Mi primera semana en la univerisdad



On Monday, I went to my university (Universidad San Francisco de Quito) down here for my orientation. The campus is very beautiful and sits to the north of Quito down in a valley -- the buildings remind me of ones from a small village in the SW US. It has beautiful gardens, fountains, a pond with a Japanese type building next to it, tiled open areas outside in the center of campus, and places to play basketball, soccer, and Ecuavolle (Ecuador's version of volleyball). The campus is entirely surrounded by walls (again kinda just like an old desert town in the SW). On a side note, it seems almost every place has fencing and 24 hour security in Quito. From housing complexes to mall shops to small stores on the street, there are security guards patrolling. Really, though, only in the bus stations have I seen security with guns -- shot-guns to be specific.

And on another note before I begin my weekly summary, I am really lucky and happy to say that I will be living with Ruby's family, the Pozos, now for the entire summer. After being there for the previous week and enjoying it so much, the Pozos asked me if I wanted to live with them. I was easily able to work everything out the change with the university.

I will have classes from Monday til Thursday each week. For the first time in my college career, I will have a day off with 3-day weekends. My classes are Espanol Intermedio, Espanol Conversacion, and an art (drawing) class.

My day begins pretty early since my classes start at 8:30. I wake up at about 6:10 so that I can eat my hearty breakfast of breads, meats, cheese, chocolate milk, and fresh juice (I am definitely going to miss all the fresh fruits and their juices when I return). Marifer and I leave by 7:15 so to walk to the Trolle bus where we get dropped off and the Trolle station to transfer to a regular bus which takes us to another bus station. From this station we walk next door to yet another station to go to the university in Cumbaya (these have the buses that are basically just worn out coach buses). If all goes well, we get to the campus at about 8:15. My first day, I had to laugh on the bus because the whole time on the way to the university they were playing rock and roll songs.

My classes are 1 hour and 30 minutes -- with a 1 hour and 30 minute break, I get done at 2:30 and go home to eat lunch and do homework. Don’t worry though, I eat some lunch at the university. Dinner, like lunch is pretty late -- it can vary from 7:00 to 9:00 depending on what we need to do.

So I guess that is the boring version of what my typical day is. I just wish I could take some pictures of the university and the bus ride ... both are sights to see.

Over the holiday weekend (we too had a holiday here -- On May 24 was the Battle of Pichincha in which a decisive battle in Quito won the independence of Ecuador from Spain. It is easy remember any of the dates of holidays here because they are all major street names.) I visited Vane's family, went to a friend's birthday party, saw my first movie in Spanish (the majority of movies in the theaters are English with Spanish subtitles.), visited Rosita's family (the sister of Ruby) so to thank her for all here help in driving me around, went to Cotopaxi with Rosita's family (Rosita and Fernando with kids Fernando and Anthony) and Marifer and David. Cotopaxi is an active stratovolcano with a summit elevation of 19388 feet. I was a little worried on our drive there because for the first time in all my days in Ecuador, it was raining during the day. Even as we entered the Parque National de Cotapaxi we could not see the gigantic mountain, but as we made our way to the North face via car, the skies opened up. Two mentionable things happened while we were driving in the park that I don’t want to forget to say. One is that I had to pay 5 times more for to get into the park simply because I looked like a foreigner. The other is that on the way there on the dirt road, we actually had to drive through a big creek... the funny part was that a Ecuadorian truck was pulled over to the side and let us pass him. When the truck saw that we crossed successfully, he went ahead and crosses -- smart guy.

At the Northern Face, we drove a ways up dirt road surrounded by the land littered with big chunks of volcanic rock and parked the car.... our goal was to get to the shelter at 4800 meters (about 15748 feet). It really was not that far, but we were walking up loose dirt and going against a very strong wind at times probably gusting over 40 mph which carried ice pellets and snow from clouds that passed by. I would say it was in the 30's on the mountain and at the lake at the base of the mountain it was probably in the 60's with sunshine. And of course, the altitude did not make anything easier. Below are some pictures of our Sunday trip.

On our way to Cotopaxi, we stoped for breakfast (we left really early). It was a restaurant with lots of food fromt their farm. You can see all our juices in the background which is extremely common and you can see my fresh from the cow milk.
About halfway up to the shelter, which is in the background (Marifer, Fernadito, and I)
A view of the valley below
We came across a wolf at the shelter.
Finally at the top... I was pretty tired but all the chocolate I had helped a lot with the altitude. I was really surprised that the Fernadito made not only because of his age, but because he is really sensitive to the cold.
At the shelter, we enjoyed some hot tea and soup.

A view of shelter on the way down when some clouds we over the mountain

We stopped for a picture on our way out and the whole mountain cleared up. Our shelter was about 30 min from the snow line. After Cotopaxi, we drove to a very old hotel --- La Hosteleria Ciencias --- made by the French I think in the 1700's to study Cotopaxi.



A picture with everyone... Anthony, Rosita, Fernado, Fernadito, Marifer, and David.

A picture in the courtyard of the hosteleria. It was very beautiful.

Not only did the hosteleria have a restaurant which we ate at, but a Church.

On our way back, I was trying to take some pictures of the city... here is one
Another picture of the South side of the Quito which has more poverty than the north... As I was taking the picture, I happened to capture the police car in the background.

Mis dias de vacaccion antes de escuela, mas



Saturday and Sunday before my first day of school I spent relaxing with Ruby's family. We went to the mall for a bite to eat, visited some street shops, and stayed at home for most of the day. The exception was when we walked to church (I think it is called La Mujer de Dolerosa) where I am surprised to say there are a few minor differences in the mass. One is that everyone left once the closing hymn began and another is that there was little union in when people knelt --- some stood, some sat, some knelt.

After mass we went to a seafood restaurant where I tried Cerviches --- a cold soup (mine had shrimp, a major export of Ecuador). Below is my reaction to the soup (well, not really) because not only did it have shrimp, but it was loaded with tons of cold purple onions -- the worst kind. It was not too bad, but I could not get over the onion taste.



Some of Ruby's family is below.



David and Marifer, brother and sister, in their living room with dining table in the background -- Mercedes, the grandmother in the background, got that sofa that is in the picture for me since I was so tall

Mercedes and Rosita, sister of Ruby (I am pretty sure)

Finally, I think if time permits, I will start giving lessons on living in Quito.

Lesson 1 -- How to hail a cab or bus

I cannot imagine driving in Quito. People often disobey the traffic laws -- for instance, I have seen a few times cars that just go right through red lights and often have I seen cars go through stop signs. And I am not sure why there are speed limit signs. Furthermore, lots of streets are not by any means in a nice patchwork pattern and many streets seem to be lacking any sort of mark to signify their name. Thus, public transportation is a really good option. To get a bus or cab, you need to go to a main street, wait, and when you see one starting to come near you, you stick your hand out like you want to grab something and then you wiggle your fingers. If all goes well, the bus will at least come to a slow speed or sometimes stop to let you on and of course the taxi will stop all the way if it has no passengers. Or to get a bus, you can always go to the designated main bus lines to the bus stop.
Cost for a bus ride -- 25 centavos
Cost for a taxi -- about 90 centavos, but probably less.
What you saved -- your sanity

One warning though, the buses in the city are almost always jam-packed, quite literally. You definitely have to lose all your personal space when you ride. The bus that goes outside of Quito to Cumbaya where my university is, though, is more like a coach bus and has a lot less people ( and it still costs only 25 centavos).

Mis dias de vacacion antes de escuela



As I wrote before, I luckily got to stay with Ruby Garces's family while my host family was at the coast until Sunday. At their house was Ruby's mom and dad, her niece and nephew and their dad. Marifer, the niece, with her friends was my tour guide for Quito taking me to some of the tourist places. She was able to do this because she was on summer break. David, the nephew, could not show me around too much since his leg was healing from a break; however, he and Marifer helped me so much with so many things from food to the billion questions I had, especially from not understanding since my listening of Spanish is weak.

On Thursday, Marifer, David, and his friend took me a market downtown. I dont have any pictures because it really was not safe to have anything like that there. The market was pretty much all clothes, pieces of art, and other hand-crafted items. That evening, all the family sat down for a nice lasagna meal with the wine I brought. Every evening we ate together and it was good, but this night was just extra nice. That night, I went out to the movies; the movie was all in English with Spanish subtitles.

Friday, I went with Marifer and her friends up a mountain surrounding Quito. The view was beautiful. That night, I went out for a family birthday party of Vane's cousin at a very small bar with dancing. Luckily I had some salsa lessons though I still think I spent much of the time trying to dance. It was pretty strange to be at the bar since I was clearly the only American out of the 30 people there, was so tired I could barely understand anything spoken to me, and did not know any of the songs that they were playing. Also there I had my first Ecuadorian beer, Pilsener.





Above is one of the active volcanoes near the city. The actual city itself is not in danger of lava flows like those living around it because of the terrain, but the city could receive a lot of ash if the mountain erupted. We could have rode the horses even higher, but someone got to them before us.



A little restaurant on top of the mountain.





Above is a close up of where I will be living with my host family. To find approximantly where I will be living, find the triangle-shaped mall on the left. Above it is El Parque de Carolina. Above that is a brighter orange building which is really close to where I will be.


El Virgen de Quito


Here you can see how on the other side of the mountain, the clouds are rising almost all the way to the top of the ridge and then dissipating. In the background is the bigger but dormant volcano next to the active volcano

Bienvenidos





I got to Quito Tuesday night. My family went to the coast without me, however, I was really happy to stay because I got to stay in Quito with Ruby Garces's family. They showed me much generosity and are letting me stay here until the Coba family gets here Sunday. I will probably get some photos of the family soon. Yesterday, Wednesday, Marifer, cousin of Ruby's family, Vane, her friend, and I visited La Mitad del Mundo (a monument at the equator where an explorer was able to correctly calculate the equator and then from those calculations, determine that the earth bulged at the equator). At the monument, we were the only ones there except the guards because the place had actually closed. Luckily the guard at the gate let us in after some pleading. After taking some pictures we ate at a restuarant there to try some empandas of cheese and green bananas and of beef. Here are some photos.


This is on the roof of Ruby's family's house with Quito in the background.


Below are some views of Quito my first morning there (first 2) and then some of La Mitad del Mundo.

This website

This website is for those family and friends who want to see what I have been doing while down in Ecuador this summer.