Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Obama Day
Today was the first day of a new president, a president who talks of hope and progress. We started lecture by watching MLK Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, which was extra moving given the day. The lecture was the ‘doom day’ lecture that is in every environmental class and it is always pretty depressing and can be hard to bounce back form. Finally it was 11 and our professors let us out of class so we could watch the inauguration. USFQ had set up a large projection in one of the auditoriums on campus so we all flocked there. This is one of the biggest things to happen to America in my life time, and it was very serial to be in South America during it. I think it gave me more of a pride in my country since I could see the international support for Obama. By the time he started his speech, it was pretty safe to assume that everyone in the auditorium was in deep thought and fairly emotional. Listening to him acknowledge our problems and differences, made me make some connections between the environment and the state of the USA. The US, much like the environment, is in a recession and a solution is not straightforward. To fix the things that the last administration has let happen and to undo the destruction that the recent generations of humans have done, and continue to do to the environment seems like 2 almost impossible tasks. These tasks will need the participation of everyone, and if completed they have the potential to be exponentially rewarding. The value of biodiversity is much harder to quantify that the value of a stable economy and the end of war. However, I believe that caution and preservation now is the only option we have. Some have the “too little too late” mentality and that may be the worst thing I have ever heard in the context of conservation. What if everyone thought that? We wouldn’t have Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, El Pahuma, and countless other reserves that many of us take for granted. I think in both America and the environment we must look to the past to better understand where we went wrong. After this emotional day I started to think about how I fit into this all, which lead to a mini existential crisis. Last semester I decided I wanted to go into water resources as a more specific branch of environmental science. I took physical hydrogeology, which is pretty much only about aquifers, and although it was a very tough class I got really excited about water. Today, this excitement started to falter. I want to help the most living and non-living things possible, and I started to think of water and aquifers as just a human necessity. Do animals use wells? No. Also, I hate to think that my work will just allow the human population to continue its exponential growth and exploitation of the earth. These thoughts are what make me crazy, one of my biggest fears is getting through law school and not helping the environment but getting caught up in the human aspect of environmental resources. For example wanting to save Pandas even though they do not have a very big impact in the balance of nature, or going into something like aquifers which seems to mainly benefits humans. These are the things that keep me up at night. Finally, I let go of my inner struggle and decided it was way too good of a day to be sad. So, I got some champaign and celebrated Obama’s first day in the white house. Later that night a lot of the students meet at a bar and we all had a great night. The next day I was still a little worried about what I wanted to do with my life, which was amplified by the approaching deadline of me choosing an internship for my last month in Ecuador. I had wanted to do a water quality internship with a USFQ professor, but this was starting to look less appealing. I decided to go talk to her anyways in hopes of re-igniting my interest in water. She was not in her office, but she had a poster of one of the projects she had assisted with. It was exactly what I needed; it was a study about the how litter and contamination in streams effects the surrounding environment. So, finally, I remembered that water is what every organism needs to survive (duh) and I will be able to help more than the growth of the human population by studying water, existential meltdown avoided.
Friday, January 23, 2009
El Pahuma
This weekend we went to El Pahuma Orchid Reserve about 1 hour north of Quito. Everyone in my group was itching to get out of the city and very excited for the trip. it is a 600 hectare reserve that has a nice visitor center for eco-tourism. They have a restaurant across the highway with some pretty amazing food. The first day we just took some short hikes, one around the botanical garden and another to a small waterfall. Then we headed up the mountain to get to the elevation of cloud forests. The hike up was pretty much vertical and very muddy since they have had much more rain than usual for mid-January. Because of the mud we all wore super stylish rubber boots for the hike. They worked very well in keeping our feet dry, but are kind of hard to hike up a mountain in, since ankle support is nonexistent. It took a little over an hour to get up to the top, all of which was in the rain. We got to camp, which consisted of a ìcabinî with bunk beds, a cooking area, and a campfire area. We all got out of our wet clothes and started a fire. Soon the chef had made some pasta and we all helped ourselves to multiple servings. The pasta was very good, especially for being cooked in the middle of the rainforest. It continued to rain all night, some people went out on a night hike to look for frogs, while a few of us stayed by the warm fire and played camp fire games. Once we went to bed it took me awhile to fall asleep because I had so many things going through my head. I was just thinking about how amazing of a place I was in and how many amazing and possibly poisonous bugs were around me. I also woke up a lot during the night, I was hoping it would stop raining and I could go outside to look at the stars, but each time I awoke I heard the rain still pattering away on the roof. The next morning I woke up around 6:30 to the sunrise and went on a short hike with 2 other students while we waited for the others to wake up and breakfast to be served. On our hike we saw a guan, which is a lot like a small turkey. After breakfast we started or long hike. Keep in mind is has not stopped raining since we left the lower camp. On the hike our teacher Joe would stop and lecture for a bit about the plants. We are going to be tested on the plant family names later in the semester so our hikes always have a purpose and we are constantly taking notes. The cloud forest is a rather gloomy place when it is raining, because you are literally in a cloud and visibility is very poor. At the top of the mountain we had a little lunch and started on the Yuma trail. This trail is over 1,000 years old since it has been used for so long the weight of humans has compacted the soft soil to a point where some places there are 10 foot ìwallsî on the side of the trails showing where the surfaced used to be. It is pretty cool to walk on something that you know has been used by humans for a century. Eventually we turned around and headed back to camp. This is where is started to get really fun. The whole way down was pretty much a controlled fall down a mud slide. Most of us fell multiple times, however one of the girls had promised to buy a beer for everyone who made it down the whole mountain without falling. Once we got back to the camp we ate a little packed up and heading down the rest of the way. I can say I definitely fell more than a couple times, but a few people did make it down without a muddy back end. When we all arrived at the bottom, we were all very dirty and wet, so most of the students went to the waterfall near the visitor center to wash off. I declined since my broken arm was hurting from falling so many times, bt I did tag along to take some pictures. After dinner beers were bought for those who earned them, and the owners of El Pahuma made us candalaso (I will have to check the spelling,) which is a traditional drink made of sugar cane liquor and cinnamon and served warm. After some drinks we started to warm up and took a little night hike. We only saw one frog, but we did find a snake. I think some people were a lot happier than others about itÖ
The next morning we took a 25 minute hike to a 45 meter waterfall. This waterfall was irresistible. I had to go swimming, broken arm or not. The water was pretty cold but you get the best view of waterfalls from in the water, so it was well worth it. We finished up the day with some lectures and the history of El Pahuma. It turns out my teachers, Joe and Cath, pretty much stumbled upon this piece of land started talking to the owners and eventually signed a conservation easement to protect the land. It was a very inspirational and amazing story, one that makes you want to go out and find a beautiful piece of land to protect. We all went back to Quito wanting more nature but knowing there is much more to come.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
1-15-09
This morning was pretty much like every other. Took the bus to school, went to class, learned some things, the usual. However, after school the day started to get a little more interesting. First of all it was the first time I had ridden home from school without the boy who lives below me (Dave/David), which I wasn’t too worried about it was just different. As I got to the stop near where I switch buses the traffic started to get really horrible, as in we were barley moving. The traffic in Quito can get pretty bad, but this seemed extra awful so another girl and I decided to get off and walk to the extra 2 blocks. We ended up beating to bus to the stop, and there we split to go in our respected directions. This split happened at a large intersection where cops were directing traffic, something that I have seen before during rush hour. Just as I was about to start crossing the intersection because the cop had motioned for the cars to stop in the street perpendicular to my path and the other cop motioned for the cars parallel to me to start going, 2 motorcycles slipped by and started to cross the intersection. Right away I kind of smiled because motorcycles are pretty crazy around here, they will hop up on the sidewalk and weave around cars to get though traffic faster and it is usually amusing to watch them dominate the street. But, before I knew it a taxi hit the second cycle and the cyclist was sliding on the pavement. I am pretty sure this is the first serious accident I have even witnessed, and I was accordingly shaken up. I crossed the street, extra cautiously and sat down at my bus stop to breathe and reflect. Before I was able to reflect a young Ecuadorian boy came running from the busy street and face planted on the sidewalk in front of me, an older woman helped him up and told him to be more careful. Once again in shock I try to take a breath, but then I saw my bus. Bus stops are not very organized and sometimes they get jammed, which, because of the traffic ours was. Some women were flagging the bus down so I assumed it was going to stop near them, but I was mistaken. The bus went far beyond the stop and I had to run to catch up. By the time I reached the back of the bus it had already started moving so I attempted, and luckily completed, my first moving entrance onto a bus. Finally I was able to sit down and reflect on the semi-crazy events. Soon I saw the ambulance going towards the direction of the accidence I just witnessed, hopefully to help the cyclist. At this point I once again started to notice the usually slow traffic. Since I have only been riding to Quito buses for 2 weeks I thought maybe it was just a really bad day for some reason, like what happens when the brewers have a home night game. But then I noticed the Ecuadorians looking around worried and angry. At this point I started to realize something was not normal about this day. Finally we reached a last intersection in my root, but the lights were not on and there were no cops controlling it. In the states when something like this happens, usually everyone just treats it as a 4-way stop and it is fairly organized and safe. This was definitely not the case here… every car was just trying to squeeze its way through the complete mess of an intersection and as a result it was taking forever. Eventually I reached my stop and got off (thankfully the bus driver came to a complete stop this time.) As I was walking back to my house I started to realize that there was not light on in any of the buildings and finally realized that the power was out. I got to my house and immediately wanted to share my adventure of a bus ride with David so I knocked on the downstairs door and a young girl, whom I had never seen before, answer I asked her where David was and she obviously did not know who I was talking about. I walked into the living room and saw more dark figures that I didn’t recognize. I eventually found David’s dad and he told me David was in his room. So I went to share my stories, Dave had just woken up from a nap so he was a little disoriented. Soon the lights came on and David’s mom came over and told us there was some special catholic ceremony happening and that is why their family was there. Dave and I were not completely sure what was happening but we went upstairs as instructed and were greeted by a priest and a large statue of the Virgin Mary. We were then herded into the living room to sit down. Dave and I were both pretty confused since neither of us knows Spanish very well nor know very much about Catholicism, and he had also just woken up. We sat though what was probably about 20-30 minutes of the priest talking about who knows what, I’m assuming religion. All I really got was the Virgin Mary is pretty important, other than that I was not paying close attention. After the ceremony we had a special queesh that was very tasty and some black tea. Eventually the Virgin left our living room (at which time the lights went off again) and my parents explained that the Virgin was going to other houses in the family. I still don’t understand exactly what happened but it was a good cultural experience, I think… and it was a very fitting end to a very odd day. The next morning I learned that half the country and about 70% of the Ecuadorian population lost power that night. Pretty crazy.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
love and hate
I am started to get really settled in Quito. My days have become pretty routine: wake up around 7:30 (depending on if I go for a run or not,) leave the house at 8:30 to catch the bus, science class from 9:30 to 12:30, lunch from 12:30 to 2:30 when I go out with my friends to a nearby restaurant, Spanish from 2:30 to 5:30, get home around 6:30, dinner at 7, and then I read or go to the internet café with David. Along with this routine I have started to reflect on my experiences instead of just being completely caught up in the moment.
Some things that I have come to miss and that I take advantage of in the states:
-Being able to get change for a 20 dollar bill. There is a shortage of currency so it very hard to get change for anything above a 1 dollar bill, unless the total is within 1 or 2 dollars of the bill you are trying to use.
-Being able to put toilet paper in the toilet. The sewage system is not the best here so putting toilet paper down the toilet can clog the pipes very easily. Along with this is the assumption that there is toilet paper in all public bathrooms. Either there is no TP at all or it is outside the stall and you have to remember to look for it before you sit down on the toilet. This takes some getting used to, bt the learning curve is pretty fast after a few times of realizing you have no toilet paper after the point of no return.
-Drinking from the tap without getting having to sprint to the bathroom almost exactly 24 hours later with a horrible stomach ache. I am not a big fan of bottled water, but am forced to drink it for my own well being.
Things I have come to love and will miss when I return to the states:
-Fresh squeezed orange juice. My host family hand squeezes oranges every morning. I do not think I will ever be able to drink OJ from concentrate again, fresh squeezed is exponentially better.
-The beautiful scenery. Every day I get to see the Andes Mountains! Seriously, it is amazing, and the cloud formations around the mountains are always changing in cool new ways.
-Cheap beer. I can get a half liter bottle for a dollar. Could life get any better?
-Cheap everything! To ride the bus it is 25 cents, a HUGE slice of pizza is a dollar, a 3 course meal is under 3 dollars, 3 DVDs for 5 dollars. I don’t know how I am going to get used to USA prices again…
photos
I may have to change this since there are restriction on how many picture I can upload a month, and I already reached my max...
but for now here you go! enjoy!
Friday, January 9, 2009
1/7/09 and 1/8/09
Today was the first day of real class. I have science, either conservation biology or terrestrial ecology, these are taught in English by Catherine, who my mom played hockey with back in the day, and Joe. Catherine lectured today, and so far I really like her teaching methods, it was very simple concepts that I have learned probably 3 times in various science classes in Milwaukee, but Cath was able to make them interesting again. That lecture is from 9:30am to 12:30pm then I have Spanish from 2:30pm to 5:30pm. So, that is 6 hours of class Monday through Friday and I have to stay near campus from for the whole time (9:30 to 5:30) and then you add travel time and I am basically at school from 8:30am to 6:30pm. After 6:30 it is dark and walking is not recommended after dark. This makes exploring on foot restricted to weekends. David and I were really looking forward to wondering around the city and seeing if we could find some hidden treasures (something my step-dad Tim is very good at doing when we visit Mexico.) I think we will still be able to fit it in somewhere, but we definitely have to plan out a time. Also, I think we have most of this weekend off, which will be a perfect time to explore. One cool thing David and I have started is in the mornings going for a run in la Parque de la Carolina. This is the large park we live by. During the day there are not very many people, but in the morning there are a ton of people running and walking their dogs. Also there is some pick up soccer in the numerous fields. The soccer fields are kind of interesting; they are smaller than regulation and are dirt instead of the typically grass. This does not make sense to me since the rest of the park is covered in grass and is mowed regularly, it seems like they would be able to also make the courts in grass. Also the field that David’s host father said was used for large/important matches looks like a tennis court surface. Other that the random observations about the soccer field it was a very nice run and will be very helpful in acclimating us to the elevation before we go to hiking in the mountains. We plan to go running 2 to 3 times a week.
David and I have gotten pretty good at catching the bus and knowing which one to take, but today I decided inertia is no longer my favorite force. Since I took physics in high school I have always thought inertia was the coolest and most interesting force (thanks Mr. Zabell.) However, whoever is the last to get on the bus suffers greatly from it. Now, not to pull the gimp card… but having a broken arm makes holding on to even a stationary railing for support very difficult and painful much less that of a moving bus, hence why inertia and I are in a fight. Case and point: today I was the last from my stop to get on and as soon as driver sees that those waiting are on the bus he starts going, and not a nice easy start, he pretty much floors it. So, the bus started and all I could do was hold on to anything with any limb possible or I was going to fall out of the bus before traveling 3 feet. I do not think my orthopedic surgeon would be very happy with the Ecuadorian bus drivers.
1-8-09
We had the morning off from class today to get started on getting our CENSO, which is our ID card while we are in Ecuador. This trip has made me hate certain things more and appreciate others. One thing that I now completely loath and understand why others also loath is bureaucracy. Applying for a non-UWM program, applying to get a student visa, trying to get my credits from USFQ to transfer to my major at UWM, all loaded with more steps than I can understand, and many of those steps end up being steps backwards so movement is near impossible. Once we found the “dirreccion de estrajeras” it was fairly easy compared to getting my visa, but still not a pleasant experience, and the language barrier definitely adds new obstacles.
Today was our second day of Spanish class and we were informed that they are out of our books. These Spanish classes are special for Ceiba students and USFQ knew how many of us there were, yet for some reason the university bought 5 too few books and they have none in the bookstore. After running around campus for a good half hour the 5 of us without books gave up and decided we would try again tomorrow. To add to this frustration by the time David and I got to our second bus stop the sun was setting and we needed to get home for dinner, so we hailed a cab. I don’t know what is was but it seemed like the pollution was extra bad today, it was overcast all day so maybe that trapped all the car exhaust, or maybe it was just because I was already in a bad mood because I didn’t get my Spanish book and wasted time going on a wild goose hunt for it. But, whatever the reason the air really got to me today. By the time I got home I was in a pretty horrible mood and all I wanted was to breathe Wisconsin air with my friends and family. I sat down to dinner with my family which always puts me in a better mood and we talked about different foods and parts of the country and I started to feel better. After dinner I went to the internet café so I could call people on Skype to alleviate some of my home sickness. Well, the computers at the café had other plans. After calling multiple people and not getting a connection where we could both hear each other, I finally got a hold of Josie who was conveniently with Corinne and Rob. Although they could not hear a lot of what I was saying it was just good to have the feeling of talking to them and laughing with them, although I think a lot of times we were laughing at different things. Supposedly I sounded like a robot at the end of the phone call and they would not stop laughing at everything I said… but the illusion of conversation was even enough for me to be reassured that, well I don’t know exactly what but it made me feel a lot better.
Monday, January 5, 2009
1/5/09
It turns out my host mother’s parents live on the floor below us and they also have a student, David, from the same program as me. It is very convenient to have someone to go to the internet café with and to ride the bus with. The buses are very interesting here the drivers are kind of crazy and there is no schedule or real bus stops. You literally can flag down a bus and they will stop for you where ever, even the on an inside lane sometimes. We have to take 2 buses to get to campus and it takes about 45 minutes if you get lucky and catch the second bus right after the first. My parents came along with us yesterday (we went to go see the campus, but it was Sunday so no one was there) and today, but tomorrow David and I are on our own. I think we can handle it. Today on our ride home for the first time I was able to enjoy the view, usually the bus driver is a little crazy and take the twisty road so fast all you can think about is holding on for dear life. Today´s driver was different he actually went at a comfortable speed. The plants on the side of the road look like they are from the Jurassic period. I don’t know the name but they look a lot like oversized aloe plants, or agave plants. When we got back to Quito is was slightly raining and cloudy. There were some clouds in Cumbaya but it was not raining. My host mother said the typical day in Quito it is sunny in the morning then it rains in the afternoon and get cooler at dusk. Which is fine, I think I will get more than enough sun in the Galapagos. I just hope to return with at least some skin left as many of you know what happened to my legs in Hawaii after surfing for a couple hours. For those of you how do not, basically I had blisters from my butt you my ankles. I would not recommend that the day before your flight out, not the most comfortable. But hopefully I will learn from my mistakes.
ttly
Sunday, January 4, 2009
written 1/3/2009
¡Hola!
I just arrived at my house in Quito and the trip could not have gone any better! No delays, no missing planes, no losing papers (accept my baggage claim… but he just used my passport instead,) nothing stolen just perfect in every way. Although it makes me nervous that the trip home everything will go wrong, but then maybe I will just get to stay here longer J
But back to pre-departure:
I moved out of my apartment in Milwaukee New Year’s Day. This took longer than expected, like packing always does and it probably didn’t help that I went out the night before with my friends Heather and Blake, but it was worth it to bring in the New Year with them. The ride home with my stepmom Kim and Dad I went a little crazy. The car was jam packed so I was completely surrounded in the back seat with boxes and my dad decided to put my stuffed bear creepily staring down at me which did not help my sanity. But I think the main reason I was so loopy was I had so much on my mind I had just said bye to Jayne, Michelle, Heather, and Blake the people I have come closest to this year in Milwaukee and it was starting to hit me that I was not going to see them for a long time and so much could change in that time. I like to think I embrace change but if the change is not favorable, let’s be honest, not so happy about it. I know it sounds crazy but I am scared that my friends will forget about me and move on in their lives and when I come back they will be so independent from me I will be all alone again. But that is my worst case scenario and thnking like that was the main reason why I feel like I am going crazy. So that night I went over to Dev’s to relax a little and take my mind temporally off the fact that I was going to South America in 18 hours. The next morning (Jan 2 2009) I had an 11am doctor’s appointment to take off my cast and get it re-x-rayed. So I went to that and then ended up just giving me a wrist brace with a metal split (which is super fn to go though security with) but it is removable so that helps. After that I went to my dad’s to pick up last minute gear and say “goodbye.” Finally, I got back to my mom’s to start packing. At this point my mom and I are both freaking out because I leave in 12 hours and I have not put anything in a bag. So we got in a little fight but eventually settled down and got to packing. We left for the Madison airport at 5 am after I got about 1 hour of sleep, most of which I was curled up in the only open corner of my bed, then my mom woke me up and I cleared off a full side. We got to the air port with just enough time for my mom and I to get into another little fight say or goodbyes and get through security.
Plane ride:
Madison to Dallas flight was on a tiny plane but I slept through most of it. It was still dark as we left and I love looking at the aerial view of a city at night. I noticed that street lights look like those rope lights from above, I thought it was cool. Dallas layover was pretty short. Then I got to Miami, I do not think I have ever been to the Miami airport and thank god I ended up not having to change terminals because it was confusing. It was a 2 and a half hour layover so I made some final calls before I officially left the country. Finally we were on the plane, the last flight in my trip to Ecuador. We watched some movie about the some guy that sees ghosts and the main character was Michael Scott from the original British the Office TV show, would not recommend it… I would recommend both versions of The Office though. Soon the sun set and my window seat became quite depressing. Although the darkness was a perfect metaphor for the trip I was about to start, I know where I am going (in the plane Quito airport, in my trip I have an itinerary) but I have no idea what the path looks like on how I will arrive (on the plane because the lack of sunlight, on the trip because I am in a whole new place doing a lot of things I have never even dreamt about.) Yeah I know it is a little corny but hey I think it works. We approach Quito in the plane and it is the most beautiful city at night, the way it sprawls out into the mountains and the size! I had no idea how big the city was! Eventually I realized I had my forehead to the Plexiglas and the people around me also wanted to us to window so I leaned back and took a deep breath. I am in Ecuador! I looked at the Hispanic man next to me and smiled he did the same; I don’t know if he is Ecuadorian but his smile was the most sincere welcome I got. I immediately felt like I had arrived and thought to myself “F**K YEAH this trip is going to rock! I can do anything!” Soon enough I was through immigration got my bags and went through customs. My host parents are waiting for me on the other side of customs with huge smiles. I had some trouble with my baggage claim slips like I said earlier, but it all worked out the second man that helped me after I was searching in my bags for a couple minuets said “he is the crazy one {about the previous man helping me} do you have your passport?” So I gave him my passport he Okayed my bags and went to meet my host parents.
My family:
They are an couple that live on the north side of the town very close to what seems like a Spanish plaza or NYC’s central park, it is called Parque... crap I already forgot, it is some woman’s name starting with a “C.” Anyways, they do not speech much English so my spanglish is not too helpful, but we can get by when we need to talk about something they are good about rephrasing or repeating something if I don’t understand. We went out for pizza, since I was starving because the plane did not have a vegetarian option for dinner. I learned that they do not have children but rather 4 dogs. This is much better in my opinion, haha. They have 3 cocker spaniels and 1 german shepherd. They show the cockers and have a lot of trophies in their office. I told them about my mom’s dogs and my host mother said she thought Shih Tzus are very cute and they both had a good laugh at his name “Don Jaun.” They have been having foreign exchange students for 10 years now (I think) and I am their first student from Wisconsin. We got home to barking dogs and they showed me around the house tomorrow we are going to visit the college and run some errands so I can get some needed toiletries. I am so excited for this trip! I can’t wait to tell everyone all about it!