Friday, January 13, 2006
Welcome to my blog! I´m sure you won´t regret reading it.
It´s now my 5th day in Quito and I´ve had a very busy week. I flew from Heathrow, via Madrid, on Monday 9th January 2006. Unusually, I really didn´t enjoy the flight. I wasn´t happy that I didn´t have my own individual TV screen, and I thought we should have got more than 2 meals. This attitude didn´t bode well for the ´hardcore travellar´attitude I´ll need to adopt, and I was telling myself that I´d have much more uncomfortable expreience in the months ahead.
Once I got to the airport, however, everything went like a breeze. I was met at the airport by the friendly i-to-i representitives and driven to the apartment of the woman, Magda, who´s hosting me. I was delighted to find that she speaks fluent English, although I´ve made a few token attempts to converse in Spanish (usually "Hola, buenos dias, como estas?") She´s been so kind and helpful - she´s made us breakfast and dinner every day, and even made us packed lunches! We´ve had a different home-made fruit juice every morning, none of which I´d heard of. (Something like narajina, tomatina? (looked a bit like a tomato but was sweet, something white, etc...) After my meal I was very relieved to get to bed.
From Tuesday until today, Friday, I´ve had 4-6 hours of Spanish lessons per day. I´ve definitely learned loads, but still have difficulty speaking to people and get flustered when people speak to me, so I think I´ll need to use it loads before I get any good.
On Wednesday afternoon i-to-i organised a trip to "Mittal del Mudo" - the middle of the world. There was some ancient civilisation stuff, but I was more concerned with standing astride the equator! There was an old sink which our guide filled with water on the equator, and the water went straight down! Wow. Then she moved it about 2 metres to either side, and amazingly even at that distance, the water swirled anti-clockwise on the north, and clockwise on the south. I´d always wanted to test that. Then we did this experiment
****physicists please read****
where our guide tried to force someone´s fingers apart on one side of the equator, and couldn´t do it. Then they moved to the equator, and she could do it easily. She said something like "equator literally means equal, so all forces are equal" which I wasn´t very impressed with. But I tested it, and there really did seem to be a difference. If anyone can offer any explanation, I´d be most interested.
***physicists stop reading***
Oh yeah, and I blew a dart out of a blowpipe and hit a cactus, which is always fun. And the most exciting thing of all: I saw some llamae!!!!
On Thursday I went with my fellow Spanish students to visit the historic "old town" which was very beautiful. I´d like to go back there and see more of it at a later date. This afternoon, we had a salsa lesson. It was fun, but I was the same as the other 2 times I´ve tried it: I´m fine with the stepping forward and backwards bit, but then get stuck when you have to do the twirling around thing.
I´d better get back, or Magda will worry about me! Tomorrow morning it´s an early start to Tena, and from there to the Jatun Sacha station in the amazon.
It´s now my 5th day in Quito and I´ve had a very busy week. I flew from Heathrow, via Madrid, on Monday 9th January 2006. Unusually, I really didn´t enjoy the flight. I wasn´t happy that I didn´t have my own individual TV screen, and I thought we should have got more than 2 meals. This attitude didn´t bode well for the ´hardcore travellar´attitude I´ll need to adopt, and I was telling myself that I´d have much more uncomfortable expreience in the months ahead.
Once I got to the airport, however, everything went like a breeze. I was met at the airport by the friendly i-to-i representitives and driven to the apartment of the woman, Magda, who´s hosting me. I was delighted to find that she speaks fluent English, although I´ve made a few token attempts to converse in Spanish (usually "Hola, buenos dias, como estas?") She´s been so kind and helpful - she´s made us breakfast and dinner every day, and even made us packed lunches! We´ve had a different home-made fruit juice every morning, none of which I´d heard of. (Something like narajina, tomatina? (looked a bit like a tomato but was sweet, something white, etc...) After my meal I was very relieved to get to bed.
From Tuesday until today, Friday, I´ve had 4-6 hours of Spanish lessons per day. I´ve definitely learned loads, but still have difficulty speaking to people and get flustered when people speak to me, so I think I´ll need to use it loads before I get any good.
On Wednesday afternoon i-to-i organised a trip to "Mittal del Mudo" - the middle of the world. There was some ancient civilisation stuff, but I was more concerned with standing astride the equator! There was an old sink which our guide filled with water on the equator, and the water went straight down! Wow. Then she moved it about 2 metres to either side, and amazingly even at that distance, the water swirled anti-clockwise on the north, and clockwise on the south. I´d always wanted to test that. Then we did this experiment
****physicists please read****
where our guide tried to force someone´s fingers apart on one side of the equator, and couldn´t do it. Then they moved to the equator, and she could do it easily. She said something like "equator literally means equal, so all forces are equal" which I wasn´t very impressed with. But I tested it, and there really did seem to be a difference. If anyone can offer any explanation, I´d be most interested.
***physicists stop reading***
Oh yeah, and I blew a dart out of a blowpipe and hit a cactus, which is always fun. And the most exciting thing of all: I saw some llamae!!!!
On Thursday I went with my fellow Spanish students to visit the historic "old town" which was very beautiful. I´d like to go back there and see more of it at a later date. This afternoon, we had a salsa lesson. It was fun, but I was the same as the other 2 times I´ve tried it: I´m fine with the stepping forward and backwards bit, but then get stuck when you have to do the twirling around thing.
I´d better get back, or Magda will worry about me! Tomorrow morning it´s an early start to Tena, and from there to the Jatun Sacha station in the amazon.
# posted by Alex @ 3:55 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
I didn't get that physics bit, but then, I'm not a physicist any more, so that makes sense and I shouldn't have read it and it's now fried my brain.
Yeah, plus you owe us a load of photos already from like New Year and stuff.
(See how articulate I've become?)
Post a Comment
(See how articulate I've become?)
<< Home
