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Wednesday and Thursday were my first completely free days since I had been in Quito, because I wasn't going off to the clinic and I finally wasn't sick in bed. I decided to sleep in (but I woke up at 9 anyway) and then to go explore the Old Town. As you can see in a couple of the pictures, the architecture in the Old Town is Spanish. This is the part of town that was built after the Spanish conquest and before the Spanish left, and it's beautiful. I stopped by the Basilica, called Basílica del Voto Nacional. It's a Roman Catholic Church and it is huge--It is the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas. They weren't too keen on tourists visiting it, clearly, because they had bright signs posted everywhere stating (in Spanish though) "This is not a tourist attraction, it is a place of worship. No photos allowed." I snuck one photo. It was harmless!

Then I headed back to the hostel/Spanish school for my Spanish class at 2. That night was very quiet, I just hung out at home with Francesca and Yadira, and read The Lovely Bones, a novel, and wrote some lovely postcards. It's nice because previous students leave all sorts of things in the house for the next students to use, so I had plenty of books to choose from. Thursday was quiet and uneventful too.

This year, for the first time, the city decided to move the national holiday to August 12 instead of the actually independence day of August 10, so that they could have a long 3-day weekend. Therefore, hardly anyone worked on Friday, so my housemate, Sandra, got a break from working too and we headed downtown that morning together. I just realized that I hadn't had a chance to talk to you all about her! Sandra is from Australia and moved into the house on Sunday. She's doing a 4 week volunteering program at a day care center-like establishment for children with disabilities, most of whom are orphans. She's told me that the conditions are really terrible there, and if the children had had parents, she wouldn't think they should leave them there (even though one boy had a father that did). She's been working until 3:30 everyday and her commute is much longer than mine at about an hour, so we didn't have much time to hang out until Friday. We roamed the city, and I showed her some of the things I had found before that the British people I had met on the street had shown me. We also visited a lot of Chinese shops, the kind that have EVERYTHING you could ever imagine (these shops are literally in every country I've ever visited...they're everywhere! And I'm not complaining...I'm on a budget, y'all.) We got home later on to see Francesca in her brand spankin' new school uniform, because she starts school this fall--like I said, she is precious! Photos below...you have been warned. The cute might make your head explode.

On Saturday, the day I was leaving and also my 21st birthday, we went to another city called Otavalo. Otavalo was about 2.5 hours from where I lived, and the bus ride cost us $2.00 each way. Seriously? I could get used to these prices. Otavalo is known for it's large indigenous (American Indian) population and it's huge Saturday market with all hand-made goods. We left at 7 am and when we arrived started shopping immediately. Out of the whole pack of us, as with last weekend too, I was the one who spoke the most Spanish so even though I was the youngest (by many many years) I was put in charge with figuring stuff out/translating. To be honest, it was fun. The market was CRAZY! I mean, I've been in markets like this before, in the Caribbean, Spain, and even right in Quito, but they took it to a whole 'notha level. The area went on for what seemed like forever; it was probably about a quarter-mile squared. There were so many people there, mostly tourists, that you just had to get used to people touching you/on you at all times because it was so crowded. But it was definitely a feast for the eyes. Lots of live animals and crafts and street food and yelling and bartering going on everywhere. I loved it. The only thing you had to pay attention to was watching your belongings, so I walked like an impregnated woman, with my backpack switched around to my front. Let me just say this: everyone I bought anything from at that market HATES me. I mean, just absolutely hates me. I must say...I can barter like nobodies business. Nooo ones. I got some really nice things for ridiculous prices, and boy was I doing my Caribbean roots RIGHT! I took some pictures so you can see some of the things I got, and their prices.

I left before everyone else, at about 3:00 pm, to go home, buy some more things that I wanted in Quito, shower, and pack. I got back at 6, RAN to get food, RAN home, RAN to catch a cab to head downtown to buy this really nice bag for my friend Rachel at a place that closed at 7. I'd seen it before, but swore I would find it in Otavalo. I didn't. I got it! (And another one for myself too, hehe.) Then I rushed back again to go to the liquor store to get, well, some liquor (I had to ring in my birthday right!). The cabs were a dollar each, by the way--ridiculous! And the drank was pretty decently priced too, so I stocked up with 2 bottles of Bacardi, one bottle of some Ecuadorian liquor...no idea what it is..., and some Passion Fruit Rum Cream, which is delish. Then home to wrap it all up and get ready to go home!

In my two weeks here I spent just under $250. I got blankets, scarves, bags, paintings--really nice stuff for my people back home..minus the booze, which is definitely for me (now I'm going to get a lecture from my father--drinking connoisseur cough, cough). You could tell that my little host-sister, Francesca, is used to saying goodbyes, since she's been doing it all her life, literally. She was telling me "adios" and giving me hugs for about 2 hours before I left! I had to keep reminding her that I wasn't leaving yet. So cute.

I got in a cab to go to the airport, and the driver said no when I asked if he had a meter (that's what they do, they take off their meter and charge tourists more...) So I asked "How do you not have a meter??" in Spanish, and he caught an attitude with me, and said it would be $5. Haha, no sir! So you know what I did? I bartered that taxi cab price. YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I DID. I's serious about my money, ya heard? We settled on $3 and went on our way. I got on my 11:40 am flight back to Atlanta, and I got home without a hitch (mother would have had a baby otherwise). I arrived in Houston at 8:30 am, only to be whisked home to change and make myself look presentable and then off back to Houston with 7 perfectly matching family members in tow to pick my brother Brandon up from working at the hospital to have a family photo shoot in the middle of the street in downtown Houston. In perfect Yvonne style. My mother is amazing!! That evening we celebrated my birthday with family and a couple close friends from home. I included some photos below.

I'd like to close this chapter by mentioning something very important to me. Spending time alone in a foreign country certainly has a variety of effects on a person. Getting away from the chaos that is America gave me time alone, to think. Even though I documented my exciting times for you all, I spent a large amount of time doing nothing but reading and reflecting while away. The emails and messages from people back home and family across the world made all the difference when I was feeling alone or particularly discontent...I always knew I had someone looking out for me.My mother, my father, my family and close friends (some of which I just met this summer)...the support you give me and the fact that you will trudge through my weekly blogs because youwant to is incredible. I felt all the love in the world on my 21st birthday, even though I was spending it with people I'd hardly known for 5 days... There isn't anyway I can perfectly convey how grateful I am for the life I am leading and for the people who make it all possible.You are what keeps me going, and I love you.

Until later my lovelies!'sta luego!
Shannon Allport

                           

Let me tell you about Quito and their juices. Simply put, they're amazing. Green tomato juice. Green orange juice. Pinapple juice. Raspberry Juice. Guava Juice. Tamarind Juice. Strawberry juice. Tomato de arbol juice. Mango juice. JUICE coming out of my ears JUICE. All freshly squeezed, all real. I am in Juice Heaven.

I went to my first supermarket today, and it was disappointingly normal. I suppose supermarkets are pretty universal...big cubes filled with goods purchased in bulk. The market across the street (that I posted a picture of last weekend) is much more interesting. I tried to buy a massive aloe leaf for my grandmother (she really likes things like aloe/salt/ginger, since Oprah/Dr. Oz/the Bible say they have healing powers), but I decided against it given that the leaf was the length of my suitcase and probably wouldn't get me past customs in Amurr'ca. I left off the last post at last Thursday and the weekend that followed was quite full of sight-seeing and note-worthy experiences. On Thursday afternoon, Serena, Matt, and I decided to go up to TeleferiQo, the gondola ride. It was freezing up there at over 13,400 feet (4,100 meters) but the views were awesome, and I got some good photos. Conveniently enough, Serena had a blue sharpie pen on her (wth?, I know) so I hopped on the opportunity to vandalize, ahem, leave my mark on one of Quito's highest peaks. I did the unoriginal classic "Shannon Allport 8/4/11" and of course "Hook 'Em 8/4/11" to Matt's disappointment. I had to!

On Friday, I went to the clinic as usual and had Spanish class in the afternoon. I took I easy that night in preparation for getting up at 6 am on Saturday morning to go to Mindo, Ecuador. Serena and I went and were joined by Pete, a 50-odd year old guy from Australia. He was a very amiable and interesting guy, so it was nice having him to accompany us. He's single, no kids, and a scientist who kind of works when he likes to/can get grants from the Australian National Government. He studies insects and is a very active bird-watching enthusiast, so when he recognized something we usually got a cool lesson on the spot.

I've never gone much into how cheap this country really is, and aside from the plane ticket everything else is practically pocket change. They use the US dollar, so there's no conversion involved (finally!). For instance, our 2-hour charter bus ride from Quito to Mindo was $2.50. Yes, two dollars and fifty cents and the bus was just fine. When we got to Mindo, it was a 3-hour hike/30-minute car ride up one of the mountains to the cable car that Serena suggested we check out. We saw an open air van headed up, and asked if there was room for us. First they said no...then yes...on the back bumper. Seriously? It actually turned out to be insane--we were standing on the back of this massive van holding on for dear life, ducking out of the way of tree limbs while the van swerved up the mountain, and trying not to knock other people off that back at the same time. This went on for a while...10-15 minutes maybe? That def could've served as my daily dose of excitement... Once we got of the van, it was another 40 minute (HOT) hike to the place, and we saw lots of wildlife along the way (pictures below). The zip car cost $5, round-trip, and what people usually do is zip across for about 2 minutes, get off and hike to the 6 waterfalls on the other side. There really isn't any way to capture on a camera the type of views that we saw, zipping across that valley. If I had to guess, I would say at the valley's lowest point we were almost 2,000 feet to a mile high...incredible. We got off, and hiked to the closest waterfall, about a 20 minute steep downhill hike. After spending a good while there, chillin' and people-watching, we headed up. It was so hard! I felt like I hadn't run in about a year. Oh...well....oops. I suppose I haven't.

We headed back to Quito at 3:30, and then that night Serena and I headed to El Centro Historico (the Old Town) because of Quito's independence day. I couldn't get a hold of Vane, the nurse, so we went out solo. There were thousands of people celebrating in the streets among all of the Spanish-built buildings, and in 5 of the large plazas there were demonstations, art exchibits, and well-known singers and bands performing. Feast for the eyes, and also the estomago! I ate so much street food that night...how could I resist when everything is a flipping quarter? I had candy-covered uvas (grapes), some odd sausage thing with potatoes and onions, a large piece of cake, and different sweets.

Sunday, we visited the one site I've been waiting for--Mitad del Mundo, the "middle of the world." I know it's cheesy, but that's completely the type of person I am. One who wants to take a picture of my head in one hemisphere and my ass in another, split by the equator line. Don't act like that isn't cool. They were also having some kind of cultural showcase for S. American countries, dancing and singing. It was very nice to watch, but by noon I felt something a'brewing in my stomach. BOY WAS IT BREWIN'. Of course, I got sick. Really, really sick. It was like someone decided to stick a blender in my insides, churn it all up, and leave. And bang me on the head with a steel pipe so that I'd have a headache for 48 hours. Oh, and even better, NOT allow me to throw up or, uh, relieve myself of any of these toxins, but instead allow whatever it was to flow through my veins while I laid in bed in misery. So I didn't go to work on Monday. I only pitied myself in bed. Yadi (host mom) thinks it was the DELICIOUS trout I ate in Mindo (the culprit is pictured below. So deceitful! Good times.

Tuesday I decided was my last day at the clinic. I decided this because this being a holiday week AND the last week of summer for all of the school children in Ecuador, everyone took this week to vacation with their families and the clinic is dead! There was nothing to do this week, so I took Wednesday and Thursday to travel, and see the city some more (national holiday on Friday, no one works). I was in vaccinations with Vane again, and since it was so dead we got a lot of time to talk. Some really interesting things we talked about was the fact that you are required to vote here and in most South American countries. You get FINED if you don't vote for your representatives and for legislation! Maybe the US should employ a tactic like that! But we all know that the Republicans would never let that fly. Also, we talked about pay. A practicing nurse here makes about $800/month and doctors here make $1,200/month. That's so hard to wrap my head around...that's not ever $15,000/year for a doctor. I guess you have to take into account that their education here is FREE.99 and insurance isn't a thing, but still.

As of now I have 3 days left in Ecuador, and then it's back to Texas and back to classes!


Until later my lovelies! 'sta luego!
Shannon Allport

Fotos!
(Click for larger image & caption)
                              

A man yelled "Eeyy! Estados Unidos" on the bus to me yesterday. I thought to myself, "Was that an insult? Probably." I was wearing scrubs. My schedule goes like this: By 8 am, I'm at the clinic. By 1 pm, I stop by the piso (apt) to change, and then I have lunch and a Spanish tutoring sesh from 2-4ish pm. Before 1, I get very strange looks. Strange as in, not good. I suppose because my scrubs are the most awkward sky blue and I tower over everyone, even though I'm barely above average height by American standards. After 1 pm, on the other hand, I get looks like "HAAAY girl", the occasional shout, and "aaayyye guapa" whispers. Ecuador obviously does not find scrubs sexy.

I forgot to mention it in the previous post, but I'm not working at the hospital that I originally mentioned. Apparently, volunteers who worked there recently said that there had been too many volunteers and not enough work to be done, so they put me in a smaller clinic where there are literally no other volunteers. Just me, chillin' with the locals. I struggle sometimes. Scrubs = authority. People ask me questions that I can't even begin to make out. AHHHH! I've gotten "wait one moment for the other lady to return" in Spanish down pat. I usually take the bus there (only $0.25!) because the entire way is up a mountain, and then walk back. It takes about 20 minutes. The first morning, I got there, and there were literally 200 people standing inside. Absolute and utter chaos. To start, there are no appointments, and everything is free. It's really insane. It looks as if people are trying to get into a Beyonce concert or the like. 

I've been working in two places: the immunizations area and the emergency department. No one, anywhere, uses gloves. One nurse that I work with in the vaccinations is Vanessa. She administers tetanus and yellow fever vaccines, and I administer Vitamin A to babies, orally. I have to actually snip the tips off the gel capsules and feed it to them, and babies clearly don't like strangers' fingers in their mouths...no gloves. Funny story: I was washing my hands with soap and water after each baby, and after about 5 babies, the other nurse, clearly annoyed, told me I don't need to be washing my hands. Just wipe them off, she said. We ain't in America no more, that's for sure. Also, privacy is not a "thing" here. Unless you're over 20 and getting a shot in the ass for some odd reason, the door is open and we are seeing anywhere from 2-4 patients at the same time. In the ER, that number goes up to 8 at a time. The day I spent working in the ER, the couple exciting things that happened were that one guy walked in with un clavo (a nail) through his foot and another had drilled his finger open. Pictures of that are below. (Blood--yay!) I asked to stay and observe the doctor for a while afterwards, and to my dismay, he literally does nothing but write prescriptions. Literally. Nothing.

I'm taking Spanish lessons each day, so I'm getting back into it pretty fast. I know it's hard to believe (I'm talking to my mother here), but for the most part I'm just quiet. I observe a lot and write in my notebook. It's pretty unsettling when you're the only foreigner around, and people don't really slow down for you because I could reasonably be an Ecuadorian. My shining moment was when I got to translate for two Turkish guys who'd had their backpack stolen with their shot records. Hello world, meet Shannon, you're walking, talking translator. BAM! 

Yesterday, I got lost twice. Once going to work (caught the wrong bus), and once trying to get back to the Spanish school after exploring downtown (while lost already). Near disaster, but I saw a lot and learned a lot. I now have two scheduled "Get Lost in Gringoland" timeslots in my calendar for next week. By the way, Gringoland is what they call their downtown. Seriously. Google it.

I met people this week and we went to TelefériQo, Quito's gondola up one of the many surrounding mountains.
I'll talk about that next time though. I'm going to Mindo, Ecuador tomorrow. It's known for it's cloud forest and has a lot of nature-y things to do. It's about a 2.5 hour bus ride (for TWO DALLA, you fa real!?) and has zip-lining, which I'll probably do. When we get back, I'm going out with Vanessa, the infermera (nurse) I work with who is in most of the pictures. She's the one giving the shots. August 10th is Quito's Independence Day, so they're celebrating for the entire week (this one, and next). We're going to the "Old Town" for the festivities. There are supposed to be fireworks.

Until later my lovelies! 'sta luego!
Shannon Allport

So I've been painfully busy this summer and only spent enough time planning this trip to make sure I would be 1) living with a family, 2) eating well, 3) working in a hospital and allowed to actually do stuff, and 4) learning more Spanish. Shameful, right? I didn't read anything whatsoever about the city or about Ecuador in general, like I usually do at least a little to familiarize myself with where I'm going. 

I landed in Quito at 10 pm, sleepy and cold (it's cold here!!! All the time!). I'm over here thinking, now what the hell--I thought I was on the equator... Got through customs with about 500 people with signs and flowers, waiting for their loved ones to emerge (like they do in like every country but America)...and no sign for me. Great. So I went back and forth a few times, looking, made a few calls, and ended up taking a taxi to the hotel on the paper. Finally got to the hotel/hostel/thing, climbed the stairs, and definitely swayed one or two times with my lightheadedness. I was thinking for a minute that it might have been a delayed effect of my last night in Austin drinking a little with my "coworkers" (haha, I was feeling pretty off yesterday), but no. Finally before I fainted, I wikipedia'd "QUITO" and learned that we were over 9,000 feet above sea level, literally CHILLIN' on the side of a mountain. Wuuut.

Other than the bathroom smelling like someone had a brilliant idea to culture a giant vat of very pungent, invisible mildew and spread it all over the room, the overnight stay was fine. This morning I got up, late, because of course I would stay up until 3 am working on medical school application essays and not plug in my phone/alarm clock before I went to sleep. I had a good breakfast, which I really should have taken a picture of (a whole apple swimming in a plate of strawberry yogurt--delish, nutrish, a one of a kind dish...like me), and then met my home-stay family.

I must be super lucky with this home-stay thing because my family is PRECIOSO. It's a little creepy to ask for a picture on the first day, so I'll have those for you later. Just imagine an insanely precious 4-year old Ecuadorian girl, and you have Franchesca. We talk. It's cool. Then we have her mother, Yadira, "Yadi". She was an English professor for foreigners for almost 20 years but since she gave birth, she's been hosting students for a living. (Two weeks ago, she had 6 Americans in her apartment! Jesus christe.) I made her vow not to speak to me in English, but she's a walking Spanish-English dictionary, so that's nice. Dad is away working.

Internet in my homestay!!! Yay! I was planning on none. I'll upload these pictures for you now, then work on another essay before I go to sleep (only two applications to go! Home stretch). I start at the hospital at 7:45 am tomorrow and have to take the bus there alone, so we shall see how that pans out. I'm nervous, but today was a good warm-up for me practicing speaking Spanish all day after it's been 8 months in Amurr'ca. Also, I think I found a friend to go to the Mitad del Mundo ("Center of the World") with! His name is Matt, and I think he said he's from Indiana. White guy, traveling alone and speaks no Spanish. Crazy!


Until later my lovelies! 'sta luego!
Shannon Allport

P.S. I forgot to mention that I'm living next door to two ostriches and a pony. No joke, they're right outside my window at what used to be the governor's mansion, over 10 years ago. Heheh.

Hello again! As you can see, I've changed the name of my blog from "Aventuras en Espana" to just "shannoa" because on Sunday I will be traveling again and blogging about it--this time to Ecuador. I'm headed out there for 15 days starting tomorrow (already?! jeez) and I am very excited. I'm working with the Global Crossroads service organization, and they've placed me in a hospital about 20 miles outside of Quito, Ecuador called Hospital Pablo Arturo Suarez (photo below). I will also be living with a family, but I haven't received my placement yet. I'm glad you're joining me again -- hope you enjoy it as much the second time around!

Shannon Allport

P.S. I think I'll be keeping this to chronicle my senior year at UT and my medical school journey afterwards. Too much going on to keep in my head!