Rabbits and Fliers and Class! Oh My!

Yesterday was an interesting day.

We had our last Spanish class of the week, which included a quiz over what we had learned this week. In the afternoon, we also had our class that is in English. For me this is New Testament, for Kevin it is Christian Faith. Since Stan is teaching both, our first 2 days of class were combined, but from now on they'll be separate. Though I will probably end up sitting in on Christian Faith when they are discussing things I find interesting. Also, after class, Stan offered to make Kevin and I Bible covers out of leather, which will be very nice to have for my paper back Bilingual Bible.

On Friday's we go to chapel with the seminary students. Since, yesterday was our first full Friday on campus, it was also our first time in chapel.

After chapel I headed back to my room until it was time for lunch. I was relaxing and checking some things online, when Carla came in and told me to come with her and bring my camera, we were having rabbit, cooked over a fire, for lunch. So, I went with her to find the whole rabbits being put on a grate over a fire along with whole chickens. If you want to see pictures of the cooking process, click on the title of this post, "Rabbits and Fliers and Class! Oh My!" When the rabbits were mostly cooked they took them off the fire and removed some organ that I don't know what it was and some people ate it. I tried a piece and it was pretty good. I just wish I knew what it was. We moved the tables and chairs from the cafeteria outside to eat lunch. The rabbit tasted kind of like chicken (which, if you didn't know, I don't really like), but it was a little different and I like it more than chicken.

Before dinner, a group of us headed to Carcelen to hand out fliers. These were to spread the news about the Nazarene elementary school in Carcelen. We split up into groups of 3 and wore some funny things like clown wigs, funny hats, and funny glasses. I got to wear heart shaped sun glasses. I was a little nervous about this. In the U.S., most people would give you dirty looks or say things because you were wasting their time and people just don't like being handed things by complete strangers. Also, by wearing funny things, we stood out, which I don't like to do in any situation, but especially in a city in a different country that I am still unfamiliar with and where I have been told many, many times to try to blend in as much as possible. I was very surprised to find how open people were to being handed fliers. Not only did they take the fliers, they usually read them. They often said, "Gracias," asked questions, or if you missed them, they would sometimes even come and ask for a flier. And because we were wearing funny things, they seemed very curious and wanted to know what we were handing out. It was a really cool experience.

El Museo del Bicentenario

Yesterday, instead of having our Spanish class, we went on a field trip to the Bicentennial Museum. The building was very beautiful and if you want to see pictures click on the title of this post, "El Museo del Bicentenario." While there, we learned about the revolution of Ecuador against Spain that started in 1809, making 2009 the bicentennial. We listened to guides through the museum talk about different parts of the revolution and we watched a few videos. I now know why there is a street in Quito named 10 de Agosto. That was the day the revolution started. It was all very interesting and a lot of fun. After going to the museum, we went to El Jardin, the mall for lunch and then headed back to the seminary.

Pictures!

I got my pictures uploaded! To see them, click on the title of this post, "Pictures!" The title is linked to the album that is on my facebook.

I'll get more up as I take them. Enjoy!

La Gran Carrera

So, my arms are sore, for a few reasons, but I’ll get to that as I tell you how the last few days have gone. Yesterday and today, I have been exposed to many new things. It’s been great…mostly.

Sunday morning, I went to church with my roommate, Carla. We took a bus and got there around 9. Sunday school was from 9:30 to 10:30 and the service was from 10:30 to 12:30 (but this could be longer). Sunday school was interesting. It started with somewhere between 5 and 10 people there. As it got closer to the service starting, more and more people showed up and joined in. During the service, they sang many songs, most of which I didn’t know, but a few of them I did. The pastor used some objects during his sermon which helped me get the idea of what it was about. It’s hard to listen to Spanish for so long and not get lost. After church we got a ride back to the seminary with a girl from the church. We then walked down to Carcelen with 2 other students for lunch. On Sundays, I am on my own for lunch since it’s not provided at the seminary. We went to a small place where I got shrimp with rice (a huge portion) along with some fried bananas for only $5. We then took a taxi back to the seminary, where I decided to take a “Nazarene nap.” At 5 we all (Kevin and I, our roommates, and the NILI staff) headed over to the Hall’s house for a welcome party. The Halls live off the campus in a gated area along with the Fishers, who I was introduced to as we were headed back to the seminary. The Work and Witness building where Work and Witness teams stay is also there. We ate American tacos for dinner, played the Wii (part of why my arms are sore…sad, I know), and just hung out and had fun.

Yesterday was crazy. I got up at 6:40 and went to breakfast and 7. Breakfast was really good. We had slices of bread with some kind of cheese and hardboiled eggs. I also found out that they drink their milk warm, which was kind of weird because some of it solidified on the surface, but was fine all around. I then headed back to my room because I didn’t have class ‘til 9:30. I pretty much just relaxed, checked some things online, and took a short nap. Class at 9:30 was Spanish. I will have this every weekday at the same time. The class will be split into 3, 4 week blocks, with 1 class focusing on different things each block. Today, our professor, Senora Evelyn, tested us to see what level our Spanish is at using a written test and by talking to us individually. We also talked about what we’ll be doing for the semester. We get to do a lot of day trips for Spanish! Our first one is Wednesday! It’s going to be lots of fun and I’m going to learn a lot. We also got a quick tour of the seminary today. We got to see where all the missionaries that live on campus live and other fun things. We had a travel workshop scheduled today at 2. This turned out to be La Gran Carrera or the Great Race. Our first clue was to find out roommates and head to the gate of the seminary with everything we need when we go out (NILI ID, copy of passport, some money, and our charged cell phones (yes, I’ve been given my own cell phone for the semester)). At the gate we were asked if we had everything we needed, given a form to fill out when we leave, and given our next clue, which told us to get on a bus to a certain place. We were also given the 50 cents needed for both of us to ride the bus (yes it’s that cheap, 25 cents a person). It took us a little while to figure out which bus we needed because there are many and once we figured it out we had to wait. We got on along with Kevin and his roommate, Harrison. Once we got to where we needed to go, a bookstore where Stan and his family were waiting, we raced each other into the store and got our next instruction from Stan: find a yellow book with NILI on it. We found the book and got our next clue, to take a trolley (also 25 cents a person, given to us with the clue) to a certain stop and go to the nearby market. Again we raced out of the store, pushing and shoving (I’m sure this was a great sight to see). We found out where the trolley was. Kevin and Harrison beat us to the trolley and were able to get on without any trouble. We had to wait because the next trolley that stopped was so full only a few people could get on. We had to push our way onto the next trolley, which was also very full. At each stop, more and more people crammed themselves on and we got squished. Trying to hang on when there are that many people is almost impossible and that’s the other reason my arms hurt. Then, the trolley we were on decided to be difficult and stop working, making us fall even farther behind. After about 5 or 10 minutes of roasting in the trolley with lots of people pressed up against us and no air moving, the trolley started again. We made it to the market where we got instructions to buy something using the 75 cents we were given. I now have a woven bracelet that says Ecuador on it and Carla has a matching one. We then were told to take a taxi to a park, which we did for the $2 we were given (again, very cheap). At the park, we had to take a paddle boat in a circle. Then, we were sent to the nearby mall to find Juan Perez, who happened to be out Spanish Professor. We had to say something in Spanish that was on our clue (all the clues were yellow pieces of paper). She gave us our last clue which was to take a bus to Carcelen and then take a taxi to the seminary, which can be complicated because to be dropped off at the entrance to the seminary when coming from Carcelen, you have to go in a big loop and make a U-turn (which some taxi drivers aren’t very fond of). We arrived at the seminary quite a bit after Kevin and Harrison because getting a little behind them with the trolley caused us to get into a lot of traffic on our way back. But it was still a lot of fun. Then, last night there was a party for the seminary students to welcome us. We had snacks and played lots of games from UNO Attack to Jenga to some get to know you games. Afterwards we watched a movie.

Not only have I had some very interesting things to do, I’m also starting to get used to certain things that are different here. Going to the bathroom for instance, takes a bit of thinking because I have to remember to throw my toilet paper away instead of flushing it. We also only get 4 rolls of toilet paper a month to share between the 2 of us. This is plenty, but it seems odd to ration it like that. At meals, lunch and dinner mostly, I will be eating a lot of rice, potatoes, and soup. Almost every meal will have at least one of those items and a lot of it, too. Public transportation is crazy. You can be standing at the bus stop, but unless you know how to signal the bus, it won’t stop, same with getting off. The bus also only stops for a few seconds and is moving by the time you are fully in the door. The busses are very jerky so you have to be ready for this or lose your balance. Buses and trolleys can be very crowded and uncomfortable, but they’re cheap, so I guess I can’t complain too much. Children as young as 4 or 5 often work with their parents. At lunch yesterday, we were served by 2 young girls, probably 4 and 6. And on the bus yesterday, a boy, who was about 12, took our bus fare. Water, like in most 3^rd world countries is not safe to drink out of the tap, so we have a large bottle of water in our room to get water from when we are there and there are also many jugs on campus that we can get water from and refill our bottle with. I’m finding the altitude doesn’t really affect me too much when I’m just walking around campus as long as I drink enough water, but as soon as I try to run (like today during the race), I find myself very out of breath, much quicker than usual, and it takes me longer to recover. But I think I can deal with that, especially since you won’t find me running often and I’m making sure to drink plenty. When I want to send an email or update my blog, I have started writing what I want to say in a word document and then pasting it. This is because the internet here can go down without notice or just not be working well at a random time, so instead of getting frustrated and trying to get back on the network, I can just wait until I am connected and paste what I wrote. I haven’t been successful in getting pictures up yet, though I haven’t tried too hard yet, so I’ll get those up when I do.

I'm Here!

So, I've been in Quito for almost 24 hours now! It still hasn't quite sunk in that I'm going to be here for 15 weeks.

Yesterday, I flew out of St. Louis to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to Quito. My flight from Atlanta to Quito was about a half hour late, but other than that, my traveling went fine. I had a nice meal of pasta and some side things on my flight to Quito. I was also able to watch some movies (probably some of the last I'll be able to watch in English for a while). And I had fun keeping track of where our plane was as we flew. We flew over Cuba and Panama, but weren't able to see much because it was at night and there were a lot of clouds. When we landed in Quito, I went through immigration, got my bags from baggage claim, and went through customs without any problems. I was then met by a group of people including most of the NILI staff (Stan, Kim, Lucy, and Jen), the other NILI student for the semester (Kevin), and my roommate for the semeser (Carla). After leaving the airport we made the maybe 10 minute drive to the seminary where I was shown my room and was then left to get some sleep.

This morning I got up and went to a late breakfast (about 9:30) with the NILI crew. We then met for a devotion led by Stan followed by an orientation where we went over the Student Handbook and talked about our general schedule for the semester. We went to lunch with the seminary students who are here (most are gone right now and will be back on Monday). After lunch, we had a break, which I used to unpack and then it was back to more orientaion. We talked about Ecuador's culture and culture shock. Then we talked to Kim and Jen individually. Kim was wanting to get an idea of why we were here, what we expected from the semester, and a little about who we were. Jen is in charge of ministry for NILI so she was seeing where our interests lie and to get us thinking about what we want to get involved in while we are here. After this we had a safety worshop for when we leave the seminary. And then we went to Carcelen, where we went to the SuperMaxi (basically a grocery store), a pizza place for dinner (I don't remember the name, but I'm sure I'll go back cause it was good), and then a few shops (including a DVD store where you can get DVDs such as J.I.Goe which is still in theatres in the U.S. The pizza place was interesting becuase we could put ketchup and mayo on the pizza. I was skeptical but tried it anyway and was surprised to find it was kind of good, probably not something I'd do in the States, but good. Now we're back at the seminary for the night.

It's been a long few days. I'm pretty tired, part of which is probably the altitude here which is aroun 9,500 ft. It's also tiring to have so much information thrown at you over a few short hours. Also, outside of the orientation stuff, we were pretty much expected to be communicating in Spanish. I knew I was getting tired later in the day, when I stopped really trying to understand what was being said and just kinda zoned out. I am kinda surprised how much I am able to understand when I'm not tired. I'm not comfortable speaking, mostly because my vocabulary is lacking, but I'm sure that will quickly start to change, especially once we start classes next week.

Well, I should have some free time tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures up of my room if the internet cooperates. Hasta Manana.

It's Time!

Tonight is my last full day in the states! Tomorrow, I'm flying to Ecuador to start my semester abroad! My last few weeks have consisted of getting my visa back from the Ecuadorian Embassy, shopping for things I need to take, getting last minute odds and ends out of the way like finalizing registration at Olivet and renewing my driver's license, packing, and seeing friends one last time before heading out. I'm now packed and ready to spend one last night with my parents. By 10pm central time (this is also Ecuador time...well at least until Day Light Savings Ends), I will be in Ecuador! I'll leave my house around 9am tomorrow and head to the airport for the start of a long day.

Hopefully, from now on, I'll have more things to update my blog about, so I'll update more often. I'll also be linking pictures to this so everyone can see them. I hope you all have fun reading this and keeping up with what I'm doing. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions.

Also, a lot of people have been asking me about mail. If you want to send me anything, it needs to be no bigger than a 12x9 manila envelope. You can send mail to me at:

Christyn Bell (NILI)
Casilla 17-11-05027
Quito, Ecuador