Correction

Today I talked to a girl in marketing that's from Miami! Therefore I'm not the only person from the U.S. in that class. She isn't super-white like me, because she's actually originally from Spain. I still have to ask where in Spain :) So I think I'm still considering myself the only gringa in that class but not the only person coming from the U.S. (is that the same thing? i'm not quite sure...)

Huasalata

Saturday 1/17 -

After going up Cotopaxi, we went to a small indigenous village called Huasalata just outside of Salasaca (a slightly larger town, still not very big though). Huasalata is down in a little valley, and every family has their own small farm and bunch of animals, including Guinea pigs (to eaaat! :P) known as 'cuy'. We arrived and put our things in the hostel we were staying in for the night. It was beautiful! The owner built it all by hand with only the help of his relatives. The doors and some walls are made of andean bamboo, and most of the rest is brick. The inside is gorgeous and very home-y.

Before having dinner, we took a walk through the town and along the ridge overlooking the river. It was all very green and so natural looking. On the way we stopped at the house of some friends of Maria's (our coordinator) where they showed us their loom, kitchen, small garden, and little cuy huts. There was also a little girl with her mother that Ligia (a student from Ecuador that goes on some excursions with us) and I talked to for a while, and the little girl had a basket with some corn that she kept giving to me and Ligia while we talked with her mom, and then she would take it back and put it in her basket again. I think she played the little "game" for 20 minutes or so with us :)

I've realized I'm instinctively drawn to children since being here. Yes, many of you have told me this already (Sam, Britta, Disney World) but I literally cannot resist talking to or playing with kids! I also get to interact with more children here in Ecuador because Martina and Ivana constantly attack me when I come home from school (or when I'm trying to leave for class and they won't let me), and I also volunteer now at an after-school program from 3-5pm on Mondays and Wednesdays with all ages of kids from 1 to 13ish. Yesterday (Monday) after they worked on their homework for a while I taught some girls Ritmo Vuelta and Magdalena (Thanks Concordia!), and we also did the Macarena, which some of them already knew.

Enough with tangent-ing.... For dinner in Huasalata we were served corn (with larger kernels than usual... very delicious), cheese, and habas (bean-like, there's a skin around it and you bite the corner of the skin and push the inside out, tastes a bit bland -much better when we were told we should eat them with salt, sort of like potatoes) as appetizers. Then the main course was CUY! eeek! (sorry Tim & Mon, I had to try it at least) and some potatoes with a peanut sauce. Cuy was really difficult to eat because there's not much meat, and lots of little bones, but the meat sort of tasted like the dark meat part of chicken.

After dinner we all hung out in a room in the hostel with a fireplace, and there were some girls from the town who we talked to and they taught us a few words in Quichua (sorry, i dont remember them) and then we wanted them to sing a song in Quichua, so we agreed to sing something in English first. We all debated for a whie on what to sing, and eventually did a 3-part round of row, row, row your boat! hah. Then we proceeded to think of a bunch of songs that we should have sang, and sang parts of them anyways (like some Journey, Disney songs (A whole new world), Beatles, N*SYNC and Backstreet Boys).

The girls were waiting along with us until they could get the CD player in the main room (also the dining room) to work so that they could show us some traditional dances from Ecuador. Eventually it worked and they did some dances to a few different songs. At first they looked easy, just a lot of bouncing and arm-swaying, but when some of us got up to try it it was pretty hard! The movements weren't too difficult but it takes a lot of energy to do the dances.

Sunday 1/18-

The next morning, we walked all the way down to the river to see where the people from the town cut grass to feed their animals. It was a looong way down, and pretty steep. The river was beautiful up close! We started to help some women (who already knew we were coming) cut the grass with small sickles. You just grab a bunch and then cut it from the bottom, and put it all in a pile together. Then, to get the grass back up to the farms, the people from the town carry HUGE bundles of very very heavy grass on their backs all the way up the hill! Three of the guys in our program tried it, and they only had about half the "normal" amount, which we saw a 90 or so year old woman carrying up the hill on her back! Maria said that if they're lucky, a family sometimes has a donkey to carry the grass up to their house. Once we got to the top (which was a fairly hard climb even without the grass!) they fed the grass to their cows :)

After going back to the hostel, all the boys actually went to play a game of soccer with some of the locals, while the girls stayed back in the gift shop next to our hostel and played dress-up. How traditional gender role of us :P. Anyways, we had lots of fun, I bought a pair of SUPER COMFY "Ecuador pants" (I don't know what else to call them) that are red and striped. My study abroad advisor told me I had to buy some while I was here. After we were done in the little shop and the guys came back, we headed up to Salasaca where there was a pretty decent-sized market. I got a couple gifts for Ivana y Marti because their 3rd birthday was the next day when I got back from my trip :) Maria also bought us really delicious mangoes that we all ate on our way to Baños....

The proudest gringa in Marketing (I'm the only one)

Okay, I was just going to go in chronological order with adventures and such, but it's January 20th, so I HAVE to talk about the inauguration :) It was absolutely amazing how many people were watching it at my universidad. There are plenty of people from the U.S. but many, many ecaudorians were watching as well. They showed CNN in an auditorium on a big projector, and also in our main hall on a big screen TV (as well as other places around campus). I wish I would have had my camera! It would have been a really good iReport to send to Anderson & Wolf.

Unfortunately, I had marketing class (one in which I am the only student from the U.S.) from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm. So, at the beginning of class I told the professor that I was leaving to go watch the inauguration :) I just stayed for the first 20 minutes of class! hehe. The professor for that class is great, and at the beginning of class we talked about how the change in power affects business, the economy, etc. So of course he asked me about it in front of the class! I said something about creating new jobs, and a change in foreign relations... there's a lot to talk about.

Anyways, I'm just so happy to be an American right now. Yay Obama!

Cotopaxi

Saturday (1/17) we left for our weekend excursion! On our way to the small indigenous town we were staying in (Huasalata), we "stopped" (for many hours) at Cotopaxi national park, it's a biiiig ol' volcano. Unfortunately, it was extremely foggy outside, so we couldn't see the mountain, or the view once we went on the road up the mountain.

In our fun little bus we bounced along the dirt roads in the park, and eventually we got high up on the volcano, where there's snow! We came to a point where it was too hard to keep going up, because of the snow on the road, so we all got out and walked around and had some snowball fights :) You could hardly see anything, just white everywhere. We also saw some alpacas ( i think, maybe llamas) in the park down on the ground, where there wasn't any snow.

After going up the mountain we had lunch at the restaurant by the entrance to the park, and i tried te de coca (coca leaf tea), which tastes a lot like mate (from argentina) or a little like green tea. We also had soup, and then we made amazing sandwiches with lots of food that Maria Teresa (coordinator) brought. There were tomatoes, lettuce, avocados, cucumbers, ham, and all sorts of other good stuff. Then we kept going on our way to Huasalata, thankful to be able to sleep a bit in the van because we were back on paved roads :)

To be continued!....

La Basilica del Voto Nacional

Today was a very rainy Friday, but we went out anyways! I slept in (no class at 8:30 am like Monday through Thursday!) and then met my friends Stephanie, Daissy, and Pierce at the bus station. We went downtown and took a while to find the Mercado Central to get lunch. It turns out we walked right past it once, and then went around the block and asked someone for directions, and they led us back to where we were! The market was indoors, and we were looking for a bunch of booths outside :P hah, oh well.

When we got there we walked around and there was a lot of food to choose from! There was also fruit, herbs, and lots of meat for sale. It was real pleasant to see the whole chickens hanging from some booths... ehhh... Anyways, we got some food and some juices. I got ceviche de camaron (shrimp) and some rice, and Daissy got fish, potatoes, and rice. (Pierce and Stephanie already ate before)

Then, we proceeded to walk up to the Basilica!


We had seen it before from Parque Itchimbia, so now we had to visit it :) We took lots of pictures from the bottom, and on the side of the church there were a bunch of stairs looking out over a plaza around the Basilica.

Here's a fun pic of that: (from bottom to top - Daissy, Pierce, Stephanie)

After walking around, we started climbing UP. At the first level there was the gorgeous stained glass window that you can see from the outside, but from the inside it's so colorful!

There was also a view of the inside of the church, which is sooo huge.

Then we kept climbing! First we went across a wooden bridge to the back tower, and of course when we got up and outside it started raining. We could have climbed up into the top of that tower, but the stairs (really a ladder) going up were slippery because of the rain, so it felt a little too risky. Then we went to one of the taller front towers that was open to go up in. First we climbed some winding stairs and were inside the clock! Then there were ladders to get up to the VERY TOP of the tower, literally. There was also a ledge that you could stand out on with no railings or anything, SO scary! We didn't go out on it, except for Pierce, but just peeked our heads out.

Right when we were at the highest possible point in the tower a HUGE lightening bolt struck somewhere, and we heard insanely loud thunder! Soooo, we decided to get down... Don't worry, we all survived just fine, I was just shaking when we heard the thunder... yikes!

After coming down, and taking lots of pictures, we went to a gift shop for a little while, then we went to have a little cafe and I also had some delicious churros. We sat and watched the rain, and then took the Ecovia (red bus) back home. There's a saying: "How many people can you fit on the Ecovia? 5 more." It was packed. But that's just how it goes, it's a pretty awesome transportation system, but there are just so many people that live in Quito! Luckily we got seats because we got on at the first stop at the southern end of the city, and rode all the way north to Rio Coca, which is a block from where I live. Daissy actually got off before us because she lives more towards the center of Quito (I'm towards the north), and Pierce and Stephanie switched buses at Rio Coca to take the green bus back to where they live in Cumbaya. That's what I take to get to school :)

Alright, well I'll be going on an excursion this weekend (leaving tomorrow morning!) So hopefully I'll come back with some good stories and photos. Chao!

A continuación,

Sooooo, this weekend (on Saturday night, after going to the Centro historico) we all went to Lumbisí again for a beauty pageant! Some of the people who live with host families in Lumbisí had heard about it, and their families told them to bring all of us to the fiesta. They were choosing the 'Reina de Lumbisí' or the Queen of the town for 2009. When I told my host family where I was going they told me to come home with a crown :)

There were 5 girls competing, and they had different events like answering questions (all about religion, to which we had no idea what the answers were), 2 different dances (one to popular music and one traditional), and formal wear and traditional clothing. Between the events there were performances and music playing. Our friend that we met the day before, Zak, is a music major and is just studying at our university independently, from Hawaii! He just met us while we were walking around and wanted someone to hang out with. We invited him to come to the Centro historico and to Lumbisi. So, in Lumbisi they had him get up on stage and sing and play guitar in front of the whole town! It was great. We were so glad we met him :) hah. Also, we just call him Hawaii because there was already another Zack in our group from Penn State.

Here's a video:

So after they announced the queen (Jesse something) there was a big party/dance. We all tried a new drink too called guayusa. It was really good! It's a hot tea made with an herb from the rainforest, and you get a pitcher-like thing for everyone to share with little dixie cups.

That's all for Saturday, then on Sunday I slept in, did some reading, and then I went to church with my family at 6pm. I should have taken a picture of the girls all dressed up for church in their dresses :) I'm sure I'll get another chance, they go every week, and I'll join them whenever I'm not on an excursion or have far too much homework. Church was very nice, mass was shorter than in the U.S., and the prayers confused me a little because I sort of knew them, and was trying to translate and listen really fast, or say it in my head in english. I just gave up after a little while, but i think I'll get a hang of the spanish versions in a few months :P

After church the whole family (and I mean the WHOLE family, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins) came over to the house for a bunch of bread, cheese, cake, and coffee. I just talked with many of them (Yolanda's brother's and sisters for the most part, I believe) and then went upstairs to skype and read for homework.

Now I'm in my first real week of classes! They've all been great, and I actually switched out of my Politics class and into Andean Archaeology, which was suggested to me by a woman who works in the Anthropology department at U of I. There's only 6 students in that new class, and we get to go on a few excursions, which is really exciting.

I'm the only gringa in my Marketing class, but it doesnt seem too hard, so that should be fun :) so far we've watched a video and talked about some basic marketing concepts. My Problemas Sociales en Ecuador class is pretty big, with a decent amount of international students, but our professor is really great, and it's been interesting so far too. My aerobics class doesnt actually start until Thursday, and we're going on an excursion this weekend with the Illinois group to an indigenous village, staying overnight there, and then going to Baños on Sunday.

Sunday is also the twin girls' birthday! Ivana and Martina turn 3! I'll try to take pictures when i get back from my trip of them too :) And bring back presents, hehe. Alright, I think I've written enough for now! Hasta luego!

My legs hurt this weekend...

Oh wow do I have lots to talk about! So Friday we didn't end up going to La Mitad del Mundo. This was because our friend from Ecuador (Andrés, who is the son of our coordinator, Maria) told us that it's pretty expensive to get into the monument/park if we don't have our Censo cards. They are cards that show we're students in Ecuador, and I think we'll be getting them this week, so we should be able to go to La Mitad del Mundo soon. Also, I'm not sure how accurate Andrés was, because when I asked my host mom she said that it shouldn't cost much at all, but by then we had already cancelled (postponed) the trip.

(Map by altitude & approx. distance, also, Quito is west of the other cities)

So instead of going there, our whole group went to play soccer in Lumbisí, where about 5 people from our program (there are 15 or so in all) live with host families. There were already some kids playing, so we joined them! They were pretty good, and since all of us aren't as used to the altitude, we were exhausted. I played defense mostly, and I blocked the ball 3 times with one leg, so I have a few bruises there :) heh.

Yesterday we went to the Centro Historico in Quito, which was beautiful! I have so many pictures, and I'm attempting to upload them on facebook right now, but my internet is being a little slow. First we walked around to a few churches, and then we went on a tour of the presidential palace (the White House of Quito, which is also white) in front of a big plaza. After that we went on a tour in a SUPERbaroque church. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures while inside, but trust me it was very very gold, detailed, and huge. After this we went to lunch in a nice restaurant, and had soup, pork, chicken, and veggies.

Some Pics:

After lunch, we were going to take taxis up to Parque Itchimbia, but since we were a big group we couldn't get enough, so we ended up walking. The walk was INSANE. Yes, it was beautiful, because every time we got highter and higher on the hill you could see more and more of the city. But I think we probably walked up a million stairs and a bunch of other roads on steep hills. On the way we passed the Teatro Nacional Sucre and the Iglesia de San Blas (like the Mana song!). When we got to the top at the park, it was amazing! There was also an art exhibit at the park.

So, for now I think I'll leave it at that, but I also went to Lumbisi at night.... so I'll talk about that soon! I have to get ready to go to church with my host family :)

First Day of School

Well, for those of you reading from U of I, enjoy your week or two more of break... because I'm in school already! Today I had Antropologia Andina (Andean Anthropology) and Politica Ecuatoriana y su Pensamiento (Ecuadorian Politics and Thought).


Since it was the first day, we pretty much just went over what we'll be learning about in the class and the syllabus, including how grades work for the class. It seems pretty similar to U of I, and in my anthro class we even get extra credit if we go on an excursion that our professor is organizing and then write a little about it :)

My Schedule:

ANT300 -Antropologia Andina
Ordoñez, Angélica
Mon & Wed 11:30-1

POL310-Politica Ecuatoriana Y Su Pensamiento
Creamer, Claudio
Mon & Wed 2:30-4


LIT237 -El Cuento Hispanoamericano
Minster, Chris
Tues & Thurs 8:30-10

SOC290 -Problemas Sociales En El Ecuador
Diaz, Karla
Tues & Thurs 10-11:30

MAK301 -Marketing Principios Y Fundamentos
Andrade, John
Tues & Thurs 11:30-1

DEP160 - Aerobicos
Eaton, Gaby
Tues & Thurs 4:30-6




After my host family showed me how to get to campus on Sunday, we went to get ice cream! Here are some pictures of Ivana (the first one) and Esteffí (with me in the second one)






I've already tried some new food here! Some Blackberry ice cream (in the picture), Guanabana ice cream (i've tried the juice before), and some 'tomate de arbol' juice. The juice very good, and it doesn't taste like tomato at all! I also tried another juice that starts with an 'm', but i can't remember what it is. I'm sure I'll have it again and I'll ask. I've been having very good meals, always with some fresh fruit or a salad. In the morning i usually get fruit, maybe some yogurt, and an egg and bread. There's always bread and Queso fresco on the table, and my host family has a little George Foreman thing, so i've made a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches with queso fresco, yumm. They also make a lot of soup, which is really good, and I've had chicken, sausage, and fish so far for dinners.

Tomorrow I have more classes, but on Friday we're going to La Mitad del Mundo! I get to come back to the northern hemisphere for a little bit. I'll try to take a bunch of fotos :) If anyone has any questions just comment on the blog if you have a google account or email me at ckloeck1110@gmail.com.


Hasta luego!

Oh sí, estoy aquí!

My host family, is OF COURSE amazing. Yolanda (abuela) picked me up at the airport with two of her granddaughters, Ivana(2) and Esteffí (6). They are adorable! We watched some disney channel and colored a bit, and I had some tea and bread with cheese for a snack. The mother of Ivana and Esteffí (and two other kids) is coming tomorrow. The entire family spent New Years in Cuenca, a city pretty far south of Quito. So Yolanda and the girls flew back today and everyone else is flying back tomorrow.

I already learned about some fun cultural stuff, Esteffí was telling me how on New Years they dress up in newspaper all over! and wear silly hats and everything. It sounds really fun!

Well, i need to unpack and go to bed. And they'll be showing me around town and how to get to school tomorrow. Talk to you all later!

P.S. My 5 year anniversary is tomorrow :) Love you Mike!