The First Two Weeks of an Amazing Adventure

  Quito, Ecuador
Saturday, January 17, 2009

Hi friends! :) I'm happy to have my first blog up, which I will keep updating throughout my time in Ecuador, the Galápagos Islands and Peru. Hopefully the trusty ole' Interwebs will help me stay in touch with all you crazy kids back home, and this way I can tell a lot of you a lot of things at once!
 
Normally I would begin with, well, the beginning of the trip, but due to some, ahem, interesting changes in the political climate as of yesterday, I'm taking a little detour from normal chronology. The next three paragraphs are about the current political situation, and then I'll rewind back to Day 1. :)
 
Yesterday, my friend and fellow student teacher, Corey, and I were just cruisin' around the Parte Histórico (Old Town) of Quito, which is where the federal government buildings are located. Walking past Ecuador's White House (which sits curbside between a public plaza and a monastery), we couldn't help but notice a ginormous police barricade around the perimeter of building. Being the unabashed tourists and overly-excited Americans that we are, we creeped around the outside of the White House like total dweebs, hoping to catch a glimpse of President Rafael Correa (of course we assumed that a Secret Service barricade implied that Correa was simply leaving the White House to hit up the grocery store for some presidential munchies). After about ten minutes of gawking, creeping, and being 0% inconspicuous (hey, if being awestruck a White House barricade is wrong, then I don't want to be right), we struck up a conversation with some off-duty guards. They informed us that the police barricade was in preparation for a political protest that had been announced earlier that day. Protests are very common in Quito, but we hadn't seen one yet, so this was exciting! I should take this time to mention that many local street vendors take advantage of the influx of protestors (or foreign protest creepers) to sell goods, namely homemade Jell-O in SOLO cups and collapsible neon laundry hampers. I'm not sure what aspect of a political protest screams, "Empty out the QVC clearance rack" - but I'm willing to roll with it.
 
After making friends with some tear-gas-equipped guards, we noticed two men standing by the White House gate festooned in every important military accessory possible and holding machine guns big enough to double as pole vaults. While we were commenting to each other that he could blow us all up right now if he wanted to, he motioned at us to come over to the gate. Now I know this may be hard to believe, but I've never been summoned forth by a man with a machine gun before, so when Corey and I approached him, we weren't sure if this was about to be the coolest moment of our lives, or the last. Luckily, seeing as how I am writing this blog right now, it was all good! In fact, the question of immediate national importance that Machine Gun had for us was, (en español), "Do you guys wanna get your picture taken with the White House sentinels?" Ummm, YES?! He let us in the gate of the White House front balcony, where we got our photo taken with the sentinels! It. Was. Sweet! FYI: Unlike in Great Britain, Ecuadorian sentinels smile.
 
Once returning home, however, I learned that the exciting protest we were at had more far-reaching implications than I thought. The power in the entire city of Quito had gone out during the cab ride home, and went out again around 9:00pm. While we were lighting candles, I learned from my host grandma that the power outage wasn't limited to the city; it covered the entire country. Apparently, President Correa made a recent announcement that he is trying to cut Ecuador's political and economic ties with Colombia due to the country's excessive drug trafficking problem. Colombia controls major power plants in Ecuador, and in response to Correa's announcement, they are threatening to cut off all resources to Ecuador. The power outages today were initiated by Colombian power companies and were delivered as "warnings" to the Ecuadorian government. In addition to this, political unrest is brewing among the indigenous people of Ecuador. Correa issued a piece of legislation earlier this week adversely affecting gold miners, many of whom are part of Ecuador's indigenous population. As a result, the indigenous people are banding together and have announced their plans to storm the White House on Tuesday. According to my host mom, the indigenous create a powerful force; the last time they stormed the White House, they overthrew the president that same day. No worries, as my host house and school are far away enough from the Parte Histórico to be out of immediate harm's way. However, depending on how Tuesday's events unfold, my next blog might be a pretty interesting one.
 
Now that that's out of the way, back to Day 1, as promised! I knew that this trip was going to be an adventure before I even got on the plane, but little did I know that the plane ride would be an adventure unto itself! My flight was scheduled to arrive at 10:00pm in Quito. About 5 ½ hours into the 7-hour flight from Houston to Quito, the pilot announced that the plane's breaks had a problem and wouldn't be able to land on Quito's exceptionally slick runway. So, we're goin' to Panama! SPRING BREAK 2K9 HERE WE COME! OR this actually wasn't an impromptu party plane and instead we landed in Panama and waited while the technicians fixed the breaks. After the plane was tricked out with some brand-spanking-new breaks, we took off again for Ecuador! About a half an hour away from Quito, and an hour and a half from Panama, the pilot announced that the problem with the breaks had returned (don't call it a comeback, they've been here for years!) and that we were going... BACK TO PANAMA?!?! Yes, that's right. At this point I responded in the way I usually do to a series of unfortunate events: I laughed. We flew back to Panama, de-boarded the plane, and waited in the airport while they replaced the breaks. This actually ended up being a pretty good time though, as about 80% of the passengers were college kiddos just like me! I met a study abroad group, a really nice girl who was returning from the holidays to continue her med school practice in the jungle of Riobamba, another peach of a girl who was going to volunteer in the Amazon, and a cool dudebro embarking on a week-long kayaking excursion. Who knew being detained in an airport for 2 hours could be so fun?! Finally, we arrived fashionably late (in true Stefanie Klaus style, hahaha!) at Quito International Airport at 5:00am. When my host family greeted me with smiles on their faces, I knew immediately that I would like them!
 
The next day, when I arrived for my first day at the school that I am student teaching at, Colegio Americano (American School of Quito), I was also in for a little surprise! As I told many of you, I came to the school with the impression that I would be teaching Spanish to International American students. Well, this is true! However, "International American" students are not, in fact, American or even English-speaking students who happen to be attending high school in Ecuador. International American students are native Ecuadorian students who are pursuing a bilingual education and ultimately an International Baccalaureate, meaning that by the time they graduate high school, they will have earned both a United States and an Ecuadorian diploma. In other words, I am teaching SPANISH to high-schoolers (and really smart ones too - one of the students just got accepted to Yale, and another one to Princeton!) whose first language in SPANISH! I have 9th, 11th, and 12th graders, and the courses I am teaching are the Spanish equivalents of Language Arts. On the first day I was like, "Ohhhh snap...", but I actually think this will be an awesome challenge, and I'm ready to tackle it head-on! In fact, when I think about how much my Spanish will improve, and how much more immersed in Ecuadorian culture I will be than if I were teaching American kids, I really prefer the current situation over the expectations I had upon entering the school. My cooperating teacher doesn't speak English either, so I'm gonna be speaking an epic amount of Spanish in the next 10 weeks! Which is exactly why I'm here. :) I'm starting to get to know my students a lot better too, and they are really cool kids. The relationship between teachers and students here in Ecuador is much more informal than in the U.S. - here, it's customary for the students to call teachers by their first names. I've always felt like the whole "Miss Klaus" title didn't really suit me (although Señorita Klaus sure is saucy!), and I think just letting the kids call me Stefanie is so much more conducive to establishing rapport with students, so I give the first-name-basis system the thumbs up. I start teaching my first unit starting Wednesday, about - you should be sitting down for this one - the correct usage of commas! In addition to the Spanish classes I will student teach, my cooperating teacher also has a homeroom that he sees for one hour each week. In homeroom, students do various enrichment activities, and our students are volunteering in a program similar to Big Brothers/Big Sisters with a local non-profit called FINESEC, which is an orphanage for children with physical and/or developmental disabilities. I am so, so excited to be able to help out with this! After homeroom meets again and I gather some more information about the project, I'd love to see if we can collaborate with some organizations back home (*cough*APhiO*cough*) and do some service the international way!
 
My host family is wonderful! I live with a woman named Veronica, her mom, Anita, and Zoey, the sassiest cocker spaniel with a superiority complex that I have ever met in my life. One of Vero's daughters, Gigi, who lives down the street, is about to have her second baby, like, yesterday. I hope she has it while I'm here - I'm lucky to be here for such an exciting time in the lives of the Aguirre fam! Vero, Anita, and Vero's kids are actually all American citizens - they lived in California and Arizona for more than 10 years before returning to Quito a few years ago. Having lived in the U.S. for over a decade, they are all fluent in English. As per my request, we speak Spanish together, but it's very comforting to know that if there is something important I need to say that I can't articulate in Spanish, I have English as a fallback option. For instance, if I get trapped in the closet (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIV_r_QSR48), I may want to use my native language to yell for help. Another awesome fact about my host family is that Vero's brother (and Anita's son) is a two-time Grammy nominee! I kid you not! He produced a contemporary Christian album that his wife sang on, and they've been nominated twice and performed all around the world! If any of you have heard of Pablo or Paulina Aguirre, that's them, so let me know!
 
Speaking of closets, in my personal opinion, no travel blog is complete without a paragraph dedicated exclusively to the local food. And the verdict is: it's good! The traditional soup in Ecuador is called locro, and it's a potato-cheese soup with avocados and cilantro. If your reaction to this description is something along the lines of "Yum!" or "Yes please!", you would be correct. My host family has made some pretty top-notch flan and fried plantains too. Also! The national liquor of Ecuador is a licorice-flavored liquor made from sugarcane, called aguadiente. Here they mix it with lemonade for a concoction that is delicious enough that I've decided to bring a bottle or two home with me, so friends and family, you'll all be able to taste the rainbow!
 
Last weekend, I had my first dose of Ecuadfunture, and it was nothing short of amazing! On Friday night, my host mom's friend's son (got all that?), Cris, took me, my fellow Colegio Americano student-teacher and fellow Ohioan Corey, and the student teacher his family is hosting (ANOTHER fellow Ohioan - O-H, eh?), Sarah, out with him and his friends from Quito. The Quito "hot spot," if you will, is an area of town called Mariscal Sucre, and it's everything I would imagine from Ecuadorian nightlife! The streets are alive with salsa music and reggaeton blasting from the speakers of the open-air clubs that line the streets, drummers playing on the street corners, and brightly-painted double-decker buses overflowing with people singing soccer chants. After soaking up some of the night life, we went to a nearby view where we could see the entire city of Quito illuminated! While we were taking in the view, we realized that the people in the car that had been parked behind us for a solid 45 minutes had been going at it the whole time! Whoops! Sorry for ruining the ambiance! Actually, I don't think they noticed/cared. The next day, Corey and I went to the Parte Histórico of Quito. Although we spent a substantial chunk of time looking at our map upside-down, we went to see a great balcony view of the city from a place called Centro Cultural Metropolitiano, ate at a café called Café Mosaico that had a view overlooking the entire city, AND went to a park/modern-art museum called Ichimbía that ALSO had an incredible view of the city! I'm sensing a theme here.
Speaking of all this fancy scenery, I should mention that the panorama of Quito is exceptionally gorgeous because in the backdrop of the urban skyline are the Andes mountains, including an active volcano! That night, we went out salsa dancing with Cris and some more of his friends from Quito. What a fun time!!! We were at the salsa club for over 4 hours, dancing the entire time (I even kept dancing during potty breaks), and the ONE song in English I heard the entire night was none other than "Sweet Dreams!" I could almost here T9 bringin' da noise/bringin' da funk from a continent away! Speaking of T9, I also introduced my new Ecuadorian friends to the beautiful modern dance move that is the fist pump. Yessssss! Okay, so they actually already are down with the fist pump here in Quito, but they do it with their fists open. I personally prefer the ass-kicking intensity of the closed fist, but in the immortal words of Ron Burgundy, "When in Rome..."
 
The next day, I went with Corey and her host family to ascend the Andes Mountains in Quito via los Teleféricos, which are cable cars that take passengers up to the very top of the Andes overlooking Quito. Just for kicks, they have a little warning at the bottom, where you get in the cable cars, saying: "Not for anyone with heart or respiratory conditions, pregnant women, small children, or the elderly." It's just like riding the Magnum at Cedar Point! As I do when I see this warning on roller coasters, I took the posted advisory with a grain of salt. I mean, Quito is already at an altitude of 10,000 feet, so another thousand or two can't make that big of a difference, right? Wrong! When Corey and I got out of the cable car and into the open air, we walked about 100 feet before we were gasping for air like a couple of Nemos straight outta the fish tank. It was actually pretty comical. But even though our lungs were salty with us, they got over it, and the view was worth it a thousand times!
The view was absolutely breathtaking (ba-doom-doom-chhh nice pun Stef)! No but seriously though, it was one of the top 3 most amazing sights I have ever seen in my life. We were so high up that we were literally standing in the clouds, and the city buildings of Quito looked like specks seen from the window of an airplane. Just a few peaks in the distance were the two active volcanoes Ruco Pichincha and Guagua Pichincha. Some indigenous people were renting out horses, which we rode through the Andes to a small waterfall where water runs from the active volcanoes. Riding through the peaks of the Andes Mountains, overlooking the capital city of a country I have dreamed of going to for years, was one of those moments that made me realize how truly lucky I am. I literally felt like I was on top of the world!
 
This week, Corey and I have been lucky enough to do lots of day travel, because school ends at 11:00 this week due to midterm exams (yessssss!). On Tuesday, we went back to Parte Histórico to see some of the many sights that escaped our time on Saturday! First, we went to a museum that doubles as a fully-functioning convent and sanctuary. Our tour guide, Edison, is a native Quiteño who is currently taking English classes, so he insisted on giving us our tour in English. Whenever we were walking from one exhibit to the other, he hummed "Ice, Ice, Baby" to himself, so clearly we were destined to be friends from the get-go. He told Corey and me that we remind him of the American girls from a movie he had seen; when we asked him what movie, he said... get ready for this... House Bunny! HA! After seeing the sanctuary of the convent upstairs, which was both beautiful and haunting, we made a pact to hang out with Edison in the future, so he can practice his English with us and we can practice our Spanish with him! Ecuadorian friends = ¡Chévere (cool)! After the museum, we went in pursuit of the historic monastery Santo Domingo. Well, during our walk, we managed to go in the span of one block from a quaint little historic plaza to the straight-up 'HOOD. I'm talkin' about the Compton of Ecuador here. We really wanted to see Santo Domingo, which was still a few blocks further, so we pressed on, but after a handful of significantly squirrelly encounters within the first half-block, we asked a police officer if it was safe for us to continue walking towards the church. When he told us that the next block marked the entry into the really dangerous neighborhood and recommended that we turn around, we decided that we can wait and see Santo Domingo with a tour. So, we headed over to La Compañía, a church whose inside walls, ceiling and altar are made entirely of real gold. La Compañía is also the burial site of the majority of Ecuador's saints. When we walked into the church, it was absolutely awe-inspiring. I sat in the pews and just stared at the altar for a solid 30 minutes. That place gave me quite a stirring spiritual feeling for a Bad Jew! There are no pictures to do justice to how beautiful it was (and you're not allowed to take pictures there so this is stolen from the Internet), but I'll give it a shot:

Yesterday, we went back to the Parte Histórico again. There are so many "must-see" places there that it's impossible to do them in one, or even evidently two, days! First we went to the Basílica del Voto Nacional, which is a gothic church that dwarfs every other building in the city of Quito. It's one of the largest cathedrals in South America, and it. is. HUGE! In fact, if you look at the picture of the view from Café Mosaico a few paragraphs up, you can see the Basílica towering above the other buildings. There is a vantage point from the building's towers overlooking the city, which we had been waiting for a clear day to climb up to. After walking up several flights of stairs, we crossed a rickety bridge passing between the two towers and through the interior scaffolding of the church's attic. When we got outside to the base of the tower, about 300 feet above ground, we saw an open-air ladder with metal rungs each about a foot apart and a pair of hand railings. That was how we were going to ascend to the top of the tower. I had on flip-flops and ultimately decided that going barefoot would be the better decision in terms of traction (an important element to consider when 300 feet in the air). And I thought Athens bridge-jumping was high! When we got to the top, we were standing in a little terrace near the top of the tower that couldn't have been more than 5 feet in diameter. As always, the view was absolutely spectacular. My silly camera died JUST after we got to the top of the tower (good excuse to go back, right?), but luckily I was able to snap some pictures of the city below us before it peaced out on me. Here's one that I love!:

After our little climb, we went to a wax museum that told the story of some Spanish colonial missionaries who came to Ecuador and were kidnapped and murdered a year later by their captors. Not exactly your typical Britney Spears and Michel Jackson wax figurines! After that, we wandered through the plaza by the White House to see the beginning of the pandemonium yet to unfold. And here we are, back at the beginning!
 
Thank you so much for being so interested in a friend's adventures! :) Tomorrow I wake up early to go to a fútbol game with my host family in a small pueblo about 40 minutes outside of Quito! Future posts will be much shorter and more frequent, but I had to start with a bang! I would love to hear everything that's going on in your lives in Ohio, NYC, Chicago, Louisville, Mississippi, or wherever you are! ¡Ciao!