as for breathing, there was a period of a few hours where i couldn't figure out how to get enough oxygen. it was really scary, and of course the panic-induced adrenaline did nothing to help the cause. i was gasping throughout, feeling not quite on the verge of fainting but pretty far in that direction. i've gotten better, but it's still weird having this most reflexive of actions require conscious thought.
the weirdest thing is that i haven't had any appetite for almost the entire time i've been here. i think i have literally eaten 2 relatively small meals in the last 2.5 days, and i don't feel hungry at all. my stomach is only slightly queasy, which of course is a moderate 2-way causation with being hungry, but i just don't feel like i need food. i assume i'm running on fat, and it's not that my metabolism has slowed to slothlike levels; presumably if i didn't have a reserve of blubber, i would be more hungry. but it's just bizarre regardless. i like eating and am hungry a lot in general, but not here.
yesterday i managed to sleep through the night for the first time since i've been here. progress -- it felt normal, right down to the dream interrupted by housekeeping waking it up (we need to be more careful about the favor no molester sign.) the other three nights, it's been exceptionally fitful -- but also, i haven't really felt tired. it's like i don't need the sleep either.
time also seems to pass very strangely here. the other night i fell asleep and i woke up when ari and john got back from the bridge. i had fallen asleep around 7 and i thought it was like 1, but it was 9:30. similarly, whenever i look at any clock, it's consistently much earlier than i think. i don't recall if the relativistic effects are in the right direction (i think so?) but at any rate they certainly don't explain this.
of course, there are other, more traditional culture shock things about being in ecuador. most notably the language -- i'm actually learning an astonishing amount of spanish (i.e. from 0 to knowing travel spanish) without trying, but it's still bizarre to not be able to communicate anything to anyone. it's worse than thailand, because the spanish is more immersive (fewer US people to be isolationist with, opponents at the table who don't speak english, not staying at the host hotel.) today i'm going touristing solo; hopefully it will work out.
i was homesick within a day. i like relatively clean air, being able to communicate, and being able to breathe and eat and sleep. i considered buying a piece of ecuadorian art (not so expensive), but then i realized that if i hung this up, people would get the wrong idea. people would think that i'm a traveler who likes to go to exotic places like ecuador and thailand, which couldn't be further from the truth. i'd much rather be in perfect-weather, perfect-english, friend-saturated and potential friend-saturated california. maybe it's xenophobia or myopia, but that's what makes me happy. and i'll be back in five days unless this bug turns out to be some disease prohibited from crossing national boundaries. which would pretty much be the pits.