Otavalo

Hola! I have been doing lots of fun things the past few days! Wednesday was a big soccer game in Ecuador - the championship game between Ecuador and Argentina. I went to my mom's cousins house to watch the game. We ate hot dogs with crushed potato chips on top. very odd. Thursday I got a pedicure with my friends and it only cost $5! Thursday night we went out to the Mariscal and had another fun, dancing filled night. Friday I didn't have class so i relaxed, hung out with friends, and baked brownies for another friends birthday. For her bday, we all went to a really good restaurant called tapas y vino. It was very expensive for ecuador standards - $20 - but we got unlimited wine and tapas! It was delicious!! 

Today we went to Otavalo - an indigenous village 2 hours away from Quito. In the morning, we went to a woodcrafting shop, an instrument shop, and a beautiful waterfall!! After lunch, we went to the market at Otavalo. It's the largest indigenous market in Ecuador. It was amazing! There were probably 100 stalls set up with the most beautiful handcrafted goods. I bought handmade scarfs for $2, a handmade belt for $5, a sterling silver and turquoise ring for $6 and a really pretty necklace for $2!! It was really fun to bargain!

This is the waterfall at Otavalo.

We got soaking wet standing up there

This is from the very top of the waterfall! (we hiked to the top). If we took 1 step backwards, we all would have fallen to our deaths. It was pretty scary.

This is the market at Otavalo. There are 100s of stands all like this selling beautifully handcrafted goods!

Hi. I have had a very busy past few days. On Sunday, my friends and I took the teleferico (gondola) up to the top of one of the mountains that surrounds Quito. It was really cold and very hard to breathe (we were 12,000 ft altitude) but the view was spectacular. You could almost see the entire country of Ecuador! Afterwards, we ate dinner at a very good cuban restaurant. Yesterday I had class in the morning and in the evening so I spent the day with my friends going to bookstores to look for books for our classes, eating lunch in a park, and going to the rocodromo (a rock-climbing wall). Today I slept in and went running in a huge park with one of my friends. It was very difficult to run!! I am still not used to the altitude. I have class this evening. Even though all my classes are in spanish - they are all very easy. I am taking a society and culture of Ecuador class, a globalization class, a spanish grammar class, a ceramics class, and a service learning class (we only spend a little time in the classroom for that class and spend the rest of the time volunteering for a local organization). I've had more than a week of classes already and so far my only homework has been 1 page of grammar homework where i had to conjugate verbs in the present tense. 

I think the hardest thing about leaving here in 4 months (besides the mountains) will be the breakfasts! It's my favorite meal of the day! Everyday I eat cut up fruit (usually kiwi and guava), homemade fruit juice (usually blackberry, pineapple, melon, guava, tomato de arbol, and other fruits I havent even heard of)! It's delicious. I also eat fresh bread from a nearby bakery with homemade warm jam that my mom makes, and yogurt and granola. Its the best meal ever! I don't know how I ever lived without homemade fruit juice with every meal!

hola! I have done so much in the past few days that I can't remember everything! My friends and I have become experts at la mariscal. Its a huge square in the middle of quito where there are tons of bars and clubs and restaurants. Its really fun! Today we went on a tour of Quito. Quito is definitely the most beautful city i have ever seen! Its in the Andes mountains and there are 14 volcanoes surrounding the city - 7 of which are active. One of the places we went to was this really old church in the middle of the city. It's really tall and they let us climb to the roof where we got the most amazing view of the entire city! the city is impossible to photograph all together because it is so huge but you can see the entire city at once because it is sprawled across the mountains. Climbing up to the top of the church was terrifying! They don't usually let people go all the way up but they let our group. There were 3 staircases and 3 ladders that we had to climb. The ladders were completely vertical, made of bamboo and wire, and not attached to anything. When i was about to climb the first one, the guy holding the ladder at the bottom looked and me and said "good luck." But the view was definitely worth it! Here are some pictures from today.

this is just a tiny part of the city. The city has almost 2 million people. 

Exploring Quito!

Hola! Today was my first of many days of exploring Quito. I had class at 9 this morning but it was cancelled for some reason. The professor gave a reason but none of us understood so my friends I began exploring the city. Our day included going to a really cool art museum, signing up for la club de andanismo (hiking club) eating lunch in the park, going to a botanical garden, a trip to mega-maxi (their form of walmart) ecuadorian ceramics class, eating schwarmas at a sketchy restaurant, and going to an ecuadorian soccer game! The game was crazy! The two teams were the Quito team and the Ecuadorian national team. I was sitting in a section of Quito fans and everyone was yelling really funny insults at the Ecuadorian team. They were wearing all white so people kept saying "you look like a glass of milk!" They sold the weirdest food at the stadium. People were walking around selling beef stew, candied lemons, popsicles, and fried pig intestines! After the game, all these fights broke out and there were police men running around with guns and huge plastic shields trying to brake up the fights. I don't have class until 4 tomorrow so my friends and I are going to do some more exploring.

It's only been 4 days and I am already starting to think in Spanish! I haven't spoken a word of english all day. It was very difficult at first but it's getting much easier. Mi mama said that in a few weeks my spanish will be perfect.  Despite me getting better at spanish, i have never felt more american in my life! I stand out so much with my pale skin and blue eyes! everyone calls me a gringo.

My favorite part of Ecuador (besides the mountains) is the fruit juice! It is everywhere and it is delicious and cheap! Mi mama makes at least 2 kinds every morning for breakfast. There is literally every type of fruit juice here, including tons of fruits I have never even heard of. All of the food here is very cheap! Today, for lunch i bought a sandwich and fresh peach juice and it cost $1!

This is a picture of one of the flowers at the garden. They were all beautiful!

This the soccer stadium! It's called estadio olympico

Quito!

Hey everyone!
I arrived in Quito 2 days ago. Its been a very busy two days. Mi mama picked me up from the airport with one of her friends (who i think is her boyfriend). They took me home to a really nice house and we drank melon juice and talked for a really long time all in spanish! She kept saying that my spanish was really good but i'm sure she is just saying that to be nice because im definitely struggling with spanish. I have my own room which is huge and my own bathroom! They house is really pretty with 4 or 5 floors. Each floor is pretty small but really nicely decorated. I also have a sister named maria elena. She is nice too. She works and takes classes all day she isn't home very much. Sunday was our first (and pretty much only) day of orientation. We went to the IES center (which is where I will take most of my classes) and met the other people in my program and listened to lectures all day about health and safety (all in spanish). There are only 10 kids in my program but they are all really nice! We are only allowed to speak spanish it's been a struggle to chat with them but we are surviving. There are 6 other kids in a different program through IES (they are directly enrolling in a university so they arent taking classes with us) but they are going to be going on trips with us. They arrive wed so hopefully they are nice! Yesterday we spent all day registering for classes. I am taking 1 class at a local university called PUCE and the rest of the IES center. PUCE is a really nice university in the center of Quito. Its about a 20 minute bus ride from my house. The public buses are a bit scary but they only cost 25 cents! I have to decide between 2 classes. I went to a really fun ecuadorian ceramics class there last night with a few people from my group and I have a society of ecuador class tomorrow morning. I will have to chose one of them because I don't have room in my schedule for both. No one has classes on Fridays which is pretty exciting because we get 3 day weekends to travel! We have classes starting today and then we continue with 2 more days of orientation on friday and saturday. I dont have class until 2 this afternoon!

I don't have very many pictures yet but here's one of a small part of the city. The city is beautiful! its in the mountains! It is really nice weather during the day everyday (in the 70's) but it gets really cold at night. My house doesnt have heat so I sleep under like 8 blankets every night.