Interlude 5:Misconceptions and Revelations

   Sorry that its been a while since my last post, we were traveling for about 2 weeks straight. I'm home again now, not in Cuenca, but in Cleveland. It feels good and surreal to be back. And although I'm back, the story isn't over, I have probably another 3-5 tales to tell if not a few more than that. So if you'll allow me a bit of time to collect my thoughts I will try to tell the rest of our experiences and a few more cultural oddities/intricacies. In the meantime here are some little things that I noticed over my time in Ecuador.

• I had always thought that roosters only crow at sunrise. It turns out that roosters crow out whenever they  please. And that means often and throughout the night. A memorable quote from me while we were staying in a small community in the rain forest: that's no rooster, its a boy pretending to be a rooster! In my defense it was 6:45am and I was mostly still asleep.

• The Rain forest has frequent, unpredictable rain showers, who woulda thunk it?

• Surfing is much more challenging than they make it look in most Hollywood movies. Also I found out from surfing that my balance sucks. 

• The world without music while walking around is nowhere near as much fun. 

• Fresh fruits, vegetables and bakery items are about as cheap in Ecuador as Fast food is in America. This really shows how affordable and accessible healthy food is in Ecuador and how much of a premium is put on being healthy in the United States. This has reinforced for me that we clearly have our priorities misplaced in the United States.

• You can pack a whole lot of activities into a day especially if you wake up super early. Also exhaustion can know no limits if you pack enough activities into enough consecutive days. I think more than anything this made me value sleep all the more on the rare days when I did not have to wake up. 

• This entire trip has let me realize how much of a pop culture encyclopedia I can be, for better or worse. No I most certainly don't know everything, but I know at least a little bit about a great many things in the realms of books, music, movies and what-have-you.

• Big misconception-that Ecuador is only ever hot. Trust me when I tell you that there were a multitude of nights I was very glad to have a host of heavy blankets on my bed in Cuenca. And when the days started to get colder I needed to break out my flannel shirts to stay warm in the mornings and evenings, sadly it can't be warm all the time. 

• Sometimes you just gotta go for it and break through your comfort zone. For me it was peeing on the sides of highways and on buildings. For Steve it was dancing. We all had something. 

• Ecuador has taught me a new love for pocket change. Before I would always put lesser importance on anything that was smaller than a quarter. Now on the other hand I have seen how every nickle, dime, and penny count; especially when bread is 16 cents. Oh! Half-dollar coins are awesome and I think we should still have them in the states. 

• While on the subject of money, I will never cease to be amazed by how hard it is to make change in almost any establishment in Ecuador. I'll explain: if your bill is $12.80 it will be an ordeal if you pay with a $20 bill. They will have a very had time finding you $7.20 in change. That sounds like a simple amount to find, but yet it is so scarce to come by. The cashier might even have to go to a nearby store to accommodate your extravagant needs. Best bet: pay with exact change whenever possible. 

• Anywhere you find yourself you might encounter a flock of sheep or a herd of cows. Whether you are in the middle of the city, or the a steep hill in the countryside, or maybe you're exploring some ancient ruins; whatever the case, chances are you'll find some animals. 

• Other countries don't frown upon public urination quite as much as we do, same goes for public displays of affection. Awkward at first, but definitely something you get used to. 

• Living in Ecuador has made me very grateful for American drivers who follow some sort of discernible rules of the road. Turning signals! I have an undeniable love for any driver who uses his or her turn signal, please people use them.  

Chapter 9: Mi Paragua, Mi Espada

   In Ecuador you have to be prepared for anything. This is especially true with the weather, which is rarely predictable. In the morning and at night its usually a bit cooler, cold enough for jeans and a sweatshirt. By noon the sun is in full force which means stripping off the sweatshirt, having a good pair of sunglasses at the ready and applying sunscreen to all exposed skin. If I don't put sunscreen on before I leave in the morning, its okay because I keep a bottle in my backpack at all times. About once a day here, sometimes twice, it rains here in Cuenca. Just in case I always keep my umbrella packed on the side compartment of my knapsack.  As the Boyscout motto goes, "Always be prepared", turns out that was good advice.

   Now when I first packed my umbrella along I was thinking only of staying dry. Fairly quickly it could serve another purpose: portection or more so peace of mind. In one of Robert Ludlum's novels ( I cannot recall which, possibly The Materese Circle) the main character talks about how he always keeps a roll of quarters on his person to clutch on dark nights. For him its both a peace of mind and a necessary precaution living as a spy during the cold war, when no one was truly trustworthy. For me my umbrella is both a good weight in my hand while I'm walking as well as a way to stay calm in the city. I like to imagine that its a sword or in spanish "espada"even though in reality it is a small umbrella, maybe a foot long at best.

   I like espada as a word a bit better than the word sword. The english word sword looks a bit like someone took "word" and slapped an "s" in front of it saying, "That'll do!" And it gets the job done and makes for the butt of a classic joke on SNL involving Sean Connery, but that's it. For me, espada not only gets the job done, but also the syllables which make up espada invoke a series of actions as it is uttered. Each of the syllables come together to create a full action. "Es"-it sounds soft like a swift lunge, "Pa" the feint, and "da"the strike with the weapon.

   But anyway, I had never really lived in a big city 'til I came here ( this is probably where my mom is lamenting that we should have stayed in Milwaukee. Well maybe that would have prepared me for living in a city, but had we not moved I wouldn't be the person I am and either way this is a completely foreign city) so I didn't know some of the in's and out's of city living. Such as proper procedure for hailing a city bus: arm up and extended; or how much trickier it is crossing streets that are congested with traffic: there are two great methods that can be employed for crossing the street- playing frogger or being extremely cautious. I usually prefer the second method. No one told me there would be people that sleep in their cars at night. Lots of people did advise me that the city is dangerous which meant for the better part of the first week I became afraid of the dark. I would do my best to get home by sunset. On the few nights I left later, my umbrella/paragua became my sword. And you know what? That made me feel a lot more safe. They also advised us that when walking anywhere to walk with purpose, that turns out to be something I excel at.

Interlude 3: David Byrne Sightings

  Here in Cuenca I've seen all walks of life. I mean, its a big city, of course I have. For example on my walk to class the other day I saw a young businessman while I was waiting for a green light at a cross-walk. He looked to be about my age, wearing a pinstripe suit that looked a tad too large on him. He looked a bit like David Byrne at a Talking Heads concert in the 80's. The only thing that seemed to fit was the soft leather briefcase he carried at his side. The way he was carrying the briefcase made it seem that he'd grown to respect his tool-of-the-trade in  his short time in the business world. And I liked that: the slightly over sized pinstriped suit, the reverence for the briefcase, and more so the universality of being thrust into a business or professional world when you still look and feel a bit too young to be there. Thrust into a world of suits, coffee and cigarette breaks, cut-throat negotiations and rapid insincere name dropping when you still look a little young for the razor blade and a little out of place for the world of 5 o'clock shadows.

Talking Heads
Girlfriend is Better