Last night, in anticipation for coming to Quito for the day, I looked in some guide books. And this may sound a little crazy, but I sort of just realized that I´m in Ecuador. And I´m no longer afraid of being a tourist- I am in a new place and want to disfrutarme as much as possible, to the extent that funds allow. So, in a few weeks, I´m going to meet a childhood friend who I grew up with in Quito, have a super nostaligc sleepover, and from there head out East to the rainforest for a guided exploration for 4 or 5 days. Then another weekend I´m going to go to Baños, which is a hot spring town where you can get mud massages. It´s 3.5 hours south of Quito. Just for an overnight. And I want to go clubbing in Cayambe. And I might go to the beach, but it´s a long long bus ride, and I live so close to the ocean at home and also I have been to tropical beaches a lot before, and thing it´s probably not worth the trouble. But yes, I am going to travel the gringo trail because I am not afraid of being a woman alone and I am not afraid of being American and I am not afraid of being a tourist. And then I will come home to my house where I can´t flush toilet paper and spiders sleep in my bed with me and little children come up to my window when I am napping and yell Estas dormiendo! Yes I´m fucking dormiendo, why do you think my eyes are closed and I´m in bed you little fucks? And I will be happy there.
Today Mike and I are in Quito. We went to the gringo bookstore and I bought The Diamond Age, Things Fall Apart, and Catch 22. This decision took an hour. We went out for INDIAN FOOD (Indian food!!), went to an open market (where I almost bough alpaca scarves in every color of the rainbow- write me if you want one and in what color), and then, my friends, we went to CREPES AND WAFFLES!
Crepes and Waffles is the best place in Quito. It is a very swanky dessert and lunch place. I got a chocolate mocha coffee delight with real whipped cream in a glass cornicopia and a chocolate ice cream ball rolled in chocolate sugar crumbs topped with real wipped cream on a plate with chocolate syrup swirls. For less than 6 dollars. It was a welcome respite from beans and rice. Very bougie, very cosmopolitan. Very very chocolatey.
Now I need to buy a knife for working in the garden (I lost mine) and maybe another coffee because there is no coffee in Tabacundo. Yes, I know I´m in the coffee continent of the world but it all gets exported.
On the bus someone slashed a gigantic hole in my bag because they wanted to rob me. But they got nothing! Why? Because I don´t keep valuables in my purse because I am surrounded by theives. I keep my money in my pocket and walk around with my hand in my pocket. And an extra 20 in my bra, just in case. And taser eyes.
You may have noticed that something has changed. What happened is that culture shock is over, and I have my personality back! I am no longer timid and blown away by everthing around me, I am interacting! I am judging! I am snarking! i AM BOLD! ( I didn´t mean to hit the caps lock key but I think I like that). Please don´t get the impression that I´m being a jerk, or a cultural imperialist. But I am feeling more involved in my life now. Less like I´ve forgotten myself and my memories and habits at home. Which was a great experience, very Buddhist etc, but my reality right now is that I am still Rachel. And I like that.
Quito has been a little like playing Myst, but unlike playing Myst, I have been winning. Mike and I have been walking around trying to find resteraunts and stores I found in the guidebooks, and we have found everything! We are totally winning Quito! Also we have not been robbed!
Let´s hope we also win the busride home from Quito along the mountainous cliffs. I will be constantly vigilant to make sure we are safe. It´s my job.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Yesterday
5:30AM- Alarm to do yoga and meditation. I don´t think so.
6:20AM- Wake up and take shower
6:45 AM- Time I meant to leave for Gimena´s. Getting dressed.
7:45 AM- We made it to Gimena´s. I start making chocolate chip banan bread, first time I´ve gotten to use an oven since I got here. They do baking by weight, not cups, so I eyeball it.
9:45AM- Delicious.
12:00PM- We have cuy for lunch. Ginuea pig,the national delicacy. It is delicious, except its skin does not break down under teeth. Ever.
1:00 PM- Getting dressed for traditional indigenous dance. Purple pleated skirt. White embroidered blouse. Hair pulled back and wrapped tight in a ribbon. Slipper shoes with white flip-flop soles. Woven blue belt around the waist. If you couldn´t breathe with altitude before...
2:00 PM- Walk to Tabucundo with all the little girls dressed up, the 3 gringas, and Luis and two of Gimena´s brothers. The men are not dressed up.
2:30 PM- Waiting in the rain. Passing around chucha, corn meal alcohol. Smells like Kombucha, tastes like shit. And peach wine which tastes like cough syrup. The men play instruments, mostly guitar, and wear llama fur chaps over jeans.
3:30 PM- Dancing (which means shuffling our feet and twirling our skirts) and singing down the streets of Tabacundo. Each little community has its own group and own song. When I explain to Edison that I´m having trouble understanding the words, he explains to me that some of them are in Quichua, the indiginous language. Oh.
4:00 PM- Still dancing.
5:00PM- Still dancing.
6:00 PM- Still dancing.
7:00PM- We get into Louis´s car and drive to Quito with Katie, the volunteer who is living with them, and Milagros. I ask Louis how he and Gimena met, and tell him about my parent´s divorce. They met in high school. When did you know she was in love with you? When she offered to help me with my homework.
8:30 PM- We arrive at the part, get served big bowls of soup. People talk to me and ask me questions, occasionally trying to say things in English. I repeat what I think they said, which sounds to me like nonsense, and they nod, repeating it. I finally have to ask them in Spanish because their accent is so thick.
8:45PM: A plate of potatoes, rice, cuy, pork, and chicken.
9:00 PM- Dancing. Variations on salsa without partners.
9:30 PM- They are passing around a tray with glasses of whisky. Ok.
9:45 PM- Have more whisky! No thanks. More whisky! Really no thanks. God these people can drink.
10:30 PM- I look at the clock and realize I haven´t been up this late since my plane got into Quito.
11:30 PM- Cake and rum raisin ice cream. Gloriously artificial, like dimatap. 40 year old man obviously crushing on me, becomes the joke of the party when he calls me his cousin and I say no no you´re my grandfather. I have never had so many people pay so much attention to me at a party. Asking me all sorts of questions about myself. Make friends with the coolest 7 year old girl. Here name is Linda, which means pretty. I tell her Que nombre linda! My first pun in Spanish.
12:00 AM- More dancing. I keep trying to sit down and rest. I have never met a people so able to dance, so oblivous to tired feet.
1:00 AM- Gimena, Louis, Katie and I all sitting, tired. Gimena asks, are you tired? I say yes, thinking, oh good now we can go home. Instead she shows me a room where several people are resting on a bed. I fall asleep and wake up when people come in and out of the room.
4:30 AM- Gimena wakes me up to go home.
4:45 AM- Traveling along foggy cliffside roads. I do that stupid airplane thing, where I imagine that I have to be constantly vigilent to protect us from having an accident. Keeping nodding off and getting jerked awake by tight corners. Louis and Gimena keep waking me up by asking me if I´m awake.
5:30 AM- The yes game. I play the yes game when children speak to me in mumbly Spanish, or when I´m too tired to understand anyone. Mumble mumble Spanish mumble. What? Mumble mumble Spanish mumble. Si! It´s just easier. During the party with the loud music making things hard, I played the yes game with Linda and she brough me more cake.
6:00 AM- Home, go to sleep.
3:00 PM- Wake up.
6:20AM- Wake up and take shower
6:45 AM- Time I meant to leave for Gimena´s. Getting dressed.
7:45 AM- We made it to Gimena´s. I start making chocolate chip banan bread, first time I´ve gotten to use an oven since I got here. They do baking by weight, not cups, so I eyeball it.
9:45AM- Delicious.
12:00PM- We have cuy for lunch. Ginuea pig,the national delicacy. It is delicious, except its skin does not break down under teeth. Ever.
1:00 PM- Getting dressed for traditional indigenous dance. Purple pleated skirt. White embroidered blouse. Hair pulled back and wrapped tight in a ribbon. Slipper shoes with white flip-flop soles. Woven blue belt around the waist. If you couldn´t breathe with altitude before...
2:00 PM- Walk to Tabucundo with all the little girls dressed up, the 3 gringas, and Luis and two of Gimena´s brothers. The men are not dressed up.
2:30 PM- Waiting in the rain. Passing around chucha, corn meal alcohol. Smells like Kombucha, tastes like shit. And peach wine which tastes like cough syrup. The men play instruments, mostly guitar, and wear llama fur chaps over jeans.
3:30 PM- Dancing (which means shuffling our feet and twirling our skirts) and singing down the streets of Tabacundo. Each little community has its own group and own song. When I explain to Edison that I´m having trouble understanding the words, he explains to me that some of them are in Quichua, the indiginous language. Oh.
4:00 PM- Still dancing.
5:00PM- Still dancing.
6:00 PM- Still dancing.
7:00PM- We get into Louis´s car and drive to Quito with Katie, the volunteer who is living with them, and Milagros. I ask Louis how he and Gimena met, and tell him about my parent´s divorce. They met in high school. When did you know she was in love with you? When she offered to help me with my homework.
8:30 PM- We arrive at the part, get served big bowls of soup. People talk to me and ask me questions, occasionally trying to say things in English. I repeat what I think they said, which sounds to me like nonsense, and they nod, repeating it. I finally have to ask them in Spanish because their accent is so thick.
8:45PM: A plate of potatoes, rice, cuy, pork, and chicken.
9:00 PM- Dancing. Variations on salsa without partners.
9:30 PM- They are passing around a tray with glasses of whisky. Ok.
9:45 PM- Have more whisky! No thanks. More whisky! Really no thanks. God these people can drink.
10:30 PM- I look at the clock and realize I haven´t been up this late since my plane got into Quito.
11:30 PM- Cake and rum raisin ice cream. Gloriously artificial, like dimatap. 40 year old man obviously crushing on me, becomes the joke of the party when he calls me his cousin and I say no no you´re my grandfather. I have never had so many people pay so much attention to me at a party. Asking me all sorts of questions about myself. Make friends with the coolest 7 year old girl. Here name is Linda, which means pretty. I tell her Que nombre linda! My first pun in Spanish.
12:00 AM- More dancing. I keep trying to sit down and rest. I have never met a people so able to dance, so oblivous to tired feet.
1:00 AM- Gimena, Louis, Katie and I all sitting, tired. Gimena asks, are you tired? I say yes, thinking, oh good now we can go home. Instead she shows me a room where several people are resting on a bed. I fall asleep and wake up when people come in and out of the room.
4:30 AM- Gimena wakes me up to go home.
4:45 AM- Traveling along foggy cliffside roads. I do that stupid airplane thing, where I imagine that I have to be constantly vigilent to protect us from having an accident. Keeping nodding off and getting jerked awake by tight corners. Louis and Gimena keep waking me up by asking me if I´m awake.
5:30 AM- The yes game. I play the yes game when children speak to me in mumbly Spanish, or when I´m too tired to understand anyone. Mumble mumble Spanish mumble. What? Mumble mumble Spanish mumble. Si! It´s just easier. During the party with the loud music making things hard, I played the yes game with Linda and she brough me more cake.
6:00 AM- Home, go to sleep.
3:00 PM- Wake up.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Philistines!
My turn to cook lunch today. So what did I make? Potato leek soup, subltey flavored with garlic, fresh thyme, and salt, blended with farm-fresh milk, the cream still on top.. Also I made lentils and beets, which I boiled with fresh ginger. I made a glaze of peanut butter, honey, chili powder, and water to go on the beets and lentils. Finally, it was time to sit down and eat. All the other volunteers came in. And do you know what? Everyone (except, of course, the ubermench, bless his heart), served themselves soup, added the lentils and beets, and then poured the peanut sauce on top and mixed it all together! To my credit, as my horror-filled eyes bulged out of my head, I said nothing. But oh how my heart wept.
I guess we just can´t have nice things.
I guess we just can´t have nice things.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Dulce de Leche
Deserves its own post.
It is why I was born.
You can make it too!!! Boil cans of condensed milk for 3 hours. Make sure they are totally covered in water or they might explode.
It´s like caramel but better!
On a side note, because there are festivities every weekend till September, someone stole 15 of our chickens! To eat for the holidays! San Pedro may strike them down!
Am making great friends with new volunteers! Gimena compelemeted me on getting stronger! I´m making latkes tonight!
I still miss y´all like all hell, but I´ll see you soon.
It is why I was born.
You can make it too!!! Boil cans of condensed milk for 3 hours. Make sure they are totally covered in water or they might explode.
It´s like caramel but better!
On a side note, because there are festivities every weekend till September, someone stole 15 of our chickens! To eat for the holidays! San Pedro may strike them down!
Am making great friends with new volunteers! Gimena compelemeted me on getting stronger! I´m making latkes tonight!
I still miss y´all like all hell, but I´ll see you soon.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Email to my ex:
I am in Ecuador (you know this). Upon awaking this morning to roosters and donkey braying, I decided to check out the communal bookshelf in the volunteer house, because (for the first time in my life!) I packed fewer books than I have time to read. I tore through The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao and Lolita in 2 weeks. While brousing through the very limited selection of reading materials on the shelf, what should I happen to come across but Ostranenie 2.2 (a Wesleyan literary magazine, for readers who don´t know), the one where you submitted work in order to get me to do the same (which I never did.)
Have I mentioned I am halfway across the world????
It´s one of those experiences where for a brief few seconds I question the reality of my existence, which is good spiritual work to be doing. And it ties in well with my realization that I can´t run away from myself by getting on a plane (a tough lesson to learn, especially when there is no one here to distract me from myself).
It´s funny too because I went to a supermarket for the first time here yesterday, and it was the first time I saw American things like Pyrex (be proud of me I didn´t buy one), Quaker oatmeal, Jello, Head and Shoulders shampoo. That would have been an appropriate time for me to feel like the world is small and homogenous, but to be honest, I was pretty wrapped up in discovering the dulce de leche section (it will be the death of me). But I gotta say, over world-wide mega-corporations, Ostrenenie magazine takes the cake.
Just thought you might like to know that ''your art'' has reached rural Ecuador. I wonder who it was who brought it?
Have I mentioned I am halfway across the world????
It´s one of those experiences where for a brief few seconds I question the reality of my existence, which is good spiritual work to be doing. And it ties in well with my realization that I can´t run away from myself by getting on a plane (a tough lesson to learn, especially when there is no one here to distract me from myself).
It´s funny too because I went to a supermarket for the first time here yesterday, and it was the first time I saw American things like Pyrex (be proud of me I didn´t buy one), Quaker oatmeal, Jello, Head and Shoulders shampoo. That would have been an appropriate time for me to feel like the world is small and homogenous, but to be honest, I was pretty wrapped up in discovering the dulce de leche section (it will be the death of me). But I gotta say, over world-wide mega-corporations, Ostrenenie magazine takes the cake.
Just thought you might like to know that ''your art'' has reached rural Ecuador. I wonder who it was who brought it?
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Email to my Mom:
Hahah, great email. I of course have no idea what´s going on with NK or Sotomayer. I have fewer than 100 pages left of Lolita. I am terribly homesick and miserable with the realization that you can fly across the world and still not escape yourself. And there are fewer distractions in developing countries. I guess I´m lonely, irritable and bored. The diarreah stopped though! And I hung my hammock and tonight I might make another tissue paper lampshade for the house (ecuadorians don´t seem to comprehend pantallas, or lampshades.) Miss you, miss America. Reading a buddhist book that says this kind of unsettled loss of former self is brilliant but I feel like no one. No I´m not coming home. Paul and I are building an oven and then I will hopefully seduce some new volunteer with my fabulous banana bread. I bought an alarm clock with the plan to wake up at 530 for an hour and a half of yoga and meditation before breakfast. It ticks all the time and drives me nuts. Gimena told me though that I can put yogurt in a tub of water to refrigerate it though so now I don´t have to eat fucking oatmeal for breakfast. Granola making in a pan with quick oats leaves much to be desired. Last night I got lost in Cayambe after dark and I didn´t like that. It was however unthreatening so please dont worry! They don´t have nuts except for peanuts here. I tried last night to take a bath by boiling 4 pots of water on the stove but it was lukewarm and not worth the trouble. I am going to post this email on my blog if you don´t mind because I don´t want to rewrite the last week. I love you so much and I don´t want you to be sad that I am having a bad week of culture shock and no-friendness. The sheep escaped and they walk around the lawn with the cows now. Paul went to Quito for the weekend and i am going to feed the chickens. There is a sickly one with few feathers, who I tried to put in the ¨hospital¨ which is a chicken-wire coop but whenever I tried to grab him he would shriek and I would shriek and we ran away from each other. Ha. The poetry writing is going slowly and I need to do research. There are no books here. But a million videogame shops. I hate hate hate to admit it but I miss bourgiosie things. Like organic granola and yoga mats and aviator sunglasses and expensive chocolate. Also they don´t appear to eat mushrooms here.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
2 is company
Paul may be a blonde, baby-faced boy of 20, but he is fastidiously German and is by all means the head volunteer. This übermench is kind, clean, good natured, laid-back, attractive, organized, a fabulous chef, didn´t know a word of Spanish the day he arrived 10 months ago and is now totally proficient, better than I am. Also fluent in English. When he returns to Germany at the end of the summer, he´s going to school for mechanical engineering. After a hard day of farmwork, he likes to go to the gym in Cayambe. The übermench is, I think, better than I at everthing except for expressing his feelings with words. Needless to say, we have little to talk about. This week, it´s just him and me in the volunteer house, so it´s very quiet except for the übermench´s dance techno music, eminating gently from his spotless room.
Monday, June 8, 2009
List
Things That Rule in Ecuador
1) The value of the American dollar: I bought an unwrapped block of brown sugar and a little bottle of rum for 3.75, seven bananas for 35 cents total, from my friend Alonso, whose drunk friend asked me to marry him tonight and divorce him in the morning, and about a pound of butter, wrapped as a stick in a plastic bag, for 75 cents. I came home and made bananas foster for dinner.
2) Recogando las babosas: Collecting slugs. This is to be done in the morning by overturning wet planks among the beds in the garden and putting the slugs in a jar to feed to the chickens. There are these super awesome blck flat slugs that look like petroleum and move like it, too. I honestly don´t know why but it freaks m out when the slugs climb up and start coming out of the jar. Feels like an attack. Milagros helps me with slug duty.
3) Milagros: is 4. She yammers at me in completely incomprehensible 4-year-old Spanish. She also has the cutest damn outfits I´ve ever seen. And the cutest eyes. And the cutest smile. And the cutest hairdos. Today she told me she loved me and I almost cried I work with her mom in the garden.
4) All the fresh vegetables I can eat growing in my backyard: All the fresh vegetables I can eat growing in my backyard. Also fresh milk and eggs.
5) The climate: Dry, cool, cloudy.
6) The animals: There´s livestock everywhere just grazing. We have a burro who is white, takes dust baths in the road, and brays till he´s asthmatic. Also there are dogs everywhere. I mean, I went into a resteraunt and there was a dog lying under the table and no one cared.
7) Complete disregard for safety: The food vendors on the street. The people riding in the backs of pickup trucks barreling down the cliffside highway at 60mph. The dogs in resteraunts. The theifs who will rob you blind (I´ve been lucky knock wood). The five year olds walking around by themselves. Drinking on streetcorners. The men hanging out the doors of the buses yelling Quito or Otavalo to see if anyone wants to get on.
8) The buses: Super cheap, will pick you up at any point on the road, and drop you off anywhere. They also have ultra-violent movies in Spanish showing and they usually have little curtains on the windows and pictures of Che on the dash. Some play raggaeton instead of movies. At longer stops, venders get on to sell snacks and drinks.
9) The mountains: I cannot begin to say how breathtakingly unreal the Panamerican mountains are. I am in love.
10) No one is stressed: Ever.
11) Bromance: Really the only woman I have regular contact with is Gimena, whom I work with in the garden. She is the coolest ( her husband, Luis, who operates a bakery from the house, and her brothers, who come to stay with her in the weekends, are also unbelievably hospitable and kind and patient. We went to Otavalo yesterday, which has the biggest market of food, clothes, and jewelry in Ecuador. Amilca, this 21 year old guy, followed me around my shopping spree protecting the gringa so she didn´t get robbed blind). Other than Gimena and of course, Milagros, it´s me and the guys.
12) The fried chicken: rules.
13) Tabacundo: the local town, a 7-minute, 15 cent busride away, where I get internet, fruit, grains, beans, sugar, pan de coco (a doughnut sprinkled with coconut shavings. I buy it mainly for the gooey milk pudding in the center.) I am meeting shopkeepers and it is safe for me to walk around alone at night. Locals describe it as one big family (of 3,000).
Stay tuned for things that do not rule in Ecuador (preview: 1) the keyboards- my fingers are dying here!)
1) The value of the American dollar: I bought an unwrapped block of brown sugar and a little bottle of rum for 3.75, seven bananas for 35 cents total, from my friend Alonso, whose drunk friend asked me to marry him tonight and divorce him in the morning, and about a pound of butter, wrapped as a stick in a plastic bag, for 75 cents. I came home and made bananas foster for dinner.
2) Recogando las babosas: Collecting slugs. This is to be done in the morning by overturning wet planks among the beds in the garden and putting the slugs in a jar to feed to the chickens. There are these super awesome blck flat slugs that look like petroleum and move like it, too. I honestly don´t know why but it freaks m out when the slugs climb up and start coming out of the jar. Feels like an attack. Milagros helps me with slug duty.
3) Milagros: is 4. She yammers at me in completely incomprehensible 4-year-old Spanish. She also has the cutest damn outfits I´ve ever seen. And the cutest eyes. And the cutest smile. And the cutest hairdos. Today she told me she loved me and I almost cried I work with her mom in the garden.
4) All the fresh vegetables I can eat growing in my backyard: All the fresh vegetables I can eat growing in my backyard. Also fresh milk and eggs.
5) The climate: Dry, cool, cloudy.
6) The animals: There´s livestock everywhere just grazing. We have a burro who is white, takes dust baths in the road, and brays till he´s asthmatic. Also there are dogs everywhere. I mean, I went into a resteraunt and there was a dog lying under the table and no one cared.
7) Complete disregard for safety: The food vendors on the street. The people riding in the backs of pickup trucks barreling down the cliffside highway at 60mph. The dogs in resteraunts. The theifs who will rob you blind (I´ve been lucky knock wood). The five year olds walking around by themselves. Drinking on streetcorners. The men hanging out the doors of the buses yelling Quito or Otavalo to see if anyone wants to get on.
8) The buses: Super cheap, will pick you up at any point on the road, and drop you off anywhere. They also have ultra-violent movies in Spanish showing and they usually have little curtains on the windows and pictures of Che on the dash. Some play raggaeton instead of movies. At longer stops, venders get on to sell snacks and drinks.
9) The mountains: I cannot begin to say how breathtakingly unreal the Panamerican mountains are. I am in love.
10) No one is stressed: Ever.
11) Bromance: Really the only woman I have regular contact with is Gimena, whom I work with in the garden. She is the coolest ( her husband, Luis, who operates a bakery from the house, and her brothers, who come to stay with her in the weekends, are also unbelievably hospitable and kind and patient. We went to Otavalo yesterday, which has the biggest market of food, clothes, and jewelry in Ecuador. Amilca, this 21 year old guy, followed me around my shopping spree protecting the gringa so she didn´t get robbed blind). Other than Gimena and of course, Milagros, it´s me and the guys.
12) The fried chicken: rules.
13) Tabacundo: the local town, a 7-minute, 15 cent busride away, where I get internet, fruit, grains, beans, sugar, pan de coco (a doughnut sprinkled with coconut shavings. I buy it mainly for the gooey milk pudding in the center.) I am meeting shopkeepers and it is safe for me to walk around alone at night. Locals describe it as one big family (of 3,000).
Stay tuned for things that do not rule in Ecuador (preview: 1) the keyboards- my fingers are dying here!)
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
In Ecuador
There´s a lot to say but at the same time not much.
I took 4 hours of Spanish lessons today and got to this weird point where I had no word retrieval in English or in Spanish. Most of the volunteers only speak English but there are a lot of Ecuadorian families on the farm. And about a million kids who walk up to me and ask, Como te llamas, or que haces? What is your name or what are you doing. Little kid Spanish kills me every time.
The mountains are totally unreal, as are the sunsets.
I am in Tabacundo, the nearest city, right now, just had pan de piña as a pre-dinner snack. My little brother made me a tazer out of recycled materials for my birthday before I left- best present I have gotten in a long time- in case someone tries to rob me.
I am beginning to read Lolita. Damn good prose style, Nabokov.
I took 4 hours of Spanish lessons today and got to this weird point where I had no word retrieval in English or in Spanish. Most of the volunteers only speak English but there are a lot of Ecuadorian families on the farm. And about a million kids who walk up to me and ask, Como te llamas, or que haces? What is your name or what are you doing. Little kid Spanish kills me every time.
The mountains are totally unreal, as are the sunsets.
I am in Tabacundo, the nearest city, right now, just had pan de piña as a pre-dinner snack. My little brother made me a tazer out of recycled materials for my birthday before I left- best present I have gotten in a long time- in case someone tries to rob me.
I am beginning to read Lolita. Damn good prose style, Nabokov.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Using up my internet cafe time minimum
For my 21st birthday, I bought myself a package of 15 chocolate liqueurs at the airport. Didn't even get carded.
My flight is delayed an hour, and I'm hedging my bets on emailing my airport pickup because it's 13 dollars to call Ecuador. For 13 dollars I think I'd rather walk to the hostel.
Don't worry mom, just kidding about walking.
So I'm stuck in Atlanta, and I've already smelled almost every perfume they have in the duty free shop.
I realized something I have never seen is birds flying out of an airplane window. Not at any height. Where are all the birds, I ask you? Are they as frightened of airplanes as I am? Impossible. So for my birthday, I have decided that is what I want: birds flying next to my window.
My flight is delayed an hour, and I'm hedging my bets on emailing my airport pickup because it's 13 dollars to call Ecuador. For 13 dollars I think I'd rather walk to the hostel.
Don't worry mom, just kidding about walking.
So I'm stuck in Atlanta, and I've already smelled almost every perfume they have in the duty free shop.
I realized something I have never seen is birds flying out of an airplane window. Not at any height. Where are all the birds, I ask you? Are they as frightened of airplanes as I am? Impossible. So for my birthday, I have decided that is what I want: birds flying next to my window.
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