¿en serio?...entonces...

When I first set up this blog, I thought I´d post about once a week and wasn´t sure I´d be thrilled about posting more often than that. I had forgotten about the number of observations and experiences I would want to share....in my language.

I´m well into my third full day in Quito and I´m continuing to enjoy myself. Megan was right, I never fail to be completely exhausted and ready for bed by oh...6 p.m. or so. I usually hold out until 9 p.m. because we eat around 8. But my brain definitely hurts. Either from trying to come up with words, taking in words, or trying to focus on words flying past me and attempting to snatch one or two of them from the air and trying to get some semblance of understanding.

My Spanish continues to suck and I´ve been getting frustrated with my poor pronunciation when speaking with my family. I do better in class but I think that is because I have a focused subject and I don´t need to work so hard to get the words that I forget about pronunciation. ¨v´s¨are my current pet peeve, especially when in combo with e and r in the middle of a word. argh.

I continue to enjoy my teacher. She is very interesting and we always have at least one significant topic of conversation each morning at some point in the four hours of lessons (well, with a half hour break). In addition to learning about the new consitution and Quichua becoming a second national language, I´ve also learned about the president´s new complete review of all public school teachers, and an impending teachers´strike on Friday, as well as a new law that creates obligatory alimony payments for men not living with their children. Both are fascinating subjects. Apparently the public school system here is terrible, both of the girls in my house are in private schools for this reason, and the president is requiring all current teachers to take an exam and get evaluated by their students and students´parents. Then they have a year to go back to school, paid by the government, if they don´t pass the exam or evaluations. Otherwise, they are fired. I think it sounds like a good plan and parents like it, but the teachers don´t. Friday should be interesting.

And on the alimony law, the most interesting thing, aside from the fact that it didn´t exist before, is that there will be a condition where if the father fails to pay, his father, brother, uncles, whatever other men are around in his family are liable for the payments. Awesome! Would never happen in the States or Canada I´m guessing. But hey, if people won´t try to ´control´their childrens´behaviour (many absentee fathers are teens), I guess using money as motivation might be a good idea....

Yesterday was a pretty low key day. A lot of students from the school go out drinking in the evenings but I probably won´t join them much. I´d like to get to know people, but a student from Minnesota who overlapped here at my host house for my first night wisely advised me to decide what I´m here for and stick to it. She had seen that some students are here on vacation, others here to party, and others to study. And while I don´t know that all of the categories are that clear cut, I know I´m here to study and I´d prefer to painfully work at conversing with my family than chatting in English with folks in a bar. But I am happy to be starting to get to know a few of the students at the school. This afternoon I´ll head over to the school for a cooking class, tomorrow night is an evening tour of the old town and I´m planning on going camping with the school this weekend - swimming in a freezing cold waterfall and hiking, here I come!

One final story: the tale of the Brazilian visa quest
Yesterday, I get to the Brazilian embassy after looking for a while - it´s on the ninth floor of a bank building with no sign out front...although today I noticed a Brazilian flag hanging way up on the side of the building. Yes, I said today. I got to the embassy yesterday 5 minutes after it closed (my teacher had said most places are open until 4 and the internet times are unreliable). And it was a long walk in hot sun, so today I took a taxi directly after school - and lo and behold, I´m at the wrong place. This is the place for visas if you are FLYING into Brazil. Silly me. I need el consulado de frontera - for ground travel. Indeed! ¿en serio???? sheesh. So the quest continues, as these consulados are at the embassies of any of the surrounding countries to Brazil, including Paraguay, which is actually convenient since the Paraguayan embassy of the US got the dates on my visa mixed up and I want to go and make sure they are fixed before I go there. So now, on to the Paraguayan embassy - but I´m going to wait until tomorrow - no point in rushing around and finding them closed. bah. But hey, out of this came to things: my first taxi rides, and the knowledge that I can survive a spanish-speaking embassy.

Other random observations and lessons:

- like most big cities, most people don´t say hello when you pass on the street
- always have small change for taxis - they cannot break a 10
- (Mom, don´t read this) ALWAYS take a taxi after dusk (6:30 p.m.) - one of my classmates saw two girls being attacked and robbed yesterday from the safety of her cab - got it.
- I´ve seen at least 2 yoga places, one just around the corner
- taxis are cheap - $2 is expensive
- cuy (guinea pig) is not bad...but no way you´ll get me to eat the skin - it´s like 3 cms thick!
- babaco is a delicious fruit that we definitely don´t have in Goshen
- young folks here listen to a lot of American music etc. - a surprising amount
- I watched the Simpsons in Spanish last night (and the dubbed voice selections are Terrible! especially Homer...)

ciao!
Tamara

p.s. I have changed the comments setting so anyone can post now...if this was holding you back...post away!