A lil bit of my world

Well I think the best description for my Cotopaxi trip was that it was a very beautiful semi-failure. Ben and I didn't end up meeting up in time due to a problem with the public transportation system, so I was there when we were supposed to leave but he wasn't. Since it was my last chance to go, I just went by myself. I sat by a group of friendly orthodontists on the train, so I just attached myself to their group. The two hour train ride, on top of the train, was absolutely gorgeous. I had no idea that so near to Quito it was so rural. All the sudden there were chickens, horses, hogs, lambs, fields and waving farmers everywhere. I felt like it was a great way for me to say goodbye to Ecuador's landscapes.

Upon arriving at the national park, you're supposed to get a group together and split the cost for a $35 truck ride up to where the hike begins. You have unitl 2pm to get back to the train from the first hiker's refuge, or you can spend the night and start the hike to the top at about 1am when the ice is hard. The friendly orthodontists, however, weren't sure if they wanted to go up the mountain or just stay and hike the green sunny mini-trails inside the park. They'd been really nice to me the whole trip so I felt like I should wait for them, but when they finally decided that they did not want to go up the mountain, all the other ambitious hikers had already left. So...we just ended up taking like a 10min hike through some foilage and then chillin on the grass after we ate lunch. It was pretty and relaxing, but disappointing that I didn't get to go up and see the "lunar landscape." The train ride back was equally impressive, and we got to see Cotopaxi from afar, but I'll have to live vicariously through Kathleen's pictures as far as the actual up-close-and-personal view of the mountainside goes.
I did get back around 5pm, in time to say goodbye to Antonio and Maria Julia.

View of Cotopaxi on my way to USFQ

20 mins outside Quito and suddenly you're in farm country

First view of Cotopaxi from the train

Train ride

Arrival at the national park-- Me doing an Amanda-esque headcock;)

Hiking with the orthodontists

Llamas in the park

What I should have seen/ Kathleen's pictures from actually hiking up Cotopaxi



Kathleen on the trail

Kathleen and friend Javier near the refuge

The snowy peak 

Pretty view from Raq's room 

 

 

Fireworks 

Las amigas: Ann Me Raq Kathleen Liz

I mentioned that all of us went out the night before my group left, so here are a few pictures from that. We went over and hung out at the guys' apartment for a little bit, but everyone was sick so we didn't really have enough energy to go dancing. We decided to just go to Sutra, a cool little bar/lounge place in the Mariscal (the club district, aka Gringolandia). Sutra is actually where Raq, Ann, and I met Liz so it was like a little homage to our beautiful friendship, so touching;). We ate lots of popcorn (it's free at Sutra), joked about the bad music (they played YMCA, twice, eek), and then headed home. The next morning Liz and I went to the airport to say adios, and I spent the rest of the day getting stuff done, and being locked out of my house, as I think I talked about already. The pictures above are of the fireworks that someone was setting off for I-don't-know-what-reason behind Raq's apartment building. The pics are of the view of the show from her room; I just hope they weren't celebrating the mass exodus of 28 gringos...

Ann and a lil bit of Miguel, and Pablo 

Raquel and her Chilean, Daniel 

Raquel and her host fam: Jose Alfredo, Olga, and Pepe 

Now that I'm home and have time on my hands, I thought I'd put up pictures from my last week in Ecuador. These are the ones from our last day of classes and our goodbye dinner on May 14th. We took a bus two hours north to Papallacta to have a great dinner and then go swimming in the thermal baths. Jim and Joe each performed their now-famous songs, Jim's about Galapagos and Joe's called "Jackie Chan," which I taped but do not know how/where to post for free. Anyone know? They're quite amusing.
Enjoy the pics

Last day of school, with my Creative Writing class. Ramiro, the prof, is in the middle wearing the light blue shirt

The gringo gathering place, La Casita Tomate

On the way to our goodbye dinner. Kathleen, Ann, and our BCA adoptee Abby

Scenery on the way to Papallacta

Lost in translation: Rules for the thermal baths (read the first line)

A tender goodbye, Andrea and Christine

The year-long BCArs

(almost all) the Spring 2005 BCArs

The perfect rose Pablo and Nieves gave each of us for our goodbye dinner

Program director Pablo 

--Seeing my family
--Waking up in my bed, on my awesome MemoryFoam pillow that I got for Christmas and had forgotten about
--Going to my mom's 3rd grade class and being greeted like a celebrity; who wouldn't feel good to hear an exuberant 27-voice chorus of "HILARY'S HERE!! YAAAY!!!!"?
--13 hugs from all my mom's girls
--Teaching Ecuadorianisms to the kids
--Sierra's reaction when I told her that her name means "mountain range"
--Having a squirt-gun fight with the 14 kids who met their reading goals all year and got to come to their teacher's house for a cook-out as a reward
--Taking advantage of my post-Quito lung capacity and easily running a couple miles
--Being able to safely run by myself in the evening
--Seeing 3 deer and a flock of wild turkeys
--The gorgeous wide open Kansas sky and sunsets
--Daylight that lasts until 9pm!
--The cookie dough that Mom had ready for me as soon as I came home
--Getting my Easter basket that my parents had saved for me
--Getting hired at a Mexican restaraunt where I'll probably be the only native English-speaker
--Unexpectedly bumping into a friend from high school. (That encounter was pretty amusing, cuz after we'd chatted a little and I was about to leave, I started to lean in, then realized what I was doing, and said, "Oh, I really wanted to kiss you." He and his family looked quite surprised by such bluntness, which made me laugh, until I added, "--on the cheek; we always kiss goodbye in Ecuador."
--Clean air
--Driving
--Looking for a new-used car for myself. I'm getting a Honda! (sometime)
--Country music on the radio
--Prairie dogs!

More Ecuadorianisms, before I forget them
(refer to Jan 21 post for original list)

*guambra (wahm-brah)= young person
*pelado/a (pay-lah-doh/dah)= teenage boyfriend/girlfriend (pelado also means "broke" so the allusion is to the fact that young/high school couples are penniless, haha)
*taita (tie-tah)= dad
*pite (pee-tay)= a little bit
*cacho (cah-cho)= joke (in Spain it means a little piece or a long time)
*nomas (no-moss) = just/only...used in at least every 4 phrases! i love this word!
*el/la man (el/lah mahn)= guy/chick? (what would be the female English equivalent for guy?)
*chumado/a (choo-mah-tho) = drunk
*chupar (choo-par) = to drink alchohol
*frutilla (froo-tee-yah) = strawberry (in Spain strawberry was fresa (fray-sah) )

That's all I can come up with for the moment-- Dianas, if you two have any more to add, let me know!

Well I'm back in Kansas, and it feels really weird. Travis and I had fun in Quito doing some very rapid sight-seeing, and then we headed out extra early yesterday morning. I don't feel like I was mentalized to leave yet; being in the airport was more or less depressing.

I've already noticed funny little things that have surprised me, things I wasn't really expecting. Water fountains, flushing toilet paper instead of throwing it away, being able to call phone numbers from my cell phone, using tap water without a second thought, etc... such daily things that had gone unnoticed that have caught me off guard. And of course the fact that the public language is now English-- I actually wasn't expecting much difficulty with the language transition because I've spoken a lot of English with U.S. friends the last couple months, but it was still weird in the airport. Now it's the majority that I'm supposed to speak English with, instead of the minority, and I kept forgetting. The quantity of white adults was weird for me as well, plus as soon as you hit U.S. soil the people get bigger. I noticed the same thing when I came back from Spain, just kinda funny. Maybe one of the strangest things is something Ann mentioned once that I hadn't really thought about. She said she thought it would be strange to go back to the States where we have to worry about social norms b/c she hadn't had to at all in Ecuador. I wasn't quite sure what she meant, but I realized it was true yesterday. At USFQ, the students are mostly very wealthy with all their designer clothes and such, but they're used to the U.S. students, who are in general much less fashion conscious. Plus we all only brought a certain amount of clothing and don't have an income to go shopping much, so there was just no expectation that we were going to conform to the univerisity's appearance standards. Plus none of the kids in my group were of Latin descent, so we're not going to look like them anyway.

As far a social norms, we weren't from there, so people expected us to act somewhat differently, and among the girls I was friends with, U.S. social norms were not really important either:). Quite a liberating experience... something I realized most when I hit the Chicago airport, surrounded by Americans again, and could almost feel my perceptions of myself changing, as if suddenly I really pertained to my environment again and had to worry about what that implies. At the same time, I didn't really feel like I belonged grouped together with everyone else, a classic reverse culture shock "fish out of water" or "between two worlds" sensation. I was very grateful for the couple I sat next to on my Miami-Chicago flight, a very typical looking American pair, who once I started talking to I realized had a lot in common with me. They're from Michigan so actually knew what Goshen College was, and the man is a pediatrician who has done multiple medical missions in the Dominican Republic (where he often crosses paths with Goshen's SST groups), Africa, and Romania. He has colleagues that work in Ecuador, as well as knowledge about and interest in South America. I guess it made me feel a little better to know that there are people in this environment that will be able to relate to my experiences. I already feel like my potential for reverse culture shock is higher this time than when I came back from Spain, which I find odd since my Spanish experience was more immersive, much longer, and more different because it was my first time away from home. Maybe it's because I don't have a job yet so I have nothing concrete to look forward to that will keep me busy, and the idea of long unoccupied hours in Hutch is not too appealing.

I have plenty to do the next couple days, and then it's off to Texas to see friends (it'll be great to see Abby and re-connect with a friend from Ecuador so soon already), and I'm going to go right now and apply for some jobs-- which means driving!! That's definitely something I've looked forward to. Hope everyone's having a great start to her/his summer **

A photo shoot with my ecua-niece and nephew...I'm going to miss them! Here, Antonio wants a shot from above

So did Julia of course, in her "fashion jacket"

Brotherly love

Mi Julita

Lost a tooth, and likes to growl. Beware!

Mi Anto, the little man with snowboots 

Well I only have 3 days left in Ecuador!
Thursday I spent being unproductive and a little mopey. I ran a few errands, then forgot my keys when I went to USFQ to drop off books I didn't want to keep, so I was locked out of my house from about 5-9:30pm. My consolation was that the sky was so clear in the morning that I could see all three of the closest snow-capped mountains on my way to the university! Usually you're lucky if you can just see Cotopaxi, so it was like a present to get to see all of them. I never had before actually. Anyway, I had left my backpack at Raq's host family's house, so I went over there to get it and ended up staying for 4 hours while I waited for someone to get home at my house. And they thought they'd gotten rid of their BCArs for a little while! At least I got a little work done while I chilled in Raq's vacated room.

Friday I met up with Liz and her friend Brigid who's going to travel South America with her this summer. My mom sent Brig my new laptop cord so I got that from her (woohoo!) and hung out with them in their hostal for a bit. I then spent the afternoon listening to my music:D, tranferring pictures and other files from my host parent's PC to my laptop, as well editing the short stories I have to turn in still for my creative writing class. Did I already mention that my prof wants to publish a book of his classes' stories? So I might get published in Ecuador. Ok, I really didn't do that much real work, but I did get most of my clothes packed, which is an accomplishment. In the evening, Liz, Brig, Ben, his friend César, and I all went to Café Libro to see a salsa concert. It was great! Our salsa prof that we love played the hand-drums and we got to dance a little too.

Today I have just been trying to finish papers that I still have to turn in, though I haven't been entirely successful... I still have four hours to work!

Tomorrow Ben and I are going to Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in the world. Raq and I were going to go a couple weeks ago, some of you might remember, but we were both sick. All 4 of us girls got colds at the same time actually, fun fun. So as long as it doesn't rain, we'll be getting up around 6am tomorrow to take a train ride (on top of the train, not in it!) up to the national park. You can't actually climb to the top unless you stay the nite, cuz you have to start the hike at around 1am when the ice is solid enough. There's a little blurb about the park here http://www.andesecuador.com/parks.htm and here http://www.ecuador-travel.net/information.volcano.cotopaxi.htm
From the pictures I've seen, it looks like the moon! I'm excited. Then Monday night Travis will be here, and Wednesday it's back to the States. So so weird to imagine that...

Last night we all went out to Sutra for cocktails and to hang out on our last night all together in Ecuador.

At 8:30 this morning I said goodbye to everyone except Liz and Ben, who are staying the summer.

*sniff
Despedidas suck

A collection of some of my the most colorful/interesting cat-calls and grafiti that my friends and I have heard/seen...

Top Ten Cat-Calls
10. (Sung out a car window) "Hel-lo, ba-by!"
9. "Estás quemada" = You're burnin up
8. Wahsup baby? (from a school bus)
7. "(español, español..yadayada)-Wanna fuck?" (probably one of the few English phrases he knew. Cross-lingual vulgarity can be funny)
6. You got that fire!
5. (exchange in the airport, on Jami's way home to the States):
"¡Cásate conmigo!" =Marry me! (a common one)

S: "Hooola reina"
F:"Eh, muñequita linda" (nudge nudge)
S: "¡Muñequita linda!"
1. RESCUE!! (from a firetruck)

Some interesting grafiti:
¡Acabó la vanidad! Todos bien, todos feos, todos sin espejos
= Vanity is over! Everyone's fine, everyone's ugly, everyone's without a mirror
La sociedad perdona al criminal, nunca al soñador
= Society forgives the criminal, never the dreamer
Voy a ser realista. Voy a luchar por lo imposible
= I'm going to be realistic. I'm going to fight for the impossible. (Che Guevara quote, I believe)
Son la una de la mañana y no sé qué escribir
= Are 1 o'clock in the morning and I don't know what to write
Perdóname Mami por ser tan hijo de puta
=Forgiveme Mom, for being such a son of a bitch
Nintendo Pony Punx!

You Have Always Been Where I Return
--Nicholas Gordon

You have always been where I return,
The home that is my harbor from the sea,
The place where what I am can easy be,
Where nothing need be altered or unlearned.
That you would give has always been a given.
Your love for me is something simply there,
As plain and necessary as the air,
And just as unpretentious and unbidden.
And though I cannot give you now your due,
Which is beyond what these poor words can say,
I give you all I can this special day,
Which is the treasure of my love for you.

Happy Mother's Day Means More
--- Nicholas Gordon
"Happy Mother's Day" means more
Than have a happy day.
Within those words lie lots of things
We never get to say.
It means I love you first of all,
Then thanks for all you do.
It means you mean a lot to me,
And that I honor you.
But most of all, I guess it means
That I am thinking of
Your happiness on this, your day,
With pleasure and with love.

A hug for you

Virtual maple candies;)