noviembre
hey guys. i haven´t written in a while again. so grab a snack and get ready, this might end up being a long blog post...
elections 2006
well, some of you might be wondering about the political situation here. elections are this coming weekend. i won´t be in quito, cuz i´m traveling to cuenca. but it should be an exciting weekend. the new president will begin his term in january. so that should be interesting. what else about elections?? well, the guy who owns all the bananas in ecuador (noboa) is now being accused of spending WAAAAAAY over the legal limit on his campaign, but no one will do anything about it, so i guess it doesn´t actually matter. political campaigns are nothing like those in the states. you never see or hear ANYTHING about the candidates or their campaigns unless you see them on the news. and then you only see them kissing babies and doing polititiony things like that. never talking about anything. oh, but noboa (banana guy, not commie) has a new plan where everyone can build a new house (which is actually cheaper than buying a house) for $50-month. i´m not sure how that works, but that´s what he says. that´s all for now, i´ll let you know what happenes this weekend.
luz (electricity-power)
there´s currently an electrical shortage in ecuador. it´s only affected my house once, for about ten min we were without electricity. the electric system in ecuador is based on a series of resevoires and turbines. the resevoires are filled with rain water. well, although it´s winter here and rains for a few hours EVERYDAY, right now it´s too little too late. the resevoires get depleted during the summer when it rarely rains here and right now there´s just not enough water. i think they cut off quito last though, cuz in some towns there have been riots cuz people have been without power for over a week!! all we can do is wait for more rain. i asked my mom why they just didn´t bring in water from the ocean, and she didn´t really have an answer. probably cuz it´d be too expensive to bring it in to the mountains. i don´t know.
on a similar note, ecuador´s OTHER power source, gas, is running out too! all of the stoves in ecuador are run on gas as are the hot water systems in the newer houses. my host mom told me today that there out of gas right now. it´s on the news. so our gas tank is almost empty (they drive around in the mornings selling fresh gas tanks, you just bring out your old one and they take it. it´s about $1.50 for a new gas tank and they last a few weeks (unless your hot water system is run on gas too)), so unless more gas becomes available we´re only going to be able to cook in the microwave soon, unless we have a long term black out cuz of the no rain thing, in which case we´d just be screwed. but they must be able to get by, cuz a while back, my host mom told me that ecuador was without electricity for a whole year. this was just a few years ago mind you. so be happy you don´t have to worry about having electricity, i think that´s the life lesson here. right.
holidays
one thing the people do right here is decorating for holidays! my host family and i decorated our house for christmas last night. it´s sooo nice. no one decorates the outsides of their houses here, but the insides are immaculate! i love it. my favorite thing we have is a train around the christmas tree (it´s fake although lots of people do have real trees, my host mom won´t allow them to have a real tree thought cuz she thinks cutting down pine trees is bad for the environment). it belongs to my host brother esteban, who´s 19, and he´s had it for about 10 years. he told me that it´s the most expensive christmas present he´s ever asked for/recieved. 10 years ago my family was well off, the toy train (it runs, has lights, and makes sounds!) cost one million sucres (the ecuadorian currency before the dollarization in 2001). at that time my host family could have bought THREE CARS for the same amount!!! crazy... mom and dad, feel free to spend three cars worth of money on me this christmas :) hahaha! but that´s christmas. we´ll have turkey for christmas dinner, which is a tradition, but it costs about $40. keep in mind that my host mom makes about $160-month. this year it´s free however cuz adrian, my lawyer host brother, gets his turkey this year. what does that mean? that´s what i asked cuz they kept talking about how adrian would get his turkey this year. when you become a lawyer in ecuador you have to buy your license after you graduate law school and then you get a license number and it´s officially recorded and all that jazz, when you get your number (once in a lifetime, you don´t renew it) you get a free turkey for christmas that year. so we get a free turkey!!
speaking of turkey, it´s thanksgiving thursday!! no, they DON´T have thanksgiving here. so all of my friends and i are going to applebee´s for thanksgiving lunch (i´ll probably get the fajita wrap if they have it) and then we´re going to the american sports bar to watch football! however, we heard from a friend today that there´s some other bar that´s serving REAL thanksgiving food all day and playing american football. so we might look into that...
unfortunately, there won´t be snow here, but when it gets cold, there IS snow on the mountains, and it´s really pretty. i love living in the mountains!
soccer
i went to my first soccer match on sunday. pathetic i know, but i´ve just never gone! anyway, i went with my host brother esteban. it was CRAZY!!! sooooo much fun, soooooo many people. and the fans are N U T S here. it was nacional vs. barcelona. ok, nacional is one of the teams from quito and they´re the best in the league. they won 4-0 (barcelona=struggle). barcelona is, contrary to popular belief, NOT FROM BARCELONA SPAIN!! they´re actually one of the teams from guayaquil. i asked the people around me why they´re named barcelona and not, oh say...guayaquil?, and no one knew. strange. probably a mystery i´ll leave ecuador without ever knowing... anyway, the barcelona fans are PARTICULARLY out of control. if you go to a home match of theirs, and you support the other team, and the other team wins, people have been know to be killed for supporting the wrong team. so i knew this when i went to the game, and i didn´t really believe it, but when we left there were armored vehicals surrounding the stadium doing riot control!!! ahhhhhhhhh! fortunately i wasn´t wearing a jersey. but, nothing happened that i heard of. they actually make the barcelona fans wait in the stadium half an hour before letting them out so that the nacional fans have time to get away... right... anyway, i ended up seeing some of my friends (gringos, who stuck out like it was their job at a soccer match) and they came and sat with us. so it was fun.
it was a good day.
to my mother
mom told me that people were confused about my blog, so let me clear a few things up for anyone who´s confused. fist of all, sorry if my blog is misleading, i write the way i think and speak, and i guess it tends to be slightly sarcastic. woops! anyway, i LOVE it here in ecuador. i wouldn´t change a thing that i´ve done or that´s happened to me since being here. (except maybe the halloween incident, it would´ve been nice to have my keys...) i´m really happy i chose ecuador and that i´m here for a year. it´ll be sad to not see people back home for such a long time, but i think it´s worth it. i´ve been learing a lot here. i know i say that classes are easy (and they are) but what i mean is more that the grading and the amount of homework is easy. i really have learned a lot in my classes and i go everyday, so don´t think i´m just doing nothing. i love the people of ecuador, although they are a bit closed and it´s kinda hard to make friends here, they´re good people.
also, a disclaimer: i am not an alcoholic. i do WAY more than just drink here, some of my stories on the blog are drunk stories but that´s just cuz they´re funny and i think people will like them. but i really do all sorts of stuff. its just that i can´t really make going to a museum and seeing a whole bunch of works of goya, piccaso, and miró into an entertaining story. so keep that in mind. and when i get back and you see pictures of everything i did, you´ll understand (sorda) how much i really have done here and how much i´ve gotten out of it.
ok, that´s all for now. happy holidays to everyone!
hey guys. i haven´t written in a while again. so grab a snack and get ready, this might end up being a long blog post...
elections 2006
well, some of you might be wondering about the political situation here. elections are this coming weekend. i won´t be in quito, cuz i´m traveling to cuenca. but it should be an exciting weekend. the new president will begin his term in january. so that should be interesting. what else about elections?? well, the guy who owns all the bananas in ecuador (noboa) is now being accused of spending WAAAAAAY over the legal limit on his campaign, but no one will do anything about it, so i guess it doesn´t actually matter. political campaigns are nothing like those in the states. you never see or hear ANYTHING about the candidates or their campaigns unless you see them on the news. and then you only see them kissing babies and doing polititiony things like that. never talking about anything. oh, but noboa (banana guy, not commie) has a new plan where everyone can build a new house (which is actually cheaper than buying a house) for $50-month. i´m not sure how that works, but that´s what he says. that´s all for now, i´ll let you know what happenes this weekend.
luz (electricity-power)
there´s currently an electrical shortage in ecuador. it´s only affected my house once, for about ten min we were without electricity. the electric system in ecuador is based on a series of resevoires and turbines. the resevoires are filled with rain water. well, although it´s winter here and rains for a few hours EVERYDAY, right now it´s too little too late. the resevoires get depleted during the summer when it rarely rains here and right now there´s just not enough water. i think they cut off quito last though, cuz in some towns there have been riots cuz people have been without power for over a week!! all we can do is wait for more rain. i asked my mom why they just didn´t bring in water from the ocean, and she didn´t really have an answer. probably cuz it´d be too expensive to bring it in to the mountains. i don´t know.
on a similar note, ecuador´s OTHER power source, gas, is running out too! all of the stoves in ecuador are run on gas as are the hot water systems in the newer houses. my host mom told me today that there out of gas right now. it´s on the news. so our gas tank is almost empty (they drive around in the mornings selling fresh gas tanks, you just bring out your old one and they take it. it´s about $1.50 for a new gas tank and they last a few weeks (unless your hot water system is run on gas too)), so unless more gas becomes available we´re only going to be able to cook in the microwave soon, unless we have a long term black out cuz of the no rain thing, in which case we´d just be screwed. but they must be able to get by, cuz a while back, my host mom told me that ecuador was without electricity for a whole year. this was just a few years ago mind you. so be happy you don´t have to worry about having electricity, i think that´s the life lesson here. right.
holidays
one thing the people do right here is decorating for holidays! my host family and i decorated our house for christmas last night. it´s sooo nice. no one decorates the outsides of their houses here, but the insides are immaculate! i love it. my favorite thing we have is a train around the christmas tree (it´s fake although lots of people do have real trees, my host mom won´t allow them to have a real tree thought cuz she thinks cutting down pine trees is bad for the environment). it belongs to my host brother esteban, who´s 19, and he´s had it for about 10 years. he told me that it´s the most expensive christmas present he´s ever asked for/recieved. 10 years ago my family was well off, the toy train (it runs, has lights, and makes sounds!) cost one million sucres (the ecuadorian currency before the dollarization in 2001). at that time my host family could have bought THREE CARS for the same amount!!! crazy... mom and dad, feel free to spend three cars worth of money on me this christmas :) hahaha! but that´s christmas. we´ll have turkey for christmas dinner, which is a tradition, but it costs about $40. keep in mind that my host mom makes about $160-month. this year it´s free however cuz adrian, my lawyer host brother, gets his turkey this year. what does that mean? that´s what i asked cuz they kept talking about how adrian would get his turkey this year. when you become a lawyer in ecuador you have to buy your license after you graduate law school and then you get a license number and it´s officially recorded and all that jazz, when you get your number (once in a lifetime, you don´t renew it) you get a free turkey for christmas that year. so we get a free turkey!!
speaking of turkey, it´s thanksgiving thursday!! no, they DON´T have thanksgiving here. so all of my friends and i are going to applebee´s for thanksgiving lunch (i´ll probably get the fajita wrap if they have it) and then we´re going to the american sports bar to watch football! however, we heard from a friend today that there´s some other bar that´s serving REAL thanksgiving food all day and playing american football. so we might look into that...
unfortunately, there won´t be snow here, but when it gets cold, there IS snow on the mountains, and it´s really pretty. i love living in the mountains!
soccer
i went to my first soccer match on sunday. pathetic i know, but i´ve just never gone! anyway, i went with my host brother esteban. it was CRAZY!!! sooooo much fun, soooooo many people. and the fans are N U T S here. it was nacional vs. barcelona. ok, nacional is one of the teams from quito and they´re the best in the league. they won 4-0 (barcelona=struggle). barcelona is, contrary to popular belief, NOT FROM BARCELONA SPAIN!! they´re actually one of the teams from guayaquil. i asked the people around me why they´re named barcelona and not, oh say...guayaquil?, and no one knew. strange. probably a mystery i´ll leave ecuador without ever knowing... anyway, the barcelona fans are PARTICULARLY out of control. if you go to a home match of theirs, and you support the other team, and the other team wins, people have been know to be killed for supporting the wrong team. so i knew this when i went to the game, and i didn´t really believe it, but when we left there were armored vehicals surrounding the stadium doing riot control!!! ahhhhhhhhh! fortunately i wasn´t wearing a jersey. but, nothing happened that i heard of. they actually make the barcelona fans wait in the stadium half an hour before letting them out so that the nacional fans have time to get away... right... anyway, i ended up seeing some of my friends (gringos, who stuck out like it was their job at a soccer match) and they came and sat with us. so it was fun.
it was a good day.
to my mother
mom told me that people were confused about my blog, so let me clear a few things up for anyone who´s confused. fist of all, sorry if my blog is misleading, i write the way i think and speak, and i guess it tends to be slightly sarcastic. woops! anyway, i LOVE it here in ecuador. i wouldn´t change a thing that i´ve done or that´s happened to me since being here. (except maybe the halloween incident, it would´ve been nice to have my keys...) i´m really happy i chose ecuador and that i´m here for a year. it´ll be sad to not see people back home for such a long time, but i think it´s worth it. i´ve been learing a lot here. i know i say that classes are easy (and they are) but what i mean is more that the grading and the amount of homework is easy. i really have learned a lot in my classes and i go everyday, so don´t think i´m just doing nothing. i love the people of ecuador, although they are a bit closed and it´s kinda hard to make friends here, they´re good people.
also, a disclaimer: i am not an alcoholic. i do WAY more than just drink here, some of my stories on the blog are drunk stories but that´s just cuz they´re funny and i think people will like them. but i really do all sorts of stuff. its just that i can´t really make going to a museum and seeing a whole bunch of works of goya, piccaso, and miró into an entertaining story. so keep that in mind. and when i get back and you see pictures of everything i did, you´ll understand (sorda) how much i really have done here and how much i´ve gotten out of it.
ok, that´s all for now. happy holidays to everyone!
posted by Adam (ebby) at 3:36 PM
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