The First Week!

Hi again!

This week in a nutshell: we had intensive Spanish review all week at our school in the mornings, and then the afternoons we had pretty much to ourselves to explore.

I haven’t talked about Ecuadorian food yet! The food is amazing. Every meal except breakfast starts off with a soup, mostly with potatoes and vegetables, but I also had a soup that oddly resembled Ramon noodles floating in water, and I ate bread soup the other day (picture bread pudding but with chicken broth). Both were delicious. Then, there’s always rice and some meat, usually chicken. My dinners finish with cooked banana and, for some reason, Jello. I haven’t really figured out why yet. I think my madre thinks Jello is an American comfort food.

The best way to describe our school is that it looks like an upscale resort with classrooms. Palm trees, a lake in the middle, beautiful architecture, and mountains in the distance. Granted, it’s the best in Ecuador, but it’s literally like walking into an expensive hotel everyday. Even the cafeteria has waiters.

The school is in Cumbaya which is about a ½ hour away from Quito, so the biggest success of this week was mastering the public transportation system! We ride buses everywhere. Every bus ride costs 25 cents. The buses are loco. We look real dorky wearing our backpacks in the front because the buses are so packed that we’re afraid we won’t realize if someone is robbing us from behind.

I’m teaching the kids how to play frisbee. They’ve never seen a frisbee before; they think it’s a large upside-down plate (In Spanish: “Where is your plate?” “I want to play with your plate!”). We play lots of volleyball and frisbee and soccer of course. They want to know what everything is in English; I think they like hearing me talk a different language.

My Spanish has evolved into what I call the “No sé la palabra” phase. I can communicate sufficiently but get hung up when I don’t know the vocabulary for something. For instance, I was trying to explain how I broke my leg to the kids, but I didn’t know the word for twist or cast or x-ray or crutches which made the story a bit more interesting (and resulted in a dramatic reenactment of said event).

Mi madre and I have taken to chatting over oregano tea every night, about the history of Ecuador, the new constitution, books, the Catholic church, the elections in the U.S., everything. Today I explained to her how McCain admitted in an interview that he didn’t know how many houses he owned. She thought that was crazy (“Que ridiculo! Dios mios! El no puede ser presidente!”).

I figured out the hot water in the shower! I took my first cab yesterday! We’ve been going to all the different markets and malls and parks, we tried Ecuadorian fast food yesterday, and I think we’re going to go up the Volcán Pinchincha on Sunday.

More later!

Lisa