Culture Shock!

This post is going to be all over the place, but to be fair, it'll be representative of my life in the last week and a half, since I've also been all over the place.

I want to start with my very first bus ride from Quito to Guaranda. That was the first time I truly experienced culture shock, I just didn't realize that it was culture shock until later. I tend to get most homesick and sad when I'm alone or not doing anything, when I don't have anything else to think about. That first bus ride was the first time I had some time to think about everything since I got on the plane in Denver, and so I thought a lot about what this experience was really going to be, and how long 10 months really is. I was thinking about all of that, and allowing myself to miss my family, as I watched the Ecuadorian countryside roll by. There are a few towns and smaller cities that you pass through on your way from Quito to Guaranda, and as I watched them and all of the people, I started to get really panic-y about the year. I mean the "What have I gotten myself into/ Am I really capable of being gone for 10 whole months?" kind of panic-y. I didn't realize until later what had made me so freaked out. It was the poverty that I saw that got to me. I don't want you all to get an image in your head of straw huts and naked children running around, or any other stereotypical "poor" things. I want you to imagine buildings with facades the color of the sunset and bare concrete block walls on either side. I want you to imagine  indigenous women in traditional clothing selling food from tiny roadside stands and too many street dogs to count. I want you to imagine construction that appears without warning around every other bend in the road. The kind of poverty you see here isn't a slap-in-the-face kind of poverty, its more subtle, but it's definitely there. I knew coming in that Ecuador is still developing, and that this wasn't going to be like visiting Europe, but seeing it up close and personal from the bus was jarring. What was really kind of scary was seeing it all and realizing that I would be surrounded by this lifestyle, this standard of living, for the next year of my life. I don't want to sound like the rich, privilaged American who scorns the "less fortunate", but seeing Ecuador didn't exactly fill me with the kind of "I will go and solve all of the world's problems now!" attitude that I would have hoped. I'm not on a mission trip, I'm not here to tackle poverty to the ground. I don't know if that makes sense, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that its strange to see a situation that you're accustomed to approaching as something to improve and realizing that instead, it's now something to learn to live around. That was my first real bout of culture shock, but, like everything else that was new at first, I'm getting used to it.

On to lighter topics, lets talk about food! In Ecuador, meals work differently than in the US. Here, breakfast is a small affair, usually with tea/coffee and some bread. Lunch is the staple meal of the day. There is always some form of soup first (usually with potatoes), then rice with meat and salad or cooked plantains. There's also juice, every kind of fruit juice you could imagine (plus some fruits I didn't know existed until this week) and always fresh squeezed. Dinner isn't really a thing, instead there is merienda, which is more of a nighttime snack than a meal. Usually we eat hot chocolate/tea and a sandwich, much like breakfast. It's been an adjustment, going from hardly eating lunch at all to that being the biggest meal of the day, with the other two being small. It's probably healthier though, not eating a big meal before going to bed.

Driving with my dad in the US used to make me nervous. Papi, if you're reading this, I take back everything I ever said about you being a bad driver. Although I have yet to see a single crash, the drivers here are much crazier. Speed limits seem to be optional, as well as staying in your lane (even on two lane roads). Plus everyone drives a stick, so driving is just a little jerkier than I'm used to anyway. You can part wherever there is space, even if it means parking in the on-coming traffic's lane. One of the three major AFS rules is that you can't drive, which I wont have a problem following at all. I don't think you could pay me enough money to drive here.

My school, while now technically co-ed, is basically an all girls school. Everyone here calls it "el feminino", which translates to the feminine, or something along those lines. I have a lovely and ugly uniform. Grey skirt, red, itchy sweater, knee high socks and black mary janes, along with a full gym suit that I get to wear when there is P.E. I went to school today for the first time, but they havent figured out the schedules yet, so there haven't been any classes thus far. That means that everyone shows up at school and socializes all day and then goes home. I talked to a girl in my class for most of the day and she showed me around, while informing me that the girls here could be kind of shy. That explained why I got lots of stares and some hesitant smiles, but not a lot of actual conversation with most of the girls in my class. I felt a little awkward, and very tall.

To finish up here are some random, but interesting things that happened: When I went to Quito to meet my host mom and sister, we visited a monument that you could see the whole city from. At the base of the monument there was a man playing a few different flutes for entertainment. One of the songs he started playing sounded familiar and it took me a second to realize it, but I soon recognized the song as Chiquitita, by ABBA. I laughed so hard, because in what universe did I ever imagine that I would hear an ABBA song being played on the pan flute?!

Also, I was with my host father at the bank the other day, running errands, and the security guard told me that I was Barbie. I know he meant it as a compliment, but it was pretty strange to hear. I'm not that blonde, am I?

There will be more to write later, but that's all I have for now!

Hasta luego,

Elisa