Movin' & Groovin'

After sitting everyday all day since September 2nd, I am happy to report that the altitude wailed on me this weekend…and it was wonderful. Yay, for a great weekend of moving and grooving beginning with Friday’s 2-hour salsa lesson and late night dancing, then Saturday’s hike around an area called Papallacta with thermal baths and today’s 3-hour basketball madness.

Friday morning I finished teaching my last of three practice teaching sessions. One highlight was that we practiced a dialogue using questions based on travel and packing for a vacation using Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as model dummies who had no idea what to bring to Miami and while making a packing list one of my students put on my bikini. Very nice.

Friday afternoon the volunteers from my program took salsa lessons. Our instructors could MOVE and were entertained by our lack of latino “suavetude” when shaking our hips. Surprise: I left the two hour lesson sweaty and needed a shower.

Saturday the group took a trip on little windy roads carved out of the muddy mountainside to Papallacta. The terrain along the river hike was dense along a cascading waterfall. I toyed with the idea of trying Guatita (cow stomach) soup with peanut sauce or Cuy (guinea pig), but opted for a grilled cheese sandwich.

Today at noon nearly 20 volunteers and friends from host families got together to play some basketball. I wanted to reconnect with my baller side, so I decided to throw down. Well, “throwing down” consisted of asking for a sub nearly every 3 plays as I panted heavily at 9,000 feet. Alas, it was fun to practice the ol’ back door and throw some elbows around.

Lots of love to all friends and family,

Ella

You say papa, I say potato

Reviewing most basic Spanish has been a crash course in RE-realizing that the formal and in-formal “you”, one of the most fundamental rules of the language creates an unspoken social hierarchy which infiltrates speech and culture on all levels. Here in Quito, Ecuador people are self-affirmed classists, not racists, but “classists”.

More than word choice, using the in-formal versus the formal can also be a strategy if you want to butter someone up to speak informally or conversely, if you want to put walls between others, you speak formally. As Ecuadorians feel no strong moral, Catholic consciousness binding them to shame in speaking politically incorrectly, the application of this seemingly simple concept becomes exponentially biting in some situations.

Example: the businessman that choose to address me informally, talks to me as a close friend because he wants to make me comfortable with my purchase (AKA not-so-kindly rip me off)

Another Example: An employee uncomfortable with the semi-sketchy boss can choose speak to him formally (AKA create an invisible “you’re a sketch-ball and I’m keeping my distance” line)

Now if that aspect of language doesn’t help you to see that peoples language influences the way that they think, I don’t know what will.

Viva Ecuador

Ecuador it is.

A week has gone by and I’m happy to say that so far I’ve seen the University I’ll be teaching at, spent 20 hours on a bus, bought a cell phone, learned to Ecua-wine in order to get what I want, watched a man eat fire, saw Ms. Ecuador, tried French fry soup, caught a glimpse of Jefferson Perez, national speed walking champion and have been tempted by many a grilled pig street food vendors.

I am spending the year in Ecuador and will be teaching English at the University of Cuenca. I don’t know much more than that as my director is on vacation and my meeting with the Director of the Dean of the Philosophy department leads me to believe I will be the thesis advisor of English teachers rather than the beginning level English instructor of adolescent girls.

This uncertainty leaves me feeling balanced and provides my life with much meaning.

As I try to make sense of things I will write. So, feel free to read a long, skim, look at pictures as you like.

I know last year people were pretty timid about commenting on my blog while I was in Bolivia, but I’m all about diversity of opinion and I certainly am not holding my tongue, so you shouldn’t either.