hokay, so...
first of all, new photos are up.
I just had my final LPI (language proficiency interview) today, and totally rocked it, so i feel pretty good right now. When i came in, i had no idea how to conjugate verbs, but i looked up the regular present and preterit tenses at the last minute (as is my costume) and therefore barely escaped the begginer level and tested into low level intermediate by the skin of my teeth. I just tested into the lower level advance speaking level, skipping a couple steps and making ¨the biggest jump in recorded history¨. I attribute my success to the fact that i read a lot of english books instead of doing my homework.
couple cool things, i guess.
I did a handstand on teh equator, only to realize it wasn´t the REAL equator...there was a museum and everything!!!
had another dance party in teh pizzeria cum discotechque, only this time the columbian owners took us out to real discos afterwards and professed their love to every girl in our group. they tried to explain that girls in america hang out iwht many guys just as friends without wanting sex. the friendly columbians couldn´t quite grasp this issue. Another strappingly buff young male friend of mine and myslef let them hummiliate themselves and our girlsfriends for fun, but we keep a watchful eye, just in case.
really awesome hike up to some mountain lagoons. really breathtaking views. we hiried a camioneta to take us up this mountain, then we hiked around for a bit then started the 10 mile treck down the mountain. the diahrea and strep throat didn´t help, especially because it was so dusty two of my friends (the mature, married type) wore dust masks.
im starting to really like my host family. i can now laugh with them and have fun, bummer i have to leave in a week!
i slaughtered my first chicken yesterday. I grab it by the neck and slit its throat. slit, meaning i sawed at it with a dull blade. then i yanked out its feathers and cut it open to pull out the entrails (which my family ate). its weird, i never thought about how egs work. they get spit out every day, and the gestation period is like 2 or 3 weeks, so that means that theres about 20 eggs inside a chicken at any given time, at varying levels of development. they range from almost fully developed all teh way down to the smallst which is the size of a grain of rice. obviously these were left in the chicken and cooked along with it. they taste just like regular eggs, my host mom said. i beg to differ.
sorry these blogs are so rushed. in the future, i may have access to a non-payment computer so ill be able to spend more time on my entries.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
i just published some photos to snapfish.com. I have a lot more, but it takes forever to upload them here. Hopefully these will suffice untill i can post more.
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=226586155/a=140470539_140470539/t_=140470539
that should work, you may need to sign up, which is rediculously easy.
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=226586155/a=140470539_140470539/t_=140470539
that should work, you may need to sign up, which is rediculously easy.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
So the last couple days have been pretty sweet. On thursday, some of us decided that we needed to blow off some steam, so we went to a tequilla bar in the city. The combination of really cheap beer, high altitude, and the fact that we haven´t really drank in a while all combined to make the night really interesting. Lets just say the night ended really late (about 9pm) with us taking over a hole in the wall pizza joint and asking the owner to blast his brittany spears and backstreet boys compilation album while we had a dance party. Passers by were amused and or horrified. We got back to our town by, how else, riding in the back of a pickup.
Aparently the steam wasn´t fully blown off, because the next night we decided to hit up a kareokee bar in tabacundo... The OC of the cayambe region. That was pretty rediculous also, and ended with us hiking back along the highway and hoping a taxi would come...which it eventually did.
Yesterday, a group of us went to Otavalo, the biggest outdoor market in South America, to consume shit. Which we did. The crowning jewel in my back was a brightly colored, extra large hammock. I rigged that up last night, using a couple cow poop stained ropes to hang it from my rafters and read while jammin to some tunes.
Today, we were planning on going on a bad ass hike up to some mountain lakes, but the weather turned fowl so were going to stay in and try to find a place to watch the olympics. I also plan on learning how to make tortillas today. Given my propensity to eat tortillas and the fact that they´re hard to find here, this may be the thing i am most excited about all week.
Ohh yeah, I´m also learning some stuff, too. But the technical knowledge required to save the world is a bit tedious, really, so i haven´t been boring you with the details.
Also, i´ll try to put up some pictures soon...maybe, if i feel like it.
T minus 21 days untill i enter the jungle for good.
Aparently the steam wasn´t fully blown off, because the next night we decided to hit up a kareokee bar in tabacundo... The OC of the cayambe region. That was pretty rediculous also, and ended with us hiking back along the highway and hoping a taxi would come...which it eventually did.
Yesterday, a group of us went to Otavalo, the biggest outdoor market in South America, to consume shit. Which we did. The crowning jewel in my back was a brightly colored, extra large hammock. I rigged that up last night, using a couple cow poop stained ropes to hang it from my rafters and read while jammin to some tunes.
Today, we were planning on going on a bad ass hike up to some mountain lakes, but the weather turned fowl so were going to stay in and try to find a place to watch the olympics. I also plan on learning how to make tortillas today. Given my propensity to eat tortillas and the fact that they´re hard to find here, this may be the thing i am most excited about all week.
Ohh yeah, I´m also learning some stuff, too. But the technical knowledge required to save the world is a bit tedious, really, so i haven´t been boring you with the details.
Also, i´ll try to put up some pictures soon...maybe, if i feel like it.
T minus 21 days untill i enter the jungle for good.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
ok. So its been a while since i last posted...sorry.
anyway, a lot of cool stuff happened, but ill try to be brief.
Two weekends ago we split up into groups to go on a day adventure. We had an option of a couple possible places to go, and the most popular destination was otavalo, the shopping mecca of South America. The urge to consume is strong with us Americans. I chose to go to a giant waterfall instead, and wasn´t dissapointed. It was a little touristy and busy, but we hiked up higher and saw some really cool views, as well as a more secluded waterfall that we frolicked in. a good day was had by all.
The next day about 9 of us went to these volcanic hotsprings WAYYYY out in the middle of nowhere. We paid a guy with a truck to drive us all the 2 and a half hour round trip, which was in and of itself incredible. On the way there, the mountains were shrouded in an eerie fog that sparayed us as we sat in the truck bed. In contrast, the way back was brilliantly clear as teh sun was low on teh horizon, and we got a view of Cayambe (the 20,000 foot beast) from the other side. sweet. The hotsprings were cool too. You´re supposed to get really hot, then get out and jump in teh icy cold mountain river, then repeat three times. If you do that once every year, you supposedly add 10 years to your life. Considering the average lifespan is 75 years, going one time should add about 49 days to my life. i plan on ejoying those days, too.
Anyway, so the reall meat of my post. I got my site assaignment! I just got back from my week long visit...forgive me if i don´t make sense, im a little tired from the 24 hour bus ride. So yeah, i´m way down south, almost in peru, and im in the jungle at an elevation of 900 meters on the eastern edge of the Andes. My site is totally bad ass. Super tranquillo. The weather is perfect, and there is so much plant life all around. People play soccer and volleyball everyday, and they are all pretty athletic, so playing with them is fun. Everyone is super nice, too. My home wasn´t ready yet, so i actually got to spend the week in the mayors house, which was cool.
I also spent a day hiking in the (semi) nearby podacarpus national park, which was really ugly. not. There were a bunch of different orchids in bloom, and tons of cool birds.
And my job is really cool to. Ill spend every monday through wednesday going up and down the river on a canoe spreading the good word of health to the villagers along the way. Theres two rivers, so ill alternate weeks. In the dry season, i have to get and and walk half way, so it will take another day. Then, i get back to my city of 1500 and work in the office for a day and prepare for the next week. I´m also going to teach english in the evenings when in in my village.
So yeah, it should be a pretty sweet two years. My only source of stress is that im going to run out of good books to read or music to listen to. If anyone feels like sending a book book my way or a burned cd (in audio or mp3 format) that would be much appreciated. As awesome as my site is, the only drawback is that its the most isolated of all the Peace Corps sites, so obtaining new liturature and music might be challenging.
anyway, a lot of cool stuff happened, but ill try to be brief.
Two weekends ago we split up into groups to go on a day adventure. We had an option of a couple possible places to go, and the most popular destination was otavalo, the shopping mecca of South America. The urge to consume is strong with us Americans. I chose to go to a giant waterfall instead, and wasn´t dissapointed. It was a little touristy and busy, but we hiked up higher and saw some really cool views, as well as a more secluded waterfall that we frolicked in. a good day was had by all.
The next day about 9 of us went to these volcanic hotsprings WAYYYY out in the middle of nowhere. We paid a guy with a truck to drive us all the 2 and a half hour round trip, which was in and of itself incredible. On the way there, the mountains were shrouded in an eerie fog that sparayed us as we sat in the truck bed. In contrast, the way back was brilliantly clear as teh sun was low on teh horizon, and we got a view of Cayambe (the 20,000 foot beast) from the other side. sweet. The hotsprings were cool too. You´re supposed to get really hot, then get out and jump in teh icy cold mountain river, then repeat three times. If you do that once every year, you supposedly add 10 years to your life. Considering the average lifespan is 75 years, going one time should add about 49 days to my life. i plan on ejoying those days, too.
Anyway, so the reall meat of my post. I got my site assaignment! I just got back from my week long visit...forgive me if i don´t make sense, im a little tired from the 24 hour bus ride. So yeah, i´m way down south, almost in peru, and im in the jungle at an elevation of 900 meters on the eastern edge of the Andes. My site is totally bad ass. Super tranquillo. The weather is perfect, and there is so much plant life all around. People play soccer and volleyball everyday, and they are all pretty athletic, so playing with them is fun. Everyone is super nice, too. My home wasn´t ready yet, so i actually got to spend the week in the mayors house, which was cool.
I also spent a day hiking in the (semi) nearby podacarpus national park, which was really ugly. not. There were a bunch of different orchids in bloom, and tons of cool birds.
And my job is really cool to. Ill spend every monday through wednesday going up and down the river on a canoe spreading the good word of health to the villagers along the way. Theres two rivers, so ill alternate weeks. In the dry season, i have to get and and walk half way, so it will take another day. Then, i get back to my city of 1500 and work in the office for a day and prepare for the next week. I´m also going to teach english in the evenings when in in my village.
So yeah, it should be a pretty sweet two years. My only source of stress is that im going to run out of good books to read or music to listen to. If anyone feels like sending a book book my way or a burned cd (in audio or mp3 format) that would be much appreciated. As awesome as my site is, the only drawback is that its the most isolated of all the Peace Corps sites, so obtaining new liturature and music might be challenging.
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