Mi pasantía

My internship is at a house half-transformed into a vet clinic. It is the most laid-back operation I have ever worked at. There is one exam room/waiting room/supply room and one surgery room. If a soccer game is on, we drop everything and go upstairs to watch. The main vet is a man named Leo who is just goofy and super nice and there is a kid, Diego, who just graduated from vet school in Ecuador. There´s always random family members around too. I have learned an incredible amount in just 3 days.

Day 1, a little dog was in for surgery on a fist-sized tumor on its stomach. Leo performed the surgery and then after doing a couple sutures looked at me and goes "tu". So I got to do the rest of the sutures. It was amazing- they would never let me do that in the States!

Tuesday, we did surgery on 2 frogs that had swallowed stones. Again, I got to scrub in and assist (which consists of putting gloves on and holdig the pincers haha).
Also, a baby golden retriever that got his paw mauled by a car came in and I realized my weak spot in this job. Looking at that sad little Sadie/Juno face just killed me.

Wednesday, we went to Leo´s conservation center which is in the Amazon, 3 hours away. When we got there, Leo´s son started showing us the snakes when he realized one was missing. It has yet to be found... He also has cows, rabbits, rats, frogs, fish, and birds there.


Me, Donna, and Katie with a boa constrictor in Amazonia

Then we went driving up Volcán Cotopaxi to help a guy with sick deer. It was freeeezing up there, but we got to hang out with an alpaca named Santiago so that made it ok..

This weekend I think Donna, Ravit, and I are going to the hot springs. Maybe horseback riding in el parque carolina. We´ll see.

Primeros Días

Well, I arrived in Quito safely (despite what my mother may have been imagining when I couldn´t call for 2 days.) What in interesting city- there´s mountains and more mountains and all of a sudden miles of buildings stretching in between and spilling up their sides. It´s a very big city, soI´m adjusting to that more than anything. God help me if I get lost because on the map I have right now, the key covers the area where I live and where I work. Go figure.

My host family consists of one old lady, Doña Ana Maria and another volunteer who is from Sweden and just started learning Spanish 2 weeks ago. Doña is adorable and is so patient with us and though I can understand her very well, her favorite subject is politics, so she kind of loses me there.

Anyways, as soon as I got here I hit the ground running. I left with my housemate and 4 other people to travel to Otavalo, an indigenous community north of Quito- The town is famous for its giant artisan market, which we went to Saturday morning. So fun...I love bartering. It was a gorgeous day and we also went to la Laguna de Cuicocha (a crater/lake in the mountains) and to El Lechero, a tree that supposedly has magical powers. On the way back to Quito I met a guy from Pakistan who didn´t know where America was (random aside..)

Sunday the American girls and one Swede went to el Telefériqo, a cable car that takes you up Volcán Pichincha to 14,000 feet in the air. The view and also the lack of oxygen took my breath away. It felt incredible to be standing literally above the clouds and looking down at the city. In honor of America, we went to a mall and then Gringoland to eat hamburgers :)

I have found I really enjoy the slow pace and way of life here. Instead of a Meijer and Walgreens on a street, there are 20 little shops, and they´re open when they´re open. Also, my spanish has noticeably improved.


El telefériqo - on top of the world


Laguna de Cuicocha



Otavalo

I leave tomorrow!

My flight is at noon tomorrow, so naturally I just started pulling my stuff together and writing my paper. I have to write a total of 20 pages about my experience in order to get credit for a 400-level Spanish class, so I want to write some before I leave. That will be long and in Spanish though, so I decided to make a blog. I gotta make sure I don't forget how to speak English :)


For those that don't know, I'm going to do a veterinary internship in the city of Quito. I think it will be mostly dogs and livestock, but hopefully I'll get to go to a wildlife rescue center and hang out with some birds or monkeys or sloths. Whatever I do, I'm sure it will be more hands-on than any internship in the US, which is exciting. I don't know anyone in Ecuador, and neither my host family nor the vet I'm working with speak English, so this should be quite the adventure.


Katie is currently trying to quiz me with an old Spanish phrasebook, but she's completely butchering the Spanish. Oh well, at least I feel like I'm preparing a little..