Saturday was our trip to Otavalo. We got close to no sleep and got up at an ungodly hour to catch our bus. When we got to Quitumbe bus station, it turned out that our bus was delayed for about 2 hours...which meant lots of slap-happy Juhee-ness. We spent our time laughing and talking. This talk session also resulted in more nicknames for me, DJ Chuk and Chuk-a-licious being two of many. We waited and waited until our bus finally got to the station, and when we got into the lovely vehicle, nearly all of us fell into deep and undisturbed sleep right away. Our big group of gringos got off the bus and walked for a few blocks in order to get to the actual marketplace. Everything was so exciting. People in traditional Ecuadorian clothing and people from all different countries, meshing into one huge sensory overload. We haggled and shopped and found many treasures for ourselves and for our friends and family. At lunch, everyone was famished and gobbled down 4 large pizzas as a consolation prize for our hard work of walking and haggling in Spanish. After lunch, we went to get more things, splitting into our smaller groups as we had done before. I found a couple more things to buy, and then we lost Annie. Everyone ended up walking towards the bus stop to find her, and luckily we ran into her beautiful face there. After a hard day of shopping, almost everyone rode in sleepy silence and we got off the bus at our familiar place at Puente de Guajalo.
On Sunday, all I wanted to do was rest. Some wanted to climb the mountain Pichincha, but I was exhausted. Unfortunately for some, plans to go to Pichincha were foiled by noon, so Alexa, Conor, Alaina and I ended up going downtown. We were going to finally get our piercings that we had wanted for a while. I got my cartilege pierced in what seemed like 10 seconds, and Alaina got her nose pierced in an equally short amount of time. We both really loved our new piercings and in gratitude, the Sonia at the piercing parlor decided to give Conor a free earring. After that, we looked around the market nearby [where a random gringo said, "I think I just saw the girl I want to marry," to one of us, making us smile] and got tango McFlurries, sharing silly conversations about our lives.
Monday, everything was as usual, but after school we went to get our laundry done and went to mass. Mass was amazing, seeing as we were sitting in a beautiful gold-covered church in La Mariscal. I was a little unsure of myself, not being Catholic, but otherwise I was very glad I went. The rest of the day was a little shady... getting to our laundry place by way of an older lady who led us through a "shortcut," getting whistled at by random men, and being driven home by a taxi driver with a very long pinky nail who did not like to slow down.
Tuesday, we went to school as usual. I had a very productive day, going for a run [first one since I've been here...crazy!], picking up my laundry, and going to Mega Maxi to pick up things for our new student. The run was actually a great one, and surprisingly, I didn't pass out from the lack of air in our new high-altitude-home. Busy busy bee! After that, we had Lianna's birthday celebration, which was a lot of fun. Courtney made us cake and Caitlin made Lianna a birthday rap, which was beyond hilarious.
Today was a rough day. The kids were rowdy. They stole, hit, refused to listen, and jumped on me all day. Even so, I think I can relate to how parents feel. You have to love them, even if they are little troublemakers. After school, I went on a run, this time with a bigger group of TQP clan. I found out that after 6 years of searching for someone that runs exactly at my pace, dear Conor was here all along, running exactly at my pace. We ran together the whole time and had great conversation. When we returned to the house, we ate our delicious dinner and took showers. Three of us are sick at the moment though, so I hope that they get better and that no one else gets sick.
This week was full of bonding with the kids. I can't believe how much bonding has happened in just a week of class. I couldn't believe how lucky we got with the kids in our class, because while the other classes had trouble with getting the kids to focus, we actually got to teach them as well. The kids were all so sweet, almost immediately trusting and leaning on us like they had known us all our lives. I could just see the excitement in the kids' eyes in their preparation to learn. Although it is not fair to have favorites, there were a couple of kids who just seemed to like me and cling on to me more than others. Antony and Jairo in particular loved to always hug me and include me in their games. Jairo drew this picture of us holding hands and I just found it adorable.
On Thursday I took the day off because I didn't feel too good, and the kids wrote me a bunch of letters saying how much they missed me and wanted me to be back. It was enough to make me smile and feel just a little bit better.
Today, we had school as normal. It amazed me, once again, how much the kids wanted to learn. The kids actually started understanding the idea of reducing fractions, and Kevin was hesitant to leave the classroom because he loved school so much. I could definitely see why people find teaching so rewarding. After school, we went to see Harry Potter. Which was...oh man. No words could sum up how I felt after watching the movie. I feel like I've just ended a huge part of my life. As if my childhood is now gone. I know that that's really irrational and not true at all, but I guess I've always looked forward to the books and movies all my life, and now that I've read everything and seen every movie, it just feels like that magical world that I could escape to is now gone. I know. It's not true at all. But the movie was incredible, and although I wish I had gotten to re-read the last book before seeing the movie, I can say that it seemed they tried really hard to incorporate everything into the movie. I cried during much of the movie, and the acting was phenomenal. I can't ask for any more to end the little Harry Potter era of my life [which won't really ever come to an end because I love HP to no end].
Tomorrow I will be visiting Otavalo, which is basically a market place. I will now proceed to cover up my post-Harry Potter depression with excitement about tomorrow.
On Saturday, I got back from Tena, which was beyond incredible. The first day we had a meeting with the parents of the school to tell them a little bit about ourselves and what we would be teaching their kids during the summer. After the meeting, everyone came back to the house and started packing and getting ready for the jungle. Hannah and I needed a couple things for the 5th graders, so we went to the Mega Maxi with Conor and Keren. After that, it was jungletime! We got to the bus station and got on the bus, which would be our place of stay for the next 5 or so hours. Unknowingly, we had signed up for lots of baby chicken holding, babies peeing in a bag, death race 2 [with horrendous scenes of violence, action, and sex], and motion sickness. The motion sickness mainly only affected me, but as soon as I got off the bus, I felt a lot better.When we got to Tena, I was overwhelmed by the lack of car exhaust in the air and exotic leaves everywhere I turned. We started walking to try and find a hostel, and found we could do no better than a $10/night hotel. Although quite pricey, the rooms had air conditioning and a nice view, along with a dance floor that we had all to ourselves. After dinner at the Cositas Ricas restaurant, we went to Nice Cream, where we had delicious ice cream and a good once over by random passerbys. When we got back to the hotel, we had a bonding session, where Sam asked everyone a meaningful question. I realized once again how 3 dimensional people are. It was great.
The next morning, we got up and went to go get breakfast at a restaurant nearby, in which we were badly treated for not being native Spanish speakers. But we got the sustenance we needed and that was all that mattered. We then found our tour company and decided on the things we wanted to do in the jungle. We also met our frenchmen companion, Sakada, who turned out to be a little eclectic. We drove in a taxi and got to the jungle, where we continued by foot on a rickety looking bridge with our matching boots. Our guide, Fausto, showed us many different kinds of plants and got us to our cabanas, where we then proceeded to jump into the river [a tributary of the Amazon!], being drained of our energy by the sun. There, we met our dear friend Juan and he was just a lovely little boy who had the climbing abilities of a small monkey.
We hiked, we found out the medicinal uses of certain plants, made head accessories out of plants, and all was swell. That night, we had yummy dinner and hung out at Nixon/Monstro's sister's bar. Monstro, by the way, called me Chucky and it was awesome.
The next morning, we woke up to sounds of rain and forest. It was beautiful, but it also meant that our more intense hike had to wait until the afternoon. So in the morning, we made bracelets and necklaces out of all natural materials [like seeds from plants] and some of us got our names carved on coconut shell-type things. I truly felt the value of the old-fashioned way of the Quichoa people and felt a newfound respect for them. In supporting their way of life, I bought 2 bracelets from them and continued on with our day. After lunch and lots of games like contact, we went on our intense hike. We went against the current of the streams, and hiked in almost knee-deep mud. There were lemon-ants, plants that spiraled, puma tracks, and much more. We swam in the river, and shampooed with magic leaves that were really considered all-natural shampoo. That night, everyone had dinner excluding the 4 people that wanted to drink ayawasca during the shaman ritual. Sam and Courtney spotted a tarantula and freaked out, and some people got to touch it. It was chaos. After dinner, we had the shaman ritual, in which the four people had different reactions to the drink. There were hallucinations, nausea, storytelling, cleansing, and more. It was quite a night, especially for those that took the drink. The next morning came rafting. I was a bit sad to say goodbye to little Juan, who had grown to everyone's liking by the last day. It was another rainy cold day, but I was super excited to experience rafting. And it didn't disappoint. Everytime we went over a big wave, my stomach dropped, turning me into a fit of giggles. The man that was leading our boat was the more ridiculous one, meaning we were dropped out of the raft 3 or 4 times. The first time was an awesome experience, but after a while, I was just very cold and tired. We got to our destination, where we had tea and coffee, and where I fell down a ridiculously caved in staircase and got a gross looking bruise. Nixon told us he would visit Quito, with war paint on his face, no shoes, and just leaves around his waist. All was grand. We got back to the tour company and thanked everyone. Lisa, the delightful Irish woman with an interesting history, led us to a restaurant and helped us get bus tickets. After eating a whole lot of food, we got on the bus to Quito. I talked to Bri for a good two hours but started feeling motion sick again, which meant I tried to sleep for the rest of the ride.
Still in a daze from the incredible views of the jungle, we rested the next day and got our lessons put together for the first day of teaching.
Today was the first day of teaching, and it was plain amazing. I loved everyone in the class, and found that a lot of kids liked to follow and hug me. I was a bit worried that we had more boys in the class than girls, but all of them followed the tutors well, and I got to know a lot of kids from the other classes too. I'm just so excited for the thought of spending a whole month with them...laughing and playing and giving them what they need-- not only education, but love and friendship. That was corny, but kids are adorable.
Today was just the amount of relaxation I needed. We chilled in the house, then went to the store to shop for supplies for the kids. Me, Hannah, Alex, and Alexa were put in a group to teach 5th graders and we got really excited thinking of ideas for fun and colorful things to do with the kids. It was pretty difficult trying to stay within the $25 budget guideline, but we did alright in the end. The rest of the day was pure relaxation. We figured out information about the tour we are taking to Tena tomorrow [so excited!!], but other than that, I napped and ate dinner and made some posters for our classroom. So no picture today, but I will be back on Saturday with a ton of them to share!
Yesterday was a day of extreme irony. Here are just some of the things I said yesterday morning:
"I'm so glad I've adjusted so well to Ecuador, I haven't really been sick or anything!"
"I'm starting to feel a lot better after drinking lots of water"
"I feel SO AWAKE!!!"
Even a book couldn't have exaggerated the irony in these statements as was blatantly obvious in reality yesterday. Yes, you've guessed it. I was very sick yesterday, feeling nauseous for most of day, and forcing my body to take on the challenge of a 3 hour bus ride to Plaza Grande and an hour and a half there. The scenery was great. And I, more than anyone love a good view. But yesterday was just horrendous. After taking some pictures at the presidential palace and looking around the Iglesias de la compania de Jesus [which were both very cool], I had my shoe stuck in the door of the trolley and took a bus ride on the steps of the bus on the way back. Needless to say, that didn't do good things for my nausea. When I got back, I listened to the sounds of people laughing and Mariachi band jamming as I lay in bed, unable to sleep or enjoy the fiesta of 4th of July downstairs. Bri, being the genius that she is, made me eat a few goldfish, which pretty much saved my life yesterday.
After finally getting out of bed, I ate some more crackers and joined the party as people danced and sang with the Mariachi band. All the tutors then went up on the roof and enjoyed the good view as we played ten fingers...again. Nonetheless, I was glad to join the rest of the party and enjoy the day with my lovelys.
Today was a day of transportation. I woke up to a morning of realization that I hadn't let my bank know about traveling so I had to skype and deal with that before walking over to an atm, only to find out they were out of service. Word of advice for traveling to Ecuador? Checking in with your bank and bringing lots of small bills. But after that whole fiasco, we started walking to get on the bus for Mitad del Mundo. What we thought would be an hour of traveling ended up becoming two hours, and most of the duration of the ride was spent being zombie-like forms standing wordlessly on the bus from complete exhaustion. When we finally arrived, we saw a menu to a restaurant that had a $2 meal of hamburger, fries, and coke, and to the starving souls that we were, it was sold! We then proceeded to look around at the shops, enjoy the view, stare forever at llamas, and stand with one leg in each hemisphere [but not really since the Mitad del Mundo is not the actual equator]. Even so, the idea that we were so close to the equator was enough to bring smiles to our faces and cause us to take some crazy pictures. Most of the bus ride back was spent on discussing our nicknames for the TQP jerseys we would soon be getting. And in this discussion, we became a crowd of slap-happy giggles in the exhaustion and lack of activities to keep us occupied. On the way back we stopped at El Recreo, finally giving me a chance to stop at an atm. Everything got crazy there because no one knew where anyone was and everyone was on edge. My suggestion to say something nice about everyone else was laughed off and in a blur of sleep-deprivation, we got back to our lovely home. Tomorrow should be an exciting celebration of 4th of July in Ecuador. Looking forward to it!
So I realize I've skipped four days on blogging my adventures in Ecuador. I've been in Banos without my laptop for the last four days. Although it's a bit much to be blogging on four days worth of adventures in one post, I can say it's definitely been worth the procrastination.
The first day in Banos was a great long trip from Quito. Four hours of traveling via bus to be exact. It was pretty uneventful besides conversation...oh and Annie almost getting her camera stolen by two vendors who were sitting in front of us and were clearly looking at us through the corners of their eyes for a very long time. And...the craze did not end there. When we finally got to Banos, we had trouble deciding on a hostal to stay at, and ended up staying at this hostal, whose owners did not look very friendly or trustworthy. Sure enough, it turned out that they had lied about giving us a $5 deal on both staying the night and food. FOOD WAS NOT INCLUDED. Which of course was not mentioned, which then led to pissing Alexa off to no end and all of us getting wrapped up in the drama. It was a crazy time. After settling in for a bit, we went out to bars and it was a jolly good time. I believe this was the night that we met our dear friend Javier who I can only describe as a hilarious dancer with hips like Shakira. Oh and I met this kid who we ended up running into THREE times in the next four days resulting in people having to rescue me many a times from him [he just really wanted to dance!]. When we got back to the room, a couple of us gathered in our room and ended up playing 10 fingers, in which many inappropriate topics were brought up, including the comparison of the harriness of Henry and Sam's legs.
The next day we went on a tour to the waterfalls which was so much fun. Again, it was one of those moments where I couldn't decipher reality from fantasy. Some people went bungee jumping which got my blood rushing just watching them do it. At the last waterfall that we visited, we went down this beautiful path through what seemed to be a rain forest and we got to swim under a waterfall. I still can't believe it. It felt so much like I was so immersed in nature. It was pretty great. After that, I'm thinking we took a nap, and then went to go eat. Which really meant walking around for a bit trying to figure out where to eat. Until I spotted "Cafe Hood" [where the food is good]. The food was absolutely delicious and we all had a grand old time there. Then we went out again, and everyone was so silly that night, all together and dance-y and such. I ran into my creeper again and people had to save me but other than that, great times.
The next day was when all of us were supposed to go back, but we got news that we don't start tutoring til next Monday so 5 of us [Bri, Sam, Henry, Alaina and I] ended up staying an extra day in Banos. All of us went to the hot springs in the morning [where many people either pointed or called me Chinita and took a picture of us]. The rest of our group left after this at their scheduled time and all of us gringos made a scene in the bus terminal where we made a big deal in hugging each other and say our goodbyes. After that, the 5 of us decided that we didn't like our hostal [or really the people that own it] so we went to look for a new hostal to stay at. We found a good one with a nice owner and decided to spend an extra $1 to stay there for the last night. After that we ate at Cafe Ali Cumba where a cheerful Danish woman served us delicious sandwiches that we devoured in less than ten minutes. We then went horseback riding, where all of our horses had ridiculous personalities. Mine was an alpha male horse who was a little wild and of course named Jackie Chan. Jackie hated Mariachi, which was Bri's horse that I was guessing was Jackie's rival. Sam's horse Luchito was always in the back of the pack...and was facing the wall away from the other horses when we got there. Henry's horse Whiskey was super calm and Alaina's horse Michael Jackson really liked being really close to other horses' butts. It was pretty funny. Except for when Jackie almost made my heart stop by speeding up close to a ledge in the mountain. But we all got beautiful views and it was pretty great. After we got back, it was shower/nappy time and I woke from my nap to sounds of kids screaming. We went to this really delicious pizza place, which employed [who else?] my creeper. He was reading but really he was watching me from the corner of his eye so we all left soon after eating. We went back to our room before going to our volcano tour, where we didn't see much but fog. It was still a fun night and we were very confused by what our tour guide, Sergio, was telling us. In fact, at one point they offered us a mysterious drink and made a joke about gringos and falling into lakes.... we didn't really get it. At that point Sam said, "What are we drinking and why are we ending up in a lake tomorrow?!" It was pretty funny. We went out that night AGAIN, which was way too much for me, but was still fun. We ran into Javier [we didn't know his name until last night] and danced with him for a while. We got pretty tired though, so we ended up leaving after a little bit. When we came back, we didn't play 10 fingers, but rather passed out in a very short amount of time.
When we got back home to Quito, most of us were too tired to do anything so we stayed in while the others went downtown. Banos trip again? Mayhaps. Banos was awesome, we had bread everyday, we met awesome people, and we want badly to go back, to the land of loud and colorful chivas.
