mmm...aiesec

so im finally getting started on my aiesec work...it feels good to be working on something i feel so passionate about again! anyway in the past 2 weeks ive developed 2 leads and had a very promising follow up on one of them! if you had asked me a year ago if i would be doing sales i would have laughed in your face and secretly cowarded in the corner bc i was terrified of the thought of doing sales...if you didnt know im not a very 'professional' person so the thought of selling made me scared bc i thought i would be immediately rejected (and i hate failing...at anything). but now look at me! just to see how far ive come in one year is so amazing...but i still have SO much to work on which means ill never be done...which is a great feeling bc if i were ever really done id be bored shitless!

let me just apologize now for my english...right now im hearing spanish and german and english all around me and i cant concentrate or think in any language...so dont blame me for my lack of grammer.

anyway i have also applied for a traineeship in lima this summer...the job is essentially helping to analyze and redesign the communication flow of the company...aka my major? its so weird how much more important ergonomics and human environment relations is becoming in business...i guess im finally in the right place at the right time for once in my life! and it feels great! plus i realize that i will be working doing something i ACTUALLY enjoy...we all know how much i love analyzing and redesigning things!

ok i have a meeting with our VP Corporate to start the ball rolling on these leads...chao for now and i promise my next post will be better bc right now im STARVING and i have to pee.

a quickie

when you walk the streets of quito you need to look down at the street because you may step:
a. in dog poop
b. on the dog that pooped
c. on a random piece of metal sticking out of the ground
d. in a ditch that you dont know why its there
e. on a handicapped individual that is crawling around asking for money
f. on a child that has wandered away from its mother
g. on a tree that is shorter than eye level and really has no use being there

take my advice...look down when you walk around quito...because i have stepped on every single one of these things and my feet hurt like a bitch.

baños in los baños

thats what i thought the first time i peed in baños...im in a baño in los baños...

anyway i dont have much time because im in a hostal with trainees from cuenca right now but bc i got 2 emails and an expensive phone call from my mom telling me to update my blog thats what im doing...

so going to baños sort of changed my life...i did more physical activity in one day than i did in my whole life (i bike rode around baños with all the aiesecers...yea i know me on a bike but i was actually pretty good!) and made great friends with amazing people in only 4 days...and ive also planned a trip to peru with the beautiful vanja from slovenia in april...im going to shit my pants im so excited...

on the ceed front i actually got a lead on a possible raising of a traineeship! it was randomly during lunch when i was at a small cafe having cafe con leche and bc it was a typical ecuadorian restaurant with limited seating i just happened to be placed next to a man who was absolutely delightful and worked for the sanitation department as an engineering consultant and is looking to hire US engineering consultants...so to anyone in AIESEC US who knows of any operations research and engineering majors (cough cough cornell georgia tech and gwu cough cough) be on the lookout.

ok so thats all the time i have right now but i promise to update more later with great stories and funny happenings...

a little tid bit

reason why you could never really be alone in life...you would never have anyone to put suntan lotion on your back.

i am going to baños this weekend with aiesec trainees from all over ecuador...i will have more eventful things to talk about on wednesday when i get back :)

manta manta manta

This weekend i went to manta, a small coastal town with little to do but go to the beach, with none to low expectations, but this weekend turned out to be a real turning point in my ecuadorian adventures. It was a 10 hour bus ride there overnight and as we all know you can never really sleep on a bus so i arrive in manta in the morning with no sleep in 24 hours. Me and vania (a great girl from quito who i went with) meet up with a guy from AIESEC manta, we eat breakfast, go to the beach for like .5 secs and then head to the hotel where the conference is. The conference starts and i realize that this is essentially a repeat of my first ROKS, and even tho it was in spanish which makes it new it was the same old shit. I guess she could tell i was bored bc this girl from guayaquil came up to me and told me that there were other trainees from guayaquil and cuenca here but that they were at the beach if i wanted to meet up with them...let me just preface this with GOD BLESS THIS CHILD!!!!

So i get in a taxi and meet up with 3 trainees, 2 from guayaquil and one from cuenca, and one guy who is spending the next 3 months traveling s. america. These people were from all over the world from so many different backgrounds; from solvenia to estonia to norway to holland yet i felt completely myself around them from the get go. We talked about what we were doing in ecuador, complained about things only foreigners would complain about, shared life stories both related to and not related to traveling and proceeded to have the absolute best time in life. Each one of us was a different age, at different stages in our lives yet we all listened to and appreciated each other and our unique perspective. No one talked down to another because of age or background or (lack of) travel experience...everyone existed on the same plane. I cant even begin to describe this feeling, but i hope those of you who know what im talking about are having warm fuzzy feelings of nostalgia and those who dont know what im talking about have the chance to experience this visceral, intangible completeness and purpose.

Besides the eye-opening experience, it was also incredibly fun and entertaining! The highlight of the whole weekend was on Saturday night us 5 went out on the town (note: there was another guayaquil trainee from belgium who was also fantastic, but she was really really sick so she stayed in the hostal that night :() and by town i mean the beach bc the town doesnt truly exist (at least i dont think) when we all of a sudden encountered this HUGE family (like 50 people) just chillin the beach passing around a bottle of red label. We obviously caught there attention (5 gringos staring can do that) because all of a sudden jorge and betty (two of the family members) ran over to us and pushed the red label in front of our faces!!! What did we do next you ask? We took the generous alcohol gift...now under normal circumstances we would never have done this but these people were a huge family with lots of kids and this is part of there culture...sharing drinks with strangers you like. So after we accepted the generous gift we proceeded to have incredible conversation and more drinks with this huge family for about 45 minutes! We talked about where we were from and that jorge was not and i quote ‘double v bush’ and laughed and took about 70 pictures between all the family members who whipped out their cameras or phones. Then when we parted they asked for our email and cell phones and said that if we ever needed anything we should call or if there were in guayaquil, cuenca or quito they would give us a call...

Other things occurred that night (like Danny the guy from norway teaching this kid that was trying to sell flowers the ‘detachable thumb trick’) but this family experience was by far the most incredible. Im just trying to imagine a family in new york just chillin, drinking and inviting a group of 5 foreigners to join them in drink and conversation...it would just never happen.

So this entry is a little too long already so im going to stop here, but know that there will be more reference to more of these incredible trainees and the amazing norweigian conversationalist.

i really do love you all.

so today i had an amazing epiphany...so i was kind of down because i realized that i dont have any good friends here yet and blah blah blah when all of a sudden something hit me...the reason im sad about that is because i have so many people in my life who really genuinely care about me...so many who would jump into cotopaxi (thats the big volcano in quito...i had to make this cultural somehow) in a second for me and for whom i would do the same...and it made me not sad anymore! even if i dont walk away from this with lifelong friends i will walk away from it with a lifelong understanding of self and perspective that is worth so much more.

but anyway to continue on with my observations i have come to realize that my affinity for indian food at its spiciest has prepared me for the picante of the south...today we were eating some typical ecuadorian dish (the name of which has escaped me...im just not good with names in general) and i go to put hot sauce on it and this kid jose says ´´you know thats hot sauce right?´´ and im like ´´si me encanta comida picante´´ (yes i love spicy food) and he looked rather surprised...i bet every other gringa he has met cant even handle the least bit of spice, but thanks to my dad who gave me the 411 on how to eat spicy food and rama who´s family introduced me to indian food early in my freshman year i am not one such gringa girl...i didnt even flinch after i was done unlike xime and xavi who were like freaking out that their mouths were on fire...i smiled on the inside after this incident :)

so i dont know if i have mentioned this before in my blog but you all have to try pan de yuca...im not even going to explain it bc i want you all to be as surprised at its goodness as i was the first time but trust me...you want to try it to make your life and palette complete.

enough about food...so today we had a meeting about PBOX structure (its project based on exchange structure for the non aiesecers out there...its like an internship program based on a topic...thats what im doing here im helping implement a pbox on social entreneurship) and i realized how great it is! it gives aiesec a focus i have never seen before in the organization! so i came to a decision:
when i return to cornell im going to work to implement a pbox on corporate social responsibility because as you all know i dont shut the fuck up about it.

i feel like its a real possibility...i mean its going to be a lot of work but i know that there are people both in aiesec and at cornell that would support it 110%...i just think CSR is the most important concept and now practice currently in the world...business has such power, more than government or war...in fact business can manipulate and catalyze both as we have seen in recent happenings, so now more than ever it is important to start bringing CSR into the lives and everyday thinking of students who are (not to sound cliche) the future determinants of our paradigm...

so this is my mission and has been for some time...i want everyone to know, understand, support and practice social responsibility...and i mean everyone, whether it be voluntary or out of necessity...and quite honestly i think it could happen with the concept of pay it forward...one person cant change the world, but one person can catalyze another who will catalyze another who will continue to pay it forward until our paradigm has changed...

maybe this is me being naive or tired or thristy or something...but as long as i think it can happen i will continue to put in all my energy...and trust me i have a lot of energy.

independence day.

so today was the first day i got to take the bus back and forth and explore all by myself! today...was my independence day! after a great AIESEC meeting after a great AIESEC night last night (the EB is hilarious here!) i went back to xime´s house, ate lunch and ventured on my way!

so i jumped (literally bc the buses dont stop for no one here) onto the bus and made my way to avenida amazonas where i would take my first spanish lessons...or so i thought...

so i had gotten onto the right bus but i kind of pre-ejacked off the bus about 15 minutes before i should have...i kept walking thinking i would eventually get to the place i needed to, but of course that didnt happen...and i began walking from a large intersection to a sketchy corner near a motor junkyard...needless to say i was frightened especially after a bus and 3 trucks honked, whistled and hissed at me (its so bad here...i could be wearing a freakin moomoo and be 389 lbs and theyd still do that)...

at this point i hail a cab and ask the cabbie to take me to la católica because from there i could get anywhere i needed to be...and i did! but now without a few bumps along the way...

first i realize that the key that opens my bag (yes i have a lock on my bag...if u knew my parents ud understand) is missing and my spare is at the house so i cant open my bag...then a stranger came up to me telling me about his book of short stories that he wrote...at first i thought it was a robbery scam bc i had just read about them in my lonely planet ecaudor and the galapagos book so i clutched my bag really tight, but he wound up being very genuine :) we talked for a bit and i told him i was here for 3 months and he said thatd hed be here for 3 weeks and that if he wanted we could travel together...now i dont know how much i trust this but i gave him my email anyway so we´ll see how everything goes...

then i passed a group of girls and heard english and got really excited so i talked to them for a bit and asked where they were from and then went on my merry way...

so i finally found the spanish school and took an hour lesson :) it was really great and helpful! but of course bc i couldnt open my bag i couldnt pay them but they let me off the hook until tomorrow :)

then i got on the bus and came back...it was the most liberating feeling in the world...plus i saw the most beautiful man on the bus and proceeded to have an intense 15 minute day dream about us falling in love and getting married and painting our family room...yea whatever im a girl.

thus concludes my independence day...and what a day it was.

más...

so my experience in quito is definitely proving to be worth while...not only am i finally exploring the glory of the city but im observing some crazy ass things that i know i would never have noticed in the US...

so first of all in el centro there is a bead heaven one might say that seriously made me cream my pants...i didn´t buy anything because i just couldnt choose so of course i shall return within the next 3 months...

so the same day i went to el centro something really strange happened...im not kidding i saw 17 severely handicapped people within 2 hours and not all in the same place...i know this is a strange observation but i say it bc i realize in the US those who are handicapped are regarded as unable to function in everyday society but here there are men who are missing all but 1 limb (his right arm) selling games of monopoly during traffic (which as i have said before is a legit way to make a living)...

another observation i made is that quito is obsessed with shwarma...now i dont know if there is another food that quito calls shwarma but im not going to lie there are as many shwarma eateries here as there are ethnic restaurants in ithaca, sexually active individuals in aiesec, and people drinking in their cars in yorktown combined (i think that covers all my bases)! its kind of ridiculous...

ok well my time is running up on this computer but ill leave you with this...today on the bus i realize why i think female cleavage is gross...its bc it looks like a but crack.

mi vida semi loca?

so i will tell a quick story of my adventure on thursday night. so my project team and i minus 2 went out celebrating on thursday to what they refer to as ´´gringatown´´ meaning its where all the young, hostel staying tourists go. we walk around for a bit because the girls want to go to a certain club, but it turns out to be closed, so we wind up going to a very ´´touristy´´ bar of which i cannot remember the name. anyway so we´re dancing and having a great time and drinking some vodka tonics. during this dance time i made some observations:
1. contrary to popular belief, not all latinos can dance. i happened to be next to a latino couple that literally looked like they were seizuring at times, with both of them hitting me and the girl accidentally pulling my hair during her dance-capade...thats how bad it was.
2. when girls pass guys in a crowded bar they whisper something like ´´perdóname mi amor´´ and grab their hips and the girl squeezes...this happens approx 7 out of 10 times.

anyway so the highlight of the night is coming up...now the setup of this bar is such that there is a bar in the middle with a large open space in the middle of it...kind of like the bar in cheers but bigger. so we´re dancing, having a grand old time when all of a sudden all of the attention is diverted to the bar...

three male individuals appear...two dressed in cop uniforms and one in a prisoner uniform...all patent leather...yea you guessed it...they...began...to...serve us drinks...im just kidding...they began to strip. that´s right, there were 3 men in the middle of the bar taking turns at removing articles of clothing...one crazy one named bruno (i know this from the business card he handed out when he was done with his performance) grabbed a few female patrons from the bar and began tossing them in the air and essentially dry humping them.

let´s just say it was an experience.



so there you have it...my first crazy-esque story of quito...but for the most part this experience is helping me grow in directions i never knew existed...ill have more of that later when i have more time to write in my blog (probably tomorrow when the family is at church and me the little jewish girl gets some alone time)...


for the time being anyone who has an ounce of free time and wants to read a great book that will take maybe 2 hours please read vonnegut´s ´´a man without a country´´...i have read it twice since ive been here bc its just that good.