Cultural Differences

I decided to talk about some of the cultural differences on this post because honestly these are starting to become very apparent- and some are annoying.  To start, I should mention that I do absolutely love Ecuador and have never regretted choosing to live here.  The weather is perfect, I'm surrounded by mountains, and I can get to either the beach or the jungle within 4 1/2 hours.  I know, I know, I shouldn't ever complain since I'm able to live in such an amazing place and have the opportunity to travel to more countries on this incredible continent.

...but after living here for almost 5 months now, some of the cultural differences aren't so "cute" anymore.  For example, us Americans LOVE our personal space.  I'm pretty sure no one in Ecuador understands what personal space is, and my "bubble" is constantly being invaded. Last weekend, I was standing in line at the grocery store and the place was absolutely packed.  Like a normal American, I stood maybe 1 1/2-2 feet behind the lady in front of me.  A girl came up and started talking to the lady in front of me, so I thought "ok, she is with that lady, no problem."  Then, a few minutes later after they had stopped talking another lady with a completely full cart walked up and joined the girl in front of me.  I should probably mention that I was buying 4 things, not a cart full of groceries.  Right then I realized that they completely cut in front of me, only because I respected the lady in front of me's personal space.  UGH I was so frustrated and got even more frustrated that they had a cart full of groceries.  Now, American's aren't always known as the friendliest people, but if you have a cart full of groceries and someone only has 3 or 4 things, you usually let them go ahead, and you certainly don't cut in front of them.  To make things better, the lady behind me was so close to me that I just about felt violated by her cart.  I never thought it would be a bad thing to actually respect someone's personal space, but apparently you will never make it to the front of the line if you do.  

This is how you are supposed to stand in line

However, after I finally made it out of there, I went to the mercado, which is one of my favorite places- there is an abundance of fruit, veggies, and flowers for only a fraction of the price as in the US.  

Isn't this place amazing?!

I usually go to the same vendors and this time after I paid for my produce, 2 different vendors gave me a tangerine for free.  Maybe they could see that I was mad or having a bad day (yeah I know being cut in front of shouldn't make me so mad, but it did that day), so they felt that was the least they could do.  Whatever the reason, this very simple and unexpected act of kindness completely changed my mood.

As Americans (or maybe just Southerners), we are only passionate about one thing.  I'm pretty sure you all know what this one thing is, but in case you don't it's FOOTBALL!  I will admit that UGA football is, more than likely, the biggest thing that I am passionate about...and if you're being honest, I'm sure you will agree.  Don't get me wrong, Ecuadorians love their football (soccer) and the city did shut down these past 2 weeks when Ecuador played in the Copa America.  Unfortunately, Ecuador just isn't that good, and I do feel bad for them because they do love the sport so much but the sport just doesn't love them back- must be the Ecuadorian equivalent of being an Cubs fan?  As much as they love their football/soccer, they love their politics even more.  I have never seen a culture that cared and was as passionate about politics.  And I must admit, I really like that about this Latin American culture.  Everyone has an interest in what is going on in the country and when they aren't happy, they make sure the government notices.  In the previous years, the people have literally run at least 3 presidents out of the country.  I can't imagine Americans actually forcing a president out of the country fearing for his own life.  Yeah I'm sure there are people that would love to do that, but physically doing it is a whole 'nother thing.  Just last week I was walking to one of my classes and I noticed a school bus stopped in the right lane of a busy road during rush hour, causing a huge traffic jam.  Then, I could hear what sounded like the marching band from a college football game.  As I got closer, I could see that a group of about 15 people had somehow gotten ahold of a school bus, tied down a giant stuffed turtle and jaguar onto the top of the bus, and were playing instruments in the street.  

This entire protest was peaceful; the people just wanted to be heard not create violence.  This is something I think Americans can learn a thing or 2 from.  I love how passionate Latin Americans are about all aspects of their lives, and they aren't afraid to show any emotion.  

I do feel so lucky to live here and truly experience this different culture, which lately has shown to be very different from the American culture!

Learning a New Language

Since I have been in Ecuador now for a little over 4 months and am always surrounded by Spanish speakers, you would think that I would have a fairly decent grasp on the Spanish language...WRONG!  This learning a new language thing has been an incredibly humbling experience for me.  Growing up, I was in honors classes and got good grades, so I thought learning Spanish while living in Ecuador should be fine.  I mean, I do consider myself to be an intelligent person and school is what I was good at and this is just a different type of school.  Well, I can tell you first hand that this has been way more difficult and frustrating than when I learned French in high school.

Every time I feel like I am making progress and finally improving my knowledge of the Spanish language, someone out on the street asks me a question and I have no idea what they are saying.  I might be able to distinguish 1 or 2 words, but thats about all.  And out of a 10 word sentence, those 2 words that I understand don't really give me a very good grasp of what they are asking.  Usually, they see the "deer in headlights" look on my face, and then switch to English.  I appreciate them trying to make me more comfortable, but that is not helping me to learn Spanish.

For those of you that don't know, Spanish has about 3x as many tenses as English-or so it seems.  There are about 5 different tenses just when speaking in the past, so this has been very challenging for me to differentiate when to use which, and half of the time, I still use the wrong one-oops.  One day during my class, my teacher and I were going over one of past tenses and I just wasn't understanding why I should use this tense over another, and I about lost it.  All of the sudden, I put or more like threw my pen down and said "No no no...no..no.no."  At that moment, "no" was the only word that I could say.  My teacher had no idea what to do with me right then.  He tried to reason with me and help me with the worksheet, but I leaned back in my chair with my arms crossed.  I'm sure every one of you can picture this scene right now, and if you can't, then picture a 5 year old starting to throw a fit and that was pretty much me.  This was not one of my finest moments, but it happens sometimes.  Since we still had 1 hour left of class and I think my teacher was afraid of me, he decided the best way to calm me down was to play a game of "Guess who."  Playing this game did calm me down and also made class entertaining while using Spanish at the same time.  I guess the classes really are paying off because last week I was in a cab, and had a conversation with the driver for about 10 minutes.  And I understood most of what he said, so that was a perfect boost of confidence for me!  Then, when I didn't understand, I would just smile and nod...hopefully that was an appropriate response.

In the Spanish language, the word for "who" is "quien" which sounds very similar to Kim.  So when people ask me what my name is, I respond "Kim."  They will then say "Your name?" and I say "Kim" again, which then leads them to say "No YOU, what is YOUR name?"  Finally, I have to respond "MY NAME IS KIM."  It's like I'm living a real life version of "Who's on first."  I know my Spanish isn't that good, but after 10 weeks of classes, I do understand the question of "what is your name?"

I will say that people here are very nice and appreciate when you try to speak their language and they are usually patient with you as you try to put words together to get your point across.  But after a few experiences of being completely clueless when native speakers are talking to me, I have decided that I really need to step up my studying and practicing.  Luckily, both of my roommates speak Spanish, so I can practice speaking with them at home.  And I am watching one of the best shows of all time "Friends" in Spanish with Spanish subtitles.  This allows me to hear and see the words, which helps to reinforce what I already know as well as learning new vocabulary.  

Let's hope that my Spanish improves because it sure would be nice to have a full conversation for once!

Pushing My Limits

If there is one common theme to these past 4 months, it is the fact that I am constantly pushing my limits, whether on purpose or not.  This is happening in all parts of my life, and even though it has been uncomfortable for me, I know these situations are exactly what I need.

Two weeks ago, I got 2 new classes at work.  The student in my morning class is very similar to my previous students.  However, my student in the night class has been a very big challenge for me.  As most of you know, patience is not one of my strongest traits, and that is wording it nicely.  Well, this student is beginner of the beginners.  The first week, we went over the very basic vocabulary of "My name is..." "I am from..." and other introductory phrases.  Since I just recently was in this guy's shoes, I understand the difficulties of learning a new language.  I hoped that being able to relate to him would give me more patience, but I'm not sure it works like that.  I have been trying to use every last ounce of patience during this class, since it isn't his fault that he doesn't know English yet.  And he is trying, so I have been trying to stay calm.  But sometimes, it's so tough when at the beginning of class I ask him "How are you?" and it take 2 minutes for him to understand what I said and come up with an answer.  This has been a huge challenge for me, but I know that patience is something that I really need to work on.  Hopefully, over time, I will be able to improve on this.

Now, for the more exciting way I am pushing my limits!  This past weekend, I went to Banos with some friends.  Banos is this tiny adventure town, located about 3 1/2 hours from Quito.  So, 4 of us took a bus there Friday night and then met some other friends who where there as well.  We woke up Saturday morning ready to start our day of accomplishing many outdoors activities.  Unfortunately, the weather thought differently.  It was pouring, so we decided to get some breakfast and then see if the rain would let up any.  Quickly, we realized that the rain was going to be off and on throughout the entire day, so we said "what the heck, let's just go for it."  One of the biggest attractions about this mountain town is the abundance of waterfalls, one in particular named "El Pailon del Diablo."  Being the active group that we are, we chose to rent bikes for the day, only $5, and bike to the see this spectacular waterfall.  This was perfect because we were able to exercise and sightsee at the same time! Along the road, there are places to stop to view the scenery or zip line if you want.  Some people in the group wanted to stop at one of the many zip lines that we passed.  A few people wanted to do it, and I won't turn down a zip lining opportunity, especially when its 1 km long, beautiful scenery, and only $10!  As you were flying, you couldn't even see where you were going to, which made it very exciting.

Once we finished zip lining, we continued on our bikes to the waterfall.  We got to the town, then had to hike about 30 minutes, but the view was well worth the hike.  You can walk through almost caves until you are right between the waterfall and the rocks.  Since it had been rainy all day, the water was extremely powerful and we got soaked- although we were already soaked from the rain so it wasn't a big problem.  

You can walk down those steps and look up to see the waterfall.  Its like the rides at Six Flags where you stand on the bridge and get splashed from the spray of the water.  It was a really cool experience to feel just how powerful the water really is.

This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but we were able to get this close to the waterfall.  You could reach out and actually touch the water.

After walking behind the waterfall, we walked across a very suspect bridge to get this view.  I was absolutely terrified of the bridge and wasn't sure it would hold the weight of everyone.  People were jumping on the bridge and I was not too happy about that- thought I was going to lose it.  But luckily, the bridge held up and we all survived.  However, we now had to hike 30 minutes up to the town where our bikes were.  All of us were incredibly tired and hungry because it was almost 3 and no one had lunch.  Let me tell you, I think every one of us became very "hangry" so it was crucial that we got food immediately.  I'm not sure if it was because we were so hungry or because the food was that good, but Betsy and I shared a banana and chocolate empanada that was one of the best things I have ever eaten.  I think I would literally kill for that empanada.  Once all of us had eaten and were calmer, we decided to take this army type truck back into town instead of biking uphill for over an hour.

Once we got back into town, we grabbed a cab and headed to the Casa del Arbol or treehouse, which is home to the "swing at the end of the world."  I know it is just a swing, but it was so fun.  There was this guy up there that was an unofficial "professional pusher" He would literally push the people that were on the swing and then twist them around while they were swinging.  We were all very impressed with his skills, clearly that wasn't his first time.  Unfortunately, his family wanted to go right before it was my turn so I wasn't able to experience his pushing first-hand.  However, my buddy Betsy stepped up and did a pretty good job!

Now, it was finally time to shower and relax before going to dinner and then onto the salsateca.  Needless to say, we all feel asleep immediately that night once we got back to the hostel.

Sunday, we woke up to a beautiful, sunny day.  After eating breakfast, Betsy decided that she wanted to do "puenting" which is almost the same as bungee jumping.  I had been debating on whether I wanted to do this or not, but I finally decided that I needed to face my fear of heights and prove to myself that I could do it.  We walked out to the bridge and I couldn't watch, I could only stand in the middle of the bridge staring at the road.  Betsy and I got our harnesses on and I was still okay.  Then, it was my turn to go!  As soon as the guy hooked the rope onto the harness, it all started to get real, like very real.  Next was one of the toughest parts, climbing over the railing.  My legs were starting to shake, and I could barely force myself to climb over.

I'm so glad you can't see my face in these pictures, because I'm sure I was as white as a ghost and had a facial expression of complete terror.  

Standing on this platform was one of the most terrifying moments of my life- and that is not an exaggeration at all.  I tried not to look down, but I just couldn't help it.  Here I was on this 1ft x 1ft platform looking down 100 meters to a river.  This one tiny piece of wood was supporting me.  I knew that I couldn't wait long, and I had already climbed over the railing, so I only had one option and that was to jump.  So the guy said " 3, 2, 1, JUMP!"

As soon as my feet left that platform, it was an amazing experience!  I absolutely loved it and wished it had been longer.  There was such a feeling of relief after doing this and conquering a big fear of mine.  I never thought I would jump off of a bridge, but I was able to not let the fear affect me.  Betsy and I were so proud and happy to be able to cross this off of our bucket lists- well it was on her bucket list, not mine but I'm glad I could help her anyways.  Since we were a little tired, we decided to walk to the thermal springs that are right outside of town.  There are 2 thermal springs, one is in town and the other is outside of town.  Most of the tourists go to the one in town so it is very "gringo."  When we showed up to the thermal springs that the "locals" use, everyone looked at us like we have 3 heads.  I think they were wondering why 4 gringas were there, since this was not a common occurrence.

Being in the water was exactly what we needed.  Our muscles were so sore and I was incredibly tense from the exhilarating experience of jumping off of a bridge.  There was a pool that was hot, 3 medium, and 1 cold.  So we alternated between all 3 of the different temperatures trying to get the full effect.  By the time we left the thermal springs, it was already 2 in the afternoon and us gringas were starting to get "hangry" again, so it was time to head back into town.  We had a great lunch then met the rest of the group to head back to Quito.

This was a great weekend full of tons of excitement and activity, but honestly, I was ready to get back to my calm life in Quito!

3 Months Down!

So I have now been here for over 3 months!  I can't believe that.  It seems like just yesterday I was packing for Ecuador and trying to figure out what in the world I was signing up for.  One of the most important things that has happened in the past 2 weeks, is that I finally got my student visa!  Thank goodness, since I received this the day that my tourist visa expired.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute.  I had to go to the immigration office and wait for 3 hours just to drop off my paperwork.  Then, I was supposed to receive an email within 5 days saying if my application was approved or if more documentation was needed.  Of course, I never received this email, so I had to go back to the immigration office and wait for another 2 hours.  Luckily, I was told that my application was approved, and I needed to pay $100.  Let me tell you, it is so much fun waiting in the immigration office where everyone that is over the age of 50, with kids, handicapped, or who knows what other reasons they used, gets to go before you, and then you get to pay these lovely people $100.   But of course, the process wasn't done yet.  I had to drop off my passport, and come back later that afternoon only between the hours of 3:30-4:30 to pick up my passport with the visa.  No idea why, but this office has very strict requirements about what time you must come- not very Ecuadorian.  So I left work early to pick up my visa, and now I am legal in Ecuador!

Last weekend was a holiday weekend, but I decided to stay in Quito.  One of my friends and I wanted to hike Pichincha, which is a volcano located about 3 km from where I live.  We have been told that the weather needs to be good, or it could be very dangerous.  Well on Friday, it was cloudy in the morning, so Betsy and I thought we would take a day trip to Papallacta, which has hiking and thermal springs about 2 hours from Quito.  So we took the Ecovia, tram, to the bus station, which is 1 hour away.  Once we got to the bus station, we realized that the next bus left at 1:30 and costed $8, and who knows when the last bus leaves Papallact to come back to Quito!  I know this sounds very cheap to everyone back home, but the general rate for buses in Ecuador is $1 per hour, so this bus trip should cost $2 not $8.  We were so shocked by this and based off of principle alone couldn't pay 4x what the price should be, so we got back on the Ecovia and took it an hour back to the city.  Sometimes when you make spontaneous decisions they work out, well this one was a fail.  Oh well you live and you learn!  However, while we were riding the bus for a total of 2 hours, we were standing, which gave us a good abs workout since you must balance as the bus is turning, slamming on the breaks, or accelerating.  Now we know that we can simply ride the Ecovia when we want a good abs workout!  Anyways, we decided to pick up Dakota and walk across town to Parque Metropolitano and do some hiking.  Dakota was LOVING this since there were tons of birds for her to chase.  When we got to the picnic area, there was a beautiful view overlooking part of the city.

Dakota loved the view as well!  At night, we decided to do a typical Latin American activity-salsa dancing!  A group of about 6 of us went to a salsateca, which is supposed to be THE place to go for salsa dancing.  As you all know, I am not much of a dancer at all, but there is something about salsa that I love.  I think its the spinning and the fact that the guy has to lead you so it's not that important to know the steps- if the guy is good, he will lead you in a way that forces you to make the correct steps.  So basically, if I am not dancing well, it's all the guy's fault- that is a dance that I can support!  After dancing the night away, we finally went home and everyone was exhausted.  Due to all of the walking and dancing on Friday, Betsy and I decided not to try to hike Pichincha on Saturday.  And of course, the weather was perfect on Saturday ha.

The weather ended up being good on Sunday, so Betsy and I headed to Pichincha!  You don't actually start the hike at the bottom of the volcano, you take the Teleferiqo (cable car) up to the lookout area, then start your hike.  Most people just take the Teleferiqo up to see the views since hiking to the top is "sooo challenging."  It's hiking and if it gets steep, then you walk slower right?  I mean how hard can it really be?  Oh those famous last words...Here is a picture from the Teleferiqo with magnificent views of the city.

Once we were up the Teleferiqo, it was time to start hiking.  It usually takes around 3 hours to get to the top, but we wanted to beat that time.  The first hour of hiking was great: the weather was perfect, we could breathe and talk easily, and it was only steep for a little bit.

Yes, you are correct, we were heading towards the point on the tip of the rock!  We were lucky that we met new friends along the way, and would stop to talk to them for a minute then continue.  After maybe 1 1/2 or 2 hours, we were walking along the path and the path seemed to stop.  I thought we missed a turn off somewhere, but nope.  A group of 2 dads and their 2 sons came walking around the corner and said "...you're correct.  You need to climb those rocks and then the path continues."  Excuse me what?  We have to do some rock climbing?  So with the help of the dads, Betsy and I climbed the rocks, maybe 6 feet total- no big deal.  And then we went on our way and found ourselves in a part of the "trail" that was all loose dirt.  At this point, the trail started to disappear and you just had to find the path that you wanted to take that looked the easiest.  Now, I was starting to see why this hike could be slightly dangerous.  After we got through that section, the real fun started.  Betsy and I decided to take a path that involved intense rock climbing.  We didn't have a harness or even a rope, just our hands and feet-FUN!  Around 10 minutes went by of this climbing and I was really starting to second guess this decision; I just didn't see how I was going to be able to climb this entire thing, maybe 15 meters total.  Luckily, God sent us help right then as another group of dads and sons came along and said that we should come down and go another way which was much easier.  We followed that group and 5 minutes later, we made it to the top... in only 2 hours and 40 minutes!  I'm not going to lie, I was cursing Betsy's name in my head leading up to the moment we made it to the top, but once we got up there it was worth it.

It was cold up there, so we didn't stay for long.  Also, it was cloudy, so we needed to be able to get past the rocks before the rain came.  We spent about 2 hours getting back to the Teleferiqo and as soon as we got inside the building, the rain came pounding- perfect timing to end an exhausting day.

This past week, I was able to finish up both of my classes, which meant that I was free at night.  So Tuesday night, we went to trivia at this Irish pub because they do trivia in English.  We ended up getting 3rd place!  Then, on Friday Betsy and her housemates hosted a cookout on their huge terrace. I don't grill so I don't exactly know what the problem was, but the grill wouldn't start.  We had lighter fluid and matches, but we couldn't get the grill going.  Apparently, this grill has to be lit with a candle? And even that wasn't doing the trick.  After around 45 minutes of trying to figure this out, someone had the genius idea of using a hair dryer!  So yes, we used the hair dryer to keep the grill going so that the burgers could get cooked.

I know this sounds ridiculous, but we were starving and it worked!  So now everyone knows to have a hair dryer close by when using a grill, just in case.  Because this was a cookout, I was able to bring Dakota and she was the life of the party.  Everyone loved having her around and people were offering to watch her for me, this is an offer I will definitely be using in the near future.  People kept asking if she spoke/understood English or Spanish haha,  Of course my answer was, Dakota understands English, but only responds when she wants to.

The rest of my weekend was spent relaxing, enjoying the sunshine, and getting things ready for the upcoming week.  Now that it is May, rainy season is over so there will be lot of sun for the next few months.!

Differences between the US and Ecuador

Hey Everyone!
Nothing incredibly exciting happened this past week, mainly just recovering from the high from my previous weekend.  Last week, I didn't have a picture of the tubing, so here is what that looked like.

We were all tied together, so no one could get lost.  Since there were rocks all over the river, we had to wear helmets-not the leisurely float that we were expecting.  But tons of fun, and probably much more fun than a casual floating down the river anyways.

 I have now been working at the travel agency, South Expeditions, for about 3 1/2 weeks and am finally starting to feel comfortable there.  I have really been trying to increase the company's presence on social media, so please follow South Expeditions on Facebook, twitter, and instagram :)  I would really appreciate it and there are some awesome pictures of all parts of Ecuador!  The person that I am filling in for already went on maternity leave, about 2 weeks earlier than expected, so I was slightly forced to jump head first into this job and figure it out as I go.  Luckily, the people at this company are so nice and willing to help me with anything that I could possibly need.  One of the things that I am responsible for in addition to social media, is a promotion campaign for 2 new trips that are in December of this year.  The promotion material was already done, but the owner hated it, so he asked me to re-do it.  This was my first real assignment at this job, and I was so excited to actually do something important!  As y'all know, I have no experience in marketing, so I pretty much just winged it, and the owner thought it looked great- SUCCESS!  And of course I have to ask that if you know anyone wanting to come to Ecuador on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, then send them my way, and you can get the commission.

This coming week is another holiday week, their version of Labor Day, so it will be a 4 day work week.  Most people are leaving town, but since I have been gone so much lately, I decided I will stay in Quito to save some money and relax with Dakota.

One of the biggest differences between the US and Ecuador is the driving.  Ecuadoreans are incredibly nice people, and don't seem to have ANY sense of urgency.  However, when they are behind the wheel in a car, their personality does a complete 180.  I have never heard so many horns beeping in my life- they make New Yorkers seem calm.  It makes absolutely no sense, but they will start honking to horn before the light turns green.  What are they trying to accomplish??  A general rule here, is that there are no rules when you are on the road.  Road lanes and stop signs are merely suggestions.  And the cops do absolutely nothing if you run a stop sign.  These drivers also love to use their warning/caution lights.  It's almost as if you can do no wrong as long as you honk your horn or use your warning lights.  I have been in a cab before that literally backed up 2 blocks down the road with traffic coming.  I just had to close my eyes and pray that no one hit us.  The cops only direct traffic here, because the lights aren't good enough?  Sometimes, you will see a cop, with a whistle of course, directing traffic on a one-way street  where there isn't an intersection.  Maybe someone can explain this to me, but why would a cop need to direct traffic when there is only one way you can go?

Another one of my favorite things are the street performers.  Since tourist season is about to start, I have to admit that these street performers have really upped their game.  No longer is it good enough to just juggle.  Now, you have to juggle while standing on a tight-rope.

Yep, that is correct- they tight-rope across the lane of traffic during red lights.  I was lucky enough to see the set up of this the other day.  One side of the rope is already attached to the pole, and as soon as the light turns red, they run across the street and tie the rope to the other side, then hop on.  I must say, this is pretty impressive!  If I wasn't in a hurry to get to my class, I for sure would have given this guy some money- he deserved it!  The first time I saw this, it reminded me of Phil Dunphy tight-rope walking across the yard in Modern Family.

However, if tight-rope walking isn't your specialty, you can always juggle fire.  Another equally dangerous option.

The other category of street performers are the dancers.  I had the pleasure of stopping at a red light and seeing one of the best costumes- skeletons!  I couldn't get a picture but imagine 2 guys dressed up like this.

They weren't the most talented, but their costumes were the best that I have seen yet.  I guess you need an excellent costume if you lack talent.  Hopefully, they can have more practice before the big rush of tourists comes.

Hopefully, I will have some more exciting things to talk about for the next post, but thought y'all might be interested in the craziness that is Ecuador driving!

Having the Time of My Life!

Sorry for not giving y'all an update last week, but nothing too exciting happened and I was sick, so I decided not to write anything.  Lately, I have been busy working my 2 part-time jobs 5 days a week, so that doesn't leave much free time.  For anyone that is interested in teaching English, I must say that the past 2 weeks have been somewhat frustrating for me.  My morning class only has one student, so when she can't have class, there is no class and I don't get paid.  Well, recently, she has been very busy and we have only had 1 class a week, when we are supposed to have 4 classes per week.  My boss has sent out emails asking if we can teach certain classes but I am never able to because I am supposed to have my class from 7:30-9:30am.  So now I am not getting paid since my student keeps canceling, but I also can't pick up other classes because I am supposed to have my morning class.  Anyways, it has been frustrating, but hopefully that morning class will be done this week and I won't have to deal with this anymore.  In addition to work, I unfortunately was sick some of this week.  I ate a cheeseburger last Saturday night and was sick all day Sunday.  An Ecuadorean told me about a local remedy for sickness where they make oregano tea.  This did not sound appealing in any way, but I felt so bad that I figured it was worth a shot.  Much to my surprise, this actually helped me feel much better within about an hour- so if you are ever feeling sick, you should give this a try!  Since I was feeling better on Monday, I thought I could start eating normally again, and this turned out to be a huge mistake.  Monday night I woke up sick again, and this time I had to cancel my morning class.  Figures that the one day my student can actually make it to class, I have to cancel because I'm sick. But no worries, because I am feeling much better now- it only took about 4 days to get back to 100%.

Since I was feeling better, I decided last minute to join the weekend trip from the Spanish school to Mindo.  I went to Mindo with my family back in the beginning of February and loved it, so I thought why not go again?  After going a second time, I must say that I LOVE Mindo even more now!  There is so much to do in this tiny little town and it's only 2 hours away from Quito.  We stayed at this super cute hostel that is associated with my favorite place La Casa de Chocolate- it's almost as if God placed me there as a reward for surviving the sickness! Here is a picture of our room and the view.  And there was a river right outside our room, so you could hear that soothing sound all day/night long.

Once we got to the hostel, we ate lunch then went for a hike.  Our tour guide/teacher told us that it would be a 2 hour hike and we were going to see a waterfall.  I have been in Ecuador for about 2 1/2 months now, and I know Ecuadoreans aren't always the most trustworthy, and I learned this lesson again.  There is a common joke in Ecuador that says "How do you know when an Ecuadorean is lying? Because they're lips are moving".  After about an 1 1/2 hour hike uphill, I started to realize that this hike is probably going to be a lot longer than just 2 hours, and we weren't even at the trail to the waterfall yet.  It took about 2 hours just to reach the trail, but luckily, Mindo is at a lower altitude than Quito, so it didn't bother me walking uphill.  We were able to see some great views along the way.

Once we got to the trail, the real fun started.  Not long after starting this trail, we discovered a part where you could continue on the trail, or you could repel down the rocks.  At this moment, I have to say that Ecuador Kim is much more adventurous than America Kim, so I decided to try the repelling.  I was the first to go after our guide and I haven't ever repelled before so it was a little bit of a challenge for me.  And my legs are kinda short, so there were times where I physically couldn't reach anyplace to put my feet.  It was a struggle to say the least-and being in Ecuador, of course, there was no harness or anything like that, just a rope

After successfully making it down, we moved on and found a tarzan swing.  This is so basic, but so much fun.  I took a couple turns on this swing and had people push me so I could go further.

It might have been an incredibly long hike, but it was so great because there were surprises everywhere you turned.  These little obstacles made the hike much more fun and interesting than your basic walking through the forest.  After what seemed like 10 hours of walking, we finally reached our destination of the waterfall.  We all wore bathing suits because you could go in the river.  There were multiple options: jumping off a cliff, going down the slide, standing in the pool beside the river, or be boring and not get in the water at all.  The cliff was probably 35 feet high and I know I said I am adventurous, but I'm not that adventurous, so I took the slide.  I was so excited until I looked and saw that the slide ends about 12-15 feet above the water.  Looks like I was going to be free falling into the river after all.  The slide was fun but man that water was COLD and the current was strong.  Since the current is strong, there was a guy working at the waterfall to help you get out, thank goodness!

When we were finished playing in the water, it was time to hike back up to the road...obviously stopping to play on the swing again.  Then, it was time to start the trek back into town.  Some took a taxi, but my friend Betsy and I decided to walk.  Now, I was starving at this point, so I was walking as fast as I could.  Betsy and I thought "ok, it took almost 2 hours to walk up here and we had to stop to wait for the rest of the group a few times, and now its all downhill so it should take about 45 mins, right"  WRONG!  It seemed like this walk was somehow longer than the walk up.  Once we finally made it back to the hostel, we found out that we had hiked a total of 15 km!  With this knowledge, we quickly decided that we could now eat whatever we wanted for the rest of the day, and enjoy the delicious brownies at La Casa de Chocolate.    For the rest of the night, we just ate dinner and then went out for a little bit, but we were all exhausted so it wasn't an extremely late night.

Sunday, we had breakfast, then walked to the zip-lining place.  Even though we walked to almost Peru the day before, we decided to walk to the zip-line because it was only about half the distance.  This was a different zip-line than the one I did with my family a few months ago, and it was just as good. The guides let us do some more adventurous stuff than your basic position of being a cannonball.  On about the 3rd line, they said we could go upside down if we wanted to- yikes.  Of course I am a natural born leader, so I was usually the first to go and I couldn't let anyone in the group show me up, so I went upside down.  This was scary but amazing at the same time.  It's a completely different view and unique experience.

Once you go upside down, going back to the basic position is so boring, so the guides tried to keep us on our toes.  The next line, we weren't allowed to go upside down, so they let us go without holding on, which pretty much just made you spin.  Finally after asking many times, the guides let us go upside down again.  Betsy and I also went down in superman position, but you had to go with a guide.  This was a little awkward, but you feel like you are flying so it was pretty cool.

On one of my favorite lines, the guide asked me "strong or weak?"  I had no idea why he asked that but of course I responded "strong".  And remember, I always go first, so I didn't know what was going to happen.  All of the sudden I take off and the guides start bouncing the line from both ends- and I'm flying up and down.  I could not stop giggling and laughing.  I was loving that!  This was definitely worth the $20!

After zip-lining, it was time for tubing.  We all thought that it would be a leisurely float down the river. Once again we were wrong- that seemed to be the theme of the trip.  There were about 8 inner-tubes tied together and we had a guide go with us.  Basically, this was taking an inner-tube down mildish rapids.  Not relaxing but of course tons of fun.  Some people were a little terrified, but Betsy and I were laughing non-stop.  The current was very strong due to the rain the night before, and there were rocks all over the river, so we were bouncing all over the place.

This was such an adventurous weekend, which I absolutely loved.  I definitely recommend going to Mindo if you are ever in Ecuador, and I know I will go back many times before my time is up here.  It's a shame I have to go back to work, but I gotta work so I can enjoy more adventures like this past one!

Jungle Adventures

This past week has been a great week for me!  Through a friend at the Spanish school, I found another part-time job working at a travel agency called South Expeditions.  There is a lady who works in the office doing marketing and planning that is about to go on maternity leave, so they needed someone to replace her for a few months.  Since most of their clients are based in the US, they wanted someone with good English skills, which was great for me!  The company specializes in adventure tours and all of the tours are customized based off of what the clients want, and let me tell you these are not cheap tours.  I started the job on Wednesday, and was talking to the person that I will be replacing and one of the tour guides about their tours in the Galapagos.  Since I will be responsible for marketing these tours, they want their employees to experience the tours first-hand, so I'm hoping that I will be able to join one of the Galapagos tours.  

The beginning of the week was once again very rainy.  However, on Tuesday, I experienced my first actual storm in Ecuador- and this was finally a real storm.  Luckily, I was inside my apartment but the sky lit up like fireworks accompanied by thunder so loud that it shook the apartment.  Someone posted this picture on facebook from the storm.

With this week being a holiday week, I didn't have classes on Thursday and Friday.  So we left Friday morning for Misahualli in the jungle.  I was very excited about going to the jungle but also very nervous because I didn't know if there would be a lot of snakes and other animals around.  Thank goodness, this part of the jungle doesn't have a lot of snakes, but they do have tons of monkeys.  The town is located where Rio Misahualli and Rio Napo join, so there was a little beach area to swim in.  The monkeys are very smart and realize that this is where the tourists are, so they love to show off and steal cameras, sunglasses, or anything they can get their little hands on.  

It took about 4 hours to get there, so we arrived in time for lunch.  After checking into the hostal and eating, we went down to the river and decided to take a boat out for a ride down the river.  The boats that they use are very similar to gondolas that you would find in Venice, not in the amazon of Ecuador. Our driver took us to an indigenous village and then back to the town.  I was amazed by how beautiful the jungle was, and how green and luscious the vegetation is. 

This place truly looks like a pre-programmed computer background, not reality.  One thing about the jungle is that it is extremely humid- I felt like I was in Georgia during July.  And remember places in Ecuador don't usually have A/C or heat, so the only thing that can cool you down is the breeze, which was a warm.  Of course we used the heat and humidity as an excuse to drink cold beer and eat ice cream constantly.  At night on Friday, we decided to go on "The Worm."  This is a kiddy ride that is like a train that takes you around for 15 minutes but only costs $1.50 (even for the Gringos!).  We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  The Worm would chase it's tail and drive in circles- and spinning is always my favorite part of any ride, so I was LOVING this.  After chasing it's tail, The Worm drove down the road swerving, which was even more fun, and then it chased its tail some more. Apparently, in true Ecuador fashion, The Worm can also be used as a taxi so we had to drop some people off at their home during our ride.  We decided to get off of The Worm at this restaurant on the other side of the river to have a drink.  

When we woke up Saturday morning, no one in the hostal had water.  There was no telling when the water was going to come back on, so we spent the majority of the morning finding another hostal to stay at.  We ended up finding a great hostal that was off the main square and only $15/night with breakfast included and not only did they have water, but they had hot water!  Hostal El Pasiano was so cute and had a nice jungly garden surrounding it, so it felt very secluded.

 Once the hostal situation got figured out, I was very antsy to get our day started.  I didn't care what we did, but I just wanted to experience the jungle.  We found a guy that gave customized tours, so we decided to do a tour with him for a few hours.  The tour consisted of a 30 minute boat ride, hour long walk through the jungle, then about 45 minute tubing/floating down the river, and then a boat ride back to the town.  The walk through the jungle was amazing and very muddy.  Luckily, we were given boots to wear through the mud.  However, there were times that we stepped in mud almost to the top of our boots, but what is a jungle tour without some mud right?  We saw tons of different types of trees, spiders, ants and gorgeous vegetation.  There was even a vine/branch that you could swing on.  Only 2 of us tried this because it required a lot of upper body strength, so I just went for one swing or I would have fallen in the mud.

As soon as our walk through the jungle was over, we were incredibly hot and it was time to tube down the river.  The current was pretty fast, so we floated a good ways down the river.  This was so relaxing and it was a perfect day outside.  I could have stayed on that tube for hours.

Once we got back to Misahualli, a few of us decided to swim in the river, but the current felt like it had the strength of rapids.  I decided that I didn't want to work that hard for a relaxing river swim, so I sat on a big rock that was in the river.  I'm sure we looked like those stupid gringos that tried to swim directly to the rock instead of starting upstream and letting the current take us there-oops.  

For dinner, we decided to go back across the river to this restaurant that is in the middle of a garden and very serene and peaceful.  Of course, after dinner we all wanted to ride The Worm again- I felt like such a kid and think we had more fun than any of the kids.

Sunday morning, we had breakfast and relaxed at the hostal before coming back to Quito.  I was exhausted after our weekend, so we didn't do much after returning home.  This week will be a very busy week for me with work because I still have my morning and afternoon classes and also my job at the travel agency- looks like I will be drinking lots of coffee!

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend!  Until next time...