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.