One month in Ecuador!

I wrote this post last Thursday, when I had been in Ecuador for one month, but when I had almost finished writing it, I lost connection and it only got back today. So I will post it now, but just keep in mind that I wrote it on the 17th of September.

Today I have been one month in Ecuador!
It is crazy to think about how long I have been here already and how much I have already experienced. And that changes are on their way - it's gonna be exciting!

I feel really weird about having been here for one month! Because as I said I have been here for quite a long time. I have been away from home for longer than I have ever been before. But I do not feel that I have been away for that long time. It is so weird. I think for now it just feels like a small holiday, but I know that it is not true. I still have 11 months left here, and I really look forward to experiencing more! There is still a lot of experiences that awaits me.

I still do not regret coming here! Sometimes I think "Maybe I would have had a better experience if I had gone to .... Or if I had just spend time travelling to .... Or maybe I should just have started studying...". But I also know that I would not have had any of the experiences I have had so far if I had done anything different! And I would not change any of my new friendships or experiences for anything. I know that this is where I am supposed to be right now, so I have just decided to not regret a single thing and just enjoy my life down here. Maybe I would have another experience somewhere else? But I certainly would not have my experience. And I love my experience!

Furthermore it is pretty weird to hear about life in Denmark. How it is turning into fall and the weather is gray. Seeing a new bunch of students write on my high school's Facebook page. Hearing about people's university studies - life goes on in Denmark as well and I am definitely not the only one up for new experiences.

Tuesday I had a pretty important meeting with VASE and when everything is settled I have big changes in sight and probably some explanation to do! I cannot really update you yet, but so far I am happy!

Today and yesterday I have been of work because I have been sick. Which have also shown me a bit about the Ecuadorian way of doing things! I had no clue on who to contact from the kindergarten as I have been given absolutely no contact information.
The apartment we live in are on top of an office belonging to the administration of the organisation where a couple of persons are working each day, so when my roomie left for work she told them, that I was sick and asked them to call the kindergarten. As it turns out they did not inform the kindergarten before the end of the day and the kindergarten teachers had been really frustrated with the fact that I were not there.
So that is just the Ecuadorian way of doing things! It can be a bit frustrating sometimes, but I just have to get used to it.

As I have taken no new pictures during the last 1½ week or so, I will finally give you some pictures of the apartment I am living in at the moment.
And some funny moments we have had:

Like the bathroom door locking from the inside and us being unable to open it so someone from the project had to come and spend 15 minutes trying to open it so we could take a shower. It has actually happened a number of times, so we have made the agreement: Never close a door unless you are inside a room.

Or that we are supposed to have hot water. Supposed to. During our almost 4 week stay here I have had one shower that was fairly warm. And I have had numerous showers with ice cold water!

We are also washing our clothes by hand, which is pretty ambitious when we have no hot water.

We have also finally gained access to our roof terrace! The door had been locked and the key we where told was the right key was definitely the wrong key. But we have had a temporary roomie who have been living her on and off for two weeks and volunteered on the project earlier. And she knew where the right key was!

Shower in one room and toilet in another.
Toilet i det ene rum og bad i det andet. 

Kitchen and living room in one. I miss something soft to sit in!
Køkken og opholdsrum i et. Der mangler dog en blød sofa.

Night view
Udsigten om aftenen.

Jeg skrev originalt dette indlæg den 17 september, da jeg havde været her en måned. Men da jeg var færdig med at skrive indlægget, mistede jeg internetforbindelsen, så derfor får I indlægget nu.

Wuhuu, i dag har jeg været i Ecuador i en måned!

Det er virkelig vildt at tænke på hvor lang tid jeg har været her og hvor mange ting jeg allerede har oplevet. Og der er ændringer på vej - det bliver spændende!

Det føles meget underligt at jeg har været her en måned. Fordi som tidligere nævnt har jeg jo været her ret lang tid og været væk hjemmefra længere tid end nogensinde før. Men stadigvæk føles det ikke som om at det er en måned siden jeg rejste hjemmefra.

Lige nu føles det nok bare mest af alt som en kort ferie eller noget i den stil. Men jeg har jo stadigvæk 11 måneder tilbage og jeg glæder mig virkelig til at opleve masser af flere ting. Der venter mig jo stadigvæk mange nye oplevelser.

Og jeg fortryder stadigvæk ikke mit valg om at tage herned. Nogle gange tager jeg mig selv i at tænke "Måske ville jeg have haft en bedre oplevelse hvis jeg bare var taget til .... Eller hvis jeg bare havde besluttet mig for at rejse til ... Eller måske skulle jeg bare være begyndt at studere...".

Men jeg ved også at jeg ikke ville have haft nogle af mine hidtige oplevelser hvis jeg havde været et hvilket som helst andet sted i verden og gjort en hvilken som helst anden ting. Og jeg ville ikke bytte mine oplevelser eller nye venskaber for noget. Jeg ved at det er meningen at jeg skal være her nu, så jeg har bare besluttet mig for ikke at fortryde noget og i stedet nyde mit ophold hernede. Måske ville jeg have andre oplevelser et andet sted? Men jeg ville jo ikke have min oplevelse!

Det er også ret underligt at høre nyt fra Danmark. Hvordan det bliver efterår, se nye elever skrive i min gamle skoles Facebook-gruppe og høre om folks nye liv på universitetet. Jeg er bestemt ikke den eneste der får nye oplevelser,

I tirsdags havde jeg et ret vigtigt møde med VASE og når alting er planlagt, så har jeg store ændringer i sigte og formentligt nogle forklaringer at komme med. Jeg kan ikke fortælle jer hvad endnu, men lige nu er jeg glad!

I går og i dag har jeg ikke været på mit projekt, da jeg har været syg (igen). Hvilket også har givet mig en lektion i hvordan man gør tingene i Ecuador.

Jeg har ingen kontakt information på folk fra børnehaven, og vores lejlighed ligger oven på et kontor, hvor der er administrative medarbejdere hver dag. Så da min roomie tog afsted til hendes børnehave fortalte hun dem at jeg var syg og bad dem om at kontakte børnehaven jeg arbejder i. Hvilket de selvfølgelig ikke gjorde før slutningen af dagen og alle pædagogerne havde været virkelig frustrerede over at jeg ikke var der. (Det skal nævnes at de er 3 pædagoger til 70 børn).

Men det er jo bare den ecuadorianske måde at gøre tingene på. Det kan være frustrerende, men jeg må jo bare vende mig til det.

Da jeg ikke rigtig har taget nogen billeder den sidste 1½ uge, kan I endelig få lidt billeder fra lejligheden, der er at finde imellem den engelske og danske del.

Og nogle lidt sjove øjeblikke...

Som for eksempel at døren indtil vores badeværelse gik i baglås, ikke kunne åbnes med en nøgle og nogen fra projektet bruge 15 minutter på at åbne døren. Det er sket flere gange, hvilket har medført aftalen: Du lukker ikke en dør, medmindre du er inde i rummet.

Det er også meningen at vi skal have varmt vand. Men det har vi bare ikke. I løbet af vores tid her har jeg været så heldig at få et nogenlunde varmt bad. Og rigtig mange iskolde bade!

Og vi vasker vores tøj i hånden, hvilket er lidt ambitiøst, når vi jo ikke har noget varmt vand.

Vi har også endelig fået adgang til vores tag-terrasse. Den nøgle vi havde fået var ikke den rigtige, men vi har haft en midlertidig roomie, der har været frivillig på projektet tidligere og som kunne vise os hvor den rigtige nøgle var.

First week in the apartment, my birthday and Spanish classes!

Now I have been living one week in the apartment in Pomasqui with Stefanie. (Yeah, I'll post some pictures at some point - when I have taken some..)

Nu har jeg boet i min lejlighed med Stefanie i en uge. (Ja, jeg skal nok tage nogle billeder.. På et tidspunkt.)

Meet my roomie, Stefanie
Mød min roomie, Stefanie

The apartment is in a beautiful place and in our "backyard", we can take a short walk into a valley and the view is so beautiful. I think we would be able to see many birds if we got out of bed early one day (and had plenty of time) and walked down there just before sunrise. That is definitely on my list of things to do before I go home!
The whole place is fenced in, but when we went for a walk, the other gate was open! Then it will not help much to lock the front gate.
Furthermore, there is many ownerless dogs in the streets around our apartment that follow you if you walk by them, but fortunately they don't bite.

Vores lejlighed har en virkelig flot udsigt og i vores "baghave" kan vi gå en kort tur ned i en dal.
Jeg tror der ville være en god mulighed for at se mange fugle, hvis vi bare står tidligt nok op og går derned lige før solopgang. Det er bestemt en af de ting jeg skal gøre i løbet af min tid hernede.
Der er hegn omkring hele området og to porte, men da vi gik en tur var den ene port ikke låst. Så hvad hjælper det at den anden er låst?
Derudover er der rigtig mange ejerløse hunde i nærheden af vores lejlighed, men heldigvis bider de ikke.

View from our backyard
Udsigten fra vores baghave

View from our backyard
Udsigten fra vores baghave

View from our backyard
Udsigten fra vores baghave

Birds in our backyard
Fugle i vores baghave

This week we have had language-classes from Monday-Thursday, which meant that we had to be in Quito at 9 o'clock. As we have two hours+ to go there, we have to get up early. I am glad that the project is nearer to our apartment.

 I løbet af denne uge har vi haft sprogkursus fra mandag til torsdag og vi har været nødsaget til at være i Quito klokken 9. Hvilket betyder at vi har skullet tidligt op, da vi har 2 timer plus til skolen. Jeg er glad for at vores projekt er tættere på!

During this week a lot of other stuff have also happened.
For example I have had the experience of eating a really delicious and really large meal consisting of soup, another dish with rise, meat, vegetables and potatoes, having juice and a little serving of fruit for 2.5 dollar. That is definitely a lot cheaper than in Denmark.
Otherwise, I have visited a market where I bought a beautiful painting - as a sort of birthday present to myself. Because I actually had my birthday yesterday! And the picture will decorate my room in the apartment and I will take it with me when I go home.
It was a bit weird having my birthday in Ecuador. One of the other volunteers had done the sweetest thing ever and bought me a piece of cake on her way to the classes!
And another had written me a letter and bought me chocolate. When I arrived at the school people sang "Happy Birthday".

I løbet af denne uge er der også sket en masse andet.
For eksempel har jeg fundet ud af at du kan spise suppe, samt en ret mere med ris, grøntsager, kartofler og kød samt få juice og lidt frugt for 2,5 dollar - Det er bestemt meget billigere end i Danmark.
Jeg har også købt et maleri - som en slags fødselsdagsgave til mig selv. Jeg havde fødselsdag i går! Og billedet vil både pynte på mit værelse hernede og jeg vil bestemt tage det med hjem.
Det var lidt underligt at have fødselsdag hernede. En af de andre frivillige havde været virkelig sød og købt et stykke kage til mig og en af de andre havde lavet et kort til mig og købt chokolade til mig. Og da jeg ankom til skolen sang de fødselsdagssang for mig.

Me and my cake!
Mig og min kage!

Picture of my new painting, my two birthday cards and some memories from Denmark
Et billede af mit maleri, mine to fødselsdagskort og minder fra Danmark.

After class I headed towards el Centro (the old town) with 4 of the other volunteers, where we had lunch and ate ice cream. At the ice cream place (San Agustin Heladeria) we asked about some of the flavors, as we couldn't look them up in any of our dictionaries and we wanted to know what was in the ice cream. As they couldn't explain it, they gave us tastings of some of the flavors. It is a nice place with great service and tasty ice cream. If I were to show someone around Quito it would definitely involve a stop in there to have either ice cream or traditional Ecuadorian cakes.

Efter skole tog jeg til den gamle bydel sammen med 4 af de andre frivillige, hvor vi spiste frokost og is. Ved is-stedet(San Augustin Heladeria) spurgte vi om nogle af smagene, da vi ikke forstod hvad det var og ikke kunne slå smagene op i vores ordbog. Da de ikke kunne forklare det kom de med smagsprøver på nogle af isene - Virkelig god service.
Det var et virkeligt fedt og hyggeligt sted med god service. Hvis jeg skulle vise nogen rundt i Quito ville dette sted helt klart være et stop på ruten.

Our tastings of ice cream.
Vores smagsprøver på is.

Afterwards I had a meeting at the VASE-office and we were home at the apartment pretty late. At the apartment I had kept a letter from some of the guys from my old high school class, that was given to me before departure and was to be opened on my birthday.

Efterfølgende havde jeg et møde med VASE-kontoret og vi kom ret sent hjem. I lejligheden havde jeg et fødselsdagskort fra nogle af de personer jeg gik i gymnasieklasse med, som skulle åbnes i dagens andledning.

Today (28/8) we went on a trip to el Centro, where we saw a number of old churches from the outside, had a guided tour in the president palace, went into one of the churches and went to a museum that explained about the history of Quito, where we also had a guided tour. This was really interesting and a really nice day where we saw a lot, learned a lot and walked a lot. Making us all a bit tired by the end of the day. I find the history of Ecuador quite interesting as you don't really hear much about the history of Southern America in school in Denmark. (And we also told the meaning behind the word history, literally meaning "his story" because the history is written by the winners and because earlier only men were important for the history and had the possibility to write it down.)

I feel like I have something to do all the time - being bored? That is not gonna happen!

I dag (28/8) var vi på tur til den gamle bydel, hvor vi så et par kirker og så havde vi rundvisninger på et museum, hvor vi hørte om Ecuadors historie, i præsidentens palads og i en kirke.
Det var virkelig spændende at høre om Ecuadors historie, fordi man generelt ikke hører så meget om Sydamerikas historie i skolen. (og vi snakkede også om meningen af ordet historie = "Hans historie". Hvilket er fordi det var mændende der skrev historien og vinderen der skrev historien)

Jeg har det som om der hele tiden er noget at lave. Jeg keder mig i hvert fald ikke hernede.

And I feel like I'm getting better at the Spanish, but I still have a hard time with learning and understanding, as I have had almost no experience with Spanish before coming to Ecuador.
But I am learning the grammar and a few words in class, which is really great. I succeeded in buying bananas in a fruit store where the seller did not speak a word of English and I start to understand the meaning of some conversations and sentences. I hope that I will learn a lot more during my time here. I probably will, as almost no Ecuadorians speak English.

Jeg føler også at jeg er blevet bedre til spansk, men jeg har det stadigvæk svært med sproget, da jeg stort set ingen erfaringer med spansk har fra tidligere.
Men vi lærer både grammatik og ord i timerne, og det er lykkedes mig at købe bananer i en grønthandler, hvor sælgeren kun snakkede spansk. Jeg er også begyndt at forstå meningen af nogle sætninger.
Jeg håber at jeg kan blive meget bedre til spansk i løbet af min tid her - men det kommer formentlig også til at ske, da næsten ingen ecuadorianere snakker engelsk.

Me and my bananas
De bananer det lykkedes mig at købe