Random thoughts on random things

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UNIFORMS

While my uniform is not the most comfortable or attractive set of clothes I own, I am very grateful for it, here are a few examples of the other possibilities that I really wouldn´t prefer. There´s the all-girls school with white dresses, which look fine, except that for some reason they stuck white starched pinnafors on top with sleeves that poof out about a foot in the air. Then there are the skirts that are neon pink and black plaid with suspenders.. not the worst but I´ll stick to navy blue thanks. Also the “UPS” uniforms as we´ve nicknamed them, which are all-brown, well, UPS uniforms. And big lace-up boots. The girls from that school have more of a safari-look going. Finally, there are all of the military academies; they have great looking uniforms, button-down coats and sailor hats, high heels and nylons… but put on one of those coats in this 95-degree weather… I´d rather not.

TRANSPORTATION

Where to begin? There seems to be two types of people here, the people that know the entire city inside and out, and the people that haven´t even seen the other end of it. But on the whole, it seems like every Guayaquileño is born with the bus-lines embedded in their brain, or something, because out of the countless bus-lines that go all over, they always know which one to take to get.. anywhere. There are no maps here, I´ve noticed that. Maybe there were once, but no one needed them or cared I guess. I would actually love to see a city map just to orient myself and look at all the places I know, but everyone knows the name of every street (or pretend they do, that is entirely possible too). I still don´t understand how the people sitting at the very back of a practically over-flowing bus actually get off, it doesn´t seem humanly possible. The buses are a bit of a roller-coaster themselves, and the seats are slippery plastic so if you don’t have good grip on your shoes or a good hand-hold, guaranteed you´ll shoot out of your seat. There´s always some random man or woman preaching some product or other to everyone on the bus too, although one time there was a magician which I actually really enjoyed. As for cars, as far as I´m concerned, driving here is an art to master. These people can manuever their cars through seemingly impossibly tight-spaces. And their the lanes on the freeway don´t matter, it´s just however many cars can actually fit width-wise on the road. I also think I´ve mentioned, but they also use their horns for everything, even for people walking on the side of the road, just in case they didn´t see the car coming towards them. It also took me a really long time to figure out that for some reason taxis have sirens instead of horns… that´s not irritating.

SOUP

Yes, soup gets it´s own spot. Soup is very, very important here. They eat it everyday, lunch and dinner, and while I like soup, it´s very difficult for me, because in the heat of midday, steaming soup is guaranteed to be a bit of an uncomfortable experience. I´ve tried the, “can I skip soup today?” because there´s still the meal after the soup, and my stomach hasn´t stretched that much, but, that doesn´t really seem to be an option. And, I´m not sure if they really believe this, or if it´s just a saying, but they blame all of life´s problems on not eating soup. “Your knee hurts? I told you to eat your soup yesterday..”

BUGS

Being a tropical climate and all, there are a lot of bugs. Many of them are much bigger than I´d like, though fortunately I don´t think I´ve encountered all of them, because I´ve seen some flattened moth-fly things in the road that are almost the size of my palm. I don´t ever want to see one of those. The mosquitos are horrible here, they´re smaller, faster, smarter, and the bites itch for twice as long. And there are ants everywhere, for some reason the ants in this house are about three times as big as the ants we had in the old house, but there are less, so I guess that´s a plus. There were also cockroaches in the old house, and I am definitely not going to miss them. And the spiders here.. they should really be called tarantulas, they´re about the size and just as hairy. A little skinnier though, and I´ve been assured they don´t bite. But.

BUILDINGS

Everything here is made out of cement. The only things made of wood here is the furniture, although now that I think about it I´m curious where that wood comes from, because the forests are so jungley here, the trees are all lanky and viney, not like the trees in California. Anyway, all the buildings are cement, which actually serves as great insulation against the heat, like a protective cave. On the whole, the majority of buildings don´t have air-conditioning, which is actually alright with me, because it´s when I leave an air-conditioned building that I really feel how hot and thick the air is. Fans really seem to be the way to go. There are also the little houses, mostly farm houses that look like paper propped-up on stilts. They´re raised up in the air on sticks and the walls are made of bamboo, and they look like they might be blown over any minute. And, even in the really poor areas, everything is painted bright colors, which I love.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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Comments

[Maya]

I agree with everything Mia says. Especially about the soup. It got really annoying, but it was delicious. Now that I'm back in my cold, temperate climate, I would love a big bowl of cheese soup.