Seriously...I have adventures

Wow, can you believe that I am on my 3rd week in Ecuador already? Time here has gone by SO quickly, and yet at the same time I feel like I have been here forever because I am so comfortable here! I am officially over halfway through with classes in Quito. It is almost time to head for the beach!

Classes have continued to be good for the most part. I totally yelled at my teacher the other day :) Somedays classes are super hard!! My teacher has a bad habit of whenever I mispronounce or make even the smallest mistake, he reteaches the entire lesson. Gah, I'm a beginner I am going to make mistakes, I don't need the entire lesson a second time!! Ok ok, I didn't yell yell at him but I was very unhappy with him. Anyway, I'm still progressing and learning but geez the days are so full! I tell my teacher everyday that I don't need so much homework because I have 7 hours of class and by the time I get home I just want to review, but I haven't had time lately because he gives me gobs and gobs and gobs of homework. But I am doing my best to stick up for myself and what I want out of my classes.

We have been on some awesome fieldtrips! Let's see... we have been to El Centro Historico, Jardin Botanical, Museo de Agua (seriously, the water museum), Vivarium (snake house!!!!), Museo de Guayasamin (famous Ecuadoriann painter), Iglesia Basilica (HUGE Catholic church), Museo de Banco Central (history of Ecuador), Museo de Amazonicas, and Barrio Guapulo (near Guayasamin's house).

If you haven't already, check out my pictures to get a better idea of what my fieldtrips included. Some highlights: I saw 2 real shrunken human heads at the Amazonicas museum, I taught my teachers all about Rainbow Boas at the Vivarium, I climbed to the top of the Basilica on crazy ladders that would never have been legal in the US (you really have to see the pics), I waited out a rainstorm on Guayasamin's backporch...here in Ecuador you are allowed to touch things and walk in areas that would never be allowed in the US, I love it :)

I have also done a LOT in my “free time.” I took an evening trip to Papallacta, natural hotsprings, with 3 other students...danced the night away at an Ecuadorian discoteca, took salsa and cooking lessons, all in the first week.

The first weekend I boarded a bus and headed out to Cotopaxi, a local volcano. We females were under the impression that the trip would be hiking 'around' Cotopaxi but we quickly discovered that we were indeed climbing the mountain. That is awesome considering I hadn't even acclimated to Quito yet. (again I refer you to my pictures) We made it to El Refugio at 15,793 feet...which I would like to point out is higher than the summit of Mt Hood. We then ran/leaped our way back down the snowy slopes to our waiting truck in a matter of minutes. It was an amazing trip.

Valerie and I headed back that same night to discover in the morning that we had a new student moving into our house and I was being kicked out of my room! My Mamma came up to my room and declared that she was moving into my room “in 5 minutes.” So I frantically threw all of my belongings into Valerie's rooom and then spent the rest of the day reorganizing our new shared room. Neither of us slept well that night in our double bed. Despite having to share a room, I LOVED having a new sister because all of a sudden my host mother actually starting talking TO me instead of to Valerie about me. She actually asked me to translate things for our new sister, Anja. Sadly Anja no longer lives with us (though I do have my room back to myself again!!) which means that my host family has gone back to seeing through me. It's ok though, sometimes I force myself into conversations and jump up and down and frantically wave my hands until they see me ;) (just kidding about the jumping and waving in case you didn't catch the sarcasm there)

The next week was Obama week! Wow, you wouldn't even believe the excitement here! I organized a party in the evening (by organized I mean I wrote down “obama party” on a piece of paper and had people sign up...) and then the school had a little party for us during the actual inauguration. We all got out of class and set up a viewing party in the main sitting room and the school provided beer and Ecuadorian snacks. It was an awesome time. Also you can imagine that our Spanish was awesome after that ;)

Oh wow, last week was Cuy Week as well! Cuy is Quicha for guinea pig. On Friday a bunch of students and teachers boarded a bus for a town 45 minutes from Quito and we feasted on guinea pig. It wasn't particularly tasty...very greasy and didn't actually have much meat. (Once again, you HAVE to see my pictures) My friend Ingrie all of a sudden got really sick thinking about what she was eating, but the rest of us did a fairly decent job at cleaning our guinea pig carcasses. What a solid South American adventure.

The real fun was this last weekend! (there are not enough exlamation marks in all of the world to express my excitement about this weekend) I went to Mindo, up north in the cloud forest, with a bunch of girls from the school. I went up early early early Saturday morning with my good friend Ingrie, from Canada, and we secured a hostel for all of us and then headed out to repel down a waterfall :)

It was just the 2 of us and our 2 guides in our group. The real adventure part of the experience was just getting to the waterfall. First we hopped in a truck and paid a guy to drop us in the middle of the cloud forest where we then set off on foot up the mountain...across creeks, through thick sucking mud, all under searing hot sun (which was new to me since it rains daily in Quito). We stopped to try some fresh fruit which turned out to be huge orange lemons (apparently I made an awesome sour face) and my guide explained that if you find a fruit you don't know, you put it on your tongue and if you salvate a lot then it is bad (as in poisonous)...um, I think I just won't put it in my mouth thanks.

It took us a good hour of crossing skinny slick bamboo “bridges,” scaling mud cliffs, and hardcore hiking before we got to the bottom of the waterfall. Haha, I think Ingrie about peed her pants when she saw how steep and tall the waterfall was. We climbed to the top and then practiced repeling down a short mud cliff, it was pretty funny. At that point we learned that the second “guide” wwas actually just our guide's friend who had never repelled, so he had a practice as well before we headed over to the waterfall.

Our guide's friend, Fernando, headed down first (sans helmet) and then held the line for me as I repelled down. All the lines were much stiffer than I expected and everything was super sturdy. I was rather disappointed because I wanted more freedom to make big leaps down the waterfall :) but really it was still a great awesome time. When I got to the bottom I hung out with Fernando as we watched Ingrie get ready. He and I chatted in Spanish (hard over the noise of the waterfall) and then he asked me out (to go dancing!) of course I said yes (who can say no to dancing?...especially with good looking latin dancers?) so now Ingrie (and the ENTIRE school) jokes that I have an Ecuadorian boyfriend.

After surviving the waterfall we headed back to our amazing hostel ($8 a night got us a room and an incredible breakfast....and the hostel had hot water, an English speaking owner, good beds and mosquito nets, and beautiful views of the forest) to shower before heading back to the main street to pick up the other girls at the bus stop.

The next day we all headed out to zipline through the canopy. Wow. Seriously, if you haven't looked at my pictures yet...go do it!!!!

Ziplining was incredible. You can bet when they asked who wanted to go first, I was already at the top of the ladder :) We did 11 lines as a group, and then I did 2 extra by myself as the end. I did the first few solo, and then did “superman” with a guide which involves facing away from the guide with your legs around their waist and your arms out in front of you...I had an awesome view of the bottom of a gorge. I did the extra 2 lines because I wanted to do “mariposa” too. (mariposa: butterfly) This move involves facing the guide and then flipping upside down :) It was amazing, so much fun. On one other line they shook the cable so that you bounced up and down in mid air. I literally screamed with laughter, it was insane fun.

Today I became famous. No, seriously!! I was in a documentary for the Travel Channel!! Our school was invited and basically we spent the day on a train being filmed. In the morning we pretended to 'arrive' back at the station on the train and I got to be one of the 4 people to get off the train with the actor dude. We had to do it about 6 times, it was pretty hilarious. He was great fun, joking with us and even yelled at us at one point and we thought he was totally serious...clearly he was not. Sad for you all, the show (Essential Ecuador) will only be showing in Europe, Africa, and Asia. They might put some clips on youtube, so I'll let you know if I find anything out. Anyway it was good fun, and they fed us and gave us presents so it was totally worth it.

This weekend I am heading to Otovalo, a local indigenous market (and maybe a different one on Thursday). I am quite certain that it is also going to be awesome.

I am sad though, because my closest friend out here is leaving for her volunteer position in Columbia this weekend. I will miss her because she is most similar to me...but no worries, we get new students here all the time, and one of the boys who left last week is coming back next week.

Hey I was in a bus accident today!! It was very similar to the last bus incident, but this time we actually hit a taxi! And this time I was sitting, so my knee slammed into the seat in front of me. Once again we were lucky and no one was seriously injured, just more bruises!! My thumb is almost better, though it is still a little tender to the touch-atleast it is normal color again :) No worries once again, because one of the other students is a nurse so she looks out for us!

One of the men in our group got held up at knife-point outside the mall by our school, but it was at night (I don't go out alone at night, and certainly not over by the mall!!) but he actually fought off the guy and chased him away with his umbrella. It was a pretty insane story. Just so you know the area where my school is located is absolutely safe during the day. I am very comfortable, safe and happy here. (But wait...MALL...seriously...nicer than the mall back home, it almost blew my mind the first time I saw it.)

Gosh, this is already book length so I'd better wrap it up. You know me, I could talk and talk forever because I am super excited about everything out here. I'm sure you can tell that I am having a great time and falling in love with everything and everyone here, I can certainly see why so many people never leave Ecuador!

Las aventuras de Amber

Boy if I thought that my first 2 days were exciting, today was something massively larger...I'm pretty sure that no word exists for today. I had lots of adventures. Haha, a crazy day!

Mi Mamma drove us to class this morning so we had time to play on the internet, but I had switched bags at the last minute and didn't have my flashdrive that contained my first e-mail so I just sent a quick e-mail to the parents and sister saying I was alive. Today you get more!

I way bombed out on the Spanish exam this morning because it was a formal written exam...shoot I'm bad at those in English!! I'm doing really well at understanding and getting my points across, so whatever I'm not as bad as the exam said and my teacher knows that. He is very nice and speaks almost no English so when I don't know a word or don't understand things get a little crazy with hand gestures and noises!

I will be spending 4 hours in the classroom everyday and 3 hours in the city going to museums and markets, etc to pratice Spanish. Valerie and I are separate for the classroom part and together in the city, it works out really well.

Mamma packed a sandwich and fruit (fresh pineapple and papaya) for our lunch. We sat down to eat and were thoooooroughly enjoying the fruit when I noticed a large mass of mold on the tupperware contaminating my fruit. I figured out later the cause...when they put dishes away they are not completely dry and they close the tupperware allowing moldage to happen. Awesome, I shared Valerie's after that.

We headed out to the historic part of town for our outdoor adventure today and toured several beautiful Catholic churches and part of the building where the presidents of the past have lived (we saw the president's motocade go by yesterday!!!!)

To get there we took the bus...this is where the fun starts. Drivers here are impatient, lots of honking going on. Our bus driver was cut off by a car at one point and slammed on his brakes, sending everyone flying (the bus was packed and most everyone was standing, holding on). Valerie fell into me, I fell into the people behind me (I fell backward about 8 feet), and the man in front of Valerie fell to the floor. Everyone was ok, I may have sprained my thumb because it is now swollen and a little tender, but it isn't bad. My teacher said that he has never seen that happen before, so of course we had to discuss it the rest of the day :)

After touring the historic stuff we got back on the bus (minus Valerie's teacher since she had to catch a different bus). Valerie and I managed to snag some seats and a skeezy older guy tried to pickpocket her, but she didn't have anything in her pockets so he went away...see, we are prepared! It was nice to sit, but we had trouble keeping an eye on my teacher to see when it was time to get off. Finally Valerie saw him wave, so we jumped up and got off the bus at the next stop only to find that my teacher had not gotten off with us....and we were at the wrong stop. We quickly caught the next bus thinking we would just ride until our stop where we'd see him waiting. We rode until we didn't recognize anything anymore, and then we got off because we thought we'd gone too far. Then we took the bus back a few stops because Valerie thought she recognized something...and got off again...at the wrong stop. Finally we realized that we have a map of the city, so we found the cross streets and got ourselves oriented and finally off at the right stop.

By the time we got back to the right stop it was too late to return to the school, so we started walking home (an hour walk). Aye!! The walk is very steep uphill the whole way home and Quito sits at over 9,000ft, so it was hard work (atleast the walk in the mornings will be easy!). We stopped at a shop for some emergency toilet paper and then finally made it home sweaty and out of breath...but finally in the right place :)

Tonight my family served broccoli again. I scooped it onto Valerie's plate again when a doctor showed up to have Mamma sign some paperwork out of the room. When she returned and asked us how we liked the broccoli, I told her I was allergic and now I don't have to eat it anymore...because my American moms says so ;) Bueno!!

After dinner I went into the bathroom and noticed the toilet hadn't been flushed in awhile. (everyone sees the danger here except for me at the time)...so I flushed it. It immediately headed straight for the seat. I managed to turn the water off before it flooded the bathroom (I can't flood the bathroom 2 days in a row!!) and ran to get Valerie. As it turns out, you are not supposed to flush toilet paper, which we didn't learn until we got to school today which was already too late. So we are waiting for the water to go down so we can plunge it, oh the fun I have!!

OH MY GOSH!!! Tonight is the night that the garbage trucks come to pick up the garbage in front of the houses (they come in the night which is interesting). I actually told my host family that in my KS family my dad sings a little song and I sang it for them and got very excited that it was garbage night (literally). I couldn't wait to tell Dad!!

Ok, well it is time for me to fix my bathroom and start my journal for my Spanish college credit thingy so I am going to head out.

I hope you all are having an equally fun time in the US (or whatever country you are in) :)

Lots of love,
Amber

I am outta here!

Well world, I am setting off to South America!

I had big plans to blog about everything that led up to my departure, but there was so much and I never could get up the energy. Sorry, I'll just have to catch you up now!!

When I flew home from Oregon last December ('07) to celebrate the holidays with my family, I made the announcement that I had decided to go to South America to volunteer following the end of my AmeriCorps term. I don't actually remember what launched me on my path to believing that this was something that I could or should do, but I think it had a lot to do with the sadness of missing out on the Africa adventure, the desire to live on all of the continents (SA is # 5!!), and simply wanting to prove to everyone (especially myself) that I could do this 'international adventure' deal.

Everyone is always telling me that they can understand my sadness about leaving Africa, but no one knows the embarrassment and heartbreak that I feel about my “failure.” When I moved to Oregon, the main thought in my mind was: “I will not fail, I will not fail, I will not let them see me fail again.” On a basic level I understand that I didn't fail at Peace Corps, but it is awfully hard to tell that to my heart...so here I am proving to my heart that I can do anything I set my mind to! Oregon really helped me to see that; there I was living in a town of 600 in the middle of nothingness, and not only did I succeed at my job, but I flourished as a person. I honestly feel more confident in myself and my abilities now...that's some testament to the power of AmeriCorps! ;) (or Dufur...whatever)

My family had predictable reactions like “that's interesting,” and “you're leaving again!?” But I won them over and convinced them that this was going to be an awesome opportunity for me. I know they are excited for me, my excitement is contagious :)

So that was that, as soon as I had made the announcement I was locked in...I couldn't NOT go after announcing to everyone that I was going!! I did have a few moments and days where I suddenly thought I was an idiot and wanted to back out. In fact I had a lot of really really horrible dreams about my decision, and every time I woke up from one of those dreams I had my mind set that I wouldn't go. But each time the morning light returned to me my clarity and I was back on track again.

As soon as I got back to Oregon I began planning. I love to plan the crap out of things, it's what I do, so it's what I did! I researched and I researched and then I researched some more. I found some volunteer programs that I was interested, but had the worst time getting anyone to get back to me. The ones who did get back to me, wrote to tell me that their programs would cost more money than I could possibly afford. No reason to go completely broke during this thing!

About 4 months out, I bought my plane tickets. Whoa that was a big day, I was really locked in after that! After that I began telling friends and colleagues about my plans and suddenly people were falling out of the woodwork who wanted to come with. Where on earth were these people when I first started planning and was disparately looking for a travel partner? Crazy! Of course I have no idea how sincere most of the people are about visiting, but I hope some come out!

After AmeriCorps ended and I moved back to Kansas from sweet sweet Dufur I heard from one of the girls that I met during my second term of AmeriCorps.... wait for it ... dun dun dun, she is coming with me for the first few months! How excellent, she will be with me for all of the traveling part of this adventure, soooo much better than playing in S.America alone! Now I have someone to take my picture so that you can all see my beeeautiful face during my adventure! So lucky for you :)

So I was at my parents' house for over a month wrapping up my final S.America preparations. Sadly while I was there my poor sweet baby kitty got very sick and I spent a lot of time giving her intravenous fluids and trying to force her to eat. She didn't get better, only worse, so the week before Xmas we made the decision to put her down. It was ridiculous and awful and terrible and she will always be my sweet sweet baby. I was thankful to be there though, instead of her going while I was out of the country, at least I was able to say goodbye and help make the hard decisions. Pheeew.

So today I boarded a plane to Atlanta, with my Dad!!! Aw so cute. We flew to Atlanta together and then parted ways in the airport. Now here I sit on the airplane, about 45 minutes from Quito, Ecuador where I will officially start my S.America journey! Whoo!

Well I think you're all caught up now! Stay tuned for glorious glorious updates on my adventure.... for example: will I or will I not once again lock myself in a bathroom during my first night of homestay? Oh the excitement!!