Just Buy the Ticket and GO!

Thank you Francisco for the great advice!  I commented to him that I was bummed when a friend of mine had to cancel on our weekend plans due to Brazil's policy of obligatory voting.  Yes, in Brazil voting is mandatory for anyone over 18.  You can vote at 16 if you want to, but you MUST vote at 18.  As such, my friend has to return home to vote and cannot accompany me on a little weekend jaunt.

I was bummed and Francisco said to me "just buy the ticket and GO!"  And he is right.  I usually hate traveling by myself because I get lonely pretty easily but I realized that I am also lonely when I am sitting in my apartment with no one around so why not be lonely in a cool place?   With that great advice - I am off to Floranopolis for 3 days this weekend (we have a long holiday her in Brazil).  Florianopolis is pretty far south in Brazil and is half on an island and half on the mainland.  I booked a hostal on the island for three days where I hope to get some hang gliding lessons, spend some time in the sun, read a book, listen to some music, meet some new people and have fun.

Every weekend I don't do something fun and exciting, I miss an opportunity.  After 3 months of being here and having many opportunities pass for various reasons I have decided NO MORE!  I have many places I want to see, so darn it I am going!  Costs aside - I need to see Brazil!

I must also so - I am quite proud of my recent Portuguese endeavors on the phone.  I successfully purchased my airplane tickets over the phone in Portuguese.  I had to borrow my friend's credit card to do so (as they do not accept international cards) which made for some fun conversations.

Check back in a few days for photos!  In the mean time, I encourage you all to just buy your own proverbial tickets and GO already!  It is quite thrilling to plan a vacation 2 days before you leave! 

Perspective, clarity, explanation... *sigh*

Do you ever just wonder how you got to where you are in life?  How many really active decisions do you remember making in your life?  How many times did you actively try to alter your course versus simply take an opportunity that was opened to you?  Can you think of an example of when you really put honest effort into making something happen for yourself?  When was the last time you pursued what you wanted in life, and when was the last time you gave up?  Was giving up the right thing to do?

I think about these things from time to time as I constantly marvel at where I am (physically, emotionally, spiritually) and where I look to be going.  Where do I want to go?  What do I want to do?  Who do I want to be?  I cannot answer these questions despite how long I ponder them.  Who do I want to share my life with?  I also am no where near close to answering that question.

Sometimes I wonder if my continual uprooting is hurting me more than helping.  I wonder if the repeated 3-4 months of feeling out of place, lonely, confused, and overwhelmed are helping me to learn something about life or if I am repeatedly putting myself through pain unnecessarily?  What would have happened if I chose to stay in Chicago vs move to NYC?  What would have happened if I chose to stay in NYC vs move to Brazil?  What would have happened if I just paid the $1700 plane ticket to Bombay for Christmas in 2007?  What would have happened if someone just told me that is was okay?

I guess these questions are all stemming from some feeling of discomfort.  I am happy here in Brazil.  It took me the better part of 3 months to be able to say that and mean even half of it.  Yet something still doesn't fit. There is something that is uncomfortable.  Something that reminds me a bit of what you feel like right before you cry, that tense moment where you become acutely aware of how much liquid is stored behind your eyeballs because you are very conscience of it sloshing around just waiting to spill forward.  It's a different feeling somehow.  I'm not going to cry (at least I don't think so).  But something.... something.... just isn't fitting.  How do I go about learning what it is that isn't fitting?  How do I then go about fixing it?  

Aside from the obvious downfalls of feeling this way (social anxiety, mild depression, inconsistent sleep etc.)  There is also this unreasonable habit of consistently getting your hopes up thinking that this time you have it figured out.  This activity, this person, this outing, this time... will fix it.  Inevitably this does not happen and I am left feeling uncomfortable and disappointed.

Still believe me when I say I am happy?  I hope so.  It is true.

Sharing

Here are a few videos that I enjoy and thought I would share.  Enjoy!

Do It Right This Time

Teenage Dream

Ted talk - Hans Rosling. If you like global issues and/or statistics, this video is awesome!

If you really like global statistics - go to www.gapminder.org and play.  Awesome site!

Actually just go to www.ted.com  and watch everything - they are all amazing videos.

Ecuador Means Equator in Spanish

After a delightful airplane tour of Quito and the surrounding areas in Felipe's plane, Francisco and I headed to his families palm oil plantation.  Currently his family has about 600 acres (I think...) of land which is growing palm trees which yield palm fruit.  These are not coconuts, it is a different type of tree (like a cousin to the beach dwelling coconut bearing tree we all know and love).  These fruit have massive amounts of oil in their flesh which can be extracted via pressing or the use of solvents.  Palm oil is in turn used to make many many products, namely soap and margarine (both of which I know more than I care to admit about).  

His family is also in the process of building their own palm oil extraction plant where all the oil from the fruit will be extracted using 100% natural means (aka - smash, separate, decant, decant some more, more decanting - sell) vs the use of any type of solvent.  This plant has been designed by Francisco (an ME from Purdue) along with a few of his friends making it quite an awesome achievement for students just out of engineering school.  Here are some pictures!!

Me standing on the top of the final product tank - great view!  You can see the top of the factory roof behind me and all the construction going on also.

Some palm trees and the beautiful plantation

Francisco with his dogs!  He actually has 5 of them, 4 Rottweilers and a German Sheppard.  Very cute and lovey.

 After leaving the farm we headed to a small town very close to the Columbian border called Casablanca which is a beach town.  No, this is not the same Casablanca as the famous movie -that is in Morocco - and if you click over to June of 2008 you will see pictures of me and Katie Hamilton in the other Casablanca during our graduation trip.  This is the Ecuadorian Casablanca, a great little town made for the Quito-ian on vacation.

We passed through  many small towns on the way to the beach and for a while I thought I was in the wrong country... 

Um... Isn't this a rickshaw.... I don`t think I flew over an ocean on the way to Ecuador but I'll be damned if I don't feel like I am in INDIA!!

Yup... this must be India...

After what I thought was a detour through Southeast Asia - we made it to the beach condo.  It is a delightful place with enough space to sleep about 15 people.  There is also a great cook/housekeeper named Carmin (I think..) who made wonderful traditional Ecuadorian food for us.  I've never eaten so many plantains!

The porch of the condo, table all set for one of our meals

Myself, Mona, and Francisco hanging on the beach.  Unfortunately we didn't get a lot of sunshine but that was probably best, I would have burnt like crazy!

As you can see it was a bit overcast, but still a beautiful beach.

Francisco and I  -  standard one arm Facebook shot

HAHAHAHA - LOVED this shirt!!

Picture perfect waves crashing along a rocky shoreline.

This is a snail like creature.  There were THOUSANDS of them crawling under the sand.  It sounds weird and gross but it was actually really cool.  They are almost 100% under the sand so you only see these trails of where they were and they don't bother you at all.  Francisco and I discovered that they come up to the surface sometimes just after a wave has passed by.  They were weird looking things.

 After a few days at the beach condo, laying out, drinking, playing games, eating and over all just enjoying life.  We all headed back to the plantation.  Mona (Francisco's good friend) and her boyfriend joined us at the beach and shared the ride back to Quito with us.  It was a really fun group and I am happy to have had the opportunity to hang out and get to know them all.  Hopefully it isn't the last time I see them either!!

Back on the farm!  Francisco's mom in their swimming pool.  We all suited up for a dip and had a crazy fun time playing water sports until lunch time hunger forced us to the dinner table!

Mona had never been to the farm so we walked around the plant again.  This is the final product holding tower that I was standing on previously.  There is something almost whimsical about it isn't there?  It reminds me of something you might see in Dr. Suess... I think it is the spiral stairs up the side and the large brick pattern of the sheet metal mixed with the delicate rusting.  It looks almost -playful. 

BOILERS!!! - As in Boilermakers, the greatest school of all time... Or in this case, the American made boiler that will generate steam for the plant. 

Me standing behind the BOILER being very excited about the heat exchanger.  It is really cool because the plan is to use biomass to fuel the boiler by burning the left over fibers of the palm fruit after they have been pressed.  Way to be super ecofriendly!

 After leaving the farm we had a nice drive back to Quito.  It was late by that point and we were beat from so many days of doing nothing.  The following day Francisco and I got up and headed to the equator so I could fulfill one goal of the trip - to take a picture laying on the equator being half in the north and half in the south!

 

This is me being a compass - in case you didn't know which way North is - it is UP, South is DOWN, East is RIGHT, and West is LEFT

When you are on the equator, the forces pulling to either side are equal, thus you are feeling zero force.  The theory goes if that is the case then you can balance an egg on end when you are right at the equator.  This is me attempting this claim.  I failed.  The tour guide however achieved a perfectly balanced egg in about 10 seconds.

Geek moment!!  Yes for a mini physics lesson while on vacation!  Newton II anyone??

Much like the egg, if you try to walk a straight line along the equator you feel very unstable as each side pulls you towards it. Because you are pretty much unable to be exactly centered, any shift to one side or the other results in a much stronger than normal feeling of being off-balance.  You go from having close to zero pull on you to having half the world pulling on you.  Here is video proof that it is tricky.  Sorry it is sideways, I don't know how to flip it.  Please - don't laugh too hard.

 After the trip to the equator we headed out to the old part of Quito to see some of the older buildings and meet up with one of Francisco's other friends for a quick drink.  Little did we know, we were about to be in the presence of greatness - times two!

These are the Ecuadorian and Chilean presidents!  Apparently the Chilean president came by as a sign of support and solidarity for the Ecuadorian president seeing as he recently was held hostage by his own army in a hospital.  SO COOL!! 

Enjoying Quito - anyone think Francisco has a bit of Bono going on with those glasses?

Quito at night - so pretty!

 More Quito

Over all it was a very wonderful few days away from work and away from stress.  It was really strange to be surrounded by Spanish though.  Before coming to Brazil my Spanish skills were terrible but existent.  Now, my Portuguese has taken over my brain and I am phyically unable to think or speak in Spanish without EXTREME effort.  When I got back to Brazil I had this huge sigh of relief and I remember thinking, "Thank goodness, I can talk to these people!"  I then laughed at myself and reliazed that, no I cannot speak to them, I've just gotten numb to not being able to understand - either way, it felt good to be back!

Thank you Francisco and thank you to his family and friends for making me feel like a part of the group and showing me a great part of the country.  I am so fortunate to have such wonderful people in my life. 

My life is great because of the people I choose to include in it.  Yes I had a choice, and I choose great people!  Thank you everyone for being one of the many many GREAT people I have been so fortunate to know and get to share my life with.  (sorry, a bit mushy at the end - but I mean it!)

First few days in Quito, Ecuador!

Here are a few pictures from my first few days in Quito. Enjoy!!

Apparently this is a Virgin Mary Statue... but she has wings, is standing on a snake, and is holding chains.... I don't get it.

Francisco and I having fun and enjoying our first night!!

Me standing at the most important meeting place of the world next to the most exquisite Ecuadorian person - Francisco!! *note the sign...*

Pilsener - typical, all Ecuadorian beer.

Some typical Ecuadorian cuisine, fried plantains, corn cake things, and tamales with chicken.  The sauces are a red spicy sauce that reminded me a bit of salsa but with fewer chunks, and a cheese/milk blend.

This was DELICIOUS soup - potatoes, yucca, avocado, and cheese - YUM

Francisco and I took a cable car ride up to the top of this hill in Quito where the view was just stunning.  The entire city sits in this valley making the city very narrow but very long as it runs between the two mountains.

Hanging out at the top!  I didn't realize that Quito was at elevation and then this hill obviously is higher.  This shot is at about 14,000 ft if I remember correctly.

So pretty!  Quito reminded me a lot of Colorado actually, being at elevation, slightly dry, mountains - very similar!

Taking in the view

The view!

Francisco trying to point out his house to me... I think he was lying about which was his..

Francisco has been interested in flying forever it seems.  And he has been trying to get his pilot's license for a while now, but with work, cost, time etc. he hasn't quite gotten there.  However, he does get to fly with some regularity as he has an awesome friend Felipe who owns a plan and takes him up a few times a month.  Felipe was generous enough to take me up too!  I've been in small plans before (once with a volunteer friend from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and once at Purdue with a friend), but they were both 4 seat planes.  This little guy was only two seats! It was snug but comfortable, and there is something very exciting about being so high up in such a little vessel. 

Inside of the plane - Very fun and very confusing!

View from up top!

Francisco - being awesome!!

Looking down at the clouds.  This view never gets old - be it from an airplane, or on top of a mountain.

Inside of the plane.  It was small, but very fun!

So cute and awesome!

Video of flying!!!