El principio del fin...

This is my last Sunday in Quito, which is big, although it hasn’t really hit me yet- it started to after I said goodbye to one of my best friends here last night (she changed her flight to go home a week early because she has an incredibly busy winter break– 2 family weddings, 3 out of state trips, etc!) and could take her exams early. But a quick update of the last week–

Tuesday: My friend Ricardo, whom I met on the chiva, met me in Cumbaya and we walked around and hung out for a few hours. It was really nice because we went to parts of Cumbaya I’d never seen, it was a gorgeous day and we sat in what I assume is the small town’s “Parque Central.” [Note: I go to school in Cumbaya; it is a fifteen minute bus ride from Quito.]

Wednesday: After class I went with Liz to Jorge’s office, hung out with them and studied for awhile, and had coffee with them and Jorge’s mom, where we talked about Cuba. A recent NYT article greatly helped me out in this. (Read it! It’s interesting)

Thursday: I was exhausted and came home and watched Ratatouille and went to bed early :)

Friday: We had a going-away dinner at Crepes and Waffles, a delicious Colombian chain restaurant. Fifteen gringos sitting in the middle of an Ecuadorian restaurant speaking in English... nice. Four of us came to my house after to hang out and have some cocktails, then I went out with Susie and my friend Ben. We didn’t have ID to get into the club- you RARELY need it here, but I’d brought a copy of my passport and somehow lost it (COPY, mom, Copy. Don’t worry) and the bouncer was asking me my age and I was like “mil... mil... nueve...” because years are the hardest in Spanish (who can remember mil novecientos ochenta y ocho, anyway?), and don’t get easier after a few Cuba Libres... but he let me in! Thank god. We took advantage of the half-hour left of the open bar, Susie left after awhile, and Ben and I went to a different bar where we unexpectedly ran into some of his friends from high school (he’s been here for a few years and finished high school in Ecuador). I fell into bed around 4am. It was a great night, this is a very condensed version.

Saturday: I woke up more than a little chuchaqui, went over to Ali’s and rolled around the floor groaning about how much of the previous adjective I was. I opted out of going to the Basilica with them due to money concerns and my physical state, but met up with them at the market and for dinner later. We went to this DELICIOUS and incredibly cheap Chinese restaurant, where they seem to speak neither English nor Spanish, so we always try to order in Spanish and then end up pointing at the menu... sooo good. Then we went to the supermarket one last time for Ali to buy Ecuadorian goodies to bring home, and then to her house around 9 to hang out and help her- start- packing. Yes, start! I cannot believe she started packing 8 hours before leaving! Well, Stephen and Rachel did most of the work, with me being on the computer and organizing her illegal movies and Cuban cigars with the hope that they will get through customs. We laid in her bed and talked until about 2, when she called us a cab (I always take the cab with them down the street, because it’s about a minute to walk and I am very paranoid at night) and we were all crying. I hate goodbyes. I am not a fan, and I prefer to just not do them, because to me they are pointless and depressing. Last semester my friend Marlie cornered me during the cafeteria exam treats and made me say goodbye to her (and sob in the middle of half of Beloit... THANKS MARLS!!) But I am fine with indulging other people’s needs for goodbyes.

I don’t want to start packing until Friday at the absolute earliest, not out of laziness, but because I think it will be very lonely to have to live in an empty room, and either make me want to go home immediately or being very sad to go... I am currently somewhere in the middle.

Oh, and something else. I am such a Libra, in the sense that I can never make decisions. Right after I wrote that blog about how I was determined to take my trip down south, I changed my mind- I’m taking my finals Monday & Tuesday, and only going to a little forest town for one night, Wed-Thurs. I realized I did not have the money to do the trip, or the time to fully enjoy those places in the way I wanted to. I am really sad that I won’t make it to Cuenca, but I know I will come back and I know exactly where to go when I do! It wouldn’t have been worth it to spend hundreds of dollars for two days in one town and two days in another, and have to take a 12 hour bus ride back.

Friday I will probably see people and start packing, and Friday night my Model UN class has one last hurrah– a Christmas party (and these kids do know how to party) at one of the student’s houses outside of Quito. I am sure it will be fantastic, and then I will come back and pack and cry and pack be overwhelmed and sleep and leave...

Whew. So how do all of you feel about leaving?

The Notable & the Inconceivable

The Notable and the Inconceivable

Recent Notable Events:

1) This past weekend was Fiestas de Quito. I only truly partied one night, but it was enough for the weekend. I went on a chiva (open-air party bus which has a band playing on the roof) and drove around Thursday night. It was incredibly fun. I also met a very nice man, and we went dancing. One of the best nights I’ve had here. Too bad I’m leaving in two weeks...
2) Friday I went to the mercado artesenal with Susie to do some Christmas shopping, which was fun. Ali, Steven and I went to a very cheap Chinese restaurant in la Mariscal for dinner and it was delicious. We walked through the Mariscal (basically the center of all the bars) for a bit. I loved it- tons of drunk people singing and dancing, but Ali and Steven were not having it. I was going to meet up with my friend Ben, but couldn’t find him, and was still exhausted from the night before, so I went home.
3) Yesterday (Saturday) I went up the Teleferiqo with Steven and Ali. The Teleferiqo is basically an enclosed skilift that goes all the way up Pichincha, the volcano right next to Quito that I can see right now from the window in the living room of my house. It was a great view going up but there was so much fog that we could barely see the city from the top, which was sad. We walked a bit and you could feel the altitude- it is something like 3400 meters, Quito itself is at least 500 less than that. I was definitely breathing hard when we hiked uphill.
4) Ali and I hung out at her house while Steven went to a Persian class (?) Then he came back, we wanted to go to dinner at this Mexican restaurant on our block, but it was closed due to the holiday, so we got in a cab and ended up at S’pan’es, a Colombian fast-food restaurant, which was delicious. I had an arepa with guacamole and cheese and mini chicken empanadas. However this was not a happy meal because Ali had just lost her phone in our cab and thinks her iPod was pickpocketed earlier this week... somber dinner. Steven went home and I slept over at Ali’s.

And for the inconceivable...

1) Exactly two weeks from this moment (clearly as of time of writing) I will be sitting, most likely exhausted, in George Walker Bush International (will they rename it Barack Hussein Obama? Could Texas do that?) airport, waiting for my connecting flight to take me home.
2) In ONE week from today, I will be flying to the south of Ecuador and traveling with my friend Carmen for the week.
*This weekend I was seriously considering backing out on this trip, due to money issues and feeling like I should stay in Quito my last week, but I realized how terrible it would be. Ali is gone next Sunday, and any foreigners staying in Quito will be doing so for exams or to spend time with their Ecuadorian boyfriends, neither of which I care to participate in (I have already arranged to take my exams early and do not want to change that now and study more). So I will be traveling.
3) I will not see any of my friends here for a very, very long time, and I won’t process this until I’m gone.
4) My schedule for this week is as follows: TUES: Literature presentation. WED: MUN Final exam. THURS: LIT Final Exam, Anthro presentation, Anthro Final Exam. ... NOT looking forward to it.
5) Of course finals have to be at the end of the semester, which of course is when you are feeling the most confused, vulnerable and emotional (at least in my case). I spent so much time here seemingly just floating through my days, and now that I am truly happy I have to spend this week studying and stressing about finals, money and packing to go... home? I cried Thursday night, Friday morning in my room, Friday afternoon waiting for Susie at the bus stop. I am a bit more put together now. A bit.
6) Not that I am dreading being home. I think it will be lovely... I’m just not ready.
7) I will be back at Beloit in a bit over a month... I got into all of my classes, which I believe is the first time that has happened since my first semester. So I will be taking:

Politics of Latin America and the Caribbean
Women’s Health
Economic Development
Nicaragua in Transition
Claude Levi-Strauss at 100 (.5 credit)

It is an amazing schedule as I don’t have class til noon on Tuesday and Thursday, and 11:15 MWF. I didn’t do that on purpose- I am actually fond of morning classes- but I think it will be very nice to have mornings free. The classes (I anticipate will) also complement each other extremely well, at least Nicaragua and Economic Development, along with POLS.

Let me know if you are in any of them. Also, anyone know anything about the proposed Spanish minor? Jenny?

8) The economic situation in the US (slash, the entire world). We have been raised in a time of plenty and I think, especially for my/our generation, to see the economy fall apart like this will have an incredible impact on us for the rest of our lives, the same way September 11th did.

I still remember when I found out about what happened. I was in 8th grade at a public middle school in uptown Manhattan (nowhere near the towers), and that morning, parents began coming in and taking their kids out of class one by one. We had no idea what was going on and were quite scared. Finally, between periods, I asked my math teacher what had happened, and she said two planes had crashed into the Twin Towers.

“Cool,” I said, having absolutely no understanding of what kind of damage she was referring to, my childish mind unable to imagine the damage which had occurred only miles south of where I lived. I remember walking to my brother’s school to pick him up (about two miles away) and going home with him. I don’t think buses were working after the attacks. When I got home I watched the coverage on TV for hours, and cried.

The next day was one of my best friend’s (still a best friend’s) birthday, and school was cancelled, and we had a quiet lunch. There was a thick layer of dust on the windowsill of our apartment, which had drifted uptown and settled, one of the few things that remained of the Towers.

One night when I was falling asleep- I think my parents were going out- I remember being terrified that an airplane was going to crash into my bedroom, and that nowhere in the city could be safe.

My point being– well, I don’t have a point, but I have many thoughts. How will what happens to us when we are children affect our long-term development? Will we believe we are more prone to disaster? Less likely to trust the people around us?

But then– how can we rebound so quickly? I have no fear riding the subway in New York or walking in crowded areas, and very minimal fear on an airplane. Is it naivety? A necessary mechanism to keep me from going insane? Will these economic events affect our decision-making for decades to come? Will teenagers entering college lean more towards a career path than freedom of intellectual exploration? Will college actually become unaffordable for most American families, as the New York Times predicted?

One thing that scares me is that statistic that graduating from college during a recession decreases one’s income by 10% (that is probably entirely wrong, but it was some significant number). If half a million people lost their jobs in November– people with decades of experience and loyalty are getting fired– how on earth are we going to get jobs? I hate when people deem the current crisis more or less equivalent to the Great Depression. It is not. That Depression has 25% unemployment. We are at 6.7%! Although that number is not considered truthful, as many people have dropped out of the workforce due to the inability to find a job- as well as their lack of hope. It is still not on equal terms, the same way the Attacks on Mumbai are not India's September 11; their death toll not even close to one-tenth of what was experienced in 2001. Not to be callous. It's just one way of determining it. Not to make these issues seem less important than they are or give them less attention than they deserve (uhh, does anyone even read this?), but scaring people with incorrect information does not help anyone.

Depressing, isn’t it?

If you like reading about this stuff, a blog I like is Econowhiner. There are usually two or three posts a day, various things about the economy or tips to save money/ your sanity. It’s interesting. Go look at it.

I should go study or something. I should also start packing (I am determined to have one suitcase packed before I leave to travel next week), but I doubt I will start before Saturday, because it will make me too sad. I am not looking forward to goodbyes. Sorry to conclude this entry about something that happened seven years ago. Processing all my thoughts about the present has been too overwhelming.

Two weeks?!