(Written 7/29/13)

Well. Am I in for an interesting next 6 weeks. I came here with no expectations because I knew it would be nothing like I imagined.

Today was my first day of work and when I arrived at the volunteer lodge was, "oh, this is just like summer camp". I'm currently on the top bunk in a small hut with a few bedrooms, a dining room and a kitchen. We wait in lines to use the 3 bathrooms and shower quickly because there is a long line. Flashback to Camp Friendship, seriously.

Luckily, my first day of work started easier because there is currently a group of 20 high school kids here and they have a set program. Today was their last day working so the second half of the day was spent at the beach. It was a nice way to ease into the work week, but it's clear I'm in for some serious manual labor. Today we did farming and cleared the area of leaves and tree stumps so they could farm on the land. Oh well, I hope I come out of this nice and strong. Side note: the group of kids was the same group from Saturday that sounded like sea lions. I didn't bring it up that I recognized them because I didn't want them to remember how hard I laughed. Oh, but they remembered me. One goes, "Hey! You were the one who couldn't stop laughing because we sounded like sea lions!" Lol oops, and yes, that was me.

There is only one other volunteer here who will be here for only a week. Once the high school group leaves it will just be us two, however I'm sure there will be more volunteers passing through.

The woman program leader for the high schoolers is really nice and is very interesting to talk to. She's a school teacher during the year but has done this program a few summers in different countries. She seems pretty excited to have another adult woman to talk to and frankly, so am I! She'll leave with the group tomorrow, but she has one more session so she'll be back again while I'm still here.

Tomorrow I'll head to an area to clear mora (blackberries) since it is a species that isn't native to the land. It should be interesting. We'll see!

(Written 7/28/13)

Hey guys, I made it to Galapagos!

After a long, tedious process at the airport, I made it to San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos. I was picked up by my family for the weekend and taken up to our home. In the morning, I'll head to the volunteer lodge and begin my volunteer work.

Yesterday after I arrived, the 11 yr old daughter, Dayana (pronounced like Diana) took me to the visitor's center which was on my list of things to see anyway. Dayana took me through the visitor center the way any 11 yr old would go through a visitor's center. Quickly. But, she did give me her own version of the tour which was nice and helpful. I'll be sure to go back and read/see more on my own time because it looked like it had a lot of great information and in English (yay!).

The REAL reason we went to the visitor's center was it's where there is a great swimming hole for snorkeling. However, the water was FREEZING. It wasn't too bad after your entire body went numb lol. This swimming hole had a few sea lions so it was pretty cool swimming around with them. There was a group of Americans there to snorkel as well who were also struggling with the water temperature. Imagine 20 people screaming "cooooooooold!" into their snorkels and it sounds just like a sea lion mating call. Thank goodness I can swim and tread water because the sound had me laughing for 15 minutes straight.

After we climbed out of the freezing water we headed to a beach with more sea lions but also tortoises swimming in the waves. The tortoises in Galapagos are nothing like the tortoises back home. They're massive. They're about 3 ft long and 2 ft high. Huge. Apparently I'll see a lot more up in the highlands where I volunteer. I got a kick out of watching them swim in the waves because I've always thought of them as slow, lazy animals but I guess not.

As we headed back home, Dayana told me that there was a place to wash our feet and put our shoes on down the path. As we walked through the dirt and rocks barefoot for 15 minutes, I started to wonder if I misunderstood her Spanish, thinking, "If I knew we'd walk this long in the rocks and gravel I would have said 'who cares' and put my shoes back on with sandy feet". I honestly flashed to the scene in It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World where the guy drives his car into the river because he's blindly following a child he doesn't understand. And now I can count on one hand the number of people who will get that reference (Uncle Tom, I hope you're reading).

To my delight, Dayana was right, there was a great place to wash off our feet and put our shoes on just down the road. I will no longer doubt her.

This morning Dayana took me to another beach right near the airport that was surrounded by lava rocks. She acted as a great guide, spotting 5 marine iguanas I would have never noticed if she didn't point them out. It was pretty cold this morning so we didn't swim, but took a great hike around the beach seeing sea lions (yup, I think there are more sea lions than people), crabs and little finches (as in Darwin's finches).

It is really beautiful here. The whole town is very quiet (except for the neighbors, naturally) and it feels like a quaint little fishing town. For anyone who has ever been, the geography feels most like Aruba. A lot of dry land and cactus, but very beautiful.

As for the neighbors, they aren't too loud and stop all noise at night so I can't really complain. However, if you consider the family's goat and rooster "neighbors", they ARE loud. When the rooster crows at sunrise in the movies, this is a LIE. This rooster didn't care that you were trying to sleep, it was determined to crow every 45 minutes beginning from 2am until I got out of bed at 8am. I'm pretty sure at one point I even dreamed of throwing a shoe at it.

That's all for now, I got to get to bed early to get up early for work.

Chao!

I've started my Spanish classes and that's been interesting to say the least. I have private lessons so that helps, but I still have a long way to go. I remember more than I thought I would, but apparently 7 Spanish teachers in 4 years of high school wasnt the best for me. Queen Anne had a Spanish teacher curse lol.

Because it's private lessons, my professor is focusing on Spanish that will be most useful to me during my travels. This has already proven helpful so I guess that makes it worth it.

As for family life, I have all my meals with my family so that has been a great opportunity to listen/speak Spanish. I've learned a lot about Ecuadorian culture which has been one of the best parts. We've discussed the (corrupt) government, the (corrupt) school system, family life and even religion. The Pope is currently visiting Brazil and the whole continent is going crazy. The news showed a 2 second clip of the Royal Baby before segwaying into "THE POPE IS IN OUR CONTINENT". It is by far the most important news story here. While Ecuador is a Catholic country, it is clear they take pride in Darwin's work in the Galapagos. I thought that was pretty cool. Side note about religion: "Yes, my last name is Polish, no, I'm not Catholic". That was a fun one to try to explain in Spanish during class. "Unitarian Universalist" doesn't have a Spanish translation as far as I know.

I've been spending my mornings before class visiting the city. Yesterday morning I visited Centro Historico and this morning I visited the Basilica. If you haven't already, check out the pictures on my Facebook. Both were beautiful and I plan to take the TeleferiQo (aerial tram) tomorrow morning. My family is obsessed with those and when I saw Quito had one I didnt think twice before deciding to go, regardless of the increased "foreigner" price.

That's all for now, buenos noches!

So I've had a few requests for a blog while I'm in South America. I'm not much of a blogger but I figured this was the easiest way to keep everyone updated. I'll post when I can, seeing as everything I post is from my iPhone. My first post will be the email I sent my parents and a few close friends...

So I have a little down time and figured I'd let you know how my first few days have been. Wow has it been interesting and not even 48 hours!

So when I arrived it took me about an hour to reach my host family in Quito. The (very new and very nice) airport is an hour away from town. Although it was a pain to arrive late, there was no traffic so I got here in only an hour. 

The family I'm staying with is lovely and the Mother (Ana) is very nice and accommodating. Her 13 year old son (Martin) lives here too as well as another Dutch tourist studying Spanish. Before I went to bed on Friday night she offered me some water and asked if I brought a computer or telephone and would I like the wifi password. Yay, wifi! The next morning I saw a sign in her window stating that she hosts students and that she has wifi. Clearly, the wifi is a selling point to her rooms!

Ana only speaks Spanish, which she learned very quickly how low my level is. She can speak english but knows I'm here to learn so only speaks Spanish. However, she is excellent at speaking "beginner Spanish" to me. She often forms her sentences as questions so I only have to say "Si" or "No". I understand a lot more than I thought I would, but my confidence to speak is low. I'm hoping even just a week of classes changes that. Ana is very patient with me though and doesn't make me feel like an idiot and when introducing me to someone she politely tells them I don't speak much Spanish haha. Ana sent me to the market with her son yesterday morning so I could see the market with all the fresh fruits and flowers as well as get a feel for the supermarket. 

Yesterday afternoon my Dutch housemate (Demitri) asked if I wanted to join he and his Swiss friend (Phillip) since it was my first day. They said they were headed to see this snake exhibit at the central park. Now, you probably know me well enough to know that I couldn't think of anything I'd like to do less, but I figured this was a great opportunity to meet new people and they could show me around the city a little since they both have been here for a few weeks already. So I went and actually had a great time. As much as I dislike snakes, I have to admit, South American snakes are pretty cool looking and nothing I've ever seen in a North American zoo. 

They walked me through the bus system and some "dos and don'ts" of Quito safety. Nothing out of the ordinary but I have rethought how I'll carry around my bus change. Instead of pulling out my wallet for a quarter (the bus only costs a quarter for anywhere in town!), I keep all of my change in an outside zipper pocket of my backpack. That way I'm never fumbling with large bills at a bus station.

This morning, my program director (Patricia) came to the house to give me my orientation as well as walk me to my school so I know where I'm going tomorrow. She is also very nice and helpful and very fluent in English so I didn't miss anything important due to the language barrier.

I have Spanish classes every day from 2-4pm which is perfect because it gives me the mornings to sightsee Quito, which is the best time because there is little cloud cover. And on Saturday morning I'll head to the Galapagos!

After we walked down to my school, I went with Ana to pick up her son Martin and her little sister Danna (about 5 years old) from what I gather is Sunday school. We walked back through town by the mall and the park where they had this "Art in Quito" tent that had artwork turned into children's games. They had one painting that was a large wooden jigsaw puzzle. The painting was terrible (as far as good jigsaw puzzle artwork goes) so we probably agonized over it for 30 minutes before finally getting the pieces together. I have to admit, it was nice bonding with another family over a jigsaw puzzle. I didn't need to know Spanish to know what it is to be frustrated with a complicated puzzle. On our walk back Danna grabbed my hand as we walked and that sure felt good. I am so lost in her Spanish but she could tell I enjoyed playing with her.

Once we got back to the house Danna saw my phone and said "oooo telephono... Jugar?" Even a five year old Ecuadorian sees an iPhone and knows there are games on it! So I said yes, my phone has games and turned on a simple one and watched her play for a half an hour. That was pretty amusing. However, as I'm typing I can feel how sticky my screen is from a child's fingers haha. 

Quito is nothing how I imagined. It is actually a huge city with 3 million people. It has much to do and see on top of this mountain and it is beautiful. I am just getting over a bit of the altitude sickness (headache, loss of appetite and trouble sleeping) but I'm still enjoying myself. I cant wait to really explore this week! Quito isn't the place to wave your iPhone about so I want to keep my photos to a minimum on my phone and mostly take pictures on my camera and post when I get home. 

Although my low level of Spanish is difficult, I'm confident I'll improve. I feel like a child pushed into a pool and told to swim. But that's sometimes the best way to learn!

Excuse me while I now go wipe all the sticky marks off my phone.