New Cycle and Easter Break

So finally I decide to update this blog again. I guess I've been waiting for some stuff to actually write about. This week is week 4 of the current cycle of classes. My one class is made up of mostly working adults (I have a couple university students). Overall, they're a pretty good class. They really seem interested in learning English and ask me a million questions. The only problem with this is that they like to ask questions before I finish explaining the grammar/vocabulary. But they are very sweet and try really hard, so I'll get over it. :-)

For Easter I went back to Sua with Elizabeth and Israel. (Remember, that's where I went for Christmas and NYE.) Some of the girls from the new February group also came. We left for Sua on Thursday and came back to Quito on Sunday. It was so nice: warm and sunny. The best part was the people who recognized me. The hostel owner told me she didn't recognize me at first because I lost so much weight since Christmas (win!) and one of the restaurant owners recognized me right away. :-) It was a really nice break, but now I'm also sunburned. This time it's actually kind of bad. I don't have blisters or anything, but some patches are kind of dark and still hurt when people touch me or when I have clothes on. (This is kind of a problem, as you can probably guess.) I also didn't take as many pictures as last time, but here are some lovely pictures that I did take:

Back in Same on the beach

Israel teaching Elizabeth (and the rest of us) how to play Cuarenta

He's kind of a goofball...

 Nice, abandoned house in Sua. May just move there and stay there forever.

On the first full day (Friday), we went to Same. (If you go look at the old pictures, it's the resort beach that kind of resembles Greece.) On the second day (Saturday), Elizabeth, Israel, and I just kind of lounged around the hostel and Sua. Then on Sunday we left Atacames (5 minutes from Sua where the bus station is located) at 10 am and got back to Quito at 6 pm. The bus ride took longer than expected cause we ran into some traffic.

Also, I'm not sure if I've announced it yet but, I've made my decision to stay in Ecuador another year. I'm really happy here, and I don't feel ready to start a full time job in the U.S. Working as a teacher is so difficult right now, and I don't feel like I can adequately handle all the stress from it. Additionally, I'm starting to think I want to switch from high school literature to ESL education. So there's a lot of things I would have to work out if I came back that I haven't been able to figure out. Plus, I'm happy here. There are definitely downsides to living in Ecuador, but the good still outweighs all the bad so I feel no incentive to leave. Just thought everyone should know. :-) I will come home at the beginning of August to visit, but it will only be for about a week and a half. I definitely need to get some new clothes to replace all the ones that are too big now. (Mom's had to send me new pants twice already.)