i work at safeway, too

in response to evan, i had my first day of actual work (as a courtesy clerk, like evan usually is), and the two most interesting things that happened were these: 1) i had to walk around with a customer and shop for him because he forgot his glasses and was shopping for someone else (he was also drunk), and 2) some lady ran her motorized cart into me as i was loading her groceries into her basket.

I'm dropping out of college to become a meat cutter

So today I awoke at 6:59 a.m., put on my blood-red tie, strapped on my apron, affixed the mandatory gloves to my belt loop, tied my Hush Puppies, used an electric shaver, got a burning sensation on my neck, kissed my mother, shook my dad's hand, inadvertently kicked the dog, then sped off in the Mazda towards store #4513 all the while anticipating my mysterious day labeled "Meat Cutter" rather than "Courtesy Clerk" on the work schedule.

Would they actually have me cut meat despite my lack of training? Would my precious fingers be in danger?

Well, the only time I ended up using a knife was to open some frozen fish fillets wrapped in plastic. And my fingers survived. The rest of the day was spent being assistant to "Will", a substitute meat department manager whose disdain for the regular manager's laziness was only exceeded by his adoration of the appearance of a few shopping mothers. I stocked lunch meat, slapped "Thin - Serves More!" stickers on meat packages, and sheepishly agreed with Will on the size of the "monsters" on that woman with the stroller over there.

Aside from a few blood stains and a new perspective on crass meat cutters, I took away perhaps a decent amount of money from my day.

Dog

My dog is snapping at flies that are buzzing around my room. That is all.

cherry tree

So I thought I would share some of the highlights of being home in simple, easy to read point form:

1. This cherry tree. Any place you reach you get a handful of cherries. And.. It looks like a monster at night. Big plus.

2. My mom called my friend Jim's mom to plan a get-together with our two family's and some friends, and she got the answering message. The kicker though, was that she ran out of time, so the answering message played back the message that she left. Pretty vanilla, I know, except that she couldn't stop laughing at her own voice. She just sat back and listened to herself talking and laughed.

3. I went to Seattle to become a townie for a day. We ate ice cream at an ice cream store (no Creole Creamer) where Brian's Natalie Portman looking GF Maradeth (whom we've all met and know to be a very agreeable person) works. We consider whether to pay the extra $1 for the waffle cone and Brian denies saying that waffle cone's are too trans fatsie. We agree.

(As a side note the cups and spoons are biodegradable because they are made out of potatoes. They are called tater-ware)

4. I went on a bike-ride today with my best friend Jim down to the lake to go swimming and enjoy each other's company. The wind was high, as were the waves, so it was only us out in the water. We dove around a bit, looking for our infamous rock pile from two summers before to no avail.

5. Family and friends always seem to be changing!

Ok, there are my five points.
-Dan

Me encanta (a freakin' long blog)

I can’t really say that I’ve had that many life changing experiences. Our world is so globalized with information that it’s hard to see something really new, or to feel something incredible that you never thought you would. I can strongly say that this weekend trip to the jungle in Ecuador changed my life.

As part of the program we were taken to a resort called La Casa del Suiza six hours out of Quito in the Amazon jungle. The resort is on the Rio Napo in the pueblo of Ahuano (for those google earth junkies). We got there on Thursday and stayed for three days. All of our time was scheduled with incredible trips. Thursday after almuerzo we were taken by our guides to a mariposa greenhouse where we were shown different species at different phases and cocoons that looked like gold.

That night, of course most of our group had to find a bar (for those of you who don’t know, I am suffering on this trip only from constant company of jovenes-alcoholics). We went into the tiny pueblo (town) and walked in the dark down the road where we found a karaoke bar, along the way passing a solely-lit, packed, volleyball court in the vein of foreshadowing. All twenty four americans in this tiny bar. Beer for a dollar. Couple of locals hanging out. Drank a little, early night.

Let me make a comment about traveling with Americans. I am traveling with the Americans who embrace obnoxious American stereotypes. I am constantly embarrassed. Por ejemplo, a cultural different becomes apparent in a karaoke bar. On our “ecua-karaoke” there were of course english and spanish songs. When a local would do a spanish song, it was beautiful. I hardly knew that I was listening to karaoke and not a cd. When an American does a karaoke song, he or she brings up three of his or her friends, beers in hand and shout Mambo No. 5 into the mic off key, off tone, dancing like fools. Eff.

Anyway, so I introduced this longest blog of the century as a life changing experience. Well, the key to this came the next day when we became friends with our guides. These men, Freddy and Ronald, took us on our excursions into the jungle and showed us all of the amazing medicinal plants and cacao trees and animals. My friends and I befriended them and they invited us to a party that was happening that night. It was a graduation party for some girl, but more than that it was a Quichua (local indigenous) party. We met them at nine and ended up going to a discoteca for a while first but later Emily, Ismael, Sarah, Belinda and I went with Freddy and Ronald to our first Quichua party.

To set the stage, the town is made of hut like buildings. They are raised to be protected from river flooding and have thatch roofs. These are indigenous people living traditionally. We went off the main road and in the dark through the neighborhood dirt paths in the town. Eventually we arrived at the casa on the river. Freddy went in to ask permission, all was quiet, and then the Quichua music began... the most beautiful music. We went in and sat on a bench. It wasn’t five seconds before a couple of smiling men came over to ask us gringas to dance. I did not stop dancing that night except to pee by the river. I have never peed in a more beautiful setting.

Each dance I would talk with the men and ask them about their lives. Most had lived an Ahuano their entire lives. Some had fought in militaries, and all of them spoke Quichua.

I was welcomed in to an indigenous family’s home and partied with them, traditional style. I was so honored when a woman came up to offer me Chicha. It is the traditional alcoholic drink that is made by chewing on Yuka root until it ferments. I was offered to drink it twice... and luckily have not had any stomach problems from the tap water.

To cut this shorter, the next night our friend Logan played in the local volleyball game and his team won. We were invited to another birthday party and were up until 3 am dancing with the locals. We sat in the street for an hour waiting for the guard to open the gate, and soaked up Ahuano.

My life was changed by a village of friendly, poor, but not suffering people who welcomed me so enthusiastically that I forgot to be embarrassed that I was white. I want to learn the language of Quichua and I have fallen in love with Ecuador. I have only two weeks left and am tempted to ditch Scotland and travel around America Sur with all you others. I want to continue to study spanish and return to learn Quichua. Hopefully this feeling of amazement lingers. I know yall will have a just as wonderful experience. Katie, sounds like you are :)

Less than two weeks left. Dan, you are going to love this place.

Back from the farm

Hey all! O man, its great reading everyone{s posts, Mads keep at the spanish, you'll rock by the time you get back and watch out for the ladrones. you know what? thats actually not something Ive worried about at all in Mexico. Guanajuato is possibly the safest city I{ve visited, I feel totally comfortable walking by myself at 2 am. (not that I do that that often, usually someone offers to walk with me). And en el rancho, no hay muchas personas.

Ya, so I did get a hold of Oscar, and it turns out he does have a family, but he doesnt live on the farm. This guy Alonso does though, but the day after I arrived he left to visit his familia en México. Getting to the farm was a hastle, because although I had the address, no taxi driver knew where it was. So I lived alone on this cactus farm for a week, at which point I finally met Oscar, and he informed me that his family was going to come the next day and I had to move out. I had been working everyday with the 4 workers that come every day, Vicente, y sus hijos Coco, Adrien y su sobrino Daniel. Vicente invited me to stay with his family, which I did for 3 days. They live in un rancho (basically a very small town with dirt streets and horses and trucks) and I was definitely the only guera there. I was standing outside the house with Vicente talking to a neighbor, and a school bus full of kids stared at me shouting Miren, guera! lol, whatever. Anyway, they are the nicest, most generous people ever. They already have 8 people living in a very small house, but would not take no for an answer when I told them that I didn´t want to cause them any problems. Margo, la esposa de Vicente even cried when I left, even though it had been such a short time.

So working on a cactus farm really isn´t all that bad, but hay muchas espinas. I wore long sleeve and leather gloves and still was pulling them out every hour. Basically what we did was weed in between the rows of nopales. you couldnt even squat down to do this because the cactus would prick your ass, so it was really hard on your back. Vicente and Coco dont even wear gloves to work, crazy.

Now I´m off to Irapuato to stay with and help a professor allá. Hoping that everything goes well. Cuidense mucho, todos.

break-thru

The family I live with consists of my mother, Ibis, and my 17 year old sister, Maria Elena. For the past 2.5 weeks my mother has been the most patient, compassionate, interested, and enthusiastic person in regards to my limited but improving spanish-speaking abilities. My sister however has been more of a challenge. In general she's not the happiest person and is annoyed with Ibis alot. She speaks very fast and does not exactly cater to my handicap... so we have ended up more or less saying hello and goodbye and not speaking much at the table.

HOWEVER, tonight was a breakthrough. For the first time Ibis, Maria Elena, her friend Paulina and I sat down for "dinner" and a conversation emerged. It was one which I could completely understand and that was lighthearted. I forgot all about my selfconsciousness and really enjoyed the conversation. My sister, mother and I all ended up with a mad case of the giggles which was encouraged by a moth flying into my face and my sister making fun of how much food my mom forces on me.

It's moments like these that really get me excited about being here and speaking Spanish.
Success.
Mads.

ps. I saw a whale... does this mean I'm as cool as Natz now? Oh wait, not possible :)
pps. more pictures on my flickr for all to peruse