a strawberry and chocolate crepe!- which I of course ordered and then it proceeded to make me sick, maybe the Ecuadorian crepes not such a good idea. (Though I think it was partially due to remnants of being sick the week before in Santo Domingo).

This last weekend we went out to La Mariscal again first for some Indian food which was SO delicious, I am starting to remember and miss all the wonderful variety of food back home. For the rest of the weekend we had made some grand plans to do things around Quito like hike Pichincha (the volcano that sits right above the city) go to some hotsprings that are nearby and go to Mitad del Mundo (where the equator line is) though unfortunately the weather had some other plans for us and decided to downpour, to a point of almost flashflooding in some places, for a good majority of the weekend which kept us indoors much more than we wanted to be. Instead of being an exciting outdoor weekend exploring the city, it ended up being an indoor watching movies and going out to eat type weekend. Saturday night though we did go out for awhile and a friend and I had previously seen these huge things of beer with a little tap on it, so naturally we decided we would need to order one. Unfortunately the bar we wanted to go in was very full and extremely smoky, so we settled on one down the street that had a lot more room, and for good reason, it turns out it was more of an older persons sport bar type place, not exactly our normal scene but we made it a good time. ( Oh and Dani they were playing a Bob Seger CD and Night Moves came on, I thought of you!) Later that night we met up with some Ecuadorian friends and ended up going dancing at a Salsa, Meringue, Latin Music place which was really fun, though unfortunatly I am not that coordinated to move the way that they all can.

Since many of us have been fighting being sick and it just kinda keeps rotating through the group, including myself- my stomach currently does not appreciate it when I put food in it which tends to be a problem, though no worries we are currently negotiating a deal to allow me to eat again, it was probably not too bad that some of our plans were changed and we ended up having a pretty chill time in Quito wandering around to bookstores and movie places. Although Quito is much too busy and kinda crazy for me it is starting to feel like home and I am able to figure out my way around most of the time without too many problems. I love you all and miss you and can't believe that I am already half way through my time here!

La Playa y las Fincas

I finally got to the beach last weekend which was a nice change from the mountains and city. Although Quito is great it was so nice to be able to breathe easily again when walking somewhere, unlike here which just walking up the hill to my house makes me extremely winded still due to the high altitude. We set off for the beach on a night bus thursday after class and all was going great until about 2 hours in to the 6 hour ride when we stop suddenly in what appears to be the middle of no where at about 2 in the morning. While dozing in and out of consciousness due to my good luck of getting the only seat on the bus whose recliner function does not work so I am forced to attempt to sleep sitting straight up with my large backpack at my feet, I hear that there has been a landslide about 5 km on up the road and so we are waiting. Nobody, including the driver seems to know how long we may wait for since a crew was coming in from Quito in an attempt to clear the road. The bus finally began moving again around 6:30 ironically enough the time we were supposed to be arriving in Atacames. Although we had been told it can be difficult to find a hotel on the weekend in the beach towns without a reservation especially for 7 people we didn't seem to have any problem with attracting all sorts of people who "work" for different hotels and wanted to show us their top choices. We finally decided on one that was run by a lady, we had had enough of skeezy men at this point, and after quickly looking the room over went to the beach. Upon our return we realized that the shower had a very large window that looked out basically to the entire town without a blind, or even glass over it for that matter making showering, or more like a hose spicket is a better way to describe it, a very interesting experience. The beach in Atacames was pretty nice and the ocean was really warm but the people on the beach were of an interesting sort. As a group of 7 gringas we attracted far more attention than we actually wanted for most of our time at the beach. There were numerous occasions that parents came up to me with their small child of about 3 or 4 and asked if they could take a picture of me with the kid...this was one of the oddest expereinces I have had so far. I am used to men making comments and even asking for pictures at times (this also happened here a few times) but parents with kids was a new one. A couple other humerous but slightly awkward experiences that weekend include the time when a friend asked if I wanted to go for a swim with her and this guy we had been hanging out with that morning and one of his friends came along as well. As we get out to the water they tell us to get on this boat, ok this sounds creepier than it was but they were "tour guides" who did banana boat and tubing on the ocean so not quite as sketch as it seems, so we got on to go for a ride while they hooked up a tube. We rode around for awhile and then they got rid of the tube and we continued to go around for a bit and ended up out at the far buoy. Here they told us that we were all going to go for a swim, ok all well and good except for the fact that the boat then leaves and we are left to swim back to shore, at least the tide was with us. From here the story even gets better, the whole swim as I was feeling like I was going to be in the ocean forever, this guy, Javier, the one I had met all of 15 minutes ago goes on to profess his love for me for the ENTIRE swim. And to make it even more awkward I had a horrible time understanding him at the beginning due to his accent- on the coast they speak much more rapidly and slur the words together. Finally when I understood what he was saying I was like whoa, no i don't think so and after about 5 minutes of telling him I definitely was not interested he eventually kind of got the message and left me alone for a little while only to make an advance toward one of my friends later. Haha yeah guys here move a little fast and come on a little strong. After this I proceeded to fall asleep on the beach and get horribly sunburned due to my forgetting to reapply sunscreen- rookie mistake I know. My final awkward moment of the weekend was on the bus ride back when a random guy first just started staring in my direction and then finally he began talking to me and Andrea though it was extremely difficult to hear due to the noise of the bus and the loud fighting scene that was going on in Pearl Harbor. He started out with just the basics, where you from, what are you doing in Ecuador etc, and then he kept going to a point where he told me that my next trip back to Ecuador should be for Fernando (him) haha nice try buddy.
After our beach adventures it was time to meet up with our group for another one of the school sponsored field trips, this time we were studying malaria and other tropical diseases like Dengue and Chagas, something I was pretty excited to learn about in the context of Ecuador. Unlike the last school field trip there were far fewer hospital visits and many more visits to plantations that produced palmas (for palm oil), palmitas, and pinas aka pineapples. Yum! Although it was interesting to see these plantations and how the destruction of the primary forests that used to exist in those locales had greatly affected the climate of the area and therefore allowing for a better environment for mosquitoes to grow in, learning how to plant and farm these various products was a little more than we were expecting. After about 5 hours of touring these various plantations, not without a little excitement of course like a large poisonous snake (fortunately it had been killed by one of the farmers before we got there) being pulled out of the forest that they then wanted us to walk into to see how they pull down the racimos and make palm oil, no thank you I am good staying on the bus. We also were told at the end of the pina tour (after receiving 2 or more pinas apiece for free which later turned into some amazing pina coladas) that there was a great waterfall close by we should check out. Although it was close the path wasn't exactly easy with a wire bridge that had no bottom to it so it was like tightrope walking and another made of rotting bamboo that seemed a little to close to having that final bit of weight on it for comfort before falling into the stream below and the large tree trunk and jump to land at the end. After George of the Jungling our way through we all made it to the beautiful waterfall at the end and got some good photos ops. On the way back though I was not quite as fortunate. While waiting my turn to jump to the tree log bridge and standing at the edge of the mini cliff the ground suddenly fell out from underneath me causing me to land about 5 feet below in the midst of the swampy stream area which I was later told also had poisounous snakes excellent. Fortunately I was wearing my botas (large rubber boots) and so I was not covered in swamp muck but just dirt from where the side of the cliff fell down on me. This proceeded to give everyone a good laugh once I was finally lifted out to safety.
Much of the rest of our trip was much more related to malaria and the control efforts that Ecuador's public health ministry has implemented and have been very successful with. In the last 8 years or so they have gone from nearly 14,000 cases a year to around 10 or so a year. We learned a lot about the different methods of control used and even went mosquito larva hunting which consisted of dipping a very large ladel into a pond and hoping to pick up an anopheles (the kind of mosquito that carries malaria) larva. Overall it was a pretty good trip minus the fact that 11 out of 15 of us got sick at somepoint throughout the week, myself included, but all is well now and I am gearing up for the next couple of weeks in and around Quito before heading off to the coast again for Carnaval in a couple weeks.
I have posted some photos online via my facebook account and for those of you that don't have a facebook you can check them out here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053505&l=d6e41&id=32402831 I will try and get some more up from more recently soon though this week is pretty packed so far.

Travels Travels Travels

So I know it has been quite sometime since I have written but I have been super busy and traveling a lot both independently and with the school for the last couple weeks. My first adventure outside of Quito was to Otavalo a couple hours north of the city with a very large indigenous community. Since our group was going there on a field trip anyway a few of us decided we should hit it up early to see the huge market that happens every Saturday. Now this market was absolutely amazing! It covered nearly the whole main town area going almost 10 blocks in each direction with each stall filled with artisan crafts like jewelry, paintings, sweaters, scarfs, alpaca blankets and so much more all at ridiculously low prices even before bargaining. Although much of the stuff was very similar from stall to stall we still found ourselves wandering through the market all day even in the midst of a downpour, though we did take a break to have some lunch in a very Ecuadorian little restaurant where we were served chicken foot soup that came complete with an entire chicken foot sticking out of the bowl. Later that evening a group of us decided that we should go to a cock fight that occurs every Saturday and is completely legal here in Ecuador. Many of the men buy there chicken at the market that day and then enter them in the contest later that night. This was one of the more interesting experiences so far complete with spears on the claws and all. The arena was very legit with a big circular area at the bottom and then chairs that circled it in stadium seating up. Of the more than 100 people there approximately 8 were women, 5 of them being from my group. To say the least this was one of the strongest machismo experiences I have had so far. During the week I had a school field trip where we learned a lot about Traditional Andean medicine that is practiced in many of the indigenous communities. We saw various hospitals that have a mixture of western and traditional medicine and in one where a lot of traditional medicine is practiced saw a cuy (guinea pig) cleaning. This consisted of the yachuk (shaman) rubbing a what started as live guinea pig all over the body of one of my classmates for a few minutes. The cuy serves as a diagnostic tool so after she had finished rubbing it on her, and it had died, she proceeded to cut it open and examine the various parts of the cuy. She then stated that the girl had some back and hip pain, two things she had actually mentioned to friends the day before...kinda crazy I know, but also super interesting. Unfortunately we had to return to Quito early since that night many indigenous people were protesting a new law regarding the mines and they shut down the roads starting at midnight by putting burning tires, rocks, and trees on many of the main thorogh fares throughout the country. Later that week we visited another area and hospital and from there me and a few friends went to a town called banos (yes like the bathroom) where they have all sorts of outdoor adventure sports and hotsprings due to the volcano that is very close to the town (and has been active in recent years). This was one of the most amazing places because in two days we went biking nearly 30 kilometers (mostly on the freeway though there were a few bike paths) and although most of it was downhill and heading toward the Amazon basin there were good chunks of uphill sections that seemed to be never ending. During the ride there was a bridge where a company had a bungee jumping operation set up so we all stopped and decided to jump from 40 meters before continuing on our way. For lunch we stopped at a waterfall called el diablo which was a 1km hike in, but all downhill so the way out was kinda painful! At the waterfall they have cut a hole into the side of the cliff so that you can climb through a cavelike section of the cliff and stand basically underneath the waterfall. The next day a few of us went rafting on a trip that normally takes about two hours but due to the heavy rainfall the night before causing the river to flow extremely fast and making for some amazing rapids took us about an hour. Although we were a boat of 5 girls and 1 guy plus the guide we were the only one that didn't lose anyone from our raft! While on the trip we heard people talking about rapelling through waterfalls, something I have been wanting to do since I heard it was an option so we joined up with them and did that for the afternoon. This is very similar to rockclimbing except it consists only of the descending part and you have a waterfall running over you as you go down. The waterfalls were in one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and really don't have the words to describe nor pictures to show since we were all completely soaked and didn't think a camera would survive. In the beginning learning to trust the rope and harness was very difficult especially since it was hard to get a good footing in the little canvas tennis shoes they had us wear but by the end we were all scaling down 20meter waterfalls like it was nothing. By the end of this weekend I was absolutely exhausted and am still working on catching up but it was totally worth it and some of the most amazing experiences!! That night for dinner we heard that cuy (yes guinea pig) was available in town, it is a speciality in Ecuador, so we tried that as well and it was surprisingly good. One person described it as tasting similar to duck, though I don't think I have ever eaten duck so I really wouldn't know. It was kinda difficult to eat because it was so small and there isn't really a lot of meat on it, but once you get past that the flavor is actutally really good! So far this week has been much more laid back except for the homework load which has increased drastically, but I did go to a soccer game last night which was absolute craziness. People here are in LOVE with their soccer! Everybody was decked out in red, waving flags, singing a song that by the end I could sing a few lines along with, and throwing thousands of bits of tiny torn up newspaper. I feel like so far my experiences here have been more than I could have asked for and I am even starting to feel like I can communicate reasonably in Spanish. Tonight I had a very long conversation with my mom about women's position in Ecuador and I was actually able to speak without thinking out every word and get across my point clearly! YAY there is hope haha!

Well it is getting late and I have a full day again tomorrow. I am heading to the beach for the weekend and then on another field trip with my school for all of next week (we are studying tropical diseases something I am super excited about and the professor is awesome!) so it will be probably until next weekend till I am on again. I miss you all!

So I have been in Ecuador for a little over a week now (sorry I didn't write sooner it has been kind of a whirlwind of a week with so much going on and me being absolutely exhausted by the end of the day) and already I feel like I am comfortable calling Quito home for awhile. Although I have been here for a relatively short time I have had the opportunity especially the first few days before classes to get out and see the city.

The first night there were a few other people from my program already here so we decided to go out for what we thought was going to be a live concert and a cheap beer and some food. Little did we know since all of us still struggle with the language at times, that what we figured would cost each of us around $5 a piece ended up being a $90 affair for the six of us. Apparently when this place has shows, like the night we went there is a $5 cover a piece that is added to your check. HaHa Oops!

Thursday ended up being a total tourist day, after sleeping until like noon to recover from the more than 24 hours that it took to get here. A group of us decided to go to the old town which is very European seeing as how it was colonized by the Spanish in the 1500s. That area still has the very narrow streets and the tall buildings with the old European architecture and churches every block or so. Funnily enough the first sight that I saw in Quito was La Compania a church built by the Jesuits during the 16 and 1700s. This was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever been inside, all of the walls are covered in a 23 kt gold inlay with intricate patterns throughout the entirety of the church. I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it was with the way the light came in and hit some of the walls. Very close to La Compania is the presidential palace this was one of the more odd tours that I have been on. First off they seemed like they were very strict about security with everyone that came in being required to leave some sort of ID at the front with the guards that was checked a couple of times as you made your way in. Well one of my friends didn't have an ID with her and I happened to have two so we decided to try and see if she could use one of mine and it worked. Although we had the exact same name on both pieces of ID in a group of about 15 and were only like 2 people apart in line we both were able to get in and go on the tour, pretty great security for all the precautions they took haha. As for the tour it was primarily a walk around the upper level of the palace on the outdoor walkway area where they showed us many of the gifts that the president has received from other nations that were displayed in about 10 different hutches, not the most thrilling tour I have been on and after about 3 I think a lot of us were pretty bored. That was the extent of the tour, glad it was free.

Later in the day I met up with a friend who lives in Quito that studied abroad at my highschool senior year. She took me up to the Teleferico which is a gondola type thing that goes part way up the volcano which Quito sits at the base of. The view was amazing and provided me with a good orientation of the city, I am still absolutely amazed at how long Quito is! It is really pretty narrow but stretches on for miles and miles, farther than what can be seen from the top of the gondola. Hopefully soon I can go back up and climb the volcano, though I am still thinking Im going to wait a week or two until I am adjusted to the altitude since just at the top of the teleferico it was 13000 feet.

I moved in with my family on Friday and I am very fortunate in that situation. The family I am living with is absolutely amazing! Myriam, the mom, is so kind and patient with me and my broken Spanish. Many nights we have sat and talked for two hours or so while I eat dinner (they eat extremely large almuerzos (lunch) so usually she just has a cup of tea or some soup) and even though my language abilities are still very broken and proabably rather painful for a native speaker to listen to how I butcher the language I feel like we have started to have some really good talks and even gotten into subjects like politics both here in Ecuador and the US. The daughter that lives here, Carolina, is also really great though I haven't had as much of an opportunity to get to know her yet.

The school aspect has been really interesting and challenging so far this week. One of the main challenges is that nearly all of the lectures (which are about 2 hours long each) have been in Spanish. In order for me to understand it takes so much concentration that by the end of the day after 6 hours of class I have been absolutely exhausted. Although they take a lot of concentration I do feel that my skills for understanding the language of improved immensely over the last week and what we have been discussing, a lot of information on the political and economic situation in Ecuador and also Indigenous views on health are so interesting and exactly what I was hoping for when I decided to come on this course.

So far my experience in Quito has been very different from what I imagined it would be, especially after having traveled to an area around Guayaqyil in the south of the country over the summer. My experience over the summer was one of a lot of disparity between rich and poor and a lot of poverty everywhere that we went. So far Quito has been nothing like that. The area I live in is very middle class, my family has wireless internet in the house, running water and hot water, and even a washing machine. Most of the area of Quito that I have seen has been much of the same as well. Although there have been instances of poverty that can be seen, especially the children selling cigarettes and chicle it is not nearly as prevelent as I expeceted. I am curious to get out of Quito and see other regions especially some of the indigenous communities in the Andes, since many of the people who are working in the informal sector selling food and shining shoes do seem to be of an indigenous ancestry, and see how the realities in these regions compare to those of Quito.

Sorry this got kinda long, that's what I get for putting it off for so many days and I still don't feel like I covered everything I have experienced and want to share though I will save those for another time (like food yum!). I will be traveling this weekend and most of next week both on my own with friends and with the program so it probably will be a while before I can get on again but I miss you all lots and hope that everything is going well back home!

And I'm Off...

So this trip that I have been thinking about going on for more than a year now is finally here. I leave tomorrow morning and can't believe it is that time already. I am going to Ecuador from January 6th through March 24th and will be studying public health and Spanish. On one hand I am obviously very excited and ready to begin this adventure, especially since it has been two years since my last long trip abroad (for those of you that don't know I studied abroad in Ghana my sophomore year.) The 24 hours of travel aside I can't wait to leave and finally be in Ecuador. Yet even with all the excitement I do have a good case of the nerves primarily due to my need to finally put my Spanish skills to the test. Although I have taken Spanish for what seems like forever, I have never really had much of an opportunity to really practice speaking and since I haven't had a grammar class for a couple of years the first couple of weeks should be interesting. I will be living with a host family in Quito, the family consists of a mother and three adult children so I definitely will have plenty of opportunity to practice!. Right now this is about all I know about the family though I will definitely write more once I meet them.

I will try to keep this updated as often as possible and hopefully can get some pictures up as well. Ciao Ciao