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.
