Ecuadorian fashion: The camel toe

This is the post I would like to write. hahahaha.... maybe soon.

Living the dream...

Taita Imbabura (The big volcano near Ibarra)

I am living COMPLETELY on my own! Woop woop! For the first time in my life, I'm living on my own, renting on my own, and essentially, I'm on my own all the time! There have been great things about it - the independence, privacy, the ability to cook and eat whatever and whenever I want!, to arrange everything how I want it. However, there are also a lot of disadvantages to it - I have to buy all these things for it that I'll have for only a year (fridge, mattress, baskets, shelves, etc.), I have to constantly clean, and well, I'm also on my own for most of the time! But it's definitely been a great experience so far. It's definitely not ready yet to show pictures of the apt, but I wanted to share some pictures of the view I have from the roof.

Cayambe, another volcano visible from the roof.

Some hills and houses.

More houses and some views of the rest of Ibarra.

Cotacachi. She is the wife of Imbabura. When there is snow on the top, they say that Taita Imbabura has visited her in the night...

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

WAIT! Please come rains!

Now is about the time that the rainy season begins in Ibarra. Well, I´ve heard that it used to start in September, but now we expect the rains to come more near the end of October. Either way, it´s been really dry in Ibarra and no rain. Summers here are dry and really sunny and Ibarra is the epitome of this. Beautifully sunny days with temperatures in the 70s (sometimes getting in the 80s when the sun is really strong). While I relish this, it has been so dry here that all the vegetation has turned yellow and there is dust flying all over the wind. I know that a lot of people are wishing for rain. I can tell by the charred mountainsides all around Ibarra and the ever present plumes of smoke. Many people who live in the Campo (countryside), think that if you burn the mountainsides, the smoke will go up in the sky and cause rain. So, everywhere in Ibarra and around has been burning recently. It´s really unfortunate and sad. So.... Rain, please come soon!

A Regime Change.

In June, right before I left Ibarra, there was an election for Mayor of Ibarra. The two main opponents were Jorge Martinez (a member of Rafael Correa´s political party) and Pablo Jurado (the current Mayor at the time). Martinez won by a large margin and it seemed everyone was happy.

Well, not so many people are happy now. I have to admit, maybe there was corruption in the government with the previous mayor, but things ran so much smoother! For example, parking was regulated. Now it is not, and traffic is horrible (at least this is what I´ve heard from people in Ibarra). And before, our director, who we call Doctora, was solely in charge of CECAMI with our ever wonderful secretary, Martha. Yes, they had lots of free time and did wash their cars, do online shopping, and put on makeup during office hours. Buuuut, CECAMI was organized, coordinated, and ran well! Now, it´s chaos! The Doctora has been put in charge of Human Resources within the City Hall and CECAMI! And Martha is always with her. We have a new secretary, Lupe, who never does her work. This resulted in not even knowing who was signed up for classes nor which classes I would have for the first day of classes. Literally, there were a bunch of students for Intermediate III and Advanced III waiting outside the office and they didn´t do anything! I took them into my room and told them that I didn´t know which levels I was going to teach, so lets just play some games! Absolutely inefficient. I´ve decided now that I will teach Basic I and Advanced III - completely opposite classes, which means twice the amount of work for me. And now I hear we don´t have money to buy a big bottle of water for the office so we will have to buy that ourselves and that we might be paid later. It´s just crazy!

I think that Ecuador is far different than the US in terms of politics. Here, you really feel the changes at an individual level when there is a political party change. In the States, I feel that usually when a new politician comes to power, no one feels a difference. Maybe that´s why people here are so politically active and people in the US are mainly pretty politically apathetic.

Up and coming.

First, I have vacation starting on Wednesday and so I will be going to the Oriente (Amazon) with Debby and Stacey (the new volunteer in Ibarra) starting on Wednesday. We'll be taking a tour and it'll be our first time in the Amazon. So I'm super excited! I really want to try the ants that taste like lemon!

Other than that, like the crazy person I am, I signed up for the Ultimas Noticias race in Quito for June 7th. It's a 15 K mainly uphill at 10,000 feet in altitude. What the hell was I thinking?! I haven't run in months and I've only run once a week (one time stopping to eat while running) since I signed up for the race. It's going to be baaaaaad. I know it. I blame Debby for this one. Hahahaha. So, we'll probably be giant lazy bums and stop a bunch and just be happy we finished. But, really, stupid. We'll see how it goes!

It's official. I'm deferred.

Ok. So it's official official. I am a deferred student at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. I won't enter med school until August 2010! I'm part of the class of 2014! I must say that's better than the class of 2013. Caraaazy!

So, I'll be sticking around Ibarra a lot longer. I hope that means I'll be getting a lot more visits!

Big News.

Ok. So it's been a really long time since I've written in this at all. And that's because a lot of stuff has happened. I've also been turning a lot of stuff over in my head. If you've been following this blog, you've probably noticed that I've thought about "being a gypsy" or staying here. Well, for the last month or so I've been really really seriously considering it. And I applied to stay with WT here for another year. I got the extension. I have until May 15th to notify UVA med school (my chosen school) to let them know if I will defer or not, which is really just in 2 days.

I think I've come to a decision. Not 100% yet. But 98% sure - especially since I will write the director of Admissions tomorrow morning.

I am staying in Ecuador another year - teaching at CECAMI and staying in Ibarra again.

I will attempt volunteering at a health clinic in the mornings, teaching in the afternoons, learning more Spanish and continuing to travel on the weekends. I hope the experience continues to be great.

You think it's crazy?

Qué tan lejos.

Qué tan lejos.

I watched this movie last night. It's great. It's an Ecuadorian film about these two women who hitchhike during a road block in Ecuador and have realizations about love and life. Somewhat reminiscent of Before Sunrise.

It's a great movie, but it also shows so much of Ecuador. I feel like it's a great way to explain what my life here looks like.

Here is the youtube link to the trailer. You can look up the whole movie on Youtube too. Also, I will eventually post about the Galapagos and Chugchilan. Eventually...

Procrastination and consumerism.

I should be doing a lot of things, but I'm not. For example, I should be doing my taxes, my financial aid applications to the individual med schools I got into, writing accounts of my time in the Galapagos and Chugchilan, journaling, and overall improving myself through gaining knowledge. But I'm not because I'm a procrastinator. Not only am I a procrastinator, I'm a horrible American consumer. Yup, you can take the consumer out of America but you can't take the consumer out of the American. Maybe I need to move to a small town here in Ecuador and stay for a long time to beat it out of me.

But anyways, in my delirious oscillations between wanting to stay here forever and become a traveling gypsy and looking forward to the states and med school, I've thought about what things I'll buy when I get home. Yes, what I'll buy.
I've already decided I'm going to buy a mac. Yes. We all know that Kristine Elizabeth Gade is utterly and completely technology challenged. I believe I've killed all the computers I've owned. (This one is already on it's last leg). I'm like the Black widow of PCs. I figure a mac would be essentially Kristine-proof. And let's be honest, macs are just cool and emblematic of the hipster scene. I'm a wildebeest (a follower) and I want in. I want the new macbook. Isn't it pretty? I deserve it, right? I mean I did get into med school...

Well, ok. So that's essentially the only thing that I've lusted over. But I expect I'll probably go on a giant clothes and IKEA shopping spree when I get home (if I get home...). Yay, consumerism.

Being a bookworm. Or at least trying.

I thought I was going to have so much free time when I came to Ibarra. I thought I was going to read all these books and become so much more informed about the world and have a bank of useless information. Not so right on that. But I have been reading a little. Here´s what I´ve gotten to so far.

Read (Pitiful!):
Healthcare Meltdown
Me Talk Pretty One Day

In the works:
Long Walk to Freedom
Pathologies of Power
In the Land of God and Men
How Doctors Think
The Inheritence of Loss
(The last four have fallen by the wayside. I´m a quitter. But I´ll pick them back up again!)

Coming up:
The Glass Castle
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Cry, the Beloved Country

Haha. It´s ridiculous. I have this big bookcase of all these books I got from Amazon and I´ve really hardly touched any of them! I was hoping I was going to be deep and eloquent, but let´s admit, I´m a shallow teeny-bopper at heart. I want to read Twilight.

Musings.

I can't believe that it's already March. I can't believe I've spent 6 months here already and that I only have 4 more months left! It's really a short time period of time. When I first began, a year seemed to stretch out before me and go on forever. But now with 6 months under my belt and with only 4 months left here, I realize I don't have that much time left and I haven't been able to do everything that I wanted. When I think of it, I oscillate back and forth between panicking and wanting to stay here longer and desperately looking forward to going home. It's a weird sensation to one moment thinking, "I can't leave in July, I haven't done everything I wanted to, I haven't seen everything I need to" to "I can't wait to go home and see everyone and begin med school!".

Some moments I get that same gypsy urge that I've talked about before and I want to post-pone med school and just say, I'm going to move to a small small town here in Ecuador and work with the community and really get to know them. Or maybe I'll drift around Latin America, live in Argentina, Colombia, etc. I sometimes wonder if I'm wasting my youth in med school. If I should go out there and live crazy adventures before I commit myself to my dream (I know I want to do it, but when you're in you're in). But then I think maybe it's just too much wanderlust, and that I'll have a great time in med school and it won't be wasting my youth because it's what I want and I can still travel. But then again, it's not the same as living in a place and getting to know the community. I'm all mixed up. What do you think?

El Novillo - The post where I talk about running away from a bull. With his horns on fire.

This post has a VIDEO on the bottom!!!! - ok, it's not working. But I'm working on it.

I had heard about the Novillo in Mira from my family from nearly the beginning. It’s a young bull, whose horns they light on fire and then let him run around the stadium with long ropes as drunk men tempt him to chase them. After hearning that, I knew that I wanted to go and possibly run. Duh. But after the Caminata, I wasn’t so sure. When I got up, it was all I could do to limp down to the park where Grace and her friends were. We hung out there for a bit and as the day progressed I started to feel better. I even made it out see some of the Torros, the regular young bulls that the drunk towns people teased in the stadium to chase them.

Novillo Time:

When it was time for the Novillo, all the town gathered in the big stadium area. There were GIANT bonfires, a stage with scantily clad women to sing Cumbia later, the passing of Tardon (strong aguardiente with some naranjilla), and excitement. I went with one of Grace's friends to look into the truck that was holding the Novillo before they lit his horns on fire. I climbed over to see in and he was an angry bull. But he had short horns. Not good, as we would later find out.

Before the pyros came.

I was right there when they took the bull out and when they put a sack over his face, tied him down and lit his horns on fire. It took a while. He's got spirit that bull. I like to call him Charry. Like Charlander from Pokemon. Throwback! Anyways, when he was all lit up, they let him go! I was standing to the side at first with one of Grace's friends. (She would only let me run if I held onto one of her friend's hands the whole time - yeah, they think of me as a baby). And then as he ran away, we would get closer. But always, there were a good amount of people between me and Charry. I have a strategy. And it is this - let other people be my shield. Of course, brave as I am, I would run after him when he ran away. But as soon as he turned around in my direction, you better believe I booked it. You'll see from the video, I never let him get too close to me. A good strategy! Eventually, he stopped chasing people. A lot of people said that it was because his horns were too short and the fire was burning his head. He even sat down once. Poor Charry! So, what's a high-spirited, drunk Ecuadorian man to do? Of course, whistle at Charry, hit him, and do whatever you can to have him go after you. And that's what they did. But Charry had a good laugh at them, because he got some of them. YEAH CHARRY!

Lighting Charry's horns on fire.

After the Novillo, they put Charry's horns out. And then the Cumbia began and the dancing dancing dancing. Not too shabby for a girl who could barely walk that afternoon.

Oh, and guess who was there at the Novillo, presiding. La Virgen. Duh!

The post where I walk in the Andes mountains for over 25 miles. In the dark.

This post is going way back to the beginning of all the stuff I said I was going to write about.

First, the Caminata from Mira to Ibarra.

Grace and I all fresh at the beginning of the walk.

This is the beginning of the fiestas of Mira, the small town where my host family is from. They do a walk from Ibarra to Mira as part of a penance to the Virgen de la Caridad. It's an over 25 mile walk in the mountains on the Panamericana at night. So, of course I decided I wanted to do it with my host family. On the night of January 30th, at 10 pm, we met up with all the other walkers at a location at the edge of Ibarra. We set out behind a big float with a papermache bull with his horns on pretend fire, and a small version of the Virgen de la Caridad. We cordoned off with ropes behind the float initially so that it was a big mass of about 200 walkers, packed together, walking behind the float and kept to one side of the road. That was ok, but with my gargantuan legs, I kept stepping on the backs of people's feet and I think they were getting angry. This part was nice and leisurely. My host sis, Grace, and I kept singing "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz and I taught her the words and the meaning.

After a couple of hours, the crowd started to spread out a lot and a bunch of them went ahead of the float. We were some of the last walkers to pass the float and that put us behind schedule. So by the time we got to the next water stop, we had to SPEED WALK for about one hour. Like serious serious, Jefferson Perez style speed walking (He's Ecuador's only olympic medal winner - for speed walking - and he endorses EVERYTHING). I was stretching those long legs and trying to keep up. This is where it became real work. I didn't realize it before either, but I'm sure speed walking tones your legs so much better than running. My butt! Talk about a pain in the ass! We finally got to the next food and water stop in Mascarilla, which is half way there and in the Valle Chota, (and where most people gave up and took buses). From there, most people were spread out or had left, and the float was no where to be seen. So it was just my host sister, my host brother, Erik, and I walking on the Panamericana. The mountains were there, we were there, tired as hell, and once in a while, so was one of the lights from one of our cell phones. But essentially, we were walking in total darkness on the highway, high in the mountains. There were no guardrails, but you could see the faint outlines of the mountains, so I had no fear of falling off. And we could always see or hear a car before it came. This is the part, where we sang songs, walked silently, and played games. The darkest part of the night. 2 AM - 5 AM. At this point, my feet hurt so bad from all the pressure. And my butt hurt from the speed walking. And I couldn't see where I was walking. But it was nice, to just keep walking. To just keep going.

Exhausted after speed walking. Laying down in Mascarilla.

All alone on the Panamericana. Host sis and bro.

It felt like a long time, but eventually, the sky began to lighten. And we began to hear the sounds of birds and animals. But we still had to keep going. UP the mountain. That's right. Since 2 AM it was all UP the mountain. It was definitely beautiful. The sunrise was gorgeous as well as the view. Finally at 6 AM, we hit La Portada (small small town right outside of Mira) where we were supposed to meet with the other walkers and where La Virgen was supposed to receive us to take us back to Mira. We got there, and a small band was playing and there was warm coffee! Ahhhhhhhh.... we sat down for a bit. Stretched and massaged those sore muscles.

The very beginning of sunrise.

After 30 minutes, we were up again. (OH NO!) This time to walk with the large crowd and to carry la Virgen to Mira. This was a nice walk, uphill again. But very pretty. There were priests, and all sorts of people coming up to help carry la Virgen, which was very heavy. Grace was able to help carry her. When we finally got to Mira, we jumped out of the walk to the Abuelito's house. We showered quickly, ate a quick breakfast, took a much needed dose of Advil, and then passed out till 3 PM. I was definitely the last one to wake up, but my body was so sore, I remember thinking, "why would I want to get out of bed?" Well, the answer to that, is the Novillo.

The last leg of the Caminata. The crowd with la Virgen de la Caridad.

Carnaval time has come and gone.

A picture's worth a thousand words? Then this is Carnaval.

I feel this a pretty representative picture of the craziness that is Carnaval. Even the dancers in the parade were not spared.

Ok. So this is a waaaaay overdue post. I've been meaning to write about many things, but well, let's be honest - I'm lazy. And busy living life. I figure I'll just first write about what has happened most recently and then get to that other stuff.

So. Carnaval. Kind of awesome.

In Ecuador, Carnaval is celebrated a little differently. It's not the samba dancers and scantily clad women that you think of when you think of the Carnaval in Brazil. Think water. Eggs. Flour. And Carnaval foam (in an aereosol can to spray at people). In Ecuador, they throw all of that stuff at you. Yeah, there is dancing, drinking, cultural events, and parades. But I would say the most distinctive characteristic of an Ecua-Carnaval is throwing water and spraying Carnaval foam (flour, eggs, and other nasty stuff in other places). And Carnaval starts early. The actual official days are Monday and Tuesday (Feb 23 and 24), but I would say I started to see little boys throw water balloons at people, buses, bikes, anything as early as Feb 5th. At that time, it was few and far between. It crescendoed closer to Carnaval and during my walks to class there were a few times when I got hit in a drive by water ballooning or hit from a roof of a house. Before Carnaval frenzy came, I remember thinking I was going to love Carnaval with a big water fight. But then when I got hit walking to class, I realized that I didn't like the sneak attack wetting.

For Carnaval, Debby and I had planned with some other vols to go to Guaranda and Ambato as those are where the biggest Carnaval celebrations are. All I had heard about Guaranda from my host fam was that it was crazy, cold, and that it was a free for all of flour, water, and eggs. Ambato is one of the few places where water is not allowed and it is known for it's parade of fruits and flowers.

Guaranda:

We got there in the afternoon and went to our hostal (which was a total sketchballish type place despite the fact that it was set up through the host fam of one of our friends) and then went out to one of the small parades (as our friends we were meeting were in another town next door for the bigger parade). We ended up in the parade for that barrio with the cross dressing group and danced around in the rain. That night, there were concerts in the parks and dancing all around. We avoided water balloons and flour that night and thought we were good.

But then there was the next day. Which I was looking forward to. That's when the craziness started for us. We got to the town center at about 10 am, which was absolutely packed. We bought our Carnaval foam and took up our spots to watch the parade. While there, we essentially entered the war zone. In seconds, we were covered in foam so that you couldn't see, breathe, or hear anything but the crackle and pop of the foam. Then the water balloons came. And then the flour in the hair and face. And the poor people in the parade were no exception to this craziness. The folk dancers and the reinas had to just take it and continue on their way. People were even shooting the foam into the band's tuba. And instead of giving out candy or flowers from the floats, they gave out small bottles of parajo azul which is essentially pure cane alcohol and some sugar. That's how Ecuador does! We fought with the rest of Guaranda and watched the parade in the rain for pretty much the whole afternoon. It was just as we expected. Crazy, cold, and a free for all. That night, we went out dancing in the cold Andean rain in the main plaza for probably hours. I'm probably paying for it now with a cold, but it was worth to have my first crazy Carnaval experience and to see a lot of the other vols.

Ambato:

The next day we made our way over to Ambato, which has a larger Carnaval celebration, but a little more cultural and sophisticated. The big parade was at night. These were some fancy floats made entirely of fruits and flowers. And I've never seen so many reinas with crazy elaborate costumes (some of them had the samba thing going on) as well as great dancers from all over. A great parade and a very different vibe than Guaranda. More put together and cultural, but more subdued too. Until after the parade, when the giant crowd went crazy with the Carnaval foam (the only thing they do in Ambato). They were not taking prisoners either. They went straight for the face and eyes. In some ways, more malicious than Guaranda. But overall, really fun too.

When we got back into Ibarra, I saw people everywhere with GIANT buckets of water just throwing it at people passing by. It was a free for all of water in Ibarra. No one was spared. Being tired of being abused by water and foam, I quickly took a cab and made it back to my house. It looks like Carnaval in Ibarra was pretty fun too.

In summary, it was a great Carnaval for me. My very first experience which was pretty awesome.

Why don't we have Carnaval in the U.S. I mean we have Mardi Gras, but that's only in New Orleans and it's different. I want to just sneak up on any one on the street in DC and throw a bucket of water on them and foam them in the face. But I have a feeling I'd get arrested for that. Oh well.

My Hero! .... And Coming Soon.

My Hero: Dr. Paul Farmer

This was an NPR article he wrote on the theme " This I believe..." He's an amazing man with great ideology he actually puts into practice. He's definitely a role model. Read it. We need health care change.

And... COMING SOON:

I just got back from my whirlwind trip and I have so much to write about. Not just from my trip, but from before. As I don't have time to write about it now (as I start a new module tomorrow), here is a little teaser.

• La Caminata de la Virgen de la Caridad - where I walked from Ibarra to Mira at night, without light, in the mountains for over 25 miles and 10 hours to "carry" the virgin to Mira.
• El Novillo - where I ran away from a bull with his horns on fire.
• Galapagos Islands - where a good friend came to visit and we swam with sea lions and sharks.
• Chugchilan - a small town high in the Andes where I went horseback riding and then hiking a crater lake.

I'll write about all these soooooooon! It was pretty amazing. =)

A Biology Major's Dream Come True!

I'M GOING TO THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS!!!!!! Excitement. Excitement. Excitement.

I'm so very excited! (If you can't tell.) I thought I wasn't going to be able to swing it because it's pretty expensive to go. But I was able to book a land tour (much much cheaper) and I decided I'm just going to be poor. I can't miss this opportunity.

I'm going when my friend Cara (more excitement!) comes to visit me during my vacation. We're going to the Galapagos, then after, we'll be going to hike Lake Quilotoa and stay at this awesome ecolodge, Black Sheep Inn. Check it out! I've heard such good things about it. And maybe we'll hit Mitad del Mundo (the equator museum) and Mindo (a cool cloud forest area I've heard about).

I'm super excited about my first vacation (I don't count December because that was interviews), though I'll be broke!

Oh. And in other exciting news (I think excited/exciting is the word of this post), we have a new president! I got to watch the Inauguration on CNN Espanol and I tried to make out as much of the speech as I could from how much they went over it in Spanish. History, my friends.

So, to end. GALAPAGOS!!!! And, as my co-teacher Debby would say, "Como se dice!? Como se llama!? OBAMA! OBAMA!".

In other news.

Oh, and in other news : Ecuador experienced a country-wide power blackout yesterday.

Well, that's what I've heard. There have been multiple accounts - coming from our school director, the cab driver, my family, everyone! Most say that the whole country's power went out. And many people said that it was a problem with the main power grid for the country. But then our taxi driver last night told us that it was part of the indigenous protests, which seemed completely plausible. There have been major indigenous protests recently, usually around the Cuenca area. The indigenous groups there have placed large boulders all around the roads to Cuenca so that cars aren't able to pass. It seems that it's completely peaceable, but that they're doing more and more to get the government's attention. I could see how they might cut out the power for a few days to prove a point. How they would have the power to do that, I'm not sure. But this morning, my family said that only 70% of the country didn't have power and that it was because of a lightning strike. So, I guess that's the truth?

The power went out around 5 PM, during my first intermediate class. And I was able to continue with the lesson as there was still sunlight. But by the time the 6 - 8 PM class time started to come around, I thought we would just have to cancel that class as there was no way the students would be able to see what I was teaching. However, my directora told me to continue with classes. What? How? My class gathered in my classroom, in a circle, in the dark. Because I wasn't even going to try to teach, we just told ghost stories, played "ummmmmbrella" (which was particularly mean to people who cannot speak English well), and "light as a feather, stiff as a board" all in the light of one lone candle. That was my first time playing that! And it's so crazy! Oh and during the ghosts stories, one of my students raises his hand and says, "a plane crashed in New York." WHHHAAAAAAT? "In the river." Still, what? What happened there?

It was a Thursday, which means it's "gringo night". So, Deb and I were still determined to meet up with the gringos. We were still able to get pizza (all the tiendas were open, with candlelight), go to our friend's house, and watch the new batman on his laptop.

So, for a blacked out night, with no water, it was still a good night. Horror stories, "light as a feather, stiff as a board", and Batman. Not bad.

The New Schedule.

Ok. According to my school contract, I was supposed to work until July 30th. That would be my last day teaching at CECAMI. But with med school starting August 10th, wrapping up all my stuff in Ecuador, doing a last bit of traveling in Ecuador, getting ready for med school in the U.S., and oh yeah, breathing for a second, I realized that it wouldn't fly.

So Debby and I had a meeting with la Directora explaining our situation (as she needed to get home a little earlier too) and she was surprisingly willing to accomodate us (as we thought she would think we were skimping on work). We worked out a deal where we would work Fridays for modules 4 & 5, to move up our schedule. That means my last day of teaching is JULY 8th! And the giant goodbye party will be JULY 9th! It works out! YAY!

So here is my new work schedule. Let me know if you want to visit because I would LUUUUURVE to have you!

Current module- (module 2): ends February 5th
Module 3: February 16 - April 7th
Module 4 (begin working Fri): April 15 - May 26th
Module 5: June 1 - July 8th

This means for vacation I have the weeks:

1. February 5 - 15th (already have a visitor planned!!!!)
2. April 7 - 14th
   
3. May 26 - 31st

This makes me realize that I really don't have that much vacation. I know a volunteer who had all of December and January off. Oh, and had 3 day weekends too. Yeah, I'm a bit jealous!

But overall, the schedule worked out marvelously! Wooop! I hope I can travel around and relax a bit before med school.

So, in summary. Come and visit me. I'll be waiting. =)

New Years in Mira!

My new year’s experience in Mira was pretty awesome and I’m so glad that I had it. I had the opportunity to go to the coastal town of Montanita, which is really popular with Gringos, with some other WT vols. However, I heard that it was just a giant staying-up-all-night-drinking-dancing-around-fires-with-surfers-on-the-beach sort of affair. Which admittedly sounds completely and totally awesome, but I feel like I can have a crazy drinking gringo night any old time. The cultural aspect of Mira was great and I was really glad to spend it with my host family.

So here goes the recounting of my tale. Disclaimer: This one might be a long one. But I’ll try to keep it interesting.

December 31^st

The family and I wake up really early to make sure we get a good (as in not packed where you have to stand the whole time) bus to Mira. We take the 7 AM bus. I for some reason was not able to sleep the night before. Not so good as I was determined to make it till 8 AM dancing in the street as I was told I would. When we got to Mira, (The more you know moment – Mira: a small town of about 13,000 people high in the Andes about an hour north of Ibarra, called the Balcony of the Andes) we put our bags in one of the rooms, though that didn’t mean we would be sleeping there. In fact, we were planning on not sleeping as there were no beds. There was too much family, and not enough house that weekend. I tried sleeping a little until Debby came. When she finally came, the family (host sis’s and bro, Deb and I) went to the cute plaza park area, did some mingling, helped put together a little stage for some live music that night, and popped into a house during a jam session preparing for the night.

Deb and I "participating" in the Jam Session.

The rest of the day entailed eating, talking in the house and super super super intense primping sessions with the host fam girls. We were going to look good for 2009, damn it!

The results of said primping.

During primping, some monos, which literally means monkeys came into the house trying to get through the doors to stain us/terrorize us. Completely harmless and fun as the monos are people who dress up with masks, and put tar or something on their hands and threaten to stain you unless you give them money. Usually a dime or a quarter will suffice. And the only reason they got into the house was because they were good family friends of my family. I only heard super super super high screaming and the girls rushing to shut the door. I had noooo idea what was happening. As usual. Supposedly, it’s a custom that is only really in Mira and a little in Southern Colombia.

We went to the town plaza with the whole family, carretas (masks) and all, to look at the ano viejos (the dolls representing the old year and the things they don’t want to carry into the new year) around town. Many of them were simple, but many of them were these huge ordeals.

Like this one.

But I liked the smaller, more personal ones like this from the uncle of my host mom.

After walking around, the parental units went back to the house and the kids went to the plaza to listen to the live music (which seemed to be in many streets in Mira). We went to the street with the stage we set up for the band we knew. At this point, most of Mira was milling around the park listening to the live music (no one was dancing at this point) with some ladies setting up stands of boiling liquor and some sort of juice? We listened to the music out in the street and then about 10 minutes to midnight we hightailed it back to the house to indulge in our pyromaniac tendencies. We took down our Ano Viejos, put them in the street, doused them in loooots of lighter fluid, and lit those bad boys on fiiiire. Then to make it more fun, we got to hit the ano viejos as they were burning with sticks. Yeah, Ecuador is badass like that. It was midnight around that time. We didn’t really know what the exact countdown was, but we guesstimated, counted down from 10 and then kissed and hugged everyone.

The family with the burning and beaten ano viejos.

And me dancing around a fire, with a mask on. What else is new?

At that point, the kids went back to the park area and we danced in the street until 5 AM. This included moments of passing around one bottle of hervido (hot boiling juice liquor thing) with one cup, for every person to drink out of, getting potato chips, oh and more dancing. When we finally made it back to the house (which was probably 50 feet up the road), it was 5:30 AM and we were tired. But remember, there are no beds in the house. So what do we do? Go to sleep in the neighbor’s house, of course! I love Mira. And that is not sarcastic. We went to the neighbor’s house (who was not a stranger, though that could have been a really interesting story had they been) and went upstairs and jumped into bed. When we woke up at 11 AM on the 1^st, who do I see but two other random people passed out in the next bed and on the floor. Yesssss! We tip toe down in our pajamas and run into our house.

January 1st

What’s the best cure for danced out feet? A trip to a hot springs. Yes! Part of the fam jumped into the back of the truck and went on the 30 minute GORGEOUS ride to la calera. The springs is set in a gorgeous setting, but the springs were a little lacking. First off, not even HOT hot springs. Think merely lukewarm. Then, think incredibly crowded. Like I don’t know who you are but I’m touching parts of your body I probably shouldn’t in this dark murky water sort of crowded. So after all of a hot second in the hot springs and 30 minutes in the steam room (next to the woman with the molting skin), we went to just sit and stare at the la calera view.

Gorgeous, isn't it? And the mountains aren't that bad too. Haha. I made a joke!

Though it wasn’t all roses. Because being the silly person I am, I wanted to sit as close to the edge to take in the gorgeous view, the fresh air, and feel alive! But ruining my nature moment was another call of nature. I sat in nice, warm, fresh urine. Of course that’s where all the men pee!

Not happy about pee on my butt!

When we got back to Mira it was about 6 PM and we waited around until 8 PM when the host uncle could take Deb and I back (the host mom wanted to stay another night to bake bread the next day). As there were again limited seats, Deb and I scooted to the truck bed with a nice blanket for the hour drive through the mountains at night back to Ibarra. Can you say amazing? I think I’ve decided that I only ever want to travel by truckbed, in fresh air and gorgeous scenery, and with good company.

So overall, New Year was amazing. Mira is awesome. And I love Ecuador. And truckbed traveling.