QUITO: Hasta La Vista Baby

It´s a bit crazy, but I am basically on my way out of Quito. I have been here for five weeks, with this being my sixth. All in all this will be longest I will stay in any specific place in my travels. So, before I go I wanted to share some pictures, and of course, some stories.

Note: For those who are receiving an email from me for the first time, you can go to the blog http://brazilbean.blogspot.com and read prior emails from when I left for Phase II.

PHOTOS: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=1i2bgirz.cr9jon9f&x=0&y=7bjuqs

Carlo: Still, my relationships with Carlo has been one of the best ragalos (presents) of this trip. Our relationship has been a riot of laugther, misunderstandings by others who assume we are a couple, and a continous mixing of roomate language that sounds more like a marriage than anything else. Let´s make sure to have some basic information out there. Carlo is straight, so much so I think he may have invented the concept. So, girls, rejoice! And, yes, he is still single, but hopefully not for long. Second, Drew is the only boyfriend I have and want. But, Carlo is like an Ecuadorian Drew in many ways. Statements like, "We should keep this water for cooking." have become commonplace. As Drew tells me, by "we" I mean "you." (At my house I coordinate food and Drew outings.) Carlo also loves everything I cook, like Drew. And, Carlo also has many things he simply does not eat, like Drew. Further, whenever I talk about my novio/boyfriend it has become commonplace for people to say "Drew or Carlo." With these very funny moments it has been an absolute pleasure to stay at Carlo´s. His kindness and care is beautiful and so damn authentic. It has also given me a chance to, well, ge to know the man behind the legend. Or, do I mean, the teenager behind the man? No matter, I have gotten to know him and share many of my values, wants and needs, hopes and dreams and continue to build a friendship with a truly outstanding person.

Quito: It is a beautiful city and if you have a chance to visit it, you must. I love the fact that it reminds me of SF in the way that it is small, but hip. Everything weekendy happens in about a 1 mile radius, but the places are fun, the people are welcoming, and the energy is kind and always friendly. Moreover, there is access to so much natural beauty everywhere. The mountains are ever present, the adventure travel opportunities infinite, and the air thin, but very healthy. (Ok, the city itself is a bit smoggy, but Carlo will soon be working on that. I´ve asked.) In addition, yesterday I learned quite a bit from CarlA. The city´s old town is filled with history, beautiful architecture, and rich pebble stone streets, and SF like hills. It is a little expensive since dolarization, but nothing compared to a day in LA or NYC. The weather is everything. Sun in the morning, hot, hot sun, clouds and sometimes rain in the afternoon, a beautiful sunset (amazingly, often without clouds) and cold nights. Finally, it is an outstanding place to learn Spanish.

Shaking My Bones: Prior to my departure from the States I kept saying I wanted to go out. For one reason or another it never really happened. When you have 3 months with your boyfriend going out with a bunch of sweaty men versus staying home cuddling up on a couch isn´t really a choice. Entonces (so) when I got here I immediately took too Quitos basic, but very fun dance clubs. I tried out 4 different ones and I have not regreted it. For instance, last weekend I danced from 11-3am at one and from 3-7am at the other. I walked home as the sun was rising, so, so, so happy that I had danced so much. Ok, so, yes, I am becoming a little known as the dancing queen, but alas, I am in a foreign land. So, in case you are looking for hip-hop, salsa, regaton, disco, madonna, whatever, Quito offers it. Come and join the Quitenos for a night out!

Andres and Roberto: Another outstanding connection was meeting friends of my DC based friend George Walker. I adore George and ours is a connection for a lifetime. So, when he said I should meet these boys, I said, "sure." The energy we share is so similar to the one George and I have that it is fascinating. They are outstanding people who have taken me in, taken me places, introduced me to new friends, shared their lives and stories with me, and let me cook in their kitchen. Wait a minute! I think the only reason Andres is my friend is because I cook for him. Hmmmm. I know Roberto actually likes me, but Andres, QUE SUCIO!!!! Seriously, these boys are golden and of the heart. AND, Drew, yes, these are the boys that have introduced me to Oliver the most fabulous dog ever! (well, after MacGruff that is.)

Dinners: First and foremost. Thank you mother for being such a great cook. AND, thank you Tricia for teaching me the way. I have had a chance to cook for groups several times while here. A couple of times I actually planned the dinner before hand, but many of times I was cooking for Carlo and me, until suddenly everyone showed up and I just had to keep adding food to the pan. This is something I miss A LOT about being in Latin America. I love people that just show up, I love the improptu dinners, the random madness of people that make an evening so golden. I also wanted to thank Nicole and Clarissa for sending me the GROSSI family recipe. The lasagna was oustanding. I did it in 2 days instead of 3, but it was a hit. And, thank you Carla for letting me cook with your India spices! Oh, oh, I have also had a chance to try the top 3 sushi restaurants in Quito. I say SAKE all the way. It was the yummiest!

La Lengua: School was a great experience. It was tough and I am still making lots of mistakes, but I am glad I did it. I feel I have a base to work from now, and I hope the next two months I can really practice while in Spanish speaking Latin America. As you may have guessed by now, the highlights there are Zayra and Ines; two teachers who made my time truly worthwhile. Zayra is especially memorably due to our Brazilian connections. We identified our number one problem as WE TALK TOO MUCH. Zayra also kicked my ass. Something that, from a teacher, I cannot ask for better. We covered the subjunctive in two days. After the first day I complained profusely (jokingly) and asked how many other students she did this too. She said as simply as she says everything else related to teaching and learning. "No one. The subjunctive takes two weeks to learn, but you are good enough and there is no good reason I can imagine you giving me that would convince me to go slower. Ok, now, how to use - Ojala!" And that was that. I left Friday with a booklet of homework to do this week. Note, I am not in school anymore. And, I am to meet here Wed. from 5-7 to correct all of my homework, and so that she can teach me a couple more things before I take off. She, of course, is doing this on her own time. Me gusta muchisimo! Oh, she also sent a message to Carlo today - STOP SPEAKING ENGLISH WITH JULIO!!!

Carla: A woman after my own heart. In genderization (word?) it is always comical to find someone who is just like you, but of the opposite sex. It´s like looking at yourself, but in a completely different light. Carla is outstanding (hmm, that series of sentences made me feel self-centered, oops). Seriously. She is amazing. She has taken on creating a school, is such an outstanding source of positive energy to her friends, and like many of us, seems to do an outstanding job loving her family while doing everything else. She does all of this while having a partner in Chile. Her constant demand for respect of others, kindness, and doing our damn best however we get there is inspirational, and through example, she has made me remember a lot of what I want to continue to be when I work again. Oh man, I have to work again? Ok, so maybe Carla fooled me. LOLOL!!!

Goodbye: This Friday Carlo and I are doing a going away party for me. There will be 20 people there. Some key folks I have met. We are doing a caipirinha party and I am cooking some sort of chicken for everyone, along with some potluck thing we are doing. I am sad to leave to tell you the truth, but that´s the part of traveling that one cannot go without. One has to leave one place to get to the new adventure. One has to travel to return home to the ones he loves. It´s the life energy of movement, and the wave I am riding right now. I go to Lima for 4 days on Saturday and then I meet my dad in Cuzco where we will start our Machu Pichu hike. It is going to be great! Wish us luck. JOIN US!!!

"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." V.

www.brazilbean.net

Pictures: Cotopaxi y mas...

This weekend we made it to Cotopaxi, the tallest volcano in the world. We made it pretty far up, and then we mountain biked over 20K down the monstrosity. Take a look at http://www.bikingdutchman.com/one.htm#cotopaxi for more on the details. It was outstanding. I think I almost cracked my head open a few times, but I ended up some place between the pedals and G-d, which means I made it in one piece. Ok, there were a couple of "planned falls" into sand mounds, but that was it. Will write more in a bit...I want to focus on putting up some photos today...

FIRE: View from Carlo-s terrace at sunset.















CARLO Y YO: In the midst of our downhill riding.















IN THE HEAVENS: Near the top of Cotopaxi. We were at the Refugio, 4800.















MONSTER: A beautiful and frightening view of this creation.















LA MALA EDUCACION: My two favorite teaches at school. They have taught me how to speak with respect, and made sure that I did not use "tirar fotos" but rather "tomar fotos." Tirar, well, means to do the deed in some way. They, and I, did not want to me to be asking the wrong thing from people on the street. Note that in Portuguese tirar does work for fotos, and tomar can work for, well, other things.

La Ciudad de Quito

Amigos Y Amigas,

I simply cannot wait any longer to write about Quito. I will not be able to remember.

So here it goes.

CARLO: The best thing about Quito is Carlo. We were acquaintances in graduate school who knew each other through our mutual friend Jessica. And, between many, many, many cultural drinks at my house (read: caipirinhas and mojitos) I told him I was coming to travel in South America and he said I should come to Quito. That experience and his enormous heart has meant 6 weeks in Ecuador, language school, a great apartment with a great view, an outstanding instant set of friends, and a deeper connection with someone who is simply beautiful. We have had a great time between Spanish and English, a series of fun outings and a lot of heart to hearts at this house. I am really looking forward to the weeks to come. For those who always ask – Mother, Drew, Mindy, Tricia, Nicole, etc…I am being very well taken care of.

QUITO: Quito is a beautiful city. The mountains around it are outstanding, the people very open and kind, and there is green everywhere. The bus system is great, the traffic lights work (and most of the time people respect them), and I have yet to feel like someone is not being honest with me. The only down side is that it is basically chilly. It is the end of summer here and between the mountains, the valley and the Andes the nights are cold. But, all is well with my many blankets and heater. The days are actually very nice, mostly very sunny, and actually, thankfully somewhat not overly hot. You say, “Julio does not want it REALLY HOT? What happened?” Well, this is Ecuador, the middle of the world, the equator. The sun is both close and directly above us. A little bit in the sun can really burn. So, the tempered sun is actually better…and well, the skin is important when you are approaching 30….something.

LANGUAGE SCHOOL: In one word language school is HARD. The Portuguese is really getting in my way. I understand 95% of everything and that does make it easier, but trying to talk is another story. I get my words out, I am mostly understood, but I make A LOT OF MISTAKES. Some of the challenges are – while Spanish and Portuguese are close in vocabulary the languages actually come from different roots. I am pretty sure everything comes from Latin (Spanish, French, etc) but Portuguese has a Celtic root thus making the actual structure of the languages different. (Anston, am I full of crap?)

There are three key areas I work on the most: 1) Patience and speed. I am totally impatient with myself and I don’t seem to be able to talk slowly…in any language. My teacher keeps telling me I am too smart and I need to slow down and that I need to think more basically. She says I ask all the hard, exception in the language, questions. Maybe she is right, but this practical brain says…kudos to my intellect, but now I WANT TO TALK!!! 2) Direct and Indirect Complements. These are the lo, la, te, los, las, etc. They are totally referential (not sure if this is the right word). Let us say you start a conversation with I LOVE MY MOTHER AND I BOUGHT HER FLOWERS. That will probably be the last time you refer to your mother and the flowers as mother and flower. From now on it will all become LA and LAS and when they are used together SE. I am in LALALA land. It is a brain click thing and I hope the AHA moment happens soon. 3) Vocabulary. I have to learn more words, and I have to make sure to say the ones I know correctly. For instance, today I told my teacher I had 34 anos. Well, when spoken in Portuguese that means I have 34 years of age. But, in Spanish it means I have 34 anuses. Needles to say I know say I have almost 30 años.

LANGUAGE SCHOOL TEACHERS: My program is also a bit tough because it is all one on one. Each week I change teachers and work with that one person for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. My first teacher was, let us say, interesting. He started the day by asking me a series of personal questions – name, background, work, and relationship. Among my answers I told him I was gay and he said that was ok. I tried not to roll my eyes because he meant well. Then, he proceeded to correct me every time I said I had a novio (boyfriend). “No, no, es noviA.” Anyhoo. That was not the interesting part. He is the interesting part.

Later in the day I asked him the same series of questions. The answers. “I am a teacher. I am a Hindu (He is not Indian and one cannot convert to being a Hindu). I am a vegetarian and I am celibate. Oh, and I do not shake hands.” Now, I am a progressive thinker who has traveled to a lot of the world by now and I am all about respecting people, and I respected him all week. (Ok, this email is a tricky thing, but it is, after all, my Blog, and my experience.) So, here I am all open to my Hindu, Vegetarian, Celibate, No touch Teacher. Except, for the next 5 days many, many of his examples where about women, their bodies, sex, and he even asked me if I was interested in learning dirty words. (A request made by many travelers according to blogs I read prior to language school) All in all, a very odd experience. Very odd. I never thought he did not mean well, it was just wacked. Ok, so now the story does not seem so funny. I hope you enjoyed it. WAIT, THERE IS MORE….

This week I started with new teacher. Ines/Ynes. I love her already. Single mom, kick-ass, told me she was really homophobic growing up, taught her son to be homophobic and then had an amazing reality check when her son told her she had taught him to hate people. Together they worked on a lot of their issues and she is totally open and asks lots of questions and we talk and share. BUT, she received the evaluation Oscar did on me at the end of the week so she could continue my course of study. It read…

“Julio speaks English, Portuguese and has a good handle of Spanish. He understands almost everything. He is gay. He is working hard on direct and indirect complements…” I could not contain myself and asked Ines. Does the fact that I am gay give me some special language knowledge or affect my ability to learn, therefore making it into this report? We laughed hysterically for minutes.

AND, FINALLY, HOW AM I DOING: Well. It has been a little hard to get used to being away from home again. I miss Drewzie terribly. We put together a beautiful apartment in LA and then I took off. It has been hard to be away. He is intensely supportive of my goals and I try my best to support him in continuing his TV work from here. Of course, it has also been wonderful because we do seem to be so supportive even so far apart and that counts for a lot.

This is a very different trip. I am actually living in Quito. Six weeks is a long time with one outfit. Drew has sent me a package of my clothes that should arrive here this week, I bought new shoes (do not all be surprised at once now), and I go out dancing, have friends, and have days I am really energetic and days I just go home and read either The Color of Water or Del Amor y Otros Demonios by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I am also meeting with a guy who does anti-trafficking work tomorrow and I am working on other contacts. I made dinner for friends. A friend (Carla) and I are planning on cooking Indian food at the end of the week, and I go out to dinner. Yes, this all means I spend a lot more money. But it is now and will all work out on the finance thing.

I am happy to have a schedule. I feel like I am achieving something with language school. I am happy that I have plans for the future. I am not eager to have a job AT ALL, but I am ok that I will have to have one some day in the next year. I am doing yoga twice a week. I am continually working on just being ok with all that I am and all that the world brings to my attention. It is easier to be this way traveling. Real life is oddly incarcerating. I really did encage myself in 4 months in LA. I was so damn worried about getting a job, having a life goal, being something. Here I am active, but I do not feel the cloud of MUST BE in the air. It makes sense, I know, but it is actually happening inside, not just conceptually. I am hoping that this type of a trip, this way of traveling with schedules and things to achieve, will teach me more about how I can translate this into my future LA life.

Ok, CPS is kicking in. My arms hurt. Write and let me know how you are doing when you can.

Besos to all,

Hulito

"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." V.

www.brazilbean.net