UCSD Global Seminar Ecuador, Summer 2017

To the inhabitants of Quito, the parks and pets are no joke. Sitting on the Quito sign in Parque Itchimbia. Many Quito signs are scattered throughout the community. Quito is a prominent urban area filled with many great parks!  In my opinion, the parks here in Quito have a lot more to offer and are better maintained compared to those of the United States. The parks in Quito are almost always teeming with people during the early mornings and afternoons. Many families bring their children for a quick snack; children gather together to play soccer; teenagers even come to the park to make out. The parks here are respected and utilized by people of all ages. As a foreigner visiting these parks, I can tell that the park is a cherished locale for the people. My host mom lives a block away from Parque La Carolina , which is located in the heart of Quito. According to The Metropolitan Public Company for Mobility and Public Works of Ecuador, La Carolina spans 165.5 acres and has...

Outside the home of a San Clemente host family Written by Nicole Wells This morning (8 July 2017) the students of our seminar in Ecuador woke up for the last time in the indigenous San Clemente community. The air was warmer than the night before. With the persistent wake-up call of roosters outside our window, we quickly got dressed and ready to eat breakfast with our temporary family and complete our minga project. At breakfast Sara, Katie and I got the unlikely chance of speaking with our house dad, who was often out late and gone early for work. Sara spoke Spanish fluently with our house parents, who speak Quechua and Spanish. Katie fumbled her way through her Spanish knowledge, and I listened as Sara translated into English for me. I can understand about half of the Spanish I hear from my knowledge of French and was later able to use my French and English to communicate with a Canadian who moved into San Clemente the night before. Clearly, language has a lot of infl...

Most of the students had awoken at the brisk of the sunrise to help their host families make breakfast.  I was no different. We were all tiresome, but excited for what was planned for the day. At 7 am sharp, my housemates and my home stay mother started to prepare our breakfast. We made tortillas from wheat and cooked them outside. While outside, we encountered many of the pets our home stay mom Rosa had. Those pets included dogs, chickens, cows, and even an alpaca. After making the tortillas, my housemates and I had taken a few minutes to try to take photos of all these animals. This was our best attempt at trying to take a photo of the baby chicks. After we had taken a moment to admire all of the farmland and the animals in the area, Katie, Nicole, and I helped set the  breakfast  table with our host mother Rosa.During this time we spent time talking about the places each of us were from and about the cultures that we come from. Rosa began to tell us the story o...

The welcome lunch provided by San Clemente The group kicked off our journey to San Clemente Community early Thursday morning. On our way to Ibarra, the city where the indigenous people live next to, we stopped by to overlook Nevado Cayambe, the only volcano in Ecuador that passes through the equator. The group then visited the original Bizcocho shop that promoted this delicious cuisine to the entire country. The indigenous people living in San Clemente welcomed us with the Pampa Mesa traditional meal. Community members brought their homemade food to share with all of us. Before we ate, the collective group formed into a circle, hand in hand. The cultural tourism leader Manuel then welcomed all of us into this closely connected family. The community members insisted on us getting the food first. The two girls from San Clemente stood next to their mothers and observed how adults served the food to the guests. This behavior corresponds to the Bolin’s Book, “Growing up in a Cultu...

“Beep! Beep! Beep!” The loud bellow of my alarm broke the silence after I had put it on snooze for the 5th time. Like most students, I was still settling in and adjusting to the new time zone and was exhausted from the activities the day before. I forced myself to crawl out from under the warm covers. Slowly but surely, I began to dress and continue with my daily routine of getting ready. The house was so silent , I became conscious of the sound my footsteps had made on the wooden floor. I was attempting to not wake anyone else who may be sleeping but was failing horribly. When I had finally finished getting ready for class, I made my way into the living room,where I saw my housemate Katie waiting for our breakfast to be ready. It was 8 in the morning and our host mom was nowhere to be found. Confused, we both decided to pass the time by completing some readings that would be due soon. Minutes later, our host mom came through the front door with grocery bags in hand. “Good mornin...

Written by Nicole Wells After this beautiful but long day of being introduced to our temporary home, our Global Seminar students had the first day of classes on Tuesday. We collectively confessed that in exhaustion we had not finished the homework readings, but agreed that we were excited for how we will grow throughout our two classes. After course introductions and discussions on the unique cultures (within Ecuador, the United States, and China) that shape our differences in development, our group went out for a game of soccer. Onlookers came to watch and laugh with us as we fumbled through this sport that few of us were familiar with, except for our new friend and IES staff member Juan Carlos. View from the IES Quito Center Classroom IES, a non-profit Institute for International Education of Students, partnered with UCSD to provide classrooms, educational and travel resources, tour guides, and travel plans for our trip. This organization has over 30 locations worldwid...

La Basilica Bienvenido a Ecuador! Thirteen students from UCSD and UCSC started our journey in the most biodiverse country in the world! On Monday, we first had general orientations from IES Abroad office director and health and safety workshop from the humorous physician Javier Caicedo. In the afternoon, we went on an exciting field trip,“Colonial City Tour,” with the tour guide Marcelo Guerra. We first visited the church, Basilica del Voto Nacional, which was carried out by the Catholic president, José María Plácido Caamaño on March 5, 1884. Rumor has it that the president was assassinated partially because of his huge expense on building this church. The group had a fun time ascending to the top of the church and got a great symmetric view of the city. La Basilica is also famous for its animal statues. On the front side, it has birds figures of the Highland, Galapagos, and the Amazon region. Witnessing Mass in Iglesia de San Francisco Top of the Spire, Basili...