Hello from Quito!!
Well, I´m sitting in the library writing this email for the second time today. My computer decided to die on me right when I was about to send this email about 5 minutes ago, of course. I´m a bit upset at it right now.
Well anyway, Ecuador gets better and better each day. I now know very well how to figure out the busses, I now know my way around my University (not that it was hard to figure out, as there are only 2500 students here), and my body has adapted to the altitude. Woohoo!!
My classes are still going great. Other than one of my classes (literature), in which I have an extremely intimidating teacher (whom I´m hoping I will learn to love eventually), I can´t wait to go to class each day. I am particularly excited for my climbing hiking class. Although things here are very unorganized and very badly planned, my teacher has managed to at least let us know what trips we are going on or are able to go on. They consist of four trips to various mountains or volcanoes around Quito . Our last trip, which is a day long excursion to Cotopaxi is what I am especially excited for. Cotopaxi is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world (19,000 some feet high) and is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is a chain of volcanoes on the Pacific Plate. My professor for this class says that this trip is always somewhat difficult to lead because it requires having one guide for every two students (because the students need to be hooked onto the guide so they don´t fall off the volcano). Sweeeet, huh?!?! (Don´t worry mom, besides, it would be much cooler to say that I died falling off of Cotopaxi than to say I was bit by a dog with Rabies, right?? Just kidding =)
This past weekend Mary and I spent Friday night with a friend of Mary´s from Florida (who now lives here) and three of his friends. They took us on a tour of Old Towne, which is in the middle of Quito . It is absolutely gorgeous, filled with beautiful buildings and churches and the streets with horse drawn carriages. We mostly walked down La Calle de los Siete Cruces (The Street of the Seven Crosses), which is a chain of seven churches that run throughout the city. One of the guys we were with was very educated about the history of the city, which was very helpful =) He told us an extended story about the city, which was extremely interesting. He told us that many years ago, when the Inca still ruled over Quito, there was a Temple of the Sun and a Temple of the Moon on opposite sides of the city (which the Incan people used to worship the sun and the moon, go figure, right?) In between the two temples there were seven churches, all of which were connected by underground tunnels (the tunnels still run under the city today, and were supposedly used by nuns and priests years ago to have relationships with one another). When the Spanish came to Quito and conquered the Incan empire, they destroyed the entire city, leaving it in ruins. When the Spanish decided to re build the city, they used the foundations from the previous buildings to re build it. Sometimes they even used the rubble from the destroyed buildings to create the new buildings. So, many people here are very proud to be able to say that Quito has a very rich Incan and Spanish history. Cute, huh??
After it got a bit later we were told that we had to go, because supposedly Old Towne gets pretty dangerous later at night (even in a group of seven people, four of them being guys). It scared us a bit when they told us that after 9 or so, you shouldn't stop at red lights in the area if there aren't cops around, because there´s a good possibility that you´ll get robbed. Well anyway, after leaving Old Towne, the Ecuadorian boys brought us the La Mariscal, which is where the entire city of Quito goes at night to party. It is insane there. You have to squeeze your way through blocks and blocks of people and police with machine guns in order to find a bar you want to go into. Once you actually get into somewhere, it´s much better. Mary had a great time dancing at the bar we were at, we were even lucky enough to get Salsa and Merengue lessons from the boys we were with!! Hopefully we´ll be pro´s by the time we get back (wink wink).
Other than this I haven´t been doing much more other than every day things. It is still amazing to experience the different culture here. One thing that I find extremely interesting is how people try to make a living. Some of the most common things people do here to earn money is sit on the side of the sidewalk selling things or sell food, phone cards, newspapers, or anything imaginable, at stoplights. At every busy stoplight in Quito , you´ll see someone carrying a tray or a bag filled with something, weaving in and out of cars when the cars are stopped at a red light, sometimes knocking on your window to get your attention, to try to sell you what they are carrying. Sometimes you´ll see people performing instead Some dance, some blow fire, some juggle. It is very entertaining. A couple days ago, I was very interested to see a group of young boys (well, trying to) break dance at a stoplight. They were absolutely adorable. The youngest one could not have been older than five years old.
Another thing that I find really cool is how people make use of what most people (in the US ) would consider to be garbage. Every day on the bus on my way to school (down the mountain), I see more and more people making use of destroyed buildings on the sides of the road. They use rubble from small demolished houses to make sculptures of animals, pots, etc. and use wood from previous houses to make doors, tables, chairs, or even little decorative hanging things. It is absolutely amazing!! I am always tempted to hop off of the bus and talk to them and even buy something from them, but then I always wonder 1) how would I get back on the bus?? And 2) how would I get a door or a rock back to the US with me?? So I ignore my urge and continue on.
Well I don´t have much more to say for now (and I´m still annoyed that my computer decided to make me write this twice). I hope everyone is making the best of the snow (if there is any) in WI right now (for those of you who are in WI, at least)!! I´m still bummed I didn't get to go skiing at all this winter, so I´m a bit jealous of all of you, but then again, not really =) Well I´d love to hear back from everyone who has time to send me an email, I always love hearing news from WI!!!
Love and Hugs,
Jenna =)
