Ecuador 3

Hello Everyone,
I hope you all are doing well. I haven´t heard from most of you and would love to hear how things are going with you.

Things of interest:
My classes are great. My class, History of Ecuadorian Thought, has mostly Ecuadorian students (there is only a girl and me that are foreigners). The same goes for my class Indigenous Literature. I had my first exam last thursday in Indigenous Literature and it was fairly easy. My Spanish classes are pretty fun, but are really demanding. I have three. We are memorizing 20 verbs a week and about 200 helpful words a month (In addition to what I learn daily). I haven´t used english since I got here except to communicate with all of you and a little bit with the dad of the English guy who was living with us.

It´s been a little hard to make Ecuadorian friends. I have been told that it´s normal to find very closed groups of family friends which aren´t very quick to recieve people outside of the group, Ecuadorian or not. However, I have made some friends who are part of a generally more friendly social class in both my Indigenous Literature and History of Ecuadorian Thought classes. One friend from History invited me to join him when he goes to visit some indigenous villages. I think I might do that this weekend, but i´m not sure.

I attended a Presbyterian church this morning and met a missionary there who seemed very nice, and his Spanish was good. We are probably going to do more things together another day, but right now his family is sick. I also met the young adults leader, who was fairly brisk with me (I think because I am an "extranjero," foreigner. I was introduced to him by an older lady who hoped that I might be able to do something with the group. However, he treated me as an outsider imediately saying, Oh, well it´s not really an organized group, but rather a group of friends that do stuff together. I commucated that I understood, and he responded with by asking "what did you want." I stayed with the group a little longer and talked a little while, but all in all it was rather awkward.

My house mom works for an organization called, "Plan International." It helps organize the sponsorship of children in poor communities of undeveloped countries. I will probably have some oppurtunities to work in some of those communities in the following weeks. Also, a guy who is the manager of Habitat for Humanity in Ecuador uses a room in the house sometimes and I may be able to work with him as well.

I am on the downhill side of a nasty cold that lasted about 4 days. It made things a bit harder at school because my ears were clogged, but now its much better. Every time I go to school the altitude changes about 800 meters, which can be significant. The climate changes from cold to hot in about 10 minutes by bus, and most days it starts out sunny and becomes rainy or overcat in the evenings.

I can´t think of too much more right now. I am really tired and have some more homework to do. I love you all, and will talk to you soon.

Spencer

Ecuador 2 I´m Here Now

Hello all. Everything is great here. I am living in a very comfortable house with a very nice family in a very safe part of the city. Right now I am at an internet cafe using a computer so I am going to try to write quickly. I haven´t traveled outside of Quito still, but I have had some great opportunities to site see in the city. I have pictures of my house and the Centro Historico below. I hope you all enjoy them. I hope to here how everything is going with you all and if you ahve any questions about Ecuador feel free to ask through the blog, e-mail, or myspace. I love and miss you all.

Spencer

One of my Ecuadorian sisters, Dani

This is the view from my room

and my room

My Bathroom

My other sister Nicole

A guy from the United Kingdom that works for my house mom, Santiago

My grandma

and photos from my tour...

There is a new constitution that the citizens of Ecuador are voting on and this is propaganda for those that agree

Below is the Basílica del Sagrado Voto Nacional

It´s Huge. Below are pictures of the view from the top and me sitting outside one of the topmost towers (Sorry if that scared anyone, but it was a must)

Hey Dad, I think that there might be someone here who could teach you how to do stained glass artwork.

Fin

Talk to you all soon