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.