Forgive me, I´m still learning this whole blog thing. But this is one of many courtyards on campus......


I am to afraid to bring my camera anywhere, so we may lack pictures for a while.

Universidad San Francisco de Quito is a young, 29-year-old, liberal arts university in Cumbaya, Ecuador. It looks like a Japanese spa crossed with old South American buildings that Stevie Wonder designed. Getting from one class to the next is as close to I have come to finding the Room of Requirement.

There are approximately 300/5500 students from the US at USFQ. The rest are fast talking, 2003 fashion dressing, Ecuadorians.

We have to take 18 credit hours… aka twice as many classes as I am used to:
1. Espanol para extranjeros—the professor was a no show on day one.
2. Danza moderna 1—a typical old school modern dance teacher with two papers and group choreography final. Good for the body, mind, and GPA
3. Amazon societies—I JUST added this class, but we do get to spend a weekend or two in an indigenous village in the Amazon.
4. Game theory—really hard really hard really hard econ class, where I am one of two women, one of three foreigners, and one of 14 students
5. Ethnography aka Intercultural Related Project (ICRP) class
6. Voloconolgy—Theo, our prof is bonkers. In addition, the class is all international kids, with more than half being from K College. But we are required to go to four or 5 “field experiences” also known as three weekends of exploring volcanoes with the man in charged of certain volcanic areas for the country.

me and liz in tombaco

25/8/09

so I bet that you have never been in an Ecuadorian hospital until 2 am for dehydration and a bacterial infection. Last Saturday, all the kalamazoo kids went out together to the Mariscal aka Gringolandia aka the bar/clubbing district. Miss Geneva showed Liz and I around once again and I got home around 2 am.

The next morning as I was eating my delicsious Ecuadorian breakfast with fresh squeezed orange juice, I had to beeline to the bathroom to empty the entire contents of my body. And that continued to happen 4 more times along with other unmentionable activies. A little bit more than chuchaqi. Despues, mi madre y yo made a 4 hour trip to the ER where I got a sweet IV, a shot in the butt, and veins full of antibiotics, I was released. Two days later I am still exausted and its difficult to get back to 100%.

Ecuador is amazing. My house is pretty sweet, I live with mi madre in a gated community near the Estado Olympico, the state soccer stadium. I have my own room, bathroom, bbq, and game room. Liz and luis live near by. I take 2 buses to my University which looks like a spa complete with koi pond, sushi bar, and a posh dining room. Other than the huge language barrier, things are going well. It has been muy deficil to find internet.

i wrote a really long entry. but it wont copy and paste and liz baugh will not let me do it

i cant figure out how to write on this in ecuador