Baños.

Dear friends and family, I'm about to tell you about the craziest weekend of my life.  I thought ziplining and tubing was insane.....

On Friday afternoon, 9 of my awesome friends and I met up at the bus terminal in South Quito where buses to Baños depart.  To get to this terminal took all of an hour in the electric Trole bus, so that was already an ordeal in itself.  We bought our tickets - $3,50 for the 4-hour bus ride to Baños got settled.  We left a little before 5 so it was dark right away and we didn't get to see anything.

We arrived late and settled into our hostel, which was a walking distance from the bus station.  Within 10 minutes of arriving we ran into our other friends staying in town this weekend too.  Our hostel was adorable - 4 floors with nice clean rooms, hot water, and comfy bunk beds.  And towels.  We went out to dinner then explored the nightlife... Baños is known for its partying and sure enough the streets were packed and filled with music and excitement.  We stayed out late then walked home and crashed.

Early in the next morning, we got ready, had breakfast on the top floor (facing the beautiful mountains and waterfall), then set out to our first activity:  riding horses through the mountains!  All nine of us got a horse and followed a guide through town, then through some paths, weaving through the paths.  I was so preoccupied with the fact that I was on a horse that the first half hour I could not focus on the amazing sights.  The horse was totally fine but listened to the guide more than me so that was a little worrisome.  Another girl's horse was kind of ornery and even kicked my horse in the side, narrowly missing me!  So I was a little on edge.  We then decided to go by the waterfall path and got on this steep narrow path leading to the waterfall!  Karl, my horse, did not like this and kept hesitating and freaking out.  We made it eventually and on the way back I finally figured out what I was doing so I felt a lot better.  I talked to the guide in Spanish, telling him to stop making me force to go faster cause it was freaking me out, and he just laughed and asked me if I drank coffee - I said yes and he proceeded to tell me that's why I'm so nervous all the time.

Anyway, we came back, had lunch and went to our next activity - puenting!

Everyone's been freaking out when I tell them about this particular activity.  Puenting means strapping yourself to a harness and a rope and jumping off a bridge.  It's not a bungee cord so there's not spring when you reach the end, but the rope is hooked to the other side of the bridge so you fall and swing right away.  I heard about this a few weeks ago and knew I wouldn't let myself not do it.  So lo and behold on Saturday I'm trying to get the others to do it with me!

We get to the bridge and everyone just freaks out.  It was HIGH and WINDY and suddenly seeing someone just free-fall from a platform seemed so unnatural and unnerving!  Well obviously.  So we all freak out a little, take pictures, and before we know we are strapped up.  My friends Lauren and Brein decided to do it too, while the others climbed to the bottom and watched and took pictures.  The bridge was like, 300 feet high, and of course I put my feet on that platform and all I could think is - humans are not meant to do stupid things like this!  And that it'd be impossible to convince my mind to throw myself into nothing!  So I decided to just not think at all and when the harness guy yelled "salta" I JUMPED and it was the scariest thing I've ever experienced in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!  I keep shivering just thinking about it.... you're just... falling and I closed my eyes and though I jumped with my arms out of course I was immediately clutching the rope and screaming my lungs out.  When the rope reached the end, it jerked a little but nothing horrible.  I opened my eyes and couldn't believe I was hanging under bridge, swinging like crazy.....but I was so happy.  They let down the rope and I joined my friends who were sitting there.  The other girls had already gone and we just mostly screamed and freaked out and what we had done.  Absolutely no regrets!! I knew I had to do this once in my life :)

I honestly would have had enough adrenaline for the weekend, but we had already signed up to do canyoning.  We hop in the back of another truck and head to the waterfalls, where we are all given wet wetsuits and wet Keds and a helmet and harness and prepare to repel down some waterfalls.  This was something different... this looked hard... you actually had to focus and get it right (unlike throwing yourself off a bridge).  So we all tried the first one and the guide laughed and told us we were all horrible so we couldn't actually do legit repelling and instead he'd be doing all the work.  Which was fine with me.  So on the next one we did some sliding and on the final one, we repelled a little, then basically threw ourselves backwards again off the edge - a 100 foot drop -  and he just let the rope drop - in other words, let US drop.  We'd drop in about 20 feet increments, and this too was just terrifying.  Right at the end, when I thought he was gonna let us land somehow carefully or gracefully, I, in HORROR, realize this is not happening as I get dropped onto a giant rock, being thrown from one side to another, smashing my hip and hitting my head.  Luckily my helmet stopped any brain damage from occurring but I have a pretty nice purple bruise on my hip now.  Disoriented I join the 2 last guys who were waiting for me, because as we discover there is not stairs or a nice path to get back up, just an impossible climb, trying to pull yourself up by roots, literally crawling in the dirt up the side of this mountain.  So they helped me up in the beginning and we all made our way back.  We had the chance to do that last fall again and I just laughed - you can call me many things but I'm not dumb enough to let the guy who DROPPED me down a waterfall do it again.  Luckily and unluckily, my friend Ally got something in her eye earlier and couldn't get it out so she was pretty hysterical and crying, so I stuck with her and tried to make her feel better.

After this, we headed back, brought Ally to the emergency clinic where she got the piece of sand removed, and we headed back and took warm showers, changed and headed to dinner.  We ate quickly because at 9 we were getting on a chiva, a party bus, and headed to the top of one of the mountains to see if we could see any volcanic activity.  We met a really nice guy and girl on the chiva from Guyaquil and we hung out with them for the rest of the night... we'd been drinking a little so our Spanish was incredible, go figure.  But we really hit it off, so it was awesome!  Of course it was really cloudy so there was nothing to be seen around the volcano but the city lights were beautiful from up there and we had a good time.  We got back in the chivas later and headed back out to the bars.  I ended up coming back to the hostel at 4:30 am....

Then at 8am, opened my eyes, tried to move, and seriously felt like I'd been hit by a bus.  I forgot to mention this whole time that I've had a cold all weekend; it was pretty mild for a while but on Saturday night it flared up a little.  By the end of the night I'd completely lost my voice.  So Sunday morning, every muscle was sore from riding horses, repelling down waterfalls, dancing for hours, being slightly hungover, and from coughing and having my head feel completely inflated around my sinuses.  Very pleasant.  Oh and sleeping for 3 hours.

Somehow I took a DayQuil, drank some herbal tea at breakfast and made it through the rest of the day.  We split up - Julie, Ally, Alli, and I took another chiva ride, this time touring waterfalls outside of Baños.  It was a beautiful warm sunny day so that was perfect.  The others decided to rent some bikes and did the same route with a lot more effort.  They had bought our bus tickets beforehand but we didn't know for what time.  When we finish with our tours, we grab a bite to eat, and try to call them to get an ETA.  After lots of unanswered calls, we find out the tickets are for 3:30 - it was 3 - they were just leaving their last waterfall.  We try not to panic about this but if we miss that bus we lose money and may not get another for several more hours.  Fast-forward to 3:30 - Julie and I frantically calling the others while begginggg the bus driver not to leave... workers from the terminal yelling at us that the bus has to go, us yelling back desperately that they are close, they are running.  Our dumb friends weren't exactly running, even though we called 3 times absolutely screaming at them.  The bus pulled out on to the street, stopped again, and finally after delaying for about 10 minutes almost of of our friends come up.  Unfortunately one of them came back into town and his bike broke, so he didn't see where everyone else went and has a terrible sense of direction.  So Tim and Joe stayed behind and caught the next bus while everyone else jumped on this one.  All of our friends from the other group were on this bus too so it was a fun trip back.  I didn't talk obviously - but we laughed and eventually everyone fell asleep for a bit.  4 hours later, we get to Quito, take another hour on another train, and then I come home to my host family, who loves hearing my stories.  Unfortunately my host mom needed quite a bit of convincing that me being hoarse does not require a doctor visit, but I think she's good now.  She had saved dinner for me - rice and shrimp - and I told her my stories.

Then I came upstairs and here I am.  So many pictures are already uploaded to facebook - I'll be downloading for days.  Video of puenting is coming.  Otherwise I'm tired and sick and should probably get some rest.  In 4 days I'm headed to the rain forest for another field trip - this one university-lead.  Should be incredibleeeeeee.

Alrighty, so that's it for me.  Hope you enjoyed reading about how insane my life has apparently become.  I was never the daredevil or the brave one so this is hilarious to me.

Looooove, Cyn

Otra semana aquí.

Heyy there.

It's been another week in this lovely town - though I didn't go on any crazy trips or pull any wild stunts, it was still pretty fun.  Monday and Tuesday I managed to stay in and do homework, which was nice because I knew the rest of the week would involved little free time.  On Wednesday, I went to Julie's apartment to watch the UNC/Dook game.  We were streaming it from her computer - her parents bought a box back in NC that would allow her to watch cable all the way in Ecuador.  She passed out all of her Carolina Blue attire (I shamefully own none here) and we all huddled around the screen, shouting in unison first in joy then in horror and disappointment.  We were 7 of us - Julie, Lauren, Alli, Cole, Liz, Shannon, and I - missing just a few of the other Tar Heels in the country.  It was a fun, if triste, night.

On Thursday, we attended the info meeting for our trip to Tiputini in March, which is the biodiversity station owned by the University in the Amazon rain forest.  They explained about how we get there - plane then canoe - what we should expect to see - monkeys, snakes, spiders, piranhas, birds, thousands of plants and bugs, and though it's almost completely doubtful we'll see one - jaguars!!!  It will be a weekend of humidity, cold showers, and WONDER because we'll be in the rain forest - swimming in rivers and climbing the canopy.  Sounds absolutely incredible.  But of course, I'll tell you all about after it's done.  And no worries, I'll be taking thousands of pictures.

That night, Lauren invited just about everyone she knew to her place for dinner.  We went shopping in Cumbayá, and about 6 of us went to her place her to make everything.  We made a taco dip, pico de gallo (that was me!  freaking delicious), guacamole, then tacos with all the fillings, and finally chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert.  About 20 people showed up so we had a great atmosphere going.  We got the place nice and clean after and everyone had a pretty good time I think.  The one awkward thing was of course that the apartment belongs to Lauren's host parents, so when they arrived at one point during the night the party kind of died and half the people ran out - almost like the cops showing up.  They had asked that no one drink so that'd be the reason for the flight of the Americans.  Anyway, we all lamented not living in our own places for this kind of event - the freedom of people trashing the place and not worrying about it until the next day ;)

Afterwards we went out and had another fun night out on the town and came back at 3:30am..... luckily our driver Carlos is an angel and will always make sure all of us get home safe and sound.  That makes me feel infinitely better about going out every time.

Of course I had class on Friday, so I made it to campus and went to weaving, where I'm starting my final project.  There were only 2 other people in class, so I spent the hour talking to Alejandra, the sweetest Ecuadorian girl.  She has lived in NYC for a year so she's good with English but we spoke in the Spanish the whole time.  I loved hearing about her impressions of the US - she thought it was weird for example how her host mom in the US had a box for "winter" and "summer" clothes.  Anyway, it was great to speak to someone new in Spanish and made me feel so great because I'm getting better and better and it makes me so happy!  I even spoke a little in my literature class which was awesome as well.

Afterwards, Powers and I got lunch then headed to her place, where we watched this terrible animated owl movie and then skyped with her boyfriend in the US (who is French so we make fun of each other, it works out.)  We were dyinggg for some burritos so Powers' host sister came with us and drove to a cute little Mexican restaurant - the burritos were not like Chipotle so mission failed but it was still tasty.  After, her host sis got an emergency call from the vet clinic where she works, and so we all headed over and watched as they put an IV in this poor dog's leg - the dog has an autoimmune disease and is slowly dying.  I guess it took it hard because all of a sudden I felt terrible and nearly fainted.  They had to put me outside where it was cooler and get me water.  SO embarrassing!

Anyway, after that I came home and talked with my host mom and sis for a while, then went to my bed and passed out for real this time, of pure exhaustion.  I guess you know you're getting older when you can only handle one night of 4 hours of sleep. :)

That leads to today... it's nearly 3, I'm in my PJs sitting on my bed.  Should do homework, etc but instead I'm going to spend my time on listentoyoutube.com which is an amazing site that rips mp3 off of youtube.  So I'm currently adding to my itunes library.

Time to go... love you guys!

Cyn

PS.  Without adding too much detail, Thursday night had some interesting occurrences and possible awkward ramifications.  Anyone interested in hearing more details, chat me up sometime :)

Lazy Sunday.

It rains a lot in Quito at night, but seldom during the day. Today is a beautiful exception. I get to stay in, continue pouring over Eat, Pray, Love and work on some of my literature homework for class, while listening to the drops on the roof cover up the noises of traffic and bustling city life.

Also, I get to happily turn down the endless invitations today and do my own thing. Hordes of Gringos in this city will be stuffing themselves into bars to try and catch the Superbowl (even though apparently Quito is playing Guayaquil in fútbol and I'd imagine that age-old rivalry will be taking precedence on the screens) and so my natural response is to cozy up in my blanket and maybe make myself another coffee.

I had an amazing Saturday in Papallacta, the natural hot springs resort about 2 hours from here. My usual group and I left very earlier in the morning, then enjoyed a day soaking in the sun and the minerals from the steamy water. We were surrounded by views of the beautiful mountains and blue skies - hard to imagine anything more incredible. Best part? Only $7 to get in for the day. Got back late and went to bed very early. We had been out on Friday, dancing until nearly 2:30am and so my 4 hours of sleep could only carry me so far.

In other news, I also tried salsa last week! I didn't know how - nor do I now, really - but I managed to get by and had a few guys let me know que yo tengo rítmo :) (that I've got rhythm! haha). It was a fun night, and I met a few nice guys, a few sketchy guys, but mostly just had fun and hung out with my friends.

The biggest thing I'm dealing with while living here is balancing going out and staying in. I don't party at UNC, and my best nights are spent hanging out with friends, talking, laughing, or watching movies. I've been exposed to drinking within my family and friends for years, and have spent a fair amount of time where I'm allowed to drink, and so arriving here, going out does not hold the appeal it does to me as it does to all the others. What I've witnessed is actually a very stereotypically-American reaction of kids who are suddenly allowed to drink going overboard and I just honestly find it ridiculous. That being said, I have lots of friends here and I'm invited out nearly 4-5 times a week to go to bars for trivia, salsa, regular dancing, etc etc. And I feel like I'm turning people down all the time. At night, we take taxis to get anywhere, and then get at least one drink while out. It gets expensive. The area of town where people go out, while very busy, is only more-or-less safe and you have to be careful. I have always fun those nights but I can only handle it once or twice a week. And feel guilty those other nights because I'm missing out on some fun times. So I'm trying to figure out how to balance this desire to stay in and relax and make the most of my other nights out...

After days like yesterday though, I try to not let myself worry and convince myself that my time and money are better spent planning incredible weekends out, visiting the country, than being accosted by sleazy strangers in bars. I'm sure you agree??

Enjoy your Sundays, everybody!

Love, Cyn

Ensayo.

For my grammar class, we had to write about an event that had a large impact on the rest of your life. Of course I wrote about moving to the United States :) I just finished writing and it's one of my best Spanish ensayos to date, I think. Even translated, I think it would be a top-notch assessment of my life so far. And I got a little emotional writing it...

So I'm including it here. I know most of you guys don't even speak a little bit of Spanish. Google-translate if you will, or just ignore it. I'm gonna keep it for me :)

Love, Cyn

Ensayo: Experencia más determinante de tu vida

La experiencia más determinante de mi vida fue cuando tenía diez años y mi padre nos anunció que él había solicitado un trabajo en los Estados Unidos. Hasta ese momento, yo había conocido solamente mi pequeño pueblo natal – Farnham, Québec en el sureste de Canadá. Mis vecinos eran mis tíos, que eran agricultores, y mis abuelos y primos favoritos vivieron menos de tres kilómetros de nosotros. Mi vida cotidiana incluía visitas a la granja de mis tíos o mis abuelos, paseos por el bosque cerca del río, y juegos con mis hermanos y primos. Durante el año escolar, fui a la escuela, que era francesa y yo era la única que entendía inglés también. Estaba una niña muy tímida pero con bastante amigos.

Todavía me acordé de los dos momentos importantes del año 2000. El primer fue en el comedor – estábamos cenando y mi padre nos preguntó de que pensamos sobre mudarnos a los Estados Unidos. De pronto, empecé a llorar porque la idea era tan absurda y espantosa. Mi vida completa era en nuestra casa en ese pueblo, muy cerca de todo. Mi padre me aseguró que la decisión ya no estaba hecha. Aun así, estaba triste y asustada. Más tarde, me acostumbré a la idea un poquito y empecé a ver las posibilidades emocionantes de cambiar mi vida. Me acordé del otro momento importante - el día cuando mi padre regresó a casa después de finalizar nuestras papeles a las aduanas. Fue entonces que me di cuento de lo que iría a pasar durante los próximos meses.

Básicamente, yo me despedí de toda mi familia y mi perro, y de repente me encontré en otro país, con otro clima, otras costumbres, y otro idioma. Fue el tipo de cambio que defina todo después. En mis clases, estaba la “chica canadiense.” Descubrí todas las estereotipas de mi país y a veces fue más fácil de decir a mis compañeros de clases que sí, todas la canadienses viven en iglúes o que sí, por la mitad del año no podemos ver el sol. En cambio, descubrí que un año sin hablar mucho francés me da un acento horrible inglés y mis amigos de Québec no comprendieron como pudiera perder mi capacidad de hablar francés así. En los años siguientes, perdí mi capacidad de hablar casi completamente, a pesar de regresar cada verano y de oír mis padres hablando. Me acostumbré a la vida americana – a veces se me olvidé que era de otro país. Creo que muchas veces ese es lo que ocurre con inmigrantes. El país natal se convierte en un sueño, otro mundo más imaginado que real. Eso es lo que me pasó a mí.

Finalmente, cuando empecé la universidad, recuperé el “parte” canadiense de mí. Tomé muchas clases de francés y practiqué mucho más con mi familia. Estaba de nuevo la “chica canadiense” a causa de mi acento extraño en mis clases – esta vez un acento de Québec y no de Francia. También, decidí de pasar mi verano pasado trabajando en la ciudad de Québec, donde nadie habla inglés. Trabajé mucho y pasé mi tiempo con nuevos amigos franceses. Después diez años, me sentí finalmente como una canadiense verdadera.

En los años recientes, cuando estaba recuperando mi francés, me di cuenta que tenía una aptitud para idiomas y decidí de tomar unos clases de español también. En el sur de los Estados Unidos particularmente, hay mucha gente que habla español y me parecía muy útil. Por lo tanto, todas mis experiencias de vida han contribuido a la secuencia de eventos que me trajo aquí en Ecuador este semestre. Aunque cambio ideas cada tres semanas, creo que quiero ser profesora de idiomas en los Estados Unidos, abrazando la mezcla de culturas y ambientes que yo he experimentado en mi vida. Entonces, así es como mudarme cuando tenía diez años fue la experiencia más determinante en mi vida.