so much spanish school

August 10, 2011
Buenas Tardes!
Sorry for the lack of blogging but not much has been going on so I didn’t want to bore you. Since arriving in Quito, I have been spending most of my time getting to know the other students on my program. Its really nice living in a house with so many other students because I always have someone with whom I can salir (go out/leave the house). My days have been filled with seven hours of Spanish classes per day, a schedule that will continue through Thursday. It is very helpful but also very tiring. I am not used to spending so many hours in class (at Penn I have a maximum of 3 hours a day and only one day is three consecutive hours) so it sort of feels like being in elementary school again. By the time I get home at 4:45 I am in need of a nap before dinner and I have zero desire to go out at night.
My typical day here is to get up at 6/615 and eat breakfast (usually fruit with bread) and then go to the gym for an hour. I finally felt acclimated to the altitude on Monday so I started working out yesterday. The gym is only two blocks from my house and has three elliptical machines, three bikes and a few weight machines/free weights. The only negative is that the treadmills are not electronic meaning to run on the treadmill you hold on and use your feet to move the belt…I am not a fan so I have been sticking to the bike. When I get to know the city better I may start running outside but for now the gym is sufficient. After the gym I come home and shower quickly and then have class from 8-430 with a 1.5 hour lunch break in the middle. Because the dinners are huge and Rosita encourages me to eat mucho (and we have to finish what is on our plate) I have been having a luna bar for lunch so I don’t come home weighing more than I did when I got here.
This evening the school offers salsa classes from 5-7 so my friends and I might go. I don’t know how much public humiliation I am up for but I think I should go because salsa is a large part of Ecuadorian culture so it will be a good learning experience. No, I will not be taking pictures/videos…what happens in Quito stays in Quito.
Tonight, and every Wednesday, the movies here are two people per one ticket which means it will cost $2.25 to go to the movies. My housemates and I are planning on going after dinner though we have not chosen a movie yet.

Things I am looking forward to this/next week: Tomorrow night my housemates and I are revisiting la plaza foch where we will break out our newly acquired (hopefully) salsa skills. Luuk and his friends may also come so it will be fun to get to know some more people in the city. Friday is a national holiday so everyone has the day off (NO CLASS!) so we are getting a tour of the city and then taking a bus to banos for the weekend. I want to try white water rafting and paragliding so hopefully my housemates and I will be able to organize those trips before we go. Normally it would be fine to just show up but this weekend everyone is traveling because of the holiday so banos will be pretty crowded with touristas. Next week I start in the clinic. I am doing Peds first, General medicine second and delivering babies the last week. I may switch week 2 for surgery, depending what my friends say about their clinics the first week.

Funny stories about Spanish mishaps: When we got to Quito, Rosita told us a few gems about peoples attempts (failures) to speak Spanish properly. She had one student come up to her and say: Yo tengo mucho mierda. Rositas response: Que?! The student repeated the phrase (which means I have a lot of shit) several times. What he was trying to say is “yo tengo miedo” which means “I have fear” or I am concerned about something. I thought that was pretty funny.
Another time a man asked Rosito “Tu tienes un bano por los caballos” (do you have a bathroom for the horses. Rosita didn’t know how to respond. I have a bathroom yes but not por los caballos. What he meant to say: Tu tienes un bano por los caballeros (do you have a bathroom for gentlemen/a men’s room).

What she wanted us to take away from this was that people make mistakes and it is ok you learn and it is a funny story. What I took away from this is that these poor guys needed a better Spanish dictionary, and now I know the spanish word for shit.