Mister Information?

The "M" in my middle name no longer stands for Matthew, but rather "Misinformation." In the past two weeks I have been here it has been hard to quantify the amount of times I have actually said something horribly wrong. Here are two quick ejemplos (yea more Spanish lessons for you all):
The first night I was here, I had a somewhat long conversation with my host mother. We were talking about life and family, the usual. In the flow of the conversation she asked me how many sobrinos I had. Being the greatest Spanish speaker to grace this Earth and remembering my high school Spanish family tree assignments, I told her thirteen or so. After that, she asked how long my brother had been married, so I told her a year and a half. I wondered why she gave me this bewildered look when I told her that, but I did not lose sleep over it. The next day I had a conversation with my new best friend, the University of Chicago Spanish-English Dictionary. After a quick charla (chat) with my friend, he told me that sobprinos meant nephews, not cousins like I had thought (primos is cousins in Spanish). So yeah, my brother has been busy over a year and a half. Keep up the good work!
The other night was another one of these instances, not as detailed but amusing none-the-less. the conversation of the night was another session of a "How much does that cost in America?" We eventually got to talking about education and my host father asked how much one year of school cost. Again, you have the best Spanish-speaking American here in Ecuador, so I told him. $500,000 per year. That sounds about right, no? I guess it feels like that much to the average American.
There are probably countless other little gems similar to those cases that I have said, but so far those two stand out as beacons of hope for our culture. The United States is filled with multimillionaire, sex-crazed (or fertility drug crazed) newlyweds. It's not that far off from the truth, I guess.
On another note, if you ever plan to live somewhere that isn't the US or probably Europe, bring Fabreeze. Yes, I am a Fabreeze shill. Picture me holding the bottle in some cheesy, commercial-like fashion. My room smells like mierda. If you have half a brain and scored higher than a 600 on your SATs you can figure ou thee contextual meaning of mierda. Fabreeze would remedy so many weird and sometimes horrid smells. A product like Fabreeze does not exist in Cayambe, so I have put a bounty on its head. Whoever finds it first here wins a dry, flavorless cookie from the panaderia I go to after lunch everyday.
That's it for now sportsfans, I'll try to get some pictures in sometime soon. I just forget to take them, so really do not have many yet. Oh if you here about flooding in Ecuador on CNN, I´m probably fine.
Ok, there is a link on the right for my Photobucket album, if it doesn´t work let me know.

Paper Planes

While the language barrier is a bit difficult sometimes, the hardest message to get through to my family so far has been relativity. I told them a cheap used car in the United States is $6000, and that a cheap new car is around $16,000. Following that comment, the flood of questions on the precios of goods in the United States began. Yes, the Ecuadorians do not have the standard of life that Americans do (well with my host family that's debateable), but the price of living to the price of goods is relative to wage. In our conversation earlier in the week, my host father could not comprehend the extreme prices of goods (and services) in the US. However, later in the week, I was talking with my host mother for a bit. Surprisingly, after explaining how much it cost to live in Hoboken versus the wage Lageman makes, it clicked. America is an expensive place, a place with more cosas to keep us busy. Who would have thought I would try to explain the shitty housing market and why milk is so pricey in the United States.
It has been a good week, though. During last weekend, I was having my doubts about being able to last in Ecuador, but I have had some nice breakthroughs. I now have another little sister (sorry Melissa). When I first arrived and for the first few days, she was very shy; which is understandable since I'm the first Peace Corps volunteer for this family. Con la ayuda of some paper airplanes and some English lessons, I was able to get her to open up. Now that I have a new little friend, it makes it much easier to cope with the fact of being away from my real family.
For those wondering my typical day, for now (it will change in 10 weeks), I'll indulge. This week I have woke up at 6:30 each morning. I get a breakfast of eggs, fruit, milk and some sort of blended juice type of drink. I leave and catch the bus at 7:15. This week has been very Spanish class focused, so pretty much class from 8 to noon, then lunch, and then more class from 1:30 to 5-ish. Usually, I have done something for an hour after finishing class, from playing basketball to going through Cayambe for assorted stuff (like a USB device). When I get home I have a nice dinner (or merienda). Every night for dinner I get aguite de manzanillas, or chamomile tea made with the actual herb boiled in water. I chat with my host mother and sister until 8 or so. Finally, I go up to my own room (yes, I have my own little palace here), and watch some futbol while listening to my I-pod.
You are all welcome for the little Spanish lesson I snuck in there.

Bienvenido a Ecuador

Let me preface this by saying, I have no idea how much I will be able to keep this updated. Once I have a flash drive or something, I will write some more descriptive posts. But whoever reads this will have to deal for now.

Anyway, I was in DC for two nights for staging, which included the usual icebreaking activities. Nothing particularly important to write about. After DC we arrived in Quito. Unfortunately, we did not get to go around the city, but I have two years for that, right?

Now the important stuff. We started our 10 weeks of training in Tabancundo on Monday. What they do is spread the 43 of us out in surrounding barrios (20 minutes max from Tabacundo). Everyone lives with a separate host family. My host family lives in the town or city of Cayambe. My living conditions are probably better than that of New Jersey. I have my own floor of the house, so technically have my own balcony. I have my own bedroom with a TV, own bathroom (with a shower), and electricity. Pretty nice. As for training, well it has only been two days. The first day was Spanish class from 8am to 5pm with a lunch break in between. Today was more of the same, a little less Spanish class though.

Well that is all for now, when I get some form of storage I can give some more detailed and personal accounts of all of my experiences in Ecuador.