Sorry!

Sorry I´ve been out of touch, dear friends! If you understood my internet situation, you would forgive me more readily. To illustrate, let´s take my two hour PowerPoint presentation on Total Quality Management and ISO Norms in relation to Sustainable Development (all in Spanish, by the way) as an example. Since I have no internet access from my computer in my house, my three internet options are as follows: 1)My brother´s laptop which in constantly by his side at home or in class 2) The University computer lab 3) the internet cafe across the street from my house. I started working on on the project on my brother´s computer. The day before the project is due, I call my brother from school to ask if I can borrow his computer when I get home. He says no because he has to take it to class. My thumbdrive is on me and he can´t find one at home. I´m so stressed out that I don´t even think about asking him to email it to me. Anyway, he finds a thumbdrive. I run home after class, it´s six in the evening by now, dash for the the internet cafe, which closes at nine. My brother is still not home. I use my family´s ancient desktop which starts to give me trouble. When I finally figure it out, my sister, in whose room the computer resides, wants to go to bed. Thankfully, my brother returns home at that point. But, to my dismay, he only have PowerPoint 2003 and my presentation is in PowerPoint 2007. So I stay up until two in the morning organizing my presentation in Microsoft Word, only to get up four hours later to get to school by eight to put everything into PowerPoint 2007 on the school computer before my midterm at eleven. I would get about six to eight hours of being productive lost.

So, that is why I can´t update the blog as much as I would like. When I´m not in class, I´m studying or reading, and when I´m doing neither, I´m traveling. Asi es mi vida.



On Monday, I fasted for Yom Kippur in a country with approximately seven hundred Jews, six hundred plus of which live in Quito. That evening, I went to the only synagogue in Quito. The cab driver couldn´t enter the street of the synagogue. I had to present my ID to enter the street. Then I had to go through a metal detector and bag check, as well as get a copy of my ID made. It was one of the most beautiful synagogues I had ever seen. All white, with a view overlooking the mountains. The place was packed. Even though I was praying half the time in Spanish surrounded by Jewish Latinos, I felt at home.

The day before, I went to a Liga (the Quito team) vs. Barcelona (the Guayacuil team) football game. They shot off the confetti before the game even began. We, Liga, destroyed Barcelona 4-0. It´s amazing to be in a football loving country, especially the days that the national team plays. Go Ecuador!

Two weekends ago, I went to Baños, an adventure town that sits at the foot of the (active) Volcano Tungurahua. Perhaps some of you have seen my profile picture of Facebook, but yes, I jumped off a bridge headfirst. Harnessed, of course. It was one of the most exciting experiences of my life. The feeling of standing one hundred feet above a roaring river surrounded by big rocks was almost too much for me. I don´t know how I finally decided to jump. I´ve never even been on an upside down rollercoaster. I´m scared to do cartwheels because I don´t like the feeling of being upside down. And look what happened. The moments of free-falling, before the bungy cord pulls are 99.9% of the experience. Pure fear. And joy.

Next week is my host mother´s birthday. The family is stumped about what we should do and what we should get her. She´s a fancy lady, so if anyone has any suggestions, I´d love to hear them. Speaking of my family, I don´t know how I´m going to leave them. I love having brothers. My parents suggested that I go home for winter break and come back Spring semester. I´m tempted.


My next post, which will come sooner rather than later now that hell week is over, will be about this country. Living here, I really see the beautiful and the ugly side by side in a way that I´ve only really seen it in Russia. Although, I must admit that the overall natural beauty here trumps that of Russia (or at least the city that I´m from). Scratch that, I can´t compare the natural beauty of two different climate zones like that.

Nos vemos!