First day of class

I know it's been a while since I've updated so I'll be making several posts to catch up starting with...
Wednesday was the first day of classes. I woke up, took yet another cold shower and ate breakfast. For the past several days there has not been any hot water. Guadalupe keeps asking me if there’s hot water and I finally said no. She said that today she had a guy coming to fix it. I really hope he does because it’s getting difficult to force myself to shower every day.

Anyhoo, Pato had to take his driver’s test today so this morning he was studying off his phone and reading aloud some of the ridiculously easy questions. When he read the one about having your hands at 10 and 2 (in Spanish it’s 10 y 10) Guadalupe got really confused. She insisted that 10 and 10 would be cockeyed. We tried drawing her a picture of a clock but it didn’t work. She was convinced. Then I got a ride to school from Pato since he had to go for his test and I was really early. I wasn’t sure what to do since I was alone and everyone else was with a group chatting and smoking on the stairs that are all over the place.

Eventually I went up to the classroom and waited outside until it was time for class. There were only 5 of us, including the professor. He seems nice but a little crazy. It also seems like the exact same thing as translation practice from last year at U of I so I hope it’s not a waste of time. We just went over the syllabus and introduced ourselves and that was about it. Then I didn’t have class until 2:30 and it was only 12. I met up with Chris and Keunae for lunch at Shawarma because Chris texted me earlier. I just got a Sprite since I still wasn’t feeling good and ate the apple Guadalupe gave me for lunch. She’s been giving me a ‘lunch’ since Monday. It’s really sweet but I’m usually not that hungry and don’t have time to eat it.

After lunch we went to the computer lab because Chris doesn’t have internet in her house. I thought we’d just be there for a little bit so I hung out. But we were there for a long time and I started to fall asleep. I walked with Chris to her class and laid down for a nap before my class started. I slept for a while but couldn’t stay asleep the whole time. So I just lay there, pretending to sleep since I didn’t have anything else to do. I really need to find something to do for those couple hours.

I was pretty early for my next class which was photography I. Finally someone showed up letting us into the locked classroom where we had class. It’s a smaller class but not quite as small as translation. Everyone else in that class is a 1st or 2nd year and Ecuadorian. The class seems a little intense because it’s intended for photo minors and not gringa who want to just take it for fun. I still think I’ll like it. At one point the woman- who is not our teacher but I don't know who she is- asked me if I had connections in the US to get photo paper. Up until then I understood everything she said but once she asked me a question I had no clue what she was saying. It was like I forgot Spanish for a minute. I always feel so ridiculous saying I’m a Spanish major, speaking the way I do. It’s embarrassing. Again, we just went over the syllabus so we got out early.

After class I went to Movistar to buy more minutes and then walked home. When I got back I basically went straight to bed and slept for 2 hours. When I got up Guadalupe made me drink some tea and take a pill which was a capsule with three pills in it. She said that I was sick because I drink cold milk at breakfast and nothing hot. I’m sure that’s not true but I just agreed with her. I’m sure it’s a combination of nerves, altitude and change of diet but she’s convinced it’s cold milk. After drinking my tea I went to bed, talked to Emily and Katie, saw the apartment and talked to Zach a little too. I went to bed pretty early though since I was sick.

My second day of classes I had Andean anthropology, modern dance and social problems in Ecuador. I walked today but still got there pretty early. I saw Mary on my walk in and we chatted until our classes started. Chris ran into us outside the building for Anthro so we said bye to Mary and walked up together. Danielle was already there and it seemed like the teacher had already started talking though I don’t think class had actually started yet. Then some lady came in and told us we needed to be in a different room so we all trooped down the hall, across a courtyard, up some stairs, down some stairs and down a hall until we got to the classroom we were told to go to. Of course it was occupied so we went back to the first room and there was no one there. No clue. It seems like an interesting class though. The prof told us she’d send us the syllabus via email so I decided not to write down anything she put up on the board about grading and whatnot. Chris and Danielle were writing every word down and when she saw I wasn’t Danielle asked “need a piece of paper?” and when I said no she asked “are you dropping this class?” Haha, so I got out my notebook and wrote it all down. That class is a mix of Ecuadorian and gringos so that’ll be good I think.

Since we got out early we decided to get lunch together. I mentioned that the deli where everyone usually gets waters has sandwiches- I heard some Americans talking about it yesterday during my ‘nap.’ When we went in though, we didn’t see any sandwiches or anything. So we left and went to the Shawarma again. This time I did eat one and it was tasty as ever. We came back and I went to dance class. On my schedule it gave me a room number that I don’t think exists so I waited in a hallway that seemed maybe right. Then some girl and her boyfriend asked another girl in the hallway- there were desks there and she was working on something- if she knew where the dance class was. I told her I was in the same class but didn’t know where the room was either. Eventually the hall was full of people waiting for the class. Then the teacher and her little daughter showed up looking confused as to why we weren’t in the classroom.

The class is a mix of gringo and Ecuadorian students too. We went over the syllabus and did introductions then started dancing. I was not expecting that so I wasn’t wearing appropriate clothing. Oops. We did some crazy warm up a couple combinations and a cool down. We did a combination to Twist and Shout. I just wanted to dance to the song and not do the combination. Then I went to Soc and saw Danielle on the way. We met up with Emily and Chris who were talking to some people. Then we went to class and it was another typical syllabus day- awkward Spanish introductions and all. Everyone in that class but one is from the States. It’s supposed to be a really good class so I’m excited.

From there Chris and Emily went off to the computer lab and Danielle, Keunae and I went to get my translation coursepack which they printed off especially for me in the copy center. It was kinda weird but I can’t complain since it was $8 and some change. Then we went the pastelería on the way home to get a sweet. I got a little chocolate bocadito and then ate some of Guadalupe’s lunch. She had sent with me this huge bottle of what looked like cough syrup but turned out to be some sort of diarrhea treatment for children. Since I was fine today, not a child and it’s creepy, I did not drink it. I just left it in one of the elevated garbage holder things where you’re supposed to put your household bags of garbage but people always leave their loose garbage there too. Danielle and I walked home and I went to my room to do homework. I don't remember what I had for dinner that night but it was probably soup.

Hasta luego,
Caitlin