Monday January 21st

Hoy empezé mis clases en la universidad, a cuales estaba casi tarde porque mi alarma de reloj se murió.

Whoops, other language.

Today I started my classes at the university, and I was almost late because my alarm clock died. I carefully pressed snooze when it sounded at 7:00am, and was startled to become conscious again at 7:33. I ate a hurried breakfast with Lucía, and then she drove me to school so as to point out the building I needed to be in. It wasn’t the building that was the problem; I already knew the location of the International Language building. But once I was there, I had no idea what room, or even what floor, to be on. I wandered around for a few minutes, hoping I would find it before I was spectacularly late, and I came across what looked like another American student with an Ecuadorian mom.

Hazarding a guess, I asked if they were looking for the Spanish classes, and they said yes, so I tagged along with them. With the help of the mother, we were able to find María Isabel’s office on time.

I have two classes a day for the next two weeks, one language and one culture. They start at 8:30, but I’m out by 12:10, so I still have a good chunk of the day free. Today’s schedule wasn’t usual, though, as we started with our placement exams. There are seven of us American students, four from Keene and three from Oregon. For some reason they felt it necessary to divide us into two different classes, never mind that that gives us a class of four and a class of three. I placed into the advanced class, with Braulio and two of the Oregon students.

After classes, Braulio and I found the cafeteria and got lunch, and while we were sitting outside eating and enjoying the warm, sunny weather, we were joined by Marie and Liz. When we were finished with lunch, Liz and I went to find the US Embassy to register ourselves, but they were closed due to Martin Luther King Day, which all four of us had forgotten about. In the afternoon we had a short orientation with Rocío, the director of International Exchange. She started by asking us how well we understood Spanish, and then did her speech in the slowest, easiest Spanish I’ve ever heard. After several hours of barely keeping up with our two professors, it felt like Rocío was speaking English. I didn’t have to concentrate much harder than I do at home to understand.

Once she had given us enough dire warnings about not going to el Nobar alone and carrying our backpacks on our fronts on buses, we were free to wander the city. Braulio and Liz went off with their parents, and Marie and I headed for the Mall el Jardín. We had a late lunch, really more like British tea, at a nice but inexpensive restaurant in the mall, and then went to Movistar to get me a cell phone. I’m a little behind the times on that one; the other three already had theirs by Sunday. It’s a prepaid phone, which I’m not used to, but I don’t plan on using it all that much anyway.

Marie didn’t like the idea of walking through the city alone, having never been out of the country before, so I went with her back to the school and waited with her until her bus showed up. Then I caught the Ecovia north back toward Jipijapa, but I got off about six stops early. Realizing my mistake, I got on again, and this time got off three stops early. I had forgotten the name of the stop I was supposed to take, and in the interest of not overshooting it, I did the opposite and ended up walking the last mile back home. Not that I really minded; it was a nice walk.

While Lucía and I were eating dinner, Raquel returned from Otavalo, and the three of us sat and ate and talked for an hour. Her Spanish seems to be right about the same level as mine, and the three of us managed to converse pretty efficiently. We only reverted to English a couple of times, and even then it was just long enough for a “What’s this word?”

Exploring Quito

I slept in this morning, at least by Ecuadorian standards. Ten o’clock is still early for me, so I’m going to have to learn to go to bed earlier. After a short struggle to get warm water out of the shower, I finally washed off the travel dirt, then unpacked. Lucía made breakfast (an interesting combination of fruit, coffee, and grilled-cheese sandwich), and then she showed me around.

We took her car along the bus route to the university so that I’ll know where to go come Monday, and then she showed me other major streets and parks. I got thoroughly lost after a while, but at least the school is very easy to find, and the bus ride is only 25 cents. After that I got to experience the local auto mechanic, which is one of those things that seems so small but is different enough to be no end of amusing. They change your oil while you wait in the car, then wash it, engine included. Then they dry the car, clean the windows, and vacuum the inside…and all of this for $18!

I’m understand a lot more of the language I heard than I was afraid I would. I had imagined being practically unable to communicate, wandering around completely lost and frustrated, but that thankfully has not been the case yet. Sometimes I have to ask Lucía to explain a word or a concept differently, but in the end she always manages to make me understand.

I’ve learned more about her today, because we chatted for a while over breakfast. She has two sons, both married with children nearly my age, and a daughter who is a diplomat. One of the sons is a computer engineer and I think the other is a bank manager. She’s originally from Guayaquil, but married a man from Quito, which is why she lives here now. Her husband died three years ago – I didn’t catch the reason – but from what I gather, she’s almost never alone here. Her maid works Monday to Friday, and she always has exchange students. She says most of the students are from Belgium, but she’s also hosted people from Germany, Austria, England, the US, Japan, and Holland. I think I’ll get to meet Raquel, the girl from Colorado, on Monday.

When we got back to the house, Lucía made lunch, and explained to me that lunch is the largest meal of the day here, unlike in the US, where it’s usually dinner. She makes her own ají, a hot sauce that is wonderful on pretty much anything. It contains “canchos,” something whose equivalent I didn’t manage to come up with in English, but they’re sort of a cross between lentils and chickpeas, or maybe lima beans.

After lunch I took a nap, and then the two of us went for a walk around town. Many of the shops were closed because it’s Saturday, but not all. Now I know how to find the internet spots (I can’t use my own computer, but at least the use of theirs is cheap), clothing stores and bakeries and restaurants. Lucía suggested that us four students and our families go to La Mariscal tonight, a tourist district that apparently parties on Saturday nights, but Marie isn’t feeling well. Braulio’s mom said he would call us later, though, so we might still go.

Since I got the internet card to work on my computer last night, Lucía asked me to get it to work on hers as well. She doesn’t know a lot about computers, and to makes things worse, her operating system is in English, which she doesn’t speak at all. So I have become the bilingual tech support. I got her internet working and ran a standard cleanup on her machine to try to make it faster. I’m a geek no matter where I go!

Her grandson Pablo Javier came over with two of his friends a few minutes ago. I thought they might be staying for dinner, but they’re on their way out. He seems nice, but I can’t understand his friends, who speak Spanish as fast and as slurred as I speak English.

I did find a place from which I can make calls to the US at .09 a minute, so I will probably wander down tomorrow and put it to use. I can also use the computers in the internet stores for calls and web chat, and I bet I can upload my photos that way, too, since I brought my thumb drive. Then I can post them in the blog and you can all see where I am!