week after the coast
so this post won´t be as long as the coast trip post. don´t worry though, my life is never boring. especially in ecuador... i´ll start with some boring stuff that everyone wants to hear about and then there´s a really good taxi story at the end. and by really good i mean sketchy and potentially hazerdous to my well-being...
family life-
my family is really nice. there are three kids, and the mom. the dad died two years ago. at first i felt like the kids didn´t really care that i was here. they didn´t talk to me very much, they were nice and would answer my questions, but that was it. it was discouraging. but it´s gotten much better and i feel like we´re kind of becoming friends. so that´s good. my mom rocks. so nice. does everything for me, including setting my breakfast and lunch out on the table before she goes to work. i´m spoiled. i live in a very residential area of town. it all seems like it´s falling apart (and it is) but the insides of people homes are always immaculate. my house, like all the houses here, is gated to the street with two pad locks. but i´ve never felt unsafe in my neighborhood. i´ve really never felt unsafe in quito anywhere. maybe i´m just unaware of the danger around me, but i don´t think so. like any big city, you should be perfectly safe if you´re smart. and i like to think i am...
school-
ok, i go to a really expensive (by ecuadorian standards) school. the most expensive in all of ecuador in fact. that also means it´s probably the best. it also means that only rich kids go there. they´re all really fashion forward, and by fashion forward i mean really REALLY trendy but with no real taste. especially the guys. they´re all metro. really metro. extremely metro. we look at them and say, wait, you actually wear that. they sport euro-mullets, faux-hawks, and lots of oil in their slicked back hair. kinda gross. but i´ll get over it. a lot of the kids are really stuck up too. but i´ve made a few ecuadorian friends and they´re really cool. i´m meeting more and more of them as they introduce me to their friends. if you´re introduced by a fellow ecuadorian, they´re much friendlier. on the other hand, i have a million exchange student friends and they´re all really really cool. so that´s good.
classes-
for the most part they´re really good. i did, however, get into a philosophical argument about properties of language with my phonetics professor for half and hour during class last week. she tried to tell us that saying things like hello or how are you, don´t count as communication and that poetry is a seperate property of language from communication. no one was buying it, but i was the only one who would say anything to the prof. but everyone agreed with me, and told me so. they were also happy becuase it´s a really boring class and it made the time go by faster. also, my novela ecuatoriana class is a joke so far. i think it´ll get better, but last class we read 15 pages alound on "novels for beginners" that described what a narrator, what a setting, and what characters are. it was the biggest waste of 1.5 hours of my life. not college material. if it happens again next class, and i have a suspicion it will, i´m going to say something, or walk out to do some serious reading. like i said, though, once we begin reading the novels i expect it to get better. however, i LOVE my other classes. i´m in the BOOM-latinoamericano, a literature class with a great professor. i´m also in quechua, the language of the indigenous people of the northern andes. i love it, and later in the semester we have a field trip to the incan trail where we get to hike the andes and stay in indigenous communities!!! there are lots of field trips at my university. and in my volconologia class, we have 4 mandatory trips to volcanoes around the country and 4 optional trips. i´ll be going on all of them. tungurahua is the volcano 65 miles south of quito that went off a while back. we get to go there as a class. we get to go to parts that residents aren´t allowed to return to yet. i´m so excited. so that´s my school life. oh, and the campus is rediculous. it´s beautiful. it´s more than that. it´s flat out unreal.
ok, classes, school, family, i think that´s all the stuff people have been asking to hear about, so now i´ll put up the fun story. the taxi story...
so the other night i was in the mariscal sucre districe of town, aka gringolandia, it´s where all the clubs and bars are... with some friends, we went there to eat and have a few drinks after salsa class (which i love, our teacher is from cuba so we´re learning cuban style salsa.) so it´s about midnight and one of my friends has to be home, so we decide to share a taxi cuz we live on the same street, although i live a bit further down. so we drop off joanna (my friend) on a little side street where her house is and i tell the taxi driver that i live further down the street and to turn to the left. so he does. well, the street are a little narrow here sometimes and there were cars parked on both sides. there´s also a SUV coming in the opposite direction and a police officer walking around for some reason. so, there´s not really room for both cars to pass to the police officer steps in and starts directing the truck and my taxi to that we both make it through. ok, now i have to admit i´d had a few drinks and wasn´t completely sure of what was going on. i wasn´t wasted or anything, don´t get me wrong, but i wasn´t exactly paying attention to what was going on. well, all of the sudden the suv and the taxi are even and the driver in the suv starts screaming at the taxi driver! i´m not sure why, but i guess the taxi driver did something wrong and the other dude is PISSED about it! so the taxi driver is saying things like, ´"i´m just trying to serve this gentelman and he´s a gringo and doesn´t know the area well" blah blah blah, meanwhile i´m like, hey don´t drag me into this, i´m just trying to get home! and the suv guy is yelling things like "yeah, but you´re from around here and you know the rules" blah blah blah. well, i don´t think the police officer really cared, cuz there was no harm done to the suv or the driver, but he finally came up to the taxi and asked for his papers. ok, your papers are a big deal here, if you don´t have them, you´re kinda screwed. well, the police officer looks at them, and then, i´m not sure why, shows them to the suv driver. well, the suv driver grabs the papers and speeds away!!!! ahhhhhhhhhh!!! so the taxi driver is like, "shit. you need to get out of the taxi and walk cuz i need to try to get my papers back!" i´m like ok, here´s the $2 i owe you and i walked home. wow, i could have been seriously harmed in that situation. i told my family about it and they said there´s NO reason the cop should have shown the papers to the suv driver and that the whole thing was VERY VERY shady. i guess i´m lucky to be alive and well...
so this post won´t be as long as the coast trip post. don´t worry though, my life is never boring. especially in ecuador... i´ll start with some boring stuff that everyone wants to hear about and then there´s a really good taxi story at the end. and by really good i mean sketchy and potentially hazerdous to my well-being...
family life-
my family is really nice. there are three kids, and the mom. the dad died two years ago. at first i felt like the kids didn´t really care that i was here. they didn´t talk to me very much, they were nice and would answer my questions, but that was it. it was discouraging. but it´s gotten much better and i feel like we´re kind of becoming friends. so that´s good. my mom rocks. so nice. does everything for me, including setting my breakfast and lunch out on the table before she goes to work. i´m spoiled. i live in a very residential area of town. it all seems like it´s falling apart (and it is) but the insides of people homes are always immaculate. my house, like all the houses here, is gated to the street with two pad locks. but i´ve never felt unsafe in my neighborhood. i´ve really never felt unsafe in quito anywhere. maybe i´m just unaware of the danger around me, but i don´t think so. like any big city, you should be perfectly safe if you´re smart. and i like to think i am...
school-
ok, i go to a really expensive (by ecuadorian standards) school. the most expensive in all of ecuador in fact. that also means it´s probably the best. it also means that only rich kids go there. they´re all really fashion forward, and by fashion forward i mean really REALLY trendy but with no real taste. especially the guys. they´re all metro. really metro. extremely metro. we look at them and say, wait, you actually wear that. they sport euro-mullets, faux-hawks, and lots of oil in their slicked back hair. kinda gross. but i´ll get over it. a lot of the kids are really stuck up too. but i´ve made a few ecuadorian friends and they´re really cool. i´m meeting more and more of them as they introduce me to their friends. if you´re introduced by a fellow ecuadorian, they´re much friendlier. on the other hand, i have a million exchange student friends and they´re all really really cool. so that´s good.
classes-
for the most part they´re really good. i did, however, get into a philosophical argument about properties of language with my phonetics professor for half and hour during class last week. she tried to tell us that saying things like hello or how are you, don´t count as communication and that poetry is a seperate property of language from communication. no one was buying it, but i was the only one who would say anything to the prof. but everyone agreed with me, and told me so. they were also happy becuase it´s a really boring class and it made the time go by faster. also, my novela ecuatoriana class is a joke so far. i think it´ll get better, but last class we read 15 pages alound on "novels for beginners" that described what a narrator, what a setting, and what characters are. it was the biggest waste of 1.5 hours of my life. not college material. if it happens again next class, and i have a suspicion it will, i´m going to say something, or walk out to do some serious reading. like i said, though, once we begin reading the novels i expect it to get better. however, i LOVE my other classes. i´m in the BOOM-latinoamericano, a literature class with a great professor. i´m also in quechua, the language of the indigenous people of the northern andes. i love it, and later in the semester we have a field trip to the incan trail where we get to hike the andes and stay in indigenous communities!!! there are lots of field trips at my university. and in my volconologia class, we have 4 mandatory trips to volcanoes around the country and 4 optional trips. i´ll be going on all of them. tungurahua is the volcano 65 miles south of quito that went off a while back. we get to go there as a class. we get to go to parts that residents aren´t allowed to return to yet. i´m so excited. so that´s my school life. oh, and the campus is rediculous. it´s beautiful. it´s more than that. it´s flat out unreal.
ok, classes, school, family, i think that´s all the stuff people have been asking to hear about, so now i´ll put up the fun story. the taxi story...
so the other night i was in the mariscal sucre districe of town, aka gringolandia, it´s where all the clubs and bars are... with some friends, we went there to eat and have a few drinks after salsa class (which i love, our teacher is from cuba so we´re learning cuban style salsa.) so it´s about midnight and one of my friends has to be home, so we decide to share a taxi cuz we live on the same street, although i live a bit further down. so we drop off joanna (my friend) on a little side street where her house is and i tell the taxi driver that i live further down the street and to turn to the left. so he does. well, the street are a little narrow here sometimes and there were cars parked on both sides. there´s also a SUV coming in the opposite direction and a police officer walking around for some reason. so, there´s not really room for both cars to pass to the police officer steps in and starts directing the truck and my taxi to that we both make it through. ok, now i have to admit i´d had a few drinks and wasn´t completely sure of what was going on. i wasn´t wasted or anything, don´t get me wrong, but i wasn´t exactly paying attention to what was going on. well, all of the sudden the suv and the taxi are even and the driver in the suv starts screaming at the taxi driver! i´m not sure why, but i guess the taxi driver did something wrong and the other dude is PISSED about it! so the taxi driver is saying things like, ´"i´m just trying to serve this gentelman and he´s a gringo and doesn´t know the area well" blah blah blah, meanwhile i´m like, hey don´t drag me into this, i´m just trying to get home! and the suv guy is yelling things like "yeah, but you´re from around here and you know the rules" blah blah blah. well, i don´t think the police officer really cared, cuz there was no harm done to the suv or the driver, but he finally came up to the taxi and asked for his papers. ok, your papers are a big deal here, if you don´t have them, you´re kinda screwed. well, the police officer looks at them, and then, i´m not sure why, shows them to the suv driver. well, the suv driver grabs the papers and speeds away!!!! ahhhhhhhhhh!!! so the taxi driver is like, "shit. you need to get out of the taxi and walk cuz i need to try to get my papers back!" i´m like ok, here´s the $2 i owe you and i walked home. wow, i could have been seriously harmed in that situation. i told my family about it and they said there´s NO reason the cop should have shown the papers to the suv driver and that the whole thing was VERY VERY shady. i guess i´m lucky to be alive and well...
posted by Adam (ebby) at 4:41 PM
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