ok this is kinda cute. my mom sent me an email with some questions and im going to answer them below the written question.


>
> Did you get your bags finally from the plane?
yes i did. one girl got her bags 2 hours after the plane landed and she was forced to wait in the airport with her host family.
>
> While you were walking through the parking lot, and entering Guayaquil, what
> affected you as serious cuture shock? Smells? Dress? Poverty? Noise? Hot? How
> does Guayaquil feel different from Quito, other than the weather and tropics
> versus mountains experience?
Guayaquil is much hotter than quito and it is the most humid place that i have ever been (it even beats out somoa). i had a sweater on, i had jeans on i was just not ready to be in a tropcal climate. i think it also affected me because its like summer here but i am still in winter mode. in quito it was still like winter to me because it was a little cold and rained a lot. another thing was that everything was outside. all the cafes, all the stores, there are always kids playing in the streets there was something about that that made me really shocked.
>
> By urban Spanish do mean, old and architecturally like Spain? Or is it anything
> like Morelia?
in a lot of spanish cities they have a very beautiful city center. usually-like in salamanca or avila- the city center is at least a thousand years old and has some historical significance. surrounding these city centers are more basic modern developements. there are apartment buildings and houses and small businesses. this is what my area of guayaquil is like. the architecture is pretty basic there are some new buildings some that look a little more classic but the overall feeling to is that when they built this part of town they didnt build it because it looks nice. im not saying that this place is ugly it is just simple. quito reminded me a lot of moreia but guayaquil not really at all
>
> Is it lonely at the very top of the house? Do you feel separate from the family
> by having to walk through the patio to get there? Are there lizards on the
> wall? Can you take a shower whenever you want?
its not exactly lonely but is true that sometimes i enjoy the solitude. i think the family put me up there because i could have some privacy and my own bathroom. at home home i sleep with a cat on bed here there are lizards, roaches and bugs in my room at night. its all good though it reminds me that im in the tropics. i can take a shower when i want but i take one downstairs because the one near my room has no door.
>
> Sounds like the Spanish language is very fast and difficult now. Do you like
> the sound of the accent? Does it get any easier?
i like the sound of the accent very much. its very similar to the colombian accent which is said to be the most beautiful in the world. its not that its too fast to understand its just that i have to concentrate a lot on what they are saying something. its also hard when they talk really fast and in the middle of their statement i dont get a word, then i have to backtrack and ya know. another thing is that people here are usually soft spoken and a few people do some serious mubbling which is a problem when there always seems to be some distraction during conversation like really loud reggaeton music or are bar full of other people mumbling. i hope i can adopt the accent but i think that will take at least a month.
>
> How do you get along with Jose? Is he interesting and fun? Is he good to you?
> What are you doing for Mardi Gras?
Jose my host brother who goes by pepe or pepito is a really good dude. he takes me out every night to meet his friends and go to bars and stuff. he says that we are going to do a lot of traveling around this country a lot and i think he is already planning a trip to the amozon basin (the oriente as its known here) and a trip to the beach this saturday. mardi gras is known as carnival here and it is celebrated all week long by just lots of partying and lots of water-i have been pegged with water balloons and water cannons twice this week. also a lot of the shops are closed because people take the whole week off and it is common for families to go to the beach or to other cities.
>
> In what way is guayaquil different than what you had imagined? The good ways?
> The not so good ways? What is it that feels like culture shock? Please explain
> what is culture shocking you.
guayaquil is more developed than i had thought there are also some interesting parts to it. the people have more soul than i expected and there arent massive shaty towns like i had expected. i guess at this time i dont know what was so culture shocking mabey it will take some time for me to figure out. i dont think im culture shocked any more but it will still be some time until i get used to this place.
>
> Does your room need some decorating? Do you want anything from home for your
> decorations? Do you need a pillow from home or....?
actually i think im good i just have to find some tape and then i will have a national geographic map of south america on my wall.
>
> In what way is Guayaquil going to take some getting used to? What is
> challenging? .
the whole daily routine and what is expected is going to be the biggest thing to get used to. also cultural ideocicrecies, what i can ask of people, what i cant ask of people and really what is expected of me; thats what i am learning now and it can be difficult. i still have to learn about peoples personalities and traits of this culture as a whole. when i was studying about the different aspects of this country the reading material (provided by my program) it was very inadequet and made this place seem a lot more concervative than it really is. i think someone was judging this country through the eyes of one person in one part of the country. the thing is ecuador has every sort of enviroment known to south america and with that enviroment comes the necessary cultural changes, changes in language and ediquite and i think that is why i was so culture shocked after getting off the plane from quito, because i thought these two places would be so similar but theyre not. it seems like a whole different world down here and its hard to imagine just by reading about it.
>
>

well i cant write much more but i will say that yesterdays lunch included chicken gizard and tripe. yumm. after that i went on a drive around the town and we saw a really posh suburban gated community and the poorest of the poor-it felt exactly like when i was in africa. anyway i will keep you all updated.
-mark