We've spent a good portion of the time sitting in IES headquarters being orientated. It's all in Spanish, which is fun, but exhausting. We've discussed health issues (apparently mosquitos are a vector for everything bad ever), safety issues (during which I got stabbed with a dry-erase marker several times to demonstrate what will happen if I start a fight, carry my iPod, or resist being robbed), and homestay issues (food, communication, etc).
Speaking of, my host family is awesome. Carla and Holger are incredibly nice and understanding. 
They correct me when I misspeak, suffer through my "ummmms" patiently, give me lots of advice about how to make the most of my experience, and are generally pleasant, upbeat people. However, my true host has to be Sebastian, Carla and Holger's 6 year old grandson. Whenever he comes over we play lots of games, ranging from Hallway Football to Racing Hotwheels Cars Around The Sofa to Peggle (my favorite computer game). Somehow, he always wins. He's also surprisingly understanding of my language incompetency, and is really willing to explain words I don't understand or teach me words I don't know. He lives with his parents a little ways away, but one of the really nice things about this family is how close they all are, and the whole crew (10, plus me) comes over for meals all the time.
They correct me when I misspeak, suffer through my "ummmms" patiently, give me lots of advice about how to make the most of my experience, and are generally pleasant, upbeat people. However, my true host has to be Sebastian, Carla and Holger's 6 year old grandson. Whenever he comes over we play lots of games, ranging from Hallway Football to Racing Hotwheels Cars Around The Sofa to Peggle (my favorite computer game). Somehow, he always wins. He's also surprisingly understanding of my language incompetency, and is really willing to explain words I don't understand or teach me words I don't know. He lives with his parents a little ways away, but one of the really nice things about this family is how close they all are, and the whole crew (10, plus me) comes over for meals all the time.As for other adventures in the past few days, we've done some pretty awesome sightseeing. We spend Friday afternoon seeing the highlights of downtown historic Quito, including climbing on top of some churches for awesome views of the city, and a ridiculously impressive church where almost everything inside was gold plated. 
On Saturday, we took a bus to a few cool destinations just north of the city, the best of which was the Otavalo market, run by the Quechua indigenous group. There were some pretty fantastic woven clothes of all sorts, carved tortoises and elephants and a solid array of touristy "I love the Galapagos" shirts. In addition to wandering around and some good old consumerism, I got to talk for a while with one of women selling clothes (the top picture below) about Quechua life, and how the community related to the rest of Ecuador in terms of social relations and legal issues. It was really fun, and makes me realize that I have to get in the habit of going out of my way to talk to random people here just for the fun of it.
On Saturday, we took a bus to a few cool destinations just north of the city, the best of which was the Otavalo market, run by the Quechua indigenous group. There were some pretty fantastic woven clothes of all sorts, carved tortoises and elephants and a solid array of touristy "I love the Galapagos" shirts. In addition to wandering around and some good old consumerism, I got to talk for a while with one of women selling clothes (the top picture below) about Quechua life, and how the community related to the rest of Ecuador in terms of social relations and legal issues. It was really fun, and makes me realize that I have to get in the habit of going out of my way to talk to random people here just for the fun of it.
Next week, when I start classes, I should settle into a regular routine, but for now, I'm really enjoying the newness of it all, and can't wait to explore more!
Next time, warn your mother and me not to look at a picture of you at the top of a sloping church roof! :-) Love, Dad
ReplyDeleteGABE! just wanted to let you know I read your entry...THE WHOLE THING! proud of me? because I'm proud of you. Glad you're having fun with your host fam (I laughed when you said you were playing peggle). I'll be retreating back to alfred tomorrow...not so adventurous but will be making pots up the butt!
ReplyDeletemiss you lots.
~Urs