End of an Era

Now that I have been back in the States for almost a week, I decided to write one last post about my time in Ecuador.  The last post was about my epic trip to Peru and not a lot happened between then and now.

For my last month in Ecuador, I wanted to spend as much time with friends as possible.  I was very lucky that Ecuador had another 2-day national holiday at the beginning of November, which of course allowed for one last weekend trip.  While in Peru, Betsy and I met many people that were backpacking around South America and we managed to convince one of our new friends to come visit Ecuador.  Before our trip, Betsy had a work party and she was able to invite most of us to join.  We ended up going to one of our favorite places in Quito.

Can you tell why this is my favorite bar??

After this fun night out, we took our visitor to Banos for my last weekend trip away.  This made my time in Ecuador come full circle because, if you remember, Banos was the first trip I took in Ecuador when my family was here.  Thank goodness this trip didn't end up with me in the hospital with food poisoning like the first!  A friend that came with us knew of a good hostel, so he booked us a room there.  To me, all hostels are kinda the same, but this hostel had a rooftop patio with a beautiful view of the city.

You just don't get to wake up to views like this everyday!  We spent our time here biking to the waterfalls, relaxing, and enjoying our time away from the big city of Quito.  I had the best time with this group of friends because everyone got along so well, there was no drama, and we were surrounded by the natural beauty of the Andes Mountains!  I think at this point, I had taken the never-ending green mountains for granted and forgot that most of the world doesn't have this scenery.

Once we got back from Banos, I only had 1 1/2 weeks left in Ecuador.  For my last weekend, I decided I would host Beer Olympics or what really just turned into game night.  All of my friends were there and we just played games all night=PERFECT!  And of course we also had some great food!

Roommate picture including the dogs

Looking back on the past almost 10 months makes me see just how much I have changed in a relatively short period of time.  I came to Ecuador not having a clue what would happen or if I would even be able to find a job.  Not only did I find a job, but I found some incredible friends from all over the world that I know will stay in my life.  I faced my fears by jumping off a bridge, climbing up volcanoes, and rock climbing while hiking a volcano-just to name a few.

I will never forget the people that I have met and some of the unique aspects of my time here.  For example, who can say that their apartment was protected by Spiderman?

Yes, in fact our landlord had a mural of Spiderman on one of the bedroom walls.  And no, she wouldn't let us paint over it.  Just one of the things that made our apartment so fun and interesting.  Another thing I will never forget is the incredible view of Quito that our massive balcony offered.

I am so proud of myself for taking this leap of faith and moving to Ecuador to pursue a lifelong dream of mine.  The only problem is that I don't want to stop traveling and challenging myself now-sorry family and friends but I won't be living in the US for a while.  I will be leaving for Asia sometime in February, so stay tuned for my next blog from Asia!!

MACHU PICCHU!!!

Hey y'all!

So unless you have been living under a rock, you know that I just went on a trip of a lifetime hiking 5 days/4 nights and 80km to Machu Picchu-just one of the 7 wonders of the world!  This is a trip that my friend Betsy and I had been planning for several months and I am slightly depressed that it is now over.  There is so much I can say about this trip, but I will try to stick with the important parts so this isn't 50 pages long.

To start off with, I will tell you about the cute city of Cusco, Peru, which is where all of the treks leave from.  I really enjoyed exploring this town and everything was so cheap and the food was incredible!  Most Latin Americans can't handle any type of spice so the food in Ecuador isn't anything to write home about, but the food in Peru actually has spice and flavor and tasted perfect.  Not to mention, it was cheaper than food in Ecuador, so I'm sure that made it taste even better.  Someone had told us about how cheap massages are, so of course we had to take advantage of this and we got a full-body hour long massage for $8 each before we even started our trek!! Can you believe it???  And yes it was a legit place.  We only had one complete free day before the trek, so we did a little bit of hiking with some people we met at the hostel to acclimate to the altitude and were rewarding with beautiful views of the city.

After a day of exploring and dominating the chocolate museum, it was time to start our trek!  The beginning of the hike was in higher altitudes but we were all so excited so it didn't matter.  Our group consisted of 13 Americans ranging from 22-62 years old, and pretty much all of us got along great.

The first day was a "training" day as our guides called it and was only about 5 hours of hiking.  Once we got to the campsite, some of us decided to play a game of American football in this semi-grassy area that was on an incline with a nice rock wall in the middle of the "field" but we did the best we could with what we had.  Our guide was very surprised that after hiking we decided to exert more energy and play football.  After our game, it was tea time.  I think tea time was my favorite part of the day because we had coffee, tea, hot chocolate, popcorn, and crackers with any topping you could want.  Obviously all of us stuffed our faces, and didn't realize that dinner was only 1 1/2 hours later-oops.  It is absolutely amazing how the cook that was with us was able to prepare such gourmet meals for us.  Every meal during the 5 day trek was so yummy and every meal was different-and way better than anything I could do with a full kitchen.  Because we would hike for many many hours everyday, our bedtime was somewhere between 8- 8:30 haha.  But the sun goes down at 5:30ish, so we were all ready for bed at this time.  Thank goodness I'm not a night owl or this could have been tough.  This first night was the coldest night by far, and all of us pretty much froze.  Needless to say we didn't get much sleep at all.  I was just praying that it could be 5:00 in the morning so I could wake up to coca tea and start moving to warm up.  

Day 2 was one of our longer and more difficult days.  In the morning we hiked up 3 hours to the Salkantay Pass, and just about hiked up to the glaciers.  The last 150-200 meters were incredibly steep and at that elevation it was hard to breathe, but all of us made it to the top.  This view was AMAZING!

  

At the top, one of our guides had more hot coca tea and a snack waiting for us.  We really got spoiled with all of the tea and food during this trek.  From here, we had to hike down around 2 hours to lunch.  After lunch, we continued to hike down and were starting to get closer to the jungle.  Usually, we would get to our campsite around 4 in the afternoon, so we played lots and lots and lots of cards while waiting for tea time and dinner.  Everyone in the group was different, so I really enjoyed getting to know the people.

With our first long day finished, day 3 was a short day of only hiking 6 hours on relatively flat ground.  The term our guides used was "Inca flat" which means not hiking mountains but there are still some hills so it's not exactly flat.  We arrived to our campsite just in time for lunch and went to the thermal springs in the afternoon for some much needed relaxation.  

At this point, we were in the jungle along with some of the meanest mosquitos you could ever imagine.  These guys aren't even phased by bug spray and will bite you through your clothes.  However, you don't feel them until you look down and see blood and red marks all over yourself.  It looked like all of us had the chicken pox.  

Day 4 was another long day and probably the most challenging day of the trek.  We had another hike up a STEEP mountain that was supposed to take about 3 hours.  Being the over-achievers that we are, we somehow got to the top in just over 2 hours.  I would have to say that this was probably the most let down I have ever been after reaching the top- there was absolutely no view.

Yep this is the top.  After waiting up here for close to an hour for the rest of the group to arrive, we hiked our way down another 2 hours.  This was very challenging because the trail was very steep and muddy with loose rocks.  Everyone was slipping and several people almost fell. On our way down, we stopped at some ancient Inca ruins.  And we learned that in fact you are NOT allowed to climb on top of the ruins-every group has to have "that guy"-typical Americans.

At the bottom of the mountain there was a river, so we all took our socks and shoes off for a refreshing dip in the cool river.  This might have been the best surprise during the entire trip.  Just relaxing while sitting on rocks with our feet in the flowing water was the best feeling!

Next it was lunch, then a 3 hour flat walk to Aguas Calientes, where we would finally get a hotel room and a shower.  You would think that a flat walk would be the easiest part of the trek, but I think mentally this was the worst part for everyone.  By this time, our feet were tired and beat up and we had to walk 3 hours along a railroad track, so no pretty view. Needless to say there wasn't much conversation and a lot of unhappy faces.  And then the mosquitos were eating us alive, so it was a very rough afternoon.  We finally arrived to the hotel and got hot showers- some of us in the dark because of the tricky power.  Apparently some hotels require a key to be placed in little holder in order for the power to work- this would have been nice to know before we took showers in the dark haha.  

Day 5 was THE day- time to finally make it to Machu Picchu.  This place is so impressive because it's an Incan city located at the top of a mountain and completely surrounded by mountains.  Everything is built with stone, and they carried the stone up there-WHAT?!  The Incan culture is very fascinating and no one knows why Machu Picchu was abandoned- very mysterious.  

We were able to explore on our own and see just how big this city is.  The Incas must have had amazing glutes and calves because there was no shortage of steps and steep hills to walk up.  

This entire trek was spectacular but absolutely exhausting.  Thank goodness we took a train and bus back to Cusco because none of us had any energy left.  The next few days were spent getting another $8 massage and relaxing around the hostel.

I know this probably sounded like a really difficult and exhausting 5 days but it was 100% worth it.  I would suggest anyone do one of the hikes if you want to see Machu Picchu.  Some people just take the train there but you miss out on all of the beautiful scenery that Peru has to offer, and you miss out on meeting even more amazing people.

August Update!

Hey Everyone!  I'm back after taking about a month off from updating.

This past month has been very interesting and full of experiences: some good and some not so good.  My last day at the travel agency was July 31st, so I have just been teaching English for the past month.  I must say that I really do miss working at the travel agency and it is becoming very clear to me that I want to do something in the travel industry when I'm finished touring the world teaching English.

As many of you know, August started off with celebrating my birthday!  It was sad to not be home for this, but I have a great group of friends here that helped celebrate with me.  The next weekend was a holiday weekend in Ecuador.  The funny thing about Quito is that it's always easy to recognize the important dates since they name their roads after those dates.  For example, I live off of 9 de Octubre (Oct 9th), which is one block away from 10 de Agosto (August 10th).  I wasn't sure what exactly happened on August 10th, but if a big road is named after it, then you can probably assume that it will be a holiday.  Don't think Ecuadorians like to work too hard naming streets.  Turns out that August 10th might be their independence day- yes I was correct when using the word "might."  I thought I had heard previously that Ecuador's independence day was August 10th, so I asked multiple students about the importance of the day and no one was really sure what the reason for the holiday was.  They just knew that it was a day off from work.  This is completely baffling because EVERYONE in the US knows, that July 4th is our independence day.  And we can remember the date without having to name a road after it.  Go America!!

To celebrate the holiday, I went to the beach with a group of friends.  We decided to go to one of the closest beaches, Pedernales, which was about a 5 hour car ride.  Luckily, some Ecuadorians we know offered to give us a ride so we didn't have to deal with fighting the crowds at the bus station. The town was a cute little beach town, with the main street lined by bars in huts- which I somehow forgot to take pictures of.

A nearby beach town was having a fish festival, or something similar, so we went over there for an afternoon.  I'm not really sure what was supposed to happen, but there were lots of vendors selling food and we found some amazing "pincho camarones" which are like shrimp k-bobs! Very yummy!

Then, we just relaxed on the beach for the rest of the afternoon.  One of the great things about the beaches here, is that there are vendors actually on the beach selling drinks, empanadas, and other food.  The people here are very creative because their "stand" is a modified bike, so it is much easier to move down the beach.  I think the states need this!

Unfortunately, we didn't have the best weather and it was overcast most of the time, but we did have a great time.  We almost saw a pretty sunset, but the clouds got in the way.

And of course, a trip to the beach in Ecuador wouldn't be complete without seeing a donkey on the sand.  This doesn't even surprise me anymore.  When in Ecuador, you learn to expect the unexpected.  Like of course there is a donkey walking down the beach, why wouldn't there be?

This trip to the beach was everything I could have hoped for and was very relaxing before going back to reality.

Later in the month was another friends birthday, so we rented a chiva or party bus.  These are always so much fun and its a great way to travel around the city.  In addition to dancing, you must balance since the bus is moving, so it's a great workout.  They give everyone whistles, which is probably the worse thing to give to people that are drinking, especially Americans, which have the tendency to be obnoxious.  So obviously, we had a great time!

When I moved to Quito, everyone warned me about the pick-pocketers on the buses, and usually I am very careful when on the bus.  However, one Monday morning, I was tired and not paying attention, and my bag got cut.  These people are super talented and can cut or open your bag without you feeling a thing.  The person took my keys, which had about $10, my ID, and a credit card in it.  I never carry much around with me just in case my stuff gets stolen, so it wasn't so bad.  Because I'm slightly paranoid about this, I never bring my phone with me, thank goodness!  Usually, I just have my keys and English books with me, so it doesn't really matter if someone wants to take my stuff- and I highly doubt thieves have a strong desire to learn English.

I will try to update this again soon, but this next month will be full of preparing for my once-in-a-lifetime trip to Peru and hiking Machu Picchu!! I'm so incredibly excited and can't wait to share that experience with y'all!

Little Bit of Reflection

As I sit here and write this post, I look back at my time here in Ecuador and can't believe it's been 6 months already.  I'm not sure if this is because my time at the travel agency is over, or perhaps because The Bachelorette is finished, or what, but lately I've been thinking about everything that has happened recently in my life while waiting on the bus.  There are many fears that I have conquered and amazing experiences had in such a short amount of time.

To start with, I conquered one of the biggest fears of all when moving abroad: finding a way to survive!  I came to this country not knowing anyone, not having a job, not having a place to live, and not knowing the language, so pretty much I hopped on the plane with faith and a prayer.  Looking back now, I can understand why so many people were slightly worried about me and questioning my mental status since it didn't seem like I was jumping into a situation where I would succeed.  From the moment I landed in Quito, I had challenges and thanks to some incredible strangers, I was able to make it through this journey.  Within a month, I had a job teaching English, a place to live, and was starting to make some friendships.  I learned to have no shame and ask for friends so I wouldn't be lonely, something I have never had to do before.  And some great friendships have emerged due to that!  It sounds so weird but there are people that I met at the Spanish school, who I only knew for 2-3 weeks but feel like we've been friends for years.  Something about going through the challenge of learning a language and exploring a foreign city together really creates a strong bond.

One thing that people tell me here is that I am so calm and adventurous.  Those are 2 descriptions that I NEVER would have used to describe myself while living in the states.  But looking back, I guess Ecuador Kim is all about faces fears and taking advantage of the opportunities placed in front of me.  Thanks to my Norwegian buddy, I jumped into a freezing cold crater lake in a volcano and climbed 5000m up another volcano to where the glacier started.

Before coming to Ecuador, I would have said "Heck NO," I'm not jumping into a lake that is freezing cold- No Thank You!  I didn't realize it at the time, but that must have been when Ecuador Kim was "born."  From then on, it has been constant adventures.  Heck, at the beginning, just trying to figure out the buses or going to the grocery store was an adventure.  Due to friends that I can only assume were a gift from God, I have done spontaneous rock climbing while trying to hike up yet another volcano and jumping off of a bridge.

And we all know that America Kim wouldn't even look over the railing on a bridge 100m above a river, let alone even think for a second about jumping off of it.  In a weird way, I feel freer here in Ecuador as if nothing can hold me back.  It's very cliche, but fears don't have near as much control over me anymore- and its only been 6 months!  Who knows what else I will do while in Ecuador!

Another cliche about traveling is how it changes your mindset.  And of course, in this short time, I feel that my mindset has changed too.  When traveling, things unexpected always happen like missing your bus stop or getting food poisoning in a tiny town.  I just had to accept things for the way they were and find a way to fix the situation.  Getting frustrated wasn't going to solve anything and would only make the problem worse.  Don't get me wrong, there are still things that frustrate me, but I'm much better and letting things go and just laughing it off while saying "Oh Ecuador..."  It's gotten to the point that I don't even think twice about the fact that you can't flush toilet paper down the toilet in this country- yep you throw it way instead.  I feel that I have a different perspective and am learning what is truly important in life.

Another opportunity I had was to work at a travel agency with some of the most knowledgable people in the industry.  Having no experience at all, they gave me a chance and I was able to learn something everyday whether it was more areas in Ecuador to explore, creating a website, or just learning about marketing in general.  And I'm sure along the way, my co-workers would look at me and think "dang those gringas are weird!"  I can only hope that I was given this chance to help prepare me for a job working with a travel agency at some point in my future.

Alright, sorry for all of the travel cliches, but I guess people always say those things for a reason.  This reflection makes me so excited to see what else is in store for me during my last 3 1/2 months in Ecuador and the adventures that will follow.

Surviving the Deep Jungle

As some of you may already know, the Pope is making his way around South America, which included a stop in Ecuador.  Since there were so many road closures, it was impossible to get to work, meaning no work last Monday and Tuesday.  Whenever you get a 4 day weekend, it is crucial that you take advantage and go on a trip and some friends decided that they wanted to really experience the jungle.  We were able to find a 4 day/3 night tour for a good price so we grabbed our bug spray and anything else that we thought was "jungle appropriate" and got on a bus.  We knew this would be an adventure, but I don't think we realized the adventure would start with the bus ride.

Since the bus ride to the town of Lago Agrio is somewhere in the 6-8 hour range, we figured it would be best to take an overnight bus.  Yes, I know that is a wide range, but with these busses you never know how many stops they will make and due to a lot of rain there was a possibility of taking a detour because of  roads being closed from landslides.  We got lucky and THE road to the jungle had just opened that day.  During the bus ride, we watched a movie that was highly inappropriate considering there were children on the bus, but thats Ecuador- these kids are tough.  At around 3am, the bus stopped and a police officer forced all of us to get off the bus.  We had to line up and show him our IDs.  I was praying that everything would work out since all I had was my drivers license and a horrible black and white photocopy of my passport-and being deported was not something I wanted to be a part of this adventure.  Pretty sure the cop didn't care and let all of us get back on the bus.  At around 6am, we noticed that most of the people had gotten off of the bus already, and we started to get a little concerned. Turns out, we missed our stop and went 1 hour too far-oops.  We thought Lago Agrio was the last stop, but you live and learn.  Take this as a lesson that when taking an overnight bus, always ask if your destination is the last stop or not because they don't feel the need to openly give you this information.  So we got off of the bus, walked across the street, and got on another bus heading back.  An hour later, the kind man that was collecting the bus fares told us that we had finally reached Lago Agrio!  Woohoo step 1 down! We got breakfast and waited another 1 1/2 to 2 hours for the tour company bus to pick us up.  Once we got on that bus, it was another 1 1/2 hour drive to the river.  Then, at the river, we all hopped into a motorized canoe for another 1 1/2 hour journey to the lodge.  I should also mention that it was pouring down rain during the entire canoe ride- not the best canoe ride but at least we made it to the lodge...finally.

The lodge was so cute and was basically 8-10 huts all connected by boardwalks.

After arriving at the lodge, we were fed immediately and the food was amazing.  There was also hot chocolate and coffee available to help warm up from being soaked.  My favorite part was the hut full of hammocks!!

If you can't tell from how long it took to get here, this place was REMOTE!  There was only 1 light in our room and no actual ceiling, no outlets in the room, and the lights were solar powered so they turned it off at 10pm.  There was a charging station down in the hut with the kitchen and dining area so we were able to charge cameras and anything else you needed charged.

After being fed and relaxing in the hammocks for a bit, it was time for our first jungle adventure.  We all got into the canoe and went around the different areas around the lodge looking for animals.  The first animal we spotted was a sloth, and it pretty much just sat there in the tree.  In the Amazon, there is a special kind of dolphin called the Pink River Dolphin.  I was very excited to see this since you have to be in a specific part of the jungle to see it and obviously because its a pink dolphin.  Apparently, the pink river dolphin doesn't have to be pink...it was grey, and I was disappointed.  Our guide explained to us that some of them are pink because they are older and have more muscles and that vasculature gives the dolphins a pink color.  Didn't matter the reason, I was bummed.  Once we were done with that ride, it was time for dinner back at the lodge.  Once again, food was great, but we were exhausted so it was an early night for us.  Being in the humid jungle, there were lots of mosquitos so we had to sleep with mosquito nets.  I must say that I have gotten pretty good and setting up this net.

Our room kinda looked like a crime scene with all of the nets.

The next morning we woke up to the sounds of bird chirping and the taste of instant coffee.  We all agreed that breakfast was by far the best meal- fresh bread, quiche, fruit, and pancakes were just some of what we had over the 4 days.  As soon as breakfast was done, we headed out in the canoe and went for a 3 hour jungle walk.  This time of year is rainy season in the Amazon so there were parts of our walk that were very flooded, so this was definitely a dirty trek.

However, we were able to see some lots of monkeys, birds, and vegetation.

Every afternoon was free for us to relax, take a nap, or play in the water near the dock of the lodge.  We passed a lot of time hanging out in the hammocks and playing cards, and it was such a nice break from civilization and social media.  That night, we went out again around dusk to watch the sunset and search for the night animals like alligators.  And we found this guy, which our canoe driver decided to get as close to him as possible- these jungle people have absolutely no fear.

The animal life in the Amazon is incredible, but the sunsets are even more spectacular.  I would say to visit there just for the sunsets alone.

The next morning, we woke up early for some group bird watching.  My ADD personality is not exactly a good fit for bird watching, but I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity so I climbed up the tower and watched some birds.  We saw a ton of vultures and other birds that I can't remember what they are.  Then, one of the guides took my phone to take pictures from the telescope, which turned out incredible-good thing I decided to join!

After a long 40 minutes of watching birds, we decided to go back to our room and sleep until it was time for breakfast.  Today's activity was paddling a canoe down the river to an indigenous village to learn and cook some pan de yuca with one of the indigenous women.  It poured the entire ride and we paddled for about 1 1/2 hours.  I definitely got my workout in for the day with that activity.  As we were waiting for the rain to stop, my friend and I decided to lay down in the hammocks that were hanging inside the hut.  All of the sudden, we heard a loud sound of wood breaking so we tried to jump out of the hammocks, but that takes about 2 minutes to get out off.  We looked behind us and saw that one of the support beams broke at the corner of the hut.  From the outside, you could see how that side of the roof was significantly lower than the rest of the roof.  We actually broke these peoples hut, I still can't believe that happened.  No more rice for us I guess.  In our defense, there was already a lot of termite damage in the wood and we just happened to finish it off.  So we wouldn't break anything else, we then went to collect the yuca, which is a root and looks similar to a potato.  We helped to peel the yuca and grate the yuca, then the woman cooked it for us.  It looked like she was making the crust for a pizza, and this pan de yuca was very good!

Since all of us were full, it was time to head back to the lodge.  The rain had stopped and the sky cleared up for a beautiful sunny ride back.  The rest of the day was spent playing more cards and relaxing in the hammocks, which we didn't break this time.

Our trip back to Quito was was much less eventful since we chose to take a private van for only $8 more than the bus ride was, and this van took us within a few blocks of where we live.  This trip was so much fun, but we were all ready to get back to civilization and to a place where our clothes would actually dry.  The Amazon is such an amazing place full of adventure and beauty, which I highly recommend everyone to see at some point in their life.

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!