Crazy December

All right, so I've been really bad about writing on my blog for the past couple weeks. I've been really busy lately with the fiestas de Quito and the end of classes.

Fiestas de Quito were a lot of fun. We had no classes on December 5 or 6, so I had a 4 day weekend of craziness. I spent most of my time with my Ecuadorian friends/students. (They were students. Now they're friends.) Some other WorldTeach volunteers came up for Saturday and Sunday, but I did not spend a ton of time with them. (I'm not a fan of large groups, and there were usually 8 to 10 people.) However, I had a lot of fun. I don't think the fiestas were nearly as crazy as everyone told me they would be.

Last week was the final week of classes at CEC. (Those who teach at SECAP have class until this Friday.) This means I had a ton of stuff to get done. I had a lot of stuff to grade and a lot of justifications to enter (for absences). Luckily, I got all of it done and all my grades turned in Friday after class so I didn't have to go up to CEC on Saturday morning.

Anyway, that's about all I have to blog about right now. For Christmas, I plan to go to Esmeraldas with some of my friends. Details are still being worked out, so for all I know, this could still change. But, I will spend Christmas out of Quito with some of my WorldTeach friends. This means I probably will not write on this blog again until early January some time. Hopefully I will lots of pictures to show.

This reminds me, I plan to send e-mails as well to thank people, but for those of you who have sent me traveling money for Christmas: thank you so much! Assuming I can take buses everywhere, this money should last for quite a few trips. Some of the places I want to visit in Ecuador while I'm here (in no particular order): Ambato, Riobamba, Loja, Cuenca, Guayaquil (I only went for one night), the Galapagos (I have no hopes of this; it costs a ridiculous amount of money), the rainforst (the actual forest; I didn't see much when I went to Tena), and more that I can't think of. I promise I shall take pictures of these trips so you can see where I've been. :-)

Now for some pictures. This past Tuesday was Nathaly's birthday (former student, now friend), but we could not go out to celebrate on Tuesday. So on Wednesday, we went out to celebrate her birthday.

Drinking from a fishbowl. I have no idea what it was. Nathaly ordered it. (She's the one right next to me.)

Everyone by Galo, who was taking the picture.

Thanksgiving Dinner

 So this week was Thanksgiving week, and instead of being at home with my family, I'm here in Ecuador with an entirely different kind of family. However, this does not mean that I did not have an excellent Thanksgiving.

Because Thanksgiving is solely an American holiday, I had to work on Thursday. But, I got lucky, because I had a movie day scheduled for Thursday. (Yay!) By my second, 6 pm, class, the DVD player decided to not function at all. So after an hour of attempting to ignore it skipping every 5 seconds, I gave up and told my class they could go. Luckily, 6 pm is when I have my university students. Instead of simply leaving, they took me out and bought me "Thanksgiving dinner". Of course, turkeys here cost about $40, so dinner was actually chicken strips and fries from Tropi Burger. I really didn't care, though, because I got to hang out with some people for an hour and eat free chicken strips. :-)

On Saturday, the Quito volunteers had our own Thanksgiving dinner. Robert's host family graciously let us (or rather, Robert) terrorize their kitchen to make food. It should be noted that Robert made a ton of the food, and it was all delicious. (See list below) We had almost all the traditional Thanksgiving foods aside from cranberry sauce (difficult find cranberries, and if you do, they're expensive), sweet potatoes/yams, and pie. It really was a lot of fun spending time with (almost) all of us in the same place, plus some host family members. Of course, the 5 bottles of wine also made everyone pretty happy.

As promised, the food list:
- turkey (robert)
- blackberry sauce (robert, actually very delicious)
- mashed potatoes (megan)
- green bean casserole (robin)
- asparagus wrapped in bacon (elizabeth)
- gravy (robert)
- baked macaroni and cheese (robert)
- salad (combination of people)
- peanut butter brownies (robert)
- M&M cookies (me)
- wine (greg, chia-hsin, and I don't remember who else)

I have to admit, not being home for Thanksgiving did not make me particularly sad. I think this may be because I wasn't with family last year either; I stayed in Austin and ate Thanksgiving dinner at Jackie's house with her family while my family went to Wisconsin. So it may be because I've already missed Thanksgiving with family or because I was able - through the wonders of technology - to talk to my family on Facetime on Thanksgiving day. And, of course, any other day that they're available and my internet is working (which about 90% of the time).

Who knows what Christmas will be like; I hope to be somewhere with people I know for that holiday. I haven't decided, but I would like to travel down to Loja (very Southern tip of Ecuador) during my Christmas break. Loja is about 13 hours away, so it's definitely a trip I want to make during a long break. There is one volunteer placed there, and he has told me he'll be in town during December, so maybe I'll be there for Christmas. Or maybe I'll wait to travel until January and be at home with my host family for Christmas. I guess I should probably start looking at that so I can make sure I have all my travel plans solidified, but it still feels too early. We shall see.

And now, pictures:

Peanut butter brownies

Cookies

Chilling on the couches

Cutting the turkey

Waiting for food

This little girl looooved Greg. So much cute!

Baked mac & cheese

Megan with the 5 bottles of wine

Mora (blackberry) sauce and gravy

 Emily, Robert, and Robert's host family

Robert cooking

 Salad

Stuffing (made outside the turkey)

Turkey

5 bottles of wine

Also, if anyone remembers, I shut my finger in a car door 2 months ago. It's still bruised and the nail refuses to fall off and heal. :-(

Welcome to the Jungle

This weekend, I went on an adventure to Tena. Tena is located about 6 hours (by bus) to the East of Quito.  It's a small town in the Amazon jungle. On Saturday morning, at 6 am, a group of us took a bus there. We arrived around noon, where it was extremely humid. After finding a nice hostel and eating lunch, our hostel owner took us to las cavernas jumandy.

Of course, on the way there, we had no idea what was going on. We thought he was taking us to see some waterfalls. When we got there, we saw a pool with water slides. We were told we weren't allowed to wear our flip flops, but had to wear boots (like rain boots). We were also only allowed to wear our swimsuits, and not our clothes. At this point, everyone was extremely confused, but decided to go along with it. Finally, after everyone had stored their stuff, put on their puts, paid their $1, we found out. We were going to explore a series of caves in the dark. We were given some headlamps and a flashlight. Our guide took us through the caves - complete with bats, lots of water, and a mud bath. It was pretty exciting; definitely a good decision to just trust our hostel owner.

On Saturday, while five people went white water rafting, I went on a jungle tour with two other girls. Our guide took us climbing up waterfalls and swimming in our clothes. It wasn't the heart of the jungle or anything, but it was still pretty exciting. I did get some bug bites - because the water from the waterfalls washed off my bug spray - but none of them itch. :-)

Finally, we took a bus back to Quito at 5 pm, and I got home around 10 pm. Unfortunately, the next day, I was really tired from traveling, but it was still a ton of fun. :-)

Another week, another adventure.

This week's adventure is brought to you by my host family, but indirectly. As you may have guessed by now from my posts, I have the best host family ever. They are always giving me little presents, taking me places, and making sure I'm happy. Well, weeks ago I mentioned to my host dad that I wanted to get a tattoo to commemorate my year in Ecuador. When I told him, I was thinking I'd wait until I got back to the States because I didn't know what I wanted and because I was afraid of the cleanliness of tattoo parlors here. However, it turns out that, among all the other connections my family seems to have, there is also a tattoo artist in the family.

Another volunteer and I went to meet him about a month ago. Emily had a vague idea of what she wanted, but I didn't. I knew I wanted something Ecuadorian, but I hadn't really found a symbol that I liked. Andres suggested a couple different things, and I decided on an indigenous cross. Emily and I had to leave pretty soon after that, since I had to get to work at 4, but we planned to come back in a week or so to see the drawing and for Emily to get her tattoo.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I finally got time to go back on Wednesday to get my tattoo done. (Finances and long holidays prevented me from going earlier.) I really like my new tattoo, and am happy I got it done here. It's on my back, across from my chalice too. I'm considering asking Andres to touch up my chalice one, since I don't like how it healed with some light spots. But that will have to wait, again for monetary reasons. (For those of you wondering, this new one was $70.)

As for the rest of the week, I've pretty much just been teaching. There was a power outage for a few hours yesterday, but CEC has a generator so we still had classes. However, I had about half of my students because there was a big soccer game in Quito. (I'm going to be honest: I can't remember if it was against Peru or Paraguay.) I was also planning on going to Ambato this weekend, but I'm simply too tired, and decided it would be better to just stay and chill in Quito. But next weekend, I hope to visit Tena in the Oriente, so I figure it's a good idea to just relax this weekend. :-)

Is this real life?

So last week, the whole country took a long break from class and work, Wednesday through Sunday. During this break, I traveled to the coast where 16 WorldTeach volunteers were gathered to chill and have fun. We went to a town called Montanita; a small little tourist town with a pretty beach, tons of hostels, clubs, and cocktail stands lining the streets. Needless to say, it was madness. So of course, I don't have a lot of pictures, but I'm still going to use those to show what it was like, rather than explaining everything. (Mostly because I don't really have time to try to describe everything.)

There trip to Montanita took 14.5 hours (10 hours in a bus, an hour for dinner, and then 3 hours in a taxi), so this was quite necessary.

 Chilling on the beach the first day. :-)

 Check out all the rainbow umbrellas. Literally, they were everywhere, as was the blasting pop & salsa music.

 My first hostel was down at this end of the beach.

Iris and I love WorldTeach.

Out in the waves. The water was actually pretty warm, since it's the Pacific Ocean. However, when the sun went away, it got chilly.

Frisbee on the beach, with a local 3-legged dog.

 Robert and Jessica went surfing. Jessica's board was too heavy for her to carry, though. (It was twice her size, after all.)

 Parasailing! I really wish I'd gone. :-(

 James goes out to teach Jessica how to surf while Robert got pulled down the shore line by the tide.

So that's what the beach part of Montanita looks like. I didn't take any of the little town or the 2 hostels I was in, but they were very colorful and full of rainbow umbrellas and tiki decorations. As for why I was in 2 hostels: I stayed with Iris and Jessica in Casa del Sol for the first 2 nights. On Friday, they went to Manta, and I decided to stay, so I went to Elizabeth, Johanna, and Grace's hostel for Friday night. On Saturday, the 10 of us remaining headed back to Guayaquil. I spent Saturday night in Guayaquil at a hostel with Elizabeth, Johanna, and Robert. We got to hang out with Jorge and CJ for a few hours, which was fun since I haven't seen either of them in a month. On Sunday, Robert, Elizabeth, and I flew back to Quito.

It was a fun vacation, but I'm happy to be back in Quito. I love the sun, but I don't like having sand everywhere, all the time. I also like having access to water 24/7. The second hostel I stayed in did not always have running water. Also, if I have a choice (which I do), I prefer the mountains.

One Week of Teaching = Done

So I have now hit the one-week mark teaching classes. I am teaching Advanced 1, from 4 pm – 6 pm and 6 pm – 8 pm. So far, it’s been stressful because the two classes have vastly different personalities. My first class is made up of colegio (high school) students who seem like they couldn’t care less about the class. For student teaching in the States, I was able to energize my HS classes by using a lot of references they knew (pop culture, mainly). Here, though, I don’t really know that much about the pop culture. I’m working on it, but I can only do so much in a day. It also doesn’t help that I have to constantly tell them to get off their cell phones and stop using Spanish. I’m not a fan of being the bad guy. :-( My second class is made up of university students and working young adults (20s and 30s). They are fantastic; they always seem so happy to be in class.

Friday is the first exam of the cycle. CEC sets exam days and gives us the exams for students to take, so all I have to do is make sure no one cheats (constant vigilance!) and then grade the exams.

Then, next week will be awesomeeee. But before I get to that, last Saturday, I went to the giant basilica here in Quito. It’s a gothic-style building, but with a twist. Instead of gargoyles, the architect used animals from the Galapagos Islands. It looks pretty awesome. For $2, you are also allowed to climb all the way to the top and look at Quito. However, to get to the top, you have to cross a rickety wooden bridge, and then climb some steep, open, terrifying ladders. Naturally, I only made it across the rickety wooden bridge and up one terrifying ladder. (One ladder goes to a landing where you can see out, and then two more go all the way to the top.) Despite being completely incapable of conquering my fear of heights, the view of still lovely. :-)

Anyway, next week: the whole country basically goes on vacation from November 2 until November 7. Naturally, this means I do not have to teach. Instead, a large group of WT volunteers are planning on renting a beautiful villa in Montanita (a town on the coast) and chilling. I expect this will be absolutely amazing. I love Quito, but it is a tad chilly. And I am super excited to see everybody. Right now, the Quito people who are going are in the process of buying bus tickets there/plane tickets back, so hopefully everything gets worked out so we can go.

Lately, my house has been having problems with the water. Randomly, the water will stop working and will not come out of any faucet. Luckily, this has not happened at a time when I need to shower (that would be bad), but I would like to be able to wash my face at night and brush my teeth. My family is working on fixing the problem, but because they can’t figure out what the problem is exactly, this is proving difficult. So for now, I just keep hoping there’s water when I need to shower or eat.

Otherwise, everything is going well right now. Unlike last week, when I had to plan day-by-day, this week I have every day planned out so I’m less stressed. Everything’s going well with the host family; no major health issues yet. Just excited for next week!