Quaker Juice

I was definitely a little surprised when I came out of my room for dinner the other night and saw a glass of light brown liquid sitting at my place, but heck, chocolate finds its way into the weirdest things here, so I wasn’t concerned. That is, until I asked what it was and the response was…. “jugo,” or juice. Juice? Really? En serio? You’ve got to be kidding me. This stuff’s the color of oatmeal! No fruit in the world yields juice that looks like this. “What type of juice?”

“Kwah-kair.”

“Kwah-kair is a type of…. Fruit?”

“No, no, una compania de avena.”

“An oats company? Kwah-kair…. Kwah-kair…. You mean, Quaker?”

“Si! Kwah-kair!”

I had in front of me a glass of Quaker juice.

I want you to know I’ve been really good about trying everything here. Like, really good. However, I’m not excited about trying everything, and this was one of those things that I just was not looking forward to. In fact, I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t pretty skeptical about how this would turn out, how much of this stuff I could choke down, and whether it would stay there. But let me also tell you that it was completely delicious.

I guess that Quaker juice consists of finely ground oats, water, a little bit of sugar, and the natural juice of any other fruit you want. This batch of Quaker juice happened to be a mixture of oats and naranjilla juice (naranjillas are a sweet type of citrus fruit grown here in Ecuador), and it didn’t last through the following morning. It was that good.

In other news, I finally got the pictures of mi familia up. If you haven’t checked back to my last post yet, where I told you I’d put the pictures when I could…. They’re there. Check out the Morillos.

This weekend is the second excursion. We're going to Otavalo, an indigenous village in the mountains two hours from Quito. We leave right after school tomorrow, and we'll visit the largest indigenous market in South America, an indigenous textile factory type thing, some woodworking shops.... we'll also see some BEAUTIFUL scenery. But the key to the weekend is we're going to be broken up into groups of 2 or 3 students and the groups will be living with indigenous families for Friday and Saturday nights. We'll be back to school Sunday around 5:00, just in time for us to all head to Mulligan's for the Super Bowl. I'm excited for this trip, but it also means that I won't have Internet access from tonight until probably Monday morning.

I'm officially done with Spanish 250. The oral exam was Tuesday after school (I pretty much dominated) and the final was this morning, and it was sort of intense. We went straight from the 2-hour final into our new classes, which for me was Spanish 302, a class that focuses entirely on conversation and discussion in Spanish. That's good for me, but the downside is that 302 does absolutely nothing for me as far as getting credit towards anything at Ohio State.

Cultural notes of the day: Unlike in the US, where the kitchen or the living room are the center of the home, here it's the parents' bedroom. It was kind of hard to get used to being able and encouraged to just go into Cris' bedroom whenever I want, but the TV, DVD player and computer are all in there, and it's definitely the hang out place in the house. Very different from the US. Also, most families here from the middle of the middle class and higher have housemaids. That's something that we think of as something for people with huge houses or exorbitant amounts of money, but here it's absolutely common to have your maid come 3-5 times a week to help clean the house, do laundry, wash dishes, etc. Again, very different from the US.

Remember, I won't have computer access starting tomorrow and going until Monday.... just saying.

SHOUT-OUTS GO TO: The men of 2020. And Horse.

From Ecuador,

Andy

Football by any other name....

I have a confession to make.

I'm sorry to those of you who will be hurt by this, offended by this, or will question my American heritage or my family lineage. I assure you that my parents did not raise me this way.

Don't say this aloud, don't spread it around, and CERTAINLY don't let the eyes and ears of anyone under the age of 18 go uncovered. Here goes....

I called soccer "football" the other day.

But it's not just me. Over the course of our first two weeks here in Ecuador, it's spread slowly yet strongly throughout our group like a nasty South American disease, and I'd estimate that it's overtaken nearly half of the group so far. There's still hope for those who have no passion for sport, no knowledge of the difference between football and futbol.... but this disease attacks most strongly those who enjoy their baselines, three-point lines, goal lines and betting lines. Many of us have succumbed. I even overheard one of my fellow pigskin-loving companions (who will remain anonymous to spare his family the shame) refer to soccer as "football," immediately followed by a reference to "football" as "American football." This is only a humorous situation to the sickest, most twisted and perverted minds. PLEASE help us find a cure. Checks can be made out to Andrew Smith. Every little bit will help us pay the tab we'll rack up at Mulligan's while watching the Super Bowl, for a great experience watching TRUE football.

In all seriousness, I can't wait to go to a soccer match of the Ecuador national team. Ecuador has traditionally been pretty bad, until the last four of five years, and the people here are excited about the team. We were told by students who came on this trip in the summer that we'll leave here loving the national team soccer matches as much as anyone else, and I see it starting to set in. I'm really, really pumped to go to a match, either with mi familia or a group of students. Of course, I'll never be able to go to another MLS game again after seeing real soccer with real fans, but whatever. Rumor has it the Ecuador jersey can be found at a local market about 6 blocks from school for about $14. This rumor will be explored to the fullest.

Got my second midterm back today, and it was good to the tune of a 94%. The final for Spanish 250 is this Thursday, and then I'll be done with my first class down here.

I've finally got pictures of mi familia! How excited are you?


This is my family. From left to right, Mila (sleeping), Cris, Mateo, Marta (my ecuabuela), Sebastian (cousin), Omar.

The women of the family.

Cultural note of the day: The only traffic laws that are enforced here are "no talking on the cell phone while driving" and "wear your seat belt." Other than that, anything goes. This morning on the bus ride to school, the bus hit a pickup truck, 100% the bus's fault, stopped for a minute to contemplate what to do.... then kept driving. Also, last week, I saw a person dodging in and out of gridlock traffic on a motorcycle, with their infant sort of in their lap. These people are completely insane.

And speaking of INSANE, at church this Sunday, the very last part of the service, the pastor asked if there were any "his or byes," if anyone wanted to introduce themselves to the church. After a lot of other people went before me, I stood up and said, "Hi, I'm Andy, I'm from Akron, Ohio, and I'm a student at The Ohio State University, here studying Spanish for the quarter." Because of that, I then met the 50-year old couple from Anchorage, Alaska that I sat next to on the plane here that had been sitting two rows behind me the whole time, and THEN, I was approached by a family, and the dad shook my hand and introduced himself and said, "It's not often we hear Akron, Ohio mentioned around here." I asked him where in Akron, and he said, "Well, not really Akron. We (gesturing to his wife) are actually both from Bath." UNREAL! Turns out they both graduated from Revere, class of '88. His name is Dan Maloy (Sra. Lutz, Grandma Lamont, you recognize that name at all?), and I didn't catch his wife's name. I still can't get over how crazy that is, that there were three Revere alumni in that church Sunday morning (and four in Quito!) despite the small size of that school.

SHOUT-OUTS GO TO: Greg, the guy from Chicago who we met in the bar yesterday, and the girl back home that I miss a lot. And Horse.

From Ecuador,
Andy

Lava Racing

Today was the first of the group excursions we’ll go on while we’re here diligently learning Spanish. We drove to Parque Nacional Cotopaxi, the centerpiece of which is, yeah, Cotopaxi, which also happens to be the world’s highest active volcano. The bus took us pretty close to the top of the mountain, where we were given our bikes, helmets, and gloves, and we started the descent down some really rough trails. I wasn’t nervous at all until I realized the trail was rough (we needed to pay hard attention), the ground was soft (hard braking wasn’t a good idea), I wasn’t comfortable with my bike (odd brakes, odd shifting), and there was a large wave of molten lava descending down the mountain after us (only the fast survive). However, I had no problems, and it was a really, really fun ride down…. and at the very end of the first leg (the volcano segment), I beat Lisa in a sprint to the finish. She might tell you I caused her to wipe out, and I guess I did, because I knew when I started sprinting, she would too, and that did lead to a really nice spill…. But in my book, a win is a win, and the lava didn’t get me. There was steady rain for the second leg, which took us to lunch, so we were all pretty soaked. There was a third leg after lunch, but due to our general state of dampness and the promise of some uphill riding (and the shock of the loss of two of our slowest groupmates to the lava), about 20 people decided to sit it out. Too bad…. What a fun ride.


For the first time since I've gotten here, Cotopaxi was visible from the streets of Quito. Normally covered by clouds, it was a beautiful sight at 6:45 this morning.

I don't know what these mountains are called, but they're not Cotopaxi.

Inside Parque Nacional Cotopaxi

The view from our starting point near the top of Cotopaxi. It's really hard to comprehend just how high up this is and just how vast that land at the bottom really is. So just know that this is really high up and the land is really vast.

Cotopaxi as seen from where we stopped for lunch.

In other news, I’m suddenly allowed to flush my toilet paper. As I was clearing my place from dinner Wednesday night, my abuela said, “I have a suggestion for you…. It might be better if you put your used toilet paper in the toilet.” Naturally, I felt awful and a little awkward and I started trying to confirm to myself that she had told me last week that it needed to go into the trash can. I asked her whether that was what she had said or not, and she said, “Yes, because the school told us we should not have you flush it, at least to start with… but I’m telling you that you can flush your used paper.” This did not need to wait until now, but the issue of my room smelling vaguely of poop has been solved.

I’d also like to add that if you’ve never had the power go out while in the basement of a wax museum exploring a mock historical dungeon, you’re missing out. And if that’s happened to you, but the tour didn’t continue after everyone pulled out their cell phones to light the path, you’re REALLY missing out. And if it wasn’t in Spanish…. Well, yeah.

I promise some pictures of mi familia really soon.

SHOUT-OUTS GO TO: Ryan for working his butt off on housing, Erin, and Horse.

From Ecuador,

Andy

Today, the world is watching....

Out of everything that I’ve done and experienced since landing in Quito a week and a half ago, maybe one of the coolest was my class of 6 convincing our Ecuadorian teacher to take us to a bar during class to watch the presidential inauguration of President Barack Obama. We sat at Mulligan’s from 10:30 to 2:30 (yes, talking in Spanish) with a crowd of other gringos to take in history. Of course, Obama’s speech was incredible, but the words that really stuck with me from the whole event was the prelude to the ceremony when that one woman politician (someone got a name for me?) said, “Today, the world is watching.” I don’t know that you can fully understand the truth of that statement unless you were watching from outside the United States. The world truly was watching. There’s a tangible hope here in Ecuador for relations between the two countries to improve under Obama, and although the inauguration was not the most important political event to Ecuadorians for the day (violent indigenous protests about a new mining law took first place), people certainly paid attention. I feel like that feeling is constant throughout the world, with every country seeing Obama as a new chance to improve relations with the U.S. and thus better their country. I mentioned to my teacher that in the U.S., it’s more common politically to view South America as one lump region and not as individual countries, and asked what would make Ecuador stand out as a country that Obama would reach out to personally. Despite having no real reason, she was still very hopeful. It’s kind of cool to see the effect Obama is having on the rest of the world.

In other news, my first midterm last week came back at 95%, and my second midterm is tomorrow. The final for Spanish 250 is next Thursday. I’m not sure I like this “test every week” thing.

Also, Omar told me the other night that there will be two big-name concerts in Quito while I’m here. I need everyone who reads this to comment with their pick of who would win in a rock-off and thus which concert I should attend: Iron Maiden’s Worldwide Farewell Tour or Carlos Santana. I know “Carlos Santana” and “rockoff” don’t generally go together, but don’t underestimate him. “Black Magic Woman” could be an ace up the sleeve.

Interesting notes on the culture of the automobile here in Ecuador (if that doesn’t interest you, skip this paragraph). Semi trucks don’t exist, and the cars are generally either sub-compacts (think Toyota Yaris) or small SUVs (think Hyundai Santa Fe). Chevrolet dominates this country, to the tune of about 40% of the cars. Part of that is that they sell the entire Suzuki line of cars, as well as the Isuzu Trooper, here as Chevys, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a few other GM brand vehicles sold as Chevys here too (I have not seen any other GM brand cars under their proper brand). Hyundai is second at about 20%, Renault probably has about 10%, and the rest is split between Mitsubishi, Cintroen, Peugeot, Mazda and Volkswagen. Toyota is a minor player here, as well as Nissan and Daewoo. I’ve seen only a small handful of Hondas and Fords, a few Fiats, a few Skoda, a few Chery, maybe 3 BMW, 2 Porsche, 1 Jeep and 1 Dodge. I also saw one car from Tata Motors, the relatively new Indian company. It's kind of sad that there are as many Tatas here as there are Dodge and Jeep. The dominance of Chevrolet and the cross-branding was something that I noticed pretty quickly and thought was kind of interesting.

I finally got some pictures up from this weekend. Sorry for the delay, but you have no idea how long it takes to upload pictures on the internet connections I get down here….


The fountain in the middle of the Palacio de Gobierno complex.



The Palacio del Gobierno

La Catedral (the national cathedral)



This was the contraband picture from the inside of the cathedral (different from the one in the previous picture). Not a great shot, but it WAS from the belt, and you can see how ornate this place was.



The statue of La Virgen sits atop Panecillo, overlooking Quito.


From Panecillo, looking north (downtown Quito)

Looking south

Looking towards the northeast (downtown Quito visible in the sunny area to the left)


Looking north-northwest. Mt. Pichincha is on the left.

South downtown. La Basilica is visible at the top of the picture, and the smallish silver dome at the bottom left marks the general area of the Plaza de la Independencia with the Palacia de Gobierno and La Catedral.


That should keep you busy for a while.

SHOUT-OUTS GO TO: Travis Hafner (please find your swing). And Horse.

From Ecuador,
Andy

Voy a tomar tu cámara.

I hate Spanish keyboards. Ñ is where ; should be, ´ is where ' should be, / is where * should be. It's seriously throwing off my groove. Cue memorable quotes from The Emporer's New Groove. On the other hand, it's now really super easy to type stuff like ¿Cuantos semanas hace que tú no ha duchado? or ¡Ay caramba! or just the good old ÑáÇ窺éíóúñ.

Wow, do I have some pictures for you guys. Marta, Mila and I drove to the top of a smaller mountain se llama Panecillo today, and the view of Quito was increíble. After that, we went down the Plaza de la Independencia where I got to go through a centuries-old cathedral (where I almost got my camera taken away for breaking the no pictures rule... stupid flash went off) and the Palacio de Gobierno. I actually toured the Ecuadorian equivalent of the White House today. Those will be up in the next couple days. In the meantime, just try to imagine what it looked like in your head. BIG GINORMOUS THANK YOU to Mom and Dad for the wide-angle lense for Christmas. You'll see what I mean when I get those pictures up.

Also so everyone knows, Erin leaves for Ireland for the semester on Tuesday. She's got a blog that I linked to on the right side of this page, but that doesn't even matter because she hasn't done anything with it yet. I'm counting on you to give her a hard time about it before she leaves, and don't accept the "I can't, I have to pack" line.

Shout-outs to: Amy, for attempting something only crazy people and Jesus attempt, and Horse.

From Ecuador,
Andy

MLP: Major League Pickpockets

Soon after I finished that last post Thursday afternoon, the city of Quito was plunged into darkness.... sort of. Lightning struck a power plant somewhere, which led to no electricity for 80% of the country. It made it pretty interesting to study for my first midterm, which was Friday at 8:00 in the morning. Power eventually came back, but my interest in studying didn't. Regardless, I still think I did fine on the test, but they said they were going to be a bit anal in the grading, so I'm not so confident.

This next weekend will be the first of the excursions. We're going bike down the side of Cotopaxi, an active volcano probably about an hour to 2 hours outside of Quito. This volcano is the single biggest natural threat to Quito, but a volcanologist friend of the school director that studies Cotopaxi daily says it's a safe time to go. However, even though the volcano is safe, I can't promise I will be. Because how many people can say they biked down a volcano with NO HANDS? I want to join the club. There'll be pictures.

Just kidding, Mom.

Second midterm this Thursday.

Observations about the country:
-There is so much fresh fruit here, it's incredible. Sweet, juicy, and delicious. This includes the strawberries on my chocolate sauce and strawberries Fruta XPlotion pizza from Domino's.
-The pickpockets are definitely major league. I have not experienced this firsthand, but a classmate lost his phone as he was getting off the bus yesterday, and Omar got his backpack taken.... and he's TRAINED to look after his stuff.
-Traffic is the worst I've ever seen, and I am now more thankful than ever for the U.S. federal highway system. Last night it took me two hours to get from my home to school on the bus, which is the equivalent of a bus taking two hours to get from High and Main in downtown C-bus to High and Lane at the corner of campus.
-Domino's Pizza tastes better. I've also heard that McDonald's tastes even worse. I don't plan on testing that.

Shout-outs go to: Mom, Dad, Erin, Buddy, and Horse. And Coop.

From Ecuador,
Andy

Mucho Mejor en Ecuador

Okay, so I apologize for not getting an update in sooner, but that's part of getting settled in this first week. I've finally mastered the bus system here (or at least what I need of it), so I'm staying later at an American cafe called "The Magic Bean" a block from my school right now. Since my ecuabela wasn't escorting me to and from school today, as soon as classes ended I went with a group of my classmates about 4 blocks away to a great little pizza-and-beer joint. Monster slice of pizza and a bottle of Sprite for $1.25.... rock on.

For those of you who were asking me about the money system here and how they adopted the US dollar as their currency, I've now got an answer for you. After the Ecuadorian economy collapsed in 2002, they "dollarized" their economy, which means that they must now purchase sheets of dollar bills from the US government. As for coins, they still make their own, but the value is pegged to the value of the dollar, so the Ecuadorian 25 cent coin is always worth 25 American cents.

School is going well. I'm in a class with five other students, it's a little challenging, but it'll be okay. Besides, this class only lasts for two more weeks. The class I'm in now is also the most challenging one of the 6 offered here, so it'll only get easier from this class. I'm not worried.

School is in a section of Quito called la Plaza Foch, also known as "Gringolandia" by at least some of the locals due to the large number of schools hosting American students in the area. It's a pretty neat little cultural place. I can find restaurants serving Ecuadorian, Mexican, American, British, and Arabic food within 3 blocks of school, and there are also some pretty neat little shops. Unfortunately, school is a thirty minute bus ride from my house (25 in good traffic, 40 in bad traffic), so it'll be slightly difficult (or expensive) to meet people here for an evening out, but we're all still figuring this whole Quito thing out. Everyone seems to be having a good time though, and the whole 31-person group gets along well. Makes things a lot easier.

As I wrote before, Quito is a beautiful city in a beautiful setting. As I promised before, here are a few pictures.


I can't explain the giant chair, but it made a good picture. This is Mateo and Mila.






This is the view from my driveway. Out of all of the students in my group, I think I'm the closest to Mt. Pichincha.



The sign says "Infant World." Shadiest thing I've seen so far.



In the US, a scene like this means you're at the minigolf course near the beach. Here, it's a normal park in the middle of the city.


I'm getting along really well with mi familia. Mi ecuabuela Marta is really the one responsible for me, so she's the one who really acts as my mother down here. Her daughter, who I'm referring to as my ecuamadre, is really closer to being a peer, despite her being in her 30s (that's a guess). It's a lot of fun to hang out with her and her sister Pamela, who doesn't live in our house but who comes over often. It helps that they both speak English, so when they can easily correct my Spanish or give me suggestions as to what I really meant to say (example: there are 2.54 centimeters per inch, not 2.54 centimeters per flea. Go ahead and laugh, Sra. Lutz). Also, the three chicos are pretty cool. With one exception.... yesterday, Mateo and Mila forced me to watch Beverley Hills Chihuahua. Not cool at all.

Also, time to brag. I successfully taught the card game Spoons to Mateo and my ecuabuela. If I feel daring, I might try to explain Euchre next. Or.... maybe not.

Is it weird that I feel as if my spoken Spanish has actually declined since I arrived here? I've never had problems knowing whether a noun was masculine or feminine, and now I feel like I'm constantly wrong. I guess I'll use the excuse that I haven't had a real Spanish class in almost 2 years.

For those of you back in Ohio right now experiencing windchills of Alaskan proportions, will it make you feel better if I say that people here are pretty chilly in this weather? My ecuabuela puts three fleece blankets on my bed and put a huge space heater in my room, asks me if I want hot chocolate/coffee/milk/tea at every meal, and tries to convince me to put on a sweatshirt or two as I walk around the house in a t-shirt. I don't think they can comprehend how cold it is. In fact, it's soooo warm here, I don't think I can either..... just how cold IS a -15 degree windchill?

It's time for me to sign off, but I hope to be able to post again within two days.

Shout-outs go to: Katherine, Horse, Joe Howdy, and Allie Lint.

From the gringo,
Andy

So, I'm a gringo now.

¡Hola! I arrived in Quito without incident late Saturday night. The city is beautiful and quieter than any American city of comparable size. It's at the base of Mount Pichincha, and I feel as if the mountain is merely a 5-10 minute walk from mi casa because of it's size, although it's quite a bit further. Pictures coming soon (when I can get a reliable internet connection with my own computer). I'm staying with the Morillo family: the grandmother Marta (my Ecua-abuela), her daughter Cristina (my Ecua-madre), and Cristina's three kids, Omar (15), Mateo (10 and seriously a Cleveland Indians and Cavaliers fan!), and Mila (4). For the record, Mila is adorable. Again, pictures coming soon.

One other item of note: my bedroom smells like poop. I have a bathroom all to myself off of my bedroom, which is a good thing because who wouldn't want their own bathroom, but it's a bad thing because as in many Latinamerican countries, they don't flush the toilet paper. It goes in a trash can next to the toilet. Air fresheners (which they have in the bathroom) only go so far, especially when the bathroom door doesn't close all the way.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post more tomorrow.

"GRINGO" CATCALLS: 4

From Ecuador,
Andy

T minus 3 days

Now that I've returned home from my three days in Columbus in which I witnessed a thrilling 59:44 of football, found out our 2004 Honda Accord does not do well off-roading in the median of I-71, and said some really not cool goodbyes, I feel like my trip is actually here. It's actually not. But there's a lot I still need to do before I leave early Saturday morning, so it's pretty much down to the wire, and leaving OSU and knowing I won't see these people (read: my girlfriend) for nearly 3 months is making it start to sink in that I'm for real leaving for another country on Saturday.

So, this is how Saturday is supposed to work. I'm scheduled to leave Cleveland for Houston at 8:30 AM Eastern on Saturday. I have a 5-hour layover in Houston, and then I'll take the 3:55 Central Time flight from Houston to Quito, and I should arrive there around 10:10 Eastern time in the evening. I will be met at the airport by my two Resident Directors (two staff members from Ohio State who we have already met and who will be our leaders, directors, counselors, advisers, graders, TA's, and general authority figures) and the Ecuadorian family that will be taking me into their home for the next 2.5-3 months. Some sort of orientation of the city, school, and surroundings will take place Sunday. Class begins Monday, and it will be a wild ride from there.

Quito uses Eastern Standard time year round (correction from what I had written before), so jet lag won't be an issue, and for the 99% of you who live in the eastern United States, my clock will match yours.... until you go to Daylight Savings Time in March. Quito is also, as a rough estimate, 9,351.39 feet above sea level (compare that to 5,281 ft for Denver, 955 ft for Akron and 653 ft for Cleveland), so the elevation change WILL be an issue. Between that, my asthma, and Quito's tiny little smog problem, my lungs are going to want to shrivel and die. Maybe working at Meggitt and breathing in carbon black all summer will have conditioned my respiratory system for this kind of abuse.

For those of you who know her, Lisa Brown (Revere alum, OSU student, Quito program participant, awesome friend) flew down to Quito on Monday and is spending the 5 days before our program truly begins to explore the city and the culture on her own time. That doubles as both an "FYI" and a "please pray she doesn't do anything stupid before some more English-speakers arrive."

Thanks for checking in. I fully expect that the next entry will be posted from within city limits of San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador.

From the soon-to-be-gringo,
Andy