Lifestyle

My mother is currently the Vice-Mayor of the city of Machala. My dad was a Congressman in Ecuador, and now he owns a radio station (he´s on from 8-10 weekday mornings, and my brother Fernando also speaks on it), a banana plantation, and a owns a fair share of the buildings in Machala. Most everybody in the city of Machala knows the family. Our house is fenced in with the house of my brothers (each brother has a floor for his family). The house has a swimming pool, a small soccer/basketball court, an exercise room, and an entertainment room (pool tables, stereo, ping-pong table). Each adult has a car (my father has two). So you might be able to tell that this family is well off. There is a downside to this: my parents work long days. My mother wakes up with me and sets me off to school. I sometimes see her after school when she comes home to eat lunch, but then she takes off again. I don´t see her then usually until 9 (unless I´m downtown for some meeting then walk to the Municipio, the city hall, so she can take me home - still usually between 8:30-9). I don´t usually see my father until 10 at night (unless I go to his office during the day). They do try to compensate for this during the weekends by staying home. Most of the family then comes over and we eat together and spend time together. I actually haven´t been home for a Saturday night yet: I was in Guayaquil my first Saturday night when I arrived, I went to Santa Rosa, I went to Pasaje with the Morochos, and then I had the Rotary camp. I do plan on sleeping in my bed this Saturday night and partaking in all the family activities.



Around the house there are so many helpers:



Wacho (real name is Washington, but this is how they say it as a nickname) - the driver for my mother who also works at the Municipio. He somtimes drives me around, too, if I need to go somewhere. He also picks up food that we´d like or any supplies (he bought and brought me a blue tie to school my first Monday). He also has a little farm where he grows "mandarinas" - large clementines the size of my two fists together. He brings them to my house because I love them.



Araceli - The nanny for me (previously for Francisco). She first came when Francisco broke his leg, then she stayed to help. She does the laundry and cleans up around my room and the house. She stays to make me some dinner (usually just a small meal because lunch is the big meal) and to give me some company. She is around usually from 3-8 or until I leave (sometimes she accompanies me via taxi).



Gladys - The cook who makes us lunch during the week. She prepares a soup and meal for Mamá, brothers Fernando and Andrés, sister Paola, and me. She´s home when I get home from school at 2 and stays until 3 or 4.



Miguel - The gardener for the house. He takes care of all the plants and maintenance of the house.



Juan - A nice, old security guard who comes at night to guard the house. He also feeds the dogs the leftovers from lunch. Once I was exercising and glanced out the window and saw don Juan peeking in the window. I spit out some comment about how I haven´t exercised in a while, and I continued with my exercise. Next time I looked he was gone. That was a little awkward, but he´s really nice anyways.



María - A babysitter for my nephew Paolo (son of Andrés and Paola). She is usually around a lot and watches, plays, cares for Paolo.



Yolanda - A lady who comes, reads the piles of newspapers, and cuts out certain articles for my mamá.



Señor de la Piscina - I just found out about him today. He cares for the pool. Araceli doesn´t know his name either, just Señor de la Piscina.





I think that does it, but I´m not sure because I keep learning about new helpers.

Spelling Bee

Two weeks ago some younger students (2 groups) in my school were preparing for a Spelling Bee. They would compete with other students in their level, first against students in Santa María then against students from the other schools. Julie, an exchange student from Denmark, and I got roped in to helping out the teachers. I thought "helping out" meant that we´d be with a couple students reviewing a list of words that they knew. It turned out that the teachers just gave us 15 kids each and a room. I´m not even sure what kids were left for them to teach. A couple of times we got kicked out of our classroom because another teacher had it, so we just shuffled around the school and found other classrooms.



They did give us a list of words, a different one for each group. I ended up taking the older group (with more difficult words). We asked the teachers if we needed to do something in particular, but they just said that we can do whatever we need to do and take breaks whenever. When we did take breaks, I´m not even sure if all of them came back because there were so many students. The teachers asked that we work with the students from the start at around 7:15 to 12! I got really good at using "you (plural)" commands. It was so long, but we did this anyway Thursday, Friday, and Monday. We did take ample breaks because it was so dang long. Sometimes I just sat back and talked to the students about Ecuador (like the nice beaches and citys). A classmate and Lara, another exchange student from Germany, came and visited (They told me our class was doing nothing - big surprise) when we were talking and said that I was a bad teacher, but I told them that I wasn´t the teacher and had no obligation because they weren´t paying me. Sometimes the students called me "Teacher," and I said "Who?" because I´m not the teacher. They snuck snacks (prohibited in class) in at first then I told them that I don´t care. We did review most of the words.



The words were crazy hard! I asked the students if they had ever seen this list of words before, and they said that they hadn´t, so that was even better (sarcasm), starting fresh. Some words were juggernaught, gourmet, quiche, and courier - crazy - amounting to 1,289 words. Since they didn´t know the words, I just let them glance at their list if they needed to. They had enough trouble with their letters.

On the last day, the teacher did buy Julie and me a hamburger and coke so that was nice. I don´t think any of them won against the other school because I haven´t heard anything, and from those that I did see, they said they didn´t win.

Colegio

My high school is supposedly the "nice" school in town where the wealthy people send their children. I´m not sure if they are getting the best education for their money, but at least their students enjoy the school. Class "starts" at 7:10 a.m. and that just means that most of us are in the classroom. We have four classes each day, but they change every day. Most of the classes are 90 minutes long. This is my schedule:

Monday: Physics, English, Math, Bioanatomy
Tuesday: Math, Physics, Chemistry, Accounting
Wednesday: Technical Drawing, English, Literature, Chrisitan Formation
Thursday: English, Chemistry, History & Geography, Math
Friday: Literature (45 min.), Bioanatomy (45 min.), Investigation, English, Physical Culture (like P.E.)

My first week I started on Tuesday, and we did barely anything. Wednesday was a day of "sports," where each class had a "Madrina," and there was a competition between them. My cousin, Caroya, was the one for her class, and she was dressed up. I don´t know what it was judging, but our "Madrina," Sole, got second place. We stood outside and watched cheerleaders, a police dog jumping over 4 feet high hurdles and hopping around on two feet carrying a flag of Ecuador in it´s mouth, and a presentation of the best sports players from each class. Some other classes started playing fútbol and tennis, and our class just watched and talked to each other. We did no work that day either...AND we didn´t even have school Thursday and Friday.

We wear uniforms. Monday we wear a beige shirt, blue tie, blue blazer, blue dress pants, blue socks, black dress shoes. Tuesday through Thursday males wear jeans, blue socks, black tennis shoes, Santa María jacket, and Santa María polo; females wear Santa María skirt, blue socks, black shoes, Santa María jacket, and Santa María polo. Friday we wear Santa María gym shorts (with built in underwear might I add), Santa María gym pants, Santa María t-shirt, and Santa María jacket.

The man in charge of discipline is called "Teacher Juanchila" (all the teachers are called "teacher" here). He checks our fingernails, electronics, hair, attire, and grades. He is an odd man who uses only a wrist-grab handshake. Today was funny because Lara, another exchange student, and I saw him halfway-hiding behind a corner of the wall, extending his cell phone about 2 feet from his body. It looked like he was taking a picture, but I think he was texting. When he noticed that we saw him he ducked completely behind the corner.

I already mentioned this but every day we get 2 recesses! The first is for 20 minutes and the second is for 15 minutes. During this time, we´re free to go outside, mingle, or buy a snack from the food bar. They sell sandwhiches, burgers, a plate of food (rice and a meat usually), drinks, and candy. Also, at the end of the day, we have 10 minutes where the teacher advisor for our class tells us info that we need to know (like announcements, news, etc.).

Sometimes the teacher doesn´t show up, then we have a "free hour" where we do anything we want, with the exception of leaving the campus. Sometimes we play basketball, walk around, or just sit, talk, and listen to music when this happens. I think I asked maybe four different people what was going on the first time this happened because I could´t believe it. Now it´s just old hat. This morning we had technical drawing so we went to the computer lab. When we got there, we found out that the "AutoCAD" program wasn´t yet installed, so we just spent the hour surfing the web (I spent my time looking up information Bob Dylan and the US Open). That was great. Oh, and our teacher didn´t show up today for Christian formation.

We get homework every once in a while. We´ve had to do some research and answer questions. With the assignments I just jot down the answer in my notebook, but I´ve noticed that the other students put more work into it. They type their work, color the pages, add pictures, and sometimes put it in a plastic folder! This is surprising to me, but maybe it accounts for the lack of work we do in class.

Two weeks ago our class spent the majority of the classes preparing for the English Fesitval last week. They practiced dancing to a mix of songs: the first cut was the rap song Low, Hot N Cold by Kate Perry, and Mambo Number 5. That was a little too much so they ended up just using Low and Mambo Number 5. This is them http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wELVt2b4vg. Keep in mind that took up precious class time. I was gone last week at a Rotary camp, Tuesday to Sunday, so I missed the performance. I hear we didn´t do any work either because of the English Festival. Hooray.

Driving

So driving is pretty much crazy. Here, driving is on the right side and everthing is in kilometers. My first experience of the driving was driving with my padre, José; madre, Patricia; sister, Patricia María; and cousins, Paulina and Sebastian to a house in Guayaquil from the airport. We took off in the blue SUV like we were trying to reach lightspeed in the Millenium Falcon. I was pretty swept from the flights, but I was still clutching on to my seat a little. We got to the house then left again to eat at a nearby restaurant. This time Mamá drove. A little more relaxed but still less structured than in the U.S. We were passing cars, pulling u-turns, and crossing/blocking traffic some.

The next day we left for Machala, so we had some highway driving (with Papá). Now these highways could maybe pass as a 3-lane highway but (sometimes) there´s only one line in the middle to separate the direction of traffic. Despite this line being there, we still were on the left side of the road maybe 30% of the trip, passing slower cars. I´m pretty sure my eyes were as big as half-dollars (used quite often here in Ecuador) a couple of times when we went to pass a car and there was oncoming traffic (fairly close). Fortunately, we made it home safely (and I didn´t have any cardiac problems).

In the city, I am mainly driving with Wacho, the driver for my madre who also works at the Municipio (city government building). When he drives, he goes pretty fast. On a road that is maybe for 30 mph, he´s going like 50. I asked if the police pull people over for speeding, and he said that they don´t do that too much.

One caveat to this speed driving is that speedbumps are commonplace. When one of these comes up, we slow down to maybe 5 mph to cross it then kick it back into high gear.

In the downtown area, cars are everywhere, as well as bicycles, tricycles (the back end of a bike with a front end of two wheels and a large basket to carry food and goods to sell), and especially motorcycles. Even in these tight quarters we pass cars, sometimes barely making it back into our lane before an oncoming car comes, and pull u-turns.

Pedestrians aren´t allowed to cross the road on a red light (they can be fined $10) because there have been so many accidents. When I´m walking, my Ecuadorian companion (Johnny, Araceli, Mamá) usually stops me from walking in the street. I then follow their lead, sometimes running across. Kind of like Frogger. The streetlights are also a little different. The colors are still green, yellow, and red, but there are times when the green and yellow are lit at the same time and when the yellow and red are lit at the same time. I have not yet seen a green and red lit, nor a green, yellow, and red lit, but I´m keeping my eyes peeled for them.

I´ve driven also with Johny Morocho quite a bit. On our journeys to Pasaje, we encounter several roundabouts. These are all throughout Machala and some have stoplights. Sometimes it´s really difficult to see the streetlights because of how far back the lights are positioned.

With everyone, I think it´s mandatory to use the horn at least 5 times per ride. Once I was sitting in Mamá´s office downtown and there wasn´t 10 seconds without a honk. Unlike the U.S., the horn isn´t to send evil vibes to others, but more of an announcement. They usually give a tap or two if they pass someone or see a vehicle/mode of transportation entering traffic. It is also prevalent for the driver to give a couple honks to some friends on the road (this happens a ton with driving in Pasaje with Johny).

First Day of School - Tuesday, August 25

So I was planning on waking up at the early time of 5:45 to get ready for my school (Unidad Educativa Santa María), which starts at 7:10. I ride with Uncle Fernando and my cousin Caroya (real name - María Dolores), and they leave at 6:30 for school. I happened to fall back asleep after my alarm went off and woke up to my madre saying "Buenos días" at 6:22. I rushed through a shower, brushed my teeth, and dressed. I ran downstairs and grabbed a sandwich Mamá made me (two pieces of bread with cheese and a slice of ham, toasted, is a common food here). I chugged a chocolate milk (not completely mixed) and she ran upstairs and grabbed a jacket for me (it was kind of cold and rainy). I have a jacket for Santa María (part of the uniform) but she grabbed my black one - I didn´t get into trouble for having it instead. During this whole ordeal, Tío Fernando is honking the horn. What a hecktic morning. I ran out of the front gate, hopped in the cab of his truck (I sit in the back seat because Caroya sits up front), and off we went. Now, because of this first morning, my family all checks on me and asks me if I got up on time (every other day I HAVE).

After a 15 minute drive through town, Caroya and I got to school. She showed me the campus. It´s a reeaallly small school (I am comparing it to JCHS) and has maybe 30 classrooms.

I met Caroya´s cousin, my second cousin, Tita. Luckily, they helped me find a principal, and then he showed me to my class. There were 2 other foreign exchange students in my class (Julia from Denmark and Lara from Germany - both in Rotary), but now there are 4 other exchange students (another Lara from Germany - with Rotary and Soli from Germany)!

School was completely crazy. First was math with some satanic, devil-worshipping (thank you Mr. Hermann) signs - matrices. I don´t mean to toot my own horn, but when it comes to math, let´s just say I´ve got a full box of crayons. Well in this math class, I couldn´t figure out a single thing they were doing. They were doing a complicated way to find a system of equations. The students are friendly and helpful if I don´t understand something. They asked me a lot about the U.S. and things there. They like to joke a TON, telling me different "joke" names for people. I acted skeptical and got the truth out of them in the end. They do all (nearly all) have nicknames so I had to learn at least 2 names for everyone. The teachers talked and cycled through (we have 4 classes each day, but the classes change everyday). The students talk a lot so it´s pretty fun and borderline getting-in-trouble. The classes seemed so complicated because they´re in Spanish, and Joffre told me that they take notes when the teachers speak! I guess that´s like the U.S., so we´ll see what happens. We had homework in Physics (already!). Apart from that, we did absolutely nothing (except talk) in all classes because the students took exams the week before and the teachers were grading them. We do have "Recreo" twice a day, every day, where we go outside and can buy food, play sports (basketball that morning), or just talk.

This day some teachers took all of us into another classroom and handed us some song sheets. On the song sheets were Catholic songs and prayers. We listened to a tape then we all had to sing along. It was especially funny because I had no idea what was going on, but I still sang out. The other students said that they don´t do that very often. At the end of the day, we all lined up in the central area outside. Someone was talking over the speakers (barely audible) and we lifted our hands every once in a while. I still don´t know what that was all about. We were then dismissed, and I went home with Caroya and Tío Fernando.

Santa Rosa!

So my mother and I went to my sister's house (Patricia Maria) Saturday afternoon. I met a second cousin Carolina and I played some Star Wars Battlefront with Sebastian. We ate some delicious cheesey mashed potatoes, salad, hot dogs filled with cheese, and a kind of gelatinous pineapple cake. I ran out with Cesar (uncle) who took me to the house of Meche (a girl from my class). There were about 13 other classmates with us, and we loaded up on a little bus and took off for Santa Rosa!

We got to the town - everyone calls it a tiny pueblo (bigger in size but not in population than Machala) - and went to Demi's house. We walked around the town because nothing had started yet, and we got some ice cream (like a popsicle) - I got peach that had real peach chunks in it! We hopped in the bed of Demi's dad's truck and headed across town to eat. I had some carne de res, menestra (a soupy bean mixture), rice, choclo, maduros (a type of banana), and sugar cane. We went back to Demi's house and killed some time - subtly everyone got prepared for the night (some showering and soaking up in cologne and changing shirts) but I wasn't really aware of this ritual so I just hung around.

We went out to the streets, heading to the concert, and they were packed with vendors and people. Around the stage was a fence with limited seating. Somehow Demi's dad got us in (we had to squeeze through like 50 people all pushing against the fence to get in), and got us some chairs (not enough for all of us). I think my mom threatened my classmates so that they'd watch out for me because the whole night they were saying "Where's Logan" and "Logan hold on to us"and such. Since there were only like 6 seats, the boys just sat on the ground, waiting for the concert. Demi's dad was getting us some more chairs, but some workers wanted us (who didn't have chairs) to move, despite our explanation that we had chairs coming. Eventually the police came over and escorted us to the side of the fence (I was just laughing through all this - not aloud of course). Demi's dad finally came and handed us some chairs over the fence. We put the seats pretty close and near the edge of the stage (about 5 feet from it). First came on was a singer doing covers of Spanish songs - I think they just pulled him off the street to waste some time. Then came on a band, and were just what you'd expect from a teenage band - the singer kept on holding the mic out to the crowd as if they were going to sing. Then Makano, the main act, came on. The music was reggaeton and some of his songs were pretty catchy. We were moving to the beat, and everyone was singing the first song "Te Amo" with him. There were fireworks on the stage and people were trying to reach up to touch him. There was a little girl on someone's shoulders and she was holding some money in her hand. Makano took it and passed the exchange off casually as a little handshake. Later he pulled the girl on the stage, and she sang a little bit. We tried to leave early but, unfortunately, got stuck; fortunately the last song was "Te Amo" again and there was a crazy girl who ran on stage and clasped Makano. We left, being crushed again and carrying our chairs out. We kind of made a "congo line" to get out of there together.

We went back to Demi's house and just chilled for a little bit (the others prepared themselves again). They set up a stereo on the terrace, and we all headed up there (this was about at 1 am). They brought up some chips, juice, beer, and pina coladas. Don't worry, Mom, I didn't drink, but man, did the other boys. The other boys usually drink and smoke - neither of which appeal to Pedro and me - so I hung with Pedro. We danced, and they taught me some dances! I learned the Salsa and the Bachata. It was pretty funny by the end (around 4 am) when they were pretty "soaped." One classmate kept on talking to me about the Bachata, repeating the four steps. He also kept on saying "Wolverine" when around me. Another kept doing Michael Jackson moves. We got ready for bed (eventually - we had to care for the boys). One guy was pretty funny because he got really serious (usually he's just does whatever), telling us to be quiet and get to sleep and monitoring us. It was also funny because they sometimes spoke to me in their English. We finally went to sleep (or at least I did).

We woke up and ate some ceviche (supposed to alleviate hangovers I've heard) with tostados (little corn kernals), popcorn, and limes. We got ready and hopped in the truck bed. We headed to a bull fight, but it didn't start until 2 pm, so we went to watch a motorcross. We watched a little, talked, and ate. I tried some pastel de pollo (a croissant with a little bit of chicken, onions, lime juice, and mayonnaise), which was pretty good. They called it their "McDonald's." We left back to the house then went out walking. We went to a grocery store (my first one in South America!) and it was crazy because every single brand was completely different. They also had a ton of fruit and some I didn't know. They made some tacos and we ate. We headed back on the bus, and I got a taxi home.

Fiesta/Festival

We arrived in Machala and went to our house (address is Malecón 909 in Puerto Bolivar - a section of Machala). I learned from Sandra that not all houses have numbers; they usually write what intersection the house is near and then describe what house it is. We entered the gate in the car (it opens with a clicker) and walked around to the side of the house where the family was preparing for the 2nd birthday of José Martín (they call him Panda). Almost everyone here has nicknames (sobrenombres) so it´s even more difficult to memorize because they have 2 names - and the names are said differently or just a different name than those in the U.S. I met two of my brothers (Fernando and José Andrés), the wife of Andrés (Paola), and my uncle (Fernando) in the house of Tío Fernando (the uncle). They coerced me to play guitar (on their classical guitar with nylon strings) for them, but since I don´t have many songs memorized, I only played for a little bit. I played and sang a little of "Green Eyes" (by good ol´ Coldplay) and Andrés and Paola recognized it. Then my sister, Patricia María, gave me a tour of the grounds. She showed me the pool, the little court (with basketball hoops and fútbol goals), the exercising room, the activity room (with pool tale, ping-pong table, stereo, organ, and TV), and the house of Patricia and José. She also showed me the terrace where you can see the ocean (about 50 feet from my house) and the neighborhood. We ate some cake (chocolate mint) and strawberry soda and sang "happy birthday."

Yesterday morning (Friday) I woke up and ate some cereal and yogurt. I was going to work out, but my mom called me and told me that there is a festival going on down the street. I changed clothes and headed out of the gates. Many people were congregating around the stage (with steroes and some posters) and the many booths. I saw Wacho (the driver for my mom) and went over to talk with him. My mom was sitting under a little tent in front of the stage with some other women. I went over with Wacho to meet them, and then Wacho and I walked around looking at the booths. He took me out on a pier where there is a museum of preserved sea creatures (like eels, fish, whale bones, seahorses, etc.). We went back to the tent with my mom and sat and watched some of the shows (one of them was a skit with clowns about hiring young people). The cultural festival was promoting the youth and their rights (or something like that). There were clowns on stilts, vendors on tricycles (homemade so that there are 2 wheels in the front with a cart where people ride or where they have their good that they sell), and mimes. One of my friends (Angie from the Rotary club) was there with her school, and I went with her and her sister, Támara, to walk around. Támara bought some "mango verde con sal" which was mango (green) with some lime juice and salt. It was really tart and bitter but wasn´t very bad. They left with their school and I stayed till the end of the festival, watching bands, singers (one of them sang Selena!), and dancers. One group danced to part of "Thriller." When it started playing, I looked around kind of nodding my head because it was music in English.

I did get a little sunburnt even though it´s in the rainy/cloudy season in Ecuador.

This morning my dad made some kind of soup with a lot of tabasco, a little whiskey, and oysters (I think there was more ingredients but I don´t know them). A friend of his named Fultón (that´s how they say it) came over and brought bread and ate with us. He likes it a lot, but me, not so much. We also ate some chifles (that Miguel, the gardener, bought from down the street), peach juice (so delicious), and watermelon. While we were eating, we heard music from across the street. It was a caravan of boats celebrating the "Virgen María." We ran outside and watched as they passed near the shore. There were like 20 boats filled with people and balloons and playing music. My family told me that the "Virgen" was on the big boat in front with the music. I didn´t have my camera the first time, but I was eating an egg tortilla with shrimp when I heard them again. I sprinted upstairs, grabbed my camera, and continued on up to the terrace to take some pictures.

Later today I´m going to a fiesta in a small town of Santa Rosa with people from my class!