One month down...

So I've been here a month and things continue to be well. I'm finally feeling really comfortable with speaking Spanish, which is a relief because for a while I was having to think REALLY hard in order to talk and my brain would get tired really fast. Luckily most of the young people I hang out with speak English, some of them really well, so if I ever don't understand or don't get a joke they translate for me. They're all really nice and they call me ¨gringita¨which means little white girl, but apparently it's an affectionate term, so I'll roll with it :)

Everyday I encounter something new and interesting. Like the other day when I was with my host brother and our friend Lorena and we went to go look at cell phones. Ok, so they tell me we're going to a store to look at phones, cool. So we go and he goes into the store talks with the guys and then comes back and tells us to wait. About two minutes later a guy gets in the car with a few Blackberrys and we start driving somewhere to meet someone with more phones. Ok... it was kinda weird that instead of going to see the phones the phones come to you, but whatever. We drive to the next neighborhood and park on the street, a couple guys get in, we talk, we drive to an apartment building, we park, and they run up to get something. They come back with two briefcase type bags full of Blackberrys and computers and they each have at least two Blackberrys in their pockets. They unload all of it and there we are 5 people parked on the street in a car full of potentially stolen electronics. I thought it was weird. Something about it seemed a little fishy and slightly illegal. Especially seeing as some of the phones had people's personal pictures in them. No big deal, they told me later, it doesn't really matter where they came from. Ok, sure, I guess. That's just the way you buy a new phone here. It's informal commerce that I understand, it serves the vendors well. That it potentially involves a touch of illegality is probably not very cool, but that's just my American point of view I suppose.

In case you we're wondering both my friends bought new phones and they work just great. They just had to get them unblocked from security codes. But it's totally fine, they know guys who know how to do that too.

It's interesting here also that they sell lots of American clothes in little shops on the street. There's all kinds of American brands in little shops run by whoever, at to me it's really weird because they are selling stuff that in the States you can only buy at the particular store. For example in the mall and on the street they have stores that sell American Eagle, Gap and Hollister clothes. At first I really didn't get it because you have to go to that brand store to buy their stuff in the States. On top of that how could they possibly be certified vendors of these brands, and if they were why didn't the company just open a store here instead of giving the merchandise to individual vendors. Well, turns out there is no certifying of vendors or anything of that nature. Instead people go to the US with empty suitcases, buy clothes or whatever else and bring it back here and sell it. To us it's odd and I had a hard time understanding why it worked this way, but then they told me about the taxes on imports.

In Ecuador the tax on any import is 20%. So everything that I'm familiar with, food brands, car brands, home goods, cost 20% more. A Ford Explorer in the States might retail for $24,000 and here it's almost $30,000 with about $5,000 just going to taxes. 20% sounds outragous to me and here the people think so too, especially when it's not entirely clear where that fifth of the price is going once it makes it to goverment hands. Has the economy, infasturcture, education system or poverty level improved since the tax was put in place? From what I've heard, no, not much. Although in the government's defense the highways have been steadily and drastically improving.

The other thing about imports being so expensive is that what is produced here is really cheap, at least to me. So in general people don't buy imported goods that much unless they are rich, or so I thought. The reality is, though, that the people go to the US and privately bring items back to sell in informal commerce. There are also lots of people who have container businesses and they bring in cars, furniture, all kinds of stuff and somehow skirt taxes. That's how the clothes work, and the phones and the BMWs.

If you really think about it, its a really good business for those who "import" outside of the goverment. If the people are used to paying 20% more than the market price and they only have to pay 10 they think it's a bargain and the seller gains 10% on the investment. Legality doesn't seem to be a concern in this business, so I guess I won't concern myself with it, but it seems like a better system could exist. But I suppose that's true everywhere.

Oh also, a couple weeks ago a blacklist came out from a financial foundation that included Ecuador as one of the most dangerous places to keep your money for lack of security, stability and the prevelence of money laundering. The goverment refuted this assignation, but there's obviously something behind it and I'm just glad I don't have my money in an Ecuadorian bank.

Carnaval

So, we made it back safe and sound from our trip to the beach for carnaval, and I have not one complaint about sitting on the beach for 4 days and dancing all night. The van ride, on the other hand, is a different story. The van itself was really more comical than anything with 10 people, all their luggage and some DJing stuff in one minivan; but the driving was crazy and I was thinking most of the time that the beach would be really fun as long as we made it in one piece. We were fine, I was probably the only one who was worried because I'm just not used to it. They don't have lane line on the highways, only a median line, and therefore people can make a two lane into a three lane, pass whenever they want, stop at will in either of the lanes and the police are not about to do anything. The weird thing about it is that it functions. I have yet to see an accident here. No fender benders, nothing. I don't know how it works, but it does and it did for us on our whole 6 hour drive to the beach.

The town we went to this weekend was called Montanita and it's known for being a laid back little surf town (think Jack Johonson, board shorts and a beer). It was really cool and relaxed, all the roofs were thatched, the streets weren't paved, everyone was walking around in flip-flops and swim suits. The beach was incredible, soft white sand and really warm water.

In contrast to the beachy feel of the town was the air of carnaval that took it over come nightfall. There was music coming from everywhere, the streets were full of people drinking and dancing and people spraying you with foam all over the place.

We spent the days laying on the beach, eating delicious fresh fruit and seafood and right about midnight we headed out to dance. When we finally made it back around 6 we collapsed in our beds for a few hours until the sun was getting high on the beach again.

We didn't end up taking surf lessons, we're saving that for a trip we have planned to northern Peru. But we might go again to Montanita when there isn't carnaval music pulsing all night, and also get to know the other beaches around here.

Here's a couple pictures of our group and I have some videos and other pics I'll get to soon.

"Everything seems to turn out a little different here..."

I am certainly not complaining about being here. The pace of life is slow, the city is beautiful and I spend lots of time with my host family always learning something, and usually there is delicious food involved. The only complaint I can think of is the incredibly ironic fact that I am living in one of the biggest coffee producing countries in the world and I have yet to have a decent cup of coffee. I was told by friends who had lived in South America that they drank instant coffee, but I didn't think it was a big deal, forgetting for a moment my love of coffee. So, three weeks into drinking instant coffee I was very interested in finding some espresso, or just good drip coffee. I went downtown with my hostbrother, Hernán, to find a café where I could read a paper and sip some coffee while he was working. He pointed me to the newsstand and the café, and I thought I had just what I needed. I got a paper and proceeded to the café. In keeping with the slow pace of life here, turns out most cafés aren't open at 8:30 a.m., seems strange to me, but there wasn't a ton open anyway. Instead, there was a resturant right above the café that was open. A full-service, white tablecloth, full-bar resturant nonetheless. They said they had coffee, so I took my pick of tables and there I was with a white tablecloth and a full table setting, including wine glasses at 8 a.m. I was the only person in the whole place and the waiter was confused as to why I only came in for coffee, I was confused as to why the resturant was open at all. But he brought me a cup of hot water, some sugar and a thing that looked like balsalmic vinager. I wasn't sure how a cup of coffee translated into vinager and hot water, so I just stared at it for a minute, then I smelled the vinager looking stuff and it turned out to be coffee concentrate of some kind. What it really was, I found out, was really, really strong instant coffee to be poured into hot water. It really didn't taste good at all, but what the heck, it was good enough. I read my paper and drank it, and for the whopping $1 price it was fine.

When I went home and told the American couple about it, we laughed and they said that everything they try to find turns out a little different too.

On Saturday night it was just Caroline, Jason and I at the house, because everyone else had various functions. We decided to watch a movie and have some popcorn. We went to make popcorn, but the stove didn't work. We figured it was just the igniter and that we could light it with a match, because we have to do that sometimes, but that failed. We went to the backyard to check the gas, couldn't figure out what was wrong. So we heated some food up with the microwave. Then we wanted some hot water. That didn't work either. They turn the water heater off a lot, and we don't know how to work it, so we we're out of luck 'til the morning. Then we went to watch a movie. Pirated movies are pretty much all they watch here because they're on every corner, they're pretty good quality and they only cost $1.25. So we found a couple movies, 2 pirated, and one original. We wanted to watch the one that was an original, but, low and behold, neither of the DVD players plays the original, only the pirated ones worked. All in all, we were fine, but we all had a good laugh about how they left the silly Americans at the house and we could not for the life of us figure out how to use anything. We laughed too at the irony of the fact that the DVD player only played pirated movies. Oh man...

A reprive from the lack of familliarity came for us on Sunday when we went to watch the Super Bowl. Jason, Caroline, Hernán and I all went to Sports Planet to enjoy good 'ol American burgers, beer and football. We had a really good time, and Hernán got to learn about fútbol americano.

This coming weekend is carnaval and I'm going to the beach with a big group of Hernán's friends. There are 11 or 12 of us staying together from Saturday to Tuesday. I can't wait! The town is called Montanita, and it's a tiny little surf town where people lay on the beach all day and go out all night. Oh yea, and they surf. I might take a surf lesson, they're only $12. Sounds pretty good to me.

Calle de Las Herrerias

Yay. I finally figured out how to make the blog be in English, which is good so now you all can understand what the little links mean and stuff.

Besides that, I've started going to the foundation where I'm going to be volunteering for the rest of my time here. This week we're learning how to do the art projects we will be teaching the kids, and it's pretty fun. We're working with clay, making animals, jewelry and murals. Next we'll be learning how to make little booties and hats out of wool. I'm working with a girl from Finland who is at the foundation as part of a study abroad program. She's studying art and she's the one who is teaching us how to do stuff. In addition to being a good artist, she is also 100% hippie. She has really long dreads and very eclectic clothes. She's really nice and we get along well, it's just funny because on the surface we're night and day, but it's great be able to get to know someone from another country. There's also another girl who's taking ceramics classes at the same place we're working who's from the Czech Republic. We've had a good couple of days working on our projects and taking breaks to have a cup of coffee or "cafecito".

Here are a couple of pictures I took yesterday on my walk to the foundation. The building we are in is a small museum (there's a lot of them in this town) and is located on the metalworker's street. Right in front of the museum is a big piece of art that is a monument to the metal workers. I took a picture of the street sign too because it's cool. All the street signs in the old part of town are like this. There is also a picture of the bridge right down from our house that crosses the river I run and walk by, and a picture of the cow I saw about 50 yards from the bridge. I think it's hilarious that the cows are grazing by the greenbelt thing.