la vida típica en Ecuador

another amazing week in ecuador! i'm still behind in my blog, but here is what went down last week...


last saturday, 14 friends and i hopped on a bus en route to papallacta, the "thermal baths place." for the first time ever (in the history of ecuadorian travel) we arrived early! we hopped off the crowded bus and instead of walking 3 kilometers entirely uphill to our hostel, naturally, we jumped in the back of two pick up trucks that took us right to the front door of our hostel for 50 cents each. doesn't get much better than that! and our hostel was the cutest thing ever. picture a stone bungalow surrounded by 5 beautiful jacuzzis and adorable little cabins - yep, that's where we got to spend the weekend! we immediately got in our bathing suits and hiked up the road to the official papallacta thermal baths. everyone was a little annoyed that it cost $8 to enter the baths, but i wasn't complaining because the lady only charged me $3 - the 12 year old price - i never thought i would be 20 years old and still love being mistaken for a child, but i was stoked! so the cool thing about these termas/hot springs is that they are located near the papallacta river and completely naturally heated by volcanoes!! my only complaint? they really need a sign that tells you the approximate temperature of each bath because my about burned my leg off when i accidentally went for a dip in the HOTTEST THERMAL BATH. anyway, the place was gorgeous and it didn't even matter that it was slightly drizzling because we were perfectly content in the baths. we got a delish lunch right down the road. papallacta is known for its fresh trucha, or trout and they are not lying when they say "fresh." the fish still had its head, teeth, and everything completely in tact. another time i am happy to be a vegetarian - i really cannot imagine biting into something while staring straight into its eyes. basically, we spent the entire afternoon, evening, and night relaxing in different thermal baths at our hostel and i had the prune phalanges to prove it. the next day, after an absolutely scrumptious and absolutely free breakfast at our hostel, we took one last dip in the jacuzzi then wandered around the town of papallacta wasting time. we weren't able to go horse back riding or get back massages, but i just see it as another reason to go back to papallacta again in the future...
so that was the wonderful weekend! normally, the weekend adventures are the most exciting part of my week. well this week, wednesday stole the cake. (warning: if you are my facebook friend you have probs already heard this story and you can stop reading now. but the following story is definitely blog worthy).
so this past wednesday night started out like any other wednesday night - my girl friends and i went to ladies night at club bungalow and then went dancing at the salsa club. these hangouts are in la mariscal (aka grinoglandia, and therefore home to many robbers and pickpocketers looking to steal from the "rich foreigners") and a couple of my friends had their bags slashed in la mariscal the weekend before, so we were being extra careful. anyway, as i was leaving a salsa club with my friends, a guy ripped my purse off my neck and took off running down the street. i immediately ran after him screaming english profanities and weaving in and out of taxis. after about 2 blocks of straight sprinting, i caught up to the robber and knocked him to the ground. and this would be a good time to thank all my sports coaches. i dont think the robber knew he was messing with a girl who had been running suicides all her life. so continuing... the guy crumbled to the ground and i snatched my purse back. but as i took my purse back, still screaming at him, the jerk ripped my necklace off my neck. i have no idea why he did that - i was literally standing over him and had complete control over him. i immediately snatched my broken necklace out of his hands but i lost the key pendant in the process. about 30 seconds later, my two friends (who had been running after me translating what i was yelling in english to spanish) and 10 random ecuadorian men who i had never seen before, rushed to my side. the next few minutes are a little blurry but i do remember looking up and seeing the thief naked in the corner because the ecuadorians made him strip to see if he had any other stolen goods! my friends and i kept yelling pare pare! aka stop because i really didnt want the ecuadorians to hurt the guy i just really wanted my pendant back. long story short, the police showed up soon after, but by this time the ecuadorians had already taken the thief to an alley. oh and then the police offered to give my friends and i a free ride home. yay! but in typical ecuadorian fashion, the police started hitting on us and were complete creepers, so we had to escape the police car and get a taxi home. woahhhh weirdest night ever, huh? i don't think i have ever been so mad, sad, scared, yet excited in one situation! i was, and still am, really upset about my necklace. this was my favorite necklace that i wear all the time. caitlin gave to me when i was graduating 8th grade as the "keys" to high school! anyway, the good thing is im okay and this occurrence has made me famous at the university! yesterday, my friend and i were telling the story of our wild wednesday night when a girl overheard what we were talking about. she came over to me and said "you are the girl who tackled a robber? wow nice to meet you!" ... my sister erin called me an absolute idiot for chasing after the robber. looking back, yeah i guess it was kinda a stupid move on my part, but hey, i still have a broken purse, my phone, $20, house keys, the copy of my passport, a great story i can tell forever, and im famous. so consider yourself warned - dont mess with this gringa! 


chau!
shannon 

 fresh trucha. cant you see the fried teeth?

 the thermal baths at our hostal!

 julia + me + jacob + self timer = :)

papallacta. que linda! 

tele & mundo fotos!

 mountains galore! view from the bottom of teleferiqo

 all of quito!

 balancing on the equator.. easier than the beam.

 la "fake" mitad del mundo

cuy yummmm

tourist traps & trivia

the first week here in ecuador went by really slowly, but now it seems like the days are whizzing by! so many crazy ecuadorian adventures in the past ten days i might have to split it up into two blogs...

last weekend was spent doing all the touristy things. on saturday, my friends jacob and julia, and i went to teleferiQo (yes, that is a random capital letter Q. i think the quitenos thought they were being creative). for those of you who have not spent much time perusing the lonely planet guide to ecuador, i shall describe this wonderful attraction. basically the teleferiQo is a system of cables cars that transports passengers up Cruz Loma, a hill on the active Pichincha volcano! each cable car takes off at about 9,500 feet and reaches over 13,000 ft, while providing the most amazing view of all of quito. on the way up, i took about 34523452345 pictures of the beautiful view but little did i know we were allowed (and expected) to get out of the cable car at the top of the mountain and walk around! looking back, i would've been very mad if i had paid $8.50 just to take a 10 minute ride in that cable car up and down the mountain. anyway, i proceeded to take about 34523452345 more pictures, this time without the dirty glass of the cable car blocking the view. but the pictures don't even do the view justice! i could literally see all of quito and all of the beautiful mountains that surround the city. and even though i would take 10 steps and be out of breath at that altitude, it was totally worth it because that's the freshest air i've ever experienced! it was a fabulous way to spend saturday morning, but after stalking other friends' teleferiQo facebook albums, i realized i didn't even get the full teleferiQo experience! apparently there are horses and llamas to ride, a world famous oxygen bar, and some of the most delicious restaurants at the top of the mountain so i will be planning another trip there if anyone wants to accompany me :)
the following day, my friends, aliceann and katy, and i went to la mitad del mundo or THE MIDDLE OF THE WORLD! before i describe, i need to tell you a thing or two about the transportation in ecuador. it's great because there are a few different bus systems, a trole system, a metro system, and taxis. the problem? all the systems overlap, are really unorganized, the buses arrive at random times, and stop of random times. for example, on my way to school the other day, the bus stopped at fybeca (equivalent of a walgreens in the states) for a few minutes so the bus driver could run in and grab a sandwich. only in ecuador! but the buses do provide lots of entertainment. while riding downtown the other day, a mom and her 2-year old son sat down in front of me. he was probably one of the cutest little boys i have ever seen and he seemed very mischievous so i couldn't help but stare. as his mom day dreamed, the little boy started biting the rubber neck rest on his seat. i think the neck rests were yellow at some point but over the years, have turned a brownish-black color from who knows what. anyway, the boy bit his neck rest, really unsatisfied with the taste, he took the piece of rubber out of his mouth, and not knowing where to put it, he daintily placed it on the head of the old woman sitting behind him. this process happened about 3 or 4 times. it was the funniest thing i have ever seen! i was just far enough away that i couldn't get his mother's attention, but just close enough that i had a great view of the action! so my point is, you never know what you are going to get or how you are going to get somewhere; you just kinda have to go with it. so aliceann's mom had given us a very detailed explanation on how we could get to la mitad del mundo. well, we got to the bus stop already a little confused and resorted to our favorite tourist move: just ask a local. thankfully we met claudia, a very nice ecuadorian, and it just so happened that she was traveling in the direction of la mitad and said we could follow her. looking back, it sounds a little sketchy, but claudia told us about her children and grandchildren and i just had a really hard time picturing her kidnapping three americans, so we followed her. after a 10 minute walk, 5 minute bus ride, 15 minute walk, 20 minute wait, 20 minute metro ride, 5 minute wait, 40 minute bus ride, and 10 minute walk we finally arrived! it was so worth the crazy travel... they have built a little town around the la mitad del mundo, with overpriced shops, cute restaurants, a park, etc. we were so touristy, posing with the equator sign, standing in front of la mitad monument, and taking pictures of the view from every angle. we even saw some llamas just chillin outside the gates! oh, this was also my first encounter with cuy, an ecuadorian delicacy. do you remember the murphy family guinea pig, oakley? that's cuy... roasted guinea pig on a stick. i asked the vendor how they get the guinea pigs and he very calmly explained that they stalk the animals and then bash them on their noses with a large stick. and these are the times that i don't question my vegetarianism. anyway, when i arrived home, my homestaymom asked "fuiste a la mitad del mundo real?" aka "did you go to the real middle of the world?" i was so confused... there's a fake middle of the world i asked!? homestaymom proceeded to tell me that yes, in fact, i had visited the tourist-trap mitad del mundo and the real middle of the world, on the exact equator, is in a little village 5 miles south of the tourist trap. so all that hard work getting to the equator and i was 5 miles short! i was super bummed, and still am, but i must admit, i really like la mitad del mundo, with its tourist-trapness and all!
it's always sad when the weekend ends because that means school, but i can hardly complain because i'm doing about 1/100 of the work i would be doing if i were at UNC this semester. in ceramics, we made a pinch pot and i received the lowest grade in the class. if you know anything about me, you know i pride myself on being pretty well rounded and i think i do have some of mom's artistic abilities. well, my ceramics teacher thought my pot was only worth a B, but let me tell you that was definitely A- work! this was our first assignment and really basic and i kept asking her if i could add details or make it more creative and i was always shot down. so i think that B was just because she was annoyed with all my questions. but don't worry, this past week i redeemed myself with a very very creative cord pot and got an A! i am learning a lot in my language & literature class and conversation classes, too. although i feel like my spanish speaking abilities are improving at a veryyyyy slow rate, i can tell that it is a lot easier to understand other people than it was when i first arrived. this is great news because i no longer start telling my homestaymom about my day when she really just wants to know what i want for dinner.
another great thing about not having a UNC- sized workload? i can have fun during the week too! i practice with the USFQ soccer team for 2 hours every day after school. it's hard to keep up with some of the girls - they have foot skills like i've never seen before - but i'm doing my best. i get dirty and bruised, but it's a lot of fun and my teammates are teaching me some of the most useful spanish phrases! in addition to soccer, my friends and i have been successful in experiencing the quito nightlife. like last tuesday, my friends and i went to trivia night at Finn McCool's, an awesome Irish pub in La Mariscal. we didn't win but it was blast! then wednesday is salsa night at this club we like. unfortunately, it's pretty common for me to somehow get stuck with a terrible ecuadorian dancer who also reeks of sweat and alcohol, but when i do snatch a good dance partner, salsa night is spectacular! i've been learning lots of salsa moves, and if the ecuadorians are lucky, my friends and i even teach them some american steps... it's safe to say that "the dougie" is spreading across south america thanks to us.

well, this blog is already muy largo and i've only told you about last week! i will post again in the next few days about the amazing adventure i went on this past weekend. i am so thankful to be in this fabulous place with fabulous friends and i'm really happy i can share some of the exciting stories with you. so thanks for tuning in!

mucho amor,
sha
(i am strictly know as "sha" on the soccer field. i guess the name "shannon" or "murphy"just isn't ecuadorian enough.) 

fotos!

mi cuarto

la cocina... they leave breakfast on the table for me every morning!

oh just the view of all of quito from my house.

walking to school...

mi escuela!

amigas!

the lake with pirate ship. typical at USFQ. 

there's my house way up there!

this cannot be real life.

This cannot be real life. Am I actually sitting at the kitchen table of my homestay family in Quito, Ecuador? Will I actually be away from all my American normalness for the next five months? Am I actually staring at a can of Nesquik with its nutrional information written in only spanish? Yes folks, it is true and I still cannot believe it. This whole thing just kinda snuck up on me and I think I need to give you some background info as to why I am here...

In mid-September I decided to declare my major as Public Health, and more specifically Health Policy and Management (HPM). UNC has the top graduate Public Health program in the country and their undergrad program isn't too shabby either. And because of its not-too-shabbiness, students have to apply to the program and less than half get accepted. Cool, that's not too competitive or anything. Anyway, what does this have to do with me studying abroad? After I "declared" I quickly found out that if accepted, I would not have the chance to study abroad since the HPM program has a set track of classes for its students in their junior and senior years. I found this out mid-September. The deadline for study abroad was September 23rd. You can figure this one out... yep, I spent the next 7 days going crazy. With the help of the fam, I realized I needed to go a place where I could learn spanish. I had Chile, Costa Rica, and Ecuador in mind and after a week of tearful skype sessions with Bear, back and forth emails with dad, late nights working on my application, and me coming this close to pulling out my dreads, I turned in my application to spend spring semester in Quito, Ecuador. But unfortunately, I wasn't accepted. Ah just kiddinnggggg... I AM HERE, AREN'T I?! 

I found out in October, but had lots of school work to focus on and an amazing trip to Hawaii for Christmas to look forward to. And to be honest, spending 5 months away from home, scared the beejeezus out of me, so I just put the whole study abroad thing on the bottom of my list of things to worry about... until right about now.

Soooo estoy en Ecuador! I have been here for about 10 days now and it's safe to say that I have experienced every possible feeling there is. Nervous? Check. Excited? Yes. Scared? Of course. Confusion? Most definitely! I hardly speak spanish ya know. But thus far, it has been fabuloso and since this is already becoming the longest blog in the history of longest blogs, I'll try to condense this next part...
BARRIO aka my hood: I live in Quito Tenis, a reallllllly nice neighbor hood in northwest Quito. Our apartment is gorgeous, all the people living in the building are related to my family, and I have my own bedroom and bathroom! An additional upside: I can go running around the neighborhood without hearing many cat calls from creepy old men. The downside: it takes me an hour to get to school from my quaint little neighborhood high up on the hill.
FAMILIA aka da fam: I live with a mom, Ana, an older sister, Lore, who is 28, Lore's boytoy Fer, and Meli, a 17 yr old sis. They are all super nice and generous! The language barrier is still, well, a barrier, but I'm working through it. Today I only had one confusing mix up... apparently Ana said "Necesito un puntal para mi problema de espalda" which means "I need a prop/support for my back problem." Makes sense, right? Well, unfortunately I heard "Necesito una puta para mi problema de espalda" which means "I need a whore for my back problem." Moral of the story: just keep praying that my spanish improves! We also have a cook / cleaning lady, Tere, who makes the best juices in the world. I never ever ever thought I would crave tomato juice... but her concoctions are truly unreal.
ESCUELA aka my excuse for being in Ecuador: My university is called La Universidad San Francisco de Quito and it is in a town called Cumbaya. Basically its the school for rich kids and therefore, probs the most beautiful / coolest campuses I have ever seen. It has all the essentials - a vegetarian restaurant, a Pagoda to zen-out, a pirate ship in the lake in the middle of campus, and a crepe shop - like what more could a girl ask for? I am taking ceramics, a class of Alfred Hitchcock films, a spanish conversation class, and a spanish literature and language class. So far, pretty much all I have learned is I really do not like it when my ceramics teacher tells me my clay-pot-making-skills need improvement.
And quickly, some frequently asked questions:
Yes, I have friends. Mostly Americans (and a large portion of them happen to live within 2 hours of me in the US... how convenient!) I'm still working on the whole amigos ecuatorianos thing, but once learn how to say other phrases besides "can I go to the bathroom?" and "how much does that cost?" in spanish, the natives will be begging to be my friend.
Yes, this country is cheap. I take four buses a day for a total of $1. I eat a humongous lunch with juice for approximately $2.80 and I recently purchased 3 purses for a grand total of $10. So, if you happen to visit me while I'm in Ecuador, please bring me an extra suitcase for all the things I will acquire while I'm here.
And yes, I WANT VISITORS. ANYONE. ANYTIME. VEN AQUI POR FAVOR!!
Fun things I've done so far? Played paintball with Ecuadorians, partied in La Mariscal - aka gringaland aka tourist land aka a really fun time! - twice, spent a wonderful evening with the Melos (my extended fam who lives in Quito), made the soccer team at the university, and been asked for my hand in marriage by a cab driver. And fun things I have planned? Lots of hiking, Medio del Mundo, the beach, the Amazon, more hiking, Machu Piccu, Argentina, the Galapagos, & more!

...okay sorry about that. If you made it this far, not only do I congratulate you, but you are now one of my best friends. Thank you! The future blogs will be better, I promise, and hopefully funnier. I really don't think I can compete with Erin for the funniest blog award, but I'll try to entertain.

Love you all! Te quiero.

stay chevere,
sha