Sunday Funday

As I’ve said before living with a family has really made the transition here dramatically easier. Little consistencies in family life, like a Sunday tradition, have helped me feel much more comfortable here. The Sunday tradition here isn’t lying around and eating pancakes like it is at my house in the states, but ending the week in the same way every Sunday is very comforting.

Every Sunday my family and I go to La Parque Carolina in the middle of Quito. I would say this park is about the size of central park in NYC, but completely filled with sports. My family goes to the humongous soccer section of the park and the son, the dad, and I play with the Dad’s older friends. These friendly games of Soccer remind me of 16’’ softball games in Chicago, with a bunch of old guys who obviously used to be quite the soccer players, but after a few to many Pilseners (the unbelievably popular beer in Ecuador) over the course of 50 years, have slowed down a bit.

(My host mom and host brother are sitting on the bench)

I really enjoy going to the park. Not because I enjoy being the gringo that’s bad at soccer and

always out of breathe, but because I really like seeing how a whole city can come together over one sport. La Parque Carolina is packed to the brim every time I’ve gone with people playing soccer and having a great time. I just can’t get over the hundreds, if not thousands, of people that seem so happy being together playing a sport that they all deeply love.

(A small section of the park, the soccer fields go back to the left quite a ways)

After we go to the park we always go out to eat, which while a treat in the US is not as much of a treat here. I far prefer my host mom’s home Ecuadorian cooking to KFC or mediocre Chinese food, but it is a nice way to end the day.

Speaking of food I’m getting up the nerve to ask my host mom if its ok to take pictures of her food, hopefully an all food post is coming soon!

School

I often forget that I came to Ecuador to STUDY Abroad, not just bask in the Equatorial sun. In Ecuador I go to el Universidad San Francisco de Quito. From what I hear this is the best and most prestigious university in Ecuador. However, due to the large class divide very few Ecuadorians can afford to pay the 8,000 a year for USFQ’s tuition. With the few exceptions of students who have received scholarships to attend, everyone at USFQ is pretty wealthy.

(I guess you could call this our quad)

USFQ caters to this upper class student body with a beautiful and manicured campus that is happily filled by beautiful students. Before I came to Ecuador an Illinois student who had previously gone to USFQ told me about the extremely attractive women in all of his classes. To illustrate this he mentioned how on a few occasions he saw girls from his classes on billboards as clothing models around Quito. The majority of the student body obviously takes great pride in their appearance with very nicely put together outfits. While there is a fair share of jean and t-shirt clad students, sweatpants are nowhere to be found and I have yet to see a pair of basketball shorts, a far cry from the casual dress at U of I-- this means no USFQ hoodies, which I´m incredibly disapointed about.

(another section of the Universidad)

Another characteristic I instantly noticed about USFQ students is their intelligence. In all of my classes students excitingly participate and supply profound insights. Not to mention that almost every student is bilingual, at least.

Classes are quite the switch from U of I. Instead of a 600 person lecture, in English, I have a few classes with no more than 6 students, in Spanish. While I’m sure the small classes are great for learning when you speak the language, right now the small class size simply allows the teacher to see my lack of understanding up close. Here are my classes: Basic Photography, Intro to Final Cut Pro, Intermediate Spanish Grammar and Conversation, and Comics & Sequential Art.

Classes are frustrating right now, but I understand more everyday. And with classes about comic books, photography, and film editing, the homework isn’t exactly a chore.

Otavalo

So I am going to try to do an entry every friday, but when something really cool happens I´ll put a post up in the middle of the week.

This weekend the group and I went to the city of Otavalo for the world renowned market. For Chicagoans, thinks of Otavalo as Maxwell Street, just replace the stolen radios with handmade rugs.

(the center of the Otavalo market, the rest of the market goes on for blocks)

The trip was filled with far more than Otavalo as we stopped for Bischotti at a hole in the wall restraunt before. After the market we stayed at a fantastic bed and breakfast called La Casa Sol. Filled with walls as colorful as the market, delcious food, and incredibly hot showers everyone in the group loved it.

Our program director, Maria, really seems to find the best and most interesting spots for us. The morning after our comfortable night, she took us to see the other side of Otavalo. We went to a rural house where the family makes blankets and other trinkets that are sold at the market. The house seemed comfortable, but far from what anyone would consider acceptable in the US. And finally, we hiked around a lake, in the middle of a 3 million year old volcano, and yes, it was as cool as it sounds.

It was a fantastic weekend, filled with the most fantastic views I´ve ever seen. I can´t wait to see what else this beautiful country has to offer.

(a view from one of the may stops in our trip)

Family differences

As I’ve gone through the daily motions here, I couldn’t help but noticing a familiar feeling. It was a feeling I had felt before, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then last night I figured out what that feeling was—studying abroad feels exactly like when you go over to a friends and or relatives house and they do little things differently than your family.

To help you understand lets create a quick hypothetical example: maybe you go to your friend Sean’s house for dinner and you’re having spaghetti. As dinner starts, Sean’s mom mixes the noodles and the pasta together in the kitchen, not like at your house where they are brought to the table in separate bowls. I always found these slight changes of family routine at friends and relatives houses interesting and subtlety unnerving. Well, studying abroad feels the same way, just every second of the day.

So if you want to know what it’s like studying abroad in Ecuador just picture this scenario and include the feeling mentioned above. You go to a friend’s house where, the weather is always perfect in the backyard, the family speaks Spanish, every window in the house has a fantastic view, and you eat as much cilantro as you drink water. Here are some differences in my house that I’ve noticed that may give a clearer picture as well:
· We(the Castillos) don’t have dog food. The dog food in our house consists of left over bones and food from breakfast, lunch, and dinner that are thrown in a big pot on the stove. Over the course of the day various amount of water, salt, and cheese are added to the pot before it is brought to a boil and given to the dog around ten at night.
· The dog never comes in the house.
· It seems that everyone has a dog, but I have never seen a dog being walked.
· Naps are popular. Most people in the house are asleep at some point between 4:30pm and 7:00pm.
· Dinner is a much more relaxed affair, some nights we eat together some nights not. The time often changes as well.
· We eat a ridiculous amount of delicious bread during all meals.
· Every meal I’ve eaten for dinner has had homemade soup before the main course.
· The fridges, we have two, rarely have much food in them at least compared to the US. The mom, Daniella, often goes out before breakfast and dinner to buy what she needs for the meal.
· It seems the people get by on less sleep here. 6 hours or less seems quite common.
· Coffee= Warm milk and instant coffee.

Noticing family/cultural differences like these has always made me question why my family does the things we do, the way we do. And right now the biggest question I have from these differences is this--Is dog food the biggest corporate scam ever perpetrated onto the American public? Because our dog here is unbelievably nice, super fit, and ridiculously intelligent and he eats a pot of table scraps and luke warm cheese every night. I’m just saying, something smells a little fishy.

First Days

Hello everyone. So I’m finally in Ecuador! A plane full of nervous international students and I arrived on the night of Janurary 2nd with no problems. I got picked up by my host-dad, Frances Castillo, from the Quito airport around midnight. Going 80 on the curved and steep roads beside the mountains was quite the welcome. (view from my rooms window)

The house and the family are both great. I’m living in a large apartment in Cumbaya, a suburb of Quito, with Frances, Daniella, Juan and the grandma Castillo. The whole family is obviously used to having a stupid foreigner around because they put up with me only understanding about 5% of what they are saying. Possibly the best thing about the house is the roof. On the roof you’re surrounded by beautiful mountains on every side as well as a view of Quito. (the roof looking towards Quito)

Cumbaya itself may be a suburb, but is about as close to an American suburb as I am to speaking Spanish correctly. It’s about a 20 minute walk to USFQ that includes an incredibly steep hill that, as a lazy Midwesterner, causes me great discomfort every morning.

The transition so far hasn’t been to much of a shock, the delicious food certainly has helped. And while the language barrier is frustrating, it seems every day I learn more Spanish than I did in a year and a half of college Spanish classes. I hope everyone in the US is doing well! Photos and info on USFQ to come.

Oh jeeze

Tomorrow, at 11:20 pm Central Time, I will be in Ecuador