As of tomorrow I will officially be able to:
1. Drink water out of the tap
2. Throw toilet paper in the toilet
3. Eat salads without worrying about getting a bacterial infection
4. Pay for something that costs $3 with a $20 bill
5. Not get cat calls every 5 steps down the street (well, maybe)
6. Feel safe walking around with my camera/more than $40/any other valuable items
7. Not eat ham, rice, or beets all the time
8. Sleep in my own bed
I'm pretty excited. I have to be at the airport at 5:15 tomorrow morning, but two of my friends are on the same flight as I am so I'll have some company while I wait to actually take off. I'm really sad to leave and say goodbye to the great friends I've made over the past three and a half months, but I'm also very excited to see my family and get to be in my own house!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
The beginning of the end
Hi Everyone,
On Sunday morning our whole group reunited for the first time in a month and headed to La Hesperia, which is located about two and a half hours south of Quito via a very, very curvy road. A few people got carsick, but other than that we all made it to the farm safe and sound.
When we got to the reserve we settled in to our rooms, had lunch, and then started ISP presentations. I was the first to present, which wasn't nerve wracking at all because I had written and thought about the same information for about two weeks at that point. My presentation went really well, everyone had good questions for me, and a lot of people told me I did a really good job afterward. It felt nice to get it over with early so I could enjoy the other presentations, and after presenting I also felt a lot better about my project and the work/analysis that I did.
It was really interesting to hear about everyone else's projects because they were all so different. Everybody did really cool things, and the presentations were all really good too. It was also just fun to all be together again, hanging out, cracking jokes, and telling stories from ISP. While we were at La Hesperia we also had a session about re-entry and what we were excited about and worried about in terms of going back to the U.S. I think it's going to be a little weird to go back, especially because it's going to be such a drastic climate change, but I'm excited all the same.
We got back to Quito mid-day on Wednesday, and we're all staying in the hostel where we were during orientation week. We have a lot of free time now, which is nice because we have time to run errands and buy last minute presents. This morning we had Spanish interviews to see how we've improved over the semester, and we have the rest of the day free to do whatever we want. Tomorrow we have a goodbye lunch with the entire group and our Academic Directors, which will be really nice but also sad. It's hard to believe that three months here went by so quickly, and that after Saturday I won't be seeing many of these people ever again. This trip has been absolutely amazing, I've had so many great experiences and met so many great people. I'm excited to go home and see my family and friends, but I'm definitely going to miss it here.
Hasta luego,
Caroline
On Sunday morning our whole group reunited for the first time in a month and headed to La Hesperia, which is located about two and a half hours south of Quito via a very, very curvy road. A few people got carsick, but other than that we all made it to the farm safe and sound.
When we got to the reserve we settled in to our rooms, had lunch, and then started ISP presentations. I was the first to present, which wasn't nerve wracking at all because I had written and thought about the same information for about two weeks at that point. My presentation went really well, everyone had good questions for me, and a lot of people told me I did a really good job afterward. It felt nice to get it over with early so I could enjoy the other presentations, and after presenting I also felt a lot better about my project and the work/analysis that I did.
It was really interesting to hear about everyone else's projects because they were all so different. Everybody did really cool things, and the presentations were all really good too. It was also just fun to all be together again, hanging out, cracking jokes, and telling stories from ISP. While we were at La Hesperia we also had a session about re-entry and what we were excited about and worried about in terms of going back to the U.S. I think it's going to be a little weird to go back, especially because it's going to be such a drastic climate change, but I'm excited all the same.
We got back to Quito mid-day on Wednesday, and we're all staying in the hostel where we were during orientation week. We have a lot of free time now, which is nice because we have time to run errands and buy last minute presents. This morning we had Spanish interviews to see how we've improved over the semester, and we have the rest of the day free to do whatever we want. Tomorrow we have a goodbye lunch with the entire group and our Academic Directors, which will be really nice but also sad. It's hard to believe that three months here went by so quickly, and that after Saturday I won't be seeing many of these people ever again. This trip has been absolutely amazing, I've had so many great experiences and met so many great people. I'm excited to go home and see my family and friends, but I'm definitely going to miss it here.
Hasta luego,
Caroline
Friday, December 4, 2009
Dear ISP, we're over.
Today, after chopping up half a forest with my machete, hugging almost 100 trees to measure their DBHs, sticking a light meter in endless vine tangles, trying to analyze data with statistics I forgot how to use, and two straight days of writing, I am finally done with my ISP.
While it does feel like a great accomplishment to have done all I did in a month and I'm proud of myself for problem solving out in the jungle, collecting all of my data, and using it to write a solid paper without any help, I'm left feeling a little disappointed. My results really weren't all that conclusive which was frustrating because it was hard to interpret and draw conclusions from them. I also feel like I could have collected more data, and that that would've raised the caliber of my project. I'm also feeling disappointed because after planning on writing my paper in Spanish for the two and a half months before ISP started, I ended up having to write in English for two reasons, the first because I didn't have enough time to write my paper in Spanish and then get it corrected by a native speaker, and the second because I don't know how to say "standard deviation," "Bonferroni's Multiple Comparison Test" or "statistically significant" in Spanish. I think my paper turned out to be of a higher quality in English than it would have been in Spanish, but I'm still a little bummed that I didn't get to write in Spanish after having my heart set on it for so long.
But what's done is done, and I just have a few small things left to do before I officially finish up all of my ISP work. Last night I took my paper to get copied and bound, and it was pretty cool to get it back looking all official. Tomorrow the entire group leaves for La Hesperia, which is a reserve/farm to the south of Quito. We're going to be there until Wednesday morning doing ISP presentations, having group meetings, and filling out lots of forms for SIT. I'm really excited to see everyone and for us all to be together in a big group again. On Wednesday we return to Quito to stay in the hostel where we were for orientation week, and on Saturday I'll be flying home!
I posted some pictures from ISP on the photobucket website, so check those out to see what I was up to!
Hasta luego,
Caroline
While it does feel like a great accomplishment to have done all I did in a month and I'm proud of myself for problem solving out in the jungle, collecting all of my data, and using it to write a solid paper without any help, I'm left feeling a little disappointed. My results really weren't all that conclusive which was frustrating because it was hard to interpret and draw conclusions from them. I also feel like I could have collected more data, and that that would've raised the caliber of my project. I'm also feeling disappointed because after planning on writing my paper in Spanish for the two and a half months before ISP started, I ended up having to write in English for two reasons, the first because I didn't have enough time to write my paper in Spanish and then get it corrected by a native speaker, and the second because I don't know how to say "standard deviation," "Bonferroni's Multiple Comparison Test" or "statistically significant" in Spanish. I think my paper turned out to be of a higher quality in English than it would have been in Spanish, but I'm still a little bummed that I didn't get to write in Spanish after having my heart set on it for so long.
But what's done is done, and I just have a few small things left to do before I officially finish up all of my ISP work. Last night I took my paper to get copied and bound, and it was pretty cool to get it back looking all official. Tomorrow the entire group leaves for La Hesperia, which is a reserve/farm to the south of Quito. We're going to be there until Wednesday morning doing ISP presentations, having group meetings, and filling out lots of forms for SIT. I'm really excited to see everyone and for us all to be together in a big group again. On Wednesday we return to Quito to stay in the hostel where we were for orientation week, and on Saturday I'll be flying home!
I posted some pictures from ISP on the photobucket website, so check those out to see what I was up to!
Hasta luego,
Caroline
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Twilight and Bull Fights
Two blog posts in three days? You lucky readers, you.
I wanted to do a quick update of my goings on last night and today before I head back out into the internet-barren wilderness of Ecuador (only until Tuesday or Wednesday though).
Last night I went to see the new Twilight movie, New Moon, with my host sister and one of her friends. There were two options at the ticket window, the English version with Spanish subtitles or the dubbed Spanish version. And naturally because I was with two Ecuadorians, and I wasn't the one actually purchasing the tickets, we went to see the dubbed version in Spanish. I was a little worried about how much I would actually understand, but it turned out to be easier than I expected because I read the book already, so I at least knew what was going on if not what the people were actually saying. It also helped that the movie has pretty simple dialogue, so it wasn't too too difficult to follow along.
Today my dad and I went to a bull fight, which was the main reason for my return to Quito this weekend. Earlier in the semester I was driving somewhere with my family, and someone asked me if I liked bull fights. I answered that I'd never seen one, and I was then asked if I'd want to go to one. I said yes, not knowing that there actually are bull fights here, and it was then decided that tickets were going to be bought and I was going to a bull fight. Bull fights only go on for one week out of the year here to celebrate the Fiestas de Quito, which started on Friday. Now I'm definitely not in support of killing innocent animals, but I figured that this might be my only opportunity to see a bull fight in my life, and it was something I wanted to experience. My mom (clarification: real mom) likened it to eating guinea pig, which I think is a good comparison because I don't want to kill a cute little guinea pig and eat it, but I decided that if the opportunity was offered to me I was going to try it.
So this morning my mom and sister picked out an outfit for me to wear (complete with a ridiculous hat, don't worry, there are pictures) and my dad and I headed off to the Estadio de Toros. We bought tickets from a scalper, found our seats, and proceeded to roast in the nearly midday sun (luckily clouds rolled in about half an hour after we got there). The fight started at noon with all of the matadors parading in, and then the first bull was sent into the ring. When the first fight started all I could think was "What was I thinking?! They're actually going to kill that animal!" The first three fights were the hardest for me, but after that I started seeing the art in the fight. All of the passes and the movements that the bull and matador make are beautiful, and some of the pictures that I took are some of my favorites from the entire semester. The matador that I liked best wasn't actually a matador, he was a rejoneador, which I think means that instead of being on foot he was on a horse the entire time. The horses he rode were absolutely gorgeous, and each one did a different trick (he changed horses about 3 times during each fight). The two matadors were also interesting to watch, but I didn't like them as much as the rejoneador.
So now that I have experienced a bull fight for myself, here are my opinions on them: I don't like that they actually kill the bulls, but now that I've seen one I understand why people like bull fights. Without the death and suffering of an innocent creature aspect they are an art form, and it's actually pretty beautiful to watch. So in conclusion: Do I like them? Not really. Would I go to another one? Probably not. Am I glad that I saw one? Yes.
Now I have to actually start working on my paper, because the majority of my weekend has been eaten up by the movies, bull fights, and procrastination. I'll post pictures of ISP/the bull fight when I get back to Quito on Tuesday or Wednesday!
Hasta luego,
Caroline
I wanted to do a quick update of my goings on last night and today before I head back out into the internet-barren wilderness of Ecuador (only until Tuesday or Wednesday though).
Last night I went to see the new Twilight movie, New Moon, with my host sister and one of her friends. There were two options at the ticket window, the English version with Spanish subtitles or the dubbed Spanish version. And naturally because I was with two Ecuadorians, and I wasn't the one actually purchasing the tickets, we went to see the dubbed version in Spanish. I was a little worried about how much I would actually understand, but it turned out to be easier than I expected because I read the book already, so I at least knew what was going on if not what the people were actually saying. It also helped that the movie has pretty simple dialogue, so it wasn't too too difficult to follow along.
Today my dad and I went to a bull fight, which was the main reason for my return to Quito this weekend. Earlier in the semester I was driving somewhere with my family, and someone asked me if I liked bull fights. I answered that I'd never seen one, and I was then asked if I'd want to go to one. I said yes, not knowing that there actually are bull fights here, and it was then decided that tickets were going to be bought and I was going to a bull fight. Bull fights only go on for one week out of the year here to celebrate the Fiestas de Quito, which started on Friday. Now I'm definitely not in support of killing innocent animals, but I figured that this might be my only opportunity to see a bull fight in my life, and it was something I wanted to experience. My mom (clarification: real mom) likened it to eating guinea pig, which I think is a good comparison because I don't want to kill a cute little guinea pig and eat it, but I decided that if the opportunity was offered to me I was going to try it.
So this morning my mom and sister picked out an outfit for me to wear (complete with a ridiculous hat, don't worry, there are pictures) and my dad and I headed off to the Estadio de Toros. We bought tickets from a scalper, found our seats, and proceeded to roast in the nearly midday sun (luckily clouds rolled in about half an hour after we got there). The fight started at noon with all of the matadors parading in, and then the first bull was sent into the ring. When the first fight started all I could think was "What was I thinking?! They're actually going to kill that animal!" The first three fights were the hardest for me, but after that I started seeing the art in the fight. All of the passes and the movements that the bull and matador make are beautiful, and some of the pictures that I took are some of my favorites from the entire semester. The matador that I liked best wasn't actually a matador, he was a rejoneador, which I think means that instead of being on foot he was on a horse the entire time. The horses he rode were absolutely gorgeous, and each one did a different trick (he changed horses about 3 times during each fight). The two matadors were also interesting to watch, but I didn't like them as much as the rejoneador.
So now that I have experienced a bull fight for myself, here are my opinions on them: I don't like that they actually kill the bulls, but now that I've seen one I understand why people like bull fights. Without the death and suffering of an innocent creature aspect they are an art form, and it's actually pretty beautiful to watch. So in conclusion: Do I like them? Not really. Would I go to another one? Probably not. Am I glad that I saw one? Yes.
Now I have to actually start working on my paper, because the majority of my weekend has been eaten up by the movies, bull fights, and procrastination. I'll post pictures of ISP/the bull fight when I get back to Quito on Tuesday or Wednesday!
Hasta luego,
Caroline
Friday, November 27, 2009
A Very Ecuadorian Thanksgiving
Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone!
I'm spending this weekend in Quito with my host family which has been really helpful in reducing the Thanksgiving-induced homesickness I was experiencing on Thursday. Here's what I've been up to since I last posted:
A few days ago (Tuesday? Wednesday? I'm not 100% sure) Daniel convinced me to skip working on my plots in the afternoon and go on a hike with him. We hike a trail called Tranquilo, which means "calm" in Spanish and is one of the biggest misnomers ever. The trail is a loop and basically goes up a mountain during the first half and then back down the mountain during the second half. The trail information sign says that it takes 4 to 5 hours to hike the entire trail, but Daniel said that that is the "tourist time" and we were going to do it in 2. I prepared myself for a very painful 2 hours.
The trail turned out to be not too bad, and we easily made it in 2 hours. The beginning was pretty tough because there were a lot of really steep parts, but once you got up a ways the views were absolutely amazing. We started hiking at 2, so when we got to the peak of the trail the clouds were just starting their afternoon descent down the mountain. Everything was so green and foggy and full of trees, it was like we were in The Lord of the Rings or something. Tranquilo is rarely hiked and it's really easy to get lost. At one point Daniel told me to go first and point whenever I saw a sign directing me to see if there were enough signs/if they were in the right places (I only got lost once!). When we got to the end instead of heading straight back to the lodge we went to the natural swimming hole in the river that runs past the reserve and jumped in. The water was really cold but it was a nice end to a fun hike.
Other than that my week was pretty much taken up by data collection. Thursday was my last day of collecting data for my project, and I didn't realize until about 9:30 in the morning that it was actually Thanksgiving and I was out in the forest in Ecuador measuring light. My "Thanksgiving dinner" consisted of chicken (it's a bird, so close to turkey), potatoes (not mashed, but still potatoes) and beets (as far as I'm concerned, not traditional Thanksgiving fare). My Thanksgiving continued with a mini breakdown (fueled by homesickness and stress) after lunch. After dinner Daniel and I watched a movie (Michael Clayton, which has nothing to do with Thanksgiving) and then he gave me a Maquipucuna shirt, which was really nice. I've decided that I'm going to consider this weekend with my host family my Thanksgiving because a) I'm spending time with family and b) I saw a turkey today when I went to the supermarket with my mom.
On Friday Daniel drove me to Nanegal, which is the biggest town close to Maquipucuna, so that I could catch a bus to Quito. It was the first Ecuadorian bus ride lasting more than 30 minutes that I'd ever taken alone, so I was a little nervous, but Daniel stayed with me until the bus came. The ride went off without a hitch and the only problem was that I was so hungry the entire time I was ready to eat my own hand. When we arrived at the bus station in Quito there were taxis conveniently placed next to where the buses come in, so I took one to my house because I was far too hungry to try and take a bus there. When I got to my house everyone was so excited to see me, and it felt so much like coming home that all the Thanksgiving homesickness I was feeling immediately went away. I spent yesterday afternoon and evening just hanging out with everyone and greeting family members as they came home one by one. It was really nice to see everyone and they were all very excited and happy to see me. Now all I have to do is motivate myself to start my ISP paper!
Hasta luego,
Caroline
I'm spending this weekend in Quito with my host family which has been really helpful in reducing the Thanksgiving-induced homesickness I was experiencing on Thursday. Here's what I've been up to since I last posted:
A few days ago (Tuesday? Wednesday? I'm not 100% sure) Daniel convinced me to skip working on my plots in the afternoon and go on a hike with him. We hike a trail called Tranquilo, which means "calm" in Spanish and is one of the biggest misnomers ever. The trail is a loop and basically goes up a mountain during the first half and then back down the mountain during the second half. The trail information sign says that it takes 4 to 5 hours to hike the entire trail, but Daniel said that that is the "tourist time" and we were going to do it in 2. I prepared myself for a very painful 2 hours.
The trail turned out to be not too bad, and we easily made it in 2 hours. The beginning was pretty tough because there were a lot of really steep parts, but once you got up a ways the views were absolutely amazing. We started hiking at 2, so when we got to the peak of the trail the clouds were just starting their afternoon descent down the mountain. Everything was so green and foggy and full of trees, it was like we were in The Lord of the Rings or something. Tranquilo is rarely hiked and it's really easy to get lost. At one point Daniel told me to go first and point whenever I saw a sign directing me to see if there were enough signs/if they were in the right places (I only got lost once!). When we got to the end instead of heading straight back to the lodge we went to the natural swimming hole in the river that runs past the reserve and jumped in. The water was really cold but it was a nice end to a fun hike.
Other than that my week was pretty much taken up by data collection. Thursday was my last day of collecting data for my project, and I didn't realize until about 9:30 in the morning that it was actually Thanksgiving and I was out in the forest in Ecuador measuring light. My "Thanksgiving dinner" consisted of chicken (it's a bird, so close to turkey), potatoes (not mashed, but still potatoes) and beets (as far as I'm concerned, not traditional Thanksgiving fare). My Thanksgiving continued with a mini breakdown (fueled by homesickness and stress) after lunch. After dinner Daniel and I watched a movie (Michael Clayton, which has nothing to do with Thanksgiving) and then he gave me a Maquipucuna shirt, which was really nice. I've decided that I'm going to consider this weekend with my host family my Thanksgiving because a) I'm spending time with family and b) I saw a turkey today when I went to the supermarket with my mom.
On Friday Daniel drove me to Nanegal, which is the biggest town close to Maquipucuna, so that I could catch a bus to Quito. It was the first Ecuadorian bus ride lasting more than 30 minutes that I'd ever taken alone, so I was a little nervous, but Daniel stayed with me until the bus came. The ride went off without a hitch and the only problem was that I was so hungry the entire time I was ready to eat my own hand. When we arrived at the bus station in Quito there were taxis conveniently placed next to where the buses come in, so I took one to my house because I was far too hungry to try and take a bus there. When I got to my house everyone was so excited to see me, and it felt so much like coming home that all the Thanksgiving homesickness I was feeling immediately went away. I spent yesterday afternoon and evening just hanging out with everyone and greeting family members as they came home one by one. It was really nice to see everyone and they were all very excited and happy to see me. Now all I have to do is motivate myself to start my ISP paper!
Hasta luego,
Caroline
Saturday, November 21, 2009
No, I have not been eaten by a bear
Hello faithful blog readers,
I'm sorry for being MIA for so long! I promise that this post will get you up to speed on what I've been doing for the past 3 weeks. The week before ISP started was our finals week and was full of exams, presentations, papers, and lots and lots of stress. That was when I hit my requisite "I'm-done-with-study-abroad-and-I-just-want-to-go-home" point, and I was not excited for ISP at all. Things started to look up once I actually got here and settled in, but it was really difficult to leave my host family and everything I've known for the past two months in Quito.
I'm staying at the Maquipucuna Reserve, which is owned by the Maquipucuna Foundation (www.maqui.org if you want to check it out), an NGO devoted to conservation and the like. The reserve is located about two hours to the northwest of Quito and is absolutely enormous and gorgeous. There is one small part that has the lodge and trails, but the majority of the reserve is protected, untouched forest. The reserve is located in the cloud forest ecosystem which is home to a lot of birds, plants, insects, and mammals including the spectacled (or Andean) bear, the only bear native to South America.
Spectacled bears have a mostly vegetarian diet, and they especially like this little fruit called an "aguacatillo" which means little avocado in Spanish. The forest around the reserve is full of these trees, and the bears will climb all the way up the tall, skinny trunk to get to the tiny little fruits at the top. My project is basically to try and figure out why the bears eat more in certain stands of trees than in others. To do this I'm making four 30 m x 30 m plots in different parts of the forest and measuring the DBH (diameter at breast height) of all the trees in the plot in order to figure out the density and basal area of trees in the area. I'm also measuring how much tree cover there is in the plot as well as assessing the understory vegetation.
I originally wasn't thrilled about measuring trees for an entire month, but it's actually pretty cool to be out in the field doing research completely on my own. Even if I don't get any significant results I'm already learning a lot from this, like how to properly use a machete, how to eyeball if a tree has a DBH of less than 10 cm (I don't measure ones that are less than that), and how to tell if a tree is an aguacatillo based on the smell of its bark alone. I'm also getting to help out with the camera traps, setting them up and revising them, and it's been cool learning how to do that as well.
I haven't seen any bears yet, but I do have some other fun anecdotes from my two weeks here:
1. My advisor, Santiago, drove me here from Quito on the first day of ISP both to introduce me to people here and help me get settled in and put up another camera. That meant that on my first day here we skipped lunch and walked 5 hours in order to set up the camera. Not exactly the introduction to ISP that I was expecting.
2. On Thursday and Friday of last week Santiago, Cristian (Santiago's assistant) and I were in Yunguilla, which is another reserve that borders Maquipucuna, to revise the two cameras there and set up a new one. We "camped out" on Thursday night in someone's house (a farmer who wasn't living there at the moment) and they taught me to play Cuarenta, an Ecuadorian card game that I still don't completely understand. On Friday we walked back to Maquipucuna on a trail created 500 years ago by the Yumbos, an indigenous people who acted as guides for people who wanted to cross the Andes between the sierra and the coast. The trails they made are called coluncos, and some parts of them were used so much that the actual trail is sunken and there are walls on either side of it. It was pretty cool to get to go on that trail, but it was a very long day of walking.
3. On Saturday this American couple, Todd and Nicole, showed up without a reservation and asked if they could camp here. Daniel (the manager here) let them camp in front of the biological station (where I live) which turned out to be a really great thing. They stayed for 5 days, and it was really awesome to get to know them. They also helped me make two of my plots, which was such a huge help. They also saved me from being alone on Sunday and Monday while Daniel (the only other person who lives here) was in Quito.
4. On Wednesday Daniel and four of the guys who work here were going to try and make a trail to this 60 m waterfall that is supposedly somewhere in the forest. Todd, Nicole, and I decided to tag along just for fun, and so we all set out in the morning with box lunches and machetes (well, we three Americans didn't get the machetes). We hiked along the river for a while and then the guys started chopping away and making their own trail through the forest while Todd, Nicole, and I followed carefully behind. After bushwhacking for about 3 hours the guys decided that it would be too hard to get to the waterfall from the trail we were making, so we turned around, had lunch, and then walked back to the reserve. Even though we didn't find the waterfall it was still really fun to get to walk through the primary forest on a newly created trail.
5. On Wednesday morning after I had felt like there was something in my bed for a few nights I asked Todd to look and see if there was actually something there. I was worried that it was a spider or a cockroach or something gross like that. Well, Todd pulled back the blankets and what did we find? A hole chewed through two of them and two baby rodents. Yes, apparently I was deemed an appropriate surrogate mother/source of body heat and some mama rodent (I think it was a mouse) decided to make a nest in my bed. For lack of a better idea Nicole and I put them in a toilet paper roll stuffed with newspaper and toilet paper and put that outside of my door in the hopes that mama rodent would come by and move the babies somewhere more appropriate. When we got back from the waterfall hike the tube was gone, and no babies have appeared in my bed since.
6. While we're on the topic of me playing host to creatures, I currently have more chiggers than any human being should ever have. There are chiggers here, and because of what I'm doing (spending all day traipsing around in the forest) it's pretty much impossible for me to avoid them. Right now I have an outline of my sports bra made of chiggers, as well as a line where my left backpack strap goes across my shoulder, and a sprinkling along the waistband of my pants. Let me tell you, it's a lot of fun. I'm also currently using about 500 times the recommended amount of DEET every time I go outside.
7. None of my plots have turned out to be a perfect 30m x 30m the first time around. With every single one I (or we, I've had help with three of them) have made three 30 m sides, but the fourth always ends up being wrong. Once it was 26m, once 28m, once 18m, and the last one was 50 m. It's a pretty easy mistake to fix, I just think it's funny that it's so hard to make a square in the forest.
8. I learned to play poker! Nicole and Todd taught me and Daniel how to play Texas Hold 'Em, which was pretty exciting because in all the times that people have tried to teach me poker I've never actually learned how to play. I'm absolutely terrible though, so nobody needs to worry about a gambling addiction in my future.
9. One of the most interesting things about being here has been seeing all the tourists who come through. So far there has been a group of birdwatchers from the UK, a group of tourists from Holland, a group of forty 10-year-olds (this was the day I tried to stay in the forest for as long as possible), and a sprinkling of Ecuadorians and Americans. It's also been really cool to get to know the tourists as well as the guides and drivers who come with them. That's probably one of the things I've enjoyed the most about this place, getting to see the behind the scenes parts and how they transition from one group to another, things like that.
So yeah, that's basically what I've been up to. This week I'll be doing more data collection, and then on Friday I'm going back to Quito to spend the weekend with my host family. After that we'll be going to Yunguilla again to check the cameras there and then I'll be here for a few more days before going back to Quito to write my paper. I'm not spending the full month here because it's pretty expensive to stay here, so I'm going back to Quito a little early. We receive $500 from the program for lodging, food, equipment, anything we need for ISP, which basically boils down to $17 per day. It costs $20 plus tax for me to spend one night here (including 3 meals), so my money is getting used up a little faster than most. Luckily I don't need a full four weeks to do my project, so going back to Quito a little early will be nice because I'll have reliable internet and other commodities to help me write my paper. I'll write another blog entry when I have time (and internet)! I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving!
Hasta luego,
Caroline
I'm sorry for being MIA for so long! I promise that this post will get you up to speed on what I've been doing for the past 3 weeks. The week before ISP started was our finals week and was full of exams, presentations, papers, and lots and lots of stress. That was when I hit my requisite "I'm-done-with-study-abroad-and-I-just-want-to-go-home" point, and I was not excited for ISP at all. Things started to look up once I actually got here and settled in, but it was really difficult to leave my host family and everything I've known for the past two months in Quito.
I'm staying at the Maquipucuna Reserve, which is owned by the Maquipucuna Foundation (www.maqui.org if you want to check it out), an NGO devoted to conservation and the like. The reserve is located about two hours to the northwest of Quito and is absolutely enormous and gorgeous. There is one small part that has the lodge and trails, but the majority of the reserve is protected, untouched forest. The reserve is located in the cloud forest ecosystem which is home to a lot of birds, plants, insects, and mammals including the spectacled (or Andean) bear, the only bear native to South America.
Spectacled bears have a mostly vegetarian diet, and they especially like this little fruit called an "aguacatillo" which means little avocado in Spanish. The forest around the reserve is full of these trees, and the bears will climb all the way up the tall, skinny trunk to get to the tiny little fruits at the top. My project is basically to try and figure out why the bears eat more in certain stands of trees than in others. To do this I'm making four 30 m x 30 m plots in different parts of the forest and measuring the DBH (diameter at breast height) of all the trees in the plot in order to figure out the density and basal area of trees in the area. I'm also measuring how much tree cover there is in the plot as well as assessing the understory vegetation.
I originally wasn't thrilled about measuring trees for an entire month, but it's actually pretty cool to be out in the field doing research completely on my own. Even if I don't get any significant results I'm already learning a lot from this, like how to properly use a machete, how to eyeball if a tree has a DBH of less than 10 cm (I don't measure ones that are less than that), and how to tell if a tree is an aguacatillo based on the smell of its bark alone. I'm also getting to help out with the camera traps, setting them up and revising them, and it's been cool learning how to do that as well.
I haven't seen any bears yet, but I do have some other fun anecdotes from my two weeks here:
1. My advisor, Santiago, drove me here from Quito on the first day of ISP both to introduce me to people here and help me get settled in and put up another camera. That meant that on my first day here we skipped lunch and walked 5 hours in order to set up the camera. Not exactly the introduction to ISP that I was expecting.
2. On Thursday and Friday of last week Santiago, Cristian (Santiago's assistant) and I were in Yunguilla, which is another reserve that borders Maquipucuna, to revise the two cameras there and set up a new one. We "camped out" on Thursday night in someone's house (a farmer who wasn't living there at the moment) and they taught me to play Cuarenta, an Ecuadorian card game that I still don't completely understand. On Friday we walked back to Maquipucuna on a trail created 500 years ago by the Yumbos, an indigenous people who acted as guides for people who wanted to cross the Andes between the sierra and the coast. The trails they made are called coluncos, and some parts of them were used so much that the actual trail is sunken and there are walls on either side of it. It was pretty cool to get to go on that trail, but it was a very long day of walking.
3. On Saturday this American couple, Todd and Nicole, showed up without a reservation and asked if they could camp here. Daniel (the manager here) let them camp in front of the biological station (where I live) which turned out to be a really great thing. They stayed for 5 days, and it was really awesome to get to know them. They also helped me make two of my plots, which was such a huge help. They also saved me from being alone on Sunday and Monday while Daniel (the only other person who lives here) was in Quito.
4. On Wednesday Daniel and four of the guys who work here were going to try and make a trail to this 60 m waterfall that is supposedly somewhere in the forest. Todd, Nicole, and I decided to tag along just for fun, and so we all set out in the morning with box lunches and machetes (well, we three Americans didn't get the machetes). We hiked along the river for a while and then the guys started chopping away and making their own trail through the forest while Todd, Nicole, and I followed carefully behind. After bushwhacking for about 3 hours the guys decided that it would be too hard to get to the waterfall from the trail we were making, so we turned around, had lunch, and then walked back to the reserve. Even though we didn't find the waterfall it was still really fun to get to walk through the primary forest on a newly created trail.
5. On Wednesday morning after I had felt like there was something in my bed for a few nights I asked Todd to look and see if there was actually something there. I was worried that it was a spider or a cockroach or something gross like that. Well, Todd pulled back the blankets and what did we find? A hole chewed through two of them and two baby rodents. Yes, apparently I was deemed an appropriate surrogate mother/source of body heat and some mama rodent (I think it was a mouse) decided to make a nest in my bed. For lack of a better idea Nicole and I put them in a toilet paper roll stuffed with newspaper and toilet paper and put that outside of my door in the hopes that mama rodent would come by and move the babies somewhere more appropriate. When we got back from the waterfall hike the tube was gone, and no babies have appeared in my bed since.
6. While we're on the topic of me playing host to creatures, I currently have more chiggers than any human being should ever have. There are chiggers here, and because of what I'm doing (spending all day traipsing around in the forest) it's pretty much impossible for me to avoid them. Right now I have an outline of my sports bra made of chiggers, as well as a line where my left backpack strap goes across my shoulder, and a sprinkling along the waistband of my pants. Let me tell you, it's a lot of fun. I'm also currently using about 500 times the recommended amount of DEET every time I go outside.
7. None of my plots have turned out to be a perfect 30m x 30m the first time around. With every single one I (or we, I've had help with three of them) have made three 30 m sides, but the fourth always ends up being wrong. Once it was 26m, once 28m, once 18m, and the last one was 50 m. It's a pretty easy mistake to fix, I just think it's funny that it's so hard to make a square in the forest.
8. I learned to play poker! Nicole and Todd taught me and Daniel how to play Texas Hold 'Em, which was pretty exciting because in all the times that people have tried to teach me poker I've never actually learned how to play. I'm absolutely terrible though, so nobody needs to worry about a gambling addiction in my future.
9. One of the most interesting things about being here has been seeing all the tourists who come through. So far there has been a group of birdwatchers from the UK, a group of tourists from Holland, a group of forty 10-year-olds (this was the day I tried to stay in the forest for as long as possible), and a sprinkling of Ecuadorians and Americans. It's also been really cool to get to know the tourists as well as the guides and drivers who come with them. That's probably one of the things I've enjoyed the most about this place, getting to see the behind the scenes parts and how they transition from one group to another, things like that.
So yeah, that's basically what I've been up to. This week I'll be doing more data collection, and then on Friday I'm going back to Quito to spend the weekend with my host family. After that we'll be going to Yunguilla again to check the cameras there and then I'll be here for a few more days before going back to Quito to write my paper. I'm not spending the full month here because it's pretty expensive to stay here, so I'm going back to Quito a little early. We receive $500 from the program for lodging, food, equipment, anything we need for ISP, which basically boils down to $17 per day. It costs $20 plus tax for me to spend one night here (including 3 meals), so my money is getting used up a little faster than most. Luckily I don't need a full four weeks to do my project, so going back to Quito a little early will be nice because I'll have reliable internet and other commodities to help me write my paper. I'll write another blog entry when I have time (and internet)! I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving!
Hasta luego,
Caroline
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Getting married, Ecuador style
Yesterday I had what I'm assuming is a pretty unique study abroad experience, I went to a wedding with my host family. The bride was my host cousin, Daniela (my dad's niece) and the groom was her fiancee, Carlos. They have been dating since their first year of medical school and just graduated on Thursday. They were getting married so soon after graduating because in Ecuador once you graduate medical school you get sent to a randomly chosen place to work for a year, but if you're married they take that into consideration so Daniela and Carlos will be sent to the same place. They had both saved up for the last year and paid for the wedding completely by themselves, so it was a pretty small wedding but really fun.
Wedding prep for me started on Thursday night when I tried on a bunch of my mom's dresses with my mom and sister to choose one to wear to the wedding. I didn't bring a dress to Ecuador because I just assumed that I'd never be in a situation when I'd need to dress up, but I got pretty lucky because my mom had a lot of old dresses for me to choose from! My mom outfitted me in a dress, shoes to match, jewelry, and a purse because the only one I had was black and my dress was brown. It was really fun trying on the dresses, and when I finally put on the one that I ended up wearing my mom and sister both exclaimed "you look so beautiful!" and ran to get my dad so he could see too.
On Friday my mom, sister, two of my sisters friends and I went to a beauty salon near our house to get manicures and pedicures. I was definitely a little apprehensive about getting a mani/pedi in a foreign country, but one of the other girls on my trip had gotten one a few weeks ago for a wedding her family was going to so I figured that if she was fine, I would be too. I ended up getting a french manicure on my fingers and some sort of dark pinkish red nail polish on my toes. Apparently nobody paints their toenails that color, because my mom and sister were both amazed at how good it looked. I only picked it because it was the closest color the salon had to one that I would normally wear, so I was glad that it turned out well!
We had told the stylists at the salon that we were going to come in at 9 on Saturday morning to get our hair done (my sister was in the wedding party and my mom was the master of ceremonies, I was just going along for the ride and a free hairdo) but Ecuadorian time kicked in and eventually at 10:15 on Saturday morning my sister and I went to the salon without my mom because she was telling a story to my brother and didn't want to go yet. And so began our 5 hour stint in the beauty salon. When we got to the salon around 10:30 there were already two people there (there are only two stylists) so we had to wait for them to finish before we could get our hair done. My sister went first, and her hair took a super long time because it's really long and thick and they had to blow it out straight first and then put a ridiculous amount of curlers in. When it was finally my turn I had my sister explain to the stylist what I wanted (I knew I would never be able to explain myself so I showed my mom and sister a picture of the hairstyle I wanted; Schuyler if you're reading this it was your hairdo from gala freshman year!), which was basically my hair curled at the bottom with the front pulled back a little bit. The hairstylist doubted my hair's ability to hold curls, but we decided to go for it and put curlers in my hair (about 1/8th the amount that she used for my sister).
Around then my mom showed up with her hot rollers, and the stylist started on her. It was probably around 1 by then, and Emilia and I were both really really hungry. Eventually my dad came to pick us up and we went home to eat lunch with the rollers still in our hair (they were working on my mom's updo at this point). After lunch we went back to the salon where they finished with my mom's hair and then did mine and Emilia's. By the time we were all finished it was 3:30, and my sister had told me earlier that the wedding ceremony started at 4, so we rushed home and my sister and I did our makeup and got dressed. However, in typical Ecuadorian fashion, what I wasn't told was that the wedding actually started at 6 (I'm not sure if my sister didn't know this either) and even then it started late because the groom didn't show up until 5 minutes before 6.
The wedding ceremony was really interesting. It was a Catholic ceremony and all in Spanish so it was a little hard for me to follow along at times, but there were a few times where I could tell what part of the service we were at and I would respond to the priest in English. My favorite part was when we got to "La Paz" (The Peace) and the priest said "Peace be with you" in Spanish and I answered back very enthusiastically "and also with you!" because I was so excited to know what was going on. Then my brother explained to me that all you do is shake people's hands and say "la paz," which was also exciting because for once I didn't have to be the ignorant American who didn't know what to do. After the ceremony was over the bride and groom were taking pictures with everyone in the wedding party and friends and family, etc. At one point my parents decided it was their turn to be in a picture, so we went up (minus my sister who was MIA) and took a picture with the bride and groom. I felt more than a little awkward and like I didn't belong, but now I can say that I'm in an Ecuadorian wedding album, so I guess that's exciting.
After the pictures we headed over to the reception. We found our table, sat down, my mom introduced the wedding party as they were coming in, we did a champagne toast, and then there were some other speeches by the parents of the novios before we got served dinner. The appetizer was little tiny shrimps in some sort of mayonnaise-y sauce and the main course was a plate with salad, scalloped potatoes, beef with a creamy mushroom sauce, and chicken cordon bleu (I thought the ham inside was undercooked chicken until I got to the end and realized it was actually ham). There was also a guy going around offering people green rice (no idea why it was green) but I declined because I wasn't very hungry and there was a lot of food already on my plate (like the terrible Ecuadorian I am I didn't finish it all, either). After that we got dessert, which was some sort of flan-ish custard-y thing that was heart shaped with red sauce around it. It was kind of weird, but also very pretty.
After dinner the dancing started. I pretty much danced with my brother the entire time and with my dad a few times, which was nice because I didn't have to worry about dancing with strange men who I didn't know. My brother and dad are also great dancers, so it was really fun. Eventually there was a break in the dancing so that the novios could cut the cake, and then they served cake to everyone. It was a little weird tasting and had walnuts in it, but I ate most of my piece which turned out to be a big mistake because right after eating it my brother and I were pulled back out on the dance floor by my uncle and the cake was just sitting in my stomach. Around 12:45 my brother and I both sat down again because our feet hurt and we were both super tired, but our parents were still dancing. My mom told us that we would leave at 1, which meant at 1:05 we started saying goodbye to everyone. Greeting and saying goodbye are super important in Ecuadorian culture, so we basically went around and said chao to EVERYBODY. That also meant kissing everybody on the cheek (the basic Ecuadorian greeting is touching right cheek to right cheek, there isn't any lip contact made), even people I had never met before, which was definitely strange for me. After that we had to go find Emilia, who had fallen asleep at a table just outside of the reception room. We finally got to our house at 1:30, and realized that nobody had the keys to the garage door, so my dad had to dig around until he found a spare set in the car. However, once we got into the carport my mom realized that we didn't have the key to the door of the house, so my brother had to go get his keys from my grandma's house.
All in all it was a really fun night, probably my favorite night that I've spent in Ecuador. It was also really cool to get to see how things are similar and different between weddings here and weddings in the U.S. Here are some of my findings:
- I'm not sure if this was because it was a Catholic wedding or because it was a small wedding, but there weren't any bridesmaids or groomsmen. The wedding party was the parents of the bride and groom, their godparents, one girl who may have been the sister of the groom, and the two flower girls.
- People only gave money as a wedding gift. Each family was given an envelope to put money in for the novios and a box was brought around during the reception for everyone to put their envelope in.
- At the beginning of the reception all the single women and men are called up to do something called "La Liga," which has to do with the garters. The groom takes the first garter off and then asks the men a question (this one was Name a city in Ecuador) and he writes down an answer. Then all the single guys go through one by one saying a city, and whoever says the same city that the groom wrote down gets the garter and chooses a single girl and puts it on her. Then they do the same thing with the single women (that time it was a number between 1 and 20), the groom takes the second garter off the bride, and then they choose a man to put it on the girl who got picked. Luckily I never got picked/said the right answer, because I had absolutely no idea what was going on the entire time.
- The bride doesn't throw her bouquet, she chooses someone to give it to (I think she gave it to her best friend).
- The first dance was the bride with her father and the groom with his mother, and then they switched so that the bride and groom were dancing together.
- Clinking your silverware together means the bride and groom have to kiss (although it appeared that a select few people, not including the bride and groom, actually knew this). I told my family how clinking your knife on your glass means the bride and groom have to kiss, so my dad started doing that and eventually it caught on a little bit.
- While we were eating dinner the DJ was playing power ballads from the 90s in English. It was pretty funny for me, and my family thought it was hilarious when I would sing along.
This is along weekend because Monday and Tuesday are El Dia de los Difuntos (the day of the dead here) and the Independence of Cuenca, which is a city. I'll update on how the rest of my weekend goes!
Hasta luego,
Caroline
Wedding prep for me started on Thursday night when I tried on a bunch of my mom's dresses with my mom and sister to choose one to wear to the wedding. I didn't bring a dress to Ecuador because I just assumed that I'd never be in a situation when I'd need to dress up, but I got pretty lucky because my mom had a lot of old dresses for me to choose from! My mom outfitted me in a dress, shoes to match, jewelry, and a purse because the only one I had was black and my dress was brown. It was really fun trying on the dresses, and when I finally put on the one that I ended up wearing my mom and sister both exclaimed "you look so beautiful!" and ran to get my dad so he could see too.
On Friday my mom, sister, two of my sisters friends and I went to a beauty salon near our house to get manicures and pedicures. I was definitely a little apprehensive about getting a mani/pedi in a foreign country, but one of the other girls on my trip had gotten one a few weeks ago for a wedding her family was going to so I figured that if she was fine, I would be too. I ended up getting a french manicure on my fingers and some sort of dark pinkish red nail polish on my toes. Apparently nobody paints their toenails that color, because my mom and sister were both amazed at how good it looked. I only picked it because it was the closest color the salon had to one that I would normally wear, so I was glad that it turned out well!
We had told the stylists at the salon that we were going to come in at 9 on Saturday morning to get our hair done (my sister was in the wedding party and my mom was the master of ceremonies, I was just going along for the ride and a free hairdo) but Ecuadorian time kicked in and eventually at 10:15 on Saturday morning my sister and I went to the salon without my mom because she was telling a story to my brother and didn't want to go yet. And so began our 5 hour stint in the beauty salon. When we got to the salon around 10:30 there were already two people there (there are only two stylists) so we had to wait for them to finish before we could get our hair done. My sister went first, and her hair took a super long time because it's really long and thick and they had to blow it out straight first and then put a ridiculous amount of curlers in. When it was finally my turn I had my sister explain to the stylist what I wanted (I knew I would never be able to explain myself so I showed my mom and sister a picture of the hairstyle I wanted; Schuyler if you're reading this it was your hairdo from gala freshman year!), which was basically my hair curled at the bottom with the front pulled back a little bit. The hairstylist doubted my hair's ability to hold curls, but we decided to go for it and put curlers in my hair (about 1/8th the amount that she used for my sister).
Around then my mom showed up with her hot rollers, and the stylist started on her. It was probably around 1 by then, and Emilia and I were both really really hungry. Eventually my dad came to pick us up and we went home to eat lunch with the rollers still in our hair (they were working on my mom's updo at this point). After lunch we went back to the salon where they finished with my mom's hair and then did mine and Emilia's. By the time we were all finished it was 3:30, and my sister had told me earlier that the wedding ceremony started at 4, so we rushed home and my sister and I did our makeup and got dressed. However, in typical Ecuadorian fashion, what I wasn't told was that the wedding actually started at 6 (I'm not sure if my sister didn't know this either) and even then it started late because the groom didn't show up until 5 minutes before 6.
The wedding ceremony was really interesting. It was a Catholic ceremony and all in Spanish so it was a little hard for me to follow along at times, but there were a few times where I could tell what part of the service we were at and I would respond to the priest in English. My favorite part was when we got to "La Paz" (The Peace) and the priest said "Peace be with you" in Spanish and I answered back very enthusiastically "and also with you!" because I was so excited to know what was going on. Then my brother explained to me that all you do is shake people's hands and say "la paz," which was also exciting because for once I didn't have to be the ignorant American who didn't know what to do. After the ceremony was over the bride and groom were taking pictures with everyone in the wedding party and friends and family, etc. At one point my parents decided it was their turn to be in a picture, so we went up (minus my sister who was MIA) and took a picture with the bride and groom. I felt more than a little awkward and like I didn't belong, but now I can say that I'm in an Ecuadorian wedding album, so I guess that's exciting.
After the pictures we headed over to the reception. We found our table, sat down, my mom introduced the wedding party as they were coming in, we did a champagne toast, and then there were some other speeches by the parents of the novios before we got served dinner. The appetizer was little tiny shrimps in some sort of mayonnaise-y sauce and the main course was a plate with salad, scalloped potatoes, beef with a creamy mushroom sauce, and chicken cordon bleu (I thought the ham inside was undercooked chicken until I got to the end and realized it was actually ham). There was also a guy going around offering people green rice (no idea why it was green) but I declined because I wasn't very hungry and there was a lot of food already on my plate (like the terrible Ecuadorian I am I didn't finish it all, either). After that we got dessert, which was some sort of flan-ish custard-y thing that was heart shaped with red sauce around it. It was kind of weird, but also very pretty.
After dinner the dancing started. I pretty much danced with my brother the entire time and with my dad a few times, which was nice because I didn't have to worry about dancing with strange men who I didn't know. My brother and dad are also great dancers, so it was really fun. Eventually there was a break in the dancing so that the novios could cut the cake, and then they served cake to everyone. It was a little weird tasting and had walnuts in it, but I ate most of my piece which turned out to be a big mistake because right after eating it my brother and I were pulled back out on the dance floor by my uncle and the cake was just sitting in my stomach. Around 12:45 my brother and I both sat down again because our feet hurt and we were both super tired, but our parents were still dancing. My mom told us that we would leave at 1, which meant at 1:05 we started saying goodbye to everyone. Greeting and saying goodbye are super important in Ecuadorian culture, so we basically went around and said chao to EVERYBODY. That also meant kissing everybody on the cheek (the basic Ecuadorian greeting is touching right cheek to right cheek, there isn't any lip contact made), even people I had never met before, which was definitely strange for me. After that we had to go find Emilia, who had fallen asleep at a table just outside of the reception room. We finally got to our house at 1:30, and realized that nobody had the keys to the garage door, so my dad had to dig around until he found a spare set in the car. However, once we got into the carport my mom realized that we didn't have the key to the door of the house, so my brother had to go get his keys from my grandma's house.
All in all it was a really fun night, probably my favorite night that I've spent in Ecuador. It was also really cool to get to see how things are similar and different between weddings here and weddings in the U.S. Here are some of my findings:
- I'm not sure if this was because it was a Catholic wedding or because it was a small wedding, but there weren't any bridesmaids or groomsmen. The wedding party was the parents of the bride and groom, their godparents, one girl who may have been the sister of the groom, and the two flower girls.
- People only gave money as a wedding gift. Each family was given an envelope to put money in for the novios and a box was brought around during the reception for everyone to put their envelope in.
- At the beginning of the reception all the single women and men are called up to do something called "La Liga," which has to do with the garters. The groom takes the first garter off and then asks the men a question (this one was Name a city in Ecuador) and he writes down an answer. Then all the single guys go through one by one saying a city, and whoever says the same city that the groom wrote down gets the garter and chooses a single girl and puts it on her. Then they do the same thing with the single women (that time it was a number between 1 and 20), the groom takes the second garter off the bride, and then they choose a man to put it on the girl who got picked. Luckily I never got picked/said the right answer, because I had absolutely no idea what was going on the entire time.
- The bride doesn't throw her bouquet, she chooses someone to give it to (I think she gave it to her best friend).
- The first dance was the bride with her father and the groom with his mother, and then they switched so that the bride and groom were dancing together.
- Clinking your silverware together means the bride and groom have to kiss (although it appeared that a select few people, not including the bride and groom, actually knew this). I told my family how clinking your knife on your glass means the bride and groom have to kiss, so my dad started doing that and eventually it caught on a little bit.
- While we were eating dinner the DJ was playing power ballads from the 90s in English. It was pretty funny for me, and my family thought it was hilarious when I would sing along.
This is along weekend because Monday and Tuesday are El Dia de los Difuntos (the day of the dead here) and the Independence of Cuenca, which is a city. I'll update on how the rest of my weekend goes!
Hasta luego,
Caroline
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