Spanish!

Instituto Superior de Espanol, Quito

In Spanish class with my teacher, Maria Elisabeth

...So I´ve been studying Spanish for five days now, at the Instituto Superior de Espanol in Quito. I get up around 7am, have breakfast, and walk down the hill to the Institute, where they have outings exploring the city in the mornings with the other students. There are students from the US, Canada, Britain, Sweeden, Haiti, and Holland this week. Some are staying for a number of months, others, like me, are studying in different spots. I have my classes from 1:30 - 5:30pm. Four hours per day, one-on-one is pretty intensive. My Spanish has progressed more in five days than it ever did in a year and a hslf in college.

The routine goes something like this:

Maria Elizabeth goes over a sheet with about 150 irregular verb conjugations. I recognize some of them from when I studied in college, I know some from their silimarity to English or Italian, I mix some up from their similarity to English or Italian, and I get some completely mixed up with words in Korean.

She then drills me on them and gives me reading and speaking exercises, when I have to use them. For good measure and style, I intersperse a number of different ways of saying that I have no clue:

Yo no recuerdo.

Yo no se.

...and my favorite:

No tengo idea.

Sometimes I take a wild stab by using the English word and throwing a vowel on the end:

Es una booka.

It´s been good fun, and the school is really professional and organized. The teachers know what they are doing, and the directors go out of their way to accommodate whatever needs or interests you have, and make it all a good fun time!

Tomorrow morning I am going on a two-day hiking trip down in the mountains to a lagoon formed by a volcano a few hours south of Quito (organized by the Institute). I´m going with one other student from Holland and a guide. Early Monday morning, I will be flying from Quito to the Amazon for my second week of Spanish courses at the Yarina Lodge on the Rio Napo.

I´m guessing I won´t have a great deal of opportunity to jump on the Internet in the middle of the jungle, so this may be my last post for a while.

Below are some photos I shot this morning walking around the Old Town area of Quito this morning with one of the other students.

Michael

Images of Quito

Quito, Old Town


Quito, Old Town


Quito, Old Town


Quito, Old Town


Qutio, Old Town


No Fumar (No Smoking)
Quito, Old Town


Quito, Old Town


Quito


Quito


Quito, Old Town

Quito


Quito, Old Town

Quito, Old Town

Over Quito

Exit

Telerifico Cable Car Station, Quito

Jesus, etc.

Quito

La Mitad del Mundo

Live! From the Middle of the Earth!

...Try this at home:

1. Go to your local equator. Make sure you are EXACTLY on the equator.
2. Balance an egg on the head of a nail. IT WORKS!
3. Now line up a water basin with a drain along the equatorial line.
4. Pour a bucket of water in the basin.
5. Pull out the drain plug and drop a leaf in the water as it drains out. The water goes STRAIGHT down the drain, as does the leaf!
6. Now repeat this process six feet NORTH of the equator. The water forms a COUNTER-CLOCKWISE whirlpool as it drains - the leaf circling around the basin in a counter-clockwise direction.
7. Move the water basin six feet SOUTH of the equatorial line. The water will form a CLOCKWISE whirlpool!

Now for any science teachers (Ahem...) who might be reading this, or purists of other stripes... Some say this is all myth and legend, not scientific fact. Any explanations or debunkifications?

Here´s one explanation for further reading.

Come to the equator and try it yourself!

El Cambio de la Guarda

The changing of the guard in front of the Presidential Palace and main square in Quito. Monday 11:30am.

Sketches of Quito

Airplane window shade. Continental shift. Dark evening. Pacific Ocean. Unltramarine. Night sky. Sailing beneath the Southern cross. Orange clusters of light between black mountain ranges. Fireflies in the cupped hands of the Andes. Single airstrip in a sea of valley lights. Old rickety bus coughing black fumes. Brilliant Andean sun. Virgin of Quito, wings outstretched over city below. Broken sidewalk. Verdent green mountains surround. White volcano peak in each direction. Shacks and cinder block houses stacked as high as the thin air allows. Vendors touting their wares from truck megaphone. Kids playing soccer on a gravel field. Buses climbing narrow cobble stone streets stitched up the steep mountainside. Popsicles for sale inside. Pastel colonial buildings, Banana cream, azul and papaya. Shuttered and terra cotta tile roof.