FOOD

This has to be one of the best topics. I know you all are wondering what I am eating here in Ecuador. Well I am eating worms, roaches, and frogs. No, no, no only a joke. They do eat worms in the oriental part of Ecuador, but that is not my thing. Ecuador is divided into three major parts; the Coast (where I live), the Sierra, and the Andes. I have been to all these areas and within each area there is different food. Let me start in the Coast. Seafood!! Could you guess otherwise. Well on all the beaches seafood is popular and cheap. They catch it right from the water you are eating in front of. One typical dish is Ceviche. It is like a seafood soup. It is made with fish, shrimp, octapus, squid all together or just one of these ingredients. I do not prefer this dish but is is very popular. Platacones with cheese is a green platano that is fried and some chesse is put on top. It sound very simple, in fact it is but it is so good. Also menestra(a type of bean), rice and meat is a typical plate here. So good and fills you up. For one dollar fifty cents (some places) I think it is a great deal. If we go to the Sierra they are big on potatoes. Potatoes come with everything, and guess what I love it. Corn also is a big deal there. In the Andes they eat guinea pigs!! Yep it is true. It was kind of sad for me at first because in the United States we usually keep them as animals not food, but remember to keep in mind every culture is different. I was going to try some but decided it did not have enough meat on it. Like seriously those things have no meat. Out of all the three parts I think I love the Coast better just because seafood is cheap and so good. Oh one thing I forgot to mention, rice comes with EVERY meal. You will always have a half of plate of rice with anything you eat in all of ecuador. Rice for them is a daily part of their diet. After a while you get use to the rice, and eventually feel weird if you get something and it does not come with rice. Anyhow, I love this country food. Its better than the food in the states, in my opinion, because it does not contain chemicals it is all fresh. No matter if it comes from the sea or the ground it goes straight to the kitchen. That is something I love here. The food is something everyone shold be open-minded about because in every country, even state in the United States, food varies.

Culture Shock II

Yes my fellow readers, I am here to say culture shock is not just a one time thing as everybody think, including me. I have been going through another rollar coaster of emotions. I must say the second time is a little bit easier to deal with because you actually know what it is. I knew it was another attack of culture shock when the simple things that I should be accustomed to sent me up the wall. For example the closeness, or lack of space, when standing in line, or talking to someone. I almost lost my head just because I wanted my space. Why must people be so close here? Sometimes culture shock happens because something changes. I believe this could be due to my internship/volunteership. I love my internship, but it was somthing new and still is. I had to start catching the bus and here the bus is not a simple thing. You have to be protective of your things to be sure not to get robbed, you have to jump off the bus at your stop because they do not stop fully, they pick people up anywhere, there are bus stops but it does not matter if you are standing in the middle of the street they will stop and pick you up. With all of this in mind it really did something to me. Then not to long ago I had a accident on the bus that really had me scared to take the bus again, but catching the bus has to be easier than coming to another country for eight months right? Well I took the bus as usual to my internship and because these buses are very crowed there are always very few seats. Therefore, this young boy sits next to me, I say young because he seemed young, he automatically starts talking to me. It made me feel a little uncomfortable from the begining. I never actually said anything to him I just shook my head yes or no, or shurgged my shoulders. He then did something so unexpected and very shocking. He kissed my shoulder. I was so furious, but not knowing if he could have a weapon on him I said nothing, or did nothing. At that moment I wanted to hit him in his face. I felt like I lost all control over my body just because I could not say anything. He then put his hand on my thigh I then took my bookbag and slammed it down on my legs. He jerked his hand back and said nothing else to me. I was so mad I wanted to scream, but clearly being a foreign women on a bus full of Ecuadoreans was not the right place to go off on the guy. I thought I was fine after this whole ordeal, but the next day there he was again. Same boy, different time, and it scared me a little, to be honest. This time the bus was not full and when he tried to sit next to me I told him I wanted to sit by myself. He stayed sitting next to me, so I looked at him raised my voice a notch higher and repeated myself. Part of me was so scared, but the other part of me was so furious and serious. This of course did not help with my culture shock and sent me in an uproar and tears for a day. I share this story because things like this can happen to anyone while studying abroad and eventhough it scared me, and I did not want to take the bus anymore, going through experiences like these make you face your fears, makes you stronger, any may even put you back through culture shock. I got back on the bus the next day, I faced my fear and I have not seen him ever since. Going through anything during culture shock can make you act over emotional so I do believe that knowing the signs of culture shock can help you act rational in any situation. Somethings I noticed was increase cleaning; I wash my hands maybe twenty times a day (yes I still do), over emotional, normal cultural differences you already know about seem to mess with you more than normal. These are only somethings I started to notice, but not to mention, culture shock is different for everyone. It can hit at different times, and people handle it differently. I am sure all my fellow readers will be happy to know my second round of culture shock is starting to desipate. I will be normal soon only to return home and go through it again.

El Primer Canal del Ecuador

I know many of you are wondering what my title is about. Well this is the place I currently do my volunteer at. It is a private television station in Ecuador and has been around for atleast 50 years. This is by far the greatest experience I am having in Ecuador. I work with the reporters, going out on the street and getting activly involved. It is only my second day and I feel like family and a reporter. Today I met some of the most famous people in Television here in Ecuador. I was holding conversations, getting myself known, all in Spanish I must add. I am doing what I have been wanting to do for a very long time. One thing I do advise students if you feel like you want more of a practical experience in your major/career, going abroad would be a way to get. In the pass two days I have done so much practical work. The key is countries like Ecuador, Haiti, Africa, and many more need the help and apperciates the help. Good help is hard to come by in these countries, people are hard to trust, and believe it or not they love the international people. Also try to get involved as much as possible, show them you want to learn. That is the only way. I did that today with just being recorded and talking about my life, where I am from, what I study. It showed that I was fun to be around and that I love being there. They opened up to me, so I opened up to them. I am enjoying my vounteer position. I know that days will get harder but I am so proud of myself as of now. My first day we did three stories, but one really striked me. A 60 year old man hung himself in his house and his daughter found him. He was sick and I guess he became depressed and decided to end his life. Being right there in front of all this was shocking. Seeing the body being rolled out was even harder. I realize that as a reporter that although we may have feelings and care, our job is to get the story out. It is just like doctors, if they went into a depressive state everytime a patient died they all would be no good to our society. The crazy thing is we covered this story for over an hour and I only seen five minutes of it on the news. I guess that is how it works. You get what you can and its selected from there what makes it on television. I do know this (reporting) is something I want to do for the rest of my life or at least half of it. Ecuador has once did to me again. This country must want me to stay.