Mindo

Hey everyone!

Sorry it's taken me awhile to post something. I'm starting to get a lot of homework. The weekend before last,   (9/14) my friends Cari, Julie, Jesse, Arturo and I went to Mindo. Mindo is a little tourist town that has adventurous things to do. We left for Mindo at about 6:30 in the morning. And before I knew it then, I had already been ripped off. We all met at the Rio Coca bus station, and my taxi driver charged me four dollars. It should only take $2.50- 3 to get there from my house. But he jacked up his meter and I was running late so I didn't care. So I gave him a ten, and in exchange, he gave me a dollar coin and a FAKE FIVE. I paid 9 dollars to get to Rio Coca! So that was kind of upsetting. Anyway-- we arrived in Mindo about an hour and a half later. We had a great hostel, Casa de Cecilia.

Since we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted, we decided to go ziplining. It cost $15 and had 13 lines. We were able to do some crazy poses!

Arturo doing the Mariposa

Julie doing the Superman

Crazy taxi ride in the back of a truck!

The next morning we went on a five/ six mile hike! it was exhausting but completely worth it. There was one area were you could jump off a forty meter cliff into a river, and Julie and the boys did it! There was absolutely no way I was about to do it... so I got some good pictures :)

Arturo and Jesse on the cable ride to start our hike!

Arturo jumping in, Jesse watching

Fútbol Game, Otavalo, Galapagos Tickets

Hey all!

Well, another amazing week has passed by. Last Wednesday night my friends and I went out and had a great time. Friday was the Ecuador vs. Bolivia game! Some of my friends got tickets and went to the game at the Atahualpa Stadium. My friend Alex tried to get tickets for us, but he ended up standing in line for four hours without any luck. My friends who got tickets scalped them. That's what I'm going to try and do for the Chile game next month. That's going to be a huge game! We ended up beating Bolivia 1 to 0!!! Everyone went crazy and that night in La Mariscal, everyone was out wearing their jerseys. We had some beers at a bar while we watched the game.

These two guys play for the National Ecuadorian Basketball team!

Friday night was a lot of fun but also very sad. Our medical student friends that we went to Atacames with two weeks ago, left Friday night. I'm so glad we met them, they're such a crazy bunch. Thankfully, a few of them live in Oregon, and we have plans to meet up when we get back to Oregon. 

Saturday I had to wake up at 5:30 am! But it was worth it because we went to Otavalo. Otavalo is an indigenous town that has a huge market and it known worldwide. It's about an hour and a half drive away. The market is gigantic. I got lost in it. It's similar to Saturday market, they have trinkets and cute things, as well as clothes and all the food you could want. I got some gifts for my friends and my parents. I also got myself a llama sweater!

We stopped along the way to Otavalo

I love my friends

Otavalo- so many colors!

Cari, Julie and I with our llama sweaters!

The ride back home was exhausting but hilarious. You know when you are so tired you start to get really silly? That was just about everyone on our bus. We couldn't stop laughing the whole ride home. That night there was no way we could go out. I went to sleep at 10 and slept for twelve hours. Much needed. Sunday Cari and I went over to our friend Arturo's house with his friend Jesse to swim in his pool and go in the steam room. I can't tell you how much I wish I had a pool and a steam room. We had a lot of fun in the sun. Then at 6:30 pm, Arturo and I went to buy our Galapagos plane tickets. I only ended up getting my ticket because the mall closed at 8 pm. But... I'M GOING TO THE GALAPAGOS :) I'm so excited! It's a four day, three night trip that includes everything (hotels, rides to different islands, every meal, snorkeling equipment, etc.) and I leave October 26th! Other friends are meeting with the coordinator to buy their tickets today. The total price is about $900, which is an EXTREMELY good deal. I can't wait! 

Love,

Audrey

Artwork, Mitad del Mundo, Cuy

Hey all!

This past week has been crazy busy. There is more homework, sadly. Classes are still going really well, even if I sometimes make a fool of myself trying to speak Spanish. My three host siblings have been in the U.S. this past week, so the house has been pretty empty. My host parents work all day too. They come back around 8 or so to have dinner together, but then my host dad usually goes back to work and works at night. Their artwork is absolutely stunning. They just made three pieces of art for a church. Here is an unfinished one, about to go in the kiln. This is the biggest one of the three.

On Saturday, we went to the international students welcome party. Basically, we drove two hours to a small town, did some obstacle course races, and started drinking at 10 am. I don't think the trip was really worth it, it was okay, but not worth twenty five dollars. Our money does go to charity though :) One of the events was climbing a thirty foot tall, wooden poll. Not everyone had to do it of course, but after about my second beer I decided why not. AND I DID IT :) I climbed all the way to the top! It was really difficult and I kind of  burnt the top part of my foot when I slid down. My friends and I started thinking how unsafe and laid back this party was. People were drunk, climbing a thirty foot poll, without any support or anything. I feel like an organized school event like that would never happen in the United States! The party went on forever also, it didn't end until 5 or 6 pm. 

That night I slept over at my friend Cari's house in Batan Alto. We went out and had a great time, and then got breakfast in the morning with our friend Julie. We quickly organized a trip to Mitad del Mundo, which means middle of the world. We went to the equator :) Except now that GPS has been invented, they can tell that the real equator is about 200 meters away from the one we went to. Oh well.

Me, Kirsten, Taylor, Alex and Cari

Both going there (about an hour and a half) and coming back we got semi lost on the buses. Coming back, Kirsten and I got really lost and took a bus going north when we definitely needed to be going south. So we got off and took a taxi all the way home. So much of my money has gone to taxis! We had lunch at Mitad, and the guys split some cuy. Cuy is guinea pig, and it's really expensive here. It's about twenty dollars. I tried some, and it tastes similar to chicken, but it's really chewy. 

They split the cuy in half and then cooked it.

We left at about 1 pm and got back around 8 pm. That trip was only slightly worth it also. But this Saturday we're going to Otavalo, which is a huge market where the indigenous people sell their things. Everyone who has been there has told me to bring at least one hundred dollars, because there's so many cool things there and it's the perfect place to buy gifts. :) 

Until later,

Audrey

Classes, Ladies Night, Atacames

Hey all!

Classes started this week. I am taking three international student classes, and those are Introduccion a la Cultura Ecuatoriana, Espanol Intermedio and Conversacion. I am also taking yoga and a normal class that Ecuadorian students can take, it is Etnohistoria. It's really hard to understand. I absolutely love my yoga class though. I can pretty much understand everything in my other classes so it's not so bad. But school is school. I ended up dropping my scuba diving class, because everyone has already been scuba diving and I couldn't understand the teacher at all. Anyway, I'm sure I'll enjoy my classes and everything.

Wednesday night is ladies night! So a couple of my friends and I went out to La Mariscal again and got some  martinis. It's so nice to just relax and have a drink, it's going to be weird going back to the U.S. when I'll have to wait an awkward two months before I turn twenty one.

The girl on the left is friends with Cari (coral colored shirt) and has been here in Quito for a couple months with another program. All four of us go to Oregon. And randomly, her and her friends were on the same bus with us to Atacames. It takes about seven hours to get to the beach from Quito, and a bus ticket is only eleven dollars one way. Cari, Alex and I bought the last three tickets at seven pm and then we left at 11 pm thursday night. We got there about 6 in the morning and were exhausted. The three of us and the seven other kids all stayed in the same hostel. It was such a nice hostel! They made us food at every meal. It was delicious too. We laid out on the beach during the day, and went out at night. We went whale watching for ten dollars, and saw them extremely close up! The batteries in my camera died, so my pictures aren't that good. We ate ceviche, shrimp and octopus. We made some great friends and had an awesome weekend. I got back today at about six pm and have had to do homework this whole time. 

Our room :)

Cari and I

Whales!

Vamos a la playa

99% of the time, I forget I'm in Ecuador. It still hasn't hit me yet. Weird, right? I can't wait to watch the Duck Football game, I'm not going on facebook on September 3rd because I'm going to stream the game. Anyway, this weekend was amazing but very tiresome, and so I think I am headed to bed now. Hope you all enjoy the post. I wish I could bring you all here. 

Much love,

Audrey

USFQ, La Mariscal, Quito

Hola!

These past few days have been great! On Friday we had orientation at La Universidad San Francisco. It's a beautiful campus. It's pretty small, and that's because it is a private school. Orientation lasted from 9 am to 2 pm. So. Long. A man from the U.S. Embassy spoke about how dangerous and unsafe Quito is for over two hours. He told us about this drug called scopolamine, and people put it on paper or blow the powder in your face to make you black out so they can take all your money. This actually happened to my host dad on a bus once. Usually it's a person who just wants you to help them read a piece of paper, and then once you touch the paper, you're out in ten seconds. So scary. So this U.S. Embassy man freaked out all the international students. Afterwards, the Ecuadorians said Quito isn't that bad and this stuff hardly ever happens. Still, I'm not touching any paper. After that long tedious talk, we had a quick tour around campus. I didn't get any pictures because it was indeed a very short tour. But classes start tomorrow, and I'll have to learn everything quick!

Friday night some international students, Ecuadorians, and I went out. First we went to a very nice apartment and had a couple beers. The view was incredible.

Then we went to La Mariscal, the part of Quito were all the clubs and bars are. It only cost five dollars to get in. It was packed in there, but all of us had so much fun. I got an extremely strong vodka cran for only $2.50. Can you believe that? Everything is so cheap here! I'm definitely going there again. 

Today, from 9 am to 4 pm, we toured Old Town Quito. It's beautiful. It was a gorgeous day also. Already got my first sunburn! We went to four different churches and saw a couple plazas. We went out to lunch also. I forgot to take pictures of my food but it was so good! I had potato soup, a chicken sandwich, this drink that had strawberries, pineapple and orange juice in it, and ice cream with a waffle cone! It was delicious. I'm so sorry I forgot to take a picture of the ice cream. But here are pictures of Quito. :)

This is La Iglesia de Basilica

The group :)

View from the top of the church

Well, that's about it! I hope you all enjoy my posts! Wish me luck at school tomorrow. I will post again soon!

Audrey

I MADE IT :)

Hola mis amigos!

I made it, finally! I am so happy. My flight to Houston went really well. I met up with OUS students who were on the same flight as me. On the flight, I sat next to an older couple on the plane and the wife and I started talking. I told how excited I was to go on this trip. She noticed my sweatshirt and told me her and her husband went to U of O also! She actually grew up in Eugene, and her husband grew up in Portland. They lived in Houston for a few years and so they were returning to visit friends. We talked for a very long time about how important going abroad is. We live in a bubble in the United States, and it's good to get a new perspective.

We had a three hour lay over in Houston. Me and two other OUS students ate lunch together, and then we waited at the gate where more OUS students met up with us. The flight to Quito was about five hours long. I sat next to an Ecuadorian about my age. He told me I'm going to love it and have a great time. His English was very good. I hope my Spanish becomes as good as his English! My host parents and an uncle were there at the airport to pick me up. They were so kind and made me feel very welcome. The father and uncle speak English so I was very comfortable. As I went to put my seat belt, they were like "Oh, you don't have to wear it if you don't want to. It's not a law. In Quito it is illegal to drive over 50 km per hour." (50 km is about 30 mph). So, I didn't wear my seat belt (sorry mom and dad). We got home at around midnight. My host mom made me tea and showed me my room. I slept so well last night. I'm so happy to be here. It's now 1 pm my time, and for the past hour my host sister and I (Sofi, seven years old) have been watching Spongebob and playing chess and checkers. She is so sweet and laughs at everything. Andres, my host brother who is twelve, was very helpful and kept looking things up in the dictionary to talk to me. This morning I had a scrambled egg with blackberry juice, it was so delicious.

Today in a couple hours, the international students are meeting up for coffee. I'm excited to see what the other families are like!

Love,
Audrey