August 11th, 2011

Olivia’s Travel Tips: Do: start to like Justin Beiber, because the Ecuadorians sure do.  Don’t: giggle when a child tells you they are named Stalin, Lennon, or Adonis.  They are not joking.

So, I have really been noticing the height difference thing recently.  Before coming here, I made jokes that everyone here belongs to the genus midget..  Turns out, it’s kind of true.  I first became aware of this when I boarded a bus that was filled to roughly 175% capacity.  Because of the sardine-like conditions, I was forced to stand in the aisle and was squished right against the seats.  I realized after several moments that I was looking right down into what was, in theory, the over-head storage bin.  Also, as I was grabbing a pole for stability with my arm extended parallel from my shoulder, I noticed that not a single person on the bus needed to even duck their heads to go underneath armpit level on me.  5 foot 8 is sort of tallish for a woman in the United States, but it is positively gigantic for a human being in the Oriental region of Ecuador. 

Not only am I taller than the tallest Ecuadorian (at least in this region), but my coloring also is not helping me on the blending-in front.  The kids at school always call me “ojos del gato”, which means cat eyes.  I haven’t seen so many cats with my color of eyes, but I catch their drift.  Blue eyes are weird here.  As is blonde hair.  Especially the Ecuadorian reincarnation of my hair.  Because it is so humid in the jungle, my hair tends to take on sort of a mane-like quality which is awfully difficult to tame.  The kids at school straight up refuse to believe that it’s real hair. Some think it’s dyed, while others just cannot fathom how such a material could come out of a real live human’s head.  It has been suggested that I am using fibers from a “broom plant” in order to fashion a wig of sorts.  You got me!