Mitad Del Mundo Y Mas (Middle of the World and More)

Friday, September 5, 2008

The line where water falls straight down, where an egg can balance on a nail, where the powerful feel powerless...welcome to La Mitad Del Mundo, the Middle of the World, the actual equator. For an afternoon activity with my language school, we took a local bus 15 miles north to the site of a fun museum called Inti-Nan. There we were able to literally walk along the equator and participate in different experiments that illustrate the unusual forces present at the equator. It is said that water flows down a drain counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere, and one experiment did in fact illustrate this. Our guide used a plugged sink full of water and a couple of leaves to allow us to see the direction of water flow after the sink was unplugged in each of three locations...north of the equator, on the equator, and south of the equator. The result was that water flowed counter-clockwise, straight down, and clockwise, respectively. Interesting?! Further research online indicates that this "coriolis" effect cannot actually be seen in experimental situations and is only urban legend, but I guess who really knows because I think what I saw was legit. So these experiments may not have settled anything, but it was a fun trip to the middle of the world regardless.

Saturday, September 6, 2008
I cannot tell you how long I have dreamt of going to an actual soccer game of grand magnitude. Fans going crazy for the love of futbol (not American football, basketball or baseball), but soccer, the true global sport. Having feasted gluttonously on delicious crepes at what is not surprisingly my current favorite restaurant in Quito, Crepes & Waffles, we happily walked over to the stadium more than an hour before game time to get good seats and get pumped. The scene was set and the stakes were high in this World Cup Qualifier, and Ecuador, seriously in need of a win against Bolivia, was poised to triumph. The stadium was virtually full and the fans went crazy as the Ecuadorian Jugadores finally emerged minutes prior to kickoff strangely ready to play without warming up. Fifteen minutes in, Bolivia lost a player to a quick red card and Ecuador took advantage with an upper ninety blast from outside the eighteen. Bolivia, responded with a goal of their own, however, and were looking to turn things around when the referee sent them packing again. Foul words from Bolivia's coach led to him being ejected under a storm of spanish curse words raining from the stands. The scene was spectacular and only became better as additional adrenaline was injected in the second half through the delivery of two more goals on the way to a 3-1 victory for Ecuador. Surround by the yelllow, blue, and red of Ecuador, we filed out of the stadium contently covered in celebratory cerveza (beer)!

Following the soccer celebrations and a weekend in Quito I returned to the routine of classes, which seemed to move monumentally faster now that I actually new my way around, had a cell phone, and was beginning to feel more comfortable speaking Spanish. I think more important than all of these things, however, was the fact that on Monday, when I walked into class my professor was wearing a UNC hat!! I already knew she was great, but this sealed the deal, I immediately went to the director of the language school and requested to continue classes with my professor, Sila, as long as possible.

Last Weekend
The first true getaway was a welcome break from the rush of Quito. A group of seven of us (Priyanka, Peter, Jesse, Beth, Alana, Leigh, and I) came together for a trip to Otavalo, a small town about 2 hours outside of Quito that is considered to have one of the largest artisan markets in all of South America. After a couple hiccups preceding our Friday evening travel, everything went smoothly. We made base at Residencial El Rocio, a clean family run hostal that was fabulous aside for the Saturday evening accusation we received for "supposedly" paying with a counterfeit $20 bill (counterfeit money is an issue here, and for someone like me that could be a problem because I definitely don't know the difference). We slipped out Saturday morning to explore the markets before taking a taxi out of town to the magical tree called El Lechero. Seeing this tree and the view from the breezy hilltop was definitely a highlight. The intertwined branches with smoothed knarls spoke of years of friendly existence watching over Otavalo. Quiet reflection under El Lechero gave way to the annual wooden go kart race we were lucky enough to witness as we were able to hitch a ride back down the mountain and join the town in cheering on the racers! And Sunday was more low key as a couple of us went for a breezy but beautiful hike around Laguna Mojada!

Aside from these adventures life has been really busy as I have become accustomed to a schedule I never thought possible (rising daily at between 6:30 and 7:00 AM!!!). Long days are definitely the norm and I don't know where time goes. In the last week we also got the opportunity to see the Rotary International President as he was in Quito for part of his South American tour. And my Rotary Club gave me a contract for the construction of a school and asked that I translate it into English so they can present it for grants in the U.S. (Yikes!?!) I feel like that catches me up to today, Thursday, 11:08 PM and my eyes are closing. Ready to crawl into bed knowing that by the morning my bed sheet will have risen up to about waste level while my blankets will stay put. Strange phenomenon that I can't seem to prevent from happening...I think it's because they don't tuck the bedsheet under the matress in my house, but the one day I did that, it didn't change anything. Maybe next blog I'll have it figured out! Till then, I wish you all the best, and as always, look forward to hearing from you. Hasta luego!

Perdido En La Traducción (Lost In Translation)

Thank you all for your emails and comments (even the scolding for not writing from Carlos). It has been so nice to receive your good wishes for my travels and I'm happy to finally have some time and internet access to share some stories.

An uneventful flight landed me safely into Quito, the capital of Ecuador, nestled amongst the mountains and volcanoes of the Andes. Forty-five minutes max and after spotting the Ecuadorian Olympic Team, I had collected my bags and gone through immigration and customs to find a representative from my language school, the Academia de Español, waiting patiently to greet me. We climbed into a taxi and made it to my host family's house at about midnight. First impressions were great and off I went to bed.

Then came the mascotas...
Casual talk was going wonderfully with my host mom (Wilma) and we were getting to know each other well. I could tell immediately that I had seriously lucked out to be placed with such an amiable family that was ready to welcome me into their home. But as soon as Wilma and I reached the comfort point she turned to me with a slightly more serious expression. I thought, oh she is just going to tell me one more time how important it is to be careful. How I should carry my bookbag in front of me, not walk more than a block alone in the dark, try not to look too gringo, etc. but nope, that's not what she said. Wilma proceeded, in Spanish of course, "So Ameet, in your application to the Spanish School you said your only diet restriction is that you don't like mascotas. This makes me a little worried. Do you eat mascotas? Are you scared of them?" In general a mascota is a pet, but in this case Wilma was specifically referring to a little dog because she has a pet dog named Lucas. Poor Wilma had spent the better part of the last week discussing with her husband and son what to do to avoid conflict between her loveable pet dog Lucas and this strange American student that was about to arrive. Haha. Oh who knows how this happened, but I quickly explained that dogs are wonderful, I'm not allergic to them, and I definitely don't have any desire to think of them as a type of food. My only true diet restriction is that I don't eat beef. (The picture is of Lucas and Wilma's grandaughter, Nahia)

Aside from the mascotas, this first week has been fabulous. My Rotary Counselor, Claudio, took me out with 22 of his friends and family on Saturday and we enjoyed feasting on empanadas, touring the Teatro Bolivar, floating through historic Quito, and watching the start of the Ruta de Iglesias (a 10 kilometer run through the hills of historic Quito at an altitude of almost 10,000 feet). Sunday was more restful with time spent with friends before the start of classes on Monday. And now I'm settling into the class routine. My class schedule is rigorous as I wake at 7:00 in the morning to be at class by 8:30. I take one-on-one classes with my professor from 8:30-12:30, have a one hour break for lunch, and then go out into the city with another student and professor from 1:30-4:30 to visit museums, eat Ecuadorian food, and engage in the daily life and culture of Ecuador. Quito, my host family, and my Rotary family here have all welcomed me with open arms and I look forward to writing more as time and internet permits. I have internet at my house, but it doesn't have the best work ethic as it needs a two minute break for every one minute it works. No problemo though, internet is not hard to come by and I'll continue to be in touch.

Thanks again for your comments and emails. It's so nice to receive word from home!! And now I'm off to dinner. Chao!