Only three hours before my flight I was finishing up last minute shopping (with my two-year-old). I rushed home and fortunately most of my things were together, as I was literally throwing my things at my best friend in the whole wide world, Erin Disney. I never would have made it here if she wouldn´t have trekked from San Antonio (where she, too, is a teacher) to help me. Unfortunately, some things were not where they ¨should¨ have been and when I arrived in Quito, I realized that. I will list the known items (so far) that I left:
- My huge box of yummy looking Snickers brand energy bars - not a huge problem; I can live without them
- My phone charger - okay, I would really love to be able to call home throughout the duration of my trip but obviously that is not meant to be; I´ll survive
- My camera charger and USB cord - Okay, this is a doosey! The only ¨souvenirs¨and keepsakes of this trip are my photos. Not to mention I can´t upload photos from my camera to post on here without my USB cord!!!
So, I spent the whole day roaming the streets of Quito looking for a camera charger. I never found one but learned a lot of things. I will share those with you:
- Not very many people in Quito speak English. Please know I am not meaning to offend anyone by my comments here, in fact I am about to share with you how ¨dumb¨I was. I prefer the word ¨naive¨ which Webster defines as: ¨deficient in worldly wisdom or informed judgment¨ I thought that there would be many English speakers here, especially the merchants. At first I was a little frustrated but then I put things in perspective. Do most of OUR merchants speak Spanish??? Nope! So, what was I thinking?
- I know more Spanish than I realized. I took Spanish in High school. It was my first experience with a failing grade - EVER. I was typically an all ¨A¨ student with an occasional ¨B¨. I didn´t even fail with an ¨almost¨ passing grade. If I remember correctly, it was about a 55. Yikes! I quickly switched to French and had slightly better, passing grades. I was once again faced with the scary Spanish monster in college. It was required for graduation. I could take French, Spanish, or Japanese. The logical choice would have been French since I already took it with a bit of success but I´ve never been one to take the logical route. I have my own form of logic which actually most of you will agree also is logical - I wanted to take Spanish because I felt it could benefit me more in Texas. I knew I had a hard time acquiring languages but I wanted to succeed at it this time. I pepped myself up and tackled it. I received my first ¨F¨ on my college transcript (if you don´t count the ones I received when I ¨quit¨ UofH and ¨forgot¨to drop classes). I made up a million and one excuses as to why I didn´t ¨get it¨ and hit it head-on a second time (third if you count High School). Everyone knows that if you take it again and pass, the ¨F¨ gets replaced with the passing grade. No biggie, I´ll just make an ¨A¨ this time. Wrong, failed again. Disappointed but not swayed, I took it a third time - third time´s a charm? I wish! I was ready to give up but decided, instead, to put it on the back burner for a while. I was almost ready to graduate - I had all my courses almost complete and I filled for my degree plan or whatever it´s called when you are about to graduate. Well, come to find out, three attempts at Spanish does not count as three semesters of Spanish (I had to have four to graduate). So I was still looking at maybe two more years of college. My goodness, I was already 25. All of my friends were graduated and gone. So, I did the best thing I could do - I quit college and made myself a diploma. Just kidding. I took Spanish at the community college, closer to home, where I heard it was a bit easier. Somehow, I managed to pull of an ¨A¨ in both Spanish 1 and 2 without cheating! Then I was faced with Spanish 3 and 4 and with the help of some friends, I pulled off an ¨A¨ in both of those as well. I didn´t think I had retained much but I guess I did. I can now inform someone that I need a camera charger in Spanish (Necessito un caradore para mi batteria de camera - or something like that)! I know I didn´t type it perfectly but you get the point.
- Some people are helpful, some people just laugh at your ignorance. I guess this is true all over but today I felt it hard. I walked into the first shop and no one spoke any English. So, I pulled out my hand dandy pocket translator and said, ¨I need a battery¨ in Spanish. I can´t remember exactly what I said, if I had my translator here I could type it but it´s up in my room. The four women in the room looked at me with a horrified look on their faces. I panicked, knowing I said something wrong. I looked back at the translator and realized there were multiple meanings. Apparently the first one meant to totally knock the heck out of someone, as in assault and battery. I quickly recovered and said the right one but it was too late. I was the annoying American tourist. I was laughed out of the store, feeling completely mortified and lost in a foreign world. I was about to go back to my room and call it quits but I wanted to do it right. So, I figured out the correct way to ask and went to several more shops that were helpful. One even experimented with several chargers before we realized they didn´t have a match.
- Coke is cheap! Coke as in Coca-Cola, of course! Exhausted from a day of walking around at a tremendous altitude, I needed a coke. I 1.3 liter bottle costs only $.70. Of course I didn´t need that much but it was the only one they had cold so I took it. At home we pay what, $1.29 for a 20 oz.? Crazy!
- Taxi drivers and drivers in general drive crazy. I was warned ahead of time so I tried not to scream as my driver spun around corners, disregarded red lights, and nearly ran over several other cars as one of them ventured into the others lane, all the while belting out the lyrics to the music he was listening to.
- Drivers honk A LOT!!! No explanation needed! If you´re confused see bullet above.
- US TV shows are readily available. However, some are dubbed in Spanish so you get a funny mouth effect while others simply have subtitles. I actually watched an entire episode of ¨Everybody Loves Raymond¨ in Spanish. I had seen it countless times before so I knew what it was about. I labeled it a learning experience.
- There is no air conditioning other than Mother Nature. I´m sure some places have it but I have yet to find one. I guess there´s not really a need for it. It is cool here, even in July. I am wearing a sweater right now. In fact, it gets quite chilly at night. The only heat source I could find was the fireplace in the lobby. I´m sure if I asked, they have heaters available but I´m not that cold. My window isn´t sealed very well so all sounds and drafts come in.
- Farm animals reside in the city. I actually awoke to the sound (at 6 AM) of a rooster cock-a-doodle-dooing! I haven´t experienced that since sleeping over at my friend´s house when I was 15. It was actually rather pleasant. Note: I enjoyed the nostalgia then went back to sleep.
- The keyboard here is different. I think I´ve got it figured out now but when I first sat down, I was a bit confused. It is basically the same with a few symbols in different places and some of the numbers have two symbols on them instead of one so you can´t just hit the ¨shift¨ button. There are other differences but I won´t list them all!
- The view is unbeatable! As I look out my window (and turn my head to the right), I can see the Andes mountains! They are breath-taking beautiful. I have never seen such a view from a city!
I could ramble on about the things I learned and discovered today but I need to get back to my room and study the different bird calls of the Amazon. I hope to get some camera stuff tomorrow so I can share photos.
