Moving Day, and Socialist Governments

My best friend here, Emily, moved yesterday. Her host family moved apartments, and so Emily was really stressed. And being the great little sister/best friend I am :-) I went over there to be with her and to help her move. Moving in Ecuador is quite a different experience than moving in the states. I have never actually moved in the states before, ok, well, when I was 1, but that doesn't really count. So maybe it is exactly the same. But I strongly doubt it. 

There were no boxes involved. Everything just went over in piles and

I was really surprised nothing got broken. This is the smaller of the two moving trucks. I don't know if you can tell, but I was really worried that things were going to fall out of it. It looks like one little bump in the road and all the clothing would be sprawled out on the street. And trust me, bumps in the road are very common here. But despite my worries, everything made it to the new apartment safely. Gabi, Emily and I ran around and helped get a few things organized, (i organized the pantry) ad then we all retreated to Emily's room where we helped her unpack a lot of her stuff. Later we walked around her new neighborhood. We almost got lost, (this time however it was not my fault, I don't know if I have mentioned the fact that I have been dubbed officially lost, like forever, because I never know where I am, even when I have been there the whole day), but we found Emily's church like only 5 blocks away from her house, so that made her really happy. When we got back to the apartment we ate chicken and realized that Emily still didn't have a bed to sleep on that night, so I called my host mom and asked if Emily could sleep over. And my host mom said yes. So last night Emily and I ate junk food and watched hours of Joan of Arcadia, talking and laughing the whole time. It was so much fun. I am so glad I found a friend here that i can have a sleepover with. 

I spent all the rest of today with Emily. Today was voting day on the Constitution of Ecuador. If you haven't heard by now, (I don't know how many of you actually follow Ecuadorian politics), the people of Ecuador voted "Sí" to the new constitution and that means that Ecuador has a socialist economy. It gives a lot of rights to minorities and other people too. Which is good. Voting in Ecuador is obligatory. Which was interesting for me. My host mom, Emily and I walked about half an hour to the place where my host mom had to vote. It was really interesting to see. The voting process looked like an elementary school election. You put a check mark next to "Sí" or "No" and folded the piece of paper up, then stuck it in a slit in a cardboard box. Thats it. We walked 30 min for a 5 min process. Then we walked all 30 min back. Everything is closed on voting day, so there wasn't really anything to do. Gabi, Emily and I went to the Panadería down the street from me, and we were contemplating going to the park but we decided it was too cold. I tried to practice flute today but got distracted by facebook, and I have listened to the Wicked cd like four times today. 

I don't have school tomorrow, (we get a day to recover from elections) so Emily, Gabi, Saaramaria, and I are going to Creepes and Waffles to celebrate being here a month. (Its the first restaurant we ate in Ecuador.) Then I have Spanish class. Other than that I have homework and no other plans. I hope this week will be a little less eventful than the last one. I am exhausted.

Hasta Luego, 

Zoe

New Layout

So I decided that my old template for the blog was a little dark and depressing, so I hope you like the new one, it should be a little more uplifting.

Zoe

Your own little sunburned military girl

So I started a post a while ago and I never finished it, so I am just going to forget about that one and write a new one. 

School is going well, I understand a whole lot more than when I first got here, and I am able to get through a day or two without crying, so that is good. Unfortunately the weather is crazy here, so when you wake up it is absolutely freezing and I stand at the bus stop shivering in my suddenly very skimpy school uniform. Then in the afternoon the sun is blazing and you are sweating through what seems like an unfortunate amount of cloth (and we are not allowed to take our sweaters off, don't ask me why.). Today I had P.E. and I was wondering why in the world I hadn't thought to put on sunscreen before I left the house this morning. Then of course I remembered the ominous clouds and freezing weather. But don't worry, I have learned something from all the pain my face is in, always put on sunscreen in the morning, no matter what the weather looks like. 

Tomorrow is flag day or something so all the schools in Quito have a ceremony at 8am. Thankfully that means I get to skip geometry, unfortunately it means I have to wear my super ugly monday formal uniform. (I found out that Benalcazar only became a co-ed school 7 years ago, and that it used to be all boys, so no wonder our formal uniforms make us look like men.) I really don't want to have to stand in the courtyard tomorrow in high heels and nylons (apparently they have never heard of an auditorium), but oh well, I guess that's the price you have to pay for patriotism. 

My school definitely teaches you how to be in the army. During the ceremony (that we practiced this morning), they randomly yell out commands, that really just sound like elaborate grunts, and then you have to do various things. (I have figured out the grunt that means ATTENTION, and the grunt that means AT  EASE, as well as the one that means we have to turn to the right. the one that means we have to turn to the left however, is a mystery.)

So when I come back to the states, if you inadvertantly grunt, and I immediately stand up straight with my hands at my side, you know why.

Hasta Luego, 

Zoe

Photos

This is Emily and I in our school uniforms. (I have to wear this one 3 days a week).
This is the Intrax group at the airport, we all flew into Quito from Miami together

This is me eating ice cream and a cinnabon at the mall here, the baskin robbins and the cinnabon are attached so you can get ice cream with your cinnabon

this is our whole Xplorer group

The top is meEmily, and Adam and the bottom is and me Gabi and Claudio .

More pics will come from now on in the actual posts but because I just now figured out how to put pictures on I decided to catch up a little

Que Chévere

Ok, so I have officially survived 2 weeks of school. YAY for me. I am not sure how I feel about the Ecuadorian school system. My school is really strict, and it doesn't seem to allow for much creativity. You have to dress the way everyone else does, have absolutely spotless and perfect notebooks, and I don't think they have ever heard of art classes. Oh, and my classroom has two tiny windows and barely any functioning lights. So its more like a "Jaula" than an "Aula. (Aula means classroom, and Jaula means cage, I made the mistake of calling our aula a jaula the other day, but everyone just laughed because it really does look like a cage.)  But other than that, the school is nice. My uniform isn't that cute, but I can live with it. The nice thing about school is that sometimes the teachers just decide not to show up.(And I am pretty sure Ecuador has never heard of substitute teachers.) Then we just have to pretend we are doing something productive so that the "inspectora" doesn't come in and decided that we need to learn everything there is to know about the rule book. 

I bought Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Spanish. YAY. I haven't started to read it yet, but I am very excited to. I found out that my best friend at school (Cristina) and my friend from Missouri who is on the exchange program have never read Harry Potter or seen the movies. It is a terrible thing, so I  have promised them that by the time I leave Ecuador they will both have read all the Harry Potter books at least once as well as seen the movies. Unfortunately the date for the new Harry Potter movie has been moved back and I will have to see it when I get home, although I was excited to see it in Spanish. (I wonder what British-Spanish accents sound like...) However I will still be able to see Twilight here, as well as High School Musical 3!!! So that should be exciting. 

Thursday we only had two classes in the morning of school. Unfortunately I had Bio and Math. Thankfully, my Biology teacher didn't show up, but I did fail my math test. (I am not positive how exactly I failed it. But there were only 2 questions and I definitely got one of them wrong. I had done the same problem right on my homework, but when I got to the test I just kept 2nd guessing myself.) But anyway, after school Emily and I had our first ride on the "Trole". (The Trole is this big green bus that has actual stops like a train and it travels around on wires like in San Francisco). Everything is still cheep here. The Trole costs the same as the bus, 25 centavos.  So compared to the US where you can't even get a gumball any more for a quarter, here you can get a ride all around the city if you wanted.  Emily and I went to the civics museum in the old city. Emily had to go there for homework, but I just tagged along. We saw this beautiful art exhibit of paintings from Mexico and Ecuador. They were all Diego Rivera like. (Actually some were by Diego Rivera.) But it was really beautiful. Afterward we had to draw our own version of one of the paintings in the exhibit with black paper and chalk. I drew this picture called the Cadete and it looks a whole lot better in the actual piece. My drawing made him look like Pinnochio. We also explored the area of town by Universidad Catolico. And went to the artisan market near Amazonas. I bought a little Ecuadorian flute at the Artisan market, and Emily and I made  necklaces from cords and a pair of earings we found there. 

Normally on thursdays I have Spanish class and then Salsa class, but Emily and I were so exhausted after our adventures, and Gabi was exhausted after school that we all just went to Emily's house and ate ice cream. (We were going to bake a cake, but we couldn't figure out how to turn the oven on.) 

Yesterday was pretty uneventful, I had a full day of school, but it was more like a full day of math. I had double geometry, and technical drawing. Thankfully, English was the last class of the day. I got a 20/20 on my George Bush essay. (I know, you were probably all worried I would fail.) 

Right now I have to write a play version of the first Cantar de Mio Cid. :-( My group for literature is performing it in class on Monday and I think I volunteered to write the script. (I have no idea where that came from.) It's not too hard, because I don't have to worry about grammar, they are going to fix that for me, and I am working off a summary of the play that was written for 5-year-olds so I can understand it. 

Oh, I almost forgot...Last night Xplorer had a party for all the returning students who were from Ecuador and went on exchange programs. It was really great because we got to hear their stories, and I learned a lot because they experienced what I am experiencing now. 

Chiao, 

Zoe

P.S. I finally have wireless at the house! So I will probably update the blog a little more frequently. 

I am definitely in Ecuador

Hello Everyone, greetings from Ecuador. I give you all a kiss on the cheek (the Ecuadorian greeting).
I arrived in Quito a little more than a week ago and I definitely like it here. The people are so nice and friendly and I have already made some friends. Here´s what´s been going on the past week:
My plane arrived in Quito on Aug 30, at around 8:45 local time (which is the same as Chicago time). I went through immigration and customs without any problem. At the airport I met my family and I went with them to their house, which is my house for the next 5 months.
I spent the next couple of days getting to know the city and my family. On tuesday I had a meeting with Xplorer and the rest of the students. (Xplorer is the program here that I am with.) The other students are great. There are 4 others from the U.S. and one from Finaland and one from Switzerland. Right now when we are together the 7 of us talk in broken Spanish and a lot of English, but as our Spanish improves we will talk more in Spanish.
I started school on Monday of this week. I attend Colegio Benalcàzar. Which according to almost anyone you talk to here, is one of the best high schools in the country. I am in the 4th grade (their equivalent to sophomore) and in the IB program. All my classmates have been really nice. The way the school system works the teachers come to you, so no one has a say in their schedule. But I am taking a variety of classes, everything from math, physics, history, chemistry, and philosophy, to literature, drawing, and English. Three other students from Xplorer are at my school, but they are all older than me so they are in the 5th and 6th grades. But we see each other at breaks.
People have been asking me about homwork. I have had some homework so far, but it is only the 3rd day so it hasn´t really been that much. We don´t have the same classes everyday so the homework I do have is not often due the next day.
Obviously I have internet. There is a slight possibility that I might be able to get wireless internet on my laptop, but we haven´t figured it out yet. However I definitely have internet at the house, and internet cafes are plentiful. So definitely email me, I love hearing from everyone back home.
If I haven´t talked about something that you want to know about please leave a comment and I will be sure to cover it in the next post.

I miss everyone so much,
Zoe

P.S This computer spell checks everything in Spanish so I can´t spell check I apologize for my bad spelling and for all future spelling errors.


Correction: In my last post I talked about my family and I was only talking from what I believed was written on the paper I was given. In reality, I live with a single mother and her daughter who is 18 and going to University. The mother also has a 30-year-old daughter who lives downtown becuase it is closer to her job. There is also a 20-something son who is in the "Policia", I haven´t quite figured out if that means he´s like a normal police officer of he´s in the army. Either way, he doesn´t live and Quito and so I haven´t met him yet. I believe he is coming to visit sometime soon.