Bienvenidos a Uruguay

Week 25--

¡Hola de Quito, Ecuador!

A little painted picture for ya of my airplane travels to Ecuador…

I leave my house in Montevideo around 9ish in the A.M. to leave the country at 12 noon. I fly to Santiago, Chile, hang out in the Dunkin’ Donuts for 6 hours (the only place with wifi), fly to Lima, Peru, spend the night in the airport, and then finally fly to Quito at 6 in the morning on Sunday. I feel pretty rough. But I make it to Quito safe n’ sound, and I find my new host-padre waiting for me with a sign, COURNEY WALKER, in block letters. Welp…here goes nothing…

Ok, I’m putting the brush down, done painting. I’ll just explain the rest of my week to you regularly:

My host-family here is quite nice: Eugenio, Yoli, two daughters, and a dog. They have been hosting students from the school Academia Latino America now for about 6 years. They’ve had students from Japan, Germany, Switzerland (I think), lots of other places, and now little old me from Georgia/North Carolina/Uruguay. Although I think my Uruguayan accent annoys host-padre a bit, we get along just fine. He even showed me karaoke, which we apparently have in the house… First I rocked along to the song Todo Cambio, by Camila, and then paid tribute to my youth with the ‘English ballad,’ As Long As You Love Me, by the one and only Backstreet Boys. I got a better score on the Spanish song… what does that mean!?

I can see a volcano from my house!

The garden.

Cute little mirror! Note the penguin lamp in the backround.

View from my house at night.



Karaoke en casa-- video to come later.

I speak the truth—this first week has been pretty tough. As you may or may not know, I am here for 5 weeks working about 7-9 hours a day in a sports radio station called ‘La Red’ and also at la Academia Latino America (which I didn’t know I was doing until I got here, but that’s is A-OK). That being said, I don’t really have a lot of time to build friendships with people my age. Thanks be to God, I did meet a few friends on my first day of orientation at the Academia. Since they will be taking classes there and I will be working there, some of the professors took us all on a little city tour and laid down the ground rules for us. Anyways-- I guess what I am trying to say is… it is just a very different situation than my situation in Montevideo, or when I went to college for the first time, or when I moved to GA when I was eight… I don’t have a ton of time here, and I don’t have very many interactions with the other students.

Ecuadorian time is the classic ‘Latin American time.’ You say you’re meeting someone at 12…be there at 12:30. You’ll be early. This made it a liiiiitle bit difficult to get my internship up and running. Despite what my last paragraph described, which is how the rest of my days will be, I had a lot of free time by myself on Tuesday and Wednesday. Since my new friends were in class and I was in a brand new city/country, I was just feeling really alone. Typing it out now I’m like, “Ohhh, buck up, Court! Tuesday and Wednesday? That’s only two days!” But trust me, it felt like much longer. Ya see, I was starting to come down with something. Like ‘sickness’ type something. Like ‘I’m pretty sure I’m getting strep throat’ type something. I was just not feeling like myself. I think this made Tuesday and Wednesday harder than they should have been. I guess I lied a little—* on Tuesday on my out of a bookstore, I ended up running into two of my friends. We ended up making a day out of eating Baskin' Robbins (!) and finding them a cell phone--it was fun! Annnd on Wednesday afternoon I met up with a few girls and we went up the teleférico, which is like a cable car that brings you up to a mountain to look out at all (most) of Quito. It was beautiful, and I will be returning later during these five weeks with my camera and with warmer clothing. When I got home I was grateful that I had gone, but I also felt like I had been hit by a bus. I was definitely sick. But Thursday was my first day on the job! I couldn’t miss my first day at the radio! <--Like I said, the beginning of my week felt worse than it actually probably was. I think I was just sick...*

On Thursday morning I got up at 7:30 (breakfast is at 8) and left the house at 9 to get to the Academia by 9:30. I actually really enjoy my work at the school. I am helping with translations, promotional videos, and articles for universities in the United States. I have my own little space, and I even get to listen to Pandora Radio (which somehow works in the Academia and nowhere else outside of it?). Around 1:30, after my lunch break at ‘12’ (12:45), I made my way to the radio for my very first day of radio-interning. It is very different than I thought it would be, but I think it will be something that I grow to really enjoy, as I learn how to make it my own. Right now I am translating fútbol news from English into Spanish for the radio’s website. If you go to Google and type in ‘Radio La Red, Quito, Ecuador’ and then search my name—Courtney Walker—my articles should come up! I’ve only done two… but still. At the end of the day, my semi-boss brought me down to the broadcasting room. Right before I left, one of the broadcasters motioned me over to the microphone. “He’ll just ask your name,” they told me. The ‘on air’ light was shining above the broadcasters. Welp…here goes nothing…

It went a little something like this: (Remember this is all in Spanish)

Broadcaster 1: Annnnd we’re here with our North American/Uruguayan friend (don’t remember what else...) and what is your name?

Me: Courtney Walker

Broadcaster 1: Courtney! And why are you here Courtney?

Me: I’m here working for 5 weeks here… blah blah (I don’t remember again)

Broadcaster 2: (Something about Uruguay)?

Me: Yes, I am studying there (there in Spanish= allá—pronounced a-sh-á in Uruguayan Spanish) for the year at La Catolica.

Broadcaster 2: Jaja (haha), ‘a-sh-á’… you have the accent now.

Me: Yes, soy Urugua-sha! (little joke for all my listeners out there…)

…and so on and so forth.  

They even gave me a soccer ball! That was really cool—could’ve been my big break. I knew I should’ve broken out into song!

On Friday I was really feeling awful. I asked my boss at the Academia if she could call the school’s doctor, and she kindly did so while also notifying the radio that I would not be able to make it during the afternoon. The doctor said it could either be a virus or bacteria (aren’t those really the only two options?), so he gave me medicine for both. I was just thankful for anything that would make me feel like Courtney again. Out of self-pity, I went to the MegaMaxi down the street and bought myself ‘Bridesmaids’ in Spanish—o sea ‘Damas en Guerra’: the perfect way to relax and start to feel better.

On Saturday I really did feel a lot more like myself. My throat still hurt a little, but a million times better than before. I did not want to miss out on any ‘friend-time,’ so I decided that I would join my new friends Mercy and Becky (from Michigan and Wisconsin, respectively) in the old part of the city to go to a museum. I figured it would be pretty tranquilo, and I wouldn’t be pushing myself too hard. We ended up spending hours in this museum/convent/church which was beautiful and so full of character and art! I loved it. Definitely a good, peaceful activity to do while my health was on the rise!

Some interesting little statues in the historical section of Quito.

Peachy-keen building amidst a storm.

Today I went to Mass with Mercy and Becky because they were joining their host-mom at a church near their house. It was so nice not to have to go sola. Their host-family invited to me to stay for breakfast, which was very lovely. Afterwards, the two girls and I planned a little trip outside of the city for next weekend. Baños, Ecuador… here we come! Then came the best part of the day: we went to ‘la mitad del mundo!’ Or shall I say… the middle of the world! The equator!

I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

La Mitad del Mundo!

Handstands en la Mitad del Mundo.

0-0-0.

I obviously thought this was hilarious... Ps. We accidently match.

Two girls. Two hemispheres.

Perdón que este blog post es muy largo.

Abrazos para Uds. de Quito!

O sea—hugs for you all from Quito!

Courtney

*'d parts = edited after more thought and reflection