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beccanumbertwo
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Name: Becca
Interests: study abroad! Josh! stuffed animals! pretty umbrellas!
Expertise: packing suitcases.
Occupation: Executive
Industry: Government
Message: message me
Member Since:
2/2/2004
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| i´m still alive!! i´m able to get on computers pretty regularly, but i don´t usually get around to posting. it is definitely easier to get a facebook message out of me than a xanga post. steph and i are already regular frequenters of the internet cafe down the street, one which we chose out of a bunch near our house for the following qualities:
1) clean
2) well-lit
3) karaoke night 8-10 every thursday!
well, only two of those are true. but another reason we go there is the two really nice guys who run it. one time we stopped at a different place and they were not as warm and fluffy. and their internet speed was unacceptable. perhaps soon i will take pictures of the internet cafe...i want to make a photo album for facebook entitled ¨a day in the life,¨ but not everywhere is safe/optimal for picture-taking. for instance, if i tried to photograph inside the bus, my camera would probably be stolen, or if i take pictures on campus, my exchange-student-ness will stick out even more from the american-eagle-wearing, converse-loving, cigarette-breathing ecuadorian student population. now that i´ve made fun of their clothing and social habits, i must admit i only have a few ecuadorian acquaintances so far. three of my classes are all or almost all other exchange students, so don´t be too disappointed in me. i´m working on it! we BCA students keep each other company, though, so i´m not terribly lonely.
the days here as a student are pretty long, with steph and i leaving the house at 7:15 or 7:45 am and not getting home until 4 or 5 in the afternoon, depending on our classes. the commute is a little over an hour each way, taking two buses to get there and two back. We also do a ridiculous amount of jaywalking, as does everyone else in the city, crossing three or four-lane roads of traffic 5 times in one morning alone. if that doesn´t wake you up, i´m not sure what will.  of course, once i get to the university, i have at least an hour and a half of down time every afternoon, plus the lunch hour, to hang out, eat, go on the internet, or do homework (psh), since steph and i have classes at different times. then on the way home from school, there´s a pastry shop with these excellent flaky sugary things dipped partway in chocolate called ¨orejas¨ (ears!) because they are twisted around in the shape of...ears...i guess. if we are not in the pastry mood, we stop at the tiny convenience store 3 houses before our house and get an ice-cream bar. i remember thinking i would get skinnier in ecuador....this has yet to be seen.
so, generally, life is good, actually a little tiring from day to day, but we look forward to the weekends when we can go on excursions (see my new facebook album for zoo pictures from this weekend!!!), go out dancing (hmm), or just relax. coming up next weekend (it´s a vacation weekend, so we get a few extra days) is our trip to the AMAZON, woot, i will be getting more details about that tomorrow at our group meeting. so, when i know, you´ll know. or maybe you´ll know a week after i know. who can say! that is all i have for now. ciao!!
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| Quito is very mountainous. Walking around the city streets isn't too pretty, but on the drive to school every day the bus crawls up the sides of mountains and we get to look down on the valley, full of buildings and roads, and everything is so tiny, and it's beautiful! This weekend our group traveled to the market town of Otavalo, and on the way / way back we saw hours of gorgeous landscapes, and hiked around a waterfall, and visited famous tapestry artisans in their homes....it was a busy trip. The market itself overwhlemed me...hundreds of stands!! Countless local crafts!! i learned to bargain...kind of...i'm still not too good. I saw some avocado trees (who knew?) and lots of alpacas and lots of beggars. Living in a third world country definitely takes alot more effort than living in a first-world one. So many things to be aware of, and to wonder about, and to avoid, and to try.
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| Not that I would call my actual family my "old" family. Right. Here are the essential facts of the wonderful new family / house: Parents: Jeanette and Juan Carlos, ages 30-40 ish Kids: none Prize-winning show dogs: 1 ultra-fluffy cocker spaniel named after the dictator of Cuba German shepherds: 1 My room: small and cute with a balconyyyy and the squeakiest bedsprings of all time Live-in maids: 1. Ana! 18 yrs. She is scared of Raymundo, my stuffed animal stingray So YES, the family is wonderful and friendly and I can understand their Spanish and have actual conversations with them! Bonanza! I´m at the university right now, in a computer lab. I think it´s too dangerous to bring my laptop here on a regular basis for the wireless. The family also likes to feed me alot of food. Bueno. OK. Steph (who lives below me with Jeanette´s parents) and I have to catch the buses home now! Ciao. | | |
| Here I am! Quito is a biiiiiiig city. On a scale of 1-10, my street smarts are about a 2, so this will be interesting. The public transportation we've taken so far - buses - has been somewhat terrifying, especially after all the warnings they gave us about people slitting open our bags and stealing our stuff, but the taxis are alright, and cheap, too. Yet another reason I'm glad I chose Quito over Barcelona! Mas barato! (Cheaper!) So, right now we're all living out of a hotel and having orientation (info sessions and group ventures into the city), but tomorrow night our families will come to get us! YAY FAMILY! I'm bringing them lots of candy, so they'd better like me  Even though leaving the hotel means no more coming back to a room with my bed magically made and a mint on my pillow, I can't wait to get out of here and have my own room and a familyyyyy. On flight here I sat next to a cute little Ecuadorian man and I explained the in-flight movie (Ratatouille!) to him in Spanish, and we talked about some other things. Oh Espanol!! Hanging out with all the other exchange students, we don't use much Spanish...another reason I'm excited to move in with my host family! So more on that later. There's wireless here at the hotel, but once we leave here, my internet access won't be as reliable/regular (internet cafes!)....hmm. So who knows how often I'll post. Ummm my brain is tired. We saw lots of sights today, so I'll post pictures on Facebook soon. Buenos noches. | | |
| When you're reading someone's Xanga there's a thing in the box to the left that says "Message: message me," and when I glanced at it, it looked like "massage me," and I was like YES. RIGHT NOW.
Um um um I am kind of having a catastrophe, such as, I am leaving for Florida > Ecuador tomorrow and I have not spent nearly as much face time with the ones-I-love as I intended. My current plan is to bring them expensive souvenirs in exchange for forgiveness and continued friendship. Well, if nothing else, I can say that my packing is (almost almost...) done. Done with Christmas, on to the beach! It was a short Christmas season, but I enjoyed every minute, namely:
1. wondering about this new "Christmas carol," Dominic the Donkey. Where the heck did he come from? Oh yes...Italy...
2. making cookie dough/cutouts/frosting them/eating them/eating every other Christmas treat in sight
3. wrapping presents / instructing Abby in the ways of the Master Wrapper
4. insulting all the Christmas ornaments with Steve. (i.e. "I am a tiny nutcracker with a mouth too small to crack any nut. I have no purpose in life.") this makes my mom angry.
Ah, Christmas. See you in 363 days.
So, I was going to delete my Xanga tonight, but then I decided to read a few posts first, for old times sake....besides a few hyper-dramatic ones (something about my lungs being slashed open with heartbreak...miraculously, I survived), and my tendency to CAPITALIZE WORDS and phrases intermittantly FOR EMPHASIS, they amused me, so I decided to KEEP THEM, mostly to remind me of a time when I was witty. Very good then. I'll try to post from the road DOWN TO FLORIDA. Some of the hotels should have free wireless, don't you think?
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