Saludos de Quito! I arrived yesterday in the afternoon, and was kindly met by my Rotary contact and his daughter, who have been very accomodating and friendly. It's kind of weird being back- I feel like I recognize the city, but I'm confusing street names with Chilean ones, and all of my contacts are gone. I'm staying in a hostel for a month, and it's pretty much the same as I remember it being the last time I was here too. People are friendly, and it seems like it'll be a great place to meet some new friends.
Today, I invited myself on a trip to the market with some French girls and I bought some potatoes and a pineapple ($.50 for the piña!). Afterwards, I went to the mall and bought a cell phone. In the taxi on the way to the mall, the driver offered to sell me his cell phone, which he said was "only a little bit stolen", and said that on top of that, he could offer me a great price to un-block it! I politely declined his offer.
I think it's pretty obvious that I'm a foreigner here, but I've been mistaken for chilena a lot, which I suppose is pretty cool. Most people notice that I speak Spanish differently, and I think I've been using some Chilean phrases that I learned along the way, without ever knowing that they were uniquely Chilean. Still, I'd rather be mistaken for Chilean than for American, so I have yet to correct anyone. (That is, I let taxi drivers and supermarket personnel make those assumptions- I'm upfront with foreigners in the hostel.) I have a lot of Ecuadorian words to learn, and small changes to make. For example, strawberries in Chile are frutillas, but here they're fresas. A bag (for aforementioned strawberries) is a bolsa in Chile, but here's it's a fonda. These aren't new words for me, I just have to get used to them and start to use them myself.
Tomorrow I think I'm going to head down to the University and see what I can do to formalzie myself there. Classes start on the 4th, so I have a bit of free time. I'm sure things will come together.
Hope everyone at home is doing well. Salud!
it's only fitting that the lone wolf would be first to comment. the "it's only slightly stolen" reminded me of "he's only mostly dead."
ReplyDeletewhen i come to visit, i'm guessing everyone will be confused as to how your twin sister can be a gringa, if you're chilena. you better start figuring out a plan for that.
So glad you are safe and beginning to get re-acclimatized to your new home city. In some ways, it must be strange to be back and have it seem familiar, yet not. I am sure you will soon feel like it is home again.
ReplyDeleteLife here is good. Spent weekend with friends eating great food (wonderful portobello mushroom sandwich yesterday and Blind Onion veg pizza) and catching up with each others' lives. Busy week ahead, but time with friends as well. (Dinner with P+B after Challenge meeting, interview dinner, b'day dinner with Deawn...Lots of eating it seems like!)
May your week be filled with new friends and good food as well.
Awesome!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you're having such a good time, and we want you blogging as often as possible - it's great to hear from you. ;)
Enjoy Equador.
We are all pleased to see the re-starting of "Michelle in S. America" blog. I was getting a little bit nervous when you didn't discuss the food you have been eating, but at least the highlighted difference in nouns mentioned at least one food item - phew! :-)
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to future posts of course.