Words & an Ironic Suggestion

According to this 2009 UCSD report, Americans consume an outrageous amount of words and other information per day:

"[Total information] consumption totaled 3.6 zettabytes and 10,845 trillion words, corresponding to 100,500 words and 34 gigabytes for an average person on an average day."

I don't know what the hell a "zettabyte" is, but it sounds like a lot. 100,500 words per person per day-- see the breakdown in the pie chart above. How is that possible?! I must say, I am seriously looking forward to cutting the umbilical cord that ties me to this laptop while in Ecuador. Chao digital information overload.

Well, on that note, I've added a "Subscribe to Blog" option (top-right corner) so you can now receive my new blog entries (1-2/week) via e-mail. This will be the easiest way to ensure I'm alive while I'm abroad. Words words words.

Signs of Life

After a few weeks of panic & some hassling, I finally received signs of life from Ecuador's Fulbright Commission. I do not have a University teaching assignment yet. However, I do have a region they are planning to place me in: the Sierra (the Andes/Highlands)! That narrows the possibilities quite a bit.

La Sierra 101:

Ecuador has 3 regions-- the Sierra, the Coast, and the Amazon. The geographies, histories, local cultures and ethnicities could not be more different between the 3 regions. It is common for Ecuadorians to identify first with their region (ex: Sierra), and second with their locality (ex: the city of Cuenca). There is some political and social tension between regions, especially coastal (costeños) and highland (andinos) people. Quito is considered the hub of the Sierra, the "historic center," and Ecuador's political capital. Guayaquil is the hub of the coast, the "economic center," and Ecuador's most populous city.

The Sierra tends to be Ecuador's most Catholic and socially conservative region. It has a high indigenous population, primarily Quichua tribes in rural areas. This should make it possible to begin learning the Quichua language, which is my incredibly nerd-tastic goal that is almost impossible to accomplish here in the United States. It's also a goal that most Ecuadorians, even most Quichua people, do not understand-- since indigenous languages have historically been associated with poverty, "backwardness," and even "dirtiness." Racism persists. But I would like to learn it. More to come on how that develops.

Bottom Line: I have a tiny bit of information! Wheels are turning. Plan to come visit?

3 things I'll miss about my U.S. life

When I finally leave, that is. I'm still waiting on word when that will be. So here goes... this is not a comprehensive list:

3. Oxygen: Highland cities in the Ecuadorian Andes are… high. Altitude sickness (“soroche”) is real and mean. Symptoms include nausea, headache, and passing out in embarrassing places (remember this post from 2008?). Athletes prepare to be humbled. In Quito, there's also the issue of auto pollution, which covers the city with a murky grey cloud that makes it possible to "smell like Quito."

2. Normal Digestive Functioning: In theory, gringos who avoid street food and never let a drop of unboiled water touch their lips should be safe. Yeah right!! Parasites, unfriendly amoebas, and inexplicable digestive revolutions are a way of life. I recently spoke to a friend who went to Ecuador with me last time, and 16 months later, he swears his digestive track is permanently altered. This is probably not a scientifically sound claim. But it is true that the human body will do strange things when presented with new food and new bacteria.

1. Control: Along with most of suburban middle-class US, I have a well-established life of bubbles-- orderly, neat, and pretty much under my control. I tend to revel in routine. It's safe. But I have long suspected it can also smother dreams, relationships, and true feeling. My first experience in Ecuador was one lesson after another about not being in control. I couldn't direct what I ate and when [living with a family], the temperature of my faucet, if there would be water coming from my faucet, the insane buses, the cat calls, the holes in my mosquito net, the behavior of my students... etc.

I'll miss my safe routines. But it is exhilarating to establish a life with little predictability. You begin to face your day assuming that crazy, uncontrollable catastrophes are waiting (remember this?). You stop establishing expectations and making so many plans (they always fail). You start living for what is really occurring, instead of what might occur. I consider it a very authentic way of existing in the world.

Dream

Cue Handel's Messiah. I had to share this concept drawing. Word is it's slowly becoming reality, replacing the pool/crypt we have now. Excellent news for Denison, Big Red swimming and diving, and DIII athletics in general. (thanks coach Matt for posting on facebook).

Ecuador Prep

People are curious about my upcoming year as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Ecuador. The bad news is that I have little information to share. I still have no university placement, no start date (although they estimate sometime in September), no visa, and no plane tickets. But I can still prepare!

For instance, I'm reading the dictionary of Spanish slang like it is a novel. I'm already to Ch-, which, as anyone who has been to the Andean region knows, is the prefix for many of the best Spanish AND Quechua curse words.

Second-language slang is easy to pick up by mirroring the context and emotion of others. You don't need to know exact definitions to be able to insult someone or know when you're being insulted. However, without access to real-life Spanish (I'm not in Ecuador yet and my TV doesn't even get Univision!), my dictionary will have to do for now.

Family Archives (6: Yearbook Shots)

School pictures are a cruel, mandatory rite-of-passage for a basic education in the United States. They are always taken after a bad haircut, while you have a cold, and/or immediately following gym class. The tiny, cut up 1 x 2 inch rectangles added a new level of annoying to my picture sorting job. Here are the best of my sisters and I:

Sister A: Either she couldn't sit still long enough to stay in the frame, or was the senseless victim of a drunk camera man.

Sister J: Donning the wolf mask for her senior yearbook shot. Luckily, she already had professionals done, or Mom might have been mad.

Me: Suffering from a ridiculous face-to-glasses-frame ratio in 1st grade. Also early evidence of nerddom.

Sister C: Caught in a freak early 90's lazer show.