I woke up to pouring rain - what's new. at least we feel at home! 4 hours of informal spanish class (with 6 of our beginners), where a bit painful for me this morning, though it is amazing how much I have already learned in 2 weeks (I guess when you're starting with nothing and in a total immersion...) ...from 12:30-4 each day this week we are given a break. dr. W reminded us today that we are not tourists and he would like us to use this time to explore alternative medicines in the area (which I feel like we have done tons already; and dont get me wrong, I am thankful for it and think it is a great experience, but there are only so many medicine men you can meet before your rational science brain is demanding more logic to the workup, diagnosis and treatment). dr. W has a lot of interesting ideas, the most recent of which is that we shouldn't eat street food becaus it might be fried in motor oil for all we know. that's a new one to me. I actually found someone who worries more than the moms back home!?! I thought it couldn't be done!... what do I win? :) ok enough poking fun at mi mama, she has been quite worry free this trip and either way I appreciate her concern for my safety.
we took advantage of our long break before 4-6 private spanish lessons and rode the bus into old town. it is like escaping into europe!! what a beautiful part of quito! I feel like we finally understand why people say they love quito so much (the area we live is pretty ugly, to be honest, and more dangerous since it is in the center of a big city). old town is a mosaic of colorful buildings with beautiful verandas and gorgeous churches everywhere you look!! we walked from iglesia to iglesia taking photos and enjoying the change of scenery. we were hoping for some more good stores to buy additional souveniers but our only purchase ended up being a dvd from a bootleg dvd store - they are as common as starbucks here... mmm starbucks vanilla latte :)
...so our lesson learned today is that when a dvd claims to include 6 movies and it only costs $1, the quality of the movies is going to be about as good as if someone sat in the back of the theater with a video camera taping the premiere... oh wait, that´s exactly what happened. and so our attempt at purchasing the 2nd part of the 4th twilight was a total fail. we couldn´t hear anything and the quality was terrible! so bad that we had to stop the movie only a few scenes in. so much for supporting video piracy; guess that´s karma in action. we ended up watching coraline after dinner instead - made in portland by phil knight´s son; i really enjoyed it (likely much better than the twilight we had been hoping to watch).
our way back to the spanish school from old town was an adventure as always. i expect nothing less when using the public transportation around here. you see, as opposed to other places where I have traveled, it seems that very few people speak english here. as a result i am usually at the mercy of my travel companions, because though i understand quite a bit, my ability to communicate effectively is less than proficient.
we hopped a bus we thought to be going in the opposite direction that we came. with each stop more and more people pile in the doors, which open for an extremely brief amount of time before slamming closed, indifferent to the human bodies that might be in the process of entering or exiting. a few stops and our bus turned off the expected route. we fought the crowds and made it off at the next stop - fortunately close enough to the bus we wanted to be on that we could walk over the desired station and for only 25 cents more (yes, that was 25 whole cents wasted on the wrong bus!!) we purchased our tickets and got in line.
the lines are chaotic. you think you´re waiting in order for the entrance to the bus doors, but as soon as the doors open everyone presses in from all sides (see brief door open to close time above) and it becomes a frantic stuggle to get on the bus in time, while battling the people trying to get off. you are swimming upstream both ways!!... so when the doors opened i fought my way onto the bus, desperate not to get caught when they slam close all too soon. i turned to make sure anne and lo were close behind and quickly realized anne (who would later admit she had not been in the ecuadorian mindset), was waiting for everyone to exit before she made her way onto the bus. her patience was not rewarded, she barely made it through the doors when they slammed closed in lo´s face (though thankfully not on her face), and in a second we were gone - flying down the road to the next stop. anne was shaking her head trying to explain that she wasn´t sure what she had been thinking. we got off at the next stop and hoped that the bus lo got on would stop here as well. luckily it did and we aggressively pressed our way on to her bus, reunited again!
the next few stops more and more people piled on and no one seemed to be getting off. the result is that the dozen people entering the bus when the doors slam closed are shoved forward and you are forcefully packed like sardines, pressed to the people around you. this isn´t terribly uncomfortable, until you are reminded that you are a sardine on an accelerating, turning and breaking (none of these things done gradual or smooth) bus. and the only reason you remain standing is because you´re packed in so tight you literally can´t move even if you want to. at this point you have to laugh. until you realize your stop is up next and though you are only 3 feet from the exit there are approximately 30 people in your way. when the bus screeched to a stop everyone was bracing themselves so firmly we couldn´t move. once the bus was fully stopped it became a frenzy of people shifting like tetras peices to allow those who want to exit to make their way to the door. but as the seconds ticked by our chances of making it out before the door slam dwindled. the three of us barely, and i mean barely, made it through in time, and only thanks to lo, who resorted to throwing elbows when the other bus riders got a little too rough with her. oh the excitement of public transportation around here.
after our crazy afternoon i welcomed 2 hours of mellow spanish study with our wonderful teache; we are learning so much!! and then us 3 gringas walked home, enjoyed a dinner as delicious as ever, and did our workout during movie night. just lovin´ the life here in quito...
No comments:
Post a Comment