Five Weeks and Counting

Wow it's been a long time. Ecuador has really made me not a lazier person, but a person who can live outside the hustle and bustle of American life. I'm counting down the weeks now, five more to go until I return to the Motherland. I really do love Ecuador with every fiber of my body, but boy is it going to feel good to be surrounded by familiar faces and places once again. Not too much has happened recently, which is probably why there has been a lack of blog posts, but I think I can manage to get some stuff off my chest...

About midway through March one of my best friends from Wilmington, Mike V, came to visit. He was only here for a little more than a week unfortunately, but I feel we covered the fun parts of Ecuador pretty well considering the duration of his stay. We started out his trip by going to the most amazing cafe the city has to offer as soon as his plane landed. Cafe Mosaico as it's called sits on the side of Quito in the mountains, literally overlooking the majority of the city. At night time it provides an absolutely amazing view of "La Virgen" and "La Basilica", two of the city's most well known pieces of historical art. The next day we followed up doing a nice little tour of Quito. My Ecuadorian friend Felipe took Mike to the Teleferico, an immense cable car that shoots you straight into the mountainside for a different view of the city. I think this was the point when Mike really understood where he was at, because later on after his return to lower ground he expressed his difficulties with breathing when he got to the top of the Teleferico, an obviously common problem when traveling from sea level to such a high altitude without any time for adaptation. On Saturday Mike went with some of my gringo friends to Otavalo, the Western Hemisphere's largest artisan market. While the ladies I sent him with did their "shopping" thing, Mike came back empty-handed in terms of handicrafts but had a little more money in his pocket and a cool new experience. On Sunday night we left Quito to go to Baños, at the time my favorite city in Ecuador (I just returned from Baños two days ago and have been bedridden ever since... the Cippro just doesn't seem to be helping). We had an awesome time, riding bikes kilometers out of the city to stop by various waterfalls and nature paths. All in all our little excursion was a huge success, although I think just the food we ate alone over the course of the three days set us back a few hundred... oh well, you gotta treat yourself to something nice every once in a while, right? Back in Quito we finished out Mike's visit by going to a couple of house parties and just laying low. I believe Mike had a fun time, and it was rejuvenating for me to come in contact with at least one old time friend since the beginning of my long Ecuadorian journey.

So I know I've been talking about this class where our university is representing the United States in the National Model United Nations Conference held in New York every year... well we finally did it! About two weeks ago we set out for New York City as a class of 34 students. We got to NYC safe and sound, but we had no idea what we were in for. Now I've mentioned that there are normally over three-hundred universities present at this conference, an accumulation of close to five thousand students from every populated continent on Earth, and this year was no different. I have never in my life participated in an event held on such a large scale. We had studied American Foreign Policy all semester long, learning the in's and out's of what makes America tick in a global arena. For the majority of other universities, the preparation for this conference is realized through an after-school club. But not for us, no sir, we studied our asses off for months learning all about the United States... and it payed off!! The conference itself is held just like the real United Nations, with a bunch of smaller committees making up the main organs of the UN such as the General Assembly (we're in the actual General Assembly Hall in the picture above) and the Security Council. My partner and I represented the US in the Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific, not a real challenge as all of the member states in this committee in real life tend to work together to try to better this area and there normally isn't much conflict. As the representatives of the United States, every other member state came and tried to work alongside us, knowing that we could provide the most help. It was a complete rush dealing with so many other kids as we "fixed" some of the world's problems by writing resolutions and what-not, but the feeling of having so much authority and respect just by being the United States was an extremely gratifying feeling.

The conference itself went extremely well. We took home the two best awards that are given out. The first award we won was given to about thirty other delegations, it was an award for the position papers regarding our positions on the topics to be discussed that we wrote and turned in more than a month before attending. This award was kind of neat just because I was the only native English speaker in the class, so receiving an award for writing an in-depth paper about the United States' position on a myriad of topics really proved that our Spanish-speaking class really knew what they were doing. The second award we won holds a lot more importance. Out of the 300+ universities in attendance, I believe there were six or seven other universities that won an "Outstanding Delegation" award for our involvement in the conference itself. Our professor had never taught any delegation that even came remotely close to winning an award of this magnitude, so I'm expecting an A in this class at the end of the semester. I wish I could talk about New York City just a little bit, but truth be told we were fully immersed in the Model UN for the entirety of our New York trip. I ate some good pizza and falafel, but other than that I really don't remember that much of the New York experience... I guess I'll have to make another trip out there again soon. Partaking in the Model UN shed a new light on different career paths. I am definitely not a proponent of the real United Nations, I believe it is one of the most inefficient organizations in the world, but it does open one up to a whole new world of international diplomacy and relations, and it is something that I would definitely look into doing again.

So, that's it. I got back from New York less than a week ago, and now I'm shuffling between trying to get some bed rest and making it to the bathroom so various liquids can come out of every orifice of my body (A little too descriptive?). As I mentioned, I'm now at the five week mark, so at this point school seems like a joke and I feel like I should spend the remainder of my time here enjoying what I can. Hopefully I'll be able to bring more to the blog-table soon, but until then take care.

Life Thus Far

Sorry, it's been a while. This semester has picked up speed, everything is hectic and for the first time ever I'm struggling to ensure that all of my work gets done. None of my classes are hard, I could sleep through all of my classes and still make at least all B's rest-assured (no pun intended). The only problem I face is the workload itself... learning and doing work in a different language tests one's ability to stay focused on the task at hand. I often start even the smallest tidbit of homework in Spanish and don't wind up finishing it for hours, just because a single word in the directions will completely throw me off. It's just something I have to get used to, whether I like it or not, but I have a feeling I'll manage. I'm taking two classes just for Spanish, they're both extremely useful in helping me with my Spanish here. The one thing about learning a different language in your country of origin is that the oral portion of the language is left unchecked; back home in school teachers don't care how well you speak the language, it seems to be more about reading, writing, and listening. Fortunately I have two amazing classes in Spanish here with two awesome teachers, and the only way to pass the classes is to talk on a daily basis in Spanish. No problem for me there, talking is a God-given gift. I'm also taking a basic ecology class about the resources here in Ecuador. I more or less picked Ecuador as the country I wanted to go to in South America because I knew kids from my home school who came from Ecuador, and they told me the Spanish was easy and the school was amazing... plus Ecuador has possession of the Galapagos Islands and part of the Amazon rain forest, and because of my environmental studies major I thought, "Ecuador sounds perfect." Turns out this is only half of the story, though. This single ecology class has shown me so much about what this country has to offer. It is the most bio-diverse country in the whole world for a variety of reasons, you're more than welcome to look them up. Truth be told, I'm only taking this ecology class because it is an easy A and I need some ecology electives for my degree back home, but it definitely wasn't a bad choice looking back on it. I'm taking "History of Jazz" as a class here. It is taught in English by a cool professor and I have it first thing in the morning. This class only requires me to show up and then take a little nap while we listen to jazz and watch greats like Satchmo and Duke Ellington play their instruments like none others, but again, this class I am taking only for the basic requirement credits I still need back home.

Finally, what I would consider to be my most important class of them all right now... Foreign Policy. This is a class dedicated strictly to the participation in the National Model United Nations held every year in New York City. Thousands of kids attend every year, and at the collegiate level it is a pretty big deal. While most schools have a Model UN Club, the school here in Ecuador gives a full semester long class to the project, allowing us to delve into the foreign policy of whatever nation we have to portray at the Model itself. Now normally, I would have shrugged this class off and not given it a second thought... you mean I should dedicate a WHOLE class to the foreign policy of some small Eastern-European nation with a name I can't even pronounce, and then spend a wop-ton of money flying to- and staying in New York for ten days just to represent this country? Yeah right... under normal circumstances. This year, as it turns out, things are going to be a little different for the class from Ecuador. Our assigned nation is The United States. Of the hundreds of universities representing nations on every continent worldwide that will be present in New York, my school in the quaint city of Cumbaya got the bid for the United States. This is the first time in the history of the Model UN a South American school has ever been allowed to represent the United States of America in the conference, a.k.a a BIG freakin' deal! And as the only kid actually from the United States who will be representing the United States, it feels like there is a lot of weight on my shoulder to pull through in clutch time and make sure that while in New York I do my best to represent my country. Plus, if I do good, it will definitely be a nice resume-filler. So, I spend hours a week, in and out of class, studying America's foreign policy. It's pretty neat to actually finally dive into the diplomatic policy of our own nation. I'm able to relate news and different happenings worldwide to the policies of different American Statesmen; it kind of sheds a light on the country we live in, it's pretty darn cool. That's that, though. I can't wait to go to New York on April 2nd and participate, I hope everything goes smoothly, but we'll see.

I'm making a lot more Ecuadorian friends this semester, it seems like all of the new international kids only have the capacity for being friends with Americans, which is kind of sad. One quick piece of advice for anyone reading this who might ever study abroad... when you get abroad, meet people! So many kids come here through there school programs, and they love the school, and the food, and they enjoy getting accustomed to the culture and blah blah blah. But then Thursday night comes around (Most kids don't have classes on Friday), and all of these kids take the night bus out of the city to travel and go to the various hot spots Ecuador has to offer. Cool, it's wonderful to travel. But these kids do this EVERY weekend. Or if they stay in Quito, they spend their weekends in La Mariscal, the club district, going to the same exact clubs every city boasts back in the United States, just in a different language. What is wrong with this picture? I have wonderful American friends here, but honestly, what purpose does it serve to befriend Americans and then travel with them every weekend to a different city? The whole point of this trip is to meet and understand the people living here, not the people who hail from my origin country. The only way to do that is by going to things like family reunions and house parties and other occasions where people gather to have a good time. This is the culture, this is what foreigners need to learn. Of course, go ahead and explore the country a little, visit the mountains once, the jungle once, the beach a couple of times, sure... but if anybody wants to take an experience back to their home country with them, then they need to interact with the people of that country, period. So that's one of my pet-peeves I guess, American kids being typical American kids even when they're in a different country. Oh well.

So, that's pretty much life here right now, nothing too exciting. I'm preparing for one of my best friends from back home when he comes to visit in March, hopefully that will be exciting. Other than that, I'm just continuing on with my Ecuadorian life, going with the flow as always, putting X's on the calendar until my return on May 22nd. I'll try to write more often, but no guarantees. Chao!