As I’ve just lamented with a few people, it has been crazy here to try to figure out a system for my days. My times is sectioned off with class, studying, designing, working in the café, talking and hanging out with my family, trying to find some way to volunteer and trying to find people who will speak Spanish with me. Recently I’ve felt like I’m doing a million things, and I’m not really doing any of them well.
Now, that’s not to say I’m not having a good time. I am enjoying myself.
My first weekend in Quito I talked to friends for hours and made homemade pizza. I admitted that I was an atheist to a surprisingly agnostic crowd, and tried to show in a small way that not all Americans are completely clueless about what America is doing in the world.
Last week, I went to a midnight premier of Pirates of the Caribbean 3 with Jose Luis and his friends Max and Abel. At 4:30 a.m., when I finally got to sleep, my head was full of new Spanish words from the clever Jack Sparrow that I read on subtitles. I was recuperating for two days, but it was worth it.
This weekend I was in a park, looking at beautiful views of the city, when the sky opened up and poured buckets of rain and hail. I ran through a field and a forest to get back to the house. We started walking back down to the house, but when the lightening seemed right next to us, we broke out in a run. High knees through fields and dodging back and forth on roots and rocks in bed of the woods. Soaking wet, we traversed the highway to get back to the house, and made it just inside before the hard, big pieces of hail started to fall.
I’ve eaten well. Every weekend, my host mom Ana makes a new dessert. Last weekend it was a tart custard layered with sweet cookies. This weekend it was a tasty peace pie with delicious fruit slices masterfully positioned in a circle on top. Needless to say, I am looking forward to Sundays.
That’s all for this week. I’ll try to keep the updates coming…
Monday, May 28, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Quito Week 1
Now, I am in Quito and life is very different than it was three weeks ago.
- I am in a house with four other people – Ana, Rudalfo Sr. and Jr., and Jose Luis.
- I am in class two hours a day, and I am studying for at least two more than that.
- I eat three square meals per day – a mix of fresh fruit with freshly-squeazed orange juice for breakfast, something from the café for lunch, and fun Ecuadorian dishes for dinner. They normally eat a big meal at lunch, but since I’m at school I get to eat a big meal at night when they’re eating bread and tea.
- My daily commute is $.50, 20 minutes long and involves a bus that is 98% of the time jammed packed with people. I have had to squeeze over and under people often to get out at the correct stop.
- I live in a place where most days I wear long sleeves, jeans and a jacket when I leave the house, and maybe I’m not wearing the jacket when I get home, but usually I am. I sleep under two blankets, and that is enough to keep me pretty warm but nowhere near hot.
- I routinely sit at the table for over an hour conversing with my family and friends, and the longest stretch has been more than six hours on a Friday night. We talked about politics and religion… light topics for icebreaker activities.
- Besides my school, house and a few shops and malls, I haven’t seen anything Quito has to offer. I am studying, working in the café connected to my school and working on design projects for the school. Not to mention trying to recreate my entire portfolio, which got completely ruined when my harddrive crashed a few months ago. This weekend is a holiday weekend, let’s hope I get out some.
- I find it a struggle these days to ask for something or figure out how to get where I need to be without sounding like a complete moron. Understanding Spanish isn’t too bad for day-to-day stuff, but speaking it is an entirely different beast. My pronunciation isn’t horrible, but formulating ideas has been a daily brain drain. My family speaks English, what I say is 10% Spanish and 90% English because I know I sound like an idiot and they know my language so much better.
Turkey
First things first:
Turkey was great! I am sad that I didn’t get a chance to update while I was there, but I will hit on some highlights.
After a 13-hour overnight bus ride from Georgia, I arrived in Trabzon, which is in the Northeast corner of Turkey. Like in Georgia, it was cold. Also like in Georgia, I didn’t know what the hell was happening half the time. But, my friend Kristy – after much delay thanks to strange Turkish domestic flight policies (i.e. the ability to cancel flights without notice) – met me, and we began our adventure.
In Trabzon we walked uphill to the Sumela Monastary in the snow, went to the Black Sea shore and we found some of the best baklava in Turkey. Then we took an overnight bus to Ankara and saw nothing but the bus station. Really great experience with the capital of the country, but even our Turkish friends – even the ones who are from Ankara – said there was nothing there worth seeing. So within three hours, we were off for another 6-hour ride to Capadoccia.
Capadoccia, and our town Göreme, were amazing, amazing places. It’s a region formed all by volcanoes, and the shapes in the land are wonderful. We went to an underground city where marginalized groups would hide out during wars, we walked through a valley and saw cave houses, we saw the sunrise in a hot air balloon, we rented scooters for an afternoon and rode around town in style, and Kristy went to an underwhelming UFO museum. We ate goat’s milk ice cream (awesome) and had our first great pita pizza. Oh, and we slept in a cave hotel.
After Cappadoccia, we headed to the east coast. We went to Selçuk and the Agean Sea. We saw Ephesus, which is an area with some pretty old and surprisingly well-maintained ruins. We had our first meal with hummus. Surprisingly (at least to us) it’s not a big dish in Turkey… they much prefer meat to vegetarian fare. We went to a nearby town for some outdoor shopping, and we left with helva, borek, cheese bread with spinach, honey, and some fruit. I’m pretty sure Kristy still has helva left over. We went to the beach for half a day, and an old man who was working on the beach area gave us a ride up a long hill to the main road to catch a bus, and though we didn’t speak a similar language, we were able to figure out some basic stuff about each other (families, home towns, phone numbers… the essentials).
After Selçuk we headed north on another overnight bus to Bursa, which is a big, non-touristy city below Istanbul on the Sea of Marmara. We went to a Turkish bath, which was amazing and wonderful. It was an all-female Turkish bath with a lot of old ladies gesturing about what we should do. I didn’t know what was happening most of the time, but I went with it and it felt great after our overnight bus ride. I found a great new backpack for cheap. We went to a beautiful mosque and tried to go to a tomb, but it was being renovated. We went to an amusement park near Ataturk’s house and played some air hockey, and I kind of ruled Kristy.
Then it was up again in the morning to go to Istanbul. We took a bus to the bus station, another bus to a ferry, and then we were supposed to go straight to the European side of the city. But alas, the ferry was full. So we went to the Asian side and befriended some people from Bursa, and that’s when I figured out that I had left my phone in Bursa at the hotel. Awesome. So after the first ferry, we got another ferry across the straight and then a taxi to the most touristy part of Turkey we’d seen yet – the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. I mean, it was like frat row – kegs out at noon, hookahs everywhere, crazy Australians without shirts or shoes on, people sleeping on roofs. Party 24/7, and of course Kristy and I were in no mood. So we would leave the oversized frat house each day (after much rousing to get our breakfast from the guy who managed the hostel, who was usually asleep on the roof where we were supposed to eat) to go out and see the city. And see the city we did. We went to Taxim the day of the protests and thought it was a soccer game. We went to the big 3 near our place – Aya Sofia, Blue Mosque and Basilica Scisterna. We went twice to the Grand Bazaar where we both got overwhelmed with its sheer size. We went to the Spice Bazaar where we ate fresh honeycomb and sampled far too many Turkish Delights. We saw the Süleymaniye Mosque and went to a fish market. It was pretty neat.
A short story that I like: Our first day at the Grand Bazaar I decided I wanted a purse, and after not finding one that I like a guy from one of the stalls started telling me about how they can make one for me. The perfect one. So after much joshing back and forth, with me gesturing exactly what I want and them saying of course they could do it (with me thinking it would not actually happen), they said “come on.” So we went with the tailor out of the Bazaar up about four flights of rickety stairs to a small room full of fabric and a single old sewing machine. Another guy was working, and my tailor friend told him to move because he was going to make me a purse. Neither of the men knew any English, so conversation was interesting. After about an hour with me watching and them laughing, my bag was made. I chose a patchwork pashmina for the fabric, and I was super excited about the results. I mean, talk about fare trade. We were leaving after I got the bag, and a lady in one of the stalls did a double take and said, “Oh, I like your bag. Pashmina? Cool!” Kristy said that nothing could have made me happier at that moment than that compliment, and she was so right.
Ok, so. I would say, if you’re going to Turkey, don’t just go to Istanbul. Of course, if you can, go to Trabazon. Learn a little Turkish, it’s a fun language. The word for raspberry is ahududu, how much better can it be than that? I had a really great time, and we were already concocting plans while we were there about how to move back….
Turkey was great! I am sad that I didn’t get a chance to update while I was there, but I will hit on some highlights.
After a 13-hour overnight bus ride from Georgia, I arrived in Trabzon, which is in the Northeast corner of Turkey. Like in Georgia, it was cold. Also like in Georgia, I didn’t know what the hell was happening half the time. But, my friend Kristy – after much delay thanks to strange Turkish domestic flight policies (i.e. the ability to cancel flights without notice) – met me, and we began our adventure.
In Trabzon we walked uphill to the Sumela Monastary in the snow, went to the Black Sea shore and we found some of the best baklava in Turkey. Then we took an overnight bus to Ankara and saw nothing but the bus station. Really great experience with the capital of the country, but even our Turkish friends – even the ones who are from Ankara – said there was nothing there worth seeing. So within three hours, we were off for another 6-hour ride to Capadoccia.
Capadoccia, and our town Göreme, were amazing, amazing places. It’s a region formed all by volcanoes, and the shapes in the land are wonderful. We went to an underground city where marginalized groups would hide out during wars, we walked through a valley and saw cave houses, we saw the sunrise in a hot air balloon, we rented scooters for an afternoon and rode around town in style, and Kristy went to an underwhelming UFO museum. We ate goat’s milk ice cream (awesome) and had our first great pita pizza. Oh, and we slept in a cave hotel.
After Cappadoccia, we headed to the east coast. We went to Selçuk and the Agean Sea. We saw Ephesus, which is an area with some pretty old and surprisingly well-maintained ruins. We had our first meal with hummus. Surprisingly (at least to us) it’s not a big dish in Turkey… they much prefer meat to vegetarian fare. We went to a nearby town for some outdoor shopping, and we left with helva, borek, cheese bread with spinach, honey, and some fruit. I’m pretty sure Kristy still has helva left over. We went to the beach for half a day, and an old man who was working on the beach area gave us a ride up a long hill to the main road to catch a bus, and though we didn’t speak a similar language, we were able to figure out some basic stuff about each other (families, home towns, phone numbers… the essentials).
After Selçuk we headed north on another overnight bus to Bursa, which is a big, non-touristy city below Istanbul on the Sea of Marmara. We went to a Turkish bath, which was amazing and wonderful. It was an all-female Turkish bath with a lot of old ladies gesturing about what we should do. I didn’t know what was happening most of the time, but I went with it and it felt great after our overnight bus ride. I found a great new backpack for cheap. We went to a beautiful mosque and tried to go to a tomb, but it was being renovated. We went to an amusement park near Ataturk’s house and played some air hockey, and I kind of ruled Kristy.
Then it was up again in the morning to go to Istanbul. We took a bus to the bus station, another bus to a ferry, and then we were supposed to go straight to the European side of the city. But alas, the ferry was full. So we went to the Asian side and befriended some people from Bursa, and that’s when I figured out that I had left my phone in Bursa at the hotel. Awesome. So after the first ferry, we got another ferry across the straight and then a taxi to the most touristy part of Turkey we’d seen yet – the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. I mean, it was like frat row – kegs out at noon, hookahs everywhere, crazy Australians without shirts or shoes on, people sleeping on roofs. Party 24/7, and of course Kristy and I were in no mood. So we would leave the oversized frat house each day (after much rousing to get our breakfast from the guy who managed the hostel, who was usually asleep on the roof where we were supposed to eat) to go out and see the city. And see the city we did. We went to Taxim the day of the protests and thought it was a soccer game. We went to the big 3 near our place – Aya Sofia, Blue Mosque and Basilica Scisterna. We went twice to the Grand Bazaar where we both got overwhelmed with its sheer size. We went to the Spice Bazaar where we ate fresh honeycomb and sampled far too many Turkish Delights. We saw the Süleymaniye Mosque and went to a fish market. It was pretty neat.
A short story that I like: Our first day at the Grand Bazaar I decided I wanted a purse, and after not finding one that I like a guy from one of the stalls started telling me about how they can make one for me. The perfect one. So after much joshing back and forth, with me gesturing exactly what I want and them saying of course they could do it (with me thinking it would not actually happen), they said “come on.” So we went with the tailor out of the Bazaar up about four flights of rickety stairs to a small room full of fabric and a single old sewing machine. Another guy was working, and my tailor friend told him to move because he was going to make me a purse. Neither of the men knew any English, so conversation was interesting. After about an hour with me watching and them laughing, my bag was made. I chose a patchwork pashmina for the fabric, and I was super excited about the results. I mean, talk about fare trade. We were leaving after I got the bag, and a lady in one of the stalls did a double take and said, “Oh, I like your bag. Pashmina? Cool!” Kristy said that nothing could have made me happier at that moment than that compliment, and she was so right.
Ok, so. I would say, if you’re going to Turkey, don’t just go to Istanbul. Of course, if you can, go to Trabazon. Learn a little Turkish, it’s a fun language. The word for raspberry is ahududu, how much better can it be than that? I had a really great time, and we were already concocting plans while we were there about how to move back….
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