la negra mala

the other day we went to historic quito and came across a restaurant with the name "la negra mala" which roughly translates to "the bad black girl". things like that are completely politically correct here. one of the students in my group talked about how she met an afroecuadorian who couldnt get into a couple (very few, but still) of the clubs in quito because they dont let black people in. as much as we talk about racism in the united states its soooo much more prominent in other places.

how do i feel about it? it basically just makes me shake my head and pray for the people who think that these things are okay. one of the reasons why i wanted to come here was to be a cultural ambassador for my race, to prove to ecuadorians who may harness negative ideas about black people that were not so bad lol. many of us are pretty smart and are are actually pretty successful. by getting more involved in the community i hope to break some of these stereotypes. im quite excited to see what happens.

as for everything else, i think im adjusting quite well! i know exactly where all my classes are and my spanish has been good enough to discuss societal issues in the united states with my host mother, as well as hold pretty intelligent conversations with people in lumbisi. i feel very comfortable taking the bus to and from school and going shopping in lumbisi. great success!! thank you to all of you who have kept me in your prayers! i know that ive only been here a week but it seriously feels like a lifetime. so far im loving every second of it.

number of pictures that ive taken so far: 1. sorry guys lol. but luckly im facebook friends with alot of my group so ill just steal their pictures lol. hasta luego!

FIRST FEW DAYS IN ECUADOR

right now im at the university. i just finished my first couple classes and im kinda scared to go home because i havent taken the bus by myself yet so im prolonging it as much as possible lol.

quick tidbits about my ecua life so far:

• flying into ecuador was great. almost half of the people on the plane were international students so it was super fun. i met a girl who was estadounidense (a person from the united states, as ecuador is in south america so they are americans too) but she spoke fluent spanish so she helped me out a bit at the airport when we thought our luggage was lost (it wasnt. it was just all over the place. oh ecuador)
• my host family is great! my siblings are super cute and i love watching cartoons with them (especially bob esponga, or spongebob in english lol)
• living in lumbisí is also awesome. everyone in the community is super friendly and i live down the street from the bus stop
• my spanish sucks right now and im getting confused with things that i definitely know, but i think its just nerves, because when i talk with ppl my age or younger im usually fine. yet when i talk to my host mom, i cant ever find the words to say.
  
• taking classes in spanish is nuts but i love it (so far). unlike other spanish incidences when people just tend to switch to english because im estadounidense, my professors just speak spanish so im really forced to get better.
• its alot of fun being an international student. the ppl on my trip are pretty cool. i haven got to know them very well but ive gotten to know alot of other international students so im pretty geeked. i finally know how the koreans at u of i feel. theyre always speaking korean with each other and low key it was kinda annoying to me because they seemed unapproachable but i find myself speaking mostly english with the other international students here out of ease. im trying to break this habit but sometimes it just feels good to speak whats familiar.
  
• there are more black ppl in ecuador then i thought! i stopped counting after i saw 10 the first day lol. being black in ecuador is interesting because i thought id stand out alot but honestly, i dont think people realize that im estadounidense until i open my mouth and attempt to speak spanish, then they stare. for the most part if im walking around lumbisí i think they just assume im a black ecuadorian, because they look at me and greet me like they do everyone else.
• the altitude here is...interesting. its not as bad as i imagined but i definitely dropped my capoeira class because i get tired from walking, let alone doing martial arts! oh well. at least my days end early on monday and wednesday. i plan on using this new time for volunteering in the community!!!
• this campus is wild!!! since its only 20 years old its sooooo pretty. its significantly smaller than u of i but its more confusing because all of the buildings are kinda connected. i had a class in one building that you could only access through another building; it didnt have its own entrance.
• ive taken zero pictures so far. sorry guys. ill try to get on it.
  

the next posts wont be so vague, im just in a hurry. but overall ecuador is great! its definitely a challenge, and i admit, i didnt really know what i was getting myself into. i signed up for everything and thought about it logistically but definitely not emotionally. i never thought id say this, but im homesick! i definitely miss my friends and family but all of that is expected, i guess.

goals for the next two weeks:

• learn my way around lumbisí and be able to go shopping there.
• feel comfortable on the bus
• learn my way around this crazy universidad
• keep God at the center of this trip!

hasta luego!

7...

...more days. One more week. This time next week, I'll be on my way to Ecuador and AWAY FROM THIS HORRIBLE SNOW!

je suis trop geeked!

oh, and amount of time spent practicing/studying spanish since i've been home and have had hella free time: none. i'm going to be regretting this in....7 DAYS!! [=

Mi Nueva Familia Anfitriona

I finally got my housing information!

Here's what the email said:

Your house is located in Lumbisi, its 20 minutes bus ride to USFQ. Your house is located in a small community, very close to USFQ called Lumbisi, and it’s a very safe area. You have easy bus access to Quito. Your host mom’s name is Guadalupe, she is a housewife, and her husband is Rodrigo he works as an electrician. They have twins, Cristina and Felipe they are 8 years old and go to school.

I am TOO GEEKED because:
1. I'm living in Lumbisi which (from what I've heard) is an indigenous community which is GREAT because I'll be close to where I want to volunteer and the community (again, from what I've heard) is small so [hopefully] I'll get to know people and establish relationships.
2. My mom is a housewife which is PERFECT because I can learn lots from her (like cooking, and maybe sewing and whatever other motherly things she may do on a regular basis).
3. I'm getting two younger siblings. 8 years old is a great age. They're the same age as my cousin Maka who is into Disney Channel and a bunch of other lame things that I still enjoy as an almost 20-year-old. So maybe they'll be into some cool Ecuadorian/Latin American 8-year-old thing that I'll fall in love with (like High School Musial:El Desafio).
4. I'm not going to be in a wild party environment.
5. Living in Lumbisi for a semester would be a great taste for what my life may be like as a Peace Corps volunteer in a couple years.

So living in Lumbisi shall be fun, but it also may be a challenge because:
1. I don't think I'll have access to internet at home. So no constant facebooking, blogging, skyping, etc (which is a blessing low key because it'll force me to live in the moment and interact with my familia)
2. As a minority, I'm not sure how the community will respond to me. I was told that since it is a small indigenous community many people may have never seen anyone like me before. This could also be a blessing because perhaps I can shatter whatever stereotypes they may have through example.

I can't wait to look back on posts like these when I come back and compare my preconceived notions to how things really ended up happening lol.

I pray that this housing situation works out great and I learn a lot and establish many close relationships. Less than 2 weeks. Too geeked =)

catorce dias....

hasta me voy para ecuador. too geeked. my spanish is still mediocre though :P

10 Goals:

1. Grow in my relationship with God and become a better example of Christianity.
   
2. Establish a relationship with SOMEONE in Ecuador. Anyone. Whether a friend, or a family, or a person at an organization that I am interested. Someone to come back to in the future.
3. Improve my Español (obviously...).
4. Maintain a good GPA (no more than 2 B's).
5. Learn to dance some type of dance (Salsa, Tango, whatever I can).
6. Learn a skill from my host mom (sewing, cooking, something! I pray that my host mother and I become close and that she can teach me something interesting that I can carry with me to the States and throughout my life).
7. Step outside of my comfort zone and explore (at least once. Whether it is traveling to another South American country, or hiking [yikes!], whatever it is I must come back to the States with a good story that could not be replicated here).
8. "Find myself" (whatever that means. I don't even know what I'm looking for but I think I'll know it when I see it).
9. Not gain weight (losing weight would be preferable).
   
10. Conquer my fear of bugs, as I'm sure there will be several and it would probably be rude of me to get my host family to kill every single one of them like I would make my real family do over here :P
    

26 days

Spring 2010 Coursework (@ la Universidad San Francisco de Quito)

Countdown till Ecuador: 30 days. Too geeked.

Yesterday I signed up for classes. So far I'm taking:

• Lit Y Cine en Latina America (Literature and Film in Latin America) - Counts towards the "area studies" component of my major (Global Studies) and I'm TOO GEEKED because originally it was all full but I checked on it about a week later and there was one spot open [=. God is too cool. I hope this class is good since it was the only one that filled up that quickly.
• Arte moderno latinoamericano (Modern Latin American Art) - an area study.
  
• Arte colonial latinoamericano (Colonial Latin American Art) - Again, an area study. With those three classes my area studies component will be completed.
• Conversacion Avanzada (Advanced Conversation) - my last advanced language requirement for my major
• Frances Basico I (Basic French I) - because thats the next language that I want to tackle and I figure it'll be good to use Spanish as my dependent language
• Capoeira!!!! - a super cool Brazilian martial arts/dance form. According to my Afro 340 class last semester, black Brazilian slaves would practice this in order to revolt but would make it look like a dance so they wouldn't get caught. pretty sweet.
• Total: 15 hours (Capoeira counts as zero, which is just as well because I'd probably be horrible at it :P)
  

And yes, I'm taking all my classes in Spanish. And no, my Spanish really isn't all that good. But thats the fun of it right? :P