Bird Study #2
One of the Main Squares on Old Quito
So because we won the pub quiz last week, we got a discounted meal at this local Vietnamese restaurant run by an Ecuadorian who lived in Louisiana for 10 years. Appetizers: 4 dollars, Entree: 8 dollars, 3 Drinks: 4 dollars, Total cost: 16 dollars, Living in a less developed county: a little cheaper
Bird Study #3
One Saturday later I am here with a status update. Still in Quito, and I have done nothing extremely exciting since last week, but who am I kidding; everyday here is exciting in its own way. I finished my third week of Spanish classes this past Thursday, and now I can carry on basic conversations with people to get the things I need. My basic routine was this: get up about 6:00, take a shower, eat breakfast with the rest of the family and Stewart, and then study till about 8:30 where I would walk down and grab the morning bus in from old town to the area where my classes are (about a 15 minute bus ride, 40 minute walk). Spanish classes would last from about 9:00 to 1:00 and then after 1:00 I would walk down to La Mariscal and catch a cheap lunch or almuerzo for about 1.50 somewhere at one of the countless lunchtime ¨restaurants¨ that that offer this service. I say the word restaurant hesitantly because most of these places are more akin to someone’s garage than what we would think of as a restaurant in the states. There will be a table, some plastic chairs around this table, and if you are lucky a plastic table cloth. There is no menu, but often a choice for beef or chicken for the main course(pollo o carne for the less knowledgable). The one dollar meal will consist of a thin soup (often with recognizable chicken body parts see earlier blog), followed by a main dish of meat, rice, and some kind of green. Juice and a desert accompany this setup. I say all of this only to reinforce that this will be pretty much exactly the same everywhere you go in Quito for one of your meals. If you want to eat other fare for lunch or dinner, there are plenty of options, but expect to pay 3 to 4 times more (4-5 dollars) for a nice meal, and 10-11 for a really, really nice (i.e. Bottega) meal.
After lunch I´d find a cafe somewhere and work on the computer for an hour or two, study for 2 or so, and go home for dinner (which I have with my family and Stewart every night).
So Stewart and I got booted from the Marine mansion last week in the middle of the Florida game, because apparently the guy who we were a guest of wasn’t allowed to have guests (got busted with his girlfriend last month). They just got a new sonofabitch CO that lives in the house and likes to enforce rules. But before I go on I have to tell you a little bit about this house. The house was built in the 1970s, BUT somewhere along the lines one of the Marines requisitioned 50 grand a year to pay for ¨house expenses¨ in addition to their own salaries, and a cook, maid, and Ecuadorian security guard (for 6 people). So they have a huge green backyard, the first one I’ve seen since I’ve been here, barbeque pit, and gym. They have a huge movie theater room, with stadium seating and plush red leather sofas as seats, and through the armed services they get new movies on DVD within two weeks of coming out in movie theaters in the states. They have a giant pool room, fully stocked-aged oak bar, dance floor, library/reading room, and industrial kitchen. I guarantee you they will never be stationed somewhere so nice for the rest of their lives.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I want to talk about shopping here. In Alabama I am used to having to go to a store just for what I need; if I need office supplies I go to the office supply store, if I need clothes i go to the one big clothes store, etc... Here there a very few chains and no large stores; there are not even areas just for shopping (bad zoning) just lots, tons, of tiny shops selling everything from motorcycles and washing machines, to just socks and beer. So finding exactly what you need can be kind of a hassle. You have to plan what you need probably a week in advance and keep this in the back of your mind the whole week while you walk past shops on you way to work, and then hope that you find what you need eventually. It is definitely a different way to doing business than I am used to.
After Stewart and I got kicked out of the Marine’s mansion last week we were stuck trying to find a spot to watch the Auburn game that came on later that night. (In hindsight I wish I had not spent so much time trying to watch a game that killed our chances of SEC championship) So we went to the fastest connection in town, this coffee shop in la mariscal, hooked up Stewart’s computer, and watched the game off of a technology known as sling box. One of Stewart’s friend’s has a machine hooked up to his cable television at home, and through a special program over the internet we were able to watch his cable television on a laptop computer in a small coffee shop with wireless internet in the middle of Quito, Ecuador. For three and a half hours we stared at the small screen, trying hard not to cheer too loudly in what I would describe as the worst atmosphere to watch the game. (Small quiet sophisticated chic coffee shop). In a strange series of events, the coffee shop was actually owned by a graduate of Ole Miss.
1.) The 25 cent bus that I take everyday gets absolutely packed, as do all the busses here during rush hour. The north to south layout of the city affords for some fantastic bottlenecking with traffic in a city that doesn’t quite have an integrated traffic net system. So yesterday afternoon I finally find a lamp that I need for my room (see point above on stores). And buy it only to realize as I walked out of the store that it was 4:00 pm on a Friday afternoon, and I had no way to get home sans bus. Nonetheless I persevered and rammed myself into the sea of people already on the bus as the doors opened. The trick is that you have to do this right before the doors close so that as the doors close behind you, they push you into the crowd without effort and there is nothing the people can do to stop you. Sitting there on the bus I am trying to make out the broken Spanish over the intercom as it calls out the stops. I manage to catch that my stop is out of order and the bus is going to go on past it (which would have been a 20 minute walk). I realize all this as the better previous stop is closing. I rush out through the doors as they close, but do not make it in time. As the doors come to a complete close, I have one foot, one arm, and a lamp outside the bus while the rest of my body remains inside the bus. The bus drivers starts out of the station while I try to hold onto my lamp that is hitting the street signs along the way outside of the bus. Eventually with the help of the people around me yelling puerta (door in spanish), I get the guy to stop and hop out unharmed except for a scratched lamp.
Till next week...
Merrill
After lunch I´d find a cafe somewhere and work on the computer for an hour or two, study for 2 or so, and go home for dinner (which I have with my family and Stewart every night).
So Stewart and I got booted from the Marine mansion last week in the middle of the Florida game, because apparently the guy who we were a guest of wasn’t allowed to have guests (got busted with his girlfriend last month). They just got a new sonofabitch CO that lives in the house and likes to enforce rules. But before I go on I have to tell you a little bit about this house. The house was built in the 1970s, BUT somewhere along the lines one of the Marines requisitioned 50 grand a year to pay for ¨house expenses¨ in addition to their own salaries, and a cook, maid, and Ecuadorian security guard (for 6 people). So they have a huge green backyard, the first one I’ve seen since I’ve been here, barbeque pit, and gym. They have a huge movie theater room, with stadium seating and plush red leather sofas as seats, and through the armed services they get new movies on DVD within two weeks of coming out in movie theaters in the states. They have a giant pool room, fully stocked-aged oak bar, dance floor, library/reading room, and industrial kitchen. I guarantee you they will never be stationed somewhere so nice for the rest of their lives.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I want to talk about shopping here. In Alabama I am used to having to go to a store just for what I need; if I need office supplies I go to the office supply store, if I need clothes i go to the one big clothes store, etc... Here there a very few chains and no large stores; there are not even areas just for shopping (bad zoning) just lots, tons, of tiny shops selling everything from motorcycles and washing machines, to just socks and beer. So finding exactly what you need can be kind of a hassle. You have to plan what you need probably a week in advance and keep this in the back of your mind the whole week while you walk past shops on you way to work, and then hope that you find what you need eventually. It is definitely a different way to doing business than I am used to.
After Stewart and I got kicked out of the Marine’s mansion last week we were stuck trying to find a spot to watch the Auburn game that came on later that night. (In hindsight I wish I had not spent so much time trying to watch a game that killed our chances of SEC championship) So we went to the fastest connection in town, this coffee shop in la mariscal, hooked up Stewart’s computer, and watched the game off of a technology known as sling box. One of Stewart’s friend’s has a machine hooked up to his cable television at home, and through a special program over the internet we were able to watch his cable television on a laptop computer in a small coffee shop with wireless internet in the middle of Quito, Ecuador. For three and a half hours we stared at the small screen, trying hard not to cheer too loudly in what I would describe as the worst atmosphere to watch the game. (Small quiet sophisticated chic coffee shop). In a strange series of events, the coffee shop was actually owned by a graduate of Ole Miss.
1.) The 25 cent bus that I take everyday gets absolutely packed, as do all the busses here during rush hour. The north to south layout of the city affords for some fantastic bottlenecking with traffic in a city that doesn’t quite have an integrated traffic net system. So yesterday afternoon I finally find a lamp that I need for my room (see point above on stores). And buy it only to realize as I walked out of the store that it was 4:00 pm on a Friday afternoon, and I had no way to get home sans bus. Nonetheless I persevered and rammed myself into the sea of people already on the bus as the doors opened. The trick is that you have to do this right before the doors close so that as the doors close behind you, they push you into the crowd without effort and there is nothing the people can do to stop you. Sitting there on the bus I am trying to make out the broken Spanish over the intercom as it calls out the stops. I manage to catch that my stop is out of order and the bus is going to go on past it (which would have been a 20 minute walk). I realize all this as the better previous stop is closing. I rush out through the doors as they close, but do not make it in time. As the doors come to a complete close, I have one foot, one arm, and a lamp outside the bus while the rest of my body remains inside the bus. The bus drivers starts out of the station while I try to hold onto my lamp that is hitting the street signs along the way outside of the bus. Eventually with the help of the people around me yelling puerta (door in spanish), I get the guy to stop and hop out unharmed except for a scratched lamp.
Till next week...
Merrill
2 comments:
Wow... I wanted to comment on the last post, but I read it on my cellphone, and I can't hit the comment button.
This post, like the last, is chock-full of humorous interesting goodness sure to go in your biography some day when you are super-famous (or infamous)
I laughed, I cried, I.. OK, I just laughed. But I did that a lot.
Keep on keeping us posted; your blod is better than most reality TV shows.
The Marines needed to hire a guard...
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