Jan 2008

Last night I arrived into Cuenca where I will be stationed for three months for school. I say last night because AeroGal, my airlines decided that a three and a half hour delay was acceptable when confronted with moderate rain. I spent most of my time in the airport getting my fill of cribbage and gin. I have to admit I felt I had amnesia because I could not remember for the life of me how to play cribbage until it was far too late. The flight to Cuenca, when it finally did leave, was no longer than my flight from San Antonio to Houston, a light thirty five minute flight over the Andean highlands. I had this misconception that fertile valleys stretch across the entirety between the two parallel mountain ranges, but there is far more geologic formations than that. I overheard while eavesdropping, which I am getting quite good at, that a drive from Quito to Cuenca is more like a twelve hour odessy. So scratch that out as an idea in the future. But from the sky, it was a little more smooth, even though the turbulance was horrendous. From my side of the plane I was able to see the perfect conical shape of Cotopaxi, one of two volcanoes in the world with such perfect shape, the other being Fuji. Supposedly I would be living in the booneys farthest from the school, so there were plenty of jokes pertaining to the distance of my walk that lies ahead of me five days a week. We landed at el aeropuerto de Cuenca, if you can even call it an airport. I think I was expecting more out of the third most important city in Ecuador. I had a lot of misperceptions about this trip. The plane stopped alongside the side of the airport next to the baggage claim. A terminal did not exist. The baggage claim was equally pequeño. As there was only one plane on the ground within hundreds of miles, there was just one baggage claim track that seemed absolutely absurd. Moving along, I met my host family in mi escuela which is a villa in the heart of "downtown" Cuenca. I met my host family in spurts, actually to be more accurate, I met them basically one at a time on their own. Leslie, who is the daughter of Eulalia, my host mother, is a calm genuine Cuencan who I have not figured out precisely her occupation. Her husband, Wellington, has been the most readily accessible family member to talk with because he is learning English in order to become a teacher. He however, has been laid up since he left last night with a hernia in his stomach, but is supposively in better health. My host mother I met late a night when she arrived back home at around nine. She is a teacher of math at a local high school. Today we had our Spanish placement test which I can't place whether it went over well or not, but I am not too worried. I have no vocabulary for verbs I have become quite well aware of. Tonight, because we only have a tour tomorrow and it is the weekend, I am having a night on the town, well sort of. I plan to go and see a movie and perhaps go to a local bar one of the host families recommended. I feel quite at home here. A huge sigh of relief.

So far this trip has managed to satisfy my hunger of bland and general tourism. That is about as far as it goes. Housed in the "Gringoland" district of Quito, there is nothing much to see by foot but a couple of sour faces from taxi drivers and occationally the large group of tourists exhibiting the meager Spanish they know, something I can truly relate to. But this is not really any test of Spanish for every sign, menu and service provider displays its grammatically incorrect English, just enough to get me food from the ethnic resturants I've been endulging upon. It doesn't seem fair at this moment of my life to pocket enough money to give me three meals and be able to last in the "richest" areas of Ecuador. To give you some idea, it cost eight soiled dollar bills for a three person meal in the heart of the tourist mecca.

At any rate, we have been customary tourists upto this point. Nothing but sightseeing and travelling in the littered streets of Quito in our rented bus. The streets can only be characterized as Russian Roulette. Honking is pushed as much as the gas pedal, and that usually gives the right for drivers here the right away to speed through pedestrian crosswalks. Yesterday was highlighted with a travel across the north valley of Quito and back over the equator. What I recall seeing as located in the heart of urbanization was similar to your Walmart, clearcut and built next to Boring, Oregon. I can't really put into words the fallacy of the monumental construction to mark the "precise" location of the equator. Afterwards, we travelled back across town to the central hill that divides the upper, old Quito, from the new and much more delapadated side of town. I was unable to capture the true grandeur of the view from atop the hill. Housing and construction crept up the steep slopes of the towering mountains surrounding the city and the pollution shielded the view of the three gigantic volcanic peaks neighboring the city of Quito. At the crest of the hill stands the third largest statue in the world, following the Statue of Liberty and the mammoth of a statue overlooking Rio in Brazil. The statue is the Virgin of Quito, or Virgin Guadalupe. The would have been the highlight of my exhausting day but I happened to see what is heralded as the greatest church in the Americas called the La Compania. The interior was blanketed in gold leaf, making the experience like finding the golden city. Yesterday was capped off with a little rain and some passing philosophy about life on the patio atop our hostel.

Today was an investigation of the most famous artist of Ecuador, Oswaldo Guayasamin. We chugged along the steep hills to reach his museum. This box like ediface was fabulously decorated in his artwork. I failed to purchase anything from the gift shop but I hope to return on this trip. We returned from the trip with much more energy, only to have it sucked out in a stuffy meeting room to discuss the history of Ecuador's politics. I did give me a fantastic lead on my hopeful senior thesis however. The lecturer, Yuri Guerra, who works with an ecological foundation located here in Quito. I am excited about this lead in order to learn more about the ITT proposal. The proposal seeks to earn money from the international community for the protection and restraint from continued oil exploration in Yasuni National Park.

I have a bit of an upset stomach about tomorrow, or perhaps the strong curry from my Indian food tonight. Tomorrow I meet my host family whom I will be staying with for the next three months. I am all but ready.

Enter language immersion.

Just letting everyone know that I arrived safely in Quito last night, but I am still a little tipsy from exhaustion and the altitude. Upon arriving in the Quito airport, we met with Narcisa who is our coordinator, after a good hour and a half of waiting in the customs lines. Narcisa is a wonderful person who will be fantastic for moral support. I am looking forward to the stay in Cuenca, and there is lots of enthusiasm about the host families and staying in Cuenca. Exploration of the blocks around our hotel is on top of my list. I've been staying with the guys of our trip in a single room of four beds, so I am getting to know them better. My host family is actually the furthest from the classes in the heart of Cuenca, about a thirty minute walk according to Narcisa. The Cordovas, my host family, have adopted a child which was the missing link that I could not understand in their letter. I am very interested in getting to meet and know them more. I will be on my way to Cuenca on Thursday and classes begin the following Monday. Things will start getting much more rapid from here on out. But until then, I think I will embrace the comfort of long sleeps and the company of fellow students. All the best to everyone who continue to enjoy their breaks before the wave of work before them.

I don't think I saw the time in front of me ticking away. It's down to twelve hours before my first flight off towards Houston. In twenty-four hours I will be in another country starting a new life that I have never before experienced. I did finally get my packing wrapped up, but now that I am