Back in the Game

It has been two weeks being back in Boston and living in the snow. I think it was charming and beautiful for the first week, then i got sick of wearing my snow boots every day and getting my apartment all wet and having to clean. But I am definitely adjusting and learning from my Maine/New Englander friends about how hard core they are and I get inspired not to complain. No, but I do like the snow- it's different for me and I am not one to get cold easily in general so that helps.

After my second week of classes I have my routine and am working out work and study schedules. It's great being able to take a course at BU but it takes up my whole day getting there, being in class for 3 hours, then traveling back home. I really like the feel of this semester, I have closer relationships at school and am still meeting new people which is so great.

This weekend, I am proud I made it out and about in Boston even with the snow everywhere! Friday night I tagged on to the Returning Peace Corps Volunteers Boston skating and bar outing. Kristina, my best friend, did Peace Corps Ethiopia and a lot of out friends (Rob- Ecuador/Paraguay, Terra- the Gambia, Bree- Ethiopia). It was great, I took the Brandeis van into Kendall Square and we did some skating with a big group- and I think we all fell at least once & I have a bruise to snow it! Then we walked over to a fun bar called Flat Top Johnnys. There were pool tables and tall tables to sit and chat at. I had my first Black and Tan beer and loved it! From there we had an adventure finding Luke's, Kristina's Boyfriend, truck. He was driving us home and that was quite the scavenger hunt, but we ended up finding it hidden in a snow bank!

Then Saturday I pushed myself to go out and meet some school friends on Mass Avenue. It was so nice to drive with my friend MIke instead of taking the bus! We went to a bar called Middle that had a fun dancing atmosphere. My adorable mexican friends Aileen and her husband Jorge were there celebrating their 2 year anniversary, so cute! They have the most adorable daughter who is 1.5 named Catalina. Then we headed to a place called the Prencint in Union Square, its a basement venue where my friend from school Ross was playing the drums in a band called the Painted Ladies. It was great to see him play and meet up with old friends and catch up. It was a great weekend with Heller friends- and it may be the last of its kind because I have so much work ahead of me and things are really getting intense. I have to contact more organizations for my practicum and solidify my summer plans....so we will see!

Its -3 degrees and I AM FREEZING!

So I have never lived in below zero conditions, and my face was freezing this morning getting off the bus and walking up the hill to my 9-9 class day. This morning I have Perspectives on Youth Policy, Program Management, and Systems Design from 9-12, then Monitoring and Evaluation from 2-5, and then Fundraising and Development from 6-9. A full day today, then a break on Tuesdays from class, but I will still be working at the Office of Experiential Learning. Wednesday I have Land Reform and Food Security, then Thursday Household Economics and MWTHF I have French! a crazy full schedule but I am excited!

Next post I will take pictures of the snow and put them up! It beautiful....but FREEZING!

Back to the Snow!

A great start to the New Year!

I had such an amazing week in Quito with my host family and a really incredible week on the yacht in the Galapagos. Here are pictures from the Islands:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2148826&id=7102990&l=c8b421e75e (copy and paste to see the facebook link)

I met two really nice ecuadorian guys Santiago and Bruno and a great host family and had a blast with my MJ's mom, Mary Ellen on board.

I got back to the US last night after a huge inspection of my bags and everything in miami, which was very annoying, then got home to Sam and Kristina my roommates a little motion sick from the boat and a little sick from some food and with an earache from snorkeling but I am happy to be back (even though it is 4 degrees right now!).

Dia de Los Reyes- Otavalo

Thursday was another great day. It started with an interview with a Professor through Skype at Brandeis who wants me to be a Teacher's Assistant. It's for an undergraduate Intro to Social Policy class. Then we got a late start, Lesly and Lucia and I usually have breakfast together- a cheese grilled sandwich or cereal, and then Les was going to take me to the bus stop so I could head north two hours to a town called Otavalo.

So we went to the station and the next bus didn't leave for 2 hours, which is the amount of time it takes to arrive there, so Lesly said she would drive me. She is amazing, she just dropped what she was doing for the day and we drove 2 hours there and 2 hours back. We saw the beautiful lake San Pablo, Cotapachi the town and a natural crater lake reserve in the high mountains up above Otavalo. In Otavalo we went to the main Feria de Aretesania- the artesans market where I bought a really nice tealish alpaca blanket and a few little paintings and jewlery.

Then we drove home and had such a good time in the car just telling stories about family and boys. I am a good copilota I do have to say, unlike Les' older sister Melba who falls asleep in the car while Les drives. Then we got home in the rain driving up the mountain up to their house to see all their family and kids at the house coming back from the mass to celebrate the Day of the Kings. I got to say goodbye to Fran and Lucy and Lucy's brother Galito. Then I met Mary Ellen at the Hilton very close and we caught up and we so excited to get our trip going!

Off to the islands!

Day 4- The Middle of the World

Lucia my darling host sister and friend for the week wrote about what we did:

We went to "La Mitad del Mundo" or like Devy says el "centro del mundo" haha (it means the center of the world). When we first arrived we where a little bit tired but Devy always is in the mood, i really like that. Well then we go to all possible shops of artesanias like two times and we tried a lot of hats, socks, and looked at mirrors, we took a lot of time but it was really funny. Then we went to lunch, Fran and i ate corn with habas (big beans you eat with salt) and QUESOOO but devy only ate an empanada de morocho (cheese) and a humita (sweet corn in a tamale wrap), so when we where full took all these photos in the parallel south and north. But where the monument is isn't the real mitad del mundo, because when the french first arrived with all the investigations the were wrong by about 200 meters. So these is the part where Devy has to told you all about the real mitad del mundo. After we took the bus home from our adventure, from 11-7, Devon stayed home and chatted with the other girls in the house.

Here are some pictures!

Day 3- Mas de Quito

Our day started when we went to the "Antiguo Hospital Militar " to the exposicion Mariano retro where we saw a lot of paintings of famous ecuadorian artist like Guayasamin and Kingman. I went with Lucia and her cousin Fran and we were having such a good time interpreting the artwork and laughing. I really liked the indegenous work by Kingman who was born in the south of Ecuador in Loja. The white facade of the building was beautiful.
Then Lucia's brother picked us up and we drove to the center plaza in the rain and had really good beans and rice. It typical for people to eat corn with mayonnaise and cheese so we tried that and had maduro, which is fried banana/plantain (which I also had first in Nicaragua).
Next, we headed to the Museo de Cera and waited outside and took some fun pictures. We took a tour and learned about the history of Ecuador with wax figures of famous people (cera is wax). After that we walked across the way to El Palacio Presidencial and took pictures with the guards out front. Very funny! Just like the guards from Buckingham Palace in London but they moved more here.
Igalito, the brother, wanted to take us to el Cementerio de San Juan which was up on the hill- surprisingly they all had never been there before but it is one of the most famous cemeteries where the presidents and everyone is buried. It was beautiful in the rain. So it was Lu and Fran and Igalito who are cousins and then Fran's boyfriend Esteban and myself. We were drenched by the end.
After the cemetery we went to a shopping center because the girls wanted to get their nose pierced like mine, so I wanted to go with them, but the place was closed unfortunately. So we headed to El centro comercial, another big shopping center, and had Dunkin Donuts coffee and donuts- I never thought I would go to one in Ecuador only in Boston. I gave the girls CharlieCards to take the T in Boston because they said they wanted to come visit me- they are soo cute!
From there we headed home for dinner with everyone, they had beef and rice and french fries with some side chopped veggies. Then we chatted for a while with the Dad, and friends who came over and Melba who came home from work super tired- the eldest sister then Leslie, Lucia, Fran, Igalito, and Esteban and I went to Plaza Force for some karaoke! We ended up not singing but it was deifnitely fun! They have good beer here too like Pilsener and Club- both made in Ecuador.

Exploring Quito

Leslie and Lucia (26 and 19) the two younger sisters, took me out to the historic center of Quito in morning. We saw La Plaza de Independencia, La Ronda- a hip restaurant/music scene area, El Palacio Presidencial in the main plaza there and took like a 2 hour tour of La Iglesia Campania de Jesus with all gold inside. It was in spanish and the guy new so much about the church built by the indegenous for the jesuits in the 1600s. He answered all our crazy non-related questions. Fun, but the longest tour of a church I think I have ever had. It's nice because I speak in spanish with the girls and sometimes in english teaching them random words like Nosy. Then we saw El centro cultural and El Banco Central y La Plaza San Francisco with another beautiful white facade of a church.

From there, the girls left me and I walked all around the city's hills. With the altitude, I definitely get a little huff and puff going. So I walked around and sat in mayeb 5 churches just to rest and see the amazing architecture. For dinner I went to a really nice place called La Vista Hermosa with a friend then we went out to La Forge for a beer.

Here are some pictures of me and the girls in front of the Iglesia Compania de Jesus and some of the plazas.

My first day in Quito

It has been great so far...I made all my flights (all day on Continental- I also met a nice Ecuadorian named Santiago) and a friend of a friend Melba picked me up at the airport and took me to her house where she lives with her family in Quito for a good night sleep. Safe and Sound.

We have breakfast- normally a jamon y queso sandwich but i skipped the ham and just had cheese and an egg and good juice. Then we headed to Las termas Papallacta which are hot springs in the Andes Mountains. We were practically up in the clouds it was beautiful. We went with the mom- Melba, three sisters- Melba, Leslie y Lucia, a cousin Francis, and Melba's boyfriend Carlitos. A windy clear ride up there then a windy rainy ride down at the end of the day.

Melba's family is beautiful and I really like them- I am really lucky to be staying with such great Ecuadorians and they are teaching me so much about the country and spanish- Mora is blueberries and despejada is clear- just for an example.

Loving the warm weather too- like 70! and I do love the rain at night.