SCHOOL

Well, I’ve completed my first two weeks of Ecuadorian high school…or “colegio” here. I don’t even know how to start explaining it, it’s so different! I suppose I’ll start with the fact that we wear uniforms. We have a formal one; plaid skirt, white shirt, navy sweater, navy knee socks (yeah... I know…), and black shoes. The other one we get to wear on the day we have gym, and Fridays. That one is sweat pants, a sweat shirt, a white t-shirt with the school logo on it, white socks (they also have the school logo) and white sneakers. The thing about uniforms is that it makes getting ready in the morning MUCH easier.

                                               Me in my uniform with Lucas (1 of 4 dogs)

My first day of school was something else. It seems like a year ago, but I’ll do my best to remember everything. Mami went in through the gates with me, (the school is surrounded by walls, has a huge gate and a guard at the front). The school is more like a campus with a bunch of little buildings. A lot of parents were there although… I think their children were significantly younger than me. OH WELL! Usman, Maddie (the American exchange student) and I all stood together with our mothers. All of a sudden a siren went off, it sounded like we were being raided or something! Nope, the school bell just sounds like that. Anyway, we followed everyone to the gym area which is outside and includes a basketball court, a small soccer field and track and permanent bleachers. We all had to line up according to grade, then class, then gender, then height facing the parents and staff who were sitting on the bleachers. Here, you don’t choose a list of courses you want to take, you choose one of three areas: chemistry, physics or social sciences and they give you classes based on which course you’re in. Usman and I found the sociales (social sciences) line and started meeting people left and right. Honestly, I didn’t even start remembering names until the second day. Here their greeting is half of the Quebec one. An “hola” and a kiss on the cheek. *Selina- here, somehow everyone knows which side to go to :-p. It took me a while to get used to being greeted like that by everyone every morning, but it’s actually really welcoming.

Alright, back to our lines! All four exchange students ended up at the back, we happen to be quite tall here. We had to stand straight with our feet apart and our hands behind our backs. The principal (who is very nice and speaks English amazingly well), made a welcome speech…of which I understood basically nothing. Then we had to put our right hands on our hearts and sing the national anthem. Haha! I spent the song moving my lips and glancing over at Usman and Sonja (the German exchange student) to see how they were doing. I’ve learned that exchange students click really fast, and we can kind of read each other’s minds seeing that we are usually thinking : “I have no clue what to do, but I’m trying anyway”. After the anthem, the principal called each exchange student up to the front. We stood there while she introduced us to the other students. I’m sure it was something along the lines of “these are the exchange students, don’t kill them”. Not really! ... I just didn’t understand what she was saying. We went back to our lines and got cheered and clapped for, I felt famous or something. When that was all over, Usman and I followed the 14 other students in our course to our classroom. The classroom part of the school is about 4 or 5 rows of single level buildings. Kind of like motels with just 4 or 5 rooms in each. To get from one room to another you have to go outside. Not that it matters much, we never change rooms or seats. The teachers are the ones who move around from class to class. Every time an adult walks into the room we stand up until they thank us and tell us to sit down.

Something really different: the notebooks here all have graph paper; it’s what they write on! I only have one book with plain lined paper and that’s for English class. I have 12 different classes:

Realidad nacional, Lengua y literatura, Ingles, Sociologia, Psycologia, Educacion ambiental, Historia del Ecuador, Problemas geopoliticos, Educacion física, matemáticas, Informatica y Civica. We have 8 classes and 2 breaks a day. During break, we talk, walk around, eat a little. The other day the guys got me to play soccer and basketball with them. Girls here aren’t really into playing sports.

Okay, back to the first day! We got to the classroom and both ended up sitting at the very front of the class. There are four rows of four chairs, a lot of windows, 16 lockers and a white board in the classroom. The reat of the day we played a lot of “getting to know you” games which was SUPER useful. The people in my class have known each other/ have been friends since pre-basica (kindergarten). They’re pretty much a big family. It’s a really fun and warm environment to be in. They all call me Kari here, not Carrie, you have to say it with a Spanish accent J.

For the first week, I would come home from school absolutely exhausted. I always change out of my uniform right away then go to have lunch between 2 and 2:30. After that, it’s kind of up in the air. I go for walks/ runs now!! Do my homework (which takes 10x’s longer in Spanish), run errands with Mami… One day our entire class went to Pizza Delight for lunch, another day we went to the mall.

       

I love these people!

    

My Spanish is coming along, today I wrote two essays, all in Spanish! Obviously I used a dictionary… but still! This week I registered my visa and got an Ecuador I.D. Now they can’t deport me! Yay!

All the exchange students in the Quito area are going to a rotary/ Spanish camp at the beach this week. That means… NO HOMEWORK!! I’m excited to meet all the other exchange students.

So far, I’ve been having a really amazing time. This is such a learning experience in so many ways! I’ve also been able to spend a lot of time reading my Bible and just strengthening my relationship with the Lord in general. I have such a great support team at home that I think I needed to be taken away from everything to really understand what it means to fully rely on God. Yes, it’s difficult, there are trials and challenges but it’s also kind of exciting because I never feel really alone, and that’s amazing.

Love from Ecuador!           

 

Team Canada doing our homework. You can't tell, but

a spanish/enlgish dictionary, word reference.com and a

verb chart were all in use. Mami thought it was very entertaining

 and took a picture.

Learning slowly

Two weeks! Sometimes it feels like I’ve been here forever and other times it’s like I just got here yesterday. David (my host brother) left for Germany on his exchange last Friday, which is when I met my host father for the first time! He didn’t stay long however, and since Andrea is away at University most of the day, usually it’s just me and Mami.

I feel like I want to say way too much to write in chronological order, so I’m going to go through a typical day and try to fit everything in that way.

Alright, so I wake up and I usually have to wait a few minutes to get over the dream I just had. I have no idea why, but my dreams here are MUCH more vivid and seem very real compared to the ones I had at home. Lately I’ve woken up terrified, completely depressed and furious. So I manage to pull myself out of bed all happy again and go to take a shower in the bathroom that happens to be in my bedroom! I get dressed and make my bed (yes mom, every day).

I always take a deep breath to put myself back into “Spanish mode” and then make my way out to the kitchen.

Like I said, breakfast always consists of fresh fruit. The yogurt here is very runny, so yogurt and milk are kind of interchangeable. I’ve often had my cereal with yogurt. This morning I had an apple and half a banana mixed with yogurt. Mami made strawberry milk (basically put milk and strawberries into a blender) and orange juice from the oranges we got at the market last night. Breakfast has to be big enough to tide you over to “la hora de la comida” which is never before 1:30 pm. After desayuno (breakfast) I either help Mami get lunch started or study Spanish and verb conjugations…. Which is less fun, but very necessary.

When they told me that Valle de los Chillos was small, it’s because they were comparing it to Quito. The valley is about the size of Moncton and from what I understand it also had three main parts: Conocoto, Sangolqui and San Rafael. I live just outside the San Rafael part…. I’m pretty sure… The view in the valley is gorgeous, you can see mountains in every direction. All the businesses and wealthier peoples’ homes are all closed in by huge walls, usually made of concrete or stone I suppose. A lot of the walls even have broken bottles and other forms of glass or wire sticking out on top. Usman’s host mom calls it cheap fencing. I’m thinking the glass and wire would add an exciting element to parkour (Jeff). Even though we’ve driven by my school several times, today was the first day I actually saw it due to the huge wall and gate enclosing it. Similarly to many of the stores here, there is a guard at the gate of my school.

Back to my day! After lunch I go out for a walk. I’m not allowed to go any farther than our street by myself and I have to take a call phone with me when I go. My dad put it this way: “You’re white and a girl”. I miss the freedom of Sackville, but I do enjoy my walks, no running yet! It is quite harder to breathe here, and being the asthma kid that I am, I have no chance…YET! Once I manage to make it up our street (I use “up” because of the HUGE steep hill) without needing to catch my breath I’ll try running. I was really serious when I wrote about the animals all over the streets. I’ve counted at least seven stray dogs (on our road), one of our neighbours has a pig in his front yard and yesterday I actually walked behind a chicken!

                                              Me at the bus stop at the bottom of our street.

                                                               A neighbour's house.

                                                  Three minute drive from my house.

Due to my still existing lack of Spanish skills I have done a lot of hopping in the car with no clue where I was going. My favorite word is probably “vamos” it’s kind of a synonym for adventure. Last Saturday Mami, Andrea and I went to La Basilica. It’s a huge gothic style church in Old Quito, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. We got to climb up to one tower and then to the bell tower. We used ladders and tiny stairs to get to the top. It was pretty much as scary as rock climbing (Patrick, Selina + Daniel). The church isn’t finished being built yet and Andrea told me it’s been under construction for over 100 years!

I think it was Monday that Mami, my aunt Ceci, a few of her friends and I went to see the German youth orchestra. They were performing at the German University in Quito and were very good. I had to keep reminding myself that I was in Ecuador, most of the people at the concert were German! That was also the first day I took a bus here in Ecuador! Let’s put it this way; I tried to take a picture, but the bus was gone before I could turn on the camera. You basically have to jump on to it and personal space isn’t really an option. The ride was fast, bumpy and hot… I kind of loved it! I’m not allowed to go on buses by myself either, but once I learn how they work, Mami said I’ll take the bus to Quito with my friends a lot.

I’ve been to Quito very often; it’s a really cool city! At red lights, people swarm the cars selling fruits, books, candies and other things. There are also performers who stand at the line and either juggle or do magic tricks. It’s all perfectly timed too, when the light turns green, everyone has cleared out of the way of the cars. Cool fact about Quito: from what I’ve understood, there are certain days that cars aren’t allowed to drive through the city because of the last number on their license plate. For example, the last number on our license plate is a 6, so we’re not supposed to drive through Quito on Wednesdays.

                                                     A fruit and vegetable shop.

I’m understanding much more than I did two weeks ago. I can have little conversations with people as long as they speak slowly. Although, I do love using the “hablo ingles” line when someone is trying to sell me something. Once again I want to thank everyone for your thoughts, prayers and support. All I can do is smile when Mami tells someone that I’m the only exchange student she’s had that hasn’t gotten sick because of the food or water. I do miss home, but this country is really starting to grow on me.

Ciao for now!