So, this one time at the airport...

So it’s been a while, I know, but I have some good excuses. First off, I joined the PLU study abroad group for five days of during time here in Ecuador. The trip brought back many memories, as it was the same excursion two years ago with Dr. Teska that implanted the idea of returning after graduation. Spending time with PLUers again was great, what a fun, out-going, and thoughtful group, makes me proud to be a Lute! Here are a few pics; El Angel, where we were, is an otherworldly landscape and incredibly beautiful.






(An amazing view, note the endemic espeletias in front, a unusual plant to say the least!)






(Looking up the valley in which our lodge was located.)




Returning from that trip I immediately got back into the swing of things at the lab. In all honesty I was a bit vacationed out after 2 weeks with my family and close to another week with the PLU group. I though I’d have some time to blog then but found out the immunology final I thought I’d missed due to traveling had been postponed, again, which meant I could take it!... Only problem, in my assumption of not being able to take it I hadn’t studied in 3 weeks. Thus, the past week included a large amount of studying. And then when I went in last night to take it I saw a poster declaring it had postponed, again! Of course no one cared to tell the gringo… Así es la vida:) In all honesty it is incredibly difficult to find out when class is canceled, when exams are, what is the next article to procur, etc. They just do things way differently here and growing up in a system that prides itself in timeliness, efficiency, and exactitude the change coming to Ecuador has been, well, night and day really.

So I have a story, which while it happened about a month back, must be told. It concerns the picking up of my family at the airport, or more exactly, what happened while I was waiting.

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It was raining and everyone knows when it rains in Quito it is almost impossible to catch a taxi. After 20 minutes in the rain, walking futilely towards the airport, I finally hailed a cab down and hopped in. Glancing at my watch I knew it would be a close call whether I was going to make it in time.

Arriving late, I paid the cabbie extra in my gratitude and ran in to check the flight listings… only to see my family’s flight from Houston had been delayed 2 hours! Well, at least I wasn’t late but what was I going to do for 2 hours in the airport near midnight? I busted out my Spanish word flash cards and started studying but before long was interrupted by an Ecuadorian gentleman standing near me,

“Where are you from?”

And thus I met Jhinson, an approximately 30-year-old car mechanic from Ambato who makes $100/month. Turns out he was there with 30 of his family members awaiting the arrival of a sister-in-law who had been in South Africa for the past year. We chatted awhile before he had to run off and check on his mother. I wondered if that was it, boy was I wrong!

Wandering around later (one can only study vocabulary near midnight for so long, especially when they are very excited for something) I ran in Jhinson again, and was introduced to his mom. We chatted for a while before I headed off again.

Tired of wandering I went to the upstairs area where one can see the arriving passengers walking in down below (kind of like a strange zoo exhibit really) when guess who I saw, Jhinson! He came over with his mom and a brother and all of sudden about 20 more members of his family crowded in, I was surrounded by people all wanting to know what I was doing in Ecuador, how old was I, did I like it, was I married, did I have kids, and on and on. Then a girl close to my age was shoved to the front and given a spot at the table.

“She speaks English, talk to him in English.”

“Ok…”

During our “English talking demonstration” she informed me that sometimes she feels her family is just a bit too overbearing. I wonder why:)

Next up a young boy was told to sing me a song. I assured them this was not necessary but they were quite pumped up about having him sing. So he sang. Imagine the scene. A tall gringo surrounded by an entire Ecuadorian family, a little boy singing his lungs out, and everyone in the airport watching us. It was amazing really.

When my family finally arrived I was pointing them out to my new friends. My mom asked me later, “who were all those people?”

“Well,” I replied, “I’ve got a little story for you.”