Well today was the day, I embarked on my new adventure, La Universidad Tecnica de Ambato, trabajando en el bienestar estudiantil con la trabajadora social Eulalia Pina. I took my time getting up this morning and my host mom had breakfast ready around 7:45; hard boiled egg, hot chocolate, and bread with some sort of lunch meat-nothing like the fresh juice and fruit i got in Tumbaco. Hopefully I can start making my own breakfast...
I walked to the University and arrived around 8:30. At the entrance I ran into my counterpart conversing with other employees. Im so glad I took my time because it looked like she had just arrived as well. We made our way up to the office saying hi to everyone and then stopped in the doctors office to talk to the nurse and doctor. Lots of socializing. Eulalia told me how excited she was that I was finally here to help her. Then started rattling off all the things that we needed to do. Im hoping she was talking about the span of two years, but to be honest I kinda lost her at about the 4th or 5th thing. Then the janitor came in and talked with her for awhile. He's a really cool guy, and from what I got today he seems to hang out in the office when not cleaning. Eulalia then proceeded to pick up a magazine and read it..so much for getting a jump start on all of this stuff. I was totally fine with it because I was able to catch up on some e-mail and look over documents that Julie (the previous volunteer) had left me.
Some how the time passed by and about 12:30 we left for lunch. Eulalia had to buy some things and so did I (random stuff for my room) so we went downtown to get them and eat lunch. It's amazing what stores sell down here. They are cheaper in the small tiendas downtown. There are literally stores for just plastic things, haha. I got a wastebasket, bags, soap holder, and 24 hangers for like 3 dollars. We then ate at the mercado, llapingachos (potatoe tortilla), SO GOOD!!!! and this amazing juice (aguacate and Borojo).
We were back in the University by 2:30. I still had some stuff to get/errands to run so I told Eulalia that I would probably leave around 4. Once back at the office she decided to take me on a tour of the university and the different facultades (kinda like different colleges within the University). We stopped by the "human sciences" (liberal arts maybe?) and talked with the director there because they are collaborating with the Bienestar to do this training on emergency awareness; first aid, evacuation plans, and some other stuff. Apparently there was supposed to be a meeting on wed to get the project started but the director scheduled another meeting at the same time so they bumped it up to tomorrow. This didn't seem like the greatest idea because as we headed back to the office Eulalia was talking about all of the things that she needed to do in preparation for the meeting.
There were two other students that would help out and they came back to the office with us to start working. At about 4:15 she finally e-mailed me these documents that needed re-formatting. SERIOUSLY!!!!! After all morning not really doing anything Im given work to do 15 minutes after I was planning on leaving. Needless to say I stayed till 5:30 finishing it, a little frustrated and exhausted from the day in general.
I still had to go to the Megamaxi to get a couple things and figure out if my phone could be activated. They said it would be about 5 days, which didn't really matter to me because I have my other phone, so I left it in the hands of them...should be good. Then made my way to the Megamaxi. Quite the store, it sells everything; from food, to clothes..kinda like your target, or dare I say Walmart... But higher class ya know? Don't really plan on going there a lot because everything is expensive and obviously imported (mainly from the states I would say).
I finally got home around 6:30 to find my door locked! I was never given a key for it! I kid you not, EVERY single door in the house had a key in the lock just chilling except my door! So I tried each key and thank god the LAST one I tried worked. I dropped off my stuff and headed to the restaurant. Only my host dad was there. By this time Im so tired and super hungry. My host mom was nowhere to be found and all my dad was eating was popcorn. I snarfed like a whole bowl down and then had to ask if there was any other food, lol. He was like yeah....then I had to ask if I could eat, lol so awkward. It seemed like he was waiting for something...I don't know. So I ate and then we conversed for awhile.
He asked me where I would be going after three months. I told him that I would be staying in Ambato for the next two years but that I could find my own apartment if I wanted. He seemed kinda confused as to why I would want to leave living with them..ahh cultural differences. It will be interesting to see how this relationship with the family develops over these three months. But I really can't imagine I'll want to stay. The only thing that would make me stay a bit more is if I don't get the time to look for a place. I ended up leaving and coming back to the house to shower and put the rest of my stuff in order.
Oh what a day. For the most part it was really good, just really intense with all these things going on. Im sure that's not what everyday is going to be like, with time things will calm down I'm sure. Im thinking I deserve a little Dexter. I can only imagine what the rest of the week will bring! Thank god I have both days of the weekend off!
Thanks for reading!
much love,
rach
No comments:
Post a Comment