Sickness and Soul Searching

I got back from the jungle trip on Monday morning, and immediately after I arrived home, the moment I had dreaded and feared was finally upon me: I got food poisoning. Well, either food or river water. I won't go into too many details, but I was pretty sick. I got a house call from the doctor and wasn't back at school until Thursday.

But the entire time I was laying in a bed feeling as though my intestines were trying to claw out from my body, I never really felt sad. The last time I was sick, the lonely bedrest made me seriously homesick. I wanted to be back in my bed in America. But this time I just wanted to get better and get back to school and my friends and being with everyone.

I'm not sure if it happened on the trip or before, but by the time I was back in Ambato I had realized that something was different. My life and who I am has radically changed. I think it must have been happening the entire time I've been here, slowly sneaking up on me.

I've had unexpected difficulty letting go of everything that was me and my life in Kirkwood. For years I talked of how I wanted to leave that place, and then not too long before I left, I realized how much I love it. Which isn't bad; it's good to love home. But to come here I had to forget it. I had to abandon the standards and thinking of that culture, at least to some extent. I really hung on to it for a long time. Mentally, I was still there.

But now, in what feels so sudden to me, I am totally and completely here. My entire life has shifted. It's strange and I can't describe it, but it feels like all my memories just changed colors. High school was years ago; everything feels so distant that it's like I dreamt it. It's freeing, and just what I've needed to happen. But I also know that I can never go back. When I return in June I will be a different person and I'll build a new life all over again. I have seven months more here. It doesn't sound like such a long time anymore, but at the same time I know I can't even imagine all that will happen and change in that time.

The last night of the trip, we slept in Quito. A group of my friends and I pushed a bunch some beds together and were laying piled on top of them. While I was dozing in and out of sleep, one of them turned to me and said, "I feel like we're supposed to be here." It's a great feeling.

El Oriente

Wednesday after school, the other three students from Ambato and I took a bus to Quito, where we reunited with everyone we had met at orientation. I was super excited to see everyone again. We got dinner at McDonalds. I think the other American girl, Sarah, and I were feeling a weird ownership of McDonalds, like we had some sort of birthright to those mcnuggets. Well, at least I sort of felt that way.

The next day we had a five hour drive. As a lover of long drives, I have to say, this was a great long drive. It was drizzling slightly most of the way and the mountains gradually changed into jungle. This really is a beautiful country. We arrived at the river and went to our hotel in canoes.

The hotel.

That day we had to hang out and swim in the pool. I went with a group for a walk through the little town nearby. It was humid.

Friday we went on a guided walk through rainforest. We learned about some different types of trees and their uses. We got to paint our faces with rocks and water from the stream. Sarah did my face, and I could feel that she was doing an intricate design and I was really excited to see how it was going to look. She wrote "loser" across my face. Thanks a lot, Sarah. The guide gave me a crown made out a palm leaf, one of the prouder moments of my life. To go back to hotel we floated down the river on rafts made from balsa logs. 

Saturday morning we went to a sanctuary for rainforest animals which had been illegally kept as pets. It was called AmaZOOnico (sic on the capitalization), a name which I greatly enjoyed. There were parrots, monkeys, an anaconda, some ocelots, and a whole other assortment. Then we got to go tubing down the river, which was really fun. At one point we stopped and did a rope swing into the water. After lunch we went to a butterfly house. There were all the kinds of butterflies that you only see on posters in elementary classrooms.

Sunday we made the drive back to Quito and spent the night in a hotel there. Other things that happened on this trip: I got a massage, I bought drug rug pants and I am thrilled with them, and we went to a karaoke bar and attempted and failed to sing "Hips Don't Lie" in Spanish. We had the nights free to hang out and we had some great times that I'm not about to write about here. I love so many of the other kids in my group and I had a great time being with them. The jungle is beautiful, but, as always, it's the friends I'll be remembering.

Sarah and me.

Napping on our hotel room porch.

This is how we got over the river on our jungle walk.

Before the Jungle Trip

November has been a busy month so far. I'm going back to the 6th for this post. That was a Wednesday and the first day in the student council campaigns.

The way they do student council elections here is different than in my high school back home, another example of the whole individualism vs. collectivism thing. Here, instead of running against each other for the specific positions they want, they assemble two complete lists of people. My friend asked me if I would be the treasurer for list A. Am I qualified for this position? Who cares. I have the gringa card, and we played it hard.

Wednesday and Thursday we went to every class in the school and presented our propositions. Both lists had the same propositions. We submitted lists of possible ideas to our principal/priest, and he only accepted the exact same ones. What I really love about this is it really removes most all possibility of voting based on merit. This is a pure, unabashed popularity contest.

Our strategy was called "Grace can speak English." Each class we went to I made a speech in rapid English. The students were absolutely amazed. It was as though English is not a language but rather some rare skill that only I have mastered.

During the elementary school recess we gave out foam smiley faces that we pinned on the kids' sweaters. Again, you would think this wouldn't be that exciting. But everyone REALLY wanted a foam smiley face. I was literally knocked over by them. When they lined up to go back to class there was a deafening chant in favor of "Lista A." We won by a landslide.

My student council armband.

That friday I went with our family friend to a big party that her school hosted. This is notable mainly because it really emphasized that there are dancing genes in Latin blood and I do not have them. I have no idea how the people here do the things that they do with their bodies. I just flail around and get sweaty.

Flailing with a man in a pirate costume.

My friend Pao and me.

Tuesday was the big parade. I got to carry the school sign and wear the extra-special fancy-day uniform. It was pretty cool walking down the street with the crowds and seeing people that I know. To be completely honest, the entire time during the parade I was just wanting to buy cotton candy from the people who were selling it all along the way.

My host mom and me, pre-parade.

After the parade my host family and I went and got some sort of milkshake-like drink made from eggs. The whole town was in a sort of relaxed festival mode. The exception was the Red Cross, who was taking the opportunity to offer free vaccinations. Based on the reactions I was witnessing, they were offering free amputations without anesthesia.

I had a great nap to reward my sign-carrying efforts and then used to afternoon to get things together to travel the following day.

Finados

First off let me say that my host family is back (yay!), and they went to Orlando without going to Disney World. The kids didn't want to go. They're possibly the only kids I know who would opt out of Disney World. But they're actually planning on a return trip in the future and my host dad and I are already making half-joking plans for them to visit me in St. Louis.

November 2nd is Dia de los Difuntos (Day of the Dead), but here it's called Finados. It mostly involves a big fair, colada morada, and guaguas de pan. Colada morada roughly translates to "purple drink," but there's no codeine involved. Actually I think the "colada" part comes from the fact that it has to be put through a strainer. It's like a stew of corn flour and fruit juice, and it's pretty good. Guaguas de pan is a bread shaped like a baby. Nobody seemed to know why this is the tradition. 

My celebrations began Thursday evening. At the university where I'm in art classes (for free!) there's some sort of indigenous advocacy group that was having a little party and gave us the traditional snack along with this traditional dish I can't remember the name of:

Potato cake, fried egg, avocado, onions, tomatoes.

Also that night my host grandmother was starting on the colada by juicing some blackberries:

Note the strainer.

Friday was a short day of school and was free-dress. I'm pretty sure that in most uniformed Catholic schools in the U.S., when there's a free-dress day, most people opt for comfort. From my observances, the American Catholic schoolgirl's out-of-school uniform is essentially nike shorts and a t-shirt. But I'm totally serious when I say that about a fourth of the girls here showed up in heels. My personal favorite outfit was this guy's:

"Canvas IMPACT LOOKING AWAY where are the guys? 68 LONELY GUY" ...should we be worried?

School let out around 10:30 and we all got colada morada and guaguas de pan:

They like to take pictures sideways.

The school made their colada in a giant vat. Also I should mention that it's served hot enough to burn you. 

BIG VAT.

They're basically stirring it with an oar.

Here are some photos of friends and me to illustrate how I really haven't mastered the Ecuadorian style of posing. Also I'm attributing my food baby to the fact that I ate about 3 people's bread. I haven't gained that much weight. Yet.

Friday night my family got home I had some fun talking with them about 'Murica. They were amazed that people were so courteous in the lines for the rides. Walmart is huge. Outlet malls are awesome (American clothes are outrageously expensive here). They said the food is bad; I promised to prove them wrong if they visited me.

Some people go to cemeteries SAturday but we didn't. That night my family and I went to the fair. This is essentially a carnival+festival+massive flea market. It was absolutely packed. They all acted like it was lame, but I was really legitimately excited. Some observations:

• Things being sold: toys, candy, clothes, shoes, food, cooking utensils, universal remotes, posters, knickknacks, antiques including the coolest collection of vintage glasses you ever did see, jewelry, makeup, electronics, music, everything that has ever existed.
• I really wouldn't trust someone in a fair booth to pierce my tongue but apparently a lot of my classmates do.
• Who needs a line for bumper cars? How about we just don't put up a fence, and when someone wants to ride, they have to stand in the surrounding crowd and run as fast as they can to the car they want? Seems safe.
• If you want a dvd with 50 different Chinese movies on it, this is the place for you.
• I saw a sign with the Joker's face on it that said "Who is serious?" I do not have an answer for him.
• One of my classmates bought a pot-leaf necklace and phone charm. I thought this was odd, because I had previously heard her make a negative comment about someone's marijuana use. I asked her if she smoked and she laughed, "No, no, never. It's just pretty." I mean, alright...

Ricky and I rode one of the suspicious-looking carnival rides. It was not smooth, quite painful actually. But I had a great time hysterically laughing at his shouting. To close I will leave you with a photo of one of his new shirts from the trip. He's different.

100% unaware that they're song lyrics.