La Mitad Del Mundo!

I´ve walked on the Equator!!!! We (my Ecuador school group, which consisted of me, Gwen, a Swiss, a Dane, and a Minnesotan + an Israeli group that added on) visited this little tourist site just south of Quito, and we LITERALLY walked on the Equator line as part of an experiment. We had to close our eyes, stick out our hands, and walk the line, like a DUI test. I couldn´t go more than a couple feet, it was SOOOO hard...something about the centrifical forces pulling you one way or the other. You physics majors will have to chime in on that one.

We also did the famed drain experiment....no toilet though. The thing with the toilets is they´re mechanized now so the flush doesn´t really show what hemisphere you´re in.....but a regular old sink will! We put the sink right on the equator and watched the water go STRAIGHT down. No spiral. Nothin´. Then a couple feet to the south.....it swirled clockwise! Then to the north....it swirled counterclockwise! Trust, no fancy tricks, it was just a rusty old tub with a hole in the middle.

Then the final, toughest experiment. Our guide showed us how she could balance a raw egg on a nail head hammered into a board.....no way, we thought. But she did! Then we all got to try! Out of our group, only me and this Israeli lady got it!!!! And we each got a diploma. And the weird thing was, we got it at exactly the same time and they both fell off the nail at the same time.....one of my classmates got a picture, so don´t worry, I have proof!

All in all, a really cool day. I´ve now stepped into the Southern Hemisphere!

Quitititititito!!!!

Hola a todos, estoy en Ecuador! I´m down here for a few weeks studying Spanish so I´ll be ready to hit the ground running when I get to Venezuela in October. It´s been great so far -- I had a huge lunch today of beans, chicken, rice, fried plantains....for $3.50! And the weather is perfect! Still getting used to the altitude (9,000 feet plus). Hopefully I´ll have some pictures and more stories soon. Hastas!

P.S. The Harry Potter reading (in Spanish) is still going well -- I´m on book 3! And I FINALLY had a dream in Spanish the other week. Pretty lame -- I tried on a football jersey and asked some local ladies wherever I was if it ¨worked¨in Spanish. Two words. Oh well, it´s something, right?

Ya ne govoru po ruski

Just wanted to report (since a few posts ago I was telling you all about my boring dreams)....

I have STILL not had a dream in Spanish! However, I did have a dream the other night in Russian......RUSSIAN? I don't even speak Russian! I can say "I don't speak Russian," as you can see from the title. And I can say "Hello, how are you?" which is pretty much what I said in my dream. C'mon, brain! Throw me a bone, I want to dream in Spanish! Haven't I earned it!?

Reading Aloud

Here is a cool article from the NYTimes. Read it if you get the chance: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/opinion/16sat4.html?_r=1&em

I've started reading Harry Potter outloud in Spanish for pronunciation practice (I have to trick myself into studying -- it's working great!). It's actually WAY too much fun, I get really into it, doing the voices and all. No British accents, though.

Anyway, I agree that reading aloud is a bit of a lost art, but since it's not very commonplace, it seems REALLY awkward when you're doing it. I glance up from my bench at least every few minutes to make sure no one's listening to me. Usually just a couple of geese and the occasional squirrel. And a groundhog once. He gave me a funny look.

One Trip Kinda Girl

-- OK, this first part is unrelated to the title and the rest of my post, but can I just say that I think my family is hilarious!? I went home for Mother's Day, and the highlight of Mother's Day the past couple of years has been talking to my brother on the phone (we get to talk to him on Mother's Day and Christmas). So we put him on speakerphone and sit around and chat.....for a few minutes, until Amy goes stir-crazy and starts bouncing up and down, and Kristi starts giggling, and Rachel and I roll our eyes at them, and Dad sighs, and Mom keeps asking us if we have any more questions for Michael so she doesn't have to hang up. It's sweet, funny, classic Epps moment.

Oh, my brother's serving a church mission in San Jose, CA, in case you didn't know -- I've been accused of talking about my little sisters so much that some folks don't even know I have a brother! I LOVE MY BROTHER!!!! And I'll be excited when he comes home in August. I think my Dad's even more excited to have another guy back in the house....even the dog's a girl :)

Last funny thing: Amy gave Mom an "I SPY" book that she wrote herself. I SPY seashell, a boogie board, a volleyball (this is all fully illustrated, by the way). Then came the living room page -- I SPY a television (it has a commercial illustrated into it, which says "Mothers Day Sale -- Get Your Mothers Here!"). We all crack up. Then it says "I SPY a remote." Mom yells out "Dad has it!" Oh man, hilarious.

Anyway, all of this is totally unrelated to what I was going to blog about. Welcome to my stream of consciousness. So....

I'm a one-trip kinda girl. Grocery shopping, you know. If I can't carry everything up from my car in one trip, well, I don't know what would happen. It's never happened! I hate making multiple trips. Same thing goes for the actual grocery shopping -- get everything in one trip. Which is why I CAN'T understand how people go to the grocery store and only get ONE thing. How can they? Don't they look down the next aisle and think "Oh yeah, I should go ahead and pick up a loaf of bread while I'm here."

So, I usually finish shopping before my roommates, and I sit on the ledge at the front of the store and watch people go through the self-checkout lines. It's one of my favorite things to do. This week, I watched specifically for one-item folks. Here's what they were:

A guy with a can of Pam
A girl with a small tub of sour cream
A guy with a box of kitty litter
A lady with a can of RAID
ANOTHER guy with a box of kitty litter

Oh well, different strokes for different folks. Though I'll bet they got home and realized they needed some string cheese or something.

The problem with being a one-trip kinda girl is that I'm SO stubborn about it, that I end up doing ridiculous things. Like the time we came back from Costco, and instead of walking the groceries a couple at a time from the door to the kitchen, I decided to take them all at once. You can see the consequences below:



I still haven't learned my lesson. Grape tomatoes wash off pretty easily. Maybe if they had been smashed into the carpet, I'd be more inclined to take two trips next time. Then again, maybe not.

La telenovela de mi vida

Actually, my life is pretty much anything BUT a telenovela (soap opera, if you don't habla). I'm OK with that. But what's really funny is that my dreams are even less of a telenovela. They are more real-life than my real life. Here are some examples:

The dream where I finished my homework. And turned it in.

The dream where I forgot my homework. And didn't turn it in.

The dream where I went to work and....worked.

The dream where I was late to my training class.

The dream where I hung out with some friends.

The dream where somebody said something to me in French and I didn't understand them. Wow, that one's kind of out there.

OK, and a couple weeks ago, I had a dream that I met the President. But that was it. We shook hands. That's it. Yes, out-of-the-ordinary, but aren't dreams supposed to be where you shake hands with the President, then he asks you to follow him to the Situation Room, where you proceed to launch a massive attack against incoming mutant eggplants?

At any rate, everyone in my family seems to have been having dreams about me going to Venezuela except.....me. But this week I finally had one!!! Not too crazy, but slightly interesting compared to my usual dreams, so I thought I'd share.

It started out with my standing near the peak of a mountain with some girl I didn't know. We had just hiked up there, and were overlooking the valley below. It was beautiful -- the random girl pointed out all the major sites in Caracas. Then we headed down to the valley, and I saw all of these triple decker buses driving around, running over bikes and parked cars and such. Don't worry, nobody died. But I thought "Wowza, I'm going to have to drive here with all of these crazy buses."

That's it.

Speaking of telenovelas, I love them. I'm currently addicted to Destilando Amor, got hooked on it in Mexico. If you've never watched one, but don't really speak Spanish, you've GOT to check out Que Hora Es? It's short, you'll love it. It's for people with only 3 weeks of Spanish in the 4th grade.

Muddy Buddies (and their roadie)!!!

This weekend was Kate and Kara's Muddy Buddy Race down in Richmond. I was the roadie! We stuffed a bike in the back of my Jeep and headed down south.

Now, lest you question my non-participation (I questioned it, the race looked so fun!), let me explain that it was not the mud that had me worried.....it was the bike riding. Kate and Kara took turns biking and jogging different legs of the course, and making their way through obstacle courses. The biking was through these crazy, twisty, turny paths in the woods. It would have meant certain death for me.

Then came the grande finale.....THE GIANT MUD PIT!


Pretty crazy awesome. The best part was seeing some of their fellow competitors dressed up like giraffes, the Mario Brothers, pineapples, and ladybugs. All crawling through the mud. Sweet.

Great job, girls!!!