Monday, September 29, 2014

My Own Kind of Homecoming

I've been seeing tons of pictures on Facebook of homecoming in the US. It makes me nostalgic, not only for high school traditions like that, but just for the US and Denver in general. No worries though, its certainly not the dancing I miss! I'm in love with latin dancing, and while I still need a lot of practice, I think I've got quite a few of the basic steps down, and I always have fun dancing with my friends!

I had my own homecoming today, although not the dancing kind. Today was the end of the Adjustment orientation, and while I had a blast seeing and hanging out with all of the other AFSers, I actually found that I was excited to come back to Guaranda. I missed it, and I was so happy to be back, especially after the six and a half hour bus ride. I've been feeling more and more at home here over the last couple of weeks, but it really felt like home when I kept thinking that it would be nice to be back in my own bed and take a shower with hot water in my bathroom. My bed, my shower, my house, my family. I know that there are still going to be plenty of days when I miss my bed and house and family in the US, but its a nice to feel like I belong here in Guaranda after a lot of feeling kind of awkward and out of place.

As for the orientation, it was a lot of fun! It's crazy how completely similar and also completely different all of our experiences have been in the first month. Life on the coast is different from life in the mountains. Life in the big cities is different from life in smaller places like Guaranda. And yet, despite all of the differences, there are always thins that are exactly the same, or at least very similar. Milk comes in a bag everywhere, and everyone eats a ton of rice and chicken. Everyone has a uniform for school and everyone both loves and also doesn't like school. We all have a lot of the same struggles, and we find a lot of the same things strange. That's one of the biggest comforts of being around exchange students. We are all leading different lives, so we always have great stories to tell, but at the same we are all  understand each other's struggles and we can all relate to each other.

Our orientation was on the coast, only a couple of blocks from the beach, which was wonderful, although it wasn't nearly as warm as I expected it to be. All I really cared about was that, although it wasn't incredibly hot, it was warm enough to go swimming in the ocean. Colorado is wonderful, but there's no beach, so it always feels special for me to get to swim in the ocean!





 This guy was just hanging out at one of the beaches we went to. We couldn't get too close, because he wasn't friendly, but everyone stopped to take pictures. I have no idea how common sea lions are in Ecuador.
The Sea of Clouds
When you're driving from the mountains down to the coast, there's a point where you descend straight into the clouds. Just before that point, there's a fantastic view where the mountains just seem to disappear. Its hard to capture the beauty of it from a moving bus, but this was my best picture. The closest thing I can equate it to is looking out the window of an airplane, except that you'r not flying thousands of feet in the air, you're on the ground. Its one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

Hasta luego,

Elisa 

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Anonymity

It's really interesting how much you can stand out, even in a sea of red and grey uniforms. It doesn't matter that I wear the same thing as every other girl in my school, I'm still almost constantly aware of the fact that I look different that everyone else. I'm the exchange student, and I can't forget it, because  even now, three weeks into the school year, I get stared at a lot. A lot. I can't decided if it really truly bothers me or not, I guess what I don't like is how self conscious it makes me.

I've had to reason through why I get stared at so much. The US is incredibly diverse, and on top of that diversity, I went to an internationally focused school, so having at least a few exchange students every year was completely normal. Ecuador, on the other hand, is far more homogeneous. I'm one of only a handful if students without black hair, and blonde-ish in a group of black stands out. My school has hosted exchange students before, so I'm not a complete oddity to everyone, but its easy to tell that the student body is still fascinated by the fact that we exchange students look so different. Sometimes being one of  three foreigners is nice, people tend to be really interested in why we came to Ecuador, what our home countries are like and what not. Yesterday, when I was walking to my dad's office after school, a group of girls called my name (because they knew who I was even though I didnt know any of them) and proceeded to ask all about the US, how i liked Guaranda/ my host family/school and all of the other questions that everyone always asks me. A lot of times, I miss the anonymity that a diverse population provides. It's nice to fit in, even if you don't look like everyone else. When everyone looks different, it's a lot harder to stand out. This general trend of being stared at follows me around everywhere, except when I'm with the other exchange students, my family, or other people that already know me. I hadn't really thought about this before getting here and experiencing it first hand, and they certainly never said anything about it in any orientation I went to. Honestly it's just weird, I don't like attention like that, but there's nothing I can do to make it go away, so I guess this is one of those situations that the AFS staff would tell me to adjust and get used to life with this. Easier said than done, but hopefully not impossible.

Another exchange student perk (or situation where we're treated differently) is with the Jura a la Bandera,  a very important ceremony for all of the "seniors" where everyone has to pledge themselves to the Ecuadorean flag. This is an all day affair. It involves a whole choreographed march where everyone marches around the courtyard in sections and flags of all of the cities and provinces of Ecuador are held around the perimeter of the school courtyard. Because its such a big deal, my entire grade has been practicing this organized marching all week. I mean all day, every day, all week. I've had all of five classes this week so far, and the rest of the time I spend sitting on the concrete bleachers, watching the endless march. Why do I sit and watch? Exchange student privilege!(kinda). I can't participate in the ceremony, because I'm not Ecuadorean. I'm not really sure why that's a rule, because other AFSers are participating at their schools, but for whatever reason I can't. I was actually a little relieved that I don't have to participate because as as cool as it would have been to have that experience, it also means I don't have to spend four days marching the same formations over and over again, and I don't have to buy a third uniform (the one for the ceremony is called the "parada"  and includes pantyhose, heels, and a bright red blazer). It also means that I've read a ton in the last few days. I need to find a bookstore here, ASAP.

The other AFSers and I leave for our second orientation tomorrow afternoon and I'm really excited to see all of the other students from Ecuador, and also to go to the coast. I'm excited to exchange stories and experiences, an also be in warmer weather. Guaranda is beautiful, and I love that the weather can be just as unpredictable at in Colorado(if not more), but I get cold easily, so the warm weather will be a nice change :)

It's completely crazy to think that I've been here for an entire month. The time has both flown by and also gone so slowly. Things feel normal now, and even though there are still things that can be hard,  I've been having a ton of those "I absolutely love it here" and "I can't believe that this is my life" moments, which are basically the best feelings ever! I really hope that I keep having those kinds of moments in the future, because the first month was really hard. Homesickness is awful, and while it hasn't gone away, it's becoming something that I'm not noticing all the time  anymore. It's exhausting to be constantly missing home, so it's super nice for life here to start feeling like a new home!

Hasta luego,

Elisa

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Back to School

Its been a while since I last posted, but I wanted to at least semi-understand how school works here before trying to describe and explain it to the rest of my world.

Somewhere along the way, I decided that 4 years of high school wasn't enough for me, or, more accurately, I decided that I enjoyed learning enough to go through five years of high school in order to go on exchange. I don't regret that decision whatsoever, but let me tell you, high school here is wild beast that I've got no idea how to tame.

I'll start with the easy part: uniforms.

This is out daily uniform. We also have a gym uniform that I think I'm going to end up loving, just because it isn't a skirt, sweater and white knee-high socks. Were not allowed to wear make up, nail polish, and all hair ties have to be white. I can't tell yet exactly how strict they are about those rules, but I'm afraid to be rebellious because the other day the inspector came into our class and made everyone stand up to make sure that our skirts were long enough. Mine wasn't, even though it was to my knees when I pulled it down as far as it would go. But being fashionable aside, its actually really nice to not have to think about what to wear in the morning. I can be very indecisive on that front.

On to classes. I'm taking 12 different subjects:
Psychology
Investigation (still trying to figure out exactly what that subject is...)
Math (This class is going to be beautiful, because I've already learned a lot of what were covering, so I might actually understand it and have a chance at getting a good grade)
Chemistry 
Biology
Issues in the Contemporary World
Citizenship ( as far as I can tell its essentially government/civics)
English ( My teacher already calls on my 90% of the time)
Language and Literature (The first unit is on fantasy fiction, so the first class we talked about Lord of the Rings the whole time. I can definitely get behind this class!)
Emprendimiento ( I still cant figure out exactly what this subject is and I only have it a couple of times a week)
Gym
Computer class

I have 8 periods every day, and a different combination of classes every day. This schedule is essentially the most confusing thing I've ever had to deal with, and I took AP Calc last year... My saving grace is that we all stay in the same classroom all day and the teachers come to us, so I don't have to worry about moving rooms ever. Its a little strange for me to be in the same classroom all day, but what really throws me off is that there's a whiteboard at the front of the classroom and absolutely nothing on the walls. I'm so used to the walls and classrooms at school being covered in poster and pictures and who knows what else, that having bar walls all around me seems very empty. 

I won't lie, the first day of school felt a little awkward. I am one of exactly two girls without black hair, and the other one is also an exchange student. Also, here I'm the tallest girl in my class, and one of the tallest in the whole school. The first day, mostly people stared at me. They smiled timidly too, but only a few girls talked to me. It was awkward. But, I'm happy to say that after that first day, things started to feel less weird with my classmates, they've definitely become less shy. I routinely get asked to help with English questions, and the other day one of our teachers just didn't show up to class ( that's normal, I guess...) so they all sat in a circle around me and asked a billion questions about everything I could possibly tell them about. It was a little overwhelming to be bombarded with questions like that, but it was also a lot of fun!

School has been where my Spanish skills are being tested, and surpassed. I can hold a conversation about my family or how my day was, but trying to understand chemistry in Spanish is a whole different story. I understand about 70% of what goes on in class, and I'm thankful for my friend Jeimy who doesn't seem to mind repeating the homework from every class to me, because I usually can't catch what the teachers say. I'm struggling most with how the homework is supposed to be presented. There seem to be all sorts of unwritten rules about what you write in your notebook and what to put in your folder, as well as when its okay to copy, paste and print from the internet and when things need to be handwritten. I've already messed up there quite a bit. 

I just keep telling myself that it's okay to not have everything figured out right now, I've only been in school for a week, and I've only been in Ecuador for three. Its really crazy to think about that. Sometimes it seems like its been way way longer than three weeks, and sometimes it feels like I just got here. 

I really do want to write more frequently, but I almost never have down time at home, so it's been harder than I expected. Regardless, I'm going to try to make room for blogging, because, like my darling best friend Olivia pointed out, I haven't posted in forever and she's tired of reading the same few posts. She wants to hear more, so Olivia, this post is for you :) I promise to write more soon.

Hasta luego,

Elisa




Wednesday, September 3, 2014

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


Tuesday, September 2, 2014

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

The AFS group from Guaranda in Quito, standing on the actual equator.




Me and my host family (minus my host mom, plus my host sister's boyfriend) in Quito over the weekend.

Quito!

The view of Guaranda

Chimborazo, the nearby, active volcano

Guaranda, from my grandparents front steps.

My house!

My room! (I have a lovely Hello Kitty bedspread that I'm slowly learning to tolerate)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm hoping all of these make up for the short post. The truth is that I have about a million words to say about life here in the last week and a half, but I've had zero time to write about it, so forgive me if I promise to post about it all soon, instead of writing about it now. I'm shooting for a post once a week, or at least once every two, which should become easier once I'm settled at my 99.9% girls school (It's technically co-ed, but apparently you can count the guys on one hand) and I have some sort of schedule.

Hasta luego,

Elisa