my brain is just a jellyfish in the ocean of my head

¿Que pasa?
Had an amaaaazing weekend these past few days at the coast and today upon checking my e-mail I found Wisconsin gave me a nice study abroad grant, so my spirits are high to say the least. Anyway, last week we knew we wanted to go to a beach somewhere on the coast but that´s as detailed as our plans were. In class on thursday we were discussing our plans when another student mentioned a nice beach he had been to before and that they had a group together set to leave that night for the coast. Having no other idea what to do and liking what we heard about the beach we decided to join the other students, four from michigan state, one from massachussetts, and an ecuadorian from guayaquil. However as we got ready to leave it started to pour harder and harder (it´s the rainy season right now in ecuador) and we got a little weary of taking a seven hour bus ride to a beach if it was going to be storming all weekend. We decided to roll the dice and go ahead with our plan and took off late thursday night for an overnight bus ride to the pacific ocean.
The ride was long and dark so there wasn´t much to gaze at, but I was able to sleep a good amount of the ride. I awoke around 7am to a beautiful green countryside and a fresh mist coming in through the windows. We finally arrived at a small village called Tonsupa where we walked for about 20 minutes in search of a hostel. We headed right for the beach knowing we wanted to be as close as possible to it. The first place we tried was a little disgusting, to say the least. Upon deciding against spending the night amongst many many ants, extreme heat, and a rather unpleasant smell we snuck out of the hostel before paying in search of another. The next place we found was a lot better, though it still makes your average motel 7 look like a 5 star beach resort (are there even 5 stars or do they stop at 4?).
We were all changed and settled on the beach before 9am and prepared for a long, hard day of relaxing in the sun, staring off into the ocean and gorgeous scenery, losing to the locals in volleyball, and swimming with the jellyfish. By night´s end I was both quite tired and very red, I have some very strange patterns of sunburn...I think I must have applied the sunscreen rather poorly. We concluded the night with a few drinks on the beach, reggaeton and salsa music, and a bit more swimming.
This pattern of eating, drinking, sleeping, and relaxing pretty much persisted throughout the next two days. Worth noting though were the large amount of jellyfish around, I was one of the two or three out of 10 of us who wasn´t stung though I often spotted them in the water or washed up on shore, but i actually kind of enjoyed it because I´d never seen one before. Only unfortunate part about the weekend (besides really having to pee on the bus...I guess they only let women use the bathroom on the bus...) was losing my frisbee to the pacific ocean, i always thought they floated! What else...we played with/chased around a few local kids for a while, met an amazingly nice, local couple who refused to let us pay for a drink, watched lizards roam the ceiling of a restaurant we ate it, and built a sandcastle which only last for a few minutes before some local kids got their hands on it. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun and it was such a great getaway if even for a weekend.
Although it seemed to drag on forever as we neared Quito, I really really enjoyed the bus ride home. The entire first few hours I spent with the window down, gazing out at one breathtaking sight after another. Unlike a drive through the midwest back home, there´s an unbelievable array of beautiful plants and flowers, rivers, mountains, and unique villages. However, it is pretty sobering to witness some of the poverty that exists in many of the smaller villages. Although these families and communities are surrounded by amazing scenery, can seem happy, and have children running around and smiling you can´t help but feel pity for the obvious, poor conditions they´re living under. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed those few hours, as I was able to zone out, reflect on sooo much (including how lucky I am to be here), and take in so many new and unique sights.
I finally returned home very tired, dirty, sandy, salty, and hungry. After showering and a quick bite to eat I fell into a very nice, undisturbed, much needed sleep. Today I woke up, finished a last-minute bit of homework, and headed to school. Usually Quito and the valley where I go to school (Cumbaya) is pretty cloudy, especially in the mornings. However this morning there wasn´t a cloud in the sky and for the first time on the way to school I was able to see several snow-covered mountain summits, including the extremely tall, active (barely, don´t worry) volcano, Cotopaxi. It was yet another phenomenal sight and since they sky is so clear today in just a little bit me and some friends are going to ride the Teleferiqo. This is more or less like a giant ski lift that takes you up the side of Mt. Pinchincha, one of the two mountains that helps form the valley that Quito subsides in. It should provide a ton more spectacular views, I´m just hoping it´s a little more enclosed than most ski lifts, i´m not all that great with extremely huge hights... Well check back soon for photos of my ride today and a few more from my weekend on the beach. I just uploaded more pictures from last weekend at Otavalo my yahoo site if you care to check them out. Hope all is well and those of you in Wisconsin are keeping warm!
¡Que te vaya bien!
Brett


A view of Cotopaxi

Otavalo, Futbol, and more...

Hola,
Little over 2 weeks into my trip now and still enjoying every minute of it. They warn you about culture shock and the period of missing home a lot after you get through the ¨honeymoon phase¨of being in a new country but I´m starting to think that may not happen - no offense to any of you back home of course. These past few days have been a lot of fun, it was real nice to get away from the big city for a bit. The weekend started on Thursday night, of course, when a bunch of a friends and I headed out on the town (La Mariscal). Following plenty of dancing I made friends with a real cute dog on the streets and named him Favre, I´ll try to put the picture of my new friend Favre up when I get a chance. After school on Friday me and 6 other friends from Wisconsin set off by bus to Otavalo, a village about 2.5 hours Northwest of Quito. We found a really nice hostel with a great a rooftop terrace fully equipped with comfy hammocks, a pool table, and great views of the surrounding Andes mountains.
The next morning we woke up bright and early to check out the famous market. Every Saturday Otavalo hosts a huuuge market with countless stands and homemade things for sale, definately made the trip out there worthwhile. We came back pretty tired (after a really scenic, nice bus ride) and ended the night with a little bowling.
Yesterday Fernando and I met up with several others at the soccer stadium to watch the match between Ecuador and Sweden. This was a really great, unique experience and the environment was a ton of fun, the entire place was covered in yellow, blue, and red - the colors of the ecuador. I even picked up a spanish cheer or two, they´re a lot more tame than those at Camp Randall during football games... The second half was really intense and both teams scored a goal before it ended in a 1-1 tie.
Now it´s back to school for the week, but I´m really enjoying some of my classes. In two of them we´ve been learning a lot about the many native and indigenous cultures and histories - pretty interesting stuff. I added some more pictures to the yahoo photo site and I´ll try to post the most recent from Otavalo and the futbol match soon as well.
My best,
Brett


Me at the market in Otavalo


Part of the Wisconsin crew at the soccer game

The middle of the world and colonial quito!

Hola,
I had quite a weekend! On Saturday myself and some other students visited ¨la mitad del mundo¨or the middle of the world, where the equator cuts through Ecuador (in the photo below you can see me in both the N and S hemispheres). It was a pretty cool experience, and we were practically submerged in clouds it both felt and looked pretty cool. On Sunday we took to the old part of town, or colonial quito. Though it has a very European feel, it is a very unique, gorgeous part of Quito. We spent a lot of time simply wandering the narrow, hilly streets. The political center of town, the playa de independencia or plaza grande, where the president both lives and works, was blocked off for most of the afternoon because Ecuador had invited presidents from every nation of the world for today´s presidential inaugaration. Should be an interesting few months politically for Ecuador, they have had about 10 presidents in practically as many years - they seem to really enjoy running them from office. The best part of the day though was climbing La Basilica. La Basilica is a beautiful, European style church (though it was built in the 19th century) and offers visitors the opportunity to climb to the tip-top of two of its massive towers (I took a ton of pictures of the treachorous climb so check out the photos link). It was a pretty scary trek to the top at times, but well worth it as the view was breathtaking (as was the altitude). Today it was back to school, but with the campus being so beautiful and getting to meet so many new people that´s not such a bad thing. The weather here has been perfect (I hear it´s pretty nasty in Wisconsin, sorry!), around 75 everyday and cooler at night. We´re making plans to head out to Baños next weekend, which gets it name from its many natural volcanic springs/baths. Bout it for now, I´ll add the photos to the yahoo photo site soon.
Attentamente,
Brett






Atop one of the towers of La Basilica, across the way were the other clock towers we climbed!

photos

Hi,
Here´s a link to a page of my first set of pictures, mostly of the view from my porch here at our apartment.

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/chettburn/

Please let me know if it doesn´t work for some reason!
Brett

¿Radiohead in Quito?

Hola,
No Radiohead (one of my favorite bands) didn´t come to Quito, but last night my brother, Fernando, offered to take me to a concernt and on the way there I asked of what type of music and he replied that it was a band that covered Radiohead songs. Needless to say it was a very fun time, we met a few other friends from Wisconsin as well. I got my first taste of la cerveza nacional: Pilsener. Afterwards we went to a really fun bar/club where we danced for a long time amongst native Ecuadorians and other students from around the U.S. and one from Bolivia, a great time indeed. Fernando and I ended the night by going to a small, quasi-underground salsa bar where I was absolutely amazed and bewildered about how well some of the people there could dance, I had truly never seen the human body move in such a graceful, rapid, and beautiful way - hopefully I can pick up a move or two while I´m here. La Mariscal, the center of Quito´s nightlife, proved to be a lot of fun and I´m excited to go back and grateful for Fernando´s willingness to act as both a guide, brother, and friend (sorry Aaron, guess you got some competition...kidding...kinda). I´m in the process of making a photo website, I´ll post it shortly. In the meantime, here´s a shot of my porch and my amazing view.
Attentamente,
Brett

It's all happening

Hola,
Today was my first full day in Ecuador and everything went really well. We had our orientation at the university for international students and it was really nice to see some familiar faces, I already knew two friends from Wisconsin, Hugo and Laura, so it was really nice to chat in English with some familiar faces and meet students from other states. The campus is amazing, so much more gorgeous than anything you'll find in the states - it's full of beautiful gardens, ponds, trees, lots of color (and of course the occasional ecuadorian muy bonita...). The bus ride there was quite an experience - the driver never stops, but that doesn't stop people from somehow getting on and off while it's moving and he flies around mountain curves as if there isn't a 500 foot drop a few feet away (don't worry though, they're good at what they do). But the ride is pretty beautiful and there's plenty to stare at out the window. Tomorrow's day 2 of orientation when we take a campus tour and sign up for classes, so far everything's been pretty stress-free and I feel a little less wiped out from the altitude, though I can still notice a difference. Just watched Ecuador play Argentina in futbol (soccer), they tied, but it was nice to sit around with the fam and watch it, they get pretty into it. I tried putting up some pictures but the internet here was not feeling that right now but I'm going to make a seperate photo website because I can only put so many here, so check back real soon - I have some great shots of the view from my porch of Quito. Any questions about my time here so far please holler, take care everyone.
Much love,
Brett

Estoy aqui...I made it!

Yo,
Well I made it to Quito and everything´s going great, I already can tell I´m gonna love it here. The city, at least what I have seen so far is gorgeous and my family seems perfect for me. My host mom, Ana, is very kind and my host brother, Fernando, is 19 and seems really chill and I can already tell we have a lot in common. He also goes to the same university as me so it´ll be really nice to have another familiar (and Ecuadorian) face there with me. Our apartment is at the top of its building and has access to a huge porch with a breathtaking view of the city and its largetst mountiain, Pinchincha. It´s mind blowing to be at almost eye level with the clouds! Well I´m pretty tired from the travelling and the altitude but I´ll try to update you all again soon. Take care, miss you all.
Mucho amor,
Brett

Adios America!

Hello,

Well it's my last day in Wisconsin and I feel it still hasn't quite hit me I'm leaving for another continent for almost 6 months. Neither can I explain or pinpoint the emotions I'm feeling right now, I suppose partially because like I said it hasn't really struck me I'll be gone so long. Regardless I am very excited, optimistic, hopeful, yet nervous for these next few days and I have truly no idea what to expect. I've never really flown alone so that's yet another new experience to kickstart this whole journey and I'm sure those several hours I spend in the Miami airport will be when I finally realize where I'm headed. Unfortunately it's my last night at home and I still got some packing to do, so I should probably be doing that instead of writing this...

Don't know when I'll have steady access to the internet next so please feel free to leave me comments or questions bout what I'm doing with myself, what it's like down there, how I'm feeling, etc... I'll be more than happy to communicate with you all! Thanks to everyone who's wished me a happy, safe trip, your taking interest in my life truly means a lot to me!

Hasta Luego,
Brett (Beto?)

Happy New Years!

Hello and Happy New Years! Countdown to Ecuador (The photo's of Quito!) is at about 5 days and I feel it still hasn't hit me yet I'm leaving... Rang in 2007 with some great friends and good times in Madison, though it was kind of a bummer knowing I wouldn't be back there or see any of them for almost 6 months. Haven't quite come up with a new year's resolution yet so I'd welcome any recommendations, but I think I want to try to be a little more outgoing in a new country where it may be more difficult to meet and make new friends, but I don't know if that can really count as a resolution. Regardless, I hope everyone has a very happy and healthy 2007, but don't have too much fun without me!

So, I found out about my living situation in Quito, and I'm really pretty excited about it. I'm living with a divorced mother and her 18-yr old son - so I feel I'll be able to reap the benefits of living with a family but won't bear to many responsibilities as may come with a larger group, if that makes any sense... My new last name will be Naranja (orange in English) and I'm thinking about adopting a new Spanish name for time down there (some Spanish accents struggle with pronouncing Brett) and I kinda like the sound of Beto, we'll see.

Looking forward to making the most of last few days here at home, hope to see or talk to as many friends and family before I leave so don't hesitate to contact me! Take care and Happy New Years!

Much love,
Brett