My Dad taught my sister and I a secret “language” when we were kids, called Horse Latin, which we taught to only our bestest of friends for secret communications. It worked well in grade school to communicate secretly without the teacher understanding; and it continued to work well in college when my sister and I traveled in Italy together. It was convenient when we were on the busses and didn’t want other people to know we were Americans. Everyone would know we were foreigners for sure; but they probably wouldn’t place the sounds as English exactly. While I won’t give away all the secrets to how to speak the language, it involves adding the sound of an “i” blended with a “b”. Well I’ve found out that Ecuadorians have their own secret dialect within Spanish. They love to omit the final vowel from words and instead add “ita” to the end of many words, rendering them somehow more “amable” or sweet sounding. For instance, when someone was getting water, I heard them refer to it not as “agua”, but “aguita”. A piece of bread changes from “pan” to “panita”. So it was actually a term of endearment when a woman in the marketplace called me Gringita on Thursday.
We went on a field trip with our teachers and a few other students to the Saquisili Markets south of Quito on Thursday. The markets were actually five or six different markets in the same town. We started with the animal markets, and looked at all the pigs, ducks, chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs for sale. Apparently there are usually cows, llamas and other larger livestock for trade and sale, but due to some animal sicknesses there is a quarantine in effect right now on certain larger animals. We didn’t stay long in the animal market; I think the locals all knew we weren’t serious shoppers. Next we checked out the food markets, where there were mountains of bananas and other tropical fruits, potatoes, rice and other grains. Then there were the textile markets with clothing. Beautiful sweaters, gloves, hats and scarves that were handmade were on display, along with jewelry and other handmade souvenirs. Mixed in between al l of the major markets were smaller markets selling everything from furniture, hardware, DVD’s, and kitchen appliances. Later that evening, back in Quito, we went on a night field trip with our school. It was really nice to be out at night; it was the first time we’ve been out. Usually we’re home by dark, because of the petty crimes and muggings. Everyone we’ve met says to take Taxi’s after dark (which is always at 6:30 in this part of the world) to avoid problems, and we’ve taken their advice to heart. But on Thursday out with our teacher, we were able to wander the safe areas of town and take some beautiful pictures in the historic old town.
Friday marked the end of our second week of language classes. It’s starting to get easier, but I still have a long way to go. I can understand 90% of what my teachers say (they speak to us very s-l-o-w-l-y), 30% of most Ecuadorians, and roughly 0% of futbol announcers and other radio personalities. It’s actually easier for me to talk than to listen right now, because at least it is at my speed then! I can’t wait until this all gets easier. Next week Garret and I are going to start studying together with the same teacher, instead of each having our own. My head definitely hurts by the end of four hours of talking every day! It’s exciting to start recognizing and understanding more of the language though; which I have started to just while reading store signs and advertisements.
All in all, things are going really well. There’s only a few things I really miss about home. One of them is all the familiar foods—like watermelon and corn on the cob eaten on long summer nights. The other is probably hot showers with lots of water. We have hot water, but there is a delicately inverse relationship between pressure and temperature. Things I love about Quito are the abundance of wonderfully cheap and fresh juices (made in front of you in a blender), salsa music on the busses, and finding tons of like-minded runners in Parque Carolina this week (it is finally easy to breathe, and we even ran 7 miles this morning fairly painlessly).
Well, that’s probably enough random musings from a Gringita for one day.
For those that want to view a short video tour of our apartment, click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wurSYi9mH2c
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