time is a little limited today so i wont be able to write too much. wednesday was a pretty basic day. i hung out most of the day and then in the late afternoon i went out on the town with pepe and some of his friends. the next day being thursday was slightly more interesting. in the late morning i hung out with one of my neighbores who is my age and is currently attending university. he is a very interesting guy and right now he is studying international relations (which is what i want to study). we talked in spanish about our interest for about two hours and then he had to do some home work so left him in peace. he is a very good guy to talk to because he knows enough english to help me out with my spanish. when i dont know a word he can help but he doesnt speak english to me so that is very helpful. after this i spent some more time lounging around until my two host sisters made me go with them to run some errands. it was a good time because they give me good commentary on the city around me. on part of the drive we saw about two hundred or so soccer fans (of the home town team of emelec) who were going to the barcelona-emelec game later that night. barcelona is actually a team from here in guayaquil so the rivalry is fierce. its kinda like the rivalry between the giants-dodgers but its in one city and thus a little closer to home. a little later that night i went with my host sister evelyn to watch the game at a bar. it turns out that it is illegal for bars to play ecuadorian soccer games inside because the police are affraid that fights will break out. so learning this we went to evelyns boyfriends house to watch the game. there we watched it and it was a very good game because the underdog barcelona won-the only problem was that i was in an emelec household. after the game i met up with pepe at a bar in downtown guayaquil to see one of his friends perform her second solo act. it was a very good concert, pepes friend was very talended, the bar was packed with enthusiastic people and the salsa inspired songs were really entertaining. after the concert was over pepe and i got back to the house in the wee hours of the morning. it was a very good night.

yesterday i made two observations about society in general here. the first being that the ecuadorian people, and i think south americans in general, like to feel secure (much like north americans). i noticed this when i was in a mall. a shopping mall is a very american thing but ecuadorians love them because they feel security and freedom. freedom to buy what they want, bank where they want and eat when and where they want. there are always armed security guards present in malls which makes the atmosphere very safe. i also noticed that there are more malls here than in san francisco. back to the security idea though, security guards are present everywhere. sometimes they are decrepid old men dressed up like police and sometimes they are armed studs that give GI joe a run for his money, the point is that they are employed-whether they can do anything or not- to make people feel safe.
the second observation is that it is really hard to call myself american here not becuase of some issue of pride but because everyone here beleives they are american too-south american. most of the time when i am introduced im said to be from california not from america other times (in rarer cases) im just from the united states. it gives me some nationalistic pride to say that im from california but i feel a little empty when i cant say im american. another thing is that im not classified as a gringo here because my host family realises that i have family roots in sweden and ireland and other parts of europe. americans arent hated here but sometimes they are classified as ignorant (which is sadly true). i think its safe to say that hugo chavez and fidel castro are some of the biggest american haters in this part of the world.
ok i gotta go.
-mark

well yesterday was a pretty low key day so i wont write too much today. i spent a lot of the day reading in this really cool hammock outside my room on the outdoor patio. later in the after noon i went to the sol mall which is an american style mall about half a mile away from my house. there i got a milk shake, some sunglasses and a pair of flip flops. i went into a surf shop to buy these last two items and it felt exactly like being in california. after that i got a cab back to my house which actually was a little hard because the directions are very specific. last night i went to the water front melecon 2000 with my host sister evelyn and her boyfriend. it was good because i got to use a lot of spanish and when i dont know a word she speaks a little english so it is pretty easy to communicate. thats pretty much it. oh and yesterday i got a new cell phone so if you want the number just comment on this page and ill send out an email to ya. miss you all and i am still standing for change with barack obama.
-mark

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

uhh well i would just like to thank people for giving me all the comments on this page and also for all those text messages especially for the ones about the super bowl. speaking of that game it sounded amazing and i wish i could have seen it. yester day turned out to be a good day. after having the ecuadorian delicacy of cerviche for lunch pepe, my older host brother, took me out on the town with his cousin and his girlfriend, who happened to be an exchange student from france. we first went to mall. which was really big, having four floors and lots and lots of space. it felt a lot like being in santa rosa. anyway after that we went to meet another friend in downtown guayaquil. as we were driving to meet him i realized that guayaquil is much more developed than i had ever thought. this is a very sophisticated city and very beautiful in many respects. we met pepes friend at his place of work which is a car tunning place. after that we went the area known as malecon 2000 which is this river front property with lost of bars and restaurants. it was very beautiful and by this time night was already setting in and the temperature was perfect. after that we met even more friends and went to an appartment of one of the them. the apartment was very posh and had lots of artwork and a great view. we hung out there for the next couple of hours playing the suprisingly entertaining game of jenga. after that we headed home because it was pretty late. after getting home the only thing to report was that after i came back in from brushing my teeth my door fell off. weird.
well i think as time settles in im going to get more and more used to this place. the other day i tried this think thats called like a yuca cake which looks like a biscuit but its made with yuca. i thought it would be sweet and really pleasant but instead it was hard and salty. i tried it yesterday again and it tasted better to me. i think that as soon as i can learn to like things like the yuca cake i will be set and really happy with living in this place. my host family is really nice and my host brother pepe is a really good dude. right now everyone is celebrating carnival and and all the shops and stuff are closed for the week. i guess ill just see what happens today. happy birthday claire.
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first day in guayaquil

ok so now i am in guayaquil. lets start with yesterday morning because thats pretty interesting. we (there were seven of us going to guayaquil) all headed for the airport at 10:30 which was supposed to give us enough time to catch a plane at 11:30 but this is ecuador and nothing really ever goes the way it is planned. its carnival weekend and many people really want to travel around because they have the whole week off. the line to check in at the airport was herendously long and we waited for about an hour-which meant our flight left without us and most of its passengers. the airline soon realized that it had well over a hundred people who missed their flight because of the long lines so they set up an auxilary flight for later that afternoon. so all of us disgruntled passengers wait for about four hours for our flight to show up-the airline had trouble finding an airplane. the seven of us spent our time watching the american tourists (who all met several stereotypes) and eating sandwiches. finally we got on our plane and took the 40 min flight to guayaquil. on the flight over i got some pretty cool pictures of the city of quito. when we got to the airport we of cource had more trouble, this time with our bags, but soon enough we exited the airport with a bunch of families we had never seen before waving signs and greeting us with a lot of excitement. my host family was tiny bit late but they showed up and we took off. ok this is where is gets interesting. right as we were walking through the parking lot i got some serious cuture shock. guayaquil feels like a completely different place than quito. for me i still think its winter but here in the southern hemisphere on basically on the equator its really hot and really humid. people dress and act like it is a sunny summer day in california. then the buildings look completely different. it feels more urban spanish than i thought it would. then we got to the family home and they show me to my room which is at the very top of the house. to get there i have to walk across this patio, it has a very interesting feel to it. after spending an hour getting settled in i spent some time with my host mom and older host sister who doesnt live at home. they are really stretching my spanish skills to the fullest extent and they speak very fast and with a very tropical accent (not a lot of s´s around here but i do like the accent). i spent about two and a half hours talking to my host family. they are very nice people and they have had a lot of experience with having exchange students. i think they said that they have had 3 others but i am the first american. after giving them my gifts from home i went out with my older host brother. we enden up meeting some of his friends and going to two really cool bars downtown. i spoke a little bit to jose (my host brother) and his friends but it was really hard because of this new way of speaking spanish. i think last night i must of said "what" about a hundred times. we came back home in the wee hours of the morning and i was VERY tired. i crashed and i didnt wake up until 10:30 which was a real bummer because i missed church and breakfast-ooops! right before writting this i went for a walk around the neiborhood. i saw this pretty nice shopping center and mall close by as well as all the other houses and i got a good feel for the neighborhood i am living in.
ok so, guayaquil is much different than i had imagined it would be in some good ways and in some not so good ways. i think it is safe to say i am still quite culture shocked. my accomidations are simple but i know i can bring life to them. this place is going to take some getting used to and i think it will be a challenge but i can do it. i miss you all and i hope you are all doing well.
-mark

well in just a few hours i leave for guayaquil to meet my host family. ive emailed them and they said they will meet me at the airport so hopefully everything goes smoothly. some of my friends have already left for their host families, now only seven of us remain. its a little earie right now with collin and erik gone (two of my clossest freinds) and also im a little nervous and a little excited to see my host family. oh by the way we are flying to guayaquil. uhh any way, yesterday was the last day of language school. it was a pretty normal day except for in the end two things happened. the first being my teacher made me a test to see how far i had gotten in this course. i did really well and i didnt get anything wrong. after the test we had a little good-bye ceremony. we all received diplomas and got pictures with our teachers. later that night the whole group had to go out on the town one last time. we ended up meeting some of our teachers (only the cool ones) at a very ecuadorian club. there were two bars a really big dance floor and kareoke rooms. the kareoke was a good time but the music was really awsome (so i had to do a little dancing). collin and i decided that we would call it an early night so we headed back to the hostel but not before stopping at a mexican restuarant for some tacos. early this morning i said good-bye to the people that left, packed and now i am just waiting to leave. wish me luck.
-mark

today is the last day of language school and pretty much everything that has been happening has involved the language school. tuesday after lunch every student and their teachers went to two markets. the first market was mercado santa clara. it was a basic market that had stalls for fruits vegitables, baskets, clay pots, house hold goods etc.. most of the fruits i had never seen before and the meat section smelled like death. the next market we went to was more of a supermarket. there you could get anything you need. all of the items made in ecuador were really cheap but all of the imported good were more expencive than in america. the next day at language school we took a side trip to a park that was close by. we spent about two hours there and it was the perfect place to show our teachers how to play american football. after that i went to lunch with my friends and a spanish teacher. we went to a nice cafe where we practiced our spanish with some of the teachers friends. most of these days we have been so tired that we that we just head back to our hotel and rest but last night was a little different. after school we all head to a dance school to take some salsa lessons. i really sucked but at least i tried. after the lessons we went out on the town. we went into a part of town called gringolandia. we met some of our teachers and their friends there. it was a good night but a long one and in just a few hours i have to take some giant test...we ll see how that goes. anyway i miss you all.
-mark