Family of Friends

For we are a family, a family of friends.

As I sit here in bed after another  Ecuadorian day (they are finally normalizing... YIPPIE!) a word is bouncing around in my mind... family. What does it mean to me? Who is my family? Is this exclusive? The questions are endless... so I turn to a classic dinner time reference material for my family... the dictionary. My computer dictionary defines it as: A group consisting of parents and children living together in a household. But this just doesn't seem to fit what I was looking for... so I turn to another reference source (okay its pushing it to call it that) Urbandictionary.com. I like this definition a lot better. One user defines it as:people you love and love you back, not necessarily blood or biological, but you trust them and they trust you, and they take care of you and you take care of them.

While being here I have come to realize that family is more than just my mom, dad, skye, sue, and extended family. I have many families all through out my life and they are each amazing in there own special way.

My immediate biological family: My mother, father, sister and Sue have done more in my life then they can ever know. Just during this trip they have stuck with me through skype break downs, technology problems, inconsistent schedules, family changes and so much more. They are always there to tell me how much they love me when they know that is what I need to hear or to tell me that what I am doing is awesome and to enjoy every minuet of it if they know that making me think of home is going to be to hard at that moment. They are wonderful and are always with me whatever i am doing here.

My extended biological family: As many of you know my many aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents are almost, if not as, close to me as my immediate family. Many of them have been mer 5 miles from me my whole life. I have spent almost as much time at their houses as at my own. They have toothbrushes saved for me because the insto-overnight is a common experience. I know how to feed their animals and where the good hiding spaces in their houses are. While I have been here I have received uncountable letters and well wishes from them. They are always my family and I love them all. From Madison to Edgerton to Stoughton to Philly, I love my extended family!

My Ecuadorian family: This is the family that has started this whole thought process because, as little as I thought it was possible, I now call two other people in my life Madre and Padre (more often ma and pa, but thats beside the point). They have taken me under their wing and put up with my horrible spanish and strange american costumes. They tell me when I do something that is considered rude in Ecuador and they put food in my belly and a roof over my head. They laugh with me and tell me stuff just like they would tell a normal sister or daughter. They make me do chores and they make me smile. I don't worry about being strange around them and who cares if they see my crazy bed head. They are my family and they will always always always have a special place in my heart. I can never repay them for what they have given me and for accepting me into their family as one of their own. They have even joked about me changing my name to Eleanor Greenler Cabezas Garzon, that would be a mouth full thats for sure. Thank you for everything Familia Cabezas Garzon. Te Quiero Mucho.

My camp family: This is what we like to refer to as a family of friends. And dang they are about as close to family as you can get with out being blood related. Last year I spent over 1/12 of my year with them. Living in small little canvas tents and sharing everything from showers to vans. They have been great support all through out my journey here. They were there for me when I told them (the first of all my friends) that I was off to Ecuador for a year. They comforted me when i had break downs because they were lucky enough to get me for the whole month before I left where all the stress and second guessing ensued. And they are here for me now, I skype with them when the times present them selves and have great (crazy long at points) pen pal relationships with others going on as well. Whatever it does, they always make me smile and I think of them as I find my self absent mindidly doodling song lyrics into the margins of my physics text book or drawing the lake in my math work book. Cause we are a family a family of friends and our love it never ends.

My Quaker family: Don't worry guys I would never forget you (I mean heck you include my wife, I think she counts as family...). Whatever I do, where ever I go, these guys are always here to support me. I have received countless cards from AYFers, Adults Friends, and High Schoolers alike and each one makes me beam from ear to ear. There are days when I need a little boost so I take a card from one of my dear Friends off the wall and re read it. It always makes me smile. From frantic emails sent out asking for advice to skype dates where day dreaming/freaking out about the future ensues, these wonderful people have been here for me when I need it the most and I can never repay them for that. Thank you Friends.

My AFS family: While being here I have acquired a family that I was not expecting to be a large part of my experience, but they have been. My gringo family. These wonderful people from around the world have been thown into the small town of Guaranda with me and that in its self is a crazy undertaking. We have been here for each other through family changes, cultural fumbles, sibling annoyances, and language barriers (some times communicating from Flemish to Spanish to English!). Pretty much you guys are awesome and this year would be a heck of a lot different without you. I love out long rambles though Guaranda or afternoon coffee at 7 santos or birthday pizza. I was so lucky be added to this family.

So there you have it guys, it started out as more of a journaling thing and then turned into a shout out for all the wonderful families I have in my life. Thanks for everything, I could not be doing this with out you.

Livin' on the loose.

With A Little Help From My Friends

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends

Ok so some of you might realize that a)I have not posted in way to long. I am sorry about that, but I do have an excuse. and that is that technology seems to hate me here. So first my computer died and I had to do a complete scrub of it, but now I am waiting for an update CD because my computer hard drive is now so old that it doesn't function with most websites. Sigh. and it happens that at the same time the computer that I use in our household died too. Its been a comedy of errors. But it is on the mend (thanks daddy!). and b)That you are getting two posts in on time this time. This is because I wrote the post above this one first but then had the computer problems and feel that you might like a more ecua-post. So here it is.

This weekend we had our 5 month and half way done with the exchange get together with AFS students from all over the country. We had students from Guaranda (my town), Quito (capital), Salcedo, Latacunga and Esmeraldas... and it was awesome. I really enjoy these get together's, not for the programing, but for the chance to chill out with people that speak your language. I am finally not the white person because I am with a group of 39 other white people. We all talk about life here in Ecuador, your families, how we cant eat another bite of rice, how school is super easy, and how freezing it is 10,000 ft up in the mountains. But we also chat about things that people here don't understand or aren't interested in: the ACT we have to take when we go home, how we got enough signatures for a recall election on Walker (WAY TO GO WISCONSIN, SO PROUD!), how we miss american sweets, or how we really miss hot water. It is a time to feel normal and have great conversations. very much enjoyed.

One of my favorite parts of these weekends is the languages and how that is dealt with. One day this weekend I was sitting there having a conversation in English when I stopped to listen and realized that the Belgium's behind me were talking in flemish, the Germans across me were chatting away  in German, and the two people to the left of me were having an animated conversation in Spanish. This was too cool to realize. All of our official orientation material was in Spanish because that is the language that connects us (even though all minus two of the participants spoke english too, the US was shown up my Europe in that case). Not uncommonly we would have conversations with groups of people that would jump back between spanish, english, german, and any number of other languages. It really showed me how I am not only learning about Ecuadorian culture, but about Belgium, France, Germany, Japan and Italy, just to name a few.

So this reunion takes place in a different city each time and lets just say we were not happy with the city placement this time, we were placed in a very very very small little town wayyyyy up in the mountains so we were freezing our behinds off the whole time and it was always raining, thanks rainy season. But the town does have a cool story that I think some of you might enjoy. We were in a town called Salinas. It started out as a little village because of the salt mine there, everything in the town revolved around that mine, it was the only source of income, it even gave the town its name (Salinas...sal=salt in spanish). But then a bunch of years ago a missionary came into this dirt poor town and saw hope. He started a Queso making co-op. People from all the surrounding area would bring in milk that was then made into Queso for a large portion of Ecuador. This idea blossomed in this town and now there are a couple of different co-ops. Including a chocolate factory that makes some amazing chocolate and then some flavors that I tend to say away from, but some people love, like hot sauce and Pajaro Azul (a very strong home made liquor that is very popular here). There is also a co-op that makes amazing alpaca fur sweatshirts and knit hats, scarves, gloves and many other things. These co-ops have put this little town on the map and have made it a very livable (even though its freezing!) little town.

So this was my weekend, filled with good conversations, many languages, and lots of chocolate!

Livin' on the loose.

What Are (Were) You Doing On New Years Eve

When the bells all ring and the horns all blow
And the couples we know are fondly kissing.
Will I be with you or will I be among the missing?

Maybe it's much too early in the game
Ooh, but I thought I'd ask you just the same
What are you doing New Year's
New Year's eve?

Smoke, drinking, and cross-dressing. If I had to come up with three words to describe New Year’s here in Ecuador those would have to be the three I would choose. Now I will explain why and what crazy things Ecuadorians do to ring in the New Year.

Smoke… by about 2 minutes after midnight it seemed as if a heavy fog has engulfed Guraranda. I was up at my cousin’s house way up on a hill, about as high as you can get above Guaranda and still consider yourself in Guaranda. There were a couple of things that contributed to these copious amounts of smoke that seemed to take over my little mountain town. Fireworks were the first main cause of smoke. There are no firework laws or regulations here, it would be heaven for some I know (cough cough…Scott), but for me it can be a bit scary. There were little kids with firework wands, every 20 seconds or so they would shoot out another little ball of color whatever direction the kid was pointing the wand. The streets were very full of people and I found myself contemplating how on earth they didn’t have a ton of accidents. But I didn’t hear of any. But these were just the start of the firework fun, at midnight everybody and their grandmother had fireworks at the ready and at the stroke of midnight I could see probably a dozen different fireworks shooting up into the air from different parts of the city. The celebrations continued all night, very much helping my attempt at possibly getting a little bit of sleep (this was also helped with the professional grade speakers that were outside of my window that were finally turned off at 8 am…little bit different than the farm quite I am used to). The second cause of smoke was burning old people. Ok before you get all worked up let me explain. The tradition here is to build paper mache old people and burn them at midnight to represent getting rid of the old and bringing in the new. It was a little bit strange to walk down the street and see all these burning things that when inspected closer turned out to be old people. Sometimes families would even make whole families of old people with masks representing their family. So one family I know has a son who is black, he had a black old person mask on his person, other people had pony tails or braids. They were very intricate. Sometimes these people would be close to 20 ft. tall and the streets would be blocked off for their construction and display. It was quite the event, but over all very fun.

Drinking, ok so this is pretty self-explanatory, as in the United States people here like to ring in the New Year with lots of alcohol. I mean whatever, there isn’t very much to write on this, but it was a very large part of the celebrations. I was able to turn down the shot that was offered to me at our midnight turkey dinner. But the next morning when we went out for a walk there were still people drinking, ending at about 4pm the next day. None of this one night business, it is a 24 hour event. You can fill in the gaps for that, it is a pretty cross cultural tradition.

For a very homophobic society there sure is a lot of cross dressing. This was probably the funniest and strangest part of all the Ecuadorian traditions, and that is saying a lot. Starting at about 4pm New Year’s Eve large groups of boys dressed in their sisters, moms, and friends skirts and tops appeared out on the streets. They would blast music and make road blocks. When a car drove up they would dance very provocatively and then make the car pay before they would move away from in front of the car. They would also come up to people on the sidewalks, particularly gringas (white girls) and try to dance with them before they asked for money. This made walking around a hazardous but quite hysterical activity for me. These road blocks had been around for days, when my family came back from Quito 2 days before about every 2 minutes we would come upon a road block with little indigenous children asking for money. It was funny for about the first 2 but got a little tiring after 20 some, but the cross dressed boys were only added to them on New Year’s Eve. There were also parades of cross dressed boys that were accompanied by trucks with large speakers often blasting English music they didn’t understand and police officers. Over all it was quite amusing and more than a little bit odd. 

These are the main components of an Ecuadorian New Year’s celebration, but they are by far not the only ones. If you are superstitious (and like all Ecuadorians are), you could put on lucky bright yellow underwear and bras outside of your clothing at midnight to bring you good luck for the next year...I passed on this tradition. You could also burn the bad things that happened last year with your big burning old person and then save your list of things that you wanted to happen in the New Year for next year. Let’s just say you will NEVER be board during and Ecuadorian New Years.

Livin´ life on the loose.

A Christmas to Remember

You've made this a Christmas to remember
Springtime feelin's in the middle of December
Strangers meet and they willingly surrender
Oh! What a Christmas to remember

Christmas… in my mind the most daunting part of my whole year abroad. I didn´t know what kind of family I was going to have, what kind of traditions they were going to do, what was appropriate for me to get them…really, I didn´t know anything. I am not going to lie to you guys and say that Christmas was by any means easy, it was not. But I think it was an important part of the experience and I got a lot out of it. I grew, learned and discovered, not for the first time during this exchange, that if I force a smile onto my face and make the best out of what I have, I will realize that I have an awful lot.

Two days before Christmas the question came up one evening, if you could have anything for Christmas this year, what would it be. My host mom started out, she said that she would love to spend the day with her mom, who lives 6 hours away in Quito. Then my host sister said that she doesn´t care as long as she could spend it with family, my host brother seconded this announcement. Then it was my turn, my mind was spinning, what would I want. The options were endless, but then it hit me, and this became my moral for the rest of the holiday season, being here, in Ecuador, is the best gift that I could ever have gotten, what I want is to spend it here with my new family and enjoy every minute of it. This was not always easy, but looking back at it, the day after Christmas; it in general was a good day.

I should mention that my family here didn´t really celebrate Christmas at all. They are very strict Evangelical Catholics, and here apparently that means you don´t celebrate Christmas. At first I was very confused by this, but I came to understand that they don’t celebrate that one day because every day is for Christ and every day we need to celebrate him, not just this day of the year. I think another part of it for my host family was the consumerism, even in Ecuador, that seems to consume everybody over Christmas.

My Christmas day stared off a little drab; I was home alone as my family headed off the church. But then I hoped on Skype and got to have a wonderful breakfast conversation with my Dad, Mom, Skye and Sue. After about an hour, at about 11 am their time, they decided they needed to go and get on that present opening so we signed off. Then I got to have a brief 10 min chat with Aunt Susan, Uncle Lee, Alex and Corry. It was wonderful to hear everybody’s voices and made me feel a little closer to home.

When my family came home from church we had a brief lunch and then headed off to buy bags of candies for some relatives my dad had in the nearby country side. These bags of candies are the traditional gift that is given at Christmas to children, particularly as a sort of charity gift to kids who are poor and aren´t going to be getting anything else for Christmas. We bought about 20 bags and headed out into the deep country. After about a 30 minuet winding drive through the mountains we arrived at a house of some relatives of my dad. I had not been expecting what I saw; we ended up in a small mud hut with a fire burning in one corner cooking dinner and over 30 guinea pigs in another corner, undoubtedly waiting to be dinner. We gave them the candies and then proceeded to have about an hour and a half conversation with them about life. They were very interested in me, where I was from, what I was doing here, why I was living with this family, what school I was going to, and would I please speak a little English for them. We chatted about those things, about religion (my dad’s favorite topic), about life in the country and many other things that came up. It was a truly awesome experience for me; I have seen poverty before, when I lived in Tanzania with my family. But this was the first time that I had a personal connection to the people living it, they were my family here, people who my dad cared a lot about, people who cared a lot about me even though they had just met me under an hour ago. They were so grateful for the candies that we walked away from that visit with three large burlap sacks. One was filled with different kinds of flour that they made there in that hour, another was filled with potatoes that were grown on that land, and the third was filled with corn that was handpicked by them. The generosity of Ecuadorians was amazing to me; they gave what they had just because they wanted to say thanks. We headed to a couple more houses for brief visits, but had to be getting home because it was going to be dark soon.

When I got home, I hopped on face book because this was my connection with the world that was celebrating Christmas. I felt like I had been transported to a different world, one with statues about new computers, cars, phones, snuggies and endless other gadgets and toys. I had almost forgotten that this is what Christmas is about in the states, when hear what Christmas is about for my family is helping out relatives who don´t have as much as we do. Now I am not trying to sound full of myself or anything, I know that for the last 16 Christmases that has been me too and that most likely for the next ones as well. But it was just a very different culture.

So Christmas had its ups and downs and I did miss home quite a lot, but I learned a lot and know that a smile and attempts at a good mood can make all the difference.

Livin´ life on the loose.

The Market

Let me paint you a picture
a picture that I know that you'd like
I'll let the colors run
it dries and then its done

A little bit ago one of my dear Quaker friends and life mentors told me (I am paraphrasing here): Take time to take a walk and enjoy where you are. You will regret not doing that when you leave.

This is something that I have been thinking about a lot in the past couple of weeks and I find that it may be the best advice anybody has ever given me for my exchange and life. When I really open my eyes and heart to what I am doing I am always filled with positive emotions, happiness, joy, amazement, and just general good feelings. I see things that I have never really seen before, but just passed by in the craziness of the first few days in Ecuador and then were just part of normal life.

With this in mind I am going to describe to you my walk to the market today and maybe you can have a little bit of my slow walk, taking in, with awe, my surroundings.

It started with just a normal day after school where I was sitting on my bed trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my afternoon. The one thing that kept popping into my head was the fact that I wanted fresh fruit, but alas, we didn’t have any in the house. So I took matters into my own hands. I threw on my Chaco’s and as I ran to the door yelled to my sister that I was gong to buy fruit. I started down the street. The first think that I noticed was the graffiti sprayed on the walls of the house at the end of the street (some things don’t change from country to country), but then I realized that I just walked by it and read it with out a second glance. Spanish anyone!??? In the next couple of blocks I took in the kids playing on the street, the woman grilling out (only difference was she was grilling out plantains), and just the general hustle and bustle of life in Ecuador.

As I stumbled upon the main street in our town I came to the work of my sister. She was chilling on the steps waiting for somebody to come into the store. We stopped and had a conversation for a bit before she asked me where I was going. When she heard I was bound for the market down the street she handed off her duties to the other girl working in the shop and joined me. There were two things that I took out of this interaction that really impressed me. The first was that I was able to stop and have a real conversation in Spanish with somebody who spoke as much English as I do Russian. Second, that it was totally normal to stop and talk to my sister as if she was my sister. I am feeling more and more apart of this family every day. I am expected to do chores, ask where I am going (and some times be told no), and have none of that guest slack cut for me now. I love feeling like I am part of a household and the joy and struggles that come with it.

As we wandered down to the market we passed many street venders selling everything from tamarind juice to large amounts of meat skewered on sticks with lots of mayonnaise. When we arrived at the market the air was mixed with the all to common order of raw fish and fresh fruit and vegetables of every color and size that were engulfing us. There were mangos, pineapples, avocadoes, potatoes, unrecognizable berries, bananas and plantains by the hundreds, oranges, apples, green beans, cabbage, carrots and passion fruit (just to name a few). All pilled into long rows of colorful veggie and fruit laden stands. We went out searching for my passion fruit and mango to make some fresh fruit juice. The first stand we stopped at nobody was there. We continued wandering to the next stand where I got 6 passion fruit and 2 mangos for a dollar and exchanged a wonderful conversation with the old lady working the stand. We trotted back out of the market and back up the street to my sister’s work. The whole time I couldn’t stop beaming, I am living the life of my dreams, in Ecuador! The air was fresh, I was in good health and life is good.

I wandered back home engulfed it the joy of fresh fruit in my hand and my feet pending the slate streets in Guaranda. Life is fantastic. I just need to take time to see it sometimes.

Livin’ on the loose.

Be True To Your School

So I know I have not written in a super long time. I will write a original one soon. But I wrote this for our local news paper and thought you all might enjoy it.

An Ecuadorian School Day

So be true to your school now

Just like you would to your girl or guy
               Be true to your school now
               And let your colors fly
               Be true to your school

Save the jeans and t-shirts for the weekends. White polo shirt, red acrylic pullover sweater, grey pleated skirt, black shined shoes, all topped off with white knee high socks. Not my everyday outfit in the United States, but it’s what you will find me in every day here in Ecuador. This is just one of the major differences that I have gotten used to while attending my all girls public school in my small mountain town in Ecuador.

            At 7am sharp the bell rings and school starts. I join the flood of students all adorned in our normal uniform or, on lucky days, our gym uniform, an acrylic red suit that makes you sort of look like a strawberry. As we walk into the school students are stopped to take out colored hair accessories or colored scarves, if you want to accessorize your look for the day everything you use must be white. Then we all head to our perspective classes where we will spend the rest of the day. Starting in the equivalent of your sophomore year in high school you choose a specialty and that is the class you will stay with for the rest of your high school career and that is the field you will stay with for the rest of your life. You can choose a specialty like chemistry-biology, or physics-mathematics (my specialty) that is leading you toward a more educated and technical job, most likely including higher education. Or you can take the path of accounting or computing that will lead you toward immediate job options after high school is over. Either way you are with the same kids for all 8 of the 45 minuet periods a day 5 days a week for 3 years.  The school assigns all the classes and they all go directly with your specialty, art and music classes are unheard of here. Everything is strictly academic. 

            I am used to walking to and from my classes, but here teachers come and go and the students are in the same class room all day, with the exceptions of gym where we head out to the school court yard or computer programming where we walk to one of the schools few computer labs. Teachers here are paid an 80-cent an hour salary so there is often little incentive for teachers to show up, some times they just don’t. I don’t think I have had one day yet in my 3 months of school where I have had all my normal classes at normal times. This is a heightened phenomenon because they don’t have a substitute system set up, so if a teacher is sick or has another appointment, no class for that hour. After about 10 minuets of waiting the students will wander out of the classroom and go eat a plate of rice and chicken at the little snack bar in the school or bask in the sun on the bleachers and pretend to be studying for an upcoming test.

            When classes happen they are structured very differently then in the States. From the minuet the teacher walks in the loud talkative class of gossiping girls is immediately transformed into the perfect quite class. As the teacher walks to the front of the room all the students stand up until instructed to sit again. Then the students greet the teacher and the teacher greets the class as a whole. This is a custom you will see in all daily interactions in Ecuador, whether you are passing a friend on the street or having business meeting a greeting always starts off the interaction. Depending on the genders of the greeting people it is either a kiss on the cheek or a handshake. When I first got here this was hard to get used to, but now it is a habit. After the greeting the teacher asks the class for a marker to write on the white board in the classroom: the students supply everything for class here, we even have to pay for the copying of our final exams. As the teacher writes the lesson out on the board all the students get out their notebooks and copy it down, text books are few and far between so everything is hand written and work sheets are unheard of. Once the teacher is done with the lesson they pack up and leave, this can range from 20 minutes to 90 minutes, depending on how the teacher is feeling that day, but either way the students do not complain. The number one unspoken rule in Ecuadorian classrooms is respect for the teacher. Even if they are wrong, you don’t talk back or correct them, it is about the rudest thing you could do.

            As school finishes students walk out of the school gates and get ready to head home where they will eat lunch and get to homework. The school day is complete and its time to spend time with family and get ready for the next day to come.

            

On the Loose

On the loose to climb a mountain

On the loose where I am free

On the loose to live my life

The way I think my life should be

For I only have a moment and the whole world left to see

I’ll be looking for tomorrow on the loose

(This is my song for Ecuador, keeps me going. Gotta love camp songs.)

As I sit here, next to my sister, sipping passion fruit juice that we just made from fresh passion fruit down, I realize that I am living the life of the rich people.

As I grew up whenever my family has having a particularly good connection or just a really good time one of my parents would always quote one of the families favorite childhood books and say, “This is the table where the rich people eat.” Not meaning literately rich, but life is rich, full of excitement, love, and happiness. It soon evolved into “this is the mountain where the rich people climb” or “this is the lake that the rich people paddle.” I now see it as a family saying that we have the fortune of being able to use quite often. And right now I realize that I am walking a path where the rich people walk. Now this doesn’t mean that every minuet here is easy. In fact I have quite a few minuets that are super hard. For example, this thanksgiving will officially be the longest time that I have not seen my sister. That is a daunting and hard thought, but I know it will be ok. I have a very supportive and caring family here that is doing everything possible to make this year amazing. And they are. The roller coaster ride will continue and I will love and take in every minuet of it. 

So everyday little life events.

Last Thursday was a huge celebration at my school for the incoming kids to the college (high school). It was very elaborate and exciting. It started with a marching of all the little kids into the middle of the basketball courts by all the 6 years, equivalent of high schools seniors. All of the 6^th years (including me and the other exchange students, Alicia and Giulia) we dressed up as characters. I got the pleasure of being a witch while Alicia was the queen of hearts from Alice in Wonderland and Giuila was an angel. We marched them around for a little bit. Then another large group of 6^th years came on carrying a person dressed up as a corpse. They did this long elaborate ceremony and brought the corpse back to life. Then the corpse proceeded to run around yelling and scaring all the little new comers. After this there we are variety of other aspects to the play-like-thing, like a church service for the corpse and lots of random dancing when the DJ felt it was right. Proceeding this 45-minute corpse show there were many groups of people who put on little skits or danced. They would get all dressed up, give the DJ there music and there was their little moment of fame to perform in front of 1000+ people. Well of course you couldn’t have a show with out embarrassing the gringas (white girls) at least once. So we were informed that we were going to sing a song in English. We spend the 2-day we had been given attempting to make three peoples, who don’t sing in front of people or really very much at all, mesh together. This turned out to be more of a challenge than expected. But we did it. We entered the stage, as the closing act, and sang Katy Perry’s song Hot N Cold for the whole school and many people from our town. It was an experience that is for sure. And if you ask me, we did a pretty good job at it. J

A couple of weeks ago I decided that I needed to start running again. I had stopped running because it is such a different sport here. Nobody runs here, and of the few nobodies that do run, they are all middle-aged Ecuadorian males. A tall, white, female runner… funny joke. So it wasn’t ending up being the same experience running as in the USA. I will get cat called at and honked at and just generally stared at. Its not the mental break that I am used to. But it needed to happen. When was now the question, in the afternoons I often have other stuff and am just generally lazy. Nights, well that is when I sleep. So it was looking like the morning was my best option. I have been getting up 2 hours before school starts to run. That puts my typical run at about 5am. It’s brutal but so worth I for my mental and physical health. This week I get to run at 6am because we have finals and school starts later then normal. I really like this because I get to see the city wake up. I often do this 15-minuet loop about 3 times. This really is an awesome way to watch the day starting. This morning on my first loop I watch a woman walking pushing her packed up vender stand with her school aged child. The second loop they were setting up the candy stand out side of a local school and by the third loop they were selling to the younger children who started school earlier because they didn’t have finals. It was very cool to watch the city come to life and get my exercise at the same time. J

Life is going. Life is good

Livin’ life on the loose.