I Have Arrived!

I have arrived! Wow, I have such good vibes about these 4 months of my life. The flight went smoothly. I met up with a bunch of fellow students at the airport in Miami, including some from the national identity/social rights program. When we arrived at OIU though, the two groups split, each with their directors. So that was the last time I saw some peeps, which was sad because I really liked them.
Today, January 27, on the 2 hour bus ride back from Joca Toco/Reserva Yanacocha, our director Sylvia told us that the other Ecuador program is known as the “regular” program. Heehee. Regular in Spanish means more like average or mediocre. I guess I would call the ecology program the crazy program, because we are all a bit tree-huggerish (some are super) and want to save the world and are generally OUT THERE.
March 28: We had our first excursion yesterday to the bosque Andino. It was an ecosystem I had never known about, so being there, all of a sudden, was a bit overwhelming, to be in a new world with a new feel I had never imagined. One of my readings introduces the cloud forest, or selva nublada, as “At elevations of about 1000-3000m in many mountain ranges of North and south America, a more or less continuous cloud cover permits the flourishing of exuberant, wet, mossy, dense forest (Webster). HUGE ass leaves called “paraguas” or umbrellas. We literally were walking through clouds, often not being able to see 10 meters ahead of us. The view was mystical and kind of erie. I could see cloud everywhere; right in front of me, coating the path (La Troncha Inca), and over the cliffs and ledges. Just huge curtains of grey cloud opening and closing everywhere, keeping the lichen and moss covered rocks very happy. There is actually very limited research of the cloud forest, therefore who knows what kinds of useful stuff is in here. The trip was actually our first Spanish lesson with our Spanish teachers.
I am in the advanced Castellano class, yay! I’m proud of myself, can’t believe I’m actually reaching my goal of being fluent in castellano. Our teacher is Luis, a skinny, sweet Ecuadorian in his 50s or 60s. He showed us a plant called Chilpi and told us it is an excellent plant to smoke, and then stuffed his pockets with leaves! He told us that they had been doing this trip for 8 years at this reserve, and only one year could they see the rest of the mountains in the distance, including the volcán crater. I like my group; it’s just about 5 ppl, including boys! Note: There are definite benefits to being educated at a women’s college, but I feel having some classes with a balanced ratio is critical as well. Finally, a semester with men! In Spain there was one boy in our program.

By the way, I failed at blogging in Spain :( So my new plan is to share about Espana by comparing it to Ecuador as I write.