Hi! I´m glad that you were able to view my other blog. I´m still trying to figure out the logistics of how to make it look pretty, and I know a lot of it is in Spanish, but hopefully it won´t be too difficult to navigate and understand. I did add a few entries, but they´re in backwards order.
Right now I´m in the USFQ computer lab, and I was able to download pictures! Classes start tomorrow, and I´m still trying to finalize my schedule. Registration is a little different here than Illinois. A lot of classes fill up, but you can sign up for the waiting list and talk to the professor. For this reason, I´m signing up for and planning on attending more classes than I will end up taking. Once I figure out the best classes, I plan on dropping the others.
Even though this campus is WAY smaller than U of I (heck, it´s probably half the size of Central) I´m still confused as to where to go. We had a campus tour today, and I still get way turned around. I think tomorrow might be a bit crazy.
I hope everyone is doing great!
Love, Chris
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Some pics :-)
The first picture is of some kids in from Peguche, an indigenous community we stayed in, the second picture is of my room, and the third picture is of some of us in El Centro, the Historic District of Quito!
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Fromtheequatorish.blogspot is Great!
Hola Christina!
I love your new blog (which is easily accessable at http://fromtheequatorish.blogspot.com/)! I loved reading your first entry about travelling from USA to Ecuador. It is all so interesting but my favorite part was that you're convinced Ecuadorian drivers 'speed up when they approach a pedestrian'. Ha! I can imagine that's scary!....at least you learned this before becoming an Ecuadorian statistic! Please be careful...but do have fun! We'll be anxious to read & learn more at fromtheequator.blogspot!
Adios & Love you,
Dad
I love your new blog (which is easily accessable at http://fromtheequatorish.blogspot.com/)! I loved reading your first entry about travelling from USA to Ecuador. It is all so interesting but my favorite part was that you're convinced Ecuadorian drivers 'speed up when they approach a pedestrian'. Ha! I can imagine that's scary!....at least you learned this before becoming an Ecuadorian statistic! Please be careful...but do have fun! We'll be anxious to read & learn more at fromtheequator.blogspot!
Adios & Love you,
Dad
Hola from Ecuador!
Hola! Sorry, I haven’t written in here awhile; I finally figure out I could type my entry in my laptop.
Houston sounded really cool, Dad, and I’m so glad you were able to be home for all of Monday and Friday.
Let’s see, I had a ridiculous day packing on Friday. Trying to fit all my stuff for four months into two suitcases that both weigh under fifty pounds for not easy. I’m pretty sure one of my suitcases was 49.9999999999 pounds and the other one close to that.
So after a pretty smooth flight to Houston, I wound up with four hours to spare. I spent the time talking to other random people my age traveling to South America and hunting down a mailbox to mail the traveling bracelet to some of my friends at U of I. I soon learned from the shopkeepers that the nearest mailbox was outside security which I didn’t have time to go to, so I finally played dumb and asked a pilot where the nearest mailbox was. He said outside security and offered to put my letter in it. So hopefully he did mail my letter, otherwise some pilot is wandering around wearing our cool U of I bracelet.
So after a billion (okay, a little over 4) hours of waiting, I finally got on the flight to Quito. We arrived around 11:15 p.m., and after getting my ridiculously large suitcases, I went through customs to a huge crowd of people. There was a guy holding a sign that said “Cristina Bears.” I figured that must be for some other exchange student because (a) my host family had received my name and its spelling and (b) my host family consisted of a 60-year old divorced lady, not a guy my age. However, he kept saying “Christine! Christine!” to me and when I finally was like “¿Mande?” he said (in English!) “Your host mom is over here,” and led me to this tiny lady who hugged me. It turned out that the guy was named Esteban, and was the son of another host mother and was helping to track down some of us exchange students. My host mom, Patricia, had forgotten the sign she made for me at her apartment and so had to make one from what she remembered at the airport.
Patricia and I then took a cab to her apartment which is in the city of Quito. There’s a security guard who opens the main gate for us and then it takes four different keys to unlock all the gates and doors to get into her apartment. Still, I feel pretty safe. I mean, I’m not gonna go running through the streets at midnight, but I feel pretty comfortable walking by myself during the day. As soon as she showed me my room with my bed, I crashed.
I woke up the next morning around 9:30 to breakfast. I think she thinks all Americans love Corn Flakes, so every morning I eat Corn Flakes with jam on top (she suggested it, and it is pretty good) and milk with some sort of fruit. The day after I got there, I went with Patricia and a friend of hers to La Mitad del Mundo. I actually had no idea where we were going. I don’t know if they didn’t tell me, or my Spanish really sucks that bad (the latter is probably right), but I was just along for the ride. It wasn’t until we arrived at our destination and I saw a large red line running along the ground that I realized we were at the equator!
Then we had lunch which is the biggest meal of the day here. They don’t eat much for breakfast or dinner, but lunch is HUGE! One of the dishes I got was “Choclo con Queso,” or Corn with Queso. I got the dish and it came with a corn on the cob with large kernels and a large slab of light-yellow, nearly white butter and a shaker of salt. I rolled my cob in the butter which didn’t really melt on the corn like I’m used to, but I figured it was cold. My host mom asked, “¿No quieres tu queso?”, You don’t want your queso? (I figured that queso was another word for butter as well as cheese) and I said, no, I didn’t need much. I mean, I like butter and all, but I didn’t need a gigantic slab of butter.
Then the next day at lunch, the other U of I students and I had choclo con queso except that the corn kernels were off the cob and the queso slab was cut up and mixed in with the corn. It was then that I realized that what I had thought was butter really was just queso, a piece of cheese. Yup. I felt slightly better because three other girls had thought that the cheese was butter when their host families gave them choclo con queso. I guess the lesson is that if you ever come to Ecuador and receive corn on the cob with a large slab of butter, it’s not butter! But it is good cheese.
So that was my main confusion with food, though I’ve had a million other different mix-ups already. I’m pretty sure I’ve accidently insulted half the Ecuadorians that I’ve met with my crappy Spanish or me not understanding them, but they’re all really nice.
I think my Spanish is slowly improving. Some of the U of I exchange students and I took a lesson in Ecuadorian terms. “Que rico”, (How good) “Que lindo” (How cute/pretty) and “Estoy llena” (I’m full) are great terms to know here. And I’m pretty sure the cars speed up when they see a pedestrian crossing the street in front of them. Crossing streets is probably the most exciting and scary part of my day!
Quito is absolutely gorgeous with beautiful mountains surrounding the city and lots of green! It’s definitely a new experience living in a city, but so far I like it. I’m slowly learning the busses which are insane.
I hope everyone is having a great time in Illinois! I miss and love everyone!
Houston sounded really cool, Dad, and I’m so glad you were able to be home for all of Monday and Friday.
Let’s see, I had a ridiculous day packing on Friday. Trying to fit all my stuff for four months into two suitcases that both weigh under fifty pounds for not easy. I’m pretty sure one of my suitcases was 49.9999999999 pounds and the other one close to that.
So after a pretty smooth flight to Houston, I wound up with four hours to spare. I spent the time talking to other random people my age traveling to South America and hunting down a mailbox to mail the traveling bracelet to some of my friends at U of I. I soon learned from the shopkeepers that the nearest mailbox was outside security which I didn’t have time to go to, so I finally played dumb and asked a pilot where the nearest mailbox was. He said outside security and offered to put my letter in it. So hopefully he did mail my letter, otherwise some pilot is wandering around wearing our cool U of I bracelet.
So after a billion (okay, a little over 4) hours of waiting, I finally got on the flight to Quito. We arrived around 11:15 p.m., and after getting my ridiculously large suitcases, I went through customs to a huge crowd of people. There was a guy holding a sign that said “Cristina Bears.” I figured that must be for some other exchange student because (a) my host family had received my name and its spelling and (b) my host family consisted of a 60-year old divorced lady, not a guy my age. However, he kept saying “Christine! Christine!” to me and when I finally was like “¿Mande?” he said (in English!) “Your host mom is over here,” and led me to this tiny lady who hugged me. It turned out that the guy was named Esteban, and was the son of another host mother and was helping to track down some of us exchange students. My host mom, Patricia, had forgotten the sign she made for me at her apartment and so had to make one from what she remembered at the airport.
Patricia and I then took a cab to her apartment which is in the city of Quito. There’s a security guard who opens the main gate for us and then it takes four different keys to unlock all the gates and doors to get into her apartment. Still, I feel pretty safe. I mean, I’m not gonna go running through the streets at midnight, but I feel pretty comfortable walking by myself during the day. As soon as she showed me my room with my bed, I crashed.
I woke up the next morning around 9:30 to breakfast. I think she thinks all Americans love Corn Flakes, so every morning I eat Corn Flakes with jam on top (she suggested it, and it is pretty good) and milk with some sort of fruit. The day after I got there, I went with Patricia and a friend of hers to La Mitad del Mundo. I actually had no idea where we were going. I don’t know if they didn’t tell me, or my Spanish really sucks that bad (the latter is probably right), but I was just along for the ride. It wasn’t until we arrived at our destination and I saw a large red line running along the ground that I realized we were at the equator!
Then we had lunch which is the biggest meal of the day here. They don’t eat much for breakfast or dinner, but lunch is HUGE! One of the dishes I got was “Choclo con Queso,” or Corn with Queso. I got the dish and it came with a corn on the cob with large kernels and a large slab of light-yellow, nearly white butter and a shaker of salt. I rolled my cob in the butter which didn’t really melt on the corn like I’m used to, but I figured it was cold. My host mom asked, “¿No quieres tu queso?”, You don’t want your queso? (I figured that queso was another word for butter as well as cheese) and I said, no, I didn’t need much. I mean, I like butter and all, but I didn’t need a gigantic slab of butter.
Then the next day at lunch, the other U of I students and I had choclo con queso except that the corn kernels were off the cob and the queso slab was cut up and mixed in with the corn. It was then that I realized that what I had thought was butter really was just queso, a piece of cheese. Yup. I felt slightly better because three other girls had thought that the cheese was butter when their host families gave them choclo con queso. I guess the lesson is that if you ever come to Ecuador and receive corn on the cob with a large slab of butter, it’s not butter! But it is good cheese.
So that was my main confusion with food, though I’ve had a million other different mix-ups already. I’m pretty sure I’ve accidently insulted half the Ecuadorians that I’ve met with my crappy Spanish or me not understanding them, but they’re all really nice.
I think my Spanish is slowly improving. Some of the U of I exchange students and I took a lesson in Ecuadorian terms. “Que rico”, (How good) “Que lindo” (How cute/pretty) and “Estoy llena” (I’m full) are great terms to know here. And I’m pretty sure the cars speed up when they see a pedestrian crossing the street in front of them. Crossing streets is probably the most exciting and scary part of my day!
Quito is absolutely gorgeous with beautiful mountains surrounding the city and lots of green! It’s definitely a new experience living in a city, but so far I like it. I’m slowly learning the busses which are insane.
I hope everyone is having a great time in Illinois! I miss and love everyone!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Dad's Adventure in Houston
Howdy from Houston. I'm here at ExxonMobil's Technical Training Center for three days...which isn't so bad except they are smack dab in the middle of the five days that Christina is home between Tijuana and Ecuador, and the last few days Brian will be home for the summer! Argh! How did that happen!? Ironically because I applied for the Team Captain role on ExxonMobil's engineering interviewing /recruiting team at the Univ of Illinois, thinking it would be fun and also maybe a chance to cross paths with Brian & Chris more often. Although it's in addition to my primary project manager job, I'm really excited about the role. But so far the schedule part has totally backfired. Oh well....I hear the whole gang (Deb, Brain, and Chris) are meeting me at the airport & tomorrow night & we're all going out for an early celebration of Christina's birthday which will be great! I'm really looking forward to that!
The training is actually going well and quite interesting....we'll be hiring all kinds of engineers for all ExxonMobil locations, so we need to have a decent understanding of all the various jobs in this big company, as well as what all the various organizations do, from exploration to drilling to production to pipeline to refining to fuels marketing. Plus research and chemicals. And know all the good reasons to work for ExxonMobil, and Plus learned a lot of interesting stuff about what today's college students (like Chris & Brian) are like and what they are interested in and looking for...and I must say they are an impressive generation already.
But two days in conference rooms had given me a serious case of cabin fever and wanderlust. So tonight after 'classes' I decided to take a long hike from the Renaissance Hotel where I'm staying to the Rice University area and back...the concierge said I was nuts to plan to go that far, but I had a general idea of my route and distance, and was able to home in on the campus nicely by walking against the steady stream of outbound joggers. (I later realized the campus is encircled by a kind of gravel sidewalk that is almost completely shaded by enormous oak trees...so it is cool and therefore a popular jogging path for students & staff. (I was actually very impressed by the number of joggers, but none of them seems to be in particularly good shape....compared to Brian & Chris that is...which isn't a fair comparison!). I cut thru a really nice residential area adjacent to the campus called University West, which I later learned is occupied largely by doctors & medical staff who work at the nearby medical centers (such as Rice, Baylor, and Methodist hospitals). Ahhh...I still love Texas. I've happily grown into a certified Midwesterner, but still feel instantly at home whenever I see bermuda grass and walk in the shade of those low, sprawling oak & pecan trees and see the dogwoods, and pick-up trucks and lone stars and state flags everywhere. It was a pleasant walk.
Rice University is a beautiful campus, full of well maintained landscaping (even when school is out) and interesting architecture highlighted by lots of arches and...well...bricks. I hear its the best endowed school in the country and after roaming the campus tonight, I believe it.
It was a hot night (but not as hot as yesterday, when temperatures peaked at 101 deg F). So when I spotted the MetroRail on the far side of Rice campus, I decided to hop on just to soak up some A/C. I basically road it across the city and back. Thru several interesting neighborhoods, sitting with several other 'interesting' riders. The MetroRail runs right through the city of Houston at ground level with no crossing signals. Kind of like the trolley & train in Fort Collins, except the MetroRail is electric and modern (read quiet and fast) so I quickly learned pedestrians really need to be alert! By the time I got back to Rice campus, I had cooled down but was pretty hungry & thirsty so stopped at a local deli for a sandwich & a beer. Hit the trail again and finally arrived back at the hotel well after dark, where my buddy the concierge was impressed by my trip report and congratulated me for not calling the shuttle to pick me up (that would have been embarrassing!). It was nice urban hike (7.5 miles round trip based on my plot on Google Map) and the only problem was not wearing hiking shoes...I have the blisters to prove it.
Now I'm going to bed. I think I'll sleep well now, considering I'm pretty tarred (that's Texan for tired) and really looking forward to getting home tomorrow evening & spending it with all four of us together again.
See you'all soon!
Love
Dad
The training is actually going well and quite interesting....we'll be hiring all kinds of engineers for all ExxonMobil locations, so we need to have a decent understanding of all the various jobs in this big company, as well as what all the various organizations do, from exploration to drilling to production to pipeline to refining to fuels marketing. Plus research and chemicals. And know all the good reasons to work for ExxonMobil, and Plus learned a lot of interesting stuff about what today's college students (like Chris & Brian) are like and what they are interested in and looking for...and I must say they are an impressive generation already.
But two days in conference rooms had given me a serious case of cabin fever and wanderlust. So tonight after 'classes' I decided to take a long hike from the Renaissance Hotel where I'm staying to the Rice University area and back...the concierge said I was nuts to plan to go that far, but I had a general idea of my route and distance, and was able to home in on the campus nicely by walking against the steady stream of outbound joggers. (I later realized the campus is encircled by a kind of gravel sidewalk that is almost completely shaded by enormous oak trees...so it is cool and therefore a popular jogging path for students & staff. (I was actually very impressed by the number of joggers, but none of them seems to be in particularly good shape....compared to Brian & Chris that is...which isn't a fair comparison!). I cut thru a really nice residential area adjacent to the campus called University West, which I later learned is occupied largely by doctors & medical staff who work at the nearby medical centers (such as Rice, Baylor, and Methodist hospitals). Ahhh...I still love Texas. I've happily grown into a certified Midwesterner, but still feel instantly at home whenever I see bermuda grass and walk in the shade of those low, sprawling oak & pecan trees and see the dogwoods, and pick-up trucks and lone stars and state flags everywhere. It was a pleasant walk.
Rice University is a beautiful campus, full of well maintained landscaping (even when school is out) and interesting architecture highlighted by lots of arches and...well...bricks. I hear its the best endowed school in the country and after roaming the campus tonight, I believe it.
It was a hot night (but not as hot as yesterday, when temperatures peaked at 101 deg F). So when I spotted the MetroRail on the far side of Rice campus, I decided to hop on just to soak up some A/C. I basically road it across the city and back. Thru several interesting neighborhoods, sitting with several other 'interesting' riders. The MetroRail runs right through the city of Houston at ground level with no crossing signals. Kind of like the trolley & train in Fort Collins, except the MetroRail is electric and modern (read quiet and fast) so I quickly learned pedestrians really need to be alert! By the time I got back to Rice campus, I had cooled down but was pretty hungry & thirsty so stopped at a local deli for a sandwich & a beer. Hit the trail again and finally arrived back at the hotel well after dark, where my buddy the concierge was impressed by my trip report and congratulated me for not calling the shuttle to pick me up (that would have been embarrassing!). It was nice urban hike (7.5 miles round trip based on my plot on Google Map) and the only problem was not wearing hiking shoes...I have the blisters to prove it.
Now I'm going to bed. I think I'll sleep well now, considering I'm pretty tarred (that's Texan for tired) and really looking forward to getting home tomorrow evening & spending it with all four of us together again.
See you'all soon!
Love
Dad
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Hi Chris,
It was nice to hear you're feeling better yesterday. The previous time we talked, you had just finished a verybusy week and then got hit with....the crud as Granddaddy calls it. Based on how short yours lasted and how seldom you got it vs your colleagues, you're obviously one togh cookie and working hard...which is great (good genes?) just please take care of yourself. Can't help others if you're out of commission. Are your knees still healing We heard Ashley was laid up in San Diego for seveeral days...seems everyone has gotten 'it' a least a couple times this summer.
Good news: I was able to schedule my departure for Houston early Tues instead o Mon and I can take Mon Aug 13...so I'll be around home when you are! We're really getting psyched about your coming home! I will also be returning from Huston Thurs evening so will be around Friday too. At this rate, you may OD on logging parent-time during the 5 days you'll be home!
Hey I know you don't know Brian Bush but he has so much 8iin common with you, I thought I'd list them here...maybe you'll cross paths: Junior in ME college, excellent grades, Campus Crusade, Ultimate team, James Scholar. I'll be interviewing him for a summer intern job with ExxonMobil. I'll ask Brian patrick if he knows him too.
Below is a photo of Brian during our latest awsome biking adventure...this time at Buffalo Range riding center (as in 'oh give me a home...?') out west of Ottawa Ill. Notice the very cool 'air' under both wheels. We'challenged' ourselves plenty this trip, especially once discovered the motocross tracks!
Take care Chris...
See you SOON!
Love
Dad
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